DELL STUDIO 1558 FAULTY since brought it due to fans being on the bottom too late????

Hi all,

So before I had the wisdom of all your advice and started using this site properly. I brought a Dell Studio 1558 from dell themselves and since the day I had it it's been faulty. The main issue being the fans are on the bottom so it overheats like crazy and therefore things don't work as they should. It's noisy and annoying.

At first it was always a lot slower than it should have been and there was something strange about the charging. I contacted them which was a headache and loads of faffing around and the charging issue seemed to have sorted itself out so I decided to leave chasing them about it as I couldn't be bothered with the hassle. Although I wasn't happy the fact I wasn't getting what I paid (over the odds- stupidly!!) for.

About 8-9 months later the laptop was really annoying me with how slow it was it was getting to the point where I couldn't use it so I contacted them regarding it and they didn't respond. So I contacted them again many times via phone and email to receive no reply.

I decided to just forget about it as at this time I was ill and went into hospital with high blood pressure (so getting angry about this was not worth it!!)

However fast forward to now and the fan issue has escalated as I was used to just using it and switching it off if it got too hot and yes it was annoying when it shut down but at least it worked a little! So the other night the fan started going crazy and it went hotter than it's ever been before and started making a crazy fizzing noise. So I took the charger out and switched it off to cool down. It had a funny smell so I let it cool down and my brother had a look at it and cleaned it in case any dust got in and said it seems as if some components have been burned and it's now not turning on.

I do wish I had sorted this at the time and continued it however I didn't... so what are my rights here I have all the emails and a log (somewhere) of all the calls I made to them in regards to the overheating via the design fault and it not working properly. I just didn't take it further at the time as they were proving hard to contact and too much hassle.

Can anyone inform me where I legally stand on this matter in regards to getting the computer fixed or a replacement.


Thanks

Maz
A lot of fellows nowadays have a B.A., M.D., or Ph.D. Unfortunately, they don't have a J.O.B."
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Comments

  • Browntoa
    Browntoa Posts: 49,287
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    laptops are always prone to overheating if there is not adequate airflow, its normal for the fan to be underneath with an outlet on the side. If you tended to sit with it on your lap and reduce the airflow then the fans would run all the time , or if the fan was clogged with dust etc


    its possible the charging jacks been damaged if making that noise ??

    how old is the actual machine ??
    I'm a Forum Ambassador and I support the Forum Team on the Shopping and Freebies, Phones and TV and Over 50s boards. If you need any help on these boards, do let me know. Please note that Ambassadors are not moderators. Any posts you spot in breach of the Forum Rules should be reported via the report button, or by emailing . All views are my own and not the official line of MoneySavingExpert.
  • Given the age of the laptop you'd need to prove that the fault is inherent via an independent report. The remedy options for the retailer would be replace (unlikely), refund (with a deduction for the use you have had from the laptop), or a repair (which is most likely, but if it is a design floor is not going to fix the issue in the long term).

    Have you tried an external laptop cooler? they are really good, cost about £20 and will probably solve your overheating problem. We used it for a notebook that had no fans at all and never had any heating problems when we started using it.
    Thinking critically since 1996....
  • Browntoa
    Browntoa Posts: 49,287
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    I'm a Forum Ambassador and I support the Forum Team on the Shopping and Freebies, Phones and TV and Over 50s boards. If you need any help on these boards, do let me know. Please note that Ambassadors are not moderators. Any posts you spot in breach of the Forum Rules should be reported via the report button, or by emailing . All views are my own and not the official line of MoneySavingExpert.
  • mattyprice4004
    mattyprice4004 Posts: 7,492
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    Wow, you expect people to know your legal position yet don't tell us when you bought the machine?
  • mazy_m
    mazy_m Posts: 661
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    Wow, you expect people to know your legal position yet don't tell us when you bought the machine?


    Slight overexageration...!! lol!

    It was brought in October 2010

    Thanks Browntoa i'll ask my brother to check out the charging Jacks he had already went to clean it with the canned air and said it wasn't really that dusty.

    Somethingcorporate- Yes I wouldn't mind them doing a report etc as I have emails from the week after I brought the laptop proving that it wasn't working right and then months later also (this time with the overheating issue more noticeable.

    I'd been trying to use this laptotray thing with holes underneath but even after being on for literally a couple of minutes it would be hot and the fans going crazy. When they fix it etc i'll look into the fans as £20 isn't a lot to prolong the life of a laptop so i'd be happy to do that as like you saying when it's fixed it doesn't change the fact that all bar one (the smallest one!! ) of the fans are on the bottom of the laptop!

    Thanks for your help all!!

    Maz
    A lot of fellows nowadays have a B.A., M.D., or Ph.D. Unfortunately, they don't have a J.O.B."
  • Forwandert
    Forwandert Posts: 1,211
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    Not sure exactly where you would like the fans to be? If they put them on the side you would have a mighty thick laptop and on the top they would be full of dust and anything could fall in.
  • mazy_m
    mazy_m Posts: 661
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    Well if they had a couple of decent sized ones on the side. Not the teeny one that they have that never seems to have any air coming from it. That would probably help. I had a dell previously and never encountered this problem and I use it in exactly the same way.
    A lot of fellows nowadays have a B.A., M.D., or Ph.D. Unfortunately, they don't have a J.O.B."
  • Fosterdog
    Fosterdog Posts: 4,948
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    I'm pretty sure that model doesn't have any fans on the side, the fan is underneath where it sucks in the air to cool the system, what's on the side is the output vent where the hot air is pumped out.

    99% of laptops have the same design, it's usually them being used on the wrong type of surface that causes the overheating, that or the temperature of the room they are used in is too high, the fans can't cool the system properly if all they have going in is warm air.
  • Forwandert
    Forwandert Posts: 1,211
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    Just a thought, as you say its running slow and overheating. Is there anything running that's causing any problems? If there's some dodgy software it could potentially caused the same effects if its constantly running.
  • Nilrem
    Nilrem Posts: 2,565
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    Forwandert wrote: »
    Just a thought, as you say its running slow and overheating. Is there anything running that's causing any problems? If there's some dodgy software it could potentially caused the same effects if its constantly running.

    It could even be something like the modern versions of MSN, with the flash adverts in every chat window - flash is a pain in the neck as a lot of adverts are very badly coded and can easily push even a desktop CPU to 100% usage on (at least) one core.

    I upgraded my msn about a year ago and noticed my system was sluggish, spotted what it was in the task manager.
    Cue me installing a programme that let me disable the flash adverts in msn chat windows, and not having the problem any more.
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