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

I have to agree with The Shirt. Every time im called, before they even mention anything they offer the R2. It seems to me also they are just trying to push older inventory. After 30+ min of talking i'm still getting the answer that my order will still ship as schedualled on the 14th. Have both confirmation in e-mail and voice recording, so Dell better deliever

 

LOL. That seems not right because Dell would have NOT charged you for the R3 if is hasnt been shipped - as they promised. The day before I called to cancel my order, Dell has had removed their charge completely. So, unless your order was through AAFES or something like that, I would ask them to make a new order right away. 5 days waiting just doesn't make sense.

How come that is a $3400 deal? Anyway, that offer is not fair at all, so I think you should ask for a better processor (840QM I guess, 940XM is too expensive)

 

LOL well i was surely charged

 

Trying to find out some info using the chat option from the alienware site.. atleast ill be able to understand them

 

same here. all $2,997 of it

 

ahhhh Im going crazy talking to these people...

 

now their saying since i havent recieve an offical email from dell about my order being affected that my order still ship as originally scheduled.... im more confused than when i started

 

Added link to post#1 - thanks to jedi for the heads-up post.

Lionel updated the direct2dell.com blog with the following (I've bolded a few select points that keep coming up in this thread):

The Dell KB Lionel mentions in his post can be found here:
Dell Platforms Impacted By The Intel Stop Ship Of The Cougar Point Chipset | Dell

Lionel's Blog Post is here:
http://en.community.dell.com/dell-b...l/archive/2011/02/02/intel-chipset-issue.aspx

 

yea but if you ntice that whole thing is dated Feb 2nd. It has been out for a while now.

 

February 10 = Today.

 

Are they saying that if we placed the order after Feb. 1st it wont be shipped? but those of us that placed it before will get ours? :S thats how im reading it neways

 

Noone that I have spoken to within the last 1.5weeks has ever given me that option. It's always been a "possibility," only after I ask them about that "possibility"...

@BatBoy: Does the Feb.1 thing refer to orders placed 2/1 or later, or EDD's of 2/1 of later?


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**So I got some updates for ya'll. Nothing new of course, but some interesting points that might intrigue ya.

So this morning on my drive to work in busy-downtown LA, I called the dell sales 1-800-999-3355, and asked to speak to an American rep. The Indian csr told me that he would try to get me an American rep, and to please hold while my call would be transferred. After almost 2 minutes of waiting, the call rerouted back to India, and I asked this new lady to please transfer me to an American rep if possible. She said that this was not possible, but she would try to transfer and I may or may not get an American rep. I waited a bit, and someone announced himself to me, as the Supervisor, whom I asked to transfer me to an American rep. He told me to hold on, and I got transferred. Not to an American rep, but to the "Unresolved Issues" dept or something liek that.

I spoke to this man, and told him about my situation, and he said that he very much understood my issue. We spoke a bit about the potential solutions that loom in the future (same old same old stuff everyone's been getting over the week), and he eventually assured me that Intel notified Dell that "a full recovery is expected by April." Sounds like the various articles we've been reading about, right? That's exactly what I told him. I then asked him about the possibility of continuing production of my unit, because "I really need it for school." He asked me to hold on, and after a few minutes, he came back, and said that he would send an email request to the "Manufacturing Team," to see if they can continue production of my unit. He then informed me that a response should be given within 24 to 48 hours, and the csr who is currently already working with me via email, will follow up with me. I asked him for an email confirmation, but he said he could not, and instead, just deferred to the fact that the csr will follow up with me.

I have not yet received a follow-up email regarding this request yet.

I did send an email to the csr last night though, which the csr did reply, and said something along the lines of "your order is in production as per the information from the factory but as I had informed earlier it is on hold. There is no movement on the production as we have not yet received any information from Intel how to get this resolved. As and how we get the information I will keep you updated about that. Out teams are still working with Intel so once the resolution is out I will get in touch with you."

So hopefully some good news tomorrow. Hopefully.

 

I have no idea. When I read his update I take it as -

If you have already received the system and want to return it, call.

If you have a current order and the status is 'Processing or In Production', as of FEB 1, its not going to ship. In that case, he's saying to either contact Dell directly for a refund or they will contact you.

He then goes on to say,

We will begin notifying customers via e-mail and or phone number beginning this week and next. At that time, you will have two options

1.Cancel your original order and place a new order for a different system not affected by this chipset issue, or

2.Leave your original order open. We will begin fulfilling these orders once we have received the updated chipsets from Intel.

