Alienware 17 - up in smoke

So after 3 months and 2 weeks of owning my laptop, it literally went up in smoke.

Specs:

Overclocked 4th Gen Intel(R)Core(TM)i7-4900MQ Processor (8MB Cache, up to 4.0GHz w/ Turbo Boost)
17.3 inch (439.42 mm) 120Hz WLED FHD (1920 x 1080) TrueLife w/3D Bundle
32GB Dual Channel DDR3L at 1600MHz
256GB mSATA SSD Boot + 750GB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M with 4GB GDDR5

and 450-AAJI 240W AC Adapter1 SR.


Last Thursday night, I booted up Diablo 3, with my windows open to let air in, my cooler mat on, 30 minutes into the game, the laptop buzzed for a second, everything turned off, and smoke started coming out the rear left corner (out the vent and the keys). There was a bit of heat on the left side, so I am unsure as to what the issue was. The blue light on the charger turns off when plugged into the power port. It now refuses to switch on at all.

With a quick call to Dell/Alienware support, collection was arranged, and it has been picked up this Monday. I have been told it has gone a company called Anovo (in Coventry), with an expect 1 to 3 week repair time.


Does anyone have any experience with Dell repairs in the UK? or does anyone have any idea what the issue could have been?

Thanks in advance.

 

Sounds like you had a massive electrical short. Good luck.

 

I did come to a similar conclusion, I would maybe assume the mobo might need replacing, and depending on what is located on the left corner on AW 17s, maybe the gpu?

Hoping my hard drives are still in working order, as it is a pain to reinstall everything.

 

At least you had the warranty and it's going to get better soon. It does sound like an issue with mobo and GPU (or only one of them).

 

Thankfully I have 3 years warranty! Better it happens 3 months in from owning it, than 3 years later.

 

Yeah, seriously, I'm a HUGE supporter or getting the Complete Care warranty through Dellienware, soooo worth it.

 

Same thing happened to my 18. Had to send it into depot because to many options to be wrong to fix onsite about 2 weeks later back in my hands as good as new.

 

Did you get told what caused the issue? I am hoping the parts that need replacing are easily available, but as I bought it with all the top spec components (at the time: Jan 14) I am aware of constant shortages within Dell/Alienware.

 

Dell/Alienware will have a sheet of paper telling you what part(s) they replaced, but not exactly what was wrong. You can assume if they replace motherboard, that is probably had a short. If you had something super custom, they will replace with an equivalent part unless its not compatible. If a part is on backorder...nothing you can do about it.

 

I'll keep my fingers crossed that the repair goes smoothly!

 

Most likely a short on the board level - may have taken some other components with it. Probably an N or P-Channel mosfet shorted and burned (hence the smoke) and now is stuck shorted to ground which will short the charger out when connected.

For future reference - you have next business day onsite service, never agree to send it to the depot as the depot has a terrible track record. If they can't diagnose the fault on the phone then you are entitled to a new system. With this sort of fault i'd be wanting a new system after only 3 months - you don't know what kind of damage it could've done to the other components and reduced the life expectancy considerably.

 

So what options do we have under Dell's basic warranty? This's my first time owning an Alienware. I use a custom built computer, but I couldn't pass this new AW 17 with the 880m up. I'm in the U.K if that helps any. Sorry for hijacking your thread OP.

 

I was aware of some horror stories from other members using a repair depot for issues, normally ending with even more issues than they began with. In terms of my decision, it was purely based on the idea that the components I have may not be so readily available for a technician to come by and fix. I do completely understand your point of requesting a completely new system as replacement, but as this is my first issue with the laptop, I have opted to give the Dell warranty service a chance to repair the issue at hand. Sadly one thing you'll always hear more of the problems of manufacturers, and not so much of the positives.

So I really am hoping I get a little bit of luck and I will receive my laptop in full functioning order!

(thank you for explaining the possible problem causing the smoke, much appreciated)

 

Hopefully the repair will fix the problems. Good luck.


Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk

 

This explains your rights provided by law. Manufacturer's warranties are additional covers, which can not provide less cover than the law requires. Similar thing applies to all purchases in the EU under equivalent legislation. UK customers have a better version of the similar legislation, called SOGA:
Sale of Goods Act hub

 

Yep and refurbished machines are still expected to last a decent time too.

 

So just a quick update, parts were ordered last Tuesday, I contacted Dell technical support to find out what parts the repair company were waiting for, and it is exactly what I thought it might be. New Motherboard and GPU (GTX 780m). Delivery of the parts are expected next Tuesday, so I might be able to get my laptop by the end of the week!

 

Weird. I opened up my AW 17 2-3 days ago and noticed that the CPU is located to the middle left, and the GPU is somewhat in the middle to right of the mobo, with the fans located in both left and right corners. I would of thought your CPU would of been at fault, but i gues a short is a short.

Either way, it's nice to know you got this problem sorted.

