Well my true luck returns, any suggestions before AW?

thanks for update Alex, again another dissapointment from AW

my god i wish they would pull thier socks up i would love to own an Alienware and show it off with pride, but at the moment i just cant trust them :cry:

 

did they reply to your email yet alex?

 

Nope, of course not. Giving it a day.

 

Well, still no email response, but lo-and-behold an Alienware package turns up at my house today containing none other than a new master/slave 4850 (finally, hooray!)

Haven't had a chance to test them yet as am on my lunch from work, but will when I get back tonight and have the time to sit down and fit them.

Slightly damning though is the invoice contained...postal order date...22/8, ship date 10/9. 19 days after the initial order, and a day and a half after the official complaint, never had a response to the complaint either which is very poor; but I've got them, thats what matters now.

All I can say is I hope the damn things work; Im not going through all that again thats for sure! Will definately be keeping an eye on the return shipping to make sure we are refunded on the deposit too.

 

Well thats good news Alex and hopefully you will have some good luck with the new cards .

 

Wow thats good news Alex.....I hope it all goes well for you.

 

Excellent, keep us posted.

 

Yeah come on Alex......I hear in another thread that its fixed.....whats the Bobby Moore?

 

All working again, these chips from initial impression seem to run marginally cooler (hit 80 degrees max sitting on top of my cryo doing a run of the RE5 DX10 variable benchmark, the real test will be Crysis for 30 mins though, even with the cryo it was hitting 94 on that before); Im also of the suspicion they've been taken from another machine as they weren't completely clean on the cores.

Sorry about not updating this thread; am at work, and was on til late last night, and was waiting to see how the return/refund of the deposit goes before updating, not to mention I only used them for one hour last night, but initial impressions are good

Without spending ages taking the machine apart it looks like the old master card was the dead one; makes me wonder whether its possible to do the same slave---> master flash procedure people could do with the 3870s, incase of future card issues

Im still running on the AW B14 bios as I've had little time to play around with the machine again as yet; plus I want to let it settle in and keep an eye for any issues before I start clocking the CPU again (plus I think I need to reseat the CPU heatsink again, its been running a little warmer, mostly on the NB, since I took the p8400 back out again to put the X9100 back)

 

Hmmm perhaps I spoke too soon...got back from work around 20 mins ago, and noticed I've got display corruption in 3dmark vantage already... Really feeling a bit... *sick* would be the word I suppose right now.

I've tried a few driver sets so its not that; all I can think of trying is taking the secondary card out and seeing if I still get the corruption (If I do, the new mastercard isnt happy, if I dont I can try the old slave card)

Otherwise...guess Im waiting on another set and I think if thats the case Im reaching the end of the the tether. Its not temperature caused as Ive not seen the cards go above low 80s

 

damn i was reading this thinking that the issue might have been solved, i would try without the slave card and go from there

let us know what happens mate

 

Took the slave card out and still the same, while my machine now boots with the new master card, the memory or gpu have had it, during the first scene in 3dmark vantage all the water is covered in blocks, and the walls etc look like they've been attacked with remnants of shredded wheat; whilst not as severe as some cases; its still a pretty clear case of something being broken hardware wise. (tried different drivers as well incase).

It's taken AW 3 weeks to send me new GPUs, only to send me a new faulty one...not happy

 

i would be on the phone to them first thing monday, dont leave it any longer then you have to as they might try and blame the problem on you.

Other option is that it might be something on the mobo AS WELL, in which case you have been very unlucky.

have u tried running any games on it?

 

Tried running dmc4 benchmark, didnt get the obvious black lumps, but swear I did catch a little of the 'shredded wheat' distortion in scene 2, unfortunately thats much harder to see so harder to catch in action, and I know all these worked fine before the old sets of cards died, so its not like some sort of incompatability.

Will be contacting AW on monday anyway, as got the day off work.

 

Nope, texture artifacting/shadow artifacting in COD4 too...look anywhere there are shadows and its flickering with blocks round the edges

Not really easy to take a photo of unfortunately

 

im hoping they dont say send your system in, knowing what AW are like they might insist they sent you "working" cards and the problem must lay elsewhere and to send the machine in

I know the kind of artifacing you mean it is very annoying and hard to pin point, sounds like fubared cards...again...

