Question:
Alienware Aurora m7700 Mobile, 17" monitor
Specs:
Processor: AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 4200+ with HyperTransport and Dual Core Technology
Operating System: Genuine Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional with Service Pack 2
Motherboard: VIA K8T890 + VT8237A Chipset
Memory: 1GB Dual Channel DDR SO-DIMM at 400MHz - 2 x 512MB
Video/Graphics Card: 256MB NVidia® GeForce™ Go 6800 Ultra
Hard Drive: Single Drive Configuration - 80GB 5400 RPM SATA with NCQ
Primary CD ROM/DVD ROM: 24x10x24 CD-RW / 8X DVD Combo w/Software MPEG2 Decoder
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster® Audigy® 2 ZS PCMCIA
Wireless Network Card: Internal Wireless 802.11b/g miniPCI Card
Order Total: $2,943.38
...
I recieved the computer about a week late. This was expected, since the video-card I chose had a "may cause delays" note attached. I initially shipped it to my girlfriend's house, halfway across the country from where I live(this is important later).
Initial Impressions
This thing is a beast of a notebook. The 17" monitor and 20lb weight(with AC adapter included) means it is not incredibly portable. That was fine with me - it's still a lot more portable than a desktop.
The computer was easily set up; I had it up and running in a few minutes. The built-in wireless card didn't have a driver installed, which was annoying. Other than that, there were no initial problems. I installed a few games on the machine(World of Warcraft, Half-life 2 and Doom III) - all ran beautifully. Half-life 2 had some strange slow-motion effects due to the dual-core processor, which were easily fixed by downloading a utility on AMD's site.(AMD dual-core optimizer, I think it's called)
Within the first half-hour of using the computer, it ran very hot. So hot, that I using the built-in keyboard and mouse was uncomfortable. I had read about this, and assumed that this was just how this computer rolled.
Oh - one more thing before I get into the Computer From Hell part. The monitor, though it is crisp and has excellent color, is extremely bright. I messed with the alpha-settings, but these don't dim the actual monitor, only the colors. Even worse, the power LEDs and the clock display are so bright that I got dark ghost-images of them when I looked away from the computer. I found I could turn off the clock in the BIOS, but had to resort to putting 3 layers of scotch tape over the power LEDs(I can still see which lights are on).
The Computer From Hell
I ordered the computer on April 19th 2006, I recieved it on May 12th. The very night that I recieved this computer, it started to screw up. Initially, this was exhibited by hanging, even in Internet Explorer. By the following night, it was routinely giving me a blue-screen of death. At this point I called tech support. They had me do a few stress tests, which all came up clean. I uninstalled all of my programs, to see if any of them were the cause of the problem. By the next night, the computer wouldn't boot - it wouldn't even get to the initial Alienware logo screen ... it would turn on, beep at me, and restart 30 seconds later. Great.
After two more days on the phone with tech support, who had me take out and replace all of the major components of the computer, they decided I should send it in.(This was the 15th of May) At this point, I assumed this was a fluke, that this the 1 per million faulty computer that Alienware made.
I needed them to send the computer back to a different address(having originally sent it half-way across the country to my girlfriend's house). I was told to call up customer services after they had recieved the computer to change the address. After a lengthy credit check, they changed the shipping address. They also sent me a confirmation e-mail(this is important later).
I didn't hear from them the next week, so I called up again to ask about their progress on my computer. They said it was still in the queue. I called up a week, and it had shipped(I hadn't recieved an e-mail with a tracking number). They had shipped it to my girlfriend's house. I ended up paying to ship it to the correct address(about $80).
When I finally recieved my computer, it was the 5th of June. What had they done in the 2 and a half weeks they had my computer? They reinstalled Windows.
The computer worked fine for 2 weeks, until the same problems the computer initially had started to crop up. I could still get to the boot screen, so tech support had me reinstall Windows. That fixed it for another couple of weeks, before it went into its completely-non-bootable mode again. Now, in the beginning of July, they had me send in the computer a second time.
This time they replaced the motherboard. I was hopeful ... for about two weeks. The videocard started to overheat so badly that it screwed up everything around it - the PCI soundcard and the harddrive in particular.
So, after another weekend spent on the phone with these people, they decided to send me a new videocard. Only, the videocard they sent me wasn't new at all, but someone else's malfunctioning one. When I put it in my computer, it rattled and buzzed like a fly.
After chewing the poor tech support guy out, I got a rapid response for once. They sent me a new video card with overnight delivery.
That brings me to now(September 11th). The videocard seems to work fine, but the harddrive has serious problems and will most likely need to be replaced. This is coming up on 5 months now that I've had the computer from Hell.
...
I bought this computer because of the excellent reviews it, and Alienware, have recieved. I wanted to replace my desktop with something slightly more portable, but wanted to be able to use the thing for more than a year or two due to outdated hardware. Please, let me know if you've had similar experiences with this model, or if yours runs flawlessly.
Answer:
Re: Alienware Aurora m7700 Mobile, 17" monitor
That's odd; the one I tested was extremely cool running. Might want to check if all the fans were running. The Go6800U was always a hot card. Ask Alienware to see if they have a BIOS update available for download.
Yeah, I've done all of Alienware's BIOS updates.
Thanks for the Fn+F8 and F9 tip.
It sounds like a lot of your problems were software-related, considering they were fixed by a reinstall of Windows. Make sure you check for viruses and stuff, or some program could have been corrupting your installation.
I thought so at first. The third or so time that I reinstalled, I only installed the bare minimum of what I needed. Studio 8, .NET Studio, Firefox, and Photoshop. All of these were legitimate copies.
Answer:
Re: Alienware Aurora m7700 Mobile, 17" monitor
wow sounds like the nightmare on elm st. but worse... sheesh!! alienware isn't common for those kinds of crazy problems and i guess thats why it happened to you, the 1 in a million as you stated... my sincerest condolences...