Bought a dell 8600 from a previous user...MISTAKE

[therick0145]

1.) Okay, I bought this off an eBay user I tohught I knew... apparently he didnt buy the three year warranty with it like he said he did. Machine worked well until I took it to Europe... too much power despite multiple power converters. I believe it overheated one night and now has some heat damage.. the processor fan may not be spinning, the system fan is on but the machine overheats at a much quicker rate than before.

2.) Also, the sound card quit working the night of the incident, the machine has since been formatted for virus reasons and the sound card still gives no sound out headphones or external speakers. I have bought a PCMCIA sound blaster audigy card. Is there any way I can re-rout the onboard sound card to the PCMCIA slot so that my speakers use this new sound card?


So in short, should I pay dell the 200 for replacing my 'z' key, fan, and the possible re-rout; or use a third party store/friends?


Thanks in advance,
-- R. Welch
[email protected] <home address>
[email protected] <work address>

 

[The_Other_One]

I don't know what to say about the warrenty. I guess you really can't trust anyone on ebay...

As for Europe, why did you use converters? First off, if they were power converters, most of the ones I've seen aren't ment to be used over about 45 minutes max, so they could cause problems. However, I would be most anything your power supply is compatable over seas. I know my PDA, digital camera charger, both laptops I've owned, and video camera all came with power supplies compatable with 115/230 50/60Hz input(ie, to be used anywhere)

Maybe try something like speedfan and see if you could manually kick the fan in...


As for the soundcard, are you sure you installed the drivers for it? I don't know what it uses, but XP doesn't have every driver out there you know... And for the PCMCIA card, I don't know of any way to use the speakers unless you rewire them to plug into your other soundcard.

I wouldn't pay for them to do that. I doubt it's simply the fan that's the problem, unless it's just dirty. I serisouly doubt they'd reroute your speakers, probably just try and sell you a new mother board.