He also mentions to be sure to respond when they reach out to you - otherwise they are going to assume you want the order cancelled.

Now, this is all subjective of course - you have to read it for yourself and decide what it means to you. Anyway, thats what I take away from his post.

When in doubt, call. Or, wait for the contact - he said this week or next they would start notifying customers. IMO, if you dont hear from them by Friday of next week, you better be calling.

 

Ah. Will def be calling tomorrow, cuz my EDD still says 2/16.

 

What is the actual status though? Is it still 'In Production'?

 

Yes. According to order status online, "In Production." EDD 2/16. On the phone via 1800ALIENWA, as usual, it says "In Production, in the Build Stage. Will ship out on 2/15. yada yada yada."

So waddya think?

 

I think they're just too busy to call all customers. I was hoping that my order would still be shipped, however, I decided to cancel.
Your order says EDD 2/16 and today it's 2/11 but yours is still "In Production". 12 and 13 are weekends so it is almost hopeless Sorry about that but Dell tends to put EDD later than the expected delivery date so I think you'd better call them now rather than waiting in hopeless.

 

I've been calling every single day. They've told me several times that my order is on HOLD, which is perfectly fine. Others have told me that there is a chance I might receive it. And today, the guy said he'd try to see if they can continue building it. I really don't expect any updates any time soon. Obviously they're dealing with the Intel issue, and would much rather hold off on sending units out and repairing them. It's a savings to them, so what do they care about our satisfaction? Even though Intel will pay for the parts, Dell still has to pay the contracted techs to come to our house. I get it from a business point of view. All we can do is hope though.

 

So in your case dookie, and this is only a guess based on what they posted,

If you have a current order and the status is 'Processing or In Production', as of FEB 1, its not going to ship. In that case, he's saying to either contact Dell directly for a refund or they will contact you.

I know, frustrating to no end.

Hang in there...

 

The letter in between E and G. Seriously.

So I've contacted Dell many times expressing to them that I DO NOT want it to be cancelled, and don't mind WAITING. This is all over the memo/log for my order #. Hoping they get the picture and won't contact me ever again about cancellation, and only contact me with good news lolz.

We'll see wassup, as usual.

Going to bed now. Good nite

 

sorry dookie. i missed that part.
However, I believe "see if they can continue production" is like an excuse. Prepare urself.

 

I'm right there with you man... I've never felt as though I was begging someone to take my money, but that's what it feels like to me. >.< Guess I'll just keep waiting. You'd figure though... It's been a week. Every day that Dell just sits there with their thumbs up their back side, more money is being lost. I know it's not their fault that they were sent bad chipsets by Intel, but they've really done a poor job of keeping customers (and potential customers for that matter) informed. At least enough so we'd have some sort of peace of mind. Oh well... I'm going to sleep too. I've gone over this enough for one day. We'll see what, if anything, happens tomorrow.

 

My only concern is:

"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."

So they are going to replace it even if we're not seeing 'degredation' yet right? Is having a tech replace the board really so bad or is this something I don't want to have to deal with (I already have mine)?

 

No worry, they will. A potentially bad product is a bad product no matter it happened or not.
I've heard a lot about Dell techs. If you dont trust them, I think you still have option to ship it back for replacement rather than get a tech come to your house. Why? Just call customer service and say you have to work, you do not have time waiting for a tech to come replace the motherboard.

 

Well, I have still not recieved any word from Dell and according to the phone system my computer is suppose to ship out today... I doubt it will but will keep my fingers crossed. I just wish they would update the phone or online order status to "on hold" or something, I think I'm losing my mind the amount of times I call or go online to check it!

 

Does the phone line say the order has shipped or that it is in production and is estimated to ship 2/11/11? The latest update on the Dell blog yesterday seemed pretty definitive to me that any system that didn't ship before feb 1st wouldn't ship with defective chipset mobo.

 

Yeah, that was my take on it too, my online/phone timeline and status are identical to dookie's, so I'm bummin' a bit right now. Pretty sure mine's not going to ship, no matter how much I might hope otherwise.

I bought this one because I'm going to get a notice to send in my XPS M1530 for the video card settlement at some point, and really didn't want to be without a laptop for 8 weeks while they twiddle their magic fingers at it. So now I'm going to be hoping that notice doesn't come for a while. Bought it through AAFES, so I'm already out the $1400, which blows.

 

Estimated ship date is today, it hasn't changed since Jan 27th, I'm pretty sure that it's not going anywhere, just wish they would updated the order status.

