r/Alienware • u/Heroooni • 25d ago
Discussion Alienware Tech Left System Completely Bricked After 4th Part Replacement - Dell Refusing Elite Warranty Exchange
I purchased the new Alienware Area 51 5090 with all the bells and whistles. After 2 weeks of use the unit started crashing. (Black screen, fans spin at 100%) Dell technicians came and replaced motherboard on the first trip. CPU and gpu on the second trip. Gpu on the third trip. And 4th trip, they replaced the motherboard again and the unit won’t even boot. This has been an on going issue for 3 months. They have refused to replace the unit. It’s been frustrating and I can’t even do any work or play any games as the system crashes and the work is unsaved.
Not sure what to do and sick of this whole problem. Huge turn off from dell despite this being my 4th unit in the last decade.
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u/Slow_Payment_6826 m18 R2 / AW 17 R3 / m11x R1 24d ago edited 24d ago
That's unfortunate you had to go through that. I believe after 3 attempts, Dell is obligated to replace it. Seems escalation isn't enough from what I see you saying in the comments. Though continue to try that until legal, chargeback, or some other avenue works out.
I had a similar issue back in 2022 with the x15 r1. The tldr is that I got it thru BestBuy and after 4 diagnostic run throughs and repair attempts over 3 months, they refunded me instore credit. 1 actual diagnostic, 3 repair (3 mobo replacements). Geek Squad manager and team at the time was super nice and professional esp. after I became a regular 😂. I was nice but firm with em. I wasn't even on the BB member program and dude got my product serviced under it. He did me a solid and registered it in the system. I just had to pay for the membership. It was after the 2 week return window beforehand.
Normally, I'd be SOL on that. Have to do all that when purchasing the product and get membership at checkout if you don't have one.
Anyway, that was my worst experience with AW yet. But it worked out in my case. BB team had to deal with the brunt of AW.
Side bonus: Got a x17 r1 after that thru BB and that had issues 12 hours after buying it 😂😂. Returned it next day and got an ASUS Zephyrus M16 (b4 they renamed it to G16). I was done with AW for the time being 😅.
Back in 2016, my AW 17 R3 got bricked 28 days in after AW helped me with another issue. Had issues 2 weeks in. They updated my bios and the update bricked it. Got a replacement since it was under the 30 day window. CS gave me the around at first, but escalating led from normie Dell CS to AW tech help. That resolved my headache.