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Gadgets Canadian Customers Sue Dell Over Notebooks
Michael Hoffman (Blog) - January 15, 2007 3:49 AM

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29 comment(s) - last by Samus.. on Jan 16 at 8:14 AM

Dell is once again heading back to court over defective notebooks

A group of Canadian Dell customers is taking the company to court alleging the Dell Inspiron notebooks they purchased are defective. Specifically, the lawsuit applies to the 1100, 1150, 5100, 5150 or 5160 Inspiron notebook models. The lawsuit claims the computers are susceptible to overheating and possible motherboard failure, but Dell decided to offer the notebooks even after knowing of the issues, according to the plaintiffs. Also, the plaintiffs further claimed that the problems often occur following the expiration of the one-year Dell warranty.

Dell hasn't publicly responded to the pending litigation or the accusations, due to corporate policy. The Ontario Superior Court, which is where the class-action lawsuit was filed, will most likely take several months to determine if the litigation qualifies for class-action status.

"We've been working on the case for the last few months, pulling together the statement of claim and investigating the problems and lining up experts and that kind of thing," said Joel Rochon, partner at Rochon Genova LLP. There have not been any reports of fires or any type of personal injuries from the notebooks, Rochon said.

The plaintiffs want Dell Canada to either replace the defective models or pay for the necessary repairs.

Last year, Dell was forced to recall more than four million Sony-made laptop batteries because they could overheat and potentially catch fire.

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How offen it happens

By JordyMorty on 1/15/2007 8:09:52 AM , Rating: 2

Me, my brother and two of my close friends have 4 Dell 5150 and two of them died because of wide spread mother boards issue and that probably killed 2 AC as well...

We are all in Europe, but I guess it is same all around the globe One of the machine is bought in USA and all are 2+years and out of warranty of course... And MB cost 250+ if you are lucky to get one at eBay...

When one machine died it killed MB,CPU,AC and Video Card as well so it very costly to repair such machines!

Apart of this they are very powerful (in any mean machines) up to 3,2GHz with Hyper Threading and hi-resolution screens 1600x1200 extremely convenient for application development...

J.

RE: How offen it happens

By dennisjr42 on 1/15/2007 9:49:24 AM , Rating: 3

If you buy a 3+ Ghz P4 for a notebook, you are asking for heat problems. (I guess you could say that about all P4's)

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RE: How offen it happens

By poohbear on 1/15/2007 10:02:52 AM , Rating: 3

huh?!? if i buy something retail from a massive, well established company im "asking for problems"??? are u for real?

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RE: How offen it happens

By dennisjr42 on 1/15/2007 10:15:13 AM , Rating: 2

Just look at the facts about the P4. It is an exetremely power-hungry chip that keeps even well ventilated towers nice and toasty. I do not care who makes the notebook, it is going to be extremely hot. I'm an not saying that every one is going to have problems, but more will than notebooks featuring a cooler processor. Do your homework before you buy.

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RE: How offen it happens

By RMSistight on 1/15/2007 11:23:11 AM , Rating: 2

Seriously. P4s are among the worst in heating issues. We've had Dell Optiplexs with P4s overheat on us. Had to replace the power supply. It's a good thing the company purchased the Gold Technical Support. Never EVER buy Optiplexes unless you have some way of properly keeping it cool. Even the TECH that came to replace the power supply (I could have done it myself but he had the replacement part and it was free because of the Gold level tech we purchased) told me NOT to buy Optiplexes. Of ALL the Optiplexes he's fix, the number one problem was heating issues. He personally didn't care because he has job security from the Optiplexes...haha.

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RE: How offen it happens

By StevoLincolnite on 1/15/2007 8:28:55 PM , Rating: 2

A friend of mine Bought a Dell Laptop with a Pentium 4 M 3.2Ghz. Not only did the battery only last 2 minuets, It was noisy! The fans were constantly humming, and you couldn't seat the laptop on your lap for a prolonged period of time.

Yet I baught my Acer Aspire 1680 Pentium M 1.6Ghz Over clocked it to 2.4Ghz And the fan still only kicks in once every 5 or so minuets, And thats only 1 fan in my acer...

About a year and a half after he bought it, The plastic started melting, The Pentium 4 M, Was actually beginning to become a permanent house heater, And the Power bills reflect this! Eventually the fans died in the old Dell Pentium 4 M Laptop, So he then stuck a frying pan on top of the machine, and started cooking meals, Why not have a heating and a cooking device in 1?

I was jealous, It had more features than my cool and quite Pentium M! Shame on Intel!
And because the Fan had died... Or melted still unsure on that one, Its still a ball of melted plastic, But you could see the world PRESSHOT Shining through the plastic, Like a 400 Watt light bulb. So... He had a Heater, Fryer, AND a light!? So not cool... That was until he showed me the power bill, 1500 hundred bucks! I almost fainted.

