Dell Can't Take Criticism

[flyin15sec]

Originally Posted by Kreij

The only Dell servers I have are pretty old, but still running fine. I cannot comment on their new servers as I've built the last four myself and will be removing the last Dell server from service soon. It's a small shop so we only have four servers.

Just out of curiosity, what has been failing on the new Dell servers?

In particular we got the most common failure of E2110 Multibit memory error. The hard thing about this error, it is not always memory that is bad. It could be the cpu, or the memory slot also.

Edit: our models are R710 and R610

[Hood]

Originally Posted by Urlyin

Gone are the days of a product built to last and now no sooner than you buy something a newer version is about to come out

Nothing illustrates this better than the PC market. It's always been a race against time to enjoy your high-priced up-to-the-minute technology before the next generation makes it as obsolete as 8-track tapes. Seriously, it's like, no matter how fast your current rig is, next year's gear will make you think about upgrading, and two years in you're cursing your computer for a slow piece of crap. So we now have so much computing power and graphics overhead, the average gaming rig could launch SpaceShipOne without too much trouble.

[Kreij]

Originally Posted by Hood

Nothing illustrates this better than the PC market. It's always been a race against time to enjoy your high-priced up-to-the-minute technology before the next generation makes it as obsolete as 8-track tapes. Seriously, it's like, no matter how fast your current rig is, next year's gear will make you think about upgrading, and two years in you're cursing your computer for a slow piece of crap. So we now have so much computing power and graphics overhead, the average gaming rig could launch SpaceShipOne without too much trouble.

This is what they pound into your head with marketing. Not the reality.
With the reviews on TPU we can easily assess what X hardware will do with current games and applications.
It's always nice to be on the cutting edge of new hardware, but there is no reason you have to be there unless you want to be.

Originally Posted by flyin15

In particular we got the most common failure of E2110 Multibit memory error. The hard thing about this error, it is not always memory that is bad. It could be the cpu, or the memory slot also.

Edit: our models are R710 and R610

Interesting. Are the memory slots full? I wonder if this is a power issue.

[Hood]

[QUOTE=Frick;2765691]And about Dell/Insert company name being greedy: That is one of the most stupid arguments there is. Almost all companies on earth are there to make a profit. They want to make money to make the shareholders happy. If they can please customers on the way that's just a bonus. They all do that, and if you plan on boycotting every company you thing is "greedy" you might as well kill yourself right away.[/quot

I don't know about others, but when I call a company "greedy", what I mean is that their profit motive has become too important to them, above giving fair value and producing a good product, and they disregard customer's needs and loyalty. While this may please stockholders in the short term, it almost always leads to loss of reputation and eventual bankruptcy. So you're okay with a system in which every company is just a shell, designed to maximize profit while providing as little as possible? Pleasing customers is just a bonus? If everyone thought that way, what kind of a world would it be? Are you trolling or just flaming? And yes, I will boycott any company that doesn't meet their product's claims. So you'd have us believe that you would continue buying, let's say, Powmax power supplies, even after the last one burned your house down, because "all companies are there to make a profit". So, if "they all do that" why change PSU companies, they're all the same. Think before you write. There are still plenty of companies that make a nice profit while actually pleasing their customers and providing a well made product.

[Hood]

Originally Posted by Liquid Cool

I'm not going to defend Dell, it's not my job.... Although, I've purchased 100's of items from them without hassle. I've probably spoken to a 1000 of their customer service reps as well. They've always bent over backwards for me. Follow-up phone calls etc...I like the company.

Just my experience with them. Not 100% positive by any means, but not bad either...overall I'd say better than most, and frankly I'm more of an HP guy in terms of business quality notebooks/desktops/workstations, but I've purchased a helluva lot of monitors and dozens of laptops from them...and for the most part I've been taken care of. When I wasn't pleased...they went out of their way to work it out to my benefit.

As an example. They recently screwed up an order of mine. When the order came in...there was an extra laptop along with it. I called to inquire.

It was the apology.

Best,

Liquid Cool

That's pretty cool! I like some of Dell's offerings; if all you need is a basic business machine, theirs are as solid as anyone else's. It's when they try to build machines with any decent CPU and GPU, they don't seem to understand that it requires a much better cooling solution, and the problems abound. And of course, if you are buying in quantity, any company will treat you better. But for people like my Dad, who's 84 now, Dell was a bad choice. Dad is the opposite of computer-savvy; he struggles with it constantly. So when Dell sold him a Dimension 8400 with Windows Vista 64 bit installed, it was a disaster. For a $3000+ investment, he had nothing but problems from day one (mostly from Vista's driver debacle, but the hardware had it's problems as well). It finally cooked the motherboard and PSU, and he sent it to me for possible resurrection. When I removed the CPU, I noticed 2 bent pins in the LGA 775 CPU socket, so I'm surprised the thing ran at all even when it was new.

