Never again will I buy Alienware/dell products

Hi @Robert619,

I'm very sorry for all this bad experience, we do care about our customers. Please send me a private message with the Service Tag so I can review your case. 

If it makes you feel any better, they dont care about customers that have a warranty any more than those who do not.  BIOS update bricked my two hour old machine, on the first day of having it, and tech support says it will be a week to two weeks before i can get help.  Mind you, i paid for three years next business day support.  So, warranty or no warranty, once they have your money, they dont care. 

I too am sorry about your experience. I have had Alienware Desktops and laptops for an average of ten-year longevity. I have a laptop still serving another family going on 12 years now. I have an Alienware 17xR4 loaded to the gills. Now there is a way to check why your unit is over-heating. One is simply removing the bottom very carefully as it is pressure fitted once all the screws with the exception of the top middle one. It isn't design to come out completely. It has a clip to prevent. Just unloosen this. Do I need to mention that this unit should be unplugged and all cords removed?

Now look at the CPU Fan and the Graphics GPU Fan(s). There can be dust accumulated in and through the heat expansion grids. Use a vacuum cleaner to remove the dust and debris in the usual opposite direction to unclog these vents. After cleaning and using a brush with the vacuum to remove any heavy debris on the fans themselves, then run air from the outside inwards through the van while using the vacuum. Use the air to dust out everything under the hood. Then replace your bottom plate. Remember this plate is pressure fitted and should snap down in given areas by hand first. Once the bottom is seated firmly then add your screws. First tighten the top middle one, then added the lower left and lower right. Then the top right and top left. Then put in the middle right and middle left. Ensure all screws are firmly tight at that point before continuing. 

Turn on your laptop and access your BIOS. Find your "Performance Setting." Set your fan performance to high. Your fans will run at top speed. Also check your CPU performance here and set it to high as well. Now what we want to do is punish this laptop through extreme gaming or application usage for an hour. If everything is running fine and the fans are loud but cool, then shut the machine down, enter your BIOS and set your fan performance to the normal position. Reboot the machine, the fans will slow down considerably. Also check your performance settings in Windows. Find the "High Performance" setting usually under the Screen Saver stuff. Double check your setting to whatever you prefer. When you get to the CPU Min and Max you will notice a cooling setting. You should have Active and passive. Set your setting to "Active." I run mine on "passive" since I am not a gamer and never have a problem with my machine getting warm in spite of the twin GTX 1080 ti cards. I do video and graphic works. Never a problem.

This should help you just fine. Remember to do this cleaning about once a year unless you have cats and pets or live in a dusty place. Then about every 6 to 8 months.

Did you ever get this resolved??

I am sorry about your experience too

Thanks for posting this.  I was going to replace my Alienware M17X-R3 with something newer that could run VR and stupidly was considering another Alienware. So I thought I'd check out the forums to see if things have improved since I bought one.  Your post reminded me of all the hassle from customer service that I received on my laptop when it started doing exactly the same thing (overheating/locking up even with a cooling pad), and I swore I'd never buy another Alienware computer.

Robert619,

I feel your pain. I'm in a similar situation, and like you, I too (at the time of my purchase) felt I had reached a whole new level of awesomeness when I ordered and received my Alienware 17 R3. It has been an utter disappointment since the inception of ordering it and owning it now for a lil over two years.

I should of known better - my gut instincts told me to return it - but it's an Alienware! Currently, I've been in a customer service nightmare for the last month over mine - and that's with Premium Warranty support! I've tried making my case here on the forums, like you, and you know what the Mods response has been - to quietly remove my post. Twice. No explanation. No private message. No "let's review your case." No violation of TOS/ROC. Horrible customer service experience. Absolutely horrid - and trying to reach a customer service manager in the US to discuss my unique situation - HA! Yeh, right - I might as well be trying to reach out to the Pope for a private chit-chat and catch up on life. 

They don't give a *BEEP* Np. I can certainly take my business, my money, and my clients elsewhere. SMH. 

