new Gigabyte P35K

They're probably not cheaply built. The QC issues are probably from ambitious engineering that went horribly wrong.

 

I have a question for anybody who has the P35K:

How dim does the screen get when you turn the brightness to the minimum? Does it become dim enough to make it slightly difficult to read under normal indoor lighting conditions? Would anyone be kind enough to post a picture at maximum brightness and one at minimum brightness for comparison?

I have an Asus and even at the minimum brightness setting, it is far too bright for my eyes at night. It hurts my eyes, gives me headaches, and keeps me from sleeping. I've tried all the laptop settings and several software utilities including F.lux, but the backlight just doesn't go down enough.

 

Does anyone know if the CPU is upgradable? And do you know any website that does it?

Thanks.

 

No the CPU is not able to be upgraded on the P35K.

The only gigabyte laptop that I know that is, is the P25W.

 

You could probably do it yourself if you can find an OEM chip. They're all the same chipset so it shouldn't be a problem if you wanted to throw in a 4900qm. If you can find it and want to break your warranty.

 

Pretty sure the current Alienware 14 wont bend under every day conditions... even after prolonged times of use. The MSI branded machines are known for feeling cheap and flimsy. If THIS thing actually is flimsy then it needs a severe redesign ASAP.

I will not be buying this line if this remains a constant worry.

 

P35K has the 4700HQ meaning that the chip is soldered, thus can't upgrade. The P25W should have the 4700MQ as its stock cpu. The MQ means it is not soldered and can be upgraded. Laptops thats uses the HQ chip is usually used to reduce cost and for thinner laptops.

 

Didn't know about the mq vs hq ty

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk

 

So I found this just now when looking at the Gigabyte NB Facebook page, "All P35K packaging are being reworked and the new units sold henceforth should be the reworked ones. The new units shipment should roll out by the end of the week." Not sure what they mean by "rework", does it mean that they admit the chasis needed improvements or are they still talking about packaging?

 

I think they're referring only to the additional packaging. The only thing we've heard about the laptop design change is from GentechPC but they haven't updated us since then. Also they have a black little bar under the middle of the laptop, all they'd really need to do is extend that down to touch the surface and that would probably reduce most of the flex of the system, unless the aluminum is really that flimsy.

 

At this point I am just going with lost in translation. I don't know who to believe anymore. As far as my P35K, I'm not sure where it is atm. USPS hasn't updated since Saturday and from what I can tell, they do "bulk updates" at the end of the day so it might not even get here today. Until it hits the Canada Post system, I'll be waiting blind.


EDIT: Success! It's in Canada..

So I will likely see it tomorrow.

 

This isn't going to end well..... Haha

 

Hey man can you tell me if you pay for customs or any additional payment other than the shipping?

 

You would be responsible for any GST/HST/PST. To see a good chart showing the tax in your area please go to A & A Contract Customs Brokers - Online tax tables, Canadian PST, GST, HST tax tables online

Both 1 Day Air to Canada and 2-3 Day Air to Canada include brokerage, Ground does not.

 

OCUK have taken receipt of 20 with the fiixed packaging. One is still bent

 

Sounds about right -_-

At this point, I am only hoping the damage isn't done to mine, so I can make sure it does not happen by doing some of my own modifications. It's a sad state of affairs and the longer gigabyte ignores the issue, the worse it will damage their image.

 

Just saw this on OCUK from one of their staff: Link

"Gigabyte have no plans to re-manufactur, it could be a case they were in old packaging and then re-packaged hence one not spot on.

It's a clear improvement as nearly half the last lot had issues, that's 50%, whereas now it's below 5%"

So does this mean Gigabyte lied to Gentech, or they secretly improving it just to not admit that the chasis is at fault, or when they said "rework version with much stronger support under the weak spot" they were talking about the packaging?

 

Well that's still a 95% success rate for shipping.

 

Keep us updated bro! I'll give you my iMessage email, I'm in Toronto so you can send me pictures

 

oh man can you text me?

 

I'm starting to get impatient waiting for something to happen. With all the QC issues I'd only really trust GentechPC since they're been the only company that seems to be pressing the issue. Newegg, dynamism, xotic and excalibur don't really seem to care about the issue at all so ordering from them to receive a unit faster seems pointless. Also a few weeks ago we were getting daily updates and now it seems to have stopped after getting word about repackaging. I really want a new laptop before thanksgiving so I probably will cancel my order if it doesn't seem like it will reach me in that time. I still want the 765m so I might just go with the clevo w230st or build a desktop and go with a cheap lenovo u510 or something for portable usage.

