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@Heartworm wrote:

I bought a Dell Dimension 8400, and within weeks of getting it the primary hard drive failed. After spending 3+ hours on the phone doing diagnostics, tech support accepted there was a problem and had the PC picked up.

They returned it to me with a new hard drive, stating that 'extensive Dell diagnostics had been run' and 'all tests passed'.

Recently, both hard drives failed. I went through the same process but this time was at pains to point out that there seemed to be an underlying problem that needed to be addressed, and that replacing the hard drives would not be adequate, since I would have no confidence that they would not just fail again further down the line.

Nevertheless, when I got the PC back, guess what the docket said: 'Hard drives replaced', 'Extensive Dell diagnostics had been run' and 'all tests passed'.

 

Now with no confidence in the PC at all, I contacted complaints.

They told me to run Dell 32 bit diagnostics....

Objecting that I had no confidence in these diagnostics, since they had been performed before and the underlying problem had not been found I was told '

Running a diagnostics test will pinpoint where the fault, if any, may be.

I responded, if that is the case, why had this test not been carried out before the PC was returned to me a second time? I've received no reply.

Furthermore, if it HAS been carried out, why is the end user being asked to do it again?

And finally, if Dell's engineer's ran 'extensive diagnostics' and found no underlying problem, and the hard drive failed again, what confidence is there that Dell's diagnostics are adequate to the task of identifying the problem?

 

Why, in essence, are Dell messing me around, wasting my time?

Any thoughts?

 

Your post implies, but doesn't state, that the computer was returned non-functional?

 

Dell has been using Maxtor drives whose failure rate is well documented on these forums and the entire internet.  They fail a lot, and often w/o warning.  That said, Dell's warranty is to replace the drives and that's all.  Further, it should be onsite, don't know why they keep picking up the PC.

Message Edited by rickmktg on 03-07-2006 07:58 AM

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@Heartworm wrote:

 

Thanks for the reply.

No, the PC was returned functional as far as I can tell, but my point was that since the hard drives had failed a second time, there was every possibility that there was an as yet undetected problem that the diagnostics had not found, such that, until this has been addressed I can have no confidence that the problem will not recur. I'm not about to store data to hard drives that may fail at ony moment.

What you're suggesting is that it's due to cheap hard drives. How can I establish whether the hard drives are Matrox?

In my long exchange with Tech Support, I offered to pay the difference for better hard drives if this was the cause of the problem, but this was dismissed as unnecessary.

So to be able to have confidence in this machine, you're telling me I'd have to shell out for new hard drives? Is this a common thing with Dell users?

That seems outrageous!

I didn't say half the things you state above...

Never said Maxtor (not Matrox) drives are cheap.  I said they've had high failure rates.  Well documented.

Tech Support replaces failed drives with whatever's on the shelf.

To have confidence in your machine, you need to do BACKUP regularly.  I've had two hard drive failures in the past 6 months, both HITACHIS.  Drives fail.  Do backup.

Since Dell has returned a working machine, you need to move on, they won't do anything else.  Diagnostics don't predict when a drive will fail.  You can easily run Belarc Advisor, www.belarc.com to find out the model numbers of your drives, then Google the numbers to determine the manufacturer.

Thanks for the reply.

No, the PC was returned functional as far as I can tell, but my point was that since the hard drives had failed a second time, there was every possibility that there was an as yet undetected problem that the diagnostics had not found, such that, until this has been addressed I can have no confidence that the problem will not recur. I'm not about to store data to hard drives that may fail at ony moment.

What you're suggesting is that it's due to cheap hard drives. How can I establish whether the hard drives are Matrox?

In my long exchange with Tech Support, I offered to pay the difference for better hard drives if this was the cause of the problem, but this was dismissed as unnecessary.

So to be able to have confidence in this machine, you're telling me I'd have to shell out for new hard drives? Is this a common thing with Dell users?

That seems outrageous!

I dunno, I have an old PC from Gateway for 6/7 years now, the hard drives never failed. I have an even older laptop still running Win95, its hard drive has never failed.

And if the diagnostics are not going to tell me whether the hard drive is going to fail, why is Dell insisting I do them?

Sounds to me like they're waiting for the diagnostic they've already done to pass it, and then tell me, 'see, nothing wrong with the PC'... which misses the point of my complaint, which is that Dell sold me an unreliable product.

Some people may be happy enough to have hard drives fail intermittently but my experience has not been such to lead me to expect this.

If Matrox hard drives are known to fail, Dell shouldn't use them. I can't see any reason why they would use something that's got such a bad reputation unless they're a cost-saving option.