How long has your Dell laptop lasted without repair?

[Mihael Keehl]

I have had this Dell Inspiron since December of 2007, and last year particularly around February of 2011*, I had to replace the screen because the back-light gave out completely. So I'd say about a good three years and the repairs I made myself and pretty much rebuilt my laptop with assistance from people here. I don't think I would've gotten as far as I did with the enhancements I made to my laptop without the help from here, so this was a great place to start. As far as reliability goes for Dell products, this is the first one I've had and it's really good but I'm not to fond of everything they released after this one, it just didn't feel right except for the Studio 1545 or Current XPS 15.

Since then, I've made upgrades to my laptop but not necessarily repairs as the things I've replaced, I've used to build a second laptop pretty much just like mine, in which they are still functioning optimally. For instance, I replaced the originally configured memory of 2GB (1+1) that I had with 6GB total (4+2), got a bigger HDD (from 120GB to 500GB), replaced the old screen (1280x800) with higher resolution one (1920x1200), updated the optical bay to a blu-ray drive and out fitted a black keyboard because it feels right.

Honestly, I've dropped and banged my 1520 into a wall a bunch of times but I've never really needed to repair anything, physically. I must also mention that a few times that I thought I had completely broken my laptop was when I had it wrapped in the Targus Notebook Carrier and it fell down a whole flight of stairs. I opened it up and nothing was wrong, it turned on and nothing seemed out of place. The build quality on the Inspiron 1520 can actually give a great deal of business class laptops out now a run for their money.

[BigNerd]

Dell Inspiron 8600 going on 7 or 8 years (still using it).

The battery won't hold charge so I keep it plugged in and I imagine I can just buy a replacement battery and it will be fine.

Not one thing has gone wrong since I got it... it actually was a warranty replacement for an older Dell because Dell stopped making 14.1" screens in 1920x1200 and my screen went out. So they shipped me this new Inspiron with a 15.4" WUXGA screen that has lasted all these years.

[Tsunade_Hime]

Honestly, I've dropped and banged my 1520 into a wall a bunch of times but I've never really needed to repair anything, physically. I must also mention that a few times that I thought I had completely broken my laptop was when I had it wrapped in the Targus Notebook Carrier and it fell down a whole flight of stairs. I opened it up and nothing was wrong, it turned on and nothing seemed out of place. The build quality on the Inspiron 1520 can actually give a great deal of business class laptops out now a run for their money.

My Vostro 1500 has seen alot of abuse too, but ya it goes back to my theory that the 1520/Vostro 1500 was the last decent Inspiron line to be tough as nails as Dell's old school business class laptops. The plastics change in the 1525 as Dell got reamed for making fat/thick notebooks so in an effort to make it thinner/lighter notebooks.

[Mihael Keehl]

My Vostro 1500 has seen alot of abuse too, but ya it goes back to my theory that the 1520/Vostro 1500 was the last decent Inspiron line to be tough as nails as Dell's old school business class laptops. The plastics change in the 1525 as Dell got reamed for making fat/thick notebooks so in an effort to make it thinner/lighter notebooks.

I mean, looks isn't everything but it does mean something, the fact that people can use the laptop 4/5 years after it's launch date is something in of itself. This laptop doesn't look bad at all though, sure it might be thick but wouldn't people want something that would last? When I was considering getting this laptop I was debating between the HP DV6700 I think it was but I'm glad I stuck with this simply because my cousin bought the DV6700 at the same time and his crapped out on him about a year ago (motherboard fried). I believe they had pretty much the same type of configurations.

[Tsunade_Hime]

I mean, looks isn't everything but it does mean something, the fact that people can use the laptop 4/5 years after it's launch date is something in of itself. This laptop doesn't look bad at all though, sure it might be thick but wouldn't people want something that would last? When I was considering getting this laptop I was debating between the HP DV6700 I think it was but I'm glad I stuck with this simply because my cousin bought the DV6700 at the same time and his crapped out on him about a year ago (motherboard fried). I believe they had pretty much the same type of configurations.

