Tell me the story: how did you get a replacment R4?

Hey everyone,

Those of you that were lucky and able to negotiate a replacment for an older M17X with the new R4; can you please share the circumstances and the negotiations that took place in order to get an new R4.

I know you must have had back and forth repairs and calls with the wonderful dell techs... always fun

Thank you.

 

I would be interested in hearing from someone who actually had it happen.

As I understand it 3 failures of the same part gets you a new laptop. The 580m tends to fail under heavy use, so most likely these people had 3 580m failures, then the 680m is the only choice for something better by Nvidia, and the 680m is only officially supported in the R4. Thus, they get a brand new R4.

I have 5 years of warranty and already 2 580m failures, so I suspect I will get the test my hypothesis at some point.

 

You basically need to have a component in your laptop keep failing with them unable to fix it before you can get it replaced. They will try their hardest to repair it over and over before giving you a new computer. I dont even get it, they replaced EVERY part of my M11x R1 and spent DAYS of man hours fixing it when it would have easily been cheaper to give me a new M11x.

 

I bought an M17xR2 in Dec of 2010. At the time it was loaded, 285m SLI config. About 3 months ago I started having major issues with it. Games would shut down the system at random times. Had a tech out to replace the gpu's, then was having problems getting the lcd to stay on. Sent the system into depot, problems were solved for about 3 weeks, then other issues creeped up. Weird stuff like keyboard backlights going out, and one of the two sli cards not getting recognized.

Tech cam out to replace the motherboard for the third time, got everything working, and then the ac adapter wasn't getting recognized. It was a long string of problems. I had asked for a replacement somewhere in the middle of all this, but was denied.

After the 3rd motherboard failed, they finally agreed to give me a replacement. They offered me an M17xR4 with the 7970m. I tried to push for the 680m, but they said no. They did give me the option of.paying $300 for the 675m and 3d display, but I chose the AMD 7970m.

At that point I had already decided that I was going to sell the replacement R4 on ebay, and ordered a Saper np9150. I was really pissed at Dell for how long the process took to get a working computer.

The R4 got delivered on Thursday and I must say, it's a very impressive laptop....A lot lighter than the R2, and slimmer. Sleek, the plastic feel is something I like, very soft to the touch. The lcd is not nearly as crisp though, as the RGB LED was gorgeous with colors and brightness. The 7970m is an impressive card though.

So that is my story...Was it worth it?? IMO, no. I would have rather of sold my R2 on ebay, paid a grand and upgraded without all of the hassle. But in the end, Dell did the right thing.

 

Thanks guys, those sound like depressing stories
This is my first time sending the laptop in (no power at all blue ring turns off when plug it in)

It sounds like selling on eBay and upgrading is the way to go.
I don't know if I would get another Alienware... Throttling issue with 580m, SPDIF audio pin gets stuck u have to unhook inside to get sound back, the terrible sound card had to buy and external sound card, had to blind flash to stop throttling which worked great blah blah... And now 10 months after purchase the laptop is a brick.

Thought I was getting a supreme laptop at a $4000 price after tax. Ohhh and dell tech support is terrible as well lol
Sorry guys ...Just pissed right now.

 

I know the feeling..... Ive had my r4 for around 2 months. The first one had a loose battery, and a dead keyboard. My second just died ten days ago. They made me send it to the depot against my better judgment and promised it would be in my hands again within 5 days. Its been 10 and I'm not expected to get it back for 3 more days...... yeesh! But, I'll betcha you can go to the clevo, sager, or Asus forums and find the same horror stories. This is my first alienware, and probably NOT my last..... why? Cause even though the "techs" aren't all that techie for the most part, all my problems have been eventually fixed at no cost to me. And on the first exchange I pushed for and got some free upgrades for the " inconvenience".

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

Never agree to depot service, there are times when they will absolutely force it, but most of the time if you just keep saying no and requesting a tech with the needed parts they will cave. The depot almost never turns out well.

IMO the next day in-home service is pretty hard to beat though. I will probably consider Origin for my next computer, I like the green paint and they have a laptop that has all the same features as Alienware.

However, the support would be hard to give up. I mean I have had something go wrong, called in, and they had a tech to fix it to my house in less than 24 hours from the call. Everyone else has ONLY depot service, so you send it in, wait on slow shipping, and are generally without your computer for 10+ days.

