I bought a laptop from Dell in March that burned out 2 hard drives by June. Sometimes, I hate computers.
I know what you mean about the keyboard. I had a hard time getting used to a regular keyboard for my new desktop computer after I had had laptops for several years. Now that I’ve grown used to this keyboard, I wouldn’t want to have to get used to another one.
For the last 2 people I know that got Dells , it was a disastrous experience at every level that ultimately led to refunds after weeks , if not months, of aggravation and poor service. They each met with spectacular levels of incompetence and one of them was nearly defrauded.
Word of Advice: NEVER buy a Dell computer/laptop/whatever. They’re pretty much pieces of shit by nature.
On the other hand, in Greece you have a Dell guy in your home in 24 hours and he gives you free ice cream and cigarettes. Go figure.
EPIC computer adventures, patch 1.4:
So everything was tinted pink when I turned on the computer two days ago. A restart fixed that, however that wasn’t enough yesterday and today. I fiddled with the color settings on the screen itself but that didn’t help. Only when I calibrated the colors on the control panel of the comp and set the red panel to about 50% did things look normal again.
I swear this “new computer project” is cursed.
You didn’t do anything related to updating graphics card drivers or so? Those might mess with the color settings. Do you have separate drivers for the screen itself? I had the backscreen… ignition switches? die of old age so my monitor had to be replaced (with a DELL) so I tried lots of things that worked (when it came to color)
If all else fails, WARRANTY! \o/
I really need a widescreen monitor other than the borrowed max 1280x768 resolution television that goes blank if you set in any other resolution… I figure SC2 might like it on a widescreen monitor better too…
I initially thought you didn’t mean this literally, heh.
Patch 1.4.1: I was told by compy-savvy friends the problem with the pink tinted screen was probably either in my graphics card or the adapter. Either way, I found a solution.
Are you ready for this?
The screen will stay normal if I turn on the screen after the computer has been switched on and has gotten to start up properly.
COMPUTERS ARE COMPLETELY LOGICAL, AMIRITE?
Oh, I forgot to mention, back when my PC was all virused up, the screen started to turn green as well. I just assumed it was another effect of the hacking, but after I got it fixed… it STILL looked green! It turned out that my screen was saying “you know what, I’m too old for this too, I’m gonna start dying now”. Thankfully the gang of lovable nerds I like to call My Nephews got me a new screen (flat, too!) for my birthday! 
snigger
Necroposting just to add that this morning, the computer couldn’t run Windows 
I swear somebody put a curse on the damn machine. I’m currently using the baby-sized laptop I bought last year for my university studies.
The only thing I have to say about modern screens is they make them too bright. I used a CRT for nearly a decade before getting an LCD and I had to turn the brightness down to 30% before it felt like I wasn’t at the beach.
As far as Dell laptops are concerned, they’ve gotten progressively shittier. My sister’s old one from 2003, maybe, still works but the battery is dead. So is everyone elses who bought one at the same time. I guess they gave the battery division control over everything.
On the other hand my IBM T23 from 2003 works fine, just slow. It took a fall from my desk a couple days ago to knock out the sound and USB.
In my opinion, anything from DELL is pretty unreliable since getting online documentation for their parts is extremely difficult …if not impossible! (and I say this from experience on several occasions.) When your buying computer parts (and pre-built machines, it’s probably best to stick with more recognized brands!)
Ah, my sweet little darling couldn’t start Windows AGAIN this evening. Last time it turned out that Windows had kindly installed a new anti-virus (Security Essentials) without deigning to notify me because I kept forgetting to turn off automatic updates, but this time it couldn’t be that. Also this time it managed to reset itself to a point where it still worked fine (last evening).
I think it’s time for a reformat. -_- Maybe that will chase away this evil spirit that’s inhabiting the comp.
(Yes, I realize that this is blog-style updates on a message board. However, these things just keep happening, I don’t know whether to laugh or to cry. It’s like a dark comedy for computers.)