Roswell That Ends Well

A Roswell the ends well, well almost.

Hey all, I've been lurking this forum for a while, found it coincidently when the m15x's started the GPU downclocking, although not an m15x owner I thought I wanted to share my experiences with Alienware, its a long read but I think its worth it, here goes

Readers Prerequisites:
1. I always forget the diffrence between "to" and "too"
2. Same goes for "were" and "where"
3. I never ever once yelled or got angry when speaking to Alienware, I always made sure to stay calm, person at the other end of the line is never to blame
4. Now that we have established im not a retard, continue reading

If youre not in for some reading, skip to the bottom of my post where I should have everything summed up for you

Now for those that love a wall of text here goes:

My experience with Alienware, the brand, the machines, the CS and their managers:

My story with Alienware starts around January 2007, while strolling over CES'07 I see the m9750 and emidiately want one. Reluctant to wait for its release I decide to invest (yes an investment, thats how I view their machines) in an m9700 (ML42, SLi 1GB the lots). Order was placed 03/28/2007, around 9phases and 1 1/2month later plus multiple difficulties getting DHL to deliver I finally received the beast. Let me tell you, first impressions REALLY last, that was a thing out of this World and I hadnt even turned it on yet. But thats were the fun stops:
As I turned the laptop revealing its belly I found that the back cover hadnt been tidly fastened, there was a crack from the battery compartment to were the memory is located, I let that problem fly, a quick press fixed the issue, but made me worry...
Within its first month I discovered a dead pixel in quadrant 4 I believe they called it. After contacting their CS and they requesting I take a picture of it and send it to them, I kinda let it float, couldnt be bothered doing it -plus admitting it had an error wasnt something I was ready todo (think im not the only one doing such).

Around September'07 I started getting immense slowdowns while taxing the system, around 5-10secs intervals and then back to full throttle (great game btw). I thought I had fried something, but as I noobly discovered, I just had to clean the fans and everything was a-ok. Well I thought it would be...

The following month I went from a 3DMark06 score of the ~5kish to ~2.4kish. After contacting AWs CS's they send me 2new gfx cards, proclaiming the old ones were busted. I had to wait an incredible 3weeks for them to arrive, exchanging them resulted in a more stable gaming performance, but not as it once was when I received it.

But I was content, 2 new cards and back to almost normal performance made it all worthwile, until I wanted the newer SLi profiles for Bioshock etc.
I decided to install a newer driver from Laptopvideo2go.com, the install went smooth and SLi enabled without a glitch, but but but , every game I loaded suddently had "yellow/white" vertical lines with around 1cms space between them (see Picture 1 for reference), syncronized with my FPS (a techno bloke would have loved this show in a dark room, anyway).
I ofc called AW CS again and informed them of my problem, I was then told that the "modified" driver I was using was the cause of all this, though true, modified drivers have in the past shown instability towards mobile systems and so forth. The strange issue was, with Alienwares obsolete driver for the m9700 I didnt see ANY artifacts while "gaming", as soon as I changed to a newer one, the errors were back. Unsatisfied with this I took the Vista plunge and used the newer m9700 driver. The artifacts were back and I could finally convince AW CS that there was a hardware problem.
They decided on sending me a new SLi cable + SLi bridge (what ever that is). These items I never received, though calling multiple times these where never shipped to me. I still continued to use the machine for Notepad+MsPaint (non taxing stuff which I found suitable for this paper weight .

The final "straw" came when the machine would freeze when using the inbuilt memory reader and (see Picture 2 for reference) these lines would randomly appear when booting or wakening the laptop from sleep/hybernation/plain'ol'crapness. AW CS agreed that it would be time to ship the baby back to its mothership for scheduled maintenance. Here is were the REAL fun begins. Upon receiving the system till I got it back more than 1 month had passed, though I made numerous calls requesting status updates, being able to speak with the technician in charge, I was unable to receive ANY status whatsoever on its repair.
Out of nowhere I receive a T&T for the system being in transit to me. I call AW CS to inquire what had been done to it, if any, this is what I am told: "We have replaced the SLi cable and Motherboard since they were found faulty". What joy, finally I get a working specimen.....
Now we are around the start of December'07, I receive the system back in the same condition as I shipped it. Same dual boot between XP and Vista, artifacts are all there, it still freezes when using the inbuilt memory reader etc.
Motherboard wasnt changed (checked with my old SN, had it written down since I felt I couldnt trust these guys)
2 days after this its on its way to Alienware again...

