The push didn't get through to the right person until I persevere and the case got elevated to the right person, the manager who has the power to do something about the order. As for missing the stages, the problem here again is not the stages themselves, it's the bloody Order Status page not reporting the stages correctly! This results in perceived delay in the production of the order when there are no delays at all! Look at the orders made for the American and UK. They are processed and built at the same factory as the AP orders. There were no delays to begin with as the shipments for both these areas went out, earlier than what is estimated. All Dell could easily do is allocated FAIRLY the orders to the many regions, but until that happens, unless I prodded and investigated, Dell Malaysia hasn't even the initiative or effort to look into it. I don't blame them, because the folks here are more than happy to stare at non-moving status phases than doing something about it, as you eloquently put. Because of that, orders that can be distributed fault and equally, gets prioritized to other regions where the purchasers from this region actually put some effort to enquire or ask. Just check NBR, there are numerous cases where buyers who called to ask further info about their orders gets their orders prioritized, and in some cases, gets shipped overnight for no extra charge. This happens ONLY when you take the tine and effort to do so.

It is not the matter of skipping phases, there where no skips to begin with. Alienware QC is intact, the only thing that make a lot of people perceive that they are being skipped is because the order phase is not being updated in real-time. This is why I pushed for them to fix the order status page and it's accuracy. Once that was pushed for, looked what happened! The Order Status even states an EDD rather than a blank! This will help later orders to be reflected accurately for those who ordered late.

So next time, get the big picture. This is not a rush job. Alienware will suffer greatly if they skipped on their 200-point QC cycle. This is about making that blasted Order Status page reflect accurately the progress of the order. And it is accurate now. So who wins? Not me! It's you, and other future purchasers who will now have accurate readout of what's going on with their order. There was never a rush or skip of quality control to begin with!

Phew! Don't simply open your mouth and type without thinking. Even with my last 8-days "order to ship" speed last order I had for my M15X, guess what? My M11X is working like new, just like when it shipped almost two years ago! Alienware never skips on their promise of QC, even when the order phases are sped up. It just shows that they're efficient in their progress process from order to shipping. Get it!!?

"Consider myself lucky that Dell took over and speed up the production" ROFLMAO, isn't that their duty to begin with?

My prodding and investigating has resulted in proper and accurate representation of the situation. There is ZERO luck involved here, folks! Just plain hard work, elbow grease and perseverance. If I didn't put in all these effort, my order would probably get relegated to the "nevermind lah just wait" production line because Dell doesn't get a single peep out of me, and assume I'm fine with letting things slide. Think lah wei! The order status didn't budge until I went on with my investigation didn't it? What does that signify? It means that those who care enough about their orders to ask requires Dell to take note and prioritize the production line to them. Simple as that.

Im not here to heat up the situation or make enemies with anyone here, just streamlining things for the benefit of, hopefully, everyone else who plans to purchase the M11X. Why are there so much objections to make it works better for the users here? This is preposterously baffling!

This post has been edited by stringfellow: Feb 19 2010, 07:43 PM

The SAs are not rushed. As I said before and found out as well, they are placeholder. I'm not banking or hoping for discounts, just someone who can tell the truth, not scripted responses. You said it yourself, they know very little. But "pushing them" here means getting them to elevate the case to someone who knows. Why would I pine on the words of those who know little, when I can get the real pcture from those who have access to it, the managers? Once I got there, everything was explained wasn't it? Added bonus? Personal attention of the manager themselves to my order, and it had fixed the once-stalled order status.

That was the intention all along. The SA may be collateral damage, but if they took the effort of finding out more from their managers, all this aggravations can be avoided. Call your SA if you don't believe me that when I say that the SA and the manager work close with each other, all the SA had to do was just ASK!

Okay I'm done with this. Let's concentrate on receiving the package and benchmark the hell outta the damn thing! After all this effort, I'm not gonna let it go to waste.

I'll check with the first MW, Crysis, Crysis Warhead, Far Cry 2, C&C 3, Fallout 3, Red Alert 3, Grid and my favourite all-time PC game, Civilization IV.

I'm shopping around for options on laptop sleeve, a new gaming mouse, and of course, still looking for that elusive Asus BD-ROM external drive powered by USB alone. I've narrowed the mouse down to Razer Mamba. Also looking for a good set of headphones, and seriously interested at the Psyko lineup. Otherwise, I'll just get Razer Megalodon or Carcharias.

