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Alienware QuestionsFollow
hello all, ive been looking into getting a ALienware, but i have some conserns. ive heard people had problems with the high powered Graphics cards and this game. anybody have more info on this?
Build your own you'll be better off?
I haer that they have pretty bad customer support and tend to half *** certain things. Overall you're just getting a semi-ok system with bad customer support and a pretty case. All this info and more I got from my friend google.com
Edited, Fri Jun 2 04:43:12 2006 by Asier
I haer that they have pretty bad customer support and tend to half *** certain things. Overall you're just getting a semi-ok system with bad customer support and a pretty case. All this info and more I got from my friend google.com
Edited, Fri Jun 2 04:43:12 2006 by Asier
Yes, if you know what your doing build your own.
If you don't know what your doing as far as that goes, then alienware is a great company to buy from. My brother has one and it works great, but it also depends on what you get. If you dont know what our getting... asks them LOTS of quetions until you do and make sure you UNDERSTAND what they are saying... trust me it will save you a lot of headache later, especially if things aren't working the way you want.
Edit: Bad customer support can possibly be attributed to the support bearly speaking English.. they are based in Miami.. the refuge for all Cubans (who speak Spanish as a main languange), but the "half-***" commnet above is not true in my opinon. It is my experience from not only my brother but others as well, that they build very reliable and well built systems if you know what you want and you know what you are getting when you buy it.
Edited, Fri Jun 2 04:45:45 2006 by sodenke
If you don't know what your doing as far as that goes, then alienware is a great company to buy from. My brother has one and it works great, but it also depends on what you get. If you dont know what our getting... asks them LOTS of quetions until you do and make sure you UNDERSTAND what they are saying... trust me it will save you a lot of headache later, especially if things aren't working the way you want.
Edit: Bad customer support can possibly be attributed to the support bearly speaking English.. they are based in Miami.. the refuge for all Cubans (who speak Spanish as a main languange), but the "half-***" commnet above is not true in my opinon. It is my experience from not only my brother but others as well, that they build very reliable and well built systems if you know what you want and you know what you are getting when you buy it.
Edited, Fri Jun 2 04:45:45 2006 by sodenke
I have an Alienware myself, an Aurora 5500. I have a Geforce 7800GT Graphics card in it and it runs this game perfect. I won't go over a full spec list of my system but if your interested in knowing them drop me a PM. The computer has been nothing but great since I have owned it. And the two times I called customer service, they were very nice and helpful. If you have the cash and it's something you want to buy, I would recommend it. But they are not cheap. 
i have an alienware laptop i've been playing ffxi for years on now, but I suggest you don't buy a laptop. Mine overheats after about an hour of playing ffxi. Even after I sent it in they told me it was a problem with the motherboard, whatever that means, fixed it and sent it back. A week later it started to overheat again. I put a fan next to it to prevent it from doing this, but even still I've dc'd from a lot of good parties cause of this stupid problem...
I've had mine for almost three years now, and it still works almost as well as the day I got it (I installed nortans and it seemed to slow my pc down a bit).
The only problem I've had with it was the mother board burning out within the first three months of me owning it. Called them up, and they fixed it for free, but it took them forever to get around to fixing it.
Personaly, if I could do it again, I'd probably price around a bit and see what you can find from dell, gateway, and HP and see if you can get something comparable for cheaper.
The only problem I've had with it was the mother board burning out within the first three months of me owning it. Called them up, and they fixed it for free, but it took them forever to get around to fixing it.
Personaly, if I could do it again, I'd probably price around a bit and see what you can find from dell, gateway, and HP and see if you can get something comparable for cheaper.
FWIW....
This is my story of my Alienware computer.
I came into a bit of money about a year and a half ago and decided I wanted to buy the mother of all computers (at least for me). So I put together an Area 51 m7700. I put in 2 gigs of ram, top of the line (for the time) graphics, 160 gig HD, blah blah blah. It had every damn bell and whistle I could think of. Total cost: >4000 dollars U.S.
After waiting nearly a month for them to build my dream computer, I used it a grand total of nine days before the motherboard fried. I sent it back and waited another month while they fixed it. Two months later, the optical drive stopped burning discs. So I had to practically get an edict from God and speak to at least 2 supervisors for them to send out a new drive. Another 10 day wait.
The computer has totally crashed twice to the point where I had to "respawn" the computer, meaning return it to its original state, thus losing about 4,000 songs and having to go through the 4 or 5 hours it takes to completely reinstall FFXI.
