Has anyone been using your Alienware notebook for years...

without changing part due to failure etc...?

 

I have been using my Area-51 M17x for three years now, used it a lot .. enjoyed a lot.
Just from last week I am having extreme heating issues issues, rest everything is all great

 

need to repaste your GPU's more then likely.

 

Also make sure you have everything cleaned up, blow out the heat sinks and vents.

Sidenote: Long time no see Moo, good to see you.

 

I've owned lots of Dells (gpu fail, mobo fail), HP(mobo power supply), Toshiba (mobo), Sager (mobo), and more laptops and every single one of them has had something fail within 3 years or so.

I now own an Alienware M17x R2, but with a 4 year complete care warranty as I expect something to fail hehe. unfortunately.

I never bought long warranties in the past and I've been hit with repair costs every single time.

Now, with these high end monsters, I'll be getting 3-4 year warranties for the peace of mind.

 

i had a dell for 5 years
now my alienware is 1 year old and kicking the case will need to be changed and i got my usb port replaced under warrenty but nothing serious ever failed once thoses repair will be complete it will probably stand for a long time

 

Dell Inspiron 1500 series - lasted 3yrs with no issues, other than being super slow. 3rd year cpu fan kicked the bucket. I bought the part took it apart replaced the fan reseated the heatsink after replacing the thermal paste with AS5 and now my mother still uses that little guy everyday. So aside from the fan it has been ticking for 5 and a half years.
Area51 m17X lasted 10months before its meltdown. Too many issues to list. But it started with heat related shutdowns caused by gpu's.
M17X R2 - nothing but software (drivers/BIOS) issues thus far but it's only a little over a month old
M11X R2 - Nothing wrong so far except a wavy keyboard that touches the LCD when it is closed and a mal-aligned hinge. Same age as M17X R2

After all that my two new laptops have 3yr complete care.
The winner is the Inspiron 1500 5+ years and no real issues.

 

I have AW 9750 and that was one of AW's last made in Miami models and haven't had a problem with it at all. Just do what is expected to keep it running good and you will have no problems.

My AW M15X has no problems either and that is going on a year now.

 

Thank for all the inputs!

Your replies really get me worried. The reason I asked is that eventho I'm having one year CC, I will leave the beloved US for good, literally, next year. I really really want to bring it to my home country but it will be technically impossible for me to get it fixed once something is broken.

My R1 ran great without any failure before I sold it and my R2 is running strong without issue so far but still...

 

my OLD AW 9750 is at about 3 years with no issues at all.
my M17X has been issue free as well

 

I used my Alienware Area-51 M5790 for around 5+ years and the only problem i had was overheating issues which may or may have not destroyed my gpu. The laptop still works.

 

What is your home country? You might be able to get additional warranty in your country.

 

Alienware m9750 - 5 years no parts replaced.
Acer Ferrari 4005 - 5 years CD replaced.
Dell Latitude L600 - 8 years no parts replaced.
So I am pretty lucky with my computers. My desktops dont fare nearly so well.

 

Negative

I'm from Vietnam and I believe Dell VN could not care less about warranty

 

I know there's a way to transfer your warranty to south east asia region. My friend went to Korea, transferred his warranty and added another 2 years there. Why not try and give Dell a call? Doesn't hurt to ask, imo.

 

but you can still use apo box to ship it back to dell if something serious fail or you can extend your actual waranty to cover a world wide protection just tell them your moving and dont know when you will come back and im sure they will be appy to help you

also most failure will happen in the first year so if ytour notebook reach 1 year of heavy use your not likely to have any more problem untill the usure problem start to apear like fans dieing etc

 

Asking how long alienware laptops have lasted is not going to be terribly useful since AW is on the 4th ODM that I know of (meaning 4 different companies have made their laptops so far).

Currently they are using Flextronics which is a very large and solid company. I can say I have actually not seen anything cheap come from them yet, so you are most likely going to be fine. Just practice good maintenance habits with the machine and you should be fine.

My friend has an Aurora M7700a (Clevo D900t) that has been working great since 2006 (only the GPU started flaking out last year but is now replaced and working great again)

 

Well I have an Area 51 M17x that I love. I brought it to Iraq for my one year tour and it handled the heat, dust and sand with ablomb. I did have one GPU go bad, but unfortunatley thats a known problem with the 9800m gt, and not a AW buil quality issue. If you purchase the lap top the extra 300-400 on a 3yr waranty is worth it! Espescialy when you are already paying 3500-4000.