Products to stay away from. (horror stories)

dokko

dokko

dokko

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Anybody got any prodcuts from hell they'd like to share so other comsumers don't have to suffer the same hiar pulling experience?

(Thought it would make a good thread for people to ref when buying)

I'll start:

AOpen - DVDRW - DUW1616L

Now apart from the drive being very noisy, this model doesn't recognise DVD games.

Not only that, but if you've say had FM06 in for the last hour and now decide you want to play a bit of COD:2 (these are just examples) you change discs over, the drive still thinks you've got FM06 in, and won't change its mind until a computer reset.

Now thats frustrating, but it gets better. So you ask what the problem is, the next logical step is to see Aopen, download a driver, see if that works.

Well, the DUW1616L is about the only producr Aopen does without a driver, or an update tool etc.. to solve any problems, which is quite funny considering they get about 30 complaints a week about this drive.

So what do you do now? Well i could get a RMA, but i thought its pointless for the sake of £30, the hassle of being without a DVD drive for a week would be worse.

So i contact Aopen, after using their utterly rubbish doctor thingy i wait for a response, i get nothing. So i send another, i get nothing, i use their forum, i get nothing onyl other people looking for the same type of answer.

I send off 3 complaints, 4 weeks later i get a response asking for system specs, i give them, and never here from them again.

-----------------------------

So there you have it. I recommend you stay away from the Aopen DUW1616L like as if it was the plague itself, and to be honest, really question yourself on when your buying anything from Aopen itself, because if its broken or needs a software update, it wont get fixed in any hurry.
 
Syk3 said:
Q-Tec Power Supply -

Sum it up:

Q-Tec + Computer = Boom
Click to expand...

Could you give the whole storey, or is it still too painful?

Just so people can really know why not to but a cheap PSU.
 
2-3 Years ago, brought the top of the range PC at the time .. didnt really know much about PsU's so i kept the one it came with (Q-Tec) 2 weeks later, came home.. smoke around PC. PC Fried, luckily i was inside the insurance etc and got it replaced. Hated Q-Tec ever since.
 
dokko said:
Could you give the whole storey, or is it still too painful?

Just so people can really know why not to but a cheap PSU.
Click to expand...

Just wondering, that PC Spec you've got is similar to what im thinking of buying -is it good? You play games?
 
Syk3 said:
Just wondering, that PC Spec you've got is similar to what im thinking of buying -is it good? You play games?
Click to expand...

Very good, im delighted with it.

All at stock as well.

Paid £800 for it from Overclockers, even the standard PSU is good enough (seasonic)

The system is noisy, but runs cool. I'm looking to spend £60 on cooling sometime soon, and then i'll think about Oc'ing it, and getting even more out of it.

I play FM06 mostly, which is a dream with the extra mem, good CPU & fast SATA II.

But i also play COD:2, far cry, doom III, and the GFX run smooth & crisp, i dont get any jerkyness, even when ive got everything on max.

The DVD drive (which i bought with it) is the only let down from the system.

Daft thing is i only bought it as OC was having stock problems with cases, and i didn't know which or what colour case i'd end up with, so i got that DVD as it has clip on bezels.
 
Epox NF3 Motherboards (9NDA3J in particular) it may look ok, it way work well but by god!! It has the worst lay out ever.

First problem I encountered was trying to install my Thermalright XP120 heatsink on, the ATX connectors for the power to the motherboard were next to the CPU socket, so I had to install the motherboard and heatsink inside the case (even though it had a removable motherboard tray. Then when the ATX connectors were plugged in, it interfered with the heatsink making it virtually impossible to properly mount the XP120 - I had to bed the connectors almost 90 degrees flat to be able to install the heatsink.

Then once that was done I though, phew .. home free ... nope. The next problem was that the two SATA connectors are up tight along side the AGP slot, now I had an Arctic cooler silencer on my x800XTPE and the plastic shroud was virtually on top of the connectors, completely covering them!!! :( I had to wait an extra day to buy an Akasa SATA cable with the 90degree connector. When I got it I thought cool, this will work - but nope :( I had to double to cable over on top of itself as the connector on the sata controller was facing away from the front of the case.

In the end I had a Sata controller folder over causing the cable to fray slightly and it finally installed ok. Finally the fan on the chipset failed after about 1 month :(

I hate Epox!!! add to that they seem tio employ a cinder block to answer their support phone lines (in that they don't!!) they neither answer e-mails, it took 4 months to get a reply to a question
 
VaderDSL said:
Epox NF3 Motherboards (9NDA3J in particular) it may look ok, it way work well but by god!! It has the worst lay out ever.

First problem I encountered was trying to install my Thermalright XP120 heatsink on, the ATX connectors for the power to the motherboard were next to the CPU socket, so I had to install the motherboard and heatsink inside the case (even though it had a removable motherboard tray. Then when the ATX connectors were plugged in, it interfered with the heatsink making it virtually impossible to properly mount the XP120 - I had to bed the connectors almost 90 degrees flat to be able to install the heatsink.

Then once that was done I though, phew .. home free ... nope. The next problem was that the two SATA connectors are up tight along side the AGP slot, now I had an Arctic cooler silencer on my x800XTPE and the plastic shroud was virtually on top of the connectors, completely covering them!!! :( I had to wait an extra day to buy an Akasa SATA cable with the 90degree connector. When I got it I thought cool, this will work - but nope :( I had to double to cable over on top of itself as the connector on the sata controller was facing away from the front of the case.