The m15x user first generation here, not M15X. This one is even dreaded worse, users with the Ripley chassis reported endless problemw tih the chassis splaying open after a while because the back end of the top case is only held together by hot glue and flimsy screws. After gaming for a while, the hot exhaust air from the back vent would heat the screw hole causing it to expand and splay the back end of the case open.



Mine is the Skullcap, I went ahead and it still is good till now. No hinge problem at all. The m15x was ordered on October 21nd 2008. They fixed this problem with the new M15X design. Notice the new designation, M15X, not the m15x. It was small-lettered to designate the old generation, before they more to designs closer to the AllPowerful models.

How's the Targus looks like? I like form-fitting cases, so in this case, sleeves. The sleeve then would go into my own Hedgren/Samsonite bag that fits 13 inch laptops nicely. Otherwise, I can transport the M15X in its own cloth sleeve which comes with it, and carry it around in another bag, but it also must be form fitting with enough paddings. I wouldn't like th M11X to move around so much in the bag, hence why the form-fitting preference. I have Booq backpack that fits my m15x, but using that will only means it kills the form factor portability.

The search continues.....

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Added on February 20, 2010, 6:42 amAlso, looking from that link I posted, Post #154, no wonder this thread header picture looks familiar:-



This post has been edited by stringfellow: Feb 20 2010, 06:43 AM

Looking at h0M3bReW3r's case, several factors comes into light.

1. I don't know about anyone here, but if I get a hard drive based laptop, I would NEVER flip or move around the laptop while it is booting up. Especially during first bootup. Just look at how he treats it during the unboxing video. Flip left, right, even tip it up and under so that he can video-record the underside for the lighting on the exhaust port! Now either the HDD itself has SMART capabilities to autoshut to prevent HDD head diving into the platter itself or not, this is a big no-no! Those action alone may have created bad sectors onto the drive, even more critical when it is his first bootup!

2. From what I read, his OC is fine with 1.6, but crashed at 1.73. Question is, where did he do his overclocking on? On that soft bed he did the unboxing? Covering the exhaust port underneath the laptop with bedsheets is only asking for trouble, especially when you are OCing the laptop. Heat needs to dissipate fast, and covering the only exit vent will only cause internal temp to rise and eventually? System shutdown due to excessive temperature.

3. Personally, I'm happy with 1.6Ghz. I plan to OC it that way. From the hardwareheaven review, the OCing penalty is almost begligible, only 1C temp rise. Stressing it to 1.73? Well, take it this way lah. I had engineering samples of the Athlon FX processor years ago during my overclocking days. Even with these engineering samples which are supposed to be superior than retail version, you are still up to a measure of luck to see if your batch overclocks better or performs only slightly better than retail processors. You take chances, there is no sure thing when it comes to overclocking. Too many variables are involved, INCLUDING the ambient environment variables like ample airflow, circulating surrounding temperature, your method of transporting away the hot air away from the processor so that it performs better, and such.

The point here is, the laptop performs fine as it is advertised. If you're buying it based on its overclocking abilities, then it is already the wrong reason to buy it. Alienware, IIANM, never advertised it as overclockable-steady nor does the machine itself is intended to do so. Only the hardware geeks among us who wants to push the poor little thing to its limits would want to risk doing so.

EDIT: Reading back again, it's reported that he hasn't any temp issues. In that case, more like it is about the power draw from the power supply unit. Undervolting may work, but that remains to be seen, or tried by the guys who already have their M11X.

Again, this happens only during the excessive 1.73 overclock. I'd take 1.6 anytime and be happy with it. Don't know how much faster you can do things with a mere 0.13Ghz of extra processor speed.

This post has been edited by stringfellow: Feb 20 2010, 08:22 AM

Also important point brought up by NBR member krackmonkey:-



Incidentally, an A01 BIOS is already in the Dell Support section at this link. Whether this is already the one in the M11X when it ships or a new one, I cant tell since I have not received mine yet.

Long story short, relaaaaaaaaaaaaaaax.

Looks like they're speaking the truth. A refreshing change.



Shipped!

Thank you. I allow myself a little bit of hope and delight with this news, hopefully arrive before my flight to Adelaide.

ff8ong,

Ask for higher up. Keep asking until they relent. Ask for someone in the managerial position. Asking information from the SA is like reading notices on the wall, it's there and offer nothing more than what's already written.

