Bought Dell M4400 but Tag does not verify

Hi all,

New Dell M4400 user (and new to the forums!)
After giving up with the 1280 resolution on the 13" sony I had for about 2 years, I bought a M4400 2nd hand from a reputable chain of stores in the UK.

It was actually as good as new - all the plastics coverings were still present and untouched both under the laptop and on the palm rest etc. Box was present with all the books/cds sealed
They get a decent supply of Dell and other brands in from resellers/suppliers etc and having worked there in the past, I have no issues with it BUT...

The service tag does NOT validate on the Dell support site. If I type it in another country, it knows that it does not belong to that country.
When I do type it in, it basically says AMERICAS and nothing else.

No warranty information is found, when I hit contact, it basically throws back an error to say the tag was not found.

Have i got anything to worry about?

On another note, while the laptop IS brand new, there are no stickers under the laptop - is this normal on a M4400? The Vista licence sticker is present but under the battery

If It was peeled off, you would know even if it was a slight bit of residue and given that the plastic laminate is still stuck on properly without any signs of it being removed...I am 99.9% sure it never had any stickers on it.

Other than that, I love the laptop - gets a bit warm in the front but it's great otherwise!

T9600, 4GBram, 250GB drive, 15.4 UXGA dual cathode screen@ 1900 resolution etc etc etc

 

sounds like someone got some parts replaced under warranty. service tag if its not from the uk you'll have tofind out where its from and migrate it over

 

Ahh is that how it changes ? The manager who knows the Dell supplier in person and has done for the past 20 odd years did mention that the laptop had been upgraded.

In terms of the country bit, this was something I was testing for myself
For example: I live in the UK and bought it in the UK but I thought, lets try going into Dell Germany and entering the Service Tag

Once I did this, it then said that it was the wrong tag for the country (in this case, germany).

I just wanted to prove that the service tag was genuine in a way Dell recognised it - even if it did not let me go any further.

Do you know who I could contact to get it sorted? The main issue is that to contact dell, it has to be via service tag...obviously I can't do this

 

well if its an american service tag, there is a TX form you need to fill out to get it migrated over to be a UK service tag. if you call dell workstation support they'll advise or email you the link to the form.

sounds like the bottom cover was replaced, thats why no stickers at the bottom.

 

ok found the form

http://support.dell.com/support/top...ansfer_form1?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&redirect=1

 

Thank you very much!
Don't know how much help Dell will be as I don't know who the original owner would be given that it was a supplier of some sort

 

sounds a bit dodgy. if it was all in the box etc why was there no stickers on the base? there should at least be the service tag sticker.

other than that it sounds like one of those american imports where someone finds a coupon, buys, and resells

 

The sticker/labels were the only thing that puzzled me but then you think..the plastic laminate is on as new (no bubbles/peeling) etc which lets be honest, can only be done in a factory to get it that perfect

I assume you can extract the serial using a tool of some sort

 

yea but the "holes" for the stickers are shipped with any new component. so for example if the original owner had complete cover and the laptop fell down some stairs denting the base and LCD cover, when the parts were replaced they would have the plastic covering on them.

 

that is worrying - I guess I'll just cross my fingers in this case - I get a years warranty from the place anyway so I'll just deal with them - I don't usually keep a laptop for more than a year either though this one does feel like one that will last longer without telling me to trade it in