How long has your Dell laptop lasted without repair?

[Airdog]

I'm typing from my wifey's Pink Inspiron 1720 now. Its been humming along since October of 2007 with no problems. Other than occasional software issues that have been created mainly by my wifes lack of understanding of why someone would want to infect your system with a virus. She's learned the hard way and after some data loss and a few reloads of Windows 7 she is doing much better about clicking on any and everything in her email box.

Anyway, the Inspiron has been pretty solid. I bumped up the Ram from 1GB to 4GB and swapped the processor from the Core 2 T5250 @ 1.5Ghz to a Core 2 T9300 @ 2.5Ghz a little over a year ago to freshen up the system. I just wish there was a way to add a better video card to this motherboard.

[Mihael Keehl]

You can add a 4GB stick of RAM to give yourself an overall 6GB of RAM with the Inspiron 1720. As they are capable of handling this upgrade.

[hava]

Had an alienware m17x, broke down after 6 months, gfx card replaced. 6 months later 2 gfx cards replaced in 1 month. Laptop sent for repairs. Got it back still not working. After alot of complaints got an offer of a new m17x r3. this one broke down in a month, gfx card replaced. only to break again within 9 days. luckely its all covered in the warrancy and im making good use of it.

[ganzonomy]

It's official. Mine's somehow made it 5 years. In that time it's transitioned from "main desktop" to "backup rig" to "windows 8 testbed". Although I can no longer remove the GPU to clean it or reapply thermal paste due to a stripped screw, it's good enough to test applications such as LibreOffice, Flash, Aim-Betas, and any other beta I don't feel comfortable running outside of a sandbox'd environment. At some point though I'm either going to have to put win7 on it, or scrap it because as reliable as it's been, Win8 won't turn on the fans until dangerously high temps ensue. (This is a fault of win8, not the laptop.) The screen has become a bit floppy because the hinges aren't robust enough, but when it comes to audio quality, the m1710 is the BEST sounding laptop I have ever heard. It'll be a sad day when it's core 2 duo and 4GB DDR2-667'd self no longer turns over.

Jason

[Apollo13]

Coming up on 4.5 years with my Inspiron 1520. Never had a part fail (though the battery did eventually need to be replaced), and the only maintenance that was necessary was some dusting every 18 months or so. It's rather tankly in its build, which I like since I don't have to worry about it breaking. Neither falling off chairs while in a backpack nor very high temps (shortly before dusting) have caused problems. So I'm quite happy with the reliability. And I have no plans to buy another laptop anytime soon.

I did somewhat expect the 8600M GT card to fail after that started happening in all sorts of laptops. But it never did. I don't know if I just got lucky or if Dell had better design on the 1520 and 1720 in some way than most laptops of that time, but either way I'm glad it's lasted.

[kilves76]

On my last 3 Dells, the left trackpad button has given way around 2-3 years mark. Also 2 graphics cards have failed (1 Ati, 1 Nvidia), no doubt due to excessive gaming and associated heat. Unfortunately Dell seems to have a long standing heat buildup/insufficient ventilation/heat dissipation problem across many/all models with high power graphics cards.

Unfortunately when it's come time to retire them (around 5 year mark) none of them has stayed in fully running condition, so that it could be still used as music/movie player etc.

I'm still buying Dell though because of their warranty options; always get the 24h at-location service. This way my maximum timeout is around 2 days, compared to WEEKS with other brands (mail in/drop in service only, just had a discussion with a friend whose Sony Vaio spent 6 weeks on a warranty service trip!!).

[WaitWut?]

[quote]

Originally Posted by kilves76

On my last 3 Dells, the left trackpad button has given way around 2-3 years mark. Also 2 graphics cards have failed (1 Ati, 1 Nvidia), no doubt due to excessive gaming and associated heat. Unfortunately Dell seems to have a long standing heat buildup/insufficient ventilation/heat dissipation problem across many/all models with high power graphics cards.

Is this a problem even if the laptop is mostly plugged in? Anywhere I use my laptop I almost always have an outlet available..like right now at Starbucks.

I'm still buying Dell though because of their warranty options; always get the 24h at-location service. This way my maximum timeout is around 2 days, compared to WEEKS with other brands (mail in/drop in service only, just had a discussion with a friend whose Sony Vaio spent 6 weeks on a warranty service trip!!)

huh? How do you know if you have a 24hr location service available?

[dan76]

My 5 year, 3 month old Inspiron e1505 is still alive and kicking and running great! I've put a new hard drive it and doubled the RAM, upgraded to Win7 (x32 because of the 2gb limit)... it's been an awesome machine used a TON for over 5 years. Original battery still lasts about an hour.

I've recently upgraded to a Lenovo U300s ultrabook because of the weight and portability, but my Dell still runs great and I will use it on occasion when I need to burn a CD/DVD. (btw, I would have gone with the new XPS 13, but impatient)...

[BigNerd]

[quote=WaitWut?;8287745]

huh? How do you know if you have a 24hr location service available?

Some Dell warranty options are next-day in-home (or at work) service.

I used it on my Inspiron 15z before I outright returned it because they couldn't fix my issue.

[Reidsmommy]

I have an old Dell Inspiron 1525, maybe a $500 laptop when I bought it. Nothing fancy. It's lasted since early 2008 so 4 years so far. Still going strong, just running out of space. I bought Dell because that's what my family had growing up and we've never had any problems with them!