Are Dell computers trash now, or just this one?

[BehindBlueI's]

Well BBI, Randy from Dover says they are good for something....

[video=youtube;rBL2eiO0pDA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBL2eiO0pDA[/video]

..that's funny.

 

[PistolBob]

I have four laptops 1-6 years old....all HP business class. My HP i7 is an elitebook and it's maybe 6 years old and still kicking booty. I did replace the disk with SSD and
I have 16GB ram in it. Total workhorse. It was almost $3700 new though. I bet it's still going this time next year. Worst laptop I ever had was an AST Research....tried two different Lenovo laptops and they both sucked and went back for HPs.

 

[BehindBlueI's]

You do not want the i3, go with i5 minimum and 8GB RAM minimum, I'd doulbe the RAM to 16GB if it were mine.

WTF are all those resources doing? I used to be able to surf the web, play basic games, and use Office with way less than that. Like an 800mhz processor and 2GB of RAM.

 

[Hoosierkav]

Would an option be to format the HDD and reinstall Windows (if there is a restore/install disc (disk?)), just to help alleviate the bloating?

 

[BobDaniels]

WTF are all those resources doing? I used to be able to surf the web, play basic games, and use Office with way less than that. Like an 800mhz processor and 2GB of RAM.

To sum it up in one word: Windows. With each new version of windows, it takes more and more processing power and ram. Windows is probably the biggest piece of bloatware on that laptop.

ETA: speaking of old time processors, I remember thinking I was bad ass with my new Pentium pro 200 with 16 MEG of RAM. Now where's my walker....

 

[BehindBlueI's]

Would an option be to format the HDD and reinstall Windows (if there is a restore/install disc (disk?)), just to help alleviate the bloating?

There is no disc. It's all on a HDD partition these days.

 

[jamil]

WTF are all those resources doing? I used to be able to surf the web, play basic games, and use Office with way less than that. Like an 800mhz processor and 2GB of RAM.

Heh. Browsers suck way more resources than they used to. Firefox especially.

 

[Cameramonkey]

Something is wrong BBI. I have about 1500 Dells in my pool at work, and they work well. Even the "PoS" $300 I just bought off ebay works great. (its a one off that I didnt want to sink $1000 into)

you can get a bad one from time to time. See if you can return it for a replacement.

 

[BehindBlueI's]

Something is wrong BBI. I have about 1500 Dells in my pool at work, and they work well. Even the "PoS" $300 I just bought off ebay works great. (its a one off that I didnt want to sink $1000 into)

you can get a bad one from time to time. See if you can return it for a replacement.

From the
Reviews popping up on Best Buy, lots of people got a bad one. I did a factory restore, updated, deleted McAfee and other junk. We will see. If its still slow, back for a refund tomorrow.

 

[DeadeyeChrista'sdad]

About 13 years ago I bought a Dell desktop, and sexed it up with extra memory etc. Liked it so much, and was so impressed with their customer service that I bought a laptop a couple of years later. P.O.S. Between it messing up and customer service with a very strong Mumbai accent telling me I was stupid for not being able to run a computer, I said never again. Every time this type of conversation comes up I'm glad I got away from them.

 

[BravoMike]

Several years ago I bought a Best Buy Black Friday deal only to find out later on that the computer was built to a price point specifically for Best Buy much like Walmart does with many of their electronics. It looked like the same model that you could buy from other stores and had a similar model number but not the same and was unique to the Best Buy "bargain".

Since then, I have been very selective of where I buy computers.

 

[Expat]

I bought a really cheap HP from Best Buy and put Slackware on it right away as I couldn't stand Win 8. Ran great.

 

[Hop]

Most of your problem is the consumer bloatware but since it's not a business's model it's probably been cost reduced to better meet a consumer price point. A clean Win10 install would probably do wonders.

My company uses Dell and has been for 15+ years. We probably have over 30,000 deployed. I'm Dell desktop, laptop printer certified but hardware is rarely the problem.

