Cross-Reference for Old and New Part Numbers
Service and Support submitted by tuxedo512
02/20/07
Having been a long time customer of Dell Computers, I have requested numerous times that Dell have a cross-reference table available on the Support Site that will allow look-up of new replacement part numbers based on old numbers. This would definitely cut down on calls to tech support.
102
Don’t waste my time – I’m certified and a DCSE tech.
Service and Support submitted by mizsteel66
02/26/07
Here is a suggestion for us small business owner techs that don’t purchase “gold or platinum” level support for our in-house desktops. We have or are qualified in-house technical support. We have or hold numerous industry certifications, including Associate DSCE certification status. However our company isn’t big enough to qualify for the warranty parts direct program.
Stop making me deal with a level one or newbie tech, someone who clearly is reading off a screen following step by step and doesn’t really have a good working knowledge of computers. When im helping YOUR tech support, there is clearly an issue here. (US or India based)
If I have already ran through the whole gauntlet of “recommended steps” and can give them the information and errors from dell diagnostics or the DSET reports, please don’t waste my time asking me to do them again or to so stupid steps or asking me stupid questions. “is the computer plugged in?”
You already have a list of DCSE techs, use it and grant them some type of higher access. On our business accounts when we call in, verify who we are and flag our accounts so we can get what we need and move onto our next project.
130
True Customization Page, No Gimmicks
Dell Web Site submitted by jts
02/21/07
As a SMB IT Director I find it incredibly annoying trying to configure a new workstation and playing the "whackamole" game for best price. I know the exact specifications for the workstation that I want, but I have to play around with the SMB or Home Office or Enterprise levels to see what the best price for the system will be.
I just want to be able to say: Dell Dimension, 1 Gig Ram, WinXP Pro, 80 Sata, 20inch LCD monitor. I don't want to have to game the customization screens to find best deals (ie. 1 gig upgrade free deals).
Just give me the best deal for what I want. That is all I ask. Figure out your margins elsewhere. I have always used and recommended Dell products for at home and the office, but because of this annoyance I have start looking at your competitors. I am also a Dell Stockholder.
Please take this and all other suggestions on this site to heart, as they will bring the company around to its original ideals and stock price.
90
Driver ISO
Dell Web Site submitted by mhousewright
02/23/07
It would be nice if the original ISO for the driver cd was posted to the Dell support website for the customer that don't have the cd available. I know it's less size to download the individual drivers but the customers that need to go to alternate location to download the drivers and then take them to the dial-up computer would really benefit from this. If not the original ISO, then why not a general collection of the drivers as an ISO file that is up to date. Thanks for listening Dell.
120
Trust Us
Service and Support submitted by sekopp
02/21/07
I work in a government office and have been here for almost 15 years. Please trust us when we call and say we have a bad hard drive, etc. It just wastes our time when we have to walk through all the steps just to prove to your tech that we were right. Possibly set up a "trusted user" phone number.
I once had a heat issue that caused the system to shut down. The tech insisted that I run the diagnostics, which ran great when the system was first turned on but wouldn't work after the system heated up!
146
Solid State Drive as option in Notebooks
Accessories (Keyboards, etc.), Laptops submitted by tablet205
03/28/07 **IMPLEMENTED**
Definition
A solid state drive is primarily a data storage device, for use in computing applications that traditionally use a hard disk drive.
A solid state drive is based on non-volatile memory instead of the spinning platter and mechanical-magnetic head found in a conventional hard disk drive. With no moving parts, a solid state drive eliminates seek time, latency and other electro-mechanical delays and failures associated with a conventional hard disk drive.
Advantages
* Faster startup - Since no spin-up required.
* Faster read time – In some cases, twice or more than that of the fastest hard drives.
* Low read and write latency (seek) time, hundreds of times faster than a mechanical disk.
* Faster boot and application launch time - Result of the faster read and especially seek time. But only if application already resides in flash and is more dependent on read speed than other issues, eg. OS bootup that detects devices will not be significantly sped up even with faster seeks & reads.
* Lower power consumption and heat production - no mechanical parts results in less power consumption.
* No noise - Lack of mechanical parts makes the SSD completely silent.
* Better mechanical reliability - Lack of mechanical parts results in less wear and tear. High level of ability to endure extreme shock, vibration and temperatures, which apply to laptops and other mobile devices, or when transported.
* Security - allowing a very quick "wipe" of all data stored.
* Deterministic performance - unlike mechanical hard drives, performance of SSDs is constant and deterministic across the entire storage. "Seek" time is constant, and performance does not deteriorate as the media fills up (See: Fragmentation).
* Lower weight and (depending upon type) size
* Faster than conventional disks on random I/O
Check out the Idea in Action on the SSD enhancements Dell is making.
