*OFFICIAL* Alienware 18 Owner's Lounge Thread

first, what country do you live in?

the real confusing is if you were to buy the machine from another country and then move to a different country trying to get support. if your country or location doesn't have dell service rep for in home service and you don't feel comfortable working on the machine on your own, either don't get the machine, or the 3 years warranty as Dell might offer you free shipping back to their depot, but time is something you'll have to spend and wait and theres no guarantee they can fix it or damage it more.

the best way is to learn to work and replace parts yourself, and ask them to send parts for you, but again it might not be covered in your area. alienware warranty service is very good, if you are in USA. canada/UK is so-so but not nearly as good, and I can imagine some other country where they might not even have tech support service or depot center.

 

All electronics are prone to failure, but especially high performance components. I definitely recommend going with the extended warranty. I would suggest getting at least 3 years, along with accidental damage coverage. Motherboard, CPU, MXM cards and LCD panels are not inexpensive and the warranty almost always pays for itself. If your machine is end of life and needs to be replaced under warranty, Dell/Alienware will replace it with current tech of equal or better quality. There are lots of new 18 owners that have them as system exchange/replacements for an earlier generation machine that they had purchased. These beasts are too expensive to not have the warranty and it will cost you 2-3 times more to extend the warranty later on compared to the cost at time of purchase.

But, to respond specifically to whether or not Alienware are prone to fail the answer is "no" are far as the brand is concerned. Buying an extended warranty is a good idea for any expensive system, regardless of brand. For example...

 

Is it way more expensive even if extended before it expires?

 

Yes... it is a LOT more expensive regardless of whether or not the warranty has expired. It costs typically half as much to extend the warranty to 3 or 4 years on a new machine at the time of purchase than it does to add 2 or 3 years to the 1 year warranty on a system after purchase.

 

It makes sense. Business 101.

But the way I see it, it's like gambling, the house always wins (Dell), some people gets lucky sometime and their unit breaks down and they get it fixed or get a new one, most just loses their money without even using their extended warranty.

If it wasn't like this, Dell would be either losing a lot of money or increasing their warranty extension prices..

And for the people who doesn't get extended warranty, it's also betting, but with higher odds since there are way more units that doesn't break than there are that does.

I bet on Alienware.

 

You must be a pretty good poker player.

 

I wish! ^^

 

I have used my extended warranties a ton and I am always glad to have it. It has always proven to be a wise purchase and I won't buy any expensive laptop without one. It has always paid for itself more than once with expensive high end components that don't last forever under demanding use conditions.

I used to be an HP customer and purchased extended warranties with accidental damage coverage from HP also. The contrast of HP's horrible customer service and being treated like a criminal whenever you need to have something fixed under warranty is what made me a Dell/Alienware fanboy to begin with. From needing to prove to the HP Tech Support person that I had documentation of actually having purchased an extended warranty from HP at the time of initial order, to getting the third degree and run around about what kind of improper use not covered by warranty might have ultimately lead to the system needing to be repaired was just way over the top with HP. They take a highly adversarial position instead of trying to be helpful. Not to mention that it takes forever from the time of the first call, to sending off into la-la land and waiting and hoping it comes back fixed instead of messed up worse. There is no NBD in-home service or Parts-Only dispatch.

With Dell/Alienware it has always been pretty straightforward... You contact them and they respond in a prompt and friendly manner. They apologize for your inconvenience and take care of it like professionals.

 

Cool, but you are from Area 51, the home of Alienware.

I will be using it on a place with no official service center. I already got mixed answers from some reps, so I'm guessing is not as easy as it was for you.

 

Just like brother fox, I always make sure I get 3yrs warranty minimum and then extend it for another 2 later.

It doesn't mean I will use it, I had a m18xr1 that has had zero service calls on it but it had warranty till 2014.

I had a m17xr2, with extended warranty till 2013 and god know how many service calls it needed.

Just 1 gpu dying or motherboard drying or just LCD dying, is enough to be well worth having warranty, as it will end up cheaper than buying a new part, especially if laptop is newer. Older components can be found cheap, but if something like aw18 cooked its motherboard, having no warranty will mean, $400-500 out of pocket, while its around $370 to get 2yr extended warranty here is aus.

 

Yeah, but as you said it yourself, with your m18xr1 you got 3~4 years extended warranty which u didn't use, so there you lost $400.

As I said, it's like betting, sometimes you win, sometimes u lose, but Dell never loses.

