Dell XPS M1330 + Nvidia 8400M GS

doejuffy

Hi there

I have a Dell XPS M1330 with the problematic nvidia graphics card, the card finally died on me this morning.
The laptop is a little over 2 years old, I got it at the end of March 2008, it came with a 1 year warranty.

I'm just looking for advice on what to do, I've found other threads on here from people who've had the same problem
and have gone to the small claims court after being given the runaround by Dell.

Also from what I've read in the other threads, ringing or emailing Dell has just gotten people in touch with their
tech support in India and been a waste of time, so I am a little unsure on what to do basically.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

Paulw

I guess you already know what to do.

Seems you've 3 options -

Replace the graphics card
Chase Dell about them replacing it
Take a case to the small claims court.

Ricky91t

I've had laptop issues and was in contact with the indian tech support, I'll know today whether they're going to offer me a refund( I'm going to get one either way, Just this is easier than a small claims court ) my laptop is only 9 monthes old and the people I spoke to, were all very helpful and seemed to agree that a refund was right.

I wasn't rude to them, I let them talk and tell me what they think was best but I stuck to my requirements and they were helpful.

The fact it's over a year old you haven't really got a leg to stand on, Don't ring them and just start shouting down the phone, Mention how's it's not fit for it's purpose etc etc and they might give you a free repair, Also it doesn't hurt to mention the small claims court either!

Dymo

Ricky91t wrote: »

The fact it's over a year old you haven't really got a leg to stand on,

And your basing this piece of advice on?????

I wonder will people every read the Sale of Goods and Supply of Services Act
1980?

Ricky91t

Dymo wrote: »

And your basing this piece of advice on?????

I wonder will people every read the Sale of Goods and Supply of Services Act
1980?

His warranty is for a year, and his laptop is 2 years and 3 monthes old, To be honest that's edging towards an obsolete machine imo, And I'm sure Dell will definetly view it that way...

foggy_lad

Ricky91t wrote: »

His warranty is for a year, and his laptop is 2 years and 3 monthes old, To be honest that's edging towards an obsolete machine imo, And I'm sure Dell will definetly view it that way...

warranty is a dell warranty but all consumers have statutory rights(Sale of Goods and Supply of Services Act
1980) which supercede any manufacturer or retailer or purchased warranty!

the goods must be fit for purpose and last a reasonable time given the price paid and the use etc so if you live alone and buy a washing machine for €500 it should last 6years as it wont get much use and would be high enoiugh quality but if you have 10 kids you might reasonable expect to get less than 4 years use from the same machine!

most people would reasonably expect an expensive laptop to last at least 5 years and in most cases that go the distance the small claims court would agree.

pwd

If you do get the laptop fixed, one way or another, I would suggest you take apart the fan. I have a >2 year old xps m1530 which has failed twice [I've an extended warranty though]. I took apart the fan recently and saw that there was a lot of dust completely clogging the inside of the vent. When I removed this, the operating temperature of all parts of the system was reduced by about 40 degrees Celsius, at all levels. I think this is largely why it broke twice.
The clogging happens because the air intakes are on the underside of the laptops, so dust gets sucked in from the surface they are on. I had the same issue with an inspiron 1530, although that machine does not require you to take apart the fan itself to remove it. The thing with the xps, compared to this, is that I found that the xps doesn't cut out to prevent it getting very hot. Mine was going well over 100 degrees Celsius when I tested it before.

doejuffy

Thanks for all the replies.

I got in contact with Dell, they want 435 euros excluding VAT to fix the problem and gave me the whole out of warranty talk.
I did explain politely to them about it being a known issue and they said there's nothing they can do.

As for my machine being near obselete, I have a what must be a 6 year old Inspiron 8600 which works fine, so I would argue that point

Thanks for the fan advice pwd, I do clean it out regularly.

I guess I'll go the small claims court route.

foggy_lad

well you should reasonably expect this level of laptop to last at least 5-6 years so i would be writing to Dell asking formally that they repair replace or refund and if or when they refuse then off to the small claims court as they require you to write to dell anyway.

x in the city

tbh, your better off getting a used gfx card on ebay and installing rather than going legal with dell.

the laptops warranty is expired. its like claming manufacturing issues with a car that has its warranty expired, they will want $$$$$$ to fix it

another option is to get it renewed, for 100 odd euro for a year

take a cool off period of 3 months or so and tell them fix it then, for gratis.

foggy_lad

op just a couple of questions for you before going any further,

where did you buy your laptop?
have yoyu still got the original receipt or some other proof of purchase?

