Problem with the replacement of DELL XPS M1210 Harddrive.

Question

Hi everybody, Bought my DELL XPS M1210 notebook about a month ago with 2 years complete warranty. After two weeks my 80GB 7200RPM harddrive failed. I have contacted DELL technical support about this, and was told that I will receive a new harddrive within 3-5 days. It has been 16 days and still no harddrive. I have contacted DELL about  the reason for delay, but everytime I get an excuse from a customer support who would say something like it takes time to install windows and all the necessary software, or that it has been shipped out and will arrive anyday. I have also spoken to a DELL customer support manager who also couldn't explain the reason for the delay, but promised to get back to me the day after. This he never did. It seems that DELL refuse to replace my hardrive of some unknown reasons.   What do you think I should do? Anybody know a better way to contact DELL.   Thanks!

toant103 · Answer

I think there's a shortage for the 80GB drive, 7200rpm

beowulfs · Answer

tell them you paid for a warranty with expectations of fullfillment. if they can't get you a 7200 rpm hard drive immediately, tell them to give you a 5400 rpm hard drive until they can replace that with a 7200 rpm. their problem, not yours. Message Edited by beowulfs on 09-28-2006 09:08 AM

N1kolas · Answer

The M1710 still has 7200 rpm as option.  Do they have same form factor and specs as M1210? Message Edited by N1kolas on 09-28-2006 10:36 AM

beowulfs · Answer

should be.

N1kolas · Answer

So, thee's no shortage of HDD 7200 rpm for XPS.    Maybe Dell is not putting up choice of 7200 rpm in M1210 must be because M1710 sits on a performance PM while M1210 sits on a slower GM platform(?).    Data transfer of 7200 rpm could be too much for a GM platform to handle?

haiph · Answer

Hi everybody, Just recieved a refurbish harddrive a couple of hours ago. I'm using the notebook right now and is hoping that nothing else will fail. Thanks for all your posting.   /Hai

aussie_owner · Answer

Before anyone points it out, yes, I know I am replying to an old post.   I am curious.  Is it NORMAL practice for Dell to replace a failed hard drive with a REFURBISHED - i.e. secondhand hard drive under warranty?

haiph · Answer

I believe this is common, because they are cheap and won't replace you with a brand new harddrive, instead they fix somone's failed harddrive and give it to you.

I don't mind this however as long as the harddrive works.

Regarding the warranty, I believe as long as you are under the warranty it doesn't matter if the harddrive is new or refurbished, since it's a DELL product they have to replace it.

Message Edited by haiph on 10-17-2006 03:55 PM

aussie_owner · Answer

Dell better hope my hard drive doesn't fail then, because there is no way known I'd be accepting a refurbished hard drive under warranty after only one months.  In fact I THINK (but admit I am not sure) that supplying a refurbished one here may contravene our comsumer protection legislation anyway.  They might get away with it at 12 months, but at ONE?  Not on your nelly!!! Message Edited by aussie_owner on 10-18-2006 08:18 AM

Steve · Answer

It's fairly common for most PC manufacturers to replace failed components with refurbished ones. Generally, a person won't have any problems with use of a 'refurb' in place of a new one. In fact, refurbished components such as HDDs are completely checked over and are somewhat less likely to have a failure than the same new item. Food for thought; Seagate has a five-year warranty on all its HDDs, including laptop drives, which are available to 160Gb and can also be found in 7200 RPM models (I believe 100Gb is the largest of those). I've seen the 100Gb / 7200 RPM drives for less than $150.

aussie_owner · Answer

In this country there is a legal requirement for an item to be 'fit for purpose'. Here is a link to a media report of a recent case involving another global manufcturer, if anyone is interested in different consumer laws.   While this actually talks about a full refund, I think it illustrates the concept.  Legislation is so boring to read!

Storage, Drives & Media

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