Dell XPS M1730 Owner's Lounge, Take 2

up to 30 days. They said the same to me and I had my 17x in less than half that time.

I'd expect lowest processor, 4 gigs, and either the 260 SLi or 280 SLi. It seems most of us 8800 users are getting 280's. Honestly, I'd be happy with either of them...

 

this is what dell in the uk are trying to do to me . They cancelled my service call on my m1730 and then put an order in for an exchange m1730 with a 8700 in then they will send out an engi to fit a 8800 in when it is available.
why would they send me a new laptop to be repaired after i receive it when they could just repair the one i already got?
i`m begining to boil

 

Hi Everyone

I am in the same position as a few of the people on this thread with a broken xps m1730 (graphics cards) specs are:

T9500 2.6Ghz, 4GB RAM, 2 x 200GB HDD, Blu Ray and 8800M GTX in Sli.

Dell have recently offered me an Alienware M 17x, specs are fine however they only want to give me the GTX 260m in sli for the video cards.

I'd much rather get the GTX 280m sli as I belive this is the equivalent replacement, card, but they say the 260m is better than my old card so I should accept that.

Could someone who's got the 280's please give me some advice as to how you managed to convince them to give you that card, I don't think I want to accept the 260's.

I have posted this in another thread as well but I'd really like some help on this

Thanks in Advance

 

the 260's are 8800 gtx/9800 gt's just die shrunk, the 280 are overclocked 260's

some people are able to get 280's if they had 8800's/9800's but others are not. dont ask why... it is dell

 

From what I've read on the recent posts on this thread, it sounds like owners of broken XPS M1730's who live other than in the U.S. are getting treated really bad by Dell's C.S. over replacing you with an AW M17x laptop. The only reason the U.S. owners are having a little easier time of it may be due to the fact that Dell was recently sued by 46 State Attorney Generals. Does the UK and others countries have an equivalent to the AG system here in the States to send your complaints to about Dell and have them sue Dell on your behalf? Just a thought. I really wish there was some way to get Dell to treat everyone the same without all the B.S. and just go ahead and replace you with the M17x! Damn them for treating decent hard working consumers/customers like this!!!

 

Speak of the Devil....I just got an E-mail from Dell advising that my M17x has shipped and the tracking number. It's suppose to be delivered tomorrow. They sent it next business day by Fed-Ex...go figure. I assumed it would be coming by way of a slow bought from China. The person I've been dealing with from the Corporate Dell Office from India was not a man of many words nor was he very friendly at all. Just straight business only. I consider myself very fortunate in that he didn't give me as much hell as many of you are having to go through. Because my old M1730 only had one 8700GT card, my replacement only has one 260 card in it according to the specs I was sent. In my case based on my original M1730 specs, my replacement is fair I feel. I too had to have my guy change my original replacement order from the WXGA+ LCD to the WUXGA LCD. I sent him a quick E-mail, he canceled that order and re-ordered it with the WUXGA LCD and resent the new order number showing the change. Now, here's hoping there's nothing wrong with it once I open it up tomorrow.

 

Thanks for your replies guys ill keep trying

 

Quick question....will I notice any difference in playing games with the single 1GB 260 card as compared to the old 8700MGT card in the 1730? My game of choice right now is Fallout3 with all 5 of the authentic Mods from Bethesda.

 

By Authentic mods do you mean the DLC?

I would expect you to see a fair improvement from a single 8700m gt. One of my replacement 9800m gt's packed up. So since Im just using one most games have playable frame rates at 1900 x 1200 but you will have to have most of the graphics settings on low or medium. A gtx 260m is pretty similar to a 9800m gt. I got a dramatic improvement in performance in Fallout 3 by turning off water reflections so its worth trying that

 

Yes, I meant to say the DLC Mods....thank you for taking the time to answer my question. I'll try turning the water reflections off as well. My system is due to arrive at my house from Fed-Ex sometime tomorrow.

