obsolete 8100

Question

thank all of you who responded to my post concerning dell offering a 8200 system at the same time that they start dumnping 8100 systems. i felt this was straight forward theft of the value of my computer.How everone responding sees a issue of upgrading here;is bafflling. PLease allow me to attempt to clarify why dell is cheating you and me ...for the first time i think. Look at the 4300 system, when it got better it did not become a 4400 system it become a better 4300 system;thus preserving the preserving the previouos 4300 system buyers product worth and integrity. the 4300 system owners have a well earned history of value associated with their purchase..I was solicited by dell to upgrade from a 4300 system to my 8100 system. now this 8100 system , which they baited me to is no longer in production and dell is dumping them at their refurbished computer website...if i would have kept my 4300 system,dollar for dollar i would be in a better situation..What michial dell has done or has done for him is stole my ability to play on a level playing feel as to the value of this 8100 system...They DELL want All...they have stolen are equity..perhaps there is a better way to explain this but; i hope all of you who are so smug in understanding upgrades and how other companies cheat their clients can see that DELL is now money grubbing just like the rest and i feel cheated..I am let down that this company that we are proud to pay more for their product has joined the rest of the robbbers in the computer business...please all of you re-read your thoughts and reconsider them...this is about DELL now cheating thier customers...not about good salespeople...not about wanting something for nothing...not about misunderstanding upgrades....It is about Michial Dell corporation knowingly stealing from you any value that may have been attached to your 8100 system ...please think before you write again that your happy....The employes who thought this up are running around waving your printouts exclaiming.."look Michial , we told you the sheep were so stupid they would not even think that we would steal , from them...they applaud are theft...they want us to do more to devalue thier purchases" think before you write,,,,i trusted Dell and that is the only reason im spending my time....NExt time i buy, i will know that DELL is the same as E-machine or compac, anything for a buck

TruthJustice · Answer

no text Sorry, your browser doesn't support Java(tm). We 'WILL NEVER' Forget

DHWT · Answer

rlhodges1, I'm sorry your feeling cheated but the 8100 is by no means obsolete. It still has some of the most advanced technology that you can buy in a desktop system. But as for the issue of dell selling them cheaply refurbished, that is because they are required to. Even if nothing was ever wrong with it dell still has to sell it as refurbished. A computer is much like a car and once it is driven off the lot its value drops drasticly. And its not that dell or any other computer company is money grubbing or trying to devalue your machine. It is simply the way the computer industry works.

gothummingbird · Answer

rlhodges1,

This is my second computer in 9 years. My first was a 386 IBM compatible built by a discount hole in the wall store and that cost me $1300. My 8100 by Dell which I HOPE is making money because I would like them to be around tomorrow cost me $1716. Not a huge price difference considering all the advances made since 1992.

Dell let me customize and forgo many options. I loved having my own choices. I throughly enjoyed hand picking my extra's which I installed myself. If this computer makes it for 9 years I will be throughly happy. With customer care warranty I do not even have to worry for three years. Anyway, I fell for Dell because of the DT support forum.

Maybe your right. Perhaps I should have waited. But I didn't want to wait. $1700 dollars is not that big of a loss. Worst comes to worse since you seem to know something I don't know, I'll give my daughter the 8100.

I do think you are onto something about buying refurbished. I wouldn't trust any other company but I do intend to buy a refurbished Dell Laptop in the future.

Sorry you are having regrets. Maybe I am just easy to please. Hope you find something you like about Dell.

aberfitchbie · Answer

Dude, you cant always have the latest and greatest of everyting. The 8100 is a great system. I have one myself, and it works great for my needs. There is always going to be something bigger and better coming out to replace everything and you can never keep up with todays changing technology. What does the 8200 have that the 8100 doesn't that is causing such serious trama in your life? The front USB ports? Should have gotten a Gateway then, they have had that for a while! You have no reason to complain. You should have seen it coming since they introduced the 2100 and then the 4300, it would be only natural for them replace the 8100 with something new. Grow Up!

