Received repaired dell system - downgraded my graphics card.

Hi everyone.

Just wanted to share my experience, and seek advice.

I own an Dell Inspiron 1520 laptop. I bought it in August 2008, and my warranty covers me until 2011.

My graphics card was overheating and artifacting (8600m). I sent it back to dell last friday and received it back today, the paperwork showed that they had replaced the graphics card and also the motherboard. i booted up the system only to find that they have replaced the graphics card with the 8400m GS, I've just sent them an email explaining the fact that im not happy etc, and am waiting for a response.

I understand that they not have any replacement 8600m cards, and i also read on these forums that american customers have experienced similar problems. The system cost me over £1000 and to say im angry is an understatement, i will give them a ring tommorrow.

Ryan.

 

They should upgrade you to a newer laptop model if they don't have the same graphics card and have to downgrade you.

The 8400gs is also a defective-prone card, so I'd ask for a new laptop altogether

 

Thanks for your response.

Thats what i thought, i just found it a bit cheeky that on the sheet they stated that they had replaced it but didnt state what it had been replaced with.

If i was a novice computer user, then i may not have even noticed, which makes you wonder how many people are running repaired systems with components slower/worse than the original.

 

Yeah.. dell is known for doing that, and will only replace the system if you notice the downgrade. Most users get ed over

 

What do you think they will offer me?

 

Well, they may try to offer you a new Inspiron - a bad deal. The new Inspirons are all significantly weaker in graphics than the 1520 with the 8600M GT. A fair offer specwise, and one that they should be willing to offer, is the Studio 15 with the ATI Mobility Radeon 4570 and Core i3 330M (2.13 GHz). The 4570 is pretty much equal to the 8600M GT in performance, probably a hair better, and the 330M gives you a few extra megahertz and hyperthreading at the cost of 1 MB of L2 cache. You also might be offered the older model Studio with the ATI 4570 and the T6600 CPU; the T6600 has half the cache of the T7300, but runs at a 200 MHz faster clock.

Beyond the CPU options in the Studio, which generally provide benefits in clock speed or hyperthreading, but smaller caches, there's a few other points to consider:

*Screen: The Studio 15 is 16:9 now, and the UK options appear to all be 1366x768. That means you'll be getting a resolution downgrade. On the plus side, it's an LED screen, which is smaller, lighter, and increases battery life. Some say it's brighter as well. Course if they try to give you a 6-cell battery, you'll still have worse net battery life.

*RAM/HDD. 4 GB of DDR3 and 500 GB of hard drive space seem to be the UK standard on the Studio. The DDR3 will be a certainty, and will be faster - an upgrade. On the hard drive, you might get 5400 RPM, but the good news is that a 500 GB, 5400 RPM drive is 98% as fast as a 320 GB, 7200 RPM drive, which is in turn faster than your 250 GB, 7200 RPM drive. The 5400 RPM isn't worth fussing over if it's 500 GB.

*Build quality. It's not as good on the Studios as it is on the 1520. The 1520 is durable. I take it in my backpack all the time without any special packing, right up against books and (paper) notebooks, with no damage. Put weight on top of it, and you don't have to worry about the screen being damaged at all. The Studios aren't quite so heavy-duty.

What it boils down to is that the 1520 was a really good all-around deal, and the consumer space at Dell still doesn't offer an all-around better option. The only all-around improvement is the Precision M4400, and chances are pretty slim that you'll get that. The Latitudes are all weak in the GPU right now, and you don't want one of them. The Vostros are essentially Inspirons, and those are all weak-GPU'ed. The Studio is an adequate replacement, better in some areas, worse in others, but on the whole close to being on par. The Studio 17 with the ATI 3650 is also a near-equivalent option, if you wouldn't mind a bigger laptop - the 3650 has as much raw power as the 4570, and is also pretty much equivalent to the 8600M GT, but without the failure issues. So, expect a Studio, don't accept an Inspiron, Latitude, or Vostro, and see if you can leverage the deficiencies in the Studio versus the Inspiron 1520 to either get a Precision (if you like that config - but remember this is quite unlikely), or get an upgrade or two on the Studio (second battery since your extra 1520 one probably won't be compatible, faster i5 430M CPU, something of that sort that'll be useful to you).

The 8600M GT on my 1520 is showing what are probably early signs of retirement, so I've been looking into this a good bit myself .

edit: Looks like the Studio 17 on the dell.co.uk site has been upgraded to include the 5730 GPU. That's quite a GPU upgrade, so that option is good, if everything else is adequate. It'll likely still have the inferior build quality and less than stellar battery life, but the GPU will be nicer, and you'll still get all the pixels you're used to.

 

Thanks for the information Apollo13, definately very useful +1 rep.

Sort of hope that they offer me a new laptop as was considering one at a later stage anyway, but suppose its luck of the draw whos on the other end of the phone.

Gave them a call today and was told to ring Mon-Fri 8am-8pm, or Saturday 9am-5pm, bearing in mind its saturday and 2PM GMT at the time, didnt really make sense. Think it will be monday now.

I wonder if they will let me keep my 1520, or ask for it back.

 

Strange about the phone hours. The U.S. main home warranty support number (1-877-293-1197) is 24/7; I guess they use a different one for the UK. Oh well, better luck on Monday.

If they do replace the laptop, which is very likely if they can't garner a working 8600M GT, you probably will have to send your current one back, though I've heard it's fairly standard for them to let you keep the hard drive, seeing as it has all your data on it.

 

I would definately give customer care a call and escalate if need be. If they can't replace or repair with similiar specs they should give you the next closest thing that may be better. Make sure you document everything.

 

Just got off the phone to dell, said they were investigating the case and then rang me three hours later.

Dell technician is apparently going to come over tommorrow and fit a 8600m into the laptop, why they could have done that at the warehouse il never know.

Bit of an annoyance my end in terms of inconvenience but nevermind eh?

 

Yeah and in the end you'll get what you paid for. Sorry to hear you had to jump through some hoops to get this done. Sometimes customer service reps can be a bit brainless but most are willing to please the customer.

 

Wow, that deserves some rep. I am not even interested but such a detailed answer => rep++

 

Just as an update.

Techician was meant to come and fit the card today, as a result i halted all plans and stopped in waiting, meaning missing a lecture at uni. Was told 9am - 5pm, no phone call, no nothing. Will ring and complain tommorrow.