Dell Depot expericence with Alienware 18

Well the problem started as I noticed my laptop's battery level was going down while I was plugged in. I checked the power brick by removing the cable that putting it back in and that didn't work. I then rebooted and that didn't work so I called support. They had me open it up and remove the battery plug and hold the power button down 30 seconds then I tried to power it up with no luck then he had me unplug battery and try with the plug only also with no luck. So they would send me a box to ship to Houston. The tech I talked to was in Costa Rica. The box came within one day and I rushed to Fedex to ship to Houston and I received email back that it was received the next day (Great). The I monitored the steps and it was receive by the technician to do the repair but then it was put on hold because a part was on backorder. Finally about a week later the part was received and tech began working on machine and I got a notice he was done and I received a call they said it was a bad mobo and graphics card. I received the laptop back and turned it on and I checked the NVidia Control panel and SLI graphics wasn't enabled and there was no option to enable it. I called back and got a support person in Costa Rica. He removed and installed 3 different Nvidia drivers with no success. So then he said he was going to send send a local tech to replace the graphics card and SLI cable but when he checked they didn't have graphics card so he said we he's not sure if it's hardware of software and he would call back and do system restore to default on Monday. I wasn't sure about the so I called back Saturday and the same tech had the day off so the other guys said he would send a local tech to change out the SLI cable. The it hit rock bottom. The tech was on his way to do the repair and I told him the address 3 times because I was at a different address and he went to the wrong address. Then he finally came to the right address i had to show him how to open the machine well the SLI cable wasn't snapped and he snapped it. I then checked the SLI and it was still enabled. Then after the tech left i noticed the case wasn't put back together correctly and was blocking the slot for the DVD/CD. Also at times when I booted the screen would come up fessy and distorted. The tech called me and said they would send a box again to send back to Houston. Well I didn't get the box so I called and they had they had shipped to the wrong address so i corrected them and I got the box the next day. I sent back and they had for a day and said it was repaired and they gave me a tracking number for Fedex (Great). That night Dell called me from Costa Rica saying they would send me a box to send my laptop to be repaired. I told him it is already and Dell and on the way yo Fedex to send back to me. He then asked my tracking number. I changes the delivery of Fedex to I will pick up at Fedex and I picked it up. The slip inside said it was a bad Mobo again. When I turned it on it looked great and I went to the Nvidia CP and WOW I had SLI and I could turn off if I wanted.

 

Your experience is the reason I learned to open and close my pc by myself. Just because the guys a tech does not mean he knows how to open close your pc. Minor things which you can fix if you know how, would save the pc owner the problem of sending your pc in. If you would have opened the pc you could have plugged in the sli cable yourself. I got my pc back from Texas, also bad MB, but they forgot a couple of things, I opened pc and found and fixed.

 

Well I'm ok with opening the back and adding memory or a drive but removing the keyboard is something I try to stay away from. What I've read that you need to remove keyboard to access the SLI cable. Plus the mobo was the problem anyways. When you purchase a system you purchase a warranty as it's figured into the cost. In fact my next project is to replace the 256 GB MSATA SSD with a new Samsung 1 tb SSD. I'm just waiting on the external MSATA case so I can clone the drive.

 

We're sorry to hear that you had so many issues to get the laptop finally fixed. At least our technical support team was there to follow up on the case and we could give you a final resolution. If you get any other issue, let me know directly and I'll help you.

 

Yes the main thing is the laptop is fixed and working like it should. But just to let you know I got a call that they were sending a box for me to ship the laptop to Dell when Dell already had it and had sent a tracking number to send it back to me.