Dying Dells

[mrlucio]

Alright guys and gals, have you noticed when you purchase new computers from dell the pc performance tend to degrade after a year. We ordered 50 optiplexes, installed three standard applications, dropped global policies, and pushed them to the departments.Almost a year later the pcs would act sluggish and you would hear harddrives grinding. This is the not first time i have seen this with dell computers. Is it the drives that they install? Sorry for this complaint.

[mairving]

It is hard to say. I have used a few Optiplexes with not really any problems. What OS, applications and how much RAM do they have? Do they function the same way off the network as on it? Have you compared them to other ones?

[bailey]

but isn't that the way they were designed to do ?

every person I know that ever bought a dell or a hp system has never been as happy with it a year after they bought it as the day they brought it home, most never made it to two years, before hitting the scrap piles.

[mrlucio]

you are right on that bailey. Mairving the specs are your normal specs.

*P3/P4 Processor
*256MB Ram
*40Gig HD

I really do think its the crappy harddrives they put in their systems.....

[reaction]

i've had my dimension 8100 for over 3 years now and it hasn't slowed down at all. it did act sluggish when windows me was installed but after i upgraded to xp, everythings been fine, no hard drive grinding, lockups etc.

[Corky]

I had the same problem with my first computer- a Gateway. I bought a Dell Dimension which is still running great after 2+ years, as is the Dimension I bought several months ago.

[mrlucio]

yeh we had some dimension dell three years ago and they still run like a champ with 98se.....

[Joeberg]

My Dell laptop most recently has become horribly slow, unsure of the cause, everything seems to be fine (I believe the hdd is to blame) and my Dell Dim, 3500 just bought about 4mos ago is running quite nicely...

[Panama Red]

I'm guessing because this is posted in the 2K/XP area, these comps have XP on them. If so, how often do your people do maintenance? XP is notorious for slowing down due to a build up of the "restore files". Think I read at MS that the restore files are kept for 90 days and then automatically purge the oldest and keep the newest. If the restore file cache is set to max, those files could be taking up a lot of hard drive space. Dell, Gateway and all the rest of the "name brand" computers love to overload the system with programs that start and run in the background. Then more get added by the user that also start when windows starts further overloading the system resources. Might just be time for a good look at msconfig/start tab and shut down some of that unwanted/unnecessary stuff (as well as uninstalling all the unused programs). Follow these up with a defrag of the hdd. You might even consider adding another 256Mb of ram if the are XP. Just my 2 cents. As far as the grinding, just run the Hdd manufacturer's diagnostic tools and see if they are defective.

[bailey]

sorry guys, I didn't mean to start this type of comments,
yes there are many people who still like there system as it is, but the day is comming, I have scrapped as many hp's as there are post so far, mainly because of a falure and the desire for something better.

[mrlucio]

Panama Red, we format all factory machines we get and do our own custom install of 98se,NT,2000,XP. So this clears all factory installed programs and services. We turn off system restore due to the fact all important files are saved to servers.
We tweak all OS installs we have. I have been running xppro on my home pc since the beginning and i havent defragged it once and it runs like a champ.....I think these companies are installing these drives for a reason and the reason is to continue with there sales and support. Just my 2 cents...

[mrlucio]

One machine i love from dell is my Dell Inspiron 5000. That laptop there has everything from win98,me,2000,xp, and 3 different linux distros. Currenty right now it is running win2k3 as my domain controller at mi casa

[Corky]

Panama Red, I have to agree on maintenance. I did a clean install of XP on the old Dell a year ago, and the first thing I did with the new Dell was get rid of all the "extras" Dell thinks we need, to include the 30 day trial programs. I believe maintenance should be done weekly, including defrag, and I follow the guidelines from Black Viper for services. Also, I'm sure it's controversial, but I disable System Restore. Hard drives do go bad, though. They're the hardest worked mechanical part of a computer, and the faster they run, the faster they'll wear. I haven't had one go yet, but I won't be surprised when it happens. My old Dell came with a generic HD, the new one with a Maxtor.

[Panama Red]

Corky, I'm with ya on the BV tips. Used his recommedations as a guideline to set up my system. You've gotta read his stuff carefully tho, cuz he leans toward the off-line/gamer type settings. The hard drives in new machines make me laff, too. A friend just bought an HP system from Circuit City cuz of the rebates. Wouldn't listen to me when I told him I could build him a higher quality machine for only a little more and he'd get 3yr warranty on the key components and lifetime on the ram. He got a 2.6 P4 w/an 865 Chipset mobo, and a 120Gb hdd. 512Mb ram, and of course 800fsb on the P4. Funny thing is, HP uses a 5400 rpm hdd instead of 7200 rpm. All that high speed processor/ram/mobo/fsb stuff gets held back by the seek time of the hdd. Then they don't even give you a copy of the XP that's installed - only their own restore info on the first partition of the hdd.

[not important]

I had a DEll 4300 for 2 yrs. and it always performed great. My biggest gripe was the proprietary aspect. I will not buy another, just for that reason.

[bailey]

yes that has been the biggest problem with them, when you want to make them faster and better, your stuck. and most will then opt to build a newer and better system useing what parts they can salvage and scrap whats left over.

[Joeberg]

Originally posted by Panama Red Then they don't even give you a copy of the XP that's installed - only their own restore info on the first partition of the hdd.

The 'name brand' companies have been doing that for a long time. Before they used to give you the manual , with the product key and revcoery cd(S) around 4 years ago, but now, the key is labled on the maschine itself (They've been doing this since WinME) To enforce the licence agrrement of one key per maschine. Haven't used Dell's reovery Cd's yet, but I know my Sony's revoery cds dont even ask for the product key...

[james8547]

the p4 1.5ghz 256mb ram dell WinME that we have is 4 yrs old now. No performance problems aside for the ME and having only 1.5ghz and 256mb ram.