Korean Job Discussion Forums

hogwonguy1979 · Joined: 22 Dec 2003 Location: the racoon den

Well I got the dreaded 7 beeps while trying to startup my Dell Inspiron m5030 laptop. Went out to Shindirim to their walk in center and they told me it was a processor failure. Thing is they didn't tell me how much it would cost or how long it would take to fix. They said they would email me the details

If anybody has had something like this happen, tell me is worth getting fixed (its 2 years old and out of warranty) or should I just start looking for a new laptop?

ttompatz · Joined: 05 Sep 2005 Location: Kwangju, South Korea

Unless it is (was) a top-of-the-line i7 I would just strip out the HDD and get a new laptop. (I am aware that the M5030 was actually just an entry level, budget laptop - 2 years ago).

A repair (change of CPU) would be in the range of 100k -150k won (depending on CPU type) and get you perhaps 2 more years.

Also, as with most 2 year old laptops, you are soon going to have battery issues (portable desktop anyone) and need a replacement (100k won) or be plugged in all the time anyway.

A replacement laptop (middle of the road (i5-3210, 4gb RAM, 500gb HDD)) would cost about 500k and be current generation.
http://english.gmarket.co.kr/challenge/neo_goods/goods.asp?goodscode=283118567&pos_shop_cd=EN&pos_class_cd=90000002&pos_class_kind=T

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hogwonguy1979 · Joined: 22 Dec 2003 Location: the racoon den

thanks tom, i've just gone through 30 pages of discussion about this problem on Dell's forums, it seems quite common for this model, a lot of people are pretty upset. Looks like Dell will repair them for free out of warranty but it also appears the repair won't hold for long. So I'm not sure if its worth it.

Anybody got a rec for a place in yongsan or ipark to buy one or any recs for a model? I was around there earlier they said they would get me windows in english and transfer my hard drive data etc over (I bought ms office when I bought the computer I really don't want to shell out money for that again)

Swampfox10mm · Joined: 24 Mar 2011

Bought a Dell for my mother-in-law. It was a lemon, too.

Processors rarely fail. If they are having lots of troubles, then it's probably a heating/cooling problem in design. That or a mainboard with voltage issues.

In either case, I'd take out the HDD and cut your losses.

There was a Samsung with Intel I-3 and FreeDos on Enuri.com for about 400,000. Almost bought one, but wife decided to stick with a desktop. I'd get that and find a license for Windows somewhere.