My Story

I got my m17x on the 3rd of June 2010. Yes it was a happy day. I loaded the Crysis 1 demo on it and was stuck with a screen rolling issue. It happened only with crossfire.

-Removed and re-installed drivers
-Re set the entire OS

Still didnt work. Got in touch with alienware tech help. They did another round of re-formatting and re-installing. Finally they agreed to send new cards 5870's. The tech came by and opened up my machine and removed the old cards and put in the new cards. The machine wouldn't boot up, all the lights would come on but nothing happened. They decided to send another pair of cards. So a the tech arrived a few days later and did the same exercise. The machine still wouldnt boot up. Finally Alienware said they would do a system exchange.

I got my new system, but guess what, they put in 4870's instead of 5870's :O!! .. Called up Dell, they sent another set of 5870's. I put it in and guess what.. same ol thing, lights came on machine wouldnt boot up. Called up alienware, they said, they would have to tear open the machine an look at the motherboard and the cards.. it was crazy. Finally the Tech helped me convince the Dell to send me new machine...

Finally after two replacements, they sent me the right machine. I got my 5870s working and the screen roll was gone... this was three weeks ago... but last night.. the weirdest thing happened. my screen kept framming when i was browsing, the screen wasent getting painted right, there were sections of old windows lingering on the front and when i was moving my house, windows used to flicker, and then slowly it started repainting the screen properly.. i dunno whats wrong.. but i dont have a good feeling about it.. i think my machine is going to die soon..

so after two system exchanges and six 5870 cards later.. i have a machine that works.. sort off.. i just dont want to jinx it..

 

Thats a very nice story Sounds like some bad luck

 

Im sorry to hear that, what happened to AW???? Are the ATI and NVIDIA cards bad or is there an issuse with the basic design?

My Area 51 M17x is a tank!!!!!!!

 

Awww, i like cute stories

You might have gota bad string of cards, and since you are more or less in the right timestamp, you might have been hit with the problem releated dell had with some cards on support stock, that's also hell of a story, it began long long ago (maybe not that long ago) here:
M17x r2 cf5870 wont boot
Enjoy

 

Wow...that is kind of what happened to me, except I didnt have the missfortune of them sending me two 4870's...but it did take 6 5870's to get mine up and running...but now its great!

 

It's a shame, if Alienware / Dell would pay for some knowledgeable Tech support people you could have probably fixed your problem over the phone.

But instead you get Tech Support with minimal wages and minimal help.

I bet it cost Dell a lot more in the end to keep sending out replacements and parts.

 

Thanks to their multimillion dollar contracts with the shipping companies, compared to paying the tech with 5+ years of seniority & a near perfect record on their numerics charts (12+ calls per hour with 99+% accuracy & a less than .01% repeat dispatch rate), the 1 hour's wage savings for that noob on the phone to spend 45 minutes filling out the dispatch to ship you the wrong part(s) overnight still saves them money. It's the philosophy of "why pay someone with years/decades of professional experience when you can have 2-20 newbies (quantity dependent on the country's wages) straight out of school for the same price"?

Why does it happen? Because most people want to get a system similar to an Alienware for the price of a calculator, so Dell has to cut costs everywhere they can.

 

I think paying 3 to 4K for a laptop warrants good tech support.

 

I don't know of any calculators that cost $5,100.
Dell should provide a lot better tech support for Alienware, because of the price point.

Just like Toyota service sucks but Lexus service is Great, something is amiss at Dell, you pay a premium for Alienware and you get Dell's lousy Tech support.

 

We should petition them to give better tech support. Lol

 

ABSOLUTELY. I had the hardest time with Dell previously when had my M15x. Some of them even had to search their product portfolio to see what alienware was. I agree there is an alienware tech support in UK but they have no customer care authority. If tech support can't solve it the call is transferred to Dell customer care division and they act all tough with their weird accents. Seriously wish they had a separate division for premium customers like us alienware owners. I seriously wish things have changed lately.

 

My exaggerated calculator analogy was in reference to other product lines. People think that an Inspiron 14 or a Mini 10 should have the power of a loaded Alienware, but don't want to pay more than a couple hundred bucks for it. Those are probably the same people that think getting a new faster computer increases the speed of their internet access. Precision & Alienware owners are paying the biggest price for lesser service to ensure the "products for the masses" have the lowest prices possible.

I'm not saying it is right. Heck, if anything, I think it is a huge pile of junk because it caused the loss of hundreds of certified tech jobs here. Some of those people that were laid off had been in the computer support/repair field since the early 1990's & with Dell since 1999. Those were the days when Dell was usually ranked number one in pc customer service & support around the world & fought hard to get that number one rating back if they dropped to number 2 in any reviews. Now most of us get the feeling that as long as their profits are higher than the quarter before, they do not care as much about the service.

I think the scariest part about it is that despite everything I just said, Dell still has some of the best support available in their industry because all of the other major companies have dropped in the quality of their support too.

 

Imagine if Dell still hired those skilled American technicians. There's no way in hell they would give crazy upgrades with almost every replacement like they do now. There are people who take advantage of that without actually having problems. I think they would save money in overall without their support center in India.