17 R4 7820HK / GTX 1080 - MOBO dead? Help!

I need advice regarding with my 17R4 GTX 1080 notebook.

I have been happily gaming with my mates over the internet last night, when my notebook suddenly shut itself down. PSU LED turned itself off - I tried reconnecing, but as soon as I plug it in, PSU LED goes down and notebook does not turn on.

Looks like the MOBO is somehow shorted? Opened it up, did the battery drain thing - nothing. Still shorting when plugging it in and disabling the PSU, still does not turn itself on.

The notebook is now off the warranty, so what the hell can I do? The only thing I have done is repasted it myself 2 weeks ago (did that in the past as well), and undervolted it by -100mv on the CPU in XTU.

Could the undervolt somehow destroy the CPU and shorted the mobo? Is that even possible?
Can it somehow be repared? The price of a new mobo from alliexpress is 1.5k and I don't even want to know how much would dell charge.

Does it happen too often? Never had a problem with previous Alienware notebooks, did not even have a problem with this one for the two and a half year I have been using it. Not even the dreaded stuttering issue everyone has had.

Can the mobo be repaired?

 

The undervolt wouldnt damage your motherboard. Could be a failed mosfet on the GPU side.

If you are in Europe, still contact Dell. they tend to pick up the warranty still because of the EU rules.

 

That's my biggest fear with this model as when something dies on the mainboard, you have to get a new one which comes with a CPU and a GPU which raises the repair price through the roof.

There are some mainboard repair service shops, so perhaps they can determine what died and can replace the component (e.g. some component related to the power circuit).

 

Just like that? Out of a sudden? Does that mean replacing the whole GPU?

Im better off with replacing the MOBO that way
What EU laws do you have in mind? Is there something I should know?

I'm feeling down as hell currently...

 

If the traces and solder pads on the motherboard are okay, you could try to let a repair shop solder some new mosfets on. If it are the mosfets. If the GPU itself died (very rare) you wouldnt be able to fix it. Motherboard prices go up and down. As far as I know parts-people.com offer them for more reasonable prices. But try Dell first.

But yeah if the mosfets are from a bad batch, they could randomly fail. There are some cases known with these models where it happens.

 

Dell told me my warranty expired and there's nothing they can do.
They said I they can fix it for approx. 3.5k USD.

EU law is 2 years AFAIK and the purchase date was 7th of June, 2017.

They refuse to repair it based on any EU law.

 

You could could almost replace the machine twice over with that quote

 

What the hell? My motherboard shorted earlier this year after my warranty ran out and they offered it directly to repair it.

 

That's DELL in Poland for you.

They said warranty is over and that's it.
Regular repair for 3-3.5k.

I took it to an electronics repair company, suggested to check the mosfets...

Will report back...

How did your MB short? Also at random?

 

Sounds like a GPU short, as others have said. No way to repair it short of replacing whatever component has gone bad , and that requires a lot of very specialized and expensive equipment that most people / shops won't have, not to mention the ability to track the exact cause down. A lot of times the GPU dies when it shuts off mid use like this, at least in my experience.

Don't get anything through Dell for those parts, they charge an ARM AND A LEG. Your better off going through eBay or parts people with the proper part number IF you wanted to repair it, but in all honesty the cost would be pretty high to do so. It's the ultimate draw back to BGA parts, once someone goes your hooped.

As for the warranty, even with the EU laws your over your two years so they are not obliged to help you at all, and as much as it really sucks that's warranty.....it's why I always advise people to max the warranty out when you buy. You hope you never need it, and it was a waste of money, but if something like this ever happens then it pays for itself in spades

I have the identical machine to yours and I just have to cross my fingers that it keeps on trucking, because I can't afford to replace a $4k CAD laptop if it dies.

 

Update for anyone interested:

After mailing/phoning with DELL back and forth, they are absolutely unwilling to help (the sons of b...).

Brought the mobo to a tech repair centre (well known company doing enterprise work).

Diagnosis: GPU mosfet is burnt.
They will import one from China - 3 weeks ETA, replace it and check if the GPU is OK.

Approx. cost for now: 120-150 USD.

Will report back after three weeks.

 

What TIM did you use to repaste?

 

Regular paste, not Liquid Metal.

Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut.

 

No, come on... Seriously?

Are there visible signs? Doesn't the GPU have 6 (or 8) VRMs? Which one is it?

 

Update:

the Mosfets came in 3 weeks ago from China, and the repair centre replaced them.
MOBO stopped shoritng, however there was no video signal after turning on.

They measured and saw that one of the mem gave bad readings.
3 weeks later new gpu mem chip came, same results.

Repair centre says it could be anything - dead CPU, dead GPU, one of the other 7 gpu chips being dead; in order not to generate more costs which could prove futile, they are giving me back the notebook.

