Dell Rant

[marcfj60]

No Cruiser content at all. I just need to vent.

My Dell Dimension E310 wouldn't turn on this morning. The LED in the power switch just blinked amber.

We're not talking about a high-end, high-power machine. Just a basic machine for surfing the web, running Word and Excel, downloading and storing digital photos, etc. I decided to use my laptop to try to solve the problem. I found the step-by-step troubleshooting wizard at support.dell.com. It walked me through the process of eliminating possible failures. In the end, with no changes in response - the same blinking power switch LED, one diagnosis was that the Power Supply was bad but it also stated I needed to replace the system cooling fan. I was not happy with this ambiguous diagnosis.

So I called the Tech Support number. The computer is about 2 years old, my 18 months warranty was up. I decided to go ahead and pay the $39 flat fee to get a live person to help me. Unfortunately, what Dell considers to be a Technical Support Technician is just some person in India who speaks poor English and goes through a process nearly identical to the Online Troubleshooting guide. After going through that, he informed me that his system is telling him that I need to replace the Power Supply and the Motherboard. I got an estimate for the power supply of $80 and didn't even ask what the motherboard would cost.

Then I decided to go over to PC Parts +. They plugged in a Power Supply tester which showed the PS to be bad. Then, he plugged in a known good PS, and my computer "posted?". New PSU from PC Parts + was $50. They didn't charge me any money for the diagnostics and even installed the new one for me for free and verified that the computer would boot up.

All I can say is Dell's fee-based technical support is absolutely worthless. Their parts sales division is high pressure with over-priced parts. I will not be calling that number again.

 

[Ruadhrigh]

glad you got it fixed.

I have always heard good things about PC Parts +

 

[pappy]

Glad the PC is up and running. I have a Dell 386 notebook. Ya, 386. Great for doing stuff in Baja, but I can't get batteries for it anymore. Oh well.

On the power supply front ... many moons ago I installed supplies from PC Power and Cooling. Their Silencer line was great, especially in Mike's day when those 286s sounded like turbo jets. They are still around, but you will pay a bit more for their supplies. If mine ever goes I'll be giving them a "call."

 

[SteveLCetc]

I always spend the extra and get the next day at-home warranty. Dell's are relatively trouble free, but it's still worth it. My son was an IT support guy at LANL - he said Dells were 95% of the laptops and 5% of the problems.

One of our kids had a laptop that wouldn't boot and had a busted up keyboard - obvious signs of abuse - they came out and fixed it for free.

I agree I wouldn't pay for the one-time support, but the big warranty has definitely paid off.

 

[slimbuddha]

In my experience, Dell has always been relatively trouble free. We use Dell for our office computers, and the only routine problems I have heard of are due to abuse.

Sorry I wasn't here over the weekend, I could have helped you. I believe I even have a spare power-supply. Troubleshooting computers is not to different than anything else (cars).. sometimes the symptom may have two different sources of problems (fan and or power supply).

 

[marcfj60]

.... I could have helped you....

I forgot that we have several computer gurus here so I should have looked for advice here before wasting my $40 with Dell's Tech Support. I'll remember next time to check here first.