There are 4 small rubber pads on the bottom of my Alienware Laptop M15x. One of them is almost worn out, due to the heat from the laptop fan.

My laptop is still under warranty. Can I request Dell to give me the rubber pads?

And, how do I attach the rubber pad back to the bottom of the laptop? Use glue?

Thanks for the advice.

This post has been edited by alvinkhorfire: Jul 19 2015, 09:55 PM

If the Alienware laptop is under warranty, can we request that the faulty parts are to be replaced with new parts?

The Dell Customer Service Officer insists that only refurnished parts are given as replacement. Is it true?

My Alienware laptop is still under warranty, and originally has Western Digital Black Edition hard disk [SATA 3 Gb/s].

Recently, the hard disk becomes faulty, and Dell Technical Support has agreed to replace it with another hard disk.

Since Dell does not have the black edition hard disk in their inventory, the Technical Support wants to replace it with Western Digital Blue Edition hard disk (which should be slower than the black edition hard disk), but I do not agree with it.

My questions are:

1. I do have the right to insist on Western Digital Black Edition hard disk (as per the original specification of my hard disk), right? And, it is up to them to source for the hard disk, if necessary from the hard disk supplier. Is my thinking correct?

2. Is SATA 3 [6 Gb/s] laptop hard disk backward compatible with SATA 2 [3 Gb/s] laptop hard disk?

Thanks for the advice.

This post has been edited by alvinkhorfire: Aug 18 2015, 10:10 PM

Thank you for your informative reply, horns.



From my understanding of the quoted text, the faulty product should be replaced with a replacement product which is equal or better than the faulty product.

Western Digital Blue Edition hard disk spins at the lower 5400 rpm, which is inferior than Western Digital Black Edition hard disk with the speed of 7200 rpm. That is why I think that Western Digital Blue Edition hard disk is an inappropriate replacement in this case.

I respect your opinion, but I do not understand the reason of your opinion.

Laptop: Alienware M15x Laptop

Battery: 56 WHr 6-cell Lithium-Ion Battery (Part Number: W3VX3)

Battery Price: RM 339.20

To all, is this battery price reasonable? I am thinking to purchase this battery.

Thank you very much for the advice.

^
Refurnished. Since Dell Malaysia considers this laptop has exceeded its end-of-life product cycle, all parts related to this laptop (purchased from Dell Malaysia) are at best refurnished.

Well, this is what the Dell customer support officer claimed.

This post has been edited by alvinkhorfire: Dec 5 2015, 11:39 AM

For my M15x Alienware Laptop, my laptop is encountering some problems.

I always plug in the power adapter to my laptop. Then again, the battery indicator in Windows taskbar always shows ‘99% available (plugged in, charging)’, instead of showing ‘fully charged’.

Plus, the Alienware Power Button always alternates from red (my selected colour) to white, indicating that the battery is charging.

Then, I press and hold the battery meter button on the battery. If the battery functions without problem, the five battery meter lights will switch off when the battery meter button are pressed for a long time.

Then again, for my battery, the five battery meter lights does not switch off when the battery meter button are pressed for a long time.

I did perform power drain on my laptop, but the problems still persist.

In short, is my laptop battery spoilt, and thus cannot be repaired? Is the only solution to buy a new laptop battery?

If I do not change my laptop battery soon enough, will it adversely affect my M15x Alienware Laptop?

Thank you for your advice.

This post has been edited by alvinkhorfire: Jan 12 2016, 06:15 AM

I need some advices here, so that I can solve a problem of the LCD screen of my Alienware M15x laptop. Any help is very much appreciated.

Initially, there was a slanted line on left side of my LCD screen (at left bottom corner of my first screenshot). Then, over the few days, some brown spots appeared. Now, the circular area is now darkened.

The weird thing is that the pixels on the brownish still can function, and display the image, as shown in the the second screenshot.

Is my LCD screen spoilt? How can I repair it? Or, should I call Dell to repair the LCD screen?

Yeah, my warranty has expired last year, but I still need to repair the LCD screen, as I still need to use my Alienware M15x laptop.

Thank you for the advices given.







