New motherboard (?) same MAC address

I agree, no board replacement.

 

The NIC is part of the motherboard, Every NIC has its very own MAC Address.

 

Two keys:

 

The MAC is the same and you have the very same issues with the notebook. Looks like it's time to send it back.

 

pcgeek11

Thanks for the replies.  I figured something wasn't right but I just wanted some confirmation that the MAC address couldn't be the same.  So I called Dell and DHL came back and picked up the laptop again.  Pretty aggravating.

So I sent it back in for a second round of repair and it came back 2 days ago.  This time I saw there was new RAM installed (I had marked the previous chips before sending them in) but after 3 minutes, the horizontal lines appeared again!  I have another identical laptop so I switched hard drives and ran a memory checking program on both laptops.  Within a few seconds, the lines appeared again on the original laptop (with a swapped hard drive) but none on the other.  Which confirmed that it is indeed a hardware issue.  So I called Dell back and spoke with two supervisors.  They sent DHL back to my house and picked up the unit AGAIN and gave me a $100 refund.  I cannot seem to convince them that (1) a new motherboard had not been installed and (2) the video card, which is part of the motherboard apparently must be replaced.  They quoted me their 3 strikes policy that if they don't fix it this time, they will send me a replacement laptop.  Which is all well and good except that they don't offer the Inspiron 6000 any more so the hard drive I have will be of no value and I will have to reload all of my software, data, etc.  And I certainly don't want to mess with Vista.  I could not be more disappointed with Dell right now.

You said:

 

Which is all well and good except that they don't offer the Inspiron 6000 any more so the hard drive I have will be of no value and I will have to reload all of my software, data, etc.  And I certainly don't want to mess with Vista.  I could not be more disappointed with Dell right now.

 

If they do not have a I6000 they will probably send you a newer model. Even if it comes with Vista you can always install XP.

 

pcgeek11

I thought about that but I am concerned about the video and sound drivers, etc. that I wouldn't have if I re-formated and installed XP.  I thought about ghosting my current drive onto the new drive (if it comes to that) but the different machines may/will have different drivers that will get me up.

UPDATE:  I sent the laptop back to the Dell out of warranty place three times and each time they reported they replaced the motherboard and RAM yet the same problem remained when I got it back.  I wrote a letter of complaint to Dell and was contacted by a Dell representative (not from the out of warranty depot).  This guy (Alex) asked that I send my laptop directly to him (not the depot).  He wrote great emails, understood the problem, and reported he also replaced the motherboard and RAM.  Except when it came back this time, it worked fine.  The MAC address remained the same (which concerns me) but the laptop is working fine now.