Faulty laptop (warranty period nearly over) - offical refund request ignored - suggestions please?

Schnurrbart

DoaM said:

You don't say which laptop this is. Post the Dell tag number and we'll be able to give better assistance.

Pardon me if I'm being over-cautious, but I'm not sure about posting the tag number. I appreciate the offer of better assistance, but I came here with a question about consumer rights, not technical support. I'm sorry that sounds blunt and ungrateful as just words on a screen, hopefully you understand the intended tone and meaning! Just that I'm very aware this isn't a tech forum.

DoaM

The Dell tag just lets us more easily know the full specs of the machine. A 7th generation i3 shouldn't be a slouch, but that's only part of the overall picture.

A fresh install of Windows 10, plus replacing the slow mechanical HDD with an SSD (exact type needed will depend on the system build of your laptop - the tag will let us know the appropriate type to consider) will probably have this machine flying.

TonyMMM

I would guess that the disk is running at 100% usage - a common issue on Win10 machines.
Turn off all updates (and only run them manually when needed) - turn of the Windows superfetch service.
some instructions here ....https://www.cleverfiles.com/howto/100-disk-usage-windows-10.html

I had the same type of problem on a cheap HP laptop and it now runs 10x better.....like a different machine.

The_Rainmaker

Jumblebumble said:

DoaM said:

You don't say which laptop this is. Post the Dell tag number and we'll be able to give better assistance.

Let me guess
Celeron or Pentium  with 4GBRam and 500GB HDD

I have a couple of these cheap (expensive mistakes) lying around the house.

OP stick an SSD in it and it may become bearable.

Schnurrbart

Thanks DoaM.

Please don't take it personally, but I'm still wary of posting the service tag, having read conflicting accounts as to whether this is a good idea. I may change my mind, but meanwhile I'm happy to provide additional info re machine specs.

As previously stated, I'll try the clean install. Hopefully this will be enough. Don't really want to fork out for an SSD, given that I had one put in my W7 laptop which was dying (this was at the time I was getting nowhere with Dell re the W10 machine, and I needed a working laptop). That, and a reinstallation of W7 - with optional upgrade to W10, which I really don't get on with - set me back £75 (itemised at £30 for the SSD and £45 for W7, weirdly). Not tech-savvy / confident enough to install a new drive myself.

Would be amazing to have the W10 laptop "flying", though to continue the metaphor, I'd be more than happy if it could just amble along at a relaxed pace! Even a ZX80 from 40 years ago gives a near-immediate response to a keypress!

Oh, and it isn't just the speed. I'm finding other issues such as important Windows updates failing (e.g. taking ages to download, then failing to install). Also, random things I have no idea how to fix, e.g. I rip a track from a CD in WMP, re-name the file, then get a "WMP cannot find the file" message when I try to play it. Initially, I couldn't save files to my external drive. I fixed it more by chance than anything, messing around with file sharing settings I didn't fully understand (perhaps that's why I get the WMP error message). Not sure that a clean install would fix that.

Sorry, I said I wasn't seeking tech advice, but here I am giving out the above! It's more to illustrate why I would rather just return the laptop for a working replacement (okay, forget about a refund for now). Ironically, my W7 laptop (which I'm typing this on) was also a refurb unit from Dell (bought in 2014), and worked a treat until the HD started to go. It's not quite as zippy as it was straight after the SSD was put in, but that could be down to me. It's still a thousand times more usable than the more recent purchase. Problem is, when I went to rip some CDs I found that the optical drive was no longer working, and the company I took the laptop to denied all responsibility (wish I'd checked the drive before leaving the workshop when taking it in / collecting it, but how was I to know?). It's because I need to rip some CDs now that I've dusted off the W10 laptop only to find that whatever the remote assistance guy did to it hasn't resulted in a lasting improvement.

I fully admit I did the whole thing a*se about face! I bought the W10 laptop before the W7 started to fail as I was worried about the then-imminent withdrawal of support for W7 (and didn't avail myself of the free upgrade to W10, having read of problems). At the time, I thought the best option was to get a cheap W10 machine. Yet here I am still using W7 (with the option to install W10) with no problems (so far, touch wood). I'm using the W10 one to rip CDs, but that's about all I can do on it (though I can't play the files back - have to connect external drive to W7 to do that).

One last thing: W7 laptop came with MS Office Starter pre-installed, which has been invaluable to me. W10 one doesn't. Before I bought W10 one, I asked Dell if it came with Office Starter. Live chat agent response was (quote): "I understand your requirement but our outlet laptops doesn't come with MS office, it comes with Windows 10". I politely replied with ""I think you misunderstand - MS Office is a productivity suite, not an Operating System!", but really I should have bailed out there and then!

Thanks again, and sorry if my reluctance re service tag is objectively unwarranted. Like I said, I may change my mind (if you still care to help), but the focus of this thread has shifted from consumer rights to tech support, and, ultimately, I just want to be shot of my W10 (but not out of pocket) - not spend ages asking others for help and trying to apply fixes to a machine that should have been working properly to begin with.

[Edit: Sorry for extra line spaces between paragraphs - had this intermittent problem before when using MSE forums.]

Spank

Download cristaldiskinfo and run it.

Schnurrbart

TonyMMM said:

I would guess that the disk is running at 100% usage - a common issue on Win10 machines.
Turn off all updates (and only run them manually when needed) - turn of the Windows superfetch service.
some instructions here ....https://www.cleverfiles.com/howto/100-disk-usage-windows-10.html

I had the same type of problem on a cheap HP laptop and it now runs 10x better.....like a different machine.

Spot on, TonyMMM, Task Manager showed disk usage at 100% on a few occasions when I checked earlier (without WMP running). Now 2% with WMP... Goodness know what's going on - I give up! Well, not quite - I'll do the clean install (after ripping the CDs I want to do, just in case the clean install somehow renders WMP unusable) and try the info in the link you've kindly posted (not had a chance to look at it yet). Last line of your post is very encouraging, thanks for giving me some much-needed optimism!

Really don't mean to sound ungrateful re help and advice offered. Much as I'd rather return the laptop for a refund, or at the very least, a functioning replacement - hence my posting in the Consumer Rights forum - if I can get the bl**dy thing working without too much hassle (and no expense except time - and possibly a SSD further down the line), then that's got to be a result, so apologies if I seem to be looking a gift horse in the mouth, and making too much of an issue about consumer vs tech advice. To modify !!!!!! Jones' line from RoboCop, "Good advice is where you find it!". Virtual beers are on me for all your freely-given help, whereas the paid staff from Dell have shown me abysmal / non-existent customer service. Cheers!

[Edit: Censored! MSE has substituted exclamation marks for the name which is short for 'Richard' - or 'fat' in German. Whatever next - '!!!!! Wonka'? 'The door!!!! is loose'? 'I just saw a blue !!! on the bird table'?]

Schnurrbart

Spank said:

Download cristaldiskinfo and run it.

Spank you very much, I'll give that a go as well!

[Edit: Not very original, I know, but I couldn't resist, sorry!]

DoaM

How on earth is a strimmer in any way, shape or form similar to a laptop? 🙄🤷‍♂️

balf118118

DoaM said:

How on earth is a strimmer in any way, shape or form similar to a laptop? 🙄🤷‍♂️

my bad...first post in wrong category