Dead 700m, damn Dell …
Gentoo March 21st, 2006
It is quite sad to announce that I am obliged to stop maintaining Gentoo on 700m, since my Dell Inspiron 700m is dead. It just lost the power without any smoke, smell, and I could not power it on any more. It is highly probable the power module of the motherboard is burned.
- The price to replace the out-of-warranty motherboard is: $300.
- 3rd party service varies from $99 - $198 + H.S, depends on how many MOSFETs needs to replace.
It is a pity that I failed to replace the deficient motherboard during the warranty period. The technician of Dell just simply ignored my requests since most of the complaints are quite trivial, and all the symptoms are not easy to reproduce. And Dell’s attitude makes things ever worse.
[...] March 29th, 2006 in Misc I think this is the best comment to descibe all these issues around computer in 2006. Just after the funeral of Dell 700m, the eMachine T2482 is also dead this morning. [...]
I have just had the same thing happen to my 700m. I’m so annoyed. (I know yours was back in 2006 but your entry above turned up in a search I did to see how many others have had the same thing happen.)
Am currently deciding if it’s easier to pay to have it fixed and life goes on as usual, or pay three times as much (which isn’t bad) for a nice shiny new laptop but with the added hassles of copying over all my files from my 700m hard disk and setting up all my personal stuff again, favourite programs etc. I don’t know if I can be bothered with all that. I’ll probably just give in and pay to get it fixed.
I must say when it was under warranty Dell technical support people were always so nice and helpful and prompt. As soon as they hear it’s out of warranty they so obviously don’t give a damn about you. No one replied to my contact via their website and it took almost a week for someone to send me a repair quote when it was promised within 24 hours. Just because your equipment is out of warranty doesn’t mean you aren’t a potential repeat customer. They should still treat you with the same good manners. I don’t feel like buying anything from them again.
Sorry to hear the same issue from other 700m users.
The lesson I’ve learned from my experience: never ever be the pilot customers regardless Dell or Apple. My wife also got a Dell 700m but 3 months later, the quality is quite solid, I am still using it replying this comment.
My dead 700m is repaired in Shanghai, China on Dec 2006. The technician replaced the power module (2 MOSFETs) in the motherboard, total 30$ for labor and parts. My mother took it for web surfing and Skype.