DELL Computers are hot (long rant)
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You know, I've just never had problems with Dell, and I'm on my 4th laptop with them. Having said that, I was going to tell you that there is no *way* Ralph's real name is Ralph, etc. - you can tell by his accent. I then started laughing at myself - I have a Frenchman, some blokes from India, and an all-wise American (sarcasm). The best part of my last service call - actually, I was trying to buy something - was when Suzie helped me. Now, Suzie had such a heavy Indian accent that it was comical, and I kept laughing everytime she spoke.... In fairness to Dell, their checklists are based on what they have seen in terms of systems failures. However, the dumbass did not follow procedure, telling you to plug in an unknown power adapter into someone else's laptop. No way. Sadly, Dell is starting to collapse under it's own weight. The problem I have is that they produce the only affordable laptop with large format high resolution screens. I'm hooked. Sorry to hear about the smoke test.
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This is a bad week… First, France lost to Scotland at rugby on Sunday… if you live abroad, or worse in England, you tend to get the Mickey taken out of you in these cases, especially if you had been bragging about winning the Grand Slam for a whole month – as I unwisely did. But Monday my week was to turn for the worse. My Dell TM laptop did not start. No power, no green light, no nothing. No backup for some time and a very late project. My colleague has the same computer. I tried his charger and his battery but nothing. The computer is a year old but fortunately, we have an extended warranty. Next day service and all of that. So I confidently call the DELL technical support. I get through to Ralph. Ralph – probably not his real name – is a nice guy. He feels for my problem. He is trying to help with his English that’s as average as mine. I do everything he says, responding mechanically to all of his questions by “No… still no green light”. I mention that my colleague has the same computer. Ralph has a bright idea! Why not try my charger on my colleague’s DELL computer? Fantastic idea because we did find out what was causing the problem. My charger was dysfunctional – in a big way, the psycho-killer of all chargers! It burns out computers you use them with. So when I plugged my colleague’s computer, an acrid smell filled the room. A smell of burnt dreams and cremated deadlines. Needless to say I am livid… less than my colleague though… he feels murderous! Ralph the DELL guy is slightly embarrassed. He wants to speak to his supervisor. He leaves me on hold for 5 minutes for what I think must be some serious insight into what his career is going to be. Ralph picks the phone back up and says he will send someone tomorrow to our office to salvage our computers. I ask to speak to his supervisor as I expect something better than that. I make sure the supervisor – Arundel - was absolutely aware of what had happened. Arundel is very aware but unapologetic. His English is good and he is in a hurry. He tells me that Ralph had followed procedures (what?) and that I would get someone the next day to fix the machines. I tried to explain that the circumstances were out of the ordinary, for the least, and therefore I would be grateful if he could send someone right away – I actually beg him. He refuses – and asks me not to beg anymore, as it is embarrassing for him. I ask to speak to his supervisor. He promises I will receive a call from Customer Satisfaction right away. By then it is noon. I
Sabrina (definitely not her real name) from DELL called. Very business like… oh boy… was she unfriendly! She is the general manager of Customer Relationship for the UK and England (that’s how she described it)… strong accent but I got used to that now! Here is a abbreviated transcript of our conversation: - From here, I cannot do anything! - From where? I ask No response. - If you cannot do anything, can someone do anything? - No - What can I do if I want to escalate this call to your boss? - You cannot! Your only possibility is to contact our legal services… Not happy about DELL services? Their advice: “Sue us!” Where is my axe? I am on my way!
