M11x R2 Fan

I've had my M11x for only a few months and haven't done any real gaming on it, but recently as black ops came out i played it for about 4-5hrs straight and I've realized that since then my fan has been making this buzzing noise as if it is scraping on something in the internals. I've read that it's some issue with the tape around the fan or something...I'm wondering what I can do to fix this issue because I have no experience whatsoever when it comes to interfering with hardware so I don't want to attempt to do anything myself and I had a friend buy this off Dell's website in the US and had it shipped to me in the Caribbean. Is there any way to contact Dell about this issue and replacing the fan and if so would they still do it even though it wasn't bought in this country ? I need to have this fixed because the noise is really bothering me..not the noise itself but the fact that it sounds like something is wrong with my M11x. I'm afraid something gets damaged. Please...any help would be appreciated

 

Question do you have the warranty? If yes talk to dell or alienware. If not I think you should check the forum for some topics. I think there are quite a few about this problem. What country do you live? Here in argentina dell does not have support =/

 

There have been a few reports from owners who have opened up theirs that the sealing tape in the air path surrounding the fan is sometimes not aligned properly and the fan blades hit it.

Call Dell.

 

Call Alienware. Do not call Dell.

 

It doesn't matter anyway they forward all the calls to some guy in India.

 

Every interaction I have made with Alienware was with someone in the US.

 

Do you have the premium/advanced warranty kent1146? To the best of my knowledge unless you have that warranty there is not garantee on where your rep will be.

 

No, I have a standard warranty through Alienware.

Perhaps I have just been very fortunate.

 

Ok guys thanks for the replies, I've found the bill but it's in my cousins name, not mine..will that be a problem if I were to call Dell with that bill ?

 

I cannot guarantee that it will be fine.

However, I can say that I had purchased a Dell laptop from someone else before. And all I needed to transfer ownership to my name was the name and address of the original purchaser. So if Dell has not changed their ownership transfer policy in the past 3 years, you should be fine.

 

Dell - Ownership Transfers

 

OK guys..I called the Dell rep for my country, Trinidad and tobago...i don't known if the person was just being an idiot and wanted to make some extra money but he told me that it will not be covered under warranty as it was bought in another country...is this true ? And if so I really don't have any extra money to put out after spending over $1000USD on a laptop and the fan seems to be dying or something because it used to run idle at around 45degrees, now it sits idle at around 60degrees..I attempted to play some black ops last night and it reached over 70degrees within two mins...so what should I do ? :/ this is very disappointing...especially from a brand like alienware after spending that kinda money...oh and those temps were with my air conditioning on

 

OK guys - here is the solution...........................if u have warranty then this is not needed.

Open up computer - you will need to get right to the fan screws, so....

1> unplug battery
2> remove back panel
3> unplug battery and remove
4> remove all screws (including those under battery)
5> open front (power button cover)
6> remove 2 keyboard screws
7> remove all palm rest screws, and ribbons (two for keyboard & two for front cover)
8> You can now see the 3 small sliver fan screws.
9> remove these, no need to unplug fan but peel tape off - the plug is on the reverse of the mobo and while you can get to it by removing more screws the power cable is long enough to allow the fan to swing out.
10> pull off fan (yes fan blades simply come off is one attachment with magnets on sides.)

- OK and now the actual problem, don't ask me why but the power coils slip lower forcing the fan to rub on the sides or base of the M11x

simply push this up, you will fell it slip back against the base of the fan holder.

reverse and your noise will stop, mine started when the fan slowed down after running then proceeded to rub more and more. Hope this helps someone else took we a while to figure out what was causing it.

 

Thanks a lot for the above comment but I have never in my life opened a laptop and I don't really know my way around, I've seen the YouTube video on the disassembly of the M11x and it seems pretty difficult to reach the fan..so i dont think im capable of doing something like that. In my opinion it is extremely stupid of Dell to tell me my warranty is not valid because it was bought in another country although it is completely THEIR fault because I take extreme care of this laptop especially because of the price I paid for it...I am not willing to spend any money to get it repaired so could anybody tell me if that thing about the warranty not being valid is true ? Because of this stupid issue I cannot even use my laptop to do the work that I have to get done, I have to use my friends laptop which is very inconveniencing for both of us.

 

Anyone please ? I'm using the laptop right now..the fan buzzing doesn't really seem to be there when doing normal stuff with the laptop but it's running at 55 degrees doing normal stuff on high performance..is this safe ? i remember it usually running around 45

 

55 is fine.

I wouldn't even think about temps unless you started getting 80C or higher.

 

Did you try air blasting the fan with those air spray cans?

 

No..but wouldn't that blow whatever dust is there back into the heatsink and clog it ? Just asking..but if it won't I'll try it..Thanks for the reply

 

You are correct.

The right thing to do is to take the bottom panel of the laptop off, and blow compressed air so that the dust goes OUT of your system. Using compressed air with your system still sealed up will just blow dust back into your system, causing other problems down the road.

 

Thanks For the reply..so im looking at it and I see that there's one panel that would seem to come off fairly easily, and then the fan's panel is connected to like the actual frame of the laptop itself, that seems kinda difficult to remove, would I have to remove that ?

 

Anyone plz ? wanna do this first thing tomorrow...I have some work to do on the laptop and I HAVE to use it and atm its buzzing REALLY loudly at 53degreesC

 

Please help someone I need confirmation of this before I actually open the laptop...I'm very nervous about it

 

Listen. You have video. You have instruction on FIRST page. And you have our permission to disassembly.
Stop asking anything more because there is nothing to add! Either you or someone else must do this. Or go pay for repair if you scare to do it yourself or ask a friend.
I always ask a friend

 

Update on this for anyone having this issue...I sent it to NY to have it fixed under warranty...apparently the coil on the fan was burnt and they replaced that and the motherboard.

 

Interesting. The 9 calls I've made to AW support in the past 3 weeks have all been with people somewhere in Central or South America. I've heard mention of Costa Rica, but I can't find anything to back that claim up. The on-site tech I had come out last Friday said that was a somewhat recent change too.

 

Ok so I just got the laptop back after they replaced the mobo and fan....It works perfectly but the only thing I'm seeing a bit different is that on the BIOS screen where it had an alienhead before, now there's some kinda yellow text saying something about manufacturer settings and after that screen theres another thing saying some aethros lan cable is disconnected or something [it flashes by pretty quickly] and well i got into the BIOS via F2 and I got into the boot options via F12 but my main concern here is will I be able to boot from a flash drive as normal ? I would like to perform a clean install of W7 soon. I can't test that atm bcuz i dont have a bootable flashdrive around..so i'm just wondering if anyone wud know...

 

If you want to skip text and see a logo choose option quiet boot enabled in bios

 

Thanks for the reply but I looked everywhere and I don't see quiet boot..