Things to check when u receive XPS M1330

My m1330 is about to arrive in a month. There are reports of design flaws in some pieces. Can u guys who have received their m1330 tell what all defects to lookout for on receiving the laptop. Thanks in advance !!

 

You should check if there's a keyboard. They tend to forget that thing quite often.

 

Heres what I looked for....

Exterior:

1. Dented palm rest top side right corner;
2. loose left hinge left side beside the X in XPS when open. It is a silver cap.
3. uneven keyboard or bubble appearance as you look at it from the side and level
4. teeth showing in painted cover at top above camera inside) and on outside at crease of closest lip
5. HDD cover not being flush;
6. RAM cover not being screwed in properly
7. the unit sits flush with the battery secure in place
8. any looseness of battery

After you turn it on:

1. light leakage when the screen is black. ome are really picky on this but i dont think its a repairable or fixable issue;
2. no initial error or blue screen on start up and initial configuring software;
3. listen for a whining after about an hours use on the bottom. It may sound like morse code and the important thing is how loud is it. It can be very lous yet others dont hear it at all:

This discusses the phenomena:

http://support.dell.com/support/top...d=0A7D5CD2E17F5125E0401E0A55176204&doclang=en

Last but not least, ensure your system has all the parts included such as a remote and ensure your system is what you purchased. The easy way to confirm this is by going to Dell support, then looking up warranties where it will ask for the service tag of your system.

The tag is on the bottom of the laptop.

Once there, it will display your warranty dates and original configuration. This is the only configuration that is known to be perfectly accurate as it is done while the system is being built. The part shown comes from the scan of the item physically in the build process.

Hope this helps and by all means others jump in to pick up where I missed off.

 

This thread is honestly a joke..why would you intentionally look for problems in your notebook? if you don't notice it yourself, it doesn't bother you and you shouldn't be *trying* to cash in on your warranty...

 

No...your exactly wrong. Most that buy these systems arent aware of any problems so they are expected to live with deficiencies that they notice??

Or lets say they dont check something like the camera and realize a month later that the mic doesnt work (hypothetical).

But lets get more to the point....would you have checked close for the CPU whine on your system without the knowledge here? I see from your posts that most of your threads are specifically directed towards that which you just shot down.

I dont really understand after gaining so much help with your problems why you dont believe others deserve the same...

Youve gained ALOT of help with your concerns, most of which are because you gained the knowledge here before you received your system; your posts show that. How about returning some of the goodwill rather than shooting it down because your system isnt as perfect as you hoped?

 

Get this Dell employee out of the forums! Lol.

We wouldnt be here if we cared about a perfect prodcut. Flamenko is on the right track.

His posting of what to look out for should be stickied IMO.

And in a month who knows what problems will be rampant. Maybe they'll all be fixed or others will emerge. Only time and dell's engineers will decide.

The most important thing to check when you get the laptop though box is to make sure you're not dreaming because they take so long to ship...

 

Thanks Flamenko...that would really be helpful

You should check if there's brain inside ur head...God tends to forget that thing quite often... just kidding !!

No buddy its not a joke. Nobody would have cared if it came as a perfect product. We have to look at these things since we are paying $2000 which is no less for most of us

Thts a gud one....!!

 

It's not about "cashing in" on your warranty. When you pay full price for a new product, you are entitled to have it 100% fonctional, not just 90%. It's not like they'll refound you 10% of your buying price if there are small problems with it.

 

This has prob. been beaten to death, but whenever I buy something over the internet, the first thing I do is inspect it thoroughly. That only seems natural and prudent. Not to do so would be an oversight in my opinion.

Check that the back hinge is not loose or scuffed, don't want the screen slamming shut on you.

 

The only Joke about this thread is the fact that, after you pay nearly $2000 for a premium laptop, that you have to inspect it for a list of known issues that is as long as my leg, many of which are quite substantial. Not having a forum like this to rely upon would be bad for consumers and keeps all manufacturers on their toes.

and.."Cashing in on warranty work"? who in their right mind wants to deal with warranty work on a NEW machine? How is that a bonus or freebee or taking advantage of the system? please...

 

I really like this thread so I can inspect things more closely on my $2000-machinery .

// X

 

Excellent. Just what i need. A Common Faults check List. Shoudn't this be a sticky!

 

I eep getting lots of suggestions for stickies in my articles....none accepted yet by the mods...

 

It should be in a Wiki format. Not a sticky, but an actual 'live archive' of user editable content about individual notebooks... with a rating system for things such as styling, quality and price/performance, and links to user reviews here in the forums.

An at-a-glance system of searching notebook models for prior-to-purchase images, size comparisons with peer hardware, common faults/concerns and cures would be simply invaluable. I think that the current 'database' system is too limited, and difficult to navigate.

Do it NBR. Do it now.

 

Well, My m1330 came out pretty good:

No CPU whine
Flush...no teeth anywhere
keyboard exceeds "good enough for gov't work"
Hard disk and other panels are all flush

The only thing I've noticed is just a weird anomaly when the screen is black during boot up, the bottom glows where it's not covered by the plastic...I'm guessing just leaking light, but it goes away after boot.

 

Hey, just my two cents on these...

If you just had a new born child with some natural defect, what would you do? shove it off to where it came from? blame the person who gave you the child for having such defect? or have the defect fixed or just live with it?

Just a thought...

 

I don't think we've come to the point where we can just return the baby for a 'full replacement'...at least not yet

 

I have to second this post - For a $2k system it really seems more and more an outlet refurbished machine... aimed at those with time and stamina to go through QC.

