Inspiron N4010 is a horror show

On Wed, 13 Feb 2013 09:05:38 -0800 (PST), Ben Myers
wrote:

I have a client with a couple of Insprion N4010s he bought independently of me a couple of years ago. And I acquired a used one myself yesterday, not to use, but as a learning experience.

This system is a maintenance nightmare. Two screws to remove the keyboard and 14 screws to remove the touchpad, after which you can access whatever is inside. Well, almost everything. To change out the hard drive, you have to pull the motherboard first. To clean the CPU fan and heat sink, yep. Pull the motherboard. This is a recipe for a system that overheats, exactly what my N4010 does, and same with my client. Definitely encourages throw-away systems, hopefully after only a year or two, so you have to buy another Dell real soon.

This system rates right up there with most Sony products and the HP Pavilions for being hell to work on. What were the hardware designers thinking. Oh, right. They weren't.

If this is the way all Inspiron 15 systems are made, they are for avoiding.

Compare with the Latitude E6400 and follow-on systems. Remove one large cover from the bottom, and you get access to the whole CPU cooling/ventilating mechanism. Hard drive comes out with two screws.

Michael Dell, I can tell you what ails your personal computer business. It does not take vulture capitalists on your board to lead you. The N4010 is crap, and so is every other Dell system designed like it... Ben Myers

You are hitting a big nail. Many notebooks and netbooks by other
companies are a nightmare too.
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I have a client with a couple of Insprion N4010s he bought independently of me a couple of years ago. And I acquired a used one myself yesterday, not to use, but as a learning experience.

This system is a maintenance nightmare. Two screws to remove the keyboard and 14 screws to remove the touchpad, after which you can access whatever is inside. Well, almost everything. To change out the hard drive, you have to pull the motherboard first. To clean the CPU fan and heat sink, yep. Pull the motherboard. This is a recipe for a system that overheats, exactly what my N4010 does, and same with my client. Definitely encourages throw-away systems, hopefully after only a year or two, so you have to buy another Dell real soon.

This system rates right up there with most Sony products and the HP Pavilions for being hell to work on. What were the hardware designers thinking. Oh, right. They weren't.

If this is the way all Inspiron 15 systems are made, they are for avoiding.

Compare with the Latitude E6400 and follow-on systems. Remove one large cover from the bottom, and you get access to the whole CPU cooling/ventilating mechanism. Hard drive comes out with two screws.

Michael Dell, I can tell you what ails your personal computer business. It does not take vulture capitalists on your board to lead you. The N4010 is crap, and so is every other Dell system designed like it... Ben Myers

On Wednesday, February 13, 2013 11:05:38 AM UTC-6, Ben Myers wrote:



If this is the way all Inspiron 15 systems are made, they are for avoiding.



I have one that's 3-4 yrs old and it's 1 or 2 screws in the front (bottom) to remove the serial HDD.
The new one, i3...I don't know, it's at college with the oldest!

Yep, the 15R's I've worked on are the same way. To add insult to injury,
it's clear they could have easily added a door in the case bottom right
over the hard drive to facilitate hard drive swaps, but instead they force
you to pull the motherboard. They must be doing it on purpose--as you say,
to force users to abandon the machine sooner and buy new.

On Fri, 15 Feb 2013 00:38:12 +0000 (UTC), dg1261
wrote:

Yep, the 15R's I've worked on are the same way. To add insult to injury,
it's clear they could have easily added a door in the case bottom right
over the hard drive to facilitate hard drive swaps, but instead they force
you to pull the motherboard. They must be doing it on purpose--as you say,
to force users to abandon the machine sooner and buy new.
It is, again, a case of "the Dell from Hell" - as usual. I detest
the brand on the whole. Not a whole lot of intelligent engineering
involved.

On Thursday, February 14, 2013 10:06:45 PM UTC-6, wrote:
On Fri, 15 Feb 2013 00:38:12 +0000 (UTC), dg1261

wrote:



Yep, the 15R's I've worked on are the same way. To add insult to injury,

it's clear they could have easily added a door in the case bottom right

over the hard drive to facilitate hard drive swaps, but instead they force

you to pull the motherboard. They must be doing it on purpose--as you say,

to force users to abandon the machine sooner and buy new.

It is, again, a case of "the Dell from Hell" - as usual. I detest

the brand on the whole. Not a whole lot of intelligent engineering

involved.

I would say the same...but in my case it would be HP/Compaq!

On Fri, 15 Feb 2013 03:41:03 -0800 (PST), Bob_Villa
wrote:

On Thursday, February 14, 2013 10:06:45 PM UTC-6, wrote:
On Fri, 15 Feb 2013 00:38:12 +0000 (UTC), dg1261

wrote:



Yep, the 15R's I've worked on are the same way. To add insult to injury,

it's clear they could have easily added a door in the case bottom right

over the hard drive to facilitate hard drive swaps, but instead they force

you to pull the motherboard. They must be doing it on purpose--as you say,

to force users to abandon the machine sooner and buy new.

