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Dell vs Hp recent experience

BarkingGhostar

BarkingGhostar

Diamond Member
My latest work laptop is an HO Zbook. I like it. I like the external port replicator that also does power pass-through. It just works. Prior to this and for every couple of years for the past decade I had Dell, with a traditional docking station. All sorts of problems from docking stations failing, to screens failing to SSD DOA on arrival.

My wife's work laptop is a new Dell. It is a POS. I hate it. I hate the fact that its Thunderbolt port replicator doesn't supply enough power in the pass-through to the laptop to function right. I have to plug in the laptop power in addition to the port replicator power. Even then it is a 50-50 situation on whether the thing boots or not. Yesterday, before adding the laptop power supply in addition to the port replicator power supply it would cause Windows 10 to crash. At one point the Dell reported no bootable option and in the UEFI is reported no storage device. After adding a second power supply to the setup, this morning thus far it is a 1-1 ratio on booting normally and not.

I started the wife's Dell this morning and went to start my coffee. Came back to the external monitor reporting no signal. Keyboard and mouse had power (they're LED backlit) but the laptop was completely unresponsive. Forced a hard power down and then power back up to it running normally. In two days we've booted this Dell POS about a dozen times and only four times did it boot normally.

BTW, I found it funny that the HP Zbook port replicator, which is nice as heck, cost $150, but the Dell one is $269 and can't power the described setup. I'm not a loyalist when it comes to laptops, but Dell just sucks.
 
Pretty poor experience. Has the Dell been updated firmware and software?

I use a Lenovo T480 with a thunderbolt replicator. Pretty good, but also has had some problems that sometimes take some playing with to get it to work right.

Keeping the firmware and software up to date has seemed to help
 
Well, I found the reason why. THIS Dell document shows that the 130W power supply for the WD19 is not compatible with the 5491 Latitude laptop. Jesus, this means even the university IT people don't know what the heck they are doing. And the unit we bought for home use was bought based on their [bad] guidance. Wife is sitting on campus waiting for the IT folks. I sent her that document. She said so far this morning from the office 2/3 of the time the laptop will not boot with the 130W power supply that only offers 90W pass-through power. They should have gotten the 180W with 130W pass through.
 
BarkingGhostar said:
Well, I found the reason why. THIS Dell document shows that the 130W power supply for the WD19 is not compatible with the 5491 Latitude laptop. Jesus, this means even the university IT people don't know what the heck they are doing. And the unit we bought for home use was bought based on their [bad] guidance. Wife is sitting on campus waiting for the IT folks. I sent her that document. She said so far this morning from the office 2/3 of the time the laptop will not boot with the 130W power supply that only offers 90W pass-through power. They should have gotten the 180W with 130W pass through.
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Good find. Sometimes its just that simple
 
Only her IT support still doesn't understand. I got lucky and found an old 180W Dell power supply sitting around from my last lease roll out where we got rid of Dell. When she got home she connected it up and hit the power button on the WD19 and Windows came up and proceeded to crash. I had her hard press the power button on the WD19 to hard power it down and then hit it again to start over and it came up normal. OK, so I feel that this POS Dell Latitude is a POS and that is it. I told her to leave it in her office and continue to use the desktop I built her for work.

It is pretty bad when you have Dell and the University System of GA's IT talent but put them together and you have to wonder if COVID 19 can infect computers, too.
 
This morning wife went and booted the new setup and the video was on LSD. Seriously looked like some sort of drug-induced vomit. Hard powered down and then boot again to normal. She's thinking of now leaving it on 24x7.
 
BarkingGhostar said:
This morning wife went and booted the new setup and the video was on LSD. Seriously looked like some sort of drug-induced vomit. Hard powered down and then boot again to normal. She's thinking of now leaving it on 24x7.
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Now you've got to worry what using the incorrect power supply might have damaged. Might be worth a call to Dell tech support for a service call or RMA if it keeps happening

BTW, I can tell you from experience this kind of thing isn't confined to Dell. The last five years I worked for the federal government I had to use an HP Probook with a docking station and dual monitors in the office. Those docking stations were the biggest pieces of crap you ever saw, and you basically had to say a prayer every time you moved from one to another (something we had to do multiple times a day) that everything would work without requiring a 15 minute restart procedure for the laptop.
 
BarkingGhostar said:
Wife can do nothing directly with Dell. It has to go to the university's IT (Idiot Techs).
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These days laptops are just a processor and an all in one Mobo. If bios/firmware doesn't fix issues, it's crap quality from the sweatshops where the parts are made. Dell hasn't been making the same home quality HP has....for years...unless you pay a lot more. HP Envy is nicer IMHO than XPs laptops for less cash.

You can always get a lemon. Ports go bad....support sucks. It's all typical.
 
We have a couple new Dell XPS laptops in our office and I hate them. They are extremely slow despite being high spec machines and the power adapter situation is malarky. As you mentioned the Thunderbolt connector does not always provide enough power so we have to use the power adapter, which of course is not Thunderbolt itself.
 
BarkingGhostar said:
Is the Dell Latitude series consumer-grade? She is using that product line at home but it is issued as a business system.
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Latitude is the business line, vs Inspiron being consumer grade. We issue latitudes at work, they've been pretty solid except for Seagate Firecuda HDDs failing. Some of the early WD15 docks have been glitchy with monitors/kb/mice not detecting every boot.
 
I have a 2019 Dell XPS 15 that I upgraded the RAM myself to 32gb. Other than the battery life not being as long as advertised, it is a beautiful laptop. I'm always near a plug so the battery life is more than adequate. I did a bunch of HDR photo editing on it for a few months when I first got it, and it was zippy. Since COVID I don't go to the office so I just edit on my desktop. I have the version with the touch screen, and that comes in handy.
 
It is still crashing every other day. At home, at office, makes no difference. Anecdotal information from observation is that it crashes whenever Outlook is left open. This is usaully something she has in the foreground when she takes a break and monitor/video goes into power saving mode. I turned it off yesterday (power saving options) and it has yet to crash. Fingers crossed.
 
BarkingGhostar said:
It is still crashing every other day. At home, at office, makes no difference. Anecdotal information from observation is that it crashes whenever Outlook is left open. This is usaully something she has in the foreground when she takes a break and monitor/video goes into power saving mode. I turned it off yesterday (power saving options) and it has yet to crash. Fingers crossed.
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Have you used Dell Command Update to make sure all of the drivers and firmware are up to date?

The power adatper and dock situation is a PITA. They change them every year it seems so you get new laptops but then they won't be compatible with the ton of docks and adapters that you still have
 
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