*XPS M1730 Problems/Dell Replacement Issues*

Hi guys, I hope you guys will receive your replacement laptop soon. I have one problem... I don't know how to send the old laptop back to dell. The box didn't have any other address. Can you guys explain the details step by step?

 

I called customer service and said I needed a return label to send back the old system, they emailed me the ups return label printed it off and sent the old system back.

 

Oh, don't worry...they'll make sure you send it back. In your packing slip and stuff with your replacement box, there should be a FedEx return label. You're "supposed" to put your M1730 in the AW box, but the label on it, and send it back to Dell. I'm using my old M1730 box though. If you don't send it initially, you'll likely get a label in the mail sent to you as well.

And an update on my situation. I talked to a rep on Dell chat and told them what was happening with my replacement system and how it didn't have the SLi cards in it. They said they would try to get another escalation team on it instead of the one I have now, but that hasn't happened yet. Most likely, I'll get yet another call from my current escalation rep wondering why I still haven't returned my M1730 yet...

 

From what I've heard, they've stopped offering the M17x as a replacement now. Maybe you can find a rep still willing to do it, dunno. I had both SLI video card options go on "indefinite backorder" with at least 2 months to be able to service the laptop before they offered me the M17x replacement. Then it took 3 canceled orders before the 4th finally went through, and it was a resolution expert that did it for me, not a standard rep. She made sure there was no A/V configured on the system. Software wise, it was pretty bare bones, which was totally fine with me.

 

You didn't manage to get wind on their 'alternative' solution by any chance, did you? Because this would create quite a negative buzz for Dell, you know, if they don't have any kind of proper solution. I would assume that if they no longer offer the M17x as a replacement, then they have equal/better replacement GPU cards available now. Otherwise, further GPU failures here in UK will only result in major loss for Dell on both the legal and financial fronts.

Perhaps they replaced systems for a good lot of people in order to dampen-out any potential for negative press. By giving such replacements to certain individuals, or any individuals over a controlled/limited time-frame, they have created a group of customers who have no choice but to give Dell credit. Now if they have a decent-sized group of people singing their praises, then the disgruntled customers won't pose as much of a threat.

 

Both my replacement M17x's came with nothing whatsoever regarding returning. The first time I called Dell and they e-mailed me a label, and I sent my M1730 on its way (also in the 1730 box). 5 days later, I got a label in the mail (go figure). The second time, I did absolutely nothing. 15 days later, a collection agency called demanding to know where the laptop was. When I explained that I hadn't gotten a label yet, they e-mailed me one. I sent it out the next day, and a few days later, was e-mailed that they got the system.

Moral of the story - 1) don't worry about returning the system. 2) stick it to'em!

 

What are they offering people?

 

It was mentioned earlier in this thread. Think people were starting to be told only a Studio 16 or wait til Jan for the replacement cards to come in (still BS imho).

 

Yep. The other day when my very rude escalation specialist was talking to me, he told me that I should consider myself lucky that I got my single-GPU M17x replacement, because the only thing they're offering now is the Studio 16.

 

they offer the xps 16 and studio 17... crappy offers to be sure. i gave up after 4 months and got a xps16

 

Hardly seems fair that they can offer something less than what the customer has when their warranty states that they will replace with equal or better.

Phlibbit are they giving you the other video card?

 

seriously, it is crazy, but after a while without a working computer for work i just had to give up the fight. dell dug their heals in and would not go for the alienware at all, tried reall hard but they refused...

 

I haven't received confirmation on it yet. When I spoke to the escalation specialist, he told me there was nothing I could do about it, and rudely told me I needed to send my old system back or they would charge me for it. I've tried to contact them again, but I haven't heard from them for the past few days--I believe they're off until tomorrow.

 

The thing I don't get about all of this, is if Dell just replaced them in the first place knowing full well there was an issue, they would have ended up saving money on repairs no matter which model replacement they gave.

