Fourth Motherboard

[petermmc]

Hi fans of laptops and warranties.

I am breaking records now I am sure. My notebook whose brand name rhymes with BELL is still under its 3 yr warranty. It has always gone slow from day 1. My IT mate had a quick look a few months back and told me it was only going on half of its memory. I contacted the company and they sent a tech around who replaced the motherboard.

I kept telling them it was overheating. Same thing reoccured in the last month especially when I was looking at my D70 photos (that's what it has to do with this website). I mess with photos when I travel.

They replaced Motherboard and memcards last Monday. Still probs. they replaced Motherboard and one card yesterday. Still probs & intermittent shutdown (heat sign). The tech is here now replacing the MB again, + CPU + Fan which is sep on this model.

I need it for work tonight...............ah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Surely 4 motherboards, 3 memory cards, CPU and Fan and powersupply is a record. Beat that.

Peter Mc

[MattC]

...Beat that.

No thanks. Which model?

Sounds like that lappy has had enough problems that you should be demanding either a full replacement (not the same model) or money back.

Cheers

[Greg B]

Things just don't last like they used to - my father had an axe that lasted twenty years, and he only replaced the handle six times and the head four times

[gstark]

Peter,

I'd be having a very serious talk with their senior management at this time.

While it's one thing - and a good thing - that they're providing this level of service, the bottom line is that this level of service should not be required. Given the number of motherboards, it sounds to me as if you have a lemon, but that's not what you thought you were buying, is it?

Insist upon a replacement or full refund, and do not accept "no" as an answer.

[darb]

sounds like the whole model is a lemon? ask them for a completely different model if the model you have is repeatedly problematic. Dell allededly pride themselves on good service and customer satisfaction, so im sure if you socially engineer it well enough, you may do OK.

Its not old drivers, or something along those lines? All the latest drivers, BIOS / firmwares installed?

[owen]

We use plenty of dell notebooks at work and they go pretty good. Their support for their business products is quite efficient as well. They have been known to have desktop PC models that the whole model has a problem or two so I wouldn't put it past them to do the same with the notebooks. Like Gary said, insist that it gets fixed and if it doesn't (as it seems) insist on a replacement. You paid extra for that warranty so get the most out of it.

[blinkblink]

The Insperion 5100 has a design fault that allows dust to settle on the CPU causing it to overheat. I have to periodically get the compressor out and blow through the fan hole. A small cloud of dust appears and the thing stops over heating.

[MattC]

I thought regularly blowing the dust out was just normal house keeping. Applicable to all makes and models - desktop and laptop. Mine get cleaned every couple of weeks with compressed air. Laptops with hot desktop processors and minimal heatsinks just make this more critical.

Cheers