Since then (knock wood) the computer has behaved. But still, spending THAT much for a computer you should get quality equipment, perhaps?
I will say this, the customer support is fairly responsive and I have been able to get ahold of someone day or night. But some of their support involved me basically dismantling the computer (taking out the battery, hard drive, optical drive, etc. I didn't mind that much because I'm kinda a techie geek and feel comfortable doing such things. However, if you are a little leery of a support rep telling you to pull apart your system over the phone, beware.
This might not be typical of an Alienware product. But I, for one am VERY disappointed, especially with the hype and the reputation that preceeded this computer...not to mention the cost.
As far as the heat factor in running FFXI on a laptop, it does get pretty warm, but I have one of those fans that the computer sits on and plugs into the USB port. So far that has worked just fine.
I owned 3 Compaq/HP computers both laptops and desktops, before this one, and I must say I had less problems in 4 years with all 3 than I did in 4 months with the Alienware.
Just my .02 gil.
Creveat Emptor.
--Chef
edit to correct some really dah-dah-dah (Carlos Mencia) spelling errors....
Edited, Fri Jun 2 08:41:03 2006 by ChefsakaiFFXI
This is my story of my Alienware computer.
I came into a bit of money about a year and a half ago and decided I wanted to buy the mother of all computers (at least for me). So I put together an Area 51 m7700. I put in 2 gigs of ram, top of the line (for the time) graphics, 160 gig HD, blah blah blah. It had every damn bell and whistle I could think of. Total cost: >4000 dollars U.S.
After waiting nearly a month for them to build my dream computer, I used it a grand total of nine days before the motherboard fried. I sent it back and waited another month while they fixed it. Two months later, the optical drive stopped burning discs. So I had to practically get an edict from God and speak to at least 2 supervisors for them to send out a new drive. Another 10 day wait.
The computer has totally crashed twice to the point where I had to "respawn" the computer, meaning return it to its original state, thus losing about 4,000 songs and having to go through the 4 or 5 hours it takes to completely reinstall FFXI.
Since then (knock wood) the computer has behaved. But still, spending THAT much for a computer you should get quality equipment, perhaps?
I will say this, the customer support is fairly responsive and I have been able to get ahold of someone day or night. But some of their support involved me basically dismantling the computer (taking out the battery, hard drive, optical drive, etc. I didn't mind that much because I'm kinda a techie geek and feel comfortable doing such things. However, if you are a little leery of a support rep telling you to pull apart your system over the phone, beware.
This might not be typical of an Alienware product. But I, for one am VERY disappointed, especially with the hype and the reputation that preceeded this computer...not to mention the cost.
As far as the heat factor in running FFXI on a laptop, it does get pretty warm, but I have one of those fans that the computer sits on and plugs into the USB port. So far that has worked just fine.
I owned 3 Compaq/HP computers both laptops and desktops, before this one, and I must say I had less problems in 4 years with all 3 than I did in 4 months with the Alienware.
Just my .02 gil.
Creveat Emptor.
--Chef
edit to correct some really dah-dah-dah (Carlos Mencia) spelling errors....
Edited, Fri Jun 2 08:41:03 2006 by ChefsakaiFFXI
My experience with Alienware :
1. wanted a certain colour case. The order went through but 2 weeks alter they said I could only get black or silver. I ordered anyway
2. go to the site to check on progress of the build, to see what stage it was in. didn’t change from phase 5 (or thereabouts) for 2 weeks. I called them and they said it was at stage 10. I explained the site said it was at stage 5. they said the site was up to date and miraculously when I checked 10 minutes later it was at the right stage
3. when it arrived (it is huge) one of the cables wasn’t properly plugged in so it kept rebooting itself. Within 10 minutes of owning it I had to open it up and check it for loose connections and fix it. The cable was so obviously loose it should have been caught
4. the video card went bad within 3 months (probably not their fault). They replaced it but said that they had to charge my credit card for the replacement until they received the bad one I shipped back to them, within 14 days, then they would remove the charge. They sent me a prepaid UPS label. All I had to do was go to the UPS store and they did the rest. Made sure I got a receipt to prove I had shipped it. I seem to have had no problem with this. no charge ever appeared on my statement. They were very helpful throughout the whole process of installing, updating drivers, flash bios etc.
5. it has 8 usb ports (I actually need 10) and the 4 on the front work intermittently with whatever hardware they are in the mood to. Just don’t feel like ******** with them to see what is wrong.
