back to article More brutal PC numbers from Dell as revenues stay flat, profits sink

Dell announced its second-quarter earnings for fiscal 2014 on Thursday – five days early – and delivered a report that met analysts' expectations but once again showed a company struggling to remain profitable in the face of woeful trends in the PC industry. This was the second quarter in a row that Dell announced its results …

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  1. Howard Hanek

    Ding, Dong, Dell

    Why would ANYONE buy a Dell ANYTHING after they all but announced they were going to take a long, hot bath and open their veins? Paging Carl Icahn!

    1. LarsG

      The problem with Dell, buy one of their computers, the operating system support stops immediately a new model is released, whether the bugs have been ironed out or not no more software updates. My last one a Sudio XPS 1645 was a nightmare, with WiFi problems and regular intermittent freezing of the screen, slow performance from an i7 processor and creaky plastic case. It was like a petulant teenager, on occasions I could have a three course meal before it booted up. It hated having software installed on it.

      I normally keep laptops for three years, stopped using it after 18 months.

      Never again, ever.

  2. Tristan Young

    What, Dell is still around?

    I would never buy a Dell. I wouldn't even take a free one. I've used Dell computers, and I absolutely dislike them. Custom-built PC all the way.

    1. shawnfromnh

      My favorite with Dells and other pre built PC's is no OS disk or some lame restore disk and all the crap that comes with the systems. They also use hardware that requires a special driver you have to download off the Dell website and burn to disk since a normal windows disk does have the driver for this extra low end hardware they add to their cheap specialty made motherboards. Dell went from originally we'll build your PC for you to we'll build an overpriced crappy PC for you.

  3. ecofeco Silver badge
    FAIL

    No mystery here

    Their QC sucks.

    Period.

    My favorite recent example: brand new business class laptops that are 7 versions behind in their BIOS.

    7 effing versions.

    Not one or two, but hundreds. And about the worst designed website for tech support. (to be fair, so is HP's)

    1. plrndl

      Re: No mystery here

      Re BIOS - so what? Every BIOS update I've ever seen has been accompanied by the advice NOT to use it unless you are experiencing the specific problems that the update is designed to fix. If Dell has a BIOS that's known to work with its hardware, there's no reason to "upgrade".

      1. ecofeco Silver badge
        Holmes

        Re: No mystery here

        > Every BIOS update I've ever seen has been accompanied by the advice NOT to use it unless you are experiencing the specific problems that the update is designed to fix.

        And how do you think I found out about this?

        1. Tom 13

          Re: how do you think I found out about this?

          If you are buying hundred of systems that need a BIOS update it seems to be you also ought to be in a position to be using the tools Dell makes available to automatically update the systems on your network. They are fairly easy to find on their support site, which is one of the few on which I can almost always find what I'm looking for. The notable exception being when they aren't supporting the OS I'm using on their hardware even though a working driver for the component might exist for another device in their inventory. But they have properly noted they aren't supporting the OS, so I don't regard that as reason to bitch about Dell, but my employer who insists we use the unsupported combination.

          1. ecofeco Silver badge
            Holmes

            Re: how do you think I found out about this?

            > If you are buying hundred of systems that need a BIOS update it seems to be you also ought to be in a position to be using the tools Dell makes available to automatically update the systems on your network.

            We did.

            BUT WHY SHOULD WE HAVE TO?

            That's my point and points directly to QC failure with Dell.

    2. ecofeco Silver badge
      Mushroom

      Re: No mystery here

      Thumbs down? Do we have some Dell shills posting here?

      I posted my experience. Experience from supporting literally THOUSANDS of Dells at billion dollar companies. I didn't upgrade the BIOS through 7 versions just for the hell of it. Let alone several hundred times.

      Don't even get me started on outdated drivers, bottom of the bin NIC cards and HDDs.

      Don't get me wrong, their piss poor QC kept me in a job.

  4. P. Lee

    ... and they're all made out of ticky-tacky and they all look just the same...

    Give me a laptop with a hex (ok, quad might do) core i7 with a switch to turn off cores, a decent screen and a docking station with a 36-channel PCIe link...and a real serial port.

  5. beep54

    Why I've liked Dells

    I used to work in a Sally (Salvation Army to the rest of you) and Dell's were just a joy to work with. You could easily open them and deal with the innards, unlike HP's or Compaq's (yes, it HAS been a few years) which were annoyingly proprietorial. And lordy! Did you ever attempt to open an Apple pizza box from back then? A puzzle box from hell (but quite interesting once you got inside). Right now I have 2 old Dell's that more or less have been working just fine for some years now. They were, admittedly, given me. Had I the funds, I would definitely build my own because I have a very good idea of how to do that. But I have no problems recommending Dell's to people that need a new computer. Heck, around here (Austin), it is pretty much what they have anyways. If you are going for a top end machine, Dell is probably not what you want. Then again, I think they bought out Alienware and seem to have, nicely, left them alone. Personally, I'd like to see what Michael can do with the company once it goes private. And I think that the 'death' of the desktop is wildly overblown. It just simply is not the cash cow it was. But it ain't going away.

