I just received an email from someone called Rahul, who has succeeded in getting Dell to repair his XPS M1210 outside warranty. The laptop failed due to the notorious GPU fault common to those models.

I sent their technical support an email last Wednesday and had a reply next day suggesting that my system was out of warranty so they can not help. I replied back quoting the different case numbers where they fixed the system even after the warranty has expired but they did not bother replying. So called the XPS hot line today. At first the person I was talking to was very blunt to put it mildly. He straight away said that there was nothing much he could do to help because it's been quite some time since even the extended warranty has expired. Then I said I know people who got their systems fixed outside the extended warranty. He said he was not interested in other peoples' cases and insisted that there was nothing he could do.

Then I asked him why I was being treated differently and he said he could not comment on that, that's when I asked him to put me on to his supervisor. He put me on hold for next 10 min, came back and said that they would repair my system this time free of charge (change the motherboard, heat sink, thermal pads and fan) and any future repairs would be out of my pocket.

...

My system was fixed and now works fine. Motherboard, heat sink and the fan were replaced.

I've updated my warranty repair case numbers to include Rahul's case number. It looks like quoting some or all of these case numbers is a great way of getting your XPS repaired.