Dell is putting me thru hell on a Brand New Workstation

Hi,
I badly need help. I am 71 years old.

I bought a brand new Dell Workstation 3660.
It arrived on July 2nd & was installed on July 7, 2022 by Dell appointed engineer.
Right away after installation I told him that I wanted to check & make sure that system boots & all peripherals are working because I had paid for installation. Right away I found that Microphone was not working & he tried with no success. He was in a hurry & wanted me to sign the papers & just put a remark that microphone is not working & he said Dell engineer will call back. I refused to sign papers & he talked to his boss & left without my signature.

This is a multi-monitor system with 2 NVIDIA T-600 GPUs running 8 Monitors. Over the weekend after July 7th,
I found that resolution on Two monitor is different. These are the same monitors that I am working with another Dell system for many years & still do, so that ruled out that monitor was not the problem.

On following Monday July 11th 2022 a Dell engineer called & remotely worked on my system for almost two hours without success & he hung up. ( May be Dell has a time limit, I don't know ) I wrote to Dell that they should replace this system & give me brand new one that works. Instead they said that they will send parts & I said no as this is a brand new system that has not worked out of the box.

2 days later on Wednesday another Dell engineer called & worked online for 2 hours with no success.
Every time they want to log on the new system, I have disconnect 8 monitors from my current system & connect them to new system & back to current when they are done.

So after 3 engineer's unsuccessful attempts, they said we will dispatch a senior engineer ( From subcontracted Company ) for full day who came on Saturday & spent full day with no success so I raised the issue & told them that I am done.
So they asked the opinion of the engineer who worked twice & he called me & told me that it is not going to work because of lack of 2 full X16 PCIe slot ( They have put second card on X4 slot ) & he has conveyed that message to someone in charge of workstation.

So I thought that now they will make things right & waited another week but didn't hear from them.

So I wrote them again last Friday, July 29 & told them that they have wasted one month of my time & their time & gave them 3 choices :
(1) Send me a new system in working condition without any issues.
(2) Send me another model that has two full length PCIe X16 slots with similar configuration.
(3) Give me my money back.

I got a reply from my sales guy that they have escalated the case to the next level to look into the issue.

People who are using Dell system & those who are not or have used in past kindly help me as to what can I do ?

Thank You all.
Post Reply

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Here's what I would do - don't ever buy Dell

Hi,
What microphone are you actually using.

I'd demand my money back and shop elsewhere! A number of years back I purchased a Dell system and it was the worst experience I've ever had! The system worked for maybe six months and then just had one problem after another. Multiple motherboards etc... At that point I decided to build my own and have never looked back!

You have all the power to return it for refund since they can't fix the problem. Don't ask them. Tell them you are going to get your money back.
What kind of microphone is it? Are you talking about the mic input not working? Have you tried a USB mic and see if it is working?

If I remember correctly, in your other thread you also had a problem with your fonts. Did Dell resolve that issue or do you still have that problem along with the non-working microphone?

I was in your exact situation with Dell relating to an Optiplex I bought. Not the same problem as yours, but multiple problems. If you want to read the ordeal I went through, just do an advanced search on this forum For "Dell" and my user name and you will find the threads. My problems started last August when I purchased the system and wasn't resolved until this Feb.

This is the specifications sheet for your system.The graphics cards you purchased are NOT on this list of approved cards. In trying to resolve your problem, did Dell try 2 of the cards that ARE on this list?




All I can advise you to do is what I did. Stay after them. Demand a refund or threaten lawsuit, BBB complaint, etc unless they make it right.

I do not know who you wrote to with Dell, but I sent my registered letter to their Corporate Headquarters.
Michael Dell, CEO
1117 PERIMETER CTR STE E407
Atlanta, Ga 30338-5468

I think you are doing well persisting. If they've escalated the case, hopefully you'll hear something soon. It must be very frustrating not being able to have it working properly. Just wondering if it's an option to hire your own local IT person to come in and check everything over and write a report of the issues and what's needed. And charge them for his costs! But it sounds like someone has already been in and found what's needed.

