so far not a good experience with my pc

[keynes]

So far I have not being able to enjoy the pc I ordered from PCspecialisist, my order was placed the 16th of January and I got it delivered by the 15th February. Just after one day I experienced my first problem, the USB front ports were not functional and following advice by technical support over the phone I disconnected the cable from the motherboard and when reconnected it worsen the situation (before 1 USB port was working after none were working). My first RMA was issued but they were pretty quick in getting it sorted for me (less than a week).
I was not able to install many games for a while due to work commitments but once I did and after purchasing 3 monitors I realised one of the GPUs was showing high temperatures and when playing in 1 or 3 screens any game will just crash. A second RMA was issued the 8th March, to be fair I was given the option to take the GPU and test each one individually but from my first experience with the USB issue and considering how expensive the machine was I rather have it collected and fix by professionals. One of the GPUs was faulty and again in less than a week I had the pc back.
Now, I have a different problem, the fan controller is apparently not connected properly and keeps giving me a noise warning every 5 minutes. Pretty annoying when trying to work or play any game, read the instruction manual and then called technical support. I was told to follow the same procedures indicated in the manual but still the issue persisted. I was then given the option to manually reconnect the fan controller which I agreed to but it was difficult to reach (pretty high at the top of the case and connected from both sides). A third RMA was issued today!

The other issue I have is that battlefield 3 or any other game will play ok in surround the first time but then it will crash in any 2nd attempt. For other games such as Skyrim it will play ok in surround but the image is flickering. I occassionally have the message on windows of the graphic card crashing and then recovering.

Now I am pretty annoyed and requested a refund (processing) not sure if it will go through but I am just not happy with the situation and all the difficulties experienced. I am sure that if I was more competent with PCs I could have avoided the RMA and many other issues but I am not and requesting time off work for collection is not ideal either. Technical support has always being helpful and many of the employees such as Jack Turner or James Davies have always being courteous and prompt to reply any of my concerns but it just seems that I am pretty unlucky with the machine and it creates a lot of hassle for me. Any opinions of what I should do?

 

[tom_gr7]

sorry to hear ya still having trouble dude. I understand that you do not want to venture into the pc, totally understandable.

Did you manage to disconnect the fan controller? What's the noise warning by the way?

The only thing i could suggest for for bf3, is to check ya have the latest drivers.

 

[keynes]

Hi Tom,
I have the standard fan controller sold by PCspecialist, the manual indicates that when the PC hits a certain temperature it will set a noise as a warning. It seems 2 fans are not properly connected to the fan controller (flashing in the screen) and every 5 minutes it will just set this ringing noise (Alarm noise) that I cannot turn off, called technical assistant and couldn't get the fan controller off since it seems it is also secure from the other side of the case. I try many drivers for the graphics card such as beta drivers and latest drivers but the flickering in the screen continues and it is actually apearing in windowns when not gaming but working or watching videos. I did clean installation of windows, clean installation of gpu drivers and the issue persist.

 

[tom_gr7]

what model of fan controller do you have? NZXT Sentry 2 Fan Control? two mins just gonna have a see online, Does it have temperature probes? It may be that they are placed next to something hot, like the gpu's? so the fan controller thinks the pc is red hot, when infact it aint, if that makes sense.

I can explain how to remove the fan controller, its pretty simple, let me know if you would like me to.

Have you still got the PC?

 

[keynes]

I still got the PC, I have an idea on how to take it out. I think I need to take both side panels out and press the lock on both sides to take the fan controller (Sentry 2) but I am not really willing to risk damaging the PC by doing that. I try to move the sensors inside the pc that are easy to reach but the problem persist.

 

[mantadog]

You could leave the fan controller in the case just unplug the fans from the controller and plug the fans into the motherboard/powersupply for no atleast then try to find a more convinient time to send it back.

I do understand about you not wanting to damage the machine, but really unless you use brute force it's hard to damage anything. Just make sure you have the pc unplugged and you ground yourself before going inside the case.

On the other issues, you do seem to have been very unlucky indeed. I know PCS try to fix every possible issue before going down the refund route, but 3 RMA's might be getting to the point where you are justified in asking for a refund. If it was my pc i would be asking for a total rebuild and give it one last shot, although i have no idea if that is even possible.

 

[keynes]

The noise stop but the problem is still there since fans number 3 and 4 are beeping on the fan controller display. I have emailed Jack Turner for advice on how to proceed from here. Even if a refund is granted I still need a pc, the technical support has always being helpful however it is just time consuming trying to get a solution to every issue I have and adding the cost of the phonecalls and time off for collection I was just pretty frustrated when I called them this morning.

