To renew warranty or not?

I have a fairly decent quote for extending the warranty for another year on my M18x R2, mainly for the worry of my 7970Ms failing or my LCD or some other expensive part. My question is, are there still parts available for servicing, or am i going to get a Alienware 18 or worse, a Alienware 17 shoved down my through?

 

Have a read here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/is-my-m18x-r2-7970m-cf-dead.775270/page-2
...here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...m-cf-for-a-fourth-time-tomorrow.755489/page-3
...and, here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...-my-beloved-m18-r2-she-is-dying.775098/page-3

Tough question to answer now, but used to be a no-brainer. If you would have asked me 18 months ago or earlier, I would have urged you to do it. Based on what I am seeing in those threads, I'm not so sure it's a good idea any more. Chances of getting severely downgraded to something undesirable rather than having your machine fixed is probably pretty great now if they don't have the parts.

 

I have been reading those threads, and they have me a little ansy to say the least. I wish there was a way to verify parts availability to see if a warranty extension could be justified.

 

The trouble is (1) you cannot get a straight answer on that, and (2) available today does not mean available tomorrow.

I bought a motherboard for an M18xR2 that I was working on for a customer in November. I got it directly from Dell Spare Parts. The guy tried to sell me two of them. There were six left and he told me the part was discontinued and would not being going back into production again as a service/repair part. That makes me uneasy, too. I didn't buy myself a spare motherboard because I couldn't justify spending $400+ for something that would sit in my parts closet and collect dust "just in case" I someday needed it. Now I am really worried for that customer because I have that machine back and it appears that motherboard may have failed. I haven't called to see if one is still available yet, because I still need to confirm it is the motherboard. I am also kicking myself in the hind end for not buying a second one as a spare for myself. If they have more than one left, I may have to bite the bullet a snag one for myself to have a spare.

 

Be mindful they don't ship you a refurb board with a defective sound chip. I lucked out that mine that I bought second hand has a 100% function sound card.

 

All parts from Dell are labeled refurbished, whether new or not. My orginal M18xR2 board had the defect. It was replaced under warranty, and that one had the defect. That one failed because the chip for the amp that drives the external audio ports caught on fire (literally... here is a photo). I purchased a replacement (it failed after my extended warranty could not be extended any further) and that one, which is in my machine right now, also has the defect. You are very blessed to have one that does not have the random audio drop-out problem. They seem to be extremely rare. I am always able to revive my Recon3Di by putting the laptop to sleep from the Start Menu button and waking it up after a few seconds, so it hasn't been more than an inconvenience for me. All of the motherboard and other parts, including video cards, that I have received under warranty or purchased from Dell using my own money appear to be new. That have shown no visible evidence of having ever been installed in a machine... no scuff marks around screw hole grommets, friction/contact marks in PCIe and RAM slots, or other tell-tale evidence of having been installed in another machine before.