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This is a bad week… First, France lost to Scotland at rugby on Sunday… if you live abroad, or worse in England, you tend to get the Mickey taken out of you in these cases, especially if you had been bragging about winning the Grand Slam for a whole month – as I unwisely did. But Monday my week was to turn for the worse. My Dell TM laptop did not start. No power, no green light, no nothing. No backup for some time and a very late project. My colleague has the same computer. I tried his charger and his battery but nothing. The computer is a year old but fortunately, we have an extended warranty. Next day service and all of that. So I confidently call the DELL technical support. I get through to Ralph. Ralph – probably not his real name – is a nice guy. He feels for my problem. He is trying to help with his English that’s as average as mine. I do everything he says, responding mechanically to all of his questions by “No… still no green light”. I mention that my colleague has the same computer. Ralph has a bright idea! Why not try my charger on my colleague’s DELL computer? Fantastic idea because we did find out what was causing the problem. My charger was dysfunctional – in a big way, the psycho-killer of all chargers! It burns out computers you use them with. So when I plugged my colleague’s computer, an acrid smell filled the room. A smell of burnt dreams and cremated deadlines. Needless to say I am livid… less than my colleague though… he feels murderous! Ralph the DELL guy is slightly embarrassed. He wants to speak to his supervisor. He leaves me on hold for 5 minutes for what I think must be some serious insight into what his career is going to be. Ralph picks the phone back up and says he will send someone tomorrow to our office to salvage our computers. I ask to speak to his supervisor as I expect something better than that. I make sure the supervisor – Arundel - was absolutely aware of what had happened. Arundel is very aware but unapologetic. His English is good and he is in a hurry. He tells me that Ralph had followed procedures (what?) and that I would get someone the next day to fix the machines. I tried to explain that the circumstances were out of the ordinary, for the least, and therefore I would be grateful if he could send someone right away – I actually beg him. He refuses – and asks me not to beg anymore, as it is embarrassing for him. I ask to speak to his supervisor. He promises I will receive a call from Customer Satisfaction right away. By then it is noon. I
Sometimes cusotmer service is a two way street...unreasonable demands will always get poor service in the eyes of the demanding party. "Art doesn't want to be familiar. It wants to astonish us. Or, in some cases, to enrage us. It wants to move us. To touch us. Not accommodate us, make us comfortable." -- Jamake Highwater Toasty0.com My Grandkids
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This is a bad week… First, France lost to Scotland at rugby on Sunday… if you live abroad, or worse in England, you tend to get the Mickey taken out of you in these cases, especially if you had been bragging about winning the Grand Slam for a whole month – as I unwisely did. But Monday my week was to turn for the worse. My Dell TM laptop did not start. No power, no green light, no nothing. No backup for some time and a very late project. My colleague has the same computer. I tried his charger and his battery but nothing. The computer is a year old but fortunately, we have an extended warranty. Next day service and all of that. So I confidently call the DELL technical support. I get through to Ralph. Ralph – probably not his real name – is a nice guy. He feels for my problem. He is trying to help with his English that’s as average as mine. I do everything he says, responding mechanically to all of his questions by “No… still no green light”. I mention that my colleague has the same computer. Ralph has a bright idea! Why not try my charger on my colleague’s DELL computer? Fantastic idea because we did find out what was causing the problem. My charger was dysfunctional – in a big way, the psycho-killer of all chargers! It burns out computers you use them with. So when I plugged my colleague’s computer, an acrid smell filled the room. A smell of burnt dreams and cremated deadlines. Needless to say I am livid… less than my colleague though… he feels murderous! Ralph the DELL guy is slightly embarrassed. He wants to speak to his supervisor. He leaves me on hold for 5 minutes for what I think must be some serious insight into what his career is going to be. Ralph picks the phone back up and says he will send someone tomorrow