6 ms·

Every time a discussion of Dell laptops is happening I will mention that I own one and it is broken because I "closed the lid" and you can't do that with Dell l

by harry8 4y ago

Every time a discussion of Dell laptops is happening I will mention that I own one and it is broken because I "closed the lid" and you can't do that with Dell laptops. That is their quality. They did not recall. In my country you generally can ask a company if they want to honour the warranty for such a gross defect especially when the warranty is very recently expired and for companies that aren't cheap and nasty they usually do. You can't even contact Dell unless you have a current warranty. I can't recommend avoid their laptops strongly enough. Overpriced cheap, nasty and shoddy equipment that Dell does NOT stand behind. You want a part to repair it yourself? Cost you more than a whole laptop. Dell. Just a horrendous customer experience all around. IBM, Lenove, Asus, Apple all vastly better in my experience.

static_motion 4y ago
It really is incredible how far Dell has come. Their flagship consumer XPS line seems to be plagued with issues at every release. A relative of mine has an XPS 15 9550 which has had several issues, the worst of which was the battery swelling and beginning to bend the frame. This apparently was a widespread issue and replacement batteries were never available, and the model was never recalled despite this incredibly dangerous fault. This relative of mine still uses that same computer to this day, with the battery removed, so it's functionally a very sleek desktop, but still plagued with random issues for which I have to be on constant tech support.
- Manneveru 4y ago
- plonk 4y ago
  I really liked the XPS 15 9560 until I realised its design and support were trash. It features: - a system that shut down when I gamed for two minutes, it lasted for months and the support closed my ticket with "this laptop is not meant for gaming, it's your fault" (someone on reddit later found that downgrading a driver fixed it), - a reasonably powerful GTX 1050 that you can't use because the thermals are awful and 10 minutes of gaming turn the system into a slideshow, - a good Core i7 that gets throttled at 800MHz for no reason (I was stuck with a potato laptop for years before I figured out what was happening and fixed it with CPU-Z), - a TPM that randomly failed to unlock my BitLocker drive, the motherboard was replaced twice with no effect, a BIOS update a year later seems to have fixed it, - a power button that randomly stops working for a minute or two. I hope they made an effort on the latest ones. That XPS truly is the worst disaster I've ever used.
- SOLAR_FIELDS 4y ago
  Crazy! Circa 2005-2008 I had a Latitude that was nigh indestructible. Somewhat infamously I hadn’t zipped my bag all the way on campus and it fell out onto the sidewalk. Aside from a few cosmetic scratches it worked perfectly fine. Logged probably 1000 hours easily on World of Warcraft on that thing - there was even somewhat disgustingly a section where the left palm of my hand had worn off all of the paint due to sitting there for so many hours.
  - trog 4y ago
    From talking to people in more enterprise IT roles, the Latitudes are what you buy if you want Dell stuff that works properly. I have an XPS 15 which I bought 3 years ago and it's one of the worst PCs I've ever owned. This is actually my third XPS - the first two were really awesome, but I'm massively disappointed in this latest one. I've started buying Latitudes at work and they definitely seem like a big improvement but still checking them out.
    - kyriakos 4y ago
      I can't vouch for latitude either. Not sure if they improved but my 4 year old model overheats and instead of throttling just turns off. Very frustrating when you are trying to get serious work done. Build is good though and feels tough.
- beanaroo 4y ago
  I have a 9550 and I remember the battery recall. They called me, explained the issue, and offered to either pay for shipping them my laptop or to ship me a battery with instructions on how to swap it it out myself, warranty preserved. Maybe it's because I purchased it from their site and they had my contact details. I was hoping this would eliminate the coil whine and random ticking I had since day one which they claimed was to be expected. Sadly, I still live with it. The soft touch coating on the palm rest has now also started to degrade and go tacky.
  - static_motion 4y ago
    I never knew it did get recalled, interesting. I guess it might be because I'm from a small country in Europe, recall programs rarely seem to reach too far outside the US and Canada unfortunately.
sdflhasjd 4y ago
Well, my Mac Studio is only 2 months old now; the 3.5mm jack stopped working, and if you plug in the power plug "the wrong way" it trips my RCD. My previous MacBook wasn't perfect either .
- deleted 4y ago
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  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- mschuster91 4y ago
  RCDs and breakers age. Please have an electrician look at your installation.
  - sdflhasjd 4y ago
    The circuit is fine. I've taken it into the office and a friends house and it can be reliably reproduced. The jack on the back of the device seems to be the issue, where there's a brief arc when the connection is made.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- CharlesW 4y ago
  > Well, my Mac Studio is only 2 months old now; the 3.5mm jack stopped working, and if you plug in the power plug "the wrong way" it trips my RCD. Defects happen. Your experience with other vendors may be deterring you from simply calling Apple or visiting an Apple Store for a fix or replacement, but I recommend you do that ASAP.
renewiltord 4y ago
What happened when you closed the lid?
- abdusco 4y ago
  Presumably, it doesn't sleep or wakes up inside a backpack. I had a 2016 XPS13 with that issue and I keep reading it still exists after all those years.
  - The_Colonel 4y ago
    That's not a bug, it's a feature called "Modern Standby" pushed by Microsoft where laptops essentially run 100% of the time, unless you turn them off. It's incredibly stupid and contra-productive. It's supposed to provide "instant on" experience while it makes the exact opposite. Because I can't safely put it into a backpack without fear of it exploding or catching fire, I'm forced to go through lengthy turn off/on/hibernate procedure everytime I carry the laptop anywhere.
    - vladvasiliu 4y ago
      > It's supposed to provide "instant on" experience Is that actually the case? I can't think of any of my laptops, PC or Mac, that would have me wait around for them to wake up, including those running Linux. It basically takes me more time to open the lid and get my hands on the keyboard than it takes the laptop to wake up. I always thought they were trying to copy Apple's "power nap", for checking email and whatnot while asleep. I always found this stupid on macOS, even though by default it only does it if it's plugged-in, so likely to have network access. Whereas my current PC laptop doesn't even have S3 sleep anymore, regardless of plug-in state. I know about hibernation, but it has quite a bunch of RAM, and despite the fast SSD, it takes longer to go to sleep and wake up than my older, slower ones with S3 did.
      - The_Colonel 4y ago
        > Is that actually the case? > I always thought they were trying to copy Apple's "power nap", for checking email and whatnot while asleep. I think it's both, or that the latter is part of the former - "instant on" includes things like e-mail being already received etc., essentially a smartphone experience. But it's not a smartphone, obviously, I've never got burned and had battery swelled on my smartphone simply because I dared to put it into my pocket. Laptops, on the other hand, are not supposed to be mobile devices anymore and should stay stationary, at least according to Microsoft.
Stratoscope 4y ago
> I own one and it is broken because I "closed the lid" and you can't do that with Dell laptops. That is very odd. Can you elaborate?
- DoingIsLearning 4y ago
  I remember some issue on dell laptops with windows 10 not hibernating properly and getting cooked inside people's laptop bags. Maybe that's what they meant with the whole just "closed the lid" scenario.
  - sofixa 4y ago
    That's in no way exclusive to Dells on Windows 10. My M1 MBP has failed to fall sleep by closing the lid at least on one occasion ( and i only noticed it because my backpack got noticeably warm).
karmakaze 4y ago
I gave up on Dell when I exchanged a new laptop because of soundcard issues and they sent me a dented one which turned out to be refurbished even though I'd bought a new one. I did buy one desktop PC after that and it was my last. If a company doesn't respect their own products and brand I don't trust owning one.

