What should I do?

ant1_2k

I purchased a dell xps l501x laptop from a local store on the 16th august it was sold as a refurbished laptop but included a 6 month warranty from the store where it was purchased.

A few days ago upon trying to turn on the laptop it told me there was no hard drive so I decided to investigate as there were zero signs of hard drive failing (no major slow down or boot issues before the no hdd message. And no noises to indicate any failure) also when plugged into the mains there is a static sensation on the case and the touchpad.

Upon opening the laptop I discovered there was no hdd bay to secure the hdd in place and it had become disconnected. I also noticed the hdd was severely corroded (I have never seen a corrosion on an hdd so I suspect it had been pulled from a device that was water damaged.) I could find no signs of water damage inside the actual laptop so I dont think this hdd was actually the original one. It also had a sheet of kitchen paper stuffed in over the hdd.

Anyway i took it back to the store where it was purchased and explained the system had started saying there was no hard drive as well as the feeling of a live current flowing through the system and the shop assistant said he would take a look at it so I left it with him.

Today I received a call to say it was repaired and a friend collected it for me.

I plug it in and the feeling of live current flowing through it is still there but it powered on fine and booted up into windows no problem but something still bothered me so I powered it down and opened it up as over the phone I was informed by the store the hdd had been fixed and secured.
Once I got I to where the hdd was (under the keyboard) i noticed the kitchen paper still packed around the hdd as well as it being held in by double sided tape.

This is sounding alarms in my head as since there is what feels like a live current when plugged in coupled with kitchen paper packed around the hdd I feel it could potentially be a fire waiting to happen.

I am over thinking this or should I return it and get my money refunded ?

Alanstrainor

Return for full refund. That is madness. Threaten small claims court if needs be. If you have to go to the small claims court, you'll win easy and the process is simple.

Device poorly repaired and sold. It is so bad it is putting a current through the case. First repair was inadequate and did not fix the problem. Under consumer protection you are entitled to a full refund here.

What a joke.

ant1_2k

Alanstrainor wrote: »

Return for full refund. That is madness. Threaten small claims court if needs be. If you have to go to the small claims court, you'll win easy and the process is simple.

Device poorly repaired and sold. It is so bad it is putting a current through the case. First repair was inadequate and did not fix the problem. Under consumer protection you are entitled to a full refund here.

What a joke.

I am in the process of getting an electrician friend to bring a voltage testing thing over as I am curious as to just how much of a current is flowing through the laptop also I forgot to attach the photos I took of the internals when I actually got into where the hdd is (under the keyboard panel)

I am actually shocked that a so called reputable business could sell something like this in it's current state (no pun intended)

that model is a nine-year old laptop.

not really that surprising at that age that some sort of corrosion could have set in depending on where it could have been stored.

ant1_2k

glasso wrote: »

that model is a nine-year old laptop.

not really that surprising at that age that some sort of corrosion could have set in depending on where it could have been stored.

The corrosion is only on the hard drive and nowhere else in the laptop and the hdd bay (part that secures the hdd and keeps it in place) is missing which makes me think this is not the original hard drive but one that came from a different system.

However that is not the issue here as I have a spare ssd I could use.
The main issue is the live current flowing through the laptop and how the hdd was packed in with kitchen paper and how the guy in the shop after apparently repairing the laptop after I left it in when initially the hdd became disconnected (no frame to secure it) was happy enough to hand it back to me claiming it was repaired and safe to use after using double sided tape to hold the hdd in and placing the kitchen paper back in on top of the hdd.

Deagol

Is the laptop plugged into a separate power supply 'block'?

If so, it's extremely unlikely that there is any 'current' flowing through the device as the power from the power supply is between 12-24 volts DC. If there was any higher AC voltage coming through it would damage the laptop before you would be getting any shocks.

Having said that, if the charger is a cheap replacement and not the original OEM charger you wouldn't really know what crap protection it has between you and the AC!

I do know the sensation you are talking about though, I had a Dell laptop for several years that always felt like there was a buzzing / shocking feel to it. I did check it with a DMM back to earth and found nothing. My guess in the end was that the LCD backlight perhaps was a high voltage type item and what I was feeling was some leakage from this - all voltage and no current I think!

There probably will be someone on though who has greater knowledge of the way they are (were) built and can advise better.

