*XPS M1730 Problems/Dell Replacement Issues*

Hey!
I got a replacement for my M1730 (sli 8800 gtx, T9300, raid 0 400GB, 1920X1200) !

They offer me a M17x R3 with i7 2820QM (I had to downgrade the hdd and I also removed microsoft office), and a 6990m.



I guess it's not too bad, I would have loved to have a M18x since I had a sli, but I am quite happy with this M17x.

 

Yes, you could ask for dual GPU, but if you're happy with M17x then you're fine, M17x is sure a big upgrade over your old M730.

 

You've been given a serious upgrade over your m1730, just be aware that the m17x r3 has debatable build quality. Some are fine with it, some are annoyed but can't room the 18" notebook and some strayed to the m18x which is build like a tank. I'm one.

I can tell you honestly after setting up one for a friend. The build quality of the r3 is lower than on the m18x. Don't get me wrong, they are still good machines however.

hypershadowcat, you should opt for the extreme model as that's the modern equivalent.

 

* double post *

 

Thanks, I was hoping I was right.

Here is what I have now... (and they told me the xps 17 was the only thing I could get. that set me off right there)

223-6299 1 XPS M1730, Intel Core 2 Extreme X9000(2.8GHz, 800Mhz 6M L2 Cache)
310-9524 1 PERSONALIZATION SHIELD, LCD COLOR WING OPTION,BLUE
311-7447 1 4GB, DDR2, 667MHz 2 Dimm for XPS M1730
320-5788 1 17 UltraSharp TrueLife Wide screen WUXGA for XPS M1730
320-6384 1 1GB NVIDIA SLI GeForce 8800M GTX
341-6335 1 64GB Solid State Drive and 200GB SATA HDD (7200RPM) Free Fall Sensor
420-6815 1 Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit Edition English,Inspiron
412-0946 1 Dell Travel ExpressCard Remote Control, IR
420-7401 1 DELL RESOURCE DVD,BACK-UP,XPS M1730
313-5857 1 2X Blu-ray AND DVD+/-RW
420-8183 1 Roxio burn 1.0
313-5014 1 Integrated Sound Blaster Audigy
430-2582 1 Intel 4965 WLAN (802.11a/g/n) Mini Card
320-5789 1 Logitech Gaming LCD
312-0603 1 85 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery, for XPS M1730
412-0359 1 Soft Contracts Dell In-Home Hardware Agreement
902-2483 1 Warranty Support, 3 Year Extended
960-8710 1 Warranty Support, Initial Year
988-0328 1 Dell Limited Hardware Warranty Plus At-Home Service, Extended Year(s)
988-0327 1 Dell Limited Hardware Warranty Plus At-Home Service, Initial Year
984-0563 1 Next Business Day In-Home Service after Remote Diagnosis , 3 Year Extended
987-2550 1 Next Business Day In-Home Service after Remote Diagnosis , Initial Year
960-1938 1 Accidental Damage Service, 4 Years
412-0357 1 Soft Contracts Business Accidental Damage Agreement
313-5586 1 Dell Wireless 5520 AT and T Mobile Broadband (3G HSDPA) MiniCard
430-2655 1 Dell Wirless 355 Bluetooth Module (2.0+EDR)
320-6171 1 AGEIA PhysX Physics Accelerator
320-6260 1 AVerTV Expresscard TV TUNER TVT11
412-0948 1 Remote Control for Vista Home Premium, English, Mantra
310-9516 1 You have chosen a Vista Premium System
310-9651 1 Intel Core 2 Duo Extreme Processor

And this is what I think is a good trade...

System Color Space Black Anodized Aluminum ABLK
Operating System Genuine Windows® 7 Ultimate, 64bitProcessor Intel® Core™ i7 2920XM Overclocked Turbo Boost to 4.0GHz (8MB Cache)Memory 8GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1333MHz (2DIMMS) <- the lowest they had on the website
A/C Adapter Alienware M18x 330W A/C Adapter 330W
Display Panel 18.4-inch WideFHD 1920 x 1080 WLED WFED
Video Card Dual 1.5GB GDDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 460M – NVIDIA®SLI® Enabled 460MSLI <- the lowest they on the website
Hard Drive 256GB Solid State Drive SATA 3Gb/s <- the lowest they had on the website
AlienFX Plasma Purple FUSIA
Optical Drive Slot-Loading Dual Layer Blu-ray Reader (BR-ROM, DVD+-RW,CD-RW) with Roxio Creator 2011
Sound Internal High-Definition 5.1 Surround Sound Audio IHD51 <-Not Soundblaster
Wireless and Bluetooth Intel® Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 a/b/g/n 3x3 MIMO Technology and Bluetooth 3.0 N6300
Hardware Support Services 4 Year Advanced Plan <- not sure if I'll get away with this but willing to pay for it
WirelessHD Internal WirelessHD Technology - FullHD Video Transmitter
Standard Nameplate Trigger Standard Nameplate

am I right?
Total spent on M1730 was $5500

 

If you like nvidia then stick with the 460's, they are very quick.
That said, if you are fine with moving to AMD for graphics the 6970 crossfire is pretty much twice as fast.
I was able to squeeze a pair of 6970's out of dell, along with a few other extras I'm sure you could as well. It easily makes up for the missing resolution anyway.

