[hawthorn]

Hope this isnt too confusing! I bought a new pc a few months ago from Dell, but last week did a deal with my nephew, sold it to him, and I bought a new one (Really just to help him out, as he didnt know how to go about the whole procedure; I didnt lose out on the deal!)

Anyway the 1st PC was a P4 3.0, and the 2nd one a P4.2.8 ( a little cheaper)

I kept the 2nd one, and kept the monitor and keyboard, mouse, etc; so he got my 1st one with the k board, screen etc of the 2nd one. No problem so far.

Here are a few problems/curious things:

1
Ist PC, I could connect online (modem) at 52.6appx. 2nd PC I can only connect at 42.6 most of the time. And i do notice the difference. Everything is the same; same phone leads, etc.
So is there aproblem in the PC or Modem I wonder? Should I ring Dell?

2
I am a bit suspicious about the PC; when I opened the box, it was actually dusty. Also it makes a strange soft whirring noise (appx. 1 second) appx. every 10 minutes. At the moment it has stopped, but I went online tonight and the noise came at 23.44pm, 23.54, 0.04, 0.14, etc EVERY 10 minutes. Weird or what?
Last night 6 times, every 10 minutes exactly!!!! It's a soft, whirring, slightly grinding noise, and a bit like a disk drive working.

3
I saved files from the last PC into a folder, and wrote them to CDRW. Opened the CDRW tonight, was browsing through the folder, and had to leave for about 2 hours. When i came back, it had frozen. Ctrl-Alt-Delete didnt even work, I got a mainly frozen screen. it would attempt to close but in the end I just had to press the ooff switch.

4
When browsing, I occasionally hear a 'click', like the noise you get when you click on a link. But Im not actually clicking. IS there something in the background, I wonder?

Sorry for long post, do your best please!

KC, Ireland


In general, I think the other PC was faster, but surely the difference between 2.8 and 3.0 is nothing?
So have I bought one of the duds? I hope not!

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Ist PC, I could connect online (modem) at 52.6appx. 2nd PC I can only connect at 42.6 most of the time. And i do notice the difference. Everything is the same; same phone leads, etc.
So is there aproblem in the PC or Modem I wonder? Should I ring Dell?

Probably just a difference in modems. Maybe you can convince your nephew to trade. Dell support will likely blame it on line conditions, since you're able to connect I doubt they'll do anything.

I am a bit suspicious about the PC; when I opened the box, it was actually dusty. Also it makes a strange soft whirring noise (appx. 1 second) appx. every 10 minutes. At the moment it has stopped, but I went online tonight and the noise came at 23.44pm, 23.54, 0.04, 0.14, etc EVERY 10 minutes. Weird or what?
Last night 6 times, every 10 minutes exactly!!!! It's a soft, whirring, slightly grinding noise, and a bit like a disk drive working.

Was this a refurbished system? A Dell PC should not be dusty. Dell doesn't warehouse ANY PC's, they're all built to order. I would be concerned and contact Dell. The sound you're hearing is probably the hard drive.

I saved files from the last PC into a folder, and wrote them to CDRW. Opened the CDRW tonight, was browsing through the folder, and had to leave for about 2 hours. When i came back, it had frozen. Ctrl-Alt-Delete didnt even work, I got a mainly frozen screen. it would attempt to close but in the end I just had to press the ooff switch.

These type of lockups can very difficult to identify, but since it's a new system it's most likely hardware related. Again, contact Dell.

When browsing, I occasionally hear a 'click', like the noise you get when you click on a link. But Im not actually clicking. IS there something in the background, I wonder?

Hard to even speculate. Possibly the hard drive?

If this wasn't a refurbished unit, I'd call Dell tech support, and just skip right past the initial contact and ask to speak to a manager. Explain your situation and tell them you want the system replaced.

P.S. Everything else being equal, you shouldn't be able to notice the difference between a 2.8 and 3.0 ghz system. I don't think anyone could tell the difference, except with benchmarking software.

[admin]

Ist PC, I could connect online (modem) at 52.6appx. 2nd PC I can only connect at 42.6 most of the time. And i do notice the difference. Everything is the same; same phone leads, etc.
So is there aproblem in the PC or Modem I wonder? Should I ring Dell?

Probably just a difference in modems. Maybe you can convince your nephew to trade. Dell support will likely blame it on line conditions, since you're able to connect I doubt they'll do anything.

I am a bit suspicious about the PC; when I opened the box, it was actually dusty. Also it makes a strange soft whirring noise (appx. 1 second) appx. every 10 minutes. At the moment it has stopped, but I went online tonight and the noise came at 23.44pm, 23.54, 0.04, 0.14, etc EVERY 10 minutes. Weird or what?
Last night 6 times, every 10 minutes exactly!!!! It's a soft, whirring, slightly grinding noise, and a bit like a disk drive working.

Was this a refurbished system? A Dell PC should not be dusty. Dell doesn't warehouse ANY PC's, they're all built to order. I would be concerned and contact Dell. The sound you're hearing is probably the hard drive.

I saved files from the last PC into a folder, and wrote them to CDRW. Opened the CDRW tonight, was browsing through the folder, and had to leave for about 2 hours. When i came back, it had frozen. Ctrl-Alt-Delete didnt even work, I got a mainly frozen screen. it would attempt to close but in the end I just had to press the ooff switch.

These type of lockups can very difficult to identify, but since it's a new system it's most likely hardware related. Again, contact Dell.

When browsing, I occasionally hear a 'click', like the noise you get when you click on a link. But Im not actually clicking. IS there something in the background, I wonder?

Hard to even speculate. Possibly the hard drive?

If this wasn't a refurbished unit, I'd call Dell tech support, and just skip right past the initial contact and ask to speak to a manager. Explain your situation and tell them you want the system replaced.

P.S. Everything else being equal, you shouldn't be able to notice the difference between a 2.8 and 3.0 ghz system. I don't think anyone could tell the difference, except with benchmarking software.