Now it gets really really good, I received the system back around December 22nd-23rd:
This is the condition I received it in: Picture 3-7
Both HDD bays including HDDs where hanging out of the laptop, the backcover was again not sealed shut, but to add extra to the insult, 2 of the 3 screws were also missing+the OS's were intact...
I wrote a complaint, listing all my problems with the system and how I felt I had been mistreated (is that even a word to use, anyway). In hopes of getting the attention of their American counterpart, I CC'd the mail to [email protected], only to find they both go into the same "inbox". Complaint was sent December 25th and registered around 27th-28th. After waiting till january the 7th-8th, and I had NOT recieved a written response or call from AW I picked up the bone and started the process:

This made me furious, when contacting Alienware I requested to speak to a manager, which promised to call me back within the next day. That call never came...
Waiting 1 week I called again demanding to speak to a manager, I got the same reply as everyone else, bla bla all managers are in a meeting/lunch/breakfast/gone'to'bed. After being on hold for roughly 1 hour I finally got a hold of one.
After explaining my ENTIRE case (sorry for all the reading here) he told I had to ship it back to them, at this point I requested either a refund or a new system, which I was told was not Alienwares policy and could not be expedited...Plus adding even more to my frustration, he upright told me I was lying concerning the missing screws and hanging HDDs, since before every system gets shipped, their "quality assurance team" goes trough each one making sure everything is A-OK, hint Alienware, hiring blind people for this task is bad (Readers notice, I have nothing against blind people, just putting a joke). This took place on January the 7th or 8th (can't remember the exact date).

Giving AW one week after receival of my system I give them a ring requesting any status updates on the machine. I am told a technician had "dropped" my precious on the floor, thus making me "liable" for a new pc (same model, but new chassis etc). I go what the heck, just make sure it works.
I receive the "new" system on February 02/07/2008, and much to my joy, everything is working....Finally!

Well, here comes 04/22/2008.....
Suddently out of nowhere, the screen on it won't come on, I have to close the lid 3times before I get a signal on the screen. I ignore this thinking its Vista+Nvidia making fun of me. I get home and bam, no more signal when turning on the pc/booting. I only get a picture when I hook it up to an external monitor.
Called AW again, they have me take out the gfx cards (as I have done sooo many times before) and try each seperately, nothing works. Finally I am told the "LCD Inverter Cable" is bad and needs to be replaced, thats when I kinda had enough. I kindly say thanks for the help to the CS and inform that I want all of this written down what just had occured and it was about time to speak to someone with different options than sending it in.

Next day I call AW and proceed with two demands: 1. Full refund, 2. A spanking new system.
Beforehand I had contacted "Forbrugerstyrelsen" that whats its called in Denmark, think its "Bureau of Consumer Affairs" in EU, anyway on with the show, just to listen to my rights as a customer, getting their word that my demands I was proposing werent proposterous, I let that information slip to Alienware.
Within 24hours a manager calls me (they can actually call back) asking what I would say to a brand new m9750 loaded to the max. I am over "happy" (need an abbrevation for that) and ofc comply and forget about my past trouble with Alienware.

Now now now, yes I had hoped I could write an happy ending, but right now I am looking at my new m9750, just sitting there on my desk, taunting me with its faulty primary GFX module. Yes I received it tuesday the 27th of May and in non working condition.
LOL and WTF, how can one be so freaking unlucky, well I am supposed to receive a replacement card on Friday the 30th, wish me luck.

Why am I writing all this, its not to bash Alienware, I would still buy an Alienware, heck even with all the troubles I have gone trough. Their systems have a certain aestetic feel to them, something all the other laptops I have owned didnt. I just wanted to share all this with you, my head is exploding with my bad luck, had to get it vented out
In hopes of Alienware and others reading this, I freaking hope I am a "worst case scenario".

Anyway thanks all for reading this, feel free to ask questions to specific issues I had with the system and or their support.

LOL its actually been over 1 year I havent had a working system....

Quick summary: There is none, go read

BTW: I dearly hope all you guys with your M15x and its problems will get those resolved quickly. Don't wait 1 year as I did, go get em

PS: I posted this on notebookforums aswell, I started out getting support from the fellow likes there, im not an attention seeking "whore" just wanted to share this.

