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Gaming Dell specialists — Bournemouth, Poole & Dorset

Alienware and Dell G15/G16 repair — Dorset’s independent gaming-Dell specialists

Almost every UK Alienware repair specialist is a London mail-in operation — which means boxing up a £2,000 gaming rig and trusting it to a courier, twice. We do it differently: free collection from your door across Bournemouth, Poole, Christchurch and Dorset, an honest diagnosis, and a straight answer about what’s worth fixing. We’re independent Dell specialists, not authorised or endorsed by Dell or Alienware — our only Dell relationship is as an independent reseller since 2001 — and we’ll tell you plainly below what we don’t do as well as what we do. Rated 4.9 on Google.

Book a Repair or Ask Us Call 01202 775566
  • ● Free collection across Bournemouth, Poole & Dorset
  • ● Independent — not Dell or Alienware authorised
  • ● Family-run since 1995 · 4.9 on Google

Straight talk first

An honest local option for an expensive machine

Let’s get the important bits on the table before we talk about fans and thermal paste.

We’re independent. 365 Techies is a family-run Dorset firm, going since 1995. We are not authorised, certified or endorsed by Dell or Alienware — you may see other companies imply that kind of status — we’d rather tell you plainly what we are. Our only formal Dell relationship is that we’ve been an independent Dell reseller since 2001, which is how we can order brand-new Alienware machines to spec when a repair genuinely isn’t worth it.

We come to you. There’s no walk-in shop or counter to carry your machine to. We collect free of charge across Bournemouth, Poole, Christchurch and the wider Dorset area, work on it, and bring it back. For software problems we can often skip the journey entirely with remote support — and we always call before we connect, so you know exactly who is on your machine and why.

And here’s what we don’t do. We do not offer board-level micro-soldering — no GPU reflows, no reballing, no replacing individual chips on the motherboard. Some faults, like a dead discrete graphics chip, can only be fixed that way, and if that’s what your machine needs we’ll say so and point you towards Dell’s own out-of-warranty service or a dedicated board-level specialist rather than take your money for a repair we can’t do properly. What we do cover — thermal servicing, screens, hinges, batteries, keyboards, SSD and RAM upgrades, Windows and data work — handles the great majority of gaming-laptop faults we see, and we’d rather be known for doing those well than for promising everything.

The number one complaint

Alienware running hot? That’s usually serviceable

If there’s one fault that defines Alienware ownership, it’s heat. CPU temperatures pinned at 99°C, frame rates that collapse ten minutes into a session, fans screaming, sudden shutdowns mid-game. This isn’t us talking Alienware down — Dell’s own support library has dedicated articles on resolving high CPU temperatures on Alienware laptops and fixing overheating and random shutdowns, covering the Alienware 13/15/17, the m15 and m17 in all their revisions, the x-series and the Area-51m.

The good news is that the most common causes are wonderfully unglamorous. By two or three years old, most gaming laptops have exhaust grilles packed with dust and factory thermal paste that has dried out and stopped doing its job. A proper thermal service — full strip-down, cleaning of the fans and heatsink fins, fresh quality paste on the CPU and GPU — is often the difference between a machine that throttles and one that holds its clocks.

An honest note on the thin ones. The x-series (x14, x15, x17) runs hot by design — that’s the price of squeezing gaming hardware into a slim chassis. A thermal service on a hot x-series brings temperatures back to how the machine ran when new, which is still warm. We’ll tell you the realistic gains before we start, not after. We work diagnosis-first: we confirm what’s actually wrong and quote before any repair goes ahead, so you’re never paying for guesswork.

Huge installed base, still supported

Dell G15 and G16: loud fans, hot to the touch

Dell phased the G-series out during 2025, but that doesn’t help the thousands of G15 and G16 owners around Dorset whose machines have years of life left — and it certainly doesn’t stop us servicing them. If anything, a discontinued line makes independent support more valuable, and we’ll be repairing G-series machines for as long as parts remain available.

The complaint we hear most, and the one Dell’s community forums are full of for the 5511, 5520 and 5530 generations, is fan noise — fans blasting during basic desktop work, machines hot to the touch at idle. It’s worth knowing that this isn’t always a hardware fault:

  • Sometimes it’s physical — dust-clogged cooling and dried paste, cured by the same thermal service we do for Alienware machines.
  • Sometimes it’s firmware and drivers — G15 fan behaviour is tied to the BIOS and Intel’s Dynamic Tuning driver, and Dell has published fan and thermal guidance for exactly this. An out-of-date BIOS can keep fans roaring on a perfectly clean machine.

Part of our diagnosis is working out which of the two you’ve got, because paying for a strip-down when a BIOS and driver refresh would have fixed it is exactly the kind of thing an honest repairer should catch. Often the right answer is both — and we’ll show you the before-and-after temperatures so you can see what the service achieved.

Hardware repairs

Hinges, screens, swollen batteries and upgrades

Hinge failure on the m15 and m17

A known weak point, well documented on Dell’s own community forums: the plastic bosses holding the hinge screws strip or crack with normal open-and-close use, the hinge pulls away from the lid, and in the worst cases the flexing cracks the screen itself. Caught early, a hinge repair is far cheaper than the screen-and-hinge job it becomes if you keep using it. If your lid has started creaking or lifting unevenly, stop opening it one-handed and get it looked at.

