Not sure & in fact I wonder, if anyone else has had this experience with Dells. But I’m on my third Dell now, have it for about 2 ½ years & just like it’s predecessors after the same time frame it’s starting to act up.

It gets hung, freezes, has become very slow when dealing with multiple tasks, has given me the blue screen once or twice, requiring a shut down & reboot.

When I start it up, the HD lights keeps flicking away for ages, preventing me from opening a program. In fact sometimes I need to force it to shutdown & reboot, in order to get anything started.

I’ve noticed this sort of behaviour on my past Dells, always after about 2 years or so. In the past I used always just give up & buy a new one. But this time I’m wondering is there something written into the code, so that the computer degrades over time, prompting the user to buy a new model, thereby keeping Dell’s sales up.

Or am I just being way too cynical here ??

There’s a mate of mine who says he’d never buy a Dell, for just that reason & is promoting HP. But the cynic in me, makes me think that all manufacturers are the same. If their products were really robust & lasted for ages, well then they’d eventually see a sharp decline in sales.

I have an Apple Performa, which I got in 1996, is very old & creaky, which I use it for a Claris Draw, a really nifty wee CAD package, that I’ve never managed to find a replacement for. But that old soldier still boots up today the same as it did when new, has never hung or caused any problems whatsoever.

But yet all my new Dells have lasted only 2 or 2 ½ years !!!!

Food for thought I think ………………….