Well, I received this Laptop a little over a week ago and must say for the most part that it is quite nice.
1. The WSXGA+ screen is a perfect resolution for me, with no dead pixels and very minimal ghosting.
2. The 1.8 Dothan and ATI 9600 Pro Turbo combination is great, and can power through most programs and games to my satisfaction.
3. The Intell 2200BG Wireless card is great, and I have been able to connect to many wirelless routers around town with very little effort.
4. The Hitachi 60GB 7200rpm drive is very fast and quiet. Just wish it came in a higher capacity.
5. Aesthetically the I8600 laptops look is still very current and is actually nice looking. I wish the DSUB output and some of the other ports were covered up with a little door maybe, but other that that the quality is excellent. It weighs in at 6.5lbs. which isn't as light and mobile as I thought it would be, and man am I glad I didn't go for the 8-10lb beasts out there.
6. The Sony DW-D56A +/- DVDRW has been nothing but trouble for me. It cannot burn any type of cd-r reliably without errors that I have tried so far. More on this issue below.
7. Dell customer service. Please read more on this below.
Here is my story.......
Dealing with Dell when ordering this laptop was not so great an experience. If you talk to someone, please do not give them any of your personal info until you are 100% ready to buy. I did and got stuck with someone who was new and did not know one single thing about there product line, and who also would not even negotiate one ioda. Long story short: they lock you in and the you cannot talk to anyone else about the order or even about purchasing another product from them. It took me a week of badgering the supervisor to get the salesman removed from my profile.
Ok, now after that fiasco was remedied, I talked to a really good salesman who combine coupons and current sales, plus gave me 50% off extended warranties. Ok now I was a happy camper.
12 Days later the package arrived. Great I thought! Opened her up, turned her on and wow did I have a huge smile on my face. After using it for a day or two I tried to burn a data backup cd. No Go! Nero CD/DVD Speed scanned this disk ad it was full of errors. I tried several different writing speeds. No goog. Went to the store and bought a new brand of disc. Still no good, disc full of errors. Called up Dell Tech support, informed the guy of my plight, he politley asked me to hold for a bout 5 minutes, I said ok. 35 minutes later he came back on and said they were out of stock on my item and would send the olde DW-R56A. I said no thanks. He said on, the we'll send you a whole new system. I said why? If you can build a new one, why cant you send the drive? (I didn't want to get hosed with a new screen that had dead pixels or another problem may occur) He said hold the line and I'll get you customer care to set up the complete system exchange. 40 minutes later the customer care lady was on the line. She said we are going the exchange the whole system. Please hold while I do this. 25 minutes later she was back on the line saying that her supervisor said they would just send me the replacement drive. I said huh? After 90 minutes on hold you are going to do what I asked in the first place? Ok so it was set up.
I received the drive the very next day. Arrrgghh!!! They sent me the wrong drive!! I called them back and said what the heck? I am not stupid, why are you trying to pawn this old version DVDRW + only drive when my sstem was configured with the DVDRW +/- drive? She said we sent you the exact same drive. I said no you didn't. She said yes we did. I said please read what it says on my system parts list and then look at the part you sent for replacement. She said ok we'll send you another. Please hold the line. 40 minutes later she came back on and gave me my tracking number. 3 days pass and no part. So I call them up and they say. Sorry the part is backordered. I am now furious with them. The lady says please hold while I look into this matter. I say ok. 10 minutes later she is back on and says that there are some very wierd things going on here. I said like what? She says, well you have 3 DVDRW +/- drives on back-order for you right at this moment plus one complete system enroute to you at this moment. I said huh? What the heck is going on there? She says hold on, I'll dig a bit deaper and see what I can come up with, please hold. 15 minutes later she is back on the line again. She say, what do you want me to do? Cancel the orders for the DVDRW +/- drives? I said what would I do with them all? She says ok. This is what we'll do. You are getting a brand new system within a day or two, so I will cancel the other orders for, and here is the tracking number for the new laptop. I said please let me speak to your supervisor about this, because I am very unhappy an would like some kind of compensation. She said your new computer is compensation enough and we won give you anything else. I said ok thanks, but I would still like to speak to the supervisor. She said please hold. 10 minutes later she was back on the line and said no supervisor was available, but she was willing to offer me $150 rebate to my contract if that would make me happy. I said ok great.
Anyway, my new laptop should be here within a day or two. I hope I will not have any more trouble with DEll.
