rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA

A saga of mysterious computer problems with my main production computer has finally reached a conclusion, or at least a major tipping point.

My 5-year-old Dell Precision Workstation has been having flaky boot issues for weeks where starting up would not even get to the BIOS splash screen, just sitting there with blank screens. Sunday, in the middle of use, it just went dark, shut down completely, would not reboot.

Thankfully, I believe in extended warranties. The Dell's expires at the end of next week. I spent 1 hour on the phone with Dell Warranty support running start-up diagnostics to the point where I convinced them I had a dead mainboard.

Tomorrow, the on-site tech is arriving with a replacement motherboard and RAM (!!!) to get it up and running again. This is a major issue since a replacement Precision would be in the $2400 to $3000 range.

What A Long Strange Trip It's Been.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Dell’s on-site service can be a Godsend when these types of issues occur. They don’t happen often, but when they do, they can shut down your business and be very expensive (not only repair/replacement, but lost production time) if you’re not covered.

Craigdca Loc: California

Congratulations on the victory

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

That's great! Let us know how it turns out.

AndyBob Loc: St. Louis

Usually things die a week AFTER the warranty expires, not a week BEFORE. Count yourself lucky - consider getting a lottery ticket

JBRIII

I have a laptop acting similarly. I believe it is the hard drive connector. If I reconnect it works then fails again. Plan to clean and recoat connecter.

mikeglaw

It was probably just the ram, and a bios update...glad you had the warrenty! Mike:)

rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA

To follow up and close the loop, the Dell technician came out this morning with the new mainboard, did a quick swap, reassembled the system, and assisted in getting it booted and up and running.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Right answer.

Craigdca Loc: California

Cheers all around Thanks for sharing the conclusion.

bwmarkus

One consideration for using the Dell extended warranty. If you send the unit in for service (common for laptop issues), they will restore the unit to its original configuration. So if you have made any modifications, such as replacing a magnetic hard drive with a SSD, they will return the unit with a magnetic hard drive. The Dell return/repair process is quite efficient, but beware if you have made hardware changes.

As an example, my wife uses a Dell laptop purchased with touch screen and magnetic hard drive. She doesn't need high performance. When the laptop died last year (suspect hard drive failure), I was able to purchase an extended warranty from Dell and send the unit in for service. They returned it in the original condition, and it has run perfectly since.

I purchased a Dell laptop. I do some photo editing, so performance is important. I had a local PC guy replace the hard drive with an SSD. The performance improved greatly, but I no longer needed the Dell extended warranty. Because if I sent the laptop in for service, they would return the unit with the original hard drive, not the SSD.

Hamltnblue Loc: Springfield PA

It’s likely a refurbished board which is typically a board with a new lithium battery.
They stretched you past the warranty. Your hard drive will be next if it’s mechanical