Well, I changed my mind. I had another nice little online chat with Dell support, and will be sending the laptop back again to get the motherboard replaced. I found information on exactly what is wrong with it here. A tab on a plastic panel damaged some solder connections holding a thirty cent chip on the board. I'd fix it myself, but that would void my warranty.

In short, there is a design flaw between the motherboard and case. The mini pci cover underneath (below DVD/CD drive) and labelled 'C' has plastic tags in the centre and any pressure applied to the underside of the case - for example when picking up the laptop by the front left corner - causes this cover tab to press on a motherboard IC (chip) and eventually fracture the solder connections or maybe damage the chip itself.

Wonderful...

IF YOU HAVE A 5150 - FOLLOW THESE GUIDLINES

Within Warranty Period

1. Remove the cover labelled 'C' and using a sharp Knife, remove the centre plastic tabs flush to cover. This will stop them pressing onto the motherboard chips and damaging your MB!!

2. If it's too late and you have the power cutout problem already then send it back under warranty, get your MB replaced and cut off the cover C tabs to prevent it happening again

I've already cut the damn tabs off, so hopefully after the motherboard replacement it won't happen again. The part that's causing all the problems:

Great design there, Dell.

Posted by alan to geek at 11:09 am PT | Link | Comments

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1 Comment »

Comment by Kourtney

2007-06-04 16:02:35

Just to let you all know I have this problem with my laptop and it has been out of warranty for 2 years. However i just contacted Dell because I was furious at this issue and they are fixing my computer at NO COST. I was surprised because I was pretty sure they would say they would fix it but it'll cost this much. Just wanted to give some hope to you out there who don't want to risk further damage trying to fix it yourself, or simply aren't computer savvy at all.

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