Speaking of that, I almost didn't order my Vostro 1500 for college. I was looking at a dv6000 from HP or funnily enough the XPS M1330. But both hit over 1200 for the specs I wanted. Both only had Vista, and I wanted XP Professional, so literally I ordered the Vostro 1500 only a few weeks after it debut, thank goodness I made that decision.

[tdodd]

Laptops :

1998 Inspiron 7000 used without fault for 3 years before replacing. Passed on to my girlfriend who used it for another year or 2 without fault before upgrading

2001 Inspiron 8000 in daily use for ~12 hours per day without fault for 6 years before replacing

2007 XPS M1710 in daily use for ~12 hours a day had two nVidia 7950 GTX failures in year 3, fixed under warranty. Now 4.5 years old and still going strong

2008 Inspiron 1525 (girlfriend's) in daily use without fault for almost 3 years and counting


Desktops :

2008 XPS 420 used infrequently (about once per week) without fault for 3.5 years and counting

EDIT : October 2012 - XPS M1710 (now 5.5 years old), XPS 420 (now 4.5 years old) and Inspiron 1525 (now 4 years old) continuing to work without fault a year further on.

[Mihael Keehl]

Speaking of that, I almost didn't order my Vostro 1500 for college. I was looking at a dv6000 from HP or funnily enough the XPS M1330. But both hit over 1200 for the specs I wanted. Both only had Vista, and I wanted XP Professional, so literally I ordered the Vostro 1500 only a few weeks after it debut, thank goodness I made that decision.

I didn't even know about the XPS-line, I probably would've tried to get that laptop had I known, the reason I started looking at the Inspiron line was thanks to my friend who spoke so highly of them. I don't know how well the HP DV6700 would have held up back then, I am more careful but I don't think it would've been as flexible as the Inspiron was when it came to upgrades (i.e. fitting in a WUXGA screen when clearly none was released for it). Vista wasn't really my option but I remember getting only because I wanted to give it a shot and spoke to the Dell guy to include a version of XP alongside it. Of course I had to pay more money but really, I ended up wasting a lot of money for the laptop, with the knowledge I have now, I would've beasted on the laptop back then and gotten everything for the money I spent.

[Tsunade_Hime]

Ya it's a good thing I bought base spec for my Vostro 1500 back in the day, as my parents gave me a budget of 1000 for it. So I had a T5470, 2 GB RAM, XP Pro, WXGA screen, 8400M GS, 160 GB 5400 rpm, 9 cell battery for 900 shipped. It suited my gaming needs until I build my 1st modern gaming desktop in 2009.

Of course it was a complete crapshoot that I bought a Dell that would be upgraded like this. Did not know Vostro 1500 was an Inspiron clone back then. Ya the Vostro being Dell's entry level business back then came with an option of XP Professional or Vista Business which I kindly took XP Professional.

[Mihael Keehl]

Ya it's a good thing I bought base spec for my Vostro 1500 back in the day, as my parents gave me a budget of 1000 for it. So I had a T5470, 2 GB RAM, XP Pro, WXGA screen, 8400M GS, 160 GB 5400 rpm, 9 cell battery for 900 shipped. It suited my gaming needs until I build my 1st modern gaming desktop in 2009.

Of course it was a complete crapshoot that I bought a Dell that would be upgraded like this. Did not know Vostro 1500 was an Inspiron clone back then. Ya the Vostro being Dell's entry level business back then came with an option of XP Professional or Vista Business which I kindly took XP Professional.

Yeah mine was very much similar to yours and pretty much the same price as well, let's see I had mine configured at T5250, 2GB RAM, Vista (32-Bit), WXGA Screen, 8400M GS, 120 GB 7200RPM and the 9-Cell Battery. I had no idea what I was doing was about only 20 but I wanted a decent laptop and then I was like I'll get this.

Given what I know now, I probably would've configured it differently, but I was glad I didn't get the faster processors because I think at the time they only offered the Merom-line processors (T5xxx and T7xxx) and I believe they charged an additional $220 just for the T7500.

[warkoid]

My XPS 15 l502x lasted for 1 day before it shutdown after 15 mins of mafia II because of overheating... -.-. so now it's sent to service.. hopefully it'll be ok when it comes back...

My old inspiron 15 lasted for 2,5 years without any problems though..