Only other advice I can give is to put everything in writing. It seems to have an effect.

So at the end of the day the technicians can't get your Microphone to work, and two of you eight monitors have the wrong resolution?

sean said:

Hi,
I badly need help. I am 71 years old.

I bought a brand new Dell Workstation 3660.

Right away I found that Microphone was not working & he tried with no success. He was in a hurry & wanted me to sign the papers & just put a remark that microphone is not working & he said Dell engineer will call back. I refused to sign papers & he talked to his boss & left without my signature.

I found that resolution on Two monitor is different. These are the same monitors that I am working with another Dell system for many years & still do, so that ruled out that monitor was not the problem.

Click to expand...

Sounds like the techs are lost or there's more to the issue then they want to admit. Personally, I'd just have the system returned for a full refund. BTW, who did you buy your system from. Was it direct from Dell, or some other company selling "Dell" products?

Being that this is a desktop computer, the MIcrophone is an outside connected device, right? Like a headset or other type of USB peripheral.

sean said:

(snip)

So after 3 engineer's unsuccessful attempts, they said we will dispatch a senior engineer ( From subcontracted Company ) for full day who came on Saturday & spent full day with no success so I raised the issue & told them that I am done.
So they asked the opinion of the engineer who worked twice & he called me & told me that it is not going to work because of lack of 2 full X16 PCIe slot ( They have put second card on X4 slot ) & he has conveyed that message to someone in charge of workstation.

(snip)

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Click to expand...

I've never had a system like that (8 monitors?), but I'm skeptical that having the second graphics card in an X16 slot that's wired as X4 is at the root of your issues. I suspect that the service person was MSU (making stuff up, but not "stuff").

I'm not sure it that motherboards with two full X16 slots are available for Intel Gen12 CPUs. The highest-end boards that I am aware give X8 bandwidth for each of two X16 (physical) slots. That should be enough for PCI-Express 4.0 or 5.0 cards, I'd think.

The Quadro T600s are PCI-E 3.0 cards. Whether 4 lanes of PCI-E 3.0 give enough bandwidth for the second card, I don't know. (If I had to guess, I'd say yes.)

It's too bad that the Dell support contractors haven't been able to solve your problems. I wish that I could supply some positive advice.

Maybe you'd have better luck with an HEDT (high end desktop) PC, which may come out later this year. If memory serves, the most recent generation of HEDT CPUs was Gen 10. The i9-10980XE offered 48 PCI-E lanes, rather than the 20 of the I9-12900K. (LGA 2066 motherboard.) It'd be a lot more expensive than a Precision 3660, though.

We can only go by what the OP tells us, and not what the tech themselves are actually saying. It would also help to understand the OPs understanding of PC tech as well.

I do find it odd the PC hasn't been replaced by Dell seeing their techs (per OP) hasn't been able to solve the issue in near a month's time.

sean said:

(2) Send me another model that has two full length PCIe X16 slots with similar configuration.

Click to expand...

I don't think this is possible with the specific model you purchased. They cannot magically add another x16 slot on any model. You have to pay extra for it as they will have to install a specific motherboard with two x16 slots. If that is the model you selected, then you only get one x16 slot unless you specified what you needed and they made a mistake about it.

badrobot said:

I don't think this is possible with the specific model you purchased. They cannot magically add another x16 slot on any model. You have to pay extra for it as they will have to install a specific motherboard with two x16 slots. If that is the model you selected, then you only get one x16 slot unless you specified what you needed and they made a mistake about it.

Click to expand...

The Quadro T600 only fits in a PCI-E X16 slot.

