Erm MY laptop (sorry for similar title)

[Gale]

right, so about MY laptop... first of all, the "J" key fell off ages ago, and i have no idea how to put it back on. I've been typing without it. or if i need to, i press in the little stub thing that's left. I'm not even sure if i have the key anymore... its been months...


ANYWAY, the real problem is that the monitor keeps shutting off and freezes up the computer. if i move or anything and touch the monitor, it freezes, if i don't open the monitor to the righ angle, it never starts up, if i try to shut it, it seizes up, if i adjust the power cord, it freezes.. its impossible to deal with. and everytime it freezes, its an even bigger hassle to get it started back up. also, with the power cord... even if its all the way plugged in, it sometimes says its on battery, and i have to fidget with it. minor issue, but since I'm ranting...

anyway, no idea what to do, or if i can do anything. best bet to send it back to DELL? if i send it back, what do you think the odds are of getting it back before i start school in late august?

Thanks for any advice!

 

[robphy]

anyway, no idea what to do, or if i can do anything. best bet to send it back to DELL? if i send it back, what do you think the odds are of getting it back before i start school in late august?

Thanks for any advice!

Hopefully, it's still under warranty...

It seems it's not very useful to you now. So, I'd suggest that you go ahead and send it in. [Back up your data first.] You might try to let them know that you need it back by then... maybe set that deadline a few weeks before. In my experience, Gateway was accomodating when I sent mine back in for some minor repairs... although there was a not-so-funny comedy of errors on their part. I have no experience with sending things back to Dell.

Your laptop symptoms sound pretty severe... internal frayed wire?
[For future reference] What model is it?
If you google it [on the web and in the groups], you might find what others with the same problems have done with it. With this information, maybe you can even make a case that this model is simply defective... and try to get an upgrade.

 

[BicycleTree]

You could hook your laptop up to an external monitor and keyboard. My laptop keyboard also has keys missing, and I dropped the laptop's screen onto something pointy some time ago, so that's what I do.