 

I should just change my sn to Ditto11, cuz I'm just as tired as all of you are. Go home and read the forums, wake up and read the forums, go to work thinking about the forums, call Dell on my way to work, during my lunch break at work, on my way home, and nada.

I just wish they would just ship them out already, despite how much money it would cost to repair later on.

 

My status has remained the same also. I guess in a manner of speak they are "in production" since this stage includes waiting for parts. Until Dell receives the new motherboards, I don't see how they will be able to update the order status. They can't give us a new EDD until they get the parts. Having said all that, the CSR that keeps calling me to update me on my order instists that it is shipping out on the 15th. Talk about the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing.

 

Glad to know I'm not the only one doing this... I think I'm starting to drive my husband crazy with the constant updates but at least I have this forum now (sorry guys ).

 

Speaking of spouses: A couple months ago we shopped for a new laptop for my wife and though she really wanted an Alienware due to the pretty lighting effects she really needed extended battery life that pushed her into a 17" HP with switchable graphics (which actually is a pretty sweet laptop). The M17x R3 exactly fit what I had in mind for my next laptop, and she was very jealous when I ordered it.

Now she's just laughing at my misfortune.

 

I am in the same boat!! Waiting on my replacement M17X R3 to be built for my 2 month old M17 X R2 which was a disaster. What a joke! 3 weeks without a laptop. Come on Intel!

 

i placed my order on the 27th an my original edd was the 16th(with standard 7 day shipping). the day the sandy bridge news broke i called a tec and he said that my laptop might be delayed 4~5 days so i requested a free shipping upgrade. about a week ago my order staus was updated to nbd shipping with a revised edd of 2/16 and has remaind the same ever since. this leads me to believe that the edd is just a guesstimate based order date computer type and shipping method (most likely computer generated) AND PROBABLY NOT A VALID INDICATION OF ANYTHING .

 

Agreed my order was placed on the 31st and EDD of the 22nd Feb (Work in Progress) for nearly two weeks now

 

you should try to get them to upgrade your shipping (if possible) this way when it is shipped you'll get it faster

 

At this stage it's just become a joke! Had every part of my R2 replaced! then the power brick gave up, it's sitting in it's box 3 weeks waiting to go back to Alienware!!

 

Well today is Feb. 11th that day it was supposed to ship. Now when i call the order status number it tells me that its still in production but doesnt give me a EDD. .

 

I don't think we will see the M17X R3 till April at the earliest!

 

Guys Maybe some good news???


Intel to Start Shipping B3 Stepping Cougar Point Chipset from February 14
Intel seems to have fast-tracked its Cougar Point chipset flaw rectification. The silicon giant claims that it will be in a position to start shipping B3 stepping of Cougar Point chipsets (Intel P67, H67, etc,) from 14 February, to OEM partners. According to the latest PCN (product change notification), number 110456-00 dated 2/9/2011, Cougar Point B3 will carry the following changes/features:
Revision ID will change from 04h to 05h
BIOS Update (Revision 1.1.4 of the BIOS Specification Update and Reference Code)
B3 stepping package is pin compatible with B2 stepping package
Minor metal layer change from B2 to B3 improving lifetime wear out with no changes to functionality or design specifications
Of the above, the last bullet point affirms that the SATA 3 Gb/s port defect issue, which caused physical parts of the chipset to wear out abnormally fast, degrading performance, is resolved.

 

Please include a source when posting news/updates.

 

Sorry Batboy Here is Link

Intel to Start Shipping B3 Stepping Cougar Point Chipset from February 14 | techPowerUp

 

found alot more sites with the same infor reported heres one for ex.
Intel to start shipping remedied Cougar Point chipsets on February 14th -- Engadget

 

thats good news!!!! mine wasnt suppose to be delivered until the 18th anyways so if mine is delayed it wont be for long

 

This lines up exactly with what I was told by Dell.

They're supposed to get the new chipset on the 17th, start re-processing orders then.

Hopefully this won't be so bad

 

I am working with an ASUS G1S-X1 which overheats so often that I have to remove the mother board and bake it in the oven at 385f for 8 minutes about once every 3-4 weeks to get the video back. I can't wait to get the R3!!! I had canceled mine and then reorderred it earlier this month, and now I have an EDD sometime in April. My wife has the Sager NP8760 which she gladly offers me, but then I would lose out on the R3 - no thank you.

Had I not cancelled and reorderred, I would have probably gotten mine with a EDD of Feb 11. Now its sometime in April. ARRGGHHH

====
Maybe, just maybe I won't have to wait for April ^-^. Thanks for the updates!

