Dell Laptops
 

Thinking of a Dell Inspiron 9400 via dell.ca. Has anyone had good/bad experiences? Quality, support, bloatware?

Essentially I want this for some college courses in the IT field as well as general use. Thinking of the Core 2 Duo processor, 2gb RAM, all the rest so it will be reasonably future-proof. Seems expensive until I think what I paid for my 12.5 mhz Dell AT around 1991.

I like the ability to customize the configuration unlike other companies.

Would appreciate any advice on Dell laptops.

just do like I do with every single Dell Computer that I've ever bought before., usually I just taken out of the box and start uninstalling software. After about six or seven reboots and uninstalling 10 or 12 programs you can usually get down to a pretty virgin installation

That, and nonsense like proprietary BIOS and hardware, is why I haven't bought a name brand PC in years, my last 3 or so have been no-name from a reputable local supplier. Excellent vendor support on upgrades and no bloatware. They also don't force me to buy a new Operating System every time I buy a system, when I already have a perfectly good one.

the problem I have with the local vendors is that they are usually 20 to 30% higher than I can buy them from Dell.

It sounds like you have a nice PC setup. The only thing I don't like about the Inspiron 9400 is it doesn't have the pointing stick in the keyboard. I have a Latitude D820 that I love, with a Centrino Duo.

As far as the Bloatware, I just always get the XP CD when I order, as soon as it gets out of the box the XP cd goes in and I reformat the drive and install XP, no bloatware at all, and I get the most updated drivers.

This is my 5th Dell laptop, and by far the best one I have had. Be sure to get the best screen possible.

Brian

when I ordered my Dell PC it usually comes with a disk but I thought that if you put the disk in it reinstalled all of the spamware and bloatware again

If you just put in the Dell Genuine Windows XP re-installation CD (green CD with XP Pro SP2), you will miss the bloatware. I download all the drivers from Dell's website and save them to a USB key. You might get some bloatware if you install items from Dell's programs and drivers disk after you do XP. Keep in mind if you do this, you will potentially have to re-install any additional software that you really need like MS office or extra CD burning software, etc.

The disadvantage as mentioned is that with any branded computer or laptop that you will have to likely deal with proprietary software, hardware, etc. Obviously, that means you have to deal with the manufacturer for your upgrades, updates, etc.

Aside from that, my old Inspiron 8100 works fine. I wasn't terrribly happy with tech support the few times I called them because they (at the time, not sure if it's still like that), outsourced it to some place in India and I had a major problem understanding what they're saying with their heavy East Indian accent.

Thanks for your your comments. I hear you on the outsourced tech support, but my main concern is that tech support from the majors tends to be, in my experience, someone who reads from script and once your problem goes beyond those parameters, is completely unable to help you. Aside from getting an RMA, most of what you get from tech support is available on a FAQ somewhere.

Is Inspiron considered a home user line, SOHO, business line, or what?

Most of my Dell tech support has been hardware problems, and I have to say I am pretty satisfied with them. I have never called Dell for software support, so I have no idea how good or bad they might be with it.

I got a Dell D620 a couple of months ago. Since it came from their business line of products there was no extraneous crap (AOL, etc.) installed on it. I've been quite pleased. A friend recently ordered one of the consumer-oriented laptops and I spent quite a while cleaning it of all sorts of stuff. AOL, Earthlink, Trial copies of stuff, etc. Blech!

i have had constant problems with the bluetooth and even got a replacement chip. Still no go! Will probably go with an HP next time.

This is probably the most predictable post ever, but, since you mentioned you want to use this for training in the IT field, I cant resist...

Have you considered an Intel Mac? The reason I mention this is that you get 3 platforms in one this way, including OS X, Unix, and Windows. You could also put some flavor of Linux on it, and there's X11 (I know nothing about it though).

Windows IT guys are a dime a dozen, but if you have knowledge of other platforms in addition to Windows, you will be far more marketable -- plus you'll have a significantly richer knowledge base.

As an independent software consultant, my fiancé keeps a lab with an assortment of machines. This allows him to keep up his knowledge on all of these platforms and also allows him to troubleshoot issues on his own systems instead of his clients'. He works with IBM products, and the assortment in his lab happens to be more extensive than what IBM keeps on-site. All of this makes him more marketable to the client. They often have legacy systems of many sizes, shapes and colors. When others might say, "I don't know anything about that," he can say, "yes, I'm familiar with it. In fact, I have one in my lab." That really impresses them. Similarly, if you're asked about your experience with Unix in an interview, you can say that, in addition to your various Microsoft certifications, your primary machine runs BSD (Unix), and you are quite familiar with it.

Anyway, just something to consider.

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 ………………….

Are you doing an OS reinstall when you notice these problems? Machines don't degrade, but the OS most certainly will. If you use your machine daily it's almost something you need to do every 4-6 months.

