M14x... worst laptop i've had and is pretty much unusable

I've had the M14x r1 for over a year now and i have always had problems with it... i've had it replaced twice over this time and had the mother board replaced when my HDMI wouldnt work.

The main thing that always anoyed me about this system is when i first got it i ordered a SSD ( vortex 3 ) BIGGEST MISTAKE OF MY LIFE ! lol Been a constant battle against problems. So when i first put it in, i would install all my drivers and all files ect and it would work great.... no problems at all, i was loving life with my brand new laptop.... But i would get up the next morning and turn my laptop on and it wouldnt start ! some reason when the laptop was turned off for a period of time it wouldnt start ! So i thought ok i must have a bad SSD. So i had it replaced straight away got a new one and it didnt help at all, once again i installed all my files and drivers... which takes a lot of time and i get the same problem it stops working when i turned it off for a while.... You begin to feel like throwing it out the window once you have gone through this process like 20 + times on a new laptop.

So i had the SSD replaced again ! still had the problem. Now i had the M14x replaced and it still had the same problem, so in the end i just put my stock 500 gb HDD in and left my expensive SSD in its box collecting dust.... This SSD cost me £200 ! and it was totally unusable.. i felt there was nothing else i could do, i had done everything i could think of to get it to work..... Sooo 9 months down the line my laptop developed a fault with the HDMI socket and i had a dell technician come around and fix it. He said i needed my motherboard changed to my surprise ! i was really doubtful that this was actually the problem with my HDMI as it was more like a loose connection because the picture would come on and off if you wiggle the cable, But to my surprise it worked and fixed the problem. I later found out that the motherboard had been replaced with a totally different one that is apparently used in the M14x r2 or something. So i thought now i have a new motherboard my SSD might work, because the M14x r1 motherboard had issues with sata 3 and sata 2. To my astonishment the SSD finally worked ! after not being able to use it for 9 months i finally got it to work ! or so i thought....

a few weeks after having it in my laptop started to crash randomly, and i have regular visits from the dreaded BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH i can be doing simple tasks like using the internet and it just freezes when i try and do something, i can still move the mouse but all windows open on my desktop freeze, and normally result in the laptop crashing and getting a message saying the laptop closed it self down to protect its self and something about memory dump... So im thinking this is probably the SSD messing me around again or the RAM playing up ??

Everyday i can expect this laptop to crash like 10 + times a day !

What would you do in my position, is there anything i can do now my warranty is over ( only had the 1 year warranty on my system )

Im just about to take out my SSD again and put the Stock HDD back in...

Im very angry as you can probably tell... i spent ages saving for this laptop and i paid the money i did because i was expecting a quality laptop... with the saying firmly in my head " YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR "

But in all honesty my brothers netbook that he picked up for £100 out performs my laptop just for the pure reason that it functions right and is reliable !

IS THERE ANYTHING I CAN DO OR TRY ?? IM DESPERATE AND HAVE BEEN FOR THE LAST YEAR lol

LAST NOTE, IN MY EXPERIENCE PLEASE STAY AWAY FROM THE M14X R1... RIDDLED WITH ISSUES

 

Sounds like your ssd is what you should be hating, not the computer.

 

Yeah i can see what your saying but ive had it replaced several times and its strange how now ive had the motherboard changed the issue with the SSD changes. Also you can run tests on the ssd like alien autopsy for example and passes all inspections. i genuinely do believe its something to do with the M14x stating it has sata 3 when really it didnt due to it being intermittent, reverting to sata 2 then back to sata 3, surely that must mess with the SSD. but thats just me speculating trying to find a fault lol.

I appreciated the reply though and you may be right, i would like to hear other opinions as well and see if theres anything i can try to rectify this problem or any fault find methods i can try

 

I agree, before i bought my SSD, i did some research, and if you google it it's within the first links where you're told not to buy an OCZ SSD,
because it is kinda incompatible with the m14x...
before you trash your notebook, try to get a cheap for example samsung SSD and check the results, and if it doesn't work either, you can use it on your next notebook.

