You probably think I’m exaggerating a little bit about how much UpgradeMaster.com helped me, and you are probably right. That doesn’t mean that I don’t believe it though. As many of you know, my Dell Inspiron 1720 decided to stop charging. No warning. No nothing. I’m in the middle of writing a post, look down, and see my laptop has less than 10 minutes of life left.
After spending about an hour of messing around with the plug, battery, and trying a different outlet in every room in the house, I turned on my wife’s laptop and started digging. It turns out many Dell laptops have a similar problem. I read stories of many people, especially students, who had their laptops for 13-18 months before their battery stopped charging.
There are two major problems that have been cited. One is the charger having poor quality and the connections going bad after just over a year. The other is the motherboard getting fried. Keep in mind that once you are out of the Dell warranty period, you get very limited (if any) support.
I took my laptop to Best Buy and plugged into one of their chargers. My heart started beating again when my laptop started charging again. I checked on the Dell webpage and found a charger that cost $90.
Then I found Upgrade Master, a page the specializes in manufacture replacements for batteries, chargers, HDD, and more. I paid $30 + $9 S/H for a new battery charger. So many upgrade master really only saved me about $50, but that doesn’t mean they don’t rock! I have only had my new charger for about 5 hours, but I am extremely happy with my experience with Upgrade Master. If you are looking to replace a dead battery that won’t charge or you lost your battery cable (or you have a Dell…) I would highly recommend checking out Upgrade Master for new OEM products.
I personally think selling a product known to go bad shortly after the basic warranty expires is poor business practice. What I have learned from this is to always buy the extended warranty on laptops (Dell or otherwise).
Has anyone else had bad experience with Dell or other laptop companies? I’ll be in the market for a new laptop soon, and I would love some feedback on quality PC laptops.
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Dave Doolin Says:
September 14th, 2009 at 7:23 PM
Yeah, my Dell is on it’s second battery and charger setup, which didn’t even last 3 months before it stopped charging.
I’m over it now. Just don’t care. I used to buy high end laptops, but it doesn’t seem to matter. Low end, high end, they all get flaky after a year to 18 months.
I’ll be buying really cheap crap from here on out, and plan to throw them away after a year.
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LetUpdate Says:
September 15th, 2009 at 1:35 AM
My dell also have problem in battery. It last only for 15 minutes.
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Daniel Says:
September 15th, 2009 at 3:53 PM
My wife had a dell…and worked really bad. Fortunately changed it!!!!
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Blake Waddill Says:
September 15th, 2009 at 9:44 PM
@ Dave – The only reason I went for a high end laptop was for gaming purposes. Since I’m not really into gaming anymore, a standard computer is plenty for me. I will also probably stick with more middle of the road laptops from here on out. If I do get a nice one, I’ll be buying the extended warranty for sure!
@ LetUpdate – It seems like most people are having problems between 14-18 months.. I am just shocked that Dell wouldn’t do a recall. They are fully within their rights not to, but you can be sure I won’t buy Dell again because of it.
@ Daniel – I don’t have any major complains about the performance of my laptop. I got a pretty high end laptop (every upgrade I could get for the Inspiron- the only thing better would have been to take a step up to the XPS or higher end models). My computer looks great and performs extremely well.. It just isn’t reliable apparently.
Zeeshan Says:
September 15th, 2009 at 10:41 PM
you are on my Blogroll now .keep rocking
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survivoryea Says:
September 16th, 2009 at 7:25 PM
My first dell had the battery problem – just wouldn’t charge at all – I am on my second dell and this will be my last one. My husband got a cheaper laptop online and it is great!!