A Reason not to buy a Dell Laptop

[Kernel]

https://www.theinquirer.net/?article=32550

 

Woah!

 

Edit: A funny quote found on slashdot.

"The Windows error that was seen on the screen just before the unit erupted in a fireball was "A very serious error is about to occur.""

[Praetoris]

I've heard of smoking laptops etc but I've never really believed in an actual explosion occuring

 

"a very serious error" indeed

[FullAuto]

Al Qaeda haver lowered their sights a bit, haven't they?

[Bomb Bloke]

Something must have happened to the battery pack. Typcial computer components aren't that combustable.

 

I bet Dell is loving this.

[Zager]

I own a Dell. They've known about this for months and months now. It's a flaw in certain batteries, and they sent out e-mails to owners a long time ago about it.

[Crazy Gringo]

Could it have been one of those laptops with SLI Graphics cards in it which made it give up the ghost?

As least it didn't die with a whimper and a cry.

It fought on for it's dear life while keeping exploding for 5 minutes according to the article....

Joke aside....I use Dell computers at my work...And I am kind fond of that lovely 23' widescreen LCD screen I work on daily.

At home I would never ever bring a of the shelf computer over my doorstep. The companies that makes those kinds of computers are almost as bad as Microsoft with all of the more or less useless software that they cramp into the harddrives of those beasts of burden.

[Matri]

Interesting tidbit: If you're buying a Dell and plan to keep it more than 6 months, splurge on memory. Get the most expensive RAM option available.

 

Dell uses its own hardware specifications. Trust me, you will NOT be able to find "cheaper" memory to upgrade it with.

 

Yes, I'm a victim

[Kernel]

And I am kind fond of that lovely 23' widescreen LCD screen I work on daily.

 

I will now hate you for the rest of my life... or at least until I get a better screen.

 

PC wise I always build my own. Laptop wise I think I'll stick with my trusty Acer that I upgraded to 1Gb RAM. It may not be fast, it may not have all the latest bells and whistles, but it does it's job, and it was cheap. And it's perfect for sitting outside in the sun at the patio table, browsing the web or playing a game of Civ 4.

[Zombie]

Interesting tidbit: If you're buying a Dell and plan to keep it more than 6 months, splurge on memory. Get the most expensive RAM option available.

 

Dell uses its own hardware specifications. Trust me, you will NOT be able to find "cheaper" memory to upgrade it with.

 

Yes, I'm a victim

Here's my little story of memory.

 

I purchased a Dell laptop in early 2003 with the best Pentium processor available, a decent HD, but not the most memory (2 sodimms each with 128 MB of RAM). Initially my computer ran fine. A couple years later it started to lag a bit. This continued to 2007-8. Then all heck broke loose. One morning I tried to power up my computer and not much happened except for a couple warning beeps and some cryptic code on the screen. I noticed that I didn't hear the familiar "grinding" sound of the HD on startup, and figured that was the problem. After talking to the landlord of my apartment, he claimed a lady upstairs had blown most of the fuses in the complex while using a hair dryer. I was using a surge suppressor, but somehow the spike must've found it's way into my computer. Sent the computer off to an expert tech who put in a bigger hard drive and recovered my data from the old drive. Got it back home and worked fine for a while until one day in early Jan 2008 when it suddenly locked up on me. Upon reboot, there were some error messages and lights which blinked. Brought the computer in to a local shop and told them to look at it. My guess was memory but wasn't sure. The guy got back to me a week later and mentioned he didn't have the equipment or the diagnostic tools to work on my "old" laptop. Profanity ensued after leaving the shop with the computer in tow. %^&@~$#*!

