Area 51 m9750 Dies a Painful Death......Back to the Mothership.....again....

That's what I experienced with my m9700. It took 3 return trips to AW before they replaced it with a new 9750, which I'm getting ready to send back for a monitor issue. Oh man. Sometimes you just have to laugh.

 

Has your system returned yet? How is it?

Side note. I installed Vista 64 then downgraded to Vista 32. One of my devices didn't install correctly that I absolutely needed for work which was pretty much a deal breaker for me. I went with Vista 32 and the driver installed properly. So far so good. It's certainly pretty with dream scene, but I'm having issues with wireless networking that's annoying me.

 

Hi everyone,
For all of those wondering, I'm going to provide a status update as to what Alienware is currently doing about my lemon, I mean m9750, of 2 months old. I really hate to tell more horror stories, especially since there are several new excited, soon to be Alienware owners. However, the truth probably hurts less than a candy coated lie.
I received my lemon, I mean m9750, back on thursday. According to the sheet in the box, the problem was replicated and the motherboard was replaced. This came as no surprise to me, being that the computer was failing to turn on. I was excited to get back to work and gaming, so I zipped it up in my case and headed to work. Little did I know, no real work was going to be done. As soon as I got to work, I tried powering it on. Everything seemed to boot as normal.....so far so good. It sat at idle at my desktop for about 5 minutes before it began to strobe like that tv you see in the poltergeist films.....(I'm not joking....it strobes). The strobing was then followed by a very nicely locked up computer. At this point, I was almost certain that no gameing was going to come out of this thing....I held the power button down, turned it back on, and it began to boot as normal once again. I loaded up a quick instant game of UT3. After about 5 minutes, the strobe showed up again, the screen went black, and it crashed back to the desktop stating that the nvidia driver has stopped responding and recovered.
Like any normal technician would do, I decided to reload the drivers and check all the settings. It came as no surprise that the strobing continued. After all, if the computer was working once before, and the motherboard was replaced, the software remains unchanged. So the only logical reason would be a faulty new, I mean refurbished (I can tell because the usb ports are loose), motherboard that is now causing the system to crash and freeze.
Well, it didn't take me long before I was reaching for phone. As always, the representative was doing his best to be courteous and helpful. However, there was one thing a little strange about this phone call. He didn't want to diagnose the problem or anything. He told me that based on my call and problem history, Alienware is volunteering to resolve my issue no matter what it takes based on customer satisfaction. He began to state that I will be assigned a customer advocate which will be dealing with me on a personal level, and that I should expect a call in 24-48 hours. He also said that that all future call will be forwarded directly to this advocate (I guess I called one too many times).
I remain hopeful, as always, but I'm unsure of what a customer advocate can really do to resolve my issue. I thinking more along the lines of a replacement or possibly credit towards a different model. We'll see what happens on monday (still waiting for my call).

Gabe

 

wow that sucks, hopefully they can just give you a full refund.

 

Damn thats depressing.

 

This might sound stupid, but did you send them your original power supply brick and was that tested with your system or did they use their own in-house power brick?

 

To be honest I think due to the general state of Alienwares new M15x you're probably better off getting them to fix your M9750 properly

 

Hi,
Unfortunately, they had to use their in house power brick. I wanted to send mine along, but I was affraid it was going to damage the laptop (you know how delicate shipping can be....). And of course Alienware steals the first box and won't send you another on your second repair. All I had was the plain box they sent me from the first repair......with no room for the power brick of course. However, based on my experience, this issue is not related to the power brick. This is just simply a case of installing faulty refurbished parts and expecting it to function. My dad always use to say, "You can't fix a flat tire with another flat tire."
Out of everything, it is most discouraging to know that I paid new price for what is now a refurbished laptop. Installing refurbished parts would have been acceptable after a year or so, but I'm looking at the fact that the laptop is only 2 months old. Also, just like everyone, I'm forced to borrow a laptop that is far inferior to the Alienware systems. This means that I'm less productive at work, and I don't have any pc game entertainment.
To be honest, even though the Area 51 m9750 may be a great system, I have yet to see it. Being that I started out with a lemon, I'm completey discouraged from even attempting to use it at this point.......(and of course it wouldn't even work without freezing every 5 minutes). If Alienware gives me the option, I'm going to accept credit and try an m15x. Nothing could possibly be as bad as what I've experienced. Even with all the downclocking issues, I'll still be better off than a system that doesn't work at all....

Gabe

 

I kind of feel the same way Gabe, but as far as I know my m9750 was made out of fresh parts =P. However, just like you I received it not working properly. I wish I would have sent it back within the first month instead of thinking my bad performance would have been fixed by newer video drivers. On Monday a specialist is supposed to call me, and I guess I will talk to him about getting it fixed or having it replaced with a newer system. This is the third time I have received my laptop without it being fixed, and I could not get the technical support guy to guarantee me a refund for a new system if it does not work the 4th time. What makes me feel really bad, is the fact that I have not been able to play the new games which I bought for this system, I feel like I am missing out, and that huge chunk of money I spent on this is going to waste. I really hope I can just get a new m15x and stay away from all these SLI issues.

 

Hi everyone,
Here is yet another status update. As you already know, a customer service advocate was supposed to contact me with 24-48 hours regarding my troubles with my lemon, I mean m9750. 48 hours easily go by, and I decided to call and check in on the status. I was told that an advocated was looking at my case, but has yet to decide on a solution. Then, I was told to wait until after the weekend for a response. Needless to say, I was anxiously waiting for the weekend to end so I could have the privelege of talking to this advocate. Well, Monday rolls around and I received no phone call. Once again, I decided to call in and check on the status of things. At this point, I am told that the database went down over the weekend, and the request for my advocate neither went through or got reveiw. Of course, I was fairly quick to contest this, being that I was previously told that it had already undergone review, and the advocated was simply waiting on a decision. They then began to tell me that although that may have been noted as the status, it simply never went through and therefor couldn't have been reveiwed. Very apologetically, I'm told to wait another 24-48 hours as all the information is resubmitted. I'm definitely not going to hold my breath, being that I was promised a phone call twice, and I have yet to receive a single one.

Still hoping for the best,
Gabe

 

Comon AW! fix his LappY!