Dell And Windows Vista Man, am I annoyed

[FolkRockFan 0]

Dell is making a big deal of their "We'll sell you an XP-loaded PC!" option. So, when Mom was ready to buy a new computer earlier this week, I went to Dell's Web site to see about an XP-based system. Mom wasn't ready to upgrade to Vista yet; she wanted to give that OS some time first so that Microsoft could make it more stable, fix some bugs, et cetera.So when I could not find any XP-based systems, I entered the live Q&A chat that Dell offers on the Web site.That's where I found out that, if I want an XP system, I have to buy the 1,200-dollar XPS system. That, incidentally, is a gaming system. If you want to do high-end things, then that's the PC for you. But my Mom doesn't need, or want, that much of a system. She plays games, but none of them require many system resources. She just wants a basic PC.So I didn't order that because, hey, I'm not paying 1,200 for a computer that's way too much for any of us to justify having. Nobody in this house would make good use of that system, so why bother? (And I didn't have 1,200 bucks anyway.)And that's fine. Dell can do whatever they want. They operate in a free country and all that. But I'm annoyed anyway. Mom is not the only PC user out there who wants to stick with XP for at least a few more months, if not longer. (I feel the same way, incidentally.)But I bought Mom a new Dell anyway. It, of course, comes with Vista Premium. Whoop-de-doo.Vista, as it turns out, is OKAY. It'll be better in a few months or so, but for now it's acceptable. There are a lot of changes from XP, so Mom just has to get used to the layout, where things are stored, et cetera. It's not bad. It's just...different.But I have to say that the new plug and play support is amazing. I mean...I thought that XP was doing well, but Vista? Blows it away. Nice.Anyway.Mom asked me if I could roll back to XP. I said that I could give it a try. As it turns out: if you roll back to XP, Dell voids the system's warranty. So you're stuck either using Vista or accepting that you will be cheated if you roll back and there is a problem with the system. I can understand why Dell won't cover XP-related problems. They aren't selling XP with the new PCs. But if there's an unrelated issue - say, a piece of hardware is defective and you don't know that until after you install XP - then you're out of luck (Or so Dell tells me.)Sooo...if Mom really wants XP on her system, I'll set up a dual boot. That might or might not void the warranty...but I'm not touching it until I'm certain that the system really does work like it should. Maybe in a few weeks I'll go ahead and make the changes. But until I'm sure that everything is cool, I'm not doing anything.

[Saint_Michael 3]

Dual booting will not void the warranty, however, the tech guy I talk to mention they won't support the other OS. So making sure the drivers, and hardware are supported you will have to do that yourself which shouldn't be much of a fuss, but who knows, some hardware will be fussy like that. A suggestion I would have although a bit unnecessary is get another hard drive (same type of course) and then install XP that way, but like I said a bit unnecessary just make sure your partitions are properly set and won't affect the other OS.

[satyaparija 0]

You are quite right. Not just your mom, it is true for a vast majority of crowd.Even I am at an engineering college seeing a lot of students throwing out their genuine vista to get a pirated XP. Actually.there a loads of softwares,games that does not run on vista unless u get the proper drivers n modification installed.

[cangor 0]

my uncle actually wants XP instead of vista, too, and he's having to pay more for a lousier computer to get it. Dell should at least give you the option to choose whatever operating system you want on all of its computers.

[FolkRockFan 0]

I'm going to try a dual boot system later...like, when I have some free time (getting ready for school to start now and all that). The next time Microsoft wants to release a new OS, I'm going to have to make SURE that I buy a PC before they actually unveil the new one...that way I can at least get a fully-functional OS (instead of being stuck with the brand-new one and the issues that always come with it). :XD:

[tigercat 0]

I have some problems with Dell, but my problems with Dell happened before Vista came on the scene (fortunately). I purchased a Dell laptop around Christmas 2006. The computer was fine except for one thing. It was missing half of the ram that I bought. I didn't really like the idea of not getting what I paid for, so I asked the Dell Reseller I purchased the computer from to put in the correct amount of ram. They said they would, but it took them many months to deliver what they promised. They only completely settled the matter after I posted a bad review about the Dell Reseller and got them some bad publicity. They agreed to give me the ram I paid for, but I had to take the bad review down. I am glad my computer was fixed, but it should not have taken a few months and a bad review to get the entire computer I bought. I simply will not deal with Dell again, and I recommend that you guys don't either.

[tractor 0]

I got a new computer with vista and it dosn't have any bugs or errors. It will auto-update just like XP computers and runs faster.I see why you would want XP but if you get vista you know that you really didn't want XP...Just some advice. Can you custom order dell PC's? Or do they all have vista on them besides that one.Regards,Agent

[odomike 0]

Dual booting definitely isnt gonna be much problem here. My HP Compaq nx6310 came with Windows XP Professional installed, probably because of the 512MB ram pre-installed in there. But, I kinda prefer Windows Vista because of most of the new features it has to offer. I had to partition the HDD and install Vista on another prtition in there.My advice though is that before you start the instalation of another OS to create the Dual boot, make sure that Dell has all the Windows XP version of your hardware drivers (they would be dumb not to provide for that though). it would be a very pityble state if after creating the dual boot and you find out that these are not available.Though there is a workaround to that. You simply delete the partition which is carrying your windows xp and also remove the boot loader from your vista BSD (assuming that you left vista in the first partition which is carrying the the boot sector).If you wanna do this, just post back in here and I would give you a reply on how to go about it.

[Saint_Michael 3]

I have some problems with Dell, but my problems with Dell happened before Vista came on the scene (fortunately). I purchased a Dell laptop around Christmas 2006. The computer was fine except for one thing. It was missing half of the ram that I bought. I didn't really like the idea of not getting what I paid for, so I asked the Dell Reseller I purchased the computer from to put in the correct amount of ram. They said they would, but it took them many months to deliver what they promised. They only completely settled the matter after I posted a bad review about the Dell Reseller and got them some bad publicity. They agreed to give me the ram I paid for, but I had to take the bad review down. I am glad my computer was fixed, but it should not have taken a few months and a bad review to get the entire computer I bought. I simply will not deal with Dell again, and I recommend that you guys don't either.

Well that is the reason I don't buy from the stores I buy straight from the company/website that way if anything goes wrong I know who to talk to and not deal with getting the work around. Since owning my Dell XPS I have had the best support from Dell ever, I even talk to some of techs even after my problem was solve. You though I would have renigged on the deal and reposted the bad review up with an edit saying, "although the problem was fixed months after it started that they still deserve this bad review" or something like that.

I got a new computer with vista and it dosn't have any bugs or errors. It will auto-update just like XP computers and runs faster.
I see why you would want XP but if you get vista you know that you really didn't want XP...

Just some advice. Can you custom order dell PC's? Or do they all have vista on them besides that one.

Regards,
Agent

You would think, I had a copy of windows vista collecting dust for awhile now and I was so tempted to install that on my laptop. but after talking with a dell tech about, I made sure to keep my computer Vista free and then just install vista on my custom built computer.

For you Dell fans that still want XP go after these computers and reasonable price check these brands out:

OptiPlex 740
OptiPlex 745
Dell Precision M4300
Latitude brand
Vostro 1000
Vostro 1500