to our office to salvage our computers. I ask to speak to his supervisor as I expect something better than that. I make sure the supervisor – Arundel - was absolutely aware of what had happened. Arundel is very aware but unapologetic. His English is good and he is in a hurry. He tells me that Ralph had followed procedures (what?) and that I would get someone the next day to fix the machines. I tried to explain that the circumstances were out of the ordinary, for the least, and therefore I would be grateful if he could send someone right away – I actually beg him. He refuses – and asks me not to beg anymore, as it is embarrassing for him. I ask to speak to his supervisor. He promises I will receive a call from Customer Satisfaction right away. By then it is noon. I
We recently had a failure with one of two identical laptops from alienware. Seemed like a SATA controller issue (no drives recognized at all, no sata bios even displayed), but you still have to prove it even if you already know it. We were asked to swap disks, I refused one of the two swaps for obvious reasons: 1) if the problem is with the drives it can be checked by moving the drives from the bad laptop over to the good. Although there is risk it is minimal. 2) if the problem is with the controller you run the risk of damaging a new set of drives in moving the good drives over to the bad computer, and if you did step 1, you haven't learned anything new. 3) if the problme is anything other than drives, it is non-user servicable. So it must be sent back for service no matter what the issue actually is. So test #1 is sufficient to know if an RMA needs to be generated, or new hard-drives fed-exed out. But the only reason alienware even suggested it (I hope) was because we bought two laptops of identical specifications (down to the last point), in my opinion that is the only, only time to ever make a swap. Same batch, same maker, same model, and same owner. No tech support should ever ask you to test something with another computer. However even as above, they will ask just because it is on the checklist, I simply refused what seemed logical. After explaining this, alienware accepted the one test as prove of need of service, I ruled out disk damage (or their term: user mistreatment). I will test a relatively passive device, like a disk, or memory, that receives its power externally. but I won't move something known good to an actively powered device such as a controller or powersupply unless we have many spares. _________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
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We recently had a failure with one of two identical laptops from alienware. Seemed like a SATA controller issue (no drives recognized at all, no sata bios even displayed), but you still have to prove it even if you already know it. We were asked to swap disks, I refused one of the two swaps for obvious reasons: 1) if the problem is with the drives it can be checked by moving the drives from the bad laptop over to the good. Although there is risk it is minimal. 2) if the problem is with the controller you run the risk of damaging a new set of drives in moving the good drives over to the bad computer, and if you did step 1, you haven't learned anything new. 3) if the problme is anything other than drives, it is non-user servicable. So it must be sent back for service no matter what the issue actually is. So test #1 is sufficient to know if an RMA needs to be generated, or new hard-drives fed-exed out. But the only reason alienware even suggested it (I hope) was because we bought two laptops of identical specifications (down to the last point), in my opinion that is the only, only time to ever make a swap. Same batch, same maker, same model, and same owner. No tech support should ever ask you to test something with another computer. However even as above, they will ask just because it is on the checklist, I simply refused what seemed logical. After explaining this, alienware accepted the one test as prove of need of service, I ruled out disk damage (or their term: user mistreatment). I will test a relatively passive device, like a disk, or memory, that receives its power externally. but I won't move something known good to an actively powered device such as a controller or powersupply unless we have many spares. _________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
I've always had good experiences with AW's tech support. Come to think of it, I really haven't had any bad experiences with AW at all. :)
If dreams are like movies Then memories are films about ghosts You can never escape You can only move south down the coast
Hey Mrs. Potter, don't cry...
