Defect rate for the M17x

I can't remember exactly, but doesn't the smoking gun in your case point at ATI drivers? I recall your whocrashed report saying something about that.

I guess if you wanted to eliminate variables you could just pop your current drive into your new R3 and use Acronis to perform a clone, but I doubt your hard drive is suspect.

 

Is "Acronis" free? And yes, the report said ATI is the suspect, but it doesn't make any sense as to why it would cause BSODs during updating.

 

Haha remove SP1 and try again to see if it BSODs?

How to uninstall Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1)

And no, Acronis isn't free its $50 but I find it to be indispensible. Maybe there's something cheaper or free out there but Acronis has never failed me so I've never bothered looking at an alternative.

 

I never was able to finish dling SP1. So I have no Sp1.

 

Try installing it again? If it BSODs it really helps to confirm suspicions.

 

I have the 2720 and 6970, updated to SP1 no issues. Actually had a BSOD before updated to SP1.

 

I removed mcafee and install some stuff like games, ms antivirus, ie9, next day downloaded sp1 from ms the x64 version. Run it, installed no issues.
Last thing could recommend, stability test, prime 95 and memtest. If fail think about sending it back after bit more testing to confirm. If passes all, then backup drive and factory reinstall try sp1 again.
I have heard of sp1 failing on perfectly good asus g72 of someone I know, I'm sure their notebook was otherwise sound.
Check your event logs.

 

I have an R2. I only have the problem of it not being able to wake up once in a while. Read everywhere and no one seems to know how to solve that. But it doesn't bother me too much. I was also wondering if people have problems with the battery staying in its slot??? I remove the battery for the most part but it seems to me that the battery can't lock on tight and slides off at any movement.

 

Check out this thread for the sleep issue. I think our test BIOS from Dell has solved the problem.

 

I got the back cover off the have a look at the media bar. Man this thing looks cheapo inside. Hardly believe two little screws are holding the entire back cover to the M17x on.

When I got the media bar / keyboard surround off the notebook. I shifted the keyboard in better alignment.
Checked around the keyboard to see what was lifting it up? Didn't really appear if anything was lifting it, or it had any kind of loose clips on the media bar / keyboard surround part.
After much inspection, I am leaning towards the media bar cable / wire being the problem, between the underside of the media bar and notebook, being placed in such a way it was maybe pushing up on the media bar, on the notebook inside chassis slightly above the keyboard.

Right now, it hasn't popped back up again after the last hour. Normally it would be back up after 15 minutes.

Put it this way, I would suggest if anyone is comfortable with taking the M17x R3 apart just a little, it is worth it. Both for you own piece of mine and knowing what is up with something you are looking at.

UPDATE: Bad news, the media bar has rasied again. I only thing that will fix this, is a replacement media bar / keyboard surround

 

The lifted media bar can print your finger oils onto the screen or perhaps scratch it. I haven't had time to adjust/fix the media bar just yet, so I'm leaving the screen open until I've got the time to dissamble the computer again.

 

When I had a look at the parts that make up the bar from the underside. I could see the buttons and controls are screwed in from underneth. The media bar metal bezel appears to be glued on somehow. Therefore no amount of pushing on it will fix it (there are no screws for this actual piece or clips), unless the entire keyboard surround with the built in media bar bezel is replaced in full.

 

Geez ... I can't have these types of problems.

 

Sorry but I honestly don't understand why are you trying to fix this on your own.
Not only it might void your warranty but why do you have to waste any time fixing an issue on a brand new laptop you just purchased?
Call Dell and raise hell=) Have them give you a new one or repair the problem.
I was lucky with mine I couldn't find any external issues with it not sure how long it will run for but atm I am happy with it.
I don't care if a Dell tech comes to my house and messes up my R3 beause he will come every day after that until he gets it right I can get 100 BSOD a day and I will call Dell tech support like it's going out of style untill it's fixed or I get a new machine.
One thing we all know for sure is that Dell warranty is solid and all we have to do is make good use of it.

