Topic: Dell garbage.

[HondaMan]

 
Rant:

In November 2025 I got a 'refurbished' laptop from Dell. Upon turning it on, it began installing Windows (10). So, when it asked for an Internet connection, I obliged it, as Windows always seems to have yet another 'update' going on. After 2 weeks of letting it self-reboot (or leaving it on all night) it was still doing this: finally one day I just disconnected it from the Internet and gave it another 5 reboots until it would respond to me. Then I partitioned the {large} SSD and installed Linux on the other partition: both OSes then ran - so long as I wasn't connected to the Internet, it turned out...

I then plugged it back into the Internet: about 10 minutes later, while using Windows to try to browse to this forum, it announced another "Windows Update, requires reboot" which it also did without my permission (I was trying to read a post here). Upon restart, it would only boot up a DELL logo, then reboot. It did this for almost 2 hours (as I went to supper), and was ALL that it would do, ever since. Upon getting into its BIOS, the 2 Windows bootup options it originally had were both gone, and I couldn't stop the constant rebooting to try to get into Linux.

So, I called Dell. They couldn't contact it over the Internet (because it didn't work anymore) and wanted me to go and find another Windows 10 computer, hook it up to the Internet, then dowload some sort of "fix" or other (my other computer uses Windows 7 because Windows 10 is pure $hit and doesn't touch anything I designate as 'important' - mostly I use Linux) and then somehow load that into the non-functioning computer. So, I told them that as this wasn't possible (let alone practical), how 'bout if I sent it to them, instead? OK, they sent me a box, and I sent it back to them.

Now they tell me the solid-state disk in the computer is bad and must be replaced, and I am supposed to pay them the original cost of the computer AGAIN to replace it, never mind that IT NEVER WORKED RIGHT YET to begin with.

I've only been designing, programming and building computers and automation since 1969, when a computer with 16k of RAM occupied an entire building (and used punch cards for communication). So, maybe there's something I'm missing about understanding how to design/build/program/automate entire factories using them, but it seems to me that Dell is on the hook here.

Not me.

[jgger]

I feel for ya, Hondaman. Years ago I bought a Dell desk top with as many bells and whistles I could afford. It had a CD drive DVD drive, and because I had a bunch of stuff on 3 1/2 floppy ,so it had that too. It came with a bunch ofstuff loaded and the backup cd's for all of them...........except for windows. Something happened and I had to reload the windows stuff. I called Dell and told them they didn't send my windows cd. They wanted me to buy it again! After arguing with about 32 levels of customer non support they finally said f-it and sent me the disc.

Maybe they will just refund your purchase price and they can keep it if you don't have anything on it you want. So much for warranties.

[Alan F.]

If you paid with a credit card there may be some level of buyer protection available.

If you didn't like Win10, you won't like Win11 either I'm afraid.

I'm very happy to have left that business behind for the most part, I no longer fight for the users.

[PeWe]

Have you tried to install the Dell computer's chipset drivers?

The drivers that will be installed with Windows are usually generic drivers to get it to run, not more.

Chipset drivers to get the internal disk- memory- CPU- USB - buses etc to run as designed.

BIOS settings should be correct in a new PC.
The BIOS might need to be upgraded too. It happens that they have bugs.

Graphic drivers for the used graphic board too.

All should be possible to download and install from Dell webpage.
Easier to upgrade today than  25- 30 years ago.
No need of creating a start disk on DOS.....

Last time I upgraded the BIOS I clicked on a file on the Internet that downloaded and probably created a virtual disk it could install from.

[scottly]

Support for Windows 10 ended in October, unless you paid a fee to extend coverage. When I downloaded Windows 11, it took hours and hours with a DSL speed of 5Mb/sec, without running a browser or doing anything else on the computer. The system locks up every now and then when running Firefox, and requires going into the task manager to end whatever task is hung up. Like Alan said, if you didn't like 10, you won't like 11 either.

[PeWe]

Maybe too old computer for  Windows 11?
My job laptop was a Lenovo Thinkpad with i7 processor. Installed with WIN 10.  No problem to update to Win 11.
But it ran slower and in need to change stupid default settings.
Searched and found how to run scripts changing Windows registry settings.

Next computer I have today, Lenovo P16 preinstalled with Win 11 also with i7 CPU.
32 GB memory, 1TB disk.
It is not fast. Probably company triple safety applications.

Win 11 need a rather new computer.

