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

The thing to keep in mind here is that not all of the original hinges are failing. It's probably pretty safe to say that the majority - a pretty sizable majority at that - are problem free. That would certainly come into play when making the decision on whether or not to add the new part into an existing production pipeline.

For argument's sake, let say that the failure rate is 15% - which is more than likely much, much higher than it really is. I would think it makes sense to replace only those parts that fail from an bottom-line point of view. Whatever the actual failure rate is (or is projected to be) at some point it might be high enough to where it would make sense from a money standpoint to replace them in production. Dell has those numbers and has made the decision based on what they know. We've been told that no new units are going to have the new part. Rest assured they made that decision based on the $.

 

Woooo, being told no new units are going to have the new part is the opposite of what I was told. They told me the unit i'm getting next week has been fixed. geez, I have not even gotten this machine yet and already my head is spinning!

 

Relax. Enjoy the laptop. Odds are that you'll never have a problem with the hinges. If you do Dell has said they'll fix it and starting this month that means a redesigned part.

Get a paper bag and breathe into it for a few minutes. Really.

 

Hmm... I wonder what is the math behind this estimate, Slickie? I tried assessing the percentage as well, based on the three facts:

1) Most m11x owners on this forum have their hinges broken.
2) Many of those had their hinges replaced up to 6 (!) times.
3) My own m11x has broken hinges .

This makes me imply a failure rate far, far more than 15%, though I am in no position to know the exact numbers of course.

 

Don't think twice about it. No matter what happens to your hinges Dell will fix it for free, in your own home. Plus, you got a stellar deal.

 

Hmm. I'm sure we have no way to know the failure %. The thing I'd point out is that this product is only a year old. Failures began for some in less than one month. If the number is somewhere around 1 in 10 or so, that's with the product only being around 1/3 of its life---If you would argue that the life is only 3 years. I'd like to think more like 5 (certainly not 5 years of useful gaming though ). Through the life of the product (and I know most companies only care about the life of the warranty!!) it could be more like 30-50%. Not to mention those that have had multiple failures.

Either way, the issue has been recognized, publicized, and corrected (we hope). If they make good and correct it for those past warranty, then they've done all a company can do and we should all recognize that if/when it happens.

 

The issue lies in the design, not some quality or tolerance issue. The hinge WILL FAIL because of the design, just a matter of when. I will remain skeptical until there is concrete proof of a machine that has been fixed with a new hinge design, and even then until six months have passed will we know better if it actually worked. I bought my unit on Black Monday, so still have a good 10 months left of warranty, so plenty of time to wait I guess. I don't use my M11x that much so if it fails, I'll just use my Dell mini until it's fixed I guess.

 

A few thing I think we can all agree on:

* We don't have the numbers. The number of combined R1s and R2s sold. The number of LCD replacements due to hinge failure. We'll never be privy to that data. Dell knows though.

* Forums like these (and there is no better forum for the M11x in terms of the quality of shared info and the number of owners) cannot really ever be a means for accurately measuring any type of metric for a given notebook. [more on this later]

* People new to these forums will very likely come away with a very different take on the history behind or the perceived prevalence of the hinge issue compared to those of us who have been following every single day it since it became an issue.

That's simply not true, nor is it even close. The thing you need to keep in mind is that there have been thousands of M11x owners posting here since the R1 landed last March. Most of the early adopting R1 owners that used to hang out here have come and gone. Heck a lot of the early R2 owners have moved on as well. I'm talking people who posted a handful of times through those who were relatively active posters. The vast majority of people here don't stay long. Many lurk and others just get bored with the same questions being retreaded week after week.

There have been quite a few people here who have had multiple hinge failures, yes. However of the people who have had one incident, most have not had any further failures. Trust me. I've read every single report of hinge failure that's been posted here or on the Dell forums. Yeah, I know how to party...

That there have been any repeated failures is a significant indicator of how serious the issue really is though. We started seeing reports on that in September-ish and at that point there was no question that this was a materials defect and design flaw.

And none of us - me, Batboy, Cpt.Zero, Goodvibes, GNandGZ, and the dozens of others here (there have been LOTS) who have been keeping this issue front and center since last June can make that claim either. The best we can do is guesstimate.

And don't fall into the trap of thinking that this forum is a very accurate representation of the issue either. There are a number of reasons why what you see posted here might not lend itself an easy way to extrapolate the prevalence of something like the hinge failure rate.

* Users come and go. What you see here now in terms of active M11x posters is just a tiny fraction of the who have come through here. A large portion of the people who have visited here are likely aware of the hinge issue on some level. Hinge threads have been page 1 since July. Besides the relatively small core of us who hang here and chit-chat about our [current] favorite notebook, I think it's safe to say that most M11x owners on the planet are busy elsewhere. Either there's a language barrier at play or they have nothing they need help with.

