Laptop freezing - Dell support useless

Question

Hi, I have a Dell 14R Inspiron purchased just 3 months back. It was having some freezing problems from time to time from the start where it froze even when I was just checking my mail or something similar. Yesterday, it started running very slowly, and wouldn't even shut down so had to do a force shut down. Now when I turn it on, it says that the computer was not shut down properly, so either I can Repair Windows, or Start up normally. Did that, but it freezes on the next screen. I also got an error during one of these looped startups, where it froze on the Dell screen and said PXE-M0F rom cable not connected, OS not found. I've been trying to phone Dell customer support for the past two hours, but no one is helping me. They say my service tag and express service code don't show up in their system. This was actually purchased in Singapore and was a gift. Someone in tech support told me to change ownership, and I did that online already. But still I need to contact Dell since my warranty is still good, but no number works. They gave me Singapore tech support numbers, but no one picks up on those either. HELP.

ejn63 · Answer

Sounds like the hard drive is toast.  F12 at powerup - run a full diagnostic. When did you transfer ownership?  It can take a  few days for the transfer to be processed.

faiz28 · Answer

Transfered ownership today - I thought Dell was an international company and didn't realize such things needed to be done just to get some help on customer care.

I checked the warranty status online and says no warranty. This laptop is only 3 months old. Don't laptops come with a 1 year warranty? How can it be over so soon?

Ran a full diagnostics but it says no problems found. It's running a memory test now.

faiz28 · Answer

I ran a full diagnostics, and found multiple errors in SATA Disk during the Read and Seek Tests. So that harddisk is gone bad.

My main problem is - how to contact Dell. No harddisk goes bad in just 3 months - it was bad from the start. How do I contact them??

ejn63 · Answer

Once the transfer of ownership is completed, call with the error and they'll send a replacement under warranty.

But yes, hard drive DO go bad - at all stages -- right out of the box, a week later, months or years later. Like any manufactured product, a hard drive can fail for a host of reasons - and at any time.

Locked Topics – Laptops General

Was this post helpful?