Another Broken Hinge - M15x

Hey Guys,

It's been a while and I really wish I was here to say something positive but just the other day like quite a few of you out there, when I opened my laptop there was a loud crack and then tiny pieces of plastic fell through the gaps of both lower corners of my screen. So I was a bit like . But I knew that people were having this chassis flaw and decided to look into it as my warranty I took out with AW.co.uk was only for the year.

So first of all here are some pics of what I found:





What it looks like is that the small "L" shaped aluminium piece that runs around the inside of the screen on both sides is attached to the hinge which is connected to the laptop.
There are 4 brass nuts that are seated what was once I belive a plastic injection moulded square foundation which is now shattered into a zillion pieces. (Possibly heat and stress related.) Which overtime gets weaker until the point of shattering.

Second.. Question time.

Has anyone had this happen to them when their warranty has run out?

How long does it take until the repair gets fixed?

Has any one had to pay for the repair?

And to those who have had this happen to them, has it happened again?

Besides from this, over a year later and I'm still really happy with it.
Like most people, the chassis material for this machine has let it down, but it looks like what with the new M17x on the market they have listened to what we have said and quite possibly the next gen M15x will be the one we've been waiting for.

Many thanks and look forward to your replies.

Cheers,

DOA

 

this is not ok.... Soo many problems with the M15x

 

Had to have some fun with the pieces. Cant really do much gaming now.

 

Hahahahah priceless, here at least you can have some rep lol

 

Do the repair yourself... Just buy this

http://cgi.ebay.fr/Alienware-Area-51-m15x-Top-Panel-Hinge-Ripley-Grade-A_W0QQitemZ330339935764QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item4ce9cb6614&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65:12|66:2|39:1|72:1229|293:1|294:50

I did it myself and this was pretty easy, just take your time and all will be alright.

This will be much faster than Aw and less expensive.

 

Nice one dude! Does it come with instructions? If not, like you said, it cant be that hard to figure out.

Many thanks for that.

 

lets just hope that the new m15x doesn't have the same problems as the current one.

 

True man. I very much doubt it will. I mean the fact that they have had this many problems from the get go must be a pretty embarrassing thing for Alienware/Dell. They got a nice little niche market going on here. I bet they must be kicking themselves because of it despite the units that they have sold so far.
I bet they must be thinking it's sometimes more trouble than it's worth.
But hopefully a valuable lesson learnt. Keep everything top quality = less problems.

I often wonder what the mark up is on these systems.

How much would it have set them back to put these machines in Aluminium chassis instead of plastic ones?

Now if they did a chassis upgrade that would be kind of cool I reckon. From Plastic injection moulded to reliable Aluminium.

 

You could always try to fix them your self by buying hinges off ebay for cheap.

 

Indeed!