7549
Stepped support for advanced users
Service and Support submitted by ashearer
02/22/07
I think Dell should be the first that I am aware of to offer customer support for advanced users direct without having to go through all the layers of support people reading from scripts. In other words, when I call for support, I might have a number or some kind of identifier that would immediately escalate me to a higher level of technician. I know what I'm doing. Occasionally, I run into a problem I can't resolve or have a question. It's annoying to have to listen to the support person walk me through the standard steps that I have already done. Imagine, you're an advanced or even intermediate user. You're trying to troubleshoot a problem with email. You call Dell support and the representative starts with the familiar: "do you see the Start button, click on that" etc. etc.
I would be glad to take an online screening or whatever to establish myself as an advanced user. This may be available for IT pros, but there are a lot of advanced home/home office users out there.
90
Hardware Diagnostic Disk
Service and Support submitted by bob_robertson
03/01/07
To avoid the problem of hardware warrantee support or hardware diagnostics on different OSs, Dell could create a hardware diagnostic boot disk.
This could be specifically designed to detect and test Dell OEM hardware, and report problems in such a way as to assist in giving real information to Dell support if contacted.
By making it its own boot disk, rather than relying on the operating system or user for information, problems caused by incompatible software can be discerened without restricting the users to only an OS supplied on the machine.
It also makes it possible for Dell to ship _any_ OS without having to redefine or retrain technical support staff for diagnostics in each and every OS that there is.
For instance, rather than a user providing information such as...
"I can't open the interweb."
...the diagnostic disk could report...
"Ethernet PCI01:00:01 not functioning correctly, model #E3C7071"
As a technical support person, I can say I would much, MUCH rather receive the second trouble report than the first. It would also make it possible to confirm that units and model numbers matched what was purchased from Dell by that customer, quickly and without stress.
"I'm sorry, you didn't buy that ethernet card from Dell. Would you like to buy a replacement at this time that includes Dell's hardware warrantee?"
190
Provide correct drivers when given service tag
Dell Web Site, Service and Support submitted by mazemaster
02/23/07
If I go to support.dell.com to download a driver and enter the service tag, I am presented with a list of drivers for all hardware that could possibly ship with that computer model. Why can't you list only the drivers that are in the actual computer that I bought? As an IT professional who manages computers with dozens of hardware configurations, that would be extremely valuable to me. At least offer the option to display only the drivers for hardware that you actually put in the computer that i bought.
240
Support the Technical User
Service and Support submitted by fmccb
03/02/07
Know who I am. I am not the guy who doesn't know where the "any" key is - I'm the guy who can extract the CPU, swap out the power supply, invert the motherboard's battery to reset the PRAM, etc.
When I'm calling for technical support, you should know that I am a 94/100 technical person and I should be immediately connected with someone of equal skill. I shouldn't have to jump through automated support scripts for 45 minutes. Some people need to be asked if the PC is plugged into a 110v plug, but not me. If I'm calling you, it's a really strange problem that I can't fix. Save both you and me an hour of phone time and let me talk to a real smart person who can listed to what I've already tried and then point me in the right direction quickly. Save us both time and money.
If you did that, I'd never buy another computer from anyone else again. I just want someone to "get me", man.
310
Mail this!
IdeaStorm submitted by cabal
02/26/07
Can we have a "Share this IdeaStorm" link, so that we have an easy way to share a specific IdeaStorm thread?
180
Make a Flash Drive Laptop with *LONG* Battery Life ! ! !
Laptop Power submitted by reg
02/26/07
Make a 12.1 Inch Flash Drive Laptop for $599.
No Hard Drive, No CD Drive - put them in the base station / docking station.
The 12 inch laptop will have 2 internal USB 2.0 connectors, so you could plug in two standard USB 2.0 High Speed Flash Memory Sticks. (a double slot so the mem-sticks don't stick out of the case.)
Comes standard with one 8 GB memory stick with
Puppy Linux Pre-Installed .
Puppy Linux is FAST! Runs Completely in RAM.
Have 4 more USB 2.0 connectors, widely spaced along the left hand side of the laptop - hook up 4 more flash drives, or printers/scanners/cameras -etc. any four USB 2.0 high speed devices.
Tech Specs:
12.1" 32 bit color LCD Screen, ULV CPU at 2.0 GHz.
1 GB RAM standard, 2nd GB slot available for max of 2GB.
6 USB 2.0 High Speed connectors (4 external, 2 internal)
Built in graphics & Video accelerator hardware.
All Graphics, Audio, Video Linux drivers included.
1 PCMCIA slot (for CF cards, microdrives, etc)
1 Express Card slot t (for newer, faster PC cards)
White LED light on screen lid that illuminates the keyboard (like IBM thinkpads)
HDMI, VGA output, Component Video Input + Stereo Audio input.
Stereo Microphones mounted in the coners of the screen lid.
Rotating XGA Camera for video and pictures.
Audio headphone jack on front AND on back.
Docking station expansion port connector.
14 Hour Battery Life.
(Remember - no hard drive, no CD drive in laptop, and using ultra low voltage CPU with no fan running when idling...)
WiFi Wireless Networking.
Configure Puppy Linux with popular software, such as GIMP and Open Office and have it pre-installed with
all the hardware drivers on the 1st USB flash drive. Puppy Linux already comes with all these Applications .
