Dell laptops

[SheilaJ]

Bought a Dell Inspiron 1150 for Christmas 2004 for our family. Thing has been a pain in the neck. Broken down three times now, luckily we got the "whatever happens we'll fix it" coverage! But I've spent what seems like days on the phone talking to some guy in India who can barely communicate.

Just curious about laptop durability opinions from other Dell owners and laptop owners in general. This is our first laptop and it is used by my teenager, who is not the world's most careful kid. I'm wondering if the Dell is really a piece of junk (seems probable from the similar experiences I've found on techie message boards), or if laptops are just so much more delicate than desktops.

When the contract is up in December, I'm not sinking more money into the existing laptop, and I'm wondering if I should get another laptop (love to sit on the sofa and surf in the evenings while the rest of the family watches stupid TV shows) or just give up and get a desktop instead.

Advice? Opinions? Rants? Thanks!

[croft]

Just heard that there's been a recall on some Dell batteries in some of their laptops. Sorry don't know any of the details. I'm sure that their website would have all the info.

[Shawn]

I went to work on someone's Inspiron today... No battery recall for it, but I did get to talk with 'Dave'... or at least that's what he said his name was.. Anyhow, all of that is beside the point, for the most part, the laptops are not bad for what they cost.. The all you can break, we'll fix policy never usually pans out though.. Worked for a large company and we had bought 12,500 of the laptops...  about 1/3 of the hard drives were bad within a few months.. Another 1/3 had bad memory... But for the most part, ok computers.. I myself like HPs...

[kennef]

As a PC tech, i find that if you put 5 machines in a room alone, the one thats gonna break is the laptop...

not because its better or worse than the other machines, just that Murphy's Law of computers States that if something goes wrong, its going to go wrong with the most difficult machine to fix...

As for Dell, for the normal end user who doesnt have PC repair experience or an IT staff backing him/her, its usually the best choice because, even though the tech support is in India, at least you have some support.  i worked for a PC builder for a couple of years, and their tech support dept consisted of 9 people total to answer phones and fix defective PC's. 

I will say this much however; if the fix for your breakdowns was software based, then don't nessicarily blame Dell.  If your breakdowns required hardware replacement; then you simply weigh those issues against the circumstances that brought them about. (ie, a broken lcd from rough use isnt the same as a hard drive that just up and dies one day)

Having a PC breakdown 3 times in 2 years is definately now what an enduser wants to happen, but the type of breakdowns are important to determining if its a real issue w/ the hardware or something else entirely.

of course if you get a new PC, feel free to send me the old laptop...

Kenn

[LouAnn]

I just bought a new HP. Bad harddrive, and already had updates installed. From April. No one could explain that. I got a replacement. Bad motherboard. So I ordered a Dell. I hope that one works.

[Teresa]

We bought laptops for the girls . . . . first one was an HP.  It's the one I like least.  Then I bought second daughter a toshiba and it's been great - and customer service was fast and efficient when stupid Mom couldn't figure out how to get it to do things.  Now have bought a second bigger and better toshiba for the first girl to replace the HP which is so slow (has same processor and memory as the first toshiba but takes 3 times as long to do anything!).

The first toshiba has been here for two years and nary a problem.  Second one has only been here 6 months, but still no problems.  Uncle Mike has had his toshiba for 3 years and never a problem (he's the one who suggested we look at that brand.)

Better knock on wood fast cuz I don't need no stinkin' problems!

[tammie]

After laying out money yearly for our daughter's laptops (3 HPs)  We finally bought a Panasonic Toughbook for her.  Nothing wrong with the HP laptops... except that one was destroyed by a cup of tea, 2nd was dropped and I don't remember what happened to the third one. 
Toughbooks are expensive tho... three year warranty tho. and the next laptop she gets she'll be paying for herself!
Tammie