Returned Averatec 6110-EH1

I just returned Averatech 6110-EH1 laptop that I purchased on sale at Compusa. The list of problems I had were:

1 - malfunctioning pixels - always on

2 - overheating problem - even with the fan on full and sufficient airflow, the top surface was very hot to the touch

3 - hard drive making "click click CRACK" noise every 2,3 seconds - service rep said this was "normal" for WDC hard-drives, but I suspect it was a begining of a breakdown.

4 - terrible customer service from Averatec - never answered email. Doesn't solve issues, but assigns a case # and asks to call back later.

 

If the 'WD' in 'WDC' is Western Digital, then yes. Western Digitals are notoriously loud, but of the hundreds I've used (desktop models I'll grant you), only one has ever failed, and they (Western Digital) replaced that in less than two weeks, no questions asked. I use Western Digitals religiously.

The rest is bad luck though.

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Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician
CompTIA A+ and Network+ Certified
"Why are you laughing? Change the name and the story is about you." ~Horatius

 

Just purchased a 6110-EH1 from CompUsa this week. Can't say I've noticed any of the problems mentioned. It's been near perfect. Luck plays a factor?

Did have one problem that almost had me packing it back for return. The wireless couldn't hold a connection for more than a few minutes, even if I was within a foot of the router.

This forum, and the links to driver updates for the RaLink card, turned my purchase from a looser to a keeper. Wireless has been solid since the driver update. No other complaints.

 

Guess I was the unlucky one. Bits of search on the net about Western Digital WD800UE Scorpio drive - which is the one installed on the 6110-EH1 model - indicated that this drive tended to have more "clicking" sound than others. The two popular suggested causes for this symptom were 1) when idle, the laptop’s power setting forced the drive's arm to go into a “rest position” but it would be immediately be followed by a kind of “wake up” mode forcing the arm to reset. 2) Another prevalent belief is that constant “click” noise is an indication that the drive head constantly fails to sync up (or find correct track/position) on the plate causing the drive to reset – an early indication of a probable failure in the near future. #1 could be fixed “easily” by upgrading the drive’s firmware. Dell system offered firmware upgrade for the WD Scopios and some Hitachi drives to reduced/stop “clicking” sound. Even though Western Digitals diagnostic program did not find any failure on the drive, the “click” sound was driving me absolutely crazy!

Interesting fact: When I returned the laptop to Compusa, the guy in charge of the customer service desk informed me that the store sold out 20 laptops within first 6 hours of the sale period, but 5 laptops were retuned (including mine) in 4 days. The most common complaints included dead/malfunctioning pixels and overheating. That’s a 25% return rate! Perhaps few more may get returned within 21 days no-questions asked return period for Compusa.

If you’re the lucky 75%, then you have bought yourself a bargain winner.

 

It's always a roll of the dice when you go for the bargain. I understood that going in and have yet to loose sight of my sales receipt.


Better luck on your next roll..

 

Bah, I miss hard drive noise. I miss listening to my 386 grinding... it really told you a lot about what was going on if you knew how to listen to it. Just like modems, you could tell a lot about the connection from the handshake if you knew what the frequencies and durations and patterns mean... of course to users it's just noise so manufacturers work on creating systems without it... bah.

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Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician
CompTIA A+ and Network+ Certified
"Why are you laughing? Change the name and the story is about you." ~Horatius

 

sspak9-

I'd like to address two of your concerns. The pixle issue and the heat issue. First the pixles; there was a great article done by the owner of this site (and I also posted the link in this forum) that explains in great detail the industry standards of allowable dead pixles...
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2211 ...It's unfortunate that it happens, but every laptop manufacture has issues.

Second is the heat issue: these laptops are really "desktop replacements". It's running a processor that gets substantial focus in the PC community in respect to cooling...huge heatpipe setups to h2o and vapor exchangers. So it's a monsotr that can create quite a heat issue. This is not that uncommom either, hence the market for laptop coolers and doctor warnings to not use your lappy on your lap or risk toasting your chestnuts!

There is a trade off, heat for power. Some follks on this fourm have come up with some great ways to reduce/improve the heate exchange thru simple and well documented processes and easy to obtain products.

No don't get me wrong, i'm not intending to talk down or lessen your experience, because it is truly unfortunate that you've been sold what could be a lemmon. And it's even worse that Averatecs support turned its back to you. But in this day (and its is my opinion) that some computer issues can be easily rectified with a little effort from the owner...but some is the resoponsibility of the manufacture...and others are just industry BS.

DD

 

DD,
Thanks for the information.

Although I read/knew about deadpixel problems with the tft lcd screens before, I never did figure out what percentage of lcd screens would have this issue. If you believe the industry's claim that forcing the manufacturer to deliver 100% perfect screens would double the retail price, you would expect at least 1/3 (or somewhere less than half) of all the screens currently sold would have deadpixels - which can't be true. Probably only a tiny fraction of the screen comes with deadpixels out of the box and I happened to be the unlucky owner. I was glad that CUSA had a great return policy.

Regarding the heating issue, I thought I was prepared. I even had two plastic bottle caps to raise the 6110-EH1 off the desk and provide better airflow below. However, I wasn't expecting AMD Mobile Sempron 2800 to dissipate so much heat. It's supposed to be comparable to an Intel Celeron M 1.5 GHz. My current laptop (HP nc6000) comes with a Pentium M 1.8 GHz and the case is at most a bit warm, not hot (and it's quiet too). With 6110-EH1, the fan was going off full blast at all times, but the right upper portion of the top surface was still very hot to the touch. If I turn off the fan, it would come on by itself after few minutes. Maybe a new layer of heat sink paste was needed, but I wasn't going to dismantle the case. Perhaps I am expecting too much from a bargain laptop, but my experience with my 6110-EH1 was disappointing.

