Don't buy Dell Vostros

[Nemo128]

I ran ProTools on an eggshell iMac G3 many moons ago. I have no desire to ever play with such an overpriced piece of underpowered modern art crap again...

 

[highfigh]

Uh, I wouldn't call dell a good company. Quite overpriced for what you're getting, not to mention poor airflow in their cases.

SheepStar

My Vostro 1500 is a year and a half old, has never had a problem, qas $469 and like all other laptops, it needs the bottom to be clear of obstructions. This is anything but
overpriced.

 

[highfigh]

our company bought a pair of these and they don't work.

It also seems dell support sucks badly. They have them swap the MB and hard drive as if that would solve the issue.

It seems there is a driver issue with Vista, but I've been unable to pinpoint it.

Kind of sad to see a good company put out junk. I guess corporate greed gets everyone eventually. Why they put their name on this kind of junk is beyond me.

If you called the regular Dell tech support number, did you tell them it's a Vostro? Unless they changed it, the Vostro and all other Dell For Business computers have US-based support. If they have Vista, that's not Dell's fault, it's the fault of the gomer who ordered them because they still offer them with XP, which is what I ordered on mine because in January of last year, I had already heard that Vista sucked and, SURPRISE!, it still does.

You do know that a bad operating system will make any computer that is fine in all other respects, work like it's 25 years old, right? Vista has had driver issues since it came out- why blame Dell?

 

[bandphan]

Last time I checked no major comapines are outfitting with local Computer Stores and unless they are design driven don't use Macs. Personal use is another. I tried to use a Mac for a short period and I couldn't use 1/2 of my apps without dual boot and the I hated the speed. None of the intergester software runs on it so I have it back to my girl. And FWIW running dual boot does not by any means ensure it will run the app

 

[adwilk]

I needed a photo-app heavy portable a while back, thanks to the advice here, didnt buy a Mac... got a fairly loaded ThinkPad... couldnt be happier..

 

[jcilforever]

I have a Vostro 400 that is a couple of years old and paid around $300 from the business side of Dell with dual core 2 and 1 G memory (with of course XP) Came with a free 20" monitor upgrade and it works great!

I have had two dell latitudes for work that I would have liked to thrown out the window. Motherboards kept failing.

I would buy a desktop from them, but not a laptop.

Yes the tech support does suck and is virtually worthless.

 

[Tomorrow]

I used to be very anti-Dell, as negative reviews were everywhere. Now commercial manufacturers are all in the same boat...both + and - reports. (I'm too old and stupid to build my own, so forget that suggestion.) At the advice of a computer savvy friend, I gave Dell a second look. I ended up getting both a laptop and a desktop from them because they would build to my specifications (including XP Pro installed instead of Vista). I have had zero problems with either. That's just one review...so take it for what it's worth.

On the customer service side...Dell put the Vostro 420 on sale so I bought it. Then the day it arrived my friend inquired about it and mentioned that Dell had a new sale..with an additional 50 bucks off. I contacted CS and they promptly replenished my Paypal account with $50. How many companies will do that? Some I know...but this was hassle-free.

Finally, I've found that tech support for the business side (from which I bought) is U.S. based...not Indian. And you will have to admit, tech support for the entirety of electronics equipment pretty much sucks.

I would have absolutely no problem buying another Dell...in fact now I wish I'd taken advantage of the $99 color laserjet printer offer when buying the desktop.

 

[Tomorrow]

I used to be very anti-Dell, as negative reviews were everywhere. Now commercial manufacturers are all in the same boat...both + and - reports. (I'm too old and stupid to build my own, so forget that suggestion.) At the advice of a computer savvy friend, I gave Dell a second look. I ended up getting both a laptop and a desktop from them because they would build to my specifications (including XP Pro installed instead of Vista). I have had zero problems with either. That's just one review...so take it for what it's worth.

On the customer service side...Dell put the Vostro 420 on sale so I bought it. Then the day it arrived my friend inquired about it and mentioned that Dell had a new sale..with an additional 50 bucks off. I contacted CS and they promptly replenished my Paypal account with $50. How many companies will do that? Some I know...but this was hassle-free.

Finally, I've found that tech support for the business side (from which I bought) is U.S. based...not Indian. And you will have to admit, tech support for the entirety of electronics equipment pretty much sucks.

I would have absolutely no problem buying another Dell...in fact now I wish I'd taken advantage of the $99 color laserjet printer offer when buying the desktop.

UPDATE:

After typing the above, I called Dell CS and asked for the "packaged" deal on the color laserjet printer ($99), even though I didn't order it with my Vostro. They said they couldn't send it directly...but would email a $100 coupon to me that represents the difference between the 99 bucks I would have paid and the current price of the printer, on sale right now for $199. Or...I guess I could use the coupon however I choose.

Dell sucks? Not to this mother's son. Well...not so far, at least.

 

[haraldo]

Yeah just send us XP already. The guy who ordered them didn't know anything about PCs and never consulted those who do. I understand where Dell is coming from they are just so big it's impossible to help folks with Vista and they are screwed because they sold the liscense. I don't imagine Dell and Gates are golfing much these days. MS better not mess up the next round of OS'es. I hear the Windows 2000 team is building it so I'm hopeful.

Do you have any chance of getting hold of Windows 7, it's not officially released yet, it's still a Release candidate but I believe it surpasses Vista in every way.... Not sure it's the Dell's that's the proble... never had any issues with Dell and only good experiences with customer service.... when there is a problem with a PC and it's Vista, I'm sure the problem is Vista....

