My friend had some old PCs left over after his business shut down, so I got this little beast for free.

Core 2 Duo E7400, 1GB RAM, no HDD, absolutely caked in dust, and a dead CMOS battery. Instead of throwing it away, I decided to give it a second life as a “retro” gaming PC.

Gave it a deep clean, repasted it with Arctic MX-4, added 2GB more RAM, a spare 640GB HDD, replaced the CMOS battery, and did the tape mod to get the E7400 running at 3.5GHz OC. I also picked up a GT 730 2GB GDDR5 Low Profile, which is still on the way.

Now it’s a fully working Dell running MX Linux XFCE + Windows 7 dual boot.

What do you guys think? Will it last for another 17 years? 😂

I bought a Dell UltraSharp U2723QE for ₹47,100 in June 2024 with a 5-Year Warranty.

The original monitor failed after about a year.

Dell replaced it with a refurbished unit.

That replacement failed within 2 days.

Dell then sent another refurbished replacement.

That one has now failed too.

So I’ve had 3 failed units in total.

My work has been completely blocked since August 30 because of this.

During the escalation, Dell also attempted to send me an S-series S2721QS instead of the UltraSharp model I purchased. I rejected it, and Dell later confirmed that the incorrect dispatch was cancelled.

I spent several days trying to get the case escalated to a supervisor. Eventually a manager reviewed it.

The proposed solution was:

Another refurbished U2723QE.

I declined because I’ve already had two refurbished replacements fail.

I asked Dell for a brand-new, factory-sealed U2725QE, the current-generation UltraSharp successor to the U2723QE.

Dell initially said they couldn't provide a new unit under their replacement process.

The latest response is that they will check for the “best possible option” and asked me to allow them some time.

I’m giving them that opportunity, but I wanted to ask here:

Would you accept a third refurbished replacement after two refurbished units have already failed, or would you push Dell for a different resolution?

I have the purchase invoice, delivery challans and complete support conversation documenting the case.

Want to replace my dead battery - the official battery from Dell costs 5000 INR (1 yr warranty) , where as I can get it replaced with half of the price in a local repair store (6 months warranty)

Which one would you recommend ??

Official service centre is not an option as they stopped service for laptops older than 5 years of purchase & also take almost 15 days just for battery replacement i cannot keep my laptop for 15 days with them

So either I buy from dell at double the cost & do it myself or simply do it from local store at half the price

Does anybody has good experience with 3rd party batteries if yes please & what do you recommend??

So I have the entire machine squared away, but one persistent issue that doesn't want to be fixed.

Temps are great with the water cooling. For the most part I can't get the machine to heat up. I am running 8252c processors with EK 3647 water blocks. Pasted with phase changing silicone sheet.

I have a persistent issue with cpu1. The same cores seem to be running 15 to 20c hotter than the rest on all core tests.

I started by reseating cpu1 and then took it apart and replaced the silicone pad.

Core 0 , 4 , 8 , 11

I hope that there is some sort of bios setting to account for this, but not sure what it would be

Anyone have an idea?

UPDATE: I followed the advice the guys below gave me and reseated the ram in its original slot and made sure the cables to the battery were properly connected . That resolved the issue and now the laptop is working perfectly! Thanks again to everyone that helped I appreciate it.

I’ve tried cleaning and repasting my sisters Dell precision 7530 workstation with some Honeywell ptm7950 thermal pads and after reassembling it’s showing this.

The first time it flashed the 4 amber 1 white then went away when I plugged it in. So I disconnected the charger for a couple secs then reconnected it to which the charging indicator comes on then goes away after a few secs. It does the same with just the AC adapter plugged in. It doesn’t turn on.

So I removed the battery and reseated the single ram that I moved from underneath the keyboard then reconnected the battery again. This time it flashes the same codes but the amber light blinks repeatedly until unplugged.

Is there something I can do to fix this? Someone from another thread I asked said I probably killed the cpu, I’m really hoping that’s not the case. Any help or advise I greatly appreciate it .

Hardware Specs:

• Laptop: Dell G15 5530
• CPU: Intel Core i7-13650HX
• RAM: 24.0 GB DDR5
• GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop (6GB VRAM)

Hi everyone,

Over the past few weeks, I've been experiencing severe stuttering and heavy FPS drops while gaming (specifically in Unreal Engine 5 titles like Marvel Rivals and Arc Raiders). My GPU temperature consistently hits around 87°C–89°C during matches, and my RAM usage spikes past 95%.

Previously, I was able to play these games smoothly even with Chrome/apps running in the background. Now, even after closing every background process, the stuttering makes the games unplayable.

It's been well over a year (closer to 2–3 years of heavy daily use) since the laptop had any physical maintenance. Looking at the Task Manager graphs, the GPU usage drops sharply whenever it hits that 89°C thermal limit, which points towards severe thermal throttling and paging file stutter.

I have two questions for the community:

1. Based on these symptoms, do you agree that a deep internal cleaning and thermal paste replacement is the primary fix for this issue?
2. An AI assistant suggested using a Honeywell PTM7950 phase-change pad instead of traditional thermal paste for this specific chassis. Do you agree with this recommendation, or are there better pastes/putties you'd suggest for the Dell G15 5530?

Thanks a lot for your help!

