DS dead pixel disaster

[Emily]

I bought a DS yesterday, and one for my sister. I was very happy and thought the system was cool and mario 64X4 was fun. But then....when i turned it on for the fifth time.....one..dead..pixel!!! @#%!$*!!!!!! What the @%$#!&*#%!!!!!
I was royaly pissed! It was only one it sucked all the same. Later my Ds shut off after only like 30 minutes of play for no reason, and appeared to still be charged up , I even played for another 30 min befor it did it again :angry:

Well I ranted, and took it back to Game Crazy. The Bungholes werent going to replace it, and told me to send in to Nintendo to be repaired! :angry:
Luckily, a Nintendo rep was in the store, and he talked them into trading mine in( said NOA would refund them for the faulty unit)and the dude was super cool too! My new DS is charging now, hopefully there wont be any more issues...

Anyone else get a faulty DS?

[xaer0knight]

NOA has been very good at sticking to there warrenties. i have had problems that i couldnt fix and Nintendo was very helpful and listened to everything. Even fixed the thing, i havent had a problem since the N64...

I have never had a faulty Nintendo product, my bro has had a XBOX go up, MS sent him a box to pack it and even paid for the shipping. The HDD went up, replaced it, but stilled had problems...He didnt follow up, MS listens. Finally he had to buy a new one last month.

[Querjek]

My DS has 2 semi-dead pixels, one blue most of the time and one green most of the time. I've decided that I'm not going to return it, though, as after playing 3 hours of Mario 64 and Feel the Magic, I rarely noticed these minor imperfections. Hell, my GBASP has some "dust" near the middle of the screen, but it became unnoticable during gameplay.

[Emily]

My only problem with a Nintendo product before this was a weak Open button on my Gamecube. Go to close the lid and the botton would get stuck , keeping it from closing. I never returned it, and kinda felt bad about it . I decided since my power supply was also wonky, I might as well replace it.I dont like to have to force myself to like a system, and that dead pixel just annoyed me to death.

By the way, if you have 2 dead pixels, return it!!! Why not, it wont cost u anything.
They let me keep the extra stylus ....woohoo?

[Predatorxs]

My only problem with a Nintendo product before this was a weak Open button on my Gamecube. Go to close the lid and the botton would get stuck , keeping it from closing. I never returned it, and kinda felt bad about it . I decided since my power supply was also wonky, I might as well replace it.I dont like to have to force myself to like a system, and that dead pixel just annoyed me to death.

By the way, if you have 2 dead pixels, return it!!! Why not, it wont cost u anything.
They let me keep the extra stylus ....woohoo?

I think that GC "open" Button stickin, is a design fault i have had 2 american GC's and both have had the same problem.

the first one to have the problem, i opened and there was a tiny but of liquid under the button, i cleaned this out and it was ok after that, i don't think this has anything to do with the problem, but i might open my last "Platinum" GC and see whats going on, but it's not a major problem and doesn't happen all that often..

Ohh F**k it i'll just leave the thing alone, i still love my GC, even though, i now really, really like the xbox! :P

PS, anyone have a rought idea how many games there are for the GC and the xbox, i have asked this before in other threads, just raising it again to see if someone might know? ;)

http://www.xs.dsl.pipex.com/avator/ms_ufo.gif..XS ( American Gamecube games collection 112 )

[FantasiaWHT]

In my district alone 3 DS's were returned to stores with dead pixels. Was about 5% of our total sales... kinda scary.

Game stores should accept defective returns within their return period. EB is 14 days. Manufacturer's warranties will also cover it, but you have to pay for shipping both ways and wait for a while without your system.

[joshnickerson]

Launch systems always have some issues that need to be ironed out. Just always be sure when you buy one to ask what the return policy is. :)

Though sometimes some customers will abuse it. (http://forum.walmartsucks.com/ftopic7138.html)

[goatdan]

Dead pixels also drive me absolutely up the wall. I haven't bought a DS, but I deal with a lot of flat panel LCD monitors where I work, and I can spot a dead pixel a mile away. I'll replace an entire monitor if I see ONE pixel that doesn't look quite right.

Just as a note, of the LCD monitors that I get from Dell, probably 10% have at least one burnt out pixel. Unfortunately, I think that the technology to make the screens perfect just isn't here yet.

EDIT: I'll add this in too. I would expect that the dead pixel rate on this first batch is probably 15%, but only 5% were returned to your district. Secondly, I would expect that the PSP will start out life with the same pixel failure rate, and would slowly get better through time, as the DS probably will... Although my experience with Dell suggests otherwise.

[evilmess]

I think that GC "open" Button stickin, is a design fault i have had 2 american GC's and both have had the same problem.


