My new Alienware Area 51 m15x

oh im sure they wanted to. I would have wanted to!

 

Heathkidd, no offense, but you are talking madness. Even if we are to assume that this store exercise good business practice by testing the machine out for you (which, by the way, is extremely debatable as to whether that is indeed good practice or not), it's absurd to assert that that's what they were doing when they had the machine out on STORE SHELVES, installing their own software (which they did not remove before selling the machine), and letting customers at the shop browse around and play with a purchased machine. I mean..seriously? As was said earlier, a reseller has no right to unbox YOUR new product. Alienware does tests themselves. It's none of the store's business to take it upon themselves to test the machine without the owner's knowledge or consent.

Tyronne, in my opinion, you are being too lenient about this situation. Honestly, this is plain outrageous. Contact Alienware, and return this system immedietly. Also, I can't imagine much of a situation where an 8 year old should need her own computer...let alone a high performance gaming system like an m15x. I would strongly advise you to reconsider this extremely expensive purchase.

 

Well, i heard the story, and Heathkidd got some point, while others also got some good point. Sure they tested out the notebook, then they played on it and probably just as Heathkidd stated, that they ARE ACTUALLY testing it, Benchmark and whatnot and he's right, about the whole send the notebook back thing, the price and their place is isolated, hard to reach... We should broaden our view more and think about the other side of the story..

Yes, they are all supposed to tested all that however shouldn't they inform the customer that the notebook have arrived and we are testing it as such?

But the item that some mr.tyronne missing is what i actually notice and interested, Cds/DVDs and the Customer ID. Did you kinda like rush in and out of the shop? Maybe they forget to give you the items seeing that they are freaking surprised at you suddenly appearing and thus rushing to give the notebook back (probably piss their pants )

Go see them back and ask for the missing item first.. Reason with them, and tell them the legal consequences that they are gonna face if things should go bad. If the shop are legit and suppose to offer top-notch professional service as stated in their website, there should have been no problem. And ask about your notebook error and such... Do you have any friends that have really good knowledge of IT/notebook stuff? Let your friend come with you and he/she should inspect the situation if there's any foul play at all. The NBR member will try to help you in anyway possible should you want any type of information, as you probably know this site is full of information on that m15x.

Hope you got your notebook back... the m15x is a great laptop that YOU should be owning not your daughter, just a thought, not to offense anyone... peace.

 

@Heathkidd, maybe they did want to test it out to make sure it is 100% functional, but how about the ""Oh I thought you were'nt gona pick it up for 4 weeks" comment? also put it on counter for display? these 2 evidences clearly against your theory. also any professional computer user would know that they should never touch the screen, even just one finger print.

 

I think if u actualy went to this store u would understand that a "counter" to them is more like a small private office. U guys are treating this like a best bye or some thing.. compared to them this place is the most boutique of boutique honestly this is totally out of your realm of understanding and i think every one should stop making silly judgments on it..

other things to consider... maybe alienware Australia tells there resellers to benchmark there systems because they get them strait from shanghai or where even in china they are built... rather than relay them to Miami first...

there are so many unknowns and the Op seems to be fairly uneducated about hardware in general it really is unfair for a bunch of American Online Alienware order people to come in and expect exactly the same experience from a Australian reseller on the other side of the world in a highly isolated city with a very expensive import and mail system for technology.. (nun the less the first retail alienware store out side of miami if im not mistaken)

and the price?... thats the same for all Australians.. try going to alienware.com.au or any .au site tech prices dubble before even curency conversion you yanks have it so easy so don't dare bring that up you just look ignorant and spoilt

 

get a grip on yourself man. why in the world would they exhibit a product THAT'S ALREADY BEEN BOUGHT by a CUSTOMER and let every hobo coming through have a go on it? that just shows no respect for the paying customer.

 

Heath we aren't spoiled, and you can blame you Governent for th High import taxes. And if anything your exchange has come down quite a bit recently with the decrease in the US dollar. Not to mention the Australian government has finnaly opened it's doors to the US in forms of trade agreements and export laws. If I am not mistaken technology was one of those trade agreements.

And no I am not American. Just a well versed internatinal travler. Actually almost moved to Perth once. Kinda really enjoyed the place but it was just too far away for my family. Still have alot of friends there. And yes it really is isolated from the rest of Oz.

 

is the guy who started this post even still here? maybe he is stuck on his lil old oil rig for the next 6 months and all this debating is fruitless.

