Laptop Arrived Today - Not Working

[MattJTM]

Chassis & Display
Recoil Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD 240Hz 72% NTSC LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 Eight Core Processor 10875H (2.3GHz, 5.1GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair 2666MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX 2070 - 8.0GB GDDR6 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3300MB/W)
Memory Card Reader
Integrated 3 in 1 Card Reader (Full Size SD / SDHC / SDXC)
AC Adaptor
1 x 230W AC Adaptor
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Battery
Recoil Series Integrated 94WH Lithium Ion Battery
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
2 Channel High Def. Audio + THX Spatial Audio
Wireless/Wired Networking
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX201 (2.4 Gbps) + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
1 x THUNDERBOLT 3 PORT + 3 x USB 3.1 PORTS
Keyboard Language
PER-KEY RGB BACKLIT UK MECHANICAL KEYBOARD
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
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
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Keyboard & Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 1MP HD WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 7 to 9 working days
Promotional Item
Get Death Stranding on PC with select NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPUs!
Welcome Book
PCSpecialist Welcome Book - United Kingdom & Republic of Ireland


Hello,

My laptop arrived today with the above spec.

The 2x USB slots on the right hand side seem to provide no power (left hand side makes my mouse light up, and works fine - right side do not)

When on battery, despite saying the battery has 69%, it will turn off mid-use, as if the battery has completely died.
When plugged in, it will rotate between "Battery not plugged in" to the 'real' percentage, and I even saw it at 233%, this switches about 1/second

Please can someone advise as to what to do.

Thanks in advance,

Matt

 

[Deleted member 17413]

Not all USB 's have the same power output...they should all supply some charge, but USB 3.0 will properly charge a phone for example, earlier versions will be much slower and may not appear to actually be doing anything. It might be that the ones on the left are blue, and the others plain metal or white? the blue are much newer versions and shouuld be fine with pretty much anything you plug into it, a older version might not have enough juice ....you need to check what USB ports it came with on the specs, you normally get a mix, when the mouse is in but wont light up, does the laptop still respond to mouse movements?

In terms of the power, its like its a dodgy connection, is the powerlead properly inserted into the port, also, is the port loose at all, does it move about? If its firmly in, but the port is a little loose or it still flicks back between mains and battery...RMA it.
Its would nearly always be hardware for something like that (at least from what i know).

Have you contacted PCS about this? Would strongly suggest emailing them or phoning.
Forums arent directly monitored by them, they have a couple of staff that keep an eye and moderate, but most the frequent guys are volunteers, email/phone/livechat is the best way to get their attention.

 

[MattJTM]

Hey, thanks for the reply.
The right hand side seems to have a 3.0 and a 3.1, neither of which allow the mouse to move, or notice if a USB drive is plugged in (tested on the left side, which works)
The power lead seems quite firm when plugged in, but still flickers - although it hasn't done that after the last restart, so I'm unsure as to whether it's still a problem. Although while on battery, it still turned off, when it said it had 60%+
I've sent a message via message centre/technical support - what does RMA mean? I'll try calling tomorrow when the call centre opens, see if they can suggest next steps.

Thanks again

 

[Deleted member 17413]

Have you had a look at the power settings? High/Balanced etc, and also in advanced options what the setup is for reserve power/.shutdown etc?

 

[MattJTM]

Yeah I did that and changed them to a longer duration, however it switched off mid-use (as I was moving the mouse)

 

[Maclaverty]

Yeh sounds like you will need to do a RMA return where they repair it. My desktop pc was 8 days old and then refused to switch on so dropped it off with PCS today to look at and fix but they said it can take 1-4 weeks to sort 😭😭

 

[MattJTM]

Urgh, this was what I was dreading! More waiting, after the anticipation was killing me already
Guess it's the best thing to do though...

 

[Maclaverty]

Yep I know that feeling, mine at least lasted 8 days but hopefully we be sorted soon.

You can request RMA through your account, go to returns and then raise RMA. I did it last night and followed it up with a Phonecall this morning to discuss. Very very infuriating.

 

[Deleted member 17413]

You're best bet is to speak to them, things can go wrong and fail for no apparent reason after a few days, but if its turned up in that state I would push the quality control element and try and pressure them to put it on the priority list to be fixed, its been dispatched faulty.

I had an unpleasant experience myself with my new PC when i looked at the workmanship in it....no idea if its just new staff or people rushing to try and catch up, but sent out with some very obvious issues that I have had to look at fixing myself.
Only reason I didnt go nuclear is because this is my third system from them, I know its not their normal standard and I know theres a lot of extra pressures with Covid going on.... But the short term gain in production times will lead to a long term loss with the amount of errors they have to fix and the loss in customers (especially first time) who wont come back.

They need to focus on quality, not sacrifice it for speed.

 

[Maclaverty]

Couldn't agree more! I don't expect a £2k computer to die within 8 days. I got a pre-built next day PC to save time but now just lost it by sending it back to PCS to fix, very very annoying to say the least!

 

[barlew]

Keep us updated on your outcome mate. Fingers crossed you aren't waiting too long.

 

[ubuysa]

It may just be that the battery needs a full charge? I would suggest shutting it down fully (not sleeping) and leaving it on charge for 24 hours.

It's also not uncommon for the Windows battery charge indicator to get out of sync with the actual state of charge of the battery. To resync them do the following...

1. Shut the laptop down and leave it on charge for 24 hours. Do not use it at all during this time.

2. Unplug the charger and boot the laptop on battery alone. Go into the Windows power options for battery and ensure that the low battery indicator is set to 10% with an action of notify. Also ensure that the critical battery indicator is set to 5% with an action of shutdown. Now use the laptop normally but don't power it off at all. Keep it switched on (even when you're not using it) until the 5% critical battery level is reached and the laptop shuts down on its own.

3. Plug in the charger and leave it on charge for 24 hours. Do not use it at all during this time.

After this the Windows battery percentage indicator should better reflect the actual state of charge of the battery.

I've no idea why the USB ports on the right seem not to work. You will have to speak to PCS about that. Try Live Chat if phoning takes ages to answer.