Everything else seems to match up reasonably but you are missing a tv tuner, 3g card/stick and depending on your opinion, a hard drive to go along with your 256gb ssd.

 

thanks! now I know what to do when they call me. they said I have to wait for a higher level of support to call me back in 1-2 days...

LOL when I was talking to him he thought I was joking about the extreme cpu he told he to hold and he checked it then his tune changed and said "yes I see that I have to send you to a higher level of support. I hope this is the last hoop I have to jump through.

 

Looks like they took the AMD 6970's off the market and now are offering AMD 6990's

Still eyeing the NVIDIA 580's! Wondering if I could get them because I'm loosing my 3G card and 2nd HDD...(already have 500gb)

 

580's are ~10-20% slower than 6990's.

 

good to know! your a life saver!

LOL! slower but $700 more.

 

I got a call back from Dell T3 support. He was pretty much a yes sir whatever you want guy. I'm very pleased with the replacment!! Specs are...

Old System...
223-6299 1 XPS M1730, Intel Core 2 Extreme X9000(2.8GHz, 800Mhz 6M L2 Cache)
310-9524 1 PERSONALIZATION SHIELD, LCD COLOR WING OPTION,BLUE
311-7447 1 4GB, DDR2, 667MHz 2 Dimm for XPS M1730
320-5788 1 17 UltraSharp TrueLife Wide screen WUXGA for XPS M1730
320-6384 1 1GB NVIDIA SLI GeForce 8800M GTX
341-6335 1 64GB Solid State Drive and 200GB SATA HDD (7200RPM) Free Fall Sensor
420-6815 1 Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit Edition English,Inspiron
412-0946 1 Dell Travel ExpressCard Remote Control, IR
420-7401 1 DELL RESOURCE DVD,BACK-UP,XPS M1730
313-5857 1 2X Blu-ray AND DVD+/-RW
420-8183 1 Roxio burn 1.0
313-5014 1 Integrated Sound Blaster Audigy
430-2582 1 Intel 4965 WLAN (802.11a/g/n) Mini Card
320-5789 1 Logitech Gaming LCD
312-0603 1 85 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery, for XPS M1730
412-0359 1 Soft Contracts Dell In-Home Hardware Agreement
902-2483 1 Warranty Support, 3 Year Extended
960-8710 1 Warranty Support, Initial Year
988-0328 1 Dell Limited Hardware Warranty Plus At-Home Service, Extended Year(s)
988-0327 1 Dell Limited Hardware Warranty Plus At-Home Service, Initial Year
984-0563 1 Next Business Day In-Home Service after Remote Diagnosis , 3 Year Extended
987-2550 1 Next Business Day In-Home Service after Remote Diagnosis , Initial Year
960-1938 1 Accidental Damage Service, 4 Years
412-0357 1 Soft Contracts Business Accidental Damage Agreement
313-5586 1 Dell Wireless 5520 AT and T Mobile Broadband (3G HSDPA) MiniCard
430-2655 1 Dell Wirless 355 Bluetooth Module (2.0+EDR)
320-6171 1 AGEIA PhysX Physics Accelerator
320-6260 1 AVerTV Expresscard TV TUNER TVT11
412-0948 1 Remote Control for Vista Home Premium, English, Mantra
310-9516 1 You have chosen a Vista Premium System
310-9651 1 Intel Core 2 Duo Extreme Processor

New System...
225-0887 Alienware M18x Space Black Anodized Aluminum
310-0173 Airborne Documentation, System Exchanges,Factory Install
310-0173 Airborne Documentation, System Exchanges,Factory Install
313-8796 AlienFX Color, Plasma Purple
317-6852 Intel Core i7 2920XM Overclocked Turbo Boost to 4.0GHz (8MB Cache)
317-6884 16GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1600MHz (4DIMMS)
318-0770 Internal High-Definition 5.1 Surround Sound Audio
318-0843 Slot-Loading Dual Layer Blu-ray Reader, BR-ROM, DVD+-RW, CD-RW
320-2269 18.4-inch WideFHD 1920 x 1080 WLED
320-2796 Dual 2GB GDDR5 AMD Radeon HD 6990M AMD CrossFireX
331-2425 Standard Nameplate
331-2428 Alienware M18x 330W A/C Adapter
342-2629 256GB Solid State Drive SATA 3Gb/s
410-0548 Adobe Acrobat Reader
420-9691 DataSafe Local BackUp
420-9956 PC Restore
421-0092 DELL-DOWNLOAD-FLAG
421-1305 Roxio Creator Starter
421-1360 Steam and Portal Factory Installed
421-1723 Soft Contracts Dell In-Home Hardware Agreement for Alienware
421-5099 Alienware Command Center, M18X
421-5830 Genuine Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit Service Pack 1, English, w/Media
430-4150 Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 a/b/g/n 3x3 MIMO Technology
469-0549 Bluetooth 3.0

I think I was taken care of!
16GB 1600MHz Ram!!
AMD 6990M CF!!
And transfered the 1year of Complete Care.