 

just in case he is still about ive bumped steves contact details here.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/member.php?u=17278

[email protected]

if you have not done so yet send steve an email explaining what you have told us on this thread and also post a link in the email to here.

tyronne
when you order a m15x using the AW website there is a section that asks you what you want written on the name plate. as you ordered this from a shop did they ask you what you wanted on there or was this not mentioned.
also did you receive all these accessories with your m15x
you should have received:
a black folder with the manual in it (16 pages of info).
also a white credit card with your name or your daughters name on it and also your account number and order number on it.
2 stickers for your touch pad and a return rma label.
if you purchased the respawn dvd then that disk should be in the folder along with a system recovery dvd, a mcafee virus scan disc if this was ordered, a area 51 vista support cd and a nero 7 essentials software cd for the inclusive burning software and finally an intel turbo memory cd if you ordered that upgrade.
also in the large thin black box you should have received a mouse pad and a AW baseball cap. not forgetting the silk bag the computer came in and the keyboard overlay quick guide.

if any of the above were missing you did not receive what you paid for so you have every right to kick up a stink and to be honnest i would bypass the shop and talk to their head office (as im not sure which customer service centre you would need to ring from oz).
good luck and let us know how you get on.

 

First of all sorry guys i got stuck on an oil rig for 3 weeks I am back now.

Adam Hicks from Alienware Technical Support has been helping me while i am away on an Oil rig.

Adam tried to send me an iso for the bios update but the iso after burning for some reason will not boot up on the blue ray drive it just gets worse and worse.

I used to shop at Austin computers but that will be the last time i will ever buy anything from them. I am still pissed off they put my daughters brand new laptop on counter display so that every slimy person could see and touch and play with her new laptop

thanks bro i did get the computer in a black box but the invoice was made to austin computers instead of my name i have taken photos of the invoice and will upload it or attach to this message.

Also i got 3 cds/dvds:

1. Intel turbo memory cd
2. WIndows Vista Ultimate DVD
3. Alienware respawn DVD 2.0

Didnt get a card with my name and account detail and certainly didnt get the name plate with my daughter's name on it.


Update: just spoke to someone named John (Sales) at Alienware he told me Alienware has stopped using accounts globally which means all drivers are now available to everyone.

John also told me name plates are not available in UK or Australia but he is going to order me one if i write him an email so here goes.

Thanks for all the help guys.

 

Hope you can get it all sorted out.

 

BS! nameplates are definitely available in the UK... and it's in the features section on Alienware's Australian site...

 

That's what i thought - why do they keep on lying to me all the time? this is sad really. Oh well I rang them up and they are ordering me a name plate they reckoned it would get here in 3 weeks


Just ordered an Apple Macbook Air for my daughther today hope all the bad experiences we have had with the Alienware agent and Alienware Laptop it self will be subsided by the new beautiful fully working great quality from Apple.

 

When I ordered my m15x in Australia mid-April, the laser engraving was not available.

From what I understood, Alienware only have one laser etching machine that does the nameplates as it is a fairly large and expensive machine. It is located in US and as such the laser name engraving is only available to US Alienware customers.

What I can't understand is why can't the nameplates be laser engraved seperately without the need for the whole laptop? From m15x photos it looks like those 4 screws that hold the name plate in are easily removed.

Surely if UK or Australian customer wanted this service they could send in just the unscrewed metallic name plate?

I can only spectulate that the reason for this is that:
1) The laser engraving process is part of the manufacturing i.e. treadmill production process. As such it happens at the end of the production only = the whole laptop goes into the laser engraver. This may be similar to the laser engraving on Apple iPods...however this in itself is a guess.

2) The cost involved in sending away for nameplates, let alone whole Alienware laptops, to the US purely for laser engraving is not beneficial to Alienware and/or customer in terms of delivery time, final price of the laptop, etc.

Just a thought...

Personally I'm not too fussed about it although it would be a nice security and personalization feature. Given the look of the screws that hold the nameplate in place, perhaps you could take it to a engraver to get done on your own?

...maybe it's not such a good security feature if it can be taken of that easily to get engraved?!

bah.

 

Laser engraving is available in UK too

I guess they can afford a third if necessary

 

It may be a Commonwealth but we are still island.

*sigh*

I guess there are other options for Aussies who want their laser engraving:

http://www.engravingplus.com.au/
http://www.freshpromotions.com.au/laserEngraving.asp

Comes down to cbf I guess.

