Sounds of Silencers Are Loud and Clear: PCs Are Too Noisy

"TekWiz" <> wrote in message
news:1117990218.9e892a9ff14905cb20e6d3989319626c@t eranews...
> Yeah, too bad that Dell has sent most of all the formerly U.S.
> well-paying jobs over to India, and all they need here is someone to
> wipe their corporate dude's butts as they fatten up on high profits
> from cheap labor.
>
> Lots of those jobs appear to be coming back though. As expected, not
> only do they find that Americans HATE to deal with other countries
> when they need tech support, but other countries are getting smarter
> and building their own companies, and labor ain't so cheap anymore.
>
> At least now we can know which companies are loyal to the U.S. and
> which are not and who not to buy from.

I have mixed feelings about this form of outsourcing. In my heart, it
bothers me to see the jobs go offshore. In my brain, I know it's part of a
natural and inevitable process, and we've got to work with the forces of
nature and create new types of jobs if we want to stay on the cutting edge,
just as so many jobs we have today (including PC tech support) didn't exist
a generation ago. But putting that aside, I assume telephone tech support
isn't likely to be much good, be it domestic or foreign. It's hard to find
good people for those jobs, and remote diagnosing is often a very hard job
to do even if you're good. And it's fairly typical to speak with people
whose native language isn't English, even here at home. On the balance, I
aspire to avoid tech calls until and unless I know exactly what I want them
to do (like issue a repair order), and it doesn't greatly matter where the
call goes.

However, if it makes you feel better, I'll echo your sentiment with respect
to Dell printers, in the way Dell tries to remain the sole source of printer
cartridges. Because of this practice, I avoid buying Dell printers. Better
to stick to printers that can be refilled from the corner store.

TekWiz wrote:
>
> Monarch computer is like the Rolls Royce of computers--they use the
> best components and they are based in the U.S. Not like Dell tech
> support in India, where they don't even understand what you are saying
> to them...
>

Based on your glowing recommendation, I tried to buy a computer today
from Monarch. I sent them an e-mail using their recommended
fill-in-the-blanks form, and got a response to only one of my four
questions--just like what usually happens when I e-mail eBay or Amazon
[Dell OTOH is usually quite complete in their responses to e-mail]. I
sent Monarch another e-mail, but I haven't heard back.

I still don't think I want another Dell, but I doubt I'll be bothering
with Monarch.

Hi,

In article <1117935627.31a170e3c43fb67dad756aafc3654b1a@teran ews>,
TekWiz <Newsgroup> wrote:
#Yeah, those Dells are really great quality, what can I tell ya. Dell
#was rated l3.83 of 10 in the past 6 months while Monarch Computer was
#rated 9.35 of 10 at resellerratings.com.

Lessee... Dell sells DIRECT. Your web site reference is
resellerratings.com which is for RESELLERS. No bias here, right?

#The reason why the Dells are so QUIET is because they don't have a fan
#on the HD

Uh... no HD fan... so tell me, who does? Besides RAID boxes and high-end
servers, of course.

# and mount the HD often vertically inside a sealed metal cage
#which reduces noise. The HD is the most critical part of a
#computer--that's where your data is. Everything else is
#replaceable--not your data. So Dells often have early drive failures
#due to the HD running very hot. So hot sometimes that it will burn
#your finger. Usually the HD fails right after the warrantee.

<Glancing at 3 Dell machines of various vintages around him, thinking
of several ex-Dell drives in home machines...>

Uh... no. Every Dell I use at work has a horizontally mounted HD, which
has little to nothing to do with drive failure.

#They also skimp on everything--like putting IDE cables with only 1
#connector to save a penny, and using 40 conductor vs. 80 on the CD
#drives. Often there is no room to mount a second HD either, in case
#you need to rescue your failing HD.

Yes, lots of skimping, but bad examples. My MSI, my Asus, and my
Gigabyte MB's all came with 40 pin IDE second cables. All three are
considered top-tier boards and all three from top-tier makers. All of
them I installed top of the line DVD drives that couldn't make use of
the higher speed IDE I/O modes requiring 80 conductor cable, if they
wanted to.

There is lots of complain about pre-configured mass-produced PC's, you
did get the power supply thing right. Too bad about the rest of your
post.

Ken.
--
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On Mon, 06 Jun 2005 08:44:11 GMT, "Talkin Horse"
<davidrolfeN0SP&> wrote:

>"TekWiz" <> wrote in message
>news:1117990218.9e892a9ff14905cb20e6d3989319626c@ teranews...
>> Yeah, too bad that Dell has sent most of all the formerly U.S.
>> well-paying jobs over to India, and all they need here is someone to
>> wipe their corporate dude's butts as they fatten up on high profits
>> from cheap labor.
>>
>> Lots of those jobs appear to be coming back though. As expected, not
>> only do they find that Americans HATE to deal with other countries
>> when they need tech support, but other countries are getting smarter
>> and building their own companies, and labor ain't so cheap anymore.
>>
>> At least now we can know which companies are loyal to the U.S. and
>> which are not and who not to buy from.
>
>I have mixed feelings about this form of outsourcing. In my heart, it
>bothers me to see the jobs go offshore. In my brain, I know it's part of a
>natural and inevitable process, and we've got to work with the forces of
>nature and create new types of jobs if we want to stay on the cutting edge,
>just as so many jobs we have today (including PC tech support) didn't exist
>a generation ago. But putting that aside, I assume telephone tech support
>isn't likely to be much good, be it domestic or foreign. It's hard to find
>good people for those jobs, and remote diagnosing is often a very hard job
>to do even if you're good. And it's fairly typical to speak with people
>whose native language isn't English, even here at home. On the balance, I
>aspire to avoid tech calls until and unless I know exactly what I want them
>to do (like issue a repair order), and it doesn't greatly matter where the
>call goes.
>
>However, if it makes you feel better, I'll echo your sentiment with respect
>to Dell printers, in the way Dell tries to remain the sole source of printer
>cartridges. Because of this practice, I avoid buying Dell printers. Better
>to stick to printers that can be refilled from the corner store.
>


Well, according to other posters, Dell hardware is no better or worse
than anyone elses, so why buy Dell anyway if the support is so bad?
Here's a post from another thread... They are sorry they got a Dell
due to the bad tech support from india....


From: <>
Newsgroups: misc.consumers.frugal-living,misc.consumers

Subject: Re: Indian call staff quit over abuse on the line

Date: Sun, 5 Jun 2005 20:55:11 -0400

I'm so sorry we bought a Dell because of this. I gave up calling the
tech support, even though I paid extra for it. The so-called techs
always give non-India names also, as if we couldn't tell. American
business people don't want to pay 7.00 an hour for American call
center employees. It's really pathetic.

Barb

> So if it's brand name it means it's good right? People in the field
> see a major proportion of HP's, Compaqs, Dells, etc. with burned power
> supplies, blown mobos and bad drives. They are cheap machines made as

They see more of these machines needing repair, because there are so many
more of them sold.

My new 8400 is dead silent. Has two connectors on the ribbon cable, extra
drive rails and (at least to my touch) the hard drive is not exceptionally
hot. (It's been my expireence that hard drives fail more often from voltage
spikes on the line rather than heat.)

Dell makes an outstanding computer "for the price".
HP is & Compaq (owned both) are junk Don't know anything about a Monarch,
probably just over-priced junk like a Orick Vacuum Cleaner.

Personally I don't want a Rolls-Royce of computers; I want something that
will do the job as inexpensively as possible for about five years so I can
upgrade and not feel bad about how much I spent. Dell fits the bill nicely
in that respect.

"Rolls-Royce of computers" man did they see you coming....