Motherboard Advice

Howdy all-
I purchased my R2 in July last year (yep, just over 12 months ago, of course).. sprang for the caching msata SSD, 12G RAM, nicer screen, i7, etc.. a lot of money, in any case. Anyways, a couple of weeks ago it stopped booting up during start-up. I initially assumed there was an issue with a recent windows update since the date was shortly after an auto update. Since I'd updated to windows 8, there is of course no way to easily start in safe mode, but the 3rd attempt to shutdown then power on the laptop resulted in a blank screen (no power to it) and what seemed like no response from the hard drive.

So, figuring the problem was slightly more than I could handle on my own, I called Alienware. I got bounced around for over and hour, ended up talking with a rep from "out of warranty" department. He told me that they could provide the fix service for around $500 and then I could choose to extend my warranty, but because I'd already admitted it was broken they'd be unable to do any warranty work after the fact. Fair enough. HOWEVER, he could not give me any sort of turn around time on this repair (they would send me a box, ship laptop to service center, then ship back).

Because I'm not a fan of shipping my computer anywhere and occasionally need my laptop for work (and needed access to documents on the HD), I brought it to a local (very reputable) repair shop where they backed up the HD and diagnosed the problem as a fried motherboard. Another couple of hours on the phone with Dell/Alienware later, I have ascertained that this component (still used on R2s in current production) is not in stock and they do not know when/if it will become available. In addition, it's going to cost somewhere in the ballpark of $700- just for the part.

The most frustrating thing is I baby the crap out of this machine. I only use it about twice a week, never leave it on for extended periods of time, always have it lifted off the desk or on a cooler, and when I must take it somewhere, it's inside a padded sleeve which is inside a padded case. There's no reason why it should have failed and I now know the reason I'm in this situation is that I didn't use it more before the warranty ran out to find the issue sooner.

I guess what I need to know is if anyone here has replaced their motherboard (warranty or on your own dime) and if you felt looking back it was worth it. When I talked to an Alienware rep this morning, I told her my story (no whining, anger or undue frustration) and her initial advice was to "sell the parts and buy a new Alienware". (IDFTS) What do you guys think?

 

There are some replacement mainboards on ebay:
Dell Alienware M14x R2 Replacement Motherboard with 1GB NVIDIA VG4D4 0VG4D | eBay

Still not cheap with 315 bucks but a lot less than 700

 

solid state devices such as a mainboard generally will work (if properly assembled) until the caps explode unless you physically cause damage to them, and even then they may continue to work in limited capacity.

I'm certain there was a poorly soldered trace somewhere or a defective moffset that caused the failure. ie nothing that 'babying' could have prevented.

I would take Drake's advice and make a DIY attempt at it with a used mainboard, and maybe forget about the warranty.When you DIY a mainboard you'll be transfering over the Service tag from the old machine, removing your ability to then purchase an extended warranty anyway, on top of the fact that, this is a non-user serviceable part(ie voiding any warranty you would have had anyway).

Or you can give Dell $1000 to replace it for you.. What are used M14x's running these days? I bet it's pretty close to $1000+ whatever extended warranty you would want to buy.

that's an equally valid response, and possibly something to consider. A lot of hardware troubleshooting is swapping working components until it starts working again, and we're working off what's an educated guess, at best.

 

if you have to spend $1000+ and want to keep the form factor, go for the new alienware 14. You won't be disapointed at all.

 

The usual turnaround time is 2-3 weeks. It normally takes that in the US. The OOW support is really good and will take care of the issues. If you plan to buy a motherboard online just make sure it's exactly the same one you have there.

 

Thanks for the replies guys. I've decided to send it in for the out of warranty service and hope for the best. I'm afraid I already have too much money tied up in this laptop to part it out at this stage. I'd lose more money than the repair is going to cost if I send it in.
It still blows my mind that buying the motherboard would be almost double the cost of the repair service, parts labor and shipping included, but oh well. Do any of you have experience using this service? Did you remove all the storage prior to sending it in?
Thanks again-

 

Thanks- purchased the OOW service yesterday. It sounds like a good deal with the 90 day warranty, especially considering they will be replacing the motherboard.