So far I've had 6 engineer visits and a trip for my XPS into their repair center.

if each engineer visit costs them £120 in labour(an engineer told me this), and the repair center probably the same, then thats £840 alone in labour costs.

now i know the parts are refurbed, but I've had 3 CPUs, 6 motherboards, 6 graphics cards and 6 fans. even if they are free, then the shipping cost for these to the engineer pickup each time has got to cost them a fair wack.

think about it dell, just replace the laptops and you would have saved a load of money! now how to get that through to the customer service analysts...

 

Hmm.

The i7 + Radeon ain't bad, but this is NO way an equal replacement for the XPS M1730.

I do know that there are 9800m GTX SLi cards slipping around amongst traders, very few but they have appeared. These are the newer ones, K650M. Perhaps these will be their up and coming solution to our GPU problems.

If not, and even by January, people are getting royally cheated, I am going to boycott Dell.

Edit:
Yes, engineer visits cost. It's like your standard self-employed contract job. You have a plumber come in to fix a pipe, and if he represents a decent company with a decent reputation-*cough*Pimlico*cough*-it'll cost a decent sum for the simplest but solid job. Dell enginners are obviously being paid at least the standard rates that most electronic techies get for their work. I wouldn't be surprised if it were £120.

The real issue here: This is not about common sense.

 

i know i am being screwed, but i just cant stomach any more dell calls. it just takes too much time and energy to fight with them.

 

I don't blame you, man. You've got a life to manage, and if crap like this starts taking up signficant portions of the day, then something is very wrong.

This is why I am going to keep a close eye on this thread, in order to get a general idea of where Dell is headed. If things don't look up, I will ditch the system and move to some other brand.

 

That sucks big time when it starts to affect your health.

Do you have an ETA on your XPS Studio 16, were you able to configure it yourself?

 

Hmm. It's different around here. Dell has a contract with a few service companies here. Dell pays the companies a flat rate regardless of whether there's no visits that month or 100. In our area, the only cost they're really incurring then is shipping the part. The techs cost no more, no less whether they have to service you once or 10 times. Hence, here they'd much rather send out refurb parts rather than new units. Got this straight from two different techs' mouths as we use a lot of Dells in our office as well.

 

Varies from region to region.

But we digress. Point is that it seems like the M17x joyride is heading toward a suspension. Now if Dell cannot cough up the parts by January, then there will be legal issues. I don't think they can simply get away with giving out SXPS units.

For the sake of the general good of all parties, they should work on getting the improved replacement parts and maybe a BIOS update for added benefit.

 

Still a core I7 with that ATI will probably be better than your M1730. Its not a bad replacement at all.

 

. . .okay.

Anyway, it is a downgrade from the market-standing of the M1730.

Sure, an i7 is amazing and great new platform, but in terms of gaming--which is the marketing contention--an SXPS 16 with i7 won't probably be better than an M1730. . . it will not even be close enough to be in the same league. One system will clearly crush the other, period.

On other fronts, the i7 with the ATi will be better than the M1730. . . and that includes the "All Mighty" M17x. But I think the whole conjecture here plays around the laptops as gaming machines.

If this continues, someone will finally give Trading Standards a solid means to put Dell in their place.

On the other note:
SXPS 1645 is cool! That much I am sure we can all agree on! It's got some good stuff going as a decent all-rounder.

 

I hear you, and it's easy for me to say because I scored a replacement M17x (even though I paid an extra 170£ for the machine on top of returning my M1730 to cover crossfire difference)

Many companies WILL let you stay in repair hell rather than upgrade you, even with part shortages.. and the SXPS 16 with I7 is certainly a sweet upgrade processor wise, beats the M17x as well. Plus going from 512mb to 1gb of vram is awesome especially for games like GTA4. So.. glass half full I guess. SLI also only gives 0 to 40% performance increase over single cards. I guess I'm just trying to make the guy feel better. Its far from a bad machine in general (ddr3 ram too is an upgrade.)

Hopefully they just sort out the part shortages.. I'm really interested to see if Dell will come out with those 9800GTX's (which are pretty awesome) or will roll out refurb 8800m GTX's.

 

Got my replacement last friday. From time of my fault reporting till the delivery of the system is about 2 weeks. No complains there

I will recommend my non techy friends to go dell next time and pick their complete cover warranty.

