1645/1647 owners. Is this normal?

Hey everyone. I was giving my 1645 a nice cleaning when I noticed a depression on the left hand side palm corner. The black of the palmrest actually sinks below the the silver trimming. Is this normal? is it supposed to be flush? Does it mean I need yet ANOTHER part replaced on this damn laptop?


Accidentally hit the post button before I was finished. I took some pics this does NOT look normal. Right and left being compared

 

sadly, i think yes. If the depression is just slight waves (normal) of plastic, then thats fine. But sinks below the silver trimming...thats kinda bad. Maybe you should order from Malaysia It seems all the problematic SXPS's come from either India or US.

 

mine is still ok, maybe because it is still new. but why malaysia? It is made in china.(or at least assembled in) I though US made have more of quality than china made.

 

definitely problem on the left side. Its way too sunken.

 

Yea, I have a very subtle depression on the right side of mine (where the stickers are) but it's not as bad as your left side looks. As melthd said, that side might just be a little too sunken, but I don't think it would cause any problems. If you are really particular about those things, and have a warranty (preferably complete care) give Dell a call and have 'em come fix it.

On a side note, it's amazing the number of things you can miss when you aren't looking for them. For example, I never noticed this depression on my lappie before you made this thread...lol. Though I'm not worried, it makes me wonder what else I might be overlooking...

 

Maybe this is a particular weakness of its design. Dell is having some quality problems lately. I should call and let it be replaced.

My Latitude D830's palmrest is replaced 2 times. I use the touchpad often. The coating of the touchpad's surface is getting totally worn.
The 3th is coming to be replaced soon. I'm happy I have still warranty left.

 

as far as i know, the whole black palmrest is perfectly flat and solid. There should be no depressions or slight curves at corners or edges. At least thats what i know. Although you might not be picky, an XPS was ever photogenic and meant to turn heads, so its up to you whether you want to replace that.

 

There's a very slight depression on the left side of my palmrest but it's hardly noticeable. It's a non-issue for me because I didn't even notice it until you pointed it out.

 

Yea it's not only the depression. it's also that the glue that's keeping the silver trim down is also losing it's adhesive property. the hotter the laptop gets for longer times the more and more it starts to come up and curve upward. I'm through with the 164x line. I'll get a damn HP if they offer me another 164x laptop. It's alienware or bust, I don't even care if it's not very stylish and built like a tank. I have the damn right to have a damn laptop with no hardware flaws. Well this makes 3 laptops. Dell has helped me every step of the way but right now they're not giving me a permanent solution.

 

I too had this defect when I received mine, but it was a bit more pronounced. Its not a depression of plastic, but the metal trim sticking out of its glue at the edge. I asked for a replacement of palm rest area, which was duly carried out but lost the 2 stickers of Win7 and i7 due to the replacement. The metal trim is fixed by a clamp like thing at several parts except the edges, where glue has been used as seen by me during this part replacement. Hence, the trim is not going to come out fully or such due to heat in future, except for that irritating indentation which is more of a design flaw than an hardware one.

 

I left the laptop on while I went to work. I just let it run Avatar on bluray via an external Asus BD slim player. No programs were running on the laptop and all unnecessary services and whatnot stopped. I got home. The laptop was deathly hot, couldn't really pick it up without it being really uncomfortable. The fan was on at max speed, I didn't bother to check the temps I just did a hard shutdown to prevent any damage.

v.anand you're partially right, it is definitely the glue, but there's also a tiny depression towards the corner that's on the left yet not the right. My friends laser measure tool that he uses to measure minute differences when working with metal shows the tiniest incline. The glue is more and more coming off. the trim is also curving upward.

Right now I'm using my friends Asus G73JH-X1 (what a work of art...) while I'm waiting for Dell to get back to me. I don't trust the laptop right now, if I carry it to work in my bag and it gets bumped or something and the trim snaps off I'm on my own.

Here are some pics that I took of the trim once the laptop was nice and cool.




Comparing the left and the right, left side has been pushed down.




I'm also going to be contacting a colleague of mine who works for the Globe and Mail to see if she or one of her friends would like to write an article about Dells quality control.

 

Whow.
That are some pictures. Is this the famous XPS quality?

 

Unfortunately not, the XPS laptops of years past were awesome. It all started to go downhill from the M1530 and the crappy GPU which is mainly Nvidias fault, but also Dells as they never revised the GPU only released a bios to make the fan run more often.

My left speaker is also trashed it seems. I usually have my laptop muted unless I'm listening to music. I was doing just that... and well... take a listen:

Audio Recording

Just over 2 weeks I've had this laptop, I went out on business for a majority of that time and left the laptop at home and I come home to all these problems AGAIN.