 

WOW sorry to hear about the R4 troubles.
I really can't do much with the laptop, no power at all, battery in or out. Therefore they told me that they can't diagnose the problem thus dont know which parts the in house service tech would need. Where at the depot they have all the part for whatever has faild.

I think my next rig is an Orgin kickass desktop monster with triple surround 3D monitors.... I'll be dreaming for a while until this happens

I'm a total novice at PC gaming... this m17x is my first gaming ring.
I had to learn how to and risk a blind flash method for the 580m to get the throttling to stop on a $4000 laptop .... lol

Had to buy an external sound card to be able to output true surround to my reciever... on a $4000 laptop hahaha

That's an Effin JOKE!

Other then the AlienFX and design alienware Blows!!
very sour right now I'm sure I'll love it again when its fixed. But seriously I shouldn't have to do all that for the laptop to preform and play BF3 at medium settings.

 

$4000? Why is it so expensive? You can even get a new M18x for that price. You can get an R4 with 7970 for less than $2000.

 

Top CPU, top GPU, max ram, 3d display, dual hybrid HDD, blue ray, killer card, 3 yr warranty... pretty much maxxed out all options.... after taxes = $4000

 

Why wouldn't you put the ram and hard drives in yourself? Waaay cheaper.

 

LOL read earlier... I'm a total novice at this. My first rig...

 

wow, all these horror stories are freaking me out. So depot service is always a no-no?

 

I'm trying it for the first time... No Choice.
Hope it goes well.

 

This has been a 2 month ordeal for me.
I sent my laptop in to the depot, it came back with a dead 6990m card and plastic chips everywhere in the box.... I'm afraid to know what they did to it. I have had a tech attempt to fix my laptop once (failed miserably and made the problem WORSE), a depot "fix" (which made things even WORSE, dead pixels on LCD, scratches on lid, dead 6990m), then a refurb laptop that died within a weeks use (motherboard went), and I am still waiting for Dell to get their acts together and even attempt to fix this laptop. I called them 2 weeks ago, and they still haven't gotten parts and a tech in order to fix my laptop. Case is still unresolved. Would it have been cheaper to give me a m17xR4 by now? I definitely think so. Will they give it to me after all my troubles/time wasted? Probably not. Warranty will probably run out before the laptop is straight again.

 

I actually had a good experience with Depot...Throughout the whole process, that was the best move...The on-site techs they sub the work to are really good...But most of the time you are trying to troubleshoot through trial and error...

My M17x came back working perfectly after the Depot had it...Other parts just started crapping out on it.

 

no no not true. I mean you would RATHER have in home service but I sent mine into the depot and it came back brand new. depot is better than not getting fixed at all.

 

Depot service more of gamble more than anything else. Back in December the media bar ended up scratching the screen up and so dell sent out a new LCD Assembly and media bar. The tech (who knew what he was doing), took my machine apart and replaced the screen and media bar. When he powered on the machine though, there was a popping sound and the new refurbished media bar ended up frying the mobo and dell insisted I send it into the depot. I also listed a number of other issues when I sent it in so I ended up with a new chassis, new mobo, new optical drive, but no new media bar. Kinda made me mad but i've lived with it. Looks like im gonna need a new LCD though as the media bar jacked up the screen again. Oh well maybe ill get a 1080p screen as a replacement.

 

I'm sorry your bad experience . Maybe it helps you:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware/449524-dell-alienware-aw-legacy-replacement-systems-warranty-repair-issues-30.html#post6303232

 

Just thought I'd add how I got my 6 month old R3 replaced for an R4.
1st failure - second HD failed - not even visible in BIOS - they sent me a new one and I put it in myself.
2nd failure -I needed to re-install windows but it kept hanging. After diags they said I needed a new SSD. Tech came out and installed along with windows/drivers.
3rd failure - all the throttling issues. Tech came out and replaced card and heatsink.
4th failure - every time machine got to 72C it would crash HARD. Blank screen with speaker buzzing. I had to reset BIOS each time it happened.

When I called in on that one they started to talk about a MB replacement so I just said 'any chance of a replacement? I really need this machine and I've hardly had any use out of it'. Tech says he'll check, comes back and says 'yes, you'll get a call confirming the config.

