Assistance needed

Stephen_UK

Active member
Hey all,

Hope everyone is looking forward to the build up to christmas :)

I just want some advice on a matter really. (apologises it’s quite long)

When i purchased PC from PCS back in 2021, i was keen and looking forward to my brand new Pc. This was a massive upgrade from my previous PC and it should have ran like a treat!

The day i received it was the day i started having issues. The CMOS? was not corrected seated into the CPU properly, and i couldn’t even turn on the power to the PC, for it to boot up windows as there was physically no battery to be read. The same day i contacted PCS and they tried to guide me through on how to reset the battery, but to no avail, so the Pc was sent back to PCS via courier, and returned approximately 2 weeks later.

The PC ran like a treat for maybe 2-3 months before i started to get an issue with the PC. initially when it was stressed tested (PCS logged in virtually installed loads of programs and said it’s likely faulty ram) so they sent me out two new ram sticks. I had to install these myself via a PCS video (i have no experience in hardwares in PCs but this was relatively straight forward).

A few months again past and the same issues occurred - at this stage it was just randomly a few times a month and i could cope with it. then comes december 2022 - the issues seem to be more frequent so again i contact PC specialist and they confirmed as the ram was replaced it cannot be that, and advised after doing tests for approximately 4 hours virtually again it could be the GPU - unfortunately during this time the Pc never crashed, so the tech support assistance could not see what error i was having.

They sent out a new GPU and again, installed it via a video they sent me on email confirming how to remove and replace.

The errors seem to slow down, but not stop. Then July 2023 comes around and i hear rattling inside on the Pc, it sounded like a loose fan within the PC, so again i called PCS and they sent me a replacement fan out , but even the new fan makes a rattling sound like it’s not secure.

Around January 2024 i started having a lot more crashes playing specific games such as Palword and phasmophobia , these are not intense games and my heat on the Pc was fine, but randomly my Pc would again crash, and shut down at random stages without any notice.

I called PCS and i asked them to take the Pc back to warehouse to stress test some of the games to see what is causing this issue (at this stage it was approximately 2 months prior to my platinum warranty running out - so wanted the issue resolved)

The gentleman i spoke to said he would do some background tests, also did some additional stress tests, but when the gentleman again logged in virtually did not test these games and ran updates to windows, make sure graphics drivers were up to date, and said he would call me back in 2 weeks to see if the Pc was having issues so they could arrange collection, but refused to raise a collection of the Pc on this day?

I then never had any call back and due to personal circumstances i was not on my pc daily anymore, i was unable to call them back before the warranty ran out.

Recently i’ve turned my Pc back on, and it crashes within 2-3 minutes of booting up, with no indication of why, and this is without playing any games. i managed to somehow reinstall windows from BIOS but again it still wants to crash without any indication.

I contacted PCS to see if they can assist, and initially they have said no due to no warranty but have confirmed the parts available may still be under manufacture warranty.

I’ve contacted Asus, AMD and Corsair regarding the 3 main components that was not replaced throughout the duration of the warranty, and corsair that deal with the PSU have confirmed that it sounds like it’s always been a defected PSU and advised they are happy to replace it for me.

As advised above, I am not very tech savvy with these sort of things, So i have again called PCS to see if they can help as they built me a PC that had a faulty or defective part and not once after the initial CMOS issue did they agree to take the Pc back to check the issue but instead was just sending me out parts to replace myself.

I have been quite stern with them this time round and said that initially i asked for for Pc to be sent back before the warranty was expired so they can get the issue resolved and replace the parts, but this was refused as not part of their process (their process is to run diagnostic before they request a RMA - asssumingly due to costing?)

They have offered me free collection and redelivery of the Pc back to their warehouse so they can look into the issues, but have confirmed i would need to pay for any parts or labour that need replacing as this is outside of warranty (minus the PSU which they would replace for free as still within manufacture warranty)

I was informed on the phone by a customer service representative that i could of raised a RMA myself to send the Pc back, something in which i was never told previous with all the issues and telephone calls i’ve had with PCS.

