[tbppjpr]

Originally Posted by sandeepmohan

I thought of prying open the laptop, the initial part of which is easy. I soon realized that getting down to the keyboard is an absolute nightmare and requires pulling out the motherboard.

But that is the only effective solution, maybe you think to do it on some free day with the assistance of some tutorial videos!

My niece had keyboard issue with her i3 Asus laptop where keyboard was already replaced a year ago. She thought same issue again and will have to replace the keyboard. She approached me before handling it to technician, I opened up the laptop and found some sticky dust between keys, membrane and the circuit board, cleaned it and it started working again. Though closing the laptop back turned out bit tedious task but I finally managed to do it.

Opening up your model maybe be different than the one I opened up, but still patience is the key, or maybe you think about getting help from some hardware technician.

[StepUP!]

After much deliberation bought Dell Inspiron 5418 from Dell exclusive store - i5 11th gen, 16GB ram, 512GB SSD, Windows 10 and Office pre-installed.
However, very much disappointed on second day of purchase. Windows activation started showing error stating it isn't activated, use valid key. Office started crashing.
When called up Dell support, they said it's to be fixed by dealer and they can't help. Dealer tried factory install but same error.
I am getting a feeling, I am duped for 70k. Very much disappointed with Dell. Dell support and dealer pointing fingers at each other.
Will file a case in consumer court if this doesn't get solved.
Meanwhile, any one faced such issue?

[mvadg]

Originally Posted by StepUP!

After much deliberation bought Dell Inspiron 5418 from Dell exclusive store - i5 11th gen, 16GB ram, 512GB SSD, Windows 10 and Office pre-installed.
However, very much disappointed on second day of purchase. Windows activation started showing error stating it isn't activated, use valid key. Office started crashing...

There is a service tag (number) attached to each Dell laptop. (see sticker at bottom of laptop) Enter this tag at the Dell support site and reinstall everything. If this method does not work, you can think of taking legal action etc. Dealer technician is either lazy or just incompetent. Good luck.

[anandhsub]

Originally Posted by StepUP!

After much deliberation bought Dell Inspiron 5418 from Dell exclusive store - i5 11th gen, 16GB ram, 512GB SSD, Windows 10 and Office pre-installed.
However, very much disappointed on second day of purchase. Windows activation started showing error stating it isn't activated, use valid key. Office started crashing.

I had bought a Dell 7000 series last year and while the windows worked fine the Office was not working.

Took almost a 2 hour conference call with both Dell and Microsoft support to resolve the issue by downloading Office afresh and entering a new key. Not sure what's going to happen in case I format my laptop and have to install Office again.

However while the Dell support weren't able to solve the issue on their own they atleast transferred it to Microsoft who were able to verify I had bought Office and provide me with a new key. I am surprised Dell didn't involve Microsoft support in your case.

[y2k]

Originally Posted by StepUP!

After much deliberation bought Dell Inspiron 5418 from Dell exclusive store - i5 11th gen, 16GB ram, 512GB SSD, Windows 10 and Office pre-installed.
However, very much disappointed on second day of purchase. Windows activation started showing error stating it isn't activated, use valid key. Office started crashing.
When called up Dell support, they said it's to be fixed by dealer and they can't help. Dealer tried factory install but same error.
I am getting a feeling, I am duped for 70k. Very much disappointed with Dell. Dell support and dealer pointing fingers at each other.
Will file a case in consumer court if this doesn't get solved.
Meanwhile, any one faced such issue?

This is unheard of. Are you sure this was not a refurbished laptop or a demo piece? Ideally the warranty might not cover this. However, Dell Support should entertain this. As long as an unique license is assigned to your system and on formatting your system it would still stay if it was a valid license key. I would suggest it is worth checking with Microsoft. While they may not be liable yet they can provide clarity on how the licensing will work and what is the best approach. Using that information when you communicate with Dell or the dealer, you would have an upper hand due to the fact that what you speak is coming directly from Microsoft support so the dealer or customer care can't take you for a ride like they usually and unfortunately do in India.

Originally Posted by anandhsub

I had bought a Dell 7000 series last year and while the windows worked fine the Office was not working.

Took almost a 2 hour conference call with both Dell and Microsoft support to resolve the issue by downloading Office afresh and entering a new key. Not sure what's going to happen in case I format my laptop and have to install Office again.

