M17xR4 developing issues...

I've had my r4 since august, and now it has these problems:
1. Casing is coming apart. LCD cover is not flush for some reason with the rest of the housing. Side panels are "clicking", as if they are about to come off.
2. LCD flickers. I have no idea why, but it does when I'm on battery life, regardless of dGPU or iGPU
3. For no apparent reason, the system will either BSOD or freeze, make the BSOD noise, and my windows mouse icon turns into the spinnig thing and spins SLOWLY. Sometimes, it comes out of this state, sometimes it does not.
4. Media panel works intermittently

Would warranty address all these problems?.

 

Issue #1 is a possible warranty issue as long as they determine that the damage wasn't user-caused.

Issues #2, #3, and #4 could be software issues. I'm sure Dell would recommend troubleshooting steps first before concluding it is a hardware warranty issue. You can try a re-format and re-load of everything to see if it solves the issues.

 

Warranty will maybe cover this. If the technician believes (At-home tech 'believing"...hahaha) this is caused by your mishandling of the notebook, then obviously Dell/Alienware will not be fixing it. It would be better if you posted a photo of the gaps you describe.

Could be a hardware issue, could be software. From your description, I can assume there is no flickering while the notebook is plugged in? If that is true, I am leaning more towards a hardware issue, like the battery is not providing enough power for the LCD screen to keep it running smoothly...but don't quote me on it. This can easily be a driver issue.

There is always a reason for a BSOD. Search 'reliability' in the start menu and bring up the windows reliability history. Check the last time you had a BSOD and see if the history gives you any error information detailing what or where the problem occurred.

Intermittently working can either be software (the OSD application is shutting down when it's not supposed to) or hardware (the media panel is failing, or the cable connecting it is loose or kinked).



As M11xDude said, support will want to eliminate any possible software malfunctions by having you do a clean install of Windows. I know it sound extreme and tedious, but if there are any software errors causing this, a clean install is usually the only way to reliably fix them. With the exception of number one, these issue should be covered under warranty.

 

ran a ePSA assessment, my RAM came up bad and so did my processor? I have no idea what to make of that.

 

Try changing out the RAM (if you have any spare modules) and run the PSA again. If you don't have any spare modules, then try running the PSA with only one RAM module installed. If it still gives RAM errors, then swap out the modules and run it again. The idea is to try and see if it is only one of the RAM modules has gone bad.

 

Didn't have the time to change out RAM, but to rule out software, it went back to dell image and the problem still occurs. Any chance I could get dell to send me a refurb replacement? I'd cannot be laptopless for 2 weeks, but every time I have high resource usage, my computer locks up.

 

That does sound like a hardware error. But, I would do the RAM change out and PSA again just to narrow the errors to either the RAM or the CPU. Alienware won't do a system exchange without trying to fix your current machine a couple of times first. That's why its important to zero in on the cause. If they/you are certain it's being cause by the CPU or RAM, then Alienware will send out the parts for a tech to replace. That usually takes a day or so between talking to support and getting the tech to your home.