 

At this point in time I seriously considered ditching the laptop and buying a new one. Nothing happened though as I moved back to my apartment to back to school for the spring semester. When I was all moved in again, I gave the local computer expert a call and he said to bring it in. (He's got every available tool and spare part you could imagine - no machine is too old for him to work on). After playing phone-tag with him for a week, I got a hold of him and was told my computer was fixed. When I picked it up, he mentioned that one block of memory was bad and he replaced it. Brought the laptop back home and once again, the same issues were happening: it would lock up after running a little bit. Sent it back. This time he claimed it was the memory chip which wasn't seated properly. Brought it back to my place and you guessed it, more of the same lockups. Sent it back one more time. He didn't call for a good two weeks so I called him. He basically said that something else was behind the lockups and didn't have a clue what. Things really started to sound gloomy. I asked him if a new motherboard would solve the problem. He responded with a resounding "YES"! Gave him the go-ahead to find a used motherboard somewhere and replace mine. Took another week or two and it was fixed. Brought it back and it worked great.

 

Been using the same rig for the last 7 months or so with no issues besides some slowdowns. I checked my system specs and noticed there was only 128 MB of RAM installed. Ah-ha! That's what is causing the poor performance. I feared that a memory block was burnt out so I didn't do anything. Last week I got fed up and decided to open the hood to take a look (hopefully narrow down which block was bad). Turns out there was only 1 sodimm installed, not two! The tech must've forgot to replace the bad block! (He is very forgetful so this didn't surprise me). Instead of calling him to get another block, I decided to try to get a replacement block and do it myself as the computer wouldn't be out of commission for a long time. Looked on eBay and found plenty of memory for my system but didn't know the first thing about compatibility. Took a crash-course online and found that you can't mix different types of memory and I should get the same speed as before.

 

Had no idea what the speed of my memory was (didn't say on the chipset) so I sat there thinking for a while. I remembered that I still had my original invoice from Dell when I purchased the computer and that had all sorts of info on it. Dug it up and found the speed. Then I went back on eBay. A search revealed that there was plenty of 128 MB chipsets out there (as well as 256 and 512 too). After reading some listings, it quickly became apparent that all this memory was out there for a reason: everyone was upgrading to more. At that time I decided to buy 2 new blocks with more capacity than a used 128MB block. Found 2 new blocks of 1 GB RAM out there and purchased it immediately.

 

While waiting for the chips to arrive I had a chance to do a little more research on the net. According to one website, the maximum amount of memory my system would recognize is 1 GB (2x512MB). Then I started to worry. Another source said that Windows XP can recognize up to 4 GB total. I thought, "well, if the hardware has the slots and the software recognizes it, I should be fine". Got the 2x1GB chips in the mail today and proceeded to install them. Upon startup, the computer mentioned that it detected a change in memory. Good. Press F1, windows loads. Go back to the system specs and indeed, there is 2 GB of RAM in there. About an hour later my computer suddenly gives up and restarts. Keeps going through a restart once Windows boots. Finally run a system check and my computer decides to reduce memory to 1GB. So I guess that is the limit.

 

My computer is running as fast as I have ever seen it go though. No more lags: just nice, clean, fast and speedy performance. *Sighs with accomplishment.* Just wanted to rant a little. Installing memory is probably the easiest things you could do for system performance. If you do a little homework first like I did, it should go really smooth. And no, I did not purchase the most expensive memory out there. In fact, the chips are original Samsung but the circuit board is manufactured in Taiwan or China.

 

- Zombie

[FullAuto]

I have to confess, Zombie, if that had happened to a computer of mine I would have thrown it out of the window and got a new one. Perseverance, that man.

 

According to one website, the maximum amount of memory my system would recognize is 1 GB (2x512MB). Then I started to worry. Another source said that Windows XP can recognize up to 4 GB total.

 

IIRC it's something to do with whether you've got the 32-bit or 64-bit version. Think the maximum with 32-bit is about 3GB. Why won't your system recognise more than 1GB, do you know?

 

Just dropped 2GB into my PC and the performance increase is shocking, running like its arse is on fire.

[Zombie]

I have to confess, Zombie, if that had happened to a computer of mine I would have thrown it out of the window and got a new one. Perseverance, that man.

Well, I'm a patient guy, but there is a limit to how much hassle I'd put up with. The main reason for sticking with my current system is to save a little cash.

 

IIRC it's something to do with whether you've got the 32-bit or 64-bit version. Think the maximum with 32-bit is about 3GB. Why won't your system recognise more than 1GB, do you know?

