Wont ever buy alienware again...

So over the past few days my laptop has started getting REALLY hot. It BSOD's and sometimes refuses to charge saying the wrong adapter is plugged in, and the connection is loose. I figure the pin is becoming loose and needs to be re-soldered, and the motherboard needs to be replaced. On top of that the left hinge has started popping, and acting weird.

So I call and they guy confirms a motherboard replacement etc...then he says my warranty expired 10 days ago and it will cost almost 400$ to fix.

WOW. This was my first alienware and I have had nothing but good things to tell friends and family. My brother even purchased a new 14x after talking to me.

I will never buy an alienware again after this.

 

I feel sorry for your loss bro.

Did you check the fan, could be just clogged with massive amounts of dust... gotta clean it every few weeks or so. just use the flashlight to see from the back if theres much dust...

also i believe the power adapter female socket in the laptop is separate from motherboard? could be wrong tho... depending on a repairs "guy" you can be charged 500£ or nothing, depending on how fair the guy is... Did read in the newspaper or blog or w/e, true story that.

 

call and see if you can extend your warranty, then they should fix it all for cheaper, and if something breaks again they will fix it.

 

have you ever repasted your CPU/GPU and cleaned out your fan/vents? That should take care of your heat issues

 

Why the motherboard have to be replace?

Power Connector on the motherboard could be replace or refix kinda unless its the supply?
Cleaning dust and repaste heatsink MIGHT fix the issue
Hinge can be fixed

I understand its a huge problem for a 1 year laptop

cheer up

 

When your Asus, HP, Apple or Toshiba fails out of warranty I wonder if the story will be different.

Either 3rd party for parts or extend the warranty if you wish to repair.

 

That's what happens on everything when warranty expires. No matter what computer company you go with, once your warranty period is over, you're paying full price. Wait till you get a car (not sure how old you are), then you'll really be pissed when you're warranty is up. Don't blame the manufacturer, blame the warranty that expired when it was suppose to.

You should give what the others have mentioned a shot. Could fix your problems. Good luck with it, hope you get it fixed.

 

only company that may work out of warranty is apple (has given me replacement batteries and chargers out of warranty), but I doubt they would give me me a motherboard replacement.

 

Yup, it's Dell's fault that their warranty has an expiration date.

Boycott for sure.

 

I got the same charger message a couple months ago, it turned out that the charger was busted. But worst case scenario if you need a new MOBO they are on Ebay for $250 I think.

 

All of your sarcastic remarks are bs, especially until it happens to you. I have worked in computer repair for over 10 years and have owned many many computers. My last laptop was an HP and it started overheating after the one year warranty and HP replaced it with a brand new laptop free of charge. Every laptop I have owned has worked for 2-4 years without issue's. The fact that the hinge is a known issue and they wont fix it baffles me.

The frustrating part is that I recently lost my job, and have been doing free lance work to pay the bills. Now with my computer randomly BSOD'ing and over heating I am now looking at loosing the only equipment I have that makes me money. I cant afford the 300$ to fix it let alone a new computer...

Be fanboys all you want, its still crap that its TEN days after the warranty and the item that should last longer than 12 months, isnt...

 

well mine is holding up perfectly fine, and from what i read they replace hinges out of warranty.

Having worked in PC repairs you should know perfectly fine how the heatsink looks after a year of neglect, it becomes as good as none pretty much... also if you worked repairing PCs, taking it apart and cleaning the dust will be a breeze, i don't really see what you're whining about...

Correct me if I'm wrong but they still replace the hinges out of warranty don't they? Seriously there was a guy that epoxied the hinges inside the LCD case to support them from breaking cause he couldn't send it for warranty...

People had worse issues with laptops, yours is just a few hours to fix...

1. Ring dell up about the hinges, should repair out of warranty from my understanding.
2. Sort out the hinges, if they replace just the LCD panel disassemble it.
3. Clean the dust out properly
4. Re paste with some decent thermal paste not the crappy one dell puts on...
5. Put it back together
6. Enjoy


Now, its not that big of a deal is it... seriously life sux but don't take it out here... its not that hard to fix the lappy.

 

Lucky that the r1 motherboard is cheaper. My r2 motherboard is also dead after a spill and Dell quoted me $1100.....

Though its unfortunate that your warranty expired only 10 days ago...

 

Hey dude,

Man-up and try cleaning out your lappy... I just sold a M17xR2 that was overheating and shutting off on me. Lo and behold, I took a can of dust-off to it and what seemed like a giant hairball came flying piece by piece, out of the backside and grills. The guy I bought it from just weeks prior must've had it sitting in a kitty litter box or something.

