Vostro 260s will not boot - 4th one with problem.

Hi Steve,

Our company purchased 16 Vostro 260 ST desktops in September 2011.  Near the end of their one year warranty period many of them would not boot up after they had cooled down overnight.  The desktops are in a (clean) warehouse environment where the temp can drop down to 60 degrees F.  We discovered if you warmed up the computer with a blow dryer (yes, blow warm air into the chassis for 5 to 10 minutes) then it fired up no problem.

We got 2 mother boards replaced under warranty but since the systems are no longer under warranty Dell refuses to acknowledge there is a manufacturing defect with these computers.  We have since purchased 2 more mother boards. Now the rest of the computers are failing.  We are a larger account with over 150 Dell systems plus high end servers yet Dell will not help us out on this problem.  

I have also noticed that the service from Dell has degraded over the last 2 to 3 years.  I would suggest you try the Lenovo brand (use to be IBM).  We are having good success with these systems.

If Dell reads this and responds back positively I will update this comment.  Otherwise assume they will continue not to respond.

Bill Van Vliet

Book Depot

Hi Bill

Thanks. Dell have not had the courtesy  yet to reply to my written complaints, copied to the CEO 2 weeks ago. We've just got some more funding to upgrade our server & several PCs, so guess where I won't be buying from? It's their loss!

Steve R

IT Coordinator

Epsom & Ewell Citizens Advice Bureau

I pinged one of my Dell Customer Care contacts to see if they can reach out...

Steve,

 Any response from Dell? I am a small business owner with 4 Vostro's and 2 of the 4 now have this start up problem. They're just over a year old and just out of the warranty.

 Do you really have to replace the mother board to correct the problem?

Mike

Try removing the CMOS battery for a minute or so. If the BIOS hasn't been upgraded to the latest version, I suggest doing so once you can get it to boot.

I get a similar issue with my Dimension 2350 and the battery trick fixes it.

No responses from my ping to Customer Care?

Nope, no reply from Dell yet apart from [AMIN NOTE: Post Edited per TOU Violation] saying she would pass it on to appropriate dept on 18th Feb.

It was Dell who decided the motherboard should be replaced on each of them. The last one cost us £112 as out of warranty.

Thanks for trying, Ron,  I guess they've given up on us.

Sorry about that...

Please delete the Dell employee name from your post because it's a violation of the Terms of Service to post names like that. Otherwise, the moderators could delete this whole thread.

Sorry about that. Admin have removed the name.

Just to update things. Another Vostro 260 has died & needed a new motherboard Luckily, this was from a batch of 4 we bought at the Dell outlet (surprise, surprise, they'd had a load returned!) and came with a 3 year on site warranty so has not cost us anything except the time & trouble of taking it out of service. That's 5 out of 9 of that model have needed a motherboard change.  They still deny there is a batch problem and have not replied in writing to our complaints.

We've just got  a large lottery grant to expand our services over the next few months. It will give me great pleasure to buy elsewhere.

Here we go again. Now one of the Vostro 260S that had a new motherboard & power supply last August has taken to switching off without warning just like it did then. I assume Dell will say the warranty on the replaced parts has expired but I suppose it's worth a try. I guess I can assume the other 4 of this batch will start to fail again soon. Saw a new bios  is available, but like others, can't install it. See en.community.dell.com/.../19509880.aspx   Ho hum.

Here we go again. Now one of the Vostro 260S that had a new motherboard & power supply last August has taken to switching off without warning just like it did then. I assume Dell will say the warranty on the replaced parts has expired but I suppose it's worth a try. I guess I can assume the other 4 of this batch will start to fail again soon. Saw a new bios  is available, but like others, can't install it. See en.community.dell.com/.../19509880.aspx   Ho hum.

Warranties vary by geography, but if the original warranty is still in effect, then I think the replacement part might still be covered. But if the original warranty expired...

Have you tried running the hardware diagnostics -especially on the hard drive and RAM, and reseating RAM modules and PCI cards in their slots, etc?

Same issue here...however unplugging the machine for 5 minutes, then plugging it back in seems to address the issue - updated the BIOS to A10...will update if that seems to resolve the issue.

Same issue here, i have updated the Bios ti A10 but the problem don't disappear. I read all your problem and the problem can be only the mobo of Vostro  260 ... it had a fault ...a big fault.

Any other idea?

Yes, tried all the diagnostics & when the PC did start they showed no problem - until the next time it wouldn't boot! In the end I bought an extended warranty  for a further 3 years for £96 as that was cheaper than paying for another new MB.

As of December '13 we've not had another breakdown, but having said that...............!