In the end I had a Sata controller folder over causing the cable to fray slightly and it finally installed ok. Finally the fan on the chipset failed after about 1 month :(

I hate Epox!!! add to that they seem tio employ a cinder block to answer their support phone lines (in that they don't!!) they neither answer e-mails, it took 4 months to get a reply to a question
Click to expand...

Actually thinking about it, had the same problems with my epox as well, but there were ways round them.

The DVD drive? Nowt can be done apart from take it to the beach and let the sea swallow it up forever.
 
Maxtor HDD's - Don't think I need to say anything else do I?

Crucial Ram - Bought 2 lots, 1 got RMA'd 3 times and the other 2 times, would never buy again (I hear that that Gskil are just as bad)

All joysticks - They never last more than a year WHY?
 
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dokko said:
A brief what happened for future refs would be nice :)
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I bought 3, 1 for a mate & 2 for myself. All 3 knackered within 6 months. My mate is on his 3rd RMA and I decided to have a bonfire last week with mine. I rma'd both of mine once but couldn't be bothered anymore cos I wouldn't use them again if I got replacements.
 
Monstermunch said:
Maxtor HDD's - Don't think I need to say anything else do I?
Click to expand...

What, you mean like the Maxtor 60gb drive I've had for over 4 years that has never once skipped a beat, and the 120gb I've had for 2 years that has also never once skipped a beat? :)

Wish I could say the same about the WD Raptor I had that lasted about 2 months, or the Seagates that I put in a machine I built and had to replace 6 months down the line (RMA'd, replaced with Maxtors, never gone wrong since).
 
Yep i bought 4 maxtor Hds diffrent models , sizes in the time that i had them all 4 failed 3 of which in the first year.

These where in diffrent rigs.
 
Had a maxtor for about 2 years been fine, now a mate of mine has it and still ok so they must be a bit hit and miss.

Another one for Q-Tec, I was lucky no fire/explosions but the fans in it sounded like deltas but didnt shift any air, damn highstreet shops have no choice :(

Cheap gaming cases in general, you'll just end up cutting your hands to pieces and realising they look crap about 3 weeks after you buy it.
 
I'm pretty lucky - never had any serious problems in all the years I've been tinkering with PC's.

The worst bit of kit has been.....you guessed it......a Q-Tec PSU :p Was meant to power a relatively low-end system but it couldn't even do that. It kept randomly shutting down my PC. I wasn't exactly filled with confidence when I took it out of the box and found it weighed about the same as an empty eggbox :eek: Nasty, nasty things - avoid them even for low end systems.
 
To get this back on-topic, AC Ryan Blackfire fans. I bought four, all 120mm with the seperately variable speed and LED lighting.

When I got them I thought "[sweary word] these look really thrown together in a Taiwanese sweatshop."

There was no band around the LED strip and all the connecting wires were exposed. I hooked up two of them to fan headers on my £140 ASUS motherboard, one to a brand new Thermaltake Hardcano 13 fan controller and one through a Nexus Prolong. I turned on the PC. There was a cloud of grey smoke and a distinct smell of burning.

The PC would not restart. All the fan connector fuses had blown, as had the power supply fuse and the 5A fuse in the plug. The Hardcano was a pile of melted solder fuse and one half of the Prolong refused to work.

In the end I received over £400 worth of replacement components courtesy of AC Ryan. The power supply fuses failed to protect it as it was wired incorrectly (it was an AC Ryan Cablefree) and two of the four fans had shorts in the wiring.

Avoid.
 
Memory!! Does'nt matter which. I am jinxed!!!

I wanted a 2gb kit of PC4000 and i have had three goes and still don't have any.

1st go. Ordered a 2GB kit of Corsair DDR XMS4000PT TwinX from here. Paid my money and had to pay next day delivery. Next day no memory. Ok it's Scotland so give it another day. Still no memory. Gave it another couple of days and then used a webnote. Got a reply saying out of stock even though website says different and they took my money. Cancelled order and to be fair they were very apologetic and gave me an immediate refund

2nd go. Went elsewhere and ordered a 2GB kit of OCZ PC4000 cas 2.5 gold. Got it next day and stuck it in pc only for it to show up as 1GB. Starts up cpu-z only to find it to be a 512mb stick of OCZ value ddr 400 cas 2.5 and a 512mb stick of OCZ PC4000 gold single channel stick. Sent that back right away and got a partial refund and attempt 3.

3rd go. Got a 2GB kit of Gskill HZ PC4000 as a replacement and stuck that in the pc. Whoppee. Shows up as 2GB. Well thats a start. Goes into bios to set the timings, volts and fsb and reboots. Ram only showing as 238.6mhz. Fires up cpu-z again along with Sisoft sandra only to find it running at 238.6mhz @3-4-4-8 2T. Checks the SPD only to find it says 250mhz@3-5-5-10 1T. Plays around with it to try to het it to run at 250 all to no avail. Sent that back as well and maybe thinks i should stick with my trusty Crucial value PC3200.
 
Made the mistake of buying a Thermaltake 480W for an Athlon 64 rig. 12v went ballistic after a while. Fortunately I managed to sell it to someone with a lesser pc and recoup 2\3 of the cost.

Antec's low end PSUs are just as poor, and also very noisy.
 
sr4470 said:
Made the mistake of buying a Thermaltake 480W for an Athlon 64 rig. 12v went ballistic after a while. Fortunately I managed to sell it to someone with a lesser pc and recoup 2\3 of the cost.

Antec's low end PSUs are just as poor, and also very noisy.
Click to expand...

My antec PSU, or seasonic provided by Antec is fantastic considering at 400w i must be running it to the wire.

Very low noise to boot.

Was this one a seasonic?
 
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