Warranty and GFX problems

curious if anyone knows the answer to this problem im having.

4 months ago I bought a M17xR3 laptop witht he 460m card. Ran like a dream. I play eve online and it ran 4 clients at the 120 refresh rate with minor hiccups. Then a week ago it couldnt run one client past 30 fps. So i went to install the newest nvidia driver from Dell's support page. It failed install and started putting black boxes in red letters telling me basically not to run 3d in a 2d environment... So thinking something was seriously wrong even though spyware and virus scans came up clean i restored the computer to factory windows from the repair windows option in the boot menu.

I call support and they tell me to run a hardware diag and try to install the intel 3000HD driver and call back as they were closing. The diag comes up passed and the intel 3000 refuses to install stating i dont meet system requirements.

I call back this morning and they tell me that since i refeshed the system with teh factory image i have voided my alienware warranty and now must pay for their support. Not in all my years have i ever heard of doing a system restore voiding a computers warranty.

Anyone know how to solve this issue? Does the 460M version actually come with the 3000HD as well? i ran gpu-z and it doesnt show the 3000HD and the driver wont install. the FN+F7 says i/d GFX but says this does nothing. Unplug the power cord it runs solid 30fps plug it in it cycles 30-60, i can no longer set refresh rate of 120hz on the laptop monitor....


A) anyone else had this fps issue and know how to fix it

B) can alienware actually void my warranty over a factory image refresh?

M17x R3 460m 17 2820qm 8gb ram

 

A) No idea, sorry.

B) No, whoever you were talking to has no idea what they are talking about, as per usual. Call back and escalate up the chain until you get someone useful. The only thing you can really do to void your warranty is deliberate damage or modding the hardware (eg. pinmod, anything that involves soldering, etc...).

 

Be careful which phone # you call Dell on. I tried Googling Alienware tech support phone number, the first # that came up looked like the real #, but it was actually a 3rd party trying to sell me another warranty (a scam basically). Alienware's real # is on the Dell.com or Alienware.com website. It is pretty easy. 1-800-Alienware.

 

Yeap

Call again.

 

Lol that phone guy is stupid. You have to mod the hardware to void warranty, not software.

 

ok called back left out that i refreshed the windows install and now a tech will come to my house and replace my defective Video Card. Ran Heaven benchmark and got a really low score apparently. So he says card is bugged.