Dell released update on Hinge issue for M11x - 3/5/2011

Already fixed?
I don't know...
I'd be amazed if they managed to get the new hinge design into production already. I wouldn't be surprised if it was the same old hinge.
I would expect the new hinge to be implemented within a month or two.

However, by the time the old hinge breaks (which will be at a minimum of 1 month, average 4 months), when dell sends a tech he should be able to put in the redesigned hinge.

Either way, I suggest you get the M11x.

 

I think everyone needs to stop with the "sky is falling" attitude regarding the hinges.....if they do not break, you are set. If they do, they will get repaired.

 

And I also think everyone needs to know that the new hinge design has never been even released and Dell already announced that it will be released in MARCH. It is good to wish and hope about the new hinge design but not to the point when they may confuse the others and create false rumors about the new hinge already being out.

 

Don't believe those reps on the phone. They told me that M11x has never occurred any problem with hinges and that it is in perfect design. I called them a few times in October 2010 and January 2011 due to problems with hinge gaps. It is good that they are finally starting to acknowledge that there is something wrong with the hinge design.

I heard some reps on the phone say that M14x will be out really soon around in April. I doubt..

 

The way to look at this is that if you want to order a new M11x just wait until the end of March. If you are already a owner just wait until the hinge breaks. Until then don't sweat the small stuff.

 

There's been no indication that new R1s or R2s will ever come with the newly designed part.

 

Wait....Correct me if I'm wrong, but Dell said that they were going to "start" looking into fixing the obvious design flaw of the hinges in March, right? Well ,if that's true, then it would mean that the new hinges would have to be re-designed, tested and THEN put in mass production!
How long do you think that's going to take guys?...6 months, a year, two years??? and how long for us to get our hands on them???
I'm only speculating, but I think we all should not get our hopes up. I am going to renew my soon to be expired warranty and wait with my fingers crossed.

 

What slickie said.

I bet these are NOT ever intended for R1/R2 production. Keep in mind not all hinges fail! Better business decision to keep smaller production run of spare parts with updated design.

They are NOT saying they plan to mass produce panels at a 1:1 ratio of units sold.

The useless speculation from having NOT read the full thread is just making this one longer than it needs to be.

 

All hinges CAN fail though due to the design, no question about it. Whether or not 100% of users claim is to be determined. Sounds like it's not a recall, but a "replace if user claims the failure" type situation.

There really is nothing they can do to prevent the failure with the current design, but they can prolong the inevitable by loosening the hinges. They better be prepared to replace every single hinge especially if they are truly offering repairs for machines out of warranty.

 

The hinge issue is kind of unfortunate, because otherwise, the m11x is an amazing device in my opinion.

 

It would make sense to use the new part on the new R1,R2 and the upcomming R3.
March woud be the cutoff date for the old hinge type and beginning of the new hinge that would be use in all of the models. old hinges would be replaced with the new screens as needed.

 

sweet my left hinge has just gone on mine, gona wait a week or 2 then send it off, if anyones done this before do they supply a box to send it off in or do i have to give them one :/ dont want to send off my origional box, because of its awesome looks.

 

No local service option?

 

He is in the UK so maybe not

 

As I understand it, there seems to be a problem with the hinges of the m11x r-1 and r-2, amiright? I don't own one, so i wouldn't know first-hand.

My question is two-fold:

1. has dell yet to release a fix (either by in-home service or depot service) for current owners' hinges?

2. if you buy an m11x r-1 or r-2 TODAY (2/22/2011) does it ship with a defective hinge or a fixed (newer) hinge?

EDIT: just an FYI, I tried getting this information out of a dell rep and 3 of them were clueless so i gave up. >_<

 

Dell came out in Dec. and fixed my hinges on my M11x R1. Actually replaced the entire display along with all hinges and plastics around it.

 

@neosis -

(Quote src: Re: m11x hinge issues? - Alienware Forum - Alienware Club - Dell Community)

 

My right hinge just started to creak and pop out of alignment this weekend. Do you guys think I should call Dell about it now and have it fixed now or try to hold off until the more permanent repair option is available?

 

Go ahead and call. Have them fix it now. If it breaks again, its going to be replaced. Hopefully, by then they will have rolled out the change Chris mentioned in his post.

