Repair or return for whining fan or 6000 notebook 1126

The best strategy is to buy the same model on a revolving basis. For example, purchase an Insp 6000 every 3 months, or bulk-purchase at a discount, then purchase a single laptop a couple months later. That way if an older one out-of-warranty breaks, you simply quote the newer one's service tag to tech support. If you can obtain one of those CDs you can even burn the newer service tag into the older system as an added precaution.

I personally never review the service tag label before replacing a motherboard. Dell's lawyers would probably appreciate it, but hey, if the customer is willing to shell out several thousand bucks to buy multiple dell's, and dell is too cheap to manufacture decent parts then they deserve the warranty support...goes a long way for customer morale, and at the moment that's something in short supply at Dell.

I actually went to a small business call the other day. The owner's just fried it's power supply, and he was desparate to get it running. The computer was 3 months out-of-warranty, but somehow he got Dell to compromise; they mailed him a new PS but they refused to send a tech out.

I was there for a separate call (a dimension 4600) and figured I'd help him out and also fixed his Optiplex. He didnt care about the 4600 and was estatic when the GX260 was fixed. Basically you gotta tear the PS apart to finally get it outta the box, but I enjoy sending pieces of parts back to dell, especially when they're poorly designed access the release latch, almost like the dimension 4600c-4700c).

In the end, he gave me $20 for "lunch", and said he'd try to get Dell to send me proper compensation for my time....sadly $20 is roughly 80% of what I receive for a normal service call, but I didn't mention that to him. Can't complain about an 80% tip (my boss says I'm not allowed to take tips...uh huh)