 

well i`m back to square one
my replacement m1730 has been cancelled due to the fact they were trying to get me to have an 8700 card to tide me over and my original service call has been reinstated. I was told in no circumstances i would get a m17x then they hung up on me . It is now over 5 weeks since my cards fried and im getting nowhere . Is there any more action i can take?

 

Except with a higher shader count, not that it really makes that much of a real-world performance difference. 128 shaders (280m) vs. 112 (260m).

As for the other parts - I am all with the sentiment, again. Dell's tactics are anything but consistent. They can't keep a straight story, and they can't keep a straight line.

I just want my money back.

Dazr,
Sorry to hear about your ordeal. You could band together some of us other U.K. members and file a combined suit against Dell. LAWL!

 

@ Kade

Ive just heard back from Dell, the girl that was dealing with my faulty M1730 was very good as well as her manager, they were both pushing for an M17X as a replacement (which was their suggestion, not mine) and they referred it to the legal department for authorisation.

Ive just heard back from the girl at Dell that was helping me, she said the other day that their legal department would contact me on friday today.

Suprise, suprise ....... Their legal department didn`t ring me, instead they got the girl who was helping me to call me back instead of facing me themselves.

Have a guess who works in their legal department and deals with issues like this ? Correct it will have been Mr Dell Hossati who didn`t have the balls to call me himself but got someone to do his dirty work for him, it will have been him that said NO to the managers suggestion of a replacement M17X and instead Manjunatch Hossati will have made it his own personal mission to make sure i got a refurbished M1730 and not an M17X as a replacemnt because as you know thats how he works.

It doesn`t bother me one bit that i`m not getting an M17X as ive never asked for one, all i have said when they suggested a replacemnt is it must be an Sli system with an Extreme X9000 processor minimum and minimum like for like spec, initially they said they had no M1730`s with that spec which is when the manager suggested an M17X and i said ok as i don`t mind either an M1730 or M17X as long as its not a customer return that someone has had for 6 months + etc.

Isn`t it very odd that i was told originally that they have no M1730`s in my spec yet when it gets referred to the legal team where Manjunatch Hossati works they suddenly magic a refurb out of nowhere, like i said above he will have made it his own personal mission to find me an M1730 regardless of age or its past history as i told him in no uncertain terms after 3 engineers failed to show up and 2 further engineer visits where the replacement parts didn`t cure the problem that if i don`t get a more satisfactory level of aftercare i`ll be forced into taking legal advice through Dell leaving me financially out of pocket from engineers failing to turn up and the poor level of service.

Ive said all along to Dell that it doesn`t bother me whether its an M1730 they give me or an M17X as long as its reliable and i recieve better aftercare in the future if anything did go wrong.

Initially my M1730 was bought from the Dell outlet and technically its classed as a refurb even though most Dell Outlet laptops are customer returns where either the customer didn`t like it when they opened it or they felt it was too big etc, you still pay very good money to Dell via their outlet as no M1730 is cheap yet they treat you as if your some sort of peasent where you shouldn`t get the same level of aftercare as everyone else who has mainly paid on finanace through Dell yet i paid cash and also paid for a 4 year extended in home warranty.

Anyway, they are emailing me the M1730 spec sometime later, i`ll laugh if anything is a downgrade as it will be great to shove it right up Hossatti where the sun doesn`t shine

 

Stig
one thing i`d watch out for is that the spec i was quoted had a 8800m in it .
It was only after i recieved the pdf of it that the 8700m surfaced . besides they
don`t stock the x9000 anymore

 

Thats what i was originally told which is why the manager suggested an M17X to me, they have mysteriously found an M1730 in the Dell Outlet that apparently has the X9000 Extreme processor, my laptop was bought from the Dell outlet so i`m not really in a position to demand new machine even though i paid very good money in cash for my M1730.

