Paint coming off keyboard bezel M17x R3

Hi,

Since the beginning I had my laptop I saw small white dots appearing on my keyboard bezel, around the buttons I sometimes use (power button and vol+ and vol-).
It gets worse and worse to the point it actually annoys me.
Is this a manufacturing fault? (I presume so since it's something which shouldn't happen.)
Are there any other persons with the same issue?
Should I contact Dell / Alienware technical support about this?

These are pictures I took:

Spoiler

Thank you very much!
Liopleurodon

 

I would just call Alienware technical support if you are still under warranty. Tell them the mediabar has manufacturing defects and you would like it replaced. They should ship one to you. It is easy to install.

 

Thank you for your answer.
I still have about 2.5 yrs warranty left, so I'll probably send technical support an email about it.
Is this a common issue? Or am I just unlucky?

 

As it doesn't affect functionality it will be considered a cosmetic issue and therefore not covered under the warranty.

Alienware's Limited Warranty Statements

 

I too had this issue for a few months now,the corner closest to the "esc" key has been exposed.
I am quite sure that i did not scratched it & no matter how much black marker ink I used over the exposed silver area,it just won't stick.
Some said its due to the heat generated,the cooling & expanding causing the paint to "break up" over time.
One solution i found is to anodized it,although I had not tried it.So far nothing helps,only way to minimize the flaking is to use microfiber cloth to wipe.

 

I had the exact same model as you and never experienced an issue. I only had mine about a year thought so the heat/cooling theory could be possible I just didn't own it long enough to experience it. Does any light or anything bleed through. I'm just thinking that if Alienware won't replace it because it's "cosmetic" you may have an argument if it effects usability.

 

It started from the very beginning I had my laptop, so it's not normal wear.
As others seem not to have the same issue; it's clear for me that it's a manufacturing fault...
I'm disappointed that it's regarded to the same as if it were ordinary wear.

 

Have you contacted Dell about the issue? I would at least give it a try to see what they have to say.

 

had exactly the same issue but only noticed it when it was a little worse then this. Emailed Dell and said to them this was totally unacceptable for such a high end notebook(but be nice of course). Got a whole new panel delivered to me in 3 days.


edit and get a good sharp picture with daylight on it. Would make it much easier

 

Liopleurodon that should be a good basis to get it replaced.

 

Pointing to others "but he did get the replacement" is not a good way to make support for others better. Would just make a good picture and insert it in the email and tell them it is not supposed to happen with daily use and should get replaced.


How old is your laptop

 

My laptop is currently about half a year old I guess. The white dots started to appear very soon though, and there came more and more of them.

 

There are a lot of people that have this problem yet nothing is changed in the fabrication process. Selling the laptop knowing there is this flaw makes it fall under warranty.

Warranty terms&conditions don't mean anything if it is not according to the general warranty law. You could put in there I owe you a pizza when I buy a system and still I won't have to do that. Even if I agreed to the Warranty terms.

In that case I would make some nice sharp pictures in daylight. post them here and I can see if you have to wait or can contact dell support.

or you can just contact dell support right away. good picture(s) is/are everything here.

 

Thank you very much. It's currently already evening here where I live, but I'll make some pictures of it tomorrow.

 

You're not understanding my post. I wasn't suggesting call Dell and telling them this person got theirs fixed on this forum I belong to blah, blah, blah. That will never work. What I was suggesting is taking the steps you used when contacting them.

 

Okay then you were right

 

I was just trying to help the OP get the same results you did

 

good luck with that and they have fixed this issue somehow. you don't see it happening with the m17x r4.

 

Hopefully they're replacing the r3 panels with the new r4's if that's the case.

 

My R4 has the same problem and it is scattered across the media bar. Been like it since day 1, but it doesn't effect functionality and nothing I own stays looking new for long so it really doesn't bother me.

 

i got a shaggy max and use that to keep the screen from touching the keyboard and the keyboard bezel. Also works good to clean off the screen if it gets dusty.

 

@ Mkkillah: I just took some new pictures in better (day light) conditions:








Also bear in mind that I hardly use those sound buttons. I usually have an external keyboard connected which has its proper volume buttons.
For the rest my laptop has absolutely no visible wear, so it's not normal that something I hardly touch has that much of wear on it.

 

That is unacceptable for such a high end system. I would contact dell with the pictures in there. Also tell them it's not dust and you hardly every use those buttons like you said already.

 

Mine has been doing the same thing on my R4 and it is only 3 months old

I have not contacted Dell about it as of yet but I have a lot of warranty left on the system so I wasn't in a great big hurry. Maybe I should shoot them an email just so that they don't claim it is from heavy use....

