Yesterday, my laptop locked up hard. So hard, it wouldn’t turn on afterwards, but flash an error code. Unfortunately, Dell hides the relevant information very well - it took me some time to find in the forums that the error code means bad memory.

After removing the memory module from slot B, I could turn my computer back on again. So either the module is dead or the mainboard part related to it.

I bought my laptop second-hand in the US last year, and warranty probably is just over. Still I wanted to make sure that this isn’t covered by warranty anymore, so I tried contacting Dell support.

What a pain. No reply yet to my mail inquiry; and the “support chat” doesn’t work right. Their support agent always asks for my phone number (WTF?) and then after some minutes says he’s going to disconnect because I don’t reply.

I wonder if they ever tested their support chat with Gecko-based browsers.

0 out of 5 stars for Dell support so far. Important information is inaccessible and the support doesn’t reply in either email nor chat. It’s not even giving bad replies.