extended warranty..

I never buy extended warrantys except on my car.

I would like to hear stories from people that bought them with Alienware machines and ended up being glad they did.....


thanks in advance.

 

see my post here,
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=2080689#post2080689

 

I was 2 and a half years into my 3 year warranty when I started having problems. My video cards kept committing suicide, eventually they gave up on trying to fix it and "canceled" it. I got a big credit, built a m9750 and got another 3 year warranty.

Get the big warranty and hope you don't have to use it!

 

I usually think of the warranty as insurance. I spend about 10 - 15% of the notebook's total price on the warranty. For a machine like the M9750 I would definitely get a two- or three-year warranty. Repairing laptops is not cheap.

 

Well thats just the thing. Ive taken apart both laptops Ive owned and fixed them both. The first Gateway one down to the last screw, resoldered the damn power connector that came loose after years and after learning how expensive laptop repair can be, learned to reseat the processor too and replaced the keyboard, and eventually replaced that power adapter (cause 2nd time soldering it back on, I heated it too much - those damn parts are small and Im no professional electrical engineer at all

The current laptop, I banged it, it stopped working. Reseating the video card seemed to be the problem. dont know why cause its screwed down anyway, but its fixed the problem the 2 times it happened.

BUT, there are problems I wouldnt be able to fix and troubleshooting is difficult at best for someone without proper testing equip.

My question is more about what type of issues have people had with Alienware computers that have led them to NEED the extended warranty.

Tried to help my friend fix her powerbook recently and took it apart but its WAY more compact and difficult inside and I really couldnt figure out what the problem was without parts to swap out.
(Thats how the repair people typically do it BTW, they troubleshoot just by replacing obvious parts first.)

anyway, Im not sure but Im tempted to get it, its just the config Im looking at is about 4Grand with that............thats a lot of money.......highest I paid for a laptop before was 2500.

 

Heating issues have been the main problem with Alienwares, despite them being in tropical Florida testing units such as the m7700 under load, people still manage to overheat them... the m5550 is also treading on a fine line, but the m9750 is a very cool machine. However since the specs are so high you'd still be relying on this machine in the next couple of years, high spec laptops tend to start seeing problems in their 3rd-4th year of life, the 1 year warranty is only there to insure you against getting delivered a faulty machine

 

I've thought about getting an extended warrenty mostly because I expect this laptop - when I get it - to last me 4 or 5 years and I'd like the security of knowing that is there's ever a problem they'll take care of it.

I think "good value" is a relative term. To me when one buys an extended warrenty you're paying for piece of mind. YOu don't have to worry about something going wrong with it 366 days after you've purchased it. And if something does happen after the extended warrenty - its time to update anyway!

 

Hi
Sequoia225,

I do not have any story to tell you but I would prefer you a site called http://www.extendedwarrantyshopper.com/ you can get all about extended warranties.