I just hope my m15x hasn't been psudeo-tested as has been described by others purchasing in Australia. I'm guessing not as I ordered from Alienware Australia directly and the m15x has been out for a while, therefore the temptation to 'test' a system should be gone.

 

you do know that the MBA has overheating problems since its so thin right? when the MBA gets hot enought one of the cpu cores turn off i think.

 

It just shuts down exiled.

 

Hi guys after a few months being away offshore i have finally arranged to send my laptop back.

I have a probem with a screw gone missing from my screen at the bottom right hand corner leaving my screen peeling apart from the screen holder yikes.

My alienfx lighting all the sudden just died and wont work

but a good tech guy called Adam is arranging to fix my laptop so i'll be without it for awhile.

The Austin Computer Owner still pissed me off with putting my new laptop on their counter display to advertise my new laptop on their counter so their slimy customers could touch it. Man that really pissed me off still.

I need a new laptop like the lamborghinni one but i dont know where to buy it. Anyone know where to buy the Lamborghinni Laptop?

 

Wow, that really sucks. Almost everyone here had to return theirs. It seems like almost everyone who's had their m15x for a while has had that happen. You should consider getting this with a custom paint job:

http://www.xoticpc.com/sager-np8660-built-clevo-m860tu-p-2411.html

 

lol the quality of my m15x is like a Hyundai no where near the price i paid for.

Anyhow I am going to get myself a new laptop the Lamborghinni version i dont know who make them but i want it so i could forget the m15x nightmare.

 

the $3000 asus lamborghini laptop ripoff?

 

yeh that's it the Asus do you guys recommend it? i am too embarrassed to use my Alienware at work people laughing at me saying i paid too much for very old looking laptop that is flawed with faults and bad luck.

So i need a new one bad.

 

Do you play games a lot on your laptop? If you do, I wouldn't recommend the Asus Lamborghini at all. Hell, even if you don't, the Asus Lamborghini is overpriced and isn't that great.

 

for the price and the performance you get....definitely not...

an 8600 for 3000...go for the xps m1530. 8600 for 1500. even a fully speced m1530 is cheaper than the lamborghini and it will be faster and better in every way.

 

I'm almost positive your co-workers have never had a single AW product and are just getting off on every mistake AW makes. This forum only represents a small number of owners. Not that the m15x is flawless, of course it's not. It's really not godawful though.

If after 6 or more months my m15x is still in crisp condition, I'm writing a review. Positivity towards Alienware seem scarce these days. Although, some people do have good reasons to harbor negative feelings, I believe AW still deserves support. Rasping them doesn't make them any better, just more bitter.

 

I was planning to buy the m17x but i wont now due to the poor quality of the m15x. I kept the m15x because my daughter had a bad experience with Austin Computers putting her new laptop on counter display. She felt robbed of experiencing the feeling of owning the awesome laptop. I have bought her a Macbook pro since and she loved it.

I am now faced with owning a bad m15x and dont know what to do with it or who to give it to because i have a lot of nephews and nieces. But i definately need to get a new laptop that could handle games.

Dell is AlienWare so i am not going to buy Dell.

 

I am too scared to buy m17x because of the horrible quality of my m15x.

When i go to the board room every one there has very expensive laptops - i just feel so embarrassed my m15x doenst put a stop to their smirky smiles.

 

Dell and Alienware are still separate companies, you'll get completely different support and quality from both of them. I wouldn't just give away a notebook that you spent so much on, try contacting Alienware and see what they say. BTW, Apple is coming out with new MacBook Pros in a few weeks, do you like Mac OS X at all?

 

Hi there Tyronne.
Reading through your posts... I was just wondering if you could post pictures of your "screen holder", as I suspect you might be case number 9 of the M15x's hinge breaking.
Would you be able to shed some more information regarding that.
Also, if you could post some pictures of it, that would be extremely helpful.

Cheers and good luck,
M

 

Here are the photos of my horrible nightmare please dont look it will make you sick !!!!

 

looks like we have number 9 now. you could try to get a refund and get the m17x. i heard the build quality is way better than the m15x.

 

wtf this is a common problem? the Tech guy told me that this is unheard of? The screw that was supposed to hold it totally disappeard.

 

Well... you are the 9th owner reporting the exact same problem.
Some people will still claim this is only by chance and there's no statistic relevance into it... but well!
Browse down on the 1st post of the following thread:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=254627

You will see several pictures of other owners that have had the exact same problem as you did.

ps: I just want to add that the thread I created to specifically address this issue has been closed and I was almost banned for compiling this information.
More than ever, that thread proves how useful it could have been...