It is, again, a case of "the Dell from Hell" - as usual. I detest

the brand on the whole. Not a whole lot of intelligent engineering

involved.

I would say the same...but in my case it would be HP/Compaq!


Hope not. One daughter just bought a laptop and so far so good.

On Thursday, February 14, 2013 11:06:45 PM UTC-5, wrote:
On Fri, 15 Feb 2013 00:38:12 +0000 (UTC), dg1261

wrote:



Yep, the 15R's I've worked on are the same way. To add insult to injury,

it's clear they could have easily added a door in the case bottom right

over the hard drive to facilitate hard drive swaps, but instead they force

you to pull the motherboard. They must be doing it on purpose--as you say,

to force users to abandon the machine sooner and buy new.

It is, again, a case of "the Dell from Hell" - as usual. I detest

the brand on the whole. Not a whole lot of intelligent engineering

involved.

Not as usual. Puhleez, let's not tar and feather all Dells with the same brush. The ones intended for consumers are designed like crap for the most part. The business class ones are better engineered, because if they weren't, Dell might be looking at a pallet-load of computers that a major customer is returning. Yes, there are exceptions, but the rule-of-thumb of business computers are better than consumer ones is a pretty good indicator. I have seen it with Dell, Lenovo and HP. The others don't count for much. Sony plays only in the consumer space, so their boxes are garbage. Toshiba the same. Acer-eGateMachines the same.

Moral of the story: Don't buy your computers at Best Buy, Walmart, Staples, Office Max, or from QVC.

Moral #2: Don't buy consumer-class computers ever.

Moral #3: If you get a consumer-class computer to service (I do all the time), fix it as best as possible and give it back to the owner with a lot of caveats. If you get a consumer-class computer to refurb, don't! Instead, test the parts, and sell off the working parts to the poor buggers who got stuck with these pieces of trash.

On Wednesday, February 13, 2013 12:05:38 PM UTC-5, Ben Myers wrote:
I have a client with a couple of Insprion N4010s he bought independently of me a couple of years ago. And I acquired a used one myself yesterday, not to use, but as a learning experience.



This system is a maintenance nightmare. Two screws to remove the keyboard and 14 screws to remove the touchpad, after which you can access whatever is inside. Well, almost everything. To change out the hard drive, you have to pull the motherboard first. To clean the CPU fan and heat sink, yep. Pull the motherboard. This is a recipe for a system that overheats, exactly what my N4010 does, and same with my client. Definitely encourages throw-away systems, hopefully after only a year or two, so you have to buy another Dell real soon.



This system rates right up there with most Sony products and the HP Pavilions for being hell to work on. What were the hardware designers thinking. Oh, right. They weren't.



If this is the way all Inspiron 15 systems are made, they are for avoiding.



Compare with the Latitude E6400 and follow-on systems. Remove one large cover from the bottom, and you get access to the whole CPU cooling/ventilating mechanism. Hard drive comes out with two screws.



Michael Dell, I can tell you what ails your personal computer business. It does not take vulture capitalists on your board to lead you. The N4010 is crap, and so is every other Dell system designed like it... Ben Myers

Spoke to an old friend in the business today and told him about the N4010. He said, "Everyone has their Edsel." ... Ben

On Thu, 21 Feb 2013 15:44:21 -0800 (PST), Ben Myers
wrote:

On Wednesday, February 13, 2013 12:05:38 PM UTC-5, Ben Myers wrote:
I have a client with a couple of Insprion N4010s he bought independently of me a couple of years ago. And I acquired a used one myself yesterday, not to use, but as a learning experience.



This system is a maintenance nightmare. Two screws to remove the keyboard and 14 screws to remove the touchpad, after which you can access whatever is inside. Well, almost everything. To change out the hard drive, you have to pull the motherboard first. To clean the CPU fan and heat sink, yep. Pull the motherboard. This is a recipe for a system that overheats, exactly what my N4010 does, and same with my client. Definitely encourages throw-away systems, hopefully after only a year or two, so you have to buy another Dell real soon.



This system rates right up there with most Sony products and the HP Pavilions for being hell to work on. What were the hardware designers thinking. Oh, right. They weren't.



If this is the way all Inspiron 15 systems are made, they are for avoiding.



Compare with the Latitude E6400 and follow-on systems. Remove one large cover from the bottom, and you get access to the whole CPU cooling/ventilating mechanism. Hard drive comes out with two screws.



Michael Dell, I can tell you what ails your personal computer business. It does not take vulture capitalists on your board to lead you. The N4010 is crap, and so is every other Dell system designed like it... Ben Myers

Spoke to an old friend in the business today and told him about the N4010. He said, "Everyone has their Edsel." ... Ben