A couple of weeks ago my Dell laptop started stopping, as it were. At first, I thought it was an issue with the CPU overheating, which I thought I’d addressed with a BIOS update, but a CPU temperature monitoring program showed things were apparently fine in that department. After it happened three or four times, I realised that it was happening when I moved in my chair, or when I leant on the wrist-rest part of the base, or adjusted the screen angle, or inserted a PCMCIA card, or opened the DVD drawer…eventually it wouldn’t even POST, let alone BOOT, so basically I was stuck with a dead Dell.
I suspected a loose connection or perhaps just a chunk of conductive desktop detritus stuck somewhere in the laptop’s guts. Whatever it was I really didn’t have the tools to fix it myself and thought, why should I? The machine is only a couple of years old, and although it’s outside the standard warranty period, I’d have expected at least twice as long as being a reasonable lifetime. So, I got in touch with the manufacturer – Dell – via their press office – and suggested as much.
With the fastest turnaround of any tech support department I’ve ever dealt with, my machine was picked up by DHL on Tuesday last thing, posted to Dell, and booted back to me today (Friday) in plenty of time for the World Cup! Apparently, faulty components included ASSY, PWA, PLN, 5150, DOOR, MINI-PCI, NBK, ABCS, ASSY, HTSNK, W/FAN, THRMGRS, 5150, KYBD, ENG, UK, 86, S-PTG, ABCS…etc etc I recognise the word DOOR in their and KYBD must mean keyboard, and some of the other things seem to relate to different bits of plastic and fans and cuh, but I haven’t really the time nor the inclination to look up any of the others, so we’ll just leave it at that.
Anyway, from a quick test, it seems to be working fine. So, I’d like to extend a thank you to John L at Dell in Ireland who handled my complaint so graciously and expeditiously.
Until the fault appeared, the machine had always been fast and reliable, and when a problem arose, the company dealt with it efficiently and professionally. Now, I can get back up to speed…