Replacement Charging Port for Dell Inspiron 15 7510

[britechguy]

Hello All,

I could have sworn that Dell had some easy way to search for and find OEM replacement parts, but if they do I've forgotten what it is and their website is being of no real help.

A client called complaining that their charging port has been wonky and it's getting much wonkier and they want it replaced. I thought I had remembered that Dell uses a module for their charging ports rather than a soldered-to-the-motherboard arrangement, and this item on eBay seems to indicate that's correct. I would prefer to source from Dell directly or at least a US source where delivery would be more rapid. Any suggestions to find this at Dell (or elsewhere)? If push comes to shove I'll go the eBay route, but would prefer not to.

 

[Larry Sabo]

You could try Parts-People. They specialize in Dell parts. I've had good service from them in the past.

 

[britechguy]

Thanks Larry.

 

[Markverhyden]

Used to be if you looked up the warranty/support by service tag there was a link somewhere to the BoM.

 

[britechguy]

Well, I did look up the device using the Express Service Code and it led me directly to the page for the Inspiron 15 7510. But the subsequent "Parts for your Dell" search you can reach from there is right next to useless.

I know I remember having searched for Dell parts before in a way that allowed you to find things down to the screws. That seems to have vanished, or been moved somewhere that I cannot find.

And it turns out that this replacement is way messier than it would typically have been in the past because the charge port cable is routed beneath the system heat sink and that has to be removed first before you can get to the cable. Given how frequently charge ports go wonky, and how seldom thermal paste ever needs to be touched except in situations where it is disturbed, I can't imagine how any design engineer would have thought this arrangement made any sense at all. I get that "convenience of assembly" is now pretty much the be all and end all when it comes to how these things are designed, but this would have been so simple to route otherwise that it makes no sense that it wasn't.

 

[Markverhyden]

For most OEM's parts are not the parts we're looking for, they're things like accessories. You need to look for BoM, product specifications, original configuration, etc. The link below will show you how. When I loaded up the service tag for an old D630 it provided a list using Dell parts. If you click on Documentation in the upper menu and then Manuals and Documents middle left you get what ever docs they.

How to Check the System Configuration on Your Dell Computer | Dell US

 

[britechguy]

@Markverhyden

Thanks for that, and I mean it. But I've been down that road before, most recently a few months ago when I had to do that touchscreen replacement on that Dell Ryzen laptop. Even after digging and digging it still wasn't abundantly clear to me what screen was the correct one (as I was not obtaining it from Dell) and it was only from the collective wisdom here that the correct one was finally determined.

I pulled up the BoM page for this particular machine and where in the "component sections" that particular part would be buried is not at all obvious. Yes, I could trudge through, but that doesn't mean that Dell has an easy and adequate way to look up a specific part for a machine even with its service tag information. I want something along the lines of giving the service tag and then enough of the part description (e.g., charge port or charging port) to pull up the Dell-supplied part then and there. They just don't have that, yet third party sites that provide parts do. It's mystifying, frankly.

 

[Markverhyden]

@Markverhyden

Thanks for that, and I mean it. But I've been down that road before, most recently a few months ago when I had to do that touchscreen replacement on that Dell Ryzen laptop. Even after digging and digging it still wasn't abundantly clear to me what screen was the correct one (as I was not obtaining it from Dell) and it was only from the collective wisdom here that the correct one was finally determined.

I pulled up the BoM page for this particular machine and where in the "component sections" that particular part would be buried is not at all obvious. Yes, I could trudge through, but that doesn't mean that Dell has an easy and adequate way to look up a specific part for a machine even with its service tag information. I want something along the lines of giving the service tag and then enough of the part description (e.g., charge port or charging port) to pull up the Dell-supplied part then and there. They just don't have that, yet third party sites that provide parts do. It's mystifying, frankly.

Not all OEM's are created equal. While I've always given high marks for Dell for making service manuals easily available the king of the parts hill is HP in my book. For years they've partsurfer.hp or hpe.com has provided accurate lists. Even when the original part has been disco'd they'll have the sub part. Plug in the serial number and you'll get an accurate BoM as long as serial number country of origin matched the partsurfer country. About the only ones where I've had problems are the Club versions, as in Sams, where the HP model ends in cl. Those don't come up but you can usually search by model number and just drop the cl.