My Inspiron 531 is 18 months old (purchased December 2008). I experienced "freezing" problems within six months, but was able to retreat and then restart through Task Manager. On May 1, it began to freeze up in any program -- Internet Explorer, MS Word, whatever. Most of the time, I could not open Windows normally.

I backed up everything and called Dell Technical Support.

They charged me $49.95 to run "diagnostics." We reached a point beyond which nothing was getting resolved, at time which the tech support representative (whose accent I could barely understand) promised to call back the next day. I gave him an 8-hour window after which I needed to be away. He didn't call. When I returned, there was a voice mail -- I had missed him by 10 minutes, but the message was left six hours after the promised call. His message asked me to call back and give him a time for the next day. I called back immediately, left a message with my service code, and gave him a full-day to return the call. I canceled all appointments and sat by the phone. No call. I called twice the next day, again leaving a message, willing to give up a second day to this. Again, the next day, no return call -- EVER!

This is highway robbery and the worst customer service I have ever experienced.

I finally had to get a local computer repair place to fix the problem; it was a failing video card. That cost me $200 (plus the $49.95 to Dell for absolutely nothing).

I will tell every friend in the universe NEVER to buy a Dell computer product!



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