Like I said before, the Alienware of the now, is not the Alienware of the old. The old Alienware are more PC-gamer-centric focused, they are made by gamers , for the gamers. They "built is as if it was their own". Now, once gobbled up by Dell, it is all about mass-producing these laptops, and somewhere along the line the Quality Control is no longer as per what it was once before. A lot of frustration has mounted from old Alienware users like me, when we see how they have devolved into just another PC manufacturer. The whole process from designing and speccing the next laptop is probably still Alienware's, but once it steps into the production floor, Dell takes over, and that's where the quality drops. You can't expect them to maintain QC when they are manufacturing thousands of laptops in a day. The days of "build it as if it was their own" are gone when they were bought away by Dell.

My previous order with Alienware, the m15x, never had any EDD, the order was updated in real-time. Meaning I get updates as the order passes the different phases, from production to shipping tracking. So I can't say how much faster it was because there was never an estimate to begin with.

The last order chronology was:-



Tracking was later given the moment it was passed to DHL, again tracking in real-time. So you see, it's like having the Sales Agent right there next to me telling me every step of the way, in real-time. The efficiency of the Alienware Order Phase System (not Dell Order Status) helps towards that. This is Alienware UK based in Dublin, Ireland.

No I didn't. It was a great risk taken on my part, seeing how the "broken hinge" problem was rampant at that time. Fast forward till now, still good as new. It is out of warranty now, and even out of production too, so it's "run at your own risk" already.

EDIT: My order changed to "Uplift" already, on the 20th. Meaning it is on its courier agent now, on its way here. Hopefully by tomorrow or Tuesday, or by the latest early Wednesday, coz I need to get it before I'm flying to Adelaide. Long stay there too so can benchmark and play all I want while I'm there in that dead town.

This post has been edited by stringfellow: Feb 21 2010, 09:59 PM

Most definitely because of this:-



Especially the phrase "Alienware takes great pride in building our systems, as our motto reflects, "build it as if it were your own."" and "Every Assembly Technician has been trained and qualified to Alienware standards. We pride ourselves on giving you a high performance computer system". They proudly claimed it that way. Ever seen Dell say anything like that?

I'm sticking with one year on mine. My lifespan of holding on to a laptop is usually a year or less. Once it passes that period, it'll then either get passed to a family member as I upgrade to better things, or I continue using it without warranty. Doesn't faze me.

This post has been edited by stringfellow: Feb 21 2010, 10:06 PM

Will definitely do.

LOL What gave you that idea? Different assembly lines with different QC for different orders with different warranty lengths? That is preposterous! If that is even remotely true, and found out by the general public, they are up for a lengthy class action lawsuit for segregating quality control over something as trivial as a warranty length! What if I wanted to extend my warranty past one year after my order is my hands? Does my M11X then magically becomes better made with better components?

If this is true, then what I have said before is true then. Dell's acquisition of Alienware has brought along its own mindset about production quality and its QC.

The reason why they had to reissue your order and make a new order is because their system does not allow tampering or amendment of the already made order to insert a new component. Sure the warranty itself isn't a physical component, but once they've locked down the order and service tag, it is treated like a physical component. Changing it requires a reorder straight away, and your current built, will be passed to the next one with similar order while yours will start from scratch.

Bolded and colored red for better visibility.

This post has been edited by stringfellow: Feb 21 2010, 10:23 PM

By the way, that part in bold and red , is not from my own mouth, it's from the CS manager herself. Take it as you will. I tried deducting the useless McAfee AV software from my order, but since the order was already locked down, I had to take it. McAfee is a bloated AV, not as robust as BitDefender or Kaspersky.

This post has been edited by stringfellow: Feb 21 2010, 10:29 PM

It may have similar virus definition and detection system as the rest, but when it comes system resources, it is hungry. I prefer an AV program that does its job unobtrusively and without eating up much of the CPU/system resource. Kaspersky and BitDefender fits that bill. With a gaming system like this, you'd want it to use as much of the freely available resources channeled towards a better gaming experience, not antivirus.

Kaspersky I use it for my M15X, and BitDefender for my Vaio P. BitDefender has an even smaller footprint and runs only when needed, with little sipping of system resources, perfect for netbooks.

Right on. The longest I've held on to a particular brand is Apple. The Alienware comes second.

This post has been edited by stringfellow: Feb 21 2010, 10:42 PM

Oyy what's with the Mr. lah? String will be enough. If you keep calling me Mr., I'll force you to call me by my job title then.