M11xR3 Shiny Trackpad?!

Hey guys,

I recently purchased a brand new M11xR3 and upon unboxing, I noticed that the parts of the trackpad and palm rests were quite shiny (small areas were very reflective.)
I thought this might go away after cleaning but it hasn't and since using it from the 25th December (was a Christmas present) the marks have gotten much much worse.

I was just wondering if any of you guys knew what I should do, I'm hesitant to call Dell as I'm not sure they would actually do anything about it but I can assure you all that these marks were definitely here upon unboxing.

 

Well, you should ask santa if it was a brand new unit or a refurb/used one. If it was new, then it isn't supposed to be like that, mine R3 was nice and matte, it is shiny now from using it for ~half a year.

If its used/refurb i doubt you'll get anywhere.

 

It is brand new as I was present when it was ordered from the dell site.

I've only tried to clean it with water though, do you think rubbing alcohol could make much of a difference or does it seem like worn down plastic?

 

The track pad is simply matte polished plastic with the honeycomb sort of texture... if all of it is shiny, they might have made some small revision though i doubt it... mine took good few months to wear off too, now theres a sort of shiny round bit.

Take a high-def picture if you got some decent camera. If they really sent a refurb palm rest on a new laptop, its really sloppy way of work... especially when main selling point is quality and "building like your own" sure its just some chinese people making them, but QC should still do something...

 

Only the middle part of the trackpad is shiny in an uneven shape like it has been worn down but it was like this from unboxing.

I just hope Dell will either fix or replace my laptop. I'd much prefer a fix due to the amount of games I've got installed.

 

Did you take the protective plastic cover off?

 

If its a refubrished unit there will be an obvious label on the bottom that says, strangley enough "REFURBISHED". Otherwise its supposed to be (as we used to say) "brand spanking new".

 

No, there is no label that says refurbished. I PURCHASED THIS MYSELF (technically) and I can guarantee you this is brand new. I took every single protective cover off.

Another thing was that my battery indicator on the bottom was very heavily scratched and the button is actually indented in a sense, its not flat but rather looks like it has bent.

There is nothing to prove otherwise that my laptop is a refurbished model and I definitely ordered a new one. I will be phoning Dell up after 1PM today and will post the results here,

 

Apparently (according to Dell that is...) Updating my M11xR3's BIOS to the R1's AO5 revision will fix the issue I have with having a shiny trackpad and palm rest.

No joke... This is what they just told me. Update to a BIOS revision that isn't even for your machine and it will fix a physical defect. Dear Christ, I never thought Dell was that bad.

 

Dell now want me to take a picture of the battery. Why do they need a picture of the battery if this is to do with the trackpad and palm rest?

 

I don't mean to laugh but those above two posts were hilarious.
I've had good experience with Dell Support despite what everyone else says.

In all honesty if the refurbished machine had worked without flaw I would have kept it, especially since they come with a 3 year warranty standard.
However if you paid for a new machine then you are, by right, damn well entitled to it.

Every. Single. Alienware laptop will inevitably suffer from the shiny surfaces - Just learn to accept it.

 

I can deal with the shine, its the weird stickiness that just will not go away and the battery indicator that looks like someone has stabbed it with a screwdriver.
When I pay for a new machine, I expect nothing short of perfection UNTIL I start to f*ck around with it. I don't expect to see a 700£+ laptop with marks all over it and a sticky trackpad.
Just for comparison, I bought an iMac last year and when I got home it had 2 dead pixels in the center of the screen. I took it back and without any fuss or even looking at my machine, they replaced it instantaneously. I then received another iMac which weirdly enough had about 7 or 8 dead pixels in the space of a penny and you know what they did? They upgraded me to the next model and offered to cover the fuel costs. <- That right there, is customer support.

EDIT: Although, Dell has ridiculously quick response time from phone, to email and now I'm being offered replacement.

 

There is a plastic cover on the battery gauge... use your fingernail to peel it off...

 

We already peeled the plastic cover off of it.

We've got the Dell technicians coming to repair the battery gauge, the palm rests and the trackpad. The person who I spoke told me not to sign the technicians papers if I wasn't satisfied with his repairs and they would take it from there, I feel a bit better about it now.

 

each area with shiny plastic has its own cover... near the power button, the front 'grill' and the battery gauge.



Pics would help...

 

I've peeled the plastic off of everything. -.-

 

we need to see pictures, that would help alot

 

Okay, I'll download them later from the conversation I had with the Dell representative.

 

I'm on my second M11x and both suffer from the shiny spot on the trackpad. My R1 trackpad went shiny after a month of use which was horrible and now my R3 after 3 months has gone shiny! Simple thing to do is never touch it and use a USB gaming mouse.

About the battery meter cover. When I received my R3 it looked like someone had stuck a pen in the plastic that you press to show the battery meter LED's. After I removed the plastic film cover it still was a little dented and that's down to the base not sitting close enough to the micro switch on the battery and the Dell build engineer monkey must have pressed too hard to make it work. I had to open the laptop and put a spacer between the backplate and the micro switch, now all is well but still annoying.

My theory about the battery plastic cover switch is that it's down the change in how Dell insert the anti-vibration foam between the HDD and the backplate. The R1 had a light foam that covered the whole back of the HDD filling the gap nicely making the switch easy to press. The R3 design is more of a thicker tape style foam that raises the backplate just a little too far from the micro switch on the battery thus making the build engineer have to press too hard with a pen or screwdriver to test the LED's.

Still these couple of annoyances are very easy to live with but should be common sense for Dell to iron out in the production build stage. Not use the customer as it's QC stage and then have loads of complaints.