Kinda cool... feeling a little guilty....

I started out with an M17x, 8600 cpu 260 sli normal stuff fills the rest. I bought the best warranty dell had with it. After about a year the 260's pooped the bed. Bad artifacts all about. I called dell, and after they sent a guy to my house that had no clue what he was doing, he even broke my media bar taking it apart. At any rate, he couldn't fix it. Dell wanted to know if I could put the replacement cards in. I said yeah I could, but hold up.... my warranty calls for a replacement if YOU can't fix it. After an hour or so of back and forth and me telling this guy I wasn't giving in he agreed to send a replacement system.


I asked if he could tell me the specs as I was sure it wasn't going to be as good as what I had. The tech support guy said he wouldn't know until it shipped and that it would probably take 4 to 6 weeks for me to get it. I said whatever, ship it.

It came in like 3 days. Refurb btw, When I fired it up I was surprised, it had a Blue Ray drive, a q9000 quad cpu same ram same HD.... and one 260gtx!!!!

I called and asked to speak to the supervisor I had been dealing with. He got right on the phone. I explained I only had one video card, and that my old system had two. He offered me two 280's if I could put them in. I said sure. Next day I got them and put them in.

All was well for about a week. Now any time I play a game it locks up. I disabled one of the cards and it runs fine. I called the same guy in tech support (this guy loves me btw) and again explained all this. I was pretty sure he would just send me a new 280 and that would be it. I didn't really even get a chance to say much other than it was broken, and he said that with all the money I paid for the computer and the warranty I should not have to be dealing with all this and he would put in an order for an R2. I was like really??? I almost didn't believe him and really wasn't sure until he sent me the specs of the system he was ordering. They are;


Intel® Core™ i7 740QM Quad Core Processor, 1.73GHz (2.93GHz Turbo Mode, 6M Cache)

CrossfireX™ 1GB GDDR5 ATI Radeon™ Mobility HD 5870

17-inch WideUXGA 1920 x 1200 RGB LED (1200p)

8GB Dual Channel Memory (2x 4GB DDR3)

500GB 7,200RPM SATA-II HDD

So as you can see it's a lot better than what I had. It's upgraded in every spot.

I think it's pretty cool but on the other hand, I only paid about $2200 for the first system and this one priced out around $3300. Shouldn't I feel a little guilty for this?

 

nice upgrade if he gave yo there is a reason anyway dell likely don't pay more then 1k for the system anywa

 

I hope you aren't serious. Even if they bought the parts in THOUSANDS, that system would still cost them more than $1k.

To OP: 2200 includes the warranty? Very nice.

 

No.

When you begin playing games on the HD5870 cards and you realise the numerous driver issues you are going to have then you will be back onto your best pal Dell buddy (who probably cant help you). Fingers Crossed ATI 10.10 will be our saviour. Good luck

 

True true..

 

I'm going to have to politely disagree here. The only issues I ever had were the sleep/battery power issues, and those have both been rectified. People were crying about Starcraft II not running right. I bought the game and have had ZERO issues with it. No disappearing units, no performance issues. BFBC2 got fixed. Unless you're running some older driver version, you shouldn't be having any issues. What troubles are you having?

 

See my recent post on main alienware page about how much I love Dell.

 

Its all in here mate;
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/521723-bad-company-2-crashes-2.html

I posted a beautiful screenshot of what I usually see on BFBC2 and it looks like I'm not the only one suffering at the hands of ATI drivers judging from the rest of the thread. I've switched from the latest Dell to AMD drivers so many times to improve performance I dont even know which ones I'm currently using . It looks like your lappy may be a diamond in the rough so enjoy it........ well until ATI manage to break it with another driver release

 

Nice upgrade and system chiefs oles. You have the same specs as me now ehehe oles

Yeh also dell doesn't do replacement systems on price. They are based on parts and what is available at the time. They will also try to match like for like in the hardware specs most times. However a lot of the time it seems some peeps get lucky and upgrades are given. Also depending on your guy of course. So you got a great guy there helping you out chiefs. Super!

Congrats. No need to feel guilty chiefs.

Cheers.