I explained i have raised numerous previous tickets via telephone calls for this to try and get resolved. The issue with my PC is that randomly it would Crash and turn itself off - if i had any audio playing such as music or gaming sounds, this would vibrate in my ears as it’s crashing, and once the PC was done crashing, it would restart itself, but would not even be able to load up windows or even bios and would just stay a black screen! but had power going to the system.

I am now without a PC for the winter period and I feel like i should be raising a complaint, but i want to see what your thoughts are on the situation to see if there is any other way to resolve this issue before going down the formal complaints route?

Thanks

Stephen
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
Hey all,

Hope everyone is looking forward to the build up to christmas :)

I just want some advice on a matter really. (apologises it’s quite long)

When i purchased PC from PCS back in 2021, i was keen and looking forward to my brand new Pc. This was a massive upgrade from my previous PC and it should have ran like a treat!

The day i received it was the day i started having issues. The CMOS? was not corrected seated into the CPU properly, and i couldn’t even turn on the power to the PC, for it to boot up windows as there was physically no battery to be read. The same day i contacted PCS and they tried to guide me through on how to reset the battery, but to no avail, so the Pc was sent back to PCS via courier, and returned approximately 2 weeks later.

The PC ran like a treat for maybe 2-3 months before i started to get an issue with the PC. initially when it was stressed tested (PCS logged in virtually installed loads of programs and said it’s likely faulty ram) so they sent me out two new ram sticks. I had to install these myself via a PCS video (i have no experience in hardwares in PCs but this was relatively straight forward).

A few months again past and the same issues occurred - at this stage it was just randomly a few times a month and i could cope with it. then comes december 2022 - the issues seem to be more frequent so again i contact PC specialist and they confirmed as the ram was replaced it cannot be that, and advised after doing tests for approximately 4 hours virtually again it could be the GPU - unfortunately during this time the Pc never crashed, so the tech support assistance could not see what error i was having.

They sent out a new GPU and again, installed it via a video they sent me on email confirming how to remove and replace.

The errors seem to slow down, but not stop. Then July 2023 comes around and i hear rattling inside on the Pc, it sounded like a loose fan within the PC, so again i called PCS and they sent me a replacement fan out , but even the new fan makes a rattling sound like it’s not secure.

Around January 2024 i started having a lot more crashes playing specific games such as Palword and phasmophobia , these are not intense games and my heat on the Pc was fine, but randomly my Pc would again crash, and shut down at random stages without any notice.

I called PCS and i asked them to take the Pc back to warehouse to stress test some of the games to see what is causing this issue (at this stage it was approximately 2 months prior to my platinum warranty running out - so wanted the issue resolved)

The gentleman i spoke to said he would do some background tests, also did some additional stress tests, but when the gentleman again logged in virtually did not test these games and ran updates to windows, make sure graphics drivers were up to date, and said he would call me back in 2 weeks to see if the Pc was having issues so they could arrange collection, but refused to raise a collection of the Pc on this day?

I then never had any call back and due to personal circumstances i was not on my pc daily anymore, i was unable to call them back before the warranty ran out.

Recently i’ve turned my Pc back on, and it crashes within 2-3 minutes of booting up, with no indication of why, and this is without playing any games. i managed to somehow reinstall windows from BIOS but again it still wants to crash without any indication.

I contacted PCS to see if they can assist, and initially they have said no due to no warranty but have confirmed the parts available may still be under manufacture warranty.

I’ve contacted Asus, AMD and Corsair regarding the 3 main components that was not replaced throughout the duration of the warranty, and corsair that deal with the PSU have confirmed that it sounds like it’s always been a defected PSU and advised they are happy to replace it for me.

As advised above, I am not very tech savvy with these sort of things, So i have again called PCS to see if they can help as they built me a PC that had a faulty or defective part and not once after the initial CMOS issue did they agree to take the Pc back to check the issue but instead was just sending me out parts to replace myself.

I have been quite stern with them this time round and said that initially i asked for for Pc to be sent back before the warranty was expired so they can get the issue resolved and replace the parts, but this was refused as not part of their process (their process is to run diagnostic before they request a RMA - asssumingly due to costing?)

They have offered me free collection and redelivery of the Pc back to their warehouse so they can look into the issues, but have confirmed i would need to pay for any parts or labour that need replacing as this is outside of warranty (minus the PSU which they would replace for free as still within manufacture warranty)

I was informed on the phone by a customer service representative that i could of raised a RMA myself to send the Pc back, something in which i was never told previous with all the issues and telephone calls i’ve had with PCS.

