1. Yes, ALL TECHNICAL SUPPORT SERVICES ARE HORRIBLE. Not because of the people, but because nearly 99% of the time you get stuck with a machine, and then on hold, and finally to someone who can barely speak English(Raj I am looking at you)

2. Yes, the Inspiron 5150 has Issues with its power supply, HOWEVER most of the time this can be fixed by simply turning off the laptop, removing the battery, switching the outlet of the AC supply to another confirmed working Power Outlet, and powering it on after re-inserting the battery. Sadly, this is usually a Issue with Overheating. Anyone who uses a 5150 as a Laptop seems to experience this problem a great deal. I use it myself as a Desktop, and keep the Fan revealed at all times to allow great air flow. Stuff happens sometimes, software errors, hardware errors, there are a great deal of issues.

3. No, just No to the Comment Above me about some Corporate Scheme to oppress the Working Class. Take your Troskyist Idea and throw it to the wind. This is simply the work of three things. Capitalism, Software Errors, and Shoddy Manufacturing. There are no extreme plots to conquer the world, or oppress the people.

Should anyone here read this comment, and wish to have some help with their I5150, and their warrenty is expired. Shoot me an Email at getitwithyourhands [at] gmail.com . I am just a hands-on-nerd with a great deal of spare time. If I can’t help you with your problem, I probably can find someone who will. Afterall, “comrades” have to stick together amiright?

i have an xps laptop, nearly coming to the end of the warranty (opted for the 3 years) so maybe i’ll start to experience a few things soon, but after having it for about a year the power unit died on me – i phoned up technical support, spoke to a nice guy in ireland and 3 days later i had a new power supply – more than satisfied

about a week ago i was thinking about getting one of those mini 9’s and my rep in sweden said it wasn’t possible with ubuntu (in sweden only) – so i email in, not complaining but suggesting that if something is available in the uk it should be available in sweden seeing as everything is coming from ireland and the very next day i’ve got my rep on the phone telling me i can have it – becasue they’d received an email from the US – off the back of my email

my experiences with dell are 50/50 and i understand the frustration but i’m now expecting my 5th dell machine to arrive (the mini 9) in about a week and i’ve never actually had a problem that wasn’t fixable over the phone or by them sending a replacement part (the power supply) and i’ve had loads of issues with other machines

The issue seems to be due to a money-making ploy much along the lines of what Epson did with their silly microchipped cartridges, whereby they claimed that putting the microchip (a simple counter, basically) from inside the printer, and putting it onto the cartridge instead, somehow improved things for the customer (just imagine a political spindoctor telling you why you’re better off financially when taxes go up). Of course, the only benefit was for Epson, who wanted to stop us dastardly proletarians from refilling our cartridges, preventing them from making hideous profits at our expense.

The Dell money-maker is somewhat similar in that they add technology to their product which inhibits the users of the product, whilst claiming that the technology is there for our benefit (I wonder if the Dell workers have had to have training in Orwellian doublethink?) and we – the end users – suffer as a result, noticeably financially when paying $100 for their $6 charger unit. Strange that the technology they adopt for our benefit seems to benefit them financially, isn’t it?!

From what I have gleaned about this unscrupulous company, they have added a microchip to an otherwise simple switch-mode power supply (cheap to manufacture, don’t you believe the $100 price tags – dime a dozen from China, I know; I repair electronic goods and source spares), with the microchip sending a signal down the positive pin of the adapter plug. The signal tells the Dell laptop that the adaptor being used is an original, and so the Dell laptop then works properly (as it WOULD with any 19.5V adaptor of the correct, or higher, current rating, if not for the microchip’s signal being absent).

Should that signal be absent, the laptop goes into “make this infidel suffer – how dare you buy a cheap universal adapter instead of buying our Dell $100 ($6 to produce) one!’ mode. Yes, that’s the technical name for it. Yes Sir. Although sufficient power is available in amperes (check, you’ll find most universal go higher than the original adapter in wattage) the lack of signal causes the laptop to go into a reduced performance mode – the screen is dimmer, the CPU is clocked down, and the battery won’t charge (this is the killer – bet the Dell engineer who thought of it got a bonus! – because it affects the most important feature of a laptop: it’s portability, for no good reason), amongst other things. Dell claims this is to protect you! Yeah; should you believe that, then please email me about a great bridge I have for sale, it’s in the USA, it’s only £1 million, and you collect.

