Is My M15X Really DEAD?!?!

Hey everyone...long time reader here. I have had my M15X probably a little over a year (a year and like 6 months)....anyways this morning i was playing RIFT and i had been playing for approximately 15 minutes and all of sudden the entire computer shut off. The power cord light was out too and the cord is plugged into a surge protector. Right after it shut off it kind of smelled like something was burning. I plan on calling dellienware when they open today but thought i would stop by here first and see what you all thought of it. Please give me as much insight to this as you possible can. Thanks.

 

well brunng smell isn´t good at all, can you turn on the m15x or nothing happens at all or the screen is staying black?

if the m15x starts and the screen stays black your grafics card is destroyed.
if nothing happens maybe the mainboard.

the best way is to call dell anyways

 

No it doesnt turn on period even with the battery out and just leaving it plugged in. It just dead. Ill be giving them a call in the morning.

 

1. Unplug the power cord from the computer and the surge protector.
2. Go plug it into the wall somewhere else and leave the other end out of the computer.
3. If the light turns on, plug it in the computer.

If the light goes out when you do step 3, it's the board.

 

yea the light goes out once it connects to the computer....i did it a bunch of times last night so im gonna have to call them up

 

could be the board, but ive seen similar situations where the power adapter is the problem.

does you battery have any charge.(use the button on the battery to find out) if it does then very likely its motherboard issue.
if it doesnt then probably power adapter faulty, and it ran on battery power untill it drained.

 

So just called dell and yes my warranty is up naturally but they want to charge me a total of $700.29 + tax. What does everyone think about this? any other ideas anybody can think of or recommend?

 

The battery was being charged when the computer shut off so i know the power strip is good. It also charges my girlfriends computer so its got to be the motherboard.

 

could be the gpu or mobo. see if you can find another gpu to test out to see if it can boot. gonna be hard finding a mobo else where.

 

If it's shorting out the ac adapter, it's the vregs on the board. Damaged GPU wouldn't do that.

 

My thoughts are the same.

Capacitors are generally the main culprit. Have at look at your board and see if any are blistering (on top)

If so grab a soldering iron and a solder sucker. Capacitors are dirt cheap to buy. However on occasion when capacitors leak or bulge I have found that it corrupts the data on an IC chip.

These IC's are 8 pin surface mounted so a normal soldering iron will not do the job. You need the Royel soldering kit for PCB's which is capable. The cost of this kit is about 3.5k which is prohibitive if one of your IC's are corrupt. I would buy a new MOBO in this case.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Dell-Alienware-...803703244?pt=Motherboards&hash=item3368ed21cc buy it now @ US$200.00

 

When my w870cu died, the only things damaged were the chips around the DC jack. It still sits in the back of my office at work, I wish I could fix it.

 

Check for a pulse and then try mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. If that fails I suggest calling a funeral director.

 

So i sent in my laptop to dell to get fixed....it came back and was restarting every 5 min....so i shipped back. They send it back not fixed at all saying the hard drive is the issue and they are shipping me a replacement drive to install. Hope this works.

 

Hope you will get ur lappy working back as usual.

 

*UPDATE* So i have had my computer up and running with the new hard drive that they sent out to me know for a bout 3 weeks. When they shipped it to me they said everything was preinstalled and installation would be quick and simple. Installation went great lol however there was no OS installed on the drive, it was completely empty. After a speedy installation i finally got everything reinstalled and updated. And now im experiencing the same random restarts. I called dell today and they basically yelled at me for not sending in the computer again to get it fixed. Any suggestions??

 

well you already paid money for it to work properly at this point I would be asking for a new replacement unit, call them and speak to a supervisor and explain all the repairs and exchanges you did and your unit is not it working condition as promised from your initial repair. Be firm on your word and keep on escalating the issue but try not to be rude though it doesn't get you anywhere

 

I plan to call tomorrow and see what outcome i can get. I have aske for replacement options the last two times i called and i was told that the only possible solution to my problem was to ship it back and have them repair it but this is just getting ridiculous.

 

I have called and spoke with a supervisor and have been told that there is no way they can give me a replacement. The only option left is to send the computer back in and they will replace the issue or if i want they will replace everything inside the computer so it will be "like new". I seem to have bad luck with the people i get a hold of lol.