I really feel jipped by Dell... several problems with computer

Well there are a number of us who at various times may have felt gypped by Dell or mislead or something. I sure had not understood how my in home tech support warranty works--I had thought that a tech would actually come out and trouble shoot and fix problems and in fact as I think back, I seem to remember asking the sales person on the phone about that and I think he said that is the way it would work. But it didn't. Fortunately I do have a 4 yr in home warranty. I've had several issues w/my Inspiron 5160, the first being the HD failed and I was not very pleased to be sent a bare drive and having to install everything including XP. More recently my CD/DVD drive door didn't always open and they sent me a replacement. And even more recently--a few months ago I was getting intermittent LAN ethernet connections. After some back and forth, it was determined that it related to the ethernet connector on the computer (I had gone ahead and replaced the ethernet cable to make sure that was ok) and that was attached to the motherboard so they determined that the motherboard needed replacing. They sent out a contract tech with the motherboard to install. he also updated the Bios, but didn't know how to set certain things--such as going in and making sure that the needed boot drives were selected to boot from, plus there was something else about not being able to connect, so I had to call Dell tech support 2x after he left to fix problems but they were very helpful both times and guided me through getting it fixed. Although those were things that shouldn't have needed extra calls--since the tech updated the BIOS, he should have known how to make sure it was set right. And since my problem was an intermittent ethernet connection, he should have checked before he left that in fact I could connect--I couldn't at all. But as I said, 2 separate calls that day and the next as I found the problems did get good help from Dell. And now, the other day it didn't boot right and after posting a query here, it was recommended that I run diagnostics so I'll do that tomorrow and see what it says and whether it finds anything. But anyway, if you want some help with your problems you could post specific questions under particular categories and you might get some helpful suggestions. I'm not an electronics expert but if you are getting a shock I would think that there might be a short which could do all kinds of things both to you and the computer--including possibly the DVD problem--I don't know, but I would think that would be something to get some advice on quickly. If you do want some help, then specific info would get better responses. Things such as model and how long ago the warranty expired. I don't know about Dell, but sometimes a co will make good on products if something goes wrong shortly after the warranty expired. Or users here may be able to give some suggestions on how to deal with the problems you are experiencing. For that, it is helpful to give a good brief description of the problem in the subject line. And model and operating system are helpful to know.

Message Edited by KathiMR on 01-27-2008 01:27 AM

So what are my options? Can I still buy a warranty from Dell now?  Would it be better to just buy another dvd drive and pay some computer man to put it in?