2 new M1330's, one's dead after 1 hour of use

So I ordered 2 of these fine laptops, one with the NVIdia 8400, and one with the built in graphics. The one with the built in graphics will no longer turn on at all, it was used for at most 1 hour. Push the power button, it lights for 3-4 seconds, then goes off and you can hear a fan spin down. Holding the Fn key on start up shows all three LED's on solid, and then it shuts down after 3-4 seconds. Pulled/reseated/replaced the ram, battery, wireless, and hard drive. Dell tells me its a dead mobo. So how much should I be scared of a dead mobo after 1 hour of use? Should I let them replace it through their Next Business Day onsite service (which now they tell me will take 2 days), or just send the junk back? My 21 days ends on the 18th.

On the other M1330 with Nvidia graphics, I have not had any issues, with one exception. If I have it on, once in a while I will hear this loud creaking sound, not sure if its the keyboard or not. It sort of sounds like the sound made when you replace the CPU cover panel, so maybe something is just screwed in too tight and its thermal expansion of some sort?

Both laptops have dents in the aluminum palm rest, above the upper left corner of the trackpad. I googled for this and it seems its an over-tightened case screw, so I have backed those 2 screws out a bit hoping it will help.

I'm really not all that impressed at this point with the one laptop. A total mobo failure in 1 hour of light usage (literally just set up favorites in IE and downloaded/installed a few vista updates) seems very shoddy to me.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

 

It may also be that the Nvidia card has failed; although the BIOS probably would have issued a series of specific beeps to denote a GPU failure. Either way the motherboard has to be replaced.

 

Sorry if I wasnt clear, the one that failed is the one with integrated graphics (X3100 is it?).

 

thats pretty ironic sine the 8400 is a know failure point on these notebooks and the one with integrated graphics dies...I'd send it back and get a brand new one...

 

That sucks, definately have dell replace the mobo or the whole computer if you can or downright ask for a refund.

 

When I ordered both of these, I only got the 1 year of support on them. Do you think Dell will give me a discounted price to buy the extended warranty and keep the bad on with a new mobo (assuming that it fixes the problem) rather than having to deal with a return/refund? I think thats a fair request on my end due to the circumstances (a computer should not fail that quickly!).

On the one with the 8400 though, I will definitely be ordering the extended support.

 

well since M1330 is effected by the nvidia problem dell has issued an extra year of warrenty if the GPU fails which is probley the case.

 

where is the release notice on the extra warranty?

 

Here: http://direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/2008/09/12/nvidia-gpu-update-limited-warranty-enhancement-details.aspx

 

I luckybecause I have 2 weeks with my M1330 and nvidia graphic and doesnt have any problem with that and the computer not have noises only when it reads a Disc.

 

Dell has dropped the ball lately and this is no excuse.

 

I beg to differ... This has been discussed here endlessly, but just to reiterate, the problem is stemming from a faulty video card that another company (nVidia) makes.

Furthermore, this is not limited to DELL. HP, Apple, etc. use the same card(s) and they are in the same boat. HP also stated to offer extended warranty to cover the issue. Nevertheless, nVidia seems to be picking up the tab (at least partially) for these repairs.

There isn't anything else they can do at the moment, unless you think that one can send his/her m1330 back after 10 months and will be given a brand new studio XPS when released.

 

Thanks, I'm bookmarking this just in case I need it with my 1330 w/ nvidia graphics.

 

Well supposedly the company that provides the next business day service will be here today to fix the laptop, or try to. Motherboard replacement is their plan. If I am not totally happy with it, back to Dell it goes as Thursday is the last day of the 21 day return period.

It baffles me that the laptop with the X3100 Intel graphics would have died, and the NVidia 8400 one has been flawless!

In my opinion, Dell has dropped the ball on quality in a big way. There is no blaming NVidia on this one, as there is no NVidia card in the dead laptop! All in all this has not been a pleasant experience.

 

If I were in the same situation within the 21-day return period and the computer had a problem, I would return it for a new one. Your "brand new" computer will be dismantled almost completely to get a motherboard replacement, and you are in the hands of the technician. Let's hope that s/he is competent and diligent...

 

Well I've finally talked to the service guy. He will be here tomorrow morning, and according to Dell Customer Service, I have until Friday the 19th to return (or initiate the return) the laptop. So I am going to take pictures of it, and then see how it fares after the mobo replacement. If it works, and all is working well, then I'll let it be. But if I am not happy with the outcome, then its going back to Dell.

I continue to be amazed that of the 2 laptops, the one with the Intel integrated graphics is the one that failed. I would have guessed the nVidia one would have failed first if at all.

 

Actually, you should not expect ANY of them to fail after 1 hour use. If you know the nature of the GPU defect, it will take quite some time to fail, because it needs to go thorough heat cycles. So, saying "I am surprised that the one with the nVidia didn't fail" doesn't hold water.

 

Exactly. I'm surprised that people are still BUYING these laptops though. Dell is one of the few companies still offering defective nvidia chips and people keep gobbling up these xps's and are HAPPY they are buying one. They could get a better config laptop with more batterylife for the same amount of money yet tossing the XPS brand and calling it a gaming laptop just makes people believe they are getting a fast laptop when they are getting something older than all of the competition.

 

Well the tech came today, swapped the mobo, and nothing changed. The laptop still will not start. So back to Dell it goes, and a new one is being made. Hopefully the 2nd one is better than the 1st!

 

Well I have to say, Dell was on the ball with the replacement M1330! I called on Thursday to set up the return and get a new one. The new one was built and shipped Friday, and received it yesterday (free next day shipping!). First program installed: Prime95. I torture tested the CPU with 2 iterations of the programs (each confined to a particular core) and ran that for about 14 hours. No issues. Thought maybe I should do some more testing, so I grabbed that new 3DMark program, but it doesnt like the 1280x800 resolution, and the free version doesnt seem to do much. So what else can I torture test this new laptop with? I'm planning on doing some more Prime95 tests, to get some serious heat cycles going, but should I also try and do some sort of 3dMark test (maybe the old 2001 program will work?) to test the graphics, even though its only the x3100 video chip? Suggestions on other torture testing programs?

 

if you have a x3100, the GPU won't fail on you cause of heat, it won't get warmer than 60 - 70 C°...

 

Yeah I wasnt really worried about the X3100 overheating, was just thinking maybe something like 3DMark would stress parts of the system that Prime95 didnt (other than the graphics chip itself, i.e. different memory stressing, or somehow using the cpu in a different way?).

 

you could run memtest86, but if you don't have any problems, you don't need to