About to RMA my GX600 for the 2nd time. Is there some sort of lemon law?

I’ve been having problems with my GX600 since about the 2nd month of ownership. I didn’t post anything here about the RMA because nothing is perfect and RMAs happen all the time. Well now I’m on my second RMA! It costs $31 to ship the notebook from NY to California so it’s starting to get expensive. I never expected to spend another $62 on the laptop when I first got it. If I could do it again I would have got the ASUS G1 and I’m telling everyone who is reading this thread to avoid the GX600 like the plague. I feel as though I’ve been ripped off for $1,800.

Here’s a little background. I started having problems with the system freezing (the mouse curser would just freeze). The only way to get it to re-boot after that was to unplug it and remove the battery. I removed almost all of my software and it appeared to have gotten better for about a week. But then the problem came back and it would happen 5 or 6 times a day. I could only use my machine for no more than 10 minutes before it would lock up. Then the laptop decided that it wouldn’t power up at all. Nothing would happen when I hit the power button. I would try it again and it would power up, but then the mouse would freeze. Then finally the system just wouldn’t power up at all.

I RMA’d it and received it back after 2 weeks. I reinstalled Vista and all seemed fine but the next day the unit didn’t want to power up just like before. I tried it a few minutes later and it powered up. I used the laptop for about an hour and then the mouse froze. At that point I’m saying “Not Again”. This happened on and off throughout the day, then the system seemed to stabilize. I had the unit powered on for a week straight and no problems occured with the mouse freezing. I used the laptop during a trip and all was OK but the last day of the trip the mouse started freezing again. This time the operating system crashed to a blue screen and gave me a hardware error. I tried to power it on after that but it wouldn’t respond. I was maybe able to power it on one or two times after that but the system would crash. The last time it powered up I got to the windows desktop then the unit just shut off (as if it lost power). Since then the unit is unable to power up.

Now I’m about to RMA it again and to be honest this laptop has been completely unreliable. I cannot tell you the amount of times that I went to a park or an internet café expecting to do some work and the unit would either refuse to power up, or crash within minutes of turning it on. I wanted to show a group of people a presentation and when I tried to power it on nothing happened. I was embarrassed and said to the group of people “That’s what happens when you buy a piece of junk laptop”. One person asked what brand it was and I told him MSI. He said he never heard of them.

Is there anything I can do? I’m not willing to spend $31 a month on shipping charges, and when the one-year warranty period is out, will I be stuck with useless $1,800 computer? One thing is for sure. I will never purchase another MSI notebook. I’m of the opinion that MSI makes crap notebooks. Until I get a MSI notebook that lasts longer than a couple of months without failing to power on then I’ll change my mind.

 

Yes, there is a lemon law...but it requires that at least three repairs on the same problem be attempted. If it needs a fourth repair, they are legally required to offer you a full refund minus shipping charges.

 

according to government class the lemon law is 3 times then there required to replace it for a new one.

also i had some major problems with my xps something kept breaking and breaking until it caught on fire but i never had to pay anything to get anything fixed on it and did not loose any money on it

also i had an msi mobo and kept breaking and breaking and breaking i did like 2 or 3 rmas and then i just trashed it

good companies that care about there people usually pay for shipping by emailing a label or having a tech come to your house that is usually done by the companies subcontractor

 

Thanks! Hopefully they will give me my money back because I'm not willing to take another chance on an MSI product.

 

Update:

I called to get another RMA today. Shipping should be free this time because the last RMA is still open (they close it after 30 days).

Now here's the good part. I asked if anything was done to the notebook the first time it was RMA’d. They said that it powered up fine the first time and all they did was update the Bios. Can you believe this? The laptop refused to power-on after I tried it for 4 days, and at least 6 times a day. MSI gets it and it powered up immediately. So they never even opened my unit. Unbelievable! I’m not surprised that it worked for them. This wouldn’t be the first time that something didn’t want to work until it was about to be repaired, then it works for the person repairing it, he then says that nothing is wrong, You bring it back home and it fails on the first attempt. When that happens I just want to smash the thing.

They’re thinking that it’s a power supply issue. I doubt it because I have a car charger and the same thing happens with either charger. The battery was fully charged when it failed.

What I’m going to do is create an AVI of me attempting to power it on. I’ll send that to them with the laptop so they can have visual proof.

I really don’t need the stress. I purchased the notebook to relieve stress but now the thing is causing me more stress than anything else. I just wish I could have my money back and rid myself of this freaking nightmare!!

 

good luck buddy!
let us know the outcome of the situation
i am not a fan of msi at all

 

wow good luck. i know many people that own msi and some have had great experiences with them while others wish they would have bought elsewhere. i decided against it while first looking due to a lot of mixed reviews i read.

good luck with it.

 

Just by chance are you plugging it into the same outlet or even a backup powersupply ?? If so maybe those could be bad and you need to try it on another outlet, etc. Just trying to help. God Bless

 

Thank you very much. I was using the same outlet (power strip). I'll try another one.

 

Spoonie, how did it go ???

 

Also another thing to try is to see if the laptop powers up with the battery only and also just on AC without the battery.

 

Well Surprising enough. I went home (the same day), got the camera out because I wanted to record visual proof. The first time I pressed the power button nothing happened. I had removed the battery from early in the morning so I put it back in and tried it again. On battery Power only it powered up fine. I reconnected the charger and all is now fine. Since that day the system powers up every time on queue. MSI had promptly sent the UPS shipping label so props to them. The laptop seems to be fine now so I wont be sending it to them. Although today the mouse froze (first time since my last post) I'm blaming that on running the laptop with a weakly charged battery. CHKDSK ran automatically after that and it's been fine ever since. Go figure? I guess every so often I forget how to press a power button.

See reply Above. I think something is up with either my AC adapter or my DC car adapter. When I think back, every time I had a problem I was using the car adapter some time during that day. I haven't used the car adapter in a week and all is fine now. I'll be using the car adapter this weekend. If the laptop fails to power up for a few hours (or days) I'll know what the problem is.

 

sounds like a bad psu or mobo

 

That's what I'm thinking. It's an intermittent problem so they'll (MSI) probably wont replace components that seem to be fine. I hope it craps out 100% of the time soon. Or at least while the warranty is still in effect I'll keep my fingers crossed because the last 4 days the laptop has been working as advertised. If it stays this way then I'll be a happy camper. But I know that It wont

 

Ouch, thats pretty rough. I've not had a single problem with my GX600 as of yet, so I'm still pretty happy with it

 

Yeah, same here Spoonie, I think that your laptop simply has defective parts or something or other, I mean you mentioned something about your earlier problems re-emerging again, and that's obviously not a good sign. I recommend that you take that as a heads-up to get a refund or something while you still can. I mean, defective parts get shipped out all the time, it's just a matter of identifying them I guess...

But yeah, I have absolutely no hatred towards MSI whatsoever, I think they're a fabulous company...