Dell ships it wrong lately

I've ordered 4 laptops since April, and every single one of them said 256MB video card delivered, but all only have 128MB.

Oh, great, today they sent me a replacement video card. The packing slip says, yep, 256MB, so I spend an hour installing it in this new laptop. It is a 128MB card, the exact one I replaced it for and nothing printed on it told me that before I put it in.

Dell sucks.

I'm no longer going to use them.

1 month to deliver the wrong laptops and another month to wait for replacements?

I can go to a local retailer and get what I want in under 1 hour, so that is what I am going to do from now on.

Dell quality is nothing to strive for, agree?

Dell service is costing me a lot of money, time, and aggrevation.

Dell? Forget about it.

"Dude, you didn't have to order a Dell"

How do you install a video card in a laptop?  I thought the video was integrated on the motherboard.

Dell laptops can have their video cards on a separate module, which is meant to make repairing and replacing them easier for their service center.

Heywood_J wrote:

How do you install a video card in a laptop?  I thought the video was integrated on the motherboard.

Presumably they're MXM.

Which graphics card is that? Dell has some scandalous marketing going on. The 128 MB and 256MB ati graphics card in their inspiron 6400 are actually 64mb and 128mb respectively. The other half is utilized from your RAM. So that might explain the difference. Lenovo markets it the right way.

anand.t wrote:

Which graphics card is that? Dell has some scandalous marketing going on. The 128 MB and 256MB ati graphics card in their inspiron 6400 are actually 64mb and 128mb respectively. The other half is utilized from your RAM. So that might explain the difference. Lenovo markets it the right way.

OMG !!!

That is exactly the issue.

Screw DELL. They are guilty of false advertising!!!

"The other half is utilized from your RAM".

This means that they are lying to me when they ship a card that says 256MB and it only has 128MB and poaches from RAM the rest.

LIARS !!


Thanks for the heads-up.... what to do now!

EDIT: Inspiron 6400 here, x 4...

JohnAskew wrote:



OMG !!!

That is exactly the issue.

Screw DELL. They are guilty of false advertising!!!

"The other half is utilized from your RAM".

This means that they are lying to me when they ship a card that says 256MB and it only has 128MB and poaches from RAM the rest.

LIARS !!


Thanks for the heads-up.... what to do now!

EDIT: Inspiron 6400 here, x 4...

What is the return policy there?? Do they charge restocking fees?

Usually if you call them and complain that you were mislead they will offer some credit. Probably 50-100$ in your case. If you can return it I recommend you do it as dell has a new line up of inspirons now. They come with a better processor and a much better graphics card (NVIDIA ®GeForce™8600M GT ).

If nothing works go to the dell blog and simply write a complaint to some blog post. I did that once and the very next day got a call from dell complaint complience team and they fixed the problem.

Dylan C wrote:


Buy a Compaq

It's HP products just with the Compaq name.

My sister and I both have Compaq notebooks and they work well. They were cheap too....well...after the mail in rebates.

Compaq/HP can never compare to a dell notebook deal if you buy it at the write moment Also they come with better base configuration.

I am not sure about UK but in canada lenovo thinkpad is dirt cheap right now. You might want to check that as well.

Dylan C wrote:


Is Lenovo owned by IBM becuase it seems that Lenovo has a "ThinkPad" notebook.

No. IBM sold its hardware unit to lenovo. Now lenevo makes thinkpads. But the quality is the same. And their customer service is some 100x times better and more professional than dell. Since you are in US if you want a thinkpad notebook wait for the 25% off deals. They have it once every 3-4 months and notebook prices are sweet then with some nice upgrades.

anand.t wrote:


If nothing works go to the dell blog and simply write a complaint to some blog post. I did that once and the very next day got a call from dell complaint complience team and they fixed the problem.

Where might I find the "dell blog"?

Thanks anand.t

JohnAskew wrote:



anand.t wrote:  If nothing works go to the dell blog and simply write a complaint to some blog post. I did that once and the very next day got a call from dell complaint complience team and they fixed the problem.

Where might I find the "dell blog"?

Thanks anand.t

http://direct2dell.com/

Just write it any post. They moderate it heavily, so they would for sure read it and forward it to someone higher up.

JohnAskew wrote:



anand.t wrote: Which graphics card is that? Dell has some scandalous marketing going on. The 128 MB and 256MB ati graphics card in their inspiron 6400 are actually 64mb and 128mb respectively. The other half is utilized from your RAM. So that might explain the difference. Lenovo markets it the right way.

OMG !!!

That is exactly the issue.

Screw DELL. They are guilty of false advertising!!!

"The other half is utilized from your RAM".

