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326326
Alienware 17 R2 bricked after Dell fails to provide support
Hi all,
After having several contacts with the Alienware tech support over the phone regarding a not working fan I posted my issue in this forum on November 29th. Alienware support has not provided any potential solution since and 3 days ago, said fan issue caused my system to crash during a BIOS flash. Now, my system seems to have damaged BIOS and does not even boot anymore.
I am extremely dissatisfied with dell tech support. How can it be that after almost two months no service has been provided even though my product is still under warranty?
If someone has any idea how to fix damaged BIOS on an Alienware 17 R2 it would be really appreciated.
Buddy1969
13 Posts
0
January 14th, 2016 07:00
I had a similar problem. The solution was here:
You actually don't need to plug out the battery, you can also let it run dry and then go ahead with the procedure...
Hope this helps.
PS: you need to get the right BIOS-file of course.
eternalkp
314 Posts
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January 9th, 2016 18:00
they won't give you a new system exchange? whoa
CJJacobs
49 Posts
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January 10th, 2016 11:00
Why are you posting to the forums if your device isn't working? You need to call in for a warranty replacement. Tell them right off the bat that your device isn't working at all. That avoids being transferred from tech rep to tech rep. The forums really aren't the place to actually get things done. I would also suggest contacting Alienware on Facebook and Twitter as their social networking teams are top notch at getting you immediate help! A PM/DM work best to get their attention.
AntDX316
202 Posts
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January 10th, 2016 16:00
If you didn't finish a BIOS update and restarted I'm afraid to say you are looking at big money unless you can order the motherboard yourself and replace everything yourself otherwise.. ***.
Buddy1969
13 Posts
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January 14th, 2016 23:00
You're welcome. I was in the same situation and know the desperation that grips you, when you brick a new 2.500,- € laptop. ;)
Funnily enough I told the Dell Support staff about this solution and I got a "wow, we didn't know that this works" from them. Seems, they still don't know.
I am an Alienware user since many years but yes, Dell has really become worse and worse. Pre sales as well as post sales, the support is mostly not good enough in many respects.
Thank god I found a few good community ressources and ONE Dell Tech in the german language Dell forum who is good and likes to help. But these people, the good ones, are not easily found withing Dell nowadays.
The solution I found is not just helping you, it is helping Dell as well, as they don't need to provide a motherboard replacement now. One would think that this solution has found its way into their knowledge base, after I told them about it, but no. Not at Dell. They do things differently.
My 2 frustrated cents.
JaRWa
8 Posts
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January 14th, 2016 23:00
YOU ARE MY HERO!!!!!
Thanks to your link I finally managed to unbrick my Alienware 17 R2. It is up and running again.
Thank you so so so so much for your help. You did what like 20 dell guys on the technical support line weren't able to do.
JaRWa
8 Posts
0
January 15th, 2016 00:00
You are absolutely right. Amazes me that they rather exchange the MoBo in such a case than just providing this simple solution.
Vielen Dank für Deine Hilfe! ((;
Tesla1856
8 Wizard
8 Wizard
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17K Posts
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March 9th, 2017 10:00
Wow, excellent work guys. Looks like you brought two machines back to life after what appeared to be a motherboard bricking.
Only thing I can add is that BIOS/CMOS Firmware flashing seems more reliable (in the first place) if done from outside Windows. See the "CMOS/BIOS Upgrades" section of my Troubleshooting Guide linked to in my sig below.