How long has your Dell laptop lasted without repair?

[bbrannon]

My personal Inspiron 1520 is a month shy of 4 years heavy daily use. About 1 yr in I installed a larger hard drive. Just purchased my second replacement battery and second replacement power adapter because the cords fail at plug that goes into the back of the notebook. I think of these as consumables and like Dell notebooks because parts are readily available from other vendors at reasonable prices. After a Dell machine is a couple of years old replacement keyboards, palmrests, screens and even motherboards can be had inexpensively to keep them running well for lots of years. I outfitted a small field sales workforce with Dell notebooks for almost 20 years and have been a very happy customer.

[Tech_Freak]

I have a Dell Inspiron 1545. I've had it for 2 years now, going to 3 and all I need is a new battery because it lasts about 45 minute full charge. Other than that, the system works well.

My wife also has a newer Inspiron for about a year, unfortunately the motherboard fried but it was replaced with no problem.

[allfiredup]

My Dell Latitude E6400 just passed the 3-year mark. It has been used 60+ hours every week, been on 10+ flights and traveled to-and-from the office with me at least four days per week. It even survived an eight foot drop onto a concrete floor about six months ago with only some minor cosmetic damage to the front edge- the display, hard drive and all other components escaped without harm! =)

I bought another E6400 about three months prior to this one and ended up wanting the higher-res LED display, so I sold it to a friend. She hasn't had the first problem with it either.

My best friend has an Inspiron 1520 that will be four years old next month. I bought my sister an Inspiron 1545 in July 2009, so it's more than two years old. Neither of those have had any issues at all.

To be fair, prior to buying my first E6400, I ordered a Dell Studio 1535 when they were first released in June 2008. It was a flimsy, creaky piece of crap from day one! In the seven months I was stuck with that thing, they replaced the motherboard THREE freakin' times! They also had to replace the hard drive once and were never able to get the keyboard backlight to work, even after replacing the keyboard twice. It was a nightmare and, had I not already purchased my E6400 before I went through DELL HELL, I probably wouldn't still be a Dell customer.

Thankfully, after seven months, hours of tech support calls and service visits/repairs, they finally replaced it with a newer, better-equipped Studio 1558. I sold it online for the same exact amount I originally paid for the lemon it replaced! =)

I highly recommend the Vostro and Latitude business models over the Inspiron/XPS consumer products. That is true for HP, Toshiba, Lenovo and most other companies- their business laptop models are usually much more durable and reliable than retail consumer systems. Another bonus, if you purchase a Latitude E6420/E6520 is a standard 3-year warranty.

[Chump_Diggity]

My Dell Latitude E6400 just passed the 3-year mark. It has been used 60+ hours every week, been on 10+ flights and traveled to-and-from the office with me at least four days per week. It even survived an eight foot drop onto a concrete floor about six months ago with only some minor cosmetic damage to the front edge- the display, hard drive and all other components escaped without harm! =)

I bought another E6400 about three months prior to this one and ended up wanting the higher-res LED display, so I sold it to a friend. She hasn't had the first problem with it either.

My best friend has an Inspiron 1520 that will be four years old next month. I bought my sister an Inspiron 1545 in July 2009, so it's more than two years old. Neither of those have had any issues at all.

To be fair, prior to buying my first E6400, I ordered a Dell Studio 1535 when they were first released in June 2008. It was a flimsy, creaky piece of crap from day one! In the seven months I was stuck with that thing, they replaced the motherboard THREE freakin' times! They also had to replace the hard drive once and were never able to get the keyboard backlight to work, even after replacing the keyboard twice. It was a nightmare and, had I not already purchased my E6400 before I went through DELL HELL, I probably wouldn't still be a Dell customer.

Thankfully, after seven months, hours of tech support calls and service visits/repairs, they finally replaced it with a newer, better-equipped Studio 1558. I sold it online for the same exact amount I originally paid for the lemon it replaced! =)

I highly recommend the Vostro and Latitude business models over the Inspiron/XPS consumer products. That is true for HP, Toshiba, Lenovo and most other companies- their business laptop models are usually much more durable and reliable than retail consumer systems. Another bonus, if you purchase a Latitude E6420/E6520 is a standard 3-year warranty.

I completely agree with you, I'm currently typing on a Vostro 1000 from 2007 and no hitches what so ever except 1 keyboard replacement. After looking for weeks to find a good laptop for my son who is going to graphic design, I finally settled on the l702x. It has been around a month since I got it and it's still going strong with no problems. The problem is I'm hoping for this thing to last my son at least 3 years if not 4. It's been pretty still so far as he's been taking rudimentary classes for now, but I'm still wondering If I should have gone with A Vostro again because of reliability, instead of power like the XPS has. He needed a good graphics card, after all.

[gchristanie]

i am using dell inspiron n5010 .. i got sound problem with in 2 months! .. but it is my fault i have installed VLC media player

[Aeny]

Dell Inspiron 1564:
Replaced the keyboard a few weeks past the 1 year mark. The down arrow key went "sticky".
There's another repair scheduled when I find the right motherboard. (HDMI not always working/flickering).
Since yesterday it seems my SD card reader combo thing is dead. Might need to mess with the drivers before trying to find a new board for that.
Also the laptop is starting to lose paint and scratches very easily, it looks like it barely survived a war! I think I'll have to use some of that carbon wrap stuff for cars..
I had consumer grade laptops last me 4 years easily without these problems.. I'm sad
Besides that the dog ate my charger, it still works but it's slowly destroying my battery
I don't seem to have any luck with this laptop.

~Aeny

[Tsunade_Hime]

Ya the last half decent consumer Dell line was the 1520/Vostro 1500 and anything before that. Build quality was excellent back then IMO. Biggest issues with new Dell's are palmrests/keyboards, speakers, and of course your occasional bad motherboard/AC adapter, HDD.

1564 was based kinda off the Studio design, and only lasted a short while before the 1_R line was launched (N5010,N4010,N7010). 1564 was a worse design IMO than the 1545, I dislike having a door for the hard drive, I prefer the old school design of integrating it into the chassis. Of course the newest Sandy Bridge 1_R series hides it under the motherboard.

[Cap]

Bought a XPS 15 in November 2010. Had that one replaced in January. Have been problem free with this one since then.

[xavorod]

Idk about the new ones, but from my experience with older Dell computers, they always worked for more than 5 or 6 years with minimal issues.

[fonzie]

My Inspiron 1520 lasted more than 3 years without repair. Even then the repair was due to a bad adapter and was a minor one.

Lasted for one more year after that and then due to another bad adapter (broken cable, sparks flying around) my motherboard fried.

Just got a new motherboard fitted in!

So if it hadn't been for my recent luck with adapters, it would still have gone on strong without any repairs! I love the machine!