 

Well I have had my house insured for last 6 yrs, and all of the other properties, and all of the cars, and my business, and my photography gear. Haven't used anything other than car insurance yet, but that doesn't mean something will not go wrong tomorrow and my business will not get sued for 5mil, or god forbid, my house burns down or gets flooded, or someone robs my house. You can say so far insurance in winning.

Its piece of mind your paying for, and remember dell might win in some cases, but in rest they will loose, i had a m15x (ordered 2 weeks after release) which dell replaced with m17xr4 after almost 3-4yrs of use, do you think dell won?

Like I said before, if 1 GPU/motherboard/lcd dies, you are stuffed for atleast same amount you will pay for warranty extension. And the fact you can just get few things replaced to keep system in mint condition.

 

Seems like the extended warranty is a good idea I think. I didn't take out the option as I could not afford it when I purchased the Laptop, can I extend the 12 month warranty at a later date ?

 

Yes it can be extended, its quite expensive to get later on, but can be done.

 

Dell, just like insurance companies never lose, it's a business.. if they were to lose money, they would go into bankruptcy. This is only explained by the simple logic that there are way more units with extended warranty that never breaks down than units that does. So they have a positive balance.

I also got my car insured for so many years, of which I never had to use my insurance, never crashed, it never got stolen, it never got burn to the ground.

Don't get me wrong, sometimes insurances do pay off, but most of the time is just a way to throw your money away.

 

Extended warranties with these expensive machines is always a good idea. I have an Area 51 desktop with a 4 year extended warranty and it was one of the best decisions I made. The vents stopped opening about 8 months ago (3 years into the warranty). I called support and they sent out a technician two days later with brand new vents. The technician installed the new vents and made sure everything was functioning properly. Overall, I have been quite happy with the Dell/Alienware's customer support.

 

Extended warranties are great - so long as you have the support behind them to back them up. I can speak from experience in saying that my extended warranty (for like for like replacement purposes) was worth nothing more than toilet roll.

From being on these forums for a couple of years, warranty support varies greatly depending upon location. UK folk get shafted by extremely dodgy support farmed out to India. US folk can get much better support via Costa Rican Dell support and North American Dell premium support.

Put it this way, I'm not buying another premium Dell/Alienware product when such a disparity exists.

Just my tuppence, take from it what you will: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...-emea-dell-support-full-details-included.html

 

Are those vents worth 500 dollars? Because that's what you paid for your warranty.

 

Wasn't $500 after I was done negotiating.

 

Not entirely if he still has warranty left.
Nothing wrong with paying for insurance. I generally don't insure, I've never insured my car and it's worked out great since I'm not unco
But hardware crapping out definitely can't be avoided. When my 7970m's died I was convered by the original 1 year warranty. I extended my warranty pretty soon after that.
It only costed my around $250-$300 to add and additional 2 years into my original 1 year. Honestly, that's not so much considering the machines value.

 

Steam holiday sale is underway.

 

Yey !! I am a proud owner of the AW R1 since yesterday , but have not received the unit yet.

 

Well yeah... is not much if u compare to the price of the laptop.. but its still 400~500... heck! U could buy a PS4 with that.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

 

LOL, I can connect a BlueRay player to my TV for Red Box movies and Netflix streaming for under $100, but it seems strange to me to think that anyone would opt to use a PS4 if they have an 18" Alienware SLI beast available to game with. Wouldn't that be kind of like making a martyr's decision to drive the Yugo when you have a much nicer muscle car or exotic European sports coupe sitting next to it in the garage? Or, maybe like choosing a Big Mac instead of a Filet Mignon when you are offered a choice between the two?

Anybody that doesn't want to spend money buying an extended warranty is definitely free to roll the dice on the standard 1 year warranty working well over the long haul, but they will have no basis to complain if expensive part(s) fail outside of the warranty period. Sometimes computer parts last a long, long time. Sometimes they do not. High performance components often do not. If you have a lot of discretionary cash to drop on replacement part(s) that expire at an inopportune moment, and you are reasonably confident that finding replacement parts is not going to prove difficult, not getting an extended warranty is probably smart.

If you get an extended warranty at the time of purchase, the cost of a single 780M, motherboard or LCD display replacement will make you glad you have it. If you spread out the cost over the duration of the warranty period it is cheap "insurance" when you stop and think about it. And, it will enhance the resale value and ease of resale if you decide to sell it during the warranty period.

