I am pulling out my hair right now:mad:

Hey everyone,

I am afraid that I recently got scammed out of my butt on a trade involving my old Alienware M17xR2. You see, I had a fully functional one with two 5870m's and an i5 processor along with 4GB of RAM and a FHD display. I saw an offer for a trade on the internet with a silver R2 that had a 4870 array along with an intel core i7 920xm and agreed to do so.

Long story short, the laptop arrived with some severe screen artifacts that I initially suspected to be video card artifacts. I wrote that guy immediately and he said that it's "none of his business anymore" and that the trade is done. I didn't want to continue doing this so I just bought another 5870m off ebay only to finally diagnose that my system actually has a faulty motherboard. Now I am thinking if I should pursue this guy even further or would anyone be interested in a system that has everything working just fine BESIDES the motherboard? If so, how much could I get out of it anyway?

 

OMG! Can't believe you had to go through that. I would try to pursue the guy... however it may be really tough to get him and you may end up trying to sell it AS IS.

 

Trades need to be done in person in a public place where you can both test the system. I would go after him if you can.

 

He sold (traded) you a dead Alienware. He basically scammed you. There's no way he didn't know about the issue before hand.

Not sure what you can do at this point except confront him. I doubt he'll give you your system back.

 

Sorry to hear for your lost. There is no way you can get your laptop back.

My piece of advise on a trade if it has to be shipped to you if it's not in person:

Put a value on the item you are trading. Make the trade like a " purchase " , You pay for his unit and he pays for your unit (payment as goods). Rather loose a few bucks on the fees , then getting scammed. This is the safest way to do a trade. If and when you received the unit and it's not working as it was described, then you got paypal to take care of the issue. I've done trade as purchases before, and loosing a few bucks does not hurt to protect yourself.

 

That is a actually a rather genius idea. I am glad that the guy is located in Ontario though like myself so he's under the Criminal Law. I am considering sueing the crap out of this guy as that "dead" alienware was meant to be a Christmas present. Lets see if I can get my system back while holding on to his for recovering some legal fees. It's rather sad that he tried pulling off a stunt like that

Looks like Santa had different plans for me this Christmas . Gotta make the best of a bad situation I guess

 

testing the system in person is trading 101. Also write a certificate of authenticity, basically the system is in good working conditions with no hardware defects at the time of sale and have this notarized with all parties signatures.

 

def go after him. good luck in your pursuits. really sucks that such a thing happened did you do the trade mainly for the cpu?

 

To anyone that is actually interested. Initially the Police was unwilling to help as its "not a legal issue" so I flew to Toronto, faced this little ******* and saw that he's actually a 16 year old!!!! I went home to his father and had him pay for my flight back home as well as the costs associated with the notebook. I now have my old one back as well as his so I was hoping to put it up for sale. I just wish I could place an advertisement though. Any suggestions you guys?

 

LOL. Good for you, bro.

 

OMG is this real life? That's awesome if that's what actually went down. You could try selling on the for sale section here.

 

LOOOL! Well done my friend! If you want something properly done you have to do it yourself sometimes

 

Very Good TFK, Maybe it'll be a merry Christmas after all. Glad to hear everything worked out for you!!

 

Thanks a lot for your comments guys, I really do appreciate it. It felt good to have some support in a time like this no matter how minute the assistance might be. On another note, I read the rules for a sale and do not qualify for posting a sale right away. If anybody can help me with that it'd be awesome. Basically I am selling the one that has the defective motherboard. It's coming with an Intel i7 920XM and a pair of 4870s in Crossfire and I am also bundling a 5870 with it which I initially purchased thinking that the graphics card was faulty. This also comes with extras such as the protective sleeve bag and the Manual. I hope I am not violating any rules as the guys on these forums are really knowledgeable and I'd hate to be banned.

G0atlife, Thanks for that, I just felt a little bad that I had to do something as mean as that though

L_Porras, you betcha, Nothing like some good old fashioned revenge to get a kid to his pants. it was actually a very funny story as to how I got about doing what I did, I'd gladly tell you if you want to know more.

