Depot Repair Question

I have an M17X R1 (still under extended next-business day warranty) that was having serious overheating issues and a bad scraping sound from one of the fans. I contacted tech support and after troubleshooting online, a next-business day service call was scheduled. The tech came out and replaced three fans. Not long after the tech leaves, the machine freezes. No BSOD and no error message, just locks up and required a hard restart. Over the next 24 hours this happens multiple times, both in games and just when surfing. It even happened during one of the restarts.

I contacted support again and was told they could send the tech back to replace the video card and the motherboard, or I could send it to the depot. His recommendation was to send it in.

I've read in a number of postings that one should avoid using the depot if possible, and I'm just wondering what are the issues that I need to be concerned with.

Thank you.

 

If given a choice or even a small possibility of an alternative, always take that up as opposed to sending it in to the depot for repair. The stories you have heard are all true, depot service is like the luck-of-the-draw, and chances are high that you would get a bad/faulty servicing done on your system. I know of people who have refused to send it in to the depot, even when that was the only choice offered. To give you an example, when I had my m14x and had to send it in, not only was the original issue still there (problem with mobo) when it came back, but it came back with extra problems like the lights not working and some serious dents and scratches on the screen, outer bezel and the area around the palm rest.
Imo you would have to be in a really tight, desperate and hopeless situation to actually consider sending it in to the depot, and you can find plenty of stories about the service rendered there with a simple search on the net. This is not to say that it will always happen; there have been people who have been serviced well by the depot, but the chances of the depot screwing up are higher than them getting it right, and I prefer to be safe than sorry.

 

Thanks for that info. I assumed that the depot would be able to more thoroughly diagnose the problem(s) than the local tech, but guess not.

 

No problems. Glad I could help!
That was my thinking too the first time i sent my m14x in, but what happened was quite contrasting with what i expected. Later, I came to know that mine wasnt an isolated single experience; handful of others had faced worse situations with the depot service. It would be way better if you can get the tech to come to your place and have the guy work your laptop in front of you. Once he is finished, you can always ask him to wait til you boot up and login to perform a few basic tests to see if the machine is running as it should.

 

I have used the depot and never had any problems but if you want to search about the techs coming then they have had issues there to. People make mistakes and unfortunately we only hear about the bad service calls, most people don't pop on to rave about their machine that got sent in and came back working perfectly haha...That being said they should be testing the machine before sending it back to you so if there are additional problems they may be able to fix and repair them before shipping it back VS having to call them back again if what the tech fixes does not happen to fix the problem. The down side of course being that you are without your laptop for a week or two if it takes that long, but most of the time is it quite quick.

 

I called back yesterday to check status, as I'd not heard anything since Saturday when the depot was recommended. My original rep was not working that day, so another rep took a look and didn't find any record of the depot being offered. He also said records indicated my original service call was written up as fans, cards and motherboard replacement, though my parts list online only showed the fans, and the fans were all that were received and installed. As you stated, his opinion was that we were not at the point yet of needing to send it back. We ran another set of diagnostics, as this hadn't been done since before the freezing issue started. This event log definitely showed all the lock-ups and hard restarts, but didn't give an indication as to what caused them. We then ran autopsy and the computer locked up during the video memory test. So they are sending out new video cards and a new motherboard and the tech will come back and install them. Apparently the initial overheating problem had already damaged the video cards before the fans were replaced. Hopefully we'll be back in business real soon!

 

True, although I have heard of more horror stories of the depot than the onsite tech doing something wrong right here on the forum itself. As i said though, its not a 100% failure rate at the depot; like you, people have received good service too

Good to know that the new rep handled the situation like this. I think it shouldnt be long now before you are up n running