rmorrison1116 Loc: Near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania

For anyone looking to acquire a laptop PC, DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT get a Dell Inspiron 7506, or possibly any other Dell Inspiron model. This is my second Dell laptop. The first one was an older model, and I had some annoying problems with it. I bought this one last summer. Got a good deal at Best Buy. It turns out that this PC is a piece of crap. But then I'm beginning to believe a lot of what Dell markets, are pieces of crap. I've not had any major problems with it but, I've had numerous minor problems and I found that in order to keep it operating reasonably well, I must restart it often, and I mean, often. Way, way more often than I did my previous HP laptops. Anyone else have annoying problems with their Dell laptop PC?

Najataagihe

First, Inspiron is the equivalent of an entry-level camera.

It ain't robust.

Second, Dell’s are famous for having problems with "flea power".


Solution?

Remove battery.

Hold start button down for 30 seconds.

Replace battery.

Fire that rascal up!


Note: some batteries are a righteous pain to remove.

PhotogHobbyist Loc: Bradford, PA

I had a rather annoying interaction with Dell few years ago and decided I did not like their business practices. Hence, I have not had any business transactions with the company with the exception of a monitor I inadvertently purchased. I've had excellent results with HP and try to keep my computers HP.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

I’ve had probably at least a dozen Dells and still have 3 laptops, and I have never had a failure of any kind. In fact, I just last week dragged out an Inspiron Celeron based XP Laptop that is somewhere between 12-15 years old to look for some old files for my son, and it fired right up and works fine. In fairness, I would add that my newest Dell is probably 5 years old (and running Windows 10), so maybe they’ve gone downhill since then. On the other hand, the last HP I had was a POS. My opinion is that you can’t judge an entire product line based on a few experiences - the people that have had a bad one typically are more vocal than the majority whose machines work just fine. I would also mention that I have a Win 10 Lenovo Thinkpad I-5 SSD machine that is very solid that I like a lot, but there are people that hate them.

steve L Loc: Waterville Valley, New Hampshire

A) kudos to TriX...well said...!!
B) I've had Dell laptops for 20 years and plus...loved them all...burned the HD on four....recovered all...
C) Now love my tricked out XPS 15 !

Do not think I'll change brands !!

Xanadu Loc: Clay County FL

My second Dell is about 18 mos. old. It was purchased directly from Dell. Its components were specified by a friend who knew what I needed. I love it.
It is not news that the equipment at Best Buy and other large retailers is low end, low performance designed to appeal to price sensitive shoppers.

bobmcculloch Loc: NYC, NY

We had an office full of bad Dells , laptop and desk top! My HP laptop was good, HP desk top even better, new Lenovo 10" travel computer Very Good.

ecblackiii Loc: Maryland

I like Dell desktop/tower computers and the Dell 8940 with 11th Gen Intel core i7-11700K processor (8-core, 16M cache, 3.6GHz to 5.0 GHz) and 64 GB memory that I have now has the speed and brute power to crunch the numbers of very large spreadsheets (at 1,000,000 rows of data) quickly. But, Dell offers a wide range of computers, both laptop and desktop, with a broad range of capabilities to match any customer's needs. As always, the prices have to match capabilities. You get only what you pay for!

I don't need great power in my laptop, so I use an HP, but with a 17-inch screen and a terabyte hard drive for work on the go. I'm happy with both laptop and Desktop.

srt101fan

I think you're spot on when you say "...you can’t judge an entire product line based on a few experiences". My current computer is a 4-year old Dell Inspiron 17-5767 - no problems with it other than a (premature, I think!) hard drive failure . I had an HP PC that didn't last as long as I think it should have. A Lenovo laptop was a (very premature!) disaster that was finally declared unresuscitable by a computer repair shop. The computer part of a Toshiba laptop had a long service life after attaching an external monitor after the built-in screen crapped out (prematurely, I think!). My most reliable computer has been a Gateway laptop running Win 98-SE that I got over 20 years ago. That thing is built like a little tank!

TheShoe Loc: Lacey, WA

The last two Dell desktops that I bought directly from Dell had early deaths. After replacing 3 parts in the first 30 days, Dell sent replacements. Their replacement policy is to ship the next one off of the production line that has equal or better specifications. In both cases, the replacements I received were upgrades that did not have the Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

williejoha

The 3 Dells that I own and have Owen performed well. Now you need to update the software every now and then. I check for updates about every week or two.
WJH

BebuLamar

Never actually own a Dell but used several of them. All have problems. Both desktop and laptop.

SteveFranz Loc: Durham, NC

Nobody's perfect. I note many of the comments are very favorable to HP. My experience with HP computers and prints was horrible - but that was 20+ years ago. Maybe they have changed.

MTDesigns Loc: Corryton,Tenn.

Buy an Apple.

rlv567 Loc: Baguio City, Philippines

I had to look up an old BelArc for this, as I had forgotten the model number and other info:

Probably 9 years ago I was patronizing a computer store in Phoenix, Arizona, which bought used computers in quantity from large businesses. At the time, they had purchased some 100 Dell laptops, and I was fortunate to get the last one available – and they added a lighted keyboard at no additional cost. I don’t remember the price, but it was very favorable, and the unit seemed to be in good shape. It was a Dell Latitude E6210, with a 2.53 gigahertz Intel Core i5 M 540 processor, 64 bit, Multi-core (2), Hyper-threaded (4). It had a 500 GB hard drive and 4 GB memory. The monitor was only 14 inch, so I ran a second monitor with it, which worked very well. The display adapter was an Intel HD Graphics Display. It was likely running Windows 7, which I upgraded to 8.1 and then 10, as they came along. I eventually did exchange the hard drive for an SSD, but still use the hard drive as an auxiliary, USB connected.

The computer was fast, and always ran very well. Having been a business office machine, it did not have OpenGL, and would not run ON1, so I built a desktop on arrival in the Philippines almost 6 years ago, and I gave the Dell to my wife. When she started to learn photography – including post processing – we bought a Lenovo laptop, which has been performing very well.

About a year ago, the Dell started to have problems – with the keyboard, then the screen – so it was retired. It had given me 8 years or so of excellent service, plus who knows how many years at the original business. I always have considered Dell to be one of the best computers available, though pricey!

Loren – in Beautiful Baguio City