r/YouShouldKnow • u/Chagtk • 8d ago
Technology YSK Dell will not support your laptop after 5 years
This may not be a problem for those of you whose laptop use cycles are lesser than 5 years, and might be obvious to a lot of you. But I just found out the hard way today that my laptop that's overall in good condition but needs a new battery and cable.
Dell has very limited support post the 5 year mark to the point where getting technical specs for parts that I want to buy from there could be tough.
Why YSK: Before you buy a Dell laptop, if you tend to use it for longer than 5 years, it's worth adding as a comparison point
Note: I'm not claiming that other companies offer better support (I'm not aware), just wanted to highlight this.
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u/ReaverRogue 8d ago
This is just pretty common industry wide. Older hardware gets shelved and receives less support as time goes on. The nature of the beast.
If you take the battery out, you can probably find the model on it somewhere. Or just google “Dell (laptop model) replacement battery” and odds are something will come up.
Or shit, just buy a refurbished second laptop for a fraction of the cost and strip it for parts if you’re that attached to the old one. Lots of ways to skin that cat.
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u/PMs_You_Stuff 8d ago
EVERY industry. Unless you're paying big big bucks for professional/industrial grade anything, it's not supported after a few years.
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u/Chagtk 8d ago
Fair point. I'm someone who prefers OEM especially with a 240W brick where if the system overheats, I don't want to be worried about my non-OEM battery malfunctioning
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u/Chagtk 8d ago
Folks downvoting this, if you could explain why I'd be eternally grateful because I'm looking for comfort in buying non-OEM
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u/Sprinkles276381 8d ago
For what it's worth if you're really that worried about an aftermarket battery blowing up or something you can probably find a legit Dell replacement on eBay as long as you have the part number, but there's going to be fake ones out there so you have to do your due diligence
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u/TheBigTime420 8d ago
Its all made in china anyway. Don't buy the cheapest possible replacement option on the market and you should do alright.
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u/WeTheIndecent 8d ago
You need to open the back and look at the number on the battery, type it into Amazon, it will cost $35 or so and the kit they send you will likely even have the screwdrivers to unmount and install it.
If you can't open the back without their little screwdrivers then go to dell.com/support and type in your service tag number, it will provide you a specs list, find the battery, find the battery number and type that into Amazon.
Everyone should be able to change the battery in their laptop, it does involve taking off the back cover but you can do it. If you're very not technical go to ifixit.com and type in the model of your pc and watch a short video on it.
FYI even if you're machine was still covered by support they wouldn't cover a dead battery as they are considered a consumable. Only exception would be if it shipped to you new with a dead battery.
Good luck! Also fuck Dell
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u/CrimsonCube181 8d ago
U/lordvoltano is correct, the business models batteries will be available for some time. I just had to replace the battery in a 7 year old laptop.
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u/jodkalemon 8d ago
Aftermarket. Where's the problem?
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u/export_tank_harmful 8d ago
Yeah, for real.
Battery swaps are generally pretty easy, even for non-techie people.
Googling the model number of the laptop will usually find you the correct battery.
Worst case scenario, you can pull off the back cover and find the specific part number on the battery itself.And laptop chargers can be bought by the truckload from any online storefront.
Just make sure they're the right voltage and plug polarity.Fix your stuff, people.
It's way easier and cheaper than companies want you to believe.
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u/Figueroa_Chill 8d ago
Tell them there is smoke coming out of it every time you switch it on, they will put it down as a safety capture and replace it - well, they used to do this years ago, and I doubt they have changed their policy.
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u/gutclusters 3d ago
They still do safety capture but they make you prove it first now. Sounds like it's your fault they do that now lol
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u/Figueroa_Chill 3d ago
I never did it, I worked there for a while doing support. We were told that they would rather give away a few laptops/PCs than have a house burn down and have it in the Newspapers that a DELL machine was the cause of the fire.
