Oolite Bulletins

Work bought 4x XPS M1730 laptops 17 months ago, for £1800 a pop, plus £300 for 3yr extended warranties. All four batteries have died within a week of each other. (won't hold charge, refuse to charge up even though they're reported as "Charging"). Batteries are not covered by extended warranty (they're "consumables") so only have standard 1yr. warranty.

Dell replacements (from Dell - quote just arrived) are £100 each, they might be refurbs (because Dell don't make them any more) and have only 90 day warranty. Using non-Dell, much cheaper, equal spec'd, 1yr guaranteed batteries may invalidate rest of laptop warranty if Dell can prove I used a non-Dell part in the machines!

There are 10,000s of thousand of forum posts across the 'net about Dell building obsolescence into their batteries - people have taken them apart and discovered that the individual Li-ion cells charge just fine, but the Dell circuitry prevents them from being charged or detected as charged (if they're charged outside of the normal mechanism). How can Dell get away with that?! It's just madness...

What are you talking about?

I'm typing this on a Dell on battery power and I never had any probl

Rxke wrote:

What are you talking about?

I'm typing this on a Dell on battery power and I never had any probl

I can point you in the direction of about 85,000 forum posts that say you're in the minority...

And Dell have told me over the phone, but not in any emails, that the batteries are "designed" not to last longer than 12 months, which is why they only come with a 12 month warranty. There are videos which show "dead" Dell batteries being taken apart and the individual Li-ion cells being charged and discharged perfectly, but the circuitry in the battery is designed to prevent the batteries from being charged.

For an £1800 laptop with a £300 extended warranty - that's only 17 months old - I would expect Dell to be able to offer me more than a £100 refurb spare that's only guaranteed for 90 days.

EDIT - because I had a temporary humour failure...

The key is Rxke's unfinished word 'probl...'.

Sorry missed that - my fury at them has temporarily shut down my humour gland - apologies for being unnecessarily cross!

You're entitled to be really cross... and outraged.

On the subject of laptops, Toshiba's new model looks nice.

El Viejo wrote:

You're entitled to be really cross... and outraged.

On the subject of laptops, Toshiba's new model looks nice.

AAAHH! STROBE of pink and purple! *falls on floor, shakes, foams*

My personal experience with the longevity of Dell laptops & batteries is almost exactly opposite. I've owned 2 (typing this on the 2nd), both hand-me-downs from my brother. On both, batteries lasted around 4 years before approaching the useless stage*. I guess they must've screwed up when installing the break-after-a-year switch...


*The first one was 2 years old when I took it over. 2 years later it had been exposed to probably every voltage known to man, in locations ranging from North America through Europe, Africa and the Caribbean. At that point the battery would start telling me it was dying, but would still give over an hour of video with brightness set to max.

CheeseRedux wrote:

My personal experience with the longevity of Dell laptops...both hand-me-downs from my brother.

Yay, how is old YogurtRedux these days?

ClymAngus wrote:

AAAHH! STROBE of pink and purple! *falls on floor, shakes, foams*

What do you mean?

DaddyHoggy, sorry but I just couldn't resist to do a typical Slashdot answer....


On a more serious note, not so long ago I jokingly predicted this stuff to a friend, that with everything becoming battery-operated, batteries would become the new inkjet-ink cartridges

(too expensive, in-built silly failsafes, making sure good batteries are reported as faulty/empty....)

Too bad it seems my prediction was right....

Rxke wrote:

DaddyHoggy, sorry but I just couldn't resist to do a typical Slashdot answer....


On a more serious note, not so long ago I jokingly predicted this stuff to a friend, that with everything becoming battery-operated, batteries would become the new inkjet-ink cartridges

(too expensive, in-built silly failsafes, making sure good batteries are reported as faulty/empty....)

Too bad it seems my prediction was right....

Too bad indeed - Dell won't answer my request to raise a complaint that my £1800 laptop is now chained to a desk because they can only offer a refurb battery with a 90 day guarantee for a laptop that's only 18 months old.