Dell? DON’T BUY! (Inspiron 5150 laptop)

PeIK

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Nov 2, 2003
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Short version: only about Inspiron 5150, read long version about why not to buy from Dell at all.

Do not buy Inspiron 5150 (SAME PROBLEM ALL OVER THE WORLD), It was a keyboard error which doesn’t allow you to hold down 2 buttons at the same time, e.g. (hold down W and press 2). The keys doesn’t work in combination the horizontal way e.g. (3-e-d-c) so on. This makes the laptop useless for pretty much all games, even a game like EverQuest as you can not run and use hotkey 2. Dell will not admit it’s an error. If you have bought it before the 14 days return right, RETURN THE LAPTOP AT THIS MOMENT! Rest of you, I suggest you contact your country’s Consumer Watchdog.

Long version:

Info: Inspiron 5150 with 3 year next business day warranty + complete care insurance price of £1900 in total with the extra equipment.

As many of you, I looked through Dell’s homepage. Did the basic research but didn’t come up with any negative things except some blue screen errors. Had only good things about Dell and their costumer support so on.
Boy was I wrong.
Ordered my Inspiron 5150 laptop August the 14th, where I asked if it would be delivered before the 1st September as I needed it for my school which started that day. Was told it wouldn’t be a problem and I would most likely receive it the 27th. Called them when I didn’t receive it the 27th and asked what was going on? I was told that they were missing a component for the laptop (great service huh ? no call no nothing). But I would receive it the 1st, even though I asked for it BEFORE the 1st. Well, nothing to do about it, so I just waited. However I didn’t receive it the 1st. Date got finalized and I was to receive it the 3rd September between 8am and 2pm. Yet again Dell amazed me, the laptop wasn’t there? Called them yet again and asked what on earth was going on. Apparently the delivery guy thought it wasn’t important to deliver all the computers on his route and skipped my stop. Was time to play hardball to actually receive the laptop, so I told them that either the laptop was in front of my house before 6pm or I would cancel the order. Amazing it worked, but then again, its money we are talking about. Laptop arrived at 5pm and I thought, finally. Laptop didn’t seem to have any problems so I was happy (no pixel errors, boot up problems or anything).

The 25th I was playing a game Counter-strike on my laptop and I thought to myself, that’s weird. While I was running I couldn’t change to the pistol (run-key w and weapon change to pistol 2). Closed down the game and started testing. Sure enough, the keys didn’t work in combination with each other, couldn’t hold down w and press 2 at the same time. This made the computer useless for all gaming purpose, as you often in games need buttons near each other. WordPad test would show like this:

Holding down W and pressing 2 afterwards,

Wwwwwww

On a normal computer, it would look like this

Wwwwwww2

Also found a design problem (the rubber thingy’s that are on the top of the screen wasn’t sticking out enough, so after a while you could see keyboard marks and touchpad mark on the screen.

It had to be a mistake, an error which could be fixed without problems, yet again I was wrong.
Called Dell and told them about the error, after around 15 minutes of talking with the supporter. I was informed that it could be fixed with a new keyboard and that I would receive it the next day. Waited for it but it never arrived. Called them again the day after and talked to another supporter, he informed me that the order for the keyboard was cancelled due to lack of testing, I thought, what ???.. I did everything the other supporter asked me to, including the Dell software keyboard test. Well, yet again I ran the same tests with the new supporter and everything. Finally he said he would send me a new keyboard for the laptop. The next day a technician arrived to my home with the new keyboard. I ran the WordPad test with the new keyboard and it didn’t work. The technician told me he would call dell and ask them about this problem and would call me back.
It never happened. Went like this for 21 days with promises of phone calls from Dell, which I never got. Easy solutions so on. IT NEVER HAPPENED! Finally the 16th October I received an email where I was told, I could not get back my money nor get another laptop which could perform this action. If I wished this “special feature” I should have asked for it BEFORE I bought the computer. However, they would give me a USB-Keyboard I could connect to the laptop if I wished it.
Sent dell a final email about this problem, never received a reply.
So here it is, my warning to all who wish to buy Dell computers, DO NOT BUY FROM DELL.

Do spread the word and warn others.

-PeIK
 

vizual_assasin

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Nov 17, 2003
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18,530
very very harsh i hate dell to
the keys are not the problem.

let me guess you have a little thinkg that looks like a alarm clock on your taskbar?

go to my computer then comtrol panel

now go to accesibility options

uncheck everything in keyboard.

if that is what i think the problem is then that should fix it