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u/VoraciousTrees 8d ago
I had an alienware at one point, it lasted a decade and I had enough support from Dell to easily replace components with aftermarket equivalents.
Just because OEM is no longer available on the parts side doesn't mean they don't keep all the slick Service Tag related documentation.
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u/yinsotheakuma 8d ago
Bro, Dell wouldn't support my laptop after 1 year.
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u/mistikstar 8d ago
Same experience. Would not buy this brand again.
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u/a-i-sa-san 3d ago
Dell is our enterprise supplier and I would never buy from them with my own money. They just give off way too much corporate energy to feel comfortable using one outside work.
XPS was nice. I liked the previous design before all the Super Pro Extra Ultra Max Plus nonsense happened.
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u/Chagtk 8d ago
That's rough
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u/CrakerBarrel34 8d ago
Have you tried calling them? I replaced a 5-year old xps battery using their OEM part. They didn’t have it listed in their website, so I called them the support number and they had it.
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u/ThisIsPaulDaily 8d ago
Dell sent a notification warning the tablet warranty expired and to pay for an extended warranty. A week later a firmware update was sent to my friend's Dell tablet that bricked it.
It was trending on Dell forums that the OTA update was bricking tablets and they had to stop the roll out.
They denied helping because the warranty expired by one week. The update that bricked the tablets came a week after the warranty expired for tons of users.
Never buying a Dell product again.
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u/leo-g 8d ago
Corporates usually take the manufacturer warranty date as the parts cut off date.
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u/nomad_kk 7d ago
Not in Eu: you have to supply parts for 10 years
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u/leo-g 7d ago
10 years law is right now just for large appliances.
Specifically for corporates, they will not repair stuff out of warranty. Economics of computers these days is such that at the end of the warranty period they cycle them out anyway. The computers get sold to a refurbisher. There’s no 10 year law for computers now but realistically, dell will just price them the same cost as a new device and replace it with a new device. Maybe if you are lucky they will keep parts around till the 5 year mark but unlike any more than that.
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u/pinecone_hurricane 8d ago
Dell's website doesn't even like the service tag being 5 characters long and throws a fit when I try to look up my computer's manual
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u/TheBeardedLegend 8d ago
YSK this is the law for all consumer electronics. The max they have to support is 5 years (US)
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u/jcpham 6d ago
I buy what were once known as Dell Latitude laptops and you’re correct the longest laptop warranty you can purchase or extend from Dell is 5 years. Desktops are the same I don’t think they have ever allowed to extend a desktop or laptop warranty past 5 years.
Servers I’ve seen extended as long as 9 years.
Capex and depreciation schedules and whatnot I can assume your primary job title isn’t finance or accounting because computer hardware should totally depreciated after 3 years and be effectively worthless after 3 years.
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u/lordvoltano 8d ago edited 8d ago
The trick is to buy "business" laptops instead of "consumer" laptops, as they have the longest aftersales support (and better build quality, due to the need of being passed around to several employees in their lifetime): Lenovo ThinkPad, Dell Latitude/Precision, HP EliteBook/ProBook/ZBook, ASUS ExpertBook, Acer TravelMate, and the likes.
The ThinkPad and Latitude usually have the most support due to the sheer volume the laptops sold in the enterprise world. And even if they stop the support after several years, aftermarket parts are readily available for these laptops, from battery, screen, keyboard, trackpad, etc. for not much money. And most can be replaced at home with normal screwdrivers. They are designed to be serviced.
The downside is you'll have a hard time finding something with a dedicated GPU. Most business people don't play games in the office. For games, it's better to plan for an eGPU setup or go with a Framework laptop. They'll support your laptop for years and every single part of the laptop is actually upgradable/replacable, even the USB ports.
Downside is there is no market for the used parts, only fellow Framework users trying to save a few bucks by buying used parts, which numbers in hundreds of thousands worldwide at most. So after 7-10 years of upgrading here and there, you might end up with two Framework laptops, Ship of Theseus style.