Inspiron 3510 & 3511, hinge defect

Last year I bought an Inspiron 3511 laptop. The LCD screen broke after 2 months, and I had to pay for repair as it supposedly wasn’t covered by the warranty. I had no idea why it failed so paid £166 for a repair.

In January one of the screen hinges locked solid, and Dell repaired it under warranty. I now believe that the root cause of the original fault was the stiff hinge which caused the rather flimsy LCD to bend and break while being opened. Dell have refused to refund me, and I’m stuck in a loop between ‘One Dell Care’ and ’Dell Tech Support’ who both insist that this is an issue for the other one.

Come on Dell, not good enough. This loyal customer is looking elsewhere next time…

@JohnnyW66​ We have had at least 8-10 defects with these laptops dating back to last year. We opened in a new market and rolled out 6 of these laptops to those stores. Within a month or two we had reports of bad screens. I believe each store since has had to get a replacement.

Our entire office, warehouse and stores have been primarily Dell products. This is the first time in my 16 years here we have had anything like this happen with any vendor.

Here is an example of one recently that I replaced just last week. They all have the same issue(s).

I have an Inspiron 3511.  Purchased Nov 2/2022.  Two hinge failures in year one fixed under warranty.  Bought another year of warranty because I know it will happen again.  The hinges are screwed into plastic on the lid that keeps dislodging if the hinge tension is too tight.  Poor design in the interest of reducing weight - more plastic less metal.  Complained I was paying to extend warranty to cover design flaw.  They gave me a $50 Dell coupon.  Now there is a crack in the base which I'm sure developed during repair. "Sorry. I can refer you to the Out of Plan Team".  Next time it gets repaired, I'll use a magnifying glass to inspect for hairline cracks.  I've been a Dell user since the 1990 316LT.  Never ran into poor quality like this.  I have a 14 year old Dell Inspiron 1545 that is sturdier than this Inspiron 3511 and still works with W10.  Too bad I can't run W11 on it. I'll never buy Dell again.  My trust in their products is as weak as the plastic holding the hinges.

@macphedjd40e76​ We have also used primarily Dell since I took over tech at the company in 2008/2009. From basic desktops to complete SAN's and switches/firewalls. No more. This should be a recall, I am not paying to extend the warranty (did this once for the repair) just for it to come back anyways. Man hours for setting up replacements factors in as well. We are migrating to Lenovo for workstations moving forward.

Well, another one bites the dust. Great job Dell, your products are junk!

Also, in case anyone is reading this with our issue, Lenovo has been what we have been migrating to and so far their devices seem to be working great.

Dell Inspiron 15 3520. Same problem here also But my bad luck warranty expired. In recent time i have seen many reviews and opinion from different people hinges is a common problem in Dell Laptop. If problem occurs within warranty period he/she are happy.if warranty expired he/she is unlucky guy.It is a faulty product by dell in recent times. many models common problem is hinges.Dell must replace it free of cost for all its customers.

Even office laptop have same issue.In my team we have seen 6 replacements by dell. Only Hinges.Nothing else.

Hello Dell Respond and resolve the issue to all your valuable customers.

@JustinR2024​ I have exact same issue with Inspiron, 6 month hinge broke. Now sending it for repair.  No more Dell for me, I am not interested wasting my time and money on repairs. Looks like Dell has not learned the lesson or they simply don't want to redesign the product. 

I had two broken laptops. Dell service is very poor they should accept the design issue and  consider the out of warranty laptops and fix it. No more Dell laptops for me.

@Pradipsp​ I have this same problem with Inspiron 3511. The rigth hinge is broken. This laptop was purchased in may-23. The failure was in june-24 and Dells warranty is over!  We´ll have to pay $95 USD now and possible be broken again in a few months. 

I had the same problem. My 3510 hinges broke twice.  Once in warrantee and once not.   I read somewhere that some better hinges are available so I will find them, fix the 3510 up for my wife and continue to use my robust 5640.   If anyone knows of better hinges let me know.

Here is what it looked like new with a gap at the screen-base connection and my duck taping job.

Oops, taped

A good video for a fix:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsVWQoaZNls

Just happened this morning on my wife's Inspiron 15 3000. Laptop was left opened last evening, so I gently tilted the screen back a little so I could see a bit better. I heard something snap, and also the rim around the right side of the screen flipped off. The keyboard ceased to work momentarily, and now when I attempt to close the laptop, I find a strong resistance which gives me the impression if I do close it, something else is going to break. This unit is just a tad bit over 2 years of age. A super start to the day!  :-)