 

I'm sure you will get it earlier, especially now that Intel is sending out the production motherboards next week. I'm thinking an Early to mid-march.

 

Im sorry to laugh at you but thats hilarious lol ive never heard of anyone that had to bake their mobo lol u should make a video and send it to Xzibit so he can pimp your CPU >_<

 

Actually, this is quite a common solution to a problem that exists with a certain graphics processor. The full video, pictures, and detailed directions exist on the internet already in many locations and have for some time now. Unfortunately, I did not find them before I thrashed the first of two identical laptops that suffered this 2 year failure mode. That's why the wife has the Sager at this time. A similar solution also exists for a certain graphics card. I believed there are copies of these solutions posted even within NBR. Some were successful at pursuing the mfg of their notebooks and some were not. Some companies were forthright with extending a warranty to cover the problem. The solution I ended up following reflows the solder without melting the plastic - a careful balance. Yet the heat dissipation problem continues to exist regardless of using diamond paste or whatever. I have now cut several holes in the bottom of my casing and run an external fan in addition to the laptop cooler hoping that I no longer must use the oven technique. Once I get the R3, I might just leave it in there for longer than 8 min . There are stories of those who forgot to remove their batteries first amongst other components - a rather nasty ending to their boards. I thought I had the last laugh as I found a way to extend the life of my system so I could acquire the multipurpose notebook that I have been waiting on for a long time. Foolish me.... Intel took that moment from me. Now the question is, can I hold out long enough?

I realize this is a bit off topic, but it does stress the urgency of my desire for Intel and Dell to resolve this issue and deliver the products. It might also show some of my distaste for mfg and design problems, though I am personally impressed with how Intel and the other companies have handled it.

 

Mine was also placed on 1/27 (aka 1/28), and when I called a csr, he apologized for the inconvenience and did the best he could to help me, which at that time was change me from 7day to NBD. EDD is also 2/16. We'll see...

Who told you they're supposed to get the chipset on the 17th? My guy that I called today said possibly by the last week of February is when they'll have the new materials from Intel.

There's a thread about it in the Alienware section...do some reading first before you make this kinda comment. Why would someone just randomly say they're gonna pop their gpu into the oven? It would be weird, right?

Not sure you know, but ppl do some weird stuff to electronics to get it working (again). For example, when I was a kid, and our adapter for our NES went out, we stuck it in the freezer. Additionally, if we needed batteries which were worn out to work again (either the rechargeable or non-rechargeable kind), we'd also stick those in the freezer. And don't forget, we all used to blow our NES, SNES, and Genesis carts

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So I've got an update today.

This afternoon, during my lunch break, I called Dell. This time, I called the sales dept, hoping to talk to an American csr who gave me her extension a while back... Unfortunately, she wasnt available, so it redirected me to a diff American csr. I asked him if he was aware of the "Intel shenanigans", and he assured me that he was VERy aware of it. I then expressed to him how frustrating it was to keep getting diff answers from all the csrs I spoke to, whether they be from India, Philippines, or Costa Rica (I've never spoken to any Costa Rican csr, but you know ). I then asked him if the memos/internal information they receive in the Austin, TX office is the same stuff they get in the overseas offices. He assured me that most of it is the same information which is shared throughout their offices. I told him I still could not understand why I got different answers from everyone... He then said a few things and then told me about my options (Cancel, Hold, Wait, etc etc.). I quickly cut him off and told him to look at the notes under my order #, which hopefully will show that in each of my previous phone calls I expressed to EVERY csr that I do not want to cancel, and do not MIND WAITING if I have to.

So he took a look at the notes, and got back to me after a while. I then asked him if there was anything, if anything, he could do to help me in this process. I asked him to check what the actual status of my order was, and of course, he just told me it was "In Production." I then told him that this is the same that I've seen online for the last week, and its the same on the phone, and it's the same that every csr has told me. I then proceeded to tell him about the csr yesterday who tried to help me further, by sending an email to their manufacturing team to commence/continue manufacturing of my unit. He confirmed that indeed a request was put through, but no reply yet (I also have not received a response from the csr who was supposed to follow up with me). I then asked him if there was anything he could do for me. He said that he could try to put in a "Request to expedite my order, in hopes that the team will see that there is more than 1 of these requests, and will get the point and continue production." So hopefully, this aids in this, and maybe I'll get my unit by the EDD. The csr was nice enough to send me an email confirmation with a reference id, and his contact info too.

So hopefully, my time spent with him on the phone today will help somehow with my order... Perhaps everyone might want to try this too.