R1 BSOD and Alienware Support Rant...

So I've tried to get a fix or replacement from Dell months ago because my R1 will not stably overclock. I got some dance around answer like: It's advertised as overclockable but we don't officially support it being stable, technically it is "overclockable". Technically not false advertising, but still shady business practice. Knowing that some people had managed to have systems replaced before for the same issue i decided to try again calling Alienware today. I was getting the same round-a-bout answer so I asked for a manager. I argued with this guy for some time. I paid for an overclockable machine as advertised. I paid for the same feature other users are getting. It's a built in feature from the factory. It should be supported. He kept telling me that they don't support overclocking. And that if most people overclocked their R1s it they would be replacing systems left and right due to burnt chips. and that if I wanted to overclock they would teach me how to do it for $200. $200 are you kidding me? For something I paid for already. The only way to overclock the R1 without pin modding it is through the bios, no? What are they trying to sell me? Then eventually he tells me he's going to send me some 1333mhz ram to replace my 1066mhz ram. He claims this will correct my BSOD with overclocking enabled, however the cpu won't actually overclock. This makes no sense to me but whatever I'll try, it's not costing me anything. Does anyone know what he is talking about? I seem to know more then this guy. When I call North US Alienware support and I have a $200 warranty I don't want to deal with someone who knows less about the product then I do and who doesn't speak English very well (The first guy being much worse then the manager). I love my M11x other then this issue but the tech support and shady business ethics really has left a bad taste in my mouth as far as buying future products from them.

 

It's depends on how lucky you are with your m11x. When I first got mine I set to 166mhz and booted fine and so far no BSOD *knock on wood*

 

Glad to hear this, I was also under the impression that due to Alienware/Dell including the OC feature in the bios, as well as advertising it, that it would be covered under the warranty..

 

That manager has no idea what hes talking about. If your getting BSOD outside of overclock that is a serious problem but since it appears you are upgrading the ram might help as bad ram can cause a bsod but its unlikely to help. Meanwhile if you set it to overclock that IS overclocking the cpu. There is no way to "teach" someone to overclock an r1, thats complete bull. Unless they are gonna teach you how to break a pin on the cpu (they arent), then the only option is bios overclocking. The guy was either trying to get out of dealing with this, or is trying to scam you. To be quite blunt, you dont seem to know more than he did, you DO. Go ahead and try the new ram and if that dosent help call them again and give them hell, Ive had very good luck annoying their overseas customer support. They arent american and they are hard to understand, but they are also quite helpful. Im not sure if you have USA support or the standard. But I say if you annoy them enough they will fix it, after all they are terrified of bad publicity more than spending a few bucks to swap out your motherboard. Also, tell that guy to go read a book, because Im fairly certain that the overclock on the r1 is clockspeed ONLY, and not voltage, so that will have NO effect on the rate of chip burnout. Every person in the world could do it and the rate of chip burnout would remain nominally the same (maybe 5-10% more...maybe).

 

Yeah, I agree with you completely. I did give this guy hell, a lot of hell. To the point we were just arguing in circles. My girlfriend said "poor guy" when I finally got off the phone. I know you need to be pushy with phone reps if you want anything to get done the way that you want it. I told him that pin modding it was the only way to overclock this machine outside of bios. I told him that the ram wouldn't make a difference. Also according to other threads I've read the voltage is actually lowered when OC is enabled and that's what causes some chips to be unstable. So it's sort of a hardware and a software problem. The chip just happens not to be able to handle it but they could also update the bios to push a little more voltage, or better yet give us a couple voltage options to select, so those with an already stable cpu won't have to sacrifice battery life. Either replace the "faulty" motherboards or update the bios or release some other fix Dell/Alienware! I WANT THE PRODUCT I PAID FOR AS ADVERTISED! This laptop is a beast otherwise but with games that are CPU reliant that extra few mhz counts.

 

are you 100% certain that OC is the reason for your BSODs?

 

Yes, my laptop is completely stable when overclock is off. I start crashing only after it is enabled.