My first week with the m17x r2...

So: I'm about to go to college, so I got to choose pretty much whatever laptop I wanted. Of course I went with the Cadillac of laptops: the m17x. I read that there were some problems, but I thought surely none of them would happen to me -_- So, after waiting for five weeks because Dell messed up the order and having to call them to remedy it, I finally got the thing. Here are the problems: Despite flashing BIOS several times and reinstalling Windows and installing new drivers at the behest of Alienware tech support, it freezes whenever I plug it in or unplug it. This is with the new BIOS that's supposed to fix this. The screen also refuses to wake up (it will illuminate, but show no picture) after I shut the for any amount of time. This is with up-to-date graphics and display drivers. Alienware was supposed to call me, but didn't. So I called them and they told me the guy "couldn't." No explanation. Uhhh okay? So after spending another couple of grueling hours on the phone, the line shut down and they hung up on me. Thanks, Alienware. Now I have wiped hd's, and an immobile laptop. Now they're saying the tech team is working on it and they'll call me. Yeah right. I'm really getting tired of having to turn this thing off/on whenever I take it anywhere. Any suggestions?

 

Send it back.

 

Ugh but I don't want to get a refurbished one back. Better than one that freezes all the time though, I suppose.

 

Just out of curiosity.

Have you tried the old powerflea?

Unplug, remove battery, hold down power button for 15-20 seconds.

Sometimes that may help to clear out the gunk.

 

That was one of the first things they had me do, but I'll probably end up doing it again just to be sure haha.

 

How will u get a refurbished on lol? If u buy new u get new

 

That's not what the guy on the Alienware line said. He said that if you send a computer back, Dell is allowed to send you a refurbished one.

 

thats pretty weird shurly? most refurb parts are parts that were broken and then get 'fixed' by deal? any1 comment on this?

 

You should have 21 days to decide whether you would like to return this or not. Just return it, then ask for a refund and buy a new one. Does that not goes for Dell as well as Alienware?

 

Honestly, I love the way you punctuate; it makes me happy.

 

Yeah I'll see if they'll give me a new one since it's brand new. If not, I'll just mark it as a contested charge on the credit card and not pay for it until they fix it or get me a working one. I'm getting pretty tired of getting jerked around.

 

Yup, this is the way to handle this. Sorry to hear you are having problems btw.

 

Thanks for all the advice. I'll wait a couple days just to see if Alienware manages to magic up a solution like they said they would, but otherwise I'm sending this thing back for a fresh, hopefully working, one.

 

And, what happened?

 

Does that mean you switched to Catalyst 10.7? If you did, it explains why your system freezes when it's unplugged. I have an entire thread dedicated to it and I hope you took the time to read the first post of it if you did indeed upgrade to 10.7.

The stock Dell drivers from Welcome to Dell Support should work fine. They have a few issues in games but overall they're pretty stable. You may need to reformat again and install ONLY drivers found on Dell's website.

 

Sounds like he had 10.6 drivers since this thread was made in May. He might have been the 1st person to have this problem and now we know what it is lol.

 

That's awesome. Now, m17x sounds legit for me to buy. I'll have to see if I get the money for it.

I saw m17x at Fry's, but the specification is kind of low. I'll probably have to order it online from Dell instead. Is it true that it's more complicated to send it back if you buy it from a retailer?

By the way, I need someone to explain how does the Dell service work when you're on a college campus? Someone said that you don't have to travel to ship it off. I am not sure...

 

I would like to point out I see THE Alienwares as more being Lamborghini's, thinkpad are the cadalic in my view lol

Did we ever find out what happened to this guy?

 

You do not have to ship the laptop back to Dell. A technician will come to you even if you are at college. The warranty follows the laptop.