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This is a bad week… First, France lost to Scotland at rugby on Sunday… if you live abroad, or worse in England, you tend to get the Mickey taken out of you in these cases, especially if you had been bragging about winning the Grand Slam for a whole month – as I unwisely did. But Monday my week was to turn for the worse. My Dell TM laptop did not start. No power, no green light, no nothing. No backup for some time and a very late project. My colleague has the same computer. I tried his charger and his battery but nothing. The computer is a year old but fortunately, we have an extended warranty. Next day service and all of that. So I confidently call the DELL technical support. I get through to Ralph. Ralph – probably not his real name – is a nice guy. He feels for my problem. He is trying to help with his English that’s as average as mine. I do everything he says, responding mechanically to all of his questions by “No… still no green light”. I mention that my colleague has the same computer. Ralph has a bright idea! Why not try my charger on my colleague’s DELL computer? Fantastic idea because we did find out what was causing the problem. My charger was dysfunctional – in a big way, the psycho-killer of all chargers! It burns out computers you use them with. So when I plugged my colleague’s computer, an acrid smell filled the room. A smell of burnt dreams and cremated deadlines. Needless to say I am livid… less than my colleague though… he feels murderous! Ralph the DELL guy is slightly embarrassed. He wants to speak to his supervisor. He leaves me on hold for 5 minutes for what I think must be some serious insight into what his career is going to be. Ralph picks the phone back up and says he will send someone tomorrow to our office to salvage our computers. I ask to speak to his supervisor as I expect something better than that. I make sure the supervisor – Arundel - was absolutely aware of what had happened. Arundel is very aware but unapologetic. His English is good and he is in a hurry. He tells me that Ralph had followed procedures (what?) and that I would get someone the next day to fix the machines. I tried to explain that the circumstances were out of the ordinary, for the least, and therefore I would be grateful if he could send someone right away – I actually beg him. He refuses – and asks me not to beg anymore, as it is embarrassing for him. I ask to speak to his supervisor. He promises I will receive a call from Customer Satisfaction right away. By then it is noon. I
Did you think about putting your HD in your colleauges PC to retrieve the data?
using System.Beer;
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Did you think about putting your HD in your colleauges PC to retrieve the data?
using System.Beer;
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This is a bad week… First, France lost to Scotland at rugby on Sunday… if you live abroad, or worse in England, you tend to get the Mickey taken out of you in these cases, especially if you had been bragging about winning the Grand Slam for a whole month – as I unwisely did. But Monday my week was to turn for the worse. My Dell TM laptop did not start. No power, no green light, no nothing. No backup for some time and a very late project. My colleague has the same computer. I tried his charger and his battery but nothing. The computer is a year old but fortunately, we have an extended warranty. Next day service and all of that. So I confidently call the DELL technical support. I get through to Ralph. Ralph – probably not his real name – is a nice guy. He feels for my problem. He is trying to help with his English that’s as average as mine. I do everything he says, responding mechanically to all of his questions by “No… still no green light”. I mention that my colleague has the same computer. Ralph has a bright idea! Why not try my charger on my colleague’s DELL computer? Fantastic idea because we did find out what was causing the problem. My charger was dysfunctional – in a big way, the psycho-killer of all chargers! It burns out computers you use them with. So when I plugged my colleague’s computer, an acrid smell filled the room. A smell of burnt dreams and cremated deadlines. Needless to say I am livid… less than my colleague though… he feels murderous! Ralph the DELL guy is slightly embarrassed. He wants to speak to his supervisor. He leaves me on hold for 5 minutes for what I think must be some serious insight into what his career is going to be. Ralph picks the phone back up and says he will send someone tomorrow to our office to salvage our computers. I ask to speak to his supervisor as I expect something better than that. I make sure the supervisor – Arundel - was absolutely aware of what had happened. Arundel is very aware but unapologetic. His English is good and he is in a hurry. He tells me that Ralph had followed procedures (what?) and that I would get someone the next day to fix the machines. I tried to explain that the circumstances were out of the ordinary, for the least, and therefore I would be grateful if he could send someone right away – I actually beg him. He refuses – and asks me not to beg anymore, as it is embarrassing for him. I ask to speak to his supervisor. He promises I will receive a call from Customer Satisfaction right away. By then it is noon. I
I seriously don't understand people here ranting on about some mail order pc they bought not coming with good service, of course it doesn't! If service is important buy your hardware from a local computer store that you have checked out to ensure they have good service. They are often cheaper, we've never had any significant problems with them and they can swap a part in minutes. If you want to save a few bucks then by all means mail order from a conglomerate, just dont' expect to get service any better than the 9,999 other people who have complained about that company loudly and publicly for years here and everywhere else. People bitch about the crappy service that they receive at Walmart and then go right back in the next time and buy something else. Let's all just get our heads out of the sand and admit that when you try to save more money than the company selling the product can reasonably sell and also pay for good staff and service and support programs you *are* going to get crappy service. It's not a possibility, it's a certainty. People have these wild expectations that are just not possible to fulfil in the business world or any plane of reality that I know of. Suck it up or shop elsewhere.
