If you have the money, premium business class laptops like the HP Elite, HP Z (high end workstation) or Latitude E6/7000 series and the Precision series are designed to be worked on. Some of these have the issues consumer models have like soldered RAM, but there isn’t any stupidity like soldered SSDs to worry about outside of glorified consumer models like the ProBook or Vostro. If you want to be sure, get a premium business notebook and check the service manual to see.
These laptops have almost everything someone looking for a repairable laptop would want - easy component access and high modularity since these tend to be serviced by businesses and bad design like spot welded keyboards isn’t tolerated - but it doesn’t stop them from trying so you need to be careful even though it’s not as commonplace.
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The other thing is Dell is known to have keyboard issues on their laptops that don’t exist on other brands in terms of frequency of failure - but it depends on which model you get that determines how bad it is. For example the E6430 doesn’t have rampant keyboard issues but models like the E6540 do - to the point it isn’t uncommon for the long term use ones to have been though multiple replacements. I’ve been through multiple systems due to persistent hardware flaws with at least 1 keyboard replacement each time. With this one I had 1 fail under warranty and needed to replace it again under warranty (6 total). My 3rd replacement for the surviving system was showing the early signs of failure and I had to send it in for warranty - I’ll probably be on keyboard 4 with it and it will be the LAST one. This one that somehow hasn’t had the severe hardware issues previous ones had, so I think if I can get it under warranty going for 4 is worth considering. I don’t know what it is about Dell, but their laptop keyboards seem to fail at a higher rate then others. The good news is you can generally get away with a backlight upgrade when it happens (for ones that didn’t ship with it) since a lot of the known bad laptops are built with a single flatflex that connects to a PCB on the keyboard. That said, the ones that have it set up where the controller is on the board (generally) need to ship with the backlit keyboard so the connector is present and ones where it connects to the board and has the controller placed somewhere else will need to be double checked for viability of the upgrade.
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The other thing is Dell is known to have keyboard issues on their laptops that don’t exist on other brands in terms of frequency of failure - but it depends on which model you get that determines how bad it is. For example the E6430 doesn’t have rampant keyboard issues but models like the E6540 do - to the point it isn’t uncommon for the long term use ones to have been though multiple replacements. I’ve been through multiple systems due to persistent hardware flaws with at least 1 keyboard replacement each time.
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With this one I had 1 fail under warranty and needed to replace it again under warranty (6 total). My 3rd replacement for the surviving system was showing the early signs of failure and I had to send it in for warranty - when this one fails that's it - I'm not replacing it again.
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I don’t know what it is about Dell, but their laptop keyboards seem to fail at a higher rate then others. The good news is you can generally get away with a backlight upgrade when it happens (for ones that didn’t ship with it) since a lot of the known bad laptops are built with a single flatflex that connects to a PCB on the keyboard. That said, the ones that have it set up where the controller is on the board (generally) need to ship with the backlit keyboard so the connector is present and ones where it connects to the board and has the controller placed somewhere else will need to be double checked for viability of the upgrade.
If you have the money, premium business class laptops like the HP Elite, HP Z (high end workstation) or Latitude E6/7000 series and the Precision series are designed to be worked on. Some of these have the issues consumer models have like soldered RAM, but there isn’t any stupidity like soldered SSDs to worry about outside of glorified consumer models like the ProBook or Vostro. If you want to be sure, get a premium business notebook and check the service manual to see.
These laptops have almost everything someone looking for a repairable laptop would want - easy component access and high modularity since these tend to be serviced by businesses and bad design like spot welded keyboards isn’t tolerated - but it doesn’t stop them from trying so you need to be careful even though it’s not as commonplace.