 

I don't believe this answers the question of whether or not m11x's that ship today arrive with the defect or not. We can assume that the 'vendor' in question is responsible for supplying the new hinge entirely, but that might not be the case. In fact, it might be the case that the vendor in question is responsible for making the repairs to the hinges, and nothing more.

Don't get me wrong, I can appreciate the copy/paste when it appears I didn't do my homework, but you shouldn't throw stuff like this out there when it doesn't address my question directly and is, at best, only related to part of it.

It suffices to say that I have yet to find a straight answer as to whether or not, if one purchases and m11x today, it will arrive with a defective hinge.

 

Better start reading again...

If you purchase today there is ZERO indication that the systems will have new hinge/lcd design. In fact, there is speculation just a few posts back about doubts any new systems (R1/R2) will have updated parts... the theory being they will just replace as needed.

Anyway no matter what until the new parts are available then "NO" the systems ordered today will NOT have the new design.

The vendor is no doubt supplying the LCD assembly or perhaps just the rear panel. There may or may not be any design change to the hinge itself. But given what we know about how Dell gets their parts for systems it doesn't really matter as the "fix" will be incorporated into an assembled unit as it is not reasonable to have onsite techs split the panel. They (vendor) are not doing any repairs at all.

Any direct question not answered already does not have an answer yet and you will only be guessing - much like the rest of us. All we actually have as facts are given to us in the link provided.

Edit: actually your original question #1 was 100% answered in full by the link provided. Your modification to the questions in your next post make it look otherwise. This isn't fair to BatBoy.

 

I don't mean to be too confrontational, because you actually answered my questions, but what modifications to my question did I make?

Original Question that wasn't answered: "2. if you buy an m11x r-1 or r-2 TODAY (2/22/2011) does it ship with a defective hinge or a fixed (newer) hinge?"

Restated version of the exact same question in my second post: "It suffices to say that I have yet to find a straight answer as to whether or not, if one purchases and m11x today, it will arrive with a defective hinge."

Notice that "with a defective hinge or a fixed hinge" matches up quite symmetrically in terms of meaning with "whether or not ... it will arrive with a defective hinge."

 

Its ok, this will be good for those searching for info.

Not yet, as per the forum posting on Dell site March will be the earliest. Might be much later. Nothing is sure. While a bad idea they could even decide to not use any new design and just keep repairing them. The cat is out of the bag so to speak on the repair out of warranty bit.

I say no simply because the design was not supposed to be available yet according to the post. It IS possible that new updated panels would be available prior to any announcement but if this forum is what we measure by then afaik no new panel designs have been sent out. This fits with the Dell rep posting.

Those were the original questions to which Batboy posted the link about. Please note that however likely all R1/R2s have "bad" designed hinge mounting it is not certain that all units will fail or by when.

In the absence of official announcements the best you can do is look for any postings confirming panel changes or extrapolate from Dell forum posting what will happen when. All indications are "not yet" and "not until March (earliest)".

 

Exactly. I tried to do a quick paste of what we know. Apologies for not typing out a long response Neosis. Sometimes, you just have to read the info we do have and decide how to follow-up on said info.

Neosis, call and talk to a supervisor or PM Chris. None of us here on NBR can give you an exact answer. The question(s) you posed has been asked before. As it stands, nobody but Dell can answer this. Believe me, I wish we had the answer to this...

Just because I'm the notebookreview.com forum moderator for Dell and AW doesn't mean I know everything. No need to put me to the coals.

 

Again, I don't mean to be rude, but what exactly did I modify? I compared my wording of the question in both posts in the post above. As far as I can tell, their meaning is equivalent. I had no intention of making you look bad.

 

Not that it matters really but initially it was two short questions later morphed more in to commentary about the vendor and how your question wasn't answered. Better to have stuck with the #1 & #2 format.

In any case all the current info is available and should be enough to either answer your questions or give you the info you need to pursue it further with Dell if desired. I do not see a point to this though until way into March or perhaps April.

Useless Speculation: it could be a matter of lowered expectations and new panels show up sooner.

 

Its all good. No worries. Problem with the net and forum posts, cant pick up on 'tone'.

Anyway, hope your Q has been answered. Even if the answer is, we don't know.

 

thanks guys.