Our first GC had that problem. It was later replaced by Ninty for a seperate unrelated issue and then that GC was later traded away for an Xbox. Whatta trip, I had no idea other people experienced that "sticky button: problem too. I now have a third NIB GC as an xmas gift for the family, I hope I don't have that sticky button problem again.

[Flack]

I have never had a faulty Nintendo product

Really? You're lucky, since pretty much every NES unit ever made has developed the "blinky" problem ...

[Raedon]

I have never had a faulty Nintendo product

Really? You're lucky, since pretty much every NES unit ever made has developed the "blinky" problem ...

*GREY* Nooooo!!!! *BLINK BLINK BLINK* son of a... *BLOW* *CORRUPT VIDEO* ARRGGG!!! I just want to play Tetris!

Also there is the N64 controller which dies after a 2 hour game of Mario Party.

[Querjek]

My only problem with a Nintendo product before this was a weak Open button on my Gamecube. Go to close the lid and the botton would get stuck , keeping it from closing. I never returned it, and kinda felt bad about it . I decided since my power supply was also wonky, I might as well replace it.I dont like to have to force myself to like a system, and that dead pixel just annoyed me to death.

By the way, if you have 2 dead pixels, return it!!! Why not, it wont cost u anything.
They let me keep the extra stylus ....woohoo?
I've been waiting so long for the DS now that I can't see myself wiothout one... expecially with this upcoming long weekend and all.

[FantasiaWHT]

I have never had a faulty Nintendo product

Really? You're lucky, since pretty much every NES unit ever made has developed the "blinky" problem ...

That's not exactly the definition of "faulty"... all electronic equipment will break down over time/use. Faulty would be something wrong with it in the beginning or shortly after.

[Raedon]

I have never had a faulty Nintendo product

Really? You're lucky, since pretty much every NES unit ever made has developed the "blinky" problem ...

That's not exactly the definition of "faulty"... all electronic equipment will break down over time/use. Faulty would be something wrong with it in the beginning or shortly after.

Well, I find 2600's that fire right up no problem and are covered in mud but every toaster NES blinks.

Also we can talk about the SNES yellow plastic but that was a lack of quality control that doesn't effect games.

Also, most Virtual Boy systems have failures if dropped less then 3 foot onto carpet and it was sold as a portable. Though the original GB was a tank!

Again, all N64 controllers are designed to fail.

In fact the most solid Nintendo systems are the SNES and GC.

The worst consoles for failure in my book are the Xbox or PS2.. not sure which is tops as of right now.

[postulio]

mmm i just noticed 3 burnt pixels in mine, 1 is completely dead 2 are suffereing.

i called gamestop where i got it and they said im the 5th person to ask about it and told me to come on by on wed or fri adn pick up a new one. woohoo.

[Raedon]

Anyone have information on where Nintendo got the LCDs? Are they old Pachinko LCDs?

[le geek]

I have one red pixel. I plan on sending it to Nintendo after I play the crap out of my games...

http://www.nintendo.com/consumer/systems/ds/index.jsp

http://ds.ign.com/articles/568/568084p1.html

Cheers,
Ben

[Raedon]

It's well known that IGN is a biatch for the game industry. That being said..


"Dead pixel" is an LCD screen defect where one dot on the LCD screen remains a single color no matter what's happening on the screen. It's a distracting flaw that occurs in the LCD technology, and anything from LCD televisions to laptops, Game Gears to Game Boys have fallen victim to the dead pixel. And unless Sony's upcoming handheld is forged by the hand of God Himself, the PSP will encounter the problem in its life-cycle as well. It's a tough defect to track during the manufacturing process, so problem screens will occasionally slip through and end up in final consumer product.

Dead pixels are not a huge problem anymore and most computer LCD screens are dead pixel free due to the fact that they got returned like crazy for just one bad pixel the first couple of years they were on the market.

IGN is just playing down the fact that both Nintendo and apparently Sony (will be) are using defect LCD units.

[Promophile]

It's well known that IGN is a biatch for the game industry. That being said..


"Dead pixel" is an LCD screen defect where one dot on the LCD screen remains a single color no matter what's happening on the screen. It's a distracting flaw that occurs in the LCD technology, and anything from LCD televisions to laptops, Game Gears to Game Boys have fallen victim to the dead pixel. And unless Sony's upcoming handheld is forged by the hand of God Himself, the PSP will encounter the problem in its life-cycle as well. It's a tough defect to track during the manufacturing process, so problem screens will occasionally slip through and end up in final consumer product.