* These forums lend themselves to people voicing complaints or seeking answers to problems they're having. Naturally that could lead to a distortion of ones perception of a given problem.

And we've played both sides of that coin too. How many owners who have had a problem with their hinges never showed up here to report it? It would stand to reason that there have to be some. Perhaps a lot. Yet if you google "M11x hinge" you're coming here without a doubt.

Is 15% too conservative? Perhaps. I certainly wouldn't put it anywhere near 25%. How these things will hold up over time has always been a question too. I don't think we've seen any appreciable acceleration of reported incidents here or elsewhere. It's been rather steady since Oct/Nov by my estimate.

So what was it that drove Dell to bother with a hinge redesign? Certainly the number of hinge failures played some part. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see what the problem is and that it needed to be changed.

Was it the whining that's been going on here for the past 8 months? No, it wasn't that.

Was it Dell doing the right thing for the sake of doing the right thing? Not likely.

Was it because they were losing money with all of the LCD assembly replacements? That had to have figured into the decision, but who really knows how much that was impacting the profit margin on the two models. The bulk of the parts that make up the LCD assembly go right back into the pipepline as refurbished replacement parts. So they had to toss a few thousand lid panels into the furnace. They had to pay Qualxserv/Worldwide TechServices for contracted on-site visits certainly, but I honestly have no clue how that relationship is structured financially.

The reason we're getting a newly designed part is all about the [apparent] timing of the R3's production cycle. Someone at Dell said, "Hey Frank, I think slickie88 is right. This hinge design really is rubbish. Maybe we should have Flextronics change it?" "Yeah, Steve I think we probably ought to. Let's have them change it for the R3."

Whatever the case may be, if the start of R3 production was still 18 months out then I don't think we get a new part any time soon and we'd still be getting failed hinges replaced with the same part just as they've been doing for the past 9 months.

The apparent policy of fixing it outside of warranty [reportedly one time only]? Now that I think is Dell stepping up and doing what's right. Hat off to them if they follow through with that.

 

I just hope that this time they got the hinge right. My second screen is showing the signs of the first hinge failure. I have one more screen replacement left as I am days away from being out of warrenty.

 

um, what slickie said.

 

Just got my M11xR2, hinge and screen open/closing are very very tight, LCD not touching keyboard, but there's a very very faint rubbing sound coming from the hinge. I'm still within the return period, should I just return it and move on to something else or would you guys suggest me wait it out and see what happens?

Thanks...

 

Howard, you have to make that decision. My 2 cents (and many will agree), no reason to stress - just enjoy the system. in the event you do run into issues with the hinge, like every other component on the system, if it fails Dell will take care of it. If you aren't happy with your system, then return it within the return period.

 

This is the important part. It seems to me, that you were, perhaps, a little bit on the optimistic side and severely underplayed this side of the coin . After all, if I google "M11x hinge" it takes me to a lot of different places all over the web.

Anyway - thank you for the answer, your argumentation is quite convincing. Reduced my perceived m11x hinges failure rate by good 30%, so now it rests peacefully at a well-balanced 50% .

 

I am surprised that my hinge has been lasting this long.
I bought Alienware M11x R2 in September and received it on October 12th.
No problem with my hinge except the difference between the right and the left gap.
What is the record of the longest hinge that lived?
I hope I can break that record ! !

 

But you don't see 1 in 2 people reporting hinge failures here. At most it's been 1 in 50.

 

1 in 50? Really? One of the threads which were closed all of a sudden, lists 158 forum members reporting hinge failures (and it was last updated in January).

By your estimate, it would mean that there are about 8000 m11x owners who actively post on the notebookreview m11x forums and who had no problem with the hinges.

8000 happy m11x owners here?

 

You are missing a crucial thing....and that is that people only come to this forum if they have a problem. Odds are that their are 10 people for every one on this forum that are having no problems and thus will never end up here. This is a very important aspect of tech forums that you have to understand when trying to analyze any sort of mass hardware failure rates.

In reality it is probably less than 5% people reporting problems but that is actually WAY past any sort of acceptable failure rate thus the added attention lately. And no one likes bad press.

 

I dunno, I'm with cortomaltese. When I actually saw the list of owners with issues I was shocked. As he said 158 forum members posted hinge failures. I can't imagine more than a thousand NBR users have an M11x.

When I first heard of the issue, I thought is was just some quality control issue. Hinges too tight, or whatever. Mine was fine, so didn't think much of it. Then when I saw the teardown photos it was pretty clear what was going on. On some machines, it may last a couple thousand open/close cycles before it rears its ugly head. For some people that may be a few years, others less than a year, and if it's too tight to begin with then maybe only a few hundred cycles.