I`ll see what the spec is when they email me, if anything is below my current spec i won`t be accepting it. I`m just concerned where this machine has suddenly appeared from. i just hope its not a customer return where the customer has used it for a fair while etc

 

Is it just me, or has almost everyone's M1730 now broke? seems this thread slowly is turning into 'how to push Dell's buttons to get a M17x'.

Feel bad for you guys - investing in an awesome but costly laptop, which sadly doesn't last long as should, now ppl having to go through the Dell CS &%& - although M17x is probably worth it; I'm actually glad that I got rid of mine before it decided to burst into flame, I'd hate to deal with those call centre.

 

right just had a ding dong with my cr rep ritesh bagdai who said i had two options .
1. wait two months to replace my gfx card
2. accept a replacement with an m8700 which will have the card replaced when available . He said this was in their TOC is this true?
And that's it .

 

WOW, that is BS. I would be sooo pissed, wait 2 months???????????????? what is the point of a warranty. I hate their coorporate and legal dept, those guys are real bags. Its like if for some reason they feel above the law and just on people. Well, I had a request for my system exchange placed on the 25th of Sept and it is now the 2nd of October and I have yet to hear anything. I have contacted them every day except yesterday to get an update and nothing can be said about anything. Today my Sup comes back in, guess ill send him an email.

 

My video card failed for a 7th time today, and I fixed it in the oven again.

Computer was acting real weird. It shut off randomly last two days, so I know this one's life would be even less than the last time's. After the toastings nowadays it only lasts 5-6 days average. I predict it will only be 4 days next week Oh well. Still think it's hilarious I saved a graphics card by sticking it in the oven seven times now.

 

All of you who live outside the U.S. market and are having problems with Dell not replacing your M1730s with M17xs as promised or not having parts to fix your M1730 as promised should try and get together with some sort of International Class Action lawsuit against Dell. Perhaps this will "encourage" them to see the light and do the right thing. They can't do one thing for M1730 owners in one country and then do a totally different thing for those in other countries. It's not right! It was only after paying out millions in a legal settlement here in the U.S. that Dell began to do what they could've been doing all along and that is providing a resemblance of Customer Service, as horrible as it may still be to many.

 

You what what'd what?!? oven, gpu?!? cheese?

 

Listen, all of you. . .
There are no 9800m GT and 8800m GTX cards currently available here in Europe. Any promises made for 'same spec' will quickly be followed by a conditional replacement where you will receive the appropriate card, 'later'. Now go by what Dazr said about his case; 2-month-wait for new cards. Yeah, please, spare yourselves some grief and don't settle for the B.S.

M. Hosatti is very precise with his analysis of cases, and it's very obvious that technology isn't his area. He admitted this fact to me over phone. So what's he doing with Customer Relations? Well, he is there to keep us all in place with the most important tool that Dell require at the moment: Legal semantics. He is a lawyer, through and through.

I hate to break this to you, Stig, but your situation is exactly what Hosatti pulled off on my case. He offered an M1730 with what he called 'slight upgrade', and then went on to say that unfortunately, it will come with the 8700m until the proper GPU is available. Once they get the new GPU, they will send that over for replacement. . . probably four-months-later.

My prediction, Stig, you won't get the X9000 or the 9800m GT. As much as I hate making such a prediction, so watch your back and press hard for details on the replacement. Tell them that they must show you the full specification before you can agree to the exchange.

Shame on Dell, shame on Dell.

Two months, eh? I'd much rather use my glithcy 8800m GTXs until they get suitable replacements.

 

How many times has your gpu been replaced?
In my opinion I would take the replacement cards and run them at full cap until they die, get replaced, die, get replaced so you can have an even stronger argument for a system exchange. If you're doing something that needs the 8800 or 9800 to function you'll go through 8700 quickly.
But again this is just my opinion.

 

Thenn,
I would agree with your opinion, and you have a good idea going there, however, I wouldn't even touch an 8700m in replacement.

Here's why. . .