by harry8 4y ago

static_motion 4y ago

It really is incredible how far Dell has come. Their flagship consumer XPS line seems to be plagued with issues at every release. A relative of mine has an XPS 15 9550 which has had several issues, the worst of which was the battery swelling and beginning to bend the frame. This apparently was a widespread issue and replacement batteries were never available, and the model was never recalled despite this incredibly dangerous fault. This relative of mine still uses that same computer to this day, with the battery removed, so it's functionally a very sleek desktop, but still plagued with random issues for which I have to be on constant tech support.

Manneveru 4y ago
plonk 4y ago
I really liked the XPS 15 9560 until I realised its design and support were trash. It features: - a system that shut down when I gamed for two minutes, it lasted for months and the support closed my ticket with "this laptop is not meant for gaming, it's your fault" (someone on reddit later found that downgrading a driver fixed it), - a reasonably powerful GTX 1050 that you can't use because the thermals are awful and 10 minutes of gaming turn the system into a slideshow, - a good Core i7 that gets throttled at 800MHz for no reason (I was stuck with a potato laptop for years before I figured out what was happening and fixed it with CPU-Z), - a TPM that randomly failed to unlock my BitLocker drive, the motherboard was replaced twice with no effect, a BIOS update a year later seems to have fixed it, - a power button that randomly stops working for a minute or two. I hope they made an effort on the latest ones. That XPS truly is the worst disaster I've ever used.
SOLAR_FIELDS 4y ago
Crazy! Circa 2005-2008 I had a Latitude that was nigh indestructible. Somewhat infamously I hadn’t zipped my bag all the way on campus and it fell out onto the sidewalk. Aside from a few cosmetic scratches it worked perfectly fine. Logged probably 1000 hours easily on World of Warcraft on that thing - there was even somewhat disgustingly a section where the left palm of my hand had worn off all of the paint due to sitting there for so many hours.
- trog 4y ago
  From talking to people in more enterprise IT roles, the Latitudes are what you buy if you want Dell stuff that works properly. I have an XPS 15 which I bought 3 years ago and it's one of the worst PCs I've ever owned. This is actually my third XPS - the first two were really awesome, but I'm massively disappointed in this latest one. I've started buying Latitudes at work and they definitely seem like a big improvement but still checking them out.
  - kyriakos 4y ago
    I can't vouch for latitude either. Not sure if they improved but my 4 year old model overheats and instead of throttling just turns off. Very frustrating when you are trying to get serious work done. Build is good though and feels tough.
beanaroo 4y ago
I have a 9550 and I remember the battery recall. They called me, explained the issue, and offered to either pay for shipping them my laptop or to ship me a battery with instructions on how to swap it it out myself, warranty preserved. Maybe it's because I purchased it from their site and they had my contact details. I was hoping this would eliminate the coil whine and random ticking I had since day one which they claimed was to be expected. Sadly, I still live with it. The soft touch coating on the palm rest has now also started to degrade and go tacky.
- static_motion 4y ago
  I never knew it did get recalled, interesting. I guess it might be because I'm from a small country in Europe, recall programs rarely seem to reach too far outside the US and Canada unfortunately.