 

I dont really care if they do to be honest anymore, if it means I get a working one back, not exactly a hard job just to put the ram, hdd and cpu back in it came with, running B14 bios anyway.

Spoke to TS nightshift, guy named Will, sounded English actually, went over what was going on with him and he basically said yeah sounds like an other duff card, and he knew the sort of artifacting I meant, [intermittant rapid corruption flickering over textures] it'd need manager approved to send another master card out at the moment because only recently sent another set. Apparently now only 2 sets of the slave/master card in stock, so suggested calling in the day tomorrow or Monday.
Am pretty sure its faulty texture memory on the master cards at the very least; god knows on the slave card, and its making all the right signs; its texture/effects going wrong, and flickering 'spots', rather than geometry being fubared.

Very big sigh...feel like Im going round the roundabout here again; starting to feel that refund request coming again.

 

i hope it doesnt come to that as i know you love you M17

and i know how you feel as i love mine, but when they had delays with the 48XX i said hmm and that tested me, then when they closed ireland that was last straw with me

I hope they do send you another card although it looks like they are short stocked already after that recent delivery they made thats very poor

 

So how did it go Alex, im gagging to hear what they are going to say now

 

Pman, MSI and AW are the only people getting these cards

I am sure there is only 1 ODM and therefor the stock is going to be short


AW is not @ fault they are selling M17 like hotcakes and the amount of cards going to RMAs is limited.


sucks ? yea, but i would not blame them. The cards are new and sometimes life really sucks.

 

Yeah life really sucks without the 4850s thats for certain.

 

DANG IT QUAD why do you do this to ME !!!!!!

 

Not doing anything to you man , just saying is all.

 

that is low man just low .....

 

Not being able to get them is low .. Thats life though.

 

i kno ....i'll try again tonight

 

My M17 is going back to base so they can test it themselves and see if anything else needs replaced (mobo etc). Im pretty sure its a gpu fault as I recognise the symptoms from my work on desktop machines, but if they want to check it over, they're aware of how unhappy we are and are quite aware that if it takes too long we'll just ask for a refund as the machine has been out of action for 3 weeks already.

All the original parts are back in the machine (wasnt exactly a lot of effort to swap RAM, CPU and HDDs for this machine), and tellingly the fault still occurs immediately in vantage scene 1 with the original installation left on the original HDD using thier drives; so its definately not my parts causing the fault, and indeed does point to the GPUs (random texture corruption and checkerboarding)

Still the RMA has been organised; and they're also quite aware this is likely going to require a GPU swapout, so they should be holding one of the 2 spare sets of cards for RMA for me. Am ringing DHL to organise shipping this afternoon, as I have the original GPUs also to go back.

 

Hope you get it back soon, Alex. Sorry to hear that it's not going well for you.

 

yeah good luck Alex!

 

Sorry Moo i think your mistaken,

The biggest problem here is not the availablity of the cards, or the condition of them

Its Alienware's practise thats the issue, the conflicting emails, people who cant speak yet alone communicate effectivley in english, breaking call back promises.

Any reasonable business which sells alot of laptops might say keep 3/4% of components in stock for RMA. The fact they dont means one of 2 things

A) they have very bad practise management

or

B) They have had more problems with the cards then expected which might indicate there are issues with the card (granted not AW fault)

The underlying problems here are caused and if they want to solved by Alienware

For example why keep someone waiting 3 weeks for cards, anyone with an ounce of sense could turn round and say here have a 3870 to get you up and running while you wait, sorry for the inconvience.

See what i mean?

 

Small update; DHL are collecting the laptop and original GPUs tomorrow. Alienware have 2-3 weeks MAX to get the laptop back to me or I will be looking at refund/warranty law and CAB. The laptop has been down for 3 weeks already, I am not willing for them to take up to 6 weeks further to repair the laptop; that breaks UK consumer law; whereby all warranty repairs must be complete in a reasonable space of time (9 weeks is not as such!)

 

keep an eye out for that refund on the deposit too...

time to update your sig again...sigh...

where do you have to return it? ireland or poland?

 

It's going off to Ireland, parts, construction and a technical base are still there, just not the call center (DOH!)

