Its a DUD Dude
Written: Apr 12 '02 (Updated Aug 16 '02)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Ease of Use: |
 |
|
| Quality of Tech Support: |
 |
|
|
Pros: Fast and Fun
Cons: 2 Major Hardware failures in less than a year. Refurbished parts.
The Bottom Line: Cheap hardware. High failure rate. Warranty consists mostly of reading from a windows error manual or sending out refurbished parts. Misleading information about maxium memory capabilities.
|
|
|
| artisttype's Full Review: Dell Dimension 8100 Series |
Dell is a company that has cut one too many corners!!!Its hardware is cheap and tech support is awful. I too can read out of a windows error manual! Don't be fooled by that 3 or 4 year warranty. That entitles you to fix your own computer with the help of people who speak poor English. If a part breaks on your computer (I have lost two MAJOR hardware items in the 11 months since I bought this junk heap) they send you a "refurbished" part to replace it. Since the original part wasn't so hot this isn't very comforting. Nothing quite like USED junk!
I can only imagine that the rave reviews in this column come from new owners or those who don't spend a great deal of time as power users. Perhaps these folks don't make heavy use of their systems. If you don't you might be able to go a few years without a breakdown. If you don't put it through its paces you may never see what can happen. I did love the speed of mine and yes it is easy to use...but I pity the average computer user who has a system problem.
I bought my computer for its stated purpose...multimedia..I am an artist videographer, musician and web designer. I don't apologize for using my system extensively. It was marketed to me as a system for someone who needed to do the things I do. Unless you have money to burn, why else would you pay so much for this unit? Given that I am a high end user, you can also assume I'm NOT technologically challenged. I know my stuff and I don't have time to play mind games with Dell tech support in India!!
My system gave me problems right out the box as my CD-R would constantly fail to recognize disks unless I repeatedly reinserted them. Dell told me my new CD-R was DIRTY and didn't offer any replacement. More about that later...
As I said, I edit video and compose music..or I did. I am just getting back to normal after my new 60 gig hard drive died two weeks ago. High end users like myself want the top of the line in speed and performance...and that is what I THOUGHT I bought...but it is equally important that the system be stable and reliable. This Dell has shown itself to be neither. Who wants a 60 gig hard drive that fails with files larger than a CD can burn on it??? I lost 11 months worth of video animation files...Then I lost two weeks more in down time because of the way Dell "replaces" things.
If you buy even an off brand computer locally, and the hard drive shows signs of failing, the store will always offer to mirror your drive onto their system and then restore it to your computer when the new drive is in place. The bottom line is that your data is more valuable than a $100 hard drive and if the warranty doesn't at least attempt to protect that its worthless. This is a common courtesy that Dell could care less about! I realized that too late and ran out and spent $350 to buy a drive large enough to mirror mine onto. The original drive would no longer recognize my new drive and I didn't know enough to trick it into doing so..so I lost everything. However, I am still glad I have the second drive. I just don't trust Dell's parts anymore. But getting a new hard drive is only half the battle.
Apparently they have no trouble loading your operating system and the programs you purchased on a NEW hard drive...but when your drive fails...You get a formatted, "refurbished" drive (i.e. someone else's trash rebuilt) and they don't even put an operating system on it for you. My "new" drive kept hanging during the Windows ME install. Since I had never installed an operating system before, I finally had to call Tech support in INDIA. The struggle to understand the thick British/Hindi accent was not fun. The tech was obviously reading from a screen and knew ZERO without it. Whenever the install made a wrong turn he was lost. This went on while all the basic sound and video files were loaded. It took hours.
During the first few months I had my system, Dell tech support was in Austin. The techs knew their stuff and could listen to your description and actually solve problems. Now you are dealing with people who have no training and must go through a series of diagnostic routines that can tie you up for the day. Telling them what you did last time only confuses them. They have their protocol set in stone and you can't jump ahead no matter how many times you've endured the same trouble-shooting procedure.