As stated in this thread, mine could well have been a true lemon, and my problems are not representative of other 6110-EH1 users. (In case you’re wondering, the Averatec was for my daughter).

 

I bought it from compusa too. it did not come with any cd, specifically windows xp cd. is that normal ? if i want to format and create two partitions for installing linux one one and windows xp on another, how can i do that ? I had called their tech support but they were clueless and gave me some very vague answers like this special model does not come with windows cd. I am supposed to use "Phoenix" for recovery etc. any ideas ?

 

bvora,

Not having restoration CD was one of my complaints to the customer service people. The Averatec customer rep also told me that they DO NOT provide separate Windows XP home CD. Personally, I can’t believe how they can get away with that! [ !] When I had IBM Thinkpad – which initially did not come with the restoration CDs - the customer reps sent me the CD’s when I asked for it. I guess Averatec’s trying to shave few $$ here too.

The restoration image is on the hard drive, saved on an unknown partition that’s about 4 GB big. The system restoration is launched by pressing F4 key during boot which brings up “Pheonix” application. You can restore the disk image to the factory setting by selecting system restore menu. I used it to restore the system before I returned it to CUSA.

Please be aware that this program is an evaluation copy that limits you to only 10 runs. Afterwards, you have to PAY app $30 (this is what the customer rep from Averatec told me). Thus, if somehow you mess up the partition table info or if the hard drive itself fails, there is absolutely no way to recover the system unless you send the laptop back to the factory – assuming that you don’t have a separate windows CD available.

If you still plan to install Linux, my recommendation is that you make a backup of the restoration image partition first. One of the tools I can think of right away is Acronis TrueImage. Obviously, you can’t format the drive as you don’t have the Windows CD to reinstall XP. So you basically have to use partition tools – like Symantec PartitionMagic - to create a Linux partition without disturbing the existing Windows installation and go from there. Just be careful when you setup Linux boot loader like LILO because almost all of them write information to partition table and this may “break” your restoration image partition later.

 

Another note.

The chipset in this is an SiSM760, which is AFAIK turion 64 compatible, so you can change the processor to a 64 low heat processor in the near future.

Also, has anyone tried substituting a new wireless card into this bad boy? I am having trouble maintaining good connection, even after new driver download / install. Also, the modem is iffy at best. Both opinions are in comparison to a Toshiba m35x-161 which connected wirelessly (and on the modem) like a champion. I am thinking about an Intel Pro/2200 Wireless miniPCI card.

Thanks,
Bill

 

Thanks sspak9 for your detailed reply. My worst fear is after few days when i have saved lots of stuff on the hard drive, if i have to restore using phoenix, i will have to re-install all the applications all over again.

 

just so you know sspac, when you email averatec. the email doesnt go to the technical support. That goes to the Averatec advance customer care/ corporate office. so if you email them about a technical issue. they will most likey not respond. you can complain. but thats about it.

 

on a personal note the recovery software that comes installed the phoenix firstware recovery sux.

 

I bought a 400 watt inverter (by Xantex) from Costco today for $24.99. Will it work with this laptop ? anybody has any experience with this inverter ? it does say that you can connect laptop, camcorder even a 27 in tv.

 

did they charge you a restocking fee when you returned it? Just wondering, because they do unless you're one of those asshole customers that demands to speak to a maanger.

 

nevermind, I could have sworn they had a restocking charge though. I've seen some of their sales receipts before.

 

I too got the 6110 at CompUSA. I've had no problems yet, besides the in and out of the 802.11 connection. Going to upgrade the drivers tonight and see if there is any improvements. I pretty happy with the laptop.

I set it up to dual boot with SUSE Linux with no problem. However, I can't get any networking to work in Linux yet. Yeh, it sucks not having the install cds. Linux did got damage the Phoenix partition at all. I carfully configured Linux not to do that.

I am going to try to find a way to back up that partition on DVDs someway.

I am planning to add the laptop to my personal insurance along with my other electronic toys. Its pretty cheap and provides a piece of mind.

SiSM760, which is AFAIK turion 64 compatible???? Hmm, might try to upgrade to 64 after my 1 year warranty is gone

 

One more pleasant surprise I found is that when I ran Nero Info tool, it reports the dvd burner as dual layer capable.

 

heh, i work at compusa, and just bought this laptop a couple days ago, and i'm impressed so far. upgraded the wireless driver and all that fun stuff. havn't had too many problems except an issue with the card reader driver's.... but it's not crucial

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by bvora

 

I am trying to return my 6110-EH1 but I've sent in the rebates so I'm getting a hassle. The two Las Vegas stores are out of replacements (I'm on my second unit).

My problem is that the hard drive is activating so often that the computer is slower than my old P2-233mHz unit (I still have it!).

This is happening right out of the box w/no software loaded. I can't believe my luck that I get two of them w/the same problem.

Running XP diagnostics shows the disc que looking like a marathon runners heartbeat. 2 to 3 times per second something is accessing the hard drive! Could this be a power saver issue causing the drive to go to park or just a bad drive?

Thanks for your help.

Kirk
Las Vegas