3rd time my M17x R3 boots to 8 beeps

I'm once again sending in my m17x R3 for repair because it wont post and just beeps 8 times when trying to boot up. The first time this happened they replaced the LCD and harddrive. The second time they replaced the motherboard which was about 2 months ago. Now they want to replace the LCD again. I'm just wondering if they will ever just replace it with an actual working laptop? I do use this for school and i'm thinking Alienware may not have been the best choice for college. Apple has yet to fail me!

 

All I can say is that the first thing I think they should have replaced it the GPU. The dell notes on the 8 beeps says display problem but this is weak info. It's actually a video sub-system failure and can be (and usually is) the dGPU, the display, or the cable to the display.

What country are you in?

 

United States! I am also a little surprised that hasn't been replaced yet. I was really hoping with a motherboard replacement that it would have fixed the issue but then 2 months later it happened again.

 

That is surprising. I was thinking about it being in a smaller country! They follow a decision tree when diagnosing issues so maybe I'm missing something that points elsewhere. As long as you do not have the 120hz display model you can quickly check if the GPU is pulling the machine down by removing it and starting it up on the iGPU

Edit: Just remembered, there seems to be a shortage of 580m's. A couple of machines have been replaced with complete units, one of them Dell actually tried to use a 680m (R3) but they failed to get it working and had to come up with a replacement. Might have some bearing on why they have not done that already???

 

I may have to try that in a bit to see if i have any results. I also remember reading that post, i really just hope if it is the card it doesn't take as long as the other guys to get it all figured out considering this is a primary school computer. Thanks for the help though!

 

Yeah, I'm a little concerned that the dell I used to deal with, who would always go the extra mile with AW machines, is now offering the same (or similar) level of service you get with much cheaper models.

Have you read the post in my link? You might want to point out that this is used a teaching machine and extended down time is unacceptable (nicely )

Good luck, if removing the card gets it working then it should be fixed next business day by their warranty T's and C's, OR ask about a replacement if they have no ETA on the part.