-
The other thing is Dell is known to have keyboard issues on their laptops that don’t exist on other brands in terms of frequency of failure - but it depends on which model you get that determines how bad it is. For example the E6430 doesn’t have rampant keyboard issues but models like the E6540 do - to the point it isn’t uncommon for the long term use ones to have been though multiple replacements. I’ve been through multiple systems due to persistent hardware flaws with at least 1 keyboard replacement each time. With this one I had 1 fail under warranty and needed to replace it again under warranty (6 total). My 2nd replacement for the surviving system was showing the early signs of failure and I had to send it in for warranty, so I may be on 3 total keyboards with this one that somehow hasn’t had the severe hardware issues previous ones had. I don’t know what it is about Dell and keyboards, but they seem to fail at a rate no other keyboard ever does. The good news is you can generally get away with a backlight upgrade when it happens since a lot of these known problem Dell laptops are built with that in mind by using a on keyboard PCB and a single flatflex cable. That said, the ones that have it set up where the controller is on the board (generally) need to ship with the backlit keyboard so the connector is present and ones where it connects to the board and has the controller placed somewhere else will need to be double checked for viability of the upgrade.
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The other thing is Dell is known to have keyboard issues on their laptops that don’t exist on other brands in terms of frequency of failure - but it depends on which model you get that determines how bad it is. For example the E6430 doesn’t have rampant keyboard issues but models like the E6540 do - to the point it isn’t uncommon for the long term use ones to have been though multiple replacements. I’ve been through multiple systems due to persistent hardware flaws with at least 1 keyboard replacement each time. With this one I had 1 fail under warranty and needed to replace it again under warranty (6 total). My 3rd replacement for the surviving system was showing the early signs of failure and I had to send it in for warranty - I’ll probably be on keyboard 4 with it and it will be the LAST one. This one that somehow hasn’t had the severe hardware issues previous ones had, so I think if I can get it under warranty going for 4 is worth considering. I don’t know what it is about Dell, but their laptop keyboards seem to fail at a higher rate then others. The good news is you can generally get away with a backlight upgrade when it happens (for ones that didn’t ship with it) since a lot of the known bad laptops are built with a single flatflex that connects to a PCB on the keyboard. That said, the ones that have it set up where the controller is on the board (generally) need to ship with the backlit keyboard so the connector is present and ones where it connects to the board and has the controller placed somewhere else will need to be double checked for viability of the upgrade.
If you have the money, premium business class laptops like the HP Elite, HP Z (high end workstation) or Latitude E6/7000 series and the Precision series are designed to be worked on. Some of these have the issues consumer models have like soldered RAM, but there isn’t any stupidity like soldered SSDs to worry about outside of glorified consumer models like the ProBook or Vostro. If you want to be sure, get a premium business notebook and check the service manual to see.
These laptops have almost everything someone looking for a repairable laptop would want - easy component access and high modularity since these tend to be serviced by businesses and bad design like spot welded keyboards isn’t tolerated - but it doesn’t stop them from trying so you need to be careful even though it’s not as commonplace.
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The other thing is Dell is known to have keyboard issues on their laptops that don’t exist on other brands in terms of frequency of failure - but it depends on which model you get that determines how bad it is. For example the E6430 doesn’t have rampant keyboard issues but models like the E6540 do - to the point it isn’t uncommon for the long term use ones to have been though multiple replacements. I’ve been through multiple systems due to persistent hardware flaws with at least 1 keyboard replacement each time. With this one I had 1 fail under warranty and needed to replace it again under warranty (6 total). My 2nd replacement was showing the early signs of failure and I had to send it in for warranty, so I may be on 3 total keyboards with this one that somehow hasn’t had the severe hardware issues previous ones had. I don’t know what it is about Dell and keyboards, but they seem to fail at a rate no other keyboard ever does. The good news is you can generally get away with a backlight upgrade when it happens since a lot of these known problem Dell laptops are built with that in mind by using a on keyboard PCB and a single flatflex cable. That said, the ones that have it set up where the controller is on the board (generally) need to ship with the backlit keyboard so the connector is present and ones where it connects to the board and has the controller placed somewhere else will need to be double checked for viability of the upgrade.
