Area-51 m15x Update from Alienware

I think i'll just wait for AS6

 

Hey guys I want to hear what is up with the laptops. I am going to create a new thread with a poll that states whether your problem has been fixed by the Bios update or not.

 

News: I have created a poll that will be used to see whether the problem has been fixed or not on a majority of the laptops. After you do the poll post on the thread just to "confirm" your post.

 

U need to do it with AW Tech support. If u update yourself AW will void your warranty 100% . I post this questions b4 and AW PM me not to do it or AW will void my warranty. 2 hrs later a tech support call me and update the bios with me. I bet he update my record in their system to the new bios.

I guess AW-steve will PM u if he saw your post.

 

how long till they post the bios update on the AW website under "drivers and downloads"? is this update official? do you guys think this update should be coming from nvidia,not AW since we're dealing with the GPU downclocking?

 

Man, what a difference! I have updated the BIOS and Vista SP2 and my baby is cruzzzin now! Sweet......Thanks again Alienware for your A++++ Support!

 

Talk to 4 agents and have 3 diff answer. I plus all dates together and divide by 4 I got 1.5 weeks from official release. yes Its an official beta release just to solve the DC problem. and No u cant download it. u need an agent to do it for u.

I heard they are finalizing it that will solve the touch control as well.

This update rocks. The fan kick in and out in quick succession that last less than 10 sec per blast. Each blast drop your temp from 86c to 77c. Remind me of 1989 After burner arcade game.

Edit: crysis needs 7 mins blast on average

By the way what rams are u using? I never seems to get a 4gb ram to work. If possible can u link me to the website where u bought those rams?

 

right now it's a beta, they're probably letting a select amount of current m15x owners have it, and recording the progress of the problems, seeing if any new problems crop up...

shouldn't be long, there's likely a rush on this one because it's bad PR without the update.

 

And, it's holding up shipments of the m15x, like mine, whose latest estimated ship date of 3/19 has ( again) come and gone. Still in a Phase 6 holding pattern for this fix.

 

my esd is still 3/13... phase 4

 

Has Alienware offered anything for the customers that their laptops are in a holding pattern? Mine is in Phase 7 for the past 2 weeks. I've even thought about just cancelling my order all together...

Just getting really frustrated.

 

I would say this is why you are in phase 7 and a bit stuck. Hopefully next week? So you're being offered a new bios .

 

Figured as much. Would at least like to see an upgraded shipping. Paying $4700 for a laptop and having to wait almost 2 months for it is a bit extreme.

And woo hoo! I get a new bios!! At least a small gift card at AW would be nice (similar to what Best Buy is doing for the suckers that purchased a HD-DVD Player...$50 gift cards)

 

Does your username mean the same thing in America as it does in the UK? If so, ace.

 

Contact AW at [email protected], tell them your story, and request upgraded shipping. They said they would have done it for me, but I'm in Tampa, FL, so shipping from Miami, FL, is already 1-2 days.

I agree. For those whose ship date's have come and gone several times should receive something for the continued delays.

Regarding the Best Buy offer, where did you hear this? PM me if you like.

 

i agree... i have a business degree and making people wait so long (because of a fault that shouldn't have been there in the first place) and not compensate in any way is not something that i would do having learned what i did. Even without the degree, you'd think it would just be proper. You know, everytime someone ask me about AW now i will undoubtedly mention the extreme wait period on top of the possible/probable flaws. they should at lease give the people who have waited long past their ESD something so they at least have something good to say... and I don't think i should need to ask for it.

I want to say something like, "i waited so long for my m15x, well past my ESD... but they gave me a AW briefcase without me even asking them so i didn't mind the wait. they'll take care of you if something goes wrong."

AW ees can pm me for my order number

 

Best Buy release the press info yesterday. I first saw it on CNN.com then CNet.com. Here is a link to the article and the link to the Best Buy webpage information on the gift cards. I think they're going way beyond good customer service with this refund. Everyone knew that there was a format war and someone has to lose eventually...


http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9897965-1.html?tag=cnetfd.mt


http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=pcmcat147600050717&type=category


I'm glad a few of you agree with me. I can understand if there is a small delay (few days on a order) but when I am ordering a $4700 laptop and it is delay by weeks due to a critical flaw, it is very weak and in creates doubt in the quality.

Yes, Wanks means the same in the US as the UK haha. Actually we don't use the word that much so I kinda rip you guys off with the nick.

just incase an AW ees can also pm me for my order number.