 

Well I got it.

First thing is first, the good ol' USPS trick didn't really work this time and I got dinged for customs+tax. $217.22 CAD for taxes + $9.95 for handling.

Secondly, it appears mine does have the structural flaw but it has not progressed yet. Right now it's just a visual blemish on the outside but it's not flexing or bowing at that position or riding up just yet.


Here is some pictures I was able to take from my phone

The outer packaging:



Box Shot



Box Shot Dent



Box Shot Dent 2



Inside



Inside 2



Flaw

 

I still don't understand how this is happening due to bad packaging when the packaging shows almost no stress. I'm thinking this damage was done during some stage of assembly. Gentech posts a video of them mashing down really hard on several parts of the center of the laptop without it stressing like that. That tells me that it would require even more movement/flex than what Gentech did to cause the damage. I just don't see how that is possible with the packaging in near pristine condition.

Anyone with the P35K tried holding it in one hand with the LCD lid open, like as if you were handing the laptop to someone?

 

oh man i can see the crack on it....................... see i told you!!! you should have waited for the new shipment.......... i am as pissed at xotic as you are pissed.... call them bro call....

 

Oh man that sucks....

 

I am in the process of communicating with them now... it's not the only problem... they happened to not include the secondary msata I ordered... who knows if the Diamond IC was applied, either.

Pretty sour on this at the moment (much less the flaw but with the lack of attention to detail on Xotic's part).


@dalingrin

I just did.. from middle and from both sides. I'm not really seeing any flex. You may well be on to something... perhaps during manufacturing, perhaps the automated machines or whatever it is that it goes through was causing the damage. Mine is just a visual thing for now so I can probably address it if I decide to keep it. And storing it upside down until I do so.

 

Wanna know if they applied the thermal ? Open it and check if the stickers on the fan screws are tampered with. If they are in good condition then they didn't

 

It doesn't look like your package came with the improvement of additional packaging material. You probably got one of the earlier shipments that were mostly damaged.

 

Ordering with Gentech potentially saved my butt

 

Well it's really hard to say (I personally didn't want to fiddle with things and I wasn't necessarily able to tell what constituted their having done so) but according to my current line of discussion, what happened was that they went with the original order and they somewhere along the line screwed up and didn't pay attention to the revisions of my order.

Checking my web CC account, I was able to correlate that with the charges. However, with the msata purchase, I was told that Diamond IC would be free. However, that's not the case with the original order. So right now I am fighting to get that charge refunded... perhaps more so because I was told that changes made to orders aren't "guaranteed". Just shocks me.... even after the continued confirmations and authorizations to proceed with the order with the revisions in mind, it's still not "guaranteed" to go through. I've never had a company tell me that before.

I'll withhold my verdict until this all plays out but thus far I am not impressed nor satisfied at all with Xotic.

 

Well you have till dec 29 to replace it with the new shipment.... Think fast cause honestly this isn't acceptable...

Gentech all the way from now on everyone.

 

Speaking of Gentech they have been very quiet of late.

Have they heard from gig about the "reworking" clarification? Ie reworking the packaging or the chassis?

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk

 

They don't lie to me, they knew we will open it and test it.

Because there wasn't anything to update except wait for the new shipment.


Update:

the repackaging + rework version shipped from Taiwan yesterday by air, should be into customs today and we should have it around Thursday or Friday once it clears from customs.

According to Gigabyte the improvement support was added to the weak spot but I don't know the details, We will see when it arrives.

 

Huh
Thats weird. Gigabyte didnt make any public statement about extra support on the weak spot. Gigabyte said on their FB page that that it wasnt going to happen..or I may have misunderstood but it's weird that they would do that silently. Anyways, could do compare the flawed P35K with the improved one and put that in the video? Thanks

 

That's why I said we will see when it arrives.

 

I don't think I been this excited before lol

 

Does this mean that they should potentially be shipped out to customers the first week of November? My computer is starting to stutter in games when I'm on wifi and I don't have ethernet in my room and it's killing me not being able to play dota and some mmos. I just wish gigabyte would do something nice for the people who waited like do a rebate or throw in a nice carrying case/protective sleeve or something.