Dead pixels are not a huge problem anymore and most computer LCD screens are dead pixel free due to the fact that they got returned like crazy for just one bad pixel the first couple of years they were on the market.

IGN is just playing down the fact that both Nintendo and apparently Sony (will be) are using defect LCD units.

I used to be a big fan of LCD until I found out that pixels actually DIE. Now I avoid LCD if possible. It's sad though, because LCD is just so AWESOME LOOKING.

[goatdan]

Dead pixels are not a huge problem anymore and most computer LCD screens are dead pixel free due to the fact that they got returned like crazy for just one bad pixel the first couple of years they were on the market.

IGN is just playing down the fact that both Nintendo and apparently Sony (will be) are using defect LCD units.

I work at a major university as a tech. I deal with LCD monitors all the time. As I said in my post, 90% of the problems I find others don't even notice, so I doubt that people are returning them like crazy for one dead pixel.

Secondly, the Dell monitors that we get in are under warranty. If I have to send one back, not just does Dell have to pay for shipping too and from the University (overnight one way, none the less) but they have to pay for the refurbishment of a unit. I still return probably 5% of the LCD monitors that we get in, and I'm not able to see all of the ones that are in use. That is a pretty major flaw, and Dell isn't just some crappy PC company. I very rarely have problems with other things they do, as long as they don't recall them.

On top of that, the LCD monitor that I use at home is an _exceptionally_ high end Sony model that I bought two years ago. When I bought my first one, it had a dead pixel. I returned it and have had this one for two years with no dead pixel (and a lot less radiation ;) ). The fact is that unless these units are going under some extremely painstaking quality control checks, there will most definitely be defects. You can't release a product with an LCD screen in it for a couple hundred dollars and ensure that it will be okay all of the time.

Jeez man, give Nintendo and Sony a break. It isn't perfect technology. Nothing is.

[alexkidd2000]

I always buy electronics from somewhere like Future Shop that gives 30 day no questions asked return policy.

[Raedon]

Dead pixels are not a huge problem anymore and most computer LCD screens are dead pixel free due to the fact that they got returned like crazy for just one bad pixel the first couple of years they were on the market.

IGN is just playing down the fact that both Nintendo and apparently Sony (will be) are using defect LCD units.

I work at a major university as a tech. I deal with LCD monitors all the time. As I said in my post, 90% of the problems I find others don't even notice, so I doubt that people are returning them like crazy for one dead pixel.

Secondly, the Dell monitors that we get in are under warranty. If I have to send one back, not just does Dell have to pay for shipping too and from the University (overnight one way, none the less) but they have to pay for the refurbishment of a unit. I still return probably 5% of the LCD monitors that we get in, and I'm not able to see all of the ones that are in use. That is a pretty major flaw, and Dell isn't just some crappy PC company. I very rarely have problems with other things they do, as long as they don't recall them.

On top of that, the LCD monitor that I use at home is an _exceptionally_ high end Sony model that I bought two years ago. When I bought my first one, it had a dead pixel. I returned it and have had this one for two years with no dead pixel (and a lot less radiation ;) ). The fact is that unless these units are going under some extremely painstaking quality control checks, there will most definitely be defects. You can't release a product with an LCD screen in it for a couple hundred dollars and ensure that it will be okay all of the time.

Jeez man, give Nintendo and Sony a break. It isn't perfect technology. Nothing is.

Funny.. I haven't seen this when I look at my companies monitors.. no dead pixels

I have a Dell laptop.. no dead pixel..

I work with video artest who use mac computers and no one has a dead pixel. I have only seen dead pixels in the old or recycled (two years old in both cases) LCDs and they were there from day one.

I have been around LCD screens long enough to know dead pixels are not something that just "happens" they are always there from day one or after a drop.

Why do I feel you are troll'ing me? :hmm:

[Raedon]

It isn't perfect technology. Nothing is.

The universe is perfect technology. Please stop quoting or debating with me.

[Nez]

I dont knwo what the big deal is, one of my laptops had a dead pixel, hell my PSone screen has one. Does it affect game play, no. I can still read text, tell whats flying at me and watch movies. Just people being too finicky.

[retroman]

mine has a burned out pixel too..on the bottom screen...only one though...other than that..i like the Ds

[Daria]

My boyfriend's Dell moniter has a green dead pixel. First time I'd ever noticed one before.

[Kepone]

I have never had a faulty Nintendo product

Really? You're lucky, since pretty much every NES unit ever made has developed the "blinky" problem ...

*GREY* Nooooo!!!! *BLINK BLINK BLINK* son of a... *BLOW* *CORRUPT VIDEO* ARRGGG!!! I just want to play Tetris!

Also there is the N64 controller which dies after a 2 hour game of Mario Party.