You will be hard pressed to find anyone that has received multiple GPU replacements or even a brand new machine as a system exchange for an end of life product 2, 3 or 4 years into ownership that believes spending between $250 and $500 extra at the time of purchase turned out to be a mistake. I have about 8 months left on what started out in August of 2009 as an XPS M1730 equipped with a Core2 Duo and 8800M SLI. It was replaced by an M17xR2, which was later replaced by an M18x. I couldn't be happier.

My next new Alienware will be purchased with a 4 year warranty, and extended to the 5 year max limit. If I never need to use that warranty, I will still realize the benefit of peace of mind and enjoy not having to worry about finding a way to scrape up a big wad of cash for replacement parts or buying another $4,000-$5,000 system only because I decided to cut corners to save a few bucks at the time of purchase.

 

About the consoles, what's wrong with having the best of both worlds? You eat Filet Mignon everyday? I also enjoy a Big Mac from time to time.

But if you get the extended warranty hoping that ur unit will be replaced with the newest model after 3~4 years down the road... and again and again, well. Even if Dell does it, I guess that's not how any warranty should work. I'm buying this laptop knowing that it will be obsolete after 2 years. In 2 years I will buy a new one, and so on. I wont just get the warranty hoping it would die or better yet.. pushing it to die so I can get the new model for free.

Anyway.. that's is just me.

 

Congratulations on your R1 purchase!

 

I couldn't agree more with you brother. Having that peace of mind is worth it.

 

I don't think anyone expects Dell to replace their laptops with newer models. It doesn't happen very often, either. Mr. Fox was merely using that as an example of the exemplary warranty Alienware offers. In one year, the warranty has already paid for the extension I purchased.

I don't doubt there are people out there who do what you just mentioned, but you won't find that here. That sounds a lot like fraud to me.


Sent from my Galaxy Note 3

 

My thoughts exactly.

 

In case anyone is looking for this...

 

My laptop arrived yesterday! My god it looks like a quality piece of kit. I love it. One annoying thing that has developed so far. The keyboard has a buzzing/ rattling noise every time I press a key. Anyone else had this? Sounds like something is loose under the keyboard.

 

I am sure, if someone tried that, dell will be on top pretty quickly. I remember when my m11xr1 got replaced (due to botched job by dell tech for replacing hinges under recall) and I got a m11xr2. Few months later, power surge and whole laptop just short circuited and smelled like burnt, including charger.

Dell tried to repair it at home but then took it to depo to make sure there was no foul play, also got me to get a letter from power company confirming this. Once I got the letter, they just went and replaced the laptop and extended warranty for another 2 yrs.

My point being, someone who tries to do fraud, might be lucky enough to get 1 replacement, at most 2 but will be caught out.

I know few guys at dell when I did some work at dell corporate offices here in aus. The story goes like, someone ordered an Inspiron 9400 and got it replaced with a xps m1730 and then sold on Inspiron 9400, and then tried to get that m1730 replaced again and was successful and again sold off older m1730 but when he went for third replacement. Dell basically sent him a demand letter for returning old systems or pay full price for both new systems.

He basically didn't get new replacement and had to pay for previous replacement or risk getting sued for fraud and a police complaint.

Moral of story, if you do the crime, you have to do the time

 

It actually happens often enough that people get systems replaced by something newer, but I suspect it is very seldom fraud. When something is messed up and cannot be fixed, repeated attempts result in failure, and the parts are obsolete, what other alternative is there? I suppose a full refund of the original purchase price would be an option, but Dell/Alienware seldom does that. It is probably more affordable for them to replace with equal or better new tech than to issue a refund, and it normally makes for happy customers as well. The bottom line is they take care of their customers and generally do an admirable job of it. That's why I am a fanboy.

And, vs3074 is correct... they have a plan in place to help with weeding out the liars and thieves and there is no tolerance for it once those clowns are identified. Those folks do not receive good customer service because they are not good customers and do not deserve it.

 

I ordered mine with the 1 year warranty, planning to replace it in 2015~2016 with whatever new model there is then, unless I'm unlucky it will not break down before I get a new one. If it does, time to get extended warranty.

 

PLEASE IGNORE THIS AS HAD TO POST IN M18X LOUNGE......