 

yeah i defiantly feel people (like me) should get some sort of bonus. especially after what i went threw. but i dont really care.

 

I'm getting ahold of my agent right now for hopefully a free upgrade in shipping.. lets see how this goes, more news to come.

 

Quick update. Just got off the phone with the AW status update agent. He just informed me that AW is planning on resuming shipping the middle of next week (hopefully). They also upgraded my shipping for free. A nice gesture but I would of love to have a free upgrade to the warranty

Well let's see if they offer anything better then shipping to us if this continues.

 

Yep Wank, I got the same response. I was put in contact with an actual supervisor and my shipping was upgraded to 2 day for free. Awsome service Alienware, props

 

The funny this is I registered Alienwank.com in anticipation of Alienware refusing to acknowledge the GPU overheat problem. Looks like I wont be needing it now hehe.

 

I tried to get a free upgrade to the Blu-ray writer but I couldn't stop laughing while I asked for it...had to try lol

 

Hi there, i am new to this. Just wondering whether we are any closer to finding out when the Uk M15xs are going to start production again. Is there any chance do you think of me getting mine by around 12th of April ??? Thanks.

 

Lol, I wouldent mind getting a free Smart Bay battery. I should try lol.

 

@ Harry88: Well the latest news say that they will get all the parts in UK in the end of March/beginning of April. So add a week for building your system, shipping starts from 7 April If every thing's alright you should have it by 12 of April.

But again, you never now, they will need to build a lot of systems for many people.

 

never hurts...I would of but I ordered one with the 15x.

My advice though is not to laugh while you are asking for it... I pretty much shot myself in the foot...

 

Well fingers crossed!!! Though, by the sounds of how many others are waiting, i doubt it! Thanks.

 

I would ask them to take $100 off the price of the system. Dell gave me a $100 Dell credit just for complaining about my XPS 720 breaking down the first month I had it and the fact I had to talk to support for hours before they wanted to set up an appointment for someone to come fix my rig.

 

i'm sure they're all just reading this and getting a good chuckle

 

In all honesty,

they should do something besides the free shipping. This is their snafu not ours...and it just verifies that step 7 is not what its cracked up to be....and I quote:

Oh well life goes on, lets look at the positive side instead and give them credit of admitting and trying to correct the issue.

 

The other part is that the people who tried to cancel got an "i'm sorry that all this is happening, it's our fault... please hang in there and we'll upgrade your GPU or give you a backpack to try to make up for it". That's great and all but if i call in i don't want an upgrade i want to cancel. The fact is, they should be this way with customers who didn't call to threaten with cancellation.

The truth is, i'm unhappy that i have to wait even after my ESD was confirmed to have not been changed just the week before it was supposed to be sent. I contacted AW asking if they planned on holding onto my system and i was told that they didn't... all is well and according to schedule. i have waited past that date and i have to wait even longer now... still have not received an email/call. I have an idea of how long based on comments from this forum and not from AW? I would expect AW to contact me and tell me that there is in fact and wait and they were either wrong again about my ESD or admit that they didn't tell me the real date in fear that i would cancel.

I wouldn't have normally wanted/demanded any compensation if AW was straight forward with me and at least take the effort to contact me when delays occur. This is what we call kiting and i just don't like to be strung along.

 

Is this fact? That they offer this to you for not cancelling because of the delays? If that is so maybe we should all call and cancel to see what is offered...

I do agree with the lack of information. It was only today that they informed me of the issue...last Friday I knew more then the agent on what the hold was for...he seemed very very clueless.

 

Anyway, I just saw in your sig you ordered 30th of January? What happened, tons of m15 arrived since then, even ordered late February.

 

3 weeks ago it went into stage 7 at the same time they released the x9000..so I asked for the processor to be changed before it was shipped. They stated it would only add 1 week to the order...that was 3 weeks ago. I also order a smart bay battery...original ship date was suppose to be Feb 28.

 

Hehe, big mistake. All CS I talked to said that modifying your order puts you at the bottom of the list so if the parts were on backorder is as if you ordered 2 weeks ago. Usually if they have parts in the delay is not significant but when they have them on backorder you are treated as "just ordered".

 

that was another user that received those things... i didn't

and that's what i'm talking about. They told you one week so it should be one week. They didn't say, "oh it's on backorder so changing it will drop you to the bottom of the list and you will have to wait at least until mid april".