WCranston · Answer

Darn Ford! I bought a '65 Mustang and now they come out with a 2002 model!! Mine's worthless!! How dare they phase out models & have discounts when making room for next years models?

PC devalue quickly because the technology keeps advancing. It doesn't really matter that they have replaced the 8100 with the 8200. What matters is that when you go to sell your 1 GHZ machine, it is now worth much less than it was when you bought it. Period. Works that way with PCs since they began.

Jmacd27 · Answer

You got way too much time on your hands I think. Stop being a baby and enjoy the great computer you got. I think if you took it upon yourself to research these things you would have been happier, you can't blame others for your lack of knowledge. I knew the 8200 was coming out before it was released....why didn't you? When I got my system I spent many hours on here finding information on the system I wanted before I ordered the system. I see you only joined this forum on the 25th, probably only to post your anger it seems. Next time spend the same time and effort doing something productive.

Dell 8100 1.4 GHZ
A08 Bios
256MB PC 800
Dell 19" P911 Trinitron
Dell 64MB Nvidia GForce2 Ultra
Nvidia 10.80 Drivers
60 GB 7200
12x DVD
12x10x32 CDRW
Santa Cruz Turtle Beach Sound Card
Dell USB Quiet keyboard
Logitech USB Mouse
Lexmark Z52 Printer
Altec Lansing Speakers
Windows ME
@Home Cable ISP
Service Tag 4JYY801

Dell Latitude 750 MHZ
14" Display
128 RAM
CD/RW

patchsassy2010 · Answer

A salesman's job is to sell. Your Job is to research before you buy. Did you expect Dell to stop making computers so that YOURS is the latest and greatest? When I bought my 4100 the 8100 was already available and I don't consider it obsolete! The 8100 in tests showed no substantial speed increases and in some tests was slower than the 4100. Therefore, I was able to buy some extras that I wouldn't have had the money for on the 8100. All the Pentium 4's will soon be obsolete after Intel finally fixes their chip and also increases the L2 cache to 512.Perhaps even add the L3 cache like they need to? Buy the way, did the salesman come to your house and put a gun to your head?

Dimension XPS-Z (4100) PIII 933 (384MB SDRAM)
20.4 GB 7200 Ultra ATA Hard Drive
Windows ME IE6
LG CD-RW CED-8080B 8/4/32
Samsung DVD-ROM SD-612 12 MAX Variable
32MB NVIDIA GeForce2 MX
17" Dell M781s Monitor
Creative Sound Blaster AudioPCI 64V
Altec Lansing ACS-340 Speakers
3COM EtherLink 10/100 PCI NIC
RCA DCM235 Modem Norton AV 2001
DirectX 8.a
Bios A09

patchsassy2010 · Answer

Also, did you happen to notice that a refurbished computer(for peanuts) comes WITHOUT a monitor?

Dimension XPS-Z (4100) PIII 933 (384MB SDRAM)
20.4 GB 7200 Ultra ATA Hard Drive
Windows ME IE6
LG CD-RW CED-8080B 8/4/32
Samsung DVD-ROM SD-612 12 MAX Variable
32MB NVIDIA GeForce2 MX
17" Dell M781s Monitor
Creative Sound Blaster AudioPCI 64V
Altec Lansing ACS-340 Speakers
3COM EtherLink 10/100 PCI NIC
RCA DCM235 Modem Norton AV 2001
DirectX 8.a
Bios A09

Dimension XPS-Z (4100) PIII 933 (384MB SDRAM)
20.4 GB 7200 Ultra ATA Hard Drive
Windows ME IE6
LG CD-RW CED-8080B 8/4/32
Samsung DVD-ROM SD-612 12 MAX Variable
32MB NVIDIA GeForce2 MX
17" Dell M781s Monitor
Creative Sound Blaster AudioPCI 64V
Altec Lansing ACS-340 Speakers
3COM EtherLink 10/100 PCI NIC
RCA DCM235 Modem Norton AV 2001
DirectX 8.a
Bios A09

Jake02324 · Answer

Any one understand what the ---- Ron is griping about?