 

Awesome post! Sticky this one, mods!

 

Thanks guys for ur responses.....

I have a question.......Is there any standard way to test battery life and quality ?

 

Cause comparing a computer w/ a child makes any kind of sense at all.

My thought on this is what if you got a liver transplant, etc etc etc

 

honestly i wouldn't have noticed CPU whine if i hadn't read it in these forums. there's absolutely nothing i can do about CPU whine except listen to it, now that i know its there.

 

I assume there is meant to be some kind of comparison between the said child and a notebook, however this comparison makes no sense.

1. We pay for the notebook and have direct control (to a limited extent) to its features, what it looks like and what we expect. A child is not bought, does not have a warranty and we cannot control its nature (unless it is genetically selected which is beyond the norm at the moment.) Therefore whereas we may be entitled to attempt to acquire the "perfect" notebook the same arguement cannot be made to a new born child.

2. Linked to the nature of the "product" a "defect" in a notebook is considered an error as in our research (or lack of it) in choosng our notebook we expect a certain standard/quality from a manufacturer who is not directly related to us, the end user is not directly responsible/or has caused the end quality of the "product". A child however is unique and is not mass produced in a factory therefore the concept of "defect" cannot apply and infact could be considered to be what makes the child unique.

I could go on..but I'm starting to waffle...My point is that if it is trying to be implied that in the same way a child should not (ethically) be "shove(d) ... where it came from", nor blame the person who gave you said child (your wife?), one should not blame Dell then I do not see how this train of thought is logical because of above.

The obvious answer (ethically) to the child problem is to live with said defect depending and its seriousness. In some cases it may be fixed - depecnds on the defect - such options are far more limited than an electronics product.

Sorry for the crap above, just soooo bored

 

dell has a built in battery health status in their meter, pretty poor quality, but it works. it says "your battery if performing normally" on mine. I wouldn't trust dell with this, and would like to know a more standardized health solution.

 

Those who have received their M1330's. Is your left hinge cover loose? As indicated on flamenko's defect list. Dont know why the left one on mine is loose and the right one is fully locked.

 

yes - mine is slightly loose compared to the right side.

 

Mine does not seem to wiggle at all, so I don't think it's loose, but I find it odd that on the right side, the gray hinge is practically flush with the black center media bar, while on the left side, it is about double-triple that width, and I can actually see the "teeth" of the hinge.

Also, I only tried with one CD-R (blank), but the eject button does not eject it right away. I hear the CD stop spinning, but nothing happens. Once, when I rebooted, I hit the button before Vista began loading and it came right out. Otherwise, when I put the CD back in, after hitting the eject button a number of times, about 5 minutes later, at a random time (to me), the CD just came right out without me hitting eject at all.

Any thoughts?

BTW, I have to say that if a Latitude came with a sub-par build-quality like this, to a business, it'd be going back. I don't know why we're given Outlet quality systems, here, particularly on a premium line. The bottom is fine, but the card does stick out of the side a drop. The wrist-rest looks perfect, though I cannot figure out how to get that thumb-reader to capture a good image. I have had 2 successes in many more attempts.

I did get the Toshiba LED, which is simply beautiful, at least as nice as my 19" silver TrueLife Dell LCD, and the system is reasonably fast now that I put in 4 GB of genuine Crucial RAM. But I expect more from a $2,000+ machine (now $3,000+ with Dell's new pricing).

 

Hey guys,

What does it mean if it does blue screen on first startup?

 

I'd also like to know what it means when a blue screen happens soon after first start-up...I just got my machine, it's lovely, but it gave me the blue screen, though it all looks good now...

Oh, and how loud is too loud for the CPU whine?


GRPCV

 

Its only loud if you cant handle it after a while.

I see this all the time in med school.. people dont know there SHOULD be a problem until they are told to look for it, then they start panicking and think they have it.

I wish i didnt know about all these issues.. -.- Cause im a picky bastard and i know ill find them.

 

Warning: this thread might induce computer hypochondria.

As for the whine, I agree with Hugovr. From what has been said on the forum, the whine seems to be a design issue that doesn't have an impact on performance. So if you don't care, and nothing else seems amiss, then the whine is just quiet enough.

 

although the whine for me seems to go on/off for example when im scrolling down a page. While im scrolling it sort of disappears.

 

got mine yesterday. So far no whine heard, it does wobble, and I do have the gaps on the sides of the LCD hinge. But the left and right hinge covers are not loose and since the gaps on the sides of the LCD are pratically the same size on each side, I guess I can deal with it. Though I will have to have more time to get used to the DVD drives loudness, not so sure about that, especially when it's spinning up

 

Just got mine today. Overall build quality seems to be ok. Seems that the slot loading drive is noisy and it won't read some CD properly. It will auto hang the CD drive access. Also CD will stuck inside and cannot eject out. I need to reboot the OS in order to remove the CD. When remote control and SD card are inserted, they stick a bit out. Overall the CD2 2.0GHz is quite fast.

 

if your hinge cover is lose try taking it out and putting i back in, use your finger nail to ping near the inside area of the hinge cover and prop it out. then put it back in again

 

anyone know the significance of the blue screen?

 

What's wrong w/comparing a child to a computer? It just means that he values humans as much as he values his laptop!

 

Nicely put. But I really like the way that one guy put it...if you pay 100% for a product, why should you only get 85-90% of the quality? We're not buying refurbs here, we're paying for BRAND NEW.

That's like paying 100% for a pizza and getting it w/2 slices missing from it!