doejuffy

I bought it directly from Dell.
Yeah, I have a printed copy of the original receipt.

foggy_lad

ok thats grand then dell is the retailer in your case.

next step is to ignore any telephone communication from dell(tell them to write to you) and any emails from india and deal only with dell in ireland.

you will need to write to dell in cherrywood and explain everything to them and then give them a chance to take the laptop back and examine it and they might try replacing the faulty part and hopefully this will work for you. they may also offer to replace the laptop with a more up to date model from their outlet shop, this would be a laptop returned after a few days for change of mind reasons or dead on arrival units that are fixed and fully tested etc.

also as suggested in a previous unhelpful post do not take a cool off period of three months! get this sorted out now while it is fresh as the longer it is left the harder it will be to deal with it!

but if that fails all is not lost as dell are still responsible because any repairs are supposed to be permenant. and you have up to 6 years in which to make claims.

if you get nowhere with dell your next step is the small claims court which will cost you €15 and a bit of time attending and waiting.

doejuffy

Thanks foggy_lad, I appreciate the very helpful advice, I'll get a letter out to them ASAP.


Thanks to everyone else who also replied.

Garth

I had the same problem with my 1330 -- twice. The second time I read them the riot act, and asked for the details I needed to fill out my small claims form.

They sent out a guy to fix it for me and guaranteed it would be fixed. That was a few months ago now and it hasn't recurred.

They did extend their warranty on that problem to two years, but the fact remains it's a well known issue that can be verified by a quick google search, so if that particular thing goes wrong in year 3, I'd still pursue them for it.

There is quite a lot of anecdotal evidence that it is never adequately fixed. And the problem is on the mobo so it's not as simple as just replacing the graphics card. Hell, at this point, I'd adios the graphics card if I could.

The fact is, the 1330 XPS with the 8400s card is defective. It has never worked and probably doesn't, short of replacing the mobos everytime a customer has the time/energy to complain.

pwd

Garth wrote: »

I had the same problem with my 1330 -- twice. The second time I read them the riot act, and asked for the details I needed to fill out my small claims form.

They sent out a guy to fix it for me and guaranteed it would be fixed. That was a few months ago now and it hasn't recurred.

They did extend their warranty on that problem to two years, but the fact remains it's a well known issue that can be verified by a quick google search, so if that particular thing goes wrong in year 3, I'd still pursue them for it.

There is quite a lot of anecdotal evidence that it is never adequately fixed. And the problem is on the mobo so it's not as simple as just replacing the graphics card. Hell, at this point, I'd adios the graphics card if I could.

The fact is, the 1330 XPS with the 8400s card is defective. It has never worked and probably doesn't, short of replacing the mobos everytime a customer has the time/energy to complain.

When it happened the second time, was it outside of warranty?
I'd be surprised if they are fixing them for free outside of warranty tbh, known issue or not, threats of small claims court or not.
[I do think they should fix them, just am surprised if they actually do].

foggy_lad

pwd wrote: »

When it happened the second time, was it outside of warranty?
I'd be surprised if they are fixing them for free outside of warranty tbh, known issue or not, threats of small claims court or not.
[I do think they should fix them, just am surprised if they actually do].

forget dell's warranty it is worthless compared to your statutory rights!

Dell must provide after sales care for products they sell direct to the consumer which means the products should be fit for purpose and last a reasonable time considering price paid intended use etc etc. Your statutory rights cover faults in products or services for up to 6 years, but does not cover any kind of customer damage!

pwd

Ok; any point looking for them to fix a 3.5 year old laptop which has just broken, and doesn't have any known issues like the dodgy 8x00m gpus?

Garth

Well, they'd extended the warranty on that particular part because it's a known issue, so it was within their extended warranty.

But I spoke too soon. The card is starting to fail again (I'm beginning to get the lines on my screen at shutdown, which is how it started the last two times). They're offering to repair again (free, as a "good will gesture"). OR they want to take it off me for a week and examine it. I'm not going without my laptop for a week, when they know the equipment is faulty.

I've requested the information I need to start the small claims process. If I remember correctly, I spent about 1300 euro on this laptop that has been repaired twice and is failing again.

