Not so much...
Written: Mar 26 '04
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Pros: Looks, Features, Size, Weight -Looks great on paper!
Cons: Lots Broke, Dell's Support, Price, Hot on legs,
The Bottom Line: You can do better - You should do better. Don't go Dell. RESEARCH!!!
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| dot4f's Full Review: Dell Inspiron 4000 Series |
I purchased a Dell Inspiron 4000 a while ago…
It was a Pentium III 850 with SpeedStep to 700Mhz.
When I received the laptop, I was very excited. I had an Apple Ibook at the time (a new white small one) and several desktops – I just got the dell because it looked cool, with the yellow and all, and I wanted PC notebook to use wireless internet on in my house, as wireless was a new toy at that time (late 2001)
The laptop seemed speedy enough; I added more memory because dell rips you off to add extra.
Then things started to fall apart. I rarely took the laptop out of the house ever. It stayed put at a desk most of the time – actually, I left it plugged in, turned off, for 3 months at one point.
Let me start with the good. It is an attractive looking laptop, and the top half of it looked great, the paint \ finish never faded. I had the yellow palm \ top inserts.
It seemed to run pretty fast for it’s specs. It came at an “OK” price, I thought I was getting a great deal, Free DVD Upgrade, Free Double Memory, Free Shipping, and discounted extra battery.
Didn’t have wireless, but I just used another card I had. I hated that I couldn’t configure it to have both Modem and network card – dell didn’t allow you to select both – don’t know why, probably miniPCI card slot was full or something. The bottom of the laptop was extreamly hot - you couldn't place it on your lap unless you had thick pants on without getting burned. This is a documented problem with this notebook.
The screen was sharp and I enjoyed having both a stick and a touchpad, they are both good for different uses. The Speaker volume was unacceptable, it never sounded “good” as other laptops, and never was loud enough to watch a DVD from a distance. It was a big complaint. I used headphones on the notebook when I did use it, and the connector for the headphones got very loose after time.
Until things started to break, it was a good laptop.
So, the first problem I saw was, there are 2 PCMICA (PC CARD) Slots. There are two ejection buttons for them, and the plastic caps for them, were missing? Where did the go? I didn’t “pull” them off, how did they come off? Still haven’t found them.
Then, the screen, it flapped backwards. It wasn’t secured very well. I don’t know why, it never was very tight, but just got looser with time. It got to a point where you had to have it at a 90-degree angle, or the thing would to fall backwards; very annoying.
So, I just assumed that’s how the screen was on these things, and let it go.
Then, my DVD Drive died. I called Dell, they didn’t do too much troubleshooting over the phone, they just accepted that it had issues, I told them it was making loud noise, and such (it wouldn’t read about 50% of the time, it was very odd)
So I must give dell credit, they shipped out a new one, and took back the old one with making me wait on hold for about 45 Min total. Not too horrid I suppose.
So I got the new drive, and it worked well – there was one slight problem, when you put the drive in the machine, it would turn the computer off. This never happened before, why now? I discovered if you did it slowly, it didn’t, if you did it quickly it would power the machine off – very odd again.
I bought a 2nd battery with the PC so I could have 2 in the computer at once, and double the battery life. Well, now, before I sold the PC, BOTH batteries are dead. One lasts 4 min; the other won’t turn on at all. Of course, out of warranty now too.
The mouse (the pointing stick) broke off completely (the plastic underneath the eraser head) I had to super-glue it back on (I hope it holds as I sold it to someone else)
The bottom of the laptop was missing paint in one area (black metal cover) so I had to spray paint it – why didn’t they use better paint?
Oh, and my favorite problem, the DVD drive died (AGAIN!!!)It wouldn’t read ANY disk at all. So this time, I replaced it with a drive from another notebook – an HP one. It works fine, and doesn’t power the machine off when you insert it.
The screen was starting to go out too I think, in the bottom right corner, it looked as if it was going “dim” I don’t know why just that one area. There were some dead pixels on the LCD, but Dell said there needed to be more in a certain area before they would do anything about it.
One of the worst failures, was the SpeedStep. It didn’t work anymore. It use to work just fine, but now, it would refuse to get out of 700Mhz. It was stuck. I usually could control it from the Bios or in windows (Windows XP does the management itself, but it still wouldn’t change – I looked up all the Dell articles I could find, and no help at all)
While the Notebook looks good on paper (like most Dell products do) It sucked in real life. Keep in mind, I didn’t abuse this notebook, it was under very minimal usage actually. I’ve had several notebooks prior to this one, and they have maintained much better than this one.
I would recommend an E-Machines notebook – they have Great support (try it for your self if you don’t believe me, pickup the phone, and call their support hotline, 19 Second hold time! Then Call Dell. See which one you prefer.)
Or if you are looking for something more “acceptable” maybe more “prestigious” or “expensive” Consider an IBM ThinkPad. My friend has a T40 – it’s a great laptop. He damaged the keyboard by accident (spill) Called IBM, they sent him a replacement NEXT DAY – No charge. He didn’t have any “special” warranty either – he bought the notebook off E-Bay.
Also, before you buy a dell, Consider IBMs extended warranty pricing. For 3 Years on a $2,000 with Next Day Onsite Service, it’s $125 I think. That REALLY beats dell’s shotty service. Dell will do ANYTHING to avoid coming out for service too.
My advice is, don’t buy dell, especially their notebooks.
Their desktops are “OK” Nothing “special” I have worked on many of them. IBM again has high quality machines built to last a lifetime, and Emachines has great deals – with great support.
Good Luck!
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 1958
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Pentium III
Processor speed: 801-900
Screen Size: 14 inches
RAM: 256
Internal Storage: DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 13-20
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Epinions.com ID:
dot4f
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Location: Crystal Lake, IL
Reviews written: 9
Trusted by: 0 members
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