Received Outlet M17x R2 -> HORRIBLE & RIDICULOUS CONDITION

people posting and advising op that he should some how be 'entitled' to get an m18x for various reasons are giving the op too high and somewhat unreasonable expectations for system exchange. dell csr has been quite fair offering him 2 choices;

1. refund - op didn't want this because we all know that there's no way he would find an alternative laptop spec at a great of an outlet price.

2. exchange for brand new 17" r3 with various upgrades for compensation. i would be happy to have this 'problem', paying outlet pricing for a new r3.

come on people, on what grounds do the op have for filing a complaint.... because i don't see it at all.

 

This is very funny.

Without even bothering to email me, they sent me the replacement. wow 1/5 stars for the bureaucracy...

Everything is fine: R2, better cpu/gpu.

BUT the color is BLACK, not Rebula Red.

I am currently calling to ask if I can just have the chassis replaced. Cause I cannot tolerate this mundane color after having experienced the nebula red. I am sure all of you red owners know what I mean.

In terms of hardware, I am 100% satisfied. Just trying to get the red chassis now.

Any advice is welcome. Thanks!

 

Honestly man, if you're ok with the components, i would just keep it black.

You could always paint the outside of the chassis red.

Im glad you finally got the unit replaced.

 

thanks for the quick reply. I am currently on the phone with the tech support to see my options. I just dont want to go through the whole exchange process of course and I really dont see the need anyways , but i will see if they can get just the chassis replaced. design is really 50% and performance 50% for me when buying laptops. (hence alienware too..) so yeah.. you can tell from me using the Adamo 13 still.

 

YESSS

The tech support agreed to send the lcd and the chassis in red to fix the color.

Overall, after much hassle now I will have THE system that is working great and satisfying in few days.

I will post back when i actually have the parts replaced...

 

Very nice man. Congrats

 

Great, what config did Dell send you?

 

look at my sig. the 2nd hdd is mine but yeah. it is one of those maxed out system they didnt want to send out but had to since nothing else was available.

 

0CWMH

This is the RGB LED being sent out. Do you know which color this will be? I need to confirm.

 

If i were you.. I would have grab the r3 replacement when they offered it to you.. R3 has the latest processor, gpu etc.. But am not u

 

well like i said i want dual gpu setup for future upgrades and i really hate the lid design of the R3. not to mention the grills are really ugly and the color red is kinda different from that of the R2.

i am actually having problems with getting red parts replaced for this machine. i created another thread telling wats up.

God.... I really really want the nebula red.

 

Yeah you can upgrade your r2 but it will be really expensive and you'll probably run in compatability issue here and there. But good luck!

R3 is definitely not ugly for me. But to each his own

 

Hi, Dellienware, good to hear your system was finally replaced also with a beast!

What I would do is ask them to let you change the black lids with the red ones from the first system, it shouldn't be a problem.

Look up on YouTube for "M17x teardown" there should be two official parts guiding you how to disassemble the system, It's not that hard just be patient and go slowly.

Cheers

 

At this point, I am really consider doing this myself. I have good experience of fixing laptops myself so it shouldnt be too intimidating.

 

Then go for it, just don't forget about the stickers with service tag, Windows key etc.

 

Is there any video that explains how to tear down the screen specifically? I am not just talking about the hinges. I want to replace the whole screen and hence open up the lid and all.

Any help will be appreciated!

 

By screen you mean the LCD or the aluminium lid?
The LCD is glued together with the edge to edge plexy and the aluminium lid is very simple to remove and swap it with the other one.

It's also shown in the video, I think It's the 2nd part.
Be careful with the alien head ribbon!

Cheers

 

i am wanting to which the aluminium lid. there is this black plastic part in the lid, but I want to sort of replace that as well. urgg

Is there any guide designated just for people wanting to fully disassemble the screen?

 

The black plastic part is black on red or black chacis colour.

Cant change that, or paint it yourself.

 

I don't understand what more do you need Dellienware, better than that video is having somebody do it for you.
Just watch the video and you'll see what I'm talking about.
And Barbostaan is right, that plastic part is black with all 3 models, silver, black, red.

If you want it different color, just paint it, It's easy.

 

haha yeah.

I just literally spent 3.5 hrs and how completely done.

It is booting fine, but i will just re install the os.

I did repaste the gpu and cpu, but didnt replace the heat pad for the memory.

