I have a three year old dell, and I can say nothing but good things about it. I will be buying a Dell when I can afford one, simply because I want a cheap PC for gaming. Dell does that very well.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Windows Guru Has Problems With His Dell
- Thread starter iPost
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
wrldwzrd89 said:
I'm just curious, WW, why was your reaction to Dell Media Experience so strong? I had to google to see what it is; as far as I can tell, it's basically an installed software package that tries to manage digital media much in the way that Windows MCE does.... So, is it that it cannot easily be de-installed, or that if you do so, it messes up the associations for files, or is there something else really bad about it that I'm missing? I'm not sure I'd use it if I had a Dell, and I'd rather have iLife, but hmmm...I guess I don't see quite what's so evil about it.
Sun Baked said:
Say what you will about Dell. I can only go by personal experience, which has been very good. I'm a gamer at heart, and I need a PC for that, though I will always keep my powerbook.
Good for Apple
Dell was a bad name because it sounds like hell or too close to dull. It strange that they lead the PC market with so many problems. It some ways it may eventually benefit Apple in the long run. People will think all PCs are made that bad and look at alternatives. Microsoft is stuck in a rut and that isn't helping either.
On second thought, a lot of newbies that buy Dells think the problem is them and that they are stupid or they broke the machine. It must be a terrible feeling.
Dell was a bad name because it sounds like hell or too close to dull. It strange that they lead the PC market with so many problems. It some ways it may eventually benefit Apple in the long run. People will think all PCs are made that bad and look at alternatives. Microsoft is stuck in a rut and that isn't helping either.
On second thought, a lot of newbies that buy Dells think the problem is them and that they are stupid or they broke the machine. It must be a terrible feeling.
mkrishnan said:
The Dell branded software is awwwwfulll. I finally uninstalled *ALL* of it from my mom's computer. Imagine everytime you double click a JPG, the most useless, awful software opensit up. "Dell Image Expert"...<shudder>
The reason I dislike it is simple - I have absolutely no use for it. I don't see anything wrong with the software itself. What I have a problem with is Dell requiring me to install something that I will never use.mkrishnan said:
wrldwzrd89 said:
Yeah, I can see that. I really wish more Windows PCs had an option to clean install Windows and not get any junk...AOL, Netzero, random useless supposed helper applications, diagnostic apps that run in the background and never seem to accomplish anything....
I work in a research lab, and it is populated with Dells Dells and more Dells. I often end being the one nominated to make the calls to support. I've generally gotten nothing but grief.
The most trouble I ever had with them was ~ a year ago was when a rep screwed up a quote and we ended up with a tower that had no floppy. I called Dell about it (the rep was on maternity leave by the time the computer showed up), and they acted like they never heard of a floppy.I got bounced around a bit and finally transferred to something called the "obsolete technology department" (I'm not sure exactly what it was called but I distinctly remember them using the word "obsolete" in the name). Meanwhile I was in the process of removing a floppy from another machine. Finally I lost patience, and asked if they could just send a bezel and let me worry about the drive. The guy explained to me that they were phasing the floppy out, since it was obsolete for healthcare sales and he would have to transfer me...
We've got a couple of $3500+ Xeon towers from Dell and they are solid performing computers. I use an Optiplex GX260 desktop everyday and it's a decent machine - quiet, as long as you don't make the fans spin up. But Dell's are like Trabants in the former east Germany - ubiquity seems to be their biggest virtue. We recently bought a half dozen Inspiron 9xxx laptops - these things are BEASTS. they are fast, but HUGE and HEAVY (No joke: we had to have one replaced because the strap on the supplied carry case broke while someone was going down stairs...). They're about as "mobile" as a quadruple amputee.
And since this is a Mac forum(sorry a bit OT)...
Macwise we have one Digital Audio G4, one Quicksilver G4, one B&W G3, one iMac G4, AlBook, a Powerbook 3400, a very abused Beige G3 desktop, and one PowerMac 6150 in all it's PPC601 glory. None have ever needed service or software maintainence (they are all running with their shipped OS); that 6150 has been running constantly since 1993, hooked up to a spectrophotometer. We used to have a 6100/66 too but when it "broke" (bad SCSI cable, luckily I have a Quadra 610 with an identical part), it found a new home with me. the only other computer we had that is that old is a 386 tower running DOS 6.2.2 that was hooked up to another piece of seldom used equipment. Every now and then some one asked me what the "turbo" button on the front did. It died a few months ago.
The most trouble I ever had with them was ~ a year ago was when a rep screwed up a quote and we ended up with a tower that had no floppy. I called Dell about it (the rep was on maternity leave by the time the computer showed up), and they acted like they never heard of a floppy.I got bounced around a bit and finally transferred to something called the "obsolete technology department" (I'm not sure exactly what it was called but I distinctly remember them using the word "obsolete" in the name). Meanwhile I was in the process of removing a floppy from another machine. Finally I lost patience, and asked if they could just send a bezel and let me worry about the drive. The guy explained to me that they were phasing the floppy out, since it was obsolete for healthcare sales and he would have to transfer me...
