Need Advise Brand new Alienware 17 Bad pool Header....

Well I have had my Alienware 17 for going on 2 weeks. It runs great but within the first 3 days while playing and once on the internet I get a blue screen saying it must restart and at the bottom said bad pool header. One time it came up and I couldn't read fast enough but it said something about a driver. This was ordered directly form Dell with a 4K screen and the GTX 980m.

I called Dell and they remotely got into my computer and installed an update. I asked him his opinion and was told to think abut exchanging for another one after I tried it over the weakened. This was this past Friday. I have about 10 hours on it now and it seems to be fine. Im just paranoid for spending almost $2300 should I just send it back and exchange it? After calling dell and getting hung up on 6 times trying to get an exchange my wife got through to them and they sent me a UPS label. I was told it will take about 3-4 weeks before I get another one. What should I do? Like I said its running fine right now.

 

Try running this:
http://www.resplendence.com/whocrashed

This will analyze your crash data and tell you what it thinks might be the cause of it. This helped me diagnose a video card issue that was crashing. It may help to confirm a hardware issue too.

Be aware that Win 10 is notorious for blue screen crashes, especially video card related. However, I don't know what a bad pool header means. It's tough to say if you should exchange, waiting sucks but if you got the exchange approved and your not sure, I might opt for the exchange. Exchanges are hard to get approved - I went through one and it took several calls too and the reason for my exchange was they shipped me the WRONG ITEM! Albeit it was a small difference, but I wanted what I paid for.

FYI, Not sure what the exchange process is for you, but they let me keep my old machine until the new one came and even then, I was told I could send back the new one if I wanted to keep the old one... that sold it for me to do it. I was worried about more lightbleed on the newer machine. In fact there was more lightbleed, but it was still very minor and I sent the old machine back.

Good luck

 

I went ahead and had the wife send it back about an hour or so ago. Im actually getting a refund and not an exchange. The screen had bleeding as well so Im not sure if Im going to order another alienware or what.

 

Best move you could have done. Take your money elsewhere. The bleed on my Alienware 18 is inexcusable, and apparently, unfix-able.

 

Yea it's one of those things with these AW's....very nice machines, but the reliability is fickle. However, other gaming laptops are worse so in the gaming laptop realm, AW's would be considered very good.

Only if we could buy a Macbook Pro quality gaming laptop.....that would be solid.

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Best of luck to you.

I wholeheartedly disagree with you. My AW17 R3 has been THE Best laptop I've had yet. They have raised the bar with each machine I get (I've now had about 3 or 4 going back a long time). Is the machine perfect, no, but the amplifier IMHO makes this the best and only option for a top tier gaming mobile rig.

With the amp, it's powering my dual U3415W ultrawide monitors + has no problem running an Oculus Rift or Vive in addition to my dual ultrawides. This is a beast of a laptop.

It could be better, I'd like to see a glossy screen 4k option, better processors (Intel is to blame here), easier battery replacement. All in all, I'm very happy.

 

There is nothing wrong with the quality itself. Except for the latest bios that one is pure ****. Apart from that I never have crashes, never have issues and the machine runs flawless. What does causes blue screens are often the Intel HD drivers in combination with the Microsoft edge browser. But that is not isolated to Alienware machines.

Macbook pro's are garbage when you stress them (I had my fair share of experiences with Macbook pro's).

 

aw18 has backlight bleed issue?

goddammit :|

 

Don't cry when your board commits suicide a day outside of warranty. Nasty self-bricking bug going around.

Yes, and it's god awful. Varies from unit to unit the severity. The fix includes adjusting screw tightness in the LCD frame and shaving the clips on the bezel so they don't apply as much pressure. Even then its not enough sometimes.

 

The physical quality is good, I'm not saying that it is not. What I meant about MBP quality is the physical quality and reliability. You can't argue the solid build quality of MBP's...compared to our AW's and/or most regular laptops, the MBP's makes our laptops look like a piece of plastic.

Also, why would you be stressing a MBP anyway? They are not meant for that.




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While I can concur on the chassis build quality, the reliability is laughable at best. 2011 15" and 17" units, 2012-13 rMBPs, as well as 2012 13" HDD cables send their regards.