Let me ask you a question:
What if Dell refuse to acknowledge, later on, that you ever even had a 9800m GT or the 8800m GTX? Some of us don't have customer numbers because we are second owners. Furthermore, once your old machine or card is gone, it is off the record. This becomes even more important when it's a full system replacement, because then your service tag is gone as well.

Of course, eventually, one could fight it out and get the right result, but is it worth the agony?

Also, the issues with the 8700m aren't quite the same, and I'd say they fail less than the 9800m GT and 8800m GTX.

 

what dell are doing in the uk is the bare minimum legally to stay on the right side of the sale of goods act . Great customer service eh my next step i guess is to try to find out the situation with nvidia themselves regards the 8800`s .

 

Even if your not the original owners, and belong to the group of 1 time ownership transfer, you are still entitled to the warranty that the original owner purchased. I would ask for an invoice in your name and I would have the person you are dealing with send an email stating all stipulations on your account, ie: this individual is the second owner of this pc and we are exchanging the 8800 or 9800 for 8700 on a temporary basis until the correct part is in stock, if said part is not available until after mm/dd/yyyy, Dell will provide a system exchange based on the specs provided on the attached invoice.
Again this is my opinion/actions I would take if this were me. This way I would have documentation for the court if necessary.

I wouldn't get a complete system exchange just yet only the gpu so Dell can't say "what service tag?".

 

Thenn,
If, and only IF someone from Dell gave a written invoice for the part along with a letter of guarantee about the exchange, would we then have a chance to go for the deal.

Secondly, as owners of the warranty, we are only entitled to the technical support. Whether that support works or not is up for grabs and not always their problem, because the moment you start ordering parts, it goes into 'Customer Relations' territory, and that's where second owners are gimped.

So yes, you either get a written assurance from them for citation later on, or they could very well not give you anything. Refer to Hankaroon's experience when he was newly upgraded to the 8800m GTX from the 8700m GT; he had to fight with them for another 8800m GTX replacement because they started resorting to shoddy excuses like "the 8800m GTX was a one off thing". Hankaroon, do correct me if I got anything wrong with that story.

 

Sorry Kade probably won't happen, but who knows.
Update to my case: no call yet from Dell.

 

You're right on, Kade.

I was just on the phone with a Mr. Joseph Leonard of "Corporate", which is also AKA Customer Resolutions apparently. He did NOT budge on the AW m17X. He keeps saying that becuase my ORIGINAL invoice (3 or 4 years ago, god I don't even remember) was an Inspiron, an alienware is not possible, and that the only possible outcomes are a replacement Studio 17, another m1730, or just to wait for the 8800 video card. This is ridiculous. I told him I wanted to end correspondences with him, and there is apparently no one else to talk to when I ask for a manager or supervisor. He claims he is the one-point-of-contact for me.

I called the number back up and asked to talk with another rep. He has yet to call me...

I'm running out of ideas. I just need to cycle through more people until one cracks, but this guy is freaking RUINING that possibility because no one else will take my case since it's still 'unresolved' until the 5th, when more 8800's are allegedly back in stock. I just wanna' throw up from this retarded mess. And I want to punch Joseph in the freaking head. I bet he has one of those tall ugly fat heads. And small ears like a . Didn't budge at ALL.

 

Today was the 5th business day of the request being submitted, I noticed that there was an update to my dispatch so I contacted dell chat who advised that my account was on hold and that they couldn't do anything for me.....I was like OHHHHH NOOOO NOT THIS AGAIN, denying that I'm the owner and all. Here is a transcript of the chat.

DeEzNizZeLs: "I am trying to get a status update on dispatch *********"

Agent (Mahendra): "please give me a minute, while I check the details, DeEz"

Agent (Mahendra): "I see that the dispatch was not created yet, as there seems to be a hold on the account.