They upgraded me to a better CPU, bigger HD and added a killer wireless

Think I just had a 'friday' machine - the R4 has been - no not going to tempt fate!

Sound chip in the R4 is way better - don't need my external any more

 

i got my R3 replaced for an r4 because of the systematic sata3 failures.
back in the days i also got replacement from my M1730 > R2

 

Congrats on the R4's, I hope mine comes back with more troubles than before hehe and from what I read in this topic that is likely to happen.

680m and 3DV2 are essential upgrades.

 

It's one thing if your laptop truly is a lemon but still another to try and take advantage of Dell's good will. Yes, it would be nice to receive an R4 but trying to work the system is shameful in my opinion.

 

I don't know US law, but in europe if your device is taken away from you (depot) and you can't use it, any time spent in warranty service should not count as warranty time, but should be added to existing warranty, thus extending your warranty.

 

It is just unpredictable. With a tech I just do the repair with him, I clean old paste off, I put new paste on, I insure everything is done slowly, correctly, etc.

When you send it to the depot there is no oversight. Maybe you get things done right, or maybe you get back a laptop with bigger problems. I always just prefer to push for in-home service.

 

That sounds correct for EU. Luckily for me, a replacement comes with a fresh warranty - even the accidental damage, which surprised me - go dell!!

Although I now have an 'unspecified code' with the same dates as my new warranty when I looked at it. Probably a way of identifying a replacement

Most US states have pretty strict 'lemon laws' that override any manufacturers warranty when a product has had repeated faults from new. A replacement is a right...

 

Gotta agree with this...... good will can only last so long before they just say go f@#$ yourself

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

I also sometimes feel I'm the only one in the world who never had a serious problem with his machine. all the way back to my m9750 to the m17xR2, both still run today without any issues (knock on wood).

 

We have basically the same setup except for the 3D screen which is just $250 from the 60Hz 1080p screen. Our CPUs are within the same price range. Bluray is just $100 more than normal DVD optical drive Dell is offering.

The HDs are not that big of a difference and I got my rig for less than $2000 without the SSD.

Please dont get me wrong, I am not trying to discredit your post but repeatedly saying that this setup cost you $4000 is making the wrong impression that AW is really stupidly expensive compared to other similar setup from different brands.

I believe you that it cost you $4000, all I want to point out is people can get the same setup without spending that amount of cash.

People outside the AW community believes that our laptops are so expensive and we here are tying to let them know that its really as affordable as other brands/makes.

I know this is out of topic, I just cant ignore it

 

I did get some software bundled but the laptop itself was pretty darn close to $4000 after taxes. Ended up with he i72860qm as this was updated during the build.

No one is trying to take advantage here... It's just that the R3 has been a disappointment since I got it. At this price point u shouldn't have to spend another $130 on an external sound card so u can play in surround on a receiver for example.

Just read the thread about the 580m throttling for example... That thread is like 100 pages of posts about this issue... There was the confrence call in with dell and the memebers on this forum trying to sort that mess out.

My second day with the 17x, I plugged in my optical cable into the SPDIF audio output with the provided attachment; not only did it not output surround but I couldn't get the onboard speaker audio to work after taking the optical cable out of the SPDIF. So I went searching for a solution... Some ppl had Mobo replaced because of this. Then I found a thread where someone suggested to unhook the pin inside the SPDIF jack. So I got some magnification loops from work and unhooked it with a fine tipped tool after an hr trying to figure out what I was doing... Hahah not what I expected from a $4000 laptop lol.

You may have gotten yours for cheaper wherever but the website was the only option for me. I maxed out all option pretty much... And have been dissapointed ever since. Now it's a brick 9 months after I got it.

If I can get a replacement R4 that would be justice for me not taking advantage of anything. This will be my first time sending it to the depot. I hope it goes well...

 

I got offered a replacement R4 today, decided to take it. Original system was as configured:
M17xR3
2630qm, amd 6990m, 1920x1080, 4gb ram, dvdrw

replacement system
3720qm, AMD 7970m, 1920x1080, 16gb ram, blu ray reader.

Now, I feel like I've been compensated for properly.

 

Nice! Congrats. That is very positive to hear.

 

I assume by surround sound you are talking about Dolby Digital or similar while playing games? As far as I know there aren't any laptops on the market that come with a sound card capable of digital 5.1 output in games. The 17X R3 will do pass through of already encoded digital surround just fine, but it will not encode it, which is not really surprising.

