My Inspiron 5505 trackpad stopped working and Dell sent me a replacement. That didn't fix it and they determined it needed a motherboard. The replacement motherboard had some serious issues or didn't work at all (I can't remember, that was last year). They sent me a refurb 5515 in its place, and now it has locked up several times and has some weird ghosting/artifact stuff going on with the display.

Unfortunately, I don't know of any good PC alternative to Dell.

I just ordered a Macbook.