Bad news for Core "1" Duo m5550 owners

Like many of you, I purchased and received an m5550 with the original Core "1" Duo 2.0 ghz CPU.

I just got off the phone with Alienware Tech support, asking if there as ANY WAY AT ALL, I could return either my CPU, or send back my whole laptop, and get my Core 1 Duo CPU exchanged for the new 2.0 ghz Core 2 Duo CPU (the T7200). I was very polite, and mentioned that there is a BIOS upgrade that makes that possible as well. I said a nominal fee would certainly be Ok.

The short answer: "NO". I spoke to about 5 different people on the phone, each person with a different answer. Finally the last person said, for some unknown reason, that they can NOT upgrade the CPU on a mobile system. Like it's some kind of magic motherboard and processor, that you can not change. This is completely BS, as you can see the processor yourself, and removing it is fairly easy.

I am somewhat unimpressed with Alienware customer/tech support.

I got the feeling that AW had NO idea what they were talking about when I spoke with them.

The whole process took about 30 minutes, and I had 3 different people on the phone, and was put on hold each time for 5 minutes. To top it off, each person had a different answer.

My question was very simple. "I am one of the recent m5550 buyers who's machine shipped with the Core 1 Duo CPU. I would like to exchange it, for a reasonable fee, for the Core 2 Duo CPU at the same speed, 2.0 ghz. Can I do this?"

You would think I was asking to buy plutonium, based on AWs answers.

The 1st person said, hold on let me get you Tech support, which is who I called in the 1st place.

The 2nd person said, Yes you can do this. You have to pay for the shipping and return shipping, and they quoted me 99 (yes NINETY NINE dollars for shipping). Then they said they would change the processor, taking two hours of labor at 80 dollars per hour, so 160 there, and then they quoted be a price of 260 for the Core 2 Duo 2.0 CPU upgrade. The 260 sounded very reasonable to me, but the 99 dollar shipping and 160 dollar upgrade did not. So I told the person I work for FedEX (which I do), and that I will be paying the to and from shipping with my personal FedEX account #, and it is FAR cheaper for me than 99 dollars. I also said I could remove the processor myself, and FedEX it to you, to save AW from doing it and save me the 160 dollar labor. So they put me on hold.

Now a 3rd person on the line comes on and says "No, a processor upgrade is not possible. Your motherboard does not support it." I point out that AW has released a new BIOS version specifically so that my motherboard will support the CPU. He then said AW does not offer CPU upgrades of any kind, even if you send back your machine to let AW do it.

So 3 people, 3 answers. I might wait a few weeks and see if any of you guys call and get some answers...

I know the performance difference between the 2.0 Core Duo and the 2.0 Core 2 Duo will be so tiny that I won't even notice it. I just want that 4MB cache! Maybe by waiting 4 months or so, we can all get our hands on a 2.33 or 2.66 Core 2 Duo at a reasonable price, and then jumping from a 2.0 Core 1 Duo to a 2.33 or 2.66 Core 2 Duo will definately be worth it, if just for the higher clock speeds.