 

Balances out the stuff you're missing out on from your m1730 but you've been given a great spec there, count yourself very lucky!

 

That is a completely ridiculous replacement. lol

 

It's a modern take on the m1730 specs hypershadowcat had. It shows just how fast notebook tech moves!

 

Yeah I crapped my self when the Senior Support Resolver told me these specs I was going to try to push the wireless HD but he side swiped me with the 16gb of ram!

I do want to thank everyone who posted in this thread because I would not have known to just hang in there stick to my guns and keep turning down all the crap offers they where giving me.

And thanks 3NZ0 for giving me that nudge for the Extreme Core CPU! You Rock!!!

So please have a beer or your pick of a drink!!!

 

Notebooks are becoming just as good as desktops the system i'm getting rivals most high end desktops.

 

hypershadowcat, I just can say you are really lucky with that replacement!

 

Thanks I'm very happy I got the 4 years of complete care and found this forum!!
I will always get the max complete care from now on.

 

I am currently dealing with Dell, they have offered replacement on my m1730 with an xps 17 which is obviously not even close. I keep trying to tell them I need 2 video cards. They have escalated me to the 1-2 business day call back period, hopefully i get similar results as i read about here. The Technicians and Supervisors so far have been belligerent that I wouldn't just accept what they offered me. He even told me

They wouldn't transfer me to a higher support they said it's for internal use only, so hopefully the higher level support calls me back like they did for people here.

 

Hey forum, seeing as this is my first post let me introduce myself. My name is Henk and I am the owner of a broken M1730 that dell has repeatedly attempted to repair but with no success. I've been through many supervisors and also many supervisors of supervisors of Dell tech support and they refuse to replace the computer (with an alienware... or ANYTHING for that matter.) despite the many times its been broken and required repairs in the passed few months. (I've been through an LCD, Graphics card, and FOUR motherboards) I've even moved up to T3 support and they have been extremely stubborn about replacement. The computer is still under a three year warranty, I don't understand why they continue to refuse the request.

I recently sent a letter regarding my customer service to Dell's Unresolved Customer Service Issues department. They have yet to respond. I'll keep you guys updated on my progress with Dell. cross your fingers for me! >.<

 

Well, looks like I am starting the long, drawn out process for getting this beast replaced. I am going on my 4th videocard/motherboard replacement. Dell seems to be confident that they can completely fix the problems this time though .

They sent me a DOA set of videocards which I had replaced on monday. Tomorrow I am receiving another new (refurbished) set of videocards, motherboard, CPU, heatsink, and new fans. Crossing my fingers.

All I really want is a working, reliable system, but this thing hasn't really worked correctly since receiving it.

 

Unfortunately I'm having problems with my XPS M1730 as well. Not only is my video card working (Screen flashes blue and youtube video/game etc crashes), but I'm having the "Battery plugged in, not charging" problem as well. Unfortunately my warranty expired just over a month ago.

Does anybody have any suggestions for what my options are? I'd really like a replacement unit (M17x), but I'm afraid I'll be out of luck without a warranty. Although there was a recall on the 8xxx cards awhile ago (I have a 8700M), so maybe that will help. Anybody have any suggestions?

Also, I'm in Ontario, Canada.

 

Dell is not legally obligated to do anything for you. There has been a post about how someone fixed, not replaced, someone's computer right after warranty.

 

I guess you can include me in the crew of people getting an Alienware as a replacement . It was a lot of work dealing with Dell in order to convince them that this was the only fair replacement (I'd say about 8 total hours on the phone, and 5 or 6 hours on chat, a week and a half of back and forth with dell), but I ended up taking high enough on the escalation latter. Heck, the escalation rep called me today just to chat about my experience, and pretty much told me that whatever changes I wanted to the Alienware he would make those changes (Note: I don't want to be greedy).

I just kept denying the XPS 17 they were trying to offer me, and I more or less gave them two options, a fair system replacement or a complete refund. One of the managers started offering me $1000, and I was ready to take the money and run, but I have way more invested into this than that.

Anyways, the specs aren't really anything special, so I'll just point out the important parts. Current computer specs are in my sig.