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I seriously don't understand people here ranting on about some mail order pc they bought not coming with good service, of course it doesn't! If service is important buy your hardware from a local computer store that you have checked out to ensure they have good service. They are often cheaper, we've never had any significant problems with them and they can swap a part in minutes. If you want to save a few bucks then by all means mail order from a conglomerate, just dont' expect to get service any better than the 9,999 other people who have complained about that company loudly and publicly for years here and everywhere else. People bitch about the crappy service that they receive at Walmart and then go right back in the next time and buy something else. Let's all just get our heads out of the sand and admit that when you try to save more money than the company selling the product can reasonably sell and also pay for good staff and service and support programs you *are* going to get crappy service. It's not a possibility, it's a certainty. People have these wild expectations that are just not possible to fulfil in the business world or any plane of reality that I know of. Suck it up or shop elsewhere.
Thanks for your support brother ;P - point well made and eloquently! And yes, more often than not, on a techies forum, you will get guys whining about their hardware (and it is not like they can talk about their sexual life here in the Lounge with Chris's kid sister reading and everything. What sexual life anyway? We're techies!) I buy the concept of the local shop for a butcher or groceries but up to now, I did not think it would be relevant for computers. For any large applicance, a car, for instance, you would have it fixed by the manufacturer. Unless you have that great little artist of a garage next door(let us stop the metaphore there). And if they said they would fix your car for the next day, you would want it the next day. Does not seem to be a *wild expectation*... I did not think that mail order had to go with bad service quality... I honestly thought that dell was a safe business choice! Wrong! I 'll suck it up (and whine some more though)
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I've always had good experiences with AW's tech support. Come to think of it, I really haven't had any bad experiences with AW at all. :)
If dreams are like movies Then memories are films about ghosts You can never escape You can only move south down the coast
Hey Mrs. Potter, don't cry...
David Stone wrote:
I've always had good experiences with AW's tech support. Come to think of it, I really haven't had any bad experiences with AW at all.
I have but it is rare. The primary reason that they wanted me to test the drives is because drive damage is listed as user-damage and not covered. This is where alienware tech support under rare circumstances has failed. If a drive fails, it is because you mistreated the laptop even if it was DOA. It is up to you to prove that it was not caused by user mistreatment before they will talk to you about it. A few people have had that issue, but drive failure is rare enough that the vast majority do not so overall AW's tech ratings are high. I am waiting for the new Centrino Duo's so I can finally run my software on a lighter laptop. :doh: _________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
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David Stone wrote:
I've always had good experiences with AW's tech support. Come to think of it, I really haven't had any bad experiences with AW at all.
I have but it is rare. The primary reason that they wanted me to test the drives is because drive damage is listed as user-damage and not covered. This is where alienware tech support under rare circumstances has failed. If a drive fails, it is because you mistreated the laptop even if it was DOA. It is up to you to prove that it was not caused by user mistreatment before they will talk to you about it. A few people have had that issue, but drive failure is rare enough that the vast majority do not so overall AW's tech ratings are high. I am waiting for the new Centrino Duo's so I can finally run my software on a lighter laptop. :doh: _________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
Jeffry J. Brickley wrote:
I am waiting for the new Centrino Duo's so I can finally run my software on a lighter laptop.
Seriously. These things are sooo heavy.
If dreams are like movies Then memories are films about ghosts You can never escape You can only move south down the coast
Hey Mrs. Potter, don't cry...