6. note : my mother is german, my mother in law is japanese and I have happily worked for many non english speaking people. I have absolutely no problem with any one to whom english is a second language. but most of the people I contacted had accents so thick I truly might as well have just guessed at their instructions / responses. Not a good idea when opening up a new $3,000 computer that arrived at your house 10 minutes before. They are very nice and helpful. Just hard for ME to understand what they were saying. (I have talked to them at least 6 times that i can recall)
7. finale : I had 3 dells at home and three at work before I ordered my Alienware. I will probably build my next computer or just get another dell that will do the same thing but for much less.
Edited, Sat Jun 3 15:54:54 2006 by banzaireaper
1. wanted a certain colour case. The order went through but 2 weeks alter they said I could only get black or silver. I ordered anyway
2. go to the site to check on progress of the build, to see what stage it was in. didn’t change from phase 5 (or thereabouts) for 2 weeks. I called them and they said it was at stage 10. I explained the site said it was at stage 5. they said the site was up to date and miraculously when I checked 10 minutes later it was at the right stage
3. when it arrived (it is huge) one of the cables wasn’t properly plugged in so it kept rebooting itself. Within 10 minutes of owning it I had to open it up and check it for loose connections and fix it. The cable was so obviously loose it should have been caught
4. the video card went bad within 3 months (probably not their fault). They replaced it but said that they had to charge my credit card for the replacement until they received the bad one I shipped back to them, within 14 days, then they would remove the charge. They sent me a prepaid UPS label. All I had to do was go to the UPS store and they did the rest. Made sure I got a receipt to prove I had shipped it. I seem to have had no problem with this. no charge ever appeared on my statement. They were very helpful throughout the whole process of installing, updating drivers, flash bios etc.
5. it has 8 usb ports (I actually need 10) and the 4 on the front work intermittently with whatever hardware they are in the mood to. Just don’t feel like ******** with them to see what is wrong.
6. note : my mother is german, my mother in law is japanese and I have happily worked for many non english speaking people. I have absolutely no problem with any one to whom english is a second language. but most of the people I contacted had accents so thick I truly might as well have just guessed at their instructions / responses. Not a good idea when opening up a new $3,000 computer that arrived at your house 10 minutes before. They are very nice and helpful. Just hard for ME to understand what they were saying. (I have talked to them at least 6 times that i can recall)
7. finale : I had 3 dells at home and three at work before I ordered my Alienware. I will probably build my next computer or just get another dell that will do the same thing but for much less.
Edited, Sat Jun 3 15:54:54 2006 by banzaireaper
banzaireaper wrote:
I have absolutely no problem with any one to whom english is a second language. but most of the people I contacted had accents so thick I truly might as well have just guessed at their instructions / responses. Not a good idea when opening up a new $3,000 computer that arrived at your house 10 minutes before. They are very nice and helpful. Just hard for ME to understand what they were saying. (I have talked to them at least 6 times that i can recall)
Yes, I will vouch for that as well. Really nice, polite people, but I haven't spoken to a single support person at Alienware that didn't have a thick, hard to understand accent.
Also they put an open charge on my credit card for the optical drive when I needed it replaced.
--Chef
I have an Alienware desktop (well, floortop, that damn thing weighs more than Kathy Bates) and have had a couple of the smaller issues folks have mentioned. Like Bonzai, my damn computer was in Stage 5 or 6 for like two weeks, then it suddently jumped to the end when I called them.
Mine plays FFXI wonderfully. It better, that **** is HUGE! I only have had one problem with mine, but it doesn't affect FFXI. When I play games like Oblivion, Warhammer 40k, Warcraft III, and the like, the like to lock up a few hours in. The screen just jams, and the sounds gets all scratchy and the last 3 seconds of play sounds are on a loop. I have no idea what to do, I guess I should call one of those thick accented damn help people. >< I like to keep the sound on those games low, and run Aqua Teen in the background to listen to, but that makes it lock up very quickly.
But seriously, I think if you're smart enough (which I am) and not lazy (ah, that's my problem), you can build a comparable pc for half the cash-money. But if you want a humongous monster pc, that dwarfs all your friends' computers, and also has a little light up alien face on it, get Alienware.
Also, it comes in a black box big enough to house a child in. And your mousepad comes in a freakin' metal tin for some reason.
I don't know if the Dell buyout has had any negative consequences for Alienware's quality, but I probably wouldn't buy it if it's under the damn Dellâ„¢ umbrella. Forgot about that.
