Alienware Hard Drive Failing

Terrysdelight

Hello


25 months ago I bought my son an Alienware computer 5i. Son has had problems with it. Called Dell at the weekend and they said they could not help as it was out of its Statutory Warranty period of two years. They suggested paying £89 collect and return and then they would diagnose fault and quote prices.


Took it to my local shop and they have run a diagnostic check on it and they have said the hard drive is failing and the computer is running really sluggish for the spec of the machine. Basically they will charge £139 for a new hard drive.


Spoke to my ex- hubby and he said that I should call Dell and complain basically saying it isn't fit for purpose as a machine of this age and spec - expensive model etc should fail after 25 months and that they should repair it free of charge.


Can I have opinions of this please?


Many thanks
Terrysdelight

London50

Hi

While I am no expert on these things I would not be happy with the overall workings on the PC but as to the hard drive I am afraid that these days no matter how much is paid for a PC the hard drive can fail at any time.
I have had ones that have lasted a little over a year then just packed up but others have run for over five years {and still going strong}. It seems to me that it is in the lap of the Gods as to when one will fail so I think you would have a fight to get Dell to sort it out and replace free of charge.

RobTang

I'd probably take the second route (sale of goods act)
Most recent hard drives manufacturers warranties are 3-5 years these days, assuming it is the hard drive so it should be easy enough to argue.


One thing you should get your son to do is install a S.M.A.R.T reader tool, it shows the drives self diagnostic data and the error counts. If it reads ok I doubt they will replace the drive.
http://superuser.com/questions/29240/how-can-i-read-my-hard-drives-smart-status-in-windows-7

esuhl

Terrysdelight wrote: »

Spoke to my ex- hubby and he said that I should call Dell and complain basically saying it isn't fit for purpose as a machine of this age and spec - expensive model etc should fail after 25 months and that they should repair it free of charge.

You've been using the computer for the very purpose for which it was designed for 25 months. If it wasn't "fit for purpose", then (legally speaking) you wouldn't have been able to use it at all.

Since it's out of warranty, I *think* you would have to pay for an independent engineer to test the machine to prove that the hard drive was inherently faulty when it was sold to you. You'd then be entitled to a repair or partial refund based on the damage and the use you've had from the machine thus far.

Alternatively, you can get a 500GB hybrid drive with a 3yr warranty for £45. That's got to be the simplest (and probably cheapest) option...
http://www.ebuyer.com/480300-seagate-500gb-solid-state-hybrid-drive-sshd-st500lm000

Terrysdelight

RobTang wrote: »

I'd probably take the second route (sale of goods act)
Most recent hard drives manufacturers warranties are 3-5 years these days, assuming it is the hard drive so it should be easy enough to argue.


One thing you should get your son to do is install a S.M.A.R.T reader tool, it shows the drives self diagnostic data and the error counts. If it reads ok I doubt they will replace the drive.
http://superuser.com/questions/29240/how-can-i-read-my-hard-drives-smart-status-in-windows-7

Thanks, the PC is at the Repair Shop. I'm thinking that getting it back and possibly having a fight with Dell isn't worth the hassle. If I get the machine back I wouldn't have a clue how to install a hard drive - also, it is a very cramped unit so I'd imagine it would be very fiddly to work with.


I seriously didn't know how cheap hard-drives cost! I thought it would cost hundreds.

Quiet_Spark

Terrysdelight wrote: »

I seriously didn't know how cheap hard-drives cost! I thought it would cost hundreds.

Pennies yes, pounds no.
You would have to reinstall the operating system and all associated software from fresh again.

Big_Graeme

Pay for a new hard drive then see if Dell will replace the duff one under the hard drive warranty, you lost nowt if they tell you to go away.

Johnmcl7

What model is the PC, 5i is not a model number I recognise of theirs? If it was the mainboard, display or other similarly expensive part then I'd say it's worth fighting it out with Dell however with a hard drive I'd buy another and fit it yourself as they're not that expensive. There's lots of useful information online to install the operating system which is pretty easy these days and I think it's a useful skill to have.

I did fight it out with Dell for a faulty PC, it had initially failed within the 12 months but they refused to do any more repairs outwith the 12 months. It took many months of arguing over e-mail and the phone to get anywhere with them and even though it was sorted in the end it wasn't a good outcome for either Dell or I.

John

securityguy

Hard drives are consumables. The price of the computer is irrelevant: they fail just the same (modulo probably being better cooled) in half a million quid's worth of EMC array as they do in your laptop. £139 sounds about right to have someone else do it, although you might like to consider fitting as SSD instead (which is exactly the same labour, but perhaps twenty quid more for the parts) as it'll be much faster and probably more reliable in a laptop environment.

Doing it yourself is normally very easy: they're intended to be user-changeable in most equipment [STRIKE]other than Apple[/STRIKE]. It's easier to do if you've got backups: you've got backups, right?

GunJack

securityguy wrote: »

It's easier to do if you've got backups: you've got backups, right?

unfortunately this practice is still very much in the minority amongst computer users.... they don't seem to get the fact that hardware's cheap but their personal data is invaluable

securityguy

Yes, GunJack, I know, and I was being slightly ironic.

I'm perfectly happy doing hardware work, although I find the case-cracking on Apple kit a bit scary, and I've done various repairs and modifications on my own computers (up to building little bits of hardware on strip board).

But when asked by friends to repair their computers, I find "you've got backups, right?" is an easy justification for saying no. They never have. Apparently, they live in fire-proof, theft-proof houses with special magic computers that never fail running special magic operating systems that never puke on the filesystems.

Some friends have lost all the photographs and videos of their children's childhood when the laptop they were all on, unbackedup, dropped its hard drive. Which is a shame, but it's hard to have much sympathy.