I run Linux whenever I can, but my oldest daughter's got Windows 7 Beta on her PC and it works much better than Vista !

Guess you don't want to try Ubuntu

 

[Sheep]

I think the main problem is people are reading "Dells Sucks", instead of "Dell sucks FOR THE MONEY".

Of course they are going to work, and they do have good customer service. However, the bottom of the barrel computers are just that, bottom of the barrel. They will not perform anywhere near what my current computer is capable of, and a Dell that does, will be much more expensive. Better?

SheepStar

 

[highfigh]

I think the main problem is people are reading "Dells Sucks", instead of "Dell sucks FOR THE MONEY".

Of course they are going to work, and they do have good customer service. However, the bottom of the barrel computers are just that, bottom of the barrel. They will not perform anywhere near what my current computer is capable of, and a Dell that does, will be much more expensive. Better?

SheepStar

I'm having a hard time believing that my laptop sucks for what I paid, when I searched high and low for a better deal but couldn't find one. Best Buy had a Black Friday special on a Toshiba but after hearing about all of the heat related issues and the lack of upgradeability, it wasn't really a contender. The local place I bought ny desktop from wasn't close in price, either. Tiger Direct, Acer, etc were either too high or they had refurbs for the same price. If someone doesn't pay attention to the warnings about Vista and don't read the fine print about what is offered, they'll be disappointed but I bought mine specifically because XP was available and it included US based support.

Caveat emptor, I guess.

 

[Tomorrow]

I'm having a hard time believing that my laptop sucks for what I paid, when I searched high and low for a better deal but couldn't find one. Best Buy had a Black Friday special on a Toshiba but after hearing about all of the heat related issues and the lack of upgradeability, it wasn't really a contender. The local place I bought ny desktop from wasn't close in price, either. Tiger Direct, Acer, etc were either too high or they had refurbs for the same price. If someone doesn't pay attention to the warnings about Vista and don't read the fine print about what is offered, they'll be disappointed but I bought mine specifically because XP was available and it included US based support.

Caveat emptor, I guess.

^ My experience as well.

 

[GlocksRock]

If you called the regular Dell tech support number, did you tell them it's a Vostro? Unless they changed it, the Vostro and all other Dell For Business computers have US-based support. If they have Vista, that's not Dell's fault, it's the fault of the gomer who ordered them because they still offer them with XP, which is what I ordered on mine because in January of last year, I had already heard that Vista sucked and, SURPRISE!, it still does.

You do know that a bad operating system will make any computer that is fine in all other respects, work like it's 25 years old, right? Vista has had driver issues since it came out- why blame Dell?

The offer them with XP now, but for a while Vista was the only OS offered on new PCs. I have a Vostro 400 running Vista Home Premium, and I love it, no problems here... Core 2 Due 2.2 ghz. 4 gigs of ram, 250 gig and secondary 1 TB hdds, 20x dvd burner, blu-ray burner, nvidia GeForce 8600 GTS video card, and although I would like a faster processor, it does really well for my needs. But my next pc will have at least a core 2 quad, and windows 7, so we shall see what happens.

 

[Sheep]

The offer them with XP now, but for a while Vista was the only OS offered on new PCs. I have a Vostro 400 running Vista Home Premium, and I love it, no problems here... Core 2 Due 2.2 ghz. 4 gigs of ram, 250 gig and secondary 1 TB hdds, 20x dvd burner, blu-ray burner, nvidia GeForce 8600 GTS video card, and although I would like a faster processor, it does really well for my needs. But my next pc will have at least a core 2 quad, and windows 7, so we shall see what happens.

Core I7 man, Core I7. DDR3.

SheepStar

 

[GlocksRock]

Yeah, those look very nice, but cost is also a factor, so hopefully they will be much less expensive by the time I'm ready to buy my next pc.

 

[Audioholics]

But why go with an OEM? Most computer shops that carry the parts for cheap can put a system together for you that will trounce a Dell at a similar price point.

Hard to build a laptop.

 

[haraldo]

As a professional server / integration Developer+Architect I rely on my PC to be extremely reliable, if not... it's a showstopper for me and my work and my customers will have problems....

I've had more or less severe issues with all kinds of laptop's that I used, except for the Dell's
Toshiba, HP, Acer, IBM, Lenovo +++ other brands, issues with all of them.

The only ones working well are the Dell's, never any issues with them, only thing was a broken DVD player once, and I got a replacement with DHL in one day.

The only severe trouble I had was with the Dell Poweredge SC430 that I use as my home music server, it would not run Ubuntu, but that's not Dell's fault, it's trouble with Ubuntu and Graphics driver. So when I installed another Distro it worked beautifully and this server never ever stops. The Dell server and laptops seem to be rock-solid to me..... but.... Perhaps Dell's losing it now


Posting from my Dell Latitude D810 running Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop

 

[Tomorrow]

The Dell server and laptops seem to be rock-solid to me..... but.... Perhaps Dell's losing it now


Posting from my Dell Latitude D810 running Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop

I'd guess the only people who don't like Dells are people who don't own Dells.

 

[haraldo]

I'd guess the only people who don't like Dells are people who don't own Dells.

No... there are two kinds of people: Those who like sailing, and those who don't

 

[haraldo]

I'd guess the only people who don't like Dells are people who don't own Dells.

Sorry tomorrow... I read your post incorrectly, so my response to you was very strange....

Well I would never hesitate to recommend Dell at any time !!!