Question about part replacement.

Ok, so I got my M17x R3 back from the depot with a bunch of new parts and 6990m. Inside the laptop was a note that said the hard drive was dead and they are going to send me another that will arrive in a few days.

My question is, will they want the old hard drive back? Has anyone had experience with this before? I am just wondering if they plan to let me keep the current one since they returned it with the laptop.

 

Whats wrong with the old hard drive, won't spin up head crash any ideas?

 

nah I believe your going to have to send it back as they have never let me keep any of the extra parts they sent me.

 

It is an SSD, it is not detected at all.

Just wondering if they will want me to send the old HDD back, if they will I might just call and tell them not to bother because I have a brand new exchange unit coming next week.

If they don't want it back then I would probably try to salvage the broken one, and I suspect I can get it working again, might be something as simple as a busted interposer.

 

they will include a prepaid shipping label with your new HDD package, you will send it back or they will charge you...

 

I guess you could try to see if you could keep it, but i'd call and talk to dell just to make sure you aren't gonna get charged for it or something.

 

Dell is really horrible at this whole "repairing computers" thing.

Turns out the SSD works perfectly, reseated and changed bios to Raid, boom problem solved. Dell techs are apparently awful.

They were supposed to send me a new 6990m, they sent a 6970m instead. Face palm! Man I am glad I have a new exchange unit coming next week, I would be so angry if I waited for them to repair and then they messed everything up so bad.

This computer will work fine until I get my new unit, so overall I guess I am happy. It was a special request to switch a part at the Depot, so I know they aren't used it, thus the pretty big mistake. They still did my special request, and got me a working computer back quickly (since the 580m is out of stock until Feb 8th). I will play on this computer this weekend, and next week I will move to my new one.

 

I've had similar issues before with dell support. Since I know the local dell tech and he is pretty good at what he does, I just have dell ship the parts to my house and have them do the repair at my house so I can make sure everything goes smoothly.

 

Yea, when I get my new exchange computer I am going to be much more strict about repairs. I will just get them to do in-home service and insist on doing the repair my way or even myself when the tech gets here.

This whole problem was caused by a bad tech that broke the 580m trying to get it out (he literally snapped one of the little square things off the card) then he replaced the mobo and plugged the screen into the wrong display port thus killing my 60hz screen and on and on it went heh. When I saw him struggling to get the system apart I should have just told him to step aside and let the real men handle it, but I didn't and it cost me about a week without a computer.

I hereby vow to never again let a bad tech man-handle my computer.

 

I'd send it back. They will most likely charge you for the new one.

 

Unless you specifically have Keep your Drive warranty (don't think it is offered on Alienwares), you MUST send back the FRU part or Dell will charge you an insane rate (I've seen 300-700 for a CRU HDD).

 

Alright, thanks everyone. I guess the Keep your Drive thing is an extra warranty? I got the Complete Care but can't really tell if it includes keep your drive.

Anyway, not a big deal, I got this one working so it will be fine until I get my new exchange system.

 

"Keep Your HDD" is only really offered for business class laptops and desktops at an extra fee. It allows the user to keep their drive for security reasons and data when a drive failure has occured.

They will have a prepaid label for you in the box the new drive arrives in that you place over the original shipping label.

 

I see, normally "Keep your Drive" wouldn't matter to me, however, in this case since Dell incorrectly diagnosed it as dead and was sending me another it would mean a free working $400 SSD.

No problem though, I called them earlier to tell them I didn't need it and they said they would cancel the order for it.

 

The reason why the want the drive back in a timely fashion is because manufacturers have a time limit to send back XX defective part to the manufacturer for credit (RAM, HDD, AC adapters, LCDs).