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Thanks for your support brother ;P - point well made and eloquently! And yes, more often than not, on a techies forum, you will get guys whining about their hardware (and it is not like they can talk about their sexual life here in the Lounge with Chris's kid sister reading and everything. What sexual life anyway? We're techies!) I buy the concept of the local shop for a butcher or groceries but up to now, I did not think it would be relevant for computers. For any large applicance, a car, for instance, you would have it fixed by the manufacturer. Unless you have that great little artist of a garage next door(let us stop the metaphore there). And if they said they would fix your car for the next day, you would want it the next day. Does not seem to be a *wild expectation*... I did not think that mail order had to go with bad service quality... I honestly thought that dell was a safe business choice! Wrong! I 'll suck it up (and whine some more though)
BadJerry wrote:
I buy the concept of the local shop for a butcher or groceries but up to now, I did not think it would be relevant for computers.
Oh heavens! you are missing out. My home computer was purchased piecemeal from a local shop. They do their own service, assuming you buy from them. I slowly over a long period of time replace my cobbled together system with their parts. When something breaks, they give me full credit for a swap, if I want to upgrade I even get trade-in value on my hardware. People jump for my used-parts because I don't overclock (though I do abuse on usage shhh). When I upgrade there are half a dozen people clammering for my used parts so I tend to get really good credit on trade-ins. They do sell complete systems, I just never had the money years ago. Now I have one by default because all the parts were bought from them. They did the big upgrade last year for 0 labor because I was the first to make the jump to the new technology, they used my system to train the techs and learn the dual cores. The first time 'round it cost a little more than shopping Newegg for parts, but between service and trade-in I have more than made up the difference in costs by added value. _________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
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Thanks for your support brother ;P - point well made and eloquently! And yes, more often than not, on a techies forum, you will get guys whining about their hardware (and it is not like they can talk about their sexual life here in the Lounge with Chris's kid sister reading and everything. What sexual life anyway? We're techies!) I buy the concept of the local shop for a butcher or groceries but up to now, I did not think it would be relevant for computers. For any large applicance, a car, for instance, you would have it fixed by the manufacturer. Unless you have that great little artist of a garage next door(let us stop the metaphore there). And if they said they would fix your car for the next day, you would want it the next day. Does not seem to be a *wild expectation*... I did not think that mail order had to go with bad service quality... I honestly thought that dell was a safe business choice! Wrong! I 'll suck it up (and whine some more though)
Not directed primarily at you, just society in general that is becoming increasingly more demanding about low prices but not realistic about what they are going to get that goes with that. Of course the local computer shop. There are at least a dozen even within a half hour drive of the small town I live near. They build a system from components right there, if a component fails they replace it right there, if their service sucks you take your box to the next guy and he does the same thing. Most have excellent service, the reliability of component build "clone" computers these days is as far as I can tell zero difference from "name brand" pc's as long as you have a reputable local shop that fixes what they sell it's in their interest to sell good quality stuff. We bought a Dell laptop for our business just recently, it was the cheapest deal we could find, we bought it because we wanted the cheapest and it's in a role for testing where we don't care if it blows up and takes a while to fix. Dell was a good match for that. On the other hand we also bought a tech support web forum server this summer. A critical peice of equipment that must never be down for any length of time, we bought it at a local computer dealer who operates out of his apartment. He provides excellent service and if we can't get him to fix it for any reason we can go to any of a dozen other places that sell the same components. My down time is limited to a very short drive, maybe a restore from backup in a worse case scenario. Either way I have a *lot* more confidence in the local guys than any company no matter how much they market that they have the best service, they just can't. I did computer repair and support for years, we worked out of local shops and also had contracts to do support for compaq, HP etc. We could fix a pc we built in minutes, a compaq or an HP back then we had to wait for paperwork, big cities thosuands of miles away were involved, everything too longer and was more hassle. That's just the way it is, the bigger the company the less quickly they move.
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Unfortunately I only have one colleague with a dell - and, as you know, his PC is not more usable than mine. And apparently the dells HDs are not compatible with other laptops!
BadJerry wrote:
dells HDs are not compatible with other laptops!
