He seems to be a reputable seller, but the service tag sticker has been removed from the bottom of the laptop (and I can tell it was done recently because there was some sticker residue left in it's place).
In the BIOS it says Not Installed for both Service tag and Asset tag, I think this may be what's causing the manufacturing mode to start up because I ran the dell diagnostics (express, not extended) and it came up with no errors.
The number following Manufacturing mode is Level:01. Pressing Fn-X does nothing, it still comes up on the next boot no matter what I do, it's also rather inconsistent, it will sometimes start normally if I just reset it but sometimes just resetting it will also bring up manufacturing mode.
Please help, I intend to question the seller as to just what is going on here but I'm wondering if the problem can be corrected using any available means because I know that my friend really wouldn't want to return a £700 laptop the day after he bought it because the seller has erased the service tag.
Your first and biggest mistake was buying it off Ebay. That model is fairly new, you can still get it from Dell, and I would be very suspect of some one selling it for a greatly reduced price. If this seller does not or can not transfer ownership to the buyer then you are completely out of luck getting any tech support or warranty support from Dell. Does the unit have a label on the bottom that has a service tag and a express service code on it??? If it doesn't then there is NO way to get the correct service tag for the notebook and NO way to even contact Dell tech support.
I would suggest you send it back to the seller and get your money back and or take the whole transaction up with the credit card company/bank you used to pay for it. Or did you use PayPal.
As it happens, this problem did eventually get sorted out. It was picked up by the seller who gave it to some 'technician' to fix. My friend was bothered that the original seller might just steal the laptop or that it might be dodgy, but he's got it back now and it's all cool. Apparently this manufacturing mode occured because of a chip on the motherboard, probably a password chip from the way it was described to me by my friend.
And yeah, I agree on the not buying from ebay thing but only in this case, quite often you will find legitimate second hand laptops that still have good warrantys and are in good condition, although this isn't helped by dell's warranty transfer policies.
Oh yeah, your point about the service tag mr Ed C? It turns out the service tag sticker was hastily removed before my friend received it, can't figure out why but just so long as nothing else goes wrong, it should be okay, otherwise ... Is it the D600s I've heard about that have problems with mainboards failing? :( This particular friend has NO luck when it comes to buying electrical goods.
I would tell your friend to look up the service tag on the Dell support website and see if there is any warranty left on it. Although the service tag that was set in the BIOS by the tech the seller took it to may not even be a legitimate Dell service tag, there's no way to really tell with out the label on the bottom and looking it up on the support site. This whole deal sound a bit fishy to me. Sorry to say but if the tag set in the BIOS is not a real Dell service tag and or that tag is not registered to your friend he will have nothing but trouble trying to contact Dell for any help/support for this notebook. Make sure you tell your friend to NEVER set a BIOS boot, supervisor or HDD password on the notebook because if he does and he forgets it or some how it get corrupted Dell will not help him remove it and at that point you have a door stop.
What it sounds like to me is the seller took parts and put them together and made a notebook.
Voodle
4 Posts
0
July 13th, 2004 16:00
Okay, some further details in case anyone can help me, first of all, the system in question was bought from this auction http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=3713&item=3491716744&rd=1
He seems to be a reputable seller, but the service tag sticker has been removed from the bottom of the laptop (and I can tell it was done recently because there was some sticker residue left in it's place).
In the BIOS it says Not Installed for both Service tag and Asset tag, I think this may be what's causing the manufacturing mode to start up because I ran the dell diagnostics (express, not extended) and it came up with no errors.
The number following Manufacturing mode is Level:01. Pressing Fn-X does nothing, it still comes up on the next boot no matter what I do, it's also rather inconsistent, it will sometimes start normally if I just reset it but sometimes just resetting it will also bring up manufacturing mode.
Please help, I intend to question the seller as to just what is going on here but I'm wondering if the problem can be corrected using any available means because I know that my friend really wouldn't want to return a £700 laptop the day after he bought it because the seller has erased the service tag.
Message Edited by Voodle on 07-13-2004 06:16 PM
Voodle
4 Posts
0
July 13th, 2004 16:00
Also, I found some information regarding getting rid of the Manufacturing mode problem but it didn't seem to do anything. Once I powered the machine down again and started it back up, manufacturing mode was back again. http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=latit_general&message.id=21164
ray_04_ag
1 Message
0
August 4th, 2004 14:00
Ed C
2 Intern
•
3.2K Posts
0
August 4th, 2004 15:00
Your first and biggest mistake was buying it off Ebay. That model is fairly new, you can still get it from Dell, and I would be very suspect of some one selling it for a greatly reduced price. If this seller does not or can not transfer ownership to the buyer then you are completely out of luck getting any tech support or warranty support from Dell. Does the unit have a label on the bottom that has a service tag and a express service code on it??? If it doesn't then there is NO way to get the correct service tag for the notebook and NO way to even contact Dell tech support.
I would suggest you send it back to the seller and get your money back and or take the whole transaction up with the credit card company/bank you used to pay for it. Or did you use PayPal.
Voodle
4 Posts
0
August 4th, 2004 18:00
As it happens, this problem did eventually get sorted out. It was picked up by the seller who gave it to some 'technician' to fix. My friend was bothered that the original seller might just steal the laptop or that it might be dodgy, but he's got it back now and it's all cool. Apparently this manufacturing mode occured because of a chip on the motherboard, probably a password chip from the way it was described to me by my friend.
And yeah, I agree on the not buying from ebay thing but only in this case, quite often you will find legitimate second hand laptops that still have good warrantys and are in good condition, although this isn't helped by dell's warranty transfer policies.
Oh yeah, your point about the service tag mr Ed C? It turns out the service tag sticker was hastily removed before my friend received it, can't figure out why but just so long as nothing else goes wrong, it should be okay, otherwise ... Is it the D600s I've heard about that have problems with mainboards failing? :( This particular friend has NO luck when it comes to buying electrical goods.
Ed C
2 Intern
•
3.2K Posts
0
August 4th, 2004 19:00
I would tell your friend to look up the service tag on the Dell support website and see if there is any warranty left on it. Although the service tag that was set in the BIOS by the tech the seller took it to may not even be a legitimate Dell service tag, there's no way to really tell with out the label on the bottom and looking it up on the support site. This whole deal sound a bit fishy to me. Sorry to say but if the tag set in the BIOS is not a real Dell service tag and or that tag is not registered to your friend he will have nothing but trouble trying to contact Dell for any help/support for this notebook. Make sure you tell your friend to NEVER set a BIOS boot, supervisor or HDD password on the notebook because if he does and he forgets it or some how it get corrupted Dell will not help him remove it and at that point you have a door stop.
What it sounds like to me is the seller took parts and put them together and made a notebook.
Good Luck.