First Confirmed M18 order (9800 mobility) - Page 3

Ordering M18 for I9100

Just to clarify, did you purchase your I9100 BEFORE the M18 became available? I am frustrated because I have been on the phone with three separate Dell techs who all said that my I9100 would NOT be compatible with the MR9800. I do not know if this is lousy tech, a business trick (so only XPS owners can buy it) or really true (which I surely hope not).

Every time I call sales OR spare parts asking for the M18, they say they cannot find it. One guy ordered me an M11 after telling me five times that it was "9800" and another kid ordered me the desktop card. When I asked spare parts again today (on the umpty-umph call) they said they cannot find the card M18 or mobility radeon 9800 and when I give the stock part number "c7070" they say that there is no part for that number.

I will try to call the EXACT number which you have listed below and talk to the EXACT same person. If not, maybe giving any rep YOUR EXACT order number and customer number will finally pull a result.

MR9800 256MB, M18 for $311.34

I am so glad you put down your order number because that is the only way a spare parts rep finally found the part. Even the part number was "not found" by the last rep, and we double checked it several times.

So finally, this rep pulls it up based on your order and confirms the stock number as being c7070. She said it had M18 in the part label name, so I know it must be the right one. It's also 256MB.

Only one thing is different, which you can tell from the title of this post: my price was qouted at the odd price of $311.34. This made me ask the poor rep to repeat the name of my part about ten times just to be absolutely sure.

Just thought I would let everyone know.

Order number: 849189999
Billing Zip: 14604

$311

Thanks for the post laptop man, you may have found a loophole in the system

you said you got the card for $311 right?

consider yourself lucky, I am going to try the same tactic tomorrow, using the order number posted previously

Has anyone had any luck ordering it in the UK?

FYI: Just notified by Dell.....

Just an FYI

I ordered a XPS on July 28th with the new video card (M18)....it was due to ship on Aug 5. I was notified today (aug 9) it wouldn't ship out until after aug 16. I contacted Dell and they said it was due to a delay in getting the video card.

Not sure if it will change other promised ship dates or not.....

Alright, has anyone recieved confirmation of the shipment for their order? I placed an order on the 4th of August for Product # C7070 and it was scheduled to ship today (9th). I logged in to confirm this and I see that the order has been cancelled. Obviously I'm a bit ticked off about this so I call up sales and ask them whats up. They say that they have no idea, but they will re-order the part for me. Anyways, we order the part and I post on the Customer Service section of the Dell Forum asking why the part was cancelled so that I can fix any problem with my account to ensure it doesn't happen again. I recieve the following reply in response to Product ID# C7070

Richard,

This order will be canceled as well. One of the items on the order is no longer available. The vendor canceled the original order due to this. The sales representative will need to find a replacement part number.

Respectfully, DELL FORUM MANAGER SAMANTHA B.

So I call back and talk to probobly the best sales represenative I've ever spoken to at Dell, and he spends a good 20 minutes doing every search possible for the correct part. He finds nothing besides the C7070 and the part numbers associated with that "kit." He confirms that they are not able to be processed by the "vendor," and tells me to call him back in a week.

Are the Dell reps I'm talking to giving me valid info, or am I speaking to people who are "out of the loop?"

Mine now shows pre-production completed and that it is now "in production". Shipping is now estimated at Weds. 8/11 and delivery estimated 11/16-18. I'll keep you updated.

Lon

A note from Dell tech

Not that I enjoy posting pessimistic news, but I think I should inform everyone that I have spent SEVERAL hours on the phone with SEVERAL Dell techies who, after checking with their supervisors or whomever (one even gave me a call back after spending the afternoon to check), have all told me that our old Inspiron 9100's are NOT compatible with the new MR9800 card. No one could say why (since the I9100's of late are obviously compatible), but this may indeed be connected to the fact of people's cancelled parts. It is definitely possible that even one small part, such as the connection port size, was changed in the design of I9100's produced AFTER the MR9800's release.

Also, since ATI is, for a fact, not able to produce a large number of these new cards (reasoning why only Dell has access to them at all for the month of August), the fact that ONLY the XPS "officially" promised a graphics card upgrade, and the fact that Dell is receiving huge orders for both brand new I9100's and XPS's with the new card, I believe that, even if our 9100's are technically compatible, Dell may be purposefully denying access to these cards for us current I9100 owners.

Until I gave Rogue's order number to a sales rep, no single rep could find me a MR9800 or M18 part. They could not even find the part number c7070 when I gave that to them. I suspect that a higher power within the Dell hierarchy may be cancelling orders while the reason (perhaps one of mine mentioned above) simply remains a secret to all those bottom level reps that we all get when we call to order what we want.

Obviously, I surely hope that our old I9100's can in fact be upgraded from a purely technical standpoint, and I would like to ask if the first person to receive this card and successfully install it in his old I9100 system would be kind enough to confirm his success story so that all the rest of us may know and rest easy. Otherwise, I am ready to just order a brand I9100 with the new card and put mine on eBay . . . would prefer that it not to come to that.

That news is shocking!

*sigh*

The "techies" are full of it. This card will fit, and it will work so don't stress it guys. This is the same resistance we get stuck with every other model when they get an 'upgrade' part. For example, when the i8600 got the MR9600 as an option. For a couple months after release it was not available separately as a spare part (first production batches go into new systems), so the Dell techs give out some BS stories so customers don't go off the rails when they say it's not in stock.

You'll be able to order one in time, patience grasshopper.

stu

i got the 9600 as a part right after it came out for $120 (s/h/tax included) because i'm special ok im not special but i still did get it.

Well that is because you're a Smodulator right?

The rest of us mere mortals did have to wait a couple of months. Similarly I expect the same will be the case for the MR9800. It won't be generally available for a little while (at least not until the notice goes out to XPS owners).

stu

Any idea when us IXPS owners are going to be notified about the 9800 upgrade option? Anyone have any hints/clues/thoughts??? Someone on one thread mentioned something about Aug 10?
Thanks,
J

hey guys! so have you received your c7070 part yet? I just ordered one myself

Qty Part # Description
Quantité / No. de la pièce / Description
--- -------- ---------------------------------------------
1 320-4058 ATI MOBILITY RADEON 9800,256MB,IXPS,CUST

Is this right ??

First of all, we are smarter than Dell's techies... WAAAYYYY Smarter! Second, the card WILL fit in the 9100 (uses the same motherboard as the XPS).

My order finally went into the production stage with at receive date of 8/16/2004. I expect that to be a bit shorter seeing they are overnighting the part for free....

I CANT WAIT NO MORE DAMMIT!!!!!!

The MR9800 card HAS to work with the i9100 (even the older versions). The XPS models can get the card as an upgrade, and the i9100 and XPS share the same motherboard. So either Dell is screwing over the XPS owners from getting their promised upgrade, or the techies gave you a BS line about not being compatible (I'm thinking you got a BS line from the techs).

I won't fret it though. I trust that eventually we'll be able to order the part. Just gotta wait it out.