Warranty, customer support or lack of it

Hi
I bought a M17 for my son who now informs me that both the usb ports have fallen to bits. It appears that the white alignment plastic is missing. I rang Alienware who tell me that as the warranty ran out 5 days previous they won't help. They refuse to allow me to speak to a supervisor saying I have to report as an incident.
I have but didn't receive a reply to this nor a reply when I chased the "incident"
Anybody got any ideas of what stage I should take it to next?
Thanks
Mike

 

I'd keep calling until you find someone who will help, but wanted to tell you that you can probably get the parts and put them in yourself. I've installed USB cards in other laptops. I'm thinking that the two usb units are on one card.

 

To change the USB connectors requires a full strip down.The usb connectors on the right side are part of the IO board which you would have to replace then the usb connectors on left side are part of the motherboard so you would need a new right side IO board and a new motherboard to fix your problem.That is the case if you have a M17x R1 or R2.

 

He said M17. The motherboard is upside down in that model, and almost everything was accessible by taking the bottom cover off. You can do a CPU/GPU swap in literally minutes.

 

Yeah i can read.As he is new on the forum & it was his first post,Like many new posters they dont realize that you have M17 & M17x R1 & R2 & as his warranty has just expired i am guessing its a M17x.

 

Really no need to change the mother board, just change the card and have two usb's available and run from a hub if he needs more.

 

Hi
Thanks for all the comments
The unit is actually a M17R1 and it looks like the 2 side usb are on a separate pcb with headphone jacks etc.
Anybody know where I can get one?
Thanks again
Mike

 

found one. Ztronics

 

The part name is right side IO board

 

Try Dell/Alienware for the part also.

 

hum i'm not the only one who has his side usb port falling apart i suspect these board where defective my both usb port on it lost thier plastic part

mine are still functional but i'd liek to get them replaced befor the waranty end

 

Better get it booked in for repair then!

 

i'm not sending it back i'd have to flash my bios and GPU bios back to stock put my stock mem, wireles, HDD nah i prefer get a replacement board and make do the job myself

 

http://www.ztronics.com/en/m17-r1.html can maybe help

 

Dont see the point in paying for a part when it's still under warranty and after all the warranty is void if you disassemble the system yourself down to that level (confirmed by alienware directly)

 

what i wont send my system in for repairs

i'm sure they will send me the board after some negotiations the lastes rep i dealt with could have sent me a replacement motherboard ....é

 

on the phone ATM the rep didn't knew that these usb ports where not part of the mother board -.-

and they wanna change the mother board if i send it back in there is no way i'm gonna send it back uneless it's for a refund cause if these clow mess with my computer i'm sure they will screw it

but he didn't said that it would void my waranty just that they don't have it in stock so i guess i can still find my way to get to the person who can decide ..... off let's send it

threatening them of sending it back in for full refund aparently made them more cooperative the rep was really cooperative from the begining but aparently the people he needed to talk to to get the info where not

EDIT FINAL so got it out with a good deal they don't have the part in stock how ever i can order the part from ztronic change it my self and i just have to send them the bill they will credit it back on my acount
so i guess it won't void my waranty at all ^^

 

crap you got to call them befor 4h pm eastern time cause if you call them after that there is a team switch and the rep of the night team started yelling at me when i explained that these port where not part of the mobo lol


luckily i yell harder then him and juste mentioning Quad core problem and moboswitch seem to inspire fear in the heart of every rep LOL they act like if they never heard of it but sudenly become very cooperative.

how ever the situation is now at a stall because i need to get in touch with the day team as my case was an exception and they need to deal with it


and i just got 32 days of warenty remaining i hope they are not just ignioring my emails hoping they can get away with it with out correcting the issue

 

Thanks everyone for your help. Got the part from Ztronics

 

can you take picture when you open the thing i'll have to do the same and i'd like to know to what extent i'll have to do the same

it seem like Aw is trying to get away with it -.- they still have not gave a following to the thing

 

Just send it in granyte, I just sent my m9750 in for a similarly small issue (ethernet port not holding the cable) and they gave me not only a new port but also a new DVD drive and shiny new case

 

well if i do so i'd have to change the bios back to stock put my gpu bios back to stock and dig around for all the original part i have lying around i know i havent just droped them but i doN't know where they are

and if i send it back and they as you say give me a brand new case that mean a brand new mobo as thier own tech never took it apart -.-
a brand new mobo mean probability of the quad issue apearing or to incompatibility with the z.29 bios apearing or that it just become incapable o handeling dual 4850 and a quad just like mandrak's one and as the tech don't even reconise the existance of the quad problem i'd have no way of getting a refund for the system or any other suport for that mater

no sending it back unless it's for a full refund is not an option and if they just drop the ball and are never heard of again befor the warenty end i'll sue them as i contacted them befor the end of the warenty for an issue they caused by buying cheap part

 

The quad core issue they cant fix, they'll give you a new motherboard if you need one. As far as I know the only solutions to the quad core issues were to:
1. Change to a dual core
or
2. Copper mode the northbridge.

They might offer you a dual core proc as a solution to the quad core problem, but forget it if you didnt buy the system with a quad core originally.

 

i bough it wit a quad and it's perfectly stable with it even oced evn with the 4850 even with an diferent bios so far my m17 is the only one i've heard who is perfectly stable no mather what i do (no copermod or anything)

EvilCorsaiR is stable but when ever he pu the z.29 bios on stutering start
Mandrake was able to be stable with a quad or stable with the 4850 but never with both at the same time
marvie swaped for a dual and so did MANY MANY MANY user

but i bought a quad because i use a quad swaping for a dual would in no way be an acceptable compromise for me i'm even looking to upgrade to the faster quad as i need even more power