 

Great +1 rep
Doesn't matter how much time you spent, the most important is you did it right and don't worry 2nd time you'll be faster and so on

Good call on replacing the thermal paste, as for thermal pads it's not a must.

Take care

 

thank you for all of your help guys..

i just have this noob question. please help:

How do I check if crossfire is enabled?? How do I update to dx11?? Windows is showing my cards running at dx 10. Please help!

how do I check if it is RGB LED??

Thanks

 

Windows 7 comes with DX11. Just press [Windows logo button] + R and type dxdiag, in the System tab it should show you the installed DirectX version.

To check if CF is enabled just run GPU-Z and it should tell you in the first window.

 

it doesnt appear to be in crossfire furmark will only run one gpu..

Hmmmm what should I do to enable it?? I am really positive the cables are in correctly...

please help!

 

I really need help AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. I have very very critical things in the laptop right now and need submitted tonight.

Using a new HDD, I reinstalled OS and all the drivers.

After restarting, I noticed that the touch pad has some serious lagging issues with its smoothness. CCC said that I need to check the crossfire cable since that seems like the reason why crossfire is not enabled. But I made sure it is fine.

When I was trying to turn it off, it gave me beeps. Just random beeping. It wont turn off when I press the power button down so I literally had to unplug the battery.

when I power on, I get fans, and lights, EXPECT for the media touch strip which does not even light on. It did work before power off with the problem. The screen does not even light on. There is no backlight even.

I tried rebooting without the ram and HDD, resetted the CMOS battery, and reconnected the crossfire cable again.

Also when I turn on, initially there is this spinning of the fans, but right away, NO FANS spin.

At this point I think the mobo could have been bricked since there was update on Alienware Command Center and I heard that happen to a few people with the M15x.

PLEASE help me. I would really really appreciate you help.

 

Call Dell and demand a M18x this time. This sucks.

If I'm correct you cant brick the mobo with the CC update, you can only brick the controller that turns on/of the lights.

This sounds like a bad mobo, do you have any light/beep code's?

 

like i said the media touch strip wont work so no I dont have the light code.

There is no beeping when turning on right now. It was beeping the first time I tried to shut down when something happened.

I have a dispatch created from a few days ago to replace the screen and they are saying that I need to have the screen replaced before I get the mobo replaced due to corporate bureaucracy essentially. This is really ridiculous.

And the funny thing? today literally is the 21st day of my initally order. I am reallyy really at the quality control and service.

Any other suggestion in what i should do???

 

I would take it apart and reseat the ribbons, the touchstrip uses one to communicate with the motherboard, also the two LCD cables etc.

 

I FOUND THE PROBLEM

I tried without the second gpu and it starts to boot.. And then I get a quick blue screen of death and it will restart all over again. the bsod only appears for a split second so i dont have enough time to find the code. actually it doesnt look like the generic bsod. it has messages on it, but messages are like different from what we would see in bsod. running diagnostic at the moment.

Is there a way to test out the gpu at this point?

I think at this point it could be bad display driver or faulty gpu for sure.

Still any help???

 

Swap the gpus?

if you pulled the second out out and now are having all sorts of blue screens, maybe it's the first GPU that's dead?

 

i just tried. the second slave gpu now the primary wont boot up. it lights up and i get lights for the media bar, but essentially wont even post

At this point for sure both gpus are faulty. this could be why i didnt get crossfire..

Is there ANYTHING I can try righ tnow??? I am really pissed right now and yea I want to demand the M18x.. literally like a couple days after this happens

 

i just installed the latest drivers from the ATI's website and NOT dell's website. do you think this could have been the problem???

should i have flashed the vbios before doing this???

 

anyone??? ANYTHING I could do??

Please......

So desperate...

 

I remember having a problem like this once.
Mouse pointer suddenly got laggy and sluggish, reboot, random beeps and no boot screen nor light codes.
A power reset fixed it, remove battery and power brick and keep pressing the power on button for about 30s.
Also, unless you're extremely unlucky, I'd rule out that both your GPUs died at the same time.
By the way, did you install the alienware command center from the resource disk after the OS reinstall ?

 

Thanks for the reply

1. I already tried power resetting multiple times
2. I installed the command center from dell.com/drivers
3. I tried with one gpu at a time and in both occasions didnt fully reboot.

Is it possible that CCC from ATI website and not Dell's site bricked my gpus???

 

I tried power setting again.

Actually, it beeps twice now when powered again. But no screen.

I did end up swapping the primary and slave gpu to see if would work.

What does two beeps mean?