Agent (Mahendra): "Hence, I would request you to contact Roshan"


I have no idea who that is or what he does and when I asked who that was the best answer I could get is

Agent (Mahendra): "He is the person who is in the department, which deals with the accounts on hold."

I contacted the guy and it was someone in the verification dept or that's who I think it was. These guys are not interested in talking or hearing excuses he simply wanted a copy of my invoice, Luckily I used paypal to make the purchase and was able to pull it up right away. He then in formed me that he has sent an email to the sales rep and I will be contacted as soon as he gets a hold of him.

Turns out today is the sales rep day off and my verification dept guy is not back in until Monday, so it looks like im still afloat in my efforts to get service but slightly delayed.

by the way, if you accept anything as a temporary replacement and then the actual cards later, make sure that rep sends you an email with that information. I prefer having live chats because then you get it in writing. the rep will understand that you wish to have it in writing and if they have an issue with that then do not proceed.

 

Once customer resolutions is involved that's it, that guy has officially blacklisted you. The name of their dept is such a joke, you would think it is a dept that accepts complaints and trys to resolve your issue. What they do is block you from ever talking to anyone else and bully you into accepting anything that they feel is what should be. I wish you the best on that road, you will need it.

 

Hah. I was just thinking of how spot-on that summary sounded; once the case is with the 'escalations team', it's all in their hands and you as a customer are usually out of options. It's their way or the highway.

 

Lol, that's who I'm dealing with, the customer resolution specialists. They absolutely bully their customers, but the warranty does say dells always right, and they can do whatever the f they want once they get the customers money.

 

That is true. I blame myself for getting drawn to the warranty package.

 

If you didn't get the warranty you would have a broken pc and sol. Well, in some cases people have the warranty, broken pcs and still sol.

 

If they didn't have the warranty, I wouldn't even have the PC. If you catch my drift; I only got this machine with the attraction of the Dell warranty, of which I had heard many great things. Hell, even on this forum, we can read many great stories of people getting bigger, better things from such a warranty.

I saw no other reason to invest so much into a machine where if the part fails, I'd suffer as a result.

Had this laptop been a mere 750 pounds, I would've happily managed it myself, and maintained it using my own cash. In fact, I wouldn't mind the idea--for the aforementioned price--once I get my money back from Dell.

 

Got my specs, rep sent it to an older email address:

1 224-5967 Black Metallic
1 310-0173 Airborne Documentation, System Exchanges,Factory Install (what come in the docs/restore DVDs?)
1 313-7711 Slot-Loading Dual Layer DVD Burner (DVD+-RW, CD-RW)
1 317-0819 Intel Core2 Duo P8600 2.4GHz (3MB Cache, 1066MHz FSB)
1 317-0856 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1066MHz 2 x 2048MB
1 320-1000 1GB Dual NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260M - SLI Enabled (NB10E-GT1) Is this SLI(it says it, but it says 1GB)
1 320-8140 17.0in, WUXGA,LCD,ANW,M17X
1 330-0171 S and P Drop-in-Box Marcom forDHS Notebooks
1 330-3924 Name Plate Engraving
1 330-5414 Windows 7 Home Premium UpgradeCoupon, W0, ENG,SPN,FRE,GER JPN
1 341-0011 250GB 7,200RPM (xMB Cache) w/ Free Fall Protection
1 410-0173 ADOBE ACROBAT READER - Eng
1 410-0177 McAfee VirusScan Plus 15- Month Subscription
1 412-1397 No Productivity Software requested
1 420-3251 Windows Vista Home Premium (64-bit Edition) with Service Pack 1
Dont know these items
1 421-0360 Avatar1
1 421-0364 Power Plan, BAL
1 421-0389 Window Style, DFT
End dont know these items
1 421-0399 Time Zone, CENTRAL
1 421-0405 Automatic Updates ON
1 421-0410 Wallpapers, C01W
1 421-0415 Mouse Pointers,STANDARD
1 421-0726 ALIENFX BLUE
1 421-1724 Soft Contracts,Dell In Home,Alienware
1 430-3558 Internal 300Mbps Dual-Band a/g/n 2x2 MIMO
No bluetooth though, bummer. I can always buy a 20$ BT USB

 

Avatar1 is your Windows avatar which is easily changeable.