Along with the Ultra Life Notebook, offer a base - docking station,
with configurations of Hard Drive (160 GB up to 1 TB) and
CD Drive (DVD, or Dual Layer DVD burner), and port replication.
(4 USB 2.0 High Speed Hub, Bluetooth KB/Mouse support)
SAMSUNG has a Flash Laptop,
it is time Dell caught up with the Marketplace.
460
On-line Support Requests
Dell Web Site, Service and Support submitted by weisen
02/19/07
My only problem with Dell is that no matter how their customer service tries to satisfy large customers such as my lab, even the simplest, most straightforward matter takes at least 20 minutes on the phone and most of that is spent repeating my name, my phone number, my address -- all things that rarely change.
Dell needs online submission of support requests.
Here's how it worked with IBM:
1. All customers, no matter how big or small, could register for on-line support requests.
2. When you need help, you log in and provide the proper serial numbers (your contact info is already in the system) and describe the steps taken to attempt to diagnose and/or resolve the problem.
3. The request is triaged to the proper group and **they call the customer back** when a specialist is ready to talk to them.
4. As the call progresses, the customer can log in to see what steps are being taken to resolve any open calls. Each support specialist logs conversations and part shipments are automatically tracked online.
This eliminates: 1) wait time on hold, 2) repeated discussion of mundane details such as shipping addresses and phone numbers, 3) mistakes made during #2 and is simply a must-have for anyone with a large number of systems.
Often with IBM and a routine problem, I would receive a call back simply to confirm my shipping address and to notify me that, for instance, a replacement disk drive was being shipped. The same routine RAID disk failure was never less than a 20 minute ordeal and most often 40 minutes with Dell Gold support.
Online support submission is a win both for Dell and for the customer. I'm baffled that it hasn't been done yet.
p.s. -- online "chat" with a technician is not the same as having a web form. The web form takes 5 minutes while the "chat" means that I simply have to wait for a technician to look up part numbers, ask the obvious questions, and simultaneously help other customers.
244
CDs included.
Accessories (Keyboards, etc.) submitted by brandner
02/26/07
I like to format my PC and give it a clean install once every year or so. It just makes everything run faster and keeps the system stable. When I bought my Dell Inspiron, it came with a picture of a CD and a note, saying something to the effect of "please contact Dell if you need original software".
I think that a Windows CD should be included with every Dell computer (that has Windows pre-loaded). At the very least, an ISO should be on the hard drive so that the customer can create their own install CD.
220
Make It Happen!
Service and Support, Desktops and Laptops submitted by goodthings2life
02/18/07
First of all, I want to add my support to the growing idea of "no crapware" setups. All I want is some awesome Dell Hardware bundled with an Operating System and a Drivers CD. That's it. No AOL, No Earthlink, No Adobe Acrobat from 3 years ago, etc etc. OS and Drivers. Period.
Second, I agree about bringing support staff back to America. There's a saying that you get what you pay for, and just because it's cheaper to outsource doesn't make it better.
Third, I agree about increasing the base RAM spec to 1GB... 512MB barely cuts it on XP, nevermind Vista.
Fourth, please please please start selling TabletPC models. Offer various display options with them... some with Intel graphics, some with Nvidia and/or ATI... some with widescreen, some without.
Thanks for listening!
Aaron
331
Service Tag should know what hardware is installed
Dell Web Site submitted by dialsoft
02/26/07
Hiya,
I am a service provider who services dozens of Dell Machines a month and often I am put in a situation where the operating system must be reinstalled. When I do this I find it great that Dell has an awesome driver selection for the machines on their website often second to none. The issue I have is that suppose I have a wireless ethernet capability in the machine, why does the service tag selection show 8 choices for the wireless card? Cant it know what was shipped with the machine? Its not that often that a laptops wireless card is changed. Also the wireless card hardware is not often identifiable as well by sight. it would be great that if the service tag selection could actually indicate what was shipped in the machine in the driver list section.
370
distribute the standardized NATO/FAA phonetic alphabet to tech support
Service and Support submitted by howardnyc
02/17/07
suggest: distribute the standardized NATO/FAA phonetic alphabet to tech support
NATO phonetic alphabet:
Code word Pronunciation
A Alpha (Alfa) AL FAH
B Bravo BRAH VOE
C Charlie CHAR LEE
D Delta DELL TAH
E Echo ECK OH
F Foxtrot FOKS TROT
G Golf GOLF
H Hotel HO TELL
I India IN DEE AH
J Juliet JEW LEE ETT
K Kilo KEY LOH
L Lima LEE MAH
M Mike MIKE
N November NO VEM BER
O Oscar OSS CAH
P Papa PAH PAH
Q Quebec KEH BECK
R Romeo ROW ME OH
S Sierra SEE AIR RAH
T Tango TANG GO
U Uniform YOU NEE FORM
V Victor VIK TAH
W Whiskey WISS KEY
X X-ray ECKS RAY
Y Yankee YANG KEY
Z Zulu ZOO LOO
401
 track my votes
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