VirginMedia (FREE) Freedom NetBook

morkfromork said:
Teulk how did you get it for free with a free dongle. I tried my best to get the p&p knocked off let alone getting it for free.
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First off all i looked at their website and it says " free virgin media freedom netbook".

http://allyours.virginmedia.com/html/specialoffers/netbook.html

I then called the sales staff and asked how much extra it would cost me per month for a netbook and that i am on the VIP package. The sales girls tells me its FREE and that i also get a 3gb dongle. I then again confirm that i will pay nothing extra and that the dongle is included - this she confirms. I do this several times throughout my 45min phone call. Towards the end of the call the girls runs through the order and adds there is a £15 pm charge for the 3gb dongle - i say "you told me it was all free", she says "sorry but the dongle is £15pm". I then tell her that she told me several times that there was no extra charge to my current package, i also said in that case i dont want it (meaning the dongle and not the netbook) as you told me i wouldnt be paying anything extra and that as im currently paying over £100pm for my cable i should have it for free.............she put me on hold to speak to a supervisor and then told me "ok you can have it for free" - RESULT.

Tbh tho' i wont believe this until i see it on my bill.
 
pagdodd said:
arghhhh. Can not complete setup. keep getting blue screen of death :(
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warning, Vista fails if you try and upgrade AND it also removes the files from the hard drive that allow to do a factory restore.

I finally got it working with Vista after formatting the HDD and doing a clean install but the wireless card, graphics adapter and ethernet controller all need drivers (which you can not download from anywhere yet.) I have got to wait a week for Virgin to send me a drivers disk.

Note: they wont send a recovery disk because there isn't one. You have to do a clean install of XP (or whatever) and install the drivers.

Good news though, there is another version of Windows that works really well.
The only driver it is missing is the sound card so it thinks there is no audio output devise installed. Hopefully a driver will sort this.

But all in all it runs very well with the Windows version i have installed. Even with only 1gb currently installed.
 
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pagdodd said:
warning, Vista fails if you try and upgrade AND it also removes the files from the hard drive that allow to do a factory restore.

I finally got it working with Vista after formatting the HDD and doing a clean install but the wireless card, graphics adapter and ethernet controller all need drivers (which you can not download from anywhere yet.) I have got to wait a week for Virgin to send me a drivers disk.

Note: they wont send a recovery disk because there isn't one. You have to do a clean install of XP (or whatever) and install the drivers.

Good news though, there is another version of Windows that works really well.
The only driver it is missing is the sound card so it thinks there is no audio output devise installed. Hopefully a driver will sort this.

But all in all it runs very well with the Windows version i have installed. Even with only 1gb currently installed.
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Pagdodd did you get the drivers from virgin on a disc? If so any chance you could upload them somewhere for me to download(HOPE THIS IS NOT BREAKING ANY RULES. IF SO FEEL FREE TO REMOVE THIS). I've just re-installed mine but forgot to take a copy of the drivers.
 
morkfromork said:
Pagdodd did you get the drivers from virgin on a disc? If so any chance you could upload them somewhere for me to download(HOPE THIS IS NOT BREAKING ANY RULES. IF SO FEEL FREE TO REMOVE THIS). I've just re-installed mine but forgot to take a copy of the drivers.
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I am waiting for them to be sent from them. Apparently the disk doesn't exist yet.

As soon as I get them I will upload. (if I am allowed :))
 
Well the saga continues -STILL NO NETBOOK ! Ordered it on the 27th july and told it would be here 28th - didnt arrive after ringing on the 28th to check it was coming on that day and being told "it was being delived today"
Rang on the 29th, got told a rubbish, confilicting information and spoke to 3 diferent people over a 4hr period to be finally told its coming in a weeks time.
Got a phone call 3rd August say in it was coming on the 5th between 8am - 6pm.........GREAT !
Gets a phone call on the 5th at 12:00 saying that they had system problems and that i would need to order again. When i confirmed the free dongle i was told "erm sorry i cant do that for you and there is no record of it". Any way i was unable to go through the order process as i was not at home and they wanted all my bank details and debit card details so i asked for them to call back in 30mins...........NO CALL RECEIVED !

By this stage i have spent around 3hrs on the phone either on hold or trying to sort things out.

Today 7th August i ring up to try and get it sorted only to be on hold for 85mins ( 20min wait time so the automated voice says) before eventually speaking to someone, then after 15mins of explaining myself and trying to sort it they hang up on me - 1hr40mins on the phone and NOTHING ! still no further forward. So i ring up again and by this time im totally hacked off - i speak to a supervisor and again explain everything and tell her that i want

1. My netbook delivered as surely that cant be difficult.
2. 15gb mobile broadband for free as originally told i could or
3. A very good good will gesture
4. If you cant do any of the above then i dont want the netbook or mobile broadband and you can basically stick it.

I guess i have spent todate about 5 hours on the phone. most of that time has been on hold and have spoke to at least 8 people. Now im just waiting for th supervisor to ring me back - going on past experience it wont happen !

I even ran Cancellations today but got nowhere as Virgin Mobile are a separate company and any gripes i have to take up with them - its just been a story of being passed back and forth - ALL I WANT IS THE NOTEBOOK !
 
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Well, trying not to boast, but I have had my netbook since a week after it's release and I will have to say I am very impressed with it.

Considering it was "free" I do not feel I have been given a mediocre piece of kit.

I know it does not compare in specs to some netbooks but for an every day use computer I find it very good. The screen is a good size and the keyboard is very comfortable to use.

It copes with pretty much everything I throw at it including video and online gaming (www.quakelive.com).

