dell from hell repost more on the product. (Dell Inspiron 8000)

Member Name: Cheuk

Product:	Dell Inspiron 8000
Date:	10/05/01 (3503 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Desktop replacement, Big screen., Good keyboard

Disadvantages: Runs hot, Incompetent, patronising and rude technical support staff, Poor performance and build quality., Not really functioning, and never really worked properly

Inspiron 8000 850VT review

Oops didn?t post the opinion on the product at all. Heres the opinion on the product, for my experience with Dell and the product as a whole please find the article under the Dell retailers link.

The Specs.

Intel Pentium III 850 with speedstep.
Intel 815e chipset.
128 Mb Ram
32 Mb ATI Rage M4 video card
32 Gb HD
NIC/modem combo card
15" 1400x1050 SXGA TFT screen
8x DVD drive
8x 4x 24x CD-RW

First Impressions.
True desktop replacement, heavy and big, not a true portable. Pleasant keyboard, one of the best I?ve used. Trackpad and trackpoint option, though with both the cursor can move erratic but fix available on web site. The screen is big and bright, also clear. Note some may find the resolution to high for this display and the text a bit too small, but fine for me. Brightness relatively even but viewing angles a but constraint. Dead pixels have developed over the three months since I?ve received the order and will be replaced when it goes b ack for inspection. The warranty requires over 9 dead pixels to be present before a replacement is offered. Overall good.

Performance

Long boot times, with Win Me. Performance with win 2000 is reported to be better by other users on the Dell talk site, but present other problems, such as lack of dual display option which is present in Win Me. Note speedstep is not available on this model due to incompatibilities between the OS, BIOS and chipset. Can still run chip at a slower speed but requires changing the BIOS setting to do so an d the inconvenience then of having to boot up and then shutting down before the plug is pulled to force it into battery optimised mode. Had managed to run about 2 hrs 30 mins on battery before the battery packed in, but note much less when watching DVD, about 2hrs 15 mins if you are lucky. The new models with faster processors will have even less battery life.

Office appliaction is fast but that should be the case. Photoshop was relatively impressive but still not as fast as desktop systems with lower specifications.
DVD and video performance is very disappointing. DVD playback is jerky from the supplied DVD playback though audio from this machine is of superb quality from the in-built speakers but lack volume and bass which is to be expected from a notebook. Video playback can also be jerky, including some enhanced CDs. 3D performance is a major complaint, with Jedi Knight stuttering and skipping along, but this is likely to be of the video problem on this system, though this doesn't be an isolated case, as the problem seems to appear regularly on the Dell forum. Quake performance hasn't been tested, but from the forum this is disappointing. For anyone wanting to play 3D games get the new model with the GEFORCE GO chip, this trounces the ATI M4 chip in performance but 2D performance has been reported to be slower, but could be due to early drivers. Note the ATI produces better quality graphics albeit at a poorer performance, so its up to you. TV output hasn't been a problem on this system though problems have been reported. The fan comes on regularly with Win Me and hardly often with win 2000 and the fan is noisy, The underside and keyboard gets HOT, even with the fan running often though it runs cooler with Win 2000. For anyone wanting to run Linix, Dell provides drivers on their website. The supplied CD-RW can be hotswapped with the floppy disk. CD-RW performance is reasonable but the problems have been encountered include skipping and grounding noise on CDs copied on the fly with this system and unreliable CD-RW backup. The hard disk is relatively fast but noisy, and modem and network performance is good.

System unit
The machine features S-Video out and anyone wanting digital surround sound can do so with the supplied dongle which has an SP/DIF socket for connecting t
o a d
ecoder. The unit feels plastic and flimsy unlike the Sony laptops which exude quality. The unit is heavy at 3.5kg but as a desktop replacement it wasn't designed for regular on the move use. It has the usual PS2 ports and sockets and also 2 USB ports. More unusual is the inclusion of a firewire port, great for video editing. The unit also supports different colour palm rests and trackpoint nibbles but is more of a gimmick, still if you want to stand out from the crowd. A desktop docking unit is also available. New machines also support wirless networking. Another design flaw is that the keyboard touches the screen. So if you are on the move and have greasy fingers this will translate onto the screen, though Dell assures the screen will not be scratched-check their website for more details. Also static and electrical noise can be heard from the speakers regularly.

After sales

Poor. Anyone wanting more details read my other piece on Dell in general.

Overall.

A nice desktop replacement with good features and specification. Poor reliability and stability, very buggy but could be due to Win Me. Video performance issues and problems. Poor 3D performance and CD-RW problems. Flimsy and runs hot. Poor aftersales and certainly doesn'y live up to the Dell experience. The same price can now purchase a 1Ghz and Geforce Go system instead. Not to sure how this system performs as systems are now just starting to be shipped out. If you want a good reliable system with good looks and quality then get a Sony Vaio. If you are after a desktop replacement then consider this but check the prices and deals carefully. Very hard to recommend.


*Update
----------

After nearly over two years of battling with Dell, they finally admitted there is a problem with the machine and have taken it back and refunded me! Thanks to Barclaycard who took the fight on my behalf, the threat of small claim
s action against them had paid off. Previous threats were ignored and letters were not replied. Well to get to that situation, Dell had five attempts to repair the laptop, each time a new fault was introduced as well as the not fixing the previous faults. They were given a final chance to repair the laptop, which they took and failed to fix problems and wanted yet another chance to repair it, turning me down outright for the system to be replaced or a refund. After so many motherboard replacements, CD-RW being replaced, so many numerous reformatting of the system and reinstallation of Windows, I finally lost my patience and wanted blood! Even the engineer who came on site agreed that the technical support was rather incompetent. Independent experts also concluded there were problems. With advice from both Which Legal service and CAB, I finally was getting somewhere by taking action against Dell and the credit card companies. The technical support was very variable, from pleasant to damn right ignorance. I was told by one that it was illegal to burn audio files and my own data files! Why are you selling Cd-writers then? Surely your breaking the law too? To that ignorant technical support staff, its not illegal to burn audio cds for personal use providing you own the material, and these data files were my own so surely I can't be breaking my own copyright! Another technical support staff told me that Dell "had done me a favour by offering to repair it out of warranty" to which I reminded them that it took them so long to arrange the machine to get repaired in the first place and that they should have fixed it.

It is very hard to recommend the system and from my experience from buying from Dell, it was definitely an experience from hell.

Summary: