Horrible Dell Support / Horrible Dell Drivers / Rant

[CNNN]

Picked up a Dell Inspiiron 3147 2-in-1 laptop, only after 4 days of use, the mechanical hard drive failed. It was making clicking noises from the day I got it.

Swapped it out with an ssd drive which turned out to be a nightmare. Didn't have Dell's magic restoration disc, no media came in the box. This system doesn't have a cd slot or ethernet port so physical media wouldn't help.

Went to Microsoft's website and downloaded an iso for Windows 8.1 with my key inside the box.. Uued Rufus to put it onto a flash drive and proceeded to install Windows.

Windows 8.1 installed, not activated since network drivers were missing,, there was about 10 items in device manager missing or not installed.

Proceeded to Dell's web site to download the drivers, guess what, no drivers there -- just an error message.

Called Dell who said I should factory reset the machine with a dvd.. explained about 5 times, there was no media in the box and i wasn't using the pre installed hard drive anyways.

Dell asked me where did I get Windows 8.1 from, I told them and they said it's not going to work. FU moron. Hung up and got someone else.

Told this tech I need the drivers, he said use the driver cd in the box to fix it, once again, no media in the box and there website is messed up.

The rep says he will remote connect to fix it.. Great but i'm missing the network drivers so he cant. He says try an ethernet cable, again, I explain there is no damn Ethernet port in this laptop.

Getting frustrated, he transfers me to a supervisor who actually speaks English.

The supervisor gives me a working link for the drivers and said he will mail me a driver disc, I said don't bother, this is all I need.

Installed all the drivers and did all Windows updates.

Trackpad not working, moves all over the place
Webcam not working, no software for it.
Flipping laptop into tablet mode doesn't disable the trackpad
Sound not working even though device manager says it is.

Next day, I call Dell and this agent remote connects, after about 2 hours of using Dell's Click2Fix app, only the webcam is working after apply some patches that I can not get access to.

She says we need to mail you a recover dvd to fix it, ok, fine, whatever.

Week later, the recovery dvd arrives, hook it up via an external burner that I had to go out and buy (thanks Dell)

The recovery DVD fails, some weird error message.

One more call to Dell, the rep walks me though it like I was born yesterday.. gimme a break.

He gets the same error message and tells me it wont work with an ssd drive and to put back the mechanical pos drive.

Asked him why, something about GPT partitions and crap.

Week later, replacement mechanical drive arrives. Put it in and used the recovery disk, all is working now.. but I still need the damn drivers for a clean install on my ssd.

Called Dell once more, the rep says to clone the partition to the ssd. This is NOT an acceptable f'ing answer.. If i can't get Windows 8.1 to work properly by simply installing the os and the drivers then this laptop is worthless.

Who wants to rely on a recovery image that may or may not work when you need it most.

Just about 30-days in, decided to send it back to Dell for a refund. Dell asks me why, I said cause Dell is pissing me off, that's why!!

Damn Dell, fix your damn website and get your drivers working properly.. do you really not expect someone NOT to do a clean install at some point ?

The End.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Is this the sad state that laptops are in these days? No more mfg drivers, for user self-install?

 

[Binky]

I'm unclear on why you didn't just return it for an exchange right after it failed.

 

[CoolRunnings]

This has been my experience too with phone support. I guess I shouldn't complain though because it gets me a lot of business as a computer tech. However this crap of not including an Ethernet jack? UGH! Really hate the thinness craze!

 

[JEDIYoda]

I am so very sure that there is more to this story that CNNN is not telling us!!

Everything I own is Dell products from my Dell Inspiron 23 inch touch All in One......to my Dell Ultra Sharp 30 inch Premier Color Monitor!!

Very good support!!

 

[JWade]

If the drive failed after four days, I would have returned it to dell for a complete replacement and have them fix it, I understand wanting an ssd, and in my experience, though deemed unacceptable, I would use a disk cloner to copy the original to the ssd for a more trouble free upgrade to an ssd, but then that's me and is acceptable to me to use a disk cloner, or just by one with an ssd in it already.

 

[DaveSimmons]

If the drive failed after four days, I would have returned it to dell for a complete replacement and have them fix it, I understand wanting an ssd, and in my experience, though deemed unacceptable, I would use a disk cloner to copy the original to the ssd for a more trouble free upgrade to an ssd, but then that's me and is acceptable to me to use a disk cloner, or just by one with an ssd in it already.

Same here. I would also have checked whether the Dell had a way to make a system restore setup to bootable USB drive on day 1.

 

[Bateluer]

If the drive failed after four days, I would have returned it to dell for a complete replacement and have them fix it, I understand wanting an ssd, and in my experience, though deemed unacceptable

Seconded. Any hardware failure in the first week is unacceptable, even though I sympathize with the OP's issues. That laptop should have been taken directly back to where you bought it, or shipped back to Dell at Dell's expense.

I've ran into the same problems with both Acer and Lenovo laptops in the past year. Installing a clean W8 build on modern OEM laptops is a crapshoot because they embed the key into the UEFI; even installing a Linux distro can be difficult.

