Vortex II Ruined My Life

[Maestro]

what is the info you have required. please remember the forums are here to glean help and advice from other memberss, not to just have a rant. Its frustrating when a product fails and that is what warranties are for. We will do our best to sort it when you rma the laptop.

If you require info then let us know what it is and there maybe someone on here who can help.

[Rehash]

I bought an ART DTI and this has done nothing to diminish the mouse noise. That's now £220 wasted with the redundant audio interface and the DTI.

Might it be a fault power adapter? This really is unbelievable now. It took PCS 6 days to respond to my last email and it was only to say that the 7 day return had already expired, of which I was well aware. I want to be told what I can do, not what I can't.

This is infuriating.

If I set up an RMA, can PCS assure me they'll actually test the laptop with a basic pro audio setup before sending it back to me? Just some basic elucidation of my options would be terrific.

[Rehash]

Can I just add that I've been pretty specific with the problem to PCS. I sent one email to JMicron asking for any info of what firewire interfaces their chipset was known to work with and they send me four emails in the space of two hours with highly detailed advice, screenshots and what not. PCS have given me 4 responses in a week, none of which have offered any practical help.

One suggested I try a firewire>USB adapter.

Do you see why this is so frustrating?

[Maestro]

I am not sure what you want us to do here. We don’t guarantee that any pc or laptop will work with any other piece of hardware on the planet. How can we. What we do, and what we are obliged to do is give the customer 7 days in which to test the laptop, to see if it meets their needs and then if not they can return it, for a full refund under the distance selling regulations.

If you are getting mouse noise through a particular but of pro audio hardware, then there is an issue of compatibility. It’s not a fault; the laptop performs as it should. Previous posters have tried to help, and made suggestions which have worked for them.

At the end of the day, if you want a pc or laptop for a very particular reason to perform very specific tasks, then it is up to you to ask us any pertinent questions before purchase. You say that you have since found out that specific firewire chipsets have issues, we could have told you what firewire chipset this laptop had before purchase. You could have then found out if this particular chipset had issue with your hardware.

Even then, we ship the goods on the basis that you can trial and test them for 7 working days in order to see if it will be suitable as I have already stated.


We dont design the laptop or the chipset controller or write the drivers etc. We sell a product online, which you are able to ask us about prior to purchase, and which you get 7 days to test. I understand you are frustrated, but dont level the blame at us, when you have used neither of these opportunites to investigate a potential purchase or return the goods as unsuitable for your purposes within the timeframe allowed.

[Rehash]

It's not a particular piece of pro audio hardware. Have you not read the posts? This isn't to do with compatibility. I've held my hands up to the problem of the incompatible firewire chipset. That was indeed my fault and I've let it go.

The problem is the mouse noise and interference. I wasn't able to test the laptop within 7 days of having bought it as the rest of my setup was elsewhere, but I've taken that one on the chin. Firewire is a lost cause. Fine.

What's not fine is the pretty thwarting attitude of people like you. I'm not blaming PCS for the chipset problem, I'm just trying to seek some advise on how I can eliminate the ground-loop and you've offered nothing. I've taken the advice of other people after tonnes of research and that hasn't worked, so surely some responsibility - if not under warranty then under some basic courtesy - lies with PCS. I mean, Christ, just a "hmmm, we could take a look at your adapter for you" instead of "you can't send this back, you made your bed now lie in it" would give me some remote assurance.

Which part of 'this laptop and only this laptop is causing massive interference with my monitor speakers' do you suppose I might have investigated prior to purchase?

[Maestro]

Again I understand your frustration. If you believe that your power adapter might be causing the interference then submit an rma request to have this exchanged.

I also didn’t ask or imply that you investigate the interference with your monitor speakers prior to purchase. This is something that can be done after receipt of the laptop, within the laid down timeframe.

These forums are great for help and advice and the combined info that can be gleaned is far greater than our knowledge. If the advice that has been offered on here hasn’t helped then i don’t have anything further. I have also asked in rma's and they also have nothing, other than the rma request to change the power brick.

[Rehash]

I have put in an RMA and will return the power brick. It really does seem like such a strange problem and so unique to this laptop. I've had four or five laptops work just fine with my setup, there was really no way of seeing this coming.

Can you find out if it's possible to power the Vortex II with a different adapter without a ground wire? Forgive me if this is both an ignorant and dangerous suggestion.

Cheers for your patience.

[Maestro]

All i can think of is that every power brick gives of an electromagnetic signature. That’s a given. Each will be different. It appears that your monitor speakers are designed in just such a way to pick up on this particular resonant frequency. We don’t have any other version of the power brick so it might be that this will happen with everyone. It might be that this particular power brick is giving of a different signature from the others.

Alternatively the power brick could be causing dirty power. Ultimately if exchanging the power brick doesn’t fix the issue you might have to investigate sourcing an alternative power adapter.

I have also heard that involving a ups (uninterruptable power supply) in your setup can also improve the ground loop problem.

[Rehash]

Hmm.

I've got a chance to take the laptop into a studio next week so I'll have a see if I get the same problem in other setups. Failing that I think looking at alternative power supply might be my best bet. Do you think it's conceivable that I'd be able to find a two-pronged adapter that'd fit the bill for my laptop? I'm totally in the dark with that kind of thing I'm afraid.

[Maestro]

I beleive there are other adapters that will supply the necessary current etc, and their are universal adpaters that have almost every type of connector.

I have also heard that power conditioners can often help in this type of case.