Another Smoldering m17x

Hello members. I just joined today after reading reviews on various Alienwares.

I have to admit I am very unhappy with the M17x R1 I purchased last April. For one it seemed from the start of ordering one that things were doomed. I ordered it in April during my transit from South Korea to South Africa. I was excited and thrilled to have the money to finally get my dream laptop. In the past I drooled over the desktop that a friend had with the breathers and glowing blue lights. Yes it was an Alien.

Nonetheless I ordered mine online and paid 3,200$ USD. I am unsure what the usual wait time is for the machine to be built and shipped out but mine did not ship until late June. This was unacceptable but I recieved apologies but no compensation for the wait. I am unsure of the wait time for Asus and Dell's regular XPS series customized laptops but I think 2 months to build a machine is a bit much.

After getting my Alien I felt proud until weeks later. After playing World of Warcraft I had and continue to have overheating issues. My video card stays at temperatures of 147 degrees Fahrenheit and at this rate soon I wont have video cards at all. Cooling pads cant even keep the two internal fans from running at max speed the entire time I am on the machine. I have been trying to be patient for maybe some kind of recall or even a survey on how I feel about the quality of the product I have received. None to this date have been received.

With dual video cards the max resolution is 1440 X 900 which is poor in my opinion for a "powerhouse" laptop top of the line. I customized this with dual 512 ATI HD 3870's and the resolution cant even compare to that of my company HP 6710b laptop.

I find out today when reading the Alienware site that there was a free Windows 7 Ultimate upgrade for buyers that purchased their Aliens before July. I had no such offer with my laptop. According to the website there was supposed to be a code that came with the laptop. It has been a over a year since I purchased but why am I finding all this out now. According to others that purchased an R1 it seems we were the step children with overheating machines and have not received a resolution to this problem.

I am in the oilfield industry and constantly I travel. Can anyone here recommend what they may have done to at least get some kind of help with these problems? From what I read everyone says contact Alienware but the site only offers phone numbers. The drillships and sites usually do not have outside access to call and I am left with email contact only. I really would like a resolution to this overheating because I can not run this laptop for more than 2 hours before I loose my mind with the two fans whining which is definately killing the lifetime of them. The resolution is just horrid for a top of the line laptop. I have done update after update after update and no improved resolution drivers. Do any exist from Alienware?

I dreamed of having an Alienware and sadly I use my company laptop more because its more reliable and runs cooler than the Alien.

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanx

Tim A. Washington

 

If you still have warranty, call the tech support?

 

I purchased the 1 year warranty package so that has expired since June. Its sad that Dell purchased Alienware and I believe this is probably the root to the problem. I have called tech support once and had no luck with having the outsourced Middle Eastern gentleman understand what I was trying to instill to him. This call took place in February of this year.

I have limited time to argue with someone over the phone about a laptop that is known to boast about its power and stability. I am starting to feel there had to be a bad batch of parts or something. I do not want to say Alienware itself is a horrible product. I just want a resolution. And sadly my one year of guarantee'd service is over.

 

Let it be an expensive lesson on your end. 3 year warranty minimum when buying a dell laptop, especially if it costs you 3 grand.

As for trying to explain yourself to a rep, I never had problem making a rep understand a word over heating, so I'm not sure who is to blame.

 

If I had the opportunity I would send it back to have it looked at but not at the cost of a brand new one...

 

So when did the problems start occuring? Fron April 2009 to June 2010 you had zero problems with the laptop? Dual ATI 3870's? I don't recall those being in a R1...I would suggest more research by reading the threads in this site to help you re-add thermal paste etc to the GPU's, etc etc.

 

I think he has the Area-51 m17x.

Spoiler

 

Actually, you should have called Dell. I called India on a blu-ray drive for my M17xR1 and didn't have any problems with the operator (can't call them techs) understanding. Also, if you talking about an area 51 m17, then this post would fit better in the legacy subforum.

 

I had to email my partner back home and I have mistaken mine for an M17x when indeed it is an Area 51 M17. I feel foolish now but the problems I have are still consistent to the M17x.

Calling support really is not an option right now as email is the best way of communication from a drillship at the moment, like in the past.

Sorry for posting in the wrong section.