The second X16 slot in the Dell is wired as X4.

badrobot said:

I don't think this is possible with the specific model you purchased. They cannot magically add another x16 slot on any model. You have to pay extra for it as they will have to install a specific motherboard with two x16 slots. If that is the model you selected, then you only get one x16 slot unless you specified what you needed and they made a mistake about it.

Click to expand...

There seems to be a bit of "assuming" going on here as nowhere did anyone mention an X4 slot, so that's just an assumption that the card/s are running at those speeds. And traditionally a GPU setup typically ran at 8+8 when two cards were used. Now it's 16 + 16 (I think).

Additionally, the OP isn't complaining about a card not working, only 2 of the 8 monitors are using the wrong resolution; so we know the cards are at least working.

I think there are far too many questions to be asked and answered before we start "assuming" which will then lead to more frustration and "guesswork" on what "may" be at issue based on.... assumptions.

That said, it would be nice to have the OP specifically list the tech specs of said machine as this base (Dell Workstation 3660) model tells nothing of the spec'd machine's actual specs. There's also a question of the GPU's actually installed per glasskutter's post.

I also think we should assess the OP's understanding of these things before providing "guesswork" fixes. Personally, I think they should just return the PC and find one that actually works as it should out the box.

That said, I say again, I find it odd Dell hasn't replaced the PC, and wonder if this actually came from Dell or is just a Dell product sold by some other company with Dell support.

Dru2 said:

There seems to be a bit of "assuming" going on here as nowhere did anyone mention an X4 slot, so that's just an assumption that the card/s are running at those speeds. And traditionally a GPU setup typically ran at 8+8 when two cards were used. Now it's 16 + 16 (I think).

Additionally, the OP isn't complaining about a card not working, only 2 of the 8 monitors are using the wrong resolution; so we know the cards are at least working.

I think there are far too many questions to be asked and answered before we start "assuming" which will then lead to more frustration and "guesswork" on what "may" be at issue based on.... assumptions.

That said, it would be nice to have the OP specifically list the tech specs of said machine as this base (Dell Workstation 3660) model tells nothing of the spec'd machine's actual specs. There's also a question of the GPU's actually installed per glasskutter's post.

I also think we should assess the OP's understanding of these things before providing "guesswork" fixes. Personally, I think they should just return the PC and find one that actually works as it should out the box.

That said, I say again, I find it odd Dell hasn't replaced the PC, and wonder if this actually came from Dell or is just a Dell product sold by some other company with Dell support.

Click to expand...

I checked the specs myself.

badrobot said:

I checked the specs myself.

Click to expand...

So, you know the specific build the OP has? You have a link to said specific build?

Dru2 said:

So, you know the specific build the OP has? You have a link to said specific build?

Click to expand...

He mentioned the model, and none of the other options for that model have two x16.

badrobot said:

He mentioned the model, and none of the other options for that model have two x16.

Click to expand...

That was precisely my point. We're just guessing at the specs, even though the OP mentions it has dual T600 GPUs.

sean said:

This is a multi-monitor system with 2 NVIDIA T-600 GPUs running 8 Monitors. Over the weekend after July 7th,

Click to expand...

Did the OP add them? Or did they come with the PC? We can assume, but... so yeah, it would help if the "OP" chimed in with the actual specs that came with the setup. That may help with the GPU issue.

There's also the question of the microphone. Is this an included or added item? Is it hardware or software issues?

Here is the page to customize a Precision 3660. (Precision 3660 Tower Workstation : Computer Workstations | Dell USA)

I see it's not listing dual T600's anymore. You can get dual T400's or dual T1000's

pparks1 said:

Here is the page to customize a Precision 3660. (Precision 3660 Tower Workstation : Computer Workstations | Dell USA)

I see it's not listing dual T600's anymore. You can get dual T400's or dual T1000's
View attachment 35436

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Thank you. And yeah, the T600 was questioned by glasskuter. Nonetheless you can get a dual GPU setup, so that means board support. It's just a matter of how "Dell" configures the board; nonetheless, they should work as sold (advertised).