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General discussion

Dell Inspiron 3558 laptop question

Aug 21, 2018 9:08PM PDT

I have a Dell Inspiron 3558 laptop which will be 2 years old on October 11, 2018. The other night while I was on Dell.com looking up the cost of a replacement battery for the laptop I ran a hardware diagnostic test called Dell Support Assist. The test took about 5 minutes. After the test was done the test results stated I needed to replace my laptop's HD. The HD which came with the laptop is a Dell 500GB 5400 rpm HD; [ Part #400-ABCT ].

At the end of the diagnostic test results Dell showed the cost for a replacement HD was $149.00 if I shipped the laptop back to Dell to have it replaced by them or for $229.00 a tech would come out to my house or place of business and replace the HD there. Dell's page didn't list a part number for the replacement HD nor did it list the HD's size. Could my laptop's 500GB 5400 rpm HD already be starting to play out with the laptop not even 2 years old yet? The laptop's a low end Dell Inspiron 3000 Series which cost $452.51 almost 2 years ago.


Big Steve
08/21/18

Discussion is locked

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Re: HD
Aug 22, 2018 12:15AM PDT

2 years is well below the expected lifetime of a hard disk.
And, by the way, it's well below the expected lifetime of a battery also, IF (a big if) you run it with the power adapter connected as a rule and only occasionally on the battery.

- You didn't happen to opt for a 3 year warranty? On some Dell's this is offered (and not free).
- Why did you run that disk test? Did you expect any problems?
- Most Dell's come with built-in diagnostics (reachable via some function key, like ctrl-f11, check the manual, at boot). Can you run that for the disc and tell the results?
- Can you make and publish a speccy of your laptop? Go to https://www.piriform.com/docs/speccy/using-speccy/publishing-a-speccy-profile-to-the-web and post the link in your reply.

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Re: HD
Aug 22, 2018 10:03AM PDT

My brother who lives in Texas bought the laptop for me through his company and had it shipped to me here in Mississippi almost two years ago; he's done this three times in the last 15 years. He never takes out an extended warranty; he just never has.

I did the test just to see if anything would show up and after the test was over the results were and there was only one; to consider replacing the laptop's hard drive. Now I will plead guilty to keeping the laptop connected to it's A.C. adapter a lot because I have been known to be on this laptop for more than 4 hours at a time especially during bad weather and also during hurricane season since I live at almost ground zero when Katrina made landfall near here on August 29, 2005.

A box has been popping up a lot telling me to connect the laptop to an A.C. adapter; it's been connected; that message is annoying because it has been popping up a lot. I don't know if this laptop's battery is beginning to go bad or if it's the 45 watt Dell A.C. adapter that's beginning to go bad.

The previous laptop I had was also a Dell; it was a Vostro 1520; that laptop lasted almost 7 years and it was nicer and seemed to be better built than the one I have now but the brother decided to start buying Inspirons for his business; he offered to buy me this one and that's how I ended up with it.

I've started looking at Dell desktops for myself because my 12 year old Dell Dimension 3100 with Windows XP is on it's last days. My brother shipped that machine to me back in April 2006; it's time for a new one.

The one thing I do like about this Inspiron 3558 is it has Windows 7 Pro; I've read a lot on this board and other boards about how unhappy owners have been with Windows 10. That's the only Windows OS Dell is installing in their new computers now; no more Windows 7 unless you go to eBay and I don't shop on eBay.

P.S. I never did receive a notification from CNET that someone had replied to this post; I did check the box to track this discussion and to be notified by email if someone had submitted a post.


Big Steve
08/22/18

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Hope this Helps
Aug 25, 2018 4:48AM PDT

Hi,

Tragically while hard drives you buy come with 3 to 5 years warranty the hard drive in the laptop you buy is only under warranty for the life of the laptops warranty. I found this out the hard way with an Acer I owned.

The good thing is you can put in a 2.5 SSD drive (I recommend Samsung) and it will be better & faster than new with a 5 year warranty. If you’re old HD still boots & runs then Samsung have great cloning software that will completely copy your old HD to the new S.S.D.

Simply put the SSD in a 2.5 USB HD case. Plug it into the laptop and run the Samsung software.

This url takes you to a video of what’s involved in replacing the HD
https://www.parts-people.com/blog/2017/03/24/dell-inspiron-15-3558-p47f001-hard-drive-caddy-removal-installation/

They also have good replacement batteries.
https://www.parts-people.com/index.php?action=category&id=141&subid=554&refine=battery

Information I got from a Dell tech. Charge battery to 100% then take off charge. Never discard below 2%

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Wrong word used.
Aug 25, 2018 8:33AM PDT

Information I got from a Dell tech. Charge battery to 100% then take off charge. Never discharge below 2% Lithium Ion Batteries