Any laptop 'experts' out there?

[Hilary]

I'm looking for some advice about a 'refurbished' laptop I have bought through someone at work.

It's a Dell Latitude CPi about 5 years old. This is the second version of what seems to be the same model that I have tried from this guy who has his own business 'doing up' these machines. The first one had a faulty fan and he exchanged it, no problem.

This machine has two bays (hope that's the right word), but the battery is only recognised in the right hand bay, which means I can't use the floppy or CD rom drives at the same time as the battery as they all interchaneg into the same bay - meanwhile the left hand bay sits idle. Surely that can't be right? I know the original (faulty fan) machine worked with the battery in the left bay and the floppy / CD drives interchanging in the right bay.

I've asked for a refund as it seems to defeat the object of having a laptop if it's limited to mains use with either floppies or CD- roms. The guy is okay about giving me a refund, but says he'll have to deduct delivery charges as, technically, there's no fault with the machine - I'm just changing my mind about it.

Any views appreciated.

 

[Muppet]

I would say its faulty but to on the safe side I will ask my chap who has a computer business who deals alot with refurb machines/laptops etc.

I'll ask him as soon as he comes in.

 

[Peebee]

It certainly sounds faulty Hilary - I would certainly expect the battery to charge in the main slot and not just in the 'extra' module bay.

Here's a suggestion for you to try - place the battery in one of the bays, then go into the system setup screen when you turn the laptop on - press <Fn><F1> to activate this as the machine boots up. The 3rd screen should then tell you if it recognises the battery, and how charged it is. Compare this with the other bay, and you should then have some pretty conclusive evidence that things aren't as they should be. If it isn't charging/recognised in both bays I would say it's faulty and that you're entitled to a full refund!

Take a peek at this link on the Dell web site to get a better idea of what you should be looking for : http://docs.us.dell.com/docs/systems/pmojav/en/en_ref/Setup.htm

Paul

 

[Hilary]

Thanks for the feedback

Paul - I don't have the machine at the moment. Unfortuantely, all this came about just before we went away on holiday and I'm trying to decide on my course of action now that we're home.

The whole thing came to light because the machine wasn't recognising the battery in the left bay, so the guy thought the battery was dud and replaced it for me (even though I told him it wasn't recognising it, not that there was no charge in it) - that made no difference, so he said there was probably a hardware conflict and he'd have a look at it for me. I left the machine with him and then he called to say the battery was fine, it just had to be in the right-hand bay (which I hadn't tried because the previous machine worked with it in the left bay - am I confusing you? LOL).

So.... I e-mailed him from Heathrow before we flew out (!) to say I wasn't happy with that and would like a refund (which he'd offered when he thought the battery was at fault). I knew my return warranty would expire whilst we were away, so had to make a quick decision if I wanted a refund. When I later checked my e-mail, I found his reply saying that there would probably have to be a charge deducted from my refund because the machine wasn't faulty.

I'm sure there was something wrong, but I just don't know enough about laptops (never had one before) to be sure of what I'm talking about!

 

[Peebee]

Oh dear - it sounds like quite a saga, doesn't it ?

I think you're right to ask for the refund if you're not 100% happy. As for them deducting a charge because the machine isn't faulty - well that's obviously not the case. If the battery doesn't charge in its normal slot that kind of gives it away, doesn't it?

I'm pretty sure things like the sale of goods act are on your side here, so i'd simply ask for a fully-working replacement or a full refund, and perhaps ask why you should have to be inconvenienced by their faulty goods?

Fingers crossed it gets sorted quickly.

Paul