PPS: Futurama all the way

 

Right... read all that and it was pretty entertaining . I'm actually sorry for you - it looks like you having mentioned that Forbrugerstyrelsen to them scared them off a bit; did they advise you that you could ask for a refund and a new system?


Ah I don't know... if I was AW I would think that you're doing something to the GFX cards on purpose hehe.

 

I would never ever get an alienware.

 

Hey Rambo I did, and won't do it again lol..

 

@Crystak, "Forbrugerstyrelsen" informed me that my "demands" were totally OK, and if Alienware wouldnt comply or provide an alternative, they would follow up and pursue a case for me. Though that can often take up to 1 year to process, but still, its nice not to feel like the "little" guy in that situation.
Yeah, I really don't get it, me+gpu=bad or something. Thanks for taking the time to read

 

your super unlucky,at least they responded and attempted to give you a working system.i bet they have a folder just for you

 

sorry to hear of all your troubles Sunksat

all i can say is join the club. actually we are joining your club as youve had problems for ages and ours are only from the last 4 months.

 

Wow that's pretty bad.
If you think of what it must of cost them (well in terms of products) as opposed to sorting it from the beginning, how are they not in serious debt?

 

Haha, that made me laugh, good one. They probably got an entire department researching the support of me

Anyway forgot to add the pictures, here they are.

 

Those pictures are just astonishing. Missed screws, broken Graphics cards, harddrives obviously hanging out..

I'm seriously regretting buying an alienware, but if it does come a lemon i'm certainly getting a full refund...
I am probably going to regret saying this but.. i thought alienwares are to last? If people are having problems in the first months of receiving it, this is just going to be one expensive hassle.

EDIT: And yes, i do understand that a vast majority of people that come here actually have problems therefore are wanting help with them, maybe i shouldn't of googled "Alienware m15x review" that one day...
And what baffles me is that there are so many high scoring reviews, yet there are so many problems.

 

Haven't seen a review yet that touched on all the Downclocking. Chaz's review mentioned it, but his unit was ok after further testing with the updated BIOS.

 

Is the downclocking issue easy to fix?

 

alienware has one chance with me. if i get a lemon or it doesn't perform the way it was promised, then im going for a refund right away. having to send the system back that many times after you payed for it and still not having a working laptop isn't right.
doesn't matter how nice these things can be, if they're not, then thats it. one chance.

 

I think me and lost1nceaga1n have got the same mind set.
I'm a kid, and when it comes to these things i am incredibly impatient, so if it doesn't work the first time, i'm sending it back and buying something else

 

not if its the cpu. Alienware refuses to talk about it besides the normal we are aware of the issue.

 

@Eltocliousus, im more than sure yours will perform just fine, and to your big surprise without problems, btw have fun with the Phase Game, nothing really beats it

Found the last picture I wanted to upload, this is taken around Christmas time last year, it looked like this ½the time it woke up from standby/hibernation/poweron, reinstall didnt fix it btw. Lots of smudgy fingers on the machine, but but but, nothing todo about that now hehe.

 

I hope your right Sunskat,
The picture above looks like you've been touching every possible spot you can

Taco, how would you fix the CPU issue, ive heard you install a bios update but is this hard or just a simple .exe point and click install.
Also the GPU downclocking is hard to fix?

 

haha eltocliousus. nice.

We deserve a quality product with the amount of time and money spent.

sorry sunksat, hope you get a working system soon.

 

The GPU downclock is fixed, even thought the GPU works at quite high temps.
The CPU downclock has been only recently reported and, I'm afraid, you won't find any solution for it. CPU's fan is ALWAYS on (unlike the GPU fan on older Bios) but still its uncapable of preventing the CPU to slowly climb up to 92C. My CPU is being stressed for around 4 hours now and, even if the downclocks are very rare, the CPU is stable at 92C now. Any slight increase in temp, and there's the CPU downclocking. Bottom line... No Bios will solve this one, I'm afraid.

Regarding the Bios update, it's quite easy. Download an image file, burn it into a cd and boot your computer from it. Voila...

 

Well right now there is no way to fix the cpu downclock. bios update is pretty simple you just have to burn the iso you download from myhive and then boot from that cd, but if you have problems with this you can talk to AW tech support and they will walk you through the process.