Dead Inspiron 5150 (big surprise!)

Guys, tell me what I already know.

The old Inspiron 5150 (3.06GHz P4 without HT, 1GB, 30GB) always has been an oven. The mobo has been replaced several times over the years. Now it won't boot up at all. It gets as far as a black screen with blinking cursor in the top left corner and activates the cdrom a couple of times but nothing else. I've tried all the usual solutions, reseating parts, take it all apart and clean out the dust bunnies (which I was doing preventavely about twice a year anyway), swap ram chips, that sort of thing.

The hard drive is ok, I connected it to an IDE adapter and sucked all the data off of it for transfer to the new machine when it gets here.

I presume that my mobo is fried again, this time it's well out of warranty. However I notice if I go to dell support, there is an option for extending my warranty with "ship to depot" service through 9/9/2008 for $95.

My two questions:
1 - Am I right that the motherboard is indeed fried again, or is there something else I can try?
2 - Is it worth the $95 to get the warranty reinstated for one month and ship it off for repair, or am I better off scrapping the thing and selling the individual parts? I'm thinking if the mobo design was never changed, a new one will likely fail again shortly after warranty expiration.

What do you guys think?

 

I'd say leave that one sit in the grave. The $95 charge, I believe, is just for them evaluating the problem...you'll get a much larger charge once the motherboard bill comes in.

I'd rather see you put that $95 towards a newer and faster computer.

 

That's kind of what I'm expecting. Unless someone here comes along and tells me something to make me think it's worth doing, it is a junker.

 

if you can get it fixed for $ 95.00 then go for it !

i dunno how DELL warranties work but if spending a bill saves your laptop go for it , otherwise for saving $ 100 ull loose out on 400 or 500 worth of your laptop value

 

I would send it in for repair ONLY if it would be 95 dollars MAX, your cost. Otherwise, screw it. It is only a matter of time before the new board blows up.

Wasn't there a class action suit filed in California for that particular model? You may have rights that you are not aware of regarding that laptop.

 

I'd definately call dell on the issue. If the $95 is just a fee to figure the problem out, you'll be hit with at least a $150 for the motherboard. It'd be awful to spend almost $300 on a laptop when lately you can get one for $800 and have comparable performance and a new warranty.

 

Sell the lcd on ebay. You can get a few bucks there