Was it a low-end Dell? There are so many models and sadly there is a large difference in reliability. I've used two Dell Latitudes and I absolutely love them! I also bought my mom a Dell Studio 1737 (over a year ago) and my daughter an HP laptop around the same time. I've been through 4 Dell pc's as well (I upgrade and pass the older model on to family members). I've had an HP and a Compaq pc as well. I've also built numerous ones from scratch over the years (until I got tired of keeping so many parts around). My daughter doesn't really use her laptop intensely (just for college homework and email) but my mom tears hers apart. She is on it off and on 24x7 (she's 73 and lives on the thing). No problems except my mother bent the dvd drive and had to have it replaced (under warranty and returned in less than 5 days total turnaround).

Having written all of that, the reliability and customer satisfaction rates are not as high on Dell as some of the others. If I was buying my own personal laptop, I would probably go with an ASUS.


>My last laptop was a Dell -- and that will be my last Dell
>for awhile. When working on an airplane, I (properly)
>shut down the Dell when the low-power message
>came on. From that moment on, I had problems
>with the battery utility -- wouldn't recognize the AC
>adapter on startup, and other batt-util-related problems
>that I could never resolve. Reflashing the BIOS
>sometimes provided a temporary respite. Googling
>the problem indicated that it had gone unfixed by
>Dell for YEARS -- inexcusable.
>
>Now I have a Toshiba -- with a touchpad that
>is...touchy...But at least it's something I can live
>with.
>
>-m.
>
>>Looking for recommendations for a new laptop.
>>
>>Requirements:
>>
>>* Would like a Dell
>>* Will be using it for development
>>* Windows 7
>>* Wouldn't mind gaming on it (GASP!! Gaming on a dev machine!!)
>>* Docking station
>>* Dual monitor support
>>* I don't EVER wanna run out of memory or HD space.