::EDIT:: Spelling.
Edited, Fri Jun 2 09:15:10 2006 by Mcspiffy
Mine plays FFXI wonderfully. It better, that **** is HUGE! I only have had one problem with mine, but it doesn't affect FFXI. When I play games like Oblivion, Warhammer 40k, Warcraft III, and the like, the like to lock up a few hours in. The screen just jams, and the sounds gets all scratchy and the last 3 seconds of play sounds are on a loop. I have no idea what to do, I guess I should call one of those thick accented damn help people. >< I like to keep the sound on those games low, and run Aqua Teen in the background to listen to, but that makes it lock up very quickly.
But seriously, I think if you're smart enough (which I am) and not lazy (ah, that's my problem), you can build a comparable pc for half the cash-money. But if you want a humongous monster pc, that dwarfs all your friends' computers, and also has a little light up alien face on it, get Alienware.
Also, it comes in a black box big enough to house a child in. And your mousepad comes in a freakin' metal tin for some reason.
I don't know if the Dell buyout has had any negative consequences for Alienware's quality, but I probably wouldn't buy it if it's under the damn Dellâ„¢ umbrella. Forgot about that.
::EDIT:: Spelling.
Edited, Fri Jun 2 09:15:10 2006 by Mcspiffy
Alienware computers are nice, but they are over priced. As stated above, their laptops rock, but you will run into cooling problems (as you will with most gaming laptops). If you really want one and have the money to throw away by all means go for it. You won't run into problems with this game that drivers won't fix (if you run into any problems at all). However, it would be much wiser to build your own, or go with a cheaper company.
When you buy alienware your paying for the name. You can easily take one of their computers, build it on anoher website and it will be cheaper. Alienware system cost and extra $600 in some cases just for the name. If you were to acutally goto a website like www.newegg.com you would probably be able to build better with the amount of money on hand.
My housemate bought an ALienware computer and boy we had a right time with it, here's a few of the problems we encountered:
1. Was not optimised in the slightest, my custom-built PC which is 2 years old (newest part is 2 years old anyway) played Quake 4 faster. (It was a top-spec gaming system from Alienware - about £1500)
2. One of the RAM slots burnt out within 2 hours of use (and we hadn't done anything yet).
3. Customer Services asked what WE thought the problem was regarding the RAM.
4. FFXI would crash a lot, the graphics were appauling and couldn't display any higher than 1024x768 no matter what we did.
5. Majority of documentation missing from folder. Including serial number, order number, and reciept.
6. Cost him £150 to send back for a refund.
7. Customer Services had a different spec listed as been delivered compared to the one we recieved.
8. Screen was blurred most of the time, could do nothing to sort it out.
So yeah my opinion of Alienware is over-priced crap but as I say, thats just my opinion. Some people on here have had some good experiences but personally I prefer to build my own. You can usually get the sme system for a fraction of the price and you can usually work out whats wrong faster as well.
Still, your money, your decision.
Edited, Fri Jun 2 12:05:28 2006 by RogalDorn
1. Was not optimised in the slightest, my custom-built PC which is 2 years old (newest part is 2 years old anyway) played Quake 4 faster. (It was a top-spec gaming system from Alienware - about £1500)
2. One of the RAM slots burnt out within 2 hours of use (and we hadn't done anything yet).
3. Customer Services asked what WE thought the problem was regarding the RAM.
4. FFXI would crash a lot, the graphics were appauling and couldn't display any higher than 1024x768 no matter what we did.
5. Majority of documentation missing from folder. Including serial number, order number, and reciept.
6. Cost him £150 to send back for a refund.
7. Customer Services had a different spec listed as been delivered compared to the one we recieved.
8. Screen was blurred most of the time, could do nothing to sort it out.
So yeah my opinion of Alienware is over-priced crap but as I say, thats just my opinion. Some people on here have had some good experiences but personally I prefer to build my own. You can usually get the sme system for a fraction of the price and you can usually work out whats wrong faster as well.
Still, your money, your decision.
Edited, Fri Jun 2 12:05:28 2006 by RogalDorn
Please, build your own.
I have owned an Alienware Area 51 now for about 3 years and I just love it. The only problem I've had with it is that the latch that holds the front door closed does not work so the door is open all the time. I also own Dell and I have a Toshiba Laptop.
