Studio 15 Hinge/Power button problem

Even I a m facing a similar problem... DELL should notice it.. I am a student and it will probably cost me a lott.. and the warranty period is over too!! :emotion-6:

I wish I could come back to this thread with an answer, but I can't. Thankfully ejn provided some very good points - this is all our fault and is obviously not a Dell Studio problem.

Cold comfort for Bellatrix90, they probably wouldn't have fixed it even if it was still under the normal waranty,

I bought an inspiron 1545 which had had the left hand hinge detach from the screen because some screws in the screen came loose (or possibly were not all fitted as we didn't find as many as it looks like should be in there). This caused a the remaining screw mount to snap off and some cosmetic damage, but the screen works so I can live with it, but brings up an issue with the waranty.

I called to get it repaired under waranty, but was told that this was wear and tear so wasn't covered. The whole point of these screws is to hold the hinge firmly to the screen surround, if there is any movement it's a fault in design or build, so the screws should not come loose in normal use. It makes you wonder what is covered if soming that isn't subject to relative movement and is tucked inside breaks, the hard disk spins really fast and the processor and memory are subjected to a lot of heating and cooling so presumably we can't complain if they break?

I rashly advised one of my daughter's friends to by a 1545 which has had several major faults and got binned. I've used Dell business servers and laptops for years without any real problems, but the inspiron laptops only seem to be ok for very light home usage.

I'd say to only buy one if you get the accidental damage waranty, but does anyone know if they honour these?

I have the same problem. It's simply a not a well-designed machine. I won't be purchasing a Dell laptop again. I can't afford to spend this kind of money on things that are going to break after a year of use.

I have the broken hinge problem on my Studio 1555 for the 4th time and I have to replace the top cover, bezel and hinges for a parts cost of about $75.  This repair takes me about 2 hours to perform and after 4 times I should be getting better at it.  Dell really should do something about this problem.  I have 8 Dell PCs and maybe I should have my head examined for buying from Dell anymore!

I have been a dell faithful for 15 years.  I have the same problem on my dell studio. I have extended warranty. Dell would not even cover this as they say it is damaged. When I ask them, ifd they can say it is accidental damage, they repeat it is damaged. They never used the word accidental. Only accidental damage is not covered. in my case the laptop was not dropped or hit something to have accidental damage. 

I am questioning the reason we should get extended warranty. 

Just in case someone comes to this thread looking for useful information, besides what the previous user (can't remember his/her name right now) had already suggested: Pressing the media direct button turned on my computer. That is, I've turned on the computer without the power button on the right-hand side of the computer, I repeatedly tapped the touch-sensitive media dirtect button, the farthest button on the left. Hope this helps others who may have a simliar problem right now/down the road.

I know this sounds stupid but i am having the same problem.. what is the media direct button? both my hinges broke i really dont get why they are made so bad!

Same problem with me studio 1558, i called customer care, they are like.. No DELL does not think thats a design problem..

They are asking 179$ for just that plastic part because it involves shipping n labour n etc..