> 3 years with your Dell Laptop, Opinion Plz! :-)

Greetings, Everyone,

Since the release of the Core 2 Duo, I'm in the market for a new notebook. I'm looking at the Inspiron line from Dell, but since I intend to use this notebook for at least 5 years, I have to consider reliability greatly.

So, for all those who had their Dell for over 3 years, how is your experience with your laptop? Please state the line and model of the machine.

 

Well, in my sig you can see I have an Inspiron 5000e. (over 6 years old) It still runs fine. The problem I've noticed with mine and other Dell Inspiron notebooks is the left click key below the touchpad has become very loose. However, I usually use a cordless mouse. I would say the optical drive will probably give out within 5 years. Mine started to give me problems around year 5. I just don't think optical drives are built to last.

 

Have owned an Inspiron 7500 for 6 years now. I have had to replace the battery pack once. About a year ago, some of the keys became detached from their plastic anchors, and it took me about 30 min to figure out how to manually reattach them. The sliding plastic door that covers the GPU hatch has a tendency to come loose. But otherwise the unit is fine and continues to function. Most noticably the screen still has no defects. In fact as recently as 12 mo ago, I still got compliments from passersby about the quality of the screen (not so much now with the newer modern screens proliferating).

 

I have had an Inspiron 8200 (P4-M 2.0GHz, 40GB, 1GB RAM, Mobility Radeon 9000, UXGA screen) since Feb. 2003, purchased from the outlet. The only problem I've ever had with the machine was a cracked screen while on vacation. I was able to get a replacement from Dell spare parts and there were easy to follow directions on the website for replacement.

Overall I think the quality has been excellent. I haven't had to use tech support so I can't comment on that.

I don't have any hesitation about recommending Dell and I am currently watching for a bargain to replace my machine (for performance reasons).

My battery still powers the notebook, but I don't use it on battery very often so I can't say how well it works. I've had no problems with the optical drive, either, but my machine is not as old as the previous posters'.

 

I have a 6 year old Inspiron 2500 with a P3 1.0 ghz etc. I bought it when I was 13 and it took all the abuse of a young notebook enthusiast. Both of my batteries still hold full charge, my screen is as good as the day I bought it and my keyboard has never had an issue. Nothing didnt work on this computer. The only thing that I called dell about was that Windows ME (gawd, it was terrible) made my computer crash all the time. They told me to try another operating system (after much deliberation) and I put 98 on there. Workd perfectly. Still does. I have XP on there now and I gave it to my brother for school. I never though it was gonna last this long...

 

I have a 6 yr old Latitude CxJ P3 650Mhz and 256MB RAM, battery doesn't hold any charge at all (but this is expectable) and left click key below touchpad went loose. Keys are bit hard to register now. Came with Windows ME but I changed it to XP a long time ago, it still runs the first XP version (not SP2). Screen died out on me about 4 years ago but it still had warranty so it was changed. It came with CD-ROM but I changed it to CD-RW/DVD 4 years ago. PCMCIA card is used for networking and you have to move around the cable for it to actually connect, this may have to do with constant plugging/unplugging wear on the PCMCIA rather than the notebook itself. But considering all that, it still works pretty good. it does what is supposed to do.