Ever since he showed me that bill, I have stayed away from anything related to the netburst architecture.

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RE: How offen it happens

By yacoub on 1/15/2007 1:18:51 PM , Rating: 2

Then by that logic, they shouldn't be selling it.

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RE: How offen it happens

By nishalfurtado on 1/15/2007 11:49:29 AM , Rating: 2

I have been a victim too. MY Dell Inspiron 5160 died on me after a year and a half. Dells laptop works fine in the one year warranty period after that it died in few months. I found out the motherboard's not working. Who will pay for it now? Next time investing on a companies product will makes us to think. My moneys gone in the drain.

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Notebook cooler?

By RMSistight on 1/15/2007 11:18:48 AM , Rating: 2

To all the people with overheating issues, don't you guys understand the concept of using a notebook cooler? This is why I never have heating issues. I keep it cool all the time. I never want the internal fan for my laptop to break. I'd rather have my $20 Antec notebook cooler break vs. my entire laptop being dead.

RE: Notebook cooler?

By rtrski on 1/15/2007 12:00:01 PM , Rating: 2

I agree with you any savvy user will realize that putting the laptop on their actual lap, so its trying to suck air thru your jeans, is bad news.

But then again I see the point of those who indicate that the mobo maker should anticipate a LAPtop being used on a LAP, and design accordingly. Or at the least put big annoying warning stickers everywhere on it and in the manual stating "do not block intakes".

They should've done their thermal design better if overheating is that much a characteristic of the design (throttle the processor down sooner, add a heat alarm, auto-shutdown at a lower temp, etc. etc...all of which would no doubt lead to other complaints, but keep the HW itself alive) because as fans and HS's get gummy with dust, and flexure risks 'breaking' the thermal bond between packages and sink surfaces, it only gets worse.

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RE: Notebook cooler?

By MrPickins on 1/15/2007 2:34:09 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
But then again I see the point of those who indicate that the mobo maker should anticipate a LAPtop being used on a LAP, and design accordingly.

That's why almost every manufacturer refers to them as "notebooks."

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RE: Notebook cooler?

By yacoub on 1/15/2007 1:20:13 PM , Rating: 2

No, it should be built to function properly WITHOUT additional cooling.

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RE: Notebook cooler?

By RMSistight on 1/15/2007 2:20:13 PM , Rating: 2

Well if you use your laptop WITHOUT a laptop cooler, you risk your own laptop from being fried. I never chances because with ALL electronics, things do fail. And plus this is cooling for a notebook. You can never depend on the internal cooling itself. Gotta take extra precautions. My notebook cooler does a good job of removing the heat so my internal fan doesn't even need to run to begin with. Added cooling from my cooler means less moving parts; less moving parts creates less heat; less heat means a longer life for your notebook.

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RE: Notebook cooler?

By Kougar on 1/15/2007 10:18:47 PM , Rating: 2

My Antec laptop cooler did break, specifically one of the fans wore out in just one year of use.

A few months later, the laptop gave up the ghost as well due to heat from prolonged use, even if temperatures were only 55c on the CPU under load. It turns out there was an issue with the motherboard where after extended use the thermal sensors begin to malfunction, shutting down the laptop because it thought it was "overheating". It was still under warranty, thankfully, but they had to replace the mainboard+GPU to fix it.

Don't you understand the concept that it doesn't have to be overheating due to abuse to fall under this lawsuit? ;) According to the tech to first serviced it, this is a major issue with Dell laptops just over 1 year old that he works on.

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How Many?

By Felofasofa on 1/15/2007 7:13:07 AM , Rating: 2

Anyone know how many in the group? Numbers would seem to have some relevance in this case.

RE: How Many?

By crystal clear on 1/15/2007 10:06:20 AM , Rating: 2

Rochon said there has been a "steady flow" of people bringing their problems to his firm, which has done a number of class-action suits.

"We've been working on the case for the last few months, pulling together the statement of claim and investigating the problems and lining up experts and that kind of thing. "

"So, I would say there's a large number of people out there who have been experiencing these problems. Time will tell, in terms of the exact numbers."

http://www.canada.com/topics/finance/story.html?id...

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Improper Usage?

By Goty on 1/15/2007 10:47:46 AM , Rating: 2

It wouldn't surprise me in the least if half of these cases come from sitting these laptops on carpet or on a bed cover or something similar and blocking the intake for the chassis fans. My parents have owned a Dell XPS notebook for more than a year now and have had zero problems with heat (and we're talking about a machine with a Geforce Go 7800GTX and a fairly hot processor).

RE: Improper Usage?

By protosv on 1/15/2007 11:14:23 AM , Rating: 2

I think the problems with these models has to do with chassis design, which in turn affects the cooling. Since Dell builds their XPS notebooks specifically to be a desktop-replacement, they design the chassis to accomodate a hotter CPU/GPU and other parts. The XPS models are very large and heavy though. These models are (supposed to be...) a tad lighter and more portable, so cooling will become a greater issue with these.

