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    Alienware 13r3 mobo fried

    Discussion in '2015+ Alienware 13 / 15 / 17' started by thestufford, Apr 17, 2017.

  1. thestufford

    thestufford Notebook Enthusiast

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    Hello all,

    received my Alienware 13r3 at the end of March. The day I got it I install an extra 8gb of SODIMM and a 500GB samsung m2 drive. The laptop has been performing great with game and running multiple VM's etc. Yesterday I went to turn it on and it wouldn't. Power brick had no green light. I unplugged everything, plugged the power brick into the wall and the green light came back on. Plugged the power cable in the laptop and heard a quick "bzzt" sound and an electrical burning smell comes out of it. This happens every time I do these steps.

    Customer support was good and they are sending a box for me to send it back. Anyone else experience this? My only worry in all this is the mobo is fried and they try to send me a refurb laptop. What do you all think?
     
    thestufford, Apr 17, 2017
    #1
  2. wrathofdeath

    wrathofdeath Notebook Evangelist

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    I'd tell them to have a tech go to your house. Period.
     
    wrathofdeath, Apr 18, 2017
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  3. pathfindercod

    pathfindercod Notebook Virtuoso

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    Depends where it was purchased also. Some third party resellers like Best Buy Dell only offers mail in option and no onsite.
     
    pathfindercod, Apr 18, 2017
    #3
  4. thestufford

    thestufford Notebook Enthusiast

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    I bought directly from Alienware.com but I am in Hawaii. So I am not sure if that is the reason I had to send it in.
     
    thestufford, Apr 21, 2017
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  5. thestufford

    thestufford Notebook Enthusiast

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    They've had it for 24 hours at the repair depot in Texas and this is all the info I've gotten from them:

    • 4/20/2017 4:11:03 PM: Parts Hold: A component necessary to repair your unit is currently not in stock.
     
    thestufford, Apr 21, 2017
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  6. thestufford

    thestufford Notebook Enthusiast

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    Finally got my laptop back today and guess what... the discrete video card (1060) doesn't work. I get error 43 in windows device manager for the Nvidia adapter. Tried all sorts of troubleshooting and even reset windows back to factory settings and it still won't work. So I opened the back panel up to see if I could see whats wrong and found that the component right next to the killer wifi card (I think its the CMOS battery) and it cables are completely missing. I can't even imagine what else they screwed up when replacing the motherboard.
     
    thestufford, May 2, 2017
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  7. thestufford

    thestufford Notebook Enthusiast

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    This first IMG (3788) is what its supposed to look like ... the other two are what is does look like. IMG_3788.jpg IMG_3787.jpg IMG_3786.jpg
     
    thestufford, May 2, 2017
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  8. rinneh

    rinneh Notebook Prophet

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    That cable doesnt have anything to do with the gpu.

    Its probably routed differently on the inside. Looks like the speaker cable.
     
    rinneh, May 2, 2017
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  9. thestufford

    thestufford Notebook Enthusiast

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    Yah I wasn't saying that it had anything todo with the GPU. But the fact that it's seemingly missing shows me the care they take when repairing the systems.
     
    thestufford, May 2, 2017
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  10. heerkaas

    heerkaas Notebook Enthusiast

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    Last edited: May 2, 2017
    heerkaas, May 2, 2017
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  11. rinneh

    rinneh Notebook Prophet

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    Oh wait you are right, now i see it, checked it on my phone first, indeed a cmos battery gone. strange, bios settings do save?
     
    rinneh, May 2, 2017
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  12. thestufford

    thestufford Notebook Enthusiast

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    UPDATE: After 2 - 3 days of arguing with Alienware and opening a BBB complaint, I got them to agree to exchange my system and send me a brand new one. It took about 2 weeks but its finally here and they gave me a 8GB upgrade in my ram, which I had already purchased on my own, but oh well. All seems good now!
     
    thestufford, May 16, 2017
    #12