 

i think this used to be the "tell Alienware your problems with your m15x" thread so..

besides the continued issue with downclocking i am having (and an alienware tech contacted me in email pledging to work with (and stone, yes it was Steve ))

I also am still having this stupid right-button media center hardcode problem. the patch they sent me worked great yesterday, but today it was doing it again. and i didn't install anything, not even SP1. re-applied the patch just now, will see it lasts more than a day this time...

 

Wouldn't that make you feel like someone peed in your cornflakes. lol.. All we can do now Fusioncon is LAUGH.. Or you can put together an invoice for AW with the amount of time you have spent trying to get your system working.

 

yeah, its "april fools media center patch fix whoops no it isnt oh wait we released it about 10 days early" patch

 

note regarding my ambient air temp readings from that long spew about testing: i had thermometer sitting on the notebook.. so of course the notebook's own heat was bumping the reading up. n00b! i did the same setup today with the thermometer about 2 ft from the notebook, and it never got over 76F in here, its not even a matter of the ambient temps being all that broiling.

and, it still downclocks, just different behavior than before the bios update.. it can go for a good while without doing it, hit 89C a couple of times, fan kicks in, it recovers, all as it oughtta be, and then later on it'll downclock at 86C. the behavior is actually even stranger than before, at least before it was consistent, now its just whacky.

(i forgot to mark the temps on this screen but the non-downclocking peaks where 89C, and downclocking peaks were 86C)

 

i'm going to guess that AW-Frank is going to tell you it shouldn't be that way and you should email them about this specific issue and they'll address it

...but i guess this is still not a tell AW of physical problems with my m15x type of post. :|

 

Actually..the day after I change the order it went back to stage 5 and hit stage 7 within a week. So they made the change very quickly....they just placed it on hold because of this issue.

What is very funny is the status agent was able to research and informed me of the problem... but just a few minutes I called the sales department to cancel the order (figure I would roll the dice on this issue...worst case scenario is that I might order one after it is fixed or pick up a xps 17) the sales agent argued with me that "Alienware would never ship a faulty pc, gave me the whole spew about the 200 point q.c. check". I mention the issue and stated that even a rep and the tech department was working on an updated bios to address the issue. She basically responded that all the information was incorrect and that the rep was a fake. Then I got the "a cancellation agent will call you tomorrow."

I'll let you guys know what happens after I talk to the agent.

 

good luck with the cancellation agent, they are good at what they are supposed to be doing..

and i've been ccing the m15x email with all my findings, just don't think they are high priority to them at this point since they found their "fix".

we'll see how it goes when it stops being winter

 

I guess maybe they're taking your info into consideration and looking for a way to add it to the final release.. But who knows really..
Hope it all get's sorted out for you fusioncon..
So far we've only been told they're adding fixes for the DC problem and the touchpad control problems.. Anything else ?

Oh and Wanks ? I smell a freebie coming

 

I only hope...but if they offer me that damn ugly backpack or bag I might start laughing at the cancellation agent. I will say one thing about the clueless sale agent...she tried everything in her power to get me to change my mind. Even the Jedi Mind trick:

"there is no issue"
"we do a 200 point check and would never ship a faulty notebook"
"the website you read the information on is fake"
"Alienware-Frank does not exist...he is a figment of your imagination"
"You will drink the cool-aid"

haha. I can't wait for the Pro to call me tomorrow...it should be a real treat

but on another note. Is there any update AW-Frank?

 

Lol
Before I got onto this forum I'm sure I would've drank the whole cool-aid box I'm not a gullible guy.. Just a little easy-going with problems..
You seem to do a lot of laughing in the AW's faces.. Even when you called them before.. Hehe.. Hope it gets all settled for you
Oh and they inform everyone in the CS department when it is !! It's like they purposely don't, so they can stall or something

 

customer support agents at AW are all the same (im not being mean , but if you called them i think you know what im saying) i mean there's nothing wrong with it but its weird. also its like they have a way with people. they can say anything and i choose to accept it.

 

If that was directed at me then I should point out that I've only ever been in contact with them over email.. Not in US yet so no point making bills the size of the m15x.. Hehe..
They sure do sound "resourceful".. If thats what you wanna call it

 

I just got a call from AW...final BIOS is ready! X30 update is downloading now.

From what the tech told me, the fans are supposed to kick in to high gear earlier than 86-87 C.