DELL LAPTOP ON BLINK

[The Sweeney]

I bought a Dell Studio 1737 three months ago but, due to family circumstances, only really started using it a couple of weeks ago.  I have started to notice a couple of faults with it and will be phoning Dell in the morning to discuss them.  Firstly, when shutting down I noticed the number lock light seemed to stay on for approximately 30 seconds after system had seemingly shut down and can here some slight machine noise(this has happened on about three occasions, the rest of the time it shuts down normally).  Secondly, the machine would not start the other day and the only way I managed to resolve the issue was the age old classic of disconnecting all power.  Tonight, whilst playing on Betfair, I noticed the number lock light was on.  I pressed the number lock key several times to no avail.  I decided to google this problem and opened IE.  However, although my homepage of Google appeared, the keyboard was unresponsive and I could not enter text.  As I pressed the keys all that happened was a new window would appear.  I clicked on favourites and each favourite selected opened a new window rather than changing the open window.  I restarted the machine, the number lock light thing resolved itself and the machine is working normally again.

I was going to try online chat but, upon inputting my service tag, all I got was a message saying the system was purchased outside the UK/Eire.  I know we're strange folk in the Black Country but, to the best of my knowledge, we are part of the UK!  Thus, will have to phone them in the morning.  Thought I'd post about it here as forearmed is forewarned and any advice might help in tomorrow's phone call.

Thanks in advance for any responses, have a nice evening and here's hoping the sun continues to shine like it did today.

Cheers,

davemac.

[bobAlike]

Sorry but IMO Dell help is pretty poor. Had to argue with them when my daughters Studio lappy died 2 weeks after we bought it.
Needed a new motherboard which Dell replaced at my house after many arguements.

It has been OK ever since though.

Not much help for you, just thought I'd chip in.

[Royal Flush]

Sorry but IMO Dell help is pretty poor. Had to argue with them when my daughters Studio lappy died 2 weeks after we bought it.
Needed a new motherboard which Dell replaced at my house after many arguements.

It has been OK ever since though.

Not much help for you, just thought I'd chip in.

I think the other way, i had a laptop for 2 years with them it started overheating so i called up they ran the diagnostics with me on the phone and couldn't see how to fix it so sent me a brand new laptop.

Top stuff.

[JungleCat03]

When I've had to get Dell to fix stuff with my laptop, I have had the odd problem but on the whole they have been good.

Call them up though. It's nearly always better to speak to peeps about problems rather than go online and they can prob get an engineer to come round pretty quickly (3-4 days to see you in my experience) to get it mended. Alternatively as it is so new they may just give you a new machine.

When u buy laptops etc from dell as well, always call rather than book online if u want the best deal. I basically wangled about 250 quid of extras by being a little hard-nosed when buying my laptop from dell by implying I was in two minds about getting one given the price and deal.

They threw stuff at me for free in a bid to make the sale and i miagine with the credit crunch, your bargaining position will be even better now.

Hope ya get it sorted anyway. I imagine u will.

[Royal Flush]

When I've had to get Dell to fix stuff with my laptop, I have had the odd problem but on the whole they have been good.

Call them up though. It's nearly always better to speak to peeps about problems rather than go online and they can prob get an engineer to come round pretty quickly (3-4 days to see you in my experience) to get it mended. Alternatively as it is so new they may just give you a new machine.

When u buy laptops etc from dell as well, always call rather than book online if u want the best deal. I basically wangled about 250 quid of extras by being a little hard-nosed when buying my laptop from dell by implying I was in two minds about getting one given the price and deal.

They threw stuff at me for free in a bid to make the sale and i miagine with the credit crunch, your bargaining position will be even better now.

Hope ya get it sorted anyway. I imagine u will.

Yeah but you did get a rather sick rubdown!

[JungleCat03]

When I've had to get Dell to fix stuff with my laptop, I have had the odd problem but on the whole they have been good.

Call them up though. It's nearly always better to speak to peeps about problems rather than go online and they can prob get an engineer to come round pretty quickly (3-4 days to see you in my experience) to get it mended. Alternatively as it is so new they may just give you a new machine.

When u buy laptops etc from dell as well, always call rather than book online if u want the best deal. I basically wangled about 250 quid of extras by being a little hard-nosed when buying my laptop from dell by implying I was in two minds about getting one given the price and deal.

They threw stuff at me for free in a bid to make the sale and i miagine with the credit crunch, your bargaining position will be even better now.

Hope ya get it sorted anyway. I imagine u will.

Yeah but you did get a rather sick rubdown!

sigh lol

Yeh, I am deciding which colour laptop case to go for, eventually i tell him.  His response nearly made me tell him to stick his sale up his a**e and DIAGF.

"Ok, I'd like the red laptop case."

