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Right. And no switching the chipset to a different supplier requiring entirely different drivers between the XYZ1001 and the XYZ1001a, either. If I ruled the

Right. And no switching the chipset to a different supplier requiring entirely different drivers between the XYZ1001 and the XYZ1001a, either. If I ruled the world I'd do it via trademark law: if you don't follow my set of sensible rules, you don't get your trademarks enforced.

toss1 5y ago
Years ago, that kind of behavior got Dell crossed off my list of suppliers I'd work with for clients. We had to setup 30+ machines of the exact same model number, and same order, and set of pallets -- yet there were at least 7 DIFFERENT random configurations of chips on the motherboards & video cards -- all requiring different versions of the drivers. This was before the days of auto-setup drivers. Absolute flaming nightmare. It was basically random - the different chipsets didn't even follow serial number groupings, it was just hunt around versions for every damn box on the network. Dell's driver resources & tech support even for VARs was worthless. This wasn't the first incident, but after such a blatant set of quality control failures I'll never intentionally select or work with a Dell product again.
- ClumsyPilot 5y ago
  Is this like 5 years ago or more li3le 20? Trying to judge relevance today
  - iforgotpassword 5y ago
    As they mention no automatic driver downloads and talk about Chipset drivers I'd say at least before Windows 7. So a thing or two might have changed.
    - toss1 5y ago
      Yes, this was pre-Win7 What has changed is that most of the drivers are self-updating, so they can configure that at the factory. So, yes, the basic configuration has gotten better. What has not changed is that Dell basically does grab-bag components in their systems and just because you have two machines of the same model# and rev#, does NOT mean that you have the same two machines. This means that Dell has substandard abilities to 1) control their supply chain, 2) track and fix problems, 3) diagnose problems in the field, 4) prevent problems. But sure, because Microsoft is now doing a far better job of auto-configuration in it's OS products, the setup problem is mitigated. I avoid Dell like the plague, and advise everyone else to do the same. Sure, you may know someone who got away with it for a long time — there's usually some good items in a grab-bag — but the systemic reliability is just not there.
      - ClumsyPilot 5y ago
        "I avoid Dell like the plague, and advise everyone else to do the same." But who is still trustwoethy.
        toss1 5y ago
        Exactly. This was not the first such trustworthiness problem I saw with Dell, only the culmination of many over the years. So there is no reason to believe that Dell has changed one iota in this regard, and they should still be regarded as untrustworthy.

toss1 5y ago

Years ago, that kind of behavior got Dell crossed off my list of suppliers I'd work with for clients. We had to setup 30+ machines of the exact same model number, and same order, and set of pallets -- yet there were at least 7 DIFFERENT random configurations of chips on the motherboards & video cards -- all requiring different versions of the drivers. This was before the days of auto-setup drivers. Absolute flaming nightmare. It was basically random - the different chipsets didn't even follow serial number groupings, it was just hunt around versions for every damn box on the network. Dell's driver resources & tech support even for VARs was worthless. This wasn't the first incident, but after such a blatant set of quality control failures I'll never intentionally select or work with a Dell product again.

ClumsyPilot 5y ago
Is this like 5 years ago or more li3le 20? Trying to judge relevance today
- iforgotpassword 5y ago
  As they mention no automatic driver downloads and talk about Chipset drivers I'd say at least before Windows 7. So a thing or two might have changed.
  - toss1 5y ago
    Yes, this was pre-Win7 What has changed is that most of the drivers are self-updating, so they can configure that at the factory. So, yes, the basic configuration has gotten better. What has not changed is that Dell basically does grab-bag components in their systems and just because you have two machines of the same model# and rev#, does NOT mean that you have the same two machines. This means that Dell has substandard abilities to 1) control their supply chain, 2) track and fix problems, 3) diagnose problems in the field, 4) prevent problems. But sure, because Microsoft is now doing a far better job of auto-configuration in it's OS products, the setup problem is mitigated. I avoid Dell like the plague, and advise everyone else to do the same. Sure, you may know someone who got away with it for a long time — there's usually some good items in a grab-bag — but the systemic reliability is just not there.
    - ClumsyPilot 5y ago
      "I avoid Dell like the plague, and advise everyone else to do the same." But who is still trustwoethy.
      - toss1 5y ago
        Exactly. This was not the first such trustworthiness problem I saw with Dell, only the culmination of many over the years. So there is no reason to believe that Dell has changed one iota in this regard, and they should still be regarded as untrustworthy.