 

Thanks for your reply, that's interesting, but when i first ordered this laptop i was talking to people on this forum that were installing the same SSD as me and they were successful and had no issues which made my situation a whole lot more anoying lol. Maybe the others were just lucky i dont know but didnt seem as if they had compatibility issues.

Im amazed how much the SSD have come down in price though, you can get them now for £60, so maybe that is the way to go.. but i am still a bit apprehensive about buying another SSD encase it doesnt work and it just adds to this money pit of a laptop lol

 

The issue is not alienware. The issue is OCZ. All of their products have issues. Look it up on newegg. Even OCZ admitted their return rate is around 10%.

I advise against buying anything but crucial or samsung SSD's unless you know what you are doing. The risk of buying a crap SSD is just too big, and that includes intel since they started selling sandforce SSD's.

 

Oh really.... that's shocking, the only reason i bought mine from them was that i heard good things from OCZ at the time, that's really disappointing.

So do i have any rights to return this SSD even though its been a year since purchase or have you heard of anyone having there SSD replaced with another model due to the issues there obviously having with there product ?

Thanks again for all the replies ! these quick responses are greatly appreciated.

 

I doubt you could return it, but you may be able to sell it on ebay... you wont get near what you paid, but you will get something at least. Or just hang onto it and install it in another computer.

 

I have had my OCZ V3 90GB for a fair amount of time before replacing it with the Samsung 128 (not due to any particular issue, just wanted an upgrade).

My OCZ SSD was very stables after the latest firmware update. I also did not install Intel IRT and just use the native driver from windows. Which BIO are you on? I think A05 allowed the capability to go with SATA III speed but it also did give me more BSOD on the SSD. I think the safest config with the OCZ is probably A08 BIOs, latest firmware (was it 2.15?) and then no Intel IRT.

If this is getting way to frustrated, may be just just sell the SSD and get another more stable brand.

Hope this helps.

 

hi yeah that really does help, i am running the A08 but i havent tried the firmware update. so i should do a firmware update on the SSD and uninstall the IRT ?

 

didn't read all of that ^ but i can say from personal experience my ssd didn't always agree with my m14x r1 (my m14x r2 is loving my current 240 gb kingston ssd though). please note that ssd's are a relatively new hardware and i wouldn't fully rely on them being fully functional with all laptops (some will work better than others - my feelings are that you should stay away from OCZ right now even though they're generally the cheapest because they love to mess up or not be fully compatible). try a samsung, intel, or my personal favorite kingston.

 

I never saw a reliable way to get SATA III working on the r1. Some people literally accept bluescreens as a side-effect of getting it to "work"... Or they get throttled to SATA II by a later BIOS update. I never trusted my r1 enough to install an SSD as the primary drive...

 

Paddon,

I suppose you did update your SSD firmware, right?
My OCZAgility3, ridiculous fast, works at SATA 3, never gave me any problems AFTER I UPDATED the firmware...

It would'n even boot twice with the SSD original firmware.

Regards...

 

No i didnt do the firmware update :S

but i just put my HDD back in and its still crashing a stuff

 

Everything I have read about OCZ SSD's says that they have major issues with firmware. Updating helps. Usually.

I am ready to upgrade my laptop from a WD Black 750Gb to a 480Gb or 512Gb SSD, and have been researching to see what to get. OCZ's prices are the best, but my laptop is kind of mission critical for me, so I can't afford to take a chance. Saving $100 to $200 is very, very attractive. However, if I end up with no audio at an event, the loss in revenue and the damage to my reputation will far outweigh the savings. I do use two laptops when working with my full sound system, but twice a week I use my small system which works with one laptop only.

I think I am going to copy a boatload of songs to my SG3 as a backup......

If you cloned your SSD onto the hard drive, you may have copied a damaged OS and are trying to boot from a damaged OS.

Did you do another full, clean install onto the HDD? If so, are you using drivers for the R1 or the R2? You said the motherboard replacement upgraded you to the motherboard from the R2, which might need different drivers than the R1.....