I also just pulled up Dell's support site for the 3147 the OP rants about, and damn, there's no drivers posted at all. Just an error that the service isn't available. To their credit, Acer and Lenovo both had full sets of drivers available on their sites.

 

[CNNN]

I'm unclear on why you didn't just return it for an exchange right after it failed.

Didn't purchase from Dell.com, they initially refused to allow me to send it back to them, kept insisting I swap it out with another one from Staples, however, Staples is sold out of them everywhere.

I am so very sure that there is more to this story that CNNN is not telling us!!

Everything I own is Dell products from my Dell Inspiron 23 inch touch All in One......to my Dell Ultra Sharp 30 inch Premier Color Monitor!!

Very good support!!

The laptop was awesome, no issue there. The support behind it sucked ass. Someone from Dell Client Relations is suppose to call me today. Sent them a long pissed off consumer email.

If the drive failed after four days, I would have returned it to dell for a complete replacement and have them fix it, I understand wanting an ssd, and in my experience, though deemed unacceptable, I would use a disk cloner to copy the original to the ssd for a more trouble free upgrade to an ssd, but then that's me and is acceptable to me to use a disk cloner, or just by one with an ssd in it already.

Was trying to avoid sending it back, who knows if they would send me back a refub instead.

Seconded. Any hardware failure in the first week is unacceptable, even though I sympathize with the OP's issues. That laptop should have been taken directly back to where you bought it, or shipped back to Dell at Dell's expense.

I've ran into the same problems with both Acer and Lenovo laptops in the past year. Installing a clean W8 build on modern OEM laptops is a crapshoot because they embed the key into the UEFI; even installing a Linux distro can be difficult.

I also just pulled up Dell's support site for the 3147 the OP rants about, and damn, there's no drivers posted at all. Just an error that the service isn't available. To their credit, Acer and Lenovo both had full sets of drivers available on their sites.

Kept telling Dell many times there is no drivers on there website, they keep telling me its a DNS issue on my end as they don't see an issue. Dell didn't even want to send me a restore disc initially without a fee.

 

[Jeff7181]

I had a similar experience recently with an XPS 12. I love the idea of that thing - a 2-in-1 ultrabook with a screen that flips around so the keyboard isn't facing down. Best design I've seen so far, but very poorly executed. The SSD was junk - Dell diagnostics reported SMART errors within a week of buying it. It would wake up frequently during the night and drain anywhere from 20 to 60% of the battery life in about 6 hours. About once a day the touchscreen would become unresponsive and require a reboot to get it working again. If it were a $400 device, I'd live with the quirkiness of the touchscreen and overnight battery usage and replace the SSD. But the price is double that - not worth it.

 

[CNNN]

Anyone know why

 

[simas]

I think part of it is differences in expectations - we expect to be able to use our hardware we paid for and manufacturer believes they sold us specific configuration and at that point their responsibility ends. I had this experience with two laptops (one Asus, one HP so this is not specific to Dell). both came with Windows 7. hard drives eventually failed on both of them I swapped them for SSD , put Windows 8 on each and had a nightmare of the time getting drivers to work (especially for older Asus that was never intended to run Windows 8 so they never made any drivers for the Optimus graphic switch technology). for HP I ended up requesting rebuild disks, had to wipe out SSD, had to install full image from scratch (including their recovery partitions), go through years of updates to get it stable and then update to Windows 8. so your experience is fairly standard and has nothing to do with dell. for me personally, my next laptop is MS Surface

 

[Jeff7181]

I think part of it is differences in expectations - we expect to be able to use our hardware we paid for and manufacturer believes they sold us specific configuration and at that point their responsibility ends. I had this experience with two laptops (one Asus, one HP so this is not specific to Dell). both came with Windows 7. hard drives eventually failed on both of them I swapped them for SSD , put Windows 8 on each and had a nightmare of the time getting drivers to work (especially for older Asus that was never intended to run Windows 8 so they never made any drivers for the Optimus graphic switch technology). for HP I ended up requesting rebuild disks, had to wipe out SSD, had to install full image from scratch (including their recovery partitions), go through years of updates to get it stable and then update to Windows 8. so your experience is fairly standard and has nothing to do with dell. for me personally, my next laptop is MS Surface

I expect to run into some issues when changing operating systems. What I also expect is that it works properly out of the box. The XPS 12 absolutely did not.

 

[Fardringle]

I definitely would have returned it when the drive died. That said...use Dell's online chat support instead of their telephone (non)support. It goes to people in the U.S. who actually speak and understand English. You'll still have to do some of the basic and sometimes annoying troubleshooting steps, but they can actually understand you and you can understand them so it makes the process much easier and relatively painless. Whenever I have a problem (I work with a LOT of Dell computers) I simply log in to the chat, give them the computer info, explain the situation, sometimes go through a few troubleshooting steps I might have missed, then get a new part (or an onsite tech) sent out the next day.

I'm not sure why you couldn't find drivers on Dell's site, as this was the second result when I typed "Dell Inspiron 3147 drivers" into a Google search:
http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04/product-support/product/inspiron-11-3147-laptop/drivers