Trust me, I've had my share of yelling at Dell on the phone... sometimes it's just better to press and fix it yourself. New mobo's are available on ebay now for around $100... I need a new one due to some of my LEDs flaking out.

Lastly, I have finally gotten Dell to send me a replacement LCD (I am a full year out of warranty), due to the one-time broken-hinge fix guarantee. Just search for 'M11x hinge fix' in these forums and you will be taken care of. Good luck!

 

If you had the experience and expertise you would know that your statement was begging for snark

You basically say that had you only purchased anything but Dell the expired warranty wouldn't matter.

Using YOUR standard I wish you luck. Gonna be a rough road

Lolz:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-compaq/642358-would-you-buy-another-hp.html
http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...86-faulty-dv9700t-owner-am-i-out-options.html

 

u have worked on computers for 10 years and couldn't put new thermal paste
or even clean it at all and the hinge problem they fix it for free they fixed mine i dont know why u blame dell so much its not there fault u didnt maintain it properly

 

We DO get the frustration and it does suck to have failures but I have to add that it would seem this is a refurb outlet system out of warranty. Right?

Beware when claiming tech status as you never know the status of the reader or their experience

As to your issues, a cleaning is free so no harm trying but IMO you need to do a partial tear down. If any power connection issues report back but lets sort heat first

 

the guy above me is spot on, but you should also call and see if you can extend your warranty, I accidentally damaged my machine a few months ago and they wouldn't fix it till I paid around 160 bucks for the advanced warranty. When you call them, be calm and collected, they have no reason to help you if your yelling at them. and I understand your frustration entirely, The first system repair i got, the part that was replaced was defective and ended up blowing a hole in the mobo. I went from having at least a working machine to nothing, Dell came back and replaced everything I asked them and more. They will take care of you.

 

Instead of crying like a little baby, maybe READ what people are telling you?

If it is only 10 days out of warranty, Dell will let you EXTEND your currently expired warranty and then you will get your repairs done for FREE under the NEW warranty.

If you're going to start throwing around accusations about Dell being horrible then at least take action and see what happens; Don't just sit there feeling sorry for yourself without first finding out from THEM what they can do about it. Oh and BTW, Dell repairs the hinge issue OUT OF WARRANTY regardless of which M11x you have, no questions asked.

I purchased an M11x R2 in September, the entire motherboard failed after 3 weeks so they replaced it with an R3 which after refunds cost me LESS than my R2. At first they just wanted to replace the motherboard, but i knew that if this has happened in 3 weeks of babying it, then it wouldn't last long so i stuck to my guns and insisted on an upgrade. Eventually i got exactly what i wanted.

 

To extend requires payment

 

If his warranty just expired 10 days ago, regardless if his M11x required repairs or not then he should still have been ready/prepared to pay for having it extended.

You can't choose/decide not to extend a warranty then complain about the manufacturer for not repairing it.

I also find this extremely ironic - "This was my first alienware and I have had nothing but good things to tell friends and family. My brother even purchased a new 14x after talking to me."

So for the entire duration of owning the M11x you were completely satisfied and even recommended Alienware to others, but the moment the warranty expires you boycott the entire company? Yea, that definitely sounds like an experienced IT professional with 10 years under his belt...

 

Don't you have to blame yourself as well here OP? Do you think people who paid for warranty extension did it for fun? You get what you paid for.

 

We ARE actually agreeing but thats all hindsight. Fact is it costs money to either fix it or pay for extended warranty - he doesnt want to pay. Promoting extended warranty is pointless to him.

 

Two minds about this myself.
Yes, you can pay for the warranty. It is a choice.
But really - We're talking 10 days after only the first year.

From an Alienware I would not only be expecting more - I'd demand it from them.

 

Well it was a refurb from the outlet... if I were the seller (Dell) and was feeling generous I would more likely be so for the regular channel folks. Dell didn't do any thing evil here nor different from pretty much any vendor. I posted links to to HP threads just to illustrate that.

Not that 10days out isn't sucky - it is. The majority negative response is just a reaction to the ball_n_go_home_I'm_an_IT_expert posting. Once we get past laughing at the whining there is at least some attempts to help him. I for one hope he sorts it... best bang for the buck is warranty extension but that may not be possible if they do pre-existing tests.

edit: seems base consumer refurb warranty from HP is 90 days. hrrm....

 

Would read again.

But, to be on topic to this.

I rebuild m11x computers.... to fix all the things listed will be a out of pocket cost of maybe $120.00... thats at the high end of needing to replace all the parts I think would be bad.

