Broken USB plastic tongue: Should I use my warranty to change the whole motherboard?

[geo909]

Hi all,

I broke the plastic tongue of a usb port on my E6330 dell latitude. The laptop is still under extended next-day warranty and they told me that they can send a technician to my place to fix it right away. So, free and no shipping.

My problem is that they told me that the fix involves changing the whole motherboard. It's something that I'd normally avoid. If I had to pay money or get an amateur to fix it, I wouldn't even remotely consider it. However these are supposed to be pros, doing it for free. That said, I'm still sceptical about it since it involves quite a bit of pulling out plastic parts, cables, removing the screen, attaching the fan, applying paste, etc, etc.

What would you do if it was your laptop? Would you advice me to live with one less port, or should I take advantage of the warranty and leave a technician play with the motherboard?

Thanks a lot.

 

[Gingerbread]

Personally I would let them change the motherboard. That means a new motherboard, which if I am lucky will last an extra year or so. They won't damage anything, if they do, they have to change it, again.

 

[Geekwad]

Definitely send it in. Just be sure to fully back up all your data before it goes in.

 

[aldan]

by all means take advantage of the warranty.dell wouldnt send an amateur on this job.worst scenario is if they totally screw it up you likely get a new computer anyway.i wouldnt hesitate to have them fix it.

 

[geo909]

Thanks guys, I'll go on and use the warranty then.

Also, I asked the dell person on the phone whether the motherboard will be a new one and his reply was:

"The part is labeled as “refurbished” but they are not used parts. The reason why we cannot use the word “new” is because the parts arrive to us on a pallet with hundreds of parts, and are not received individually in the OEM packaging. Rest assured this is not a used part though."

I don't have a reason to doubt that this is the case, right? I guess I'm just being paranoid here, but doesn't hurt to get an opinion.

 

[Gingerbread]

No, you don't have any reason to doubt them. Their reputation is more expensive than a single motherboard. Only problem you might experience is up to 30 days to fix the problem unless you have some of those quick options in warranty.

 

[geo909]

@gingerbread Great thanks. There will be no delay, I have a next-day kind of waranty.

 

[Gingerbread]

Then go for it, Dell's customer support is one of the decent ones still.

 

[geo909]

Well, either dell or the dell techinician screwed up. The technician came and he replaced the motherboard. After that the HDD would not show up in the BIOS. The HDD itself is perfectly fine, and I tried another good one; none is detected from BIOS. The technician told me that the MB is faulty and it is indeed used (unlike what the representative told me, so one of them doesn't know better).

Now, the HDD is inserted easily from the side:

When the techinician left, I removed the HDD, removed the plastic cover from the HDD and inserted it again without the cover, until I felt that the pins clicked in. Sure enough, the HDD was then detected by the motherboard.

Note that I didn't really put any pressure to the HDD while doing it, so I don't think that the pins on the MB are loose. My (admittedly uneducated) guess is that the MB was not aligned properly with the plastic case.

The dell technician (who again came to my home) called the dell people who asked to speak to me on the phone and adviced me to send them their laptop, so I'm waiting for them to send the box. In the meanwhile, what do you think happened? Is my guess about the motherboard not being aligned properly reasonable?

 

[darky26]

Not sure what could be the issue. You would have a working laptop in your hand just not sure how much time they'll take to fix it.

I think refurbished means that they have fixed an issue with a faulty component and then when it is working fine they use it replace when a problem arises in another system for the same component. You can call Dell and check with them. as far as I remember they used to provide new replacements only within 21 or 30 days of purchase. after that you normally get a refurbished part.