• Base,Notebook,Black,Retail,Alienware,M17X10
• Module,Liquid Crystal Display,17WXGA+,Samsung,M17X10
• Module,Hard Drive,320G,7.2K,SGT-HOLL,Across Line Of Business
• Module,Hard Drive,320,7.2,#2,SGT-HOLL,XLO
• Module,DIMM,6GB,1333MHZ, DDR3
• Module,Card,Graphics,5870,Parker,Mid-Life Kicker
• Module,Processor,Clarksfield,I7-740QM,M17XR2
• Module,Dvd+/-Rw And Bd-Rom,Hitachi Lg Data Storage,BARE,Alienware

I already contacted Dell about the video cards, and they agreed to send me the 5870x2 Crossfire card as a fair replacement for the 9800gt SLI.

Anybody have any experience with the WXGA+ display? I have the 1920x1200 resolution display on my XPS M1730 so I may also need to get this switched out for the higher resolution screen. I will see how it looks I guess.

And how is the I7-740QM? Is it better than my current processor, and will it be able to keep up with the 5870x2 Crossfire card? Is the processor overclockable?

Thanks to everybody who has contributed to this thread, it was a great help in getting Dell to offer a fair replacement.

 

Well i fought tooth and nail and eventually got moved up to a Senior Support Resolver and was able to explain to him why I needed an SLI rig. It took a month start to finish to get it done but long story short I'm getting a base model M18x except for the addition of the SLI 460m's. I offered to pay for an upgrade to the 6990 but they wouldn't budge. Maybe i can pick some up off e-bay in a few months.

I was kind of bummed I didn't get a similar resolution as some in this thread with my top of the line m1730 but I'll just be happy to have a working laptop again and be able to get back to work.

 

Keep trying with the video cards. I had a heck of a time trying to get them to budge on the 5870 crossfire setup, but I refused to give up (It took some more work since my last post, all of the reps I chatted with did not want to budge on the crossfire videocard and denied that I was ever contacted about it to begin with).

All it took was one cool dell rep, and a bit of a sob story on my part , and it was all finally settled. I have a dispatch scheduled for tomorrow to get the extra videocard and fan installed tomorrow.

Keep trying until you are happy with the replacement! It will be worth it.

 

(This has been an ongoing issue to get a working laptop since 6/22, when complete care was active. It no longer is as of the beginning of september, but Dell still owes me a working machine and has acknowledged that in writing).


When I originally got my 1730, it was came with a T7700, sli 8700's, and raid 0'd drives. My 1730 was actually a 1710 replacement and was a fantastic upgrade (except I had the 7950...T3 wouldnt budge when I tried to explain the bigger bus and main memory was better suited to games played on the machine's native, they extolled the virtues of dx10)

With my story, I had several GPU/mobo deaths and a tech would always come back with a new mobo and GPU units. This was twice over about a year and a half. Most recently, after the complete care depot didn't send me a working machine (32 bit drivers on a 64 bit system and didn't replace the LCD with obvious water stains. I had a pretty bad water spill =/) A tech came out to replace the LCD. The backlight would turn off after about 10 seconds unless I disabled sli and ran at minimum backlight. I figured this was a reasonable time to ask for a replacement.

I escalated and kindly and calmly asked for a system replacement which was rather quickly approved, but Im looking for some advice: I was told I'd receive a call about the replacement 3 days later (which never came), so I called to inquire. They offered an xps17 with an i5, 550, 2x2 ram, windows 7 home, and a 500 gig drive. Okay, so a 550 and i5 will out do what I had, but I want to try to do better.

The xps17's obviously can be spec'd to be a significant upgrade to my current machine, but I'd like to get the most bang for the buck. The biggest issue I have is lack of sli/xfire and hardware RAID support. I run RAID 0 on all my machines and backup frequently; the performance increase is worth it. I don't expect two cards if I get an alienware, but I like upgrade options.

I told the tech I'd have to think about it (he was really pushing for me to say yes go through with it, very pushy) and I just asked for an email with the total specs of the machine, which I was later told Dell won't do unless a machine is under production and had a dispatch number. So...he says he'll call tomorrow.

I realize since I didn't have a high end cpu or gpu that I don't have a ton of bargaining power, but only the alienwares come with raid and sli/xfire. I also guess 1920x1200 is no longer in existence and neither is the BDRE drive. Maybe bargaining chips, I have no idea. So now I wait for the call.

 

I posted the following information in another thread, hopefully you can find it useful .

 

9/14 I got impatient so I called tonight to ask about an update. This time I was offered an xps17 with an i7 (just 2.0, but still > i5), the 555m, 1080p, 4x2 ram, 7 ultimate, and bd combo. I was tempted to say yes because this is definitely a more significant upgrade, but I confirmed there's no raid support and I wanted that.

I asked the tech about raid support and he said xps doesn't have it and asked if there were other options. He said that was the only system they were offering at the time. I guess the L1's don't 'do' negotiation. He just told me to say no and call back the next day.

I get called back when I don't asked to be called, and my system exchange is approved without my approval. I get a dispatch number and everything.

