17.3" Octane VI. Bad Experience So Far! Any Thoughts?

Casterbridge

New member
Good Evening All,

This is my first post on the forum and will definitely not be the last however it is not written in the best of circumstances as unfortunately my first experience of PC Specialist so far has been quite negative.

The purpose of this thread is not to start a mindless diatribe against PC Specialist and endlessly moan, but instead to share my frustrations at what I feel was a low level of service and get constructive advice from experienced users on the forum as I am desperate to have my order sorted.

I spent a very long time saving for an Octane VI build priced at around the £2100 mark and was ecstatic when I finally ordered one around the 23rd August. My friends have builds from PCS and I had heard nothing but glowing reviews of the care, level of service and quality product PCS provide.

My order was finally dispatched on the 3rd September, which I was slightly disappointed at as a 5 - 7 day build period was given. I happily shrugged this off as I understand the company was in a busy period.

My order arrived on the 4th September and it felt like an early Christmas, however my hopes were dashed as very early on in the ‘setting up’ process during installing Windows updates I noticed a speaker/audio error. When simply opening the ‘Check for Updates’ box in the Windows 10 menu a thud/crackle could be clearly heard from the speakers - very odd.

I then noticed that it could do this when opening Control Panel and a few other things, while also do it at random! It did not consistently make this sound though. Please see the below link for the video I made at the time, which shows this noise:


Being incredibly let down and frustrated that I had been sent a laptop with a fault, I phoned up PCS to explain the situation with a customer service agent. After waiting 10 minutes I spoke to an agent who told me to make the above video and call straight back when I had sent it.

After making the video and calling back I was told that the agent had not even made a ticket or note about the issue, so I waited almost 20 minutes while another staff member tried to chase up who originally spoke to me... they did not succeed so I had to go through the entire issue again. If I have a faulty laptop why would a staff member carelessly just not make a ticket? I feel I wasted time on the phone but hey ho I just wanted it sorted.

After consultation in PCS, my video confirmed it was a hardware issue so was given a hurried talk about RMA’ing and agreed to have my laptop picked up. With three members of staff I spoke to that day, not one actually apologised to me or even explained what would be happening to the laptop or when I would get it back. I must make an exception to a fourth member of staff whose name begins with A, who I felt was incredibly sincere and helpful.

Later that day I felt quite annoyed at the days events and sent a complaint to PCS discussing the above issues, while also stating I felt I wanted a new build as I wanted a new laptop not a fixed, faulty laptop... a senior member of staff contacted me and was incredibly helpful. They arranged for me to have a new build, gave a clear apology and told me when I would receive my new laptop.

Days went past until the 11th, today, when I received my new Octane. After unboxing and during the initial stages of setting up again I noticed the same fault! The same noise/thud/crackle when performing the same tasks. I again filmed a video showing a clear example of this happening, see below:


I felt incredibly annoyed at this point as I felt a high end, bespoke computer service can’t treat someone like this when they have spent over £2000 pounds. I have also taken two days out of work now for receiving these packages. I emailed/phoned and was told a senior member of staff would be phoning me straight after the call they were on..

2 and a half/3 hours later I get a phone call! The PCS staff member expressed apologies, nevertheless I feel they were apathetic because I was told despite them recognising from both videos this is a fault, there was I roughly quote “not much more they could do”. The staff member told me the team had looked at it and said they could not see the issue, despite the fact they agreed the videos were clearly proof I could observe a fault.

If I am sent faulty kit twice by PCS, and I want to give them my money for the product, surely as ‘PC Specialists’ they should be finding out why this very strange issue has even more strangely occurred a second time? Why did testing not pick this up?

I have agreed to have this RMA’d and another new build sent to me, third time lucky perhaps! However this issue occurs again I will ask for a refund as my patience is limited. I’m sure you all can sympathise with me.

Can anyone on this forum perhaps offer any advise as to what this issue might be? As I don’t want to get the refund and I want a successful transaction with the company.. this is beyond my knowledge level, however I can point to this noise happening in the following circumstances:

1) When opening the ‘Check for Updates’ setting in the W10 start menu. It occurs as the box is ironing.

2) A few occasions when opening Control Panel.

3) At the very start of a YouTube video when the ad first starts to play.

4) At random! When just looking at the desktop with nothing open it could make the noise.

I want to stress it wasn’t every single time.. it would do it frequently though, often after a restart or when the updates box etc. had been shut for a minute or two.

I’m confused as anyone at PCS. This could have happened again for only 3 reasons:

1) This second laptop was not a completely new build, only partly new and therefore a component or the chassis is still there which is causing it.

2) This is a freak occurrence, I’m so unlucky I got the same strange and unheard of issue twice in a row!

3) There is a bad batch of Octane VI’s that all have the same issue.

If anyone has any constructive input of what this could be or what I could do to help PCS that would be great.

Thanks for reading this,

Regards.
 

steaky360

Moderator
Moderator
I'm sorry to hear you're having a bad time with the laptop, I'll be brief as I've nothing to add really if it is a hardware issue (which it appears it may be from the descriptions, unfortunately I can't open the files with the clips at the moment), then there's not much that can be done from your end really.

