Aurora 9700 Repair?

My daughter bought an Alienware 9700 2 years ago just before leaving for college. She started having a variety of problems which she thought was software related a month or so ago. When she came home for Easter we tried to restore the system using the recovery disc. During the restoration I got an error message saying something like "cannot read drive D:, missing or corrupted files". I called Alienware and ordered a new drive thinking that was the problem. The rep told me it may not be, but I gambled on the easy fix. I did not work. The notebook seemed to be running hot so I took off the back cover and noticed on of the cooling fans was not working. I imagine I have more serious problems.
My problem is now where do I send it for repairs. The real bad news is the computers warranty ran out 2 weeks before Easter. I will call Alienware Monday and see what they say. I am hoping they will help me out since the problem first surfaced while the machine was still under warranty.
If I have no luck with the warranty shall I send it to them for repairs, or one of the other online repair services? Thanks

 

First of all, welcome to the NBR community!

I'm guessing they will still repair it, but it will now cost you a quite a bit to get it repaired (parts + labor + shipping (maybe both ways)) since you are no longer under warranty. It seems that you did contact them before, but you didn't send it in and decided to fix it yourself. You should have definitely sent it to Alienware and let them fix it for free! Apparently you just gave Alienware ammunition to nail you for making unauthorized changes to your machine, and they could refuse to service it at all.

Having said that, you should definitely send it to Alienware to get it repaired because Alienware has all the parts that were designed specifically for the Aurora 9700.

Personally, I would try to sell the machine to get what I can get out of it and order other a more portable laptop. Keep in mind that repairs might actually cost MORE than what the laptop is worth. I would sell the laptop and order something more portable and light for your daughter. Although the extra horsepower from any Alienware machine is nice sometimes (and the frame looks really cool), in my opinion as a college student, the most important thing to consider in a laptop is its portability (weight, size, and battery life). Aurora 9700 has a massive weight, huge size, and fairly poor battery life; it is hardly the ideal machine for college students (well...for those who go to classes, that is).

 

Shes uses computer more as a desktop so its size isn't an issue. I will probably get it repaired unless the cost is too high and it doesn't make sense. If she would have come home a couple weeks sooner the machine still would have been under warranty, I guess that is just bad luck.

 

I would recommend trying to get a quote on fixing the machine before you send it off.

 

I will call them Monday morning and see what happens. idq000 may be right, the repair cost may exceed the machines value. Hopefully they will treat me right.

 

hi bud i used to have an alienware m9700 and if your not doing much the fan will only run after about 5 mins, they dont run all the time only after a while of heat building up.

also bud you said that the files are corrupt,,,, unsusal that you would get two completley things wrong with your laptop.

has it got two hard drives in or just one bud and i take it you put clean install on your new hard drive, what exactly did it do/say.

 

It really gets hot, I don't think I am going to try anything else. The error code was 0x80070015.

 

I just got off the phone with Alienware. The person on the phone told me they could not help me with repairs and referred me to laptoprepairparts.com for service. I must admit I was surprised, I thought they would help me out.

 

well they wont they are very adamant not to offer help unless you have warrenty. I would try doing a clean install and not trying to restore it on the new drive

 

It gets really hot, I think I am finished experimenting. I have emailed Alienware in one last effort to get some help.

 

what are you running xp or vista??

dont give up yet!!!

 

download H Wmonitor and let me know how hot it is getting

 

No help from Alienware, just an offer of email assistance.

 

figures.....

if its just a fan you might find one on ebay.... how hot is the laptop getting ?

 

It getting real hot, the fan is not working at all. We attempted to run the system restore disk, the operating system is formatted. It would not load the new program. At that point I noticed how hot it was getting and that the fan was not working.
The final message I got from Alienware was to send it to Ztronics for repair. I am not sure I want to work on it myself for several reasons. I have very little experiance in this area and even less time to spend on it. I have no idea if the Ztronics suggestion is a good one or not. Thanks, Rick

 

This computer is running vista Vista. I have a feeling the CPU/motherboard has been damaged due to overheating. My daughter told me it was shutting down when she was using it. At that point she tried to run the format recovery disk thinking it was a software problem. I tried to load the program for her when she came home for Easter break. That is when I discovered how hot the machine was running and that the fan was not working. Rick