Dell Studio 15 - 15.4in Notebook Review

I'm thinking of buying this, however I remember a friend having a Dell last year and whenever he went to disable a startup program with msconfig, the change didn't take effect. Could someone let me know if this is some kind of restriction with Dell notebooks? Would a clean OS install solve it?

Thought I'd follow-up my post of 29th December 2008 with an update. The faulty keyboard was (eventually) replaced by a Dell engineer under warranty and I've had no further problems there. However, I've had problems elsewhere.

Firstly, the laptop intermittently refuses to start when not connected to the mains power supply (i.e. when relying on battery power alone), even when the battery is fully charged. Dell have been unable to resolve this irritating issue.

Secondly, when the laptop does agree to start up, roughly one in four times it'll hang mid-way through the start-up process and will have to be forced off (by disconnecting the mains supply and battery) and then re-started. Dell have been unable to resolve this issue either.

And thirdly, Windows Explorer and/or Internet Explorer reports itself as 'Not Responding' pretty much every other time I attempt to use the laptop. I've exhausted my 'self help' options and patience. Dell say this is a software problem, outside the scope of my extended warranty, which they'll only look into in return for a £60 fee. Microsoft say its a problem with the Dell installation for which Dell should be responsible.

All in all, a thoroughly unsatifactory ownership experience. I rather wish I'd kept my old HP Pavilion rather than passed it onto my mother!