And yes Im definately going to be keeping an eye out for the deposit refund!

 

they dont have enough of the cards thats the issue

no cards = no cards for him ? i dont see how you are shifting the blame here ?

if they are out of stock its gonna take some time.

AW did screw up by playing the name game and trying to keep him busy until then (which is what they tried) crappy stupid and horrible busneiss practice) i have had it happen from a couple people when i have ordered something (not sayin AW is perfect) its just IMO companys are not ran decent anymore (ANY)

 

I can understand that sometime companies do run out of stock, everyone does it, thats the way of business

But i would say that Aw have very poor customer service, to be fair USA side you guys do seem to get a more sensible solution

I am not shifting the blame at all, but it is very poor buisness acumen not to hold some stock back for RMA's every Pc manufacturer does it. The fact they didnt have any to send him means

A) they were too foolish not to hold them

B) they decided they would rather sell them to make sales look better

or

C) they had a much higher failure rate then normal GPU's

simple as that really

 

Alex can you tell me the part numbers of the cards that they sent you?

Apparently my local dell rep just sent an email with the M17x so I'll try my luck and see if I can score a pair of 4850s, eventhough I don't own an m17.

 

Hi there CyPsychotic AW call them
M17 ATI RADEON M98 1GB HD4850 SLAVE
M17 ATI RADEON M98 1GB HD4850 MASTER

For the record though my laptop has now been collected by DHL. I await AWs response, I am only willing to wait soo long considering the length of time they messed me around, 1st time round.

 

Another small update.
Alienware in Ireland have recieved the laptop as of 12:17pm this afternoon (UK time, it's 11pm here now).
The clock is ticking on a decent response from AW.

 

Very small update; spoke to AW today to make sure they were recognising the laptop/gpus had been recieved.
The guy there said they had, because of how we'd been fobbed off before, we asked him to double check all the notes and see what was actually going on, rather than leaving it there, he said that actually it seemed to already be listed as on the diag bench with a technician over in Ireland which he hadn't expected yet, although he didnt have further details.
Hopefully they'll take one run of the vantage install I left on the machine and go ah bugger...replace those cards lol

Still, small progress, will probably ring again on Friday if they haven't contacted and see where it stands there; it shouldnt take an entire week to diagnose a graphics fault (present randomly in any 3d full screen programme, with random artifacting). Do have some videos of the artefacting in COD4 taken with my digicam incase they try and fob me off saying its working fine. [would load them here to show you but they're .mov files ]

Hopefully will hear something soon, I'd like a working machine sooner rather than later!

 

I feel your pain alex.. I sent mine in on the 11th of september and they recieved it on the 15th. it's still in the shop and I called today to check the status and they said they haven't done any repairs on it yet nor could he tell me when I could expect to have it back.

I really hope they wouldn't do something like take my gpu's and put them in someone elses computer who's been waiting longer for their rma because they don't have stock or something.. that'd tick me off somethin' special


I emailed them a semi-angry email with a demand to know when I can expect to have it back.. that's all I really want to know. "I don't know" isn't good enough for me.

 

Yeah, hopefully something back for both of us soon.

 

im hoping they at least have some in stock for you alex for when they see they are dud cards

keep us posted mate

 

Well I'd hope they do as well; when I initially spoke to the guy about my fault I specifically asked how many sets left there were and when he said 2 requested he put a note on a set for me.

 

we all know how relieable AW can be with accurate information

 

True, true...but then if they cant repair the laptop sharpish, they'll be getting a request for a refund, with no alternatives I've had the laptop for just under 2 months, if they can't repair it soon and it's already been out of action for over 1 month then Sales of Good Act and refund I think would be quite applicable here
Im only willing to wait for so long, which I think is pretty fair.

 

Well spoke to them today and apparently my machine has gone from the diag stage to the benchmarking phase, meaning they have presumably verified the fault and replaced the GPUs, or the laptop, hopefully I will see a fully working machine in the next week then!

 

Good news Alex . Hopefully it all works out in the end .

 

yeah good one Alex!

 

Dont think I have enough fingers to cross lol

Maximus, if you read this, have you heard anything new?

 

hmm

we shall see, i crossing my fingers for you alex, but i never hold my breath with aw nowadays