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Thread: Opening up a Dell...

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    Question Opening up a Dell...

    Hi there, dunno where this should go really, but oh well, if it needs moving move it.


    My folks recently purchased a Dell and, although they were promised adequate cooling by the sales guy, i am beginning to wonder , after what my folks have said is happening, (slow responding, sometimes shuts down by itself) and am wanting to check for myself, by taking the sides off, obviosuly, what i need to know is, does this void the warranty at all, and has anyone else with a dell done this without a problem?

    Please Note - i have already ruled out virus's, trojans, etc and the pc is failry new, a month or so, so shouldnt be having these problems yet, i have adaware, firefox and zonealarm all installed and the latest updates for Win Xp Pro.


    any suggestions/help appreciated


    regards


    Stav

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    radix lecti dave87's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by stavr0s2k3
    does this void the warranty at all, and has anyone else with a dell done this without a problem?

    Yup the moment I got a dell PC for the rents I opened it up, and to my surprise it was well put together. I didn't notice any 'Warrenty void if broken' stickers on mine, so I doubt its a policy dell persue. The cases are pretty simple to open, I don't know how old your parents PC is, but it could be suffering with dust on the heatsink, so opening it up and cleaning the heatsink could help

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    Senior Member Tobeman's Avatar
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    Slow responding on Dells is often caused by them under equipping machines with memory, and adding insult to injury, bundling millions of pieces of software with it that plague the startup times. Those might be worth checking out also.

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    radix lecti dave87's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tobeman
    Slow responding on Dells is often caused by them under equipping machines with memory, and adding insult to injury, bundling millions of pieces of software with it that plague the startup times. Those might be worth checking out also.

    McAffee being the main culprit with its bl00dy privacy service....

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    Senior Member FatalSaviour's Avatar
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    Don't know about the Dimensions, but the Optiplex's have Chassis Intrusion detection enabled by default.
    However, this is easily reset in BIOS, and AFAIK there's no seals that would void your warranty.
    Quote Originally Posted by Noni
    What the hell does "WTH" mean


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    Flat cap, Whippets, Cave. Clunk's Avatar
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    yep, mcaffee security suite is a real killer, as are the shedloads of other applications and utilities they put on...best bet would be to reinstall with the dell windows disc that comes with it, and before you connect it to the internet, get your antivirus, firewall and spyware apps installed and then update everything. how did you rule out viruses/trojans/spyware?
    Quote Originally Posted by Blitzen View Post
    stupid betond belief.
    You owe it to yourself to click here really.

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    radix lecti dave87's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by FatalSaviour
    Don't know about the Dimensions, but the Optiplex's have Chassis Intrusion detection enabled by default.
    However, this is easily reset in BIOS, and AFAIK there's no seals that would void your warranty.
    I think on the optiplex that is to stop employees tampering with the systems, rather than the tech guys performing maintanence on them - therefore it is only because the optiplex is designed for a business environment

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    Thanks alot to everyone's replies, i am sure theres absolutely no resource hogs on it though, and nor is it under equipped, because i made sure i told them which memory to get and theres 1gb in there and room for more, i also know theres nothing bad on it because i installed the latest stuff from a cd i make every few weeks, adaware, hijackthis, firefox, avast antivirus, zone alarm etc, all the necessary scans have been run

    Mcafee crap was removed on recieving it!

    its an optiplex btw, and on having a look a few moments ago, it has a fan thats supposedly for the harddrive (so dell tell me) but its nowhere near it! i think here lies the problem so it looks like we'll have to take this up with dell.

    i have checked the hd with dtemp a very handy free utility that reads smart info from hard drives and this says the drive is at 41 and is in red, so, looks like dell's got some explaining to do....


    regards


    Stav

    thanks once again for everyones input

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    daft ideas inc. scottyman's Avatar
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    have you run hdtack to see if drive is performing correctly?
    high drive temps can be indicative of failing bearings or dodgy motor - generally our drives in SBOD's sit around the 38-40 mark when they're in full use - but then they are 15k cheetah

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    No more Mr Nice Guy. Nick's Avatar
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    How old is the machine?

    Talking to Dell at CPL in Sheffield last year, it's not a warranty voiding offence to open up their machines. I know this cos I asked that exact question and got that answer.

    If you're on the phone to Dell tech support they'll quite happily talk you through fiddling around inside the machine PROVIDED you're trying to install a Dell bought part.

    If you're having trouble installing something that you've bought elsewhere, Dell WON'T offer tech support for that product but WILL offer tech support to get the PC back up and running minus the new part, which is fair enough, eh?

    So go ahead and open her up, though I have to say that a poor build, whilst possible, is unlikely...
    Quote Originally Posted by Dareos View Post
    "OH OOOOHH oOOHHHHHHHOOHHHHHHH FILL ME WITH YOUR.... eeww not the stuff from the lab"

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    I've seen some dells that have a pressure switch under the case, When you remove the lid the switch is released.

    When i fist saw it i didn't think anything of it untill when i came to power it up the BIOS had in big red writting case opened warranty void.

    Strange really as it was about 2 years ago and i haven't seen it since.



    Just thought i'd give u the heads up

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    Cul-de-Sachian sybrows's Avatar
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    I used to support dells as part of an HCI scheme and they are fine with you opening the case, what i would check is that the green exhaust off the cpu is not blocked with fluff (dimension series) otherwise tbh just check the usual bits and bobs after that.
    BrOw

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    Theoretical Element Spud1's Avatar
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    Well if the computer is under warranty, why not just ring up dell and get them to send out an engineer?

    That way you a) Definitely don't risk your warranty, and b) Will get it fixed or replaced for free

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    Now with added sobriety Rave's Avatar
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    41C doesn't sound all that hot for a HD to me.

    I opened up my brother's Dell when he got it (think it was a Dimension 3100 or similar) which was dead easy. I plugged his old hardrive into the IDE channel, moved all his data over, and put it back together with no grief at all. It was neatly laid out inside with IIRC a micro-BTX style layout; there was a seriously big aluminium heatsink on the processor (a P4 521), and it's darn near silent. I must say that I was impressed with it despite myself.

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    Yep, even our Dell 2400s have a nice cooling system on them and are very well built.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Nick
    So go ahead and open her up, though I have to say that a poor build, whilst possible, is unlikely...
    * wonders how much nick got paid to say that

    its true my rents have got a dell, few years old now but its a pretty solid build. id say its the bundled software

    when i upgraded the the hard drive i formatted it with a OEM version of XP, tis quite fast for a 1.7ghz p4

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