Chez Shaffner

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

While I’m Ranting…

Since I’m in kind of a rant-and-rave kind of mood, I thought I may as well share another gripe...

I bought my laptop (Dell XPS M1210) in August 2006. So it’s not quite six months old. This afternoon, I moved from the couch back to my desk and plugged the AC adapter into the back. Up pops a warning message:

“Your battery is able to charge normally. However it is reaching the end of its usable life. You can experience a longer operating time with a new battery. You might want to consider purchasing a replacement battery now.”

And then, to add insult to injury…

“A normal characteristic of a rechargable battery is that its operating duration decreases over time. The battery may eventually need to be replaced. Based on this characteristic, consumed batteries may not be covered under warranty.”

And finally, a button that takes you directly into the Dell accessories catalog. $197 for a replacement that probably will last me another six whole months.

Can you believe that? The battery has a six-month life expectancy? Yet I had the same ThinkPad for almost four years in my last job and never once replaced the battery (the screen had to be replaced twice, but that’s another story).

This strikes me as ripe fodder for a class action lawsuit down the line… Apparently this is not an isolated issue. This link discusses the same situation for other young laptops.

Phew, I feel better having these rants out of my system. Tomorrow I’ll get back to more fun-filled musings...

5 Comments:

At 6:56 AM, Michelle said...: I just got the same message on my ~10 month old XPS M140. I just spent some time with the online chat tech support at Dell, and they are sending me a replacement battery. So there is hope!
At 7:28 AM, Anonymous said...: got it on a brand new latitude D630, 1 day old.
At 3:12 PM, Eric said...: I have the same message on my Dell Precision M90. This laptop model is a required purchase for all students in my school. I know at least 10 other people who have the same problem. We all purchase our computers around the same time and none of them are more than 14 months old. Never had this problem with an older model Inspiron that lasted me nearly 5 years.
At 8:17 PM, Anonymous said...: I work on PC's for a living. I have encountered this error message on almost every brand new Dell Studio and Inspiron I have seen in the last month. Most of these laptops were less than 4 months old. And in Imaculate condition. I believe this to be a defect in the MB or sensor and/or the related firmware/software that has been incorporated in these dells. I get this error on no other brand of laptops. Some of these laptops still have the protective peal off plastic on them! WTH DELL!
At 12:43 PM, Anonymous said...: My warranty went out last month, after one year I got this same message even though in that year I have only used the battery about 4 times....

I also did a search on google and Amazon.com shows they carry my XPS M1730 battery for about 60 bucks.

I can't believe that dell sells the battery for XPS for over 100 bucks more than Amazon.com for the same battery. Dell sucks. =/

This is my second issue with the XPS, after 6 months my burning drive went out...=/