Put simply, it’s a ploy to force people into buying an original Dell adapter; buy anything else and the laptop won’t work properly. So Dell reap the rewards of their clever, but evil, greedy and disingenous, plan. When buying anything (Epson, Dell…) use your brains and then maybe this terrible treatment of the public will stop. Act and put up with things like morons, and you’ll be taken advantage of like morons, by greedy, unprincipled creatures whose primary goal is to live the good life at your expense. When you see that a product somehow limits what you can do with their product, what you can use with it and who you can buy things from to use with it, be very wary. If they claim you’ll benefit from ink cartridges that can’t be refilled and will have to buy only theirs, or laptops that stop working if you use an adapter other than the one they sell, smell a lucrative scheme being employed and use your power: buy from someone else. If unfortunate to have been duped, use your power again: never buy from the disreputable demons again.

Now, here’s what can go wrong, amongst other things:

- The signal stops being supplied by your original Dell adapter because it’s probably been engineered to use parts that cannot handle the circumstances they are presented with and so have a finite lifespan that can be predicted fairly accurately, forcing you to buy a spare from Dell and bloat their finances even more.
- The lead can become damaged and although the voltage travels down the cable quite happily, weaker flows like a signal get weakened or distorted and the laptop ignores them.
- The components on the motherboard that handle the signal from the adapter fail, meaning any original Dell adapter you use will fail to bring the laptop to its proper functioning. I have a Dell laptop currently suffering the problem mentioned in this blog, and after discounting the adapter, I will dismantle the laptop itself, find the associated circuitry for the signal, then see if I can fault find to component level. I hold out no hopes for this, as I expect I will find an IC (microchip) responsible, one that will be custom, programmed, or very hard to source – although my chinese suppliers seem to be able to get me anything (hey, they normally only supply to manufacturers in bulk quantities, but they’re very friendly and make an exception with me. Got to love their desire to break further into the West).

Anyway, from my Googling, it seems that motherboard failure is the most common cause of this fault, and Dell just recommend buying a very expensive replacement from them. Whether they have purposely designed the circuitry on the motherboard to fail after some time so that they can sell some very pricey boards, I don’t know. Maybe this kind of fatal failure of a major system part was unforeseen, and therefore they didn’t realise the full extent of the consequences stemming from using this silly signal line from the adapter to stop cheap universals from being used. Whatever the facts behind their thinking, there is only one loser – the end users, the public.

Dell should hang their heads in shame for jumping on the Epson bandwagon and joining the devil in scrounging every last penny they can from the very people who keep their private jets, huge mansions and lavish lifestyles funded in the first place.

Everything I said is an opinion, because personally I think that a $100 adapter is very expensive. I applaud the fact that Dell, along with virtually all other major computer companies, offer free technical support.

As concerning my privacy concerns as you mentioned, that was what I assumed at first, but I soon realized that it did not give me any help with shipping, and is merely for the convenience of the company. I was not offered an automatic one-click shipment to my home, I was told to visit Dell’s website and search for the adapter and buy it, as all other customers would.

Furthermore, I realize that the rep was honest; he never lied, nor was he much help either. The fact that he or she cannot bring up system details was annoying, although it was expected after five years.

So thank you again, and I enjoyed the flaming comment from a Dell employee.

I do not see anything wrong with the two chat sessions you have had.
The troubleshooting performed, was fine. I do realize that you had to contact Dell twice, however since things tend to break-down, networks are not fool-proof either. The rep was honest with you and came straight away that he was unable to pull up the system details and thus asked you to help him out with the system model. For you, it may just not be important, however from the point of view of a technician, who has to give you a resolution when t/s is complete, it is crucial. You can note that tech suggested contacting again after he had to either advise you to buy an adapter – warranty of your computer being expired, or replace it for free had it been under warranty. Since he can not check the system details – hence the warranty as well – he is unable to commit to anything. He did try troubleshooting and tried to resolve the issue if a replacement was not necessary…

Most of the companies will even charge you for any assistance once the warranty is over. If you are considering an 100$ adapter to be expensive, try paying an initial fee of 30-40$ just to assist you in determining that the adapter was faulty.. and then selling the 100$ adapter.. Most companies would that – and also a lot of local computer shops…

As per your privacy concerns, probably only to save time and to keep an updated shipping address if you are being shipped something later.. If you are not comfortable about it, you say no, as you did.. They did ask “may I” did they not…