On the bad end of crappy service!

[Slytovhand]

I don't know where this is supposed to go, cos it's me getting the raw deal from a company... (Mods - if there's a better place for this, pls move this to there...ta )

I have bought myself a new pc. I had a few significant upgrades done to it - RAM, HDD, Chip and video card, plus got a few peripherals with it (webcam and printer).

You'd think with my generosity of giving them a stack of my money that things would be better than if I just bought a video card on its own... you'd be wrong.

Firstly - my brand new machine is back at the shop. It shuts down after about an hour's constant usage (though, not quite sure, given all the installation reboots you have to do with a new machine). I've managed to get windows (XP) on, and the MB, video and KB/Mouse drivers installed (the last 2 to go from generic to specific). I've not even managed to get to installing the SP's!! And, to make things confusing... it will reboot itself... even after an hour of being turned off!!

Anyway - that's not my main gripe here...

My main gripe is that this company expects me to call them to find out if it's ready to go.

Yep, I've got to make repeated phone calls to them to find out if it's been fixed or not... rather than 1 simple phone call from them to me to say it's all good!

Now - that sucks!!

And because I can be a right pain in the arse, when I walked in (and out) the other day - and I might add, having to take my new system out to the car with no help at all...), I did happen to notice a few glaringly obvious workplace safety issues (the sort that, if one is burdened by having to carry their brand new pc is likely to not see and fall over and break something...)

Can you guess what I'm going to do shortly???


Slyt

[BlackIronCrown]

If'n you don't mind, what are the specs on the system?
Especially, what brand/model case ar you using, what's the PSU draw, and how many fans has it got?

[LostMyMind]

You might have had the computer on stand-by and not off. My bet is it's overheating even on low-power stand-by. Which is a very very very very very bad thing.... Did I mention it's bad?

Majority of motherboards (bios) have a setting that will force an shutdown or reboot if the temp gets too hot.

Or someone playing a joke on you and has the computer on a schedule boot/shut-off time. Some bios support that. But I would think that having the computer doing that at an exactly the same times would be an recognizable pattern.

[Slytovhand]

BIC... AMD Phenom 9850, M750SLI DS4 gigabyte MB, 4G ReaperX Ram, 500G Seagate, Asus 9600 1G GT vid, in a Coolmaster CenturionV.

I'm installing the software myself (XP, still yet to do the SP's), but have managed to get to installing the mb drivers, as well as video.

But the retailer put it all together.

My suspicion is that perhaps whoever did it forgot to calculate the upgrades (from 9550, 2G Kingston and only 512 vid ram).

But I'm reckoning ups. One tech is thinking mb...

[LostMyMind]

Well, heat problems isn't always an ventilation problem. Sometimes, the heatsink fan isn't thermal seated correctly on the CPU. Causing a gradually heat build up then, *click*shutdown, *click* auto turn-on after shutdown.

A quick check to see if it's the CPU (or videocard) temp issue. Install an temp monitor (download probe from ASUS) and watch the temp until it self-reboots.

[Slytovhand]

Fair enough... except for that little 'warranty void if removed' thing.... I'll let them do it -just in case

And as for download... that presumes being able to get on the net (which, granted, I'm doing through the old system... but having fun with the network).

[lordlundar]

Fair enough... except for that little 'warranty void if removed' thing.... I'll let them do it -just in case

Ugh.

I HATE those stupid little tags on the computer case. They might as well label them "we think you are too stupid to open the case, so we're gonna fuck with you with this magic box."

Bitter? Me? Maybe. Of course, I'm practiced in working inside one, so That is a contributing factor.

If it hasn't been opened since purchase, then I'd peg it on either the power supply failing or heat buildup from dust inside.

[BlackIronCrown]

But I'm reckoning ups. One tech is thinking mb...

I'd be taking a look at the PSU and making sure it has enough wattage for the Phenom. AMDs right now suck the hell out of power at that level. Might also be a cooling issue with the mobo doing an automatic cutoff at a certain temp. How many fans are in the case?

[otakuneko]

Could be heat, could even be memory.

My Phenom 9750 runs on a 550W PSU, with a nice Zalman cooler and 3 case fans (front and side intake, rear exhaust), on a motherboard that claims in bold print not to support CPUs of 125W thermal design power, which retail Phenoms are.

The 95 version is only for OEMs.

[Slytovhand]

Thanks for getting me more worried, guys

They rang me today to pick it up... we shall see!

Question... given that the original specs were 9550, 2G Kingston, 512 Video and 400G WD (I think), are the upgrades enough to cause havoc with the machine, or would they not have made any difference?

(the question relates to whether they knew the system should have died or not, and who would be 'responsible' for the failure... if they try to tell me "You should have taken that into account when you ordered the system").

I've got no real idea how many fans are inside - I don't have the specifics on that - so I presume just the default (I didn't request any others..tbh, I didn't think of it :blush

LL - as it was a custom job, and it was ready by Sunday arvo, and I picked it up on Tuesday arvo, I doubt it'd be dust. I do agree with your bitterness - it basically says that if you aren't part of their company, you don't know what you're doing. Although, I can appreciate it if someone fools around and then knocks something and then it stuffs up!

[Broomjockey]

I'm willing to bet that your power supply isn't sufficient, especially since I can't see any details on it, nor specifically which video card you're running (512 Video's not descriptive enough, sorry ) Most places include a power supply unit just barely powerful enough to run the machine, so you need to upgrade that if you're upgrading the video card and processor.

[Slytovhand]

Sorry Boomjockey - UPS is standard that came with the case, and is supposed to be a 460Watt. Video is Gigabyte 9600GT Silentpipe NX96T.(the 512 was the same model).

[Broomjockey]

PSU's probably not good then. Ones that come with cases are rarely up to the wattage they claim, and that video card model's a power sucker, along with the other upgrades.

[lordlundar]

Yeah, a 460 is low for what you have in it. 600W min I would suggest. Dual Channel if you can swing it.

[Slytovhand]

Wells... I have it back now.

They reckon it was a bios setting not done to take the new video card into account....????

And the guy I spoke to said they'd run it for 4 hours all ok.

I got it home and did the important stuff... Oblivion and checked out a DVD No problems ....yet!