New VM Gamers Edge PCX... a little disappointed.

N

Night Black

Gawd
Joined
Oct 23, 2006
Messages
699
I finally received my Gamer's Edge PCX today! Yay!

It runs well, after a few customizations. It runs all my games at full, and I can multitask easily. This was after I did a few things though, and I hate to do this, but I'm gonna have to knock VM for these problems.

-Drivers were installed from disc, were not up to date.
-Networking drivers not installed, no connectivity to the internet.
-Firewire disabled in the front.
-Windows XP not activated.
-AV was not installed, found CD in folder.

I hope that this is just an exception and that this is not a sign of the way things are going.

Edit: The 6400 is running between 1.1 and 1.2 V of power... is that normal?

That being said, after I corrected those, the computer runs great. The CPU remains cool, hovering around 32*C, the X1950 Pro runs games at maximum. The case is well constructed and quiet.

That's just my 2 cents. I'd still recommend VM to anyone over Dell and etc, but I felt just a little disappointed.
 
I pretty sure that not activating windows is part of the oem agreement in that the oem (velcoity micro) is not to activate the windows key for the customer.

Others may beable to shed more light on your stiuation, I understand your upset but mistakes happen and really the driver issue sucks but not the end of the world. I hope you like your new rig. would mind posting specs please.
 
oneeyeblind said:
I pretty sure that not activating windows is part of the oem agreement in that the oem (velcoity micro) is not to activate the windows key for the customer.
Click to expand...

This is true. They are also not allowed to accept the EULA on behalf of the customer.

There are a host of integrators that do this anyway, though.
 
Oh. So I shouldn't have expected Windows to be activated? Thanks for clearing that up :)

Spec in sig, pics soon.
 
Night Black

thanks for some reason I didn't notice your sig whoops. nIce system you got there. Did you get a vista upgrade copoun?
 
I haven't tested my front FireWire port yet, I guess I should get a FireWire device from a friend to check it out since I don't have one.

I didn't order order any AV with my VM system but I wouldn't mind if they didn't install it. I like that I'm getting a clean PC (well, within reason ;) ). But that's just me.

I'm kind of new to buying PCs so I don't know if the driver stuff is normal or not.

Glad you're mostly happy with your system!
 
@oneeyeblind: Yes, I did receive a application for Home Basic and Home Premium.

@Lazarey: Yours should work, Mine was covered with a black cap. (Actually, it looks like it was hooked up, but the cap was still on, and I remember a post where someone had theirs disabled. Called VM, it just looks like that it was with the computer when it was built and was not removed for shipping. So that's off my list of grievances.)

Well, after ironing out the kinks, the system works well. C2D idles at 31*C, at 100% load for 30 mins it peaks out at 51*C, at least until the AS5 sets. The machine is quiet and it performs well, though on 3DMark06 There's a part where it chokes and drops to 0 FPS. Is at mark of 4408 normal for this type of system?

Wiring is a little messy compared to when I wire my PC. But the time was taken to ensure that the wiring was out of the way, and not hanging around.

Lastly, pictures:





Click on them to get a bigger version.
 
Nice system Night Black. Thank you for your feedback. Let's look at the issues:

-Drivers were installed from disc, were not up to date.
Can you tell me what drivers were from what disk? We update drivers, but only after testing them, which usually takes about a week or so. Drivers should be up to date unless something has come out within the past couple of weeks to a month at the most.

-Networking drivers not installed, no connectivity to the internet.
Often the NIC drivers are knocked out when we reseal the OS prior to shipping, but they were installed during the build process, and must work for installation of Windows. Very sorry about this all too common issue, and we are working with Microsoft on it still.

-Firewire disabled in the front.
The cap should have been removed, but we received a whole shipment with the cap on and the product team didn't know they were on. Glad it was easily resolved, but should not have been on your system.

-Windows XP not activated.
No, we are prohibitted from activating. The customer must do it, especially now that we are a direct MS OEM customer. Small shops can probably get away with it, but it's in violation of MS rules.

-AV was not installed, found CD in folder.
Customers have asked us to do this, just as another poster wrote. Also, the customer needs to accept the license agreement, and the current build does not allow for us to preinstall but have the user accept the agreement like in the past. Sorry for the added trouble.


We are always listening, and will take your feedback and use it to improve our products and process. Thanks for taking the time to share your percecptions, and thank you for your patience.

Randy
 
Velocity_Micro said:
Nice system Night Black. Thank you for your feedback. Let's look at the issues:

-Drivers were installed from disc, were not up to date.
Can you tell me what drivers were from what disk? We update drivers, but only after testing them, which usually takes about a week or so. Drivers should be up to date unless something has come out within the past couple of weeks to a month at the most.

-Networking drivers not installed, no connectivity to the internet.
Often the NIC drivers are knocked out when we reseal the OS prior to shipping, but they were installed during the build process, and must work for installation of Windows. Very sorry about