Spec below.
Old M1730
Intel Duo T9300 2.5GHz, 6MB Cache, 800 MHz FSB
4GB ram
1x 160GB SATA 7200RPM Performance Hard Drive
1x Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Combination Drive with dual layer write capabilities
17.0" UltraSharp(TM) Widescreen WUXGA (1920x1200)
SLI Dual 512MB NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) 8800M GTX

Replacement
New M17X
-Intel Q9000 Quad core 2Ghz, 6MB Cache, 1033Mhz FSB
-17.0" Beyond HD 1200p WUXGA (1920x1200) CCFL
-6GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM (1 x 2GB + 1 x 4GB)
-1TB 7200RPM SATA RAID 0 (2 x 500GB)
-8X DVD+/-RW Drive with DVD+R double layer write capability
-SLI(TM) Dual 1GB GDDR3 NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) GTX 280M

 

Wow that machine you got was way over spec... Well done..!

 

yeah, my ulcer started bleeding and i think the dell crap made a major contribution to it getting to that point. it sucks dell acts like you are trying to get something for nothing, all i ever wanted was a working system...

i got to choose the red color and the fastest processor, but everything else was the luck of the draw i guess. i am going to work really hard to like it. i got my gateway running now so it isn't to bad for me. but i definately will never ever buy another dell. my gateway is 2 years old and it runs like a champ. only problem i had is a bad inverter (my fault anyways) so it is confusing that dell cant seem to make a high end gaming laptop that cant stay out of the shop for 3 or 4 months at a time. i really hope the 16 is trouble free. there is already a possible power adapter issue that all the 1645 owners are trying to sort out, but i still have a pa13 from my old 1710 so it shouldn't affect me anyways. i would rather have the aw, but screw it, i would have had to hire a lawyer and stuff, it would have taken forever to get it settled, and i really needed a laptop that works, so i just gave up...
anyways, should get the 1645 tomorrow, hope it is nice?

 

i agree there are some upgrades, but the only thing i really cared about was the gpu and size, and the 16 is a downgrade in those areas. i really hope i fall in love with it, i want too for sure, and i am not complaining anymore, i am at piece with the 16. i will just have to suffer through some games, which i wont have time to play anymore now that i bought a house... so, screw it. i could have fought more and eventually i am sure it would have worked in my favor, but dells tactic of waring you down with the endless runaround got to me, i am way too old to waste my time on it anymore.

 

no doubt. dell needs to be consistent with this stuff... some people have to pay to get upgrades (like you if i recall), some people have to accept a downgrade, and some people get the ultimate replacement... ridiculous...

 

Yeah I paid up, but he gave me 3 years extended warranty so I am covered through 2012 and let me go ATi for that 170£. I thought it was a fair deal at the time, I am still fine with it because my m1730 warranty would have run out early next year so extending to 2012 is probably worth 170£ right there..

But wow when I see people getting bumped from 4 gb ram to 6, 160gb hdd to 500x2 and 280 sli just like that it's clear that the power truly lies in the hand o the individual rep and there is no standard procedure.

One thing is certain my next machine will have complete care, they definately treat you better if you have that !

 

Nice upgrade for you. Yes complete care is worth it, I had to extend my warranty before I got my replacement as my warranty would have be done and it didn't sound like they would extend it after so to be on the safe side I extended it before I received my replacement.

 

Yeah, it makes me so angry. 10 weeks of hell, and then you see someone with inferior specs getting a better system, in a fraction of the time. Dell are all over the place on this.

Congrats on the replacement though Demuntus.

 

No doubt, I'm light years beyond 10 weeks. I had my service status changed to CNL a few hours after it was listed with a replacement product. I finally am able to get chat support and they tell me I need to contact someone at some extension.

Of course when I go to dial this particular extension I get the "we're experiencing heavy call volumes, try dell chat" message.

Yesterday I had someone call that I missed that said they apologized for my long delay and were going to exchange the system immediately. Now the exchange is cancelled.

at 10am I had part number 224-5967 Black Metallic listed
by 12:05 it had been cancelled.

