My Ordeal with Dell

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 2^nd: 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 7^{th -} 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 11^th: 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 14^{th -} 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.

Taking Care of Your Batteries

Most batteries found in today's gadgets will be based on the lithium-ion technology. This is the standard chemistry found in current generation technology because of its advantages over nickel-cadmium and other types of batteries. However, most people are still unaware of how to maintain their batteries to prolong their lives.

To check if your battery is indeed lithium ion, closely examine the battery itself.  It should state somewhere that it is lithium or lithium ion.  Some manufacturers may choose to abbreviate it and simply call it "Li," the chemical symbol for lithium.

Once you ascertain that the battery in question is indeed lithium-ion based, these are a few things you should keep in mind to extend its storage capacity in the long term:

My Cell Phone Died! Quick, Where's The Charger?

Most lithium ion batteries have a fail safe mechanism that shuts off the device and conserves what little power the battery has once it reaches critically low power levels.  However, if one were to neglect the battery and allow it to stay depleted, it will use up its reserves and be unable to hold a charge anymore.  But don't overreact - it's okay to let your device drain the battery, but find a way to charge it ASAP!

Don't Be A Fool, Keep It Cool!

Lithium ion batteries are really sensitive to heat.  Make sure that your battery stays cool: heat can slowly destroy the battery's ability to hold a charge.  If a lithium ion battery is exposed to higher temperatures over a long period of time, it will lose its ability to hold an effective charge.

Some experts suggest people to get belt clip and attach their cell phones to it instead of leaving them in their pockets because the body heat can adversely damage the battery in the long run.  Since that might look extremely dorky and the actual difference of doing so cannot be measured for all lithium ion batteries, it is up to you to decide if you want to do that

For laptops, consider getting a cooling pad and/or using compressed air to blow dust to promote better ventilation.  Cooling pads are simply fans that blow additional air into your laptop to promote air circulation to drive out heat.  If dust accumulates in your laptop, it will hinder the air's ability to drive the heat out.  Go to your local electronics store and buy cans of compressed air to blow into the laptop to get the dust out.

It's Okay To Charge Regularly!

There is a myth out there that you should wait until your battery is completely depleted before recharging or else its ability to carry a full charge will diminish.  This is a carryover from older battery technologies, such as the nickel-cadmium battery.  Lithium-ion batteries do not suffer from this memory effect problem as much as nickel-cadmium does and it is okay to charge your device even if it is only partially depleted.  However, devices must be able to accurately gauge the battery's power level and if one were to consistently recharge when the battery is not depleted, the software will become confused and often report inaccurate power levels.  Sometimes it will tell you that the battery is low when the device can run fine for a few more hours.  Therefore, you should always try to recharge once you deplete the battery, but it's not the end of the world if you don't.

Bottom Line:

• Don't let your batteries be out of power for too long, find a charger before it dies.


• Keep your lithium-ion batteries cool at all times, heat is their biggest enemy.


• It's okay to recharge lithium-ion batteries even when they're not depleted, but do so when possible.

And in the end, all batteries will lose their charge.  You should be lucky if you can still get a good amount of battery life out of the same lithium-ion battery 2, 3, or even 4 years down the line.

For the full story and others like it, check out my blog: http://gotlactose.wordpress.com/