I bought a laptop from Dell and within 30 minutes of TAKING it out of the box it froze up. I contacted tech support they guided me through some test and everything passed. Then they asked me to ALLOW them access to check something else and it froze while tech support had control. I was kind of relived since it meant they knew exactly what was happening. They had me set it back to factory settings which took 3 hours. I spent a total of 5 hours dealing with trying to get it fixed. After the 3 hours Dell called me back asked me did it freeze during the 3 hours of resetting it didn't so they said issue resolved but withing a few minutes it froze again! I contacted them again they wanted to run the same test. I told them been there done that I want to return it. It freezes 5-6 times when using it. After 3 days of back and forth I finally got their approval to return it! I have always bought from Dell never had trouble right out of the box. I am going to mail it back tomorrow but I'm curious about what could cause this and why tech support can't figure it out. I need a laptop but now that I'm having to send this one back I worried about buying again. I thought I was getting a good deal it's a touch screen running windows 8.1 with intel processor for $379. Anyone ever experience this? Do you think I just got a bad one and if I rebuy the same model it would be ok or should I buy a different model? Dell support I have heard is good. Their computers are hit and miss for quality. The fact that its a low cost laptop it may be a model that they cut corners on. I'd give the replacement laptop a try if you can afford to wait for the other to arrive. If you inform them the urgency of a replacement sometimes they can send you one overnight delivery with them paying the over night cost to get it to you. BUT... when i have done this in the past with another laptop manufacturer ( Toshiba ) when a recertified refurb was sold to me and it had issues with the keyboard and accupointer ... this was years ago with a Toshiba Portege Pentium II 366Mhz running Windows 98... I had to give them my credit card to charge an additional laptop to, and secure the laptop that was shipped overnight to me at their expense, and then when UPS arrived with my laptop, I took the new one out of the box and shipped the problem one back to them with same box and the return RMA label that they provided with UPS guy waiting for me to swap out the computers and close the box back up to ship back. That same day Toshiba credited back my credit card for the $350 when they saw the broken laptop on its way back to them. The replacement laptop I got was in better used condition than the first and I used it for 3 of my college years from 2001 to 2004 before the Pentium II 366Mhz with 192MB RAM just wasnt cutting it for what I needed portable COMPUTING for which was Programming in which Visual Studio .Net 2002 edition became a college programming requirement in 2003 from that of Visual C++ 6.0 that I used prior, and it would not install to it because it didnt MEET the minimum system requirements.I've been using Dell systems for almost 20 years and have had very few issues. I've recently switched to HP only because Dell stopped allowing specific custom configurations I use. The fact is that as long as you stick with a name brand you'll be fine, but even a ROLLS Royce can have a defect or two. You can't assume that just because it's a Dell there will never be a lemon - nor can you draw negative conclusions from one bad experience. Stuff happens.Quote from: Allan on February 26, 2015, 06:12:37 AM

I've been using Dell systems for almost 20 years and have had very few issues. I've recently switched to HP only because Dell stopped allowing specific custom configurations I use. The fact is that as long as you stick with a name brand you'll be fine, but even a Rolls Royce can have a defect or two. You can't assume that just because it's a Dell there will never be a lemon - nor can you draw negative conclusions from one bad experience. Stuff happens.