17 R3 No Power - Help/Advice needed tnx

Hey there,

I own an Alienware 17 R3 since December 2015, and I have just run out of the warranty period . and now I got the following issue :S .

The laptop was turned on, connected to the adapter and an external monitor. The adapter was connected to an extension cord along with an electric fan. I left the laptop on, and went our for about 45 mins, when I came back the laptop was turned off and would not turn on again with or without the adapter. I asked my sister if she had done anything and apparently she had turned off the electric fan, thats all.

Now I tested the adapter on my brother's laptop and its working fine, so I know the problem is with the laptop not the adapter. When I connect the adapter to the laptop I hear a small weak static noise and I see the green light on the adapter turn off (If i connect the adapter to the outlet first and then to the laptop, I hear the static noise at the Laptops power jack. If i connect the adapter to the laptop first and then to the electricity outlet, I hear the static noise at the electricity outlet.). I smelled the Power inlet for the laptop and adapter, the adapter's side smells a little like gun powder. but there is almost no smell on the laptop's side.

Now I can narrow it down to 3 things:

1. A component on the motherboard (The Power Jack or a Capacitor) is fried.
2. The whole motherboard is fried.
3. Lastly I just found out through a google search that some R3s get the Internal Battery supply cable burned (I am currently at work so I cant check it atm)

Edit: I just checked the Battery and DC cables they are both fine and not burned or damaged at all.

Does anyone have any idea of what might have happend? or any other possible issue?
Since my warranty ran out, what would you advise me to do?

 

this happened to me, and it was my motherboard. Dell just replaced it. I am going to update the thread I posted about it. I heard there were two pins under the ram stick on the motherboard, like CL1 and 2 or something that you could short with a flat head screw driver. I did NOT have those pins on mine, but this is what I found online to check from Alienware.

 

Did you still have warranty then? cause if you were then that will be a big issue for me as a motherboard replacement will probably be around 500 euros at least :S

 

Always start with a hard reset of everything. Unplug, Remove both battery and bios battery and hold power button down for 10 seconds.

As for warranty, you can(depending on where you live) buy a warranty out of your period.

 

I just checked the laptop and both Battery and DC cables are fine (not burned), I tried hard resetting but no luck :S .

I live in the Netherlands, but before I contact them and try to get a warranty extension I wanted to know if the basic warranty will cover this kind of damage to the motherboard or not. does anyone know that?

 

You need premium support. I think before warranty extension, they would send a technician to see everything is fine and only then they extend it. Sorry about it.

 

Seems that it's a pretty common issue. Read this thread http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...self-off-mid-gaming-wont-turn-back-on.796294/

In fact the same thing happened with my 17r3 last year.

As far as I'm concerned, those systems are complete junk. Went through 3 motherboards in a year.

Do yourself a favor - if it's still in warranty, get it fixed and sell it for cash. Don't sell it on ebay because when it fries on the guy who just bought it from you, he's going to do a chargeback.

If out of warranty, not worth fixing because it's most likely going to short on you again shortly after.

 

1 other case doesnt it suddenly make "pretty common".

 

There's much more than "1 other case".

I recently made an account here, but I've lurked since early 2016. Since that time, I've come across numerous posts about 15r2/17r3 motherboard replacements, sometimes even multiple replacements because they continue to fail. I also remember reading many posts of faulty BIOS versions bricking them.

I guarantee you that a google search, or even a search within this forum, will yield many cases.

The reason I linked to that thread is because of this post:

It was similar to my experience, except I had 3 failed mobos instead of 4.

There's no way in hell I'd ever touch a 17r3/15r2 for personal use again. Even if you gave it to me for free, I'd sell it and buy something else.

But you do you.

 

I experienced the bios brick myself. What is happening here isnt the bios brick. also the bios brick was fixable.

I am now using my R2 for almost 2 years and it served me incredible well. Mind you I have this machine on for pretty much every day for 14 hours (work, gaming, music production etc). It is the first laptop that I trust for using as a full time machine.

The only real issue was that older bios-es caused an overload on the DC power in cable. Alienware should have been more up front about that problem. But apart from that it has been a solid machine for me. I have used a lot of gaming laptops, bought and tested.

 

OP should check his email he registered w/Dell at purchase, see if he's gotten a solicitation to extend warranty, which should have arrived right at expiry. This solicitation has a grace period that still may be valid. If no email, login to Dell directly using your cust ID # or whatever number they want and see if there's more info there.

If an extended warranty is available I would do it. I regret not doing one at purchase or expiry, if I had the opportunity I would extend for 5 years, NO on-site. The fedex service--at least in USA--is very quick and I can wait a week.

I would buy the warranty and then cross my fingers that Dell isn't going to send someone out to check. If they do, just complain loudly and you will be fine, or at least get your money back on the extension.

Lastly, if no extension available, submit it for warranty claim anyway. In the USA Dell takes it in, assesses it, and then tells you if it's covered. At that point you can still howl and get a mobo, at least at a discount. I would stick with this machine, it is still VERY capable and the march of progress in computers has slowed WAY WAY down. Keep the machine, fix the machine free or cheaply, and continue to enjoy it.

There are a lot of whining haters on this site so please pay attention to sanity-restorers like @rinneh, who has been a big help to me in the past. Many here will never forgive Dell for being a for-profit enterprise.