I explained i have raised numerous previous tickets via telephone calls for this to try and get resolved. The issue with my PC is that randomly it would Crash and turn itself off - if i had any audio playing such as music or gaming sounds, this would vibrate in my ears as it’s crashing, and once the PC was done crashing, it would restart itself, but would not even be able to load up windows or even bios and would just stay a black screen! but had power going to the system.

I am now without a PC for the winter period and I feel like i should be raising a complaint, but i want to see what your thoughts are on the situation to see if there is any other way to resolve this issue before going down the formal complaints route?

Thanks

Stephen
Very sorry you’ve had so many issues, and that last agent should have run benchmarks there and then, after being sure drivers were updated, there was no reason not to have done some stress tests at that time which would have at least determined instability if not highlighted something more specific.
Can you copy and paste the full specs from the order page?

Remember to leave out your windows license key
 

steaky360

Moderator
Moderator
I'm sorry to read of the issues you've been experiencing.

I certainly would welcome you posting more info here and we can help you work the problem and potentially even give more ideas of things to try in the hopes of remedying or more accurately pinpointing any potential cause of the issue(s) but ultimately, you may need to replace hardware.

The complaints route isn't the worst thing to go down, they exist to help customers like yourself who are dissatisfied explain their situation and hopefully find a more amicable way forward for both yourself and PCS. In my experience, the last thing PCS will want is for you to be unhappy or dissatisfied.
 

Stephen_UK

Active member
Specs:

Case
CORSAIR iCUE 5000X RGB MID TOWER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X Eight Core CPU (3.8GHz-4.7GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX X570-F GAMING (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
16GB AMD RADEON™ RX 6800 XT - HDMI, DP - DX® 12
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3200MB/W)
1st Storage Drive
2TB Samsung 870 QVO 2.5" SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (up to 560MB/sR | 530MB/sW)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
CoolerMaster MasterLiquid Lite 240 High Performance Liquid Cooler
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Extra Case Fans
1x 120mm Black Case Fan (configured to extract from rear/roof)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
down_right_arrow.gif
(removed)
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Google Chrome™
Warranty
3 Year Platinum Warranty (3 Year Collect & Return, 3 Year Parts, 3 Year labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
 

Stephen_UK

Active member
I'm sorry to read of the issues you've been experiencing.

I certainly would welcome you posting more info here and we can help you work the problem and potentially even give more ideas of things to try in the hopes of remedying or more accurately pinpointing any potential cause of the issue(s) but ultimately, you may need to replace hardware.

The complaints route isn't the worst thing to go down, they exist to help customers like yourself who are dissatisfied explain their situation and hopefully find a more amicable way forward for both yourself and PCS. In my experience, the last thing PCS will want is for you to be unhappy or dissatisfied.
The issue i am having, is when i load up the PC, after 2-3 minutes it simply just restarts without any warnings. If i have audio in my ears then the audio crashes and vibrates the same sound in my ear for 3-4 seconds whilst it’s crashing , when the PC then restarts it doesn’t even load the bios screen, and i have to manually restart the system by holding down the power button, occasionally when i turn it back on, the system would do a recovery or try to place the system in safe mode, whilst other times it would just load windows normally again. i know in event viewer that it states Kernal42 power error or something along them lines so i would have assumed it was to do with the PSU?

Let me know if there is anything i can try? i am not comfortable trying to dismantle different components on the PC as it could cause more damage and i would not be able to remember where anything goes!

I am waiting for a escalation call back from the manager at PCS - this is a escalation before a formal complaint is written to see if we can try and get a resolution of the issues stated above, I don’t really want to make a complaint, but the whole situation is frustrating me.
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
i know in event viewer that it states Kernal42 power error or something along them lines so i would have assumed it was to do with the PSU?
Kernel 42 is simply stating the PC rebooted without cleanly shutting down first ie. crashed, it’s merely pointing out the result of the crash, not the cause. The logs of note will be ones preceding those errors

But if Corsair are suggesting it’s likely PSU, that is certainly a factor in those symptoms. I would go by their expertise.
 

