Bad Dell Service Experience Or "Reseat Touchpad Cable? Take Apart Whole Laptop!"

Background: Take this post with a grain of salt. On the whole, I have liked Dell Computer Corporation. I like the way that they make documentation and and drivers easy to get to and install. I like their Dell Diagnostics utilities and partition, which can help in troubleshooting (the Ultimate Boot CD is great for computers without diagnostics utilities). I own a Dell OptiPlex 740 at home and work with Dell Latitude D620, D630, E6400, and E6510s at work, as well as Dell PowerEdge servers, PowerConnect switches, and PowerVault storage. However, we have had more problems with the Dell Latitude D620s (with nVidia graphics more than Intel integrated graphics) than with any other model (D630s are a close second). I have the impression (perhaps faulty) that the Latitude D600 and D610s were very solid and newer Latitudes have been less so. At home, I use a Samsung NC20 netbook because the geek in me wanted to try the Via Nano processor (versus the Atom).

Story: Yesterday a new hire's laptop's touchpad buttons were acting up sporadically. One or both buttons did not work or buttons functions were swapped. Originally when I set the laptop up, I saw this problem, updated the Touchpad driver and considered it fixed. I gave the new hire an identical replacement laptop with the original drive and went about troubleshooting. Given idle time (to cool?), the laptop was behaving at my desk. After some time working with it, the problem started to crop up. Use and/or stress testing seemed to help uncover the problem.

Finally able to reproduce the problem, I set about contacting Dell Support using their Chat Support. It seemed like this problem might take a while, and I didn't want to hold the phone to my ear for a long time. Also, I wasn't sure I could articulate the problem well over the phone (perhaps paradoxically, how much harder is it to explain over chat?). Around 1:30 PM CST, I try to connect using chat and see this message: "Welcome to Latitude Chat Support Queue is closed/ or all agents are busy. Note: service lines days of and hours of operation: Monday 5am thru Friday 9pm CST; Closed on Saturday and Sunday."

At some point, I was given the option to initiate e-mail support and did. I tried Chat support again at 1:50 PM and got through to "CLKsmb" support. After 20 minutes of explaining, the agent was about to set up a replacement touchpad to be sent when the agent decided I needed to be "transferred" (his words -- this is chat, not a phone call) to the "correct department that supports your account", ie "ProSupport". The chat ended after 30 minutes. To troubleshoot, the agent had me boot into Windows Safe Mode. The problem did not occur. I rebooted in Normal mode and the problem did occur. After using the laptop some more again, I rebooted to Safe Mode and the problem occurred. I booted to Windows PE from a USB Flash Drive and the problem occurred. I let it sit then rebooted to Normal mode and the problem wasn't experienced.

Over the course of the chat with the ProSupport agent, it was implied that the problem might involve improper cable seating. Not wanting to leap before I looked, I asked and had confirmed that I was to reseat the keyboard and touchpad cables, so I endeavored to take the laptop apart. This was my first Latitude E6510 (or E-series for that matter) to take apart, so I didn't have experience to lean back on. I've taken apart many Latitude D-series laptops, for fun and for profit as they say, and I'm Dell certified in their Fast-Track Support program. It was through taking apart the laptop that I was to learn a couple of strange facts. First, to get at the touchpad ribbon (some call it a flat flexible cable), I practically had to take the entire laptop apart (!!). The laptop is layer-deigned and (on the plus side) many things are accessible with the removal of a single screw (memory, WWAN, fan and heatsinks, modem, wireless, WiMax, etc) . Second, I found that many parts (speakers, fingerprint reader) were connected to the motherboard using ribbon connectors (some call them flat flexible cables). In my mind, this is a step backwards, as these cables are delicate and the cables can slip and make unreliable connections if not connected properly. To me, it seems silly to have to take apart most of the laptop (possibly including removing the heatsinks and fan) to perform a more routine replacement. The keyboard was easy to get at and reseat though. In the time between, the agent never checked on me, and the chat disconnected me.

After waiting, I contacted chat support again and got a very good agent who finalized the issue with me in short order, sending over a replacement keyboard and palm rest (the pointing stick buttons were acting up as well and are part of the keyboard). I never received word about my e-mail request and finally heard back from the second agent, 3 hours after the request was finalized.

Maybe I am being overly critical. Maybe thin flexible cables aren't bad. And maybe the passing around experience is coloring this post. This one experience will not change that the company will continue to rely on Dell products for Information Technology. I do wonder about some design choices made though.