Now I'm on hold---- I'm not even sure it's the right department or extension.

 

Spent over an hour on the phone to be disconnected, transferred, put on hold etc, numerous times and achieved absolutely nothing.

Complete and utter disgrace.

 

Yeah, that you did.

I don't know if I buy into the other companies being that bad any more. I've heard Asus owners say otherwise. I will not speak on things that I cannot personally vouch for, to be honest.

This SLI 0-40% estimate is a kind of misleading view spread by the media. It is all the result of a bad report from back in 2006. Even games like Doom 3 and Quake 4, with the right setup, do well under SLi now. Of course, many of these older games don't even need SLi to perform. Yes, SLi is useless if one is going to run it on a low-band CPU.

With most of the recent games--past and present--SLi is well around 50%-80%. Your X9000 has established the case pro-SLi for me, in my experience. I know the moment I was running the thing at 3.4 GHz that my framerates almost doubled in quite a few games, and stayed that way, which is something the T9500 had a hard time sustaining. Latest Crysis benchmarks have shown almost 100% increase with SLi. The only reason I wouldn't say 100%, because that's too rare to happen, but 0-40% is a thing of the past, when 8-series GPUs had just come into existence, it's not nearly as low these days.

I actually heard of a few 9800 GTXs being sold around now, so if this is true, it is solid news. I might even get to test one out, very soon. (Will post on that if I get my hands on this 'real deal'.)

Anyway, Dell might sort this issue out for people, but they should avoid causing blatant grief. That's not cool.

 

Got my replacement specs today:
Quantity Item Number Description
1 224-5967 Black Metallic
1 310-0173 Airborne Documentation, System Exchanges,Factory Install
1 313-7711 Slot-Loading Dual Layer DVD Burner (DVD+-RW, CD-RW)
1 317-0818 Intel Core2 Duo T9600 2.8GHz (6MB 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)
1 320-8140 17.0in, WUXGA,LCD,ANW,M17X
1 330-3924 Name Plate Engraving
1 341-0005 160GB 7,200RPM (xMB Cache) w/ Free Fall Protection
1 410-0204 McAfee VirusScan Plus - 15-Month Subscription
1 410-1883 ADOBE READER 9.0 MULTI- LANGUAGE
1 421-0360 Avatar1
1 421-0364 Power Plan, BAL
1 421-0389 Window Style, DFT
1 421-0399 Time Zone, CENTRAL
1 421-0405 Automatic Updates ON
1 421-0410 Wallpapers, C01W
1 421-0726 ALIENFX BLUE
1 421-0989 Weather Gadget
1 421-1400 Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
1 421-1724 Soft Contracts,Dell In Home,Alienware
1 430-0628 Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR
1 430-3558 Internal 300Mbps Dual-Band a/g/n 2x2 MIMO

Originally had a P8600 CPU, got it changed to a T9600, also I had a TS manger tell me the 260M is 2x512mb Sli. I was trying to confirm Sli vs. a single card, so hopefully Sli shows up. I thought the 260M was 1GB per card?

 

can you tell me what CNL means in service status please?

 

Cancelled.

After hours of trying I finally got through to someone else in the department.

Supposedly they will call me tomorrow at some point.

The person couldn't figure out why my order was cancelled.

 

The 260M is in fact 1GB per card. Since your order specifically says "SLi enabled" (UNLIKE MINE) then I think you'll be okay. Mine didn't say that, and I'm having a nightmare trying to resolve it.

 

Sigh. If I'm not blacklisted now, I'll be really surprised...

So I got no call whatsoever from that other escalation team that the Dell chat rep said he would refer me to. I also didn't get any calls from my normal escalation rep, but I believe that he was off work.

Today, I got back on Dell chat and informed the rep of my situation, how I didn't get the dual GPUs like I was supposed to, how the escalation rep wasn't budging and telling me there was nothing I could do, and how I was told another team would be put on my case.

The Dell chat rep looked at some previous case logs, and saw that my escalation rep tried to contact me on Thanksgiving and left a message. He asked me if I got his message, and then *surprise* guess who calls me?

