Anyone do a depot repair on XPS m1710?

The 7950 GTX in my m1710 went down on Friday...

DHL picked up the laptop today, and off it went to Texas or Tennessee...

I was curious about others' experiences with depot level repair...

1) How long was the laptop out of your possession? (particularly interested if you had a graphics module replaced)

2) Any problems with the laptop when it was returned to you? Was it the same problem or something new? If the same problem re-occurred or a new problem occurred, how long after it was returned to you? Did you feel that the laptop, upon return, was working better, the same, or worse compared to the time prior to whenever your last straw failure occurred prompting the repair?

I'm looking for peace of mind about the decision to repair...I was four months out of warranty so I paid almost $500 (1/4 the price of a new laptop, but I love my m1710)...in the end, I opted against purchasing a 7950 from eBay (~$400) and installing it myself...I was worried about the quality of the part I would be getting from an eBay seller...at least with Dell, I'll have a 90-day warranty and I'll definitely put the machine through its paces within the first week of return...a little Crysis followed by some World in Conflict and Supreme Commander...

PS. I was slightly pleased that I was instructed to remove my hard drive...I would have been furious if they messed up anything on the drive...and I'm sure they have a couple dozen boot drives laying around to test replaced hardware...CompUSA ruined a laptop HDD of mine a few years ago (or let me rephrase that...the HDD failed while the Toshiba laptop was in their possession)...and they hadn't even bothered to create an image on their network prior to messing with my laptop...grrrr...

 

I thought I would update my own post with my experience in case anyone is interested...

The first contact with Dell was very pleasant...I told the customer service rep that I had columns of green 1/4" dashes down my boot screen (with the Dell logo) and the XP splash screen, and then when the computer should enter the Windows desktop, the screen would just go blank...I told him that everything worked fine in safe mode and that I had run the Dell diagnostic test to see if the LCD was still connected (which it was)...finally, I connected my VGA out to an external monitor and had the same symptoms (very repeatable)...the rep agreed that it was a faulty graphics module without ever stepping me through their pre-scripted troubleshooting...'Turn your computer off...now, turn it on...is it on?'

I asked him how long a depot repair would take and he told me 10 business days...I asked him if Dell had a part available (I don't know how common 7950 GTX chips are these days), and he said yes...

I gave him my credit card number and my address on Monday (09/29), and the very next day DHL delivered me a pre-paid laptop shipping box arriving from Dell in Wilmington, OH, and bound for Flextronics in Memphis, TN...I followed the directions, removed my hard drive, and put the laptop in its packing material...I drove down to the DHL collection facility and dropped off the package Tuesday (09/30) afternoon...

DHL screwed up and sent the package to Wilmington, OH, and then realized their mistake...so the next-day shipping didn't get the laptop to Flextronics until Friday (10/03)...

Tuesday (10/07), I received an automated e-mail that told me that parts were unavailable for my repair and my estimated completion date would be 3-5 business days longer...

Since I had asked if the 7950 GTX (Dell part GU067) was in hand, I thought that something else had been found wrong with the laptop so I called Dell...

The Dell rep told me that the GU067 was back-ordered and my repair probably wouldn't be completed until 10/27...she then asked me if I would accept a substitute part...I told her that I wanted an nVidia 7950 GTX and I didn't care what they called the part...she said 'Great' and started to put me down for an alternate part...I asked her why Dell had two part numbers for a mobile 7950 GTX, and she said probably because one is new and one is refurbished...and then she got to looking and said the other part (PR006) was actually an ATI 3800...and that was XPS customer support...la creme de la creme of support...I said no way...all my programs (games) are set for an nVidia chip with nVidia drivers...no way was I going to go through the pain and suffering of changing graphics chips...(I didn't even know that was possible...I didn't think the m1710 ever had an ATI option)...I told her that 10/27 was unacceptable to which she promised to call me if it wasn't fixed by 10/20???? How's that going to help?

I wasn't getting anywhere so I hung up and started calling Flextronics to figure out the parts status for my repair...and got nowhere...

When I got back from a family outing, I had an automated message on my telephone from Dell stating that my laptop repair had been delayed until 10/31...the third different date in four hours from Dell customer service...it was after customer service closed, so I couldn't call them back...but I worried all night since I highly doubt nVidia is still producing 7950 GTX mobile chips, and if Dell didn't have any in stock, where were they going to get a replacement chip?

Next morning, Wednesday (10/08), I called the Expired Warranty support line and told them that 10/20 and 10/31 dates were both unacceptable (have to have the laptop back for Fallout 3) and if that's really how long it was going to take, then I wanted them to ship the laptop back to me and refund my money...I would buy the part off eBay and install it myself...the Dell rep spent a few minutes looking up some stuff, and told me that the laptop should be repaired by 10/10, and that it appeared the part would be delivered to Flextronics on 10/09...I asked him if he could guarantee me the return of my laptop by 10/17, and he told me that he's not allowed to guarantee anything because that could result in legal action...I told him that I had asked if parts were available BEFORE deciding to ship the laptop because my decision to use Dell was partly based on how quickly they could turn it around...

Thursday (10/09), I received an e-mail that my laptop had been repaired and was being shipped back to me...

DHL tracking had it ready to deliver to me Friday (10/10) but I requested a Monday (10/13) delivery date since I was going to be working shift on Friday, Saturday and Sunday...

In the end, things happened quite quickly...I figure that either 1) Dell didn't have it fixed and shipped it back, 2) Dell did something squirrely and now I have a 6800, 3) Dell realized that I was trouble and bumped somebody else's to fix mine, or 4) there never was a delay and they just don't have a good real-time method of determining parts inventory.

I'll let everyone know which it was tomorrow...I'm hoping, for their sake, that it was fixed correctly...

 

Laptop works great...the graphics card was replaced according to the work order sheet...approx. the same temps (which may not be a good thing) and same fps in games as prior to the repair...

Notebook was put back together quite well...no additional scratches...no loose hinges...no loose screws...I'm quite pleased, overall, with the repair...and they actually had it back to me in 10 days (8 business days)...

I hate being a squeaking (firm yet polite) wheel, but it appears to have worked...

 

I'm actually experiencing the same thing on a E1705, except that I when I connect to an external monitor I get nothing. Its a 7900gs. They did reboot/hold the FN (function) button down to run diagnotics. It looked fine. I've been hesitant to send because, aside from $50, they want to charge $200 for intial fee. If it's the video card then it's included. If it's the LCD it will be another $200, pretty steep. The on phone tech said he that he thinks its the screen but I believe it's the video card. The inital $200 is non refundable and my warranty just expired 2 mos ago. Bummer. Do you think I should send it in?

thanks