--- My experience with my Dell Alienware Area-51 18 inch laptop ---
Last update: 19th October 2026
I purchase my Dell Alienware 18 Area-51 mid September 2025 for the not insignificant sum of £3015.
I purchased the laptop primarily for photo and video editing/processing hence the high specification.
Around July 2026, the laptop would randomly totally lockup when I picked it up or moved it in any way.
At first, the Lockups were fairly infrequent so I didn't think too much of it.
As time went on, the Lockups become more frequent, even happening during booting before Windows started up.
By this time, I was totaly convinced that there was some sort of electro/mechanical fault with the laptop (not software as it would Lockup during BIOS booting).
On September 20th, while on a trip to France, with my laptop now almost unusable, I finally plucked up the energy to deal with Dell customer support so I phoned them (after fighting my way past their AI assistant!!).
After an hour of over the phone and remote diagnostics, the support person finally came to the conclusion that it was a hardware problem and not a software issue - even though, I explained to them a dozen times that it only ever Locked up when physically moving/knocking the device!!.
After discussing the problem with her manager, the support person informed me that they believed the problem was with the motherboard and they would have an engineer visit me within 2 business days to replace it.
To cut a very long story short, on the 16th October (today), almost 4 weeks after reporting the problem, my laptop has still not been repaired!! So much for the original 2 business days!!!.
I was advised 2 days ago that an engineer would visit today (Friday 16th Oct) to carry out the repair so I re-arranged my schedule in order to sit at home between the advised time of 08:00 and 18:00 to provide access to my laptop for the engineer.
After lunch, I checked the online status page associated with my laptop and noticed that they have changed the scheduled repair date to Monday 19th Oct !!!.
I contacted Dell support (in India) and they advised me that the service engineer was unable to visit as they couldn't contact me by phone!! ( I live in the UK and my phone has a UK number - surprise!! ( I am only visiting friends in France for a short period )
Again, to cut a long story short, it transpired that the French service company would not come out to repair my laptop unless they could phone me on a French phone number!! Is this 2026 or 1926?? Incredible !!. It also transpired that this was the reason the French engineer aborted their visit today!!!
I have borrowed a Mobile phone from a friend with a French SIM (mobile number) and provided the details to the Dell servive team, maybe this will help???
By Monday, if the enginner should turn up, I will have been waiting 29 days for a repair that was suposed to happen within 2 business days!!.
Maybe Dell should state in their warrantee contract that you are only covered when outised your home country "If, you have a phone number associated to the country you are visiting" What if you are travelling on business???? Do you need to have a SIM for every country????.
Monday 19th October.
At 09:00, after checking the Dell online status page for my problem and finding no update, I emailed Dell support in India
The email reply I recieved back sent my blood pressure through the roof - they advised me that a service technician would not vist me because I don't have a French phone number !!!!
I advised them (by email again as it seems to be the only way to get a timely response ) that I had been through all this nonsense last Friday and forwarded them the email they sent to me thanking me for providing them with a French phone number!!
A reply came back appologising for the "misunderstanding". They also advised me that the French support team have been updated with the phone number and that they will be intouch with me ( but no indication as to when they will be intouch !! )
I again emailed India requesting that they confirm an engineer will visit today but no response has been received back........
My thoughts at this moment are that the Dell wararanty support team(s) are just totally incompetant and I am now regretting renewing my extended warranty (which was not cheap) a few weeks ago :-( !!!
I will update this review as the sorry saga progresses........
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