Warranty Advice Needed

[BaroqueJim]

I'm in a real quandry. I bought a 6120-HS in March last year and to be honest, after initially being pleased with it, I now realize it's been nothing but trouble. It overheats WAY too much for a start. Then, after babying it almost beyond the call of duty, I notice a 3-way crack appearing on the top of the casing. This has since spread. No other laptop I've had has been so **** flimsy.

But worst of all, I have a recurring problem wherby every now and then the hard drive slows right down and gives data transfer rates of less than 3MB/s, totally unacceptable. I don't know for sure what causes this, but I suspect it has something to do with the DVD drive since it always seems to happen right after I've had a DVD ordeal. As for the DVD drive, it's trash. I find that rewinding, fast forwarding and pausing quickly crashes the thing. This is a nightmare if you're watching a guitar instructional DVD for example. I notice that if I get a lot of DVD related crashing, the hard drive usually screws itself up not long after. Then, the thing takes an age to boot up, everything takes an age to load, it sometimes won't shut down, and it will sometimes refuse to boot. Nothing fixes this at all - virus scans, spyware scans, nothing. All the diagnostic software in the world tells me my drive is fine.

The only way to fix this problem is by doing a full factory restore. I've done the restore maybe 9 or 10 times in the past year. This last time was the last straw. As usual, I saved all my important stuff onto a CD, and checked it. Everything seemed fine, the disc burned fine and everything was on there. So I did the restore, and to my horror, nothing on the CD will load. I get "cyclic error" messages, and it's also telling me that some folders, for example the folder with all my photos, is empty. It seems I've lost everything, and I'm so mad. All my music, all my transcriptions, all my writing, the lot. Yes, I checked it all before I did the restore and the files were fine. I've since checked it on a friends CD drive and it appears that it really did screw up the CD burn. I have no idea what is going on here, but I'm so mad!

The only think stopping me from sending the thing in for repair is that I can't afford to be without a computer for so long. Now, I'm tempted to send it in for repair, buy a new laptop (anything but Averatec!) and see how much I can get for the Averatec providing it's fully repaired.

Do you think I should use the Averatec warranty, or wait until my extended warranty kicks in? What I'm worried about as well is that mine is a very unusual problem that is not easily identifiable or easy to recreate. I am terrified that it will be sent back to me with a note saying they couldn't find anything wrong. And what about the case cracks - they certainly aren't acceptable and they certainly weren't my fault - will they see to them? Those cracks will drastically affect my chances of reselling the **** thing.

Any opinions will be greatly appreciated.

[jedisolo]

Jim,
Do you have a copy of Windows XP Professional? Install that if you do. Don't do a factory restore. Install the Microsoft Anti spyware, AVG Free Edition anti virus, spy bot search and destroy and buy yourself a copy of Registry Mechanic. I've had my 6130hs since September of 2004 and I've had no problems with it. The last time I did a full install of Windows XP was about a year ago when I installed Windows XP Pro. I believe the reason your drive is slow is because it's a 4200 RPM drive, Upgrade it to a 5400 to gain better performance. Since I've had my notebook I've had no problems with the DVD writer. When you burn CD's or DVD's burn it at the lowest speed, that's what I do and I've never run into any burning problems.
-Andrew

[RadcomTxx]

they prolly will fix the case, but they prolly "won't be able to" find/reproduce the other errors you are listing. I also had done many restores to mine, then i finally got fed up when the usb started failing, so then i sent it in for repair (thru futureshop) and went and bought an ibook. it took two months for it to get back to me, and all they fixed was the lid, but didn't replace the defective display or "replicate" the usb problems, even tho the tech that examined it at futureshop seemed to say that he did. dumb averatec.

[BaroqueJim]

Jim,
Do you have a copy of Windows XP Professional? Install that if you do. Don't do a factory restore. Install the Microsoft Anti spyware, AVG Free Edition anti virus, spy bot search and destroy and buy yourself a copy of Registry Mechanic. I've had my 6130hs since September of 2004 and I've had no problems with it. The last time I did a full install of Windows XP was about a year ago when I installed Windows XP Pro. I believe the reason your drive is slow is because it's a 4200 RPM drive, Upgrade it to a 5400 to gain better performance. Since I've had my notebook I've had no problems with the DVD writer. When you burn CD's or DVD's burn it at the lowest speed, that's what I do and I've never run into any burning problems.
-Andrew

No, don't have a copy of XP, wish I did. And I wish it was possible to do a selective factory restore instead of having to deal with all this "Cyberlink DVD Solution" crap.

I know what you mean about the 6120 having a slow hard drive, but that isn't the problem. I am used to measuring my HD transfer speed using "HD Tune", and the Averatecs 4200 drive should give average speeds of just under 30MB/s. When my computer screws up, this drops right down to less than 3MB/s, so you can see this is a real problem.

I've actually become quite adept at maintaining laptops over the years, and I know all about cleaning the registry and spyware etc. How about this - in 10 years of PC computing, I have NEVER had a virus! But my Averatec has given me more problems than any other computer I have ever owned. I have a 7 year old Sony Vaio which a friend now uses - it is STILL more reliable and stable than my Averatec and to be honest it outperforms it in many ways.

I'm tempted to buy another Sony......if only they had better customer service. Anyone have any suggestion about brands? I'm tempted to go for a Thinkpad as everyone seems to think they're pretty sturdy and reliable.

[BaroqueJim]

they prolly will fix the case, but they prolly "won't be able to" find/reproduce the other errors you are listing. I also had done many restores to mine, then i finally got fed up when the usb started failing, so then i sent it in for repair (thru futureshop) and went and bought an ibook. it took two months for it to get back to me, and all they fixed was the lid, but didn't replace the defective display or "replicate" the usb problems, even tho the tech that examined it at futureshop seemed to say that he did. dumb averatec.

Do you think I should hang on for my extended warranty to kick in then, and ditch the Averatec service?

[RadcomTxx]

Do you think I should hang on for my extended warranty to kick in then, and ditch the Averatec service?
I would have to say it depends on who you have your extended warranty with. You could try getting averatec to do it, but personally i think they might be kinda useless.