Spare parts for Inspiron 1545?

I was interested in getting another hard drive caddy for a 1545 but looking on Dell's website by model # they do not even list the 1545 per se.

They have a choice for "15" which I assume will include anything across the board for the 15 "family" models so I looked in there but no parts like this.

I tried ebay and googling around, found several places that sell spare Dell parts, even called & spoke to one but it seems to me that (a) Dell doesn't sell a part like this separately, and (b) places that do sell these kinds of parts are salvaging them from old/dead PCs and since the 1545 is a fairly new model spare parts haven't really surfaced for it yet.

Am curious if folks here know of any decent places to find this kind of thing though, since I certainly could be overlooking something!

 

You might want to try calling them. They have a separate parts center so you can usually just order what you want, but I don't know if they are knowledgeable enough to help you find the precise part necessary. I'm sure if you try a few times, though, you'll find someone able to help.

 

Which country are you looking at?

In the UK here are two links to eBay items that are what you are looking for:

ebay link 1
ebay link 2

I can't remember if you were from the UK or not, but I had a feeling you were

 

I'm in the USA - but I've been to the UK a bunch of times, including Swindon ;-)

Thanks for those links and the ebay tip. Guess where I *didn't* think to look? On ebay!

P.S. The 1545 is here! Fired up and testing it now. SO far everything works! Will be tackling my VISTA reinstall and XP setup on seperate drive projects next....

 

You've been to Swindon??!!? Wow, most people that have been here can't even remember the place

Just search on eBay for "Dell 1545 caddy" and it'll turn up some links.

(I just did that and funnily it came up with links to the caddies from the UK sellers, so postage might be quite high. Might also want to check out the parts people link, though they don't have a HDD caddy in stock for an Inspiron 1545, they might have one available if you email them, and postage might be cheaper).

 

All I know is top gear.

 

Nah, I remember it well! Especially sticks in my mind because at the hotel/motel I was staying at (an "Ibis"?) the girl at the front desk was so amazingly beautiful, OMG words cannot do her justice. She should've been a fashion model or a movie star or something like that, not a hotel desk clerk. Very sweet too. Sigh...ah yes, Swindon...

 

Interesting to note:

The first link above definitely looks like the right part. I'd buy it but it looks like the seller only "Post to: European Union".

The 2nd link however doesn't look ANYTHING like what the caddy actually is. Shows none of the big holes in the metal side that the caddy should have, and doesn't even depict the needed plastic front end that the drive screws into.

And US ebay shows zero domestic sellers for the "1545" caddy, and the only international sellers are the same guy as selling the incorrect looking part.

HOWEVER - I tried just searching for "Dell Inspiron Caddy", suspecting that the same part may work with other models, or at least all of the models in the Inspiron "15" family and found these that look like what I need!!!

i think these will work:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Dell-Inspiron-1...rnal?hash=item3a5122b183&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

http://cgi.ebay.com/Dell-Inspiron-1...rnal?hash=item56345bddd1&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

http://cgi.ebay.com/Dell-Inspiron-1...rnal?hash=item1e57c8060d&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14




these are probably wrong but look close:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Dell-Inspiron-E...in_0?hash=item5ad28bbab6&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

http://cgi.ebay.com/Hard-Drive-Cadd...in_0?hash=item29ff07e375&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

http://cgi.ebay.com/For-Dell-Inspir...rnal?hash=item27aa99b23f&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

http://cgi.ebay.com/Hard-Drive-cadd...rnal?hash=item3ef735d1a2&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

http://cgi.ebay.com/Dell-Inspiron-E...in_0?hash=item5ad28bbab6&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

http://cgi.ebay.com/Dell-Inspiron-E...in_0?hash=item3354ced022&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

 

I bet if that seller posted a better picture it would help. I've bought things from them before and had no problems, but it is a pretty small photo, nigh on impossible to tell if it's right or not.

 

It just doesn't look right at all. You can see that there are no holes in the caddy (like the real one has), plus the plastic front piece is not depicted.

They may have the right part but are using some (wrong) stock photo instead of the actual part. I dunno.

Anyways - I bought one of the "1525" ones above from a USA seller. Think I'll be OK with that one (fingers crossed)

Cheers and thanks for all your help in various threads.

 

It might be the right one, just viewed from the flip side

Hope the 1525 caddy works for you.

 

I bought one of the 1525 caddies and sad to say it is not right for the 1545.

It "works" but the plastic front end piece is slightly different shape such that if I install it it leaves a small a gap on the side of the PC that would be filled with the right plastic piece.

I'll use it for now I guess but as soon as I can find a real 1545 part I will get one of those. Or maybe I can get just the plastic end piece somewhere - the metal tray part is fine. It's the end plastic piece that is a teeny bit different.

EDIT: I called Dell, I can get the plastic piece (or the caddy through them). The plasitc piece is $10.99 + tax + shipping, so it's like $19. Which is about what I paid for the 1525 caddy/plastic piece/screws, but what the heck I decided to get it from them so it fits right. I also could've just continued to wait for more parts to show up on ebay (or at the part dealers) for the 1545 and probably save about $10. There is a caddy now on ebay for the 1545 that wasn't there last week, includes the plastic piece + tray (but no screws) for $20 + shipping. Also I realize from looking at the caddies the holes I spoke of earlier only show on the bottom side of the caddy, you can't see it from the top (inner views).


P.S. The number for Dell for parts is 1-800-372-3355. I didn't call them in the first place since they did not have a phone # in plain sight on their webpage where they list parts (and they don't show parts like this anyway so I thought they wouldn't offer this). You have to dig for the phone # in one of the FAQs so I'm listing it here in case it helps anyone else.