It was my wonderful escalation rep. He told me that he got the messages I left about "some part" that was wrong in my system. I told him the exact same thing I did last time, and then he told me the exact same thing--how the "dispatcher" chose what system I got, and there was nothing I could do about it. He tried to tell me that my 8800GTX cards were 128 MB cards and the single 260M GTX was 1GB, so obviously, it's four times as good. He scheduled to call me back on Friday to make sure I sent back the M1730.

So, back in Dell chat, the chat rep told me that he was actually communicating with my escalation rep (surprise), and that he was "reminding him to call on the right number." The rep asked me if I had already received the M17x, and I told him that I did--obviously. He then asked if, when the order was processed, if I was told that it would be SLi or if it was denied from the start.

I was obviously getting really frustrated at this point. I told him that I confirmed twice through Dell chat that the part number listed in my M17x order was for SLi cards. The rep then gave me the same BS that the escalation rep did about the current card being 4 times as good. Then the Dell chat rep told me I should contact Alienware directly about the issue since their department handles XPS. He gave me the Alienware number.

So I called Alienware. And the rep told me that I needed to contact XPS Technical support. I then explained my situation--he told me that since the XPS and Alienware departments are separate, that he couldn't place an order directly for my GPU. He did tell me though, that if this was happening to him, he would more upset than I am, and he said that I definitely should have received the SLi cards because the M1730 was. He told me that he was really sorry about the situation, and suggested that Dell Customer Care would be my best bet for resolution.

He transferred me to Cutomer Care. I got transferred to three different receptionists over a 35 minute period. The last receptionist told me I needed to contact XPS Technical Support, because my system exchange was handled through them and they were the only ones who could approve sending me the part.

Soooooo....I was transferred to XPS Technical Support. Told them what was going on. I was put on hold for X minutes while the rep communicated with a "resolution expert." The rep would come back and talk to me every few minutes while I was on hold to make sure I was on the line; he admitted that they were having a lot of problems with the M1730 and some other desktops that Dell isn't making anymore.

After being on hold for a total of about 55 minutes, the rep was pleased to inform me that he GOT THE PART APPROVED. OMG FINALLY IT'S ABOUT TIME. He gave me a dispatch number and service request number and told me it will be replaced this week.

Thank God. Hopefully this awful, nightmarish ordeal will be over shortly.

 

Thanks, I was exactly trying to avoid your situation. It looks like you got it on the right path now.

Good Luck

 

Phlibbit, that's good news. And damn, that's a lot of time on the phone.

Best of luck and enjoy your new card - should be good as gold!

 

Thanks! And yeah, it was about 3 hours from start to finish, counting Dell chat. I can't wait for this to finally be over

 

I got the same situation exactly...

XPS M1730 been replaced with Alienware M17x

XPS config
CPU 2.4Ghz
RAM 2GB later i upgraded to 8GB (unfortunately not fit in M17x)
HDD 160GB 7200Rpm
GPU 8800GTX SLI combo 1GB + Ageia PPU
DWD-RW
After the 1st 6 month my LCD been replaced then after that 2 months later again that time i expand my warranty with 2 additional years £109 ...
now my system 1,5 year old and the nvidia cards blowed up with the LCD i contacted xps support took them 8 weeks to find out they could not get the same grafics unit for me not eve 9800GT or GTX i got a few apology mail and call "Sorry is take a bit longer..." after that they arranged a collection for me but when the cerier came i refused to give up my laptop in order to drag it in the service center "i thought they gonna sit on it for a while" than i just had enough took me almost a week to get a 3line support manager on the horn...and told him because is taking too long now i not want to go for repair i want my laptop replaced with a new one in that time i had no computer 10 weeks ago ( they offered me xps with 8700GT i told them i not take that rather have my money back ... or an alienware m17x for the same price i spent on my xps model that was the key word...2 weeks later i just get my allpowerful alien... but the question is anyone know whats gonna happen with my old DEAD XPS is still with me top of that i get a call after that "sorry the videocard unit still not aviable" is there anyone keep on track???? what i supposed to do with my old lappy just put under my pillow?? THX

just for anyone having problem with 8800M GTX "be nice with the customerservice" you can show them you r angry but do not shouting...takes as long it takes and go for the allpowerful.....i saw "wodstock" had his 8800M replaced with 8700M do not send yours away that could happen... Sorry wodstock.