Methinks "blinky" was a built in game that Nintendo slipped in to annoy the living shit out of NES owners.

[goatdan]

I have been around LCD screens long enough to know dead pixels are not something that just "happens" they are always there from day one or after a drop.

Why do I feel you are troll'ing me? :hmm:

I'm "trolling" you because you keep making really stupid claims without backing them up in any way in topics I am reading. Your first post to me was calling all of my facts BS, yet I actually backed up my facts. Then attacked me again and claimed that I was only quoting Lik-Sang and I couldn't do that because they are a store, even though they were only one of FOUR sources I had, and they are very reputable. That was really goofy, but whatever. You don't need to believe C-Net, Lik-Sang or the President if you so choose. It doesn't really matter to me, but if you post in a thread about it, I think that I can reply to you...

As I've mentioned before, I am interested in the DS release, so I am here to exchange opinions aqnd thoughts on it. If you want me to stop quoting or debating with you, there is pretty much two things you can do:

1) Stop posting stuff that makes outrageous claims and then getting annoyed when you are quoted or debated with by anyone. This is a message board, and everyone has the right to respond. If you post something that I disagree with, I'll happily weigh in.

In this thread, you said that LCD technology was "not a huge problem anymore." I just signed for a shipment of 45 monitors about a month ago and sent five back to Dell, and I didn't even look at them all yet. Therefore, I don't think that you are correct, and I am responding to that. If you read through my post, I never bad-mouthed you. I simply explained what *my* experience has been. And that is that 5-10% of the screens having some problem seems to me to be the industry average.

2) Quit posting in DS threads. I'm not making it a point to follow you around. I am however curious to see how the DS is doing and how it is being perceived -- as I will be when the PSP is released -- and I intend to continue to post here. Last I checked, that is why these forms exist.

About burnt out pixels...

They aren't usually a thing that people notice when they are using the computer because the rest of the screen masks the burnt out pixel. You can only usually tell during start up of the machine. I agree that it probably isn't that big of a deal on computer monitors, but it does bug the hell out of me for whatever reason.

On the DS, I can see it being more of a problem because of the fact that the screens are smaller, and games tend to use black screens a lot more often than Microsoft Office and Thunderbird do. I would assume that when the PSP hits, consumers with a dead pixel will be more likely to return it than a computer monitor too, for the exact same reason.

[Raedon]

I didn't read a word of that beyond, "I'm trolling you" lol

It's just not worth my time..

[DaBargainHunta]

I didn't read a word of that beyond, "I'm trolling you" lol

It's just not worth my time..
Maybe you should. It's a good read.

[Emily]

Maybe you should. It's a good read.[/quote]

Agreed

[Jasoco]

I wasn't going to say anything, but mine also has a dead pixel. And a stuck one. Both on the bottom screen. But I hate to return things. Fortunately, it's Kmart and if I break down, I have 88 more days to change my mind.

If you send it to Nintendo, do they charge you? Anything? Even shipping. I don't want to pay a cent.

Hell, I don't even notice the pixels except on dark screens.

[DaBargainHunta]

I wasn't going to say anything, but mine also has a dead pixel. And a stuck one. Both on the bottom screen. But I hate to return things. Fortunately, it's Kmart and if I break down, I have 88 more days to change my mind.
Unless K-Mart is an hour away from you, it's incomprehensible to me why you wouldn't exchange it. You have a faulty, defective system IMO. Why would you want to live with that?!

[Ed Oscuro]

Agree...send them back in NOW before everybody and their brother is getting one and they're out of stock (assuming that actually happens...we have yet to see).

This pretty much cinches it...DS has had a stealth launch to allow them to produce returns for the units they knew would slip through quality control and which people noticed were defective. They're also hoping that some people, like Jasoco, will just live with their bad units, but it seems fair to say that Nintendo is smart enough to know that's not a wise thing to bank on.

[pixelsnpolygons]

The NES is the only console period that I own that has given me problems. Game Boy, SNES, GameCube, even Xbox, PlayStation (One and 2)- Game.com, etc., etc., etc., - none of them have any problems, and I play those things like they're going out of style - well, not the Game.com - it was never in style and I don't play it any more. I excuse the NES for its problems because it is - what - 150 in console years. I consider myself lucky - especially with my PlayStation consoles - thousands of gameplay hours and they're still going strong.

[Ed Oscuro]

Every console I've owned since it was new has been just fine. Accessories and controllers are something else. Genesis...well, I've had my share of wobbly preowned carts and the Genesis 2 I use is sort of finicky, but after maybe 10 seconds I'm up and running, so no problem there.