We've got a couple of $3500+ Xeon towers from Dell and they are solid performing computers. I use an Optiplex GX260 desktop everyday and it's a decent machine - quiet, as long as you don't make the fans spin up. But Dell's are like Trabants in the former east Germany - ubiquity seems to be their biggest virtue. We recently bought a half dozen Inspiron 9xxx laptops - these things are BEASTS. they are fast, but HUGE and HEAVY (No joke: we had to have one replaced because the strap on the supplied carry case broke while someone was going down stairs...). They're about as "mobile" as a quadruple amputee.
And since this is a Mac forum(sorry a bit OT)...
Macwise we have one Digital Audio G4, one Quicksilver G4, one B&W G3, one iMac G4, AlBook, a Powerbook 3400, a very abused Beige G3 desktop, and one PowerMac 6150 in all it's PPC601 glory. None have ever needed service or software maintainence (they are all running with their shipped OS); that 6150 has been running constantly since 1993, hooked up to a spectrophotometer. We used to have a 6100/66 too but when it "broke" (bad SCSI cable, luckily I have a Quadra 610 with an identical part), it found a new home with me. the only other computer we had that is that old is a 386 tower running DOS 6.2.2 that was hooked up to another piece of seldom used equipment. Every now and then some one asked me what the "turbo" button on the front did. It died a few months ago.
Lord Blackadder said:
Yes, what DOES the "turbo" button do? I've never known the answer...
If it does what I think it does, then, sir, I have a cunning plan...
The turbo button. I remember those. I am not 100% sure but it I believe it overclocked it so that it would run faster. The default setting was so that it emulates a standard IBM PC. You needed it for games that were written for the PC at the original speed otherwise they would be unplayable. Most people had the turbo button enabled when it didn't affect their programs in a negative way.
Daveman Deluxe said:If it does what I think it does, then, sir, I have a cunning plan...
Unfortunately, the old intel zero-insertion force sockets never came with an ejector seat option. Intel Inside, Intel Flies Outside, Intel Through The Window, Intel On the Grass On The Street Below...
IIRC, with the earliest accelerated PC clones, it wasn't so much that the turbo button overclocked them, but allowed them to run at design speed, whereas when it was off, they bumped down to what was supposed to be PC/AT speed. But then with later processors, like the 486DX/33 which was the first Intel PC I ever got, it did more erratic things. For most applications, it seemed to do nothing, including almost everything in Windows. But some things did seem to be slowed down by it, particularly older programs that ran in MS-DOS exclusive mode. But yes, in general it stayed in the Turbo ON mode.
BornAgainMac said:
the turbo button did NOT overclock the computer. It was put there more so you could turn it off to UNDERCLOCK the computer (or did you turn it on to underclock it) either way the point of it was to allow you to slow down the computer to run older programs that would be going ot fast on the computer because back then programs used clock speed to determine the timeing in the program. Now that is no longer the case but back then it was.
The thing you stated about the turbo button is one of the largest missunderstanding of it and is a myth. Figure I might correct you on that so that you know was it really did
Dells use nonATX parts
About 3 months ago I was trying to help out a Dell toting friend of mine who was having trouble playing games at LAN parties. He had a 1.6G Celeron and a PCI Radeon 9000. I was going to put in a new mobo (that had agp so that he could put in a decent card) and a faster processor (i had come across both parts for free from another friend who had already upgraded). I put the stuff in the case and it didn't work . I tried everything I could think of in terms of troubleshooting and nothing would work. Resigning myself to failure I put his old system back together for him. When I took the other parts home I decided to try them out just for kicks... They didn't work anymore I was sorta pissed cuz I was going to get $70 bucks outa this (for parts I got for free) by giving him an athlon 2100 system, but now the parts were fried.
For X-mas I got a pretty hefty book on building and upgrading PCs. Towards the end I read that although Dells (1998 and newer) look like they are ATX compliant, they're not. the mobo's and psu's fit with ATX compliant connectors, but have different pinouts... The voltage going through each of the pins was wrong! That's why the stuff I put in the guy's computer fried! I'd always hated Dells, but just because they were Dells (and because of their dumb TV comercials "Dude! you're getting a Dell") but now I have a real reason.
Be wary when replacing parts in dells! Replace the psu and mobo at the same time! (or just have them buy a mac )
-mcg
About 3 months ago I was trying to help out a Dell toting friend of mine who was having trouble playing games at LAN parties. He had a 1.6G Celeron and a PCI Radeon 9000. I was going to put in a new mobo (that had agp so that he could put in a decent card) and a faster processor (i had come across both parts for free from another friend who had already upgraded). I put the stuff in the case and it didn't work
. I tried everything I could think of in terms of troubleshooting and nothing would work. Resigning myself to failure I put his old system back together for him. When I took the other parts home I decided to try them out just for kicks... They didn't work anymore I was sorta pissed cuz I was going to get $70 bucks outa this (for parts I got for free) by giving him an athlon 2100 system, but now the parts were fried.For X-mas I got a pretty hefty book on building and upgrading PCs. Towards the end I read that although Dells (1998 and newer) look like they are ATX compliant, they're not. the mobo's and psu's fit with ATX compliant connectors, but have different pinouts...
The voltage going through each of the pins was wrong! That's why the stuff I put in the guy's computer fried! I'd always hated Dells, but just because they were Dells (and because of their dumb TV comercials "Dude! you're getting a Dell") but now I have a real reason. Be wary when replacing parts in dells! Replace the psu and mobo at the same time! (or just have them buy a mac
)-mcg