I'd definitely be sending it back, but totally agree that 'third time lucky' isn't really good enough! Thank you for raising the feedback however, any feedback is encouraged here and its really good to see that even though you are frustrated you're able to explain the issue in detail without diving into effectively 'moaning'.
 

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
That's usually an uncommon issue. It's often a grounding problem with the audio chipset of the board. To have it happen with 2 new built systems back to back would have my spidey sense tingling too but you're rightly giving the benefit of the doubt. Like yourself, this would be the last ditch from me also. If I didn't receive a perfect system back this time I would be getting my money back and purchasing elsewhere.
 

Casterbridge

New member
UPDATE:

Hello All,

I wanted to provide an update for everyone who has viewed my post...

About two weeks have past since my post, in which time PCS after intensive checks have replicated the consistent audio issue I had raised with them and confirmed to me definitely they can also see this is a fault. They have spent the past two weeks looking for the source of the fault, which has involved contacting Realtek and also the manufacturers of the chassis itself!

PCS's customer service team have been incredibly helpful and sincere in apologies about this, it has got past the standard hardware tests and I am the first person to identify the issue. Worryingly me and a PCS team member also identified that many Octane's could have been sent out with this issue, as after recieving two brand new machines with the same issue, it must be a systematic problem.

I heard back after two weeks today from PCS that they have instructions to turn off power management in the RealTek audio management tool, which stops constant diverting of power to the speakers I think? This should resolve the issue and they will tell me for definite tommorow. Nevertheless, I am still not happy to accept the laptop as this is not a fix in anyway, it's just a very minor limitation imposed to stop a fault from happening. The real fix still needs to be sorted.

They assured me my money can be returned until a real fix has been found for the fault, after which I in turn assured them I will be giving them my money when the issue is fixed as I want the laptop!

This process is very frustrating as I just want it fixed... I hope PCS will not be shipping out any more Octane's to people until the issue is fixed as would that not be bad business practice? In any case, anyone thinking about buying an Octane in the immediate future SHOULD NOT purchase until this issue is resolved.

Regards.
 

Miasto

Member
UPDATE:

Hello All,

I wanted to provide an update for everyone who has viewed my post...

About two weeks have past since my post, in which time PCS after intensive checks have replicated the consistent audio issue I had raised with them and confirmed to me definitely they can also see this is a fault. They have spent the past two weeks looking for the source of the fault, which has involved contacting Realtek and also the manufacturers of the chassis itself!

PCS's customer service team have been incredibly helpful and sincere in apologies about this, it has got past the standard hardware tests and I am the first person to identify the issue. Worryingly me and a PCS team member also identified that many Octane's could have been sent out with this issue, as after recieving two brand new machines with the same issue, it must be a systematic problem.

I heard back after two weeks today from PCS that they have instructions to turn off power management in the RealTek audio management tool, which stops constant diverting of power to the speakers I think? This should resolve the issue and they will tell me for definite tommorow. Nevertheless, I am still not happy to accept the laptop as this is not a fix in anyway, it's just a very minor limitation imposed to stop a fault from happening. The real fix still needs to be sorted.

They assured me my money can be returned until a real fix has been found for the fault, after which I in turn assured them I will be giving them my money when the issue is fixed as I want the laptop!

This process is very frustrating as I just want it fixed... I hope PCS will not be shipping out any more Octane's to people until the issue is fixed as would that not be bad business practice? In any case, anyone thinking about buying an Octane in the immediate future SHOULD NOT purchase until this issue is resolved.

Regards.


What was your full specs? I'm just curious, that's all.
 

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
Thanks for the update, it makes for interesting reading.

It won't just be Octanes but any laptop from any vendor using the Clevo chassis.

Though perhaps not all units are affected?

It's good at least that PCS stepped up, and offered decent customer care as well as going to the manufacturer for a solution (accepting there was an issue). Though still a shame with any purchase of this sort of value!
 

Singularity

Active member
I had an audio problem like that before on an Alienware, and I tracked it down to a third party software I was using: HWinfo. I contacted the developer on a thread and he was super helpful and we worked out it was problem specific to Alienwares back when use with that software. Wonder if it could be something like that is causing it. Not sure if they used different hard drive or not when testing. The program itself had nothing to do with audio at all.
 

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
I had an audio problem like that before on an Alienware, and I tracked it down to a third party software I was using: HWinfo. I contacted the developer on a thread and he was super helpful and we worked out it was problem specific to Alienwares back when use with that software. Wonder if it could be something like that is causing it. Not sure if they used different hard drive or not when testing. The program itself had nothing to do with audio at all.
This is an excellent point which extends far beyond the problem in this thread. Whenever you experience problems it very important to eliminate external (ie. non-Windows) causes by unplugging all external devices and by stopping third party applications from starting. To be sure you have a Windows problem you need to be running only Windows. :)
 
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