Dell xps 13

hard copy

Quick question, had been considering the xps 13 and saw it has €130 discount on dell website that expires tomorrow which would bring it down to €1199 (without add ons). Spec seem really good, like the look of it and well reviewed but wondering if people think it might be better waiting to see if better deals on similar machines around Black Friday?

http://www.dell.com/en-ie/shop/laptops/xps-13-9360/spd/xps-13-9360-laptop/cnx93r01

Alanstrainor

Lovely machine and a good price. I wouldn't see the need to wait. There might be a discount but who knows.

hard copy

Thanks yeah thinking same, a bird in the hand and all that!

opus

Just a bit of a warning on the repairability of these, I have an older xps 13 purchased in March '15 and the motherboard has failed. Dell want €793 to fix which is only ~€200 less than the thing cost me in the first place

A local repair shop took a look for me as well and confirmed the motherboard issue but said they can't get one to replace it.

Alanstrainor

That definitely sucks. It's similar for a lot of this style of computer though. All the parts are fixed to the motherboard. CPU, Memory, graphics etc are all fixed, so replacing the motherboard is essentially replacing the whole computer.

I just had a quick look on ebay, and found this for 450ish:

https://www.ebay.ie/itm/BRAND-NEW-GENUINE-DELL-XPS-13-9360-MOTHERBOARD-i5-7200u-3-1GHz-8GB-4N87K-04N87K/182679518610?hash=item2a888c3d92:g:HBEAAOSwNdBZcmwc

Obviously the spec here is what you get, so it could be different from what you have. Still very expensive obviously.

opus

Thanks for that, will decide in the new year if I'll splurge to have it fixed, gone back to using an ancient Latitude D410 that's ~12 years old and still going strong!

Must check out the consumer protection laws over xmas as pretty sure it's reasonable to expect a high-end laptop to last more than 2.5 year?

opus

Just a bit of follow up on this, I contacted the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission who suggested sending Dell a written complaint about the product's quality (or lack there of) & if that went nowhere then submit a claim to the Small Claims court. Would be tempted to do that for €25 if I don't hear back as it would force Dell to do something, either they accept the claim or else they would have to say that one of their high spec XPS laptops couldn't be expected to survive to three years! Interesting dilemma I'd imagine

ZENER

What are the symptoms of the fault ?

Ken

opus

ZENER wrote: »

What are the symptoms of the fault ?

Ken

No video output on either the screen or via the external port & lots of beeping when you turn it on. Both Dell & a local PC shop say motherboard needs to be replaced.

ZENER

Did the shop try turning it on without the lcd attached ? A well know issue on those where the screen will cause POST to fail.

Has the screen ever been replaced or a BIOS update been done just before the machine failed ?

Dells answer to everything is to replace the board on those but not always necessary.

Ken

opus

ZENER wrote: »

Did the shop try turning it on without the lcd attached ? A well know issue on those where the screen will cause POST to fail.

Has the screen ever been replaced or a BIOS update been done just before the machine failed ?

Dells answer to everything is to replace the board on those but not always necessary.

Ken

The shop replaced the LCD screen as they thought that was the problem but it wasn't. Amazingly they charged me nothing for that as it wasn't fixed.

opus

Turns out that ZENER was spot on!

After a bit of effort on my part, Dell decided to fix it for me without large sums of money changing hands. Motherboard was replaced which didn't fix anything so they then replaced the screen as well which thankfully brought it back to life. Was relieved as there wasn't much left to replace at that stage!

ZENER

Glad to hear you got sorted. Did they send someone to your house or did they collect it from you ?

Thought it odd that a shop would have an LCD for an XPS lying around, they’re not cheap!

Ken

opus

Engineer called round to where I work (twice!) to replace the m/b first & then the screen.

The repair shop didn't have a screen to hand so had to order one which took around two weeks I think.

Glad to have the xps back working as I've been taking a work surface pro home which I don't really like, the Windows tablet interface drives me nuts & the keyboard attachments doesn't quite make it a proper rigid laptop.