 

Another update, with bad news. So almost a month after sending my laptop, Alienware (Dell) are still unable to get a hold of a replacement GPU.......and no resolution in sight. I am so angry that I am being strung along with "please wait a few more days to see if we can get the part". Spending the best part of £2800, I expected a decent level of service. I will be making one angry phone call tomorrow, as this is totally unacceptable. I can see the GPU being sold on ebay and many other places online, so I refuse to believe that they cannot get a hold of a single one.

 

They (Dell) are actually short on the 780m now. I tried to downgrade today as a vbios is out for the 780m. The technician said it's not possible and that there hardly holding any supplies for the 780m now that the 880m has been out for a few months. However, the 880m is fully in stock.

 

I am hesitant about requesting an upgrade, but the last technician I spoke to did actually say it was quite ridiculous how long this is actually taking. Aware of a possible shortage even when buying my laptop in January, you would think that a 780m would not be so difficult to obtain as a spare (even a refurb one). A technician did mention that an upgrade is not unreasonable for me to ask for.

My main concern is that as the 880m has not been out for too long, that there may be issues with the set up I have chosen. If a technician says it will work with my 120hz screen, then I will accept an upgrade happily.

I know that the 880m has a 10% gain over the 780m (in certain areas) but with this require a different mobo? (in AW17s?)

 

Motherboard should be the same, the 880m's are plug and play in the AW17's that came with the 780m's.

 

Do you think the 880m is compatible with the 120hz screen? The impression I received from the technician was that if an 880m was used instead, the mobo would also be swapped. (but I am not entirely sure as I am also pretty certain it is a plug and play as well). Either way I should have some answers as to what is happening, later on tonight.

 

No point in asking mate. I've just had he biggest argument going with AW. After 3 weeks of being on the phone asking for an on site engineer who had the 880m in stock at that time. They're now telling me the 880m is out of stock and that there is nothing they can do until the 880m is back in stock. I told them to off and I'm taking them to trading standards.

Edit: this is the best crap I've ever heard in my life. The AW high level tech guy said they have the 880m in stock for new laptops, but they can't allocate 1 of those to the on site engineer to fix my problem. I demanded a refund so they gave me it after 1 hour of arguing. I'll never ever go back to AW again in my entire life. There customer service is absolutely terrible. They should of never gone under the Dell brand. I feel sorry for anyone owning one of these newer models. Take my advice and request a refund and either go with a custom build or the older model AW's.

 

Hey you guys, sorry to hear about your problems...

About 2 weeks ago my screen went black and the system was dead, so it was sent in for repair. On the repair status site it shows its on hold as they are waiting on a part. I called yesterday to get an update and they said it is the video card they are waiting on and that he was going to contact someone in the warehouse and email me in a couple of days with an update on when the new card will be sent over to there techs.

I hope the wait is not a month like yours as I do like my system...

 

I hope you get what you need to fix your problem.

Update from my problem

Ok, so I called Nvidia and they called AW to discuss what was happening with my 880m. The card is clocking at 250mhz although in HWINFO it's shows as 954mhx maximum. Nvidia don't have a solution for this as the card is fine. It's software related. Anyway, after Nvidia told AW that. They called me and asked me if I preferred a straight up new AW 17. I said no, I would like an upgrade. I've now got an AW 18 880m SLI being built which I only had to pay £400 more for. So in the end, don't listen to my previous advice. The AW techs aren't the problem, it's Dell. Dell do not and will not ever be a toss about any of you guys in regards to your warranty.

 

So after a 30 minute phone call to technical support, they will call me back tomorrow with the options they can provide me (from the supervisor) as they confirmed the shortage of 780m and 880m. I was offered a brand new laptop, but with another 3 week wait. I would rather they just send the 880m to the repair company to put in my existing laptop, instead of sending a new laptop from China. The conversation I had also involved the potential of compensation due to the ridiculous time this has taken to even get to this step.

Dell has really dropped the ball, and any respect I may have had for them. Appalling procedures for existing customers, and to me it is unacceptable to say that new parts are only for new laptops, so a new GPU in my laptop would not normally be allowed (bearing in mind my laptop is 3 months old). So now I will await a phone call tomorrow with hopefully some good news.

Nightdex, do you have a phone number for Nvidia?

 

Yet another update.

So the result of a month waiting, they have offered me either a refund, or a brand new laptop. I have opted for the brand new laptop, and will await contact to confirm the specs (with upgrades) and compensation. This is the outcome I didn't really want, but it would appear I have no other choice.

If I didn't have need of a laptop, I would have opted for a refund and build myself a desktop.

I will update when I get confirmation of what specs I will be receiving in the next 2-3 weeks.

 

I had my confirmation first thing this morning. Estimated deliver date - 5/6/14 which isn't bad. Hopefully you'll get the same treatment.

 

Well I got my broken laptop back today (a day after confirming that I want a new system.)

Still awaiting contact for the specs of a new laptop.

I hope yours gets to you soon. I still don't get why you had to pay more? As I originally bought the top of the range card at the time, I expect them to offer me the 880m free of charge, and I want all of the same specs (if not better), i.e 120hz screen, 250GB SSD, 750GB hard drive, 32GB Ram and at least a i7 4900.

