Vortex IX died after 8 months.

[barlew]

I have just unfortunately had to RMA my Vortex IX for the second time (the first time was because they sent me the wrong specification on purchase.

It would appear the Nvidia GPU has given up the ghost. I started getting sporadic crashes when running games. The game would be fine in the menus but the minute i loaded into it would crash and the screen would turn all sorts of mad colours with graphical artefacts all over the screen quickly followed by the laptop powering down. This rapidly went from being sporadic to happening every time i booted a game and then quickly on to giving the same fault when at the desktop it even happened on the PCS post screen a couple of times.

I switched from Discrete GPU to Hybrid to see if that made a difference and it did but not in the best way. It seems that the crashing at desktop and post screen have stopped but when i get into game the minute i load in the game crashes. However the fault presents differently. Instead of getting the made screen colours i get a BSOD stating "video scheduler internal error".

My educated guess is the Nvidia card is shot. Something to note is this laptop has always ran extremely hot even with an undervolt but PCS state that its built to run like that.

This really is disappointing as this is now the 3rd laptop i have had which i have had to RMA under warranty with a catastrophic failure. I previously had an older Vortex which got RMA'd multiple times for hardware faults and a Defiance which also got RMA'd for hardware faults.

 

[andjac]

Sorry to hear this. Seems you've been very unlucky!!
I've had 2 vortex myself which were all great, but the desktop had a dodgy ram card with an intermittent fault. However, as with your issues PSC sorted it!

I work for Samsung dealing with all of their product ranges, sometimes you just get temperamental hardware and it can go unpredictably faulty at any time.
It's one of the risks with electronics and why you have a warranty.
If there is an inherent fault, it is likely to show itself within the warranty period so it can be RMA'd

Hopefully you get it sorted quickly

 

[barlew]

Yeh people keep telling me i am extremely unlucky although i personally view 100% failure rate all within a year of purchase as more than unlucky.

I wont go into the long convoluted story here as i detailed it in a thread when PCS cocked up this order initially (which they actually commented on to apologies which was nice).

In my opinion as someone who has worked in the industry for 10 years however is the experience i have had with this company and their products over 8 years has been shocking.

Any way we shall see how things go when they receive the RMA.

 

[barlew]

I know i am often quite negative about PCS but ill give praise where it is due. They have had my laptop for 6 days and i received an email today to say they found that my motherboard had developed a fault so they have replaced it and and rectified the issue. No dramas with the warranty or anything they just replaced it straight away and got it back into the post to me today so i should have it monday.

It would be interesting to know what caused the fault. My guess is the CPU was overheating but its not detailed on the report.

Any way a positive result and decent service from PCS.

 

[SpyderTracks]

I know i am often quite negative about PCS but ill give praise where it is due. They have had my laptop for 6 days and i received an email today to say they found that my motherboard had developed a fault so they have replaced it and and rectified the issue. No dramas with the warranty or anything they just replaced it straight away and got it back into the post to me today so i should have it monday.

It would be interesting to know what caused the fault. My guess is the CPU was overheating but its not detailed on the report.

Any way a positive result and decent service from PCS.

I'm glad they sorted it quickly.

When you get it back, first thing to do is do some thermal tests just to make sure it's all operating where we'd like it to be and make sure the paste job is adequate.

 

[barlew]

This is exactly what i was thinking SPYDER I think the issues was the CPU running too hot in the first place. If its still running mid to high 90's under load ill contact PCS again.

 

[SpyderTracks]

This is exactly what i was thinking SPYDER I think the issues was the CPU running too hot in the first place. If its still running mid to high 90's under load ill contact PCS again.

If it is running quite hot (which I imagine it will be), we can apply an undervolt to maximise thermals.

It's a limitation of the current Intel CPU's unfortunately, they're really poor when it comes to cooling, you basically have to undervolt to get them under control.

 

[barlew]

So i was getting those temps with an undervolt.

 

[SpyderTracks]

So i was getting those temps with an undervolt.

Then that would require a repaste.

firstly temps need to be manageable in mid 90’s or so under load, if they’re not then it needs a repaste.

only once that’s in hand should you apply an undervolt.

then every year or so you’ll need to take it apart and repaste and clean out the heat sinks and fans.

 

[barlew]

Thanks for the advice mate. Ill run some tests and see what the temps are saying.

 

[barlew]

I got the laptop back today and frustratingly it had a new fault.

I am unable to connect to any wifi network.
The laptop picks the networks up, they appear in the list but when I try to connect to them I just get the error message "unable to connect to network".

Connecting to the internet via cable works fine.

 

[SpyderTracks]

I got the laptop back today and frustratingly it had a new fault.

I am unable to connect to any wifi network.
The laptop picks the networks up, they appear in the list but when I try to connect to them I just get the error message "unable to connect to network".

Connecting to the internet via cable works fine.

Leave it plugged in via cable, then go into device manager and find the wireless adapter and uninstall it, then reboot and try connecting again.

 

[barlew]

Sorry i should have said ive already tried that and it didnt work.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Sorry i should have said ive already tried that and it didnt work.

That’s not good then.

My gut reaction, and I hope I’m wrong about this, is that the antenna to the WiFi module haven’t been connected.

It’s actually pretty easy to fix, but you’d need to take the bottom off.

 

[barlew]

I think you may be right. I am so sick of taking this damn laptop apart lol.

 

[SpyderTracks]

I think you may be right. I am so sick of taking this damn laptop apart lol.

I know. You really haven’t had a good run of it!

Let’s just make sure both the antenna cables are connected properly and we’ll go from there.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Just additional, take a photo once you’ve removed the cover highlighting the WiFi adapter before you reconnect the cables if this does turn out to be the case, PCS will need to know.

 

[barlew]

Just additional, take a photo once you’ve removed the cover highlighting the WiFi adapter before you reconnect the cables if this does turn out to be the case, PCS will need to know.

I should have read that before i carried out the work.
As suspected one of the legs of the antenna was not connected to the card. It works fine now i have connected it.
Either PCS absolutely hate me or i am the unluckiest man ever to buy their products.

For those interested the picture attached is my RMA history for the 3 laptops i have bought with PCS each of those RMAs happend within warranty. I had to send each laptop back twice.

*edit* also as a side note this is also the second time they have sent me a faulty laptop back after a repair.

 

[SpyderTracks]

I should have read that before i carried out the work.
As suspected one of the legs of the antenna was not connected to the card. It works fine now i have connected it.
Either PCS absolutely hate me or i am the unluckiest man ever to buy their products.

For those interested the picture attached is my RMA history for the 3 laptops i have bought with PCS each of those RMAs happend within warranty. I had to send each laptop back twice.

*edit* also as a side note this is also the second time they have sent me a faulty laptop back after a repair.

I’m so sorry that’s yet another minus mark against PCS for you, that really should never have happened in the first place but to happen to you after everything is just really bad.

I would definitely feed that back to PCS, they’ll need to address that with whoever carried out the repairs.

 

[barlew]

I’m so sorry that’s yet another minus mark against PCS for you, that really should never have happened in the first place but to happen to you after everything is just really bad.

I would definitely feed that back to PCS, they’ll need to address that with whoever carried out the repairs.

I am going to find out there complaints procedure on Monday I'm really not happy.

Thanks for your help as always Spyder it is appreciated.