In April I priced out a new ALX system from Alienware with Crossfire completely tricked out and was not impressed by the price and I was NEVER going to pay the $10,000 they wanted for this system sooooo, I built my own and got twice the computer for 1/2 the money.
I HIGHLY recommend you check into building the system yourself. You can choose top of the line components, get a faster processor, add SLi or Crossfire graphics and have terabytes of hard drive storage for a bargain compared to what Alienware want for a sub par system. And Crossfire works great with FFXI. I LOVE my new computer and I will never buy production again.
But only do this IF you are comfortable troubleshooting and programming BIOS settings. In all builds there is a need for some of both.
Take care
Coro
I have owned an Alienware Area 51 now for about 3 years and I just love it. The only problem I've had with it is that the latch that holds the front door closed does not work so the door is open all the time. I also own Dell and I have a Toshiba Laptop.
In April I priced out a new ALX system from Alienware with Crossfire completely tricked out and was not impressed by the price and I was NEVER going to pay the $10,000 they wanted for this system sooooo, I built my own and got twice the computer for 1/2 the money.
I HIGHLY recommend you check into building the system yourself. You can choose top of the line components, get a faster processor, add SLi or Crossfire graphics and have terabytes of hard drive storage for a bargain compared to what Alienware want for a sub par system. And Crossfire works great with FFXI. I LOVE my new computer and I will never buy production again.
But only do this IF you are comfortable troubleshooting and programming BIOS settings. In all builds there is a need for some of both.
Take care
Coro
I'm planning to build a PC this summer. I'm leaning towards dual Opteron CPUs. I'm still going to come out cheaper than I would with a "high-end" Dellware, piece of ****.
For what you are wanting to accomplish with a PC, you could save hundreds on the thing by building it yourself. Then take what you saved and invest that in a high-end video card. You'll be the envy of any gamer who wasted their money on a Dellware.
For what you are wanting to accomplish with a PC, you could save hundreds on the thing by building it yourself. Then take what you saved and invest that in a high-end video card. You'll be the envy of any gamer who wasted their money on a Dellware.
I personaly chose to build my own rather than buy an Alienware. I saved myself 1,000 by doing so, and got a comp with specs similar to those that Alienware sells. Mine even has fans that glow blue with a clear sided case. /smile It plays FFXI beautifully and have had no problems in the 2.5 years I've had it. Newegg.com FTW!!!
In closing, do your research (spent 2 months making sure everything worked together) before you buy your components to build your own. Compare a pre-built comp to buying the parts seperately. Knowing that when something goes down you can easily replace it, is a plus.
Sym
In closing, do your research (spent 2 months making sure everything worked together) before you buy your components to build your own. Compare a pre-built comp to buying the parts seperately. Knowing that when something goes down you can easily replace it, is a plus.
Sym
www.newegg.com
I like building my computer because I like knowing exactly what is inside it, the quality of those products, and how they connect to eachother. All other computers I have used that came from Gateway, Dell, Compaq seem to have quality "better known" pieces of equipment such as the processor, RAM, and video card, but low quality everything else. Comparing two nearly equal computers, one from Dell and one custom built, the custom built one just has a better feel to it. It starts faster, loads folders faster. It just has a better feel.
Also, buy AMD and not Pentium.
I must add, however, that my Sony Vaio laptop is ABSOLUTELY phenominal.
Edited, Fri Jun 2 13:15:53 2006 by xxsidekickxx
I like building my computer because I like knowing exactly what is inside it, the quality of those products, and how they connect to eachother. All other computers I have used that came from Gateway, Dell, Compaq seem to have quality "better known" pieces of equipment such as the processor, RAM, and video card, but low quality everything else. Comparing two nearly equal computers, one from Dell and one custom built, the custom built one just has a better feel to it. It starts faster, loads folders faster. It just has a better feel.
Also, buy AMD and not Pentium.
I must add, however, that my Sony Vaio laptop is ABSOLUTELY phenominal.
