Why do Dell owners have so many problems?

Scannerman said:

LG is going to court for the same shenanigans that Lenovo got sued for (and lost) repeatedly. Embedding spyware is not cool. My 17 year old is still using the Acer laptop that I put together from 4 other throwaways back in 2012. She's definitely due for another and it will likely be a Dell. My 19 year old is using a Dell touch screen (also used to be mine) for university because it answers to all the requirements for software engineering (and then some). She hasn't had any trouble with it in the last two years since she had it. And GROSS! She uses One Drive. Meanwhile, many of her colleagues are having all sorts of issues with their expensive Apple lap tops. Because of this she has thanked me numerous times for giving her my Dell laptop.

After leaving the world of TANDY for a Microsoft platform I purchased a brand new Sony VAIO desk top. That unit gave me more trouble than the Dell unit I purchased later but it was more of a Sony software issue than a hardware issue. (We are talking 26 years ago.) When it comes to support my experience has been that Dell is second to none. I purchased a brand new Dell Inspiron 530 in 2007 and that thing ran circles around the old Sony. Support was excellent. Dell even let me add RAM and hard drives to my Inspiron without violating the warranty. Because of their support and reliability I purchased a brand new Dell Studio XPS 9000 tower in 2009 which still runs reliably to this day. My wife uses an old XPS laptop and the only thing I've had to do with it in the way of hardware is purchase another battery charger for it. (Although I have made some modifications to it to beef it up a bit.) The particular model she uses comes with a double size battery pack which is very handy for out in the field and in the lab. Today she just uses it at home but she is very happy with her Dell.

I have serviced many Dell PCs since and have found them a delight to work on for the most part. I also own a Studio XPS 9001 that works just fine despite the fact that it can only handle 24GB of RAM. This is my bed room unit for watching documentaries and listening to audio books while I sleep. It is terribly under used. Perhaps the newer Dells are a problem. ASUS used to be pretty good back in the day as well. Not sure if I trust them that much today. At least with Dell you won't be getting any embedded spyware. I can honestly say that when it comes to proprietary builds Dell has been among the most reliable of them all. But then, I've only had 26 years of experience tearing apart PCs and rebuilding them so my knowledge is limited.

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kelper said:

I'm envious of a man who can watch documentaries and listen to audio books while he sleeps!

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cheaterslick said:

I wish they'd bring back the R/L trackpad buttons and HD indicator lights to let me know some activity is going on. Currently my Dell 14 only has a power light on the power button and that's it. No battery charging light, either. I miss those.

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TraderGary said:

Mechanical rocker‑button touchpads dominated Windows laptops until about 2015–2020, with true haptic touchpads only becoming mainstream starting in 2021. Apple adopted haptics first (2015), and Windows OEMs followed several years later once Sensel’s technology matured.

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TraderGary said:

I've not used a mouse with my laptops for the past five years.

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cheaterslick said:

I miss the lights and I still miss the buttons. They give it that tactile feel.



I've never used a mouse with my laptops, either. That's why I rely heavily on the trackpad/touchpad. And copying Apple was a load of bullsh*t as well. If I wanted an Apple, I would've bought an Apple. Business laptops don't have to have all that 'moderne' sheen to them. They need to be utilitarian in order to get the work done. They're not meant for gaming or any of that other stuff.

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cheaterslick said:

I got rid of a ThinkPad, last year and I only had it for a year. It had so much Lenovo proprietary bloat on it that it would take over a minute to boot up. I even deleted some of it only for Lenovo to push it back on my machine the next month. Jesus, delete means delete.

It was decent hardware but the Lenovo bloat left a lot to be desired. At least by deleting Dell's bloatware, it hasn't come back.

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