 

Ok so there is no beeping when AC is plugged. I read somewhere along the lines of the person having ac adaptor issues. But my laptop still wont boot on battery.

The fan for gpu kicks in at pretty much max speed I can tell.

At this point they are going to replace the screen sometime tomorrow, and motherboard after the tech replaces the screen (since two different dispatches cant be created apparently at a same time), then they will probably repair the gpu. That is at least like 7 business days....

IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE I CAN DO?? ANYONE PLEASE!!

 

You already tried switching the GPU's so for now its the waiting game again.

If Dell techs cant fix your system just demand a replacement like I told you in your other topic.

 

I ran out of options. Seems liek the tech support doesnt even know what to do.

Hopefully techs wont scratch my machine, but I just know they will...

This is ridiculous. I just thought I finally have the working machine...

 

So long story short, I need to have the screen and gpu replaced. There is a thread created a few days ago about this.

I am REALLY positive that it is the gpus that are having the problem. But the tech keeps arguing that since it doesnt post, I have to send the laptop to the depot for repair.

Now I know that that could help eliminate the problem (but not always looking at other peoples' experiences), but I am really really really confident that the only parts that needed to be replaced is the screen and the gpu, hence the NBD will actually be faster for me to have a working machine.

What should I do to try to push for the NBD? I technically have the NBD warranty so shouldnt I be granted rights to it?

Also a problem is that that the 1200p screen is backordered so their ETA in stockroom is this Saturday the 24th. Even if I wait for the screen to be available, I am sure it will be faster for me. And I want to try to get my R2 fixed as much as I can before asking for replacement. This already was replacement for my original DOA and unless it is ABSOLUTELY horrendous after multiple repairs, I dont want to go through the replacement process all over again.

What were your past experiences???

Specs of my machine in the sig. Thank you all for your help.

 

Sending it to the Depot, while not always the fastest, is still pretty fast. From what I understand they keep parts for replacement, that are not available to others. Plus they will overnight you a box with a prepaid label, to have it overnighted to TX, and the repair takes about a day and it's overnighted back to you. So it's pretty quick as far as thats concerned. I've done it a few times, though I never cared to.

 

Ok. Seriously. .

Since the date of my last post, it has been about 2 weeks. Since two days after my last posting, the computer totally refused to boot. I created a separate thread for that. Due to back ordered parts, it took them TWO WEEKS to have it shipped and the technician just arrive to replace the parts.

The EXACT SAME ISSUE. No post, no booting, no screen light, no media touch strip. Spent TWO hours trying to fix the issue.

I have finally agreed to send this to depot since I got sick of them trying to figure out what parts I need. Well... You all know how long depot service takes....

In a few days, it would be exactly one month since I received the initial machine. Extremely dissatisfied at this moment. I pushed for returning this laptop, but they wont take it since it passed the 21 days.

If it comes back from depot and has all this build quality issue, scratches, and any other issue (even if minor), I just dont know what I should do with it. And not sure if all that BBB thing is plausible. I just want Dell's honest response and action for their screw up.

And IF I have to ask for another replacement, that will take a few more weeks itself. I am caught in the middle of quandary. I still can't use this machine for work.

Need some advice man.

Dellienware

 

Sorry, all I can say is crap !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I am so stuck with it....

 

Can't anwser that,but you are a better man then I as I would have gone off really good by now..

 

Buy a cheap Inspiron/XPS for work, the models Dell ships in 1 day, fast track or something.

Keep pushing for a replacement, that M18x will come.

 

Yes I already got the mobile workstation the minute laptop refused to post. If I am not satisfied with the SERVICE from Dell, I am going to push for that M18x.

I understand parts can fail due to other manufacturer's fault, but dell needs to fix the problem right away in timely fashion should any problem rise.

 

Dell did not test the system before shipping. They just send you a faulty system. Now its in depot, doubt its fixable.

 

wow im kinda in this situation but i paid over 5800 bucks for my maxxed out m17x r2 and started having problems with it in the end after going through the hole speal with them and arguing after they sent me a R3 over lesser performance than my R2 i expressed my total dissatisfaction greatly after several parts replacements (3 motherboards 6 graphics cards) and so on and not to mention the fail repair depot sigh but in the end staying persistent they have agreed to send me a m18x r1 so they say but i also have to wait 15 days also from what i was told i needed to wait the 15 days because to allow enough time for the m18x to become available but who knows with dell i have lost all trust and confidence in this company