 

yep I just hope Dell doesn't shimmy out of this one

 

Hey guys. My hinges broke around two weeks ago and i fixed them using epoxy. They are fine now, but have epoxy all around the base plates connecting to the LCD. Am I not able to have the new hinges. What do you guys think. I feel so stupid cuz i just checked this forum now........

 

Well, A Dell rep has said that they will replace broken hinges with re-designed ones, regardless of whether you have warranty or not, but it all depends on whether they choose to follow through with that.
On another note, My warranty is about to expire and I was wondering if there is a considerable difference in the amount I'll pay to renew my warranty if I did it after it expired as opposed to renewing it before it expired?
Thanks.

 

The real huge difference is between buying it at the time of purchase and buying it right before your warranty expires.

For me, 1 extra complete care year cost me 378 dollars.

at the time of customization of my laptop 4 years of complete care would have only been like +400

 

That is also my experience exactly. Get the warranty at purchase.

These are the only things you must get at purchase:
GPUs
Screen
DVD Drive (is a PITA to change these slot loads)
Warranty

All else can be user upgraded later with minimal effort/cost (installation and obtaining parts)

 

Dell has cracked down quite a bit on extending warranty after it expires. As I understand it, from posts here on the forum and also Dell's published policy on the warranty status pages, you cannot extend/renew it after it expires.

If you are concerned and want to protect your investment, extend it now while the warranty is still active.

 

This issue's finally made it on Consumerist: Dell Promises Fix For Defective Alienware Laptop, Now Won't Help Me - The Consumerist

That should speed things along nicely....

 

One thing we need to keep in mind is that while Chris has made what I consider to be a good-faith claim that hinges will be fixed outside of warranty, at this time we still do NOT have an official announcement from Dell. Period. Chris' position with Dell is not one of policy making and he's only passing along what he's been told from those who are. The details of how this is really going to work could change at any time. Any official announcement will necessarily include details that have not at this time been put out there.

 

Agreed. I was successful in using the statement provided though to get my panel replaced so it does at least carry some weight if you get in a pickle. How much weight will vary obviously.

 

I kind of disagree. An official rep stating an official statement from the official tech center should carry a weight... Officially...

Oh, yeah, all that on the official forum...

 

Oh. My hinges are just gone. They started separate from the back left, but now the whole screen separated. What is the new hinges design pretty please? 2300 bucks for this thing...

 

How can you even spend $2300 on an M11x?!

 

I was denied panel replacement until I ref'd the post by Chris in the Dell forum. For me, it most certainly made all the difference and carried 100% of the weight I needed to get service. For others though this may not work. Should and will might not be same.

The "should" part for me is Dell SHOULD have replaced the panel without any links to forum posts or argument.

 

SSD will get you close. I'm at 2400 without ext warranty (just messing around).

Add some accessories and you can top 4K easy enough.

 

I guess if you get the R2 it is easier.....my R1 was $500 after taxes lol - threw in a SSD but that was only another $200 (granted not through dell and not a 256GB)

 

Yup, full equipped, 8gb ram, 256 GB ssd and bluetooth module.

 

Man.......don't pay dell for ram or hard disks!

Well it is March next week, I am eager to see how the hinges get dealt with

 

By the way i opened mine today right after signing for it. I completely opened the screen lid and took a clear photos of the stock hinge design. Nothing new. Mainly so I could see what and why for myself. This is M11x R1 as of ship date 02-21-11.

http://img833.imageshack.us/img833/2713/m11xshipped022111.jpg
http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/5339/m11xhingeshipped022111.jpg

Think i should drip a lil superglue down round the outsides those nuts.. or just wait till it breaks and warranty it?
Tried to loosen tention nuts .. didnt want to force them .. puts it back together and looks to dell for redesign.

 

Every single M11x has double-sided tape exactly where yours does. Try a google search of this forum.

 

March was slated as the EARLIEST so stands to reason you wouldn't have a new panel. Further I really really REALLY doubt they will open and repair. There is no "repair" to do - maybe just rear bezel.

 

My hinge give up the ghost last night! Ive had the computer for about 4 months. Called Dell and they will have an engineer here on Monday.

 

I recently had a chat (about 10 minutes ago) with a dell representative who gave me some information that conflicts directly with what I've been told on here. I wonder if anyone can clear up the matter with why this agent could be so misinformed (and even makes claims to have internal documentation confirming what I'm being told).

http://i.imgur.com/7whGZ.png