Dell Inspiron 5150! If you have one that won't boot read this!

About 2 weeks ago my i5150 just started to randomly shutdown for absolutely no reason, and within 2 days of the first unexplainable shutdown it now fails to boot up at all. I knew it wasn’t due to overheating since it would happen after being on for only 5 minutes. I did some research and found out that the problem was due to either motherboard flex or pressure applied from the clips on the C panel, either problem causes the solder on a control chip to microfracture.

I was fired up when I read this, I mean really fired up. The notebook was just over 2 years old, my 2 year warranty had expired 3 weeks before the problem started. I found a site that had a do it yourself fix, but it didn’t work for me. After trying the self repair with no luck I took it to a local repair shop and they told me the mother board need to be replaced and would cost between $600-$800.

Now my rage was almost uncontrollable. I sent a polite, but strongly worded email to the Dell board of directors and Michael Dell last Monday. By last Thursday I hadn’t heard anything, so I ordered a new laptop from HP. Well at 9:30 this morning I got a call from a woman at Dell asking me if I would like to have my computer repaired, I said maybe depending on the cost, she said it would be free, to which I quickly replied yes. She said someone from tech would be calling me very soon.

At 10:00 I received another call from Dell and this guy was the answer man. My first question was if the fix was a permanent solution or if they would just replace the motherboard and then it would break in another year or two like the current one. He assured me that they had changed the design of the palm rest and added some new pads and supports for the motherboard to eliminate the problem. He also stated that there is a new bios to help cool this hot mother down, and that the fan will most likely be replaced.

BUT MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL he said that it is Dell’s policy to fix all i5150’s that won’t start up, no matter of the warranty situation!

I called DHL and they will be picking up my i5150 between 3pm and 7pm. And after asking several times I can say with 100% certainty this repair is not going to cost me a single dollar

Yes everything I said was true. I’m 28 and I have a job, so I have better things to do than to post lies about getting my broken i5150 fixed.

I’m sending you a PM.

That’s great news MrEvil, I was really concerned that it would break again after reading some posts on other sites. You have given me hope that my i5150 will work as a reliable back up for awhile.

Update.

Dell had repaired my system but sent it to the wrong address. If they couldn’t locate my Inspiron 5150 by this morning the were going to send me a replacement system. While it would have been nice to get a new system it also would have been a pain to transfer all the data from my i5150 hard drive to the new machine, so I considered it a wash.

Well this morning DHL showed up with my repaired 5150 and so far it’s working great. Dell included a one page form letter which has a section called “Corrective Repair Action”. Based on the check marks it looks as though Dell replaced the “System Board”, updated the “System Bios” and replaced the Heat sink.

I would have had the system last Wednesday but since it was delivered to the wrong address it took an extra week+.

Total cost for the out of warranty repair of my i5150: $0.

Kudos to Dell for doing the right thing and repairing an out of warranty notebook with several design flaws.

I have been getting a lot of pm’s for contact information and exactly what I did to get Dell to repair my i5150. I’m not going to post the contact information for the Tech who handled my case because he can’t give you the authorization to send in the system. Instead I’m going to post the letter I sent and post the email addresses I sent it to. Keep in mind that it took over a week to get a call from Dell so don’t expect a reply within a few days. The branch of Dell that called me back was called CRC and they are based in Texas.

Here are the email addresses:
Michael Dell:michael_dell@dell.com
Dell Board of Directors: Board_of_Directors@dell.com

Here is the letter, please note that you’ll have to modify it to fit your situation. In my mind the link to the page of the Dell community is important because it shows just how widespread the problem is


In January of 2004, I ordered an Inspiron 5150 notebook computer from Dell, Inc., via my company’s corporate account with Dell. Prior to the purchase of this notebook, my company, XYZ, Inc, located in Greenwood Village, Colorado, had purchased several Dell desktop computers as well as a PowerEdge server from Dell. We had always been very pleased with the quality and durability of Dell’s products. While we had found it necessary to purchase new desktop computers over the years, all purchases were made to replace outdated machines, never to replace machines that had broken down.

I had used my Inspiron 5150 on a fairly limited basis from the time of it’s delivery until approximately 6 months ago, but had always been pleased with its performance and reliability. That is until 2 weeks ago. I was in the process of moving my Inspiron 5150 from one side of my desk to the other when for some unknown reason the computer shut itself off. I chalked this up to just a freak occurrence, until I powered the notebook up again and after approximately 5 minutes and it shut itself off yet again. Over the course of the next 2 days my Inspiron 5150 would work sporadically and then on the morning of the third day, it failed to turn on. I contacted several local repair centers, including a Dell Authorized repair center and they all had the same reply for me, that most likely the mother board was damaged and would need to be replaced, a repair which would cost between $600 and $800.

For my own edification I searched the Inspiron section of the community forum of the Dell website. I was shocked to find 60 pages of posts, which can be found at this link, http://delltalk.us.dell.com/supportf...cending&page=1, relating to the exact same problem I was having with my Inspiron 5150. The problem appears to stem from a design flaw with the casing of the computer, and it also seems that this problem was occurring with the Inspiron 5150 within 6 months of my purchase of my Inspiron 5150. I would like to know how Dell could be flooded with these issues and not post a general recall on Inspiron 5150’s. I have had my notebook for less than 2 and a half years and it is now completely useless. And not only am I out the $2100 for the cost of the Inspiron 5150, I will also have to pay a computer technician to transfer the important data from the hard drive of my nonfunctioning Inspiron 5150 to a new notebook.

I am very disappointed that there was a known problem with the Inspiron 5150 and no one from Dell contacted me to let me know this prior to the expiration of the warranty. The fact that my company had a small business account, and purchased tens of thousands of dollars of equipment from Dell over a two year period only adds to my immense disappointment. Unless something is done to rectify this situation I can assure you that I or my new company, ABC, will never purchase another Dell product.

The dell service tag for my Inspiron 5150 is XXXXXXX.

If anyone would like to contact me I can be reached:
Mobile phone:
Home phone:
Email:

Sincerely,