Journal Rick the Red's Journal: Dell Sucks 1
I've used Dell OptiPlex workstations and Latitude laptops at work (since replaced by the Precison line), and I've found them to be rock solid reliable. But they won't sell those to the likes of you and me. Oh, no. For us they offer the Dimension desktops and Inspiron laptops. Which, I've learned the hard way, suck.
Not able to buy Latitude laptops, my wife and I bought Inspirons. What a mistake. My hard drive failed. OK, that's not Dell's fault, hard drives fail, right? They replaced it under warranty, so they've done all that can be expected, right? Wrong. I had to re-load everything, of course, so I first re-loaded Windows. That went smoothly, although my video was stuck at 800x600x16. Then I put in the Dell drivers disk.
First, let me say their menu system is confusing at best, listing drivers I didn't need (with helpful if unexplained check marks next to some of them). Guessing, I clicked on the ones with checkmarks. So far, so good -- at least I got my video back to the full 1024x768. But there were no drivers for either the built-in 10/100 ethernet or the USB port. They did, however, have drivers for the built-in 802.11b ethernet THAT DELL SAYS DOES NOT EXIST. Specifically listed my model number, too. For hardware that Dell refuses to sell me, claiming it doesn't exist.
But the best part is Dell support, who tell me the drivers I need are on their web site (they are -- at least they got that right). But how am I supposed to get them without a functioning ethernet connection? Load a trial AOL account and use the modem?
Fortunately I have a PCMCIA network card that Windows supports, so I was able to get things working again, but geeze, you shouldn't have to be a computer professional with a box of spare hardware just to get the damn drivers loaded -- they should all come on the Driver CD that comes with the computer out-of-the-box!
Last Dell I ever buy.
Hate the big guys (Score:2)