Alienware help. (I know they suck)

[sp1jp]

Hey guys this is my first post so I guess Ill just begin with the whole story. Last December I needed a half decent computer for the release of The old republic. I didnt have all the money to build my own and against my better judgement I was taken in by alienwares " Get a super fast gaming rig for 125 bucks month!" deal . Well Big mistake In total after I pay it off it will come to 3600....... On the flip side its been running pretty well since I got it, almost every game I played was on max settings and I never had an issue until last week. I was playing dishonoured for a second play through and my screen went black and made a buzzing noise. now I cant even watch a video on youtube in full screen without this happening not to mention every game I try playing ( slender, Diablo3, Dishonoured, borderlands, even diablo 2) . Everytime it happens I have to restart by holding the power button down . Ive tryed everything. Drivers are fine( went from old to new to beta still the same) Temps are ok. Fans are fine. Heat sinks are ok, I Uninstalled everything, re installed it and finally Re installed windows. I did a few tests through the bios and everything came up ok other then my batteries life( I used my spare battery and it still didnt work) Whats weird is I ran a stress test on the gpu using 3Dmark11 and It was fine.. SO this leads me to wonder what is wrong with my Computer? I want to get it fixed and sell it for 1000 to get some money to build my own anyways. Im done with Alienware for good. ALSO It has an i7 2760 ,a 2gb 580m , 8 gigs of no name RAM, 1tb ss hard drive . Hope some one can help me

 

[seriousgamer]

You can get an MSI GT783 with those specs and double the ram/hard drive for $999 with superior cooling, speakers, screen, and keyboard.

But with your problem since its last december im sure you're still on your warranty. Personally i would send it back ( i believe alienware warranty covers it) they might take it in, pay shipping both way and fix it for free (Since its already overpriced $2600 or about 400%). Good luck

 

[ThatsMyNameDude]

buzzing noise? What kind of buzzing noise and where do you think it is comming from? Is there smoke or sparks or anything that you can see physically? If possible use screws and open the bottom of the laptop and do a visual inspection.

You need to restart using a force restart means that the computer froze. what are the GPU/CPU loads and temps when the computer froze?

Alienware is *** btw and it mostly cannot be fixed.

 

[sp1jp]

buzzing noise? What kind of buzzing noise and where do you think it is comming from? Is there smoke or sparks or anything that you can see physically? If possible use screws and open the bottom of the laptop and do a visual inspection.

You need to restart using a force restart means that the computer froze. what are the GPU/CPU loads and temps when the computer froze?

Alienware is *** btw and it mostly cannot be fixed.

Oh I know there garbage.. The buzzing noise is not from any hardware Its just the sound. the weird thing is the temps are actually not that high usually around 74 which Isnt terrible, Im not sure about the loads but I always have everything closed when running games.

 

[sp1jp]

You can get an MSI GT783 with those specs and double the ram/hard drive for $999 with superior cooling, speakers, screen, and keyboard.

But with your problem since its last december im sure you're still on your warranty. Personally i would send it back ( i believe alienware warranty covers it) they might take it in, pay shipping both way and fix it for free (Since its already overpriced $2600 or about 400%). Good luck

theres no way I will ever allow dell to do work on my computer. There Techs are terrible and a friend of mine who has the exact same set up as me was on tech support for 6 hours with them until finally they sent out a tech to replace his motherboard and gpu.. His problem was never fixed, His games Lag terribly and he has the same specs. A return is actually not possible with a payment plan so Im SOL

 

[sp1jp]

what is the specific model? link?

http/www.dell.com/us/p/alienware-M17x-r3/pd

 

[getochkn]

stupid question but since everything is lagging, are you sure you're on the Nvidia card and not the intel built in graphics. Alienwares let you switch between intel only, nvidia only or auto-switching. make sure you are using the nvidia card. I forget the keyboard switch to do it.

 

[raytseng]

Have you tried calling alienware and using your warranty?

