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DontBuyDell.com

dontbuydell.com

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Re: DontBuyDell.com

#241

Post by BizarroLand »

ninjaoxygen wrote: post #106
bayindirh wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is same for other manufacturers too. HP: Pavilions are bad, Pro/Elite/Z series are awesome. Servers are good too. Lenovo: Ideapads are eh, Thinkpads and servers, completely different. The only company which builds all their hardware with comparable quality to other manufacturers' pro lines is Apple.

Funnily enough based off Lenovo's reputation for their higher end laptops, in April I bought a Lenovo X1 Carbon Gen10, pretty much as they came out. The machine is a nightmare, and has been through about 10 firmware updates over the last 6 months, but has barely improved. From day one and still now... on Win11 that it shipped with it won't hibernate, just a black screen on resume, then pot luck over the next boots wh…

The Gen 8/9 had a bad bios update sent out and set to install in the background.

It bricked the laptops it was installed on. I know this because I had to handle the warranty stuff for my coworker who was fortunately covered under their warranty.

Required a new motherboard and half a week of downtime, but at the same time Lenovo at least fixed the problem.

Re: DontBuyDell.com

#242

Post by BizarroLand »

EvanAnderson wrote: post #158
velcrovan wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We have had terrible problems with the Precision 3000 series overheating/blue-screening on our engineers while using SolidWorks and AutoCAD, and Dell’s response to us was that they couldn’t recommend that series for that purpose, after their rep had done exactly that. Also their WD19TB docks have been terrible. The display ports randomly crap out, the power supply randomly craps out, the ethernet ports randomly crap…

To be fair, HP's Thunderbolt docks are the exact same shit-show too. I've got experience with both and I hate them both.

It's really annoying when your HP dock needs a firmware update because Windows updated and now the laptop doesn't recognize the dock so the only way to update the firmware so that the laptop can see the dock is to connect a different laptop to the dock and update the firmware so the laptop you need to use the dock with can see the dock.

If you put two buttons in front of me, one that would either blow up HP and the other that would give me $5,000 but I had to fix another one of those docks that require 2 computers to return to the same functioning it had yesterday to get it, HP would probably be going down.

Re: DontBuyDell.com

#243

Post by BizarroLand »

bogwog wrote: post #102
georgyo wrote: post #13

I have been using the same Dell XPS 13 for about 6 years now, and I cannot say agree with most of that article. The Dell XPS line was my goto recommendation for people when they ask what laptop they should get. Dell XPS support is also fantastic, if you go though the business channel and pay for support. That said, Dell XPS is no longer my recommendation as the "New" line is a serious downgrade. They removed the head…

I have a XPS 13 with a broken hinge. The hinge broke after about ~3 years for apparently no reason. The broken hinge is also next to the power button, so when the screen is opened, the detached hinge section pushes the plastic of the chassis upwards. This has both cracked the plastic, and made it impossible to press the power button normally. I fixed it by using some really strong adhesive I found (called “plastic ce…

Yeah, that broken hinge issue is fairly well known. The repair is to semi-dismantle the screen and use cotton balls and superglue (or epoxy for an even more permanent fix) to bond the plastic clamshell to the hinges as the plastic they used for those models is such low-grade crappy plastic that was never meant to be used for a load bearing part that no matter what else you do it will re-break.

Even with that fix, it can and will re-break, just in a different location so you have to be forever careful with this $1,200 laptop.

Re: DontBuyDell.com

#244

Post by Beltalowda »

RHSeeger wrote: post #227
Beltalowda wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple SE is of course not really "low end". But I do agree with your overall point; back when I worked at a computer store people would come in to buy a laptop, and they wouldn't want a HP – even when that was actually a good model and a good fit for their needs – because they had a bad experience with a HP printer. I think that's actually pretty fair too, although I usually explained that the people who design the H…

> I usually explained that the people who design the HP printers most likely never even talked to the people who design the HP laptops While that is certainly true, the overall priorities of the company (is customer service important, which customers matter, how important is initial quality vs ongoing support, etc) are set at higher levels; many ties one that both those teams report up to.

It's a weak signal, but it's often highly variable what kind and quality of support vendors give for which products.

Re: DontBuyDell.com

#245

Post by abdusco »

bogwog wrote: post #102
georgyo wrote: post #13

I have been using the same Dell XPS 13 for about 6 years now, and I cannot say agree with most of that article. The Dell XPS line was my goto recommendation for people when they ask what laptop they should get. Dell XPS support is also fantastic, if you go though the business channel and pay for support. That said, Dell XPS is no longer my recommendation as the "New" line is a serious downgrade. They removed the head…

I have a XPS 13 with a broken hinge. The hinge broke after about ~3 years for apparently no reason. The broken hinge is also next to the power button, so when the screen is opened, the detached hinge section pushes the plastic of the chassis upwards. This has both cracked the plastic, and made it impossible to press the power button normally. I fixed it by using some really strong adhesive I found (called “plastic ce…

Oof. I was blaming myself for broking the hinge on mine (XPS 13 9350 (2016)). Didn't know this was so common.