"Are you sure sir?"

"Yes why?"

"It's just that normally its our younger customers who go for the red case."

"......."


So he basically called me old man and mentally impaired retardo in the same insult.

Wp sir, wp.

[RED-DOG]

I've had my Dell lappy for about 6 months. I didn't take out the extended guarantee, but now I wish I had. Can I still do it?

[TheWhisper]

I am sure they will let you.
I have had some servers for three years (with cover) and at the end of the term they let me extend the cover for a further 2 years

[The Sweeney]

Just thought I'd post an update as to the current state of play.  Contacted Dell Technical Support Live Chat on the 8 May and had the following conversation.

Time       Details 

05/08/2009 12:04:43PM Session Started with Agent (Americas\shahul_m)
05/08/2009 12:04:43PM DAVID McELHINNEY: "1/ My laptop 'Num Lk' light sometimes stays on for approx 30 seconds after shutdown. 2/ Other day laptop would not start at all."
05/08/2009 12:04:48PM Agent (Americas\shahul_m): "Thank you for contacting Dell Chat support. Please bear with me for a moment ,while I pull up your system information"
05/08/2009 12:05:40PM DAVID McELHINNEY: "np"
05/08/2009 12:09:15PM Agent (Americas\shahul_m): "Hi David, thank you for your patience. My name is Shahul and I will be assisting you today."
05/08/2009 12:09:33PM Agent (Americas\shahul_m): "As I understand laptop not powering on is that right ?"
05/08/2009 12:09:42PM DAVID McELHINNEY: "THANKS further to the two problems already stated, yesterday, whilst playing online poker, I noticed the number lock light was on. I pressed the number lock key several times to no avail. I decided to google this problem and opened IE. However, although my homepage of Google appeared, the keyboard was unresponsive and I could not enter text. As I pressed the keys all that happened was a new window would appear. I clicked on favourites and each favourite selected opened a new window rather than changing the open window. I restarted the machine, the number lock light thing resolved itself and the machine is working normally again.
Also, upon inputting my service tag, all I got was a message saying the system was purchased outside the UK/Eire. I know
  we're strange folk in the Black Country but, to the best of my knowledge, we are part of the UK
05/08/2009 12:10:41PM DAVID McELHINNEY: "the laptop seems to start misbehaving and the Num Lk light seems to be the indicator of when it's doing so"
05/08/2009 12:11:17PM Agent (Americas\shahul_m): "I will certainly help you with this issue"
05/08/2009 12:11:21PM Agent (Americas\shahul_m): "Before proceeding may I have your full name and telephone number to update your records ?"
05/08/2009 12:11:38PM DAVID McELHINNEY: "David McElhinney"
05/08/2009 12:12:02PM DAVID McELHINNEY: "0121 550 XXXX or 07815  XXXXXX"
05/08/2009 12:13:28PM Agent (Americas\shahul_m): "Thank you"
05/08/2009 12:13:32PM DAVID McELHINNEY: "np"
05/08/2009 12:13:43PM Agent (Americas\shahul_m): "I see from the records that you are using an STUDIO 1737 running on windows vista, is that right?"
05/08/2009 12:13:50PM DAVID McELHINNEY: "yes"
05/08/2009 12:14:13PM Agent (Americas\shahul_m): "Are you chatting with us from the same laptop ?"
05/08/2009 12:14:19PM DAVID McELHINNEY: "yes"
05/08/2009 12:16:47PM Agent (Americas\shahul_m): "Okay so when the laptop not working num lock light lits up is that right ?"
05/08/2009 12:16:56PM DAVID McELHINNEY: "yes"
05/08/2009 12:17:08PM DAVID McELHINNEY: "and sometimes stays on after shutdown"
05/08/2009 12:17:26PM DAVID McELHINNEY: "which is also accompanied by some slightmachine noise"
05/08/2009 12:19:04PM DAVID McELHINNEY: "bought laptop at end of february but father had serious accident, so only recently started using the machine"
05/08/2009 12:19:21PM Agent (Americas\shahul_m): "okay"
05/08/2009 12:23:39PM Agent (Americas\shahul_m): "In this regard what best could be done is to update the bios first"
05/08/2009 12:24:08PM DAVID McELHINNEY: "ok"
05/08/2009 12:24:34PM DAVID McELHINNEY: "how is that done? By you or by me?"
05/08/2009 12:25:03PM Agent (Americas\shahul_m): "I could take control of your laptop and update for you"
05/08/2009 12:25:19PM DAVID McELHINNEY: "OK that sounds best"
05/08/2009 12:25:39PM Agent (Americas\shahul_m): "Minimise all the windows leaving this window to follow the instructions"
05/08/2009 12:25:45PM Agent (Americas\shahul_m): "Once I take control of the laptop you will find another mouse pointer please stop using the mouse pointer at that time"
05/08/2009 12:25:55PM Agent (Americas\shahul_m): "1. Please open a new web page and type www.dellconnect.com in the address bar and press enter.
2. Now click on your country region on the world map.
3. Click on United Kingdom (English) or Ireland (English).
4. Follow the onscreen instructions.
5. Let me"
  know when it asks you for the code.
05/08/2009 12:28:28PM DAVID McELHINNEY: "what is the code please?"
05/08/2009 12:28:52PM Agent (Americas\shahul_m): "XXXXXXX and click on go"
05/08/2009 12:40:03PM Session Suspended
05/08/2009 01:10:03PM Session Suspension Ended - Timeout"