Stephen_UK

Active member
How would i find out what has been causing the crashes? on event viewer I’ve checked and it gives a lot of “warnings” but no critical when the crashes occur.
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
How would i find out what has been causing the crashes? on event viewer I’ve checked and it gives a lot of “warnings” but no critical when the crashes occur.
You have to track any entries before the Kernel error, both in software and system.

It may be best to follow this guide (last post), upload logs to cloud storage, make it public and post a link, hopefully @ubuysa may be able to identify something

 

Stephen_UK

Active member
You have to track any entries before the Kernel error, both in software and system.

It may be best to follow this guide (last post), upload logs to cloud storage, make it public and post a link, hopefully @ubuysa may be able to identify something

Hi, the issue i’ve got is that my PC will not stay on long enough for me to download the logs and upload to cloud storage :( i can barely get into windows for 2 minutes without a crash
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
Hi, the issue i’ve got is that my PC will not stay on long enough for me to download the logs and upload to cloud storage :( i can barely get into windows for 2 minutes without a crash
You may be able to archive the logs just by accessing the system drive from another pc

  1. Navigate to C:\Windows\System32\winevt\Logs
  2. Archive (ZIP\7z\RAR) the entire contents of the Logs folder
 

Stephen_UK

Active member
Thanks @SpyderTracks for your assistance - I’ll speak with PCS escalation point today or tomorrow to see what they can do for me, if not i’ll try what you are saying. could i potentially save the logs to a USB stick and try on another pc?
 

Stephen_UK

Active member
Okay so after speaking to michael the manager at PC specialist they have agreed to take the Pc back and have a look to see what the issues are, they have confirmed they will test all units for the PC and if still within warranty they will replace free of charge, they have advised that should the parts not be on manufacture warranty they are happy to replace the parts for me, but i would need to pay for the parts (similar to the upgrade function) - will keep you all updated on if the Pc is able to be resolved or not. it’s being collected tomorrow :)
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
Okay so after speaking to michael the manager at PC specialist they have agreed to take the Pc back and have a look to see what the issues are, they have confirmed they will test all units for the PC and if still within warranty they will replace free of charge, they have advised that should the parts not be on manufacture warranty they are happy to replace the parts for me, but i would need to pay for the parts (similar to the upgrade function) - will keep you all updated on if the Pc is able to be resolved or not. it’s being collected tomorrow :)
Well that's certainly a step in the right direction, keep us posted and all the best with it.
 

Stephen_UK

Active member
Do we know how long on average RMAs are currently? old pc sent back for testing they received it on monday, got a email from michael the manager on the wednesday confirming it’s on technicians desk, but no movement since. i expect with the buildup to festive period it could be longer as people are buying PCs for family’s ect and a lot more faults will be logged over the upcoming weeks?

Has anyone experienced a RMA that was not peak covid time and could give average timescale on when i should receive a interim update approximately (i know a RMA cannot be confirmed on a set day - hence i haven’t chased it yet) or how often would you chase for a update?
 

steaky360

Moderator
Moderator
RMAs can vary wildly, you won't get repeated updates on progress I wouldn't expect just periodic updates on the status. Given the nature of your issue PCS will be trying lots of things to replicate your issues and then trying to fully diagnose the underlying problem(s) before trying to fix. That all takes time though so unless someone else has had a similar problem it probably isn't as helpful as you might be hoping to find out how long other folk took.

If you are wanting an update, I don't think it'll do any harm to get in touch and ask, just be calm/cool and polite and I'm certain no one will mind really. Afterall folk are there to help :)
 

Stephen_UK

Active member
Thank you.

I chased them at 9am this morning and just got the email “After receiving your RMA system we have been able to replicated a series of whea errors with your system. Unfortunately we have not yet been able to isolate the cause of these errors and have thus far tried a test processor. Unfortunately your system has both failed our tests with the use of a test processor and is continuing to produce the aforementioned whea errors. We will continue to working towards isolating the cause of this fault and will update you further once we have more information. “

Can someone advise what this means? does this mean the motherboard or CPU has gone?
 

Martinr36

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
Sounding like motherboard to me as, I'm sure they will be using a known good CPU for testing with
 
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