[Emily]

My new DS is lovely :snuggle:

[Raedon]

I didn't read a word of that beyond, "I'm trolling you" lol

It's just not worth my time..
Maybe you should. It's a good read.

It could be, but I'm sure he questions me on LCDs so I'd have to go out and find links and such to pack up something I honestly don't care to prove.

[Kejoriv]

There is no way, if I bought a Sp or a Ds and it had a dead pixel I would keep it. If I am paying money for a new item, I expect it to have no problems. <End of bitching>

[le geek]

If you send it to Nintendo, do they charge you? Anything? Even shipping. I don't want to pay a cent.


Nintendo offers a pre-paid FedEx shipping service to ship your repair to Nintendo. This service is free if your repair is covered under warranty (or $7.50 for a non-warranty repair). The FedEx Return System is not available in Alaska or Hawaii. If you are unable, or do not wish to use the FedEx Return System, select "No" and you will be provided with instructions on sending in your repair through alternative methods. If you wish to use the FedEx Return System, you can check here to determine if there is a convenient FedEx drop-off location near you.

[jonjandran]

This pretty much cinches it...DS has had a stealth launch to allow them to produce returns for the units they knew would slip through quality control and which people noticed were defective. They're also hoping that some people, like Jasoco, will just live with their bad units, but it seems fair to say that Nintendo is smart enough to know that's not a wise thing to bank on.

Yes Nintendo is Evil, Evil I Say !!!! LOL

By the way, I love my DS, and no dead pixels here.

[goatdan]

Bad pixels on LCDS are a fact of life with that tech. I'd expect them on screens that are over a year old, though - not on something brand new.

I'd actually disagree with this. If a pixel is going to go bad, it usually happens immediately and not through time. My office has had a lot of laptops that we've been working on lately that were beat to hell over the past four years -- they are used by students in the architecture program, and aren't exactly treated the best. Of those that we got back, none had any dead pixels.

We experienced a few dead screens, screens with adjustment problems and screens with color problems, but nothing that had a single or couple dead pixels.

I think that the dead pixel thing is just something that people are overreacting too right now. Considering the DS has two screens, it is twice as likely to have a problem and because of the nature of the beast, it is more likely for someone to return one with a dead pixel than a monitor with a dead pixel.


Yes, it's expected there will be quality problems with any new product when it first comes out, but that doesn't mean you have to be stuck with it. If you bought a DS within 30 days from a well-known store/chain, and it has bad pixels, return it!

I completely agree with this. Lord knows that if I end up with a DS that has a dead pixel, I will be the first one to return it. Stores are actually pretty good about dead pixels. When I got my LCD monitor from Circuit City that had one dead pixel, I returned it and there were no questions asked. And at the time, it was a $600.00 monitor. I can't imagine a store wouldn't accept the DS back if it had a problem, and you're right -- if they don't, raise hell.

[racecar]

shit good thing i brought a pool table in stead of a ds this week(i was gioing to get the ds next week) but in this case i'll just hold out for a while(3-4months) and put my $$ on to better use pre-orders good titles for me ps2/cube/and maybe the box

[Emily]

The nintendo rep I talked to said it was like 1 in a hundred thousand that are defective.

[davidleeroth]

The nintendo rep I talked to said it was like 1 in a hundred thousand that are defective.

Let's do the math...


Holy s**t, they've sold millions already! @_@

[brandver3]

One of my friends had pixel problems. Then his second unit had dark spots on the screen (as did the first). But he got his from Wal-Mart, and being in Florida, it is very likely the units got left in the heat. Which explians the dark spots.

My DS is pretty and crispy. It could have a dead pixel, but i havn't noticed. So i am happy.

[rbudrick]

EDIT: I'll add this in too. I would expect that the dead pixel rate on this first batch is probably 15%, but only 5% were returned to your district. Secondly, I would expect that the PSP will start out life with the same pixel failure rate, and would slowly get better through time, as the DS probably will... Although my experience with Dell suggests otherwise.

I noticed someone else mentioned Dell too. Being in the computer sales business, let me fill you in on Dell....They have incredible marketing, but their products are CRAP. ALL parts go to the lowest bidder, quality be damned.

I saw one of their small form factor desktops opened once and the hard drive was held in with TAPE. Yes, tape...a strip of black electrical tape.

In fact, if you buy any number of the same model computer from them and open them, you will find that they may all have different parts. Depends who sold the parts cheaper at the time. Proprietary parts too, making repair very frustrating and forcing you to go to Dell to do it.