[Jetster]

So stop complaining. Its really a waste of time. You have a choice. Just don't use Dell. Use a company that has beliefs inline with what you want. Their not going to listen to you and your not going to convince others. Dell has some of the best prices and that's how they achieve them. The exact reason I don't shop at Walmart. They are absolutely scum and treat there employees like crap. But in a pinch you really cant beat the prices

Anyway back to your complaint about Dell and the proprietary parts. Here is one of my Dell mods.
I had to change the ends on the front panel plug and USB. The only thing original is the case and one fan

[Hood]

Originally Posted by Kreij

- There lower end machines, for basic business desktop use, are very inexpensive. In many cases I cannot build a system of similar specs for as little as I can get them from Dell or HP. One of the reasons for this is that I cannot bring myself to buy less than top quality components even if the overall use of the system does not require them. I blame TPU.

How well I know that feeling! It's hard to buy crap, knowing what you know, but sometimes it's the best route. The last Dell I had, a Dimension 3000 with a P4 2.8 and 512MB RAM, came to me gratis due to it's having a dead power supply, and I fixed it with a 300 watt unit that cost me $12 at CompUSA. The $12 unit looked twice as good as the dead one it was replacing, and had two quiet 80mm fans that improved the airflow of the case. That old PSU looked like it cost Dell about 5 dollars. So yeah, you probably can't build one as cheap as they can, but it might last you longer.

[Hood]

Originally Posted by Jetster

So stop complaining. Its really a waste of time. You have a choice. Just don't use Dell. Use a company that has beliefs inline with what you want. Their not going to listen to you and your not going to convince others.

I know all that, but the point is to share this kind of knowledge and stimulate healthy discussions. When I started this thread I had little knowledge of the ways of company forums, and I have learned a lot from you and many others, and shared some humorous anecdotes about our experiences. Isn't that the purpose of these forums? If someone just wants to blow off a little steam, isn't it our place to sympathize with him, as we would want to be sympathized with when our pet peeves need airing. And I don't really choose to use Dell, people just keep giving me their dead Dells for free, and I usually already have whatever spare parts are needed to fix one, and that has caused me to form certain opinions, some good, some bad. If my posts are not interesting to you, you can always skip them, or just laugh at them privately, but please!, don't make me stop!

[95Viper]

Just a little bit of info, Hood... Try using the "Multi-Quote" button (at the bottom right hand side of each post box) and not double posting.

Thanks, as it makes for a cleaner thread and is spoken to in the forum guidelines.

[flyin15sec]

Originally Posted by Kreij

Interesting. Are the memory slots full? I wonder if this is a power issue.

Yes, all the memory slots are full. I'm almost certain it is power related too. The strange thing is, the HP servers doesn't seem to be affected.

[Mussels]

some people started throwing insults in their posts, dont.


gone for a bit of an edit spree and removed the stuff i saw, dont let me find any more.

[ShiBDiB]

Originally Posted by Mussels

some people started throwing insults in their posts, dont.


gone for a bit of an edit spree and removed the stuff i saw, dont let me find any more.

Mine wasnt that insulting... maybe towards people with down syndrome to be compared to the op

[Mussels]

Originally Posted by ShiBDiB

Mine wasnt that insulting... maybe towards people with down syndrome to be compared to the op

its never a good idea to throw in insults about race, gender, or medical condition.

[Solaris17]

Originally Posted by Jetster

As a buyer you need to take responsibility for the research you do when you buy a product. No one is twisting your arm. You have all the power. The Iphone is a perfect example. Its promotes sending jobs overseas and priority monopoly based tech. But people are sheep and do what is trendy. Your not a victim and the Obama not going to solve your problems.

Ok maybe the Never Obsolete sticker was E machines

im playing devils advocate and i honestly dont really care about this thread. but seeing as iphones major producer is foxconn which isnt an american company to begin with and iirc the world leader on most perphial components id honestly like to know how the iphone was out sourced considering foxconn is probably the only manufacturer on the planet that can meet apples volume demands.

[qubit]

@Hood

I agree with your OP.

A company which applies this kind of blatant censorship doesn't put them in a good light and ends up having a bad rep. Much better to address legitimate complaints, or perhaps ignore them if you have to, but don't censor them. Most companies however, will apply censorship, which is why I don't bother being a member of their forums. Excuses about it being a dictatorship don't wash.

I got censored once on a tech site similar to TPU for simply talking about the Asus MARS card (GTX 285 based one). I was brand new to that forum too. The thread was doing well and I hadn't broken any rules, yet the thread just disappeared without warning a couple of days later. I asked the founder why it had been deleted and he gave me some snotty reply about not promoting the competition because I'd linked to a review on another site. However, this site didn't have a review and didn't plan on having one, either. Yeah, alright mate, whatever. Complete asshole. I never went back and last time I looked, that site isn't doing great. Not hard to see why.

TPU don't ever pull stunts like this, so no wonder we're doing well.

