Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2003 18:00:06 +0100 From: "Christoph P. Kukulies" <kuku@kukulies.org> To: richard childers / kg6hac <fscked@pacbell.net> Cc: Chris Howells <howells@kde.org> Subject: Re: Dell Computers Message-ID: <20031118170005.GA95739@gilberto.physik.rwth-aachen.de> In-Reply-To: <3FBA3B47.4040301@pacbell.net> References: <20031118115649.58e3574f.timopie@dodo.com.au> <200311180923.06256.howells@kde.org> <3FBA3B47.4040301@pacbell.net>
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On Tue, Nov 18, 2003 at 07:31:19AM -0800, richard childers / kg6hac wrote: > Speaking of crooked companies ... I've had some problems with Dell, also. > I bought a Dell Inspiron 8000 in August 2001 with DVD Reader and CDRW (two drives), a 1600x1200 XGA display, Gefore2Go and a couple of extras. After the warranty period had expired, as it has to happen, the display gave up the ghost (fading intensity etc. - I reported here or somewhere else). For 700 Eur (that was about the same in Dollars a few months ago) I got a brand new display plus a full one year warranty for the whole computer. Now this time the luck was on my side: first off, the built in hard disk went broke (although very painful for the data loss) and I got it replaced in a 24h bring in service. Next, and that happened 10 days ago, the DVD drive started to fail. First the symptom was only in Windows 2000 which I had as a second OS on the HD and when calling their support on the phone they asked me if I could insert the diagnosis disk (which I hadn't - it had been stolen with several other CD in a CD brief case from my car a year ago). OK they asked, can you boot from a CD. First I could (one time) and from that they concluded that it must be a problem with windows and I should re-install it. After I finished the phone conversation I noticed that now the booting of the CD also failed and after I told them that a brand new original MS Windows XP/Pro CD did not boot, they believed me and I got the DVD drive repaired. Although I didn't lie in this case I agree with Warner, it's better to tell not always the whole story. All in all I cannot say that Dell is a bad choice. They are steep in price but their service isn't that bad. Despite of the ACPCI hacks and NVidia quirks I had to go through recently I can say that, at least the Inspiron Series is well suited for FreeBSD. I have heard of stories far worse with Linux and other brands. -- Chris Christoph P. U. Kukulies kuku_at_physik.rwth-aachen.de
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