 

Do not ever feel guilty for a company like Dell for something like this they make Billions of $$$ every single year and for every time something works out for someone like this 100+ people are getting screwed by the same company because they are not as fortunate as you to get a supervisor like that on the phone and instead they have to try to decode the India language and get transferred around the phone systems and on hold for hours on end.

 

So, most people are having problems with these cards? And ATI puts out drives most every month?

 

There's a gaming machine that almost never has driver problems, it's called a xbox 360.

But in all seriousness people, myself included, have some problems, but I think thats just part of the game when your on a PC/laptop.

 

I can't bring the xbox to work..

 

SOME people... I play BFBC2 every day and after forcing DX10, I have not crashed once. Before making that change, yes, I had crashes after 30 to 40 minutes of playing but after I played 4 hours the other day just fine.

 

Sweet! You have the same specs as mine (almost).

Intel® Core™ i7 740QM Quad Core Processor, 1.73GHz (2.93GHz Turbo Mode, 6M Cache)

CrossfireX™ 1GB GDDR5 ATI Radeon™ Mobility HD 5870

17-inch WideUXGA 1920 x 1200 RGB LED (1200p)

8GB Dual Channel Memory (2x 4GB DDR3)

2x320GB 7,200RPM SATA-II HDD

 

agreed.....which is why I bought my alienware, but shouldn't you be like oh I don't working at work?

But the two problems I've run into so far is GTA IV only sees the v-ram for one card (still runs fine) and battle field bad company 2 takes forever to load.

 

I think the OP got what he deserved. He paid for the best warranty they offer and in the end, Dell took care of him. I know that Dell has screwed over many people, but there are situations like this that give me hope...lol I just hope I never have to go through anything like some of you have.

 

What I don't understand is WHY would you feel guilty?

If you felt REALLY GUILTY about this, just tell them that you would prefer to have them send you a system that is comparable with what you returned.

If you wanted to brag about getting a great deal, then just say so, without all of the "guilty" B.S.

 

It's not BS bro. I tried getting a system like the one I had. They couldn't do it for what ever reason. Obviously I'm excited about getting this new one. I posted about it because I really didn't believe Dell would come through, although I got a dispatch number today...

I appreciate all the positive posts here but for every 5 good posts their is always an A-hole with something completely irrelevant to say.... As one of my drill sargents used to say... If you shoe fits stick it up your arse.

 

Congrats on the sweet upgrade

 

Got the new system today... wow is all I can say in regard to the screen. Haven't really been able to play much with it but man the screen is so much brighter and the colors are vibrant.

 

Congrats on the new system. I'm waiting for mine. It's painful. Never feel bad about upgrades, I started with an Inspiron e1505 and look where i am now, do i feel bad at all? nope...

 

Only Dell can do that...AW when they are just them I don't remember anyone getting upgrade replacements....this is Dell's way to keep customer loyalty. But I gotta admit AW was or is better back then before Dell got them, just my opinon.

 

Better how? Still using brand name components, hell almost all of Dell is. Really the worst part about Dell now is contacting customer support and talking to Jim from Bangladesh....

 

hey I spoke to Jim too! or was it Bob?

 

atleast for UK they use their real names... dont know about US...

 

Anyone know how to return the old m17x? They didn't send a box or anything saying where to send it. I have been waiting for something in the mail but nothing.

 

You send it back in the box it came in. There is usually a shipping label attached to the outside of the box in a plastic bag sort of thing. If not, then you can call up dell and they'll mail you a shipping label to return it. Then you just call up whatever delivery service you have and schedule a pickup and you're done. Make sure you write down the tracking numbers for proof that you sent it in case it gets lost in the mail, otherwise DFS will be all over you.

 

Hey chiefs,

Yeh you can either email back your dell rep guy who organised the replacement system or give dell a call and tell them about your situation and that you need them to pickup your old system.

They will normal send out a return pickup slip either through the email where you just print it out or they will mail you one. Then your local courier or someone organised by Dell should contact you to arrange a suitable pickup time.

So yeh just give dell a buzz and tell them that your new system has arrived all safe and sound and the old one is ready and waiting to be collected.

Congrats on the new system btw oles!


Cheers.