My next home PC  (Laptop) with Linux Ubuntu?
Less spy applications for big brother.
https://ubuntu.com/certified/laptops

Games and other important applications have support.

Another cost before retire ....

[HondaMan]

I don't like Windows, period. It has NEVER been a decent operating system. I once watched a multi-million $$ company here in Colorado make the fatal choice of using Windows and Access to create a factory-wide data-acquisition system to collect and control manufacture of automotive airbags, on Windows 2000. Although I knew their Engineering group well (we had built 50% of all of their automation machinery for them when I was at MSA), they were not in favor of it: as a consulting member of their factory staff I voiced my opposition to it to their President, in person, and...ahem...firmly. He flat out told me I didn't know what I was talking about.

When the system was deployed, the entire factory stopped making parts anywhere, awaiting Windows to transport the request-to-build-orders for every part from a pair of Windows 2000 servers back to each machine in real time. It would simply lock up and stop running, unable to queue even requests-for-action. They hired Microsoft's own engineers to come out for 2 weeks: they told the factory owners that "they can't expect Windows to authorized hundreds of requests per second to make parts" in real time. They went home: the company's programmers worked for another month (while nothing came out of the plant) to "make it better", after which GM and MOPAR cancelled their orders (70% of this plant's market), and in one month a multi-multi-million $ company closed its doors, unable to build anything with the very same machinery they had used for the 5 years previous.

THAT's the "power" of Windows.

I haven't voluntarily used it since then, 2002.

[WhyNot2]

I don't like Windows, period. It has NEVER been a decent operating system. I once watched a multi-million $$ company here in Colorado make the fatal choice of using Windows and Access to create a factory-wide data-acquisition system to collect and control manufacture of automotive airbags, on Windows 2000. Although I knew their Engineering group well (we had built 50% of all of their automation machinery for them when I was at MSA), they were not in favor of it: as a consulting member of their factory staff I voiced my opposition to it to their President, in person, and...ahem...firmly. He flat out told me I didn't know what I was talking about.

When the system was deployed, the entire factory stopped making parts anywhere, awaiting Windows to transport the request-to-build-orders for every part from a pair of Windows 2000 servers back to each machine in real time. It would simply lock up and stop running, unable to queue even requests-for-action. They hired Microsoft's own engineers to come out for 2 weeks: they told the factory owners that "they can't expect Windows to authorized hundreds of requests per second to make parts" in real time. They went home: the company's programmers worked for another month (while nothing came out of the plant) to "make it better", after which GM and MOPAR cancelled their orders (70% of this plant's market), and in one month a multi-multi-million $ company closed its doors, unable to build anything with the very same machinery they had used for the 5 years previous.

THAT's the "power" of Windows.

I haven't voluntarily used it since then, 2002.

Soooooo......what would your best recommendation for operating system on a HP Envy x360 laptop be???

[HondaMan]

I've largely switched to Linux, with a couple of "parked" computers that support machinery around the world in case I'm needed (those computers are not plugged in until required for a service call). It has many vendors (almost all are free) and "flavors", but if you're Windows-oriented, you may like Ubuntu, which I use (since my wife sometimes uses my e-mail computers and she's only known Windows for the most part). Debian, if you're a code-writer, has some nice features, but they can also be added in Ubuntu, which I've done.

And, it's all freeware. It's also stable and well-supported.
And did I mention, it's not Microsoft's Windows, it's free, and it can be secured well enough to let me access the classified projects I've done (some worldwide) to be so qualified, and with almost no overhead, so it's lightning fast.

And it doesn't wear out your solid-state disk drive with constant thrashing and caching - which Windows does because it can't function without thrashing the disk constantly, wearing our your SSD for free. SSDs have limited write cycles, and Windows constantly caches and writes to the disk. Constantly. And you can't turn that off. This is what wrecked the disc in the laptop I am wrestling with Dell over, which they should have replaced to begin with if they were selling a "guaranteed" used product to me. The clue: their techs created 2 Windows boot segments and BIOS entry points, because they couldn't make Windows boot correctly. Then they threw it onto their website as a "guaranteed operational" used laptop, without testing the SSD to see if it was worn out or not.

I almost never buy new computers nowadays, for both cost reasons and because I usually need for it to hit the desk running - not "updating" for weeks before it's usable. I'm too old to have to spend weeks getting a stupid laptop to run - like this one from an incompetent service group (or person) at Dell.