My Dell laptop is terminally ill. What’s next?

I switched from Windows-platform about a year ago and never regreted. My requirements for Windows are limited, so I am satisfied even with my PowerBook G4 with Windows in Virtual PC. However, since we bought 13" MacBook for my wife - I am just in love with it. Awesome thing, very nice, and works great. Best of all worlds - and ability to run Windows in a window (parallels - or free vmware fusion) and be able to close it with one click means a lot of me ;-)

Well I agree macs are great. Java is great for macOs since they change platform often (like the latest intel move) so they put jre in to system core unlike other platforms in which java is on top of os. I own an mac mini which I got to a very discounted price during ibm-intel migration. I remember runnig the eclipse for the first time on MacOs, I tought it could not be true. Mac Os is beautiful and easy but since we all grow up with windows sometimes you may feel yourself as a fish who is trying to breath. For example you may not find your favourite tool which is quite simple but make things good for you or you should google for a simple dos command (actually macOs is a linux when you find the console). I always wanted to work on mac os too but like your view on 17 inch laptops I would prefer buying a cheaper vaio or toshiba instead. I believe (hope) we will be able to run macOs on other platforms in a legal way... :)

Dell's customer service sucks, most of the "Care" people don't even understand plain english. I will never buy a Dell again. I am now an HP fan.

Dell's business model is more or less like walmart; sell low quality stuff cheap! Consumers most often make price as the main ingredient in their decision process to buy a merchandise.

In my experience, items bought from Dell/Walmart don't last long and pay for their cheap price :-) Dell's laptop are cheaper, but their LCD screen, for one, is very hard on eyes. Similarly, you can buy an office chair from your neighborhood Walmart at a mind boggling price, not knowing that it will start squeaking soon!

Hey, I should start my own blog!

Rauf

My co-worker had a problem with his work DELL laptop in three month after company replaced his 3 years old good working HP one. The hard drive on the Dell was crashed. I don't think the DELLs are reliable anymore. I would consider of buying HP, based on this company resent financial reports and my own experience of still using 3.5 years old HP laptop for my work.

Go with a MacBook or MacBook Pro. If all you're doing is running a Java IDE, browsing, e-mailing and using Word, a MacBook might be the way to go. I have been using a 14" iBook since 2003, maxed the memory to 640mb and find that it is more than adequate for my needs - Eclipse, FF, Mail and Word.

BTW my logic board died twice, first time covered by warranty, second time out of pocket ~= 300 (still cheaper than a new laptop).

In both cases I dropped it off at J&R and had very fast turnaround.

Despite this, my next laptop will be the 2nd gen "iTablet" when available.

Yakov,

My 2 yrs old Dell laptop (pentim M 1.86 with 1GB of RAM) is still alive, but horribly slow, because: 1) I use it as a main dev machine, so all large web app builds, deploy/undeploys, large logs fragment it horribly, and running NU's defragmenter doesn't help; 2) As it was my first laptop, I didn't realize that hard drive performance is critical, so I got a 5400 RPM one with only 2MB cache. But either 7200 RPM or 5400 with large cache - 16MB ! 3) I installed Norton Utilities which does some good stuff, but currently my bootup takes about 7min... Never again ! I will reformat my hard disk and give it to my 12 yrs old son to play games. Just don't tell my wife that I could have continued using it..... ;-)

I love 15.4" wide screens - can always have 2 windows side by side, necessity for a Developer. How about 1680x1050 resolution ? And yes, it makes your laptop 1-2 lbs heavier than

Anyway, I just bought a new Dell laptop Inspiron 6400 with Core2 Duo T7200, very heavily loaded fro performance for about $1,400 (after $350 rebate). It is fast and nice, but a bit heavy - about 6.5lbs

Similar Lenovo laptop would be over $2,000. But they do have new T60 wide at 5.5lbs. I wish I had an extra grand...

Speaking of MacBooks, they recently added Core2 Duo to 13" models. But again, with my configuration it will be an extra $1000. When I recently attended No Fluff Just Staff, all presenters (Java gurus) had MacBooks. I still wonder, maybe Apple sponsored that event...

Also, right now when you by a laptop with XP, you get Vista for free, which gives you some flexibility.