Edited, Fri Jun 2 13:15:53 2006 by xxsidekickxx
[1] Auroraâ„¢ 7500
Processor: AMD Athlonâ„¢ 64 FX-60 with HyperTransport and Dual Core Technology
Operating System (Office software not included): Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition with Service Pack 2
Warranty: 90-Day AlienCare Toll-Free 24/7 Phone Support
Automated Support: AlienAutopsy: Automated Technical Support Request System
Power Supply: Alienware® 650 Watt ATX 2.0 Power Supply
Chassis: Alienware® Full-Tower Case - Cyborg Green
Chassis Upgrades: Alienware® Liquid Cooling with AlienIce™ 2.0 Video Cooling
Motherboard: Alienware® nForce™4 SLI™ Motherboard
Graphics Processor: Dual 256MB PCI-Express x16 NVIDIA® GeForce™ 7800 GT - SLI Enabled
Video Optimizer: AlienAdrenaline: Video Performance Optimizer
Memory: 2GB Low-Latency Dual Channel DDR PC-3200 at 333MHz - 4 x 512MB
System Drive: High Performance - 74GB Serial ATA 10,000 RPM w/8MB Cache
Primary CD ROM/DVD ROM: 16x Dual Layer DVD±R/W Drive w/LightScribe Technology
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster® X-Fi® XtremeMusic High Definition 7.1 Surround Sound
Primary Display: 19" 12ms LCD - Black
Secondary Display: No Secondary Monitor
Network Connection: Integrated High Performance Gigabit Ethernet
AlienRespawn: Alienware® Respawn Recovery Kit
Keyboard: Microsoft® Multimedia Keyboard - Cyborg Green
Mouse: Microsoft® IntelliMouse Explorer 4.0 - USB - Plasma Purple
Never had a Problem and am in love with this Computer :P
Sorry for Specs but do ya blame me?
Processor: AMD Athlonâ„¢ 64 FX-60 with HyperTransport and Dual Core Technology
Operating System (Office software not included): Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition with Service Pack 2
Warranty: 90-Day AlienCare Toll-Free 24/7 Phone Support
Automated Support: AlienAutopsy: Automated Technical Support Request System
Power Supply: Alienware® 650 Watt ATX 2.0 Power Supply
Chassis: Alienware® Full-Tower Case - Cyborg Green
Chassis Upgrades: Alienware® Liquid Cooling with AlienIce™ 2.0 Video Cooling
Motherboard: Alienware® nForce™4 SLI™ Motherboard
Graphics Processor: Dual 256MB PCI-Express x16 NVIDIA® GeForce™ 7800 GT - SLI Enabled
Video Optimizer: AlienAdrenaline: Video Performance Optimizer
Memory: 2GB Low-Latency Dual Channel DDR PC-3200 at 333MHz - 4 x 512MB
System Drive: High Performance - 74GB Serial ATA 10,000 RPM w/8MB Cache
Primary CD ROM/DVD ROM: 16x Dual Layer DVD±R/W Drive w/LightScribe Technology
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster® X-Fi® XtremeMusic High Definition 7.1 Surround Sound
Primary Display: 19" 12ms LCD - Black
Secondary Display: No Secondary Monitor
Network Connection: Integrated High Performance Gigabit Ethernet
AlienRespawn: Alienware® Respawn Recovery Kit
Keyboard: Microsoft® Multimedia Keyboard - Cyborg Green
Mouse: Microsoft® IntelliMouse Explorer 4.0 - USB - Plasma Purple
Never had a Problem and am in love with this Computer :P
Sorry for Specs but do ya blame me?
thanks for all the opinions and tips, im gonna take all your advice and do a little homework on it all.
much appreceated guys.
much appreceated guys.
My experience with alienware-
Well, i order my sentia about 8 months ago. Everything came in good condition, although it took them over a month to ship the computer. Plus i was missint the drivers for my hardware. Which comes into play later. I recently formatted the hard drive, reinstalled windows. I stick in my alienware movie theater max thing disk to install that cinema bonus they got. Yeah well they said once you uninstall it you cant put it back on again. so im like what ever, i dont need it anyways. A couple days later I try to access the internet. It says i dont have a Network card. Well for my mother board to recognize my LAN card it needs the drivers. Since i paid over 2 grand for my computer, ill just call alienware and get a new driver CD.
Well after getting disconnected and blah blah blah i finally get ahold of the customer service. This place said i need to call that place. that place put me on the line with another place. when i finally got to the right place they put me on the phone with some dude that couldnt speak english. Hello wa wa wa wa wa help wa wa today?! Yes, i need a new Driver disk for my laptop. Wa wa wa wa wa wa wa. Good lord it was worse than sprint.
I finally got ahold of someone that could speak english. They told me that each driver CD is made and configured to each Laptop. WTF?! Yeah so they said in order to get a new CD i would need to send in my computer, pay for shipping and handling, and pay a $50 processing fee for the CD. For christs sake, $50 for a peice of plastic?
