Refound 980 Ti and very poor customer service

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Tony1044

Prolific Poster
Actually, communication with PCS is problematic right now. But customer service is both problematic and excellent.

To elaborate, I bought a Defiance 15. I paid for express build as this is a replacement for day-to-day work use.

It took almost three weeks for it to arrive and I was given contradictory explanations from just being very busy to having problems with drivers. Messages from me could be answered reasonably quickly (hour or so) to days.

The unit arrived without the second PSU I had ordered and no explanation.

The unit arrived with fails all over their own diagnostics reports and frequently blue screened.

That is the bad. Now the excellent.

Having spoken to a rep on the chat system a replacement machine was immediately approved. As it happened, I was due to go away for a week which did give them some breathing space, but on my return I boxed it up and it was collected on the Tuesday.

By Saturday I had the replacement.

Of the issues I'd had, the trackpad and fingerprint scanner still don't work but reading around online, this seems pretty common with Windows 10.

Oh and they didn't send a DVD back with Win 10 on - upon chasing, I was told it's due to a bad batch being made that weren't bootable.

Was it frustrating? At times, very. But kudos to PCS.
 
M

Maxwell

Active member
I just hope everything will be alright with my Pc, it should arrive monday, the graphics card is here (980 ti hall of fame) It is white, goes well with the case. I couldn't resist :)
 
ubuysa

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
Maxwell said:
I just hope everything will be alright with my Pc, it should arrive monday, the graphics card is here (980 ti hall of fame) It is white, goes well with the case. I couldn't resist :)
Click to expand...

Please come back and let us know how things are when it arrives, I'm sure these issues will rapidly fade into the distance....... :)
 
M

Maxwell

Active member
After 3 days the computer just stopped working. I was playing a game and it stopped, the start and reset buttons are still lighten up inside but it does not start if I press the start button.Lucky me ! I called and they have sent a Psu, it will come tomorrow and hopefully it will fix the problem.
 
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LFFPicard

Godlike
Ouch, unlucky there.
Just as a thing for future, how is your PC plugged in? I always tend to plug my Main PC directly into the wall socket, I never have it in a 4way/6way etc so there is no issues with power distribution or interference or anything. I do however have a surge protector directly on the wall socket the PC plugs into to prevent surges, but I always make sure it is not "Sharing" its connection to the main socket.

Not sure if this will help you at all, but it will prevent any further issues with power.
 
Warbloke

Warbloke

Bronze Level Poster
Best to get a UPS between your PC and the wall socket. (which also handles power surges)
Imagine if there was a powercut and you could not use your PC to play 'Left For Dead 2' for even 5 minutes or something !

I heard that the zombie population can get out of control quickly if no one is there to shoot them in the face.
 
L

LFFPicard

Godlike
Warbloke said:
Best to get a UPS between your PC and the wall socket. (which also handles power surges)
Imagine if there was a powercut and you could not use your PC to play 'Left For Dead 2' for even 5 minutes or something !

I heard that the zombie population can get out of control quickly if no one is there to shoot them in the face.
Click to expand...

Isn't Left 4 Dead 2 an online co-op game?
If that's the case, a UPS wont help, if the power goes then the internet (Router) will go as well :)
 
M

Maxwell

Active member
I have a surge protector, it is not plugged in the wall directly. Now I'm facing a different problem, I keep getting the same error and a blue screen CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT and then the OS crashes, I have windows 10 Pro on it , I will try windows 7 today see how it goes. I've reseted the bios aswell because I got another blue screen saying something about core 2 etc and I thought that it might be related to the overclock but that did not work, I still get the same "CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT " error or the computer freezez and I need to reboot.
 
G

Gr4

Silver Level Poster
The only software that will cause this is Asus AI Suite if you have this installed uninstall it and try,
This error is a cpu error
Check this
It seems an internal CPU timer failed on Processor 0 (first and primary CPU core) and Cache Bank 3. As we of course have only seen ONE *124 dumps, it's hard to make any calls in regards to the CPU possibly being the issue.

