Dell XPS M1530 - Purchased January 2009
Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 2.1 GHz
4 GB DDR2 SDRAM
500GB Western Digital HDD
15.4 inch screen
Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT
2 year limited warranty
$1226
September 2nd: Unable to boot into operating system. Called Dell, spent half an hour with tech support to get the error message that told them that my hard drive had failed. During the half hour phone call, the tech rep asked me a couple times if I was still on the line: geez, who had more patience here, him or me? Since I’ve read that Dell is willing to change the motherboard and heatsink if customer complains about the heat, I nonchalantly mentioned that my machine “feels hot to the touch” when I use it. The tech didn’t say another word and automatically sent me a motherboard and heatsink.
Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 2.1 GHz
4 GB DDR2 SDRAM
500GB Western Digital HDD
15.4 inch screen
Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT
2 year limited warranty
$1226
September 2nd: Unable to boot into operating system. Called Dell, spent half an hour with tech support to get the error message that told them that my hard drive had failed. During the half hour phone call, the tech rep asked me a couple times if I was still on the line: geez, who had more patience here, him or me? Since I’ve read that Dell is willing to change the motherboard and heatsink if customer complains about the heat, I nonchalantly mentioned that my machine “feels hot to the touch” when I use it. The tech didn’t say another word and automatically sent me a motherboard and heatsink.
September 7th - FIRST REPAIR: Replace motherboard, heatsink, and hard drive. Obtained Dell’s media remote that was stuck in its bay inside the machine. Got a stripped screw replaced with a good one. I had to wait over the Labor Day weekend to get my laptop fixed. Otherwise it was in operable. Performed low level format on old hard drive and RMA’d the thing.
Service performed: Laptop repaired, could boot into Windows. Formatted over the factory image and proceeded to install Windows 7 with the software I usually used. Found that instead of having a Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT, the motherboard they shipped me was a Nvidia GeFroce 8400M GS. Fine. I could live with that.
September 11th: Laptop unable to boot past the BIOS loading screen, showed nothing but a white cursor. After a few tries, figured out that the time and date were set to the factory default. Suspected dead CMOS battery, machine would boot up fine as long as time and date were configured properly. Called Dell to get a new motherboard. Tech representative had a stronger Indian accent than the first guy did. Decided to ship out a motherboard and hard drive. Laptop operable in the meantime. Made a disk image with the free Acronis that Western Digital provides online.
September 14th - SECOND REPAIR: Laptop serviced again by the same field tech, very nice guy but had a strong case of the yellow fever. Laptop operable and loaded with previously made image.
Service performed: Replace motherboard and hard drive. Need to low level format second hard drive (first shipped one) and RMA the thing.
Verdict: Machine operable. GPU temps at 80C max on SC2 with medium settings, 65C max on lightweight tasks. Dell's customer support is decent, but should have higher standards for their machines. Latest BIOS update is not on Dell's FTP server, Dell field tech gave me a service technician's copy of the CD.
