Dell Latitude E5500 - Hinge manufacturing fault

[colacao82]

Hi Guys,

 

I'm relatively new at posting on here. I have been a member for a few years and have always found the information helpful. Hopefully it's now time to return the favour.

 

I work in an upper school with roughly 1400 students. We have around 150 staff members and roughly 50 of them have Dell E5500's.

 

We have had about 6 of these suffer from hinge breakages. The cause? The screws that hold the hinges together come loose over time (teachers opening and closing the lid every lesson when moving rooms) the hinges then start to flex, then snap. The only thing holding the screen to the body is the plastics. Within a few days the plastics also break. We contacted Dell's "fantastic" customer support and they told us it was misuse and the laptop must've been dropped. After an arguement and sending them photos they agreed to repair it under warranty.

 

We have now had 6 repaired under warranty, still having to send photos every time despite previous case references etc.

 

However today I rang up with the same issue and was told that the warranty no longer covered this and that it was 'wear and tear'!!! We can pay for it to be fixed etc...

 

My question is...

 

1. Has anyone else had this issue with Dell E5500's

2. Does anyone know how we can go about getting this recognised as a manufacturing fault?

 

I'm hoping that we can get a list together of schools that have had this problem and hopefully get Dell to see that this is a problem and perhaps even set up an extended warranty for this fault!

 

Thanks for your help.

[plexer]

We had the same issue on Ergo Ensis-S laptops basically the hinges are far too tight which results in destroying the laptop in the same way.

 

Ben

[fiza]

Not directly related but ;

We have had 2 E6400 laptops where the bezel has snapped for no reason (according to the teacher). The first 1 occurred about 4 months ago and we were charged 137 Euro to get a new Bezel (which we had to fit ourselves). 2 months ago another snapped and this time the Dell guy told me it was a known fault as the plastic in the bezel was sub standard and the replacement Bezel would be free.

 

Just goes to show that it depends on who you speak to in Dell. We bought the E6400s about 3-4years ago so it must have been a known fault well before now.

[andy_nic]

Yeah we have this issue with 5400 model, we bought a load of replacement Hinge back pannels, It was a batch of 15 of which 7 had snapped. we have about 30 in total of the e5400 model, only got 1 done under warranty for free

[localzuk]

We have 200+ E5400s which I believe have a very similar case (if not identical) and they have a design flaw with the hinges which Dell refuses to admit. We've got nowhere with them on it and have given up and instead simply replace the lids on them at a cost of £30 a time.

[PICNIC]

Just to add to andy_nic's post (we work in the same school), the batch that was faulty all had service tags ending in B4J and the others of the same model that came in a different batch without the ****B4J service tags had a distinctly thicker hinge at the part that snapped, almost as if they changed the design because it was a weak spot. The replacement hinges were all the thicker design too.

[colacao82]

Thanks for your replies gentlemen. I have since called Dell back and I got through to another guy you explained that it was a known manufacturing fault in a certain period. It explains why some of the same model we brought 6 months after have been fine. It will be replaced under warranty!!

 

I have also been through my records and this is now the 8th hinge repair we have needed and had under warranty. My advice is to not give up and argue the point. If all else fails contact your Dell account managers (If you can ever get through to them!)

[colacao82]

Just to add to andy_nic's post (we work in the same school), the batch that was faulty all had service tags ending in B4J and the others of the same model that came in a different batch without the ****B4J service tags had a distinctly thicker hinge at the part that snapped, almost as if they changed the design because it was a weak spot. The replacement hinges were all the thicker design too.

 

Ours end in B4J!! I had never noticed that before. Thanks Picnic, thats excellent detective work. I love EduGeek members.

[fiza]

Thanks for your replies gentlemen. I have since called Dell back and I got through to another guy you explained that it was a known manufacturing fault in a certain period. It explains why some of the same model we brought 6 months after have been fine. It will be replaced under warranty!!

 

I have also been through my records and this is now the 8th hinge repair we have needed and had under warranty. My advice is to not give up and argue the point. If all else fails contact your Dell account managers (If you can ever get through to them!)

 

As I said it depends on who you get through to when calling Dell Support.

[maark]

We have the same problem with our E5500's - out of warranty so we have had to buy lids for them.

[Arthur]

Most of our teachers have Latitude E6500's, but none have developed the fault described above (fingers crossed!).

[localzuk]

As I said it depends on who you get through to when calling Dell Support.

 

Indeed. One got repaired under warranty before I started at the school here but since that one they have simply stone-walled and refused point blank to replace any others.

[6Foot2]

We have a number of E5500's. I am not aware of this being a problem [none of the users have complained and when the laptops have come in for updating we have not noticed any problems]

 

I will have a closer look at a sample of ours to see if we might be suffering the beginnings of this issue without being aware of it.

[colacao82]

Indeed. One got repaired under warranty before I started at the school here but since that one they have simply stone-walled and refused point blank to replace any others.

 

I think it's important to note what PICNIC said. If your asset tag ends: B4J then it is likely that your laptops are from a batch with faulty hinges. That could be a point for contention with the support guys in India or your account managers.

[difinity]

We have the same problem. Dell laptops have always had issues where the screws come loose. This isn't normally a problem and causes no damage. However when the screws that hold the lid hinge and the screw either side of the screen become loose this introduces play which then stresses the plastic and it snaps.

[localzuk]

I think it's important to note what PICNIC said. If your asset tag ends: B4J then it is likely that your laptops are from a batch with faulty hinges. That could be a point for contention with the support guys in India or your account managers.

 

Ours are all Y3J.

 

We have the same problem. Dell laptops have always had issues where the screws come loose. This isn't normally a problem and causes no damage. However when the screws that hold the lid hinge and the screw either side of the screen become loose this introduces play which then stresses the plastic and it snaps.

 

Yup, exactly that. The ones that come loose seem to depend on which hand the user uses the most to open the lid. If it is a left handed person, the ones on the left come loose etc... We tighten them every time we have a laptop in the office. Dell were trying to say that it is down to user misuse but when you've had 50+ of them exhibiting the issue... We've given up now, as we're half way through replacing the model.

[pinemarten]

We have 240 student and around 50 staff E5500's (all are early 2009, 84J service tag)

Several staff ones have had the broken hinge /lid issue , all have been on the RHS and all so far have been replaced under warranty.

Warranty runs out in 2 weeks though , I think we may get more in the future (no plans to replace them unfortunately)

 

Have to say - cracking laptops though in spite of this , just can't work out why it's staff ones that are affected ??

[jmak]

Doing my favourite thing of resurrecting a corpse of a thread....

 

I have a laptop with this fault:

 

Yeah we have this issue with 5400 model, we bought a load of replacement Hinge back pannels, It was a batch of 15 of which 7 had snapped. we have about 30 in total of the e5400 model, only got 1 done under warranty for free [ATTACH=CONFIG]14139[/ATTACH]

 

I want to do this:

 

We have 200+ E5400s which I believe have a very similar case (if not identical) and they have a design flaw with the hinges which Dell refuses to admit. We've got nowhere with them on it and have given up and instead simply replace the lids on them at a cost of £30 a time.

 

Can anyone shed any light on where I can buy such a thing at that price? All I have come up with so far is US ebay sellers, where the postage is nearly as much as the item.

 

Thanks everyone.

 

Edit: Plastic case isn't broken, just the metal frame as in andy_nic's photo.

Edited April 30, 2013 by jmak

[localzuk]

When I was dealing with this in my previous job, we got them through a Dell reseller - Northgate. Dell would also sell them direct if you were willing to pay by card over the phone, or were prepared to argue with your account manager to sort it out.