There is only so much you can do with a bugcheck like this until it comes down to a faulty processor that will need to be replaced. Start from 1 and work downward:

1. Ensure your temperatures are within standard and nothing's overheating. You can use a program such as Speccy if you'd like to monitor temps - http://www.piriform.com/speccy

2. Clear your CMOS (or load optimized BIOS defaults) to ensure there's no improper BIOS setting or to clear overclock settings - http://pcsupport.about.com/od/fixtheproblem/tp/clearcmos.htm

3. Ensure your BIOS is up to date.

4. As I said above, the only usual software conflict that can usually cause *124 bugchecks are OS to BIOS utilities from manufacturer's like Asus' AI Suite. If you have something like this software-wise, remove it ASAP.

5. If all of the above fail, the only left to do is replace your processor as it is faulty.
 
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Maxwell

Active member
I think is related to the overclock, my ram was set at 1866 when it arrived and after a few days I got that blue screen and the Pc could not load the OS anymore. I've tried to use a different profile saved in my Bios (I guess the guys from PCS saved them when they where running tests) the OS finaly loaded properly but the clock speed on the CPU is a ridiculous 0.800/core and the memory freq. at 2666Mhz. I am not very experienced with this so I guess I will wait until Monday and I will ring them up see what can be done. thank you for your help Gr4, I will have a look if I have a software like that installed.
 
M

Maxwell

Active member
Now it`s booting properly but after a few minutes in desktop I get this error "WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR". or it freezes and I need to restart.Nightmare
 
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Maxwell

Active member
Gr4 said:
The only software that will cause this is Asus AI Suite if you have this installed uninstall it and try,
This error is a cpu error
Check this
It seems an internal CPU timer failed on Processor 0 (first and primary CPU core) and Cache Bank 3. As we of course have only seen ONE *124 dumps, it's hard to make any calls in regards to the CPU possibly being the issue.

There is only so much you can do with a bugcheck like this until it comes down to a faulty processor that will need to be replaced. Start from 1 and work downward:

1. Ensure your temperatures are within standard and nothing's overheating. You can use a program such as Speccy if you'd like to monitor temps - http://www.piriform.com/speccy

2. Clear your CMOS (or load optimized BIOS defaults) to ensure there's no improper BIOS setting or to clear overclock settings - http://pcsupport.about.com/od/fixtheproblem/tp/clearcmos.htm

3. Ensure your BIOS is up to date.

4. As I said above, the only usual software conflict that can usually cause *124 bugchecks are OS to BIOS utilities from manufacturer's like Asus' AI Suite. If you have something like this software-wise, remove it ASAP.

5. If all of the above fail, the only left to do is replace your processor as it is faulty.
Click to expand...

I did all that but the Ram freq. was 1866 MHz when it arrived and now with the default is going to be 2133 MHz witch does not work, I tried 1600 MHz but no difference it freezes in desktop and I get one of the blue screens "CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT" or " "WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR". I give up, I will send it back tomorrow.
 
G

Gr4

Silver Level Poster
I just checked my Azure,its the original spec one with Z170-A Asus board, CPU @ 4510 and memory @ 1333, its running stable so far,running all games at max so i will leave it as is for now. i am not bothered about the memory running at 1333 i can alter that at a later date, I will go on my m/board in a sec and see what settings they have used and let you know
 
G

Gr4

Silver Level Poster
Gr4 said:
I just checked my Azure,its the original spec one with Z170-A Asus board, CPU @ 4510 and memory @ 1333, its running stable so far,running all games at max so i will leave it as is for now. i am not bothered about the memory running at 1333 i can alter that at a later date, I will go on my m/board in a sec and see what settings they have used and let you know
Click to expand...

These settings above are what i saw on cpu-z, I have just been in the bios and the cpu is 4000 and memory is @ 1866, bios is 0048 x64 and date is 09/09/2015, check your bios and see if it is up to date
 
G

Gr4

Silver Level Poster
:( still no good is it, you want 4000 min,wonder if you can find some settings on the web or pcs send you some
 
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