My laptop has been giving me problems since the day I got it. My second motherboard is now failing, there are two entire rows of dead pixels on the LCD, the USB ports always seem to give bandwidth errors, the DVD drive only burns at half its capable speed, the internal wireless and LAN cards randomly drop my connection or slow it down to a crawl, the hard drive is slowly dieing, etc, etc. The list just goes on and on.

I emailed Dell's tech support and they told me that most of the problems are related to the motherboard. I'm guessing that means that they want to replace it again, only for it to fail again in another year or so. My warranty expires in July, so the last thing I want is another mobo that's going to die on me again after the warranty expires.

So with that being said, how likely is it that I can convince Dell to just replace my entire laptop, considering how old and used it is? It's not in awful condition, it's just minor things like a missing F4 key, broken headphone jack, and slight crack on the front of the laptop (which was caused by the tech guy who replaced my original mobo without knowing how to properly put everything back together). Is there the chance that Dell would decline replacing my laptop because of these minor flaws?

Dell may believe that some of the problems are due to miss use (the crack), I would just ask them to replace it...if they say no it is up to you to decide how hard you want to push.

just escalate your case til you get someone with the power of understanding your situation. they really should give you a new system. probably an M1710.

Yeah mitcity hit it pretty much right on. To be honest, I'm surprised they even have mobos for gen 1's around

Thanks for the speedy responses, guys.

I sure hope it's not going to take that much pushing to get them to replace it. Is there anyone who was int he same situation as me? And if so, how much did you have to push to get a new laptop?

I don't know why I waited so long to get it done; I guess it really didn't hit me how bad these problems were until my hard drive started failing. Now I'm scrambling like a madman to get everything backed up.

If you have complete care warranty I guess it doesnt really matter how much damage you do. I mean if you do something dumb and brake it just ACCIDENTLY drop it down a flight of stairs. If you dont then it might be a problem. Also I bet you didnt have the tech make note that he broke it when he was there so its pretty much your word against their system. I would highly doubt they have any Gen1 mobos but they could. If they dont then its good for you and like someone said, you might get a M1710 or better. Good Luck.

The only warranty I have left is the "Next Business Day, Includes Nights/Weekends", so I hope that covers a full replacement. I didn't have the tech make note of the damage because I didn't notice it until he was long gone (like I said, it's a small crack).

As for the Gen 1 mobos: they had them two years ago so they might still have them now... I don't know.

One quick question: if Dell decides that they won't cover me because they believe the damage is a result of neglect, then couldn't I technically just purchase the CompleteCare warranty, forcing them to have to replace my laptop?

no, but I doubt they would try to claim that you neglected it considering it was having problems before the technician caused the crack. but on the other hand adding completecare probably wouldn't help anything, especially considering I doubt it works retroactivey. in general you can't buy insurance for something that already happened, and completecare is basically insurance for accidental damage.

also it doesn't matter whether you have complete care or not, you have a malfunctioning computer and a warranty, they're obliged to replace it if repairs are unsuccessful.

Just try to get on with a tech support guy and start talking about a replacement because of all of the issues you've had. That's all you can really do.

I don't think you can buy Complete-Care if it expires. I know for sure you can't buy a warranty extension on your laptop if your original warranty expired.

My suggestion would be to get every problem fixed (note that DVD burners can't really burn as fast as advertised, and wireless problems have tons of causes). But get your motherboard replaced, head phone jack fixed, screen replaced, and your hard drive if it's malfunctioning. If they can't fix all of those problems, then you have a good reason to start getting nasty.

I pushed hard enough, and this is the response I got:So what is that supposed to mean? Sounds like they are going to refurbish my laptop, which is better than their initial offer to replace the mobo again, but I still have doubts that my problems won't end up coming back again (and by the time they do, my warranty will probably be up).

So should I keep pushing for a new laptop, or do you guys think that Dell will do good enough of a job this time around?

From personal experience, Dell's depot service is crappy... At best... They like erasing hard drives, and swapping components for things that are either not broken, or just downgrading parts altogether. This has happened to me and several other people I know, so it's not just an isolated incident.

If I were you, I would continue to push for a new laptop. Most likely, because the Gen1 was a 15" laptop, you'll probably end up with an XPS M1530, or if the guy is feeling nice, you may get the M1730, but that's unfortunately the luck of the draw with Dell.

Yeah, that's what I am afraid of. Thankfully, they at least told me to keep my hard drive (and even then, I already made a backup).

I just now realized that I posted my topic in the wrong board. But anyhow, how would you suggest I do this? I'm thinking I should just go ahead and send in the laptop, and hope that they'll make the decision to replace it with a newer one after they see how bad it really is. The only reason why I'm hesitant in pushing this further is because I don't want them to think that I'm trying to extort them or anything.

What do you guys think?

Just tell them that this has happened before (which it has) and that you can't risk it happening again, and want a replacement laptop. I had to do that with my M1710, and they replaced it. If the guy you talked to doesn't want to help you, then hang up/end the chat, and call back/start a new chat again. You'll get someone to help you.

Here's what I sent to one of the guys I've been dealing with throughout this ordeal:I've pretty much said similar things to everyone I've talked to in their tech dept, and at least it's gotten me this far. Hopefully, the message will get through to them clearly this time around...