 

So this happened twice to me today.. At random, while on the dGPU, my mouse cursor (the arrow thingy) would turn to a rectangle/square that had horizontal lines across it, and 1 or 2 vertical lines on the left side. Imagine a miniature sheet of notebook paper as my cursor, except it was with black lines and was transparent. So I could still click things, but the cursor itself was retarded like I described. I then switched to the IGP, and the cursor returned to normal. That was the only thing that went wacko: the cursor. The rest of my desktop, or my streaming video was absolutely normal. This reminds me of when my desktop graphics card was about to die, and I got lines across the screen... does this mean that my dGPU is dying????? I am SO glad that a replacement is coming in the mail (soon hopefully).

 

I agree with you we really shouldn't be fixing brand new computers. They ought to work out of the box, but since perfection amongst computers doesn't happen, a company ought to really capitalize on the opportunity to prove that they've got the best customer service.

Thus far I've been pretty impressed, but we'll see how the story goes as my computer ages. *fingers crossed for a working replacement*

 

Dang. Are we ALL getting replacements or something? This seems VERY VERY disappointing. Have never heard of this many faults in ANY product before... 1st gen of R3s: recalled. 2nd gen of R3s: took to damn long to arrive, and when they did, they were broken. 3rd gen of R3s: not here yet, and taking too damn long to arrive again. gen = wave btw.

 

Yes I can see your point, trying to fix this on your own, which I have pointed out already to the service reps. I am wasting more time with the reps at this stage as they don't return calls or emails. Best done by me, aleast I know whats going on and its getting done.

Customer service in NZ is not as great, as compared to where you are from what I gather. I live in a small country, and then in a very small isolated city.
The last time I requested Dell to service, it took around 15 phone calls to get them to finally replace a faulty motherboard and a display with a dark spot in it.

I am on day 5 now of ownership of the Alienware (we only have 7 days for right of return in NZ under our law). Currently 3 phones calls plus 3 emails later, a service request has been logged with the last rep that actually did anything about it (or seem to on the phone). Although yet to recieve any emails or phones calls since yesterday about the so called scheduled service. Tomorrow I am going out of the country for a week, so if anything happens in the next few days, I would not be here to respond or even have the notebook anyway. The notebook will be going with me, and I need this done now.

The rep said the part would have to be sourced from overseas, therefore will take a while to get here (NZ), and then a tech from a local business would do the repair.
If I wanted the machine replaced, a request would have to lodged and can take up to two weeks to be approved, and thats if its approved for the minor issue.

I hate waiting, now that the days are going by, I have removed the what is called the "Center Control Cover" which contains the media buttons for the second time today. I carefully inserted an extra strong super thin piece of double sided tape in the gap, problem is likely solved in the meantime. The media bar is fully operational anyway.With the area stuck down, there is no faults, no scratches, actually everything else is near perfect, I don't want to change for anything else now that I have had time to think about it and not time thinking about the high cost instead. Most other notebooks, the first thing I do is pull the back cover off to see what I got inside, memory, hard drive, wlan, or anything else of interest like codes on stickers.

btw. the tape is thermal tape, that will hold heatsinks metal to metal (or silicon) for almost any length of time.

 

dGPU was bad...They should have just sent you a replacement card...

 

I am still running on the "wave 1" release...works great, despite the "oh so huge flaw" in this machine. I will wait about 6 months to a year and have them come out and change the board out.

 

Ah, gonna call today about the dGPU then. Thanks for your advice.

...Another case of bad dell QC at the factory, eh? Or are they just sending out bad machines left and right? This is my first dell experience, so I'm not sure if this is what dell is known for.

 

M6500 is sexy, probably the sexiest laptop i've owned... M17X R3 on the way though

 

Well there's always that argument that only bad news gets posted on the forums and that the majority of R3 owners have no problems, and I believe that to a certain extent. However I also believe that PC users in general seem to be more okay with taking a few beatings, and they're less prone to calling things they can fix themselves as problems; in other words we have a lower bar for what we call perfect.

To be honest, many of us have become jaded with the industry. Bloatware removal, clean installs, driver compatibility troubleshooting, and exchanges seem to be the norm. I buy computers expecting these things, even the desktops I build.

That's computing in general...a large portion of PC users/gamers just expect games, OSes, and software to launch with bugs to be patched up "later" and the industry seems to know that we're "okay" with it.

