What would you guys do with this XPS M1530?

So here's the story. About three years ago, I got an XPS M1530. It cost me about $2500 at the time. Worse, I got it during the entire "grainy LCD screen" time period and I had to exchange it about five times over the course of a few months. Since then, I haven't had any issues with it, to be fair. Last month, literally two months after the warranty ended, the motherboard burned out. This is just a wild guess, but I used the Blu-Ray player extensively during that time and the XPS would get horribly overheated -- I'm talking to the point where it would scorch your hands if you touched the underside of the laptop. I'm thinking that led to the problem with the motherboard.

Anyways, I called Dell and they told me that it would run me about $550 to replace the motherboard and it could only be replaced with the same three-year-old motherboard and processor. My immediate reaction was "fine, I guess I'll just get rid of it." But then about a day passed and I'm now undecided. The actual laptop is in excellent condition -- seriously, the chassis is like new. Plus, I shelled out a ton of money for it, so I know that paying an extra $500+ is sort of crazy but throwing away $2500 isn't that much better.

What would you guys recommend? Any help or suggestions would be great. Thanks!

 

See if Dell can quote you the price for the Intel motherboard, or do it yourself. The Nvidia GPU motherboard will keep on failing. Or you could try selling it for parts, but you will get nowhere near the amount you paid.

 

If you pay them $550 to replace the motherboard will it come with any sort of warranty?

 

Tsunade: The representative I talked to says that Dell will not sell me any replacement parts other than batteries or keyboards or memory (things of that sort). They won't sell me a motherboard.

sk8: I don't know, but if I decide to do it, I will of course find out. Now, I hadn't heard of the nVidia problem until recently, actually, since it didn't affect me. But I heard that didn't affect all of the motherboards, and I presume they'd replace one if they gave me a defective one.

 

Most manufacturers have a 90 day parts/labor guarantee or the balance of the warranty, so in your case you'd likely have a 90 day warranty on the motherboard. I'm saying if you go get it replaced, get the Intel GPU motherboard as the Nvidia one will fail. Or alternatively you can try buying the motherboard on Ebay and it will be cheaper. Or save up for a new notebook, as Santa Rosa laptops with Nvidia chips...well they don't last very long.

 

Ah, gotcha. I didn't know that Dell had two different chips; I just assumed that all of their motherboards used nVidia.

So, assuming I demanded the Intel GPU, what would you do? Again, the only reason I ask and the reason I made this thread is because I feel really stupid throwing away a $2500 laptop. I realize that sinking $500 into it is expensive, given that you can buy a new base-model XPS computer for like $1200, but it's tough justifying the blown expense.

If I do get rid of the laptop, I'm planning on scavenging the hard drive, RAM, and keyboard and recycling the rest through the Dell recycling program. [EDIT: The only reason I'm scavenging them is I also have an XPS M1330 and the hard drive fits the chassis and if I ever needed a keyboard I could use that, etc.]

 

Honestly unless you plan on keeping your M1530 for a long time, I wouldn't drop the money as you can buy a used M1530 for 400 bucks on Ebay (though unless it has Intel, they will all fail). I would put that 500 towards a new computer and fix up your M1530 when parts become dirt cheap on Ebay.

 

Sell your M1530 on eBay for around $150, and use that and the $500 to buy a faster, more reliable laptop.

 

I don't think you can really justify dropping another $550 into a somewhat outdated laptop since that kind of money + a little more can get you a faster/newer laptop. I understand that having spent $2500 on it already makes it seem like a bit of shame to just toss out, but at this point I think it's better to salvage this laptop for parts. You will probably make more from selling the parts separately rather than selling it as a broken laptop. AFAIK there is still a market on ebay for T7XXX processors, the screen, memory, and DVD drive. As you already suggested yourself, keep the HDD and keyboard as backups for your existing M1330. Recycle the chassis and motherboard.

 

Don't spend $500 on a Dell fix. Spend $400 on a new laptop, which will be better than your XPS m1530.

 

Or you could try to find a better deal outside Dell. Check it online etc. and remember you Nvidia card has additional warranty of one for All XPS notebooks. I bought one in 2008 as well the 1530. Th warranty expired in jan. I bought another 2 years of limited warranty..on top of that I have additional 1 warranty on the Nvidia chip. This additional warranty is worldwide compensation issued by dell to compensate for Nvidia card.

This is factual and not something pulled out of my rear.

DONT TELL THEM YOU FRIED THE MOTHEBOARD ETC..TELL THEM THE NVIDIA CARD ISSUE..THE BETTER THING WOULD BE FOR YOU TO EXTEND WARRANTY AND THEN CLAIM.

 

Could you list the specs?

I know a T9300/T9500, 1680x1050/1920x1200, 8600m GT GDDR3, 4 GB RAM, 320 GB HDD would sell for ~$350-400 in working condition on eBay. Could be another $50 if warranty was included.

So for $550, Dell's pretty much inserting that mobo straight through your .

 

I know you're just trying to help me, so please don't take this wrong, but I don't think I could really do that, ethically. Anyways, I can't do that because what happened was I called Dell to check the price and they made me run through their diagnostics and stuff and came to the conclusion that it was the motherboard. So it's pretty much on record now.

 

Sure, but the point is the computer isn't in working condition.

Specs: T9500, 3 GB RAM, 200 GB HD, nVidia GeForce 8600M GT, 2X Blu-Ray drive

I definitely agree that the cost of the motherboard (plus labor, I guess) is steep. But right now the laptop is worth essentially like $100 for parts (and I'm too lazy to sell it for parts -- I checked online and Dell partners with Goodwill to recycle computers, so I'd probably just give it to them).

 

You can do 2 things with the 550 bucks:

- Buy a nice laptop for that...It will be somewhat faster than the 1530 but will probably not have such a good screen.
- Get a 1530 of ebay for $300-$500, the best for you would be a GF8600 unit with a slow CPU, they will be much cheaper than later models. You could thereby not only use the mainboard of the other unit, but also the other parts might come handy (like the screen). You can also sell the slower CPU for parts, evening the money out.