First I was offered the xps17 with an i5, pass.
9/15 Then I was offered an xps17 with the 2.0 sandybridge i7, 555, double hard drive, win7 extreme, 3d (Doesn't sway me one way or the other) and 1080p. I wonder if I should have said yes to it. I say I'll receive a call in 3 days. Same system offer and I say no.

9/19 So as suggested, I attempted chat. Met a nice supervisor, said I'd forgive the loss of BDRE and 1920x1200 if he could get me raid 0 and dual GPU's. You know, mentioned how it was a gaming machine and they didn't really affect gaming so much. I say I'm not looking to rip off dell, but remind him of complete care (equivalent or better).
He seems cool with that and says he'll monitor the warehouse.

He calls back 30 minutes later and I get excited super excited. He said "I found you an alienware MX17... ." (there was no number after it)
t9800
260m (dual 512s, at least they're 256bit though)
2x2 1066
RAID 0 Hardware Built in Support (Striping for 2 or more drives)
1 (One) 250mB hard drive.
1440x900 screen
DVD RW drive.
win 7 home

I thanked him for finding something else! I mention the one drive and the screen res and he says he'll mail an LCD and drive to me after the system is sent out. Was a little miffed about getting a core2duo (I know I came from a meron 7700, but the sandys run so much cooler). He says he can put it through right away if I like. I wasn't sure about accepting something from the depot unless it was what I wanted, so I asked him to call me tomorrow.

9/20
I call again before the depot closes and ask if the system is still available and they say yes. I ask about the drive and the LCD and they say have no notes about extra units. The sys replacement team was pretty adament telling the l1 guy I was on the phone with that what I saw was what I got. They had him remind me I said the 16:10 wasn't such a big deal and that BDRE wasn't such a big deal, but 900p? Come on. I clearly was referring to 16:10 to 16:9. To be fair, they did throw in 2 260's which isn't so bad (I assume the sli drivers are fixed now?). They gave "enough" ram, and a "good enough" chip (ok, so I'm really only bashing the 9800 because I want an i7 now, and TDP is also pretty important for laptop longjevity), and a "good enough" optical drive.

TL DR I'm on the phone for 1:49 (only 21 minutes spent talking to the tech) and I think I pissed off the system replacement team. I wasn't asking for an r3 or m18 with dual 580's or anything. I decline the offered system because it didn't have two drives so it can't RAID, and it didn't have a 1080p screen. They wouldn't budge. Maybe some people like the smaller resolution, and maybe it's een better for underpowered gaming, but the dot pitch on a 17" screen that's 1080p is just so nice.

I don't want to seem like a money grubbing chump since whatever I get is an upgrade, and I'm wondering if I should just call again, see if they have that xps17, and take it for a nice multimedia machine. Or if I should escalate. The one drive thing kinda ticked me off. So did the automatic system approval. There are terms on dell's side that they aren't fulfilling and should be, but what're they gonna do, offer me $250 for a dead 1730?. I could threaten BBB and consumer reports, but I'd really rather try to be nice first. Maybe I was nice first. Maybe I shouldn't be as nice?

Gonna bump my post for a recommendation: Think I should escalate? Arguing for days to get raid and then getting one drive seems pretty silly to me. Seems like they just wanted to through their cheapest sli model in my face and say look you got it. That's how it felt, anyway. (Again I'll remind everyone that I did only have a mid range 1730 which probably has some to do with it)

As usual, thanks for reading and thanks for all the posts and all the help guys.

 

Bumping for my updated post...can't figure out how to delete them so I reported the mostly empty one. I feel like I made system replacement mad and they're the gatekeepers. Halp! (As always, you can skip to the TL DR part)


Update: 7:39cst -

P303J BASE (ASSEMBLY OR GROUP)..., NOTEBOOK, ALIENWARE, BLACK 00001
2835C MODULE..., DOCUMENTATION..., AIRBORNE..., 2-DAY, DELL DRCT 00001

Do they just do this all the time? This is the second time I've declined a replacement and they've started getting parts together >.<

 

After about two months of wrestling with Dells tech support department about my broken computer, I was finally able to push an alienware out of them as a replacement for my M1730! They kept trying to offer the XPS 17 as a replacement, but I kept turning it down, kept to my guns, and customer support was kind enough to look for an alienware replacement. here are the specs.

(the old computer)
M1730
T6600 Core 2 duo 2.6ghz
8700M 256MB GTX SLI
6 gigs of DDR2 1066 RAM
RAID 2x 7200 RPM 640GB HD's
BD ROM Burner/player

