So I’ve been in the market for a replacement work from home PC that can handle heavy and fast video editing. I reluctantly left the Apple ecosystem because it doesn’t work well with everything I like to do on a computer. For a long time, I have been running dual systems and that has just gotten old. I decided to consolidate, and unfortunately, that means going all in on Windows and leaving Apple.

If you read my Omen review, then you have an idea of how that experience has been going so far. It hasn’t been great. Surprisingly, this computer also has power mode issues. The problems are not as severe as the Omen, where it would completely shut down, and technically you could live with it, but when paying over $2,000 for a new computer, you shouldn’t have to troubleshoot anything, and you certainly shouldn’t have to accept any ongoing issues.

I got the machine with Windows 11 preinstalled. I tend to like the operating system, but it seems that Dell and HP hardware may not fully support it. While running Windows 11, if you manually put the computer into sleep mode, it sleeps fine. Unlike the Omen, it doesn’t stay asleep requiring a hard reset, but instead of waking up when you move the mouse or press a key, it just reboots. At that point, you might as well just restart the computer, as that’s a cleaner solution.

In any case, I worked with Alienware Dell support and suggested rebuilding the machine with Windows 10 if it wouldn’t void the warranty. I was approved to do so to test if it worked better. On Windows 10, the computer can manually enter sleep and wake up properly. That works, which is why you can technically live with it, but ideally, you shouldn’t have to.

The main issue is that it never goes to sleep automatically, no matter what we tried. We spent days troubleshooting remotely and on the phone. I even rebuilt it again, removed all peripherals, but still no success. I also noticed that if I have my headset plugged in, the system hangs at the startup Alienware screen and the BIOS doesn’t respond, so I had to unplug it when restarting. It’s disappointing that just charging a headset causes this problem.

At the end, they wanted to replace the brand new motherboard and SSD drive with refurbished parts. At that point, I decided to cut my losses and the many hours spent troubleshooting and just return it. It doesn’t make much sense to replace parts on a brand new, high-end, expensive machine. That reduces my confidence in the product and the chances of a successful resolution. I wasn’t looking to rebuild this a third time only to end up returning it. Like a bad relationship, it’s better to just move on.

I was really hoping this computer was the one, but it’s not working out. I’m going to return it next week and have ordered a Lenovo Legion to try next. I’m hoping third time is the charm, but at worst, I’ll have some new high-end products to review. You have to look for the silver lining in all this.