I fixed mine by gluing it with epoxy, and filled another part that was broken off with epoxy paste (it has a consistency like playdough).

Re: DontBuyDell.com

#246

Post by iancmceachern »

branon wrote: post #21

On the contrary I've had great experiences with Dell's business line (Latitude, Precision models). Likewise the business warranty is excellent - log into TechDirect and I can submit a ticket for any one of the machines in my fleet. Dell will either send a technician out to service it in the field, or they'll mail me an empty box so I can send the unit in for repair. Consumer _anything_ is going to be hit or miss. Thi…

Me too. My last laptop was a dell outlet refurbished precision laptop that was 2 years old when I bought it, I then used it for 5 years and it still works today, in just replaced it with a smaller/faster precision that has also been great. I need high performance and reliability to run Solidworks all day and count on our to deliver, they haven't let me down yet (knock on wood)

Re: DontBuyDell.com

#247

Post by sys_64738 »

You have to understand Dell's business strategy of having a presence in every single PC market segment. All the way from the cheapest of the cheap to the extreme high end. That's why you have different models of reliability.

Re: DontBuyDell.com

#248

Post by kelsolaar »

branon wrote: post #21

On the contrary I've had great experiences with Dell's business line (Latitude, Precision models). Likewise the business warranty is excellent - log into TechDirect and I can submit a ticket for any one of the machines in my fleet. Dell will either send a technician out to service it in the field, or they'll mail me an empty box so I can send the unit in for repair. Consumer _anything_ is going to be hit or miss. Thi…

I had such a bad experience with a Precision M90 that I decided to never ever buy Dell again. Motherboard changed 3 times until the warranty ran out and it was over.

I discussed with the last contractor that came to repair my machine and he told me that a) he would never buy from Dell, b) that the pieces use for repair were often refurbished, c) they knew that there was an issue with my particular laptop model but was running the warranty expiring game.

With that being said, their onsite servicing is outstanding.

Re: DontBuyDell.com

#249

Post by rkangel »

Beltalowda wrote: post #176
branon wrote: post #21

On the contrary I've had great experiences with Dell's business line (Latitude, Precision models). Likewise the business warranty is excellent - log into TechDirect and I can submit a ticket for any one of the machines in my fleet. Dell will either send a technician out to service it in the field, or they'll mail me an empty box so I can send the unit in for repair. Consumer _anything_ is going to be hit or miss. Thi…

Friend of mine had an XPS; I don't remember exactly how much it cost, but it was certainly not the cheapest, so ~$1000 USD at least. After about 1.5 to 2 years the battery started swelling up, and became essentially unusable. Turns out they even had a recall for this model, but who keeps track of that so he never knew. Tried to order a new battery from Dell: they don't deliver them any more, no way to buy it from Del…

EU Law is coming in in the next couple of years to make batteries in all electronic devices consumer replaceable. There must be reasonable availability of the batteries and only a fairly reasonable range of tools must be needed to do it.

For smaller electronic devices (e.g. my wireless headphones for my PC) that means that device manufacturer will have to make design changes to enable this sort of changing (I have actually changed the headphone battery, but I'm an electronic engineer and needed the soldering station at work). For larger devices like laptops, its going to affect battery supply chains.

Re: DontBuyDell.com

#250

Post by olvy0 »

fimbulvetr wrote: post #117
branon wrote: post #21

On the contrary I've had great experiences with Dell's business line (Latitude, Precision models). Likewise the business warranty is excellent - log into TechDirect and I can submit a ticket for any one of the machines in my fleet. Dell will either send a technician out to service it in the field, or they'll mail me an empty box so I can send the unit in for repair. Consumer _anything_ is going to be hit or miss. Thi…

Wholeheartedly agree. I only buy dell, and of them, I only buy latitudes. My favorite of all time was my e6440 with an socket CPU. I bought my wife one a couple of years ago, threw a quad core in there, maxed the ram and it's still working well. I had one just like it for myself but after years of my dog knocking it off the coffee table, it eventually stopped displaying. You can put three hard drives in these guys, o…

Me too! My main computing machine is a latitude from the e5xxx line which I bought 7 years ago, with a dual Intel-Nvidia GPU. it's still working perfectly, no issues whatsoever, and survived a few falls and travels. I also use it as my gaming machine, its GPU is good enough for most modern lite games and modern emulators, I don't expect top performance of course. It almost never gets too hot.
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