This post has been edited by alvinkhorfire: Jan 15 2017, 10:45 PM

Thanks for your advice. Sure, I will follow your advice.

So, the LCD screen cannot be repaired, right? Sigh, the darkened area is slowly growing every day.

Thanks for the advance warning. Which shop did you go to? Is the repairman fully complement in repairing Alienware laptops which, as we all know, are custom-built gaming laptops? How long is warranty of repair, given by the repair shop?

I am not cheapskate in seeking the lowest repair cost, until my laptop is compromised. For sure, the repair fee should be reasonable, and not too expensive.

Thank you for your advice.

I have a question about the on-site repair work performed by Dell technician, on my Alienware laptop, in my home.

If somehow Dell technician accidentally damage my laptop by his fault during the repair work, can I request for an identical replacement laptop from Dell, as a compensation for the accidental damage?

Thank you for your advice.

Thank you very much for sharing your experience, horns.


Dell technicians, whom I normally get in my area, are not really working for Dell, because they are really Dell-appointed subcontractors. Note that I do call the official Dell Support Telephone number, to request for on-site laptop repair.


Most of the times, they are more experienced in repairing Dell laptops. If they are deployed to repair an Alienware laptop, the technician may just quickly browse through the Alienware Service Manual just before coming to my home, and may not have the actual experience in repairing an Alienware laptops which, as we all now, are custom-built gaming laptops.


On an occasion, after the technician removed the air vents and tried to reinstall the air vents back in my laptop, the technician could not place it back, because the area was too tight, and the graphics card fan and heat sink were blocking the pathway. So, the technician was exerting a lot of strength to forcefully install the air vents back in my laptop. Thankfully, the air vents and other components of laptop still function well.


Maybe, you all can get fully qualified Dell technicians to service your laptops. I do not have the luck, and got the less competent technicians. I am concerned that the lack of experience of the technician may damage my laptop. Thus, the technician may refuse to be responsible for the fault, and I am left with a damaged laptop.


I still prefer to get my laptop to be officially serviced by Dell, as a warranty is given to such repair. I just do not encounter the very few irresponsible Dell-appointed technicians who is afraid that reporting the part damaged by his fault may tarnish his key performance index, and thus reduce his commission and salary.

Thanks again.

This post has been edited by alvinkhorfire: Feb 5 2017, 11:37 AM

Here is the quotation from Dell.

LCD Screen: RM 1700
Labour Cost: RM 160

The total repair cost is a jaw-dropping RM 1860. Wow. Unbelievable.

If it is something like RM 600 to RM 800, I can still afford to pay for it. But, for RM 1860, it is something beyond my ability.

Going to other repair shops (not related to Dell) may be cheaper, but is risky, as the technician may not be familiar with custom-built laptops like Alienware. Sigh.

Well, I extended the warranty of my Alienware M15x laptop, to a maximum of 5 years.

Now, my laptop is now 6 years old, thus I cannot extend its warranty any more.

How do I prove the authenticity of the LCD screen sold at Taobao?

This post has been edited by alvinkhorfire: Apr 24 2017, 05:36 PM

Yes, Dell has good marketing strategy, which is to maximize their profit. Then again, our Alienware laptops are generally robust, and should be able to last more than 5 years, if the laptops are well taken of.

Not all of us are rich enough to replace their laptop, every 5 years.

This is the part number, I obtained from Dell Malaysia Support website > System Configuration. Sometimes, a single component may have more than 1 part number, so it is confusing, as in the case of my LCD screen. Which part number is correct?


HHXJ8 : Module,Liquid Crystal Display, 15.6FHD,True Life,Lg Philips L cd,M15X

C088T : LIQUID CRYSTAL DISPLAY, 15.6FHD, WLED, AG, LGP

This post has been edited by alvinkhorfire: Apr 24 2017, 06:35 PM

I have an Alienware M15x Laptop, with AMD Mobility Radeon HD5850 video card.


Yesterday, when I was browsing the Internet, I noticed that there were some green square dots near the edge of my LCD screen. Then, some green lines appeared, and the LCD screen started to flicker, before becoming blank.