1. The WSXGA+ screen is a perfect resolution for me, with no dead pixels and very minimal ghosting.
2. The 1.8 Dothan and ATI 9600 Pro Turbo combination is great, and can power through most programs and games to my satisfaction.
3. The Intell 2200BG Wireless card is great, and I have been able to connect to many wirelless routers around town with very little effort.
4. The Hitachi 60GB 7200rpm drive is very fast and quiet. Just wish it came in a higher capacity.
5. Aesthetically the I8600 laptops look is still very current and is actually nice looking. I wish the DSUB output and some of the other ports were covered up with a little door maybe, but other that that the quality is excellent. It weighs in at 6.5lbs. which isn't as light and mobile as I thought it would be, and man am I glad I didn't go for the 8-10lb beasts out there.
6. The Sony DW-D56A +/- DVDRW has been nothing but trouble for me. It cannot burn any type of cd-r reliably without errors that I have tried so far. More on this issue below.
7. Dell customer service. Please read more on this below.
Here is my story.......
Dealing with Dell when ordering this laptop was not so great an experience. If you talk to someone, please do not give them any of your personal info until you are 100% ready to buy. I did and got stuck with someone who was new and did not know one single thing about there product line, and who also would not even negotiate one ioda. Long story short: they lock you in and the you cannot talk to anyone else about the order or even about purchasing another product from them. It took me a week of badgering the supervisor to get the salesman removed from my profile.
Ok, now after that fiasco was remedied, I talked to a really good salesman who combine coupons and current sales, plus gave me 50% off extended warranties. Ok now I was a happy camper.
12 Days later the package arrived. Great I thought! Opened her up, turned her on and wow did I have a huge smile on my face. After using it for a day or two I tried to burn a data backup cd. No Go! Nero CD/DVD Speed scanned this disk ad it was full of errors. I tried several different writing speeds. No goog. Went to the store and bought a new brand of disc. Still no good, disc full of errors. Called up Dell Tech support, informed the guy of my plight, he politley asked me to hold for a bout 5 minutes, I said ok. 35 minutes later he came back on and said they were out of stock on my item and would send the olde DW-R56A. I said no thanks. He said on, the we'll send you a whole new system. I said why? If you can build a new one, why cant you send the drive? (I didn't want to get hosed with a new screen that had dead pixels or another problem may occur) He said hold the line and I'll get you customer care to set up the complete system exchange. 40 minutes later the customer care lady was on the line. She said we are going the exchange the whole system. Please hold while I do this. 25 minutes later she was back on the line saying that her supervisor said they would just send me the replacement drive. I said huh? After 90 minutes on hold you are going to do what I asked in the first place? Ok so it was set up.
I received the drive the very next day. Arrrgghh!!! They sent me the wrong drive!! I called them back and said what the heck? I am not stupid, why are you trying to pawn this old version DVDRW + only drive when my sstem was configured with the DVDRW +/- drive? She said we sent you the exact same drive. I said no you didn't. She said yes we did. I said please read what it says on my system parts list and then look at the part you sent for replacement. She said ok we'll send you another. Please hold the line. 40 minutes later she came back on and gave me my tracking number. 3 days pass and no part. So I call them up and they say. Sorry the part is backordered. I am now furious with them. The lady says please hold while I look into this matter. I say ok. 10 minutes later she is back on and says that there are some very wierd things going on here. I said like what? She says, well you have 3 DVDRW +/- drives on back-order for you right at this moment plus one complete system enroute to you at this moment. I said huh? What the heck is going on there? She says hold on, I'll dig a bit deaper and see what I can come up with, please hold. 15 minutes later she is back on the line again. She say, what do you want me to do? Cancel the orders for the DVDRW +/- drives? I said what would I do with them all? She says ok. This is what we'll do. You are getting a brand new system within a day or two, so I will cancel the other orders for, and here is the tracking number for the new laptop. I said please let me speak to your supervisor about this, because I am very unhappy an would like some kind of compensation. She said your new computer is compensation enough and we won give you anything else. I said ok thanks, but I would still like to speak to the supervisor. She said please hold. 10 minutes later she was back on the line and said no supervisor was available, but she was willing to offer me $150 rebate to my contract if that would make me happy. I said ok great.
Anyway, my new laptop should be here within a day or two. I hope I will not have any more trouble with DEll.
