What a 'reasonable amount of time' for a laptop that cost over £1000?

Jon_01

DCFC79 wrote: »

Try the execs office as you ssuggested. Maybe see if you can clean the fans out. If no luck get a report done and see what happens from that and give Halifax a try.

Already has both fans out, tested and cleaned. All appear to be working unless one's randomly stopping..

JJ_Egan

Jon_01 wrote: »

Already has both fans out, tested and cleaned. All appear to be working unless one's randomly stopping..

And they say some unauthorized guy has broken it as the screws etc are undone .

wealdroam

Jon_01 wrote: »

Afternoon all,

I've a Dell Alienware laptop that's on the blink. The screen goes black and won't recover for anything from a few minutes to many hours.

It's less than 18 months old.

It's out of Dell warrantee, but as I understand it an item has to last a reasonable about of time. I'd think the less than 18 months for anything that cost over a grand isn't a reasonable amount of time?

What's the process for approaching Dell? I know that their Indian call center will just cut me off if I ask anything they don't want to deal with (I've had problems with them before).

I don't think it's been mentioned yet, but did you buy this thing direct from Dell?

NotRichAtAll

when i had my alienware m17x r3 and it broke dell were only to happy to help me they replaced the graphics card free of charge, 4yrs later it went again so i sold it on with just its onboard graphics support, the new owner was only too happy to buy it like that. In any pc or laptop i personally think 18mths ware or use is good going. A black screen sounds like the graphic card is playing up and is more than likely related to heat or dust build up.

I am laptop/pc savvy and was only too happy to rip the bottom off my alienware to clean it out, another thing i done was reseat the graphics card and the processor with new thermal paste, give it a try its not hard, you have nothing to loose if you do try arctic silver thermal paste.

i have an asus rog laptop now much better than the alienware in my opinion.

Jon_01

wealdroam wrote: »

I don't think it's been mentioned yet, but did you buy this thing direct from Dell?

HI, yes I did. I've bought a lot of Dell Laptops for the family, never had a problem until I bought this 'flagship' machine!

steampowered

Jon_01 wrote: »

Already has both fans out, tested and cleaned. All appear to be working unless one's randomly stopping..

If one of the fans are randomly stopping that would explain why you are getting a black screen.

It sounds like an overheating problem. If your graphics card gets too hot, your PC will suddenly shut down and give you a black screen. I've had this problem with a number of high performance laptops and PCs over the years, especially if the components are overclocked when you buy them. Obviously you will overheat if your fans aren't working properly.

It sounds like you need to replace the fan. The other thing you can do is search for overclocking tools and essentially "deoverclock" your PC. If you reduce the spin speed on your graphics card and processor you won't overheat.

Jon_01

steampowered wrote: »

If one of the fans are randomly stopping that would explain why you are getting a black screen.

It sounds like an overheating problem. If your graphics card gets too hot, your PC will suddenly shut down and give you a black screen. I've had this problem with a number of high performance laptops and PCs over the years, especially if the components are overclocked when you buy them. Obviously you will overheat if your fans aren't working properly.

It sounds like you need to replace the fan. The other thing you can do is search for overclocking tools and essentially "deoverclock" your PC. If you reduce the spin speed on your graphics card and processor you won't overheat.

My first thought was an overheating gpu. But, if I plug the laptop into a monitor after the screens died it's fine. It appears to be an issue with the screen powering down. Which I guess is what the ticking is that I hear after the screens off?

Leo2020

Well if everything works OK when its plugged into an external monitor then it suggests that the screen itself is the problem. If Dell wont assist then you will need to provide an independent report to them to prove that the screen was inherently faulty at the time of purchase.

NotRichAtAll

Maybe not the screen itself but it could well be the $h1tty bit of ribbon cable that runs from the mobo to the screen right on the hinge of the lid.

Jon_01

NotRichAtAll wrote: »

Maybe not the screen itself but it could well be the $h1tty bit of ribbon cable that runs from the mobo to the screen right on the hinge of the lid.

I love to think it was as simple as that. But when it works, I can type for an hour or two without anything happening, no screen flicker, nothing. If I leave it and go and make a coffee when I come back it's showing a black screen?? I would have thought the action of typing would trigger the screen shut down, but it doesn't. I've even tapped the case all over trying to force the problem. Nothing!

Also, if I tell windows to restart 99% of the time I get a black screen. Now, it's not a driver problem because the back screen is from power on, no logo or bios prompts to hit F2/F12 before windows even starts to load?