17 R4, replacement, urgent

Question

Hi, i am posting here in hopes of finding assistance regarding my situation.       On 10th August (Saturday), while gaming on my notebook, the notebook turned itself off suddenly, followed by smoke emitting from the keyboard area, there was also a burning smell. I immediately turned off the power and unplugged my laptop. I called dell premium support hotline afterwards, the tech guy took down my service tag no. and said that he was able to get an on-site technican to me on the following monday. I did not expect it to be so soon and was very pleased with the response that I was given.        However, following 12th August (Monday), I did not recieve any calls or emails whatsoever regarding the on-site repair. I called Dell's support hotline once again and was shocked to hear that not only were there no repairs scheduled for today, apparently there was no record of my incident, as if the phone call on saturday never happened! Later on, another on-site repair was scheduled on 16th August (Friday) by another technician.         Friday came about, unfortunately, I did not recieve any response regarding my repairs. I called dell's support hotline to inquire about the situation and was informed that the repair could only happen on 19th August (following Monday).         On 19th August (Monday), I recieved a call from the on-site technician that he would be dropping by in the afternoon for repairs. The repairs started from 2pm and took about 3 hours. The technician replaced the motherboard and also reapplied thermal paste. During the repairs, the technician looked like he had trouble plugging in a cable, and there was a sound of plastic breaking, however i didn't give it much thought as he told me that he had many years of experience. I was pleased to see that the laptop was finally able to turn on.           After the technian had left, i started using the laptop and realised that there were many problems coming about. I could no longer login with Tobii Eye tracking. The laptop was unable to detect Tobii eye tracking hardware (might be the connector that was accidentally broken during the replacement). None of the USB ports were working, I attempted to connect a bluetooth mouse as a temporary solution, but the laptop's bluetooth was not working aswell. AlienFx Lighting was also no longer functioning. I also noticed that temperature at idle was hiting 80C, I decided to try out the 'new' mobo by turning on a game named 'The division 2', after running for less than 10 seconds, the temperature went up to 100C and the screen froze immediately. After restarting the laptop, I ran into 3 BSODs while browsing on chrome. There were also instances of loud bleeping noises coming from the machine.            At this point, I Was a little frustrated but decided to remain calm and call dell's support once again. I politely requested for a working replacement unit with the technical support specialist, and I was suprised. This particular guy went above and beyond, he was very understanding and considerate. He informed me that he would submit a request for me as soon as possible and I would most likely get a reply by 23rd August (Friday)  It was an absolutely delightful experience conversing with him, I even commented that he was very responsive and receptive. I was glad to hear that I would be able to recieve a working replacement soon enough.             Waited till 23rd August (Friday), did not recieve any updates. On 26th August (Monday), Decided to give a call to see if there were any updates. Was informed that it was still awaiting approval. Waited for another 3 days till 29th August (Thursday) and decided to call again to see if there were any progress, recieved the same reply as the last. It has been 9 days since a request was sent in for a replacement. I was previously informed that the process would take 24-48 hours.             It has been 3 weeks without a functioning laptop and I am at a huge risk of failing my design course as I have been unable to submit any work for the past weeks.             I appreciate the effort for anyone who has had the patience to spend time reading this lengthy post. Hope to recieve some assistance from any Dell personnel as soon as possible to get me back on track. Thank you!

Alienware-Joe · Answer

Hi Lim! Thank you for reaching out to us.
It seem that you're at that stage where our Exchanges team is looking for an adequate computer that matches the needs and specs of the one you originally ordered. It can take a bit of time, yes. But we assure you that they are doing their best to provide you a working stable computer. We could get a better perspective of things if you provide us via Private Message your computer's Service Tag. Please avoid posting it online on a public conversation as it is considered personal information.

Alienware

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