I held the power button to perform an improper shutdown. During booting up (Windows logo was shown), the LCD screen flickered intermittently, before loading to Desktop. It was okay for a while, before some white vertical bars appeared on my flickering LCD screen.


Blue screen of Death with the message VIDEO_TDR_FAILURE was shown, and the laptop automatically restarted, to Windows Recovery, as shown in the screenshot. Just ignore the two circular darkened areas, which was caused by other issues. You can see the vertical white bars. A while later, I just turned off the laptop.





Now, after Windows logo is shown, the LCD screen becomes blank, and I cannot see the desktop anymore.


Google search on VIDEO_TDR_FAILURE reveals that “Graphics Display driver for the installed graphics card stops responding. When this happens, windows will stop and restart the driver to fix the problem. The most common reason for this issue is that the graphics device is being overloaded or used beyond its capabilities.”


Then again, I recently did not play any game on my laptop. Surely, browsing the internet will not overload my video card excessively.


I am using Windows 10, and AMD Catalyst Driver 15.7.1, which is the latest Windows 10-compatible driver released by AMD for this video card. For many months, I have been using this video driver without any issues.


Can anyone figure out the cause of the laptop problem? Is it LCD screen, or video card?


Thank you for your advice, which I appreciate very much.

horns

Well, after Windows logo is shown, the LCD screen becomes blank, and I cannot see the desktop anymore.

So, I am unable to run hwinfo64.

This post has been edited by alvinkhorfire: Sep 17 2017, 10:32 PM

horns

Ok, I will try to look around, to find any monitor that I can borrow from my friends.

cotton butts - is it same as those I can get from pharmacy, to remove ear wax from our ears?

a tube of thermal paste and isopropyl alcohol - what is the brand and the approximate price of the respective item?


For thermal paste and isopropyl alcohol, I am looking for mid-range quality, that I can buy from computer shops, such as in Lowyat Plaza.

There is no point buying for high-end products, since I do not overclock my laptop. For sure, I am not stingy, until I am buying substandard products that can damage my laptop.

Thank you for your advice, horns.

This post has been edited by alvinkhorfire: Sep 23 2017, 08:15 AM

Thanks for your suggestion, horns.

Can I easily buy a small tube of thermal paste and a small bottle of isopropyl alcohol from computer shops in Lowyat Plaza, such as in Viewnet and Jayacom?


It is best for me to replace the faulty AMD Mobility Radeon HD5850, with an AMD video card.


My processor is Intel Core i7 740QM Processor, and I still want to use my 150 Watt AC Adapter. For that, my laptop cannot support AMD Radeon HD 7970M, as my power adapter is underpowered, and I do not want to change my power adapter.


For now, I am looking an AMD video card that is more powerful than my faulty AMD Mobility Radeon HD5850, but is weaker than AMD Radeon HD 7970M, to be used in my Alienware M15x Laptop.

- No hardware modification or software modification is required.
- I should be able to reuse some parts from my AMD Mobility Radeon HD5850, such as X-bracket (mounting plate), thermal pads and etc.
- I do not need to flash vBIOS of the AMD mobile video card.
- My existing 150 Watt AC Adapter can comfortably power the whole laptop during gaming, without severe overheating.

Thank you for your advice.

This post has been edited by alvinkhorfire: Sep 24 2017, 05:26 PM

I have an Alienware M15x Laptop, with Intel Core i7 740QM Processor, AMD Mobility Radeon HD5850 video card and 150 Watt AC Adapter. I bought this laptop in year 2010.


My question: Can I buy the 240 Watt power adapter (originally intended for Alienware M18x) from Dell?


I am afraid that I can buy the 240 Watt power adapter from Dell. When I buy spare part from Dell, Dell would look at original configuration of my Alienware M15x. Since 240 Watt power adapter is not meant for my Alienware M15x, Dell would refuse to sell 240 Watt power adapter to me.

I do not want to buy the power adapter from online websites, such as Ebay, because I cannot verify the authenticity of the Dell power adapter.

240 Watt power adapter can be useful, to prevent throttling on my laptop and overheating power adapter, when I install a newer video card in my Alienware laptop.

Thank you for the information.

This post has been edited by alvinkhorfire: Dec 31 2017, 08:39 AM