I have tried it with XP, Vista and *ahem* Windows 7 and they all run pretty well even with the standard 1gb ram allthough I have now increased to 2gb. I am not sure what the maximum capacity it will take but it only has one card slot. Installing extra memory is very easy to do unlike some netbooks i.e. Acer Aspire One (which we have 2 of) because you have to take the whole thing apart, right down to it's bear bones to install extra memory.

I have reverted back to Xp for now until I can get my official pre-ordered Windows 7.

Be warned, as I have said before though, if you do install another operating system make sure it does not remove "PC Angel" which is a built in factory restore partition. Vista did this to me and I had to format the HDD and re-install XP to get most of the built in hardware working but now I currently don't have any Wi-Fi, hopefully the drivers I received this morning will sort it out. (which I will upload as soon as I can)

The wireless N is very good and I was getting 8-9meg wireless out of my 10meg download speed.

So, overall I am quite happy with my netbook and would recommend it to anyone.

8/10

P.S. Should you have any technical queries about the Netbook there is a dedicated freephone tech helpline. It took me a while on hold with Virgin Media to get the number so, hopefully to save you time, here it is: 0800 9522294
To be honest though, because the kit is so new even they are learning about it.
 
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Hello Pagdodd.
I have to agree it is a good bit of kit and for free you can not complain. I did not have any problems at all i ordered mine on wed 29th and it turned up on friday the 31st. Seems i may have been lucky as there is a lot of people who seem to be still waiting.

Would be good if you could get the drivers uploaded somewhere. I did manage to get my audio sorted but it's the wireless ones that i have problems findind.
 
morkfromork said:
Hello Pagdodd.
I have to agree it is a good bit of kit and for free you can not complain. I did not have any problems at all i ordered mine on wed 29th and it turned up on friday the 31st. Seems i may have been lucky as there is a lot of people who seem to be still waiting.

Would be good if you could get the drivers uploaded somewhere. I did manage to get my audio sorted but it's the wireless ones that i have problems findind.
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I assume you are using Win 7 then??

p.s. i will upload ASAP. It's been a pain not having wireless for over a week.
 
Lol yep installed 7. Looks very nice if i do say so just a shame that i took pc angel off. There is nothing in the book and leaflets about a partition. I did try and find it but to no avail. Think it's f10 to reinstall.
 
morkfromork said:
Lol yep installed 7. Looks very nice if i do say so just a shame that i took pc angel off. There is nothing in the book and leaflets about a partition. I did try and find it but to no avail. Think it's f10 to reinstall.
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Yeah, it is F10. I had a moan at Virgin tech help for not warning in any of the leaflets etc.. about losing the partition. I installed a perfectly legal version of Vista with my own licence only to find I could not go back.

It is ludicrous that they do not supply a restore disk nor would they make me one. They did however agree to send out the drivers and you can install XP from any disk using your own licence.

I would, however, recommend you install a lighter version of XP, such as the one you get for Acer Aspire One which includes service pack 3.
 
morkfromork said:
Hello Pagdodd.
I have to agree it is a good bit of kit and for free you can not complain. I did not have any problems at all i ordered mine on wed 29th and it turned up on friday the 31st.
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How i envy you - i did get a call back yesterday but none of my demands or requests shall i say were met, i have to wait until next week to find out what they will offer me in return for the utter rubbish customer service i have received.
 
pagdodd said:
I assume you are using Win 7 then??

p.s. i will upload ASAP. It's been a pain not having wireless for over a week.
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bad news! still no wireless. Even after installing the drivers given it still doesn't recognise the wireless card.

Been trying all day with 3 different versions of windows and none of them recognise the wireless card.

me thinks we will have to send it to Virgin for them to sort.
 
I got my netbook in the limited edition colour 'Virgin Red' a few days ago. As they didn't deliver when they said they would they agreed to knock off the £14.99 delivery charge so that I only paid £50 :D

I'm hopefully going to upgrade the RAM to 2GB soon and I'm probably going to upgrade it to Windows 7 at some point.
 
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Well i got two emails today, first one telling me they had my order (again) and the second that they had received payment and it would be delivered tomorrow 10th august between 8am - 6pm (we shall see)

Also what does this mean

VM Mobile Broadband 15 3GB - Promo AA (Freedom Netbook Quick Start Black) (QuadPlay)............this is the order they messed up
NOTICE IT SAYS "VM Mobile Broadband 15 3GB - Promo AA

and the current order

VM Mobile Broadband 25 3GB AA (Freedom Netbook Quick Start Black) (QuadPlay)

NOTICE IT SAYS "VM Mobile Broadband 25 3GB AA"


Ok they are slightly different, what do the 15 and 25 refer too ? and one says "promo" and the other doesnt...........
 
The saga continues…

I spoke to Virgin tech help this morning, explained that their wireless drivers still don’t make XP recognise the wireless card. After them telling me to try everything I had already tried they put me on hold for 10 minutes.

After the 10 mins they came back and said they have asked another department if I can send the netbook back to them to reimage the whole thing. I said this is what I wanted them to do in the first place!!

They did advise me that they can’t guarantee this will happen or that I wont be charged because he is not sure if it will be covered under the warranty.

I tried saying to him that the literature does not mention anywhere that it wont work with another operating system. His response??...."no, but it doesn't say it will either"

They are SUPPOSED to be calling me back. I wont hold my breath.
 
Cheers for the drivers Pagdodd. Like you the wireless does not work. I can get wireless with my netgear dongle but thats all. I did read in the book you get that a non warrenty repair will cost £110 pounds. That said i think as they omitted the info about the reinstall in the booklet then the least they could do is repair it for free.
 
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