TruthJustice · Answer

rlhodges1,
Sometimes it just doesn't pay to complain on too many threads as most people take it as a ploy to downgrade something or someone with no foundation to do so. Which, is the case here.

The 4300 of which you speak is a new system with the PIV Processor up to 1.7GHz BUT!!! it has SDRAM, making it actually slower in many cases than most PIII's with SDRAM. The 8100 you have can be upgraded to a 2.0GHz processor, and has RDRAM just like the 8200 albeit with a 423 pin processor not a 478 pin. As has been pointed out. The 8100 on the refurbished list does not come with a 300-400 dollar monitor. That should make you a little less annoyed? Oh all puter companies do it though. My poor old XPS T450 is now a true dinosaur since the PIII is being replaced with the PIV's, Poof is no more. Only 1 and 1/2 years ago it was the best on the market. Are your eyes beginning to open? I showed them though and installed a new processor (1GHz), Hard drive, Zip drive, CD/RW, Controller card, Video card, Sound card, Speakers, Scanner, Printer, Satellite. and my machine is now worth, (after about 800.00 worth of upgrades) 500.00 w/o monitor.

now I really have something to cry about. Hey I guess I am and it feels good to cry on others shoulders. Kinda meaningless though. I still love my Dell and it runs any program that has been written to date and very quickly. I bet quicker than yours

I'm a tweaker though. That's from the help of many great people here on this Dell forum. I have Windows ME and no crashes in over 4 months now. Amazing. Come here to get advice. Get your questions answered by some great and very knowlegeable people. I wouldn't expect much sympathy or others agreeing with something that just isn't so. In Regards to a computer anyway.

Sorry, your browser doesn't support Java(tm).

We "WILL NEVER", Forget nor will "YOU"

Mecadon · Answer

Even though I've learned a lot about computers since I bought my 8100 a couple month ago and visited this very helpful and informative forum almost daily, I'm still very much new at this whole computer tweaking thing. I would appreciate any advice you might have on tweaking my system. My restart function doesn't want to work (it puts my computer on standby) and (even though I turned off the debug function on DX8 that MS left running) I'm still getting occasional game glitches, freezes and crashes. I have downloaded updated patch files for my games. Everything else seems fine though. My computer boots up with 85% system resources free and I reboot once a day. Thanks in advance for any advice you can provide. I know I still have a lot to learn.

Mecadon

Dell Dimension 8100
Pentium 4 processor, 1.5 Gh
256 Mb RAM PC800
40 Gb hard drive (7200 rpm)
32 Mb Nvidia video card
Soundblaster Live sound card
16x DVD ROM drive
16x10x40 CD-RW drive
17" Trinitron Monitor (it is worth it)
AL speakers with subwoofer
Epson 777i printer

nilo · Answer

Sheesh, rlhodges1, every computer any of us owns is obsolescent or obsolete. If you are looking for enduring value, buying a computer isn't the way to go. Buy real estate, gold, diamonds, a cork-screw. Better yet, invest in your own or your children's education, help the poor, donate to your church.

Yes, surprise!!!! Dell is a business. If it doesn't make money, it goes OUT of business like Packard-Bell.

Message Edited on 09/29/01 01:55AM by nilo

tonymarquez · Answer

Tweaking 8100/NVIDIA systems.

Check after doing each item below. It may not be necessary to do everything (hopefully). Some items may not apply, as this is also meant to be a general game/performance improvement guide.

Check for possible heat problems. Remove the side cover. Aim a small house fan, in the general direction, of the open case. Play games. If the problem takes longer to happen, or goes away, you need additional cooling. If the video card has a cooling fan, make sure it is spinning smoothly/quickly.

Install the latest Dell BIOS. Currently, it is A08.

Check the games' websites, for any patches/updates. Also look for any FAQ or Troubleshooting pages.

Make sure that the Graphics Hardware Acceleration control hasn't been turned off (or too low) somehow. Try it all the way to the right. Then try it down one "notch". If necessary, try turning down the Audio Hardware Acceleration control, one or two notches.

In Device Manager, enable DMA and/or Sync data transfer, for your CD/DVD drives. Highlight the item, select Properties, and then go to Settings.

