Inspiron N5010 has locked up continually from literally day one

Question

I bought my Inspiron over the telephone direct from Dell about two years back on the strength of my satisfaction with a Dell PC some five years earlier.  However I have been so disappointed with it and wish I'd bought a cheapy somewhere.  It continually locks up with the hard drive working away on goodness knows what - this can last from a few minutes to leaving it running all night and it will still be locked in the morning - the cursor actually still moves and you can move between open pages but that's it.  I wrote three recorded delivery letters to Dell which were ignored.  On line they run through a test and declare it is all operating fine, 'that's it', no problem!  I paid £50 for a professional to look at it and he suggested we reload the software.  This was supposed to be held in a seperate protected part of the hard drive (as it did not come with software discs) which, after talking to his contact at Dell, he confirmed didn't exist!  To cut my losses he arranged for me to buy, more money, a software disc from Dell that he later re-installed for me.  The result was absolutely no improvemnet.  I know a few computer 'fans' who have all said 'I'll have a look at it' but all have been baffled.  So I have continued to suffer this appauling performance that can lock up sometimes every couple of hours, sometimes every couple of minutes, it can even be locked when I first start it and it then merrily plays with itself for as long as it fancies.  I guess lesson learned to buy from a store where you can return it for some help.

DELL-Royan S · Answer

Hi,

Welcome to the Community. Start by running a diagnostics on your hard drive. Press the F12 key at the Dell Logo, select Diagnostics and run an extended diagnostics on your hard drive. Post back with any error codes.

Thank you.

DELL-Royan S · Answer

Hi, Turn off the Computer. Press and hold the FN key and then turn on the computer. This should start the diagnostics. Post back with any error codes. Thank you.

teresarodney · Answer

F12 does nothing.

FN + F12 brings up a little window containing the following but only when you have the email page open not with a blank screen?

DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "

Can see no reference to diagnostics!

teresarodney · Answer

Regret this did nothing.  I switched off, waited ten secs, held down FN whilst starting and it just opened as it normally does.  Tried FN and FN+F12 again whilst open and still nothing?

DELL-Royan S · Answer

Hi,

Remove the battery and the AC adapter, press and hold the power button for 15 seconds. Connect the ac adapter and the battery back again. Press and hold down the FN key and then press the power button, to start the diagnostics.

Thank you.

teresarodney · Answer

That started it and it & came up with Error Code 0333.

This diagnostic took an hour and I then saw the option to do a specific test for Locking Up which I ran and this took eight hours!!!!!!! but found no errors. Gosh.

DELL-Royan S · Answer

Hi,

The error code is fine. But this will need a hard drive replacement. If you need a quote, then send me a private message, click on my user name, add me as a friend and send me your service tag, phone number and address.

Thank you.

teresarodney · Answer

Well that would explain why I was ignored or told it was OK by Dell as they must have realised two years ago that it was faulty from all my communications as listed above.  Now the suggested resolution is for me to pay for this defective kit to be repaired; I can't quite understand that, please explain?

DELL-Royan S · Answer

Hi Teresa,

The Diagnostics runs tests that need to have user interaction, error codes below are because of no user interaction:

1000-0312

2000-0333

support.dell.com/.../document

In your case it was the second error. This has nothing to do with your hard drive. If you need a quote, send me a Private Message.

Thank you.

teresarodney · Answer

Just to complete the story after two years of trying to get a response from Dell and all they wanted to do was sell me a new hard drive I have now purchased a new, much cheaper, Acer laptop.  What a difference in performance, no hang ups, everything my Inspiron is not.  After the initial Dell purchase cost, two years of ignoring my complaints, more recent on line assertions by Dell that there is nothing wrong, experts fees and software costs & pestering friends, I feel mugged.

Locked Topics – Laptops General

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