any experience with hardware replacements under warranty?

Hi all. I was wondering if anyone has had an experience getting video cards replaced under warranty from Dell and would be willing to share their story? Is it difficult?

My m18x r2 has two 7970m in crossfire, and I'm pretty one sure of them has failed. Over the past week or two I've been getting hard lockups while playing games. Today I noticed the mouse cursor graphic had become corrupted (but a reboot fixed it). Then after a lockup earlier this evening, I couldn't even boot to my desktop. I could boot into safe mode, so I tried installing older drivers, tried uninstalling the drivers completely... nothing worked, it would just go to a black screen after it said it was starting windows. Finally I had the idea that if it was failing hardware, one of the cards might still actually work so i discovered that if i disabled a specific card in the device manager then I could boot and use my computer... but not play games. For whatever reason, dxdiag thinks I don't have a directx compatible device installed. (Integrated video works okay too, but I didn't buy an alienware so I could game on a HD 4000.)

I haven't called tech support yet, was going to wait until tomorrow morning. Thankfully I got the top warranty package and it doesn't expire for another 10 months or so. I was just wondering if anyone could shed some light on how the process should go, whether I'll have a hard time convincing them it's the hardware, how long it should take, etc.

 

It depends on the tech but also how you indicate to them that you think its the GPU. I've had several repairs done over time and been successful in dealing with support to resolve issues. Whatever you do, fight the idea of it going to a depot, push for onsite first if at all possible. Odds are if they agree to send someone out (and they will if you stand fast that is what you want), then depending on where you live they will ship the part to a local support person who will then call and schedule with you. in the interim you might get a call from support, and after the repair you might get a call, again, that's been my experience.

 

Maybe they will offer you an "upgrade" to Alienware 13 with an eGPU for a system exchange if the service parts are unavailable.

 

I've been through this process but the place where I live this was hell of a job. Most probably they will they will try to repair it if not then they will replace with the new Alienware machine if this is the case then ask for the AW18 only. Best bet is try to get it fixed ASAP.

As the M18x R2 is the world's best DTR notebook if are really into modding it, you might already know Mr.Fox's machine & here, the old ones are really enthusiast machines :thumbsup: .

 

Hi isorashi,

I have had the 7970M replaced twice in my M17Xr4 twice since late August, and may actually be facing a third one here soon. The hard part is getting the technician to acknowledge you have a GPU problem that needs a replacement. They seem to assume it is a software issue unless the Alien Autopsy or EMATS test produces an error code. It is specifically difficult if the problem is sporadic, and can't be reproduced on demand. If you can reproduce it on demand, you have a better chance. If you can get Alien Autopsy or EMATS to give you an error code, that would help as well. Some of the techs are more receptive to user provided diagnosis than others. My last round resulted in a tech who was convinced that my problems were related to my upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 8 (which came for free with the purchase of my laptop). He would not go any further unless I upgraded to their software support package, or rolled my computer back to Windows 7. After I rolled back to Windows 7, and called back the subsequent (ended up being the second of three technicians to talk to) was more receptive, and setup the replacement after only around 10 minutes of discussion. The biggest thing to worry about with the in-home technician, is one who has never worked on an Alienware computer, and comes clueless. I also had a graphic card replacement in an older M15x a few years ago, and that one was easier (no OS upgrade in the loop at the time). Good luck!

Rich S.

 

PM L_Porras on here, he is has been instrumental in expediting the process and cutting the bull. I got a graphics card replacement in 1.5 weeks start to finish.

 

I've had three GPU replacements on my system; each time the tech came to my home at roughly the assigned time, cracked the system open and had everything done and up and running within half an hour. I haven't encountered any techs that looked at my AW and said, "Uh... I'm not certified for that equipment." Overall I would rate the experience as very positive.

 

Here in the UK it was quite straight forward. I had issues with frame drops etc. Rung up tech, they remotely logged in, ran the BIOS check (have you tried that BTW?) logged in, uninstall, install drivers. Ran a benchmark. Confirmed GPU was playing up (970M) and had a tech come around in 24 hours.

System was up and running within an hour, no issues since. I've had many issues with my Alienware however the warranty and support has been A*. Which is why I bought the 3 year warranty without hesitation.