This means that they are lying to me when they ship a card that says 256MB and it only has 128MB and poaches from RAM the rest.

LIARS !!


Thanks for the heads-up.... what to do now!

EDIT: Inspiron 6400 here, x 4...

I'm in the reseller industry.

ALL of the mfgs do this, it's not a Dell-Specific issue.

They are ALL guilty of misleading specifications.

"VISTA Capable" is one that we are struggling with from all MFGs right now.

Unfortunately, it's a no-win for me.  I end up wearing the blame when people buy an underspecified machine that won't do as advertised, or get accused of trying to rip them off when I try to up-spec them to something I know will achieve their goals.

Dylan C wrote:



JohnAskew wrote:  anand.t wrote: Which graphics card is that? Dell has some scandalous marketing going on. The 128 MB and 256MB ati graphics card in their inspiron 6400 are actually 64mb and 128mb respectively. The other half is utilized from your RAM. So that might explain the difference. Lenovo markets it the right way. OMG !!! That is exactly the issue. Screw DELL. They are guilty of false advertising!!! "The other half is utilized from your RAM". This means that they are lying to me when they ship a card that says 256MB and it only has 128MB and poaches from RAM the rest. LIARS !! Thanks for the heads-up.... what to do now! EDIT: Inspiron 6400 here, x 4...

Buy a Compaq

It's HP products just with the Compaq name.

My sister and I both have Compaq notebooks and they work well. They were cheap too....well...after the mail in rebates.

They are NOT just HP with a Compaq name.

HP use the Compaq brand to market their lower-end consumer-oriented models.

This is not to suggest that they are BAD or NASTY, but they are definitely lower-spec (in terms of intended use and life-span) than their more ruggedly speced HP business cousins.

anand.t wrote:



Dylan C wrote:  Is Lenovo owned by IBM becuase it seems that Lenovo has a "ThinkPad" notebook.

No. IBM sold its hardware unit to lenovo. Now lenevo makes thinkpads. But the quality is the same. And their customer service is some 100x times better and more professional than dell. Since you are in US if you want a thinkpad notebook wait for the 25% off deals. They have it once every 3-4 months and notebook prices are sweet then with some nice upgrades.

Yep, Lenovo always made the Thinkpads for IBM, and simply took over the entire show (including the design and marketing teams) when IBM decided it wanted to get out of that game.

MB wrote:

They are ALL guilty of misleading specifications.

"VISTA Capable" is one that we are struggling with from all MFGs right now.

I've got it differently. My laptop is "Vista Premium Ready", yet has a "Vista Capable" sticker. I daren't wonder why marketing dared say that.

welcome back dylan

Dylan C wrote:



MB wrote:  Dylan C wrote:  JohnAskew wrote:  anand.t wrote: Which graphics card is that? Dell has some scandalous marketing going on. The 128 MB and 256MB ati graphics card in their inspiron 6400 are actually 64mb and 128mb respectively. The other half is utilized from your RAM. So that might explain the difference. Lenovo markets it the right way. OMG !!! That is exactly the issue. Screw DELL. They are guilty of false advertising!!! "The other half is utilized from your RAM". This means that they are lying to me when they ship a card that says 256MB and it only has 128MB and poaches from RAM the rest. LIARS !! Thanks for the heads-up.... what to do now! EDIT: Inspiron 6400 here, x 4... Buy a Compaq It's HP products just with the Compaq name. My sister and I both have Compaq notebooks and they work well. They were cheap too....well...after the mail in rebates. They are NOT just HP with a Compaq name. HP use the Compaq brand to market their lower-end consumer-oriented models.

And there you have it folks! The definition of a contradictory statement!

Nah, I'm just playing. However, that does contradict itself.

No it doesn't.

I'm saying that Compaq is not just a re-badged HP, but that HP use the Compaq brand for a specific range of computers, that they do not use the HP brand for.

Is that clear ??

DELL is claiming that since ATI advertises their graphics card as "uses shared memory" on the ATI site, they are off the hook.

The first of the four Inpspiron 6400's I got this summer has an Nvidia card, who does NOT advertise "uses shared memory" on their site for this card whatsoever. So DELL is on the hook with this one -- (not that they give a rats arse about it so far!)...

I bought the first one (with Nvidia), then ordered 3 more exact-clones of it. But then they came with the ATI cards, which is not an exact clone, and not what I had requested.

The fact that they sell PCs with "256MB graphics card" that only has 128MB memory on it is shameful, false advertising. This is not over by a long shot. I bought from DELL, not ATI or Nvidia.


DELL ships it wrong. Nothing else can be said about it.

Watch YOUR back!

"Dude, you didn't have to get a DELL".