What kind of warranty should I buy? What are the differences

Base warranty
1Yr Ltd Warranty and Mail-In Service
Add $70
1Yr Ltd Hardware Warranty, InHome Service after Remote Diagnosis
Add $100 to that
2Yr Ltd Hardware Warranty, InHome Service after Remote Diagnosis

 

The basic 1 year warranty with mail-in service means that if you ever have any issues and Dell agrees to do repairs under warranty, then they'll send you a UPS shipping label, and you'll have to ship your laptop to their repair depot, which will take several days.

The warranty with in-home service is more convenient. If you ever need repairs, instead of having to mail your laptop to Dell, they will send a technician to your home to perform the repair in front of you, so you'll only have to give up your laptop for an hour or so at most, and it will be done right in front of your eyes.

And, self-explanatory, the 2-year in-home warranty is the exact same thing, for two years instead of one.

I think $100 is an excellent price to upgrade to the in-home service, and get an extra year of coverage. At the very least, I would spend the $70 for the 1 year in-home service warranty. I got that with my Studio 1535, and I've had to use it twice. It beats the hell out of having to send the thing away for days, possibly weeks, and not being able to see what's going on.

 

Well the only difference between the first two is the InHome Service. For my previous Dell with InHome service, they sent over a technician to replace a faulty laptop screen at my home.

I'm cautious, so I would go for a higher 2 year warranty in case of any problems that will crop up. You can alter your warranty purchase later on the dell website if you want.

 

Yeah I don't see me getting anything less than 2 year even though it's $170 more. It beats the cost of repairs.

That whole technician thing coming in my house seems a little weird. Are they always professional? Are the parts always new or like new?

 

They are a third party specialized repair contractor hired by Dell to make repair house calls. The two times I've had to deal with them, they were very professional and did a quick and efficient job.

Replacement parts are always certified refurbished, no matter whether it's mail-in or in-home service.

 

Are they always cleaned, free of germs, boogers etc?

So if they're refurbed, that means there was something wrong before right?

Well what if one component was overheating etc.. but they replaced that single component and now it works, but doesn't that mean all the other parts might be possibly compromised permanently?

 

Haha, these are professional computer repair technicians, not the grease monkeys at your local chop shop.

Refurbished just means any part that has been used before, and has been made into a state suitable for use, including repair, if necessary. If the part was ever damaged, then it would have been fixed before being shipped out as a replacement part. You would never be able to tell the difference between a refurbished replacement part and a brand new one.

And how would all the other parts be compromised if one part was overheating and got replaced?

 

Even if you happen to buy a new laptop, you'll get refurbished parts should something need to be replaced. If you're concerned about hygiene then you can disinfect the components. LOL. And usually "that one component overheating" means replacing the entire motherboard provided you took the necessary steps to clean out vents, apply thermal grease, etc. So no, other parts aren't compromised.

 

LOL i actually meant the refurb parts (wouldn't want a keyboard with someone's diarhea on it) but the question definitely applies to the repairman (especially the booger part)..


I'm not sure exactly. Let's just say that the overheating fried the circuits a bit. So they still work but they've now degraded

 

That's pretty disturbing, lol. I would hope (please oh PLEASE) that they do some sort of cleaning on parts that are returned.

What do you mean by overheating? When a CPU or GPU overheats, the computer shuts down to prevent damage. Windows Vista will send you warnings in the form of a dialog box before this happens. The circuits on a motherboard can withstand a considerable amount of heat that is higher than any computer will generate, even if it overheats. 90 o C is cold compared to the near 300 o C that is needed to melt the circuits or cause significant degradation.