Good luck Robert. I hope things pan out for you in the end.

Kind Regards,
Syric

I hear ya man.

I have a Lenovo X1-Carbon Touch (Gen-2 & Loaded). Paid over $2200 new. Worked perfectly for 2 years (during warranty). Died at 2.5 years. Intel-i7 Processor and RAM are soldered-in (it's built like a phone inside). Lenovo wanted $800 for a new motherboard. Luckily, I found the exact used one for $300. Still working to this day (my daily driver). Dodged that bullet, but I will never buy another Lenovo. Too bad because the new ones sure look nice.

I've had pretty good luck with my other Dell laptops. Many still work fine. Some of my clients have fleets of Latitudes and they are good. My $2000 Dell M65 Precision Mobile Workstation (laptop) finally died, but it was like 9 years old (and not worth fixing). I bought it when it was 2.5 years old, off-lease for $500.

If Dell and/or Eimy can't help, try to find a local qualified computer tech that works on laptops.

I'm stickin to Dell and HP for laptops, however my next one will likely be a 13inch MacBook Pro (Retina-TouchBar). It will run Apple macOS  -and- native Windows-10/64bit (via BootCamp).

HP/Acer are the worst quality and support wise having seen not one person I know have these without issues within 2 years. Dell however I have usually had good experiences, they replaced my refurbished 7567 (1050Ti/1TBHDD) mid specced unit for a maxed out 4K 7577 (1060/512GB nvME/1TB HDD) when I complained and sent my 7567 in for uneven core temps twice. I have never seen Latitudes or Precisions fail even after 5-7 years and my father's corporation went back to Dell despite higher costs, after trying HP for a very short time who offered low cost but quality and support were terrible. Even Apple with the new MacBooks, the keyboards can accumulate dust etc and get stuck keys and cant be cleaned easily costing over $200 for some to replace and nothing is serviceable meaning post warranty if anything happens your gonna pay up a ton. I mean I'm sure some people will have issues with Dell but overall they are usually the best I have seen and they don't void warranty for self upgrades.

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@avtella wrote:

I have never seen Latitudes or Precisions fail even after 5-7 years and my father's corporation went back to Dell despite higher costs, after trying HP for a very short time who offered low cost but quality and support were terrible. 

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Right. The Dell Latitudes and Precisions are business models so they are built heavier and end-up being more reliable. Sure, they are more expensive, but you really do "get what you pay for". HP has similar models (EliteBook Pro and Folio [UltraBook]).

Consumer (and Gaming) models are different. A lot of consumers want flashy, sleek, thin and "Form over Function". Most of all, they want it cheap ... but there are no "deals".

I suggest you keep extended warranties on all your portable computers and devices (at least for 3 years or until they are paid for). If not doing that, put that extra money into savings account to cover it's repairs (your gonna need it).

Finally, before buying a nice laptop ... be sure you don't really want a nice Desktop. It's more powerful, easily upgrade-able, cheaper, and games better than any laptop. It's harder to drop or get stolen. Or, maybe, you really just need a gaming console for your gaming addiction :Smile:  .   Use something else when portable (iPad, SurfacePro, Android/Chrome-device, or even just a cheap laptop).

Hi i have a 2018 R4 17.3 Alienware laptop for sale with box & slip, its selling for 51k at Incredible Connection.Thanx Charlotte 0827533919 make an offer.

Hey I have 17xR4 as well have you had any issues the the fan controller? On mine it won't kick the gpu fan on, so I have to use HWiNFO to get it to work. Dell told me it was a "software" issue and wants me to pay to have it fixed. Any ideas on what i can do to fix it with out having to pay a stupid amount of cash?

Same issue here. I bought Alienware 17 R3 for close to $3k. Recently at just under 3 years old, the motherboard crashed. It was never used for gaming, just graphics and video work. Always sitting on a desktop. Had it checked out to confirm it's a bad motherboard. According to online complaints all over the place and tech support, it's a known issue of overheating and a defective motherboard.

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