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Alert

Lack of Dell Support and Help

May 13, 2013 4:17AM PDT

I purchased a used N5010 a little less than 2 years ago on craigslist. Didn't want to spend a lot because it was for my (at the time) 8 year son. I also bought a used Vostro 1500 for my 6 year old.

About a month ago, the Insprion got a virus which would up taking a picture of my son and then posting porn on as the wallpaper. Needless to say this was really disturbing (have white out of the camera lens now).

The best way I konw to clean a PC is to boot it from the recovery disk and reformat the hard drive. Unfortunately, Dell no longer provides the disk with your purchase anymore so I did not get it either. Not sure if they are too cheap or what.

So I have called Dell a number of times (avg hold time is 20min) and they refuse to even sell me a disk since I don't have the original owners information. I explained to then what happened but apparently they don't really care about my childs safety or wellfare. WAY TO GO DELL!

I am in the process of trying to install Linyx now (Ubuntu version) so I can get things working again.

Is there an course of action I can take with Dell. I will never buy another one again after this.

Discussion is locked

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Just asking.
May 13, 2013 4:40AM PDT

Why did you buy a used PC without the disks that came with it, and without checking if you could make the required disks yourself?

Kees

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Learn from your experience maybe?
May 13, 2013 4:41AM PDT

The course of action you need to take is to read your user guide which tells you to burn your recovery discs from what's on the computer. That's #1. #2 is to get yourself a good 3rd party backup program and an external hard drive and make your own full system backups. All computer companies stopped shipping the restore discs years ago and made it an option when you buy a new computer. The bottom line is that if you don't take responsibility for your own computers, why should you expect somebody else to?
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I suggest you get away from the Windows backup program and get yourself a good commercial backup program. This forum is fraught with problem reports for the Windows one. I know I was very unimpressed when I tried it. Three I'm familiar with and like are Norton Ghost (which I've been using for 8 years without the 1st problem), Easeus Todo Backup Free, which you can download from http://www.todo-backup.com/products/home/free-backup-software.htm and Memeo which has a 30 day free trial and you can buy it for $29.99 - you can download it from http://memeo.com . You can get Ghost for next to nothing (like I did) if you watch the sales.
The March 2012 issue of PC World was very high on the FREE program from Easeus, and I've been testing it lately in a variety of configurations; and have to say I'm very impressed. Like Ghost it will back up to a networked drive, and it will create a boot CD for when your PC won't boot. See PC World's review at
http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file/fid,80031-order,4/description.html .
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CNET has a lot of backup program reviews at
http://download.cnet.com/windows/backup-software/?tag=contentBody;sideBar .

Some of these are free (last time I checked there were over 300), some have free trials (over 1000), and some are purchase only (over 200).
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External hard drives are best for backup. You can get a 500 GB one for around $60 and a 1.5 TB one for around $90. You can also buy a 16 GB flash drive for as little as $10. It's the best insurance you can ever buy!

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I hope this helps. Good luck

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Learning for the future
May 13, 2013 10:45PM PDT

Kees,
Apparently these computers don't come with the disk anymore. When I bought it, the PC had a disk for all the drivers. I thought this was this disk I needed. Given, I have not bought a PC for some time given that I get one for my work.

I have an external hard drive which I use to backup all of my files and family pictures. Going forward I will definitely create a recovery disk as soon as I buy another PC. Learned that leason the hard way. I guess my gripe with Dell is that despite telling them my issue, they still refused to help. I have been a fan of Dell in the past, but given the long wait times and total lack of help, I will not be buying one in the future.

I have Ubuntu installed on the one laptop now and I must say that I like it. PC is fast again and the software was free. Now I have the disk that I can always reinstall. The other PC is set to ge the full Windows replacement done this weekend.

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Dell often offers these as a download.
May 14, 2013 1:50AM PDT
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dell support has really gone down hill
May 16, 2013 2:38AM PDT

ive been buying dell computers since windows 98 came out and dell had a great support team then and ive noticed thur the years it has really declined, i had a software problem and contacted the the manufacture and all i got was we will have to send you to the advanced support which by the will cost you so i said no thanks and called dell since they were the one i bought the software thur to begin with, they said no problem we can help you as your support is good till 2015 then when i was transferred to someone else they said o were sorry but that will have to go to a advanced tech which by the will cost you more money when i explained i had warranty good till 2015 they said yes but we have to send you to them and it will cost, im sorry but i will not buy another dell product there is no telling how many thousands of dollars of computers i have bought from dell and now to be asked for more money for help i have already paid for that is just crazy, so yes dell support has done me in with dell