11 months of hell with an XPS 1340 - 4th hard drive!!

I've had an XPS 1340 for almost a year and whilst it's a nice design with great keyboard and screen I've had MAJOR issues with the hard drive. It's been replaced 3 times so far and this morning it froze again and after running the diagnostics (error 0142 again) Dell support wanted to send me another hard drive but I've refused. Seems to be an issue with the drives they use in this model. I'm a medium business user (email, docs, spreadsheets etc) so by no means have I driven it hard.

I put my foot down as this would be the 4th hard drive in the machine and they eventually offered me a replacement but instead of a 1340 which they said they were phasing out they offered me a "New" Alienware M15X which apparently has just been launched. The Dell supervisor said it was the mutts nuts and would give me all the power and reliability I need. It's a 15" rather than 13" screen and is designed more for gamers than business so I'm not pleased with either the size (4kg Vs 2.2kg for the 1340) or look of it but if it's solid and won't let me down then I might go for it as the process of changing hard drives wastes at least 2 days of my time each time as programs and data are reloaded and configured etc. At this point he's saying there may be a small (€300) cost to change but if I do go for it I won't be paying that given all the hasssle they've put me through.

I love the 1340 and if the hard drive wasn't an issue I'd be keeping it for at least another 2 years but I just can't rely on it. Also, the fact that they are phasing it out may mean a) they accept there is an issue with them and b) something even better in the 13" business/slick design space might replace it soon.

What do you all think of my situation? Should I accept the Alienware M15X (see http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/pr...sdt1&~lt=popup) or should I do something else? Has anyone got any experience of the M15X? At 4kg and over 2 inches thick it's too big and heavy for business travel which I do quite a bit.

What would you guys do? I know I won't get my money back so what else can I get from them? The 1340 is the only model in their lineup that meets my criteria of light weight, powerful, good battery life and great screen and keyboard. Is there any point in getting them to send me a different configuration with Win 7 64bit instead of Vista 32 bit and the 256GB solid state hard drive rather than the 500gb serial ATA drive I currently have? Would that make a difference? Are the solid state drives ok now? I heard they gave trouble after a year or two.

I'm inclined to ask for anew 1340 with Win 7 and and SS drive and see what happens rather than go with the M15X. Good idea or not? I'm sure I can manage with 256Gb by just dumping old movies etc onto an external HD so what's the downside of Win 7 64bit and the SS drive over my current configuration?

Would really appreciate some input here. This is cracking me up.

Regards,

Ben

 

Definitely the M15x is a dream to have to some people lol.. Your SXPS 1340 to an M15x? lol.. thats great

 

Eugene, are you being sarcastic? Is the M15X a piece of sh1t?

 

No i wasnt.. M15x is a superb machine.. M15x outperforms that SXPS 13 by 2x or 3x times if im not mistaken taking account 3dmark06 benchmarking

 

Hey ben I really think its up to you, many gamers would give their kidney for an m15x, but it is a heavy and big machine which is not what you want. On the other hand, you might actually like it more just because its such an awesome piece of hardware.
About the SSD drives, you are worried about the trouble after 1 or 2 years. I think this has something to do with the fact that they become slower once they were fully written. But, if you use trim function the ssd's should not become slower and they are really, really, really fast.

 

Hey I feel your pain, 6 months ago I bought my cousins old XPS 1330 which had failed a few times in the past. I was able to buy the out of warranty, warranty extension and managed to get them to replace the laptop with a 1340.

They really upgraded the specs. 2.66Ghz processor 8gb DDR3, 9500GE 500GB drive. It was sweet until it too became plagued with problems, Motherboard replacements due to GPU failure or Bios update gone awry etc...

Eventually I had them replace the laptop again although this time I managed to convince them to give me the Studio XPS 1640 with the 4670 videocard. Long story short however they screwed up and ended up giving me a few inferior components and in true Dell fashion I was told I would get a replacement laptop once again.

Today I sit waiting on a Studio XPS 1645 i7 720QM, 8GB DDR3 1333, ATI 4670, 500GB drive (Bluray to follow since it wasn't an option at the time) as well as the RGBLED display.

So, all that being said. It may not be totally impossible to go from a 1340 to M15x

Last thing and probably most important to note. This is only really possible if you have an extreme amount of patience and the Next Day On Site Warranty because your not forced to send your laptop in for repairs that they may or may not validate or reproduce.

 

Did they say if they were planning to introduce a new 13" model to the lineup?

 

You are not a gamer, you are clearly looking for a laptop for business. I would suggest just getting a refund of your money.

Dont go for the M15x. How would it look lugging that thing around to an important business meeting?

Price wise and performance wise its an upgrade, sure. But its a downgrade in portability and in my opinion is not an appropriate "business" laptop.

 

Being an European user, I would advise to get an Inspiron 13z.

It's more or less what you want, a light 13" laptop, powerful enough for business operation, great battery (it promises more than 11 hours of use with the included 8-cell battery) and you can choose it with nVidia graphics if you want some HD content or games:

Components
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor ULV SU7300 (1.3GHz, 800MHz, 3MB) DISC GFX
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
Microsoft® Works 9.0 / English - (Does not include Microsoft® Word)
1 year of coverage included with your PC
13.3" WLED High Definition (1366 x 768) TFT Display with TrueLife™
4096MB 1067MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM [2x2048]
320GB (7,200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive
Primary 8-cell 80 WHr Lithium Ion battery
DVD +/- RW Drive (read/write CD & DVD)
Dell Wireless 1397 Mini Card (802.11 b/g)
Dell Wireless 365 Bluetooth Module
512MB NVIDIA® GeForce® G 105M
1.3 Mega pixel Integrated Web Camera
Obsidian Black colour with custom high-gloss finish
N01Z1303
Inspiron 1370 Order - UK
English - Documentation Inspiron 1370
Inspiron 1370 Resource DVD (Diagnostic & Drivers)
65W AC Adaptor
1 year of coverage included with your PC
1 Meter Power Cord - UK
Internal UK/Irish Qwerty Keyboard
Wireless Label (Dell Wireless Cards)- Core 2 Duo

This model costs 579 pounds and it's quite capable. I would choose that instead of an m15x, too big and powerful.

Check it the specs:

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/p...inspiron-13z?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&s=dhs&~ck=mn

Hope this helped a bit and good luck

 

Why not just get a 1640/1647

Not that much heavier than the 1340 and as for mine, I love it ... I only have a P8400 and 9400M G ... but for what I use it for ... it's all I need

 

Actually I'd expect the M17x with an Arrandale CPU (Core i7 620M) to be pretty good on battery life considering it supports switching to the integrated GPU not to mention the presence of an SSD. If size/weight and appearance weren't an issue, I'd think you were crazy for not accepting it. If you rarely take your laptop to work with you or don't work in a very "professional" setting then I doubt it would pose a problem but otherwise it may seem somewhat unusual (it's a rather "flashy" laptop after all).

Errm...you'll have better power management? Much faster load times and without the need for defragmenting your hard drive (and you specifically SHOULDN'T defragment an SSD)? For the most part there are only positives from those two. The only potential downside I can think of is if you have "unusual" peripherals that will run on a 32 bit release of Vista yet not a 64 bit release of 7 which would probably be very unlikely. The SSD makes the deal very attractive considerring it's a $520 upgrade here in the U.S. for the SXPS 13.