However while the Dell support weren't able to solve the issue on their own they atleast transferred it to Microsoft who were able to verify I had bought Office and provide me with a new key. I am surprised Dell didn't involve Microsoft support in your case.

It is great to hear that your problem was resolved. I don't think formatting would actually be a problem. I bought the office 365 subscription by myself although the primary reason is that my over priced gaming laptop didn't include office subscription but I have come to understand that this is a much superior approach as the subscription (monthly, at present) is tied to my microsoft account and that way I own the license which I can choose to use on a different machine as long as I login of course constrained by the limits of concurrent usage as per the plan.

[CarML]

Screen replacement and upgrade to SSD on my HP laptop

I want to share my experience of dealing with a broken screen and eventually upgrading the storage as well.
My 5+ year old, sparingly used HP laptop was working fine till a day, when all of a sudden, the screen started showing vertical lines.



I did some research, spoke to authorized HP stores and learnt that screen needs to be replaced. A new 16 inch screen would cost anywhere between INR 10 to 13K. The laptop was also very slow and hence it got me thinking - Is it time to upgrade to a new laptop? I was offered INR 5K as exchange bonus for the existing one. However, I was disappointed to see that cost of most new laptops was north of INR 50K for decent configuration (i5 or more). I looked up details on Chromebook, but not convinced that it would be the best choice. Given that current usage is only for my kid's online classes and occasional browsing, buying a new laptop didn't make sense. I decided to just get the screen replaced.
I visited the HP store in my area. As luck would have had it, the store was closed. While I approached my scooter thinking of going to another place, I saw this local mobile and laptop repair shop. I promptly went in and enquired if they could fix the problem. Within 10 minutes, the guy removed the screen and fixed what looked like a brand new screen. He showed a demo before tightening the screws. I was impressed by his quick service and asked about the make of the screen and the cost. He said that it was a refurbished HD screen and would give it to me for 5K with 1 year verbal warranty. .
I decided to go with it. I also complained about the slowness of the laptop. He proposed to remove the HDD and upgrade to an SSD instead. I agreed and the job was done in another 30 minutes.
He provided this casing for my old HDD with an USB cable to connect. It can now be used as an external hard drive. All my old data is safe.



Cost break-up:
Refurbished HD screen: 5K.
New 256 GB SSD: 4K.
Casing for HDD and labor: 1K.
Total: 10K.

I was relieved that I made a good decision to fix and keep this laptop. I have been using it for over a month now and it works perfectly. HD screen is really nice to look at. With SSD, boot time is about 15 seconds as against 2 to 3 minutes in HDD. Overall speed of apps and internet browsing have greatly improved as well.

I would recommend this "jugaad" to anyone experiencing slowness of laptop.

[W.A.G.7]

I have a Lenovo IdeaPad 330s (Core i3, 8th gen, 1TB HDD, 4GB RAM) purchased a few years ago. While the laptop is okay overall for casual usage, one persistent problem (from day one) is disk utilization. It is almost always at 100%. I have searched online forums and disabled quite a few services, startup items, search indexing, etc. Yet the laptop almost always feels like it is gasping and struggling to open even basic software like MS Edge or Windows explorer. Right-click any icon and it takes almost 10-15 seconds for the context menu to show up.

This is now getting so downright irritating that I feel I should replace the laptop with something better. A lot of people have reported the DU problem for Lenovo laptops, in fact, I saw many complaints of the same problem for IdeaPad 330 laptops.

Do you guys have any suggestions on what can I check for the 100% DU problem? The task manager shows the symptoms as an overall, but none of the services, in particular, show a relatively high disk utilization as compared to other services.

[mvadg]

Originally Posted by W.A.G.7

I have a Lenovo IdeaPad 330s (Core i3, 8th gen, 1TB HDD, 4GB RAM) purchased a few years ago. While the laptop is okay overall for casual usage, one persistent problem (from day one) is disk utilization. It is almost always at 100%...

You could try disabling all unnecessary services, especially search indexing. Best is to reinstall Windows 10 and use a debloat script to slim down your windows. www.christitus.com has videos on youtube and scripts you can use. There are plenty of other debloat scripts, but I think this guy has combined many of them. Try to understand what you are disabling or removing, otherwise you may be left wondering where to look when something does not work. Start with just disabling search indexing - the most likely culprit.

