Dell - What Happened To “Heh, Dude, You’re Getting A Dell?”
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Yesterday I received a message from a friend who wanted to know if I was still advising people to buy Dells, since its tech support has gone down the tubes, or was HP now the system to buy?
First of all I haven’t bought an OEM built desktop system since 1993. I’ve always built my own. And over the years I have worked on all types of systems from various manufacturers, and they all seem to have their moments.
I have recommended Dell systems to homeowners because they are inexpensive, fairly well made, and had great tech support. Then Dell went to India to farm out support, as did many other manufacturers. It’s not because the support decreased, it was because of a language barrier. How many of us could take a crash course in Hindi and start fielding complex computer questions?
And there is the rub. Between the novice user asking why ‘the coffee cup holder is gone,’ in reference to the sliding tray of a CD-DVD player, and on the other end a person who has taken a crash course in English and computers, spells a disaster in the making.
So do I still recommend Dell systems? Sure, why not? They are OK for general home use and no better nor worse than any of the others. Besides, now that Michael Dell has taken back over the leadership position of Dell, we should all have a nice warm and fuzzy feeling inside. 
Rumor has it that Dell might start selling computers through the retail outlet centers.
[tags]dell, computers, support, [/tags]
5 Comments
Larry Schaibley
February 5th, 2007
at 8:18pm
I used to love Dell and purchased several computers from them over the years and recommended them to all my friends. On the last computer I purchased I paid close to $5,000.00 for the top of the line Dimension system. I wanted to upgrade to prepare for Vista and was told to forget it and to just buy a whole new computer. I didn’t want to buy a whole new computer so I went to Crucial and spent a wad on RAM. Then I contacted Dell about a graphics card and they recommended one that when I got it wouldn’t work because as it turns out, in a system that expensive, they only put in a 250 watt power supply and that could not be upgraded either. Needless to say, I was fit to be tied. Here I just spent another $600.00 to upgrade the RAM and couldn’t go any further.
Fortunately I found a great deal on an HP product. So Dell will have to really improve before I ever go back to them or recommend them again.
Ron Schenone
February 5th, 2007
at 8:29pm
Hi Larry,
And with Thermaltake 430 watt power supplies selling for only $40.00, you would think at the price you paid they could of put in a bigger unit.
Thanks for your comments.
abenjamin
February 19th, 2007
at 8:41am
I am having a similar problem with a Dell Dimension 4600C I bought in 2003. It came with an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro video card which was stomping at the time. It recently went out so I replaced it with a Radeon X1300XT. Everything went haywire and after doing some leg work realized my 170W PSU was severely underpowered. The card requires a system with a minimum 350W output, and when I went to remove the old one I found some connections to a secondary fan I’d never seen before. Seems like Dell had some proprietary PSU’s on these and now I may not be able to salvage the system.
I may actually have to “dumb down” the video card to something less power hungry, give it to my youngest daughter and buy a new system.
Ron Schenone
February 19th, 2007
at 9:05am
Hello abenjamin,
Thanks for posting your comments.
See if this may help:
Technical Support:
tech@sparklepower.com
I recall having a similar problem with a HP that used a PS that was non-standard. Sparkle had a replacement unit that was half the price of what HP wanted.
I haven’t tried them for Dell systems, but it may be worth a shot.
Good luck, Ron
James Blish
January 16th, 2008
at 3:41pm
I have a very simple solution to everyone’s problem, build your own computer with parts from TigerDirect and Newegg!!!!!! I’ve be building for many years and laugh at people who spend $$$ for crap systems.