Using an Alienware in Public: Tips to deal with Alienware-hating trolls and bullies

You can. Just select black as the lighting color for the track pad. In order to do that you must launch AlienFX and deselect the box at the lower right (near chain link icon) to not link all of the zones together.

 

Cool thanks. I sent back a M14xR1 and waiting on the new guy M17xR4 to get here. I tried to select black messing with m14 and that was the one color it wouldn't select, so no I can't wait to try you tip.

 

Exactly.

People who purchase a Sager think they're getting a good deal, but whenever it breaks down, GL!

---

For those who are unaware, Sager has their headquarters in California.

If your laptop breaks down, no matter where you are, YOU, the buyer, have to pay shipping out of your own pocket one-way. Then you have to wait several weeks and their phone support is below average. If there's still something wrong with it once it gets returned to you, guess what? You're not going to see your laptop for a long time!

Even if you purchase it from a reseller and the reseller assures you that he'll handle the warranty, it's still weeks and weeks of waiting/mailing.

If you pay over 1000$+ for a gaming laptop, why the hell should you pay 50-60$ to ship it if it breaks and wait 3-6 weeks to get it back?

 

this is the exact reason why i finally decided to go for alienware instead of sager.
i live 9000 miles away from LA, CA. imagine if anything went wrong with my sager. compared to alienware where dell have an authorized service center here and only half an hour away driving, and they can and will handle any alienwares.
plus the final price for my exact same spec between the two is only about USD150 more expensive on the alienware, its a no brainer imo.

 

The short answer is, "you should not have to." Having to pay anything extra to use a warranty you've already paid for is bogus. I actually consider that the equivalent of defrauding the customer. A machine is only as good as its warranty, and a warranty is only as good as the company that needs to fulfill it. Compounded by unreasonable wait times, I consider that type of service to be a massive failure. It's not unique to Sager. I have experienced similarly terrible warranty service with HP. Setting aside all the anecdotal comments about reliability among brands, things can and do go wrong with all brands, and the Dell warranty service make the purchasing decision a no-brainer.

 

don't even get me started on how bad HP support is.......

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S2 using Tapatalk 2

 

I hear ya! It's taken 4 months for them to finally pick up my DV6... -.-"

Dell's support is brilliant, NBD... Too bad of all the chaos and stuff up's they keep doing to me atm..

 

LOL, believe that was me. I remember typing that exact nomenclature. Still yet to take mine out in public, but will be traveling soon, so we'll see.

 

yeah take pride in it, i'm a company CFO and i will be taking the AW to my office every day. and i met a lot of people everyday, clients and suppliers, bank reps, and i won't be ashamed.
provided i didn't order the red ones and won't be turning the keyboard backlights on when i'm in the workplaces.
right now i'm using asus g73jh, i know its not as controversial as AW in the looks department, but still, ppl don't care, as long as you did your job well done and you didn't use the pc for games during work time.
job results are much more important than the looks of your equipment, at least for me.

 

If you get bullied over your AW, then respond by taking the aluminum chassis of the M18x and slamming it across their skulls. That'll shut them up..in many cases permanently.

/sarcasm


P.S. I take my M18x on rounds with me when I'm at the hospital. I keep it in the locker but bust it out when I'm on break and all the doctors and nurses love it. Worst comment I got was "wow its so BIG". Other than that they all love it and mine's red with all the LEDs turned on 24/7.

 

Nothing better than setting up next to a MBP user at starbucks and whipping this bad boy out My lights are set to Astral Aqua

 

I have a question for everybody here who has ever used his AW in public spaces like starbucks.

I always thought the glossy lid was unusable outside anything but a dark room?

 

As long as I face the windows I've never had a problem, now if my screen is facing the windows, that is where it's less than ideal.

 

It depends on how much you like (or dislike) looking at yourself whether its a problem or not.

 

Since this comes up often enough: Can tell somebody explain to me what is the purpose of sitting with a laptop at starbucks at all? To me it has always been kinda of cheap hippster/emo pose to do that, if you know what I mean. It seems very similar to the "oh I have 1000 friends on facebook so I'm cool" vibe. Thanks in advance.

