Inspiron N4010 is a horror show

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


Be careful... I bet the under 50 crowd don't know what an Edsel is.
Reminds me of a teenager in a house that had a rotary phone and when
the phone rang, didn't know where to answer the phone.

I have an older Dell Optiplex and it's not too hard to work on.

On Fri, 22 Feb 2013 14:12:14 GMT, wrote:

I have an older Dell Optiplex and it's not too hard to work on.
Optiplex are Business class machines.
I second the notion, to NOT Buy the consumer models.
(I own a GX60, and a GX280-800FSB. Both need just fingers for basic PM
service)

On Sunday, February 24, 2013 3:00:50 PM UTC-5, Steve Urbach wrote:
On Fri, 22 Feb 2013 14:12:14 GMT, wrote:



I have an older Dell Optiplex and it's not too hard to work on.

Optiplex are Business class machines.

I second the notion, to NOT Buy the consumer models.

(I own a GX60, and a GX280-800FSB. Both need just fingers for basic PM

service)

Well, I have not yet run into a difficult to repair Dell desktop. Some were a little tricky, but never nearly impossible. Your GX60 and GX280 are kinda long in the tooth, but, hey, they still work.

But this N4010 (14R) must have been designed by some Sony or Toshiba design engineer-spys, to sabotage Dell. Looks a lot like industrial espionage when a system comes out this badly.

I finally dismembered the damned thing, to sell off the working parts on eBay. It ain't worth the time, money and effort to get a battery, optical drive and touchpad plastic to fix up this system to foist off on someone else.. But if someone needs to repair theirs, I'm happy to sell them the parts.... Ben Myers

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

On Wed, 13 Feb 2013 09:05:38 -0800, 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

Stay away from anything ending in "Z", and anything labelled "Studio".

The new 6400 series, as you mentioned, is a dream I hope a woman designed
it, cause I want to kiss her. That said, watch out your clients don't
take it off the docking station by ripping it off, cause then you have to
replace the frame.

Most of them are getting better. The ones getting worse are the ones
designed in China.

On Tue, 26 Feb 2013 08:27:08 -0800, Ben Myers wrote:

On Sunday, February 24, 2013 3:00:50 PM UTC-5, Steve Urbach wrote:
On Fri, 22 Feb 2013 14:12:14 GMT, wrote:



I have an older Dell Optiplex and it's not too hard to work on.

Optiplex are Business class machines.

I second the notion, to NOT Buy the consumer models.

(I own a GX60, and a GX280-800FSB. Both need just fingers for basic PM

service)

Well, I have not yet run into a difficult to repair Dell desktop. Some
were a little tricky, but never nearly impossible. Your GX60 and GX280
are kinda long in the tooth, but, hey, they still work.

But this N4010 (14R) must have been designed by some Sony or Toshiba
design engineer-spys, to sabotage Dell. Looks a lot like industrial
espionage when a system comes out this badly.

I finally dismembered the damned thing, to sell off the working parts on
eBay. It ain't worth the time, money and effort to get a battery,
optical drive and touchpad plastic to fix up this system to foist off on
someone else. But if someone needs to repair theirs, I'm happy to sell
them the parts... Ben Myers

Some of the SFF units, like the Optiplex, they could give us 5 more mm
around the damn motherboard!

Hachiroku ???? wrote:
On Tue, 26 Feb 2013 08:27:08 -0800, Ben Myers wrote:

On Sunday, February 24, 2013 3:00:50 PM UTC-5, Steve Urbach wrote:
On Fri, 22 Feb 2013 14:12:14 GMT, wrote:



I have an older Dell Optiplex and it's not too hard to work on.
Optiplex are Business class machines.

I second the notion, to NOT Buy the consumer models.

(I own a GX60, and a GX280-800FSB. Both need just fingers for basic PM

service)
Well, I have not yet run into a difficult to repair Dell desktop. Some
were a little tricky, but never nearly impossible. Your GX60 and GX280
are kinda long in the tooth, but, hey, they still work.

But this N4010 (14R) must have been designed by some Sony or Toshiba
design engineer-spys, to sabotage Dell. Looks a lot like industrial
espionage when a system comes out this badly.

I finally dismembered the damned thing, to sell off the working parts on
eBay. It ain't worth the time, money and effort to get a battery,
optical drive and touchpad plastic to fix up this system to foist off on
someone else. But if someone needs to repair theirs, I'm happy to sell
them the parts... Ben Myers

Some of the SFF units, like the Optiplex, they could give us 5 more mm
around the damn motherboard!



Wouldn't have hurt to get better airflow through that case either!


--
Steve W.

On Sat, 09 Mar 2013 03:01:34 -0500, Steve W. wrote:

Hachiroku ???? wrote:
On Tue, 26 Feb 2013 08:27:08 -0800, Ben Myers wrote:

On Sunday, February 24, 2013 3:00:50 PM UTC-5, Steve Urbach wrote:
On Fri, 22 Feb 2013 14:12:14 GMT, wrote:



I have an older Dell Optiplex and it's not too hard to work on.
Optiplex are Business class machines.

I second the notion, to NOT Buy the consumer models.

(I own a GX60, and a GX280-800FSB. Both need just fingers for basic
PM

service)
Well, I have not yet run into a difficult to repair Dell desktop.
Some were a little tricky, but never nearly impossible. Your GX60 and
GX280 are kinda long in the tooth, but, hey, they still work.

But this N4010 (14R) must have been designed by some Sony or Toshiba
design engineer-spys, to sabotage Dell. Looks a lot like industrial
espionage when a system comes out this badly.

I finally dismembered the damned thing, to sell off the working parts
on eBay. It ain't worth the time, money and effort to get a battery,
optical drive and touchpad plastic to fix up this system to foist off
on someone else. But if someone needs to repair theirs, I'm happy to
sell them the parts... Ben Myers

Some of the SFF units, like the Optiplex, they could give us 5 more mm
around the damn motherboard!



Wouldn't have hurt to get better airflow through that case either!

Have you seen a lot of issues with the autosensing PSU all of a sudden
dropping dead?

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.

Which of the name brands actually has real engineers and industrial designers designing their laptops? Apple? Yes! Probably Lenovo. Dell? Doubtful. They've outsourced just about everything else in desktops and laptops to their Pacific Rim ODMs. HPaq? Ditto. And they are all guilty of foisting off cheaply designed hardware on consumers.