RMA Questions

[Halcyon]

First of all, a minor rant, if you all don't mind.

I ordered my Vortex IV laptop on the 9th May, and received it on the 2nd June. After a few days I began to realise there was a persisting problem; the display kept flashing green every time the resolution changed (during boot-up, for example), so I contacted PCS support via email on the 5th. On the 10th, after two replies in five days, they finally recommended that I request an RMA, and so I did on the 11th, and they received my laptop on the 13th. The last I heard from PCS was an email on the 16th saying they were processing my RMA. As of posting, it is almost the 20th June, a Friday, so I'm probably not going to get it back before next week now.

I'm a little disappointed that this fault slipped past testing in the first place, as it didn't take me long to notice it. I remember seeing someone mention in a post here about PCS booting the computer a significant number of times during testing, and if true I have to wonder how this fault was missed. Regardless, it feels somewhat unfair that I have to wait even longer for a working laptop despite this being PCS's oversight.

Anyway, I have a couple of questions. If someone could answer them accurately it would be appreciated.

On my 'Track Existing Returns' page, the RMA status is currently 'RMA Received'. Does this change if they are actually dealing with the fault? As it stands, I don't know if they are waiting for parts, or what.

My second question is about something I noticed on the RMA details page. At the bottom, it lists what was returned and what was authorised for return. Under the 'Returned' column I see that it says 'Original Packaging: NO', however I did return the laptop in it's original packaging, so this is incorrect, right?
I am a little concerned as their T&C states that they will not be responsible for any damage that happens whilst in transit if I didn't use the original packaging.

 

[steaky360]

Hey there, I totally understand your frustration, its very irritating when a new item doesn't work out of the box. It is possible (although perhaps unlikely) that the error didn't occur during testing and something has failed between end of testing (or during testing perhaps - and wasn't noticed) and you receiving the laptop. But I realise that doesn't really make a difference to you, all you want is it to be fixed .

I don't think the RMA process status changes to 'working on it' or anything similar, I believe it goes from RMA received, to RMA dispatched (back to you) when it is returned to you. So I don't think that's incorrect. You might want to give them a quick bell about the packaging though because if you did send it in the original packaging you obviously won't be responsible for any damage etc. during transit. You also want PCS to send you the original packaging back .

 

[Halcyon]

Alright, I'll get on to them about the packaging, thanks Steaky.

I have just had a status update from PCS about my laptop, which reads:

"I currently have your system on a 100 reboot test, so far I have not been able to see the green flash from your video's, I have noticed in you videos the flash occurs when loading from a Linux boot loader and suspect this maybe the cause of your issue, I will finish the reboot test and monitor the system and update you asap."

I am certain the bootloader is not the cause of the fault, because it happened even when the bootloader wasn't present. Now I am concerned that they are simply going to return the laptop without fixing the problem, or even worse, charge me because they couldn't find anything.

I should explain my setup a bit more for clarity. These are the videos mentioned, incidentally:
http://youtu.be/L4m_JZHNNQo
http://youtu.be/aqI2AvC20I4
http://youtu.be/bIpIf3ciaww

And this is the spec I ordered:
Vortex Series: 17.3" Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-4810MQ (2.80GHz) 6MB
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 (2 x 4GB)
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 880M - 8.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
750GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD7500BPKX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
Internal 9 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD: Mini, XC & HC/MS: Pro & Duo)
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Intel 5.1 Channel High Definition Audio + SPDIF/MIC/Headphone Jack
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® AC-7260 (867Mbps, 802.11AC) + BLUETOOTH
3 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT AS STANDARD
1 X 1394a FIREWIRE PORT
Vortex Series 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (5,200 mAh/76.96WH)
1 x UK Power Lead & 230W AC Adaptor
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
NO DVD RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Microsoft® Internet Explorer
INTEGRATED BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
INTEGRATED 2.0 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
1 Year Dead Pixel Guarantee Inc. Labour & Carriage Costs
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Standard Build - Approximately 9 to 11 working days

I ordered the laptop with a single HDD, and I added my own Kingston HyperX 3K 128GB SSD to it after I received the laptop. I moved the HDD to the secondary disk drive bay, and I installed my SSD to the primary disk drive bay. On the HDD was the Windows 7 trial as installed by PCS, and on my SSD was Kubuntu (GNU/Linux) with the GRUB2 bootloader. I did not change anything on the HDD. (Actually, I did install the Windows 7 keyboard backlight driver, but that was it.)

The SSD would boot first, from which GRUB2 is loaded. This allows me to choose whether to boot Kubuntu (on the SSD) or Windows 7 (on the HDD). After choosing, control is be passed off to that operating system and it would load as normal. This is what you see in the videos above.

However even after I removed the SSD and placed the HDD back in the primary bay, the green flashing still happened. There was no SSD, no GRUB and no Kubuntu--just the hardware PCS provided and the Windows 7 trial on the HDD. So how could it be GRUB?
As I mentioned, the problem occured when the screen resolution changed, so you could also see the problem after the OS had booted, by manually changing the resolution. Again, this was reproducable when just the HDD with Windows 7 was installed.

I did say in my RMA description that the flash didn't always seem to happen, and that it could significantly vary in intensity. I don't know what caused it to vary, maybe the screen hinge rotation or something?..

