Slot Drive Crapped Out In 45 Days

[blackngold]

Well I was loving my machine until yesterday. I would look forward to coming home everyday just to turn on my vpr to see the beautiful screen. THE SLOT DRIVE CRAPPED OUT ON ME.....NOOOOO...The way I found out the slot drive was on it's way was that NHL 2003 stopped working. I did an uninstall and a reinstall and it still didn't work. As I was doing the second reinstall the drive just started going plain nutty LOL. At that point I knew what was going on, luckily it was able to eject my CD. I immediately called VPR Tech Support, who by the way always answers promptly, and notified them of the situation. They are shipping a box out for me and they assure me that they will install a new slot drive for me. I am a little uneasy at this point....45 days. I didn't buy the extended warranty which covers these things past the first year...wishing I had now. Here are my 2 cents on all the issues i hear people talking about with this machine.
1. Heat on left side-- does tend to get hot especially when it is in your actual lap during usage. Doesn't really bother except for the fact that if it's that hot on the outside, what's it like on the inside.
2. Uneven battery foot. Definite design flaw, but it's not that big of a deal to me.
3. Keyboard is a bit flimsy, or springy. I have found that certain areas of this keyboard are more spongy that others. Most other notebook keyboards have the same problem, although I think the Matrix keyboard has another issue with the floating cursor moving around unintendedly. I can live with the keyboard, but if I were typing on it everday I'd get something else. The best keyboard on a laptop I've seen to date is the new acer with the centrino processor..it's curved very nicely.
4. Wireless range..I guess I have nothing to compare this against, but I get a very good signal strength downstairs in my living room..Worked flawlessly once I figured out enable card by flipping the switch on the left side.
5. Bumper in the back vs. flip cover.who cares lol
6. Non powered firewire..come on people get real???
7. Small click buttons..I do agree that they need to be bigger, but I use a wireless Kensington anyway, and for the amount of time I need to go without it I can live with it.
8. Noisy slot drive....Well this is obviously now my biggest fear lol.. The noise doesnt bother me as it only does this when inserting or ejectin a CD. My concern with this Mastisha is that all that noise is a byproduct of a bad design flaw..Oh well guess I'll have to grin and bear this one.
9. Late addition....The screen noise..I do notice this noise when readjusting the screen position, but it goes away in 5 seconds or so...
--------Other observations-------------
1. Plays NHL 2003 almost as goos as my desktop..Links 2003 looks downright awesome.
2. Screen could be picked out from 20 ft away against 20 other machines..How did they make it so damn beautiful?????
3. Sound is very low even at the highest setting, but I realize most other notebooks are no better in this area.
4. Did I mention the screen is truly amazing.

Well, my venting session will be over soon. I've been back to BB, Circuit City, Comp USA,and Gateway in hopes of finding a possible better build quality machine with the same screen and what do you no there isn't anything that even comes close. For now I will grin and bear this slot drive issue in hopes that the new one they put in has no defects. Feel free to email me mikman27@charter.net
Good luck to all VPR owners,
Blackie
UPDATE 5 MINS LATER
Just got off the phone with BB and they said that they can still sell me the extended warranty.. man 250.00..It's so hard to justify seeings how the first of three years is no better than your manufacturers warranty. Oh well I think I need the piece of mind because I absolutely love this machine except for a few things. Does anyone know if the warranty will carry over to another person if I decide to ebay it? I'm hoping that when the new matrix widescreen comes out that they fix the keyboard and a few other minor issues and it would be perfect. If the warranty was good for anyone it would hold it's value better after the first year. Please email me if you know the answer to this one.

[Ioman]

It is smart that you called VPR directly. I purchased the extended warranty and took my 200A5 into Best Buy to fix my problem. I had to wait 8 weeks to get it back....45 days doesn't sound too bad now lol.

[Angus]

I think he was saying that he's only had his VPR for 45 days, not that VPR told him it would take 45 days for them to replace the drive. Hehe.

Oh and the warranty absolutely does NOT carry over to a subsequent owner of the computer. It's pretty clearly stated somewhere in the fine print.

[blackngold]

Could someone please tell me why I should spend $250.00 on the extended warranty? VPR covers the first year, and if they release an improved model of this lappy I'm jumping on it..soooo......Why should I buy it? Please help it seems so hard to justify the cost..

[Ioman]

Originally posted by Angus
I think he was saying that he's only had his VPR for 45 days, not that VPR told him it would take 45 days for them to replace the drive. Hehe.

Oh and the warranty absolutely does NOT carry over to a subsequent owner of the computer. It's pretty clearly stated somewhere in the fine print.

ahhh gotcha. I read his post again.

Well this is a super bummer. The good thing is that the slot loading drive is a Panasonic (Matsu****a) and is probably easy for VPR Matrix to fix. I personally think these are great drives so I really think that you just got a bad one. Sorry to hear about this!

[nedlyj]

Ioman - bummer it took 8 weeks to get your machine back. You are one of the main reasons I returned my Best Buy extended warranty yesterday. Here's why:

1. I have just dealt with VPR service directly for my machine and they have stated a 3-5 business day turnaround on almost all repairs. We'll see if I get it back that quickly (sent in for the screen buzzing). But I've been impressed when I've called them directly - would much rather have to do that than leave it at a Best Buy service center.

2. Extended warranty free! - Remember that if you bought this laptop with a Visa or American Express, you actually get a 2-year warranty not a 1-year. They extend the manufacturer's warranty by a year - and I believe the service will be more reputable. I'm getting the details sent to me by AE, but they said that you get it serviced where you want to (i.e. directly from VPR) and it's covered.

3. Cost - Sorry, even on a $2000 machine, $250 for a warranty that really only provides surge protection and battery replacement IF THEY determine it to be equipment failure is ridiculus. I can buy a brnad new battery without having it sit in a Best Buy for weeks while they determine the "problem" for $149. In my last 4 years with laptops, I have never worn a battery out to the point it was unusable (to me meaning under 2 hours charge).

I'll take my chances - and be happy dealing with VPR directly.

Oh - and by the way, what a "glorious" experience it was trying to get Best Buy to refund the warranty, even though it clearly states you can do this with "no hassle" for 30 days. In a ten minute period I was lied-to, hidden from, quizzed, and then surveyed before finally being told "Okay". There is a reason it took so much swallowing of my ethics to purchase this machine from Best Buy in the first place. but as most here agree - it's a beautiful machine with no other purchase options.

-nedlyj

[Ioman]

Thanks for the kind words.

I can tell you that I will get my money's worth out of my laptop. I will get batteries when I need them and if even the slightest problem occurs with it, I will take it into the Best Buy. And when a new model comes out and I decide I want that, you can bet I will get it with the warranty (provided there are enough problems with my 200A5 to warrant that).

I honestly think that Best Buy is turning into one of the worst consumer nightmares in history. Behind Future Shop of course if anyone remembers them.