 

That's the same I thought. (Still have a lot of warranty left too)
I have sent them an email to an address I have from a previous conversation with their technical support.
If I don't hear back from them then I'll send a message through their website, but I don't like doing so since it has a character limit and it doesn't allow me to add an attachment.

 

My R4 is only a couple months old and it's doing this as well. If you're telling me it won't be covered, I am going to lose my . There's no excuse for a $2000+ laptop to do that.

 

That's exactly what mine looks like...

 

it's a cosmetic issue so I have never been able to get dell to fix it.

 

I'm sorry but that's a major fail in my eyes. With the amount of reports of this just in this thread alone there's obviously something wrong with the manufacturing process of that panel.

 

It's not the panel that is the problem, its the fact that the rubber edges on the display wear down and don't keep the display from touching the keyboard or the bezel. Mac's have this issue as well and the cheapest way to address it is to just have a cloth that goes between the screen and the keyboard (pictured below)

 

The panel has to be the problem, there's no way my two month old laptop has worn down pads - if it does, there is still a defect, lol.

 

Now that I think about it the material and the process they used to paint it is the flaw....the bezel is aluminum by the feel of it and there is not coating underneath the paint...they just painted the aluminum black and slapped it on there so of course it is coming off..paint does not stick to aluminum worth crap....

If it continues to wear this bad I may just powder coat it.

 

I hear ya, I'm personally not to worried about it though since It works fine and doesn't bother me to much. If I have to call tech support for something else though, I might have them fix the media bar as well.

If you do powder coat it please take some pictures so we can see how it turns out.

 

Will do....the only thing I will have to figure out first is whether it will damage the screen being that the powder coating is thicker then the paint.

 

I'd be surprised if the gap is that close. But if you can successfully do it I'm sure people would like to know your experience and results.

 

Dell Support replied and a new bezel is on its way to me! :thumbsup:

 

Well that's good news. Hopefully the new one isn't manufactured the same way as your current one.

 

What did you tell Dell support? The 1 year warranty covers cosmetic damages?

 

It is not cosmetic "damage". It is damage caused by a faulty fabrication method. We did not cause this damage, it did this on it's own

 

I have the R4 and I have the same issue, but not to the same extent of any of you guys though, not worth posting a picture imo. Just thought I'd contribute so we know the scale of this issue.

 

Well Since I need to call them up anyway, I'm gonna see if I can get a new bezel along with my other replacement part. Hope it works.

 

I told them the same as I did in this thread: that the paint was coming off while I actually hardly use those buttons.
I presume they solely use that 'cosmetic damage' paragraph only as an argument to people who contact them with either cosmetic damage they clearly caused themselves or normal wear.
Something that is a manufacturing defect is something totally different.

I'm very happy with the great support Dell gave me!

 

Glad they took care of you. Just hope it doesn't happen again so you don't have to deal with the issue all over again.

 

Im not sure if this has been resolved, but here is what I did. I called technical support and told them what was wrong with the bezel and since I was still under warranty they sent me a replacement free of charge. They also wanted to include professional installation but I turned that down since I could do it myself. By the way I own an R4 not an R3.

 

Same here, a professional is coming to install it. They said it's a cosmetic damage but they'll make an exception this time and told me to put a cloth on top of my keyboard from now so that it doesn't happen again. Such a hassle for a design flaw.

 

So I never ended up powder coating my last bezel but then that R4 ended up biting the dust anyways and Alienware replaced it for me. Problem is the new one is already having the same problem....lol.......but on the other side of the bezel that the old one did. What no one seems to have noticed is , if you tilt your screen as far back as it goes and look at it in the right light....there is all your missing paint....stuck to the screen! Being that my keyboard actually leaves indents on my screen when the lid is closed and in my bag I can see it pressing down on the bezel and pulling the paint off with it.

Eventually I will call them about the bezel and get a replacement but it isn't to bad yet, but I watch it getting worse all the time.

 

To prevent this, you can put a microfiber cloth between the screen and the keyboard every time you close it.
Something like this, or you can make your own if you're creative

A replacement system won't solve this unfortunately.

 

Thanks for the tip, but the fact that I have to pay additional money for something that shouldn't happen in the first place is ridiculous. Either way, I use my laptop with an external moniter at home so I close the laptop (less hardware resources used). I fear that putting the MFcloth on there while it's closed will impede airflow through the keyboard.

 

I bought a cheap cloth designed for the 17" Mac pro and it has stopped all of those issues for me. I've had it for over a year and still going strong, and it doesn't really seem to impede airflow all that much really either.

Sent from my Nexus 7 (2013) using Tapatalk 4

 

Does anyone know if this is still a problem on the new 17's? I am kind of curious. I picked up a shaggymax cover to go between my screen and keyboard on my R4 but with my new 17 coming I was curious if this was ever fixed?