Returned my Vostro 1500

Even though it had a really nice screen, and a good price, I had enough of my Vostro 1500.

It kept blowing away the partitions, getting itself wedged into conditions where XP would lose all of the network drivers, or become completely unresponsive for the trackpad, fail to connect to wireless networks, etc.

I reinstalled XP twice, and it still got FUBAR.

Today, on teh last day of my return period, I removed the partitions, and am RMA-ing it back to Dell.

I went out at lunch and bought a MacBook Pro witht he 2.4GHz Santa Rosa. That will be far better, I think: UNIX for work, XP for games. But, if XP dies, it won't mess with the rest of my life.

The Vostro was an interesting experiment. I really wanted it to work out for me, but it just became more trouble than it was worth.

Best of luck, I doubt I'll be back in this forum.

 

The best part of this is, you have a mac hahaha

 

Sure beats a Dell.

There is no substitute for quality. The 30 hours I spent configuring and fscking with the Vostro was far more wasteful than spending a thousand more and getting a better machine and OS.

 

I've never had any issues with XP on my Vostro. Different experiences I guess. Plus I can't justify dishing out that kind of cash for a laptop.

What'd the pro run you? $2500 USD?

Could get:
A desktop
3ghz C2D
2 GB DDR2 800 RAM
8800 GT
500GB Hard Drive
Optic Drive
etc etc

and

the laptop in my sig



for less.


Then again, I've had no issues w/ XP. Vista on the other hand....

 

i could buy my laptop for myself, and one for my mother, a 32" lcd tv, xbox 360, and 5.1 surround for that macbook pro... worth it, your crazy if you think so.

 

You must like crappy stuff.

The same spec would be $1500 in the Dell store. And then you get crappy OS issues.

Chacun a son gout.

 

I cant wait till I go to college so I could get rid of my Dell. I feel like I'm restoring it every other month.

 

no, i learned the hard way when i paid 2200 for my first laptop, and 2500 for my first desktop. i realized that hell, this is dumb im paying this much. 700-1000 is the sweet spot, you should never spend more than that. if you do, your not getting a good return on your investment.

You pay for ignorance in this world, in your case, its stupidity.

 

Don't make this thread personal guys. We are here to share info/exp.

If OP is happy with the system there shouldn't be much more to discuss right?

There is no need to point out each other in this thread.

If I may justify my purchase my M330 which cost me around 2k after ram upgrade, I like spending money on stuff I like, and that's why I work hard for my money. That's just me though.

 

Sounds to me like it had hardware issues.
You just got a lemon.

Good luck with your Mac. If only they had a right-click button. I never got used the the lack of a right-click button on my iBook. I always had to use a mouse or trackball with it. It's one of the main reasons I bought a Dell laptop instead this time. I like OSX though, and it's convenient that the newer Macs can run XP alongside it.

 

I did too. I did it for the desktop anyways. $2700. But I learned my lesson before the laptops. You're so proud of the machine when you first get it, and you think it's so powerful and top of the line but after a year or so it's a mid level performer at best and you're still paying the premium. It's funny to think about all these guys who think their 8600m gt and t7700 they just dropped 2500 on is so powerful, and that next year they will still be making payments and already feeling inadequate about the computing power of that purchase compared to the much more powerful machines out, and the year after that those high end core2duos and 8 series graphics cards will be a bad joke that will be humiliated by any 600 dollar laptop.

 

I completely agree with the Mac. I think if you're more financially well off, you would pay a premium for a peace of mind. Macs have great support, great QA and stable software. Plus apple actually admits their product mistakes. Wait for eternity for Dell to do that. Plus, new Macs are 64 bit compatible. Power to that thousand dollars.

 

Im not saying do not buy a mac, and im not saying only buy a dell. All i was saying is its dumb to pay over a thousand dollars on any computer whether it is mac, dell, hp, compaq, sony etc. i dont care who its from, its not worth it in this day and age where computer technology changes so rapidly.

 

Mr. Nizzy, I don't know what phase of life you are in. At many phases of my life, I have been dirt, desperately poor. Just recently, I got down to and below $0 in my checking account, while being responsible for two cars, a three bedroom house, two motorcycles and a crapload of stuff. It's tough to be without money.

Now, a few weeks later, I am on a new job, and going to pull $150,000 in 2008. Plus, I will travel 20,000 miles, and experience things that only a few hundred people in the history of human life have experienced.

Now, I submit, is where context comes in.

I may very well have gotten a lemon. It was a refurb from The Outlet, to begin with.

I tried to save the "premium" of the Apple world, by buying the Vostro at all.

I have worked with computers for over 20 years. I have taken a screwdriver to $200,000 Sun 32-processor Enterprise servers, which look like dark grey refrigerators.

I have used $8,000 COMPAQ 80386s and upwards. I used to work on a $7,000 80486.

When I pay my money, I either build PC desktops (in lovely LianLi cases) or I buy Apple. This new MacBook is my fourth Mac that I have paid for at full retail. I also bought a Mac Plus (7.83 Mhz, 4MB RAM) and paid $2500. It got me through two bachelor's degrees. Did it pay off? Absolutely.

I bought a PowerBook 550 in 2001 for $1999. It never needed a rebuild through six years, twice around the world, and many OS upgrades. Plus, it is UNIX, runs X11R6, and has GigE. It's still kicking, though a bit beaten. Still, it didn't piss me off in a month nor within 84 months. 84 months to Apple, one month to Dell.

Money is relative. 30 hours of my life time is worth less to me than $1000.

