Help with faulty Dell laptop and warranty advice

Shrimply

Hi guys, I have a Dell 1564 which is around 6 months old, so it pains me to be making this post. I have a couple of problems and wondered if anyone had any advice on them.

Firstly the webcam isn't working properly. Often if I try to view it it doesn't work the light will flick on and back off again. I have found a kinda strange solution to get it to work though. If I open up the dell webcam centre, which continually tries to connect to the webcam, and slowly open and close the lid eventually the light comes on and stays on, and I can use it. This suggests to that there must be a loose connection of something somewhere, I've tried reinstalling drivers etc, but if anyone has any thoughts or opinions I'd be glad to hear them.

Secondly i have a problem with the touchpad, now this one really is strange, I bet you don't believe me. But when I'm home the touchpad becomes totally useless, its unresponsive, jerks about, tapping doesn't work etc. However, when I'm at my uni flat, for the most part it works totally fine, the occasional hiccup, but I probably wouldn't of noticed if I hadn't used it at home. Again I've tried playing about with the drivers etc and an external mouse always works fine. My only explanation so far is temperature, my uni flat is never warmer than around 15C, my room at home is tropical it can be around 24C ( I keep reptiles). Again comments welcome.

So do you think I can reasonably claim both these things under warranty? I also wanted to ask if I do send this to dell for repair what's the best way to protect my data. Is it acceptable to simply remove the hard drive before its sent off, or if I was really paranoid do I need to back up everything and rest it to factory settings before I send it off.

Many thanks

Shrimply

Any advice?

closed

backup and restore to factory setting, if the problem is still apparent, call dell

Also see if removing the battery and working from mains cures the touchpad issue.

Shrimply

Thanks, what do you think that chances are of this being a software problem? To me it seems much more likely it is the hardware, but what do I know.

But removing the battery definitely doesn't help the touchpad issue, possibly made it worse.

Thanks for the advise, I really hate that I'm going to have to factory reset it, just cause it has taken me a while to get it to how I like it and because I spent ages removing all of the Dell rubbish ( I can think of better words) that was preinstalled.

I guess I could install the OS fresh but, well I'm lazy, at least right now.

I suppose though if that's the only options, I will have to put up with the problems just now, cause this laptop isn't leaving my side until after my exams.

closed

If you use disk imaging for backup, you can put it to the way it is now if it doesn't work, it's probably what Dell will ask you to do before accepting a warranty call

Very difficult to say for sure if it's hardware or software, software problems are far more common than hardware

Shrimply

Well I don't use disk imaging back up

But thanks for the advice, I'll look into it in a couple of weeks as I say I sorta need it, in a somewhat working state with all my work until I finish my exams.

I find it hard to believe that the touchpad operation is so effected by temperature and that, that could be software related, and its not like I let the laptop over heat. If its ever not on a flat surface, like my lap or the bed it sits on a tray elevated up with a laptop cooler( not plugged in as its not needed). So it not like the laptops overheating, it just stops responding properly a couple of minutes after use in warmer climates.

Anyway I'll try and let you know how I get on.

Shrimply

Just an update, finally backed everything up and did a Factory restore.

Problems still apparent.

Had a very frustrating phone call with Dell tonight, who somehow managed to transfer me from hardware to software assistance, where they tried to charge me £69.

I won't go into details cause I've already ranted enough to others but basically I think who ever answered my call didn't have a clue what a factory reset did and decided that I needed drivers for the stuff that wasn't working.

I got pretty annoyed when the software department tried to charge me £69 to install drivers that were provided with the laptop on disk. The guy then went to speak to his manager and hung up on me.

But he did call back, to tell me that I'd done all the right problem solving things ( never) and the hardware team would sort it out, but by this point it had gone past 8pm so I would have to call back tomorrow.

ChiefGrasscutter

I do recall that some touchpads are affected by humidity rather than by temperature......and somewhere in the driver's setting you can decrease the sensitivity.

Shrimply

Well I guess it could be humidity, but i haven't much issues with the touchpad for the last couple of weeks, we're running out of oil and the heating hasn't been on much.

I had to turn the heating up a degree or so to recreate the problem after the factory reset to ensure there was actually an issue.

When you say decrease the sensitivity, you mean to touch, not to humidity right? I fear that maybe a stupid question.

Shrimply

Well I was on the phone to Dell for over 2 hours today

:mad:

The guy refused to accept it was a hardware problem,
He updated all the drivers
Installed a new bios version
And installed some new Webcam software apparently not available for general download yet.

However, he's promised to phone back on Monday, giving me the weekend to use the laptop, if the faults are still present, he will arrange for it to be repaired.

We shall see

So far Webcam seems to be fine, although I think this is probably coincidence, the touchpad is still up to its tricks.

Shrimply

:mad: Dell are really beginning to annoy me now.

They are now having me reinstall the OS from disk.