Most modern laptops usually have an aluminum plate in the bottom for protection. I can't say I've seen any recent Dells that have this, and you can actually take their laptops and sorta twist them when grabbed in a closed position. It's crazy! Much of the plastic in Dells are very flexible, breakable stuff (plus their cases are generally all plastic as opposed to some type of metal). If you remove the battery, you can easily squeeze the top and bottom bay sides together. Be very careful, as this is a common breakage point, as it's very thin plastic all around the case, but especially here.

Generally, the cost of maintaining Dells is far more in the long run that just buying an IBM or HP or something. Don't ever drop a Dell...chances are, the thing will die. The are just not quality or sturdy machines...but their marketing s highly effective, so people buy them thinking they are great machines.

And for their tech support, from what I understand , well...I hope you like speaking to people with Pakistani or Hindi accents every time. Not a bad thing, just some have better English skills than others, making communication difficult. I hear they may be doing something about this for those who bought extended warranties tho...

There is a reason why Dell machines are cheap...because they ARE cheap.

Well, that's my rant. Sorry for the thread highjack.

Oh, and thanks for the news on Dead DS pixels...I'll keep my eyes peeled for that!

-Rob

[downfall]

http://www.nintendo.com/consumer/systems/ds/trouble_spot.jsp


With a small number of Nintendo DS screens, one or two dots on the screen may appear to be "stuck" on a particular color, such as white or red. This effect is caused when a particular pixel (the dots that make up the screen) is not working properly. Even with the high quality standards set by LCD manufacturers, you will find this situation is common in many LCD devices (PC monitors, televisions, cell phones, etc.), and is within LCD manufacturers' specifications.

It's important to understand that this issue will remain limited to the pixels you have already noticed. The problem will not get any worse and you should not expect to see the problem in any other areas of the screen.

We suggest you use your system for a few weeks to determine whether this interferes with your enjoyment of game play. If, after using your system for awhile, you feel that this tiny dot is too distracting, the Nintendo DS does carry a one-year warranty. We are happy to inspect and, if necessary, fix your system at no charge within the warranty period.

[SoulBlazer]

Yeah, Nintendo is right in what they are saying, and at least they are willing to replace them.

[goatdan]

I noticed someone else mentioned Dell too. Being in the computer sales business, let me fill you in on Dell....They have incredible marketing, but their products are CRAP. ALL parts go to the lowest bidder, quality be damned.

Being in the computer sales business, I assume that you aren't selling dells but are selling another company's computers? I can understand where you are coming from in some of your statements, but not all. I'll elaborate on some of them from my personal experiences...


I saw one of their small form factor desktops opened once and the hard drive was held in with TAPE. Yes, tape...a strip of black electrical tape.

Honestly, if anything I believe that this would be a post sales job. It simply doesn't make any sense -- The small form factors that Dell's have recently have specific clips to hold in the hard drives. Without them, the hard drive simply wouldn't fit in the case. I would guess that someone who worked on this machine lost the clip thing and covered his error by putting some tape in it.


In fact, if you buy any number of the same model computer from them and open them, you will find that they may all have different parts. Depends who sold the parts cheaper at the time. Proprietary parts too, making repair very frustrating and forcing you to go to Dell to do it.

This is sort of true - it all depends on what model of computer that you are getting. Their home consumer laptops and desktops are made this way, but they make it very clear they do that because they want to sell things as cheaply as possible, and if you are just a home use you don't need your insides to be identical to all of the different ones.

The University gets the Optiplex line, which is the more expensive line but the line that Dell keeps everything the same in. Out of the well over 200 Optiplexes that I have received in the past year, the only thing that has changed is the hard drive manufacturer.

I also really don't know what parts your saying are propreitary also. I have an Optiplex that I was swapping in and out parts with a dead non-Dell PC just a little while ago. Everything worked fine in the other machine, and vice versa. Perhaps you are thinking of the Rambus RAM that was in some of the machines, but that wasn't just Dell that used those. That was a whole trend that was attempted to be adopted. I have about 20 of those machines and I hate them because of the RAM, but I also have some Gateways that use the same stuff.


Generally, the cost of maintaining Dells is far more in the long run that just buying an IBM or HP or something. Don't ever drop a Dell...chances are, the thing will die. The are just not quality or sturdy machines...but their marketing s highly effective, so people buy them thinking they are great machines.

First off, if you're talking about laptops, I'd like to see any laptop made by anyone survive a significant drop. I just got an HP in our office the other day that had fallen off a Professor's desk, and it was dead. The same things do happen to Dells.

I think that the biggest test at our University is the architecture program, which purchases something like 600 laptops a year -- all Dell -- to distribute to their incoming students. Of those laptops, there are parts that are broken and things that wear out, but very rarely do we get them back in a completely unusable state. Since the laptop program doesn't actually allow you to truly "own" your laptop until you are done with the program, these machines are beat to death by the students using them.