Power plan = balanced

Window style = default

All just basic configurations.

The 260's are 1 gig each. So you have a total of 2 gigs video RAM. I'll be interested in knowing if you got a W7 upgrade coupon like I did. I also wonder what's up with "soft contracts..." line. I didn't have that on mine! I also only had "standard nameplate" rather than yours which says "name plate engraving." Let me know if you get anything on that plate!

BTW, I got no information whatsoever about returning the system. I had to do a Dell Chat to get a shipping label e-mailed to me which I was able to use. I even used the original box the 1730 came in. Kinda sad, actually!

As for discs - a Vista ultimate 64-bit disc and a resource DVD. The best part though was the Alienware baseball cap.

 

So you guys ready for a laugh?

An Alienware rep called the one hour I was gone today (go figure). Since they can't figure out how to trick the system into dispatching a better processor, they are going to build me ANOTHER new Alienware M17x and then I'll send this one back. Just finished personalizing this damned thing. Ugh!

 

That sucks but good for you.

 

so it turns out that because I reached tech support via chat and asked about an update on my system exchange the chat rep decided to take control of the already open case and reffer it to the verification dept, even though I declined that he follow up with me because I already was dealing with a sup. My supervisor was advised of this and had to submit a new request so Im back to square one waiting another 15-21 days for an exchange even though I already have been patiently waiting since the 19th of september for a resolve..... I give up.....Im just going to keep living my life and hope that in the end I dont get pooped on by Dell, this is some BS.

 

Hooray for tech support personnel taking ownership of your problem. Super tech to the rescue!

 

In SLI, memory does not combine to "2GB". It will still be a 1GB VRAM SLI unit.

In ebay especially, alot of sellers put "8800M GTX SLI 1GB VRAM" memory, thinking that each card has 512MB + 512MB, which equates to 1GB. It doesn't work that way, it is still a 512MB card.

 

There's a very rare XPS M1730 on UK Ebay.

Fully loaded with 4-year-warranty.

9800m GTX (That's right, GTX), and the X9000.

Edit:
And Lord Zath, congratulations. It's always good to read about individuals making the right kind of strides through Dell's protocol and policy. Enjoy the new specification.

 

Why is it that Dell very rarely do anything they say they will ?

I was told they would email me the spec for my replacement M1730 om friday, it was no great suprise when i didn`t get an email. Ive had managers fail to call back when they said they would, engineers failing to show up when i was told they would etc etc.

I don`t think i have ever come across a more inept operation as Dell, things just drag on and on and on without getting resolved.

 

Does anyone have a website that prices the upgrades of Vista to Windows 7? Trying to figure out how much (for Ireland) it will cost to go from Vista Ultimate to Windows 7 Ultimate.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2060350368 4811&Tpk=windows 7 upgrade

Thee are some prices, I wasn't sure if you wanted ultimate or home premium

 

Stig, I was told the same, I found the specs in an email sent to my previous email linked to the Dell account.

 

i asked a legal expert on what my position is . basically dell has got me by the balls and there is nothing more i can do . i will just have to sit this out and wait for my repair I will not speak with my Customer relations (joke title) manager any more a certain Mr Dell who seemed to take great pleasure in telling me i would have to wait two more months and just phone CS once a day asking for an update . I will not let them exchange my lappy with 8800`s in for a system with 8700`s in with a replacement card at a later date as i don`t trust dell . It is now 5 weeks and counting .
This has left a really bad taste in my mouth and i will not use dell again not that they care .

 

i find this to be true almost all the time... i get lied to nearly every time i start a dialogue... i really hate dell at this point, i just get so frustrated i can bairly deal with them anymore...