NEW!! Alienware Area-51M LAPTOP!! (to replace alienware 15 and 17)

As much as I'm curious to see a in house service rep in action. . .the chances of him doing something I can't is basically zero. Unless it's ribbon cables. Ribbon cables and me don't get along. That will come down to how Dell does when selling parts after the fact. Kind of a big reason for me liking this laptop so much is alot of it is servicable and replacable. But, so long as it is under warranty I'll have them fix it. That is the point of a warranty after all.

And these 3rd party texts sound like they're better than Razer's customer service. I had to go on reddit and raise a big stink about not getting a refund for over a month. So anything better than that is golden to me. Lol.

Give me some encouragement and I might try making videos with my impressions. Get my youtube career off the ground.

 

I have had techs sent by Dell many times over the years. I always have the laptop disassembled and ready to go when they get there and do as much of the work as I can with them supervising. One guy said I can just call and he will drop off the part and not even hang around. Just be nice to them.

They are NOT trained on our laptops, they support every Dell laptop under the sun, model specific training is not realistic. If you go into enough laptops, you learn your way around and can figure it out. Dell actually does a nice job labeling stuff internally to make it easier.

I also recommend having the service manual open on a 2nd computer or tablet for reference if possible. Also, the ifixit kit is amazing and well worth the $70 investment in my opinion.

 

Very smart of you to do that. It is very real to get some down to earth techs who are extremely reasonable so I definitely don't discount that.

What's funny is that I've had several people email me with pictures of some techs with my repaste guide open on their tablet or laptop lol. Whatever it takes to help people I'm down.

Looking forward to hearing your results. Cheers.

 

Dell in Japan were really good. They were trusting enough to send me replacement 7970m’s overnight to replace myself.
That was before they went all BGA so I guess people just send it in for a replacement now. I’d be interested to see how they operate now with this model.

 

That's a really smart idea. I already have an ifixit kit so I'd just need to download the manual and I'd be off to the races.

You never had a problem with a repair guy saying "Hey this guy took his laptop apart. That's why it's not working".?

 

Not once. By the time they are there, Dell has already determined the laptop is not working and dispatched a new part. It is not their job to defend Dell and their warranty, they are simply a tech sent to replace a bad part with a new one and return the old part to Dell. As noted, they are often not Dell employees (I have never had one) but 3rd party contractors. They work on any laptops, not just Dells.

For those interested, here is the toolkit I have:

https://www.amazon.com/iFixit-Pro-Tech-Toolkit-Electronics/dp/B01GF0KV6G/

I know that MicroCenter carries them too.