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Area 51 vs Area 51 ALX - Motorized Door, Motherboard Differences?
I recently had my Area 51 ALX motherboard replaced (still under warranty). I noticed that it looks slightly different than my old one. The old board had green slots and no Alienhead/Glyphs, whereas the replacement does. I also noticed my BIOS POST screen no longer says Area 51 ALX, just Area 51. Are the boards different at all? They don't seem to be, other than that.
Also, were the non ALX Area 51's grey, or were they black as well? As far as I can tell, the ALX was black, anodized aluminum, and had a motorized CD drive door.
The reason I'm wondering is Dell seems to think mine isn't an ALX, and that might explain the board swap. My motorized door doesn't work, so I had them swap it as well, but it still doesn't work. I don't know where the motor or anything would be, but it seems to have the mechanisms and cables for it. Dell swore that none of them are motorized and mine isn't an ALX (pretty sure he had no idea).
Any ideas on how to get this door working?
morblore
2.4K Posts
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November 4th, 2012 16:00
People still do that
http://en.community.dell.com/owners-club/alienware/f/3746/p/19471748/20208804.aspx#20208804
phrequencyviii
28 Posts
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November 4th, 2012 16:00
"Assembled from parts"
Do you remember the old ALX systems? People would get the case, the programmable AlienFX card and all the other weird stuff and spend forever trying to get it all to work as if it was bought...yeah, I'm not that insane. :P I imagine it would be just as much as a nightmare to try and Frankenstein one of these guys together...I really hope I never outgrow this 975 i7...
phrequencyviii
28 Posts
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November 4th, 2012 16:00
I am not the original owner...I thought I had mentioned that. I bought it from somebody and the warranty was transferred to me. (the original owner was somebody with a little more money than sense, so I get DUH when I ask them about it). A three year warranty was bought and paid for. It's not like I got a broken one and am demanding somebody fix it.
It was definitely not made from parts. I'm mostly interested in the differences between the two (such as the door) because there is very little information about it online, and it's often contradictory.
What plastic side panel are you talking about?
I would rather wait for someone from Dell to check the thread out Monday vs. calling them because I don't think it's a stretch to say that usually they have no clue. It took multiple tries to get the correct lid color on my m11x when the hinges were replaced. It's not like I need it fixed right away...I'm mostly just interested in it at this point.
I've used Alienware since the Predator P2 chassis came out (which had weird stuff similar to this as well, and multiple AlienFX cards), and bought an m11x at launch. This is the only one I didn't buy new (because they were a ton of money, like you pointed out).
I don't think your trying to sound like a jerk, but I don't get why suddenly I'm being interrogated. :P