So my vortex 3 arrived today

[Finn]

All excited. I rushed home to it. Was a little concerned about a dent in the outer box but I figured that there seemed to be plenty of padding between the outer box and the inner.

Got the box open and got to see the laptop for the first time, was a little unimpressed that a lot of the protective plastic sheeting seemed quite bent and creased but hey I was going to pull all that off anyway so I eagerly unwrapped the power supply plugged it and and held down the power button to switch it on.

The lights came on, keyboard lit up and I could hear the hard drive or fans spin up, and then after a few seconds it switched off. Few seconds later it switched back on again, and just kept doing that sorry little loop of power on for a few second power off for a few seconds until I held the power down while it was on.

Doesnt POST at all, no beeps, nothing on the screen just shuts down within a couple of seconds of switching on. I tried removing the battery and running on the power supply alone but that doesnt change the behaviour.

The power/battery light does come on when plugged into the power supply but nothing more. I tried taking the bottom cover off and everything looks to be seated correctly and nothing rattles.


So looks like I need to RMA my brand new ivybridge vortex 3 as completely DOA, I am utterly, utterly gutted.

 

[Buzz]

I would be gutted also. Really sorry to hear that Finn.

The only consolation I can offer is that PCS do seem very good with RMA's and getting things sorted pretty fast. Sucks but its obviously better to get it all sorted in the beginning before you get used to it, then have it few weeks all your stuff on it and then it goes kaput.

Hope ya get it sorted soon.

 

[dangro474]

Hi Finn,

Sorry to hear you're having problems right off the bat.

Before RMAing the system and if you are willing to do so you could try checking to see if the primary HDD or RAM modules had been dislodged in transit.

Removing panels 3 and 4 as show on page 42 (1-16) of the P170HM manual (your model is a P170EM however the manual is not available yet. Same design anyhow). This should give you easy access to the DIMM slots and primary HDD slot (afaik there is no caddy for the primary hdd).

If reseating the RAM and HDD has no effect i'm stumped. Sorry

 

[Finn]

Its not getting to the point of reading anything off the hard drive so I dont think it can be that and while I checked that the memory dimms seemed secure I wasnt willing to actually remove and re-seat them (of course I dont even have access to 2 of the dimms which are under the keyboard). I'm can dismantle and assemble a desktop in my sleep but I didnt really want to risk doing anything that might cause PCS to refuse to accept the RMA.

(oh and mine is a P150em - its the 15 inch model!)

spec:

Chassis & Display
Vortex Series: 15.6" Matte 95% Gamut LED Widescreen (1920x1080) (£79)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-3720QM (2.60GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM)
16GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (4 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
nVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 675M - 2.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
750GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD7500BPKT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
2nd HDD HARD DRIVE OPTICAL BAY CADDY
Memory Card Reader
Internal 9 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD: Mini, XC & HC/MS: Pro & Duo)
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND (£9)
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Network Facilities
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® ULTIMATE-N 6300 (450Mbps)

 

[Yevad]

Thats tough! . My laptop has just gone into the build stage , so I can understand how much of a disappointment it must be to find its not working when delivered.

 

[Buzz]

Well ringing them anyway will help, as they could walk you through a few things and in turn find out if it does need RMA and do it all same time. The sooner you call them the sooner you will have it back in working condition.

You did mention the box was damaged so it most likely got damaged in transit. Not impressed with DPD myself personally as mine was also damaged. But nothing to point of I couldnt get it sorted.

Give them a ring in the morning mate and PCs will sort it for ya quick smart.

Im sure you already know but just on off chance you can check call waiting times before you call.

call-waiting
Ph : 0844 499 4000

 

[Maestro]

Yes very sorry to hear that. It is almost certainly due to a dislodged component and the most likely cuplprits are the memory modules. We want you to be up and running as quickly as possible, so you dont need to worry about checking this yourself. We would not void your warranty. But of course if you dont feel comfortable doing that, we will get it sorted with an rma in double quick time.

 

[clancy2k]

Wow, scary stuff, my Vortex III is in it's 12th day of production at the moment (in-testing). I hope DPD don't decided to play football with mine too :\

 

[Finn]

Yes very sorry to hear that. It is almost certainly due to a dislodged component and the most likely cuplprits are the memory modules. We want you to be up and running as quickly as possible, so you dont need to worry about checking this yourself. We would not void your warranty. But of course if you dont feel comfortable doing that, we will get it sorted with an rma in double quick time.

After a (pretty terrible) nights sleep on it, although i'm disappointed that it looks highly unlikely i'll now have it for the bank holiday weekend, if DPD have seen fit to treat it in such a high regard as to manage to dislodge some internal components (since they all seemed pretty secure to me) then tbh I'd rather it went back and got checked over by one of your guys anyway just to make sure nothing is wrong.

My current laptop is on its last legs, even just moving or holding it wrong can cause it to randomly shut down and fail to boot-up so I want the new one to be reliable and able to cope with the daily commute, last thing I want is some form of loose internal connection to give me the same symptoms as this one.

