Fans no longer kicking in (MJ12 7700a)

So I had to send my MJ12 M770a back for repairs (read about the fiasco in this thread). After calling and asking I was told that they replaced the GPU.

Since getting it back a couple of days ago none of the four fans seem to be thermostatically controlled. They no longer start during boot and the machine prefers to die from over heating rather than turn them on. It then refuses to power up again until it has been left to cool.

The fans can be turned on manually but I'm worried that this is symptomatic of potentially serious problem and that if I hold on to it rather than sending it back again, I run the risk of the thing melting on me and being left without any support.

What do you think? Should I return it? Need to decide by tomorrow.

 

Yea dude you may as well return it. It would be better for you to have a fully functioning notebook opposed to a notebook that runs the risk of dying at any time.

 

do it man. you might miss out on laptoppy goodness for a while (what? a month?) but when it comes back, it'll actually WORK... which is more than it seems to be doing now...

unless you like paying so much for a gigantic paper-weight...

 

come on don't send it back
you got a free 2gb thumbdrive

 

I haven't decided yet whether I should reject delivery and have it sent back to them, or accept it and eBay it with a £2000 reserve. That 2Gb usb key is an insult to an injury!

 

There is no way that you are going to get even CLOSE to 2000 euros for that system. I would have a hard time getting $1,800 for mine which I think is probably better spec'd than your system.

 

I was talking about the thumbdrive ...

 

a company gives you free things at their loss
they do their best to help you why not stay with them?

 

Are you seriously advising him to keep his $6000 purchase purely because they sent him something worth $15?

I would return it. If you want, you can call them up if there's anything you can do to address that without you having to send it in first. That might save you the problem of losing all your work.

If you do send it in, don't forget to back everything up so you'll still be able to work.

 

@Travis - He has had a very negative experience so far (even though it was his fault). I'll quote him.

"I sent it back and within a few days received an email telling me it was being returned via a reputable carrier. The parcel was misrouted then lost. When eventually it turned up again on the carrier's system I started making arrangements for delivery. I did this several times, waiting at home all day for its arrival, but it didn't come.

Eventually after much stress, dozens of phone calls, and formal letters of complaint, it arrived, a total of 45 days after it was sent.

I was (and am) fuming about this. The laptop is essential to my work, and being unable to access my data (or afford to pay professionals to retrieve it for me) led to my losing work and being left without an income for a long period of time. I am in debt as a direct result of their failure to return it despite repeated assurances that it was arriving the next day."

It is pretty bad that the laptop was gone for 45 days, but the lost data is essentially his fault since I'm pretty sure that AW tells all their customers (and it is in their warranty terms) that they don't guarantee your data when you get your system back and to back up any important data. I've known this since I was about 12 / 13 and had to send my system in to get repaired (heh good old days of backing up to CD )

I do feel bad for him though... But yea send your system back again man.

 

Wow. Did you read my other moaning post? That usb key literally costs them pennies. Their failure to get my laptop (or a replacement) back to me in reasonable time (as is required by UK consumer law at least) literally cost me thousands.

 

I wasn't naive enough to send my disks back, I removed them first, but that didn't give me access to my data (I had an old but reasonably useful backup of most stuff, but one particularly tricky and important algorithm I was developing for work was lost to me).

To get to my data I would have had to go to professionals who had the required hardware. Because I have a 2 disk RAID0 they were quoting me around the £500 mark! I simply don't have that kind of money and Alienware refused to pay for it. And besides, from around week 3 of the wait they were repeatedly assuring me it was arriving back the next (working) day, so why would I spend the money on the recovery.

Calm blue ocean calm blue ocean

Reckon my next laptop will have to be an XO.

 

a l a n

"The parcel was misrouted then lost. When eventually it turned up again on the carrier's system I started making arrangements for delivery."

Alienware sent it back to you normally. The parcel thing messed it up. Don't get mad at alienware because the post office did something wrong. Alienware gave you free things at their expense because they did everything right.

Alienware tells people to always back up all data before sending it to them. Even I read the owners manual I mean come on. You blame the lost data on them? I blame it on the carelessness of others. ^.^

 

Return it while you still can and get a more reliable laptop. Time is money. You shouldn't be wasting your time with issues like these.

Oh and sorry about the lost data, that sucks. But, now you gotta move on. That's life...

 

I agree that the carrier is the one who screwed up, but I didn't enter into a legal contract with them. They have precisely no obligations to me. I entered into a contract with Alienware, for a handsome fee, which required them to repair and return within reasonable time (implied by law). They failed to do that.

I made it clear to them that I would rather hold the carrier to account but I had no right to. Alieware on the other hand have every right to sue the carrier for damages. Anything that they pay me could be claimed back off the carrier (plus extra for damage to Alienware's reputation, so they would actually come out of this with more money than they started with!) and the claim would would be indisputable.

Think of it this way. Suppose you bought a new system and sent cash by registered post in payment. The postal service loose the letter. Now, do you think for one second that Alienware would be happy to simply blame the post office, and give you your computer all the same because you acted in good faith. Like hell they would.

But this has gone quite off topic. The question was not should I feel aggrieved by what has happened and how they have responded, it was should I send it back again given the problem with the fans.

Thanks to all respondants. Will be calling them today to see what they have to say.

 

a_l_a_n,

If you decide to send it back for repairs let me know, I'll have someone keep an eye on it while in depot and make sure its fixed before sending it out.

 

good idea alienware-steve and thank you for being so helpful to people
+rep

 

Thanks for the offers Steve. I should temper my attitude somewhat and acknowledge that the guys in the repair shop didn't do anything wrong (giving the benefit of the doubt that my fan problem isn't installation related). In fact I was pleased with the speed with which the repairs were completed and have said as much in my correspondence. It's the attitude of management that I have the problem with.

Your opinion should count for something. Do you think I should return? Also do you reckon they will repair the clasps which were snapped off by the time it got back to me? It might seem like a minor asthetic issue but without them the screen is unsecured and vulnerable when in transport.

p.s.
How is sunny Athlone these days?

 

a_l_a_n

Sorry for the delay in my response. As long as you make sure to let us know about the clasps we will repair them for you. I think the fan problem should warrant a repair. I want to make sure this time you get it back without problems. I'm not sure where Athlone is, but I live in Miami.

 

Apparently you Alienware users have been making some pretty strange feature requests ... I'm going to let the correspondence speak for itself:

Me:

Them:

Me:

Them:

Me:

Them:

Me:

Alright ... Who was it. Which one of you requested that Alienware make their laptops overheat and die unless the user intervenes to cool them down?

 

@A_l_a_n - That gave me a good laugh, thanks

 

I am truly astounded. I was certain there was a hardware issue. I couldn't believe that even Alienware would do something as reckless and stupid as remove support for thermal fan control from the BIOS. BUT ... low and behold they did!

The problem actually was just the new version of the BIOS. I flashed it back to an old one and now my only problem (with the machine) are the smashed clasps.

It's lucky I knew to go investigating when the fans didn't spin, otherwise it'd have melted by now.

I think that speaks volumes about Alienware's competence.