Well to conclude my pointless story, They told me to just get on the internet to download the drivers from their website. I asked the guy if he was born stupid. I told him if he doesnt remember 5 minutes ago i said i cant log onto the internet. Well he told me to log on my other computer and burn it on that one. Yeah, well i didnt have another computer ******** Thanks for all the support alienware, 2k dollars for jack ****. And to be honest, the laptop is pure ****, my vaio was way better. The only thing good about alienware is their cases. Period.
Well, i order my sentia about 8 months ago. Everything came in good condition, although it took them over a month to ship the computer. Plus i was missint the drivers for my hardware. Which comes into play later. I recently formatted the hard drive, reinstalled windows. I stick in my alienware movie theater max thing disk to install that cinema bonus they got. Yeah well they said once you uninstall it you cant put it back on again. so im like what ever, i dont need it anyways. A couple days later I try to access the internet. It says i dont have a Network card. Well for my mother board to recognize my LAN card it needs the drivers. Since i paid over 2 grand for my computer, ill just call alienware and get a new driver CD.
Well after getting disconnected and blah blah blah i finally get ahold of the customer service. This place said i need to call that place. that place put me on the line with another place. when i finally got to the right place they put me on the phone with some dude that couldnt speak english. Hello wa wa wa wa wa help wa wa today?! Yes, i need a new Driver disk for my laptop. Wa wa wa wa wa wa wa. Good lord it was worse than sprint.
I finally got ahold of someone that could speak english. They told me that each driver CD is made and configured to each Laptop. WTF?! Yeah so they said in order to get a new CD i would need to send in my computer, pay for shipping and handling, and pay a $50 processing fee for the CD. For christs sake, $50 for a peice of plastic?
Well to conclude my pointless story, They told me to just get on the internet to download the drivers from their website. I asked the guy if he was born stupid. I told him if he doesnt remember 5 minutes ago i said i cant log onto the internet. Well he told me to log on my other computer and burn it on that one. Yeah, well i didnt have another computer ******** Thanks for all the support alienware, 2k dollars for jack ****. And to be honest, the laptop is pure ****, my vaio was way better. The only thing good about alienware is their cases. Period.
I have had an alienware laptop, area-51 5500 for 1 year. It has no problems with ffxi but oh my god, play civilization 4 and it WILL overheat, i ended up frying the motherboard and sending it back.
Took about a month for them to fix it and get it back to me.
After I got it back, everything was fine except for the speakers which they did not hook up properly (ill probably take it apartt and fix it myself) but it still sounds better than any other laptop speaker!
Took about a month for them to fix it and get it back to me.
After I got it back, everything was fine except for the speakers which they did not hook up properly (ill probably take it apartt and fix it myself) but it still sounds better than any other laptop speaker!
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Alienware is overpriced crap. It only takes maybe 2 weeks of research to be able to build your own PC for usually half the price. You're not a PC gamer if you use a prebuilt PC.
Not to mention there's dignity in building your own, rather than spending $3000 extra for their "über" plastic/steel case and "Alien Ice" cooling fans which cost $4 a piece online.
You're paying for:
- The Alienware logo
- A really low-quality case that uninformed people think looks cool
- Your own ignorance
Not to mention there's dignity in building your own, rather than spending $3000 extra for their "über" plastic/steel case and "Alien Ice" cooling fans which cost $4 a piece online.
You're paying for:
- The Alienware logo
- A really low-quality case that uninformed people think looks cool
- Your own ignorance
I'll support what many have said already. Save your money and build your own system. Alienware is a total joke/ripoff.
Alienware used to be good. I'm sort of sad they've apparently aquired such a bad rep. I wonder how Falcon Northwest is perceived these days.
I got my alienware many years ago. 8-10 years ago and it's the computer I still use (although I swapped the P2-200mhz for a P3-800mhz. amazingly it still plays modern day games. sort of. maybe).
But as for "if you don't build your own pc you aren't a real gamer".
BS.
I've built my own pcs and often the trouble wasn't worth it. These days CPUs are even touchier about cooling and whatnot and, honestly, for the last few years I haven't felt the great urge to deal with mobo/bios/memory issues. It made more sense back when you had to rig Dos6/Win3.1/Win95 to run whatever game you want but these days games are so plug-and-play that i haven't had to reconfigure a config.sys file since that one time I wanted to play Out of This World in the original dos version.
And, yeah, as an old-time computer user i think the whole "neon light case mods" thing is just stupid as hell.
