One does wonder if PCspecialist need the business?

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Zeb

Member
Hi all.

Now, this thread could go a number of ways...it could have a happy ending demonstrating the quality of PCStechnical team and after sales service....there again, on experience to date, it might not....equally, it could result in me buying two further laptops from PCspecialist....but again, may not...

In 2007 I bought a good spec laptop from here... TT7700 and 512mb Nvidia GE Force 8600GT. It has been a brilliant laptop;based on the Compal FL90 chassis and motherboard it is a solid piece of kit. Sadly, after four years, the graphics card has failed..too many late nights playing older FPS games.. so, I duly contact PCSpecialists via email to enquire about a new graphics card (MXM 1/2)...only to be told that the graphics are built in and hence I would need a new motherboard! Knowing this was incorrect I politely replied saying so.....this was more than a week ago...and the response has been to ignore me.

Quite possibly PCspecialist are unable to get a new MXM card of this vintage now. I don't know, I came back to them because they built the laptop for me so I assmed they would know what they were talking about...sadly, on this occasion, this proved not to be the case...but that said, a polite response outlining the situation and acknowledging the error would not have gone amiss would it? To me, you keep your business in good fettle by looking after your customers.....or has PCspecialist become too big and successful to need to do so? In these straitened economic times I am frankly amazed at how a company such as this is willng to potentially lose customers through this sort of thing. I expected better.
 
Maestro

Maestro

Guest
Hello Zeb,

Checked the email and the last recorded email we got from you was on the 15th July 2011. This email was also replied to on the 15th July 2011 @ 11:43am.

However in answer to the above, it would not be possible for us to get a discrete gpu for this laptop. And to be honest I wouldnt know where to suggest in order to try and get one. Please als onote that we are not a component re-seller. We only sell new, fully built systems. We leave component re-selling to the likes of ebuyer, dabs etc.

Maybe somebody else here can help with info on shops selling discrete mobile gpu's.
 
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Zeb

Member
Hi Maestro

Thanks for your quick reply... I appreciate PCS are not a component re-seller but as system builders I was hopeful you might keep spares? May I ask, if I bought a new Vortex, for example, and the graphics card failed after two years would you be able to repair / replace the graphics card? Granted, in my case, maybe four years is pushing my luck but spares availability is a consideration when buying such an expensive item....as said elsewhere, a 3 year RTB warranty would be fantastic for peace of mind. I shall look again for an email from PCS on the Friday!
 
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heggy

Active member
Upgrading a laptop graphics card is no simple task. Google found me this site http://www.mxm-upgrade.com/ which demonstrates the difficulty and awkwardness of it. There are only very particular set ups which allow it, those with a certain type of modular build, and if the graphics card was built in to your laptop by solder or whatever means, wouldn't that make what PCS said correct?
 
Z

Zeb

Member
heggy said:
Upgrading a laptop graphics card is no simple task. Google found me this site http://www.mxm-upgrade.com/ which demonstrates the difficulty and awkwardness of it. There are only very particular set ups which allow it, those with a certain type of modular build, and if the graphics card was built in to your laptop by solder or whatever means, wouldn't that make what PCS said correct?
Click to expand...

The card is MXM standard and fits an MXM 'slot'. Granted it is not as simple as slotting in a new hard drive or dvd but nevertheless it IS replaceable and not 'built in to the motherboard'. I have previously swapped out the graphics card in it in under 30 minutes but, after two attempts with ebay replacements - both duds - I wanted to get a card I knew to be 'new'. Unfortunately the Compal motherboard has the vbios built into the motherboard bios so one cannot simply swap the nvidia card for another nvidia card...unless it has been made for Compal and has no vbios...so the only alternative is a (working!) Ati card if I cannot get a new original from PCS.....it seems a complete waste to bin a perfectly good laptop for want of one component. :(
 
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heggy

Active member
Not when your living pattern is between 2/3 locations. :p

Also, not many laptops (as far as I can tell) have an MXM slot, and the only reasonable way to figure it out is to open the laptop up (going by MXM Upgrade) or looking through MXM upgrade's far from comprehensive list.
 
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Sleinous

Sleinous

Author Level
You can find MXM 8600 GT cards easily enough still, but they likely wont be new. Unfortunately the majority of laptop suffer from cold-soldering, a process often brought about by frequent switch on/off's and extensive use of the mobile GPU. (GPU starts to cool down when you stop doing something GPU intensive, then you switch laptop off, fan no longer spins, heatsink and copper pipe start to re-heat up from residual heat on teh chip, then it cools down over time, only to be rebooted soon after. repeat this process day in day out, week in week out and eventually the chip's solder connection end up solidifying 'off' of the mainboard / MXM pcb leading to an artifacty card.
 
Maestro

Maestro

Guest
Zeb said:
May I ask, if I bought a new Vortex, for example, and the graphics card failed after two years would you be able to repair / replace the graphics card? Granted, in my case, maybe four years is pushing my luck but spares availability is a consideration when buying such an expensive item....as said elsewhere, a 3 year RTB warranty would be fantastic for peace of mind.
Click to expand...

Yes, of course we can repair all systems purchased from us within the warranty period and many that are out of warranty. It all depends if we can still get the parts from our suppliers. As soon as we cannot, then we will leave repairing such out of warranty items for those who specialize in such things.
 
O

omens

Gold Level Poster
I think it's a fair comment by PCS. You have an obsolete system. If a compatible graphics card cannot be found, you are to all intents and purposed FUBARed. Ebay/secondhand is the only way to go in these situations. You cannot expect a company to have a stock of spare parts for components that are years out of date.

In the car industry, there is a lifecycle of the product and once it goes, parts cannot be obtained unless third-party. If it's a classic car, you'd struggle to find decent secondhand parts. Given the pace of technological advancement in the IT world, you'd have to expect that your laptop will be obsolete very quickly. Hence why desktops are generally superior to laptops.
 
Z

Zeb

Member
Just a wee update....obtained a new AMD HD3650 MXM graphics card from ebay after a few false starts with second hand junk...and the laptop is now back up and running with an improved 3Dgaming index of 6.1...which for a four year old obsolete laptop will see me right for quite a few of the better older games...:)
 
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