Is there any way I can reply to the update sent by the person dealing with my RMA?

 

[Rakk]

Now I am concerned that they are simply going to return the laptop without fixing the problem, or even worse, charge me because they couldn't find anything.

Unfortunately if they cannot reproduce the problem they just cannot fix it because they won't be able to work out what is causing the problem, though I realise this wont make you feel any better.
I had a similar situation with my phone when I sent it back to Sony, they couldn't reproduce the problem so couldn't fix it until I investigated it further (after I got it back) and could give them exact details on how to reproduce the problem I was getting.

Is there any way I can reply to the update sent by the person dealing with my RMA?

I'd suggest phoning them.

 

[Oliver]

Hi Halcyon,

I had one of these intermittent faults. They can be very annoying and I can completely sympathise with you (after 3 months without a computer after 7 RMAs).

Is their any patten to the problem happening? Have you tried doing a power wash test?

This is the power wash test i did when I had issues with Mobo.

Unplug computer, remove power cord, switch the PSU off via the rocker (the button the back of the computer next to the AC/kettle plug) wait 5 minutes, boot on the computer. Does the problem come back? If so then tell PCS to try the PowerWash test, this fault can take up to 10 manual cycles to show up. In the past I have contacted PCS and requested internally that certain tests are done. this has resulted in the faults being found however I did have to get creative with trying to explain it to PCS their notes system isnt the best and doesn't allow customers to enter information or data.

When the computer comes back from the courier be sure to mark it as unchecked this will ensure that the delivery insurance is kept in tact.

Finally I recommend photo graphical evidence, so be sure to take pictures of your computer before and after the RMAs and the packaging so you have proof/evidence that your using the original packaging if this error shows up again.


Hopefully these tips might help!
Oliver

 

[Halcyon]

Unfortunately if they cannot reproduce the problem they just cannot fix it because they won't be able to work out what is causing the problem, though I realise this wont make you feel any better.
I had a similar situation with my phone when I sent it back to Sony, they couldn't reproduce the problem so couldn't fix it until I investigated it further (after I got it back) and could give them exact details on how to reproduce the problem I was getting.

I did try to find a method to reliably reproduce the problem, but it just seemed to occur at random. That's partly why I provided a video of it, although I didn't realise that this might back-fire at me.
But despite the fault's unpredictable nature, it did happen often enough (maybe 6 or 7 out of 10 boot-ups) that I thought PCS wouldn't have a problem reproducing it, especially when rebooting the laptop 100 times.

I'd suggest phoning them.

I'm not really able to communicate via phone. I noticed the RMA department has a separate email address, so I replied to that.

Hi Halcyon,

I had one of these intermittent faults. They can be very annoying and I can completely sympathise with you (after 3 months without a computer after 7 RMAs).

Is their any patten to the problem happening? Have you tried doing a power wash test?

This is the power wash test i did when I had issues with Mobo.

Unplug computer, remove power cord, switch the PSU off via the rocker (the button the back of the computer next to the AC/kettle plug) wait 5 minutes, boot on the computer. Does the problem come back? If so then tell PCS to try the PowerWash test, this fault can take up to 10 manual cycles to show up. In the past I have contacted PCS and requested internally that certain tests are done. this has resulted in the faults being found however I did have to get creative with trying to explain it to PCS their notes system isnt the best and doesn't allow customers to enter information or data.

When the computer comes back from the courier be sure to mark it as unchecked this will ensure that the delivery insurance is kept in tact.

Finally I recommend photo graphical evidence, so be sure to take pictures of your computer before and after the RMAs and the packaging so you have proof/evidence that your using the original packaging if this error shows up again.


Hopefully these tips might help!
Oliver

My laptop is with PCS RMA department at the moment, so I cannot do any further tests until I get it back, although I'm hoping that they will catch my reply and the fault before then.

When I first got the laptop I was having some audio problems, where I wasn't getting sound via the headphone jack (even between reboots), so I removed the battery and power cord and held the power button down for a short while which apparently discharges remaining electricity in the motherboard's capacitors. I can't say I understand why, but the headphones started correctly producing audio afterwards. I have also done the same thing with an Acer netbook which would sometimes fail to boot, with success. Would this also be what you refer to as a power wash test?

Thanks for the suggestions ^^

 

[Oliver]

Hey Heyclon,

I've used the RMA email address in the past, I'm not sure if they actively check it and have never responded to me via the address publically thoughout all my RMAs. If things are urgent I would go thought the call center (or via their email address [email protected]) however via email responses can take around 1-2 days so it's always best to give them a ring, in addition ask them to relay the information onto the person dealing with your RMA it's not ideal but it's the best way of getting things done with PCS.

From the sounds of your power wash test with the laptop i suspect it's probably the onboard soundcard (if you use an external one it can sometimes do this too.) The Power Wash system you have described for laptops is perfect for fixing these types of small faults however if the problem all the time then your computer would be eligible for an RMA. (Just be sure to explain that you feel the onboard/internal soundcard is causing problems in detail explaining what type of sound/affect the problem has. ideally also try and take a video with your mobile phone/other devices showing how the problem sounds this is great for providing visable proof towards your RMA and the video can be uploaded to sites like youtube, daily motion, vimeo, dropbox or google drive.)

Hope this helps!
Oliver