Hi. I too have the problem with my XPS Gen 2 notebook with nVidia 6800 Ultra card. The first time it happened (Jan. '07) my 1 yr warranty already expired so I had to pay $199 to service it (includes the replacement video card). The second time it happened on April. Damn the 90-day warranty on the first replacement already lapsed. Since I really love this machine, I have paid to service it again. This time they gave me a $150 discount off the $199 minimum service fee but I had to pay an additional $300+ because they had to replace the motherboard also. Which in my opinion shouldn't be because I believe it was caused by the video card! But what can I do? Nothing. Pay or leave it broken. The third time happened just recently (July). Lucky me it happened within the 90-day warranty period of the second replacement so I didnt have to pay any. But I wasnt happy anymore and asked for a replacement machine. Of course they refused. They said they'll just service it free of charge. But the rep added that if after the same thing happened again then they'll (try to) give me a replacement.
So now I'm set to test this latest replacement and make sure to exhaust the video card asap so I can find out early if it will break (as expected) again and hopefully my case will deserve a replacement machine of a newer XPS model!
I was a fool to pay all the money to service this notebook before but I wont make that mistake again. Next time this happens, all money back or new notebook! And I wont recommend Dell anymore to whoever is interested in buying a notebook.
Same problem, happened 3 times already in 6 months
Hi. I too have the problem with my XPS Gen 2 notebook with nVidia 6800 Ultra card. The first time it happened (Jan. '07) my 1 yr warranty already expired so I had to pay $199 to service it (includes the replacement video card). The second time it happened on April. Damn the 90-day warranty on the first replacement already lapsed. Since I really love this machine, I have paid to service it again. This time they gave me a $150 discount off the $199 minimum service fee but I had to pay an additional $300+ because they had to replace the motherboard also. Which in my opinion shouldn't be because I believe it was caused by the video card! But what can I do? Nothing. Pay or leave it broken. The third time happened just recently (July). Lucky me it happened within the 90-day warranty period of the second replacement so I didnt have to pay any. But I wasnt happy anymore and asked for a replacement machine. Of course they refused. They said they'll just service it free of charge. But the rep added that if after the same thing happened again then they'll (try to) give me a replacement.
So now I'm set to test this latest replacement and make sure to exhaust the video card asap so I can find out early if it will break (as expected) again and hopefully my case will deserve a replacement machine of a newer XPS model!
I was a fool to pay all the money to service this notebook before but I wont make that mistake again. Next time this happens, all money back or new notebook! And I wont recommend Dell anymore to whoever is interested in buying a notebook.