 

So writers can write in public so people will know they are writers . Also, decent free WiFi, drinkable coffee, and pastries (all important things while gaming on a laptop)

 

If you want less glare, get one of those green onion anti glare screen protectors.

 

I never have time to sit in a Starbucks, and if I did I would not be interested in doing that.

 

Ditto.
10char

 

Ha ha... glad we're not alone. It's like oil and water.

 

I was wondering about these - do they actually work well???

The ONLY thing I really screwed my nose up at when ordering my M17X was the glossy screen. I replaced my last laptop because the glossy screen annoyed me. I just replaced my desktop monitor also for no other reason than disliking the gloss esp since it is next to a window

And I loved the M17X enough to overlook this massive -MASSIVE- flaw. That, and I intend to use the desktop screen 95% of the time as it is my desktop replacement.

I will admit that I can see why theyve kept it gloss... the laptop does look awesome with that completely gloss frame. And satin/matte would look significantly worse. but. but.

-Tristan

 

from what I understand, there is a significant lessening of the the glare, and it doesn't dull the screen much at all. The only problem is that its can be hard to put on without bubbles, but there are decent video guides on youtube that should help walk you through the process. If your nervous about the affect, just buy one from amazon, its cheaper than it is on dell's site, and amazon has hassle free returns on everything.

 

I've found SB an invaluable resource at times. Some people [me] have problems focusing on work/studies while at home and, find being out in a more public space, or just away from the house, incredibly motivating.

I spent almost two months in January and February this year at a local SB studying for the Ohio Bar. I would not have been nearly as motivated or as focused had I spent that time studying at home.

It had nothing to do with being a poser/emo/hipster [If you know me, I’m pretty much the antithesis of those things] and more to do with finding a usable space with decent tables away from the house.

I agree that most/many of the people one sees “studying”/”working” at SB fit the poser/emo/hipster vibe, not that there is anything wrong with that. But not everyone who utilizes the space SB provides falls into those categories. Some of us just need a place to study/work away from our TV/ESPN.

 

I've found that solitude is sometimes very valuable. I know that some folks go to McDonalds for the same reasons, along with fee wifi. If you are trying to study and have small children at home, that can also be very difficult. It's unreasonable to expect kids to be quiet for extended periods of time... which could present a problem at McDonalds during the wrong time of day, too.

 

Plus the Wi-Fi can be ungodly slow too.

 

I would imagine so. It is super-slow in most of the hotels I stay at. I often get better results with CDMA EVDO access with my Android phone and Bluetooth tethering than I get from public wifi access.

 

Also had nothing to do with the large amounts of ADD curing caffeine right?

 

I've only ever gotten grief for owning an AW from 3 sources:
* Online, from people usually parroting misinformation, exaggerations, and/or accounts of a few bad experiences (not that those aren't incredibly frustrating, but people don't seem to realize that a few bad machines =/= the whole line or brand).

* Members of the Church of Apple - who seem to hate anyone's gear if it's not got an 'i' in front of the name. These always make me roll my eyes, they spend as much or more, and for what? A high-end brand, same as me. The only person I've conceeded a point to is a co-worker who stated his priority in any machine is extreme portability, ie. picking it up with two fingers and a thumb - definitely not something you can do with my AW, though maybe with an m11x? In my book, in every point but that one, AW beats out Apple.

As Mr Fox has pointed out though, trying to argue those points with any of the above is a complete waste of time.

* My spouse, who admitted later that it wasn't so much the pricetag that was upsetting as the jealousy that I was going to have a much better machine. I had to promise I wouldn't inadvertently rub it in, in my excitement. No snarky comments have been tossed my way about the purchase since it arrived, though.

I enjoy showing it off at work on the few occasions I've brought it in. Since seeing mine in action our BioInformaticians have started poking the head of IS to see if they can get one, because of the sheer muscle.