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The other thing is Dell is known to have keyboard issues on their laptops that don’t exist on other brands in terms of frequency of failure - but it depends on which model you get that determines how bad it is. For example the E6430 doesn’t have rampant keyboard issues but models like the E6540 do - to the point it isn’t uncommon for the long term use ones to have been though multiple replacements. I’ve been through multiple systems due to persistent hardware flaws with at least 1 keyboard replacement each time. With this one I had 1 fail under warranty and needed to replace it again under warranty (6 total). My 2nd replacement for the surviving system was showing the early signs of failure and I had to send it in for warranty, so I may be on 3 total keyboards with this one that somehow hasn’t had the severe hardware issues previous ones had. I don’t know what it is about Dell and keyboards, but they seem to fail at a rate no other keyboard ever does. The good news is you can generally get away with a backlight upgrade when it happens since a lot of these known problem Dell laptops are built with that in mind by using a on keyboard PCB and a single flatflex cable. That said, the ones that have it set up where the controller is on the board (generally) need to ship with the backlit keyboard so the connector is present and ones where it connects to the board and has the controller placed somewhere else will need to be double checked for viability of the upgrade.
If you have the money, premium business class laptops like the HP Elite, HP Z (high end workstation) or Latitude E6/7000 series and the Precision series are designed to be worked on. Some of these have the issues consumer models have like soldered RAM, but there isn’t any stupidity like soldered SSDs to worry about outside of glorified consumer models like the ProBook or Vostro. If you want to be sure, get a premium business notebook and check the service manual to see.
These laptops have almost everything someone looking for a repairable laptop would want - easy component access and high modularity since these tend to be serviced by businesses and bad design like spot welded keyboards isn’t tolerated - but it doesn’t stop them from trying so you need to be careful even though it’s not as commonplace.
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The other thing is Dell is known to have keyboard issues on their laptops that don’t exist on other brands in terms of frequency of failure - but it depends on which model you get that determines how bad it is. For example the E6430 doesn’t have rampant keyboard issues but models like the E6540 do - to the point it isn’t uncommon for the long term use ones to have been though multiple replacements. I’ve been through 5 under warranty and 1 out of pocket,which is showing the early warning signs and it had to be sent in for warranty (i7 MQ/AMD GPU+Intel IGP) so I may be on my 7th keyboard. The good news is you can generally get away with a backlight upgrade when it happens since a lot of these known problem Dell laptops are built with that in mind by using a on keyboard PCB and a single flatflex cable. That said, the ones that have it set up where the controller is on the board (generally) need to ship with the backlit keyboard so the connector is present and ones where it connects to the board and has the controller placed somewhere else will need to be double checked for viability of the upgrade.
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The other thing is Dell is known to have keyboard issues on their laptops that don’t exist on other brands in terms of frequency of failure - but it depends on which model you get that determines how bad it is. For example the E6430 doesn’t have rampant keyboard issues but models like the E6540 do - to the point it isn’t uncommon for the long term use ones to have been though multiple replacements. I’ve been through multiple systems due to persistent hardware flaws with at least 1 keyboard replacement each time. With this one I had 1 fail under warranty and needed to replace it again under warranty (6 total). My 2nd replacement was showing the early signs of failure and I had to send it in for warranty, so I may be on 3 total keyboards with this one that somehow hasn’t had the severe hardware issues previous ones had. I don’t know what it is about Dell and keyboards, but they seem to fail at a rate no other keyboard ever does. The good news is you can generally get away with a backlight upgrade when it happens since a lot of these known problem Dell laptops are built with that in mind by using a on keyboard PCB and a single flatflex cable. That said, the ones that have it set up where the controller is on the board (generally) need to ship with the backlit keyboard so the connector is present and ones where it connects to the board and has the controller placed somewhere else will need to be double checked for viability of the upgrade.
If you have the money, premium business class laptops like the HP Elite, HP Z (high end workstation) or Latitude E6/7000 series and the Precision series are designed to be worked on. Some of these have the issues consumer models have like soldered RAM, but there isn’t any stupidity like soldered SSDs to worry about outside of glorified consumer models like the ProBook or Vostro. If you want to be sure, get a premium business notebook and check the service manual to see.
These laptops have almost everything someone looking for a repairable laptop would want - easy component access and high modularity since these tend to be serviced by businesses and bad design like spot welded keyboards isn’t tolerated - but it doesn’t stop them from trying so you need to be careful even though it’s not as commonplace.
