Brand New Vortex II Elite - problems !!?

[LiddleP]

Hello PCS

I have just gone into Windows for the first time since receiving my Laptop on the 14th of December as I was unable to locate the Product Key.

I was finally advised on where to find it by one of your volunteers on the PCS forum Yesterday, this after having waited for your non-forthcoming replies to my prior emails.

On accessing the Control Panel > View devices and printers, I am presented with 5 items, one of them being the Laptop.

The icon representing the Laptop has an exclamation mark against it and if I hover the mouse cursor over it a box pops up saying Status Driver error.

If I go into troubleshoot by right clicking on it it says "Reinstall device driver - There is a problem with the driver for AMD Radeon 7970M (Microsoft Corporation - WDDM v1.20). Reinstalling the driver might fix this problem.

Though this might be an easy fix for me to deal with on my own, I am not keen on trying to deal with a problem that might, in the same token, not be fixed by doing so especially as this is a brand new system and I was given assurance right through and up till when I received my order that I would have no problems as they would be caught and sorted by the Quality checks PCS have in place.

To think this is happening with the one device I feared would most have a problem and was told no longer has any issues is a serious let down - and I have barely checked the system out yet. Despite all your assurance I find I already have a problem and all I have done is get into Windows, how much more is there around the corner ?

Please can we arrange for you to remote log into the system to do whatever you have to do to rectify this problem.

 

[kruppsy]

Getting drivers isn't too painful mate and its something you will definitely have to deal with at some point of ownership anyway.

Go here http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx

Select your card, download and install. Or use the cd that came with your laptop with drivers on.

I understand your frustration, you want it to be perfect, it's new and all, it could be worse though. As to how it's happened, no idea.

 

[LiddleP]

Kruppsy, thanks for your attempts at helping here but let me enlighten You.

I am an I.T.Consultant/Programmer with well over 2 decades in industry, qualified and intimately familiar with virtually all Microsoft OS and Server technologies up till at least a decade ago. My foundations are strong and though no longer my forte, I have kept in touch and dealt with issues on occasion right up to Windows 7.

Wanting a custom built Laptop but not wanting to have to do any extensive research I came to PCS believing they were specialist enough to cater for my build.

I addressed a few of my concerns with them and was given assurances, one of my concerns, the 7970m (of which there are 2 in my Laptop), they had assured me no longer had any major issues as they had all been taken care of by updated drivers, something I have so far found out to be totally untrue, this going by the reports being posted here and at everywhere else.

Unfortunately I cannot yet back those reports up with first hand information because I have as yet been unable to personally investigate anything - but to now access the system and straight away be presented with problems with the same card I was assured had none does not bode well. This despite being assured that PCS had Quality Checks in place that would ensure my system was in perfect order.

So while I could probably deal with what appears to be a relatively easy problem - I believe there are more problems around the corner and I have no wish to personally have to deal with them especially as their assurances and actions stopped me from taking remedial action when I could have.

Why does the system have driver issues !!!? ... why can I not simply move on to installing and playing a game and at the most monitoring system stats as I play and get my feedback that way ?

I have no wish to get bogged down in technical issues unless absolutely necessary - I have had my full of that, I should be able to simply sit back and entertain myself now, I paid good money for it - Let Pauls staff sort it out, they assured me they would if problems occured

 

[steaky360]

Kruppsy, thanks for your attempts at helping here but let me enlighten You.

I am an I.T.Consultant/Programmer with well over 2 decades in industry, qualified and intimately familiar with virtually all Microsoft OS and Server technologies up till at least a decade ago. My foundations are strong and though no longer my forte, I have kept in touch and dealt with issues on occasion right up to Windows 7.

Wanting a custom built Laptop but not wanting to have to do any extensive research I came to PCS believing they were specialist enough to cater for my build.

I addressed a few of my concerns with them and was given assurances, one of my concerns, the 7970m (of which there are 2 in my Laptop), they had assured me no longer had any major issues as they had all been taken care of by updated drivers, something I have so far found out to be totally untrue, this going by the reports being posted here and at everywhere else.

Unfortunately I cannot yet back those reports up with first hand information because I have as yet been unable to personally investigate anything - but to now access the system and straight away be presented with problems with the same card I was assured had none does not bode well. This despite being assured that PCS had Quality Checks in place that would ensure my system was in perfect order.

So while I could probably deal with what appears to be a relatively easy problem - I believe there are more problems around the corner and I have no wish to personally have to deal with them especially as their assurances and actions stopped me from taking remedial action when I could have.

Why does the system have driver issues !!!? ... why can I not simply move on to installing and playing a game and at the most monitoring system stats as I play and get my feedback that way ?

I have no wish to get bogged down in technical issues unless absolutely necessary - I have had my full of that, I should be able to simply sit back and entertain myself now, I paid good money for it - Let Pauls staff sort it out, they assured me they would if problems occured

Have you rang PCS the forums are not really a official channel for support. It's always better ringing but I would imagine eqven more so at this time of year. If you give them a ring I'm sure they will be able to open an RMA to sort out the laptop (or remote log in, I'm not sure if they do that... They might for all I know )

 

[Pagey]

Ok, I'm gonna throw my two pennies worth in, you may have tried before, you may have not...

1: Remove any traces of old video drivers, (iirc even with them removed you can still get video to the screen.) Do this when trying out different drivers.
2: Let Windows Update have a go at locating any video drivers after the old ones have been removed, check to see if the errors are gone from the device manager.
3: Failing that, install the Clevo only drivers from their site and see if that rectifies it, (they may be a little more specific than the official AMD ones.)
4: If still all fails and the official AMD ones fail even after removing traces of all old Video Drivers, they you're better sending it back to PCS to look at it as these methods should remove the errors.

I can understand how much grief that laptop must be giving you as you'd expect it to run out-of-the-box. But unfortunately things slip from time to time...

Just out of curiosity is it possible to send it back and get the AMD's replaced with Nvidia's?

Hope you get some love with it soon.

 

[Torgan]

I went with the GTX680M version of the Elite and following the usual setup of anti virus etc I was straight into playing games with no driver issues whatever.

I have since encountered problems with stuck pixels on the display, but after contacting PCS via private email to their technical support an RMA was organised and a replacement arrived the following day.

I would strongly suggest you follow this route as I have found them to be nothing but helpful

 

[LiddleP]

Thanks Steaky & Torgan, I did try ringing after not receiving replies to my emails from and after the 14th when I had received said PC - but I must confess to cutting of on the 2 occasions I did after hanging on for about 5 minutes - in all fairness it was quite late in the day and there is the Xmas rush to bear in mind.

All in all, I received a response today and then called in - been pointed at drivers from Clevo which I am told should do the job and I prefer this to getting drivers direct from AMD that might not contend with a Clevo build. Though not for my OS, knowing where the Clevo repo was at least enabled me locate the appropriate drivers - all that remains to be seen is if they do not falter.

@Pagey - If you really want to be of genuine assistance, take time to read otherwise you are just being a troll and your tuppence is worth nada. I do not know what the options are till I know what the problems are and if I can live with them or not.

 

[Pagey]

Errrm, ok. I was only trying to be nice is all.

Anyway, on a more serious note:

Firstly people are constantly told if they have problems with their computers and need to be addressed quickly, then they call PCS and not email them.

Secondly by posting it on the forums as you did, you will expect people to be helpful. You don't go and give people a hard time for trying to be nice.

We can all understand the frustrations, I myself had my fair share when I first received my laptop, but I certainly didn't shoot anyone down if they tried to help me.

Again, I hope you do get your problems addressed and you have a nice trouble-free Christmas.