 

Yes, it seems to be the most straightforward and realistic approach to the issue. It explains both the abnormal failure rate and Dell's reported intention to redesign the hinges.

 

Well, my hinges have statred to make popping noise, after roughly 7 months of ownership. I hope they break over spring break so I can get Dell to fix em

 

Just call them now Noah. Have them replace it now. No reason to wait. Explain the popping noise and service will take care of it.

 

Takes about 2 weeks for the hinge to completely fail once the popping starts.

 

I just called today to get my hinges fixed.
15 mins on the line and the tech support guy is coming on Tuesday
pretty great service if you ask me

 

They're probably getting pretty good at it by now.

I see the following update from DELL-Chris M regarding hinge replacements.

_____________________________________________________


Re: m11x hinge issues? - Alienware Forum - Alienware Club - Dell Community

All,

We now have the new LCD Assemblies (includes the new hinge design) in partial stock. The phone/email/chat technicians will need to verify which LCD Assembly you ordered via the Service Tag number. As we said in the past, for Out of Warranty systems, call in. You will be offered a one time fix to get these new LCD Assemblies.

NOTE – not all of these parts are in stock so make sure the technician checks before setting up the service! We do not have a timeline on when all the parts will be in stock.

• Soft Black WWAN LCD Assembly (Old part YYYV5, New part 8JJT2)
• Soft Black WLAN LCD Assembly (Old part GNJW3, New part 40GMX)
• Black WWAN LCD Assembly (Old part VT7K8, New part R2Y7G)
• Black WLAN LCD Assembly (Old part 757TW, New part 4FFHC)
• Gray WWAN LCD Assembly (Old part 6CVDV, New part KKH9C)
• Gray WLAN LCD Assembly (Old part PKYWD, New part YMM9R)

__________________________________________________
​

It's all go down on the farm at Dell.

It is mooted there may be approx. 15 day wait for parts to be activated in the system regarding new Dell LCD


Update - Sorry, I trolled back through the posts and now see this has already been posted. Doh!

 

Thanks for reposting though DrGoodVibes. It would still be good to see some photos of the new hinge on a user's machine.

 

I'd like a wee peek inside the LCD monitor. Has Dell used the same steel girders that is used in the production of Scottish irn-bru.
Or have they done something so cunning it reinvents the concept of cunning.

I'm sure I'll be encouraging the first loon (Scottish male) that even thinks they want to crack the lid open, because, well you really want to. Yes you do.

 

I have an R1 that the hinge has been replaced twice on, and I think the most recent one is the revised model. I'll get pictures if it is.

 

Open 'er up!

 

Many thanks in advance!!

 

Call them already?
Well, I'll give it a try tomorrow.
I'll say how it goes.
@qlmaX5
What cortomaltese said: "Many thanks in advance!!"

 

Can we ask Chris at Dell for some pictures or tech specs of how the new compares to the old?

 

3/5/2011

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m11x/560021-m11x-r1-r2-new-hinge-design.html

Given Chris's update concerning the hinge issue, I am removing this thread from sticky status (NBR likes to keep stickies to a total of 3 to 4). I have added info to the Technical Questions/Problems thread (post#1) linking to this thread so its easy for folks to find if needed. Questions on this can be sent to me via PM.

So, what do you do if you are having a problem with your hinge -

• If you are having hinge issues, contact support and be prepared to provide your service tag in order for the phone support reps to determine which assembly is required.
  
  
• If you are out of warranty and have a hinge problem, contact support and they will provide a one time replacement of the assembly at no charge.

See 3/2 update below for more info...

*********************************************************

UPDATE 3/2:
(thanks to Mackan for posting a heads-up)

Chris-M posted an update on the Dell Community Forum (and yes, he is an official spokesperson)

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

*********************************************************

 

Thanks for the update Bat.

I had my screen replaced on the 3rd. Turned out it was of the old hinge

 

Call them back and have them replace it with the fixed one. When calling, reference the part#'s and chris's post on the dell community forum. The link to it appears above (quote src).

 

I actually noticed that my hinge creaking this morning, as well as it being off-balanced and called it in. They are to have another technician come Monday and have it fixed. I just sent an email to the rep who created the dispatch about this, and hopefully, the old panel will not be reordered.

 

just bought R2, no hinge problem yet (knocks on wood)
is it possible to contact dell and ask for an replacement anyway? just in case...

 

Same boat as you sfoxtrot. Wonder if we even got the latest hinges. I'm gonna call sometime next week anyway. It's always an adventure with Dell support so I'm not looking forward to the call.