The key is to know your rights, be part of a knowledgable community, and not to let the big guy step over you.

Dell's been treating me right even if their quality control hasn't been. I think you and I have a decent chance of getting the "perfect" R3 from Dell. They're pretty cooperative in that regard.

HP on the other hand, well, lets just say I had to pay a visit to the local small claims court before they'd own up to their defects (infamous TX2000 graphics overheating flaw).

 

I have a spec of dust on the inside of my screen and the media buttons have just popped up. Someone said they just put a small dab of superglue in there. I think that is what I am going to do.

Me too, but it wasn't out of the box that way. Mine is only like 1-2 MM. Probably closer to 1MM.

Like Mr Fox said HP = Hopelessly Pathetic

I noticed the gaps there when I first got it. I didn't pay much attention to them though. I pushed in and they both move maybe 0.5MM. I'm not excited about it, but I'm not going to let it get my panties in a bunch.

Just try a tiny amount of superglue. It's not going to take much to keep it down and someone else said that they did it. IMO thats probably the easiest way to not have to deal with dell, and the problem is fixed, so you are happy.

I don't think they are sending out bad machines left and right. I honestly believe that you get more gripes and complaints on here because people are looking for advice and fixes to their problems. You have to remember that because this is a new release there are a lot of people ordering and they are cranking them out trying to appease everyone and make the most amount of profit. Although I will say that because this is a new release (ie different design) they are going to have a higher problem rate with them anyhow. Just like someone else said. Don't buy a vehicle the first year it comes out. Wait a year or two and let them work the bugs out of it. It just sucks that sometimes you need a computer or a car, and the one you want is a new release that may have some issues they haven't worked out of the build process yet.

I think I'm gonna have to agree with everything you are saying, and double down on what your saying about HP. TERRIBLE TERRIBLE TERRIBLE!!!

My HP dv6770se has serious issues with it and should have been included in the nVidia law suit (that actually should have been an HP lawsuit. another story another time) and it wasn't. I really don't have the time or energy to take them up in small claims court right now. Other wise I would, just to prove my point.

 

Overall I'm pretty happy with my R3.

Although I can't seem to make the 3D glasses work with 3D videos that are on youtube. I went in and set up the glasses in the nvidia control panel and I look at their 3d and it works. Was messing around some more and found out that the screen is set to 60Hz. I changed it to 120Hz and still can't make it work. I guess I need to go and get a 3D blue ray to try out and see if that works. Haven't bought a blue ray in a while as I have netflix now.

 

Use a strip of velcro to hold the right side of the media bar down. Glue is just messy: Walmart.com: VELCRO Sticky-Back Hook & Loop Fastener Tape w/Dispenser, 3/4'' x 15 ft Roll: Home Office

 

This made me laugh. The fact that we need to be fixing cosmetic things makes me really disappointed. These things should be coming perfect from a mold, and should fit flush. Mine's practically flush. The only thing that's wrong with the R3 cosmetically is the scratch on the lid (which I don't even see anymore), and the squishy sides. Called about my replacement today, and it's supposed to come on Saturday... Good thing, cuz this dGPU seems to be very iffy cuz of that glitch I got yesterday...

 

A typical defect rate for any big-name electronics manufacturer is about 10-15%. This applies to Dell, Sony, HP, even Apple.

There isn't a lot of QC going on at factories. Systems are generally fired up long enough to run some basic tests and to get the OS loaded, but as soon as that's done it's in the box and out the door. There's a lot of pressure to get the required number of systems made in a reasonable amount of time, and depending on how busy the factory is you'll probably find that the quality can vary quite a bit. Again, this applies across the industry, not just to Dell.

As others have mentioned, the problem seems more prevalent than it is because the majority of people posting in these forums have come here because of problems. If someone doesn't have any problems, they're far less likely to be posting.

 

Yah, but for some reason I don't think this applies to non-R3 users. We're the exception because the R3, Sager, MSI, ASUS G73/53 owners are such a niche group. You don't see mainstream buyers/students/parents buy much of these computers. And generally, we're all geeky/nerdy here anyway, so we're usually lurking the forums anyhow. So I never really took ppl's statements of "R3 users who don't have problems don't post here," cuz R3 users are more than likely to be online somewhere due to their geekyness.