Disabling Sidebanding and/or Fast Writes may help with some games, such as Diablo 2. Download Powerstrip. You can use it to turn these features off/on. According to several gaming acticles I have read, Diablo 2 works at 800x600 resolutions, if you have the expansion game/add-on.

Turn off the many un-necessary programs that load on the 8100 systems. Go to Denny's Resource Management page, for info on the items that are loading. If some are not listed, or you are not sure, post a revised list of startup items. I will take a look. If you have Attune, uninstall it in Add/Remove Programs.. If you have Resoution Assistant, uninstall it. You need to disable it's parts in msconfig first, reboot and then uninstall. (See Denny's page for parts). If you are running Microsoft Netmeeting, disable it immediately. Only turn it on, when you are using it. turn it off, after. If not using it, uninstall it. In addition, when playing games, or running video benchmarks, turn off programs running in the background, like anti-virus, Norton System programs, etc.

You may have a "dirty" driver install problem. I have seen this on a few 8100 systems. Turn off programs running, especially anti-virus, for any software/driver installation.

First, go to 3D Chipset, and download the 12.90 drivers. Create a folder (that will be easy to find later), and unzip the drivers into it.

Change the Graphics Adapter to the Standard Windows PCI VGA drivers. Reboot. If Windows tries to reload the drivers, press the Escape key several times. (If it loads anyway, change the adapter again, reboot into Windows Safe Mode and continue.)

Go to Add/Remove Programs and uninstall the NVIDIA drivers. Reboot, (same as above). Use the Search feature, and look for nv*.* files. Delete all. Then find and delete drvdata.bin and drvidx.bin files.

Go to Start, Run, type regedit, and OK. CAREFULLY, go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software. Delete any NVIDIA (and card mfg. names, like Hercules, etc) Keys. Then go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\Display. There will be one or more sub-keys named 0000, 0001, etc. Delete all. DON'T delete the Display Key.

Exit the program. Reboot. When Windows detects the card, point the installation program to the folder where you have the unzipped drivers. If Windows ME gives an error message about older or unsigned drivers, go to the Advanced tab, on the pop-up window. Select Warn, instead of Prevent. Finish.

Having non-Dell drivers (or Powerstrip ,NVMax, etc) ,will allow you to make sure that vsync is off. Also turn off FSAA (anti-alising). This will usually boost framerates.

If you have the original DX8, install the DirectX 8.0a update. As it is tough to know if you already have it, download and install anyway. (Microsoft didn't change the version name/number, which is stupid.) Even if you have it, reinstalling can help fix things.

If you are still having game problems, or if the dxdiag features/tests are not showing as working, you could try reinstalling the motherboard chipset drivers. They are on the Dell discs. There are three parts for the 8100. Intel 850 (or 800 series) chipset, UltraATA (or UDMA). and Security "something". This is especially important, if you have reinstalled, or changed Windows versions.

Finally, check the GeForce FAQ page. Look at sections on stuttering, lockups, poor performance, and improving performance.

Good luck.

Message Edited on 09/29/01 08:24AM by tonymarquez

~GMC · Answer

Looks like Ron is upset because after he bought his PC, Dell should have quit improving the PC. Sure most everyone reading these post wishes they had the lastest and the fastest PC's avalible!! Ron did'nt have to much to research the development of home PC's. I remember when I purchased my fist computer. It was a Commodore 128. As far as the 8100 being obsolete, I would'nt worry for a few more years. I also bought a 1.4 8100 series. But I also have a IBM 200 meg. that the rest of my family uses. Stop worring about the next generation CPU. You have a excellent machine already!!

Dimension 8100 1.4 GHZ Pentium 4
WINDOWS ME Edition
19" Monitor
128MB RDRAM
32 MB NVIDA TNT2 M64 AGP Video card
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz DSP Sound card
40 GB Ultra ATA Hard drive ( 7200 RPM )
12X DVD ROM Drive
12X/8X/32X CD-RW Drive
100 MB Internal Zip
Harmon Kardon Speakers W/ Subwoofer

Locked Topics – Desktops General

obsolete 8100

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