 

[keynes]

After a (pretty terrible) nights sleep on it, although i'm disappointed that it looks highly unlikely i'll now have it for the bank holiday weekend, if DPD have seen fit to treat it in such a high regard as to manage to dislodge some internal components (since they all seemed pretty secure to me) then tbh I'd rather it went back and got checked over by one of your guys anyway just to make sure nothing is wrong.

My current laptop is on its last legs, even just moving or holding it wrong can cause it to randomly shut down and fail to boot-up so I want the new one to be reliable and able to cope with the daily commute, last thing I want is some form of loose internal connection to give me the same symptoms as this one.

Sorry to hear tha, from experience my RMA was resolved very quick and got it back in less than a week.

 

[lod193]

Just to add my Vortex III arrived with a huge dent in the side of the box, it runs fine and there's no damage to the actual laptop like there clearly is with yours, but obviously DPD aren't that great at taking care of their parcels.

 

[keynes]

Just to add my Vortex III arrived with a huge dent in the side of the box, it runs fine and there's no damage to the actual laptop like there clearly is with yours, but obviously DPD aren't that great at taking care of their parcels.

I think that is the case with many delivery companies, mistakes do take place. I had around 15 deliveries/collections involving DPD in the last 2 months and I had only 1 issue that was quickly resolved. The driver, that was the same for most of the deliveries and collections) was always on time and very careful when handling any of the packages.

 

[clancy2k]

If you do a google search, you'll find there's alot of hate for DPD in general, more than most delivery companies.

 

[Finn]

Well mine is back at PCS, although due to the rush of everyone wanting their pc's for the bank holiday its sitting unopened.

 

[micada329]

Sorry to hear this Finn and you have been so helpful with mine also.

I would agree with you and send it back to be checked by PCS.
No point it dismantling it yourself when you have paid so much for PCS to check it before dispatch.

I'll keep everything crossed that it is sorted very quickly for you but keep us posted please

 

[Finn]

So its still just showing as "Awaiting Collection" as it was on friday so I can only assume its still sitting there unopened.

Starting to get quite annoyed at the length of time its taking, as it seems like by not opening it it wont register against their monthly averages or whatever.

If it is purely a case of a component has come loose then i'm waiting all this time for a 10 minute check to seat whatever it is that has become unseated.

 

[Buzz]

So its still just showing as "Awaiting Collection" as it was on friday so I can only assume its still sitting there unopened.

Starting to get quite annoyed at the length of time its taking, as it seems like by not opening it it wont register against their monthly averages or whatever.

If it is purely a case of a component has come loose then i'm waiting all this time for a 10 minute check to seat whatever it is that has become unseated.

I wouldnt imagine PCs would work that way mate. Id say its more the case of first come first served. Prob with that is, would this then mean they have a lot of returns??? I dont know. I will admit, i have spent a lot of time on the Forums recently and nearly every post iv read about RMA is positive. Comp has issue, sent back and returned within a week +-. As its the 8th or May, am not sure what ya mean by registering against monthly averages. When did you ring them last to get an update as to whats going on, as calling them usually gets things done faster.

 

[DeadEyeDuk]

If you do a google search, you'll find there's alot of hate for DPD in general, more than most delivery companies.

Check back to 2011 posts...we had the same "discussion" about Yodel. Whichever delivery company is used, you can Google away and find a mass of negative reviews...completely ignoring the likely 10 fold (or more) positive ones

On topic: I would imagine the back holiday wont have helped wait times etc (in addition to the normal weekend capacity). As ever, best bet is to call PCS, because any web tracking thingamajig is open to fault (i.e. it actually has gone through and is completed, but the site says otherwise)

 

[Finn]

My Mrs used to work in a service department, even if the information isn't made public they do still keep track of monthly averages, time taken to repair etc. By not actually opening the box it wouldn't actually record against their monthly average so it was a cheap trick by the engineers to keep the times down. I'm guessing there is something similar going on here since as its showing as "Awaiting Collection" its presumably assuming the delay is down to me not sending the parcel.

Even if they are bogged down I would expect each item to be opened and inspected for whats wrong, that way if there IS a failed part, that can be identified and if necessary ordered. Otherwise its just additional delay if something does happen to be out of stock (for instance if a part was required it could have been ordered and probably waiting for whenever they get around to the repair).

And I cant really phone from work, my Mrs has had to do so and she is tired of doing it..

 

[Finn]

Well the status has finally changed to RMA received so lets see if things speed up at all.

I have to say I'm less that impressed with the delay, today marks a week after receiving the faulty laptop, coming up for 4 weeks from my original order date and the third working day it will have been in PCS's possession before I have had any update.

I'm pretty sure that new orders are still being dealt with and that those orders were probably placed after mine, so its good to know that customer priority seems to drop to the bottom as soon as that original shipment is made, irrespective of whether the goods turn out to be working or not by the time they reach the customers hands.

Now I don't know what caused the fault, I can only assume that PCS tested it and it was working before they shipped it out, but it does seem plain that they don't appear to be in any hurry to rectify the situation.