But, honestly, next time I buy a PC I plan to buy a pre-built one from a company with a good rep just to save the trouble of building my own.
and, for the record, i recommend Dell computers to my family members who need personal computers. anyone who thinks you should build random frankenstein pcs for everybody is just nuts. Aside from teenagers who don't have jobs, who has the time to do tech support on things like that?
Edit:
I really do wonder how falcon northwest is these days and I really am sad alienware has such a bad rep now. FNW and Alienware were two of the oldest and best custom builders back in the day. Way back when you could specify any part you wanted on your pc (my alienware has a custom case that they didn't normally offer, for example, because I needed like 8 hard drives in it at the time XD)
Edited, Sun Jun 4 03:27:09 2006 by SnickySnacks
I got my alienware many years ago. 8-10 years ago and it's the computer I still use (although I swapped the P2-200mhz for a P3-800mhz. amazingly it still plays modern day games. sort of. maybe).
But as for "if you don't build your own pc you aren't a real gamer".
BS.
I've built my own pcs and often the trouble wasn't worth it. These days CPUs are even touchier about cooling and whatnot and, honestly, for the last few years I haven't felt the great urge to deal with mobo/bios/memory issues. It made more sense back when you had to rig Dos6/Win3.1/Win95 to run whatever game you want but these days games are so plug-and-play that i haven't had to reconfigure a config.sys file since that one time I wanted to play Out of This World in the original dos version.
And, yeah, as an old-time computer user i think the whole "neon light case mods" thing is just stupid as hell.
But, honestly, next time I buy a PC I plan to buy a pre-built one from a company with a good rep just to save the trouble of building my own.
and, for the record, i recommend Dell computers to my family members who need personal computers. anyone who thinks you should build random frankenstein pcs for everybody is just nuts. Aside from teenagers who don't have jobs, who has the time to do tech support on things like that?
Edit:
I really do wonder how falcon northwest is these days and I really am sad alienware has such a bad rep now. FNW and Alienware were two of the oldest and best custom builders back in the day. Way back when you could specify any part you wanted on your pc (my alienware has a custom case that they didn't normally offer, for example, because I needed like 8 hard drives in it at the time XD)
Edited, Sun Jun 4 03:27:09 2006 by SnickySnacks
1 post
please help. I have a new alien ware. I think its 8.1 or 8. tho judging by how had to use usb to back up, I think I have 8.1. So I called se support for ffxi five times now. I had Norton, I unistalled it so I could install ffxi. I was told by the support team to download the three data files then rune setup exe file. well I got this outline and white space as if a new tab was opening. when I checked my downloads notes it said the filename and under that it said alien ware. so I clicked that. I got same outline then it went down. I cant even install playonline let alone check for errors. does alien ware have some setting blocking downloads from internet? I kno Norton and windows 8 hate ffxi. im pulling my hair out by this point. if its to do with pc settings can someone give me step by step how to change them? including the tabs trhey are under. thank you in advance.
Necro Warning: This post occurred more than thirty days after the prior, and may be a necropost.
ashe4505 wrote:
well I got this outline and white space as if a new tab was opening. when I checked my downloads notes it said the filename and under that it said alien ware. so I clicked that. I got same outline then it went down.
It sounds like you've installed some kind of Alienware bloatware. Bloatware is software that comes with other stuff you buy and you install separately from Windows, probably on an Alienware CD that came with your computer, and bogs down your computer with generally useless features. The dead giveaway is it often comes with a toolbar for your browser, which is where I suspect this "Alienware" logo you're seeing on your internet downloads came from. It clearly added some kind of download manager or something.
If you did indeed install stuff from Alienware beyond simple drivers, then that was your mistake. You could try uninstalling it, but you may end up having to re-do Windows again to fully get rid of it. Bloatware roots go deep.
If you really want to avoid that and don't mind having the bloatware on your system, then it's likely the Alienware software put the files somewhere and you just have to find them. I assume you checked your downloads folder. Next bet would be to try your system tray, that's the group of icons next to the clock on your task bar. If you hover your mouse over those icons they will display their name. Look for one that's Alienware-related. If you don't see it, click on the little upward-facing arrow and you'll see more programs that are running. Hopefully one of them is Alienware, and clicking on that should bring up some kind of screen from which you might be able to find your downloads. Alternately, there may be an Alienware toolbar in your browser that has a downloads button or something along those lines.
Hope that helped! I'm kind of taking a guess here because your description was a bit vague.
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