After owning an Inspiron 6000 for four years, my one piece of advice is...

GET THE EXTENDED WARRANTY!

Since I got this laptop in August 2005, I have:

1. bought three new AC adapters (~$40 each)
2. replaced the battery twice (once under the Dell Battery Recall, once after that with a non-OEM off eBay) ($50)
3. had the power jack replaced (battery wouldn't charge, sent it off to some guy on eBay ($120)
4. replaced the top bezel after I accidentally scratched it up quite a bit ($35 from parts-people.com)
5. Quadrupled the RAM from 512 to 2GB from newegg ($40)
6. Upgraded hard drive from 40GB to 120GB ($80)
7. Replaced screen/inverter after backlight died ($60 from eBay)

Problems I still have:
1. My "c" key popped off my keyboard and won't pop back on...for a while I just pressed the rubber part underneath but after a few weeks that stopped working. So now I copy a "c" onto my clipboard and every time I type "c" I'm actually pressing "ctrl+v" (yes lol)(yes getting a new keyboard off eBay for $15)

2. Audio jack on side is loose; if I keep my headphones/mic pushed in with my fingers it will work, or if I keep my headphones plugged in about halfway they will work without the bass (which is what I currently do.) Speakers won't work unless I push something up against the mic jack or keep my finger pushed up against it (from researching this seems to be a problem I can't fix on my own so just gonna deal with it)

So, in conclusion:
Price of Dell 3-year Plus Support + Accidental Damage = $329
Price of all the repairs and upgrades I made that would've been covered: $315 (AC Adapters, Battery, Power Jack) + the audio jack (not sure on $ but because it involves the motherboard, I'm guessing $$)(screen wouldn't have been covered since it occurred in year 4)

So yeah...it's a bigger initial investment but well worth it based on my experience over the last four years.

 

Personally I always say that getting an extended warranty is recommended if:

1. You don't plan to upgrade to a new machine after the initial warranty period expires

and 2. You couldn't afford to replace your machine if it broke.

It might be that nothing ever goes wrong, or something very easy and cheap to fix goes wrong; but you just never know.

 

Exactly...the repairs I made that would've been covered are very, very common and relatively minor issues (power adapter/battery/power jack) and those alone added up to the price of a three year warranty. If I had even one more issue, let alone a major one, I would've been kicking myself for not getting the warranty

 

hmm.. .well, thats you experience.

I've had a 6000d Inspiron for 3 and 3/4 years now. I initially bought it with the 2 year extended warranty. Had no issues within the warranty period.

Upgraded to 2 GB RAM probably in the first few months... not warranty covered.

My 6 cell battery was down to about 90 minutes run time after 2 years, bought a 9 cell replacement on ebay for about $80 (US)

My original hard drive died about a year ago, bought a replacement on newegg for about $65 (US)

Haven't had any other problems with it, and now my wife uses it since I got the S1555 a few months ago.

Personally, I don't see any point in getting more than 2 years coverage, but that is just my opinion...

 

With all these problems over such a short period of time my only useful advice would be to stay away from Dell. Heh.... I bought Dell because I'm a cheap Heb. I know there's better, but given that all of them are made and developed by virtually the same companies and built in the same sweat shops in China, I figured may as well spend modestly as opposed to going grande grande.

 

Well the thing is that I spent no more than $700 for it in 2005, so even if I had spent a few hundred more on a laptop from a different company, it would still have worked out to be about the same...and that's assuming I wouldn't have had any problems with it.

Despite the issues I had, I've been really happy with it. Upgrades were easy and just about any spare part (albeit non-OEM but who cares) is available on eBay

 

Why the heck would you buy a warranty when the warranty costs MORE than what you spent on fixing all those issues?

Save that $329 and buy a new laptop with it once your 3-4 years are done. You can find laptops for $399-499, and while they may not be stellar, they'll sure blow a 3-4 year laptop out of the water.