 

Thanks for the info Milc

 

I can only imagine how many more people are out there that also thought they were unlucky... Life has a funny way of showing us things...

 

Hey Milc thanks bro i feel better now that i spoke to Adam from Alienware Tech Support.

Adam is a great help and is trying to do what he could to help the situation. We have been very patient with it all hopefully it will get rectified.

We are also starting to see the gery cover around the keyboard edge is starting to warp due to the heat being generated.

Oh well ....

 

The problem is they didnt put it on their desk in a private office. My laptop was out in the open where they put all their computers on display. It had fingerprints all over it. Their customers were playing games on it.

So ... they are quality testing my computer by using their customers to play games on it and leaving all their greazy slimy finger prints all over it?

Tell me when you are going to spend $6000 for a brand new laptop .. i would like to invite my friends over before you pick it up. Let see how you feel after we finish quality testing your $6000 new lapto that was supposed to be a present for my daughter?

IF that is quality testing service to you then i would hate to go shopping with you.

 

Just sent my Alienware m15x Laptop back to Alienware I really dont want it back after all that bad quality build i have lost the love for it.

A bad Laptop is like a wrecked car no one wants

Since i have no laptop now i went out with my wife and daughter to the Apple Store and bought us a new iMac



Cant belive Apple iMac doesnt even come with BluRay infact none of their computers come with BlueRay and they are supposed to be multimedia guru lol.

 

@Tyronne - No offense but you seem to just buy stuff without contacting any of us on the forum. I don't know everything about macs but in my honest opinion the macbook would have been better suited for your daughter.

In addition, Dell computers are great. I know I've told you or you've seen that Dell owns AW but does not control them. Dell has disassembled my sisters whole computer to replace a motherboard AT MY HOUSE. AW would never do such a thing. Dell does not = AW and I think a lot of their models are very nice.

 

I just want to give you a tip, you can expect to see much better iMacs (along with the rest of the Mac lineup, why not get yourself one of the new MacBook Pros?) in September, so it might be smart to return this one (you have a 14-day no questions asked period and 31 days overall) and wait.

 

i cant return it now because i actually bought it for my wife to use when she's not busy at home. She loves Apple iMac - already bought a Macbook Pro for my daughter

 

Updates: Just spoke to ALienware they have received my returned laptop the m15x.


They will speak to me again tomorrow after they check my laptop inside out.

I am scared if they fix it by replacing the panal it will break again because the quality of this laptop is like a an Australian Ford or a Korean Hhundai car.

The question is, if they replace it will it get broken again? Dont know only time will tell and i will need to folk out more money to buy warranty upgrade specifically for this laptop line.

THe m17x would be an alternative although it will cost me more and wont be too user friendly when it comes to boarding planes and choppers.

My life revolves around flying in and out of the country, frequent hotel rooms and travelling so I really need my m15x back

 

didnt you say you spent $6000 on the AW. if you did you can try asking for store credit and then buy a max specced m17x and you will probably still have around $2000 in credit left.

 

it was actually $5600 AU --> Australian Dollars. We used to live in USA but have moved to Australia not long ago. Everything is so much more expensive here Australia.

We bought our computer from Australia.

I'll find out tomorrow after noon - they'll make decisions on it. Knowing Australia - they would just wanna rip me off because in Australia people love ripping each other off.

 

Geez why would they wanna close such a great thread designed to help, inform, and warn others of such malfunctioning product?

I love your thread - great work and it will come in handy one day for a lot of people.

 

If you have a couple year warrintee on it. See if you can upgrade to the next Gen. 15.4 Alienware laptop.

 

i never heard of next generation 15.4 what is that?

 

there is none. just unsubstantiated rumours.

 

hey folks good news:

Today Alienware rang me and gave me a refund. I am going to order the m17x, from a good source they are like chalk and cheese the difference in quality build.

Great stuff. But i wont be able to get it for at least a month and a half i am flying back offshore soon

They both come from different factory. What those idiots did to my daughter at Austin Computers is now history. They lost my business for good.


I am totally impressed with Alienware, their professionalism has more than impressed me.

Another good news my name plate has finally arrived at Alienware head quarter things are looking up from here.

THANK YOU ALIENWARE FOR FIXING MY PROBLEM AND HELPING US PUT THIS NIGHT MARE BEHIND US.