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The other thing is Dell is known to have keyboard issues on their laptops that don’t exist on others as severely as it happens on a Dell - it depends on which model you get that determines how bad it is. For example the E6430 doesn’t have rampant keyboard issues but models like the E6540 do - to the point it isn’t uncommon for the long term use ones to have been though multiple replacements. I’ve been through 5 under warranty and 1 out of pocket, which is showing the early warning signs and it had to be sent in for warranty (i7 MQ/AMD GPU+Intel IGP) so I may be on my 7th keyboard. The good news is you can generally get away with a backlight upgrade when it happens since a lot of these known problem Dell laptops are built with that in mind by using a on keyboard PCB and a single flatflex cable. That said, the ones that have it set up where the controller is on the board (generally) need to ship with the backlit keyboard so the connector is present and ones where it connects to the board and has the controller placed somewhere else will need to be double checked for viability of the upgrade.
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The other thing is Dell is known to have keyboard issues on their laptops that don’t exist on other brands in terms of frequency of failure - but it depends on which model you get that determines how bad it is. For example the E6430 doesn’t have rampant keyboard issues but models like the E6540 do - to the point it isn’t uncommon for the long term use ones to have been though multiple replacements. I’ve been through 5 under warranty and 1 out of pocket, which is showing the early warning signs and it had to be sent in for warranty (i7 MQ/AMD GPU+Intel IGP) so I may be on my 7th keyboard. The good news is you can generally get away with a backlight upgrade when it happens since a lot of these known problem Dell laptops are built with that in mind by using a on keyboard PCB and a single flatflex cable. That said, the ones that have it set up where the controller is on the board (generally) need to ship with the backlit keyboard so the connector is present and ones where it connects to the board and has the controller placed somewhere else will need to be double checked for viability of the upgrade.
If you have the money, premium business class laptops like the HP Elite, HP Z (high end workstation) or Latitude E6/7000 series and the Precision series are designed to be worked on. Some of these have the issues consumer models have like soldered RAM, but there isn’t any stupidity like soldered SSDs to worry about outside of glorified consumer models like the ProBook or Vostro. If you want to be sure, get a premium business notebook and check the service manual to see.
These laptops have almost everything someone looking for a repairable laptop would want - easy component access and high modularity since these tend to be serviced by businesses and bad design like spot welded keyboards isn’t tolerated - but it doesn’t stop them from trying so you need to be careful even though it’s not as commonplace.
-
The other thing is Dell is known to have keyboard issues on their laptops that don’t exist on others as severely as it happens on a Dell - it depends on which model you get that determines how bad it is. For example the E6430 doesn’t have rampant keyboard issues but models like the E6540 do - to the point it isn’t uncommon for the long term use ones to have been though multiple replacements. I’ve been through 5 under warranty and 1 out of pocket, which is showing the early warning signs and it had to be sent in for warranty (i7 MQ/AMD GPU+Intel IGP) so I may be on my 7th keyboard. The good news is you can generally get away with a backlight upgrade when it happens since a lot of these known problem Dell laptops are built with that in mind but it depends on how they built it - the single flatflex ones aren’t difficult to convert, but ones that don’t use that design may not be as easy.
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The other thing is Dell is known to have keyboard issues on their laptops that don’t exist on others as severely as it happens on a Dell - it depends on which model you get that determines how bad it is. For example the E6430 doesn’t have rampant keyboard issues but models like the E6540 do - to the point it isn’t uncommon for the long term use ones to have been though multiple replacements. I’ve been through 5 under warranty and 1 out of pocket, which is showing the early warning signs and it had to be sent in for warranty (i7 MQ/AMD GPU+Intel IGP) so I may be on my 7th keyboard. The good news is you can generally get away with a backlight upgrade when it happens since a lot of these known problem Dell laptops are built with that in mind by using a on keyboard PCB and a single flatflex cable. That said, the ones that have it set up where the controller is on the board (generally) need to ship with the backlit keyboard so the connector is present and ones where it connects to the board and has the controller placed somewhere else will need to be double checked for viability of the upgrade.
If you have the money, premium business class laptops like the HP Elite, HP Z (high end workstation) or Latitude E6/7000 series and the Precision series are designed to be worked on. Some of these have the issues consumer models have like soldered RAM, but there isn’t any stupidity like soldered SSDs to worry about outside of glorified consumer models like the ProBook or Vostro. If you want to be sure, get a premium business notebook and check the service manual to see.
