Dell Vostro Problems!!!

[Nick_Henchel]

Hey all.

In August 2007 I purchased a Dell Vostro 1400. When I got it it was absolutely fantastic. I was shouting praises here there and everywhere for it.

It came with a 12 month warranty.

And as the story always seems to go, the laptop started to give me problems when it was two months out of warranty.

It started of with BSOD's every week or so. This i could live with. When it steadily increased to once every couple of days i looked on the dell website for any possible solutions to this problem. I did everything they suggested which included installing all the latest drivers, windows updates, updating the BIOS and the last straw was to restore the factory image on the laptop.

This did not seem to fix the problem and i was getting BSOD's everytime i used the computer, often before i got to the login screen.

At this point i bit the bullet and called Dell Technical Support. On hold for over an hour before i talked to a "dell agent" who seemed to know less about my problem than I did. After repeating himself a dozen times telling me the only thing i could do was extend my warranty (did not want to do), he tried to help me with the problem getting me to run some diagnostics. I did this and of course got a few error messages so on the phone i was again. I finally got through to someone that had half a brain and they agreed that because one of the errors i got back was for the video card, they would replace the motherboard (Card soldered onto mobo, known error with the Nvidia cards in the vostro's apparently).

I organised a time with a technician (while i was at work unfortunately so only my girlfriend was home). He replaced the motherboard with a refurbished one which did not do a thing to the computer and infact made it worse. So back on the phone I was. The computer wasnt even getting through the bios before the BSOD appreared. So the next "agent" i spoke with was very apologetic and once again reminded me that they "recommend" that i extend my warranty but agreed that because the technician made the problem worse they would send out their best techie with a NEW mobo to test and replace it.

Organised another time etc etc.

Left a note for this bloke to call me when he got there. He called me and said that it seems like it is a memory problem and unrelated to the mobo at all. But he would replace it because it was new instead of refurbished and recommended that i changed the ram.

I got home after this guy had "repaired" the laptop and turned it on, crashed within 20 seconds. Great. Re-booted and got an error message saying that the computer had overheated and was shut down.

Fucking great. Now ive got more problems that when i started.

This weekend i have been tearing my hair out. Ive replaced the memory with some new corsair value select items. The overheating problem was still apparent. It was always running hot but i had never got an error before. I grabbed a notebook cooler which didnt help at all. Still getting overheating errors. I got some new thermal paste and re-seated the cpu onto the heatsink and that worked to start with but now i have the same problem as before. I turn it on and it doesnt even get to the login screen and turns off. No BSOD, it just crashes.

I'm very sorry for this longwinded post but i am going crazy here. I really dont want to extend my warranty but what other leg do i have to stand on? Should i be going back to dell and demanding they repair it free of charge because their techie played with it and now its overheating or what?

Cheers, Nick.

[kix]

They don't have to do anything since your warranty ran out so I would be nice and hope you get it fixed for free.

[Andres]

I bet it's something tdo with the Nvidia 8400M in there.

Have a look in the XPSM1330 thread - but short story is, there's a significant desgin flaw that mean these GPUs are dieing in dell notebooks from overheating.

I'd be inclined to extend my warranty, and once done, keep perstering until you get the etire laptop replaced.