Hey guys,

Ok so I have a big problem now. I wanted to restore my m18x from the backup I created from alienrespawn..I've created 4 backups over some time just to be safe.... Ok so I deleted all partitions from both ssds and restored to factory default, but it kept installing Windows on the ssd I wanted to keep for storage, so I repeated about 5 or 6 times trying something different and so now when I restore it shows bootmgr is missing...I can't go to f8 menu cuz don't have win7 CD as travelling... Also doesn't the restore to factory default formats the drive before restoring if u choose the right option so why is it now showing bootmgr missing? Cuz I think if it formats the ssd before restoring then I don't need to go to f8 to format? Maybe I'm wrong please help.. Anyway just ordered another ssd... Will try to take out one ssd nd try reinstalling tomorrow.. Thanks

Btw just an idea I ran the diagnostic and it showed an error for the ssd where its installing win7... maybe the partition is corrupted and I need to delete it to fix at its not fixing if RECOVERY is formatting it..

Can it be something other than the ssd, cuz if it is then I'm in trouble

Lesson to be learnt here.... so stupid of me to play with the ssd

 

Alienware wants people to feel they are getting a more premium product and want to stand behind it so that's probably why the warranty is regarded as better. Downside is that it's hit or miss getting to the end result, but usually if you are polite/persistent, they will eventually get it right. I think it's sorta like Snap-on where once you buy a tool, you're covered. Their goal is to just make sure they get your money, but you're going to always have a machine that's comparable to what you own over the warranty period. With tech, they don't have much choice and offer the latest model due to parts issues (unlike tools).

I also suggest as much warranty as you can afford. Some of us actually don't like to upgrade / rebuild machines anymore due to time / hassle / kids and limited time in life which I feel is better spent actually playing a game, etc.. . My last machine prior to this year is 6 years old already...Still on the original OS. With gaming also peaked out, a lot of these Alienware 18s should be able to run games for a bit I'd guess...

 

Merry Christmas everyone

 

Merry Christmas!

 

im looking for a teardown video,i need to re-paste , getting some ridiculous temps (GPU hitting 97) but i want to watch a video before i tear it down. only one i can find is some retard from Cnet destroying an AW18, anyone seen a different one?

 

Not exactly a teardown, but Mr. Fox posted some pics of the innards here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...ware-18-owners-lounge-thread.html#post9236224

AW 18 manual:
ftp://ftp.dell.com/Manuals/all-prod...laptops/alienware-18_Owner's Manual_en-us.pdf

 

ooops

I cleaned my laptop today. Used a damp cloth and some cleaning agent I have used before without issues.

Now the touchpad wont work. It lights up and is on all the time. It doesnt respond to touch, aka the mouse cursor doesnt move. I tried using a heat fan for a while. Now the buttons underneath work. But not the touchpad itself.

Is there hope that it will work tomorrow?

 

Maybe the ribbon cables are loose?

I have opened up the system about 20 times in the past 4 months.

 

wow how damp was the cloth lol, pasing over the touchpad the way it made if you put pressure on the damp cloth while going in the "deep" touchpad water may be pushed under the button/touchpad and short... wow... its fragile... time or put a mount of rice on top with Saran wrap on top?
good thing its not to hard to change..

that would be nice.. but really unlikely hehe

 

YES ITS ALIVE

Since the LED light worked, it wasn`t a loose cable.

Thankfully though, my touchpad worked today. crisis aborted. Thank god I didn`t have to send it in.
Probably some residue from the cleaning agent or the water that interfered with the signals from the touchpad which dried out over night.

sy5tem you are right. I used too much water this time. Lesson learned

 

I don't use damp cloths. I use alcohol free wipes followed by dry microfibre cloth. Works perfectly every time

 

Hey Folks, just noticed hardware info 64 has an update, has anyone with alien 18 played with it yet to see if they can take control of the GPU fans with it yet?
Just curious,

Anyway happy New Year

 

Nope, still does not work. There is something (not sure what) that Alienware needs to fix with the EC because there is some sort of communication conflict or interrupt that is taking place. I do not think there is anything that Mumak can do to remedy this situation until Alienware corrects whatever the underlying bug is that is causing it.

Happy New Year to you also.

 

So, my Alienware 17 went belly up (out of the blue) and they're going to replace it. Ironically, there's a good chance I'll end up with an AW 18 because the specifications I have are no longer offered. I won't be keeping it, if so.

 

And? Come to the 18 forum to say if you end up with one you won't be keeping it?

 

If you saw some posts I made before buying the AW 17, it would probably make more sense. It's just ironic how I started out looking at the AW 18, buying the AW 17, and then ending up with the AW 18 without even buying one, and finally not wanting the AW 18 because of the issues it presents...

You must have not seen those posts. Mr. Fox may be one of the few who remembers.