[NetfreakBombay]

Originally Posted by W.A.G.7

1TB HDD, 4GB RAM.... disk utilization. It is almost always at 100%.

Most probably, laptop is running out of RAM and is using HDD as RAM.

To validate, open task manager and check memory usage. What value do you see ?

[tbppjpr]

Originally Posted by W.A.G.7

I have a Lenovo IdeaPad 330s (Core i3, 8th gen, 1TB HDD, 4GB RAM) purchased a few years ago. While the laptop is okay overall for casual usage, one persistent problem (from day one) is disk utilization. It is almost always at 100%.

If no hardware issue then Windows and antivirus are the root cause of such problems in computers having traditional HDD. If want to stick with Windows, install SSD and increase the RAM to 8GB.

If not willing to spend a penny, which is not necessary either, then just install Linux OS and live happy.

One of an old laptop at my home was bought in 2007, its got dual core AMD CPU, 2GB of RAM and old 160GB HDD. Currently its being used by one of the niece at home for online studies. You can imagine how the today's Windows will behave in a 2007 laptop with such specifications. I installed Linux in it and the laptop got new life again.

All of my computers and laptops have Linux in dual boot configuration along with Windows where Linux stays as my main OS and Windows is used for few odd apps and gaming.

[Akshay6988]

Originally Posted by W.A.G.7

I have a Lenovo IdeaPad 330s (Core i3, 8th gen, 1TB HDD, 4GB RAM) purchased a few years ago. While the laptop is okay overall for casual usage, one persistent problem (from day one) is disk utilization. It is almost always at 100%. I have searched online forums and disabled quite a few services, startup items, search indexing, etc. Yet the laptop almost always feels like it is gasping and struggling to open even basic software like MS Edge or Windows explorer. Right-click any icon and it takes almost 10-15 seconds for the context menu to show up.

I upgraded my laptop (The Laptop Thread: Configs, deals & questions) with 256gb SSD which has same model and specs as yours. I have never faced this slow response issue till now post the upgrade. You can read my post that I've linked. Also if you can, please upgrade the RAM as well. I feel for casual usage, you should not spend money on a new laptop, as upgrading ram SSD will work out much cheaper.

[NGM]

Has anyone tried buying online from Apple retailer
https://itechstore.co.in/

They seem to ship pan india with good discounts.

[Engine_Roars]

Hi Team,

Need your advise.

I have a hardly used lenovo Ideapad(U310) - It is core I5 - 4GB RAM & 1 TB storage. It was bought some 5-6 years ago. Have not used it for various reasons(have office laptops, other personal laptop etc.). I am in need of another laptop for basic personal usage(Emails, browsing, banking etc.). Lenova's battery is gone, it has windows 7 installed & looks like has problem with the operating system too. I am not an expert but it boots very slow, hangs, restarts etc. etc.

I have two options,

1. Get this repaired, get a new battery and use it.
2. Buy a new one & see if this can be exchanged.

I am in favor of getting this repaired but I am not sure if it is a wise decision as what I understand it will need 7000-10000 INR including a new battery. A new laptop will be some where in range of 60000-70000 INR. Please help.

[NetfreakBombay]

Originally Posted by Engine_Roars

It is core I5 - 4GB RAM & 1 TB storage..... boots very slow, hangs, restarts etc. etc.

1. Get this repaired, get a new battery and use it.

I would recommend getting it upgraded. Your estimate of 10k is about right.

1. RAM 8 GB : 3k
2. SSD 256 GB : 3.5k
3. Battery : 4k


Risk : There might be some issue with other component like CPU / Motherboard etc (restart / hang) and upgrade might not fix that.

In my opinion, this risk is low and adding RAM + SSD should fix things.

[Engine_Roars]

Originally Posted by NetfreakBombay

I would recommend getting it upgraded. Your estimate of 10k is about right.

1. RAM 8 GB : 3k
2. SSD 256 GB : 3.5k
3. Battery : 4k


Risk : There might be some issue with other component like CPU / Motherboard etc (restart / hang) and upgrade might not fix that.

In my opinion, this risk is low and adding RAM + SSD should fix things.

Thanks for validating. Yes, it is a low risk & worth trying option. Next up is how to find a trustworthy service outlet.