If you are frugal, monitor coupon site like that: http://www.xpbargains.com/dell_coupons/ They had 30% off for Home in November. Only 20% off now... And play with the prices. For example, right now the base price of Inspiron E1505 is $230 higher than identical Inspiron 6400 on Small Business. I don't know why, it is like that since Thanksgiving.

Make sure your new laptop is Vista-ready

I worked with Dual processor PCs more than 5 yrs ago - IBM Intellistation with dual Pentiums. That was amazing, in light load it was not faster than a single processor machine, but with heavy load - server with Websphere, Oracle, CVS reposititory, process monitoring, under full load it was just going and going and going for weeks, rarely showing over 50% CPU. It was a B-52, not a Formula1. A real J2EE Developer's machine. Expect Intel to start producing mobile Core2 Quads this spring, so by summer they will show up in laptops. Want to wait ?

All the best, Oleg.

Yakov:

I’m at Dell Headquarters in Austin, Texas and I just came across this post and wanted to comment. I'm sorry to hear your laptop is having issues and while I can't replace any hardware without a service contract, I would be happy to do what I can to find out what's wrong and which parts would be needed to get it up and running. At least this way you can compare the cost of repair to that of a new one. If you decide to replace the system there are a lot of good choices out there but I would definitely consider the Latitude D420 and the XPS M1210. They're both 12" models but the XPS is a bit bigger and heavier because it has an optical drive and is available with up to a 2.33GHz Core 2 Duo processor. The Latitude has a low voltage proc and external optical drive but is tiny. Battery life will continue to be an annoyance through 2007 but a lot of the latest ultraportables can last quite a while, especially if set properly.

I’m not a Java developer but I found some of the posts here interesting and could definitely relate to the cubicle one. Most are cluttered with personal effects and I’ve never been able to work that way. All I have are several monitors and a phone in mine and people are constantly asking me where all of things are. I’m not certain I agree with the reasoning you give for why Americans smile though. I’m more inclined to agree with one of your other readers who said it’s part of what is considered being polite in this country. I say this because many of the people who smile at you are not in sales and have absolutely nothing to gain from you. It’s also likely that they have no interest in stopping to talk or get to know you either when it happens in the street. They just do it as they’re walking by because they feel it’s polite. This is clearly more so in certain parts of the country than others and typically more frequent in small towns than large cities. Even in the case of a salesman, whether it’s to dig his family out of a mountain of debt or he’s single and flush with cash, his purpose in that role is the same and more money is always good. If for some reason the cash were not important to him at all there would still be his competitive nature the desire to be the number one salesperson. The satisfaction alone of beating everyone else at a common goal is be sufficient incentive for most of us.

Neil Americas Customer Experience and Support Dell, Inc.

Neil,

Unfortunately it's my second Dell laptop that has motherboard problems. This time I can use only one bank of memory (512Mb). I have two batteries. One of them is completely dead. The other one lasts for 45 minutes. My commute is longer than this.

I'll go with Lenovo X60 - it'll cost me a little more than replacing my motherboard, but I was told that they use components of a better quality than Dell.

Yakov:

I don’t agree with that last statement as it’s my impression all of the big laptop makers using Intel chipsets are making them from similar components purchased from the same small group of vendors. With that said I’ll stop pushing the replacement issue as it was never my intention to pester you into buying another Dell. My main reason for posting was to examine the possibility of repairing your current one. Given your line of work and travel schedule, my only advice for your next purchase would be to carefully consider what type of warranty you buy. Most companies; Dell and Lenovo included, offer many different lengths and levels of service/turnaround time. It’s not likely that most will address the sort of battery issues you described, as its certain all lithium ion batteries will deteriorate, but in the event of an unexpected hardware issue that aspect will become very important.

Neil Americas Customer Experience and Support Dell, Inc.

After my blog, Michael Dell has fired their CEO and took over his responsibilities - http://www.informationweek.com/showArticle.jhtml;jsessio nid=?articleID=197002310 When my Toshiba will die, I may consider Dell again. We'll see.

I agree with those DELL Nay-sayers. The only time you will speak with someone with understandable English is when you purchase one. After that, you're trying to communicate with some low rent rat lover in the slums of Bombay. I really wish I had purchased ANYTHING other than a DELL. I thought IBM sucked until DELL. These camel-jockeys will hang up on you, transfer you to every other rat-lover in India and eventually send you to a answering machine located in the twilight zone. And, to those who are buying a DELL, Well, Welcome to DELL HELL! I've warned you!!!