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my e1505 heats up

By Comdrpopnfresh on 1/15/2007 11:29:04 AM , Rating: 2

after coming out of resume the fan will not run, whether the cpu's are maxed or not. I've accidentally reached nearly 70 degrees celcius.

RE: my e1505 heats up

By Oregonian2 on 1/15/2007 1:41:20 PM , Rating: 2

FWIW - Garden variety electronic components (called "commercial grade") are g'teed to meet their specs up to 70C ambient temp (meaning the parts themselves may be hotter due to self heating). Components that require heatsinking (significant power dissipating parts) usually are die-temp "rated" and usually they're good to at least 100C (things like power diodes to as much as 150C), although sometimes it may have a lower spec. Special components like LCD displays may be different as well. If you look up the spec for your cpu at it's mfgr's site, you may be able to tell if 70C is anywhere close to it's spec. If it concerns you anyway. :-)

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The 5150 is HOT

By jeffmilwak on 1/15/2007 3:11:06 PM , Rating: 2

Here's a word from a geek in the States: Don't try to use a laptop to perform a desktop's work. Now, guess who DOES NOT follow his own advice. LOL. Try and haul a full-size XPS tower, flat screen monitor and keyboard around a busy campus. Better yet, DON'T!

A couple years ago, I purchased a 5150 - fortunately with a three year complete care package - for my son. Late last year, the MB was replaced; it just bit the dust. Now the whole unit is running hot and is nowhere near its 3.0ghz speed. Yes, we had one of those cool pads but it broke also - and never got replaced. Some dufus stepped on it.

After reading this thread - which almost mirrors a similar thread on Dell's own site - I called my son and asked him to spec out a couple of alternatives. His campus is about 51/48/1 Dell, Apple and "IBM" mostly dependent upon major.

Laptops generally don't have a long, useful life span. However, I've been forced to use a few antique Latitudes that should have been trashed a decade ago. Those puppies are S L O W .

RE: The 5150 is HOT

By NoSoftwarePatents on 1/15/2007 11:22:56 PM , Rating: 2

My Inspiron 8200 has been trouble free, other than me replacing the cooling fan after the warranty expired, as it starts into year five. I expect to keep it around for another 2-3 years before I replace it...with another Dell laptop. At some point, the batteries may die, and I can accept that.

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Also in the US

By crystal clear on 1/15/2007 9:35:40 AM , Rating: 2

Dell settled a similar lawsuit in the US over one of the models, and litigation involving the other four is under way.

More on the way elsewhere.

Or just but the warranty...

By atwood7fan on 1/15/2007 11:16:54 AM , Rating: 2

I just want to know why none of these people bothered to upgrade their warranties in the first place; if they had this wouldn't be a problem as dell would replace their "bad" motherboards

I'd buy another Dell laptop...

By NoSoftwarePatents on 1/15/2007 11:35:59 AM , Rating: 2

I have an Insprion 8200, and I bought it in 2002 with a 3 year warranty. Now, it wasn't problem free, as they included a refurbished DVD-ROM drive even though I bought it new, and I had to ultimately replace it three times (all free of charge). Last year, one of the two cooling fans died, so I went on EBay, bought a replacement for $15, and then using a Dell repair manual, I easily fixed the laptop myself.

Since you can't repair most laptops, I'll take another chance with Dell when laptops get closer to 2.8 Ghz (Core 2 Duo) or better.

me=lucky

By tacoburrito on 1/15/2007 3:44:38 PM , Rating: 2

My Inspiron 5150 wouldn't power up last week and since it was bought from Dell Business, it got a 3 year warranty. I doubled-check the warranty online and it said I got 17 days left. I immediately called dell and they send over a technician with a replacement MB, and now everything is fine.
I guess I'm one of the few lucky ones, but Dell should definitely replace all those notebooks out of warranty if they knew that the MB problem will be widespread.

only Dell overheating? I think not

By drew571 on 1/15/2007 8:06:56 PM , Rating: 2

I have a dead Toshiba P30 again with a 3.06 ghz P4. If you google it there are some heat issues involved with this piece of 'puter too...

It's about time!

By Trippytiger on 1/15/2007 8:15:00 PM , Rating: 2

My family has an old 1150 that developed overheating problems barely after the warranty ran out. From a cold boot, it usually lasts about 30-45 minutes before shutting down. This occurs when the laptop is on a table and the system fan is running full tilt (controlled by I8kfanGUI) during light duty (internet, email, etc.), and processor temperatures reported by I8kfanGUI are well within safe ranged (below 45C, if the temps are accurate). I think some other motherboard component is overheating, but since there's no sensors available to me beyond the CPU and hard drive, I can't say for sure.

So, for those of you immediately rushing to blame the owners for using their laptops improperly, why not stop and consider that maybe, just maybe, this indeed a serious design flaw, and Dell's fault.