These laptops have almost everything someone looking for a repairable laptop would want - easy component access and high modularity since these tend to be serviced by businesses and bad design like spot welded keyboards isn’t tolerated - but it doesn’t stop them from trying so you need to be careful even though it’s not as commonplace.
-
The other thing is Dell is known to have keyboard issues on their laptops that don’t exist on others as severely as it happens on a Dell - it depends on which model you get that determines how bad it is. For example the E6430 doesn’t have rampant keyboard issues but models like the E6540 do - to the point it isn’t uncommon for the long term use ones to have been though multiple replacements. I’ve been through 5 under warranty and 1 out of pocket, which is showing the early warning signs and it had to be sent in for warranty (i7 MQ/AMD GPU+Intel IGP) so I may be on my 7th keyboard. The good news is you can generally get away with a backlight upgrade when it happens since a lot of the Dell laptops are built with that in mind, as a single flatflex is often used.
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The other thing is Dell is known to have keyboard issues on their laptops that don’t exist on others as severely as it happens on a Dell - it depends on which model you get that determines how bad it is. For example the E6430 doesn’t have rampant keyboard issues but models like the E6540 do - to the point it isn’t uncommon for the long term use ones to have been though multiple replacements. I’ve been through 5 under warranty and 1 out of pocket, which is showing the early warning signs and it had to be sent in for warranty (i7 MQ/AMD GPU+Intel IGP) so I may be on my 7th keyboard. The good news is you can generally get away with a backlight upgrade when it happens since a lot of these known problem Dell laptops are built with that in mind but it depends on how they built it - the single flatflex ones aren’t difficult to convert, but ones that don’t use that design may not be as easy.
If you have the money, the ticket is premium business class laptops like the HP Elite, HP Z (high end workstation) or Latitude E6/7000 series. Some of these have the issues consumer models have like soldered RAM, but there isn’t any stupidity like soldered SSDs to work around except in glorified consumer models. If you want to be sure, get a premium like business notebook and check the service manual to see.
+
If you have the money, premium business class laptops like the HP Elite, HP Z (high end workstation) or Latitude E6/7000 series and the Precision series are designed to be worked on. Some of these have the issues consumer models have like soldered RAM, but there isn’t any stupidity like soldered SSDs to worry about outside of glorified consumer models like the ProBook or Vostro. If you want to be sure, get a premium business notebook and check the service manual to see.
-
These laptops have almost everything someone looking for a repairable laptop would want - easy component access and high modularity since these tend to be serviced by businesses and bad design like spot welded keyboards isn’t tolerated. However, my only caution with this is *some* of them have spot welded keyboards (albeit rare) and Dell has always had keyboard reliability issues to varying degrees each series. For example the E6420/30 have occasional keyboard problems but it’s not very common and when it does, you just get the backlit one and use it to fix the lack of it on the ones someone saved the $10-20. On others like the E6540 it’s horrible to the point one can go through multiple keyboards while they own it. On my E6540 (i7 MQ/AMD GPU+IGP), I’ve been through 6 and now potentially 7 if I just get a new replacement (which I may not install to keep as a backup if my old board dies and it’s no longer viable).
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These laptops have almost everything someone looking for a repairable laptop would want - easy component access and high modularity since these tend to be serviced by businesses and bad design like spot welded keyboards isn’t tolerated - but it doesn’t stop them from trying so you need to be careful even though it’s not as commonplace.
+
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The other thing is Dell is known to have keyboard issues on their laptops that don’t exist on others as severely as it happens on a Dell - it depends on which model you get that determines how bad it is. For example the E6430 doesn’t have rampant keyboard issues but models like the E6540 do - to the point it isn’t uncommon for the long term use ones to have been though multiple replacements. I’ve been through 5 under warranty and 1 out of pocket, which is showing the early warning signs and it had to be sent in for warranty (i7 MQ/AMD GPU+Intel IGP) so I may be on my 7th keyboard. The good news is you can generally get away with a backlight upgrade when it happens since a lot of the Dell laptops are built with that in mind, as a single flatflex is often used.
