Dead Inspiron 8200 - dead?

Hi all,

I have a slight problem with a Dell inspiron 8200. It's kinda dead. When
either the battery or PSU are connected, the power light is on. removing
either one, the power light remains on. It only goes out when the battery
AND psu are removed. The power buttin does nothing. Holding it in for 10
or more seconds does nothing. As yet, all removable drives (except CD) have
been removed. It's a friend's laptop and she's not happy undoing screws!

Dell Tech Support have been told and they can't work it out. She has next
day support with them, and the laptop's under warranty... but Dell say it'll
be a 6 day turnaround - IMO this is unacceptable for the support contract
she has.

I have a horrible feeling it's a dead mobo - has anyone else had these
symproms? There are no warning beeps at any time, the NumLock, CapsLock etc
keys have no effect, it's not the display as there are no sounds from the
HDD powering up, so am running short on ideas. My only hope is that it
could be a hibernation problem that it's having trouble coming out of... but
surely then holding the power button down should reset that?

Any help would be appreciated.

Mark

 

Have Dell repair it. You do know that the next day service means only
that they will send someone out to attempt repair, The problem occurs
when the part is either back ordered or is no longer made. Then you get
to wait. Just the way it is.

 

The are supposed to overnight the part (and Mobo's for I8200's are still
available, just got one) to the repair person (who is a contract worker, not
a Dell employee) who will then contact you to arrange a time to do. It is
supposed to be the day after they get the part. In my case, the guy would
not come in the morning, only the afternoon. He would not let me drop it off
anywhere or meet me anyplace other than my address. That meant I had to kill
some jobs I had scheduled. I was booked that week in the afternoon.

I was a bit grumpy about this and he was bit grumpy in reply to my
grumpiness, but it did get done. He started off by playing with the computer
in what appeared an effort to avoid replacing the motherboard by showing
that I had not properly configured the failed IR port. Since I had already
been through all that with tech support and the Dell Diagnostics indicated a
failed IR port, I asked him to proceed with the repair which didn't help his
mood, but it all ended pleasantly enough and he seemed proficient.

All in all, though, I think the service I used to get with Compaq was
nicer. Airborne came by with a box the next day, I put it in the box and
gave it back to the Airborne guy and he brought it back two days later. I
don't think Dell offers that sort of depot service. When I asked, they
advised that depot took about 10 days, so I opted for onsite, overnight.
With Compaq, you only got the overnight depot service with certain business
or corporate lines and usually at extra cost, but I liked it. I also suspect
the static environment at a depot might be better than my dining room table.

And it does sound like something that requires major repair. Six days
sounds too long if you have the next day onsite service, although, as I
mentioned, it isn't next day until the tech gets the part. I think there are
exclusions for weekends and holidays. If they didn't agree to the repair
until Friday night, that might indeed add several days to the repair, but
six still sounds too long, unless I got the last I8200 mobo and they are
waiting for parts to fix it. And yes, they do use remanufactured parts for
the repairs.

 

Thanks guys for the info - I'll pass the info on... good to know they sorted
yours fairly promptly. We'll follow through with Tech Support, and I'll
post back when I know how it turned out.

Thanks!

Mark

 

After a lot of hassle and phonecalls, mostly to India, with bad quality
phone lines and a slight problem with the language barrier, it seems that
while on the phone to Dell, the engineer was trying to call! He turned up,
swapped out the motherboard, and all was fine. Would have been £600 uk
pounds to repair if not under warranty - ouch! Dell's support used to be a
lot slicker than it is now, but they did eventually get it done.

Thanks for the help
Mark