Dell Dilemma

I bought a new laptop from Dell last week, an Inspiron 6000. I got it on Thursday morning. When I got it everything was fine but now the 8 key on the keyboard doesn't work. I know it did before because the WEP key on my wireless LAN has an 8 in it, and I use DOS commands quite a bit, including wildcards such as the * (which is on the 8 key).

The thing is, if I send it back I'll need to wait about a week or more I'd assume. I'm tempted to take a look at the keyboard myself and see if there's anything wrong, since I do computer repairs as a living. But I know this could most possibly void the warranty.

What do you guys think I should do?

RuggieBear

personally...i wouldn't take the chance

Ruu_Old

Dont give them an opportunity to say you were tinkering with it, sure isnt that what your warranty is for. Even though it'll leave you without the laptop..which I know is a pain. Better safe than sorry though.

turbot

Their collect and return service, in my experience, can be really fast.

Literally I was stunned when they rebuilt my laptop, and it took 3 working days.

So don't fiddle, because if it's not obvious, you probably can't easily fix it.

If they tell you to fiddle on the phone, then it's ok. So at least fiddle while discussing your ideas with tech support. And if that doesn't work, get them to schedule a pick up.

StRiKeR

I though they have on site support

kippy

I assume you dont have onsite support.
Basicilly I would not recommend going near it yourself.
It could be something simple like a lose ribbon cable from the board to the keyboard although this would usually cause te failure of more than one key.
It looks like the keyboard itself is faulty (very very difficult to find and fix yourself-will probably cause more harm than good.
Dell will generally replace the keyboard with a new one for you.
Kippy

tba

yeah don't touch it, their returns policy is really fast, I got a new monitor the day after once.

majiktripp

Dont touch it,you paid for the warrenty and as a PC technician myself take them up on it as its your right to have a fully functioning keyboard. (even though all there keyboards are generic enough in the inspiron range.IE a €3000 XPS M170 has same keyboard as €499 Inspiron 1300)

Yeah, guess you're right. Just drives me mad though, the last laptop I bought I had to return too because of several pixel errors. It's insane.

I installed a clean copy of Windows XP MCE as I didn't want the rubbish they loaded onto it. But I kept a Ghost image of their installation. Should I load it back on before returning it?

Lump

Don't try and fix it, just bring it back to them.

John

maidhc

They will probably send you out the keyboard if you give the impression over the phone you are capable of fitting it.

You can work on the laptop yourself and be covered under warranty if there is a "technician" on the other end of the phone. So they say, I have never actually tested their bona fides.

Sparky

Your warranty is there for a reason! Use it.

maidhc

maidhc wrote:

They will probably send you out the keyboard if you give the impression over the phone you are capable of fitting it.

The online manual actually gives the removal procedures for several parts - keyboard, Mini PCI slot, modem, RAM and Bluetooth module.

So if they sent me out the keyboard I could do it, I'd be happy as Larry, lol. I'll give them a call tomorrow morning and see what I can get done.

Calhoun

They should replace it no problem. Having another OS on the laptop means noth its a hardware issue. You are still within your right to return this under the 7 day rule which is 7 business days.

I understand from your message that the 8 key on the internal keyboard is not working. The keyboard has failed in the hardware diagnostics.

There is one last step that can be tried before we replace the keyboard.

Reseat the keyboard connector to the motherboard. Be sure to handle only the connector and not the cable.

Click on the following link to view information reseating the connector:

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins6000/en/sm/keyboard.htm#wp1111863

If reseating the connector does not resolve the issue, please write back to us with the following details, so that I can arrange for the system to be collected for the replacement of the keyboard.

So I had to do it, didn't work anyway, lol.