laptop purchase

I haven't kept up with the Dell laptops lately. My daughter wants to
replace her Dell laptop with a new one but wants a decent video card
in it. I don't know her budget but I'm guessing $700 or less.
Personally I'd prefer her to have windows 7 on this new laptop but she
may not care. Any suggestions or suggestions from the Dell outlet
store?

On Dec 17, 11:50*am, RnR wrote:
I haven't kept up with the Dell laptops lately. *My daughter wants to
replace her Dell laptop with a new one but wants a decent video card
in it. * I don't know her budget but I'm guessing $700 or less.
Personally I'd prefer her to have windows 7 on this new laptop but she
may not care. *Any suggestions or suggestions from the Dell outlet
store?

Having recently been through the purchasing experience, here is my 2
cents.

If you want windows 7 you will probably have to go to the outlet
store, I think all new dells now have windows 8, except for the
precision line. If you go the outlet route, you really have to be
careful, after receiving it, and thoroughly checking out your purchase
before the 21 day return date expires.

I recently purchased two outlet laptops and had to send both of them
back due to issues that could not be fixed. I wont get into all the
details, but I got the feeling that the dell TS support knew about the
problem on at least one of the laptops and gave me a run around about
fixing it attempting, I think, to get past the 21 day return date.

However, if you do send it back within the allotted time, they are
very good about giving a refund and even paying the postage for
returning the laptops. The only thing I was out was the initial
shipping cost on both laptops.

One of the TS support personnel told me that an outlet product is a
"hit" or "miss". In my case I "missed" on both purchases. Not sure I
would ever try out another outlet product.

On the other hand I am sure that many here have had positive
experiences with outlet products, so I am just speaking about my own
recent experience.

I ended up going new with the precision line, as there is a really
good coupon for significant discounts. The nice thing is they come
with windows 7.
And best of all they have a superior cooling system that is essential
for cooling the good graphics and main processor. However, I am not
sure about staying close to your $700 budget.

Larry

My preference for (small business) outlet stores is keep sending it in for
repair until it works. It eventually will. (rather than returning it for
refund).

You get the additional pleasure of diagnosing it yourself.
--


On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.

On 12/17/2012 1:50 PM, RnR wrote:
I haven't kept up with the Dell laptops lately. My daughter wants to
replace her Dell laptop with a new one but wants a decent video card
in it. I don't know her budget but I'm guessing $700 or less.
Personally I'd prefer her to have windows 7 on this new laptop but she
may not care. Any suggestions or suggestions from the Dell outlet
store?

I just bought a 14" Vostro from the Small Business Outlet
and it works great. I buy all my stuff from the outlet and
have no problems. They all come with the same warranties as
new ones do.

On Mon, 17 Dec 2012 17:50:24 -0800 (PST), Larry
wrote:

On Dec 17, 11:50*am, RnR wrote:
I haven't kept up with the Dell laptops lately. *My daughter wants to
replace her Dell laptop with a new one but wants a decent video card
in it. * I don't know her budget but I'm guessing $700 or less.
Personally I'd prefer her to have windows 7 on this new laptop but she
may not care. *Any suggestions or suggestions from the Dell outlet
store?

Having recently been through the purchasing experience, here is my 2
cents.

If you want windows 7 you will probably have to go to the outlet
store, I think all new dells now have windows 8, except for the
precision line. If you go the outlet route, you really have to be
careful, after receiving it, and thoroughly checking out your purchase
before the 21 day return date expires.

I recently purchased two outlet laptops and had to send both of them
back due to issues that could not be fixed. I wont get into all the
details, but I got the feeling that the dell TS support knew about the
problem on at least one of the laptops and gave me a run around about
fixing it attempting, I think, to get past the 21 day return date.

However, if you do send it back within the allotted time, they are
very good about giving a refund and even paying the postage for
returning the laptops. The only thing I was out was the initial
shipping cost on both laptops.

One of the TS support personnel told me that an outlet product is a
"hit" or "miss". In my case I "missed" on both purchases. Not sure I
would ever try out another outlet product.

On the other hand I am sure that many here have had positive
experiences with outlet products, so I am just speaking about my own
recent experience.

I ended up going new with the precision line, as there is a really
good coupon for significant discounts. The nice thing is they come
with windows 7.
And best of all they have a superior cooling system that is essential
for cooling the good graphics and main processor. However, I am not
sure about staying close to your $700 budget.

Larry


I used to like the outlet store a lot but you give me something to
ponder. Thanks Larry for the help.

On Tue, 18 Dec 2012 08:07:20 -0500, Ron Hardin
wrote:

My preference for (small business) outlet stores is keep sending it in for
repair until it works. It eventually will. (rather than returning it for
refund).

You get the additional pleasure of diagnosing it yourself.


Interesting idea.... thanks.

On Dec 18, 6:07*am, Ron Hardin wrote:
My preference for (small business) outlet stores is keep sending it in for
repair until it works. *It eventually will. *(rather than returning it for
refund).

You get the additional pleasure of diagnosing it yourself.
--


On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.