Real case on this one, is its going to cost about 20 bucks to fix it all up. Maybe 2-3 hours of work.

 

Purely out of curiosity, what would real case include, apart from dusting it out + repaste + new AC adapter or AC socket on the laptop?

sure could be motherboard but i really doubt that.

And back on track, i think owner washed his hands off this? troll?

p.s. i don't see anyone being fanboyish... more sort of realistic. Also i agree you don't need to break the bank to fix it.

 

Thats pretty much it, take it apart, clean it out. repaste. Put on new ac jack. Then do the epoxy trick to the hinges that I have done tons of times already.

Since its a r1 from what I can tell, buy the dell auto/air travel charger from ebay for 20 bucks. (65 watt, car/home/air/slim charger, they are the best r1 accessory)

It may be a computer, but its not computer science. Its simple house cleaning.

 

Unfortunately every company would bill you for parts and labour if you were out of their warranty period, so it's not Dell/AW's fault - Actually yours for not keeping track of the expiration date and making sure it was renewed

You can still renew it, however once the warranty is expired, they charge a significant amount more money. I would try a few reps and pick the cheapest one if I was you or you can attempt resolving the issue yourself with the excellent suggestions above my post by ejohnson

 

Wow this is not the response I expected at all. I don't need help on how to clean it, apply thermal paste etc...Its the freaking principle that pissed me off. I have a expensive piece of computer that cant last 365 days. That is what my issue is with. I shouldn't have to epoxy the hinges, I shouldnt have to solder on a new adapter, I shouldnt have to tear it apart. I shouldn't have to do any of that after 365 days. I just shouldn't plan and simple.

I have always been like some of you guys. Its covered under the warranty, when that's out its on you. I said that because I took care of my stuff and never had anything break within a year of it being built. All of my equipments has lasted 2-3 years before needing any sort of work. this is a niche computer that costs significantly more than others, it should last just as long as a cheaply built HP.

The fact is I could fis it myself, get a new mobo of ebay, put some paste on ( I have compressed air and have done that every couple of months, im not an idiot). The upsetting part is I just SHOULDN'T have too after 375 days of non daily usage.

 

Your original post before editing contained more of the arrogance that got you the negative reactions initially... glad to see you toned it down. The title is going to haunt you though.

All brands currently seem to have high failures compared to "back in the day".* It sucks! But when you imply that other brands would have sold you a REFURB from their OUTLET store and then serviced your system out of warranty... I'm here to tell you how wrong that is.

Try to keep in mind that those reading your posts don't care what your resume says... ours might be better Or not. Doesn't matter.

* I'm not sure however if % of early failure is any higher. Sales are up compared to Computer Shopper days.

 

And there is absolutely zero guarantee that the next system you buy from another manufacturer won't do the same thing.

 

I'm not looking for guarantee's I'm looking for build quality. All of the excuses people are making here just give companies permission to make tier products because a very small percentage can fix them on their own. If it keeps going like this we will have 6 month warranties because you guys are okay with it cause your smarter than the average bear. That unfortunately is not 95% of the population.

I understand that everything I purchase is going to last well past it's warranty point. I completely do. You just have to understand how frustrated I am that this is the first NICE laptop I've purchased and it didn't last a year. When I originally made the poll I was PISSED and I apologize for that, but it happens.

Im gonna call them back and try to get at least the hinges fixed. Its cracking and polling the screen case apart.

 

Welcome back. Before you spend money, see if you can use another power adaptor (I'm using E1705 one) and revisit the cpu/gpu cooling maybe even new paste. Visually inspect with a critical eye for any physical damage - if you see any then tricks probably will not help you.

You might have two unrelated issues or perhaps the heat is causing all. If the system is still bootable it might be worth the effort.

The plus side to crappy systems are the cheaper prices. Some of you might still have some horrible Packard Bell 486 that still works.... it was "crap" in the day but it STILL WORKS. Pricey though. lol.

As for hinges I can tell you for a fact that warranty is not an issue. Not sure if any exceptions for outlet but I doubt it.

 

I had a M11x R2 which was treated like a newborn yet after 2 weeks the entire motherboard failed. People have received dead units straight from Dell, and others have gone for 2-3 years without a single issue.

Absolutely every manufacturer is going to have a small percentage of failures. Not to mention that the same manufacturer for Dell also makes parts for about 10-15 other laptop companies. But by comparison, i think Dell and Alienware in particular have excellent build quality which is why they retain such a premium price even on the 2nd hand market.

You've been in the bizz for 10 years, you should know - hardware just fails sometimes.