Anyway, so, so far I've had 1 one-inch scratch on the lid, 2 BSODs, and several instances where my cursor turned into a 1x1cm square of black lines instead of being a normal white arrow (switching to the IGP) fixed this (I guess it's like a type of "refresh" like hitting F5). This is all hardware related---damn.

 

I have had mine for 5 days now and I could not be happier. The build quality is great and the system has been very stable. It is disheartening to hear about so many systems going out with defects though. Maybe it was a rush to get orders out do to the initial SB chipset problems? Not that it would excuse it but it could be a contributing factor.

 

What the hell is this build "quality" from Dell? No way i am buying a laptop that could have:
1. Missing screws
2. Media bar that is not leveled the way it should. And glue it? hahaha
3. BSODs and strange problems related to the AMD GPU
4. Scratch on the notebook
5. The sides where the ports are a bit loose

I could only imagine all the hassle with sending it back to Alienware for repair since i am going to order it from Dell US...
Gonna be interesting to see if these problems are widespread once more notebookreviewers get their R3

 

I think the SB issue could also be a contributing factor. Once they got the new stock of chips they just slapping things together and throwing them out the door as quickly as possible. And yes I said throwing them out the door. lol

 

I think that this is the most likely situation. There was probably quite a backlog of orders, and the factory would have been trying to get through things as fast as they could. Because the focus has been shifted from quality to quantity, the percentage of sub-standard systems is greater than it should be.

Give things a few weeks and the quality of the finished system should be much improved. (Sadly, that doesn't help people who have already ordered or received their systems.)

 

Gotta say, if you're having to "velcro" your new laptop together ......

 

Dang, haven't been on NBR in 2 nights.

So with my R3, it seems the problems come and go. No problems besides the ones that I've already posted about. Nothing new on my end. Anyone else got any new problems?

 

I have been away on holiday for a week, although the day before I went a tech came around to replace the lifted media bar (Control Centre Panel) that I have had my primary issue with.

Yes I watched him like a hawk, the tech was rough, as they don't know what they are doing on these new systems.

I watched the tech take out the brand new media bar from the box of parts Dell had sent him. I got him to show me the new part before it was replaced with the old part.
The new part was defective, the metal edge of the media bar was lifted (not as pronounced as the pervious installed part).

All in all:
1. I had fixed the 1st defective part with thin strong doubled sided tape the day before the tech arrived.
2. When the tech arrived, I wasn't expecting him so quickly, thats the reason I did my own fix above. The new part was defective, to a lesser extent, new out of the packaging.
3. Bottom line is, there must be issues with this part, common sense would now say that the defect rate on this particular part must be high.

Check you media bar corner, see how much it may of lifted. If not, then check to see how flush the buttons are, as it appears that there is pressure underneath the fitting on the buttons forcing the metal strip to rise in the right hand corner.

 

When I look at mine VERY closely, I can see that it's not completely flush. It's not as high as others' are though. It's approximately lifted about .25mm? So near perfect I guess.

 

My new one is around .75mm which is better than the 3mm I had before.
If you press down on it, it will stay down (flush) for an hour or so and then pop up again.
From what you are saying it just maybe alot more common than what I first thought?

Going on the how pronouced the frist one I had, I would expect that all media bars with gaps will rise up higher over time, as the adhesive weakens.
You will notice that the area flexs and grows in size when opening the notebooks lid.

 

I dont have a gap. It's just raised a bit higher than the rest of the chassis around it (the rubber area just outside of the media bar). Also, the white rubber within the media bar (the lines n stuff which designate our buttons) is a bit higher towards the right side than the left side buttons. That also means that that white piece of rubber isnt flush, which may indicate that it's either not cut properly or that it's raised underneath. This too, is also about .25mm high.

Hmmmmmmmmm....

 

Got the raised media bar replaced for the 2nd time today. Therefore I am technically on my 3rd part. This one is starting to lift a few hours later
Is there any chance now that dell will replace my entire laptop, which I should of done in the first place, or is it to late now due to the two services on the same part that have taken place over the last 3 weeks?