As to possible generational or gender gaps, I'm 38 and Female. Also, my Dad - the person responsible for making me a computer, sci-fi and gaming geek - is jealous of my m17x and is planning on buying an m18x. He's in his mid 60's. So I have to agree with others here and say it's not really an issue. Haters are just haters, regardless of age or gender.

I think the best comment I've ever gotten was "Isn't that the same brand they have in 'Big Bang Theory? Wicked awesome!'" I hadn't realized till I heard that. Indeed.

^ This was one of the biggest selling points for me, (aside from the descrete video card and LEDs), and something I point out to people I know who are thinking about one. Even though I didn't pay for an extended warranty, myself.

It seems to me the Dell/AW brand is geared as much to hardware hacking/modding enthusiasts as to Gamers, and the way the Warranty is written kind of reinforced that opinion. I repair computers as a part of my job. I wanted a laptop that I could easily upgrade for some time. Not that I ever rely on Warranty - which is why I never buy the extensions. I'd rather fix it myself. But if something should go catastrophically wrong with the stock components in the first year, I want to know that any upgrades I might have made wouldn't necessarily void my ability to be supported by the Vendor without having to jump through hoops to hide my upgrades. And I love that they come to you, more often than not. =)

Something to keep in mind re: cost is because of the warranty, if you know your way around hardware and online marketplaces, you can buy a lower end version of your model and upgrade it to be more powerful on your own for much less than Dell would charge you. That's what I'm doing, though I'm a bit hampered by a lack of pocket money at the moment. But I find that enjoyable and fun, so I realize it's not for everyone.

Ditto about HP's Support & Warranty "service"! It's no better for their business end, no matter what anyone says. In my personal opinion, their builds are crap too. But it's worth noting that I'm heavily biased after all the insanity I've dealt with from them. In my experience, with pretty much any brand you should assume you're on your own unless you have days to blow on hold and don't mind getting your machine back scratched, missing bits, HDD Wiped, and/or possibly in worse condition than when you sent it out.

I was very concerned with this when I realized AW didn't come with a Matte screen. But by then I had already decided on one so I just bit the bullet and hoped it wouldn't be as big a problem as I feared.

Where I usually use it at home, my back is to a bay window with lots of light and water reflection. I also like to sit out on my deck on nice afternoons, and on occasion I travel and use it in brightly lit areas. I have found it's really not that big of an issue for me - Battery may be a different story since the display dims, but I never really need to run it on battery so it's never been an issue for me. When plugged in, I've found the brightness of the screen is enough to compensate for the glare, though the glare is definitely there. I've thought about a polarized cover for the screen, but have found I don't really need one.

 

I agree 100% dude!

When the apple people try to give me crap, I just ask them what games they play on it and they usually back off.

 

What if I bring my M18x in Starbucks? Is that chick magnet?

 

LOL, we have a smarty here who's a gamer. He tried to argue he could run games on his MBP. When I asked which ones he's run and how well they run on which settings, he backed down and said he's never gone to the trouble and uses a desktop PC for his games. Cracked me right up. What was the point of the statement then?

Depends on the chick, I would think. Girls that like tech, and/or games and/or flashy lights would probably drool a bit. Some might look at the size of the beast and be impressed you haul it around, too.

The better question is, what kind of girls are you trying to attract?

 

When people seeit,what do they say anything?

Cause alot if people show off there macs...even th price u pay for. Arent up there with the spces...

And if u have an alienware why did u buy it?

 

I got mine for the pretty lights...

 

Mostly because they are either just stupid, jealous, or hate anything better than what they own.

That is normally only trolls in forums talking trash, too. I have never found anyone to criticize the M18x when they see it in person, but there are plenty of favorable stares and nice comments.

 

I always get compliments on it, never a wise remark or something negative. I do get the "for that money you should have bought a macbook pro!" comment, to which I respond "this laptop will eat a crappy MBP alive"

I've been hit on by men for having a rainbow keyboard, so I switch to red only, which attracts scene kids/people
Dilemmas haha.