 

I have a perfectly working M17xR1. I must be one of the lucky ones. But it is always wise to buy the best warranty possible and I'm told that Dell will let you know when your warranty is up (a month before) to sell you a new warranty. Granted at a much higher rate, but I'm willing to pay it (my warranty runs out in November 2011.

 

I had a perfectly working M17, M17x-R1, and now a perfectly working M17x-R2.

There are some inconsistencies here. For one thing, 147° FAHRENHEIT is like 65° CELCIUS, which is a perfectly acceptable GPU temperature. My M17 never ran very cool. If you pull the bottom off, you'll see that both GPUs are cooled by a single heat sink and fan.

Just because the fans are running, doesn't mean the laptop is overheating. Have you had any performance issues or thermal throttling?

WoW is very CPU dependent. What CPU do you have? We really need more information to help you out. As of your last post, you don't have any real problems, just perceived ones. Please give more information.

 

Although your warranty is dead, you might still try reaching out to them. At the very least, they can explain your options and answer your questions.

Alienware Legacy Systems

Quote Src: Alienware Support - Alienware Forum - Alienware Club - Dell Community

 

I dont think you have an Area 51 M17x, the M17x had 9800m SLI, thats what I have, the m17 had the ATI's, do us a favor take a pic of your lap top and post, it'll be easy that way to figure out exactly what one you have. Or flip it over and look at the tag. If its an Area 51 M17x (the last all real AW) than it will say Area 51 m17x, or you might have the whitebook m17 with 3870s which is also a great machine.

 

He has the Whitebook M17 with the HD3870s. And I'm not really sure there's even a problem, to be honest. Says the fans are always on and annoying when he's gaming (which they should be), and that the GPU temps are hitting 65° C, which is not bad at all. Waiting to hear back from him.

 

Agreed, that machine is a beast, not a big fan of the looks, and I was skeptical of those cards but DAMN that turned out to be one great PC! It is when you dont hear the fans that you have an issue!

 

Yeah guys and gals. I have some misinformation. I had to have my partner get on the machine and verify a few things. I rarely carry it with me offshore anymore. I have it at home and I am having it shipped to me. The degrees is Celcius and I will get a screenshot of this and the fans work at max when running three common programs (photoshop, office 2010 (any prog), and google chrome. This should not take place. When I run just Starcraft II or WoW the fans are blowin at max to try to keep things cool.

My apologies guys. I was hasty in posting out of being upset with the situation.

But yes it overheats because the performance is effected in a big way. Video gets choppy with the sound. I usually freeze up and have to end up hitting the powerbutton to start her back up.

 

I had the same with my M17.

I replaced the stock thermal paste with OCZ Freeze, adjusted the bottom cover with more vent holes and used a laptop cooler 24/7 which helped lowering temps alot.

Also there have been reports of some M17's where Alienware techs forgot to remove the plastic from the heatsink before installing it. Not saying this is the issue in your case but worth taking off the bottom cover to check inside...and maybe clean it a bit if theres dust.

[edit] 147 Fahrenheit is a fine temperature and the fans should be on all the time..don't think it's a problem.

 

The Quad core the reason for choppy gfx and sound in the M17, the reason I swapped mine for a X9100, My video cards get to 80c {176f} heavy gaming and yes fans are loud, but they have to be or it dies in a very short time.
Never seen gfx hit 147c they would fry, even ATi's wouldnt stand that for too long.
You need to use HW Monitor and take a screen shot of the temps using screen grab pro, both are free to google and use.

Headphones drown the fan noise!

 

lol, how stupid is it to name two machines the same except one has a capitol m and the other lower case. M17x is the one with 9800 nvidias and the lower case m17x is what we have out now that was standard with ati 4870s and nvidia 280s.

Id say fix the machine to a satisfactory selling state and sell it. I too got burned by the alienware company, I bought an area51m 776 of ebay for 2.4k, and after 15 minutes it was bsod'ing on me when I got it. Beleive me it was strugle with it, after about 500 bsods later and a few years I got new memory and it stoped doing it. I never got any support though for it, it was first laptop with a dedicated video card so I didnt really have anyone to turn to. I still use it today though, and want a m11x even though the hindges are crap on it lol. You can bet I didnt want an alienware for a long time after geting that machine though.