 

I LOVE YOU GENTECH

You have a loyal customer...maybe...lol.

Showing my age here, but my parents told me to rethink spending $1500 on a laptop and think that $1k would be more acceptable...it might take some persuading or it's back to looking at the y510p (performance with relative thinness) and the new Dell Inspiron 15 j's (thin, light, battery life, and somewhat acceptable graphics--wish they had gone with the 4700 processor or it'd been a really good competitor).


...So much for "surfing it out." Now I'm getting impatient too

 

I think the verdict is in, GenTech is way better than XoticPC. They may respond fast, but their customer service and attention to detail is next to nothing. I made to right call to cancel the order with them, since the sales rep I was talking to seemed to making way too many excuses and obviously didn't know what he was talking about. I know they're under commission, but it left a pretty sub-standard impression.

Is it possible for the forum to post the name and last initials of the sales rep so we know which guys to stay away from or who to contact for better service and represent XoticPC in a better light?
This laptop ain't exactly cheap (though it's a good bang for your buck), allowing customers to make well-informed decisions could potentially save them from a lot of headache.

 

If the issues is solved with new shipment then yes, we will start shipping to our customers next week.

Thanks.

 

Looking forward to the stress video

Hopefully there will be an easy way for an end user to determine if they got a "new & improved" vs a mk1.

Do you have any of the originals to hand to do a side by side comparison?

J

 

Or they just meant restructuring the packaging and not the laptop itself. That'd be pretty fast turnaround for a chassis change. Them cheap workers over there in Asia...

 

They might not have needed to change the chassis at all. There appears to be some support right under the touchpad, they could have just reinforced that with stronger material.

 

I took an economics course first year of college and learned that in China, Taiwan Korea and all that part of the world, that those guys are so efficient that you can have an idea, design it and build an actuall model for it in less than a day. That's how efficient they are, so the design flaw got handled so fast I'm sure and they replaced the necessary components quick. After all... the factory that makes them is there and they have all the necessary materials to start. I never seen a company recall all it's units and have the problem fixed and ready to ship in less than 3 weeks. Which is impressive

So let's see how it goes

 

Design to prototype is not the same as design to production. Molds take time to fabricate and characterization of product also takes time. Even redesigning an aluminum press mold takes time, they probably came up with a thicker bar support for the affected area to mask any problems. You could even paint the aluminum with certain paints to make defects less apparent. A complete redesign in two weeks time would probably be impossible considering that they did not even know of the problem before they shipped them across the globe.

 

You are all of course assuming that they started work on this recently. . . . .

They may have known about the fault for weeks - but had to ship the existing machines and hope no one noticed

 

But they already have there previous design so they just needed to add one metal component on it to strengthen it, it wouldn't take that long... You know how the previous model the metal bar extends over the cd bay only ? Maybe now they extended it to go a bit further to hold that in place

 

OCUK claim to have the new "revision 2.0" of the P35K

But on their forums, they state in a few places that the machine will not be re-manufactured?

Go figure

 

That sort of business practice is horrible and someone would probably get fired for that. Hopefully that wasn't the case, since it wastes the company's and consumer's time and destroys reputation. But it happens all the time in the automotive industry so I guess it is plausible here.

This is a very thin laptop so things like adding different components would require a completely new redesign to fit everything in. Even increasing the length of the bar could interfere with their manufacturing process. Thickening the bar by even a millimeter means you'd have to change the area around the bar. My guess is that they changed the material of the bar which can sort of been seen in this . Changing materials but maintaining the same dimensions is probably the simplest thing. Perhaps some sort of change in alloy or plastic type, it's impossible to see without having the laptop in front of me. That would be like a 50 cent fix with short turn around time.

 

Just an update... Xoticpc went ahead and started the process to refund me for the Diamond IC that would have been free. So that's a positive I guess. I just came back from the store and I will be preparing some some outer supports for the base of the laptop at the mid points. I also am gauging what I can do to do my own DIY internal reinforcement but I may wait to see what Gentech sees in their revision units (I may try to replicate that). Thank you Gentech for being active on this issue; I'll be sure to keep that in mind for any future purchases.