sdflhasjd 4y ago

Well, my Mac Studio is only 2 months old now; the 3.5mm jack stopped working, and if you plug in the power plug "the wrong way" it trips my RCD. My previous MacBook wasn't perfect either .

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
mschuster91 4y ago
RCDs and breakers age. Please have an electrician look at your installation.
- sdflhasjd 4y ago
  The circuit is fine. I've taken it into the office and a friends house and it can be reliably reproduced. The jack on the back of the device seems to be the issue, where there's a brief arc when the connection is made.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
CharlesW 4y ago
> Well, my Mac Studio is only 2 months old now; the 3.5mm jack stopped working, and if you plug in the power plug "the wrong way" it trips my RCD. Defects happen. Your experience with other vendors may be deterring you from simply calling Apple or visiting an Apple Store for a fix or replacement, but I recommend you do that ASAP.

renewiltord 4y ago

What happened when you closed the lid?

abdusco 4y ago
Presumably, it doesn't sleep or wakes up inside a backpack. I had a 2016 XPS13 with that issue and I keep reading it still exists after all those years.
- The_Colonel 4y ago
  That's not a bug, it's a feature called "Modern Standby" pushed by Microsoft where laptops essentially run 100% of the time, unless you turn them off. It's incredibly stupid and contra-productive. It's supposed to provide "instant on" experience while it makes the exact opposite. Because I can't safely put it into a backpack without fear of it exploding or catching fire, I'm forced to go through lengthy turn off/on/hibernate procedure everytime I carry the laptop anywhere.
  - vladvasiliu 4y ago
    > It's supposed to provide "instant on" experience Is that actually the case? I can't think of any of my laptops, PC or Mac, that would have me wait around for them to wake up, including those running Linux. It basically takes me more time to open the lid and get my hands on the keyboard than it takes the laptop to wake up. I always thought they were trying to copy Apple's "power nap", for checking email and whatnot while asleep. I always found this stupid on macOS, even though by default it only does it if it's plugged-in, so likely to have network access. Whereas my current PC laptop doesn't even have S3 sleep anymore, regardless of plug-in state. I know about hibernation, but it has quite a bunch of RAM, and despite the fast SSD, it takes longer to go to sleep and wake up than my older, slower ones with S3 did.
    - The_Colonel 4y ago
      > Is that actually the case? > I always thought they were trying to copy Apple's "power nap", for checking email and whatnot while asleep. I think it's both, or that the latter is part of the former - "instant on" includes things like e-mail being already received etc., essentially a smartphone experience. But it's not a smartphone, obviously, I've never got burned and had battery swelled on my smartphone simply because I dared to put it into my pocket. Laptops, on the other hand, are not supposed to be mobile devices anymore and should stay stationary, at least according to Microsoft.

Stratoscope 4y ago

> I own one and it is broken because I "closed the lid" and you can't do that with Dell laptops. That is very odd. Can you elaborate?

DoingIsLearning 4y ago
I remember some issue on dell laptops with windows 10 not hibernating properly and getting cooked inside people's laptop bags. Maybe that's what they meant with the whole just "closed the lid" scenario.
- sofixa 4y ago
  That's in no way exclusive to Dells on Windows 10. My M1 MBP has failed to fall sleep by closing the lid at least on one occasion ( and i only noticed it because my backpack got noticeably warm).

karmakaze 4y ago

I gave up on Dell when I exchanged a new laptop because of soundcard issues and they sent me a dented one which turned out to be refurbished even though I'd bought a new one. I did buy one desktop PC after that and it was my last. If a company doesn't respect their own products and brand I don't trust owning one.