Cracked and faulty screens

We replace gaming-laptop screens including the high-refresh panels these machines ship with. One honesty point: panel specs vary hugely between models and even between configurations of the same model, so we quote screen replacements per machine once we know your exact model and panel — we won’t advertise a one-size-fits-all screen price that quietly excludes the panel you actually have.

Swollen battery — stop using the machine now

If your touchpad has lifted, the case seams are bulging or the chassis rocks on a flat desk, the battery has very likely swollen. Gaming laptops age their batteries fast because they run hot. Dell’s official guidance on swollen batteries is blunt: stop using the machine and don’t attempt to remove the pack yourself. Please take that seriously — power it off, unplug it, and call us. We’ll collect it and fit a replacement battery safely, and the old pack goes off for proper disposal.

Keyboards, and upgrades with honest caveats

We replace worn and damaged keyboards, and we fit SSD and RAM upgrades where your model has the sockets — a faster or larger NVMe drive is one of the best-value improvements for load times (see our SSD upgrade service). The caveat: on the x-series and some newer thin models the RAM is soldered to the board and cannot be upgraded, and slot counts vary across G15 revisions. We check your exact model and revision before quoting, so you’ll never be sold an upgrade your machine can’t take.

Software rescue

Command Center, drivers, and the Windows question

Not every gaming-laptop fault is mechanical. Two software problems come up again and again.

Alienware Command Center stops working. When AWCC breaks — the app won’t open, fan profiles stop responding, the lighting goes dead — it usually isn’t a hardware fault at all. Dell publishes a specific procedure for fully uninstalling and reinstalling Command Center, including repairing the .NET and Visual C++ components it depends on, and doing it in the right order matters. We handle this along with BIOS and driver updates as part of a software service, and it’s often a job we can do by remote support without the machine leaving your desk.

The Windows 10 stragglers. Windows 10 support ended on 14 October 2025. Most G15s and recent Alienware machines meet Windows 11’s requirements and upgrade cleanly — we can handle the upgrade and check your drivers afterwards. Older machines, such as pre-2018 Alienware 13/15/17 models on 7th-generation Intel chips or earlier, don’t qualify. If that’s you, there are still sensible options: Microsoft’s Extended Security Updates run until 12 October 2027, which buys planning time rather than a future. We’ve set out the choices honestly on our Windows 10 ESU or upgrade guide, and if you’ve hit the dreaded “This PC can’t run Windows 11” message, this page explains what it actually means.

We also do the unglamorous rescue work — Windows reinstalls that keep your files, data recovery from machines that won’t boot, and moving your games and saves to a new drive.

The towers

Alienware Aurora desktops: honest triage

First, a naming tangle worth untangling: for years “Aurora” meant the Alienware desktop tower (the R10 through R16 and onwards). Since Dell’s 2025 shake-up, “Alienware Aurora” is also the name of its mainstream gaming laptops. This section is about the towers.

If you own an R10–R13-era Aurora, you probably already know it runs hot and loud. That generation’s design has been publicly and thoroughly criticised by hardware reviewers — the power supply sits over the CPU area restricting airflow, and the front intake is choked by the sculpted plastic shell — and Dell’s own community forums carry long threads on exactly this. There’s no service we can sell you that redesigns the case, so here’s the honest version of what helps:

  • What genuinely helps: a thorough clean-out, fresh thermal paste, replacing tired or failed fans, and tidying the airflow path inside. On a machine that’s never been serviced, the difference can be substantial.
  • Upgrades that work: SSDs and RAM are straightforward, and graphics card upgrades are possible within the limits of the proprietary power supply — we’ll check your PSU’s actual capacity and connectors against the card you want before you buy anything.
  • The limits, stated plainly: these towers use proprietary motherboards and power supplies, so the standard PC-builder upgrade path — new board, new PSU, keep the case — mostly isn’t available. We won’t oversell what an Aurora can become.

Curious how your machine actually performs after a service or upgrade? Our free graphics card benchmark and PC spec checker run in your browser — handy for a genuine before-and-after.

When repair isn’t the answer

Replacement paths, truthfully framed

Sometimes the honest advice is that the repair money would be better spent on the next machine. When we say that, here’s what we can actually offer — and what we can’t.

We don’t stock gaming machines. Our refurbished stock is business-grade Dell — Latitude laptops from £510 and OptiPlex desktops from £545 (guide prices), each fitted with a new 1TB Samsung 990 PRO SSD, set up with Windows 11, your data transferred, and covered by a 12-month return-to-base guarantee (five years on a support plan). A refurbished Latitude is a genuinely good answer for the “my G15 died and I mostly need it for uni and Netflix” situation — but we’ll say clearly: it is not a gaming machine, and if AAA gaming is the point, it’s the wrong buy.