 

[jackspeed]

Have you tried calling alienware and using your warranty?

+1

Also OP you know you can pay it off early.

and 1k seems fine for this computer IF it works. Send it in and then sell it after if you do not like it.

I would advise against building you own laptop.

 

[ittimjones]

system restore?

you never know, right....

 

[sp1jp]

stupid question but since everything is lagging, are you sure you're on the Nvidia card and not the intel built in graphics. Alienwares let you switch between intel only, nvidia only or auto-switching. make sure you are using the nvidia card. I forget the keyboard switch to do it.

Yes its on the Nvidia card I also thought that could be the problem at first

 

[sp1jp]

system restore?

you never know, right....

Tried that as well, I re formatted the whole thing

 

[sp1jp]

+1

Also OP you know you can pay it off early.

and 1k seems fine for this computer IF it works. Send it in and then sell it after if you do not like it.

I would advise against building you own laptop.

Oh no Im not building a laptop lol. Just a desktop. and I have tried calling them and got tossed around for a few hours to different departments all there phone techs are In India. Im not being racist but the majority of them are very rude. The guy who actually processed my order, "Frank" Hung up on me when I called back to make a change to my order. If you have read any reviews on Dell/Alienwares tech department all there techs are trained by watching a video and just replace main components with refurbished parts. and most of the time are very sloppy with there work

 

[jackspeed]

Oh no Im not building a laptop lol. Just a desktop. and I have tried calling them and got tossed around for a few hours to different departments all there phone techs are In India. Im not being racist but the majority of them are very rude. The guy who actually processed my order, "Frank" Hung up on me when I called back to make a change to my order. If you have read any reviews on Dell/Alienwares tech department all there techs are trained by watching a video and just replace main components with refurbished parts. and most of the time are very sloppy with there work

A friend of mine uses alienware and swears by them. This is because he is good at dealing with customer service. Many of the times he could get the tech to replace the laptop when it is obviously his fault for the laptops issues like dropping it or spilling water.

 

[smorizio]

well you have two choses then you can sell it for 50.00 as a broken laptop on ebay or send it in to dell and let them repair or replace the laptop. then sell it for more money. myself i have dell fix it under warranty it be a better selling point to show that it was just repaired before it was put up for sale.

 

[djscribbles]

Oh no Im not building a laptop lol. Just a desktop. and I have tried calling them and got tossed around for a few hours to different departments all there phone techs are In India. Im not being racist but the majority of them are very rude. The guy who actually processed my order, "Frank" Hung up on me when I called back to make a change to my order. If you have read any reviews on Dell/Alienwares tech department all there techs are trained by watching a video and just replace main components with refurbished parts. and most of the time are very sloppy with there work

Keep in mind, India has frequent power/network disruptions. What you see as being hung up on may very well be their office going dark.

That said, +1 to paying it off early, you will pay less interest this way; only the sneakiest of sneaky financing plans will prevent you from paying extra against the principle (I presume rent-to-own stuff is an example of this). Financing anything by monthly payments is ALWAYS designed to screw you over, nothing unique to Alienware there.

 

[ThatsMyNameDude]

IF you want to build your own laptop, check out eurocom. They currently have the most powerful laptop on earth unmodded. It can hold a i7 3960x with dual 680ms
They have laptop chassis for sale

 

[raytseng]

Oh no Im not building a laptop lol. Just a desktop. and I have tried calling them and got tossed around for a few hours to different departments all there phone techs are In India. Im not being racist but the majority of them are very rude. The guy who actually processed my order, "Frank" Hung up on me when I called back to make a change to my order. If you have read any reviews on Dell/Alienwares tech department all there techs are trained by watching a video and just replace main components with refurbished parts. and most of the time are very sloppy with there work

Interesting. My opinion is that the stereotypical Indian tech support rep is extremely polite, however despite the politeness you just don't get any results.