And for their tech support, from what I understand , well...I hope you like speaking to people with Pakistani or Hindi accents every time. Not a bad thing, just some have better English skills than others, making communication difficult. I hear they may be doing something about this for those who bought extended warranties tho...

It all depends on how it's done. I am Dell certified, which means that I can diagnose a problem, order the part through Dell, they ship it to me and actually pay me to replace it. If I wasn't Dell certified, I would have to go through the whole phone thing.

On the other hand, I've dealt with a lot of other companies because our school is made up of a ton of different computer manufacturer's machines, and I have had the same experience with many of them. I will admit that I haven't used IBM or HP, but I have done Omnitech and Gateway's support.

The University has well over 2500 Dell machines up and running right now. It also has a good number of Gateways, Omnitechs, a few HPs and a few IBMs. Here is a general overview of my experiences with each:

Gateway - Oddly built machines, they seem to all die at the exact three year mark (I had six machines all die on the same day -- ONE day before their warranty expired!), GREAT phone tech support, slow at shipping parts.

Omnitechs - Omnitech was bought out by a company named MPC. For a while, their horrible tech service got a lot nicer, but it is back to being horrible. You can't understand what anyone is saying and the machines are amazingly bad. There is one lab that I run of 30 machines that I don't think *one* computer has anything original in it beyond floppy and CD ROM drive.

HPs - I personally have never had to make a call on any of these, and they rarely arrive in our office. But we also have very, very few of them.

IBMs - We are phasing the last of the line of these out. Unfortunately, they are very solid machines, but for some reason they didn't like being upgraded. If I recall right, it was some problem about drivers for the Ethernet adaptors.

Dells - We now purchase exclusively through Dell. Their tech support has always been on the same level as Gateway when dealing with them (although that may be because of the amount of money spent with them) and the products that we have used have been very solid. Rarely have newly deployed Dell machines had problems. We did have one lab of relatively new machines (two years old now) need over 2/3rds of their hard drives replaced, but that was the Maxtor "slim" drives that Dell has now issued a total recall on.


There is a reason why Dell machines are cheap...because they ARE cheap.

Honestly, from what I've seen, Dell machines are cheap because they are able to sell the most and therefore get the biggest discounts with suppliers. And it all depends on what you are getting from them. The laptop that I have (Inspiron 9100) has already undergone about six hardware revisions since I purchased it, but we only bought two as administrative machines, so it doesn't really matter.

I'm not trying to harp on any other computer manufacturers or prop up Dell more than they should be, but I do feel that they have a very solid product. I am in a department on campus that has an amazing amount of computers in it. From all indications that I have had here, Dell computers are not any more cheaply built than any other brand of computers.

If you'd like to chat more about this, we can PM future conversations. I'm not trying to say that you're wrong. I just do feel that I am in a unique position to see a lot of computers right now, and I do disagree with some of what you've said from personal experience.

To make this thread back on topic...

I would assume that Nintendo is doing the exact same thing with their DSes as Dell is with their monitors though -- making them as cheaply and as reliably as possible. In both cases, if the company releases one that is a dud, you have to pay for the transportation of the broken one, pay for the repairs to it and pay to send the customer a new one. If you're paying $150 for your DS or $250 for your Dell monitor, neither company is making enough money to want to overnight to you a replacement and eat the hardware cost if they don't have too.

The dead pixel thing is a problem for all high-quality LCD devices, and I can pretty much guarantee that we'll be seeing the same thing for the PSP. I don't feel that means in any way that either Nintendo or Sony is / will be skimping on their production values.

[Leo_A]

But you're in a fairly unusual position, what he said about Dell tech support is correct for the normal consumer.Took 6 weeks of talking to people in India that could barely be understood last year to have them resolve a problem on this PC, which they never even figured out. Took them replacing 3 parts of it (Video card twice, sound card twice, and hard drive 3 times) for it to finally work correctly. Their tech support is pitiful.

[goatdan]

But you're in a fairly unusual position, what he said about Dell tech support is correct for the normal consumer.Took 6 weeks of talking to people in India that could barely be understood last year to have them resolve a problem on this PC, which they never even figured out. Took them replacing 3 parts of it (Video card twice, sound card twice, and hard drive 3 times) for it to finally work correctly. Their tech support is pitiful.

I agree, and I even mentioned that in my post -- but the fact is that most computer tech support lines that I have dealt with are the same way. Dealing with Omnitech for instance is a HUGE pain in the ass, and I have to call them *constantly*. Even in my position, I don't get any specialized service from them.