People get really wowed when I play super smash bros brawl on the laptop or PS2

Side note, M17xR3 has been a total chick magnet too, not to mention you don't see them quite that often ANYWHERE vs a typical macbook pro. A always feel like if I see somebody with a M17xR3, they are on this forum

 

This type of thing is the main reason I decided to wait for sager to get the 7970s in stock. I work in a professional environment and need it to look the part.

...tapatalk...

 

I was told that once, and my response was something along the lines of, " In order for that to even be an option, I would have to want a MBP first. But, they are very ordinary and don't interest me." There was no response except, "Yeah, a lot of people are buying them now a days."

I recently had a relative ask me why I didn't own a Mac and my response was, "Why would I want to pay so much money for something so boring and average?" They changed the subject.

 

Its even more fun to beat a Macbook pro at its own game *cough* HACKINTOSH *cough*

Seriously, I've blown many minds by proving the hardware is superior to theirs in every way, on their own battleground. The windows vs OS X comparison goes out the window

 

hope not as im a 39 year old woman, sorry folks my m17x isnt in sig. but it SURE attracts the 18-25 year old Mac guys as to why im running Photoshop and AVID on it

same, plus hackintosh on my 8740w. and have my MBP 17 with me to compare

 

You know we are officially allowed to discuss that now? Would you like to start a thread on it. I've been wanting to do the Alienware dual-boot hackintosh thing and just have not found time to tinker with it. I'd love some help making it easier, for no reason than the same pleasure you are getting out of it... scaring the MBP fanboys.

 

TY Mr Fox and yes I am aware of it as I saw Charles post the first day, and since have managed to cause a few flamewars in the Apple forum because of it. once I get some time i can nag my husband into a bit of a writeup for you guys/gals for the m17x, 8740w and x220 ( the 3 hackintoshes i use )

Mr Fox I believe this was his start point for m17xr3
http://tonymacx86.com/viewtopic.php?f=170&t=45864

 

Thanks KCETech1. I saved that link to my favorites for further research.

It's funny that you mention flamewars. It doesn't take much. In fact, not saying a word and having something about it in your signature, or just mentioning the fact you are using a hackintosh is enough for the flamers and trolls to come out of the woodwork. And, then they point the finger "he started it, wah, wah..." The fanboys tend to be extremely sensitive about having your cake and eating it, too. Your mere presence is enough for some of them to wig out.

 

i am a 5 year hackintosh veteran id be glad to help! look up my stff hackintosh alias is applehacker

be forewarned, ati mobility cards do NOT play nice with os x. i have been working on the 6990m/6970m for a year no with little progress

 

Cool, the more the merrier. If you want to start an Alienware thread, that would be awesome. Be sure to quote Charles' comment that it is OK at the start in the opening post so we don't have a lot of fanboys clicking on the "Report Post" link or it will be like spamming the moderator forums. There will likely be a few even if you do that.

 

awesome ill get started on it right away!

 

Outstanding! Between you and KCETech1 contributing to the learning experience, I'm sure it will be incredibly well done.

 

I still find that odd. any idea why as Apple uses the mobility cards in the iMac and MBP line. are their implementation totally different?

 

Apple does not use a LVDS connector. Apple uses an internal displayport connector, which is why you see complaints of black screens whe graphicsenabler=yes. I VNC'd into my M17xR3 with ge=yes, and found that it was mapping my card to connector 0x400, which is displayport. I have no idea how to rerout that map to 0x002, which is lvds

 

Maybe it will work OK with the Intel HD3000 IGP. With the M18x it is a BIOS mux switch, so the AMD cards will not even be active or visible at the BIOS level when using the IGP.

 

This is precisely the case. Intel HD 3000 works perfect after a DSDT patch (i can attest to this), and actually completely ignores the 6990m. However, using the modded bios to disable the IGP so you can uses discrete gfx power doesn't work in the case of the 6990m, as it maps video to the wrong port. I have no input YET on the GTX 580m side of things, but OS X seems to be more for forgivign of nvidia cards.