If you have the money, the ticket is premium business class laptops like the HP Elite, HP Z (high end workstation) or Latitude E6/7000 series. Some of these have the issues consumer models have like soldered RAM, but there isn’t any stupidity like soldered SSDs to work around except in glorified consumer models. If you want to be sure, get a premium like business notebook and check the service manual to see.
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These laptops have almost everything someone looking for a repairable laptop would want - easy component access and high modularity since these tend to be serviced by businesses and bad design like spot welded keyboards isn’t tolerated. However, my only caution with this is *some* of them have spot welded keyboards (albeit rare) and Dell has always had keyboard reliability issues to varying degrees each series. For example the E6420/30 have occasional keyboard problems but it’s not very common and when it does, you just get the backlit one and use it to fix the lack of it on the ones someone saved the $10-20. On others like the E6540 it’s horrible to the point one can go through multiples. On my E6540 (i7 MQ/AMD GPU+IGP), I’ve been through 6 and now potentially 7 if I just get a new replacement (which I may not install to keep as a backup if my old board dies and it’s no longer viable).
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These laptops have almost everything someone looking for a repairable laptop would want - easy component access and high modularity since these tend to be serviced by businesses and bad design like spot welded keyboards isn’t tolerated. However, my only caution with this is *some* of them have spot welded keyboards (albeit rare) and Dell has always had keyboard reliability issues to varying degrees each series. For example the E6420/30 have occasional keyboard problems but it’s not very common and when it does, you just get the backlit one and use it to fix the lack of it on the ones someone saved the $10-20. On others like the E6540 it’s horrible to the point one can go through multiple keyboards while they own it. On my E6540 (i7 MQ/AMD GPU+IGP), I’ve been through 6 and now potentially 7 if I just get a new replacement (which I may not install to keep as a backup if my old board dies and it’s no longer viable).
If you have the money, the ticket is premium business class laptops like the HP Elite, HP Z (high end workstation) or Latitude E6 series (or the modern equivalent). Some of these have the issues consumer models have like soldered RAM, but there isn’t any stupidity like soldered SSDs to work around except in glorified consumer models. If you want to be sure, get a premium like business notebook and check the service manual to see.
+
If you have the money, the ticket is premium business class laptops like the HP Elite, HP Z (high end workstation) or Latitude E6/7000 series. Some of these have the issues consumer models have like soldered RAM, but there isn’t any stupidity like soldered SSDs to work around except in glorified consumer models. If you want to be sure, get a premium like business notebook and check the service manual to see.
These laptops have almost everything someone looking for a repairable laptop would want - easy component access and high modularity since these tend to be serviced by businesses and bad design like spot welded keyboards isn’t tolerated. However, my only caution with this is *some* of them have spot welded keyboards (albeit rare) and Dell has always had keyboard reliability issues to varying degrees each series. For example the E6420/30 have occasional keyboard problems but it’s not very common and when it does, you just get the backlit one and use it to fix the lack of it on the ones someone saved the $10-20. On others like the E6540 it’s horrible to the point one can go through multiples. On my E6540 (i7 MQ/AMD GPU+IGP), I’ve been through 6 and now potentially 7 if I just get a new replacement (which I may not install to keep as a backup if my old board dies and it’s no longer viable).
If you have the money, the ticket is premium business class laptops like the HP Elite, HP Z (high end workstation) or Latitude E6 series (or the modern equivalent). Some of these have the issues consumer models have like soldered RAM, but there isn’t any stupidity like soldered SSDs to work around except in glorified consumer models. If you want to be sure, get a premium like business notebook and check the service manual to see.
These laptops have almost everything someone looking for a repairable laptop would want - easy component access and high modularity since these tend to be serviced by businesses and bad design like spot welded keyboards isn’t tolerated. However, my only caution with this is *some* of them have spot welded keyboards (albeit rare) and Dell has always had keyboard reliability issues to varying degrees each series. For example the E6420/30 have occasional keyboard problems but it’s not very common and when it does, you just get the backlit one and use it to fix the lack of it on the ones someone saved the $10-20. On others like the E6540 it’s horrible to the point one can go through multiples. On my E6540 (i7 MQ/AMD GPU+IGP), I’ve been through 6 and now potentially 7 if I just get a new replacement (which I may not install to keep as a backup if my old board dies and it’s no longer viable).