I wish I could say my isses ended with the hard drive...but they didn't. My CD-R which had never been well now began spitting out half-done CD's. This happened the week after the hard drive was replaced. I called the tech because it would no longer burn music at 12X. I was burning remixes of the same CD's I burned a month ago using the same pack of 1X-32X Verbatim disks, but the player would burn 1 or 2 tracks, show a buffer underrun error and eject the disk. It was turning my expensive blank CD'S into coasters by the dozen. Tech support told me that either I was burning SLOW CD's or my 32X Verbatims weren't FAST enough to work at 12X!!! They told me to burn at 8X. They told this same ridiculous story to the head of my media center at work. He is as steamed as I am.
I work for a college and we all have Dell computers. I assure you that the complaints I have here are not rare. From what I know about the situation at work, Dell has to be aware of the problem with their CD-R drives buffering. But they seem to have decided that there is little the consumer can do about it if they don't fix them. The tech industry is woefully under-policed and Dell seems to be making the most of this situation.
My CD burner performance has further degraded to where it won't even PLAY a CD correctly. Arguing with Tech support is not going to change things. I don't have an hour to waste going through the test routine with them so they can tell me the same excuse. At this point I don't even want another Dell product. I have ordered a new Yamaha state of the art burner. I don't need any more of Dell's short-lived first or second hand parts. What use is a warranty if all it does is replace one junk part with another???? I am now out of pocket to the tune of $550....and I paid $3500 for this system.
Let me add another note here....this is the latest Dell excuse for their CD burner as of 4/25/02. My co-worker just got this from Dell tech support.....You aren't supposed to let CD's play for hours while you work... This will burn it out!!! He also has had his for less than a year. So you spent mega bucks for their surround sound Altec Lansing system but if you listen to the CD player on a regular basis it will self destruct and...thats your problem.
I still have the Sony system I bought in 94 and it works beautifully except for the CD drive, but the CD drive went out after 5 years, thats acceptable. I can't believe this Dell computer I paid top dollar for is self-destructing before my eyes!
The only good thing I can say about my Dell is that I like the parts they DIDN't make. My THX sound system with AltecLansing speakers (when I can turn it loud enough to drown out a very loud fan on the hard drive) and Turtle beach sound card rock. My Nvidia 64 MB Ultra graphics card is great. My top of the line monitor is excellent. Forget the rest. I won't even buy their memory if I can help it. I have heard from some folks in the computer field that they are suspected of selling refurbished parts in their new computers. I can certainly believe that.
8/16/02
Here is the latest in my continuing problems with Dell. My computer shipped with 256 MB of memory, a limit I am no longer satisfied with. The system was listed on the site as being able to run with up to 2gig of memory....so upgrading should be no problem right??? WRONG...I went to a site to buy memory and found that the operating system determines how much memory you can use. Dell never said anything about that. Under Windows 2000 you can use 2gig but under Windows ME you can only have 512mb...AND...when I asked about upgrading to a different operating system I given the following advice...
"we generally discourage our customers to upgrade their Operating System because most of the time factory installed components are not supported by the new Operating System as in your case, because some components are meant for some specific Operating System only."
Unfortunately no one at Dell said anything about the relationship between operating system and memory before they sold me the computer. This is not the kind of information the average consumer would know to go looking for. So a computer I thought could be upgradable to 2gig is maxed out at 512mb!!!!
Here is something else I learned. Had I been able to get Windows 2000, in all honesty I don't even remember if it WAS an option...I would have had to throw away my two 128mb memory modules in order to add anything over 512mb. Why...read this Dell response...
"1. Since your System uses RIMMs, you can install RIMMs only in pairs that too with the same configuration. ie, either all 4 slots should have 64 each, or 128 each or 256 each, OR 64X2..."
I'd suggest that anyone wanting to get a system from Dell call and ask them questions about exactly what you are getting in terms of the systems ability to be upgraded. At this point having replaced the hard drive, CDRW and now being maxed out on memory...I am thinking it might be better just to throw in the towel and either get another computer or make my own.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 3500
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Other
Processor speed: over 1000
RAM: 256
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): Over 50
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
artisttype
|
|
Reviews written: 11
Trusted by: 0 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.