hello, my name is
nathan pitman.

Dell are not the only culprits.  Gateway did this to my first computer back in ‘97.  My parents and friends computers have done this, all from various vendors.

My worries are now founded because I was afraid of that very thing you just blogged about in that I’m attempting to purchase 2 computers from Dell this week.  My main concern was pre-installed stuff.

I was tempted to build my own, but my adventures in hardware always meet with some mis-adventure.  And bare-bones and other vendors do not come with comfortable warranties…since they feel your a hardware geek I guess.  Therefore, I’ve pretty much resolved myself to, the first day I get it, to re-coring the machine (reformat the drive, reinstall Windows XP).

I’ve had the bios bitch in the past with her majesty’s Dell, so maybe I can negotiate over the phone.  We’ll see… thanks for teh confirmation!

We also just got a delivery of 6 new Dells, and I spent the entire weekend reformatting and doing fresh installs of windows. Pain in the a**e but I’d recommend the first thing you do is put in the recovery disk and reinstall windows the way you want it.

One problem with reinstalling Windows is that you may not truly be able to do what you want.  I have found that the recovery CDs that ship with PCs only let you reinstall the entire OS with all the crap they install.  You can’t install a stand alone clean Windows using their supplied CDs.

And, if you use your own copy of Windows, you have activation problems and such.  Sure, you can use your copy and their serial, but their serials are usually hard coded to the CD install and hardware!  Which means, you may find that you are no better off using their recovery CD versus their original build.  And, say you use your own copy of Windows, legitimate version or hacked, then you have warranty problems.

So…why bother at all buying a Dell, etc?  Most hardware will work or not work forever after the first few weeks or a month or two.  You may be better off building your own or buying a white box.  Buy Windows if you have to, and have a clean machine.  If it works for a few weeks it will for a long time.  Who the hell uses Dell’s warranty after 1-2 years anyway (at home, versus a corporate purchase)...probably very few.

I’d love to build my own box one day, but right now it’s a time thing. Maybe once I’m 40 and Neve has left home. ;)