Oh Please, please, help

Question

I'm SO frustrated. I just paid $1500 for a custom made Inspiron 6000 laptop. I've had it for 5 days. The DVD player, Windows media, didn't play DVD movies out of the box. It like lags and skips, and I KNOW it isn't the movie, It played fine on another PC. So I call support, only to find out that it costs $99 for 3 days of phone support, because it isn't a dell manufactured product. I'm like, 'What's the $2xx.00 I spent on support?' She said it's just the warranty. I see... Dell needs to assume SOME liability for a product that doesn't work that THEY sold me. I'm not paying $45 a month to Microsoft. I'm paying it to dell. So, anyone who knows what I can do, PLEASE tell me. If I have to, I'll take it to my CO, then to an army lawyer. AKA, I won't pay a dime for this thing. That's my last resort.

Denny Denham · Answer

DonnCath, See the procedure here. You have 21 days from the invoice date to send it back.

DonnCath · Answer

Is that my only option? Is there no way to remedy the problem myself? Is the date of invoice the day I received it?   Also, can I save movies to my computer, and then watch them through, say, POWERDVD? (The powerdvd seems to work fine) Message Edited by DonnCath on 12-26-2005 12:23 PM

Denny Denham · Answer

DonnCath,

The best option is to work with Dell's tech support in troubleshooting the device and once they agree that it is in fact not operating properly they replace it with a different one, but that assumes that they will assist in troubleshooting and not simply tell you that the drive is not a Dell product. I may have misunderstood your original post. Is the problem with the DVD player (hardware) or Windows Media Player (software)? If it is software you can correct it yourself (it may require reinstalling Windows) and Dell's new policy of providing little or no software support would prevent you from getting any assistance from Dell.

The invoice date is the date the system was shipped.

DonnCath · Answer

Thanks so much for the assistance. I think it's windows media, because the powerdvd program plays movies fine, the media however, doesn't. I've already talked to dell support, it's $99 for 3 days of phone support to fix a problem that came with a new system I just received. That's why I'm so ticked.

Denny Denham · Answer

DonnCath, There's a chance that you may be able to correct the problem with Windows Media Player using the links here.

DonnCath · Answer

Once again, thanks a lot. I've determined 2 things:

I have windows xp mce (media center edition)

After reading all I could find, I still haven't fixed the problem. In fact, I haven't seen anyone with the same problem I have. What happens is, the DVD plays, but there's a VERY brief pause (fraction of a second) every few seconds, so it's like going slow and almost choppy.

porsche118 · Answer

For what its worth.    Are you running on your battery or plugged into the ac adapter?  Maybe you don't have enough juice.   Everything always runs better plugged in.

DonnCath · Answer

It's always plugged in

Windows General

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