My best friend is a high school dropout with no college experience nor degree. I kid you not, he owns a $10 million company and makes $300K a year. I'll paint my house to save $4000. he won't. Why? Because the opportunity cost of life time is money. $2500 is a sneeze to the wealthy. His company is 100% Mac. Why? Because the salary of one or ten MCSEs is far more than the operational cost of machines that don't require babysitting.

So, I hope that this explains a little of the many differences between our perspectives. I can't afford to be without a fully functional computer. I am going to the most remote outpost on the planet, and no planes will come to replace my machine. Dell was given a chance, and they failed. Apple has never failed me, though they do cost more.

It's all context. I'm glad you have a good experience. I wanted one, too. I didn't get it. But, I did get a better built, lighter (by 2 pounds!), more attractive, more secure and stable UNIX OS, for $2 a day over the next year. For me, that's not even worth considering. If $2 a day is meaningful to you, by all means, dick with reinstalls. I suspect there will come a day when you make enough to understand that the time in one's life is worth far more than a little cash. But, then again, I'm 40. YMMV.

 

why does everyone think apples are perfect little machines that never break? or have os glitches that delete your data. is it those cute as a bunny commercials they have? i dont get it. i just dont...

 

Experience?

How many years as a post-collegiate IT systems engineer do you have?

No one said any of the hyperboles you illustrated.

There's a reason Sun, HP and IBM own the enterprise data center market. Those are the kinds of machines with which i work.

So, when I can get a laptop built along similar design philosophy, I have a better experience.

UNIX is for work. 'Doze is for games. And you generally get what you pay for.

I can't afford to bring crap to my job. And, now, I don't have to.

Apples certainly have problems. But, within the realm of my 22 years with Apple products, I experience problems about 1/10 as much as Pee Cees. And I've waged this battle enough that I prefer an expensive higher quality over cheap crap. I don't shop at WalMart, either.

 

Whatever...given the slang your using about Windows up above, I can already see where this is heading. I've got far less computer education than you claim, yet I've never managed to have the problems configuring (or dealing with) a Windows laptop to the degree you mentioned in the first post.

Plus why did you buy a refurb just to save a few bucks and then turn around and spend over twice the amount on an Apple? In fact, you could have got a brand new Vostro for less than what you paid for the refurb. Did you sincerely want to make this happen or are you just trolling?

I agree with you about UNIX, though. But if I want UNIX, I'll save some money and get Linux put on a PC instead of Apple and their stylish, overpriced, soon-to-be-outdated machines.

Anyway, my two cents...

 

Beacuse the limitations and corner cutting of the Vostro are acceptable to me at the $1000 range, but not the $1700 range (which mine would have been including tax). The MBP is far, far better when you consider bundled software if the price is only a $500 premium.

Everything in a laptop chassis is overpriced and soon to be outdated.

I just want something that weighs 5 lbs, works well, has gig-E, plays games, runs open source *NIX, and doesn't make me spend hours rebuilding it. I got that, and the Vostro couldn't measure up. Though, the LG screen was gorgeous.

I'm glad you Windows fanboys are happy with your choices.

As I said, my needs are specific, and while I am not wealthy, the Vostro was a point of diminishing returns and a time sink. I went from completely stoked about the Vostro (see my first posts) to absolutely disgusted with the unreliability in only three weeks.

I don't have any more time to dick with it, I have travel and work to accomplish. It was stupid of me to ever think Dell could make a machine for a good price that didn't suck balls. Some things never change.

 

is that a joke ? If you think buying from apple is a good financial decision, you sir are misinformed to say the least. i just sold my macbook and bought vostro 1500 b/c macs suck. they are way too overpriced, meaning you can only get low end components when you buy one, making your machine OBSOLETE even faster.

and i laugh at the other guy who bought a laptop from dell outlet, and then went to buy the macbook pro, with the huge price tag. If u bought a refurbed unit dont expect more, they are refurbed for a reason...

If you like mac os x you are still an idiot if you buy an apple computer. id rather buy a computer from dell or hp and just buy the os x operating system. I like apple quality and all but come on, in the end the most you pay for is the name and its totally not worth it. Its just a piece of hardware that will get old like any other.

now lets watch my rep grow from all the anti apple people like me.

my .02

 

99.99% of windows problems are actually located between the chair and the keyboard...

 

Installing OS X onto a PC would not work despite having the same CPU architecture! The only option is to run an emulator.

 

thats what i had in mind, i was sure everyone was familiar with the emulator concept. Either way im sticking with Vista.

 

The brand loyalty in this thread is foolish anybody should never restrict them to one brand MAC, DELL, HP or otherwise if i have a DELL and i am ready to upgrade I am going to buy the brand that has the best offer for me not the lowest price or the best parts but the combination of the two and certainly there no brand loyalty there cause i am spending my MONEY not theirs so I buying what I want.

And the moment you start to think about brand over what you need then is when you end up buying crap.

Tell me something all of the people posting in this forum should know that every computer manufacture does not get it right all the time so sometimes you will get a really good deal sometimes u don't.

Any way thats they way I feel.

 

Exactly, If the price is right, and the support and features are there, then, at least to me, I could care less what brand my PC is.

 

If I were going somewhere far far away from anywhere and I absolutely needed to have a working laptop, I think I'd take more than one with me.

 

I hope you become as happy with you Mac as I am with my Vostro.
I wouldn't pay that much for a laptop. It doesn't make sense.. specially at the rate technology advances and prices drop. but that's my personal opinion.

I also personally think that it was you who was the problem and not the Vostro.

Enjoy your new Mac.