M18x R1 - Simple call out becomes week long battle...

long time reader

Anyway just thought a few of you might enjoy a warranty call story

I called on Monday the 11th of February about an issue of the speakers on the m18x not working. I was then called back around midday on the 11th and asked to confirm address for the technician, which I did and I was informed that a technician would be at my home between 2pm and 4pm on the 12th.

At 4:30pm on the 12th I called technical support again to please contact the technician and find out where he is. I was asked to wait 30min more and that the call center agent had requested the technician to contact me. At 5:15pm [45min later] on the 12th I called again and was told that the technician wont be coming anymore [Great use of a leave day for me ] but the call center agent assured me that if I take my laptop to work on the 13th a technician will come through, I mean why wouldn't he, next day business service one would think if a client was missed on a previous day they would be marked as a priority. [Side note: A call from anyone saying Tech was not going to make it would have helped]

So I then drive to work when I normally use train as the m18x is a little bit too big for public transport. Today [the 13th] I receive a call just after 9 from dell to say a technician can come out tomorrow the 14th as all the technicians have been allocated parts and I was not on the list as the technician that was meant to do my speaker replacement is off today.

I then call Dell technical support once more to find out why would someone tell me the 13th, and get a whole new story! YAY! Apparently there was a "delay" in my part [speaker I assume] and it may arrive between Thursday and Friday.

So on the 14th finally a technician arrives, but with a subwoofer not a speaker replacement. The technician changes the subwoofer anyway and was kind enough to help me clean fans etc for my GFX and CPU as they have been hitting 90+ in WOW and benchmarks. So the technician then orders a speaker for Friday the 15th, but unfortunately I get a call Friday morning saying that all parts allocated etc and that someone will come on monday between 12 and 2pm.

So I have no choice but to accept, so Monday [today] comes around, and at 1pm I get a call from the technician, he is outside the original address where the m18x was delivered and I no longer live at. Why would they send him to a location that was not even once mentioned I don't know and even after I confirmed with the person who called to confirm the time was ok that the tech must come to my work where he came just yesterday...

In between all of this I have been on technical support about the 90+ temperatures of my 6990 Crossfires. Even after fans where cleaned and thermal paste reapplied temperatures still climb into the 90's.

Support has suggested a motherboard swap as the contacts where the GFX and MB sit could be causing heating issue. I don't really want to go through all this hassle again though.

Anyway, for the Alienware Tech guys on here, can you please check up on the Australian Service I did send an email to [email protected] on 13th Feb but still no response...

Hope tomorrow it is finally resolved...

 

Quick follow up, Support was unable to contact technicians today so just told them to send me the parts I'll change them.

Parts arrived within 2 hours, and a technician was sent to the wrong address again. I was told a technician will be at my work tomorrow at 12:00

Anyway have decided to let the Technician install the parts tomorrow at 12:00, as its Date nite 2nite

If no technician tomorrow I will just install parts myself.

Is there anything special to watch out for when changing the MB, I bought thermal paste on the way home today.

Cheers
Ali3nSan

 

YouTube m18x tear down. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhURMyavgks&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Follow that. Be very careful with releasing the connectors, they are fragile. Especially the hard drive connector to ribbon cable. Also make sure you wear an anti static wrst band or gloves when working in there and disconnect all power. Also helps to be extra safe and do a power drain before working on the system.

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk 2

 

And together with the above, remove the battery from the system and also the bios battery. Yes, this matters. ^^

 

Thanks for the advice

Luckily a Dell Tech came through.

After the MB swap sound came back

While he was here, he helped me add thermal paste [Arctic Silver 5] onto both 6990's and also applied the dell thermal paste onto the cpu after cleaning the old thermal paste off.
He also showed me how to remove the keyboard trim etc so I can add more ram later on

Just ran the Heaven 11 benchmark scored 1518 on default settings and full screen ticked. Not sure if that's good.

Temperatures before where at the highest 101 degree's and now 79 degrees for the same test and the best score I got then was 1415.

Logged into WOW and where I was getting under 10 fps in pandaria I am now getting upper 70's with peaks of 90+

Overall pretty happy will run a few more tests this evening!

Here is the 3D mark results

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/257266

 

Nice man! It is always nice to hear a success story. Not enough of them get posted. Congratulations, and enjoy!