Maybe give Linux a try just to see if it's SW or HW. You can run it from a USB thumb drive as a test without messing anything up on the HDD.
https://www.pendrivelinux.com/put-ubuntu-10-04-on-flash-drive-using-windows/

 

[Shadow8088]

Remove Bloatware from Windows | Decrap My Computer just do NOT do the full automatic cleaning... it'll yank EVERYTHING that isn't windows...(including 3rd party drivers) However, it will let you kill off the bloatware rather easily!

Also, PistolBob nailed it... Macs are ridiculously expensive and nearly un-upgrade-able. I could buy 3-5 laptops for the price of one Mac...

and BobDaniels "To sum it up in one word: Windows. With each new version of windows, it takes more and more processing power and ram. Windows is probably the biggest piece of bloatware on that laptop."

Windows 10 uses less system resources than 7 does once you configure it correctly and turn off hybrid sleep. With the exception of losing my webcam briefly with the Aniversary update, I have had no problems with Win10 on my Desktop or my i3 4GB Lenovo since it released.

 

[BehindBlueI's]

WTF is hybrid sleep?

The sad thing is I used to be completely up to date on this stuff, back when Windows 2000 was the hip new kid on the block. I can't even figure out the start up menu on this new Windows. WTF do I want to see an Xbox account (that I don't have) prominently displayed, but have to dig for Wordpad?

I did the reset, got all the updates done, and installed Chrome. I also uninstalled some junk software. It's at 70GB used. My normal laptop only has an 80GB HDD. Ridiculous.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go yell at the kids on my lawn.

 

[CTS]

Dell always has and pretty much always will buy commodity parts for their laptop lines. That's not the worst thing in the world per se, but it opens them up to inconsistent quality levels. With HP, you're getting standardized hardware that's gone through a lot of testing...but as said above, avoid the consumer lines. The business lines still come with bloatware but it's not that difficult to get rid of. Lenovo used to be a great laptop manufacturer as well, until they started preinstalling malware, leaving massive security gaps, and loading uninstallable utilities into Windows from the bios.

You can also browse a pretty good selection of 100% bloatware free PC's at Microsoft's Signature Edition store:

https://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/cat/Signature-Edition-PCs/categoryID.69916600

 

[Hop]

I will not buy another HP. The last two are sitting dead and I really really miss my touch screen HP laptop. Maybe I'll get around to pulling it's motherboard, send it out to get the bga reflowed. I hear that was the common failure mode for that model.

Everyone makes a lemon, every OS has it's bugs. It's what keeps me employed though.

 

[bigretic]

I work for a small consulting shop and we still recommend Dell, but we buy the business lines (OptiPlex, Latitude, Precision...). I think the issue is more buying the home line and from Best Buy, so you are getting Dell's home bloat plus Best Buy's bloat.

There's a lot to this. I inherited a Dell office. With a lot of OptiPlex and higher T line models. There is still bloatware on them but they are not terrible.

$ for $ on identical specs Dell is going to be 10-20% cheaper than HP or Lenovo every time. That's their game. They are the cheapest. Given the choice, I prefer Lenovo or HP business line hardware over Dell any day mostly out of brand loyalty and probably physical quality as perceived by me personally. Having delt with thousands of computers, I have had less problems with LVO and HP workstation systems than Dell in recent years, but i'm also dealing with more of them, so meh... PC brands are very much ford/chevy debates.

That said, I am buying a Dell server today or tomorrow and have no reservations about it.

 

[bigretic]

WTF is hybrid sleep?

The sad thing is I used to be completely up to date on this stuff, back when Windows 2000 was the hip new kid on the block. I can't even figure out the start up menu on this new Windows. WTF do I want to see an Xbox account (that I don't have) prominently displayed, but have to dig for Wordpad?

I did the reset, got all the updates done, and installed Chrome. I also uninstalled some junk software. It's at 70GB used. My normal laptop only has an 80GB HDD. Ridiculous.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go yell at the kids on my lawn.

lol. right click unpin...
find your apps you want in all programs and pin them.

 

[jamil]

WTF is hybrid sleep?

Oh, tell me you've never slept with one eye open.