My m11x has been overheating and I think I know why...

I've had my m11x since February and I didn't have any issues until recently.

First my monitor hinge broke. I have been reading that Dell isn't doing anything about the design and they will send another monitor but it's likely to happen again.

Second thing is that my laptop has been getting very hot and overheating. I don't use it often on soft surfaces. While doing some research on how to keep it cool, I realized that the design of this laptop requires the black rubber feet to be glued to the bottom, otherwise there is no air flow to the fan. Some how the rubber feet have come off from the back of the laptop.

I am using a work around for the second issue at the moment and my monitor hinge is working but probably going to get worse.

I wanted to post this here so that others can see. I don't frequent these message boards so forgive me if I am giving out old news.

 

Have Dell send you some rubber feet. Replacing the lcd is the only thing you can do about the hinge. Mine was built in April and I haven't had any problems with it, knock on wood.

 

I think I've seen it reported here that they'll send you a new bottom access panel rather than new feet.

Dell has stated repeatedly they they're looking into the hinge issue and will pass on any further details when they're ready. Hope they figure it out soon before people's warranties start to run out in March.

 

ah i hope they fix the problem :3
an di HOPE they freaking make an update for the VGA :<

 

Dell won't fix anything with the hinge!!! All they will do is replace broken LCDs! They may learn from the hinge issue and redesign the lid in the M11x R3, but certainly R1 and R2 users are out of luck.
Why do I say this? Am I working for Dell and have inside information? NO!
I am guessing but I've got some pretty good clues, you're welcome to join my clue-hunt:

1) I've not known Dell to EVER change a laptop shell revision. It would not be logical for them to address the hinge in existing models, because they order standard parts, those parts fit together perfectly, if they changed the hinge they would forcibly also have to change parts of the base, then you'd get very messy within one hardware revision having two different shell designs etc. It just doesn't make sense from a manufacturing point of view. They may fix it in the R3, but not before that.

2)The hinge issue only happens in a minority of ppl and where the screen is overstretched. It may not happen if careful. Thus, its low priority for Dell

3) Look at the way they treat hardware which is 8 months old: the M11x R1:
The drivers haven't even been updated for that in half a year and they are STILL selling those R1's!!! If they can't even be bothered to update SOFTWARE do you really think they gonna be bothered to update HARDWARE???

4) Dell history: Based on their laptop history they will not fix the hinge. The m1730 XPS had a massive overheating problem with their 8800/9800GTX SLI GPUs, and those used to regularly go bust so that Dell would have to exchange the GPU. Arguably, this issue is a LOT more serious than the hinge issue. Did Dell fix it? NOOOO. And thats why there's lots and lots of faulty M1730 xps's out there with faulty graphics cause they all went the way of the dodo! Dell FIXED it by bringing out the ALIENWARE M17x!!! If you have an M1730 XPS and its still in warranty, and your GPU now suddenly packs in, there may be a chance that you will get a brand spanking new Alienware M17x as a replacement. Why? Because those 9800gtx SLI GPU's are no longer produced (cause nvidia realized they are idiots), any spare parts are refurbished, if no parts are available, they will "upgrade" you to the new product.
Trust me, my m1730 blew TWICE, and the engineer who came round brought refurbished parts in both instances. At the moment supply in London is ok which is why I have not yet been upgraded, but maybe next year....(my warranty is until 2013).

 

This is not true. Failed hinges have been reported by owners here where there has been excessive care taken with their lids (not using them much) because they were fully aware of the problem before hand. The amount of care taken with hinges at best can prolong the life of a hinge that is predisposed to failing. The best conclusion we can draw from the limited data we have is that it all comes down to blind luck whether or not your M11x will have problems.

Two completely unrelated issues. Driver support really doesn't have anything to do with the other.

I do agree with your points about Dell's history of dealing with similar issues with other models. However Dell is making noises about they're addressing it this time. Whether or not it's anything more than words remains to be seen.

See Chris's post on page 6.

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

 

I am highly doubtful. Steve Jobs personally would have to call Dell tech support, LOL!

Many ppl here complain about dell customer service but I've had not a single bad experience with Dell warranty support. Maybe we Europeans get the creme-de-la-creme of Indian support centers??

And I really highly doubt there is a significant quality problem with the hinges. "All I did was...blablabla" thats the most often heard thing on this forum yet thats probably not JUST what ppl did. I did it too! I thought all I did was unplug my power supply and then my laptop died but I didn't JUST do that, I also unwittingly put a lot of sideways force on the socket so that the mobo had to be replaced in the end. Just a personal note.

And yes I do still think that how a company for example handles aftermarket software updates is a valid reflection upon how it handles other aspects of its laptop division. There will not be a big quality or philosophy difference between hardware and software division. In this case it's "Bring out the product and then forget about it. Any errors we'll address in another hardware revision, ie another model!"

 

Wow dude it makes sense.......but those o.3 cm is not enough to pass enough air......Maybe you are right....Ill try to call dell so they can give me the supporters that im missing....about the hinge luckly i dont have that issue. Hey guys any other ideas of why R1 are overheating?

 

If you're calling Dell(India) about your M11x warranty then you're doing something wrong.

 

um... I don't know if you know but most of Dell's support services are located in INDIA! So when I call my local UK dell support line I get an Indian on the phone who can speak English of course. But still, they have outsourced most of their phone support to Indian call centers. Only select few like XPS premium support is European.

Fail comment...

