The death of a legend

Both sound repairable. It will take some time and work, but due to the money you spent ... it might be worth it.

If you still have them we will be glad to help however we can.

They probably are...  I'm not suggesting my approach was best, smart, or even MATURE...  I just can't handle it anymore.  It's been nonstop problems with the worst, most difficult attempts to support I've ever experienced.  It was worth it to *me* not to have to deal with the problem anymore.

Your experience may vary.  Mine was negative.

" It overheats and fails if left on my comforter"

This right here tells me that you dont know how to use a gaming computer.

When left on your comforter, you blocked all air intake to the laptop, thus causing it to overheat badly.  A high end gaming laptop needs air to cool, you took that away from it.    Go take your comforter and put a big chunk of it in your mouth, now plug your nose and try to breath.... hard isnt it?  thats what you did to your laptop.

I hope the people at the recycler kept the computers and sold them for money to someone else.

It overheats and fails if left on my comforter <---- it pulls air from bottom of the machine and exhaust out the back.... therefore you caused it to overheat and fail...... Never place a laptop on a sheet/bed ect were it can sink and pullk the blanket/etc against the maching blocking the  air intake..

Anyway dell support has gone severly to the crops but they still eventually get through, better business bureau sometimes has to get involved and a comlaint filed ect.. but whatever works. And even the outsourced techs arent much help as again ive had both good,  knew the guy and was apple,hp,acer,ibm/etc... CERTIFIED (apple was few months training) and even said he never seen my system before  but i tried him due to background and was great, then i had another guy brick my system cause he said * I KNOW WHAT IM DOING LEAVE ME ALONE* .. apparently not  then a battle for a replacement system and blah blah blah blah .....

anyway I wish i had 8500 to burn, cause i would buy a new truck cause my 1992  is a classic and should be restored, not a daily driver :)

Obviously learned that.  When I have it open, I tend to take greater precaution.  When I had it on standby, I expected it to run a lot cooler and have no issues, thus I left it sitting.  I had to learn to leave it upside down, even when on standby.

You sir, are my new hero.  I know I'm new here, and I haven't had any issues with my alienware yet, and this thread/post will probably be deleted, but someday I hope that I'll be as financially stable as you, to the point where I can blow $8500 to make a point.  Kudos to you sir.

Of course, if you didn't want to continue the process to try and get your 8 month old computers fixed, you could have always donated them to a school or library (I know the school where my wife teaches, where the kids are working on old pentiums and 10 year old macs that barely work, would have loved a donation of almost 10 grand worth of computer equipment, but yeah, I can see how you wouldn't have wanted to subject them to that - they're much better off with the antiquated, barely working equipment that they've been using.

I can't help but assume that this posting was written by the adult version of a petulant child, who's stamped his foot and taken his bat and ball and gone home after being run out.

If indeed this member has, literally, thrown away some IT gear worth $8,500 then he should hang his head in shame.  To struggle under the misapprehension that his gear was unrepairable is either a blatant disregard for others more needy (as in a charity or school donation etc) or an indicator of woeful ignorance of matters technological.

I also find the not-so-well disguised racism offensive—as in the implicit put-down of "dealing" with India.  The OP also claims to want to "at least help a few people".  Well, it hasn't worked my friend.  You've "helped" absolutely nobody.  Your only achievement has been to make yourself look totally foolish.  Well done!

I'm a moron.  I get that.  Clearly there are more productive things to do.  I'm not defending my actions.  All I wanted to do was give other potential customers a warning.  In hindsight, this is probably a pointless place to do so.

My fiance IS a fifth grade teacher in the Austin area (Pflugerville).  Most school districts don't accept donations of computer equipment.  I asked.  I ended up calling Dell technical support asking if they had suggestions of how to get rid of it.  In the end, I gave into my frustration and did something entirely impractical.  It was intensely, viscerally ingratiating, though.  It felt...  good.  If that makes me a horrible, useless, inefficient individual, I can live with that.  Much more easily than I can live with a laptop that spontaneously, and at indeterminate intervals requires being reverted to save points or having multiple cards and peripherals reinstalled.

I did remove several piecemail components for salvage and reuse.  The AMD cards I left, though, as they're well within the "more trouble than benefit" category.

Done defending myself, as that was never the point.  For me, personally, Alienware didn't turn out to be a net benefit.  Given how long I'd anticipated having one, it was a letdown.  If your experience is better, great.  I hope everyone's is.  I just want people to know that they're not some sort of "will never crash, free from the ills of lesser computers" Holy Grail I anticipated (naively, in retrospect).

It is quite so, a petulant act.  I'm not helping anyone, other than to give people a perspective on Alienware.  Please reread for intent.

If it makes you feel better to do the whaa forum troll thing, that's fine.  OMG, he said India!  He must be racist!  No, India is where their customer service is.  They say so.  Get over it.  All points from that are observations, not conclusions.  Good work, there.

I want people to have a chance to avoid my experience.  I've repaired my gear for months.  I'm sick of doing so.

I hate overused quotes but " A company is only as good as the person who answers the phone"

I have had my fair share of  dealing with "robots" at Dell tech support who are incapable of independant thinking, and only regurgitate the questions I think they have in a book beside them...BUT....

I've also dealt with some VERY switched on individuals, who were so good at their job, they anticipated my questions and had the problem fix almost instantly

So I say again, all depends on who answers the phone, and with a large company like Dell if you dont first succeed, escalate, escalate, escalate!!!!

I have to say I'm suprised you've given up so easliy, will the consumer protection laws where you are help, if it's only 8 months old, thats well within a "reasonable" time for the item to be expected to function correctly

Have you pushed for a replacement, in your shoes I would have, considering the money spent and the timeframe I think Dell would have eventually done the right thing.

I not going to bag you out, sounds like your've done that enough yourself, but if you still have the system, I'd be more than happy to help Telsa1856 help you get these babies roaring

I'd estimate around 3-5 hours on each machine would see them both running as new

Dont throw them out mate, let the people on here help you