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Dell knowingly shipped millions of defective computers?

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darklight_tr:
While I can't comment on the specifics of what Dell may or may not have known internally, this was an INDUSTRY WIDE problem at the time.

Here is more info on DailyTech: http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=18921

I dealt with the GX270 model in the field, and in my experience Dell was quite good about the issue.  They preemptively replaced all of the GX270 motherboards at one site before they had the chance to fail.

All of the major PC manufacturers had their models with bad caps.  The HP equivalent was the D530.

The previous two companies I worked for used Dell exclusively for their PCs, laptops and monitors and I found them to be very reliable overall, including OptiPlex GX270 after a motherboard replacement.  I own a Studio XPS 16 laptop and have no problems with it.

My current job uses Lenovo and I haven't been very impressed with their reliability so far.  It makes me wish we had some Dell PCs here...

Renegade:
I have a Dell Studio 15, and it's fine. Well, the Sony DVD writer is total crap (as in it doesn't work worth s**t), and the upgraded video card (ATI) has BSOD issues on x64, but other than that, it's been peachy. A few repairs, but Dell has been good with them. No complaints here (other than the DVD player -- a slimline -- that is just worthless -- a very bad design decision.)

J-Mac:
First, the problems with the XPS M1310 wasn’t industry-wide; it affected many HP and Dell notebooks. Secondly Dell did not deal with it well at all. Sounds like someone is speaking of business machines and naturally Dell addresses business PCs rapidly. Personal machines are a whole different story.

Jim

darklight_tr:
First, the problems with the XPS M1310 wasn’t industry-wide; it affected many HP and Dell notebooks. Secondly Dell did not deal with it well at all. Sounds like someone is speaking of business machines and naturally Dell addresses business PCs rapidly. Personal machines are a whole different story.

Jim
-J-Mac (July 06, 2010, 02:41 PM)
--- End quote ---

I have a Studio XPS 16 laptop that I purchased personally where the hard drive clicked itself to death (Seagate Momentus 7200.4; apparently the Maxtor poison is infecting their drives as well) and Dell support was great about replacing the drive.

I understand what you are talking about, though.  A major oversight with my laptop is that it shipped with a 90W AC Adapter when that really isn't up to stuff.  A quick ping to support and they will send you a 130W replacement.  Otherwise, it is a great laptop.

Armando:
You can buy a Dell (or HP or Gateway or Acer or....) cheaper than it would typically cost you to build your own PC.

Typically users who build their own PCs use high quality components.


I leave it to the reader to read between the lines and come to one's own conclusions.
-Innuendo (July 05, 2010, 11:44 AM)
--- End quote ---

For a laptop it's a bit more complicated (yes, it's possible... But... Less choice).

almost everything on my Dell 6400 laptop had problem at some point or another. First Year : DVD writer, Battery, Power supply. Then : LCD, Battery, and DVD writer again.

It's anecdotal, I know... I'm even wondering if another company would really be better anyway. Still... I complained about Dell here a while ago and AFAIC, Dell isn't the brand of my next laptop. Too bad, I'm giving my money to some other company next time. They can't be worse and maybe I'll actually get lucky.

At some point I tried to see if there were some statistics about laptops and quality/durability somewhere, but didn't find anything convincing. That would be a nice start -- not the end of the story, of course (remember Toyota ?). Just a table with numbers about returns, defective parts, etc. At least one could see what the company has been doing for the past year(s).

And, no, I won't buy a toughbook, sorry... I'm not a construction worker.

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