Intel Press Release - Sandy Bridge Issue - What does this mean for the M17xR3?

An alternative: Usually when a bank closes a card due to fraud they ask if you have any outstanding transactions that will post. You might try calling them and tell them you forgot about the Dell transaction and see if they can input it into their system so it won't cause you any issues at all.

I had someone try to buy like $400 worth of shoes somewhere in Mexico using my card number once and I got a call to confirm. Just a couple of weeks ago someone bought two $1000 plane tickets to the phillippines on another card and the card company didn't even think to give me a phone call. That was a fun thing to discover on my own.

 

I just received a call from the CSR I spoke with yesterday. He says the unit is in production and it will ship before my EDD of 2/16 and that they were removing the 69 charge for NBD shipping. I guess I will cross the next bridge when the unit arrives.

 

Hey I was just wondering what you guys were saying to the CSRs to get them to ship your systems with free shipping and discounts? I just got off the phone with a Dell rep and he told me to cancel my order. My order status says in-production still and the EDD is still 2/17. I would rather receive my order now and get it replaced later. If anyone's got a specific number to call it would be much appreciated.

 

And you would loose that money, if they havent shipped yet they probably wont. They have a legally binding agreement with Intel, and Intel has issued a recall...so if it hasnt shipped yet, dont count on it any time soon.

 

As messy as this is, I'd be skeptical of any conclusive statements. With Dell, you just never know.

 

I was told today from a csr to send my unit back for a full refund and re-order once new parts are available but to wait for a phone call tomorrow for an update.

I'm hearing different things from different people. Some
People are being told to keep their orders and they will be shipped out and my friend got called and they wanted (did) cancel his order.

So maybe it depends on what stage of production you were in, in order to qualify for continuation of your order.

 

Fine with me also. Just as long as it's all completely paid for later on, and my original EDD doesnt change.

And you ordered with aafes, too?

@everyone else, regarding getting NBD, it was merely coincidental for me. I never asked for it. I was just expressing to the csr (he's in their India office, so don't worry about getting a U.S. csr) the inconvenience and was just being chatty with him about the recall and time and costs and whatever. He just said that he completely understands and agrees with me, and to help me out, and hopefully get me the system quicker, he changed me from 7day to NBD. It's all different for everyone I guess. Luckily my guy didn't ask me to cancel it hahaha. This guy really cares cuz he wasnt even the guy I bought it from and he was concerned. I wonder what he gets out of it?

 

Dookie, what number did you call for a CSR? I want to make sure mine hasn't been cancelled, like some have reported.

And are they open at night?

 

I called the 800-alienwa number, option 2, option 1, entered my order number, heard my EDD info, then said yes to talk to a csr. Somethin' like that.

Btw, how do you know yours is cancelled or not? Will it say so on Dell's order status page?

Also, closed at night. I think closed by 4pm PST or CST one of those.

 

I don't know if it's cancelled or not. My order status still says "In Production" and my EDD is still 22 Feb. I hope if I call someone can tell me for sure (yeah, right) that it hasn't, and won't, be cancelled.

I wonder, if there is a delay, would the GTX 485M be available? That'd be cool!

 

Mine still says "In Production" as well, with EDD of 2/16. I've already been charged, so they can't cancel on me, otherwise I'm suing their A.

 

They can simply refund (charge back) you. Then you will have no legal grounds to sue them on

 

I paid via aafes. So the bank displays "EXCHANGE" or something (referring to aafes), as opposed to Dell.

 

This was on tomshardware: Asus issues apology for shipping defective Intel laptops, gives list of affected models - Notebookcheck.net News. I wish Dell would do something liek this instead of keeping it confusing.

 

I understand your frustration completely since I am in the same situation. I don't know that you would be able to take any legal action against Dell in this situation. It would be nice to get a straight answer from Dell. I will give credit to the last CSR i've had contaact with. At least he did follow up with me the next day as he promised. Now I have to wait and see if the info he gave me turns out to be true.

 

Shucks, you're no fun at all.

Dookie: I ordered the exact same configuration as you, and from reports I'm also wishing I'd not bothered with Nvidia, since Optimus doesn't sound like it is worth it. At this point though, I'm gonna stick with it, don't want to rock the boat and possibly delay my order any more than it already might be.

Called 1800alienwa, says it is in the build phase, expected ship date on the 15th, so who knows. Already been charged, no phonecall asking me to cancel. Estimated delivery is the 18th. Wishing I'd called before all this happened so I could see if they've changed anything.

With my luck I'm going to get a box to send my XPS M1530 in before my new one gets here...something I was trying to avoid.