I can't imagine that being true. There is usually a small adaptor that fits on the HD pins. These adaptors are specific to the laptop. Dell usually uses completely standard comodity parts.
I can imagine the sinking feeling one would have after ordering my book, only to find a laughably ridiculous theory with demented logic once the book arrives - Mark McCutcheon
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BadJerry wrote:
dells HDs are not compatible with other laptops!
I can't imagine that being true. There is usually a small adaptor that fits on the HD pins. These adaptors are specific to the laptop. Dell usually uses completely standard comodity parts.
I can imagine the sinking feeling one would have after ordering my book, only to find a laughably ridiculous theory with demented logic once the book arrives - Mark McCutcheon
andy brummer wrote:
I can't imagine that being true. There is usually a small adaptor that fits on the HD pins. These adaptors are specific to the laptop. Dell usually uses completely standard comodity parts.
For some things anyway. I know older ones used a proprietary power supply, not sure if they still do. It looked like an ATX and used the same sockets with a different pinout. IF you didn't realize it when making a replacement you'd smoke the mobo and psu when you turned them on. Newer desktops have the mobo on the opposite side of the case so you can't swap the mobo into a different case.
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andy brummer wrote:
I can't imagine that being true. There is usually a small adaptor that fits on the HD pins. These adaptors are specific to the laptop. Dell usually uses completely standard comodity parts.
For some things anyway. I know older ones used a proprietary power supply, not sure if they still do. It looked like an ATX and used the same sockets with a different pinout. IF you didn't realize it when making a replacement you'd smoke the mobo and psu when you turned them on. Newer desktops have the mobo on the opposite side of the case so you can't swap the mobo into a different case.
Must have been a really old system. I worked in Dell Tech support in '97 and all the desktops were standard at that point as well as earlier. The Dimensions were all intel motherboards so they really were standard. The Optis all had card risers so you couldn't swap a regular montherborad in the chassis anyway. All the customizations were done to make the cases eaiser to troubleshoot and work on not really for lockin. Back when I worked there they really did stand behind the product and tech support. Of course things could have changed since then, plus laptop and server components will always be less standard then desktop components.
I can imagine the sinking feeling one would have after ordering my book, only to find a laughably ridiculous theory with demented logic once the book arrives - Mark McCutcheon
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Not directed primarily at you, just society in general that is becoming increasingly more demanding about low prices but not realistic about what they are going to get that goes with that. Of course the local computer shop. There are at least a dozen even within a half hour drive of the small town I live near. They build a system from components right there, if a component fails they replace it right there, if their service sucks you take your box to the next guy and he does the same thing. Most have excellent service, the reliability of component build "clone" computers these days is as far as I can tell zero difference from "name brand" pc's as long as you have a reputable local shop that fixes what they sell it's in their interest to sell good quality stuff. We bought a Dell laptop for our business just recently, it was the cheapest deal we could find, we bought it because we wanted the cheapest and it's in a role for testing where we don't care if it blows up and takes a while to fix. Dell was a good match for that. On the other hand we also bought a tech support web forum server this summer. A critical peice of equipment that must never be down for any length of time, we bought it at a local computer dealer who operates out of his apartment. He provides excellent service and if we can't get him to fix it for any reason we can go to any of a dozen other places that sell the same components. My down time is limited to a very short drive, maybe a restore from backup in a worse case scenario. Either way I have a *lot* more confidence in the local guys than any company no matter how much they market that they have the best service, they just can't. I did computer repair and support for years, we worked out of local shops and also had contracts to do support for compaq, HP etc. We could fix a pc we built in minutes, a compaq or an HP back then we had to wait for paperwork, big cities thosuands of miles away were involved, everything too longer and was more hassle. That's just the way it is, the bigger the company the less quickly they move.
