Dell Inspiron 5100

We are a repair shop that have 4 5100 series Dell laptops sitting around here. Uncanny that all four of them (and we've seen more of them go through here) all with exactly the same problem...freezing up.

Of course we've tried all the remedies; changed ram, cleaned out the fan/heatsinks, set atop a 3-fan cooler, swapped processors, etc.

People, educate your kids. These corporations are not your friends and little in the line of ethics over profits.

Any one of us (or our now-educated offspring) can certainly build better junk.

It is my opinion that this is yet another model of corporate junk as the probability of all these having exactly the same issues is nil.

It's manufacturer defects.

As i just got this laptop for free last night for doing networking work for friends, they gave me their old laptop, so i was happy to take it as i haven't ever owned one, so it is bulky, but oh well, im going to get another battery second hand that is in excellent condition off ebay as this laptop has been sitting around for ages.

It came with a d link wirelss g card for the PCMCIA slot but part of the cover part is off, so the pcb board is exposed, anyway im thinking of just getting a mini pc card since it has wireless capabilities built in. This came with a decent case too, but will need to air that out.

Overall im just puttin XP Pro on now and totally redoing everything, may upgrade RAM, see what happens.

The Dell Inspiron 5100 was given to me by an elderly lady as she got a new later model laptop. I upgraded the RAM from 256MB to 1GB which is the max imum it can take. It didn't come with a WiFi module(been looking for one though) but it works fine with a USB one. The battery life is great for a 4yrs + equipment. Looking to upgrade the HDD from 30GB to 120GB(have found a compatible one by Western).The screen is ok(no problems). The fan cuts in and out wellThe only bad thing is that it has cracks on the lid hinges and body, the AC adapter heats up badly but it hasn't burnt out or blown yet apart from that its ok. I have got 4 Dell laptops, sold one that is a later model to the 5100 but I will never part with this.

Is there anyone who had similar problems with the screen ; turning on but the inverter isn't working , i can see the logging screens "windows xp", but the screen is extremely darkened .

Also I tried to access settings through BIOS but it seems most parameters can't be changed, one of the problem I had with wireless was it was switched off in BIOS, I got it working now... but for how long and if it happens again how can I solve once and for all the problem.. anyone for an idea please comment me..? For now I do not recommend Dell Inspiron 5100.

It does, at least, work. You have to keep it up on blocks (for airflow) and forget about going anywhere with it as it overheats before the battery life is even an issue... keep it at home, don't recommend this dell inspiron laptop.

Personally, I'm in a love/hate relationship with this thing. usually love wins. I can run a gamut of programs on it at the same time doing memory-eating activities (firefox, winamp, trillian, photoshop, painter) with no problems with them working or bogging down my machine. However, it will make the inspiron overheat if you don't keep your fans cleaned. I also had to get a usb fan thing by targus to assist my fan. speedfan is also running my fan on 100% most of the time.If you can't keep up with the maintenance on the fans, don't buy this machine.

Excellent computer when it works.

I bought the Dell Inspiron 5100 with a 4 year next-day fix-or-replace guarantee, with XGA screen, WinXP Home, 60GB 5400rpm HDD, 512MB RAM, CD/DVD-RW, all for £1100. It was delivered in 2 days. It's never given the slightest problem except for a software one which the Dell helpline were still good in helping me solve. I then ordered a second power supply (to leave at work) for a mere £24, a larger battery for £50 (one for my previous Sony was £200!) (which now gives me an average battery life of 5 hrs yet still recharges in 2 hrs) and a port replicator which included a further charger (for my second office!) for £55. These were also delivered in 2 days.

I suppose I could gripe that I had to reduce the icon size on the XP setup they'd provided, but I have to dig that low to find anything other than 10 stars.

The sales office is appalling.

I wished to change the spec 1 day after purchasing, and was advised that this would be OK. Guess what, 1 week later then advised "too late". Sales office will repeatedly promise evening delivery, free upgrades etc then will be unavailable due to poor health. Call centre supervisors are unavailable due to ill health.

Delivery will be advised as evening delivery by a carrier that does not do evening deliveries. e-mails will be 'read' but never ever replied to. Everything will be promised but never carried out. Buyer beware.

My specs and price were great: P4 2.66, 512MB ram, 60gb hd, 32MB raedon videocard, SXGA screen, CDRW/DVDROM for less than $1500 American.

My computer was great for about 4 to 5 months, then it would get really hot and shut off with no warning even doing processes of just moderate processor intensity such as web browsing. I intitially fixed the problem my raising the computer on two books so the fan could get more air. That worked for a while, but I still noticed a huge decrease in performance. I eventually found my problem desribed on the following pages/forums: http://www.geocities.com/i5100dustproblem

http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=insp_general&message.id=139712

After using the compressed air to dust the fan, I no longer had overheating problems, but my performance still was not up to par. After about 16 months of ownership, my motherboard does not take ac power or charge the battery. So, now 4 months past warrenty, I can either pay $500 for a new motherboard, plus postage and instalation charges (and lose my computer for up to 3 weeks) or cut my loses get a new computer. Considering Dell's customer service and reliability, I will definately be staying away from Dell.

Please do yourself a favor and stay away from Dell!!