I have no idea, but any theories or methods to fix it would be helpful. (Dell Inspiron 4150 notebook, circa 2003). If possible, I'd like to make use of that extra gig of memory which is just sitting idle right now. If it's a bottleneck due to a hardware configuration it may not be possible to fix.

 

Just dropped 2GB into my PC and the performance increase is shocking, running like its arse is on fire.

LOL, I know what you mean. I thought my DSL connection was at fault for all the slowdown while surfing the net, but with the addition of extra memory, pages are loading near instantaneous. Putting my computer in standby now takes seconds while it took minutes before. Also, there is a remarkable difference when opening applications and file-handling chores. A good investment as it will save me time in the long run. Gotta remember not to skimp on memory if I ever get a new computer.

 

- Zombie

[FullAuto]

I have no idea, but any theories or methods to fix it would be helpful. (Dell Inspiron 4150 notebook, circa 2003). If possible, I'd like to make use of that extra gig of memory which is just sitting idle right now. If it's a bottleneck due to a hardware configuration it may not be possible to fix.

 

Several sites like this one say you're limited to 1GB, though for best performance it's meant to be 2x512MB sticks. What a pain in the arse! My sympathies.

[Matri]

To be fair Zombie, I wrote that comment of mine two years ago

 

Another source said that Windows XP can recognize up to 4 GB total.

 

The 4GB max is a limitation of 32-bit OSes. Even in Vista you're stuck with 4GB. Only 64-bit operating systems can go over 4GB.

[Bomb Bloke]

If it's a bottleneck due to a hardware configuration it may not be possible to fix.

I know I'm a little late on the ball with this... but... You might be interested in MemTest. It's gone through a lot of changes since I last used it, but I assume it still offers the same basic features.

 

A memory test basically involves sticking stuff in RAM then pulling it out again, over and over. Reliability in different regions can vary, and performance can also be affected as the chips warm up.

 

In short, it tells you if RAM is your problem, and if so, which chip is at fault.

[Knan]

The 4GB max is a limitation of 32-bit OSes. Even in Vista you're stuck with 4GB. Only 64-bit operating systems can go over 4GB.

 

Wrong (technically).

 

Linux, Mac OS X and some server editions of Windows can do >4GB on 32-bit. Look up PAE.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_Address_Extension

[Matri]

PAE isn't quite that common.

while on Unix-like systems a variety of tricks are used, such as using mmap() to map regions of a file into and out of the address space as needed, although it is not currently a standard.

Loadable kernel modules can only be loaded into a kernel with PAE enabled if the modules were built with PAE enabled; the binary modules in FreeBSD distributions are not built with PAE enabled, and thus cannot be loaded into PAE kernels. Not all drivers support more than 4 GiB of physical memory; those drivers won't work correctly on a system with PAE.

However, desktop versions of Windows (Windows XP, Windows Vista) limit physical address space to 4 GiB for driver compatibility reasons.

All these are found from your wiki link. As you can see, PAE isn't a guarantee.

 

And most importantly:

In this way the extra memory is useful even though no single regular application can access it all simultaneously.

[Knan]

PAE isn't quite that common.

 

All these are found from your wiki link. As you can see, PAE isn't a guarantee.

 

Hehe. All modern hardware supports it. The software you're using might not.

 

And, yes, it's mostly useful for running more than one thing at a time. >4GB memory generally is.

 

 

But anyway, 64-bit operating system is recommended when you get to >4GB memory. The least amount of headaches and hoops to jump through.

[Matri]

But anyway, 64-bit operating system is recommended when you get to >4GB memory. The least amount of headaches and hoops to jump through.

That was my point...

[NKF]

What does everyone think of the Dell machines in general?

 

I've been thinking of getting a new desktop (been a year since my PC died and had to switch to the laptop). I've mainly been using Acer machines, but thought I'd give Dell a go this time. Definitely not going with Compaq again. At least, their very strict proprietary hardware requirements and the nightmare I had with their customer service has put me off them.

