Very unpleasant situation with M18x! Need advise.

Here's the thing:





I just want to know if this part can be replaced?

I'm live in the Ukraine, but the warranty, of course, doesn't cover such a defect. One budy of mine dropped the keys on the laptop by accident

And if this part can be purchased seperately from Dell i would love to do so. While i'm out of town i don't have access to the laptop itself so i can't get the part number if it's present.

Does anyone know the part number of this panel and can share it? Would much appreciate it! Thanks...

 

Yes, that part is called the center control cover.
J6NT3 Assembly,Frame,Keyboard,M18X


It's a very simple procedure. http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/M18x/en/SM/hingecov.htm#wp1035974

On a side note....are you pleased with your 580M SLI? I ask this because I currently have a pair of 580M's on order.
I use to have 580M's but returned them because I thought they were defective because of throttling.

 

If it doesn't affect the operation of the control center, I would say leave it.

You might want to buy a new one just to have in case of serious damage, but if you use the notebook enough, it will eventually get more wear and tear, and always replacing something that gets scratched, dented, or scuffed up will get rather expensive.

Unless you are fortunate enough to have it stay on a desk, it's going to get stuff like that, especially if you move it around and especially if it's around other people.

 

Why is the uhm..I dont know that parts name a little missaligned. Is it the same on the left side of the laptop?

 

thanks for the info. contacted dell rep and was told the price for that part is "only" 56.99 for the refirbished but the item is out of stock now (is it possible to trade with the rep about the parts?). May be i purchase later when it arrives to the ware house.

Regarding 580M SLI, i'm really satisfied with those cards. While i can't say i'm either AMD or NVIDIA fanboy, i must admit that while using both GPU's i had less driver support issues with NVIDIA branded cards, so i've made my decision based on that with M18x See, i love to overclock GPU's a lot and i was pretty damn upset when i found out about this throttling issue... Other than that - 580M SLI is a remarkble GPU tandem and runs every game without breaking a sweat with excellent temps... Until 2012 we've enough horsepower to fulfill our game needs and i'm sure the throttling issue will be fixed by then so we can enjoy it in full strength

yeah, it doesn't! however, i'd love to buy a spare part just in case something happens to this particular one and simply switch them. When i did a teardown of the laptop to change the stock paste i realized that this panel is rather gentle and can be easily get broken, so it's better to have the extra one, just in case something goes wrong.

the thing is that i live in Ukraine (already made a warranty transfer) and dell doesn't ship the parts overseas, still need to figure out how to order it right

 

thank you for the info regarding the 580m's. I doubt I'll do much gpu overclocking.
Since they don't ship parts to your location they probably wont swap parts. I would replace that part ASAP. That ding would drive me crazy on my M18x.

 

I agree with skygunner... I would replace it if it were mine also. Those scratches would drive me totally nuts. My computer travel with me all over the place on business and it stays looking like brand new because I handle everything with great caution. I don't even move my M18x from upstairs to downstairs without putting it into the cloth sleeve it shipped in.

 

As soon as it gets in stock i'm gonna order it somehow) the part is pretty easy to swap so i do the job, no problems with that...

The thing is that the part is actually refurbished from the Dell's rep words, but he assured me that no wear or scratches should be present. A little worry if they ship the used cover with the same dent from some previous customer instead)))

 

The part Dell sells as refurbished is probably just one they pulled from a returned M18x that was taken apart just to sell piece by piece.

If it's $56.99 just for the plastic trim, I'd say that's kind of expensive for used. That would seem like a typical price for new, though.

Maybe they'll start showing up on ebay for a lot less, with international shipping, too.

 

tnx... it seems like expensive, but on the ebay those trims for M17xR3 cost around the same sent a couple of messages to ebay sellers, may be they have it in stock anytime soon.

 

Red Line, make that buddy who dropped the keys to pay for it.

 

he-he he's gonna pay! now need to wait for the part to appear in stock)

 

got the replacement, guys) ordered one from ebay with international delivery ( 75$ total). there's a bunch of folks selling this part on ebay now, so didn't have to bother with dell parts chat!







No dents, scratches etc, didn't try out how it work, will leave it for the future! The only thing wondered me is a little different part number instead of J6NT3 it says 0J6NT3. Not a biggy, anyways)

 

Nice. I'm glad you got it ready to go. Make sure you do all you need to before replacing that assembly. Those little clips break easy when trying to remove that piece.