Buying a 2nd Hand Dell Laptop

[Bouncingogre]

This is just a little warning to you all about buying a 2nd Hand laptop !
As I'm sure most of you will be aware, Microsoft support for Windows 10 ends on October 25th.
I actually like Windows 10, and can work very happily with it.
But for the extra security that Windows 11 brings, I recently invested in a Dell laptop running Windows 11.
I bought this online from a firm who "Eco" recycle laptops, so it was bought quite legitimately and with good intentions.

But a warning to you all.
If anything goes wrong on these laptops, you will NOT be able to reinstall the OS .
This is because somewhere on the motherboard, and also embedded into the BIOS is a digital key put on there by Dell to protect the original first owner against theft or corporate misuse.
After a long saga, it turns out that this laptop I bought had such an embedded key. Originally bought as part of a batch for a large UK College, the reinstall of Windows will fail every single time, pointing the new perfectly legitimate owner of the laptop to a Login screen which will only accept your Student login info, or a Passkey linked to that same account. There is NO way to get round this.

I've been around pc's, laptops and such since the mid 80's. Built my own desktop pc's for 20+ years. I can format, reformat, partition, repartition, and all the rest of it.
But you cannot get rid of this embedded key, it's embedded in a chip on the motherboard.
Even if you put a brand new drive in, it will still fail !!

Do Not make the same mistake.

Fortunately it wasn't mega expensive, and I have salvaged the memory, drive and cmos battery. But the rest has been scrapped.

So much for buying from an ECO friendly company !!!

 

[Biggles]

Personally I would not touch any Dell product.

They are all made for a very low price with the aim of maximising box shifting.

I’ve had a Sony VIAO, and two Asus laptops and if I was foolhardy enough to buy another Windows laptop it would be another Asus as the last one we had for 15 years and that two could not be updated so it was scrapped and we bought a MacBook Air.

Once you get used to using a Mac then all Windows computers seen archaic.

If anyone does buy a used Mac of anykind the only thing to note is that at some stage you get locked into the OS and updates are no longer available. I may be wrong but I think it is about ten years life of updates. My Wife has a iMac since 2012 and there have been zero issues, they just work.

 

[Bouncingogre]

Thanks for this Biggles

Yeah....I won't buy Dell again due to this.
I have always been a Windows man though, but I frankly now question whether it's time to dump Microsoft for a decent Apple computer.

I'm growing increasingly more annoyed about Microsofts constant probing for information and their, not my, insistence on only running TMP2 and UEFI boot compatible machines.

I know this has been a big issue for corporate businesses who have quite literally hundreds and in some cases thousands of perfectly good working computers which will become unprotected and obsolete unless they are bullied into buying new pc's with newer spec.
2 Fingers to that Microsoft !

I decide what I spend my money on. Not them. So do these big companies !!

I often used to visit my now late and very dear mentor and friend Brother in Law in London, and he always used Imacs which I never had any issues with when using his.
His corporate law firm used them extensively.
Yep I'm aware of the time support of Apple versions, and as it's pretty generous, it's not an issue to me.

I have, somewhere in all our as yet unpacked boxes, and old HP desktop running Dual boot, XP and Windows 2000.
I NEVER connect this to the Internet. Like your wife's Mac it just works, every single time. like clockwork.
It's a fabulous old pc and let's me run all sorts of older music and other software. It also has a CD/DVD rewriter AND a floppy drive, and a parellel printer port !!
So I may well take a leaf out of your book ! Jury's out atm.
I still have my older Dell which runs Windows 10 at lighting fast speed, so I'm not stuck for the moment.
Food for thought

Thanks..Keith

 

[johnincolorado]

I'm writing this reply from my old Dell laptop that has been running Linux for about 6 years now. The Zorin Linux distribution that I favor has a UI very consistent with Windows, and it even comes bundled with Libre Office which eliminates the need for MS Office. There is another option other than Windows and Mac.

 

[Bouncingogre]

Thanks John.
I'm like, I suspect 99% of the world population.
Linux is complete gobbledegook to me. It's a bit of a niche O/S.
Not knocking it, as I know nothing about it, but it's not for me.

Thanks though.

 

[johnincolorado]

Thanks John.
I'm like, I suspect 99% of the world population.
Linux is complete gobbledegook to me. It's a bit of a niche O/S.
Not knocking it, as I know nothing about it, but it's not for me.

Thanks though.

Just wish I could have had a shot with your Dell laptop before you scrapped it. I might have been able to change your mind!

 

[Bouncingogre]

You're welcome to come raid my trash bin John......
Thanks again.
Keith

 

[Biggles]

Way back in the day I used to build Windows PC’s with very specific hardware that was capable of editing Video, and like your old HP once I had finished setting it up it was never connected to the internet again. It ran and ran for years, then came HD video and a whole new ball game, the last build was three years ago and that is it never again.

On the Mac front I do not think that we would buy an iMac again, we would get a Mac mini and a large monitor. The only issue I have is with the new iMac’s only having a 24” & 4.5k screen where my Wife’s is a 27” & 5k.

Our MacBook Air is only the 13” model but is serves our needs with its memory upgrade and a larger SSD. An equivalent Asus was £300 cheaper way heavier with a lower resolution so the MacBook is pretty good.

One issue with the Air model is connectivity with only having two USB C ports it means that adaptors have to be bought.

One huge benefit of the MacBook is its AirPlay feature, we can simply stream its desktop either in Mirror or Extended mode to a TV equipted with the receiving function which is very handy for all the presentations that me does to her Art Group. It is also handy for boring friends and relatives with the holiday images from the comfort of our sofa.

