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Second hand XPS m1330 woes

RynceWynd

RynceWynd

RynceWynd

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Where to start.

I picked up the following spec off a well known auction house, from a private seller:-

461 days warranty

XPS M1330 CORE 2 DUO T9300 2.50GHZ
13.3" WXGA (1280X800) WHITE-LED DISPLAY
BIOMETRIC FINGERPRINT READER
TUXEDO BLACK & 0.3 MEGA PIXEL CAMERA FOR
MEMORY DUAL CHANNEL 4.0GB (2X2048) 667 M
HARD DRIVE 320GB SATA (5400RPM)
8XDVD+/-RW SLIM SLOT-LOAD DRIVE
128 MB NVIDIA GEFORCE 8400M GS
INTEL NEXT-GEN WIRELESS-N MINI-PCI CARD

got it for £360 delivered, which i thought was a good price especially as the title was:-
Dell XPS M1330 PC Notebook Nearly New Good Condition

so first off when it arrived I was a little disappointed by the amount of scuffs and scratches on the unit, but I was willing to let this slide as for the money i still thought it was a good deal.

The main issue is that the DVD drive doesn't work :(. When you put a disk in the drive it scans a few times and spits the disk back out.

Now my question here, I have sent and email asking for the warranty to be transferred into my name already. I could then sort out the replacement dvd drive through dell myself, but I haven't mentioned to the seller yet that I would like a small partial refund in return (i was thinking of asking for around £30?) for compensation of the time and trouble it will take.

Does this sound a reasonable course of action?

i'm just concerned that the seller might ask for it to be completely returned in which case i then end up without the laptop (is it a good spec for the price, even with a broken dvd drive?) and out of pocket having to pay the return postage.

all help appreciated :)
 
if he did not mention in the auction about the dvd drive then it must match the description of which he described.

Once you get warranty transferred to you, id also be asking for money. He has a legal obligation to supply with the goods as he described, you could make a paypal dispute. but yes he could request the laptop back and you would get your money back.
 
I would say it is reasonable that you get some money off since he didn't mention the DVD drive doesn't work.

FYI: Dell don't hold stock of those DVD drives any more (it's a very common fault apparently), you'll have to get a third party one (thankfully it's also the same drive they use in Mac Books). They may offer you a part exchange for a newer laptop.
 
Yeah, I had problems with a DOA DVD drive as well (XPS 1730). IIRC, it's a Samsung, and it's got reliability problems. Should be easy to change though. Ask the seller for some money back, what's the worse that can happen. I doubt the seller will like to see it back though. You have some leverage that way.
 
Yep, best hope is that the seller doesn't want the hassle of reselling it. I've had a seller ask for a return before though and they have no obligation to pay for the return postage costs. :(
 
Thanks for the input guys. I have raised it as a dispute with paypal. Unfortunately it's been 3 days and ive had no reply at all, looks like maybe they have done a runner :(

I'll let you know how it goes.
 
whoop good news, had a nice long email from the seller this morning who seemed genuinely sorry that the laptop was not as described.

he said he will get the warranty transferred asap and issue the £30 refund.

he said he never used the dvd drive hence why he did not notice it was defective.

so hopefully by the end of the week i should have a good result :)
 
Does the machine boot off a DVD at all? Might need a reinstall (or a registry tweak). I've seen this with XPS laptops before
 
nope that was how I discovered the issue.

I was trying to load my windows 7 dvd and it kept spitting it out.

I could try loading win7 from a usb key and see if "something" in win7 can bring it back to life.
 
RynceWynd said:
whoop good news, had a nice long email from the seller this morning who seemed genuinely sorry that the laptop was not as described.

he said he will get the warranty transferred asap and issue the £30 refund.

he said he never used the dvd drive hence why he did not notice it was defective.

so hopefully by the end of the week i should have a good result :)
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Good man. Although you hear a lot of horror stories there are plenty of decent folk on the bay :)
 
Forgot to say I've seen a few m1330 with fried gpus :eek: a professional reflow sorts them out but it is mostly a temperary fix! Check with the warranty history if it has been returned and check the screws on the under side of it for tampering! Dell won't want to know if it has had 3rd party work done...
 
Just typing this reply on my Dell XPS 1330 which has had 2 x motherboards and a new LCD fitted since new.

Can't fault Dell warranty though and I would def buy from them again.

A lot of people comment on how nice the XPS 1330 looks when they see it but I know it's a wolf in a sheeps clothing..........
 
I've had mine for around 3-4 years and only had a loose screen cable. Must be lucky!

*computer is blatently going to die next time I turn it on...* :(

It is a very sexy laptop though, even after 3 years. :D

Have no idea what i'll replace it with though as there isn't anything like it on the market now. :confused:
 
Just had a problem again with my xps1330, it would not recognise any USB memory stick saying 'USB device malfunctioned'.

So called Dell and was told that the laptop does not support Windows 7 and they could offer no more help.

I then went into the bios and disabled the compatability setting for USB and hey presto! all working.

Dell are good for swapping your failed hardware but ****e when supporting any software issue.
 
Laptop does not support windows 7?

is it me or does that sound like a very odd things to say?! how does hardware not support a peice of software...maybe they meant the bios?...odd
 
Tripp said:
Laptop does not support windows 7?

is it me or does that sound like a very odd things to say?! how does hardware not support a peice of software...maybe they meant the bios?...odd
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I know, I speak to Dell quite regulary for my work's Latitude laptops so I knew the person was fobbing me off. To be fair I had not tried altering the bios settings and so I solved it myself.

Dell have a couple of drivers listed on their support site for Windows 7 32bit so they are clearly in the wrong on this one but be wary when calling them as they might use this as a sort of 'disclaimer' from supporting you.
 
hi guys,

time for an update, the warranty has been transferred, i have called dell to confirm this and they said they can sort the drive out (but I'm busy this week so can't be home to get it fixed)

in the meantime I used a usb key to load windows 7 on and it does work fine. (even on bios A14)

no sign of my 30quid refund, but i'm just happy to have over 1years warranty still on a second hand product :)
 
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