 

Hi, Can you tell me how you got them to replace yours? I am having some trouble with mine in terms of finding Win7 drivers, my Logitech LCD screen doesn't work, the MIC is messed up and having intermittent extremely long boot times from the BIOS...

I would kill to be able to get an upgrade since they aren't really supporting these anymore, but I am afraid of getting stuck in support hell or having my machine taken for weeks at a time.

Do you have any strategies for angling for a replacement? I have the Dual 8800's in there so I am worried if I send it away they are going to try to stiff me with the 8700's again...

Thanks,

Tim

[email protected]

 

Anyway, I have final confirmation.

I am, as we speak, typing from a machine that is testing the 9800m GTX SLi. I saw the card, opened it myself - part number is K650M (Confirmed!).

I have attached a screen shot from GPU-Z.

It's the real deal, and I think this might be potential good news for all of us M1730 owners.

So is this an upgrade? Personally, none of these cards--280m included--are anything great in my view, and I don't really consider the 9800m GTX an upgrade. They're all really good, but not that far apart in terms of real gaming performance.

I guess, with the 9800m GTX's 1GB VRAM, a few apps here and there will finally benefit from the added texture memory, but for all practical intents and purposes, it is virtually an 8800m - G92. I am assuming that the goal with these new cards is to prevent hardware issues. Maybe they have fixed the inherent issue, or whatever. The card seemed very slick and stable, but then again, it's a fresh new part. Also, it runs a few degrees hotter, but that's not a worry.

Oh, and the SPDIF port is missing.

 

@ Kade

OK I had a reply from the guy here in Oz with the k650m. He reports back that he has the same old cycling 55-75c while idling. That's with his cooler turned off. Once the coolers on it sits at 60c constant. He hasn't noticed much real life improvement over the 8800gtx as you noted in your post. All of these cards are pretty much faster than the software written for them.

I'm guessing it is just better/different soldering no BIOS change. It does seem strange to me that all the oldest 1730 owners on this forum and in Oz are still running fine. Which is kinda funny cause the rest of us that came in later let these guys take the first step with the bleeding edge 1730's. In the end we've all instead ended up being guinea pigs in Dells Customer (lack of) Service cages of HELL. : (

Dell hung up on me 4 times today.......

 

Too bad it is taking so long to get them in the replacement stream. TS manager told me yesterday the replacement cards are now delayed until February.

 

Wow how'd you score that part for 'testing' Kade ?

 

Well said, Slammin. I see it in a similar, but slightly more annoying way: These G92 cards have the same essential power, but over time, they've been shrunk down and refined bit by bit, with very mild gross yields. However, the gross difference is really too little to brag about, and eventually irrelevant in light of the fact that we still don't have CPUs strong enough to bring the full gross power out of these cards, 8800m GTX being the starting tier. You know, theoretically, it's like 360 gigaflops to 420 gigaflops to 480 gigaflops, to 520, and so on and so forth. Now when we have a GPU doing nearly 80% of a teraflop, then I am truly interested. For starters, I'd be happy enough when we have a CPU and chipset that can fully exploit even 80% of the theoretical 360 GFLOPs.

And that is very disturbing news, Gadgetboi. I hope they get around this issue, because if second-sellers/resellers and other independant folks are getting a hold of these newer parts, then something is -very- wrong.

Nick, this is exactly what I had mentioned in the last page. There are genuine people, selling these parts in virtually new condition, and there is a strong plausibility that these are at least nigh-new condition because they come under the new part number of K650M, which we know a few rare Dell customers have received as replacements for their dead 8800s (Ref. India-based client in the lounge thread). I had contact with a seller - they tend to do VGA cards for higher-end laptops - and I heard that they had a few of these, so I just had to have a go when I heard the news. So far, seems good! (They also had some M1730 8800s a while back.)

 

That is good news for you hopefully it will go through without any more problems