 

As you ought to be until they provide you with reason to be otherwise. That's appropriate skepticism.

Internet forums like this are generally going to skew towards complaints about (fill in the blank). Good experiences don't incite one to take the time to post about it. Granted, there are quite a few reports of good, if not great customer service from Dell here too. It wouldn't be reasonable to infer that Dell's support is horrible just because you see people complain about it on the internet. Just like it wouldn't be sound to think that your great experience with support means that Dell support in Europe is fantastic across the board.

What leads you to think that the volume of reports we have here are anything but poor design combined with materials that aren't up to the task of supporting the hinge?

So M11x owners are unique in their lid closing and opening habits? Very interesting theory. I guess it's a good thing for Apple, ASUS, Toshiba, Lenovo, HP and the rest that these people didn't buy their laptops and start trashing their hinges.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on how the M11x has /so many/ reports of hinge failures when hundreds of other models out today do not.

Ok. Thanks for sharing. No thanks for the implied correlation between your unique case and the body of evidence we have concerning the M11x hinges.

The fact is we know that the plastic posts in the lid aren't able to withstand normal usage. I doubt even Dell will contest that (privately of course) at this point. If we're to believe the recent statement that they have Flextronics working on some sort of solution, does that sound like Dell would concur with your assessment that this is really all just a matter of people abusing their hinges?

 

@zchay7e - slickie88 is correct about M11x hinges, he's been following all events made known to him very closely. Slickie88 is correct when he points to the plastic posts as key points in design issues and failure. Due to a combination of design, alignment and torque of screws, it's luck of the draw if they break or not. The stress of compression and expansion over a small area on the mounting points when opening/closing the lid is literately ripping the screws out of their mounts and or breaking the mounting posts.

Anyway, one can follow M11x hinges issues in the following post.

How I learned to love my M11x, even when it became unhinged

Rubber feet.

I've been loosing my feet all over the place. Not my M11x, but mouseizzesszzess and older laptops.

I'm now looking into seeing if I can source some and if not maybe make some.
For my old laptop I want to 'make' BIG feet for the rear of the laptop to lift it as high off the desk as possible. This'll improve air flow and shouldn't hamper keyboard use to much if the raise is kept to a moderate level. And if I'm lucky, with it's new feet, the laptop wont feel like it's sitting on top of a bowl of yelly.

 

My central point to be taken is that I personally highly doubt Dell will do anything about the hinge problem. Simple as that. Its my own opinion and I am entitled to it and also entitled to voice it here on the forums where everyone contributes their two cents of wisdom.

Now to the question of hinges:

I am not accusing the users (which includes me) of abusing the hinges and thereby causing it all by themselves!
And there may well be a huge problem with the hinges. However:

There may be hundreds of complaints here on the forums, thats why its an alienware forum, of course you'll get loads of ppl complaining here, where else would they complain? On an HP forum?? Fact is that the people on this forum only represent a tiny proportion of people with alienware laptops first of all. Also because alienware owners would most of all only come to this forum (or any online forum) because they have problems. So you cannot postulate that the hinge thing affects most alienware users. I do not accept this statement unless you can back it up with figures.
THIS forum is not suited for that purporse. It may very well be that there are hundreds even thousands of complaints, but what if (and this is a reasonable assumption) dell has sold hundreds of thousands of M11x units, the number of complaints would only constitute 1% of customers.

This is why I am so pessimistic about the hinge problem. I'm not defending dell at all, I'm a customer and I want them to fix whatever they botched up but based on their track record, even though they say they will fix it, I remain pessimistic until they actually do it (then I will jump up and down an on purpose crack my hinges so they get replaced with metal ones). And its my good right to remain pessimistic after my personal experiences with their so called "revisions".

Now the issue with telephone support: Am I not being sarcastic enough or is your humor quite dry?? Enough said. It should be obvious that the quality of support will vary quite a lot between people. There's no straigthforward answer when it comes to good/bad support from dell. Depends on the person on the phone (duh). So why are we having this discussion about Indian support???

 

Something is seriously wrong with your laptop. I game on a table with the rubber feet missing, and I have yet to get an overheating computer. I think someone may have put bubblegum in place of TIM in your laptop...

 

Quick word of advice: open up your laptop and clean out the fans. Simply using compressed air to blow into the laptop fan vents won't do it justice. I had some overheating issues (laptop would go into the 80s, max 87 celsius or so when gaming) so I opened it up yesterday, blew air from the inside of the vent to the exterior, and a crapload of dust came out. Needless to say, when I removed the huge wad of dust and put everything back together, temperatures went down by say 20 degrees D:

Very pleased, I even fell asleep with my laptop on my bed last night, cpu temperatures are 41/46 gpu 39 on my bed. I thought rubber feet were the problem too, well not anymore. I'm sure the current fan is plenty, just needs proper airflow and unblocked vents.

 

No one has made the assertion that hinge failures are affecting most owners or anything even approaching that. Honest. Discussions here have always maintained that it's simply an above average rate of failures that clearly indicate there's a problem attributable to design and material defects that Dell needs to address as such.

No one here has any interest in stripping you of your opinions or your right to voice them. Disagreeing with a point or two that you've raised, specifically that

shouldn't be taken as such. Relax. A lot of people here, including myself share your pessimism regarding how Dell will handle this.

 

Hey guys question here. Is it easy to open this laptop and clean the fan? I never open a laptop before. I know some basic stuff about open the bottom part with clean hands etc. I just dont want to make a mess.