My experience with ATI/Alienware

I had my m17x for over a year now and I am fairly happy with the m17x. I love everything except ATI. I had good results with my dual 4870's with 10.5 drivers but ever since I sent in my laptop for bad 4870 crossfire performance. They replaced my my cards with dual 5870's.

For the past two months; I've been battling with this issue. I have the latest Bios and vbios. I tried every single driver from 10.5 to 11.2 betas. hey can't justify the problem that I get no increase in performance crossfire on. Now I have them coming out here again replacing my previous 5870's with a brand new pair. Over the 2 months I had these 5870's I had nothing but problems.

I'm not asking them to replace my whole laptop. I simply asking them to take my laptop to dell and let them run a full diagnostic test instead of having me prove to them over their "remote assistant" and benchmarks that all my games run like crap.

Overall I love this laptop and it performs/performed well when the 4870 crossfire was working correctly..

 

When they replaced the cards did they also replace the ribbon cable? I had a ribbon cable go bad on me before.

 

Dell's policy is that if you get technical assistance 3 times (not via phone but actually either send it to depot or have a technician come by) then you are eligible for system replacement. I have just yesterday battled with those guys and it was a ... "success"
I asked the technician to contact me to manager, sounded really crazy (tech has been to me 4 times now, last one - yesterday) and told him I want it to be replaced, after 25 minutes on the phone he apologized for inconvenience and told me they will replace with same system. Now I am expecting a call to finally get a new one.
Also, you can file a complain to AWCC resolution experts, I am sure each time you get service request they send you an email from noreply_dell which u can forward to AWCC as the email says.
good luck