 

I use a Dell workstation at my workplace, day-in and day-out, so they appear reliable enough for the office. Any good as a home PC?

 

- NKF

[Zombie]

I've been using my Dell laptop since 2002 with no problems except for the hard drive and memory failures. For a laptop this old, you certainly have to expect some issues to crop up due to portability. So I'd give it a grade of B for sturdiness. There are other laptops out there which are more rugged, but if you properly take care of your equipment anything should last. At my job we have Dell workstations and so far they are really reliable. Case in point: we had a severe storm this summer which caused a leak in the roof and one of the workstations was flooded. After drying it out, the computer worked fine the next day. We've also had a few spills (commonplace) and each time the computer came through without any issues.

 

As for the home, Dell's are just as reliable as the workplace counterparts. I know about 10-15 people who own Dells for home use and haven't heard any complaints from them. Are they any good? You bet. As long as you build your computer the way you want it, you should be happy. (I built mine for processor intensive tasks and it hasn't failed in that role and with the latest upgrade to more memory the thing flies).

 

I can't speak from experience about Dell's customer service though. No issues = no reason to call which is probably a good thing. I really doubt any computer company has excellent customer service though - the average time on hold has risen steadily over the years and customer satisfaction isn't as good as it once was since these days technical support is farmed out to the lowest bidder. It's not uncommon to talk to a tech from India or Pakistan. Again, I don't know firsthand if Dell stoops to this level, but someone here may have more experience in this area.

 

- Zombie

[Thorondor]

How about Alienware, NKF ?

 

::

 

Alienating pun intended; and I never owned one. Their cases would be likely to catch an X-Com fan's eye nevertheless...

[Matri]

Case in point: we had a severe storm this summer which caused a leak in the roof and one of the workstations was flooded. After drying it out, the computer worked fine the next day.

I'd keep a close eye on this one. Long term damage is unknown.

 

I can't speak from experience about Dell's customer service though. <snip> the average time on hold has risen steadily over the years <snip>

I can, and I can tell you the wait time is still ridiculous. However, Dell so far has a great support. The diagnostic lights really does help with initial diagnosis so you don't spend half the way shouting at the other guy. And they'll happily replace every single component free-of-charge, while still under warranty of course.

[NKF]

I generally try to avoid tech support, but if I do need them I do hope anything will be better than having to wait 30 minutes on the phone for someone overseas who kept misinterpreting what I was trying to say. Had my laptop harddrive die just days after the warranty expired. Asked the guy if condensation was a possible cause (my pc screens were damp when I made the call). He thought I'd immersed the laptop in water... oy.

 

Think I'll give Dell a go then. I quite like the fact you can put your PC together on their website if you order with them on-line. Lets you get rid of bits and pieces you certainly don't need.

 

Alienware - now there's a brand I hadn't thought about in years. Probably a bit flashy for my simplistic tastes.

 

- NKF

[reaper]

A bit of a clear up here

 

a standard 32bit processors - support 4gig of ram

 

however

 

windows 32bit (xp/vista) because of the way it coded can only use about 3.5gig of ram - not including memory leached to graphics card

 

so for example if you had 4 gig and windows vista with 512mb leached to the graphics card you can only use 3

gig.

 

linux can use the full 4gig.

 

a 64 bit processor howerer in theory can use 18 billion gigabytes

 

current limit is about 16gig depending on motherboard

 

vista 64bit versions however cant

 

visa starter - na

Vista Home Basic - max 8 gig (7.5 due to programming)

Vista Home Premium - 16 gig (15.5)

allother versions - 128gig 127.5

 

xp64 - 128gig (127.5)

 

linux - in theory 18 billion gigabytes

 

i have not included server editions

 

imagine an unmodded tftd running on any of the systems above. thats fast

 

linux rules!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Alienware - now there's a brand I hadn't thought about in years. Probably a bit flashy for my simplistic tastes.

 

- NKF

 

owned by dell if iam not mistaken

[Matri]

It appears that Alienware systems of late is suffering from severe overheating problems.