No, an OS re-install is not something I’d have considered. After many horrors & nightmares in the Win 3.1 days in which I lost virtually every file I had, I’d be very slow to mess with the OS. I’m just glad it works as much as it does to be honest.

I might try a re-install, although the thoughts of losing all my settings & configs makes me shiver !!! :eek:

I have had several Dells over the last few years (700m and XPS M140) after using an IBM. I have never had a problem but the color tends to wear off the wrist pad quite quickly.

My 700m keyboard started acting up two weeks ago (18 months old). I first noticed it when I could not type the letter "T". I called Dell, and while testing it repetitively typed "5", and gave me all sorts of beeping on startup. I needed a new keyboard. I have to say I was not impressed with any of the folks I dealt with in India. The first person said a tech would be out with a new keyboard, only to be followed by a call the next day at 7 in the morning that they would ship me one to self install (I asked that they send it to my dad as I was in NYC last week). The keyboard didn't show up.

I came home last weekend and called again. Dell told me the tech had my keyboard and had tried unsuccessfully to contact me, and would try again Monday. Monday came and went. I called Tuesday, and was assured the tech would call me. Tuesday came and went. I called Wednesday, got customer service in Canada this time, and had a new keyboard a few hours later. For some reason the tech was trying to call my dad, even though Dell had my home and cell numbers. I'm glad I wasn't a business customer that actually needed this laptop for work.

Yeah, I remember fondly the Windows ME days of re-booting every time I opened another app... screw new OS's! Power to the people!

I find putting the data files on a separate partition from the OS is a huge timesaver when backing up as I like to delete the OS partition when reinstalling the OS, not just reinstalling over it.

With Dell customer support, you have to keep in mind the time zone difference in India vs. where you are.

To follow up, I bought the Dell, a Latitude D820. Pretty happy with it, a couple of small problems to call about but no biggie.

Here's a tip for anyone buying a new machine. My laptop, like most machines with an operating system installed, came with only one drive partition, meaning I had a whacking great 100gb C: drive. That is a really boneheaded way to run a computer for a couple of reasons (1. data organization 2. inability to format and reinstall a corrupted operating system without blowing away everything on the machine).

Partition Magic is software that will, for a price, split that into two or more logical drives (two or more drive letters on one physical hard drive.)

I went the open source route. Open source, for those unfamiliar, is software that anyone can download and use for free, legitimately. I used Gnome Partition Editor, http://gparted.sourceforge.net. Downloaded the LiveCD version in .iso format and used my laptop's installed Roxio software to burn it onto a CD. Booted off the CD, and in abut 6 minutes I had C: and D: drives. Easy and free.

Try to do this before you install software and data on the laptop, but if you can't, don't do this until you've backed up your data.

Cheers,

Rob

This was exactly what happened to me and service call for my Dell desktop. CPU fried, called, tech would come out, did not, called again, they will ship, did not, finally started screaming, so they sent out two CPUs :rolleyes: . One went in the computer and the other on eBay :D

We just ordered a Dell Laptop. My old Inspiron 8200 worked great for 4 years. I hope the new one works as well as the old one.l

I've never really understood the whole partitioning of the hard drive thing. Do you really reinstall your OS that frequently? I use XP at work and OS X at home, and haven't reinstalled in years.

As far as data organization, now that there's good search tools available, I've really stopped worrying about it. Computers are much better at organizing/finding than people are. Let the computer do its job.

Are you serious? What are you doing to your machines?

This desktop in the first PC w/ XP that I haven't been doing the reinstall thing. It's working ok. My laptop I do the reinstall every 6 months. I used that thing to death and the performance does seem to degrade. After each reformat /reinstall it runs faster.

I've had the same experiance with the Bluetooth module. Also, my system came with 4GB of RAM, but only 3GB are usable as the BIOS only supports that much!

Wow. The only time I've messed with any installation of the OS is when upgrading, about once every 1.5 years. I haven't done an OS reinstall since OS 8 or 9. (6 years)

I do have to shut down/restart the computer about once every couple of months or so, when an OS update is available. Otherwise, my laptop stays on or sleeps.

It gets about 14-16 hours' use daily with about 10-12 applications open at any time, heaviest burdens coming from Excel, Mail, SAP Gui, Word, Keynote, and Firefox. It's a 1.5-2 year-old Powerbook 1.67 GHz.

A couple of responses were wondering why one would need to re-install an OS except in rare circumstances.

Most people wouldn't need to, but If you abuse your OS like I sometimes do, installing programs and never using them or uninstalling software incompletely, your system will degrade over time.

I rarely rebuild my system, maybe once in the lifecycle of a PC, if that. But if something goes badly wrong and you can't boot your system or you really need to re-install, life is going to be a lot easier if you can format and reinstall on the C: drive rather than trying to figure out how to get the data off.

It's not really a matter of doing it very often, but of being ready if the need arises. I also like to just backup my D: drive and ignore the C: drive. Makes backups simpler.