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26555
August 5th, 2014 15:00
Worst Tech Support Ever! Aurora-R4, Respawn issues
I recently purchased the alienware aurora R4 and dropped over 3 grand on the system. 3 months later I am having problems with my system and tech support refuses to help me in any way shape or form because they claim my problems are not covered under my warranty. They then directed me to restore my hard drive using my windows 8 recovery CD to fix the problems. They then recommended that i purchase Alienrespawn (it was supposed to be on my PC when I got the computer but it wasn't) So I shelled out the 40 bucks for the respawn program. I installed it and when I got to the part of the system backup the program does not work at all because I restored my PC the day before as they told me to. I called tech support and guess what? "We can not cover any kind of technical support on respawn because it is not covered under your warranty" So I shell out 40 bucks for this program and they can't even help me installing it and getting it to work properly unless I shell out another 60 bucks to pay for the technical support!! I am DEEPLY disappointed in Dell and Alienware over this and will never purchase anything from them ever again.
Azalin76
15 Posts
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August 5th, 2014 15:00
I purchased it directly from Dell on the Alienware website.
I was having a problem with some programs crashing and randomly starting up which would interfere with my online gaming by minimizing my game while I was playing as well as interfering with other things I would be doing normally on my computer. A lot of the programs were freezing up and lagging, stuff like that. Which is why they recommended the system restore but refused to walk me thru how to do it properly, they only directed me to the website for help. As for the respawn whenever I tried to access the recovery environment is missing and this feature will not work. I even tried to direct it to my 3Tb external USB backup drive and it said there were no external drives available. Even tho it clearly states that I can use an external one.
Azalin76
15 Posts
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August 5th, 2014 15:00
The tech that i spoke to when I was restoring windows told me to delete all of the partitions that windows found during the clean install, will this option still work if all the partitions were deleted?
DELL-Chris M
Community Manager
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56.9K Posts
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August 5th, 2014 15:00
"I recently purchased the Alienware Aurora R4"
From Dell directly?
"because they claim my problems are not covered under my warranty"
What specific problems?
"Alienrespawn (it was supposed to be on my PC when I got the computer but it wasn't)"
If purchased from Dell, it should have been loaded at the factory.
DELL-Chris M
Community Manager
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56.9K Posts
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August 5th, 2014 15:00
Try doing respawn outside of the windows environment.
* This will erase the hard disk drive so if possible, save all of your documents, favorites, MP3's, etc. to DVD or USB key
* Turn the system off
* The only external devices connected should be the monitor, keyboard, and mouse. The mouse and keyboard should be plugged into USB ports on the rear of the system
* Restart the system
* Press F8 several times
* On the Advanced options menu, select "Repair You Computer"
* Press Enter
* Select your keyboard language
* Click Next
* User name and password may be required, enter the login information. If your Windows password is disabled, it will not be needed so, select the user name
* Click OK
* At the System Recovery Options, select "AlienRespawn Restore and Emergency Backup"
* Click "Select other System Backup and more options"
* Click Next
* Click "Restore my computer"
* Click Next
* Highlight Factory Image
* Click Next
* Click "Restore without preserving new or changed files"
* Click Next
* Click "Yes, continue"
* Click Next
DELL-Chris M
Community Manager
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56.9K Posts
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August 5th, 2014 16:00
I thought the image was in a hidden partition? Try the steps and see. Send me the service tag number via a private message (click my username).
Azalin76
15 Posts
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August 5th, 2014 18:00
The F8 option did not work. I am calling tech support again to see if they will replace my hard drive since it is now considered damaged, I hope they will replace it since they are the ones that damaged it by telling me to delete all of my partitions.
DELL-Chris M
Community Manager
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56.9K Posts
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August 5th, 2014 19:00
Damaged would imply broken. It is not broken, you just do not have the factory image on it. If you are still inside of 90 days from the invoice date, Technical Support can send out a hard disk drive with the Dell image on it. Or they could send you a USB boot key with the image. Once outside of 90 days, all you would get is a blank hard disk drive. You would then have to reinstall the operating system, drivers, etc.
Azalin76
15 Posts
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August 7th, 2014 08:00
I finally got a great tech who helped me with a proper clean install. Now the only problem that I have is that every time alienrespawn has an update it wipes my nice clean factory install and creates a new backup of the current state that my computer is in so all of that was really for nothing now because of this program that alienware has us use for recovery.
Tesla1856
8 Wizard
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17.1K Posts
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August 7th, 2014 13:00