(dells offer)
1 N971H 125V Power Cord
2 N347H 240W AC Adapter
3 7X54D 5.1 Channel Audio
4 Y2FYM 64BIT Operating System
5 CP1VF Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit Operating System DVD
6 N8GY4 Alienware M17x R2 Laptop
7 PTN92 Processor: Intel Core i7-840QM (1.86Ghz, 8M/8 threads)
8 W795M 8 GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz (2 DIMMs)
9 H608T 500 GB SATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
10 H609T 500 GB SATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM) 2nd Drive
11 R0N0R Slot Load Blu-ray Disc Combo (DVD+/-RW & BD-ROM)
12 P1RPJ Crossfire 1GB ATI Radeon Mobility HD 5870
13 MVF7Y Dell Wireless 1520 802.11n Half Mini-Card
14 6FY1X Accessory Kit
15 GFWWN Shipping Material
16 CTX0X Information
17 C465T Hard Drive Bracket
18 VW0X1Notebook Keyboard
19 P811N Information
20 5FJ8MProcessor Label
21 JY598 Information
22 NT799 AUTO-UPDATES,ON
23 N330P Information
24 GV0CP Wave Systems Software
25 P398P Software
26 XM544 Image Restore Software
27 D9KVP Operating System DVD
28 D0W4H Command Center
29 KP831 Software
30 JY639 Alienware AVATAR 7
31 6RDR6 Service Software
32 Y540P Cyberlink
33 8WG28 17 inch UltraSharp WUXGA (1920x1200) RGB LED Display
34 2J4FR Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium
35 HYJDC Nebula Red
36 V3C5M Dell Wireless 370 Bluetooth Module
37 T780J 9 Cell Primary Battery

any opinions?

 

I posted a few months back in this thread about my issues. I was just looking back over a few posts here and seeing that people are being offered machines that are WAAAAAAAAAAAY inferior to the XPS M1730. Dell originally wanted to give me an XPS M17 (which they did). I POLITELY refused and stated my case as to why-inferior display, inferior GPUs, BIOS options, pretties, Etc. ( Look here)

Long story short-I was told the direct replacement for the M1730 is the AW M18x. Now, if they have some M17x R2's available, they may be going that route as it is a dual gpu unit. But the R1, R2, and M18 are the only dual units they build now that compare to the M1730. There is a dual GPU XPS17 I think. But it still can't beat a maxxed M1730, let alone an R2 or M18.

My point??? Push for an R2 at the least!!! Don't settle. Chances are you all paid good money, and a lot of it for this machine. And you paid even more if you still have the warranty after this much time. Again, just my opinion.

 

Hi All,

After 2 years of never ending problems Dell decided to replace my system :
XPS M1730,
Intel Mobile Core 2 Duo T9500 @ 2.6GHz
NVIDIA SLI 8800M GTX
Blu-ray RW AND DVD+/-RW
2x 320GB Hard drive 7200RPM, RAID 0 (Original spec was 1x 320gb 7200rpm)
4GB, DDR2, 667MHZ, 2 DIMM
85 WHr,9-CELL Battery
AGEIA PhysX Accelerator
DELL travel remote control
DELL Wireless 1505, 802.11n
AverMedia TV card
Windows Vista Ultimate
LCD, 17-INCH, TRUELIFE, WUXGA, 1920x1200

To :

M18x Black (Or Red is better?)
2960xm
Win 7 Ultimate
4GB 1600mhz (Was hoping to get more ram)
2GB ATI 6990 X-Fire
750 GB HDD
Full HD WLED 18” screen
Intel Advance N 6200 w/ BT 3.0
Dual Layer Burner & BluRay Reader w/ Roxio
McAfee trial 30days
Office Home & Student

Now my question, it seems like a good and fair exchange right? Should I go for it? Any room for negotiation? ie More ram or something?


TIA guys!

 

They gave me two options

mx17 r3
with i7
8g ddr3
1000gb sata, 5000 speed i believe.
amd radeon hd 6870

i pushed for a dual gpu and they gave me the r2
i7 processor
8gb ddr3
256 solid state drive.
crossfire ati hd 4870's

i took the r2.

did i make the right decision?

 

Well as an owner of an R2 I think it's a fantastic computer, and from what I understand the dual GPU's have a 15 to 20% performance gain over its R3 counterpart. Well done sir!

 

*Sigh*

I spoke too soon! Dell decided to back paddle and not sending system that we agreed upon. To top it off, they didn't even tell me! I had to call them up to ask for the status of my replacement.

Instead they are sending :
I7 2670
Win 7 Home
500 GB Hdd
4GB HDD
Slot load DVD (no blu ray)
Nvidia 1.5GB GTX 580

I immediately refused, floor manager said he's going to call me back this Saturday (Christmas eve! )

O well.. we'll see..

 

My nephew has an XPS M1730 that after many repairs in the last 2 months Dell decided to replace his notebook, they told him that they would send him the specs of the new computer and he could decide from there.

Dell decided to just send him the XPS 17 notebook loaded up with all the good specs but I told him to call Dell and refuse the computer because it isn't the same or better then what he had.

From my experience here on this board I gave him all the information that he needed to fight for the Alienware M18x, they tried to give him the Alienware M17x saying that it was better then what he had, the Dell agent said they wouldn't give him the M18x but would call him back the next day. I told Nick to fight for the Alienware M18x as it has the dual video cards which is what he had in the XPS M1730 notebook.

