Alienware M17x R4 Problems

I had a client came to me for repairing his Alienware M17x R4

He had dropped it and then it started hanging he says.

DELL then sent him a technician who replaced his motherboard but a few hours later the problem is back.

So he gave up on DELL and contacted me

The first thing I did was replace his 1TB HDD with another 1TB HDD and the problem got solved no more hanging or freezes at all. His old HDD died due to the drop

now the problem is, when we launched Skype, it said no camera detected.

I am thinking one of 2 things, either the Alienware M17x R4 needs some sort of webcam driver or due to the drop maybe the cam cable got disconnected which the DELL technician didn't see to repair in the first place?


Third problem, when he starts his computer, he gets a BIOS message saying the power adapter wattage cannot supply the sufficient power bla bla bla so he hits F1 to continue. The CPU which is a 3610MQ only runs @ 1160 MHz or so on high performance mode.

I told him we will contact DELL on monday and see if they can send a new adapter. Just wondering, can power adapters just suddenly do this? I tried powering off the system and disconnecting the battery then hold the power button for 30 seconds then reocnnecting everything then when I went into the BIOS it says POWER ADAPTER: UNKNOWN

 

Wow, they replaced the motherboard? Seriously? The HDD is the first thing I would replace in a drop.

Anyway, it's possible that the technician messed up everything with the new motherboard. He needs to call Dell and explain what the deal is.

 

that's what I thought, DELL seems to love changing the motherboard for any complaint. When I told them I had screen light bleeding on my Alienware 18, they replaced my motherboard, LOL, which did nothing to my issue

I don't even know how they honored warranty replacement for a laptop that was physically damaged due to mishandling! strange really..I thought they would deny him everything after a drop

 

so what about the webcam issue? is there a driver for it or what do you think is wrong?

 

If I remember correctly, FN + F9 enables/disables the webcam. Have you tried that?

 

Window 8 on R4 does not need a webcam driver and the camera works fine. If I remember correctly Window 7 did not need any special webcam driver either. To confirm this I went on the support website and there are no drivers for webcam for any Windows version in R4 section.It is most likely a loose connection if the cam was working before the drop.

 

Thanks for the confirmation guys, I'll try the FN trick if not, seems like it's a lose cable after the drop.

 

It was in another forum an Alienware owner had problems with his web camera on his laptop with Windows 8. There was a free Windows update, a camera driver that solved the problem.
https://na.alienwarearena.com/forums/thread/77513/hardware-software/camera-is-not-showing-any-colors

 

It was indeed the FN + F9 key guys, the cam was off thanks for the easy fix

 

The power brick could simply be faulty since there is an internal chip within the PSU that sends the signal to the motherboard.... So easy fix: replace PSU. If you have a spare PSU around check to see if the same thing happens and if so, well looks like the motherboard has issues.

 

I can confirm that there was no specific webcam driver needed for the R4.

 

yup it only needed to be turned on via the FN Key

 

To answer the repair question on how... He might of had accidental damage coverage which takes care of that kind of incident.

 

The technician arrived with a replacement card. I had a 675M GTX before but the tecnician got me a 660M GTX instead as that is what DELL sent him! He asked me if I want to proceed with the repair or send the card back to DELL. Since I was in a hurry and wanted to give this laptop to my small brother, I accepted and now its working fine.