Dell Hell

My misadventures in laptop repair

July 07, 2010 Jake Hallman

jake@connectstatesboro.com

    I thought I had an awesome laptop. It was comparable to my desktop system at home.
    Games, video editing, photo editing, watching HD movies — this was a small computer set up for some heavy lifting.
    Too bad that it broke. Then broke again. And again. All from a known design flaw. And now I'm reduced to fighting to get a defective product repaired just so it can break again.
    Thanks a lot, Dell. You used to be a quality company.
    In hindsight, my first clue should have been that I got it for about $1,000 off of its list price through Dell's outlet shop. The computer was refurbished. It'd broke, Dell had fixed it, and they were selling it at a lower price with full warranty.
    I'd had it just a few months when it died on me. Without going into too much technical detail, the laptop (an m1530, if you must know) suffers from the dual problem of a graphics card that will gradually kill itself and the system's motherboard due to heat coupled with a design that puts the air intake vent on the bottom of the computer.
    Y'know, the part that's covered up if you put the laptop on pretty much any flat surface, or, hey, your lap.
    So it died like an 80 year old shut-in during a hot New York City August.
    The great guys at Georgia Technologies over on Zetterower handled all the warranty service for me. Computer came back good as new, and ran okay up until early this year.
    Its own heat got it again. And this time it was out of warranty. Joseph at Georgia Technologies went to bat for me, gave Dell a good talking-to, and Dell sent out one of their techs to fix it.
    Well, sort of. Sure, it had a loose body panel that wasn't there before and a strange rattle on the inside, but it worked. For about three weeks, at least.
    Then pow, same problem. A design flaw that Dell is perfectly aware of, and has noted on their own website.
    Joseph and company suited up for battle again, but Dell's not going for it. I contact Dell, and explain that I'm pissed because they know about the problems, they can go in and replace parts, but it's almost certain to fail again.
    So as I write this, I'm waiting for Dell to send me a box that I can seal my computer in, send off to them, and hope that the repair holds this time. But it probably won't.
    Dell used to be a quality company. My wife has a six year old subnotebook from them that could be dropped into the fires of Mt. Doom and still work.
    But at some point, people decided that outsourcing customer support, using substandard components, and not standing by their products was the way to go — and now I'm left holding the bag after giving them more than a grand of my money for a product that I hoped would last more than two years.
    I gave Dell the opportunity to respond to this column. As of press time, I haven't heard anything from them.
    Update:
    Remember that column I wrote about what the city's done for young folks lately? Turns out the wheels are turning — they've just been turning quietly.
    Find out all about it next week in our big elections and politics issue.
    Jake Hallman is the interim editor of Connect Statesboro. He can be reached at (912) 489-9405 or via e-mail at jake@connectstatesboro.com.

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