Buy vs. Build
For those who, seemingly reasonably, told me during my Computer Troubles that I should have bought my computer from a reputable dealer like Dell in order to avoid problems…
My friend Carol bought a Dell computer on my advice a week ago. For under $500 she got a fast, capacious new machine, sans monitor. It arrived a few days ago and yesterday she set it up. (The fact that Carol was able to wait a few days before uncrating it tells you that she is not the technofanatic most of us are.) She plugged in her old monitor, a Sony, flipped the switch with the confidence of someone who has bought a pre-built, pre-loaded, pre-configured machine … and watched it fail. As soon as Windows XP Home loaded, the monitor displayed three images of the desktop in horizontal bands.
After assuring her that this was not some new UI scheme from Microsoft, I walked her through some of the basics over the phone, although the fact that each of the images was cut off at the bottom made it rather difficult. After 45 minutes, I was ready for her to reinstall Windows but decided that this would be a good time to call Dell. Perhaps they’ve run into this before. Perhaps something on their utilities CD would fix it. After all, because the monitor worked fine before Windows booted, it was pretty clearly a driver issue.
Carol spent four hours with Dell Support going through jumping jacks until the support guy finally decided it was a driver issue. He gave her the URL to download a new driver and hung up because Carol connects via dial-up on her single phone line. The URL led to a 404.
Carol called me. We searched for the driver on Dell’s site, and sure enough, the page was down. We found the driver on Intel’s page (it’s an Intel graphics card) and she downloaded it. She installed it. Unreadable display.
After arguing for half an hour with Dell Support that she needs to talk with a supervisor and not do more jumping jacks, she finally was connected. They’re sending someone to her house. So, presumably this will end happily quickly unlike my own protracted struggle. At least, let’s hope so.
Categories: Uncategorized dw
Dell’s been getting a ton of tech support complaints lately.
Sales support isn’t so hot either. I was planning to buy a Dell laptop for my girlfriend’s daughter, who speaks only French and needs a computer with a French operating system and keyboard. I called Dell Canada and asked if the model that I wanted came with a French keyboard, not just the French version of Windows XP. The salesman didn’t know, and it was clear that he didn’t want to bother trying to find out. I pushed, and he finally put me on hold for a few minutes, then came back to say that no, it only came with an English keyboard. I asked if he could find out if any of the Dell laptops came with a French keyboard, but he obviously didn’t want to take time to do that, he just wanted to get rid of me. So I hung up and went to Dell Canada’s web site and sent a message to the sales department asking if any of their notebook models came with a French keyboard. They never replied. I bought a Toshiba.
The only nice thing about Dell is their prices. I’ve actually gotten better support from HP and Compaq than I’ve ever recieved from Dell. When a friend of mine asks for recommendations for a computer system, if they don’t mind paying the price premium I recommend Falcon Northwest (best gaming machines and support you will ever find) without a problem but price wise the local computer shops are almost always a better deal than Dell. Not quite as cheap, but far, far better support.
Though if you can afford a slight price premium and don’t mind lying, buy a business computer from Dell, HP, or Compaq and find out how different THEY get treated. Its quite…interesting.
> the monitor displayed three images of the
> desktop in horizontal bands.
Just an idea, maybe her old monitor can’t handle the screen refresh setting of the machine?
Good guess but it also happens in safe mode. My friend is away for ten days so I don’t know yet how this all resolved…
Actually, compared to support I get from other vendors, I don’t find this so very bad. To begin with, they actually answered the phone. They were willing to spend the time and they did actually send someone out to her house. I would certainly hope for more, but I would not use this as a reason to pick another of the major vendors. My experience is worse with several other vendors. On the other hand, if you are buying a desktop system in the Boston area, there is a local shop with excellent prices and service.