 

Hey guys... New to the forum. I was google'ing around trying to see what I could find on the sandy bridge issue, wound up here, and after reading a few posts... decided to register. I also put in my order for my m17x a week back with an EDD of 2/17... Called alienware this morning to see what I could find out about the status of my order and when I could expect my baby. I was told (after being tossed around on the line for a while) that I could either cancel my order, put my order on hold until the chipset issue is resolved, or I could order an entirely different setup. I decided to hold out, albeit reluctantly. I was told that I would be either e-mailed or called and updated on the status of my order every few days or so and would be informed if anything changed. Guess I'll just have to wait... I hope I don't break in the process.

 

Mine followed up with me also, via email. It was kind of one of those "obligated" follow-up emails though, saying that "we'll do everything we can to keep your business" type emails, with no concrete details as to what they're actually gonna do. I understand though, as most of this is fresh news, and corporate prolly hasn't even gotten the memo yet, since they're skiing and stuff... :/

Yah I got no call either. But I doubt they're proactive in calling folks to CANCEL orders. My guess is that they'd rather let you receive a effed up machine and have you return it later, rather than potentially lose an order immediately. C.R.E.A.M. dolla dolla bill ya'll.

Yah, that's why I'm holding out as well. Also, I'd like to test it myself first, and then cry for a refund/exchange later, lolz. I'm hoping that kunekaden's 4hour battery life was just a fluke.

 

It doesn't help that I'm snowed in over here either. I've now got a 3 day weekend with which to make my best attempt to figure this thing out. Well... that and look at the Alienware Orion messenger bag that I ordered to go along with my m17x. It's sitting next to me as I type this. What good is the bag if I don't have a laptop to put it in!? lol. I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope that I get it in before I go on vacation in late march.

 

Stumbled upon this... It's from a day ago, but it does say that dell has mentioned the affected models. Although, I don't believe they've posted anything on their site as of yet... DailyTech - Companies Bail on Sandy Bridge Boards, Laptops Following Bug

 

So I've checked my R3 today with this tool Gigabyte releases Sandy Bridge fault checker | bit-tech.net and guess what:

 

It is really bad timing. I need my notebook by the start of May. I know there a a thousand laptops out there good for College, I am going into Game and Art design, i would really like an alienware.

 

For the start of May you might be alright, plenty of time between now and then.

 

when it comes to Companies and time I have no faith because they tend to take a lot of it.

 

Intel is sending out their new samples in a couple weeks, and expect to be back in full production swing by late March.

May should be a relatively safe bet. Get yourself in the queue now.

 

So are you saying you think May is a safe bet for those who are deciding to wait it out or do you think May is when we could expect the affected systems to go back on the market? A 3-3 1/2 month wait for those who had ordered their systems in late January doesn't seem realistic, especially since a lot of people were turned off by this and decided to cancel their order. Anything is possible at this point, I guess... The whole reason I want to wait it out is because I'm afraid that I'll break down and order an R2 (something I really don't want to do because I already have my heart set on the configuration I have now) only to find out that I wouldn't have had to wait that long for an R3. Guess I'll try and hold out as long as I can.

 

The ETA on the fix is showing that they start shipping new mobo's in late February and they expect to have a total recall/replacement finished by April. With Dell pulling the products and not shipping out anymore units it means that as soon as you're able to order an R3 again(probably late February I'd imagine) that they have the new mobo's and anyone who got one that had the effected chipset will probably have a repair by March to April worst case scenario. Anyone should be fine to buy one by May unless something else goes wrong or the timeline is incorrect.

 

Too bad they don't take pre-orders so i don't have to constantly check their website and I'm not tempted to buy something else.

 

That's why I'm staying away from the website for the time being... It'll just eat away at my will to see this thing through.

 

It's not like we have a whole lot of choices if we want a Sandy Bridge based system. I don't think anybody else is selling them, either.

I just spent the best 1 1/2 hours of my life on the phone with Dell. Very disappointing. The CSRs told me my r3 would ship as advertised, but Tech Support told me they will not ship any units with the bad chipset. Apparently they're not talking to each other. My only options are to wait or cancel, and hope the GTX 485M is available by then.

The guy at Tech Support did say, though, that the AMD 6970 was available as an option. That would mean no 3D or 120Hz screen, which I hear is pretty cool.

Ugh.

 

Yeah 3D would be nice, but i think i would want the 120Hz more. In the R3 manual it has 4 screen options:

900P (can't remember if that was an option on the configuration page)
1080P 90hz
1080P 120hz
1080P 120Hz + 3D Nvidia Bundle

Hopefully the 120hz option will be available when you can buy the R3 again.

 

just having had M17x R3 orders cancelled by dell/alienware (after they supposedly received some sort of response/directions to do so from manufacturing), would at least think dell/alienware would add a configurator for preorders as soon as they get things squared away with intel - but who really knows at this point...