 

Since the original topic of this forum was defect rate, I will comment on that I think.

Maybe the m17x (all 3 revisions) has a higher than normal defect rate. In fact it probably does. But look at what AW is doing with these notebooks. They are on the cutting edge of technology everytime each revision comes out. They take the latest thing, slap it in a very small and for the most part well designed case and then see how it goes.

So now many of you are asking...but why dont the test it more or research the tech and make sure it all works first. Because that all takes time!! A @#$%^ lot of time really and all of us out here in the consumer world want it all now and we want it to work flawlessly.

I mean really, all the manufacturers of these high end laptops that take basically desktop components and tinker with them to function in a laptop with less power are actually doing some amazing things...its not gonna work perfect every machine, everytime. I am not just being a AW fanboy or apologist here either...I am talking everyone!! Clevo, Asus, AW, whoever. Seriously, take a moment and think about what they are doing...its crazy. And even as fast as they actually do it, by the time they seem to make it work it has already been passed up by desktop computers by 2 or 3 steps. Give them all a break.

I had problems with my r2...Dell/AW fixed them as I threw them at them. I bought it for what?? $2400? They probably put $1300 in video cards in it (after 3 sets) and spent who know how much on paying tech support guys to help me fix some of the problems. And most of my problems it turned out werent defective cards, but a crummy driver. Oh and btw, between the 2nd and 3rd set of cards they replaced the whole thing.

Rant over...or I will go on forever.

 

I really don't believe for a moment if any part of the keyboard and surrounding area (e.g. In my case, my media bar strip) is in direct contact with the display, that it is acceptable on any laptop no matter if it is a cheap $500 model or a expensive $3000+ model.

 

Magatony73 - good post. I agree with your thoughts. +1 rep.

 

When I got mine, I noticed an inprint of the media buttons directly on the screen. I wiped this off with a clean microfiber cloth.

Just out of interest, if you close your lid on your R3, while making sure sleep function is off so the keyboard is still lit up, have a look through the gap of the closed lid, and check to see if the media buttons are in direct contact with the glass display?

 

It's too tight of a gap. It appears that just my kb, where the FGHJKL keys are touch the display. Very small gap though, so I'm unsure. I did spray some lens cleaner and wiped it with a glasses cleaning cloth and the marks are gone, which is a good thing.

Btw, I'm thinking of keeping my new one now...I guess all i need is some glue for hte raised media bar...

 

Pretty happy now that i went for the m15x after hearing all these bad build quality issues

 

dookie, i, too, received my replacement (second replacement) and all my units had raised mediabar. What I did with the very first one, as i said ages ago, was gorilla-glue it down (just be careful and don't touch anything else with the glue but the insides of the mediabar or you'll never get the glue off). Now that i'm on my 3rd R3, I still use the original frame around the keyboard that i fixed long ago with the glue, i don't bother with glueing the other frames anymore, just swap them.

Now my 3rd unit has one unique characteristic - the palmrest is softtouch but a little less soft and a little less matte (not glossy but definitely different). I'll snap some pictures this weekend and post them on the show off thread. But you know what, I actually don't mind as it attracts much less fingerprints. It does have a tiny scratch on the right of the touchpad but it's not as pronounced or deep as yours on the lid so i can notice it only if i know where it is and look for it from an angle.

I'm gonna keep the 3rd unit (or ask for another replacement, maybe M18x) So don't fret over the raised mediabar and just carefully glue it own (as i'm sure you'll be very careful, considering how carefully you are still picking your backpack)

Congrats on finally getting replacement

 

oh, and, dookie, just get yourself the Razer Kabuto mouse pad from Best Buy and keep in on your keyboard when you close the lid. I always use the mouse so a mousepad i keep inside my laptop is a great plus AND it prevents the scratching of the screen. win-win.

 

Most of you won't like me saying this ,but here is the truth IMHO, most of the problems with the r1, r2, r3 are user related, yes that's right, driver updates mostly. How many of us have totally screwed up our computers, than call tech support for help undo what we have done.

 

Why is he banned>???