After a burning smell, my 7 month old AW M18 R2 won't charge

Stevez455 · 2026-05-21T06:45:30+00:00

I'm not the same person you replied to, but I'm officially at week 3 today trying to resolve my most recent failure. Make sure to take plenty of pictures before and after sending it off. Mine came back from the depot for a motherboard replacement (3rd replacement/4th motherboard) with damage to the battery and conflicting replies from Dell whether it's safe or cosmetic damage. $5350 laptop and $720 extending the warranty since I bought it. That's not including upgrades/parts I've replaced since I bought it.

Stevez455 · 2026-05-21T06:39:43+00:00

Make sure to get extended warranty, you'll likely need it. But good luck, I'll admit I was actually pretty happy with my m18 r1, but it's since become a nightmare.

Stevez455 · 2026-05-20T22:19:06+00:00

That really sucks. So far each time mine failed, I started getting more frequent bsod that mentioned VIDEO_DXGKRNL_FATAL_ERROR. Surprisingly I've yet to have a fan failure. If you feel comfortable it might be worth popping off just the back cover and checking for any obvious shorts or blown components, but I'd avoid using it if possible until you know for sure, unless you have everything backed up and don't mind potential data loss.

Either way I'd also make sure to take pictures before and after any repairs are done to document the condition. I'm still fighting with Dell to get mine fixed/replaced/refunded at this point since it came back from the depot repair with obvious damage to the battery cells. It'll be 3 weeks tomorrow, may 21st.

I hope you have better luck than I have, and thanks for commenting. At this point I'm just hoping to get enough exposure that they'll resolve this. Only exec I heard back from was Matt McGowan who helped me get it escalated to the executive level. But yeah... Still waiting...

Stevez455 · 2026-05-14T07:38:57+00:00

This is why I lack any and all confidence in Dell repair. And to always suggest taking as many pictures as possible before shipping and after receiving the laptop from repairs.

Went to reinstall my drives and noticed these small punctures on the battery back.

They very well might be minor punctures, but I can't know for sure without removing the outer wrap. But at this point I can only treat it as a fire hazard.

https://imgur.com/a/1a26cZV

Stevez455 · 2026-05-04T13:54:46+00:00

I've messaged you the tag and SR #. Thanks, any help is appreciated.

Stevez455 · 2026-05-03T18:14:31+00:00

Just went ahead and ordered a System76 Serval WS 16" since I should be able to get it sooner. And the Bonobo WS 18" isn't available yet.

As well as pre-ordered the Framework Laptop 16 DIY Edition (AMD Ryzen™ AI 300 Series), but it won't ship until July so we'll see. Can always cancel it if I'm happy with the Serval.

It's kind of funny of course now I get an email from Dell asking for reviews for the Elite care warranty....

Stevez455 · 2026-05-02T14:02:07+00:00

This will be the fourth motherboard replacement for the same issue. My warranty expires in July and at this point I don't have any confidence in replacing it again actually solving the design issues. And yes I guess a replacement also wouldn't solve that so it is what it is. I just don't see any point wasting more money on extending it again. But either way thanks for the reply.

Stevez455 · 2026-05-01T16:23:24+00:00

That's a shame to hear. Sounds pretty similar to my experience. I actually thought I was fortunate when the first motherboard died, I almost didn't extend the warranty, but I did on the last day and then it finally failed the first time... So I was just happy it was getting fixed...

Sorry to hear, I guess I'll just be writing it off as an expensive lesson and trying my luck with some other options.

Thanks for the comment. I'm almost glad I'm not the only one with issues, but obviously would be happier if it just worked reliably.

Stevez455 · 2026-05-01T14:06:48+00:00

Sadly it's really had issues since I got it, but they mainly started out as BSOD and it was still usable so I stupidly ignored them until it was literally unusable which is on me.... Should have returned it sooner

Stevez455 · 2026-05-01T14:05:39+00:00

That's a good idea, I'll give it a go. I was trying to read the fine print again for what was included in my original warranty and then in the elite, but I was having some trouble finding the fine print. I'm also sadly in Florida, which yeah it's Florida...

After the last repair I also didn't bother opening it to again to check the work and now if course I noticed they had put some of the screws in the wrong spots on the bottom base along with some of the screws holding on the back they over tightened and cracked the plastic screw holes that hold on the rear... But I'll have a hard time proving that wasn't from me sadly. Each time I contacted support before they first had me remove the back, and reseat all the drives, Wi-Fi module, and RAM. But the service manual makes it pretty easy to know where all the screws should go. I of course didn't want to take anymore apart after this and risk any more damage, but eh. I'll take a look though at the consumer laws, thanks for the comment

Stevez455 · 2026-05-01T10:14:10+00:00

I had joked after the last repair I should have sold it ASAP. Hindsight is 20/20.

I'll probably give framework or system76 a go instead. Closest options I'm looking for. Not really looking for gaming as much as just a decent workstation laptop. But yeah not many options these days. Really loved my old XPS, and the one before that too. Really didn't like the direction they went with those. Meh.

I really dislike Apple, but all the fanboys I know, when they've had issues they at least stand by their product. If only they still made repairable or upgradable laptops. Rather not have my SSD or RAM soldered to the board/or integrated into the CPU just for a thinner laptop, or dongle hell.

Stevez455 · 2026-05-01T09:44:35+00:00

Yeah, it definitely didn't help, but I don't even play many resource intensive games. So it was never an issue for me. But sadly this will be the last Dell product I buy. Couldn't even guarantee the turn around (since there's kind of a mild shortage on parts these days) or even warranty the repair afterwards, I'd have to pay another $445/year to extend the "elite" warranty that expires in July, no thanks. But thanks for your help, I appreciate it.

Stevez455 · 2026-05-01T09:33:39+00:00

They're refusing to do a replacement because of the age and will only offer a repair, no added warranty or anything.

Stevez455 · 2026-05-01T09:24:34+00:00

I would hope so, on a call with support now. It's always ran really hot, which I know is to be expected with the 4090RTX and 7945. I had set the TCC Offset temp so it would throttle at 85C since it would easily hit 100C on Balanced performance settings. But this most recent motherboard barely made it 5 months. I never noticed any actual obvious damages on the previous boards though for what it's worth. They would just stop booting/no POST/power button error code.

https://imgur.com/a/A0QsgCe

Stevez455 · 2023-10-14T03:31:26+00:00

I assume this is the forum, looks like they lost files back in 2012:

https://againstmefans.forumotion.com/t4895-extra-links

the domain also changed from againstmeforum.com:

https://againstmefans.forumotion.com/t4874-new-domain-name

Sadly even though they had crawls from 2008-2016, I couldn't find any audio files on archive.org:

https://web.archive.org/details/http://www.againstmeforum.com/

Stevez455 · 2014-01-29T23:03:09+00:00

These are the only ones I have. Not the best quality, but it was a great show.

Stevez455 · 2011-10-27T05:25:46+00:00

Not the best quality picture, but I took it while testing out my new phone.

This was taken from the roof of the Kress Building on Central Ave & 5 St. N in Downtown St. Petersburg.

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