Saw a ton of people had this model laptop at quakecon... so thought i'd put this here:
 http://www.neowin.net/news/dell-to-repair-alienware-m11x-laptop-hinge-issue 

"The fix is only for those owners who discover that they are having problems with the hinges with Dell saying, "Please don't contact us if your hinge assembly is working correctly." However it pledges to help if those owners do discover hinge problems in the future. The fix for the hinge will be handled by Dell for free regardless of the user's current warranty status."