So after about 2 weeks of going back and forth with Dell they decided to replace his notebook with the Alienware M18x notebook, so just keep fighting and don't settle for anything less then what you already have.

 

well, I am glad i made the right decision and took the r2. The sad thing is, this will be my second system replacement. I didn't ask for either, they just broke so many times i guess they felt they were spending more money repairing my pc than sending me a new one. My oringinal laptop was the XPS m170. I am glad i read this forum before they made their offers, even though i have been extremely lucky as far as upgrades go. I would like to have something that could run for more than 2-3 months without being serviced. Great forum.

 

You need to try and revert back to the older offer as that was a very generous offer on their part. If you discretely reason and refer back to that offer, perhaps they will agree to put that back on the table.

 

Jabbok >
I intend to fight.. so we'll see

Kade Storm>
I will try, I did refuse what they offered me and the floor manager said he will contact me this saturday.. We'll see...

But say on Saturday they refused, what else can I do? He even deny the original configuration! He said there was no mention about the spec in the note (lie!)

 

I've posted here a handful of times, but i've kept this thread booked-marked.

for reference, dell recently replaced my m1730 as well, we were supposed to talk about a system replacement on Friday but i got an automated call this Tuesday that something was on its way, i decided to just wait and see what was sent before looking online, received it Wednesday. My original system had just had the video cards replaced and then it went out. So they asked me to send to their service depot and it came back in worst condition then it went out, damn thing doesnt even turn on and they still sent it to me.

also I was told a system replacement comes at 3,4,5,6,7,8 times being repaired before replaced, each time it went up a number, but i didnt say anything, i knew my system was broken so I just waited patiently on them. The only thing I commented on was when they originally said the direct replacement was the xps17 and i asked if they were sure it wasnt an alienware.

Original M1730
X9000
2GB Ram
160 HDD x1
8800GTX SLI

New System m18x
I7-2670QM
8GB Ram
750GB x2
ATI 6970M Crossfire

I'm tempted to keep this system, though I would rather have the extreme cpu and nvidia GPU but this seems like a pretty generous offer. I'll see if they still call me later this week and and maybe i'll be able to ask them about it.
DL

 

Do you have any proof of the original specification? When they make offers, they send a PDF invoice -- or something to that affect -- with proposed specifications.

Daniel_l,
I think the exchange is great! Also one of those things that I'd consider generous since they're swapping an XPS for a full-on M18x. The could always derail you into the M17X-R3 line of laptops, and from that point forward, you'll be stuck arguing for single GPU machines. You could ask for Nvidia GPUs and extreme CPU. But on the Nvidia front, the type of cards that'd be reasonable would be the 485m SLi and onward series, which means 580m SLi, I guess? In the bigger scope, the difference is hardly that great. I am not entirely up-to-date on Alienware's present offerings. However, in every way, this is a great offer as it stands. I wouldn't look this gift horse in the mouth too long because as already seen, they can withdraw such offers.

Personally, I'd accept the offer and then cement my position as an Alienware M18X owner with a dual GPU rig.

 

Hmm I don't have anything, this is one of the reason why I made that call to follow up. They never sent me anything, the did promise to send it but it never happened.

daniel_l>

that is a generous offer, aside from CPU you did get an upgrade of memory (2gb to 8gb) and HDD (2x 750gb). Not bad!

 

I've owned the below set up for 3 years, however when it was originally built in July 2008, it came with Dual SLI 512MB NVIDIA 8800GTX cards BUT as seems to be the case in all XPS M1730's - it burnt these cards out in January 2010 (even though I was running the laptop perminantly on a mains powered cooling platform) - Dell replaced the burnt out graphics card under its 3 year warranty.

XPS M1730 CORE 2 Extreme X9000 (2.8GHz,800,6GB)
17# TFT WUXGA (1920 x 1200)
4GB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM
2 x 200GB (7200RPM) Free Fall Sensor RAID 0 Stripe
Blue-Ray Disc DVD +/-RW Optical Drive
Dual SLI 1GB NVDIA GeForce 9800M GTX cards
Ageia PhysX Processing Card

Since the cards were replaced in January 2010 I upgraded the cooling platform to NZXT Cryo LX ( NZXT :: Unique. Unprecendented. Inspired - Cryo LX Product Detail) and hoped this would suffice..... I also extended the warranty to 2 further years to its maximum of July 2013.

But now, 11 months on I am again suffering frequent NVIDIA driver failures (Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding etc etc) and freezing of windows & IE, which to me is suggesting that the one of the graphics card(s) is failing.

I have finally contacted Dell Support as no matter how much testing, investigation or re-installing of drivers has been able to either identify a fault or provide a solution.



So trying to be in the best position during my resolution with Dell could I ask for your help/comments as to what the most appropriate & equally Alienware laptop (M18x I guess?) setup would be - I'm not too knowledgeable and so would like to be on a good footing when I speak to them.