Technos, Yes sir it is indeed real life. NEVER off an Alienware nerd. I would have gladly pound him down to the ground if his parents didn't offer me compensation. Nerd rage is something people highly underestimate.

Dre, Yep, Got lucky bro, real lucky.

 

Sure, tell us more. I always enjoy an interest true life story.

 

Well, I talked to the Police and they said that there's nothing they can do about it and the best I could do is file a small claims court case. The act of doing so is expensive and time consuming. I then talked to the Brampton Police department and told them what I am going to do to make sure everything is well documented as to see if I'm doing anything illegal. Once all this was settled I flew to Toronto and had a young girl call him up and meet me for a supposed "date" at an agreed upon location. Once done I walked with him to his house as he's never met me and the moment I met his dad I started to talk to him regarding the whole situation. His dad apologized and returned my notebook along with some extra money for my flight back home and now I have two alienwares

 

Soo......... Anybody want an Alienware with everything working BESIDES the motherboard?

 

I'm actually kinda interested in it. How do we know it's the motherboard. I'll purchase if I can fix it reasonably. It would be for my girlfriend. Let me know.

edit* are we sure the artifacts arnt sli cable related etc. I just want to make sure what I would be buying lol. Message me on the forum and let's see what we can work out.

 

Oh absolutely. I know firsthand how terrible it is to work with someone that does not respond to reaonable claims.

Regarding the notebook, I also suspected the SLI Cables and the VRAM on the Cards to begin with so I tore down the system and unplugged the Crossfire cable on the system. No response, Alienware 1, me 0.

Next I removed the second card from the right hand slot (the slave card) and booted it up on the master card. Still heavy artifacting. The weird part is that the artifacts were telltale signs of a VRAM failure. Alienware 2, Me 0

I swapped out the slave card with the master card's heatsink thinking that the master card is damaged, Same artifacts, Alienware 3, me 0.

I bought a NEW 5870 off the internet and plugged it into the alienware, Same artifacts, Alienware 4, me 0

I took a deep breath and tore down my Alienware R4 and plugged the card into it (I was almost crying while I did this). CARDS FINE *Sigh of relief* Alienware 4, me 1

I plugged in all the cards one by one into my R4 and found NO artifacts on any cards even after an hour of benching, Alienware 4, me 2

I pulled out the system RAM and installed my own into the R2, Artifacts, Alienware 5, me 2

I use the external VGA AND HDMI ports individually to check for problems, Artifacts, Alienware 6, Me 2.

(Just did this today) I pulled out the CPU and put it into my R2, Machine POSTS and Benches fine so the CPU is normal, Alienware 6, Me 3

The only thing I couldn't be sure of is the monitor cable on the LCD itself but I suspect that it's the motherboard.

Oh and worst of all, these ing problems are INTERMITTENT. This one time the system was doing just fine and POSTed just fine and then BAM!! Hard lock up and reboot reboot reboot!

If you have any suggestions let me know, I feel like I tested as much as I could have from a prosumer perspective. I have been modding laptops for many years and this is one of the first times I am so baffled with a system.

 

That's a wild story. So are you selling your original 17 too?

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

 

No sir, I am only selling the defective one. I think I'll hold onto my black baby R2 and the R4. The silver one is the one I'm interested in selling as I cant stand to look at that sonofa without being reminded of the countless hours I have spent trying to solve it's secrets

That being said it was a rather thrilling experience though. I havent been this challenged with any system in all these years and being thrown back to the olden days of computer troubleshooting (i.e. checking the components one by one) really gave me a challenge that I wanted to do so for a long time.

Added to that, I am also a hobby machinist so I made custom copper heatsinks for my R4 and am hoping to do so with the R2 as well. I suspect I will also try anodizing once I'm good enough at it. Maybe i'll turn my black R2 into a subtle green anodized aluminium color.

Hope this helps.

 

Messaged you regarding details.