New Alienware, ordered to your spec. As an independent Dell reseller since 2001 we can order any current Alienware laptop or desktop, help you pick a sensible configuration, and set it up with your games, saves and files moved across. Worth knowing when you shop: the G-series was phased out in 2025 and its budget-gaming role now lives in the Alienware Aurora laptops (the direct G15/G16 successors), while the revived Area-51 name covers the flagships. So if you’re replacing a G15, the like-for-like new machine is badged Aurora, not G16. And whatever happens to the old machine, we can wipe it properly first — see secure IT disposal.

Keeping it healthy afterwards. Gaming machines benefit more than most from routine care, because heat is their enemy. Our home support plan is £18.25 a month per computer and includes a full service every six weeks with a written Service Report left on the Desktop — proof of what was checked and done, not promises. Businesses running gaming-class hardware are covered from £24.38 a month per computer on the same six-weekly service-and-written-report basis, and there are Dell-specific plan details here. For everything else we do with Dell kit across the county, start at our Dell IT support hub — and if the machine has died at the worst possible moment, we offer same-day response on emergencies.

// RELATED

FAMILY-RUN SINCE 1995 · ★ 4.9 ON GOOGLE · 200+ COMPUTERS UNDER OUR CARE · NO FIX, NO FEE · SAME-DAY REMOTE SUPPORT

// GOOD QUESTIONS

Frequently asked

Do you repair Alienware laptops even though you’re not Dell-authorised?

Yes. We’re independent specialists — not authorised, certified or endorsed by Dell or Alienware, and we say so plainly rather than implying a status we don’t hold. We’ve worked on Dell machines since 1995 and been an independent Dell reseller since 2001. Independence cuts both ways: no badge, but also no agenda when we tell you whether a repair is worth it.

Can you fix an overheating Alienware?

Usually, yes. The most common causes at two to three years old are dust-packed cooling and dried-out factory thermal paste — problems Dell’s own support articles acknowledge across the m15, m17, x-series and Area-51m. A full thermal service (strip-down, clean, fresh paste) restores most machines to how they ran when new. On thin x-series models that still means fairly warm — they run hot by design, and we’ll tell you the realistic gains before we start.

Do you do GPU repair or board-level micro-soldering?

No, and we’d rather tell you that upfront. We don’t do GPU reflows, reballing or chip-level motherboard repair. If diagnosis shows a board-level fault, we’ll say so honestly and point you towards Dell’s out-of-warranty service or a dedicated board-level specialist rather than attempt something we can’t do properly. Thermal service, screens, hinges, batteries, keyboards, SSD/RAM upgrades, Windows and data work — that’s our territory, and it covers most gaming-laptop faults.

My Alienware or G15 battery has swollen — what should I do?

Stop using the machine now. Power it off, unplug it, and don’t press on the raised area or try to remove the battery yourself — that’s Dell’s own official guidance for swollen batteries, not just ours. A lifted touchpad, bulging case seams or a chassis that rocks on a flat desk are the classic signs. Call us on 01202 775566 and we’ll collect the machine, fit a new battery safely and dispose of the old pack properly.

Is the Dell G15 discontinued, and can you still repair mine?

Dell phased out the G-series during 2025 — its budget-gaming role now lives in the Alienware Aurora laptops. But there’s a huge installed base of G15 and G16 machines with years of life left, and we’ll keep repairing and servicing them for as long as parts are available. Discontinued by Dell doesn’t mean unsupported by us.

Can you upgrade the RAM or SSD in my gaming laptop?

Often, but it depends on your exact model. Many Alienware and G-series machines take straightforward SSD and RAM upgrades, and a fast NVMe drive is one of the best-value improvements for game load times. However, the x-series and some newer thin models have RAM soldered to the board, and slot counts vary between G15 revisions — so we check your specific model and revision before quoting, and we’ll never sell you an upgrade your machine can’t take.

Do you sell Alienware or gaming PCs?

We don’t stock them. Our refurbished stock is business-grade Latitude laptops (from £510) and OptiPlex desktops (from £545) — honest machines for everyday use, but not gaming machines, and we’ll say so if gaming is your priority. What we can do is order any new Alienware laptop or desktop to your spec through our independent Dell reseller account, help you choose the configuration, and move your games and data across.

Do you have a shop I can bring my machine to?

No — there’s no walk-in shop or drop-off counter. Instead we collect free of charge across Bournemouth, Poole, Christchurch and the wider Dorset area, and return the machine when it’s done. For software problems we can often connect remotely instead, and we always call before we connect. If you’d like to meet in person, we hold appointments at Kinson Community Centre by arrangement.

How much will my repair cost?

We work diagnosis-first rather than publishing one-size-fits-all prices, because gaming-laptop parts vary enormously — a high-refresh screen for one model can cost several times the panel for another. We confirm the fault, quote you the real figure for your exact machine, and only proceed on your say-so. If the honest answer is that the repair isn’t worth it, we’ll tell you that too.

Gaming rig running hot, dead or just tired?

Tell us the machine and the symptoms and we’ll give you a straight answer — including “that’s not worth fixing” if it isn’t. Free local collection, Mon–Fri 9–5. Call 01202 775566 or text 07520 615332.

Book a Repair or Ask Us Call 01202 775566

01202 775566 · help@365techies.co.uk · MON–FRI 9AM–5PM