 

[Bouncingogre]

I went and sought out my old HP one yesterday, and as always, it fired up in just under a minute.
The Dell that I scrapped took 6 minutes, and more often than not then failed to let me enter my password meaning another hard reset and another 4-5 minute wait. Complete joke.

Anyway......Decision has been made. SWMBO has put her foot down, and said I am to buy new, as I deserve it....(I knew that extra cake would work)..

So I am going to treat myself to the 24" Imac with the 10 core processor...around £1500.
Just need to decide on colour.

I don't, if I'm honest have any need for a laptop anymore. I actually prefer to have the PC on a desk with a mouse and keyboard. I completely loath trackballs. With 4 broken fingers from various accidents over the gears, I find a keyboard and mouse setup more accommodating .

Better than my mate John in Consett though who whipped all 4 fingers off his right hand whilst using a chopsaw two years back !! Never talk to somebody whilst using such tools is his motto now !!

So, that's the plan. The idea of boring the arse off my family with decades old downloads has great appeal too !!

Thanks Biggles......you're the man !!

 

[Biggles]

Our iMac has a WD 2Tb drive attached to it just for the Auto Backup feature.

A USB hub is useful as the USB sockets with them being at the rear they are a pain to use.

These new iMac’s have four USB sockets on the rear.

Apple Pages, Numbers, Keynote, iMovie and Garage Band are free downloads (or were).

Depending upon what you are going to use it for there is LogicPro available to buy, as a DAW it is way powerful, Gary is probably a Zen Master at using it.

Video editing - Final Cut Pro is a paid for App but Da Vinci Resolve is free and way better.

Photo Editing - the inbuilt Photos App has some useful inbuilt features and for a one of buy Affinity Photo 2 is very similar to Photoshop.

 

[Bouncingogre]

Thanks again for these useful tips.
I'm going to order it later this month, as way too much to do atm, and must get the house straight first.

Keith

 

[KMAL]

Very informative lads. Thank you.

 

[jmemcse]

Most Dell laptops deployed in government and education have that lock in the bios EEPROM. There is also a ROM chip on board with the original unlocked bios. You can flash the EEPROM from the ROM and restore full functionality. I'm not going to tell you how. I used to work for Dell - they wouldn't like that... But, an FYI on what happened.

 

[Dadum]

I bought a refurbished desktop from Amazon specifically for Windows 11. It is a Dell. I liked my Lenovo desktop but it wasn't able to upgrade.

I'm hoping there is no issue with the computer, I've been lucky so far. A QR code came with the computer to reinstall Windows 11 if needed.

Before Windows 3.1 I use to use Apple and like them. I didn't know why I changed!

 

[Bouncingogre]

Most Dell laptops deployed in government and education have that lock in the bios EEPROM. There is also a ROM chip on board with the original unlocked bios. You can flash the EEPROM from the ROM and restore full functionality. I'm not going to tell you how. I used to work for Dell - they wouldn't like that... But, an FYI on what happened.

Thanks for that. But knowing our idiot local council it's probably been crushed and in landfill by now.

 

[Bouncingogre]

I'm wrapping this thread up now, as I think between us it's been adequately discussed. So no further posts will be replied to.
Thanks.

 

[Bouncingogre]

Just to say I have now bought the latest Imac.
Only thing I've had to buy is a hub, as the only connections on the Mac are
4 x 'C' type sockets similar to most modern phones.
What is handy is the ethernet connector built into the power brick.
So far, very pleased with it.
Very very fast.

 

[happyrat1]

I went Mac Mini M2 3 years ago and have pretty much made the adjustment to the mac ecosystem by now.

All in all I have to say it does an excellent job of controlling and routing almost a dozen MIDI USB Devices without any major lockups or hiccups.

I have to say I am less enamoured of apple's "pay to play" attitude when it comes to finding and installing simplest utilities which exist as abundant freeware in other software ecosystems.

Orphan hardware also seems to be a bit of a bother as well. My Onkyo Stereo uses memory sticks formatted predating secure boot and the apple seems to be incredibly fussy when it comes to reading and writing FAT32 format.

One definitely makes compromises when trading software platforms.

 

[Bouncingogre]

Hi Gary
Interesting stuff, and I knew, of course, that there were going to be some compromises.
I have massive amounts of Yamaha stuff built up over many years and those are all stored on a 1TB backup slave drive. They are also on a much older old Dell laptop that I bought donkeys years ago for next to nothing before all this TPM and other nonsense.
But the one thing that really really got me to the point of change was this.
I can sign in on this new Imac in about 10 seconds flat from Sleep Mode, and start work inside 15 seconds. It's just SO very fast.
On Windows it takes forever to get up and running because more often than not some interminable 'update' was going on in the background and slowing the computer down to a completely unacceptable speed.
The other laptop on our desk is my wife's Windows 10 laptop. We recently had to re-install our Canon printer software on it. It took 25 minutes.
I installed the.Mac version of the same Canon software on the new Imac in about 6 minutes.
I'm obviously still learning the Apple system, but so far I am highly impressed.

 

[amwilburn]

Thanks for that. But knowing our idiot local council it's probably been crushed and in landfill by now.

Different countries, different policies; where I live, everything gets recycled (for starters so nasty battery chemicals don't leak into the groundwater, but also reusing as much of the material as possible)


But thanks for the heads up on the key embedded in the motherboard... like wth. Talk about planned obsolescence!

Mark