 

I had to pay more because I upgraded to the AW 18. They knocked the cost of the AW 17 off the price. I've gone with the 4710MQ and 880m SLI config. I'm going to purchase the 4940MX once this new rig turns up.

 

Ah ok, makes sense.

So I chased the customer exchange team today, they finally got back to me with configurations. I agreed to them as the specs are pretty much the same, if not a slight upgrade.

4th Generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4910MQ processor (Quad Core, 8MB Cache, Overclocked
up to 4.1GHz)
17.3 inch (439.42 mm) 120Hz WLED FHD (1920 x 1080) TrueLife w/3D Bundle
32GB Dual Channel DDR3L at 1600MHz (4x8GB)
256GB mSATA SSD Boot + 1TB 5400RPM SATA 6Gb/s- NV
Slot-Loading Dual Layer Blu-ray Reader (9.5mm)
NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) GTX 880M graphics with 8GB total GDDR5

eta: 9th June

 

I'd have preferred the smaller faster hdd but otherwise pretty similar.

 

Previously had the 750gb but they don't stock it any more. Probably going to buy another HDD for the 2.5" slot that is free.

 

You going to grab one of the 2tb 9.5mm ones?

 

Don't really know yet, I already have 3 external HDD, all 3 at least 500GB, but will use an internal one to store games. 1TB is a lot, so might just add another 500gb or 1TB.

 

Also, another thing i'd like to note, is that Dell have agreed that the warranty (3 years extra that I bought) has been changed to coincide with the new laptop. So my 3 years cover will start again with this new laptop.

 

So I bought an AW 17 with a 4800MQ / 16gb / 780m / 3d screen. Well it lasted 4 months before shutting down and making my room smell like burnt electronics. They told me that I had to send it to get repaired so I did. I get a call that its the motherboard the same week. Then I didn't hear back so I called the next Monday and was told its my 780m and that I would hear back once replaced. They call me back the next day to tell me that the 780m is on back order and will take more time. Well two weeks went by and I get a call and they tell me that they can't replace it in a reasonable time so they can either refund me or replace it with a different but equal spec. I had to wait another week for them to tell me what those specs would be. So He tells me that they can't put a 880m in a 17 with the 3d screen so he offers an 18 and I accept. I am now getting a 4910mq / 16gb / dual 880m and just got shipping confirmed for Monday. So it took over a month but I think it was worth the wait. I hope I have better luck with the new laptop as had nothing but problems leading up to the failure of the last. I never oc or changed any configs and the temps were always good on my cooler. I must say that my R4 ran a lot cooler and the 680m was one hell of a card. Now I hope Nvidia releases a better driver and hope the vbios is released for the throttling issues.

 

Hi
Is it not possible to use gtx880m with a 120hz 3d monitor? Why is it not possible?

 

If Dell can't configure it on there website then they will not make it. I am not saying that you couldn't it do it or that it wouldn't work.

 

Well as per my previous post, the configuration they are sending me is a 120hz screen with a GTX 880m. And this is in a AW 17.

 

Ah yes the UK, that is why I specified that if it is not on there website and not that they can't because of hardware. In the US it as of right now is not an option.

 

To be honest I find their ordering website a bit of a joke really. Constantly changing the configurations based on stock, so a lot of the times I can see people buying lower specs for a similar price, but if they waited 5 more days the options would change.

 

Update: My laptop has been marked as shipped, and I have been given the walsh western tracking info. Original ETA was the 9th, it's now showing as the 2nd. Perhaps with a little luck, it might be sooner than that, and might arrive this week.

 

I agree with you, there should of been no reason they could not replace what I had or just put an 880m in my 3d 17. But because of that I am getting what I believe a much better deal so I will not complain.

The 3d was cool and the 120hrz was as well but one 780m was not enough power to drive that screen the way I wanted. I mean I played Outlast, dead island, Euro Truck, and civ v in 3d and it was amazing but that ends quick when most games don't support it and even if they do the 780m could not run at 60fps. The smoothness of 120hrz would of been nice to see but unless you want to run at medium settings then it was pointless. Glad to see your getting your computer fast.

 

Funny enough, syncreon has give me an ETA of the 2/6/14

 

Looks like our laptops are in the same shipment

The 120hz screen is what made me buy an Alienware, and if they offered it on the. 18, I would have gone for sli 880ms. The games I generally play the most of pc is diablo 3 and world of tanks (but do play the odd battlefield and cod)

My last laptop came on the exact eta, but I really do want it to arrive by the end of the week so I have the weekend to mess around with it.

Since I have my broken laptop with me, I decided to look at the Gpu and CPU thermal paste, and unfortunately I can see it was not done well first time, so I am very likely to repaste this new one coming.

 

You did exactly the same as me I'm eager for this new laptop to show by Thursday. Like you, mine also turned up on the ETA date given with this current AW. Mine was shipped on the 24th, the current AW turned up exactly 6 days from the shipment date, thats counting a full weekend too.

 

Mine says it was ordered on the 23rd, shipped on the 26th!. only 2-3 days in production.

 

Thought I would drop in to let you know my AW will be here tomorrow