I hate Dell
 

I am on the phone right now with Dell tech support for the third time in two weeks trying to get to resolve a technical issue . I have already wasted a combined total of 5 hours talking to them and still there is no resolution. They just keep robotically repeating the same steps every single time I call back, even though we have already gone through all of them on the previous call.


The worst part is that one of the main reasons why I bought a Latitude was because Dell advertisers US-based supported for Latitude laptops . Today alone I've spent a total of 1.5 hours bouncing between India and US. Indians just keep going over the basic steps of reinstalling windows, that doesn't work, they transfer me to US. US says that my computer (Dell Latitude D620) is supported by India. I already spoke to supervisors in both departments and they just keep transferring me. I am ready to scream.


Are there any laptop manufacturers which still offer reliable, US-based support?

Too bad IHateDell.com and DellSucks.com are taken - I am ready to start a site.

What's your issue and what have you tried so far?

The computer locks up. At boot, the only thing it shows is "Resuming Windows..." - and that's it - doesn't go any further.

Already tried running Windows repair, completely re-installing Windows, running hardware diagnostics, booting into Safe Mode (didn't boot) .

After a little more then 2 hours on the phone today, I finally got someone who agreed that it wasn't likely to be a software issue and will dispatch a technician to take a look at the laptop.

Hopefully the technician actually fixes it. I can't believe it took 5.5 hours on the phone to get to this point.

FYI, I've a Dell D610, and have stopped using resume windows. I ether shut down fully or use stand-by. The reason, I installed a 160GB disk at the start of the year, got everything moved over and running, and a resume operation trashed the boot sector somehow a few days later. Luckely I still had the old 100GB disk in a caddy ready to go.

Personally I'm not happy with the resume function on my Dell D610 at the moment.

Aidan

I have a Dell D620 and I'm happy with it. My company has only Dell (Laptops and Desktops) and usually no worries. All laptops are bought with 3year next day support. Problems can occur with any system and caused by whatever, but if it's clear that it has soemthing to do with Hardware I have a technician coming from Dell the next day who fixes the stuff. Even if it's out of warranty for reasonable prices.

As far as I know you can have bad service or good service with any brand! So far my experience with Dell is positive.
Just my 0.02$
W

PS: I only use Hibernating and once a week or after a software/patch installation the Shut down. Works flawless.

I've had much better success with Dell tech support via email.

-David

Sounds like a corrupt hibernation file. Try and boot the machine with the install CD/DVD and open the recovery console. On your C drive you'll find the hibernation file called hiberfil.sys, just delete it.

Then make sure you turn off hibernation and pick normal sleep mode instead. (uncheck enable hibernation in the power settings).

Five years ago I had a Dell laptop that kept freezing on me. It took 18 months of repeated useless calls to "tech support" before they acknowledged that the problem was a bad hard drive. The experience drove me away from Dell completely and my family now owns five Macs. I can't believe that after all this time Dell still operates this way. No wonder the company has been languishing lately. Reminds me of a sign I saw at a store once- "The pain of poor quality lasts far longer than the pleasure of low prices".

Could be an issue with anti-virus software. My dad's got a Dell desktop, and he was never able to use the hibernate/standby functions until he uninstalled Norton.

Me, I just chose the least-invasive AV package Dell's got (PC-cillin), and then uninstalled it in favor of AVG.

I have a inspiron 600m laptop with xpPro and had similar problems. Got rid of Norton and my problems disappeared. Using ZoneAlarm now.

Zone Alarm has been known to cause problems too. Just not as many, or as bad, as Norton does.

That was it! Thank you very much!
I removed the file and the computer is booting up normally!

I can't help but wonder why no one at Dell was able to suggest this solution.

Because it isn't in their scripts.

When you take the creativity and thinking out of support you'll only ever help 25% of your customers. But that doesn't seem to bother Dell.

Because people who are smart enough to solve problems like this are almost always smart enough to get a higher paying job than telephone support.

Dell just amazes me. The technician they promised to send never showed up.