Dell Inspiron 13" 5378 wont boot - section 75 query

daggy

Afternoon all,

Not sure which forum this should be in, so please move it if it's in the wrong place.

Long story short:
I've had the laptop for just over a year (sept 2017) and have had boot issues with it (takes several attempts to boot up) from new, but I managed to sort them approx 1 year ago by updating some drivers.

Boot issues started again 3-4 months ago after dell pushed an update to the laptop - rolling back etc doesn't help.

Laptop will no longer boot or recover - get the first dell splash screen, the loading circle freezes after a quarter of a revolution.

Ran full system check from repair and get memory errors (also been getting them for a while).

I've caused my own issues by trying to fix it instead of returning it when the issues first occurred, but there was a reason...

My Ex got me the laptop from currys on a buy now pay later (she wasn't my ex at the time) as Currys wouldn't give me credit and I'd just used the spare cash I'd saved to pay for something that my ex didn't have the funds to cover.

Here lies my question:
Can I claim on section 75 given that the credti was in her name?
I have receipt etc.
I rang dell a few months ago to highlight the issue, but they passed me to currys who told me I was out of warranty and couldn't claim on section 75 as it's not in my name.

I could probably ask my ex to submit the claim, but I'd really rather not.

Thanks in advance:mad:

Browntoa

No , section 75 needs to be originated by the card holder

daggy

Thanks

Am I able to claim under a different law? Sale of good etc?

Or is section 75 the only/best way?

molerat

You have no rights as you were not the purchaser.

JJ_Egan

<I've caused my own issues by trying to fix it instead of returning it when the issues first>


That could well invalidate any claim under any method anyway.

daggy

JJ_Egan wrote: »

<I've caused my own issues by trying to fix it instead of returning it when the issues first>


That could well invalidate any claim under any method anyway.

I just updated a driver, so nothing that would invalidate a warranty.. it defintely wouldn't cause hard drive or ram failure

that

sounds like it is a hard disk issue. About £60 for a 250GB ssd

The problem with that if it is on the borderline of failing, testing the disk may push it over the edge, but sooner or later it will fail anyway.
https://www.techadvisor.co.uk/download/portable-applications/hdd-guardian-portable-071-3330085/

pop the dvd or usb stick in and do a repair

arciere

If it's failed to boot since day 1 it's highly unlikely that it's a driver problem.

You said you always get memory errors, so there you are

If you are able to do so, and if the laptop has 2 or more memory sticks, test the RAM with one module at a time and see what you get back. Don't rely on whether the system boots up or not, after so much use system files will probably be damaged anyway, even if you now use good RAM.

If it takes you (or used to take you) several attempts to boot up the system, I'd be inclined to point the finger to the RAM rather than the disk, as RAM use is more 'random' than disk (information on a disk does not move as much as on RAM, so if a sector is damaged, you won't be able to read from it even after 100 attempts).

System

arciere wrote: »

If it takes you (or used to take you) several attempts to boot up the system, I'd be inclined to point the finger to the RAM rather than the disk, as RAM use is more 'random' than disk (information on a disk does not move as much as on RAM, so if a sector is damaged, you won't be able to read from it even after 100 attempts).

And dodgy RAM can cause file errors as data is cached in RAM before being written to the hard drive so can be corrupted between being saved to RAM and being written.

daggy

Thanks

I've replaced the ram and continue to get the issue.

I only have 4gb as standard, interestingly if I put that 4gb into slot two and run a thorough test it passes, but it doesn't in slot 1

Yet, if I run a thorough test on the new one in either slow it passes without issue

Also ran thorough test on the os and main hd partition.. passed without issue.

In equally frustrating news.. I put a post on the dell community forum yesterday, but I'm now completely unable to update it or post anything else on the community forum:

I'm logged into my dell account, when I click the community tab it moves me to dell community and I have a sign in option top right, when I click that it loads back to the dell community main screen with topics/forums.. I never get the actual login screen

I've tried it on a work laptop and another laptop I have - same issue.

Also tried on phone whilst on wifi and home network - same issue

Are you folks able to sign in to dell community?
I'm baffled

arciere

daggy wrote: »

Thanks

I've replaced the ram and continue to get the issue.

As mentioned earlier, don't expect to fix the problem by simply removing the dodgy RAM (if there is one), damage has been done.
I am a bit confused when you said 'on the new one': do you have a new memory stick?
In any case what you can do, what I would do, is to find or borrow a good memory stick, any size (as long as it's compatible with your laptop) and install the O.S. from scratch. If you see no errors, you know that the fault is in the memory.

I've seen that a lot in the past, a dodgy RAM module that works in a slot but doesn't in another (sometimes it's also a faulty slot on the motherboard, but that's less common).