I am beyond pissed now and digusted with Dell.
Any ideas what else can I do, besides purchasing new mobo which will set me back?

 

Could be everything on the NB. But you're not alone... Have seen several Alienware 17R4 go into Hardware Heaven the last months.


Where can I get a 17 r4 mobo?
17 R4, motherboard short circuit
Alienware 17r4 replacement *URGENT*

And the successor AW17R5 have similar problems as well... He here is on his 3rd 17R5, but also that one died.

Get you a new or used MB, fix it, then sell it.

 

Where do I get it from?!

I scouted on Ebay and Alliexpress and they cost nearly as much as a whole used rig.

I am beyond disgusted with Dell, after 15 years of being a loyal customer, this was my last Dell/Alienware I have purchased.

Wysłane z mojego SM-G9750 przy użyciu Tapatalka

 

There's always the risk of this happening when you buy a laptop with CPU and GPU soldered - fixing the burned out components is not a realistic option most often, so you can count on needing to replace the whole motherboard which, given the expensive CPU and GPU on them, cost pretty much like the whole laptop. The same motherboard dying issue happens to other brands as well.

While I understand your frustration, I'm not sure what you'd expect from Alienware at this point, given that the warranty is out?

I have the same model with the HK CPU and 1080 combo and if the same thing happens to me, I'll probably just get some used motherboard with the cheapest configuration (e.g. 7700HQ with 1060) and connect the external GPU case to it.

Speaking of extending the warranty, did anybody else have their AW service tag not recognized online?

 

I am expecting the top of the line, expensive like f... notebook to work for more than 2 years if handled correctly and with sufficient care.
Not to blow out all of a sudden, as reported by numerous users.

I stopped using HP years ago after their line had the same problems; my M17X R1 still works till this date.

If things like that happen, I simply refuse to purchase anything else, since either they do it on purpose or the quality control is bad.
Especially when it mostly happens one-two months after the warranty (as reported).

 

Things like that happen to all brands. Just pick any powerful slim gaming laptop and search for "won't power on" (e.g. I've tried razer blade 17 and hp omen 17).

Obviously, the engineering and QC could be improved here, but given that it happens elsewhere as well, it seems it just comes with the territory.

 

That may indeed be, but that doesn't excuse either company. And rather than being a brand apologist, I choose to vote with both my wallet and spreading the voice of my and others' mishaps with Alienware, which has recently been on a steady path of decline with the quality of their builds (not to mention their initial hardware mission) since the first 17 revision.

Wysłane z mojego SM-G9750 przy użyciu Tapatalka

 

Fair enough. But, I'm not defending the brand, I'm just trying to widen your perspective as these failures happen elsewhere and I guess might be related to these slim designs with such powerful components.

I don't really like the brand TBH and the 17 R4/R5 models are the first ones I liked the design of (sharp angles plus the materials and colors remind me of my older Dell Precisions) and seeing the new Area 51M style, they'll probably remain the only ones.

In the future, I'd rather go with an Asus GX701 or Razer Blade 17 or Gigabyte Aero 17, but unfortunately, I quite like having the option of plugging an external GPU for cheaper upgrades and there's no alternative to Alienware in that regard, unless perhaps when TB4 appears and actually works as advertised (unlike TB3).

 

I will think its hard to find used or new MB on . Probably many who need a new MB. Big need will reduce the availability. And the prices will of course follow availability. A small number of available boards will push up prices. Maybe follow Parts People's webpage and see if they get new boards with your hardware specs... Alienware 17 R4

As you can see... Extended Premium warranty is probaly the best options if you are in need for parts like Motherboard

NVMe M. 2 SSD Overheat
My Alienware 17r4 just got a motherboard replacement today and while I was running U Heaven loop, the whole thing crashed after 20 min with a "Cannot find a bootable device" error. Hwinfo log shows that at the time of the crash, the m.2 ssd was reaching 120°C. So I'm just wonder if anyone else is having this problem and what is your m.2

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One more seems to dying the last 24 hours. They die as flies after the first year. As long you don't have paid for extended warranty you will struggle find what you need.

My laptop had a stroke
I was playing Overwatch about an hour ago when my AW 17R4 did something I have NEVER seen before.

 

Even after 5 years SSD still becomes kebabs.

 

Would never ever happened if the notebook chassis was in normal size. Thinner and slimmer chassis mean less cooling. And the thinner chassis they think you want means the notebook manufacturers engineers is forced to design it with the smaller NVMe M.2 slots and with no space for 2.5 slots. To make it complete they prefer you go for their more expencive setup with hotter running NVMe drives. Doomed to fail.

Talk about the sun... Fried ssd

Please Help on Hardware repairs on 17R4