The other problem is that figuring out what part of the computer is broken is pretty tough to do over the phone. I don't envy *anyone* that has to fix something over the phone. I don't think this is just a Dell thing, honestly, but more of an industry wide thing.

Dell, as well as other companies within the industry, are now offering a higher level of support if you are willing to pay more. For instance, if you spend an additional fee, you can get tech support on site on the next day, or tech support on site within four hours.

I'm not saying they're perfect, but from my experiences and the experiences of my collegues (in a campus of probably 10,000 computers), I haven't seen Dells break down at a high rate at all. The monitors, which is what I mentioned that got us into this whole conversation, I don't think is any different than any other monitor. As I said before, my Sony monitor had the same problem when I first bought it.

[SoulBlazer]

My Dell monitor was the only part of my Dell system that had to be replaced when I used a Dell (summer 1998 to early 2002). This one was a replacement gotten in late 2000 and has been fine so far.

[Leo_A]

What really makes me had about Dell tech support though was 5 years ago it was awesome until outsourcing and sending it overseas caught up with it.

[NintendoMan]

I wasn't going to say anything, but mine also has a dead pixel. And a stuck one. Both on the bottom screen. But I hate to return things. Fortunately, it's Kmart and if I break down, I have 88 more days to change my mind.
Unless K-Mart is an hour away from you, it's incomprehensible to me why you wouldn't exchange it. You have a faulty, defective system IMO. Why would you want to live with that?!

Well, I am wondering if you do take it back, will they even except it? Usually when you tell a place that the item doesn't work they tell you to send it to the place that made them, nintendo in this case.
Unless you just package everything back up and say you don't want it anymore??

[FantasiaWHT]

I wasn't going to say anything, but mine also has a dead pixel. And a stuck one. Both on the bottom screen. But I hate to return things. Fortunately, it's Kmart and if I break down, I have 88 more days to change my mind.
Unless K-Mart is an hour away from you, it's incomprehensible to me why you wouldn't exchange it. You have a faulty, defective system IMO. Why would you want to live with that?!

Well, I am wondering if you do take it back, will they even except it? Usually when you tell a place that the item doesn't work they tell you to send it to the place that made them, nintendo in this case.
Unless you just package everything back up and say you don't want it anymore??

Depends on the retailer. Kmart might not take defective returns on electronics, but it can't hurt to ask. EB Games, Gamestop and Best Buy I know will always take them back tho.

[Achika]

I wasn't going to say anything, but mine also has a dead pixel. And a stuck one. Both on the bottom screen. But I hate to return things. Fortunately, it's Kmart and if I break down, I have 88 more days to change my mind.
Unless K-Mart is an hour away from you, it's incomprehensible to me why you wouldn't exchange it. You have a faulty, defective system IMO. Why would you want to live with that?!

Well, I am wondering if you do take it back, will they even except it? Usually when you tell a place that the item doesn't work they tell you to send it to the place that made them, nintendo in this case.
Unless you just package everything back up and say you don't want it anymore??

Depends on the retailer. Kmart might not take defective returns on electronics, but it can't hurt to ask. EB Games, Gamestop and Best Buy I know will always take them back tho.

Within 7 days Gamestop will take it back and swap it for another if it's opened. After 7, you're suppose to mail it back to the manufacturer if you haven't purchased the extented warranty. Your mileage may vary, but that is the "correct" return policy.

[NintendoMan]

I wasn't going to say anything, but mine also has a dead pixel. And a stuck one. Both on the bottom screen. But I hate to return things. Fortunately, it's Kmart and if I break down, I have 88 more days to change my mind.
Unless K-Mart is an hour away from you, it's incomprehensible to me why you wouldn't exchange it. You have a faulty, defective system IMO. Why would you want to live with that?!

Well, I am wondering if you do take it back, will they even except it? Usually when you tell a place that the item doesn't work they tell you to send it to the place that made them, nintendo in this case.
Unless you just package everything back up and say you don't want it anymore??

Depends on the retailer. Kmart might not take defective returns on electronics, but it can't hurt to ask. EB Games, Gamestop and Best Buy I know will always take them back tho.

Within 7 days Gamestop will take it back and swap it for another if it's opened. After 7, you're suppose to mail it back to the manufacturer if you haven't purchased the extented warranty. Your mileage may vary, but that is the "correct" return policy.

Thanks, very good to know!

[Jasoco]

At Kmart you have 90 days no matter what. If we weren't out, I would take mine back. But I'm sure we'll get at least one more in by the end of February.

[FantasiaWHT]

14 days at EB, sorry should have said that :) Or until January 15th if purchased during the Christmas season (day after T-giving until January 1st)