Stuttering due to slow hard drive? Dell don't want to know.

oceanclub

In short, I couldn't play games on my Inspiron 9300 laptop due to a stuttering problem; any game, even old ones, showed video freezing every few seconds. A lengthy post on the Dell forums (where I made many posts trying to track down a solution) goes into the specific details and troubleshooting steps:

http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=insp_video&message.id=152425

Anyway, I also emailed Dell support, whose only response was to tell me to run the onboard diagnostics software. Since that passed, the only option given to me was to try their paid software support line. I didn't want to do this since (a) I was certain it was a problem with the laptop and not with any particular software, since _all_ games were showing this behaviour, and (b) they couldn't even tell me how much I was expected pay!

One particularly choice exchange between myself and the support person was the following:

Dell: "I think the games are just not meant for this system.It may be a compatability issue as these systems are not meant for gaming. Dell have made a notebook specifically for gaming, called XPS notebooks.The inspirons shouldn't really be used for gaming."

Me: "The specs of the machine on your web site specifically mention they can be used for gaming:

http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/inspn_9300?c=us&cs=22&l=en&s=dfh

Can you explain why you think "the inspirons shouldn't really be used for gaming if you actually market them as such?"

Dell: "When I said this machine shouldn't really be used for gaming, I meant if you were using this system for games only, it wouldn't be
appropriate.Obviously, this is your system and it is totally up to you how you wish to use this."

After 2 months of asking questions and searching various forums, I finally found a fix for this problem on this page:

http://hardware.gotfrag.com/portal/story/31874/?spage=7

"By default, Dell sets all their hard drives to "power saving mode"
which keeps temps down, saves on battery, and might even prolong the life of the drive. This also makes the drive much slower and for gamers it causes stuttering as every time your pagefile needs to be accessed the HDD must turn on and start spinning. For those of you that want your HDD running "full speed" the way it should be, Notebook Hardware Control allows you to adjust the power management of your HDD, letting you run your HDD the way it should be, full blast and stutter-free in games."

The given fix indeed worked, and games are now totally stutter-free on the laptop. Thinking I was being helpful, I mailed the same Dell support person about this.

Instead of getting a thank-you, I got the following email:

[...] Dell do not advise their customers to follow the advice they receive on forums or these type of hardware sites as the people who give the advice are not Dell qualified Technicians.

Dell have not been having problems with this issue in particular.The system was set up this way it is to prevent overheating issues, etc and for power saving reasons.It would not be advisable to do what this website is telling you to do as if you change bios and system settings, this may harm your system and we would not be able to help with that as you took advice from a non-qualified Dell Technician and this would be classed as user damage.

This is your system and it is your choice what you wish to do with this, but as a Dell Technician I would strongly advise you not to do this.

I'm just flabbergasted. No apology about the fact that it _was_ a hardware issue rather than a support issue. Just a head-in-the-sand that the problem doesn't exist for anyone ("Dell have not been having problems with this issue in particular"). She uses the line "As a Dell Technician I would strongly advise you not to do this." which is laughable considering the complete lack of technical aptitude she has displayed during the entire conversation.

I'd love to hear from someone else in Dell if this is a typical user expierence.

P.

tywy

The backlight on my Latitude D505 went in August. So I rang Dell Tech Support. The first guy I got onto said it was the motherboard...I was a bit skeptical because I'd heard of friends with the same laptop having their backlight go so I rang again and got onto a different guy who said he wasn't sure whether it was the LCD or the motherboard. So I asked him "Should I just replace the motherboard that costs €350 and hope it works and then if that doesn't work replace the LCD that costs €450 + VAT?" and he replied "Yes"

I was so pissed off! GAH! Tech support is so annoying!