M170 interchangeable with 9300?

I'm in the unfortunate position of moving to a country where my Dell model (M170) is not supported, despite the Dell salesman assuring me it would be, so my international warranty is not looking so international .

Anyway as a "favour" to me (gee thanks ) the Dell technician is going to attempt to repair my XPS M170 with parts from the Inspiron 9300. They believe it is a motherboard issue, I believe it is a problem with my 6800 Ultra. Either way anybody have any idea how likely this is to work, the Dell tech said "if I am lucky" it will work - not exactly inspiring confidence....

thanks
Martyn

 

Hey...Well as far as Dell Support goes, I never had to deal with them, but that sounds messed up. But as far as M170 and Inspiron 9300 compatibility goes, they are in fact almost the same thing. You can in fact make an Inspiron 9300 into an M170 with a little software tinkering as the motherboards are the same, the BIOS's are only different. I did it to mine, I'm sure theres a thread on it in here somewheres. This enables you to use the 6800 Ultra or 7800GTX in an Inspiron 9300. He's pretty much using this mod technique as a repair fix most likely. What he's probably doing is taking an Inspiron 9300 motherboard and flashing the BIOS to think its an M170, and then sticking it in your M170. There is no performance loss, but it is rather odd for them to stoop to consumer level modding to meet your needs. Hope this helps a little...

 

Thanks for the info - sounds like it might even work then. It's an interesting way to do support but as long as he gets the thing working again I'll be happy....