Kind of the standard in PC gaming is to use analog connections for surround sound, for better or worse. I prefer a digital connection, and use HDMI to carry my digital sound from my 17x R3 most of the time, but in games 5.1 just won't happen, and I don't know of any laptop that will do digital 5.1.

Anyway, I hope your depot service goes well, you can pretty much count on not getting a new R4 with your first repair, but if you keep having problems then chances are at some point you will get a new machine.

 

looks like a nice upgrade. Congrats and I'm glad they ended up taking care of you.

 

Interesting question. Right now I'm in Dell's replacement limbo for an issue I've had since I got my R3. Whenever I'm running on battery power, I will eventually get a BSoD. I originally thought it was a driver issue (since the error reads DRIVER POWER STATE FAILURE), but I've done multiple clean installs on 2 different OS, and still get the same error, so I decided to call Dell.

They've replaced the motherboard and all of the fans already. A video card (580m) and a battery replacement are now on its way. I have serious doubts either will fix the issue, but we shall see. In the mean time, my laptop which was previously in mint conditions now has slight bends in the areas that the tech needed to apply force to open it. The screen is also uneven (especially noticeable when closed), so hopefully the next tech that comes will be able to fix this.

Seriously, they have no idea what's wrong with this laptop and they are just making it worse and worse and will eventually have to replace it, so why not do it from the beginning and save all that money in parts and labor, AND keep a repeat costumer happy?

 

It sucks to hear all these horror stories... I've had my R4 for a couple of months now and have had no issues with it, at all. I can't call myself "lucky" since I'm pretty sure there are many folks out there who had no trouble. But I completely understand how much it must suck to have your prized possession which cost you $$$$ of your savings, to act up like this and not even work. When you pay a price like this, you really deserve better, read: as close to perfect as possible.

Also, well its a good excuse that you're a novice at PC gaming, but you owe it to yourself to have done a *little research on the computer you're spending so much, especially in terms of upgrades and stuff. It would have saved you SO much cash, bud :/ but that's not the issue here lol. Everybody starts somewhere, and I won't pretend I was born with mouse in my hand xD

Depot service is baaad, and I'm talking averages here lol so don't quote me on this - there will always be the people who got everything done as promised. It totally blows when you're the one getting the short end of the stick. My laptop's working fine and I'm happy as a cow, but seriously, all these stories literally keep me on my toes, always checking if everything's working fine. And yeah, thought I'd punch it in - my last laptop, which was the college's HP Elitebook 8460p, is one of the worst laptops I have ever used, and the issues with it never end. I therefore utterly dislike HP now and would never buy from them. Guess I'm a hater now, right? haha, but that's just what happens when you have a bad time with a reputed brand. I can't say HP is bad and tell people not to buy their products, but I definitely have nothing good to say about them and will never recommend them after the crappy months I've been through. And yeah, sorry for my rant, been holding that in, lol.

PS - I wish everyone luck with getting their issues sorted out makes me sad to hear all these stories... as for me, I'm just keeping my fingers crossed..

 

You're not lucky, you're the norm. 99% of the problem threads are people who just sign up to tell us about the problems they are having. You dont have all the happy people out there coming onto the forum to tell you how great their system is. Its just the way it is, but the majority of Dell/AW customers are happy as hell.

 

You dont even need to have everything maxed out. When I bought machine in my sign in 04/11 it costs 3400 euro with 4GB 1333 RAM without SSD. In Europe its quite expensive.

 

hello

I just got my r3 back from repair and it's worse then ever. the 580m they put in did solve the throttle issue but it did it by not working at all. I called them up and they told me that within two business days they will call back with a replacement model ready for me.

wish me luck

timurStas

 

Sucks but hey a replacement is good. Similar story, fixed my throttle by replacing with a card that locked the machine solid as soon as it got to 72C
Good luck - you might ask if they will do a cheap upgrade to the 680 for the inconvenience - I'm trying that atm

 

Hope I get something for the crap i'm dealing with at the moment. I fried my machine a few days ago do to a liquid incident and when I called dell they said my warranty had expired even though I paid for accidental warranty through 2013. Sure enough I go back through today and the receipt says through 2013. So I have no idea what happens now, but I'm still without my alien.