Dell Warranty Problem

I have Latitude E4200, and I sent it to depot service for warranty service because it was showing signs of over heating or cold soldering. Broken graphics after a while of usage.

After several days I received a call from Indian lady saying my laptop is received and it is out of warranty because it has 3rd party RAM which is not original to laptop. And I need to call Out-of-Warranty Support and pay for the RAM.

I asked if RAM was determined to be causing problem. Answer was they don't know.
I told her to have a technician call me she said she will make a note about it. No one called.
So, I called technical support. I was told it is being worked on and it only means that they will not be able to certify it has been fixed since it is not original part and will be returned to me.
It turns out to be not true.

When I contacted technical support again, it turns out it is on "Billable Hold" and it will be on hold until I contact out-of-warranty support and pay a bill.
There is no way to contact Depot Service, who will actually know what and how much test has been done to my laptop.

My impression so far is that they opened up my laptop and first thing they saw was 3rd party RAM I put in and just stopped there blaming on the RAM.

I doubt it really is RAM, since I never had any sign of defective RAM. (Blue screen or data corruption) It is possible the RAM itself is running hotter, but when wasn't that much hotter compared to original one.
Also, I been using it just fine for over a year.



Does anyone know why to contact depot service or at least get some more information on how to get more information about what has been done to laptop?

If I ask to just return my laptop as is, will I be charged?
Out of warranty support was closed for weekend and technical support had no information about it.

What if I change it back to original RAM, and same issue continues?

 

Do you still have the original RAM? Is the warranty expired or do they just claim it is out of warranty because of the RAM?

 

I would find out the root cause of your issues. If it is JUST RAM alone, then have them return it to you as you'll need to RMA your RAM yourself. Dell is going to charge you to install their RAM as of course they do not cover CRU if the end user changed it.

 

Yes, I do have original RAM. They say RAM is not covered under warranty because it is not their RAM.
That is understandable. However, when I asked if RAM was causing problem, could not answer.
I also asked if they were able to reproduce problem, could not answer that either.

Yet, they still want me to pay for the RAM.

I offered to send original RAM, I was told that is impossible because my laptop is already in depot service.

That is exactly what I want to find out first. However, no one has the answer to what was the cause of problem.
I doubt it is RAM causing problem.

 

Ask them to send it back, then put the old ram back in it and RMA it again.

 

Bingo. Or have it returned, upgrade to in home warranty service and have them come fix it. The Dell depot is such a scam. They keep your equipment as long as they want and you are without a computer.

 

I hope they don't charge for diagnostic or shipping when I ask to return it back to me.

 

Ya see if you can decline repair, put back in your old RAM and re-RMA it.

 

Called out of warranty service and asked what is going on.

I am told the memory is causing over heating (which I doubt) and price of 4GB memory (which I have installed) is $129 + tax.

I told them to send my laptop back and asked if I put original RAM back on and send it back is it still under warranty.

I was told they don't know and I have to ask technical support.

Well what do they know?



Their phone system is also not working properly.

When I called out of warranty service first time, I was connected to Latin America and Caribbean Support.
Then they forwarded me to customer service department for US when I asked out of warranty service department.

Customer service department didn't know anything about out of warranty department and said they do not service out of warranty laptop. (huh?)

 

Don't ask them. Just put the old memory back in and RMA it again.

 

Finally got it fixed (I hope).


Dell sent me laptop back without any repair. A customer rep. sent me an E-mail asking if issue has been resolved.

I wrote back not a thing as been resolved and told me what has happened.

I also said cold soldering or crack at solder joint is suspected (which I know is pretty common for BGA chipsets).
Requested to have technician come out and switch motherboard and heat sink.

He called me and said he will do that as one time base.

Technician came out to my work and replaced motherboard and heat sink. So far, working fine.

I hope it is fixed for good, and problem does not return.


Tech. who came out said he had other customers having problem with depot service and don't understand what is wrong with them.
When I told me that they blamed problem on the memory, he just shook his head.

His customer before me had sent his laptop to depot service because it did not turn on. Depot service sent it back saying nothing is wrong. Laptop still did not turn on.


Looks like I will have to buy on-site service next time, or consider no warranty.

 

I have a xps and you can change the ram, hdd and even repaste it without voiding the warranty so i find this hard to believe.

 

CRU parts will not be covered by warranty so if you RMA it to Dell they will not cover it if it indeed the CRU parts that cause the problem.

 

if the rams the problem then yeah they wont cover it but the op said the ram isnt the issue, or he thinks anyway.

 

Yes, that is correct and make sense. However, problem was Depot service blaming it on the RAM I installed.

RAM was not the problem for sure. I ran RAM test for hours, not a single error was found.
Since changing motherboard and heat sink, no problem was found (at least not yet).


I think depot service did not even test or at least they could not reproduce problem, so just blamed problem on 3rd party part.