Thanks in advance

 

Mpw246pl,

My honest opinion would be any M18X laptop with a dual GPU setup would be construed as a generous offer. If you were to go by specification level relative to time of purchase, then your 9800m GTX SLi and X9000 GPU and CPU combination would be considered the most maxed out rendition of the M1730. Some could argue that this would allow you some wiggle room to ask for a relatively higher-end M18X.

However, as it stands, they would be providing you with a much faster machine with even the lowest dual-GPU and CPU solution in the M18X category. I think this is important as moving from an XPS onward with a system replacement can come with risks -- they can sometimes move you over to a single GPU system, after which your future warranty and system exchange options are limited to that type of machine. If they offer you an M18X with anything 560m SLi or above, with enough RAM, I would consider accepting the offer and moving forward.


Extreme_S,
Thanks for the further clarification. I am kind of surprised by hearing this, since first offers always come with a specification sheet. They rarely disclose these sort of things over the phone. Then again, I am just going by own anecdotal account, and we have plenty of those on this forum. None of us actually know of the factual practice that takes place. Results and behaviour is always subject to the discretion of the Dell representative in question.

Perhaps you could take a few steps back and without arguing about what system you want, you simply request that they at least match one crucial aspect of your original machine -- and investment -- by offering you any kind of dual GPU system. You don't have to blatantly disagree, but word it in such a fashion that it implies your willingness to work with them to reach a solution. This might lead to an M17X-R2, which would still be great, and would give you future grounds for a similar system replacement.

 

Kade Storm>
We'll see what happens this Saturday, I will definitely keep in mind what you've suggested. Thanks so much!

BTW, is there any maximum number of replacement that us user can have? ie: We can only have one system replaced and nothing more.

Mpw246pl>
I would say either M17x R2 or M18x is an equivalent replacement. But don't be surprised if dell tries to pass XPS 17 as a replacement.

 

ExtremeS,

Good piece of warning for Mpw246pl, which is why I hope he knows where to show resistance and where to be agreeable. I'd certainly nudge them in the direction of a dual GPU system and be satisfied with any kind of offering from the M17X-R1 onwards. At least this way, he has a chance of getting a newer dual GPU model if the older one fails.

--

As for your questions about how many replacements a user can have. I am not sure if I understand this correctly. If this is about number of simultaneous systems under warranty, then that's pretty straight forward -- each system is its own case file. You could have 5 systems, and if service calls aren't working out, then they can all be replaced. I suspect that this might not be your question, but I thought I'd add this bit just for the sake of completion.


If this is about how many times your system can be replaced, then that can be a bit more complicated. Technically, so long as the system is under Dell's NBD warranty, you do have technical recourse to replacement. There are individuals who've gone all the way from M1710s (yes those old ones with the Mobile 7800/900/7950-GS/GTX GPUs) to M17X-R2s. Some have even had full refunds on the original invoice, but this can be very long and tedious. I think that Dell would rather replace your system than part with full invoice price. Unfortunately, all of this is again subject to the region, the consumer rights of the region, and over and above all else, the representative handling the case.

Under reasonable conditions -- that is if the system really does have crucial functional issues that cannot be resolved properly through multiple service calls -- then it can be replaced for a newer model, even if this system itself was a replacement for an even older model. What really counts here is some degree of professional diplomacy in the conversation, and a running NBD warranty package.

 

Kade Storm>

Actually I meant the latter, thanks for a thorough explanation. I'm just curious, say from M1730 -> M18x (or M17x), if (and only if) that one failed numerous time
would Dell replace that with say M19x (or whatever it will be called). I'm not saying/hoping it will fail though I just want a working laptop without a headache

Now, since you mention NBD, I'm assuming this is Next Business day?
I think I no longer have that, when I extend my warranty I only took complete care. It's still active though. Will this affect Dell's decision? Since I don't have NBD?

Anyway... tomorrow is the day! We shall see..

To all.. Happy Holidays!

 

ExtremeS,
That is theoretically possible, but policy and rules do change. One shouldn't view the warranty as a primary recourse to replacements. What they will do, which is a great service, is make sure your system is up and running as it should be. . . if not, then they'll even replace. When a system becomes old and obsolete, replacement with a newer model tends to become a primary option.

Regarding Next Business Day (NBD) service. Yeah. I am not sure about the details, but if you're under warranty, especially complete care, you should get a similar decision. I've just rarely heard of individuals with a non-NBD warranty. It's just that they might not be obliged to respond to you as quickly as they would to someone who might assert the NBD aspect of their warranty.

Best of luck.

And a great Christmas and New Year to all!

 

well, just thought i should let you know. Dell shipped out a different machine than what was promised. However, it was a better machine than what i was told i was going to receive.

i7 x940
8gb ddr3
256 ssd
crossfire 5870's
wuxga rgb led

Needless to say, i am pretty happy. There are 2 dead pixels though -_-. guess ill just let it slide.