raymac46 Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 Well folks after 15 years of great experience with solidly built Dell desktops I have to formally admit that my first Dell notebook PC is..and was..a dog. Maybe it was partially my fault for being an AMD fanboy, but I don't really think so. In early 2011 I got my Dell Inspiron M501R. At the time I knew that AMD was not really competitive with Intel as far as CPUs went but this particular unit seemed OK. I got one of the last quad core Phenom II mobile CPU models before AMD went to the dual purpose APUs. This particular PC had a discrete AMD GPU soldered to the motherboard and gave pretty good graphics performance as a result. The laptop was slow and power hungry but as I used it mostly at home plugged into the adapter that wasn't a big deal. I got close to 4 years out of it. Then a few weeks ago it started refusing to POST. Got 7 beeps which indicated failing processor or motherboard. A Google search revealed all kinds of problems with these Inspiron models - even ones that had Intel with a discrete Nvidia GPU. The motherboards put in them were faulty and eventually the solder cracks and the GPU won't connect. That's the motherboard failure that gives the 7 beeps. Some folks had trouble right from the start and Dell replaced the motheboard. Others got just over a year and out of warranty when the notebook failed. I suppose I was lucky. Dell won't admit a problem obviously. I got the Dell to boot by (wait for this) wrapping it in an old overcoat and letting it overheat and beep away for 30 minutes. Then I took off what personal data was on it and used my Acronis disk wipe software to destroy the hard drive data. The Inspiron went to the recycler yesterday. :'( Needless to say I didn't buy another Dell. I don't think this problem was AMD's fault so I replaced the laptop with a Lenovo Flex2 15D - which has a power-sipping AMD "Beema" A8-6410 APU. Very nice so far. My conclusion on this is if you want to make sure you have something that lasts, build your own desktop. Any laptop will be a crapshoot. And Dell is off my shopping list for a while. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 Nice method to get the solder to melt again BTW I have a Toshiba that is about 7 years old and works beautifully, besides the battery. So some laptops do last a long while if solidly built. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebrke Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 (edited) Needless to say I didn't buy another Dell. I don't think this problem was AMD's fault so I replaced the laptop with a Lenovo Flex2 15D - which has a power-sipping AMD "Beema" A8-6410 APU. Very nice so far. My conclusion on this is if you want to make sure you have something that lasts, build your own desktop. Any laptop will be a crapshoot. And Dell is off my shopping list for a while. I've had two Lenovo laptops in the family--one I'm using now is 2009-era G530 (Lenovo's "value" line), which has been pretty good except for the HDD having to be replaced in 2013. I bought my Mom a new Lenovo Thinkpad Edge last year that runs Win 7--it seems good so far. I wiped the XP install from the G530 and run it with OpenSuSE. My own opinion: Dell isn't what it used to be. Edited December 9, 2014 by ebrke 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cluttermagnet Posted December 12, 2014 Share Posted December 12, 2014 (edited) I don't know if 4 years is good or bad, Ray. Sorry you lost it. I just hope my refurb Lenovo R61 will give me a few more years. It's my first lappy. FWIW Dell's Precision workstation series is interesting. For me, my PW 390 and PW T3400 are just about perfect. These sell on the auction site for 50 to 100+ dollars and are very well designed so far as serviceability and upgradability. The airflow is well thought out and just excellent. These are at just the right price point for me to have some fun with and get continued utility out of a pretty capable setup. These chassis designs remind me of the good old days when cars and trucks had real metal bumpers. Nothing tinny about them, not as much plastic as a lot of consumer gear. Yeah, some Dells are dogs- but some are still fun for someone who likes to play with older hardware. I had a Dell XPS 600 with mobo failure due to bad electrolytic caps. For most folks, that tower would have been toast, but I am handy with a soldering iron... got the new caps from China (Japanese parts) and put them in- presto! Good as new and still a nice computer. I like that box, despite the clamshell case. I have a couple of Dimension 8300's. A pain to work on with that annoying clamshell case, but 'OK' hardware, and the price was right (free). Lappys are such a crap shoot. It's, uh, tight in there. I much prefer towers... Betty has a Lenovo G570 lappy purchased new; we're both liking it... Edited December 12, 2014 by Cluttermagnet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goretsky Posted December 12, 2014 Share Posted December 12, 2014 Hello, My 2004 vintage ThinkPad T42 and 2005 vintage T43p seem to be working okay. Not exactly speed demons by today's standards, but fast enough to run Windows 7. Regards, Aryeh Goretsky Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cluttermagnet Posted December 13, 2014 Share Posted December 13, 2014 Ironically, Betty's Lenovo G570 laptop just crapped out the other night. Looks like power supply trouble or else maybe a bad battery pack. I checked and she has had it for 3 years, 2 months. We had a 2 year extended warranty. Oh joy... Short term I'm going to give her my Lenovo R61 with Mint 17 on it to use. Maybe we get it fixed, maybe we just part it out... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LilBambi Posted December 13, 2014 Share Posted December 13, 2014 Man, that is a pain. Sometimes I wonder if they don't build in the obsolescence. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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