To you know....do work? Really not hard to think of a situation..number crunching, rendering, really anything. The MBP sucks at 100% all of it and has been redecued to nothing more than a symbol of the rich or an overpriced facebook/instagram toy for little teenage girls dressed in north faces and uggs to tote around Starbucks. Please. The "pro" in "macbook pro" died in circa 2011-2012

 

I haven't had one issue yet, but from the sound of your response it seems that you've been screwed over with some unlucky lemons or something. Always unfortunate to be caught in that situation. I work with Adobe products and never had an issue.

At any rate, back on topic....Op should just opt for an exchange. It's of no surprise that it is a lottery with gaming laptops. I've had my fair share of having to exchange my AW due to quality issues.





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Not really. Apple has issued several recalls and acknowledged some of these defects, then proceeds to void warranty because you changed thermal paste yourself to prevent a meltdown.

Anyway OP, take your money to Clevo and pick up a proper gaming laptop like the P870DM.

 

The outside shell is nice. But damn, what they did with the cooling and how it hurts the hardware. Not so much. I do agree I would love to see some more durable shells on laptops. The AW is not bad but the fangrills and speaker grills are a bit of a weak point> I can assure that if those places are bumped they will crack.

I used a few MBP's during my college days to do my work during college. I worked 4 days while studying 5 days and wanted to combine everything so I was rendering stuff while attending college.

 

I guess I've lucked out then.

Clevos are nice, freakin' ugly, but nice ... but who's to say he won't run into issues even then, while paying a load more, which isn't practical because you can achieve a great gaming experience with a 6820HK+980M....most people still game at 1080p...1440p is a great balance (hw to gaming ratio) on AW's and alike....for 4k gamers, which to me doesn't make any sense on a laptop without an external monitor, if one is always traveling then I guess Clevo, but other than that scenario it doesn't seem practical for OP to drop all that cash on a Clevo.

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Nice....yea it'd be nice to have a solid (thin) well built gaming laptop without having to opt for only a 960M lol...

I'd take the new Dell XPS 15" with the infinity display any day only if it had a stronger GPU....

As a designer and editor, I don't desire hauling around my AW ...it's a hassle.
...big...bulky...heavy....how sweet would it be to have all this power in a MBP frame eh? (Thiness...) but of course heat issues....who knows what the next generations of power efficient, yet powerful gpu's and cpu's will bring....

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I think razer is calling your name....

FWIW I haul my M18x every day on campus.

 

Brave soul haha...jk...I'd likely get a suit case roller if I had to haul my AW.

I've looked closely at the Razers, but I don't think I can sleep at night with a 970M or worse yet the 8xxM gpu's....only if it had a 980M I'd buy one in a heart beat.

With the new and more efficient cards coming out, I can foresee that perfect combo of a laptop in the very near horizon....

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Call me nuts, I actually haul my AW15 everyday to the office. For design work as well. I dont like to feel restricted by hardware in terms of performance so the AW15 is a damn good balance for that. But I do hope they become thinner too without the heat sacrifices.

I would love it if Razer could actually make it reliable. Now it is one of the most unreliable while overpriced laptosp out there.


......carrying your 18inch everyday. You are nuts

 

Indeed, I've seen a lot of poor reviews on the Razers. ... it's a start though and I hope others will follow...

I was contemplating on getting a 15R2 as my 17R3 is pretty heavy for what it is...though it isn't that much bigger than the 15R2.


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I have used both 15R2 and 17R3 and both are great. Though my issue is I am starting to think I will not be lugging my laptop much at all and might just be better off going back to a desktop. My plan is to consolidate computers and having the Graphics AMP helps giving me the gaming horsepower when I am at home. However I am starting to realize that I do not plan to lug it around but probably 3-4 times a year.

I am also noticing some lag with my external keyboard, first thought it was the usb hub in my U3415w, but see it when plugged into the laptop as well. Have tried 2 different keyboard so far and its occurring both times. It really sucks since it occurs at the worst times when I am playing The Division and in a firefight and my keyboard starts to lag or not respond at all.