Dell knowingly sold defective computers

[hoganth]

First reported by the New York Times, the computers were sold in a two-year period from 2003 to 2005, and were sold to educational institutions, large companies such as Wal-Mart and Wells Fargo, organizations such as the Mayo Clinic, and others.

Read more at: Unsealed court documents reveal Dell knew it sold faulty computers | Tech Policy & Law News - Betanews

from betanews.com

 

[Kari]

That was an interesting read. It stinks!

Thanks for sharing.

 

[chev65]

These types of problems are standard for pretty much any mass produced computers. They all use the cheapest parts possible from the lowest bidders and then pass the savings along with the problems on to the customer. This is why I build my own machines.

 

[pebbly]

yes very good read, Dell never accepted that there was an heat issue with the I5100 series laptops either ,leading to one or two websites setting up petitions and a blanket Email to send to Dell, all to no avail

 

[Win7User512]

It's a shame. I used to be a proud Dell customer, but hardware failures and now this have made me think of other companies to purchase from when buying new PCs.

 

[pparks1]

These types of problems are standard for pretty much any mass produced computers. They all use the cheapest parts possible from the lowest bidders and then pass the savings along with the problems on to the customer. This is why I build my own machines.

With the couple of Dell's that I purchased for my own home use, Dimension 4550 and an 8400....they were solid and reliable machines. i usually opted for upgrades and got genuine sound blaster Audigy 2 cards, ATI Radeon 9700 Pro and X800XT video cards and my hard drives were always Seagates or Western Digitals. Processors were Intel Pentium 4's... (2.4Ghz and 3.2Ghz with HT).

 

[stormy13]

yes very good read, Dell never accepted that there was an heat issue with the I5100 series laptops either ,leading to one or two websites setting up petitions and a blanket Email to send to Dell, all to no avail

Don't forget the more recent bout with the defective Nvidia laptop GPU's. I lost track of what may have finally happened with this issue regards to Dell, but at least HP (not sure about any of the others) did the right thing and extended the warranty on most of their laptops with this problem, unlike Dell who basically just issued a bios update,

http://en.community.dell.com/dell-b...nvidia-gpu-update-for-dell-laptop-owners.aspx

that did nothing more than make the cooling fan run faster and at lower temperatures (probably in the hopes of prolonging the video cards from dying until after the warranty had expired).

 

[WiFi Ed]

We have about 25 of these Optiplex pc's at work. I've replaced failed capacitors on about 2/3rds of them so far. We're an electronics manufacturer so it was simply a matter of buying a couple hundred caps of the right value and reworking the pc's as the caps went funky over time.

Supposedly, the caps were overfilled with dielectric fluid. The caps swell and bulge and leak brown gunk.

That said, my personal Dimension E520 has been trouble free.

 

[Win7User512]

My Dimension 2400 has lasted a good number of years, but the screen of my Inspiron 600M laptop I bought in 2005 only lasted just 2 years and I had to get a new laptop. Found out later the 600M had screen issues.

 

[WindowsStar]

On another note, we have hundreds of OptiPlex machines that had this very problem. Dell was very good about replacing every motherboard in every machine we had. Never told us no or gave us any trouble. On some machines they replace the motherboard twice. Many many times they replaced the motherboard even when the machine was out of warranty. Dell gets an A+ in our book.

 

[pacinitaly]

I wish there was a way to build laptops like we build towers; then all we can put any hadware we want

 

[geeve420]

I had a Dell Optiplex GX260 for years and never had a problem with it. That thing was a tank and took whatever I did to it, I gave it to my friend for his teenage boys to beat on. I also had a Dell d600 lappy for years and it was a tank as well. I now have a Dimention E521 that is a couple years old and it is built well as well. I used to only own Dell, however, I just bought my wife a new Compaq laptop (got great deal on it new) and I have to say the build quality is amazing, it really changed my opinion of HP/Compaq.

 

[stormy13]

Forgot to post this earlier, this is what caused that problem with Dell,

Capacitor plague - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It wasn't just Dell, but pretty much all components at the time. It all came down to how it was handled by the parts manufacturers and system builders.

 

[strollin]

These types of problems are standard for pretty much any mass produced computers. They all use the cheapest parts possible from the lowest bidders and then pass the savings along with the problems on to the customer. This is why I build my own machines.

The same issues apply to the mfrs of the components you purchase to build your own machines so you're not really immune to the problem. The problem isn't necessarily that Dell produced machines with bad capacitors, that could happen to ANY mfr. The problem is how they dealt with machines with the bad capacitors.

 

[Win7User512]

These types of problems are standard for pretty much any mass produced computers. They all use the cheapest parts possible from the lowest bidders and then pass the savings along with the problems on to the customer. This is why I build my own machines.

The same issues apply to the mfrs of the components you purchase to build your own machines so you're not really immune to the problem. The problem isn't necessarily that Dell produced machines with bad capacitors, that could happen to ANY mfr. The problem is how they dealt with machines with the bad capacitors.

It's also possible they used lower quality materials than you would find building a machine yourself.

 

[silentcontrol]

The thing that worries me the most is how Dell responded to this issue.

I've been buying Dell products (laptops) for some time now, because in my experience they build quality laptops at the expense of pretty UI's. They may look butt-ugly but it's solid, right?

My first Dell laptop (Inspiron 1520 I think) went for 5 years before kicking the bucket. I'm on my second Dell laptop now (Inspiron 15 again).

I hope they rectify this kind of mentality now or in the near future, or it's choosing another brand for me.

 

[pacinitaly]

here's my 1st computer 6/1999 $3400USD
dell 333mhz / 256MBram / 6.4GBhdd / 11lbs came w/ win98SE upgraded to W2K

still running, dead batt, only good for word/excel 2000 internet still slow (pci card connection)

 

[silentcontrol]

here's my 1st computer 6/1999 $3400USD
dell 333mhz / 256MBram / 6.4GBhdd / 11lbs came w/ win98SE upgraded to W2K

still running, dead batt, only good for word/excel 2000 internet still slow (pci card connection)

Wow, that's an OLD one. Great job keeping it alive and running. Never had interest in laptops and PC's in general before 2000. God that model looks like a pizza box.

Do you perhaps clean that regularly? Maybe my neglect in cleaning mine contributed to its early demise.

 

[pacinitaly]

I still keep it in the org box when I don't play with it.

I love win7

 

[fishnbanjo]

My Dimension 2400 has lasted a good number of years, but the screen of my Inspiron 600M laptop I bought in 2005 only lasted just 2 years and I had to get a new laptop. Found out later the 600M had screen issues.

If your 600M is the 15" screen I have one that is in perfect condition if you still have it. Belonged to a friend, now deceased, who had a 600M die and we pulled the parts for others that might need them.