I'm on the verge of buying a laptop from Dell, but now I'm having second thoughts. I agree with your statements on the local PC shops, and I have bought PCs through them before w/o any problems, but I think it's much easier for them to build desktops than laptops. Anyone can build a desktop - all the components are already sitting on their shelf. But when it comes to a laptop, you pretty much get what they already have on hand which in my experience hasn't been much. That means no upgraded screen resolution, video card, wifi, cpu, etc. Sure they may have some upgrade options for memory and cd/dvd burners, but I don't think a local shop can offer as many configurations as Dell has.
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Must have been a really old system. I worked in Dell Tech support in '97 and all the desktops were standard at that point as well as earlier. The Dimensions were all intel motherboards so they really were standard. The Optis all had card risers so you couldn't swap a regular montherborad in the chassis anyway. All the customizations were done to make the cases eaiser to troubleshoot and work on not really for lockin. Back when I worked there they really did stand behind the product and tech support. Of course things could have changed since then, plus laptop and server components will always be less standard then desktop components.
I can imagine the sinking feeling one would have after ordering my book, only to find a laughably ridiculous theory with demented logic once the book arrives - Mark McCutcheon
andy brummer wrote:
Must have been a really old system. I worked in Dell Tech support in '97 and all the desktops were standard at that point as well as earlier. The Dimensions were all intel motherboards so they really were standard. The Optis all had card risers so you couldn't swap a regular montherborad in the chassis anyway. All the customizations were done to make the cases eaiser to troubleshoot and work on not really for lockin.
One of the fake atx systems I've seen is a ~10yo p1. The 2nd is a p3-550 from mid99. The p1 was a home box, the p3 a (then) high end optiplex with a riser. I've multimetered the p1 and know it;s not just nonstandard wire colorings, the p3's a work box so I haven't but it's colors are all wrong for a standard connector. Both're 20pin atx style psus. Both the 6 pin extra (an AT style header used to provide extra 3.3/5v power for older atx systems) and 20 pin main connectors don't use the standard pinout. The sockets themselves are standard, so unless you're forwarned or very observant you wouldn't know the difference unless disaster struck.
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andy brummer wrote:
Must have been a really old system. I worked in Dell Tech support in '97 and all the desktops were standard at that point as well as earlier. The Dimensions were all intel motherboards so they really were standard. The Optis all had card risers so you couldn't swap a regular montherborad in the chassis anyway. All the customizations were done to make the cases eaiser to troubleshoot and work on not really for lockin.
One of the fake atx systems I've seen is a ~10yo p1. The 2nd is a p3-550 from mid99. The p1 was a home box, the p3 a (then) high end optiplex with a riser. I've multimetered the p1 and know it;s not just nonstandard wire colorings, the p3's a work box so I haven't but it's colors are all wrong for a standard connector. Both're 20pin atx style psus. Both the 6 pin extra (an AT style header used to provide extra 3.3/5v power for older atx systems) and 20 pin main connectors don't use the standard pinout. The sockets themselves are standard, so unless you're forwarned or very observant you wouldn't know the difference unless disaster struck.
Wow, I never would have suspected. I did get an AMD K6 motherboard to replace a Dell motherboard that failed once, but that was a long time ago, but i think it only ran with the older style power connectors even though both motherboard and powersupply had both. Having a non-standard powersupply isn't anywhere near as bad as the boot partition that old Compaq's used to have, and the Optiplexes did have a gaurantee to work with any standard accessory. I spent plenty of multi-hour calls with customers getting all their add-on crap working because of that part of the contract. I've never bought a major brand desktop for myself, and probably never will especially with companies like newegg. I've bought both Dell and HP laptops. The only problem I had was with the Dell, and both cases were due to it getting wet. The first time I knew exactly what to say to get a keyboard shipped directly to me without depot service. The second time it was out of warranty and I bought a refurbished motherboard on ebay.
I can imagine the sinking feeling one would have after ordering my book, only to find a laughably ridiculous theory with demented logic once the book arrives - Mark McCutcheon