He updated the bios and i had no problen till last night.......

TBC in next post

[The Sweeney]

Sorry, got called away.  Anyways, last night I tried using IE whilst playing poker again.  Opening IE, my homepage Google appeared.  Alas, every time I tried to input text in the search, all that happened was the 'Add to Favourites' box would appear.  I closed IE and opened Firefox and had identical problem, trying to input text simply brought up the 'Page Bookmarked' box.  At this time I noticed my 'Num Lk' light was off and, despite pressing said key several times, the light would not switch on.  After about ten minutes the problem resolved itself, the 'Num Lk' key was working, and I could use I surf using IE normally again.

I therefore contacted Dell Technical Support Live Chat again and spoke to same guy again.  Nice friendly guy called Shahul and he's arranged for machine to be picked up tomorrow in order that than can take a look at it.  Here's hoping they manage to repair whatever is causing the problems.  I bought this machine from Dell Outlet, reassured by the guarantee that,

Dell Outlet is a division of Dell Products, selling refurbished computer equipment which is limited in quantity. This is product, which has been returned to Dell for a variety of reasons including cancellation and specification changes.

Prices in the stockroom exclude VAT and Delivery which will be added at Point of Purchase prior to submitting order.

All products have been tested and repackaged to Dell factory standards and come with a full Service Pack. High demand - so start shopping NOW - to get the system that's right for YOU!"
 
Here's hoping I haven't dropped an almighty bollock and bought a pig in a poke!!!

[The Sweeney]

God damn BS machine gone haywire on three occasions tonight.  Plus I've noticed a blemish in the 'coachwork'.  Seems the original address was listed as Frankfurt, bet some god damn Eric has been laying his beach towel across it and it's overheated.

[seven2unsuited]

ye dell have been brilliant for me.  one of my keys popped off when i opened my laptop the 1st time and they were out the very next day to replace keyboard. Also my harddisk got damaged in a poker incident and again they replaced it the next day with a bigger one.

[AndrewT]

ye dell have been brilliant for me.  one of my keys popped off when i opened my laptop the 1st time and they were out the very next day to replace keyboard. Also my harddisk got damaged in a poker incident and again they replaced it the next day with a bigger one.

'I threw my laptop against the wall after getting rivered'

[boldie]

When I've had to get Dell to fix stuff with my laptop, I have had the odd problem but on the whole they have been good.

Call them up though. It's nearly always better to speak to peeps about problems rather than go online and they can prob get an engineer to come round pretty quickly (3-4 days to see you in my experience) to get it mended. Alternatively as it is so new they may just give you a new machine.

When u buy laptops etc from dell as well, always call rather than book online if u want the best deal. I basically wangled about 250 quid of extras by being a little hard-nosed when buying my laptop from dell by implying I was in two minds about getting one given the price and deal.

They threw stuff at me for free in a bid to make the sale and i miagine with the credit crunch, your bargaining position will be even better now.

Hope ya get it sorted anyway. I imagine u will.

Yeah but you did get a rather sick rubdown!

sigh lol

Yeh, I am deciding which colour laptop case to go for, eventually i tell him.  His response nearly made me tell him to stick his sale up his a**e and DIAGF.

"Ok, I'd like the red laptop case."

"Are you sure sir?"

"Yes why?"

"It's just that normally its our younger customers who go for the red case."

"......."


So he basically called me old man and mentally impaired retardo in the same insult.

Wp sir, wp.

[The Sweeney]

Well, after six days my Dell Studio 1737 is back from the repair shop.  Worksheet lists motherboard and keyboard as being replaced.  Quote, "ABOVE PARTS REPLACED, ALL TESTS PASSED".  Yet curiously, there is no sign of wireless network adaptors and I can't connect to 'tinternet'.  Tried relevant switch to no avail, installed software in case of omission, and still nothing!

Any suggestions most gratefully appreciated.  Looks like contacting Dell again and, if I'm really lucky, they can come and cart it away again for another week...