Incidentally, there is a thread about small claims and Dell:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055901808

The OP on that thread mentions Dell contacting them about buying extended warranties. I had to request they stop those calls because I was getting so many of them. It was obvious they were targetting people with ongoing issues due to known faults. Every time I'd ring up, they'd say "Oh, yeah, well with this problem you should get an extended warranty." How sneaky is that? Basically saying, "because we sold you a faulty product, let us sell you an unnecessary and expensive warranty".

monkeypants

The nVidia issue is a well known one and a lot of new machines can only be purchased with ATI kit now. Regardless of the warranty status, I'd pursue it if it was less than two years old. I got my M1730 fully refunded and it had no warranty coverage.

hellboy99

Ricky91t wrote: »

His warranty is for a year, and his laptop is 2 years and 3 monthes old, To be honest that's edging towards an obsolete machine imo, And I'm sure Dell will definetly view it that way...

Not necessarily, some internal parts ie. graphics cards, HDD etc.. can hold their own warranty with their OEM. I had a graphics card go in a Dell machine once 5 months after the warranty with Dell was up, rang Dell and asked if the card had an OEM warranty, turned out it had 3 year warranty and I got it replaced.

mfield

Lads, I'm pulling this thread up as my M1530 died a few days ago and I have spoke to them about the problem and of course they want 450 lids for a new mobo, as it's out of warranty. :eek:

I told them that I wanted a replacement laptop or a refund and nothing else, so I have a letter ready to be sent registered post and I will be sending my laptop off to get a full engineers report aswell.

If they do no reply within 7 business days I will be going back to my credit card company and trying to get a full refund off them.

I'll keep ye updated!

Varik

Dell extended the warranty for those cards affected to 2 years so how old is exactly.

I had a laptop that was 3 years old and did not fall under that extension, they wanted £400 for a new card after a lot of complaining they got down to £170 for a extra year warranty and then i got them to repair it without the new warranty for free.

The thing you have to watch for is that the try to say that your rights for computers are only 2 years but what they are referring to is a EU regulation and not a law it is for a minimum of 2 years in each member state and Ireland have longer to begin with.

mfield

Varik wrote: »

Dell extended the warranty for those cards affected to 2 years so how old is exactly.

I had a laptop that was 3 years old and did not fall under that extension, they wanted £400 for a new card after a lot of complaining they got down to £170 for a extra year warranty and then i got them to repair it without the new warranty for free.

The thing you have to watch for is that the try to say that your rights for computers are only 2 years but what they are referring to is a EU regulation and not a law it is for a minimum of 2 years in each member state and Ireland have longer to begin with.

The laptop will be 3 years old in February. I have sent THIS LETTER with the some amendments, if they don't reply, it's off to the credit card company for a full refund.

Varik

mfield wrote: »

if they don't reply, it's off to the credit card company for a full refund.

it's off to the credit card company to ask for one, i don't think you'll get anywhere from that you'll have to go small claims court now. the credit card company have no right to claim the money back form dell and no obligation to do so now. Nothing will happen as i doubt they'll receive it in 7 days and i don'y think you can claim for the money you spent to check it out.

mfield

I spoke to the National Consumer Agency and they told me I can go to the credit card company if I have to. We'll see what happens, if I have to go to the small claims court, I will.

mfield

Varik wrote: »

Nothing will happen as i doubt they'll receive it in 7 days and i don'y think you can claim for the money you spent to check it out.

Also, I sent the letter registered post, so I'll know exactly when the letter was received.

mfield

Just to update this one.


Dell rang me today and I am getting a full refund plus cost of engineers report!

To say I'm delighted would be an understatement!

dilallio

That's brilliant - fair play to you for following it up.

The more people who follow these issues up makes it a lot easier for others in the future.

In addition to the nVidia issue, the other big issue with these laptops is the fan unit clogging up. The fan itself may look clean when you remove the cover, but there is a plastic channel going from the fan-unit to the fan outlet on the side of the laptop, and this often clogs up and is not visible until you remove and dismantle the fan assembly.

p.s. I wonder if your machine will end up on the outlet store...

Garth

Perhaps they've finally decided to start solving this problem in-house as so many of us have gone to Small Claims to get our refunds.

mfield

dilallio wrote: »

That's brilliant - fair play to you for following it up.

The more people who follow these issues up makes it a lot easier for others in the future.

In addition to the nVidia issue, the other big issue with these laptops is the fan unit clogging up. The fan itself may look clean when you remove the cover, but there is a plastic channel going from the fan-unit to the fan outlet on the side of the laptop, and this often clogs up and is not visible until you remove and dismantle the fan assembly.

p.s. I wonder if your machine will end up on the outlet store...

Thanks dilallio!

It's a great result, I think I'll get a mac book pro now and do a dual boot on it.

My love affair with Dell is over.