[PLUG] Inspiron 2650 - Good or Bad?

[Kyle Accardi]

AthlonRob wrote:
> On Tue, 2002-12-03 at 16:20, david wrote:
> 
> 
>>It sounds like you've already decided on the warranty, but for lightweight, abuse prone devices like laptops a longer warranty is good. I've got 3 (out of 10) expensive paperweights in a drawer at work waiting to be cannibalized. They aren't Dell but they all failed between 13-24 months after purchase.
> 
> 
> It's definitely a risk... yeah... but the three-year warranty was
> something like $200 more, which increase the cost of the system by over
> 25%....
> 
> I'll re-evaluate it if/when I'm offered an extended warranty at the end
> of the one year... I know Toshiba does this, perhaps Dell does, too.


News to me.  I didn't elect for the extended coverage when I bought my 
Satellite 1715xcds two years ago.  Last week a few of the keys stopped 
working so I checked the literature that came with the thing.  Since this 
was their bottom-of-the-line model, the factory warr was only 1 yr.  (Other 
models were 3 yr.)  I called tech support and played dumb, sure enough 1 yr. 
  They suggested I take it to a factory authorized yadda.

Traced the problem down to an intermittent connection in the keyboard cable. 
  Online prices were ~$80 so I decided to try and fix it.  After I came home 
with some mod wire, it must have decided I was serious and started working 
again.  Shrugged and put the screws back in.

Moral:  The extended warr would not really have been worth in in my case, 
but if the lcd fails that's another story.  The thing only cost $899 so an 
extra $200 for the extra coverage seemed excessive and I'm no road warrior 
and it has a pretty easy life.  If I were ever to lay out $2000 for a 
notebook, I would definately get the extra coverage, but it sounds like your 
deal is keeping the machine in the "disposable" range.

--
Kyle Accardi