 

They dident "supposedly received some sort of response/directions to do so from manufacturing". Intel flat out told them to stop. And yes, INtel can do that in this case of a recall.

 

Hey guys this is something i thought weird. This applies to those of you who ordered the i7 2630QM config. on intel's website it does not list that processor as one of the affected ones. now i know its the chipset thats bad but is it possible its using an unaffected one? heres the link..... Solution for the Intel Series 6 Chipset Design Error

 

At this point I'm more inclined to believe that it's an oversight. Even if there were unaffected boards, though, It would be nowhere near enough to green light dell or anyone else to start the sales of the affected systems again. Who knows, though... It seems as though we'll all have to bite the bullet until we hear something more concrete as far as a timeline goes. Everything up to this point is merely conjecture.

 

I really hate the suspense of waiting in the dark >_< not how i saw my first alienware experience playing out lol

 

Mine either. I really had high hopes, despite the stories that I've read. I know that it's not Dell's fault, though. I've got my fingers crossed in hopes that they get the new chipsets soon.

 

Look at the bright side, you MAY get a better vid card in the deal when they re-release, I was planning on ordering, glad I diden't, but am looking forward to what they do...and ya never know...the M18 is rumored......

 

Its still up on Dell India
Clicky

 

I dont know if anyone linked this from Dells site or not, but here you go:
Intel Chipset Issue - Direct2Dell - Direct2Dell - Dell Community

know many of you have been reading the recent Intel news regarding the Cougar Point (Intel 6 Series) chipset issue. Intel recently provided details regarding a design issue in the chipset that supports new second-generation Sandy Bridge Intel Core processors. The processors themselves are not affected by this chipset issue.

Dell and Intel are in communication regarding the design issue in the recently released Intel 6 Series support chip set, code-name Cougar Point. This affects four currently-available Dell products, the XPS 8300, the Vostro 460, the Alienware M17x R3 and the Alienware Aurora R3 as well as several other planned products including XPS 17 with 3D.

Update: We have currently removed the four affected products from Dell.com.

For customers impacted by this issue, Dell offers a couple of solutions. Customers experiencing issues will be supported under the warranty and service terms. Once we have new chipsets from Intel in early April, we will provide a motherboard replacement that corrects the design issue at no cost to our customers. Replacements will be provided at the customers’ location and convenience via authorized Dell service providers. Affected customers may also take advantage of the applicable return policy, which may vary by region.

I’ll provide further details as they become available.

 

I was called on thursday by my dell rep and he told me that he has to cancel my m17x-r3 order because of the "you know what problem".

Therefore i've decided that i'm going with the M11x fully maxed out instead

 

I don't know if anyone's posted this so far, but it's a video of Intel's Stacy Smith on the Sandy Bridge issue... Courtesy of CNBC. I doubt it will give you guys anything more than you already know. My reason for posting this is to merely allow you to hear spoken word, rather than reading text on a screen and draw your own conclusions based on his body language and such.

msnbc.com Video Player

 

i have called a few times now and i have a EDD of 1/17 and everyone i talk to says that i will have it by my EDD. they have looked on the progress and havent said anything about holds or anything. so hopefully i get it.

 

Did you ask them about any delays due to the cougar point issue or did you just ask for your EDD? When I initially called I was basically told the same thing and that I would still receive my laptop by my EDD, (2/17) but after asking about delays due to the chipset issue I was transferred a few times to different CSR's before they gave me the option to either keep my order on hold until the issue was fixed, change my order to something else that isn't affected by the chipset, or cancel it altogether.

 

Already made a post in the R3 Order Status thread. Basically, I'm just providing the 2nd utterance of the same news. Hopefully because both of us have the same news, it means that Dell is really going to honor the warranty stuff. My guy told me that they may extend the warranty as well.

The csr/tech support guy I spoke to today said that there's a chance our orders will continue production. He said that it may change within the next few hours/days though, so I'm hoping for the best

 

Please do not cross post. if you want to discuss Dell's response/share info from calls to order support, etc., do so here.

 

Man that would be great! I'm right there with you. =)

And sorry about that BatBoy, I'll post everything pertaining to dell's response and order support in the appropriate threat in the future. =)

 

Man that would be great! I'm right there with you. =)[/QUOTE]

According to Order Status, is yours "In Production" or "On Hold" ? Mine's still "In Production" which was what the techsupport guy was referring to.

Also, re: the cross post---sorry, I temporarily forgot that we had this thread, cuz of my excitement/anxiety.

 

I think they should just keep making them. I doubt there will be a physical fix rather an entire replacement and then make it mandatory to get a free replacement. Where will all the old chipsets go

 

Straight back to Intel...