 

[tom_gr7]

can you open up the case and unplug the fans? then plug them bk in again? sounds odd that its beeping.

 

[keynes]

I was unable to reach the connection to the fans and I think I need to open both sides to get it out but it is something I rather not do. The manual indicates that the beeping is an alert when a set temperature is reached, the fan controller just stopped making any noise, not even a noise when changing fan speeds. Fans 3 and 4 are still flashing in the screen so I think the problem is still there.

 

[tom_gr7]

hmmm, I'm not sure how that controller works mate, so best to wait n see what Jack says.

 

[JakAttack]

I've received both messages Ruben but cannot respond to them until Monday when I can have a proper look into it. I will need to look at the fan controllers themselves and the specifics on your particular issue as you mainly discussed it with my colleague, I will get back to you ASAP.

 

[keynes]

Thanks for your help.

 

[tom_gr7]

did you get an update today mate?

 

[keynes]

Nothing, I was expecting an email or a call. Hopefully tomorrow, the RMA is booked for Wednesday and I rather have an alternative than a refund or send the pc back for a 3rd time.

 

[Fortysixter]

The issues you describe with the graphics card crashing and then recovering with a message was similar to a friends pc.
He had a OCX 650 watt PSU and a geforce 560 1GB card bought and installed into his existing rig early Jan 2012.

After 6 weeks he got what appears to be your issue. After some checking of components it turns out it was his POWER SUPPLY ( ocx 650 watt one ) that was faulty and causing crashes. A check at his local indie computer store ( costing him £25 ) showed issue with the supply. A new supply resolved the issue. No other components were damaged during this time and PC runs fine now.


PLUS if your system does not work out of the box with minimal fussing, for instance couriers drop boxes and some components may need pressing back into the motherboard, then I would be asking for a full refund for the system under your rights as a consumer. I would wait for the money to be re-credited to my card/account and THEN go about ordering another rig. The inconvenience should be that of the supplier not yourself.

I have used PCSpecialist for the last 4 PCs in my household over the last 10 years or so ( 2 utility PCs, 2 gaming rigs ), and it should be noted NONE of the machines have ever had a problem on setup.

The worst issue I had was a graphics card ( Nvidia GTX 9800 ) breaking down out of warranty. 3 days out of warranty mind you ! How annoying is that ? I bought a GTX 280 to replace it at the time.

 

[keynes]

Thanks for the feedback, hope it is not the psu though. I got the corsair 1200w pro series. I am just hoping is a driver issue but I have the latest NVIDIA drivers and the screens will just go dark and windows indicating that the graphics card has recovered when watching videos. This happened once a day and I use the computer usually for less than 3 hours a day.

 

[keynes]

I got a reply today and after a few email exchanges to confirm my settings, monitors, etc they agreed to rebuild the computer (same case) but change the components which I am more than happy with. They informed me that after contacting NVIDIA they were told that they are some problems with pairing 2 580 3GB (I assume for surround only). It was suggested to pair 2 1.5 GTX 580 instead, my only concern is that the fps on SLI with the 3GB model is pretty low when using 3D surround and going for a less powerful card may involved downgrading the image/video settings even more. I appreciate any advice on this, not sure what other alternatives I have.

 

[Frenchy]

I got a reply today and after a few email exchanges to confirm my settings, monitors, etc they agreed to rebuild the computer (same case) but change the components which I am more than happy with. They informed me that after contacting NVIDIA they were told that they are some problems with pairing 2 580 3GB (I assume for surround only). It was suggested to pair 2 1.5 GTX 580 instead, my only concern is that the fps on SLI with the 3GB model is pretty low when using 3D surround and going for a less powerful card may involved downgrading the image/video settings even more. I appreciate any advice on this, not sure what other alternatives I have.

There will be no difference in fps betweent he 1.5GB and 3GB cards so long as the game does not require more than 1.5GB of VRAM. Ive not checked mine in a while but I believe its not very often I go above the 1.5 mark, however I may be wrong (please someone correct me). As long as it stays below that point then the cards are essentially identical.

 

[El Wayneo]

Yeah if he is using 5760 x 1080 as his resolution then dropping from the 3GB cards will have a massive impact.

BF3 will use nearly 2.5GB on max settings at above res.


Draw distance on games will be lower, FPS will also drop as well, you'll probably have to drop settings on games as well, which on a highend PC is a bit of a kick in the teeth really.


See if you can get 2 x 3GB HD7950 instead.


Plenty of threads on the internet about VRAM useage at insanely high res.

 

[keynes]

Thanks for the feedback, the problem is that I am using 3 Asus monitors 27 3D that have the NVidia emitter built in, I have not found any evidence yet that the AMD GPU will support the 3D features of the monitors I have.