    Beer. Simply because we brew some fine, fine stuff here

    1. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
      Pint

      Re: Why I've liked Dells

      You hit the nail on the head, 'Old' Dells. The new stuff is sh*t. I have an old Inspiron 9600 that still runs fine after 8 years (or thereabouts). And it has a 1920x1200 screen! Try finding a laptop with that these days or a Display for that matter except ironically Dell. I have two 24in 1920x1200 screens on my desk.

      Beer, coz it's Friday and it will remind me to walk over to the Brewery later on to get some 'TEA'.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Why I've liked Dells

      Sorry beep, had to downvote you. You just kept on and on punching me in the face with apostrophes when you seemed to be attempting to convey plurals. It all got too much for me.

      1. This post has been deleted by its author

  6. Saul Dobney

    Resolve resolutions

    Still waiting for Dell to sell a 17inch laptop with a screen resolution as good or better than the ones were buying 6-10 years ago. They just don't seem to be listening despite enquiries.

  7. Tony W

    OK not Dell, then what?

    Custom built is not a practical option for the vast majority who don't enjoy messing about with PC parts. Fine if it works. If it doesn't you can waste months trying to find the problem. Been there. If you have a stock of spare parts you can swap to isolate a problem, that's fine. I haven't.

    So where should my wife buy a small form factor desktop PC for her business, without paying for a screen she doesn't need? Dell might be behind in updating BIOS but are the very few alternatives any better? I can't recommend a laptop with inferior performance, no expandability, and a screen that's too small for the job.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: OK not Dell, then what?

      HP has the 8200 Elite which is small, serviceable and fairly good. We have a few of them in my company.

      Not the cheapest kit, but it is made by HPs business division, and does come with Windows 7.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: OK not Dell, then what?

      "Custom built is not a practical option for the vast majority who don't enjoy messing about with PC parts"

      Plenty of boutique makers and even larger PC assemblers who will offer a standard spec using good OEM parts. As it's all brand name kit, and the standard spec is tested and warranted to work you're not particularly exposed if the supplier were to disappear.

      Admittedly, you'll pay more like for like than Dell, because Dell use proprietary kit, cut down custom versions of branded stuff, creaky plastic cases, vast standardisation and vast economies of scale (oh, and cheap, sh1t offshore "support"). For the big corporates, they'll be desperate to waste their money on HP, Dell and the like. But for anybody sensible buying business PC's why wouldn't you talk to the larger boutique makers?

      1. Tom 13

        Re: Plenty of boutique makers

        Rip? Hey! Rip! It's time to wake up!

        These are the 20 teens, not the 1990s.

        I haven't seen a boutique shop since about 2000.

    3. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      Re: OK not Dell, then what?

      Tried Viglen? Surprisingly to some, they are still a decent sized player in govt/edu/sme PC sales. Their Genie Ultra Small might be suitable. The box is only a little bigger the the mainboard.

      I've noticed a number of people responsible for buying in PC these days are avoiding Dell more because of the after market repair/upgrade costs once the warranty has ended and looking to buy from suppliers using "standard" parts. They used to buy with 3 years on-site cover and replace 1/3ed of kit per years, then changed to 4 years and now some are specifying a 5 years on-site cover to sellers. The speed and power of PCs seems to have hit a plateau, or at least the curve is leveling off. That means buyers need to future proof supplies of spares because they don't want or need to replace the PC for speed reasons.

    4. ecofeco Silver badge

      Re: OK not Dell, then what?

      > So where should my wife buy a small form factor desktop PC for her business, without paying for a screen she doesn't need?

      I'm partial to Lenovos these days.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Try scan.co.uk

    1. Tony W

      Not Dell

      Looking at Scan shows exactly what I a problem I have choosing something other than Dell. I can't find any "standard" desktop PCs there at all - only mini and all-in-one. In fact their main menu does not present "PC" as a category of things they sell. No doubt that reflects the market pretty well but unfortunately it's what I want.

      HP seems a a great deal more expensive, and I am not impressed by 2 GB RAM with integrated graphics and 250 GB HD these days. Still don't think me ungrateful, all (polite) suggestions are very welcome.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Not Dell

        "I can't find any "standard" desktop PCs there at all "

        Errr, you can't have tried very hard:

        http://www.scan.co.uk/value-systems

        http://3xs.scan.co.uk/

        I can assure you that Scan have amongst the most adaptable of specifying capabilities of any retailer, and will happily sell standard laptops, desktops without peripherals, or whatever you want. I've recently bought a mongo gaming machine from them, but (because I already had a pile of carryover parts) with a fairly unusual configuration - fast processor, bags or RAM, up market power supply, quiet cooling options, data storage but no boot drive or OS, no graphics card, no onboard graphics, no monitor, but with keyboard. They built it, tested it, and I got it cheaper than I could source the bare components, with a better warranty, and simply had to slam in the SSD and graphics card and load up the OS.

        1. Tony W

          Re: Not Dell

          Thanks, I've found it.

          Yes, Scan look good and have very good custom options. Unfortunately they don't advertise a compact desktop, nothing between full-width tower and micro system. But I'll have a word with them anyway.

          (Nowadays on a retail site, I expect to be able to click on an appropriate heading, not to have to scroll all around looking for something suitable. And their Home Office PCs section has a missing anchor so the link doesn't work. Apart from that ...)

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Not Dell

            http://www.lambda-tek.com/componentshop/index.pl?region=GB&level3=153

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Not Dell

        http://www.novatech.co.uk/

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