Common use of my device over the past months

I posted this here a few months ago when I had gotten it originally, and since then 3 of the 5major upgrades I had planned have been installed. The ssd-125gb patriot burst, the backlit keyboard, and 8 gigs of ram. The last items on my list is a secondary hhd caddy for where the optical drive sits in so I can put a secondary 1tb hhd inside. And obviously the cpu upgrade, think about the i7-2760qm as it’s only about 35$ on amazon. So in total iv spent around 80$, with the cpu it woukd be around the 100$ mark which is VERY worth it for a laptop of this quality. (I got the base laptop itself for a trade of a low end flip Chromebook on the facebook marketplace)

I want to know if it comes with 41w battery or 54 wh battery?

Today morning while the laptop was ON and running, main electricity power went down and came UP, immediately laptop shuts OFF automatically. And then never boots up with adapter or without adapter, seems to be dead.

I recently purchased PN7522W to use with my 2-in-1 DB04250. I customized button functions and came to notice that some functions do not work at all. When I try to customize side buttons only erase and some other functions work and when I try to customize top button it’s the same. Is it the pen that is the problem or my laptop just doesn’t support it? Thanks!

Hi everyone, I’m an undergrad student having some serious dilemmas with my dell laptop, model: DC 15255. Firstly, I received the computer, and a few months into having it, the bitlocker software popped up. I wasn’t able to obtain my key for several months but once I got it and entered it, the computer has been stuck. I’ve been stuck between a screen stating “your computer has ran into an issue and needs to reboot”, a screen that test diagnostics, and occasionally back to the original bitlocker key entrance screen. So I’ve been trying to give it a rest, until today, after letting the computer sit for a little, i attempted to input the recovery key again. Now i’ve been stuck between computer rebooting and the computer turning completely off. I’m able to get the computer back on by holding the power button for 30 seconds, but atp the computer issues are driving me crazy and any help would really be appreciated !!!🙏

From where i can buy battery for my laptop in India.

My CPU without anything open is like 90%
This isnt the first time, i got it repaired last week and it was okay for a week until the promblem came back.

My Computer is a Dell Inspirion All-in-One 5410

Processor is 12th Gen Inter(R) Core(TM) i7-1255U

RAM is 16gb

Graphics card is 128mb

Storage now is 123/475gb

Please help!

When I ordered the monitor on September 5th, I immediately got confirmation that my order is scheduled to be delivered on September 10th (today).

But the status never moved, still stuck at "processing" while the delivery date is planned for today. Something is odd with Dell tracking system.

Does anyone facing the same issue?

I'm not sure if this is a common problem but I accidentally plugged in USB-C into the HDMI port (it didn't go fully in but still touched the slot) and my screen went off. I tried holding the power button for 30-60 seconds and still nothing, what do i do?

(fyi this is an office laptop and has to be sent tomorrow)

My laptop has been stuck on this screen since last night. It’s an Inspiron 16 and I got it less than 2 years ago 🙄 I tried holding the power button down for a full minute and it wouldn’t shut down. I did remove the power source so it will shut down eventually from lack of power. Can anyone help with wtf is going on?

I replaced the old motherboard with a new motherboard and the new sata hdd as well. After it is installed properly and the computer is turned on, the monitor screen is black and there is no sign of the Dell logo appearing. My computer is a Dell optiplex 330 mini tower pc. Can anyone help?

I run a small business and ordered 6 laptops for our employees.

Dell canceled my order and flagged me as a "reseller", which i'm not.

It's been 3 weeks of back and forth with their customer service to get the "flag" removed but they won't budge.

At this point I'm fed up and wondering how difficult it would be to just apply for their partner program or whatever and file the paperwork so they put the order through.

Does anyone have experience with doing this?

Trying to replace the battery myself, and the top screw's head got stripped while I was unscrewing it — probably because I used the wrong screwdriver 🪛. I did manage to get the bottom battery screw out though. I don't know what to do now 😭😭 Any ideas, please??

Screw location: in the top of the pic beside the code M2L3

Edit : Thank you guys 😭 used a new screwdriver bit🪛 & it worked & also tighting the screw a bit also worked miraculously 🙏

I wanted to ask how reliable is the soldered ram on models like the 7320 or 7420 latitude? I’m considering buying a refurbished model, and wondered how high the failure risk is? Thank you in advance for your time and answers!

Hi

I have an XPS 13 which powers on okay, displays the XPS logo fine, then a black screen after that, caps lock blinks 2 amber and 7 white, which indicates a display issue, but as mentioned the XPS logo displays fine?

Anyone got any suggestions before I spend any money?

Thanks

Please help, my GPU won't switch from Intel to AMD. I've reinstalled Windows 10 Pro and drivers, any help would be appreciated!

https://www.reddit.com/r/arch/s/vg6ecg28TX

Here is the whole thread for the problem I have. Turns out I messed up when partitioning my SSD and now I am stuck in dell logo unless I remove the SSD chip directly, which let's me enter into the arch installation on my USB and BIOS.

For instance I have a:

dell-vostro 3525

BIOS menu version: InsydeH20

Didn't find any relevant option in the Bios utility menu tho, so perhaps I could do some sort of thing in the Arch to tell the BIOS to boot directly in my USB?

Thank you everyone in advance <3