Posting from my Alienware! (Yes... I have the hinge aids)

It just arrived!

i7, 4gb, Silver, standard HD

Super quick impressions: It's DAMN zippy, the desktop feels great! It actually feels about as fast (or faster?) than my Desktop Q6600. Of course that's with almost nothing installed, but I'm very pleased with the speed.

I installed Microsoft Security Essentials and I'm going to uninstall McAfee. It's running a system scan and it has got slightly hot. When it's cool, the thing is silent, but I can feel a little warmth on my left wrist, and this is not running any games. I feel it's going to get really hot when I play anything, I doubt I can play while in bed!

The keyboard is great, has a different feel but I'll get used to it quickly, I like it. Battery arrived with about 4 hours out of the box, very nice. I have not optimized energy settings.

In short, *almost* everything is great, except...

The FIRST thing I checked is the hinge, and there's no question about it - the one on my right is rather misaligned compared to the left !

I just knew it, just my luck. This is BS!

It doesnt creak yet, but I'm sure this thing is not going to last 3 months. It looks exactly like the ones I've seen here on hinge thread.

The build quality on the bottom part of the laptop looks great and solid, but where it connects to the screen looks SO WEAK! My Dell Mini looks sturdier than that, this hinge is a disgrace!

Anyway, 10/10 for everything, -5 for the hinge issue because I hate that I paid 1500 dollars for a badly built laptop. Just my opinion, of course! If it wasnt for the hinge issue, 10/10.

 

I get mine later today, and I'm super worried about the hinge issue I don't want to have to wait another 3/4 weeks for a replacement..

 

Unfortunately, the only advice I have at this point, besides using your warranty, is to complain. Complain to alienware, complain to dell, complain to the president, complain to the pope. For $1500, you have the right to complain, and the more people complain, the more are the chances of having this problem fixed by them.

 

Can you post a photo of what you're seeing as a hinge alignment issue?

 

Yes, hold on

 

All they need to do is fix the freaking screws holding the hinge in place, I'm sure fixing a few screws is cheaper then giving everyone thousands of new screens.

They are stupid.

 

Gosh I'm so bad at taking pictures, I only have my cellphone, one is the left and one is the right, I wonder if you can tell the difference:




the first pic is the one I consider misaligned

This is not clear, it would look better on a video, because when it's in motion you can see the hinge going slightly crooked but only on one side.

 

Sorry to read about your hinges - I have totally disassembled my R1 when I fitted new aerials for the 5530 card I installed and don't understand how they be misaligned - the hinges screw into a metal case inside the actual screen (3 screws each side) and also into a metal support on the base. There are location lugs on the screen and for the life of me I don't know how these can get misaligned.

However the clip on top cover (with the alienware power head) simply clicks in and the on my unit does not seem to fit correctly - this leads to the gap we all can see between the hinges other than that I think the screen hinges are pretty solid - certainly no worse than any of the other laptops I have pulled apart.

I have attached a photo of the hinges - sorry it's a tad dark

 

This entire thing reminds me of when I worked at a school - The hinges for the kids lockers were extremely weak and broke easily.

I was told that it's due to the fact that a lot of metal screws, the Western world gets today, comes from places in India and China, like the big ship graveyards - They recycle old metals - From large ships and other things, and then they stir all sorts of metals and irons into one metal through their recycle - then they resell it to the west - but these new metals are much more weak, than solid metal.

I've been told in some cases, no matter what you do, you will be using these metals - made from recycled things some place in India, collected by small children plowing through toxic waste and oil spillings to get scraps.

I don't know if it's related to this but it's a possibility.

 

Yeah, those photos make it pretty difficult to see, but based on what you're describing it doesn't sound like it's within spec.

The gaps to the left and right of the molding should be equal and you certainly shouldn't be seeing those gaps narrow or widen as you move the panel. Lateral movement, to me, would indicate that something isn't quite right. If you can post a good quality video or two demonstrating what your hinge is doing that might be helpful.

 

The problem is that these 3 screws are not into metal, they are attached to plastic, which is not handling stress and breaking. See the pictures in this thread.

However, I can see something very interesting... Take a look at these two pictures. Can you guys see the difference? There in the red circle? Am I wrong or those things connected to the plastic where the screws go into are different? Ô_ó

Could it be the origin of all problems?

 

Ok guys - we have a discussion thread and a another is not needed. If you want to discuss/review the performance or any other aspect of your new system here, then fine and it is welcome. Moving forward, move the hinge discussion to this thread:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...creen-touching-keyboard-discussion-r1-r2.html


Thanks!

 

All,

For my notes, please send me via private message your M11x service tag number.

 

damn you paid 1500 should of waited for a sale/ cupons but congrats good luck with your hinges

 

when i had my screen replaced for a broken hinge, i watched.

I watched closely, and you cannot "align" the hinges. You screw them on to the lid, and then that screws into the base. you can't tweak it, unless you're talking about bending the hinges.

Bottom line is they're designed poorly, by poor engineers, underpaid by a poor R&D department, which has been given a poor budget by Dell.