dell optiplex 790

[Lynne Desrochers]

I bought a bunch of Dell Optiplex 790's at the end of last year. This morning my third one is refusing to boot and just showing the number 3 on the front of the tower. So annoying. Has anyone else seen this? They recommend trying to re-seat the CPU, but in the end they come out with a new motherboard and power supply.

[Gene Foraker]

Dells are definitely not made like they used to be long ago.   I'm not familiar with the 790, but when they cut the line very close to the price barrier, sometimes thing happen with certain batches.

[Jeff Zylstra]

I've got a few 780s and have not experienced any problems like this, but I don't think that I have any numbers that display on the front of the machine like the 790 does.  The "good" news is that even though Dells have become more proprietary, the Optiplex lineup is pretty stable, and parts and support are available for a few years, rather than a year or two as in some of the cheaper lines. 

[Mark]

We bought 25 760's a few years back and out of the 25 one had bad RAM within a very short time period (measurable in days) and another had to have the whole motherboard and CPU replaced within about a year or so.

I still buy Dell.  I wont buy HP and don't really like the alternatives.  At least I know what to expect from Dell from purchase to to warranty/service, etc.

Just always get the warranty and don't keep them longer than 5 years.

[Lynne Desrochers]

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

[Charlie Charbonneau]

I'll carbon Alice's *sigh* (from the Vertafore post)

I have Dells in production that are pushing 9 Years... We've added Ram and changed Office versions... Slowly retiring them as they'll let me,but thats a drawn out project...

[Mark]

I'll carbon Alice's *sigh* (from the Vertafore post)

I have Dells in production that are pushing 9 Years... We've added Ram and changed Office versions... Slowly retiring them as they'll let me,but thats a drawn out project...

Yeah, we are on a 3-5 year cycle with workstations and 5 years with servers.   I'm not going to mess around with old stuff or out of warranty junk.  Think the intention was 3 years for the workstations, but we may push 4 but don't want workstations and servers to come up at the same time.  Warranty is out, so if they start dropping, I'll start quoting! lol

[Charlie Charbonneau]

Yeah, we are on a 3-5 year cycle with workstations and 5 years with servers.   I'm not going to mess around with old stuff or out of warranty junk.  Think the intention was 3 years for the workstations, but we may push 4 but don't want workstations and servers to come up at the same time.  Warranty is out, so if they start dropping, I'll start quoting! lol

That's my response everytime we discuss, but I don't hold the purse strings around here.  We're slowly starting to replace some of the older stations finally!

[Mark Rowe]

In Production I have:

1 - 2010
2 - 2009
2 - 2008
1 - 2006
3 - 2003

All Dell Optiplex except 1 of the 2003's. Our original plan was to replace every 3 years....how's that working out.....

[Charlie Charbonneau]

It's nice on paper huh Mark?

Our original plan was to replace every 3 years....how's that working out.....

[Jim Jensen]

I think we can get longer times from workstations now. We don't gain much from speed on updated models at the workstation level. Failure rate would be the driver now on length of service. Granted very old units will have a tougher time running the bloat of newer Office products, but not much of a problem until you have to upgrade Office for newer versions of TAM.

[Mark]

Maybe.  But it's more of a budgetary thing, at least to some extent.  Managing unexpected expenses, keeping current with technology, balancing downtime, etc.  I'd hate to have out of warranty machines dropping like flies in the same budget year as new servers or other high dollar IT projects (or even non-IT projects for that matter).

BUT, we've had these for 3 years now and haven't discussed replacing them yet -- even though we let the warranty expire.

[Billy Welsh]

That's how I try to look at it - cost of down time and potential above average support time vs. cost of new unit with on-site warranty from Dell.  IMHO if you can get your head out of the weeds, the new machine is ultimately cheaper.  But only if you actually have the downtime and/or extra support time.  If everything is running fine, then the dice were kind when you rolled.

We were in the same boat last year with a number of machines past their prime and warranty.  Fortunately we were able to upgrade most of those.  In this particular instance those users went from XP to WIN 7, which alone was worth it.

[Mark]

Yeah.  I convinced them that we should have a 3 year life-cycle plan.  But right now... I can't justify new machines.  I'd like to eventually go to virtual desktops (VDI).  Maybe I'll be re-purposing these machines instead of replacing them in the near future.  Much to consider and much to work out.

[Jim Jensen]

An alternative to consider is to run them as long as you reasonably can but don' t just let the budget dollars drift away - escrow it for the future purchase. As time goes by, you can release the un-needed funds back into the general budget. If you do stretch a 3 year machine to 6, then you put the cost of the machine back into the budget in full either over 3 years or when it's cycle came back around and it was still there.

[Jeff Golas]

I have a handful of 790's - no issues. That said, I've had a couple recently where by dumb luck when taking it out of the box I noticed the cards half loose. I think UPS plays air hockey with the boxes and a couple of their trucks, so you may want to give the whole thing a look over and see if any cards or memory sticks are loose.

ALSO - something I've experienced in the past - we had issues with a couple printers, actually a bunch of printers whenever we went from winter to summer. I couldn't understand it but it always happened. One day I wised up and checked the voltage on the outlets - 98 volts. Bingo. As it turned out the AC compressor for the building was on it's last leg and was putting a severe strain on the electrical system. One day it finally threw a rod and our printers worked great ever since.

[Sherry Burrell]

The only Optiplex's I had problems with were the small form factor ones.  Each one failed - they get too hot.  I quit buying those several years ago.

[Mark]

The only Optiplex's I had problems with were the small form factor ones.  Each one failed - they get too hot.  I quit buying those several years ago.

I know that was a common problem with them years ago -- can't remember how long ago, but it hasn't been a problem with any of our 760's.  We have the SFF, but not the smaller ones, forget what they are Ultra SFF maybe?

[Jeff Zylstra]

I have a handful of 790's - no issues. That said, I've had a couple recently where by dumb luck when taking it out of the box I noticed the cards half loose. I think UPS plays air hockey with the boxes and a couple of their trucks, so you may want to give the whole thing a look over and see if any cards or memory sticks are loose.

ALSO - something I've experienced in the past - we had issues with a couple printers, actually a bunch of printers whenever we went from winter to summer. I couldn't understand it but it always happened. One day I wised up and checked the voltage on the outlets - 98 volts. Bingo. As it turned out the AC compressor for the building was on it's last leg and was putting a severe strain on the electrical system. One day it finally threw a rod and our printers worked great ever since.

Something else that will do that is when one of the "legs" of your 3 phase blows a fuse.  The AC will try and draw and enormous amount of power, as it's trying to run without that phase.  Anytime you see the lights dim when the AC or heat kicks on, you should have it looked at.