This article is about desktops, though. However, I know exactly what they are talking about because we have about 40 of that model at work that had bad motherboards (the capacitors would leak.) The repairman said even the replacement motherboard would have the same problem eventually. But they did fix them and extended the warranty on them.  Here's another article about it.

Also at work, we had about 100 of the same model laptop purchased in different years...a set of about 60 had battery trouble, and they were only a year old...but just over a year, so the batteries were out of warranty! Dell refused to replace the batteries...but then we found out that there had been a fire at the battery factory, and the batteries in our laptops were actually crap batteries that Dell had to hurry up and find so they could ship out their orders on time. We also found out that these batteries had been recalled, but the recall was canceled because it would have put the company that made the batteries out of business, basically. It was a big old mess, and eventually Dell replaced our batteries for free...but it took about 8 months for it to happen. Yay Dell!

Edited By: Nicks Twinkie 07/24/2010 1:40 AM. Edited 1 times.