[Frick]

Originally Posted by Hood

I don't know about others, but when I call a company "greedy", what I mean is that their profit motive has become too important to them, above giving fair value and producing a good product, and they disregard customer's needs and loyalty. While this may please stockholders in the short term, it almost always leads to loss of reputation and eventual bankruptcy. So you're okay with a system in which every company is just a shell, designed to maximize profit while providing as little as possible? Pleasing customers is just a bonus? If everyone thought that way, what kind of a world would it be? Are you trolling or just flaming? And yes, I will boycott any company that doesn't meet their product's claims. So you'd have us believe that you would continue buying, let's say, Powmax power supplies, even after the last one burned your house down, because "all companies are there to make a profit". So, if "they all do that" why change PSU companies, they're all the same. Think before you write. There are still plenty of companies that make a nice profit while actually pleasing their customers and providing a well made product.

Now you're just misreading. I said all companies are out to make a profit, not that they are all the same. Good PSU's are more expensive because they are better, plus they have to make a profit. Do you think Seasonic sell PSU's at a loss? Companies can and do produce good stuff, but the main point is still to make a profit. It's why unprofitable companies (without external backup) go under. Very very very few companies survive on goodwill alone (because that is not how the world works).

@qubit: You're comparing an internet forum to physical produce. Vastly different things.

[vagxtr]

Originally Posted by DaedalusHelios

I feel Dell is a piece of shit for other reasons.
Ruining people's lives in the name of the free market makes no difference morally. It is morally wrong to do that to local people and economies. Doing the wrong thing morally isn't the same as breaking the law. With power comes responsibility, and the responsibility of taking care of those you use for profit is a moral obligation as long as they met their moral obligation to be a good worker. If a company gets large enough they just get a politician to help them force out competition and collect corporate welfare. That isn't free market anyway, it is corporatism and that is what the USA has right now.

Although I couldn't agree more with you on that matter of corporate weasley michief, I'd like to point out that same leitmotif was sneaking thru some old westerns (eg. Broken Lance [1954], Cimarron [1931]) which characterized people that were incentive seed of corporatism you claim suddenly arisen in last two decades. And those were politically correct westerns of their time. So i honestly don't see necessity for burning a crosses just now, when some Dell is just stick to what is common practice for centuries. They're in business of doing business and they do not stick to same Morality Code they preach out in their Dell Corporation Responsible Workers Guidebook.

(btw i dont buy dells because they're overpriced comparing it to hp)

Originally Posted by Hood

(...) and it's certainly not free trade when the central government props up failed businesses and banks. They fail because they deserve to fail, and when they get propped up, we all lose in the long run. That's corporatism, cronyism, or just plain corruption (..)

Nope they fail because its a modern days MO. They use same sharky business they used in the late 19th century just this time ""corporativism"" & ""free market"" is not just on New York investment in Latin Colonies went south scale. It just polluted the whole world. Look just on that chico Chavez, he's just selling like Dell while bolting pockets with our money (khm Del/whatever) and you mark them communist dictator (whatever) while its just plain simple Corporationalist running country corporation for his private trust. You should look out of your box occasionally and you'd see that there are same corporate rednecks everywhere just selling different brand .

Originally Posted by DaedalusHelios

I have never trusted company based forums personally. It is like using arbitration to negotiate with a company. They come to the discussion with a loaded deck and make you conform to their rules. It is hardly fair.

Hehe you're so right there. But what a heck it most important thing that they feel great not their customer. After all they can fu off by saying hey you can address our forum for support. And you can hang out there for days. And they're know your (customer) a quitter when facing ultimate wall of crap.

[BlackOmega]

Originally Posted by Frick

You could have said that without thread crapping (saying that about Apple, if not thread crapping it's flamebait).

And about Dell/Insert company name being greedy: That is one of the most stupid arguments there is. Almost all companies on earth are there to make a profit. They want to make money to make the shareholders happy. If they can please customers on the way that's just a bonus. They all do that, and if you plan on boycotting every company you thing is "greedy" you might as well kill yourself right away.

It may possibly be flame bait, but from my experience with Apple products, it rings true. Their user interfaces are soooo dumbed down that it's not intuitive and a resource heavy bloated pig. And mind you, throughout my life, I've used Apple products more than I've used PC's, so I'm speaking from experience and not some fanboyish hate standpoint.

As for Apple being greedy,well, they are. I know every company is profit driven, however, Apple drops support for products that aren't even 2 years old. That, to me, is being unnecessarily greedy. My kid was given a 1 year old iPod touch and after 6 months it was obsolete and couldn't be updated to the new OS and play games like angry birds. It's not that the hardware couldn't handle it, it was because Apple wanted people to go out and buy the iPod. There's ways of hacking it, but I shouldn't be forced to do so, especially when you look at companies like Asus who will give support for their products that are WELL older than that. Hell, I was getting support, for free, from Asus on a board that was approximately 5 years old. Apple would charge you if it was over 1 year old.

However, my biggest beef with Apple is that they're proprietary. I can't stand proprietary stuff. As a matter of fact, it was Dell and their proprietary parts that lit the fire under my butt to learn to build my own computers.
So really, I suppose I should thank Dell.