The buy experience on both these laptops was more of a headache than a
feeling of pleasure.

On Dec 18, 6:43*am, Pen wrote:
On 12/17/2012 1:50 PM, RnR wrote: I haven't kept up with the Dell laptops lately. *My daughter wants to
replace her Dell laptop with a new one but wants a decent video card
in it. * I don't know her budget but I'm guessing $700 or less.
Personally I'd prefer her to have windows 7 on this new laptop but she
may not care. *Any suggestions or suggestions from the Dell outlet
store?

I just bought a 14" Vostro from the Small Business Outlet
and it works great. I buy all my stuff from the outlet and
have no problems. They all come with the same warranties as
new ones do.

As I said: "On the other hand I am sure that many here have had
positive
experiences with outlet products, so I am just speaking about my own
recent experience."

Larry wrote:

On Dec 18, 6:07 am, Ron Hardin wrote:
My preference for (small business) outlet stores is keep sending it in for
repair until it works. It eventually will. (rather than returning it for
refund).

You get the additional pleasure of diagnosing it yourself.
--


On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.

The buy experience on both these laptops was more of a headache than a
feeling of pleasure.

We only buy particularly good deals, pricewise; so they're worth getting working,
which helps with the pleasure angle.

But there's also interesting detective work.

Like for instance they most like pass the Dell diagnostics, so you have to look for
things that Dell doesn't test.

A common one is the video card as windows uses it. See if the thing stays up in
safe mode with networking, which doesn't really turn on the video card. We had a
couple we diagnosed correctly that way.

Having diagnosed it, you have to get the depot to replace the motherboard, which
may take a few iterations back and forth, at Dell's expense. Amazing to tell, when
they finally do replace the MB, the problem is solved.

Be polite but don't give in.
--


On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.

On Dec 18, 3:24*pm, Ron Hardin wrote:
Larry wrote:

On Dec 18, 6:07 am, Ron Hardin wrote:
My preference for (small business) outlet stores is keep sending it in for
repair until it works. *It eventually will. *(rather than returning it for
refund).

You get the additional pleasure of diagnosing it yourself.
--


On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.

The buy experience on both these laptops was more of a headache than a
feeling of pleasure.

We only buy particularly good deals, pricewise; so they're worth getting working,
which helps with the pleasure angle.

But there's also interesting detective work.

Like for instance they most like pass the Dell diagnostics, so you have to look for
things that Dell doesn't test.

A common one is the video card as windows uses it. *See if the thing stays up in
safe mode with networking, which doesn't really turn on the video card. *We had a
couple we diagnosed correctly that way.

Having diagnosed it, you have to get the depot to replace the motherboard, which
may take a few iterations back and forth, at Dell's expense. *Amazing to tell, when
they finally do replace the MB, the problem is solved.

Be polite but don't give in.
--


On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.

What you say makes sense and I agree, providing Dell tech support will
cooperate.

I have purchase several new computers from dell in the past; however,
these two recent laptops were my first experience with dell outlet
products. They were XPS 17 L702x, a product that Dell had just stopped
producing, hence I had to purchase them through the outlet store.

The first laptop had a display flicker problem really bad. Dell tech
support worked on the problem remotely several hours a day for over a
week and said they could not fix the problem. They offered to replace
a number of components including the motherboard. While dell would
have replaced hardware components, I was not confident that replacing
hardware would have solve the problem. And besides that replacement
process would have taken me beyond the 21 day return period. I did
not want to chance keeping a problematic laptop beyond the return
date.

The second laptop was more stable but had an even stranger problem.
Both laptops were core- i7 processor running at 2.2 GHz with turbo
boost taking it up to 3.1. On the second laptop, strangely enough, the
turbo boost was not working. The core-i7 laptop was booting even
slower than my dual core optiplex 380. The WEI scores were even
considerable lower. The turbo boost monitor was registering a flat 2.2
Ghz speed. The tech support folks worked on it for over a week and
were not successful.

The case then was given to "level 2" support which turned out to be a
manager. He called and eventually did a remote access to the laptop
and declared that it was not a hardware problem. In fact he said it
was working fine. (Inspite of the fact his tech support people said
it was not!) We went back and forth a bit and he finally said that he
would have to study some documents then get back to me in a couple of
days. He called a couple of days later and said he needed more time.

At that point the 21 day return period was about to expire, so I
arranged to return the laptop to Dell before the expiration date.

That is the situation I encounter two times when I purchased an outlet
product. To Dell's credit, In both cases Dell paid for the return
shipment and quickly refunded the purchase price. That is why I
continue to do business with them.

However, the going back and forth process you mention in attempting to
resolve the problem, would have put me beyond the return date and I
might have been stuck with a laptop in either case that possibly could
not have been fixed.

I was not willing to take that chance keeping problematic
equipment.

And I suppose the same would go with even a new purchase not
performing up to par right out of the box.

So that is why I suggest really checking out a computer purchase
before the return date expires and probably more so with outlet
products. And btw, the count down to the end of the return date
starts when the computer is shipped. So you will lose a few days
there.