I would say though that that HDD - it's remarkable it's working looking like that! I certainly think buying old laptops are a false economy though, I'd get rid of it and try and stretch to a half decent new one ASAP.

The HDD could be a used replacement.

ant1_2k

glasso wrote: »

The HDD could be a used replacement.

I already came to that conclusion but even after bringing it to the same store for repair all they did was used double sided tape to hold the hdd in place and repacked it with kitchen paper (tissue) and was more than happy to give it back to the customer (me).

This screams FIRE HAZARD and I shall be returning it at my earliest convenience and demanding a refund of the money paid for it.

Mrcaramelchoc

I suppose you can't name the store but is it a well known high street store?
That is madness.full refund and if not.small claims court for sure.

you should really be upgrading to an ssd over a hdd. cheap upgrade these days (from only 20 euro) and will provide a huge speed-of-operation boost.

ant1_2k

glasso wrote: »

you should really be upgrading to an ssd over a hdd. cheap upgrade these days (from only 20 euro) and will provide a huge speed-of-operation boost.

I actually have 2 or 3 solid state drives still in the sealed packages they came in I was going to put them in my old laptop (now dead as it was a 12 year old laptop that I had owned since new) 2 in the laptop and 3rd in an external usb 3 enclosure but I refuse to even consider putting one into the soon to be returned dell unit.

I shall keep them stored until I find a different (maybe newer) laptop that suits my needs.

ant1_2k

Mrcaramelchoc wrote: »

I suppose you can't name the store but is it a well known high street store?
That is madness.full refund and if not.small claims court for sure.

The store is not a well known high street store it is a small town store and that in my opinion makes it worse.

I would name it but if I have to go the claims court route I dont want to say which store just yet in case it could become an issue.

Alanstrainor

Hopefully you get sorted OP. How much was this machine? Given it is decidedly ancient, even if it was working perfectly I'd recommend against it if you were buying again. Lower end laptops should out perform this one on modern tasks, and much more efficiently.

ant1_2k

Alanstrainor wrote: »

Hopefully you get sorted OP. How much was this machine? Given it is decidedly ancient, even if it was working perfectly I'd recommend against it if you were buying again. Lower end laptops should out perform this one on modern tasks, and much more efficiently.

The store charged just over 300 for it and I was not aware at the time of purchase that it was as old as it was but the spec of it seemed decent for what I needed it for.

I never managed to get a refund for the machine instead I had them swap it out for a much newer system (a hewlett Packard one) my only issue with the newer one is the lack of ram the store said they would upgrade it for me but I refused and decided I would do the upgrade myself as I have a feeling they will screw this one up and am taking no chances since the upgrade will require the entire laptop to be disassembled in order to get to the ram slots on the underside of the motherboard.

I have since spoken to a few people around the town and discovered the store has a bad reputation of trying to offload unsuitable machines to people like they did to me and even worse some have said when they have sent systems in for repair or upgrades they have come back with more issues than they went in with so I think I made the right decision not to let them do the ram upgrade for me.

The new laptop is not going to be powerful enough for some of the editing and cad I need to do but for that I shall upgrade the pc I built a couple of years ago and make do with that and use the laptop for general stuff when I am away from the office

ram is a simple upgrade tbh. not sure how anybody could feck it up as it's just a case of clicking in the ram sodimm.

with the hdd sounds like the housing for the 2.5 inch drive was not there and they "improvised".

I'd always google a model number / find it through the cpu and name combo to see how old something is before buying tbh.

ant1_2k

glasso wrote: »

ram is a simple upgrade tbh. not sure how anybody could feck it up as it's just a case of clicking in the ram sodimm.

with the hdd sounds like the housing for the 2.5 inch drive was not there and they "improvised".

I'd always google a model number / find it through the cpu and name combo to see how old something is before buying tbh.

Yes ram is a simple enough upgrade but by experience of the dell system I will not be trusting the shop to be doing any upgrades to the hp system since it requires pretty much the entire system to be disassembled to get to the ram slots and if I let them do it I would probably end up with the wrong ram installed or even worse like that corroded hdd from the dell system finding it's way into there also since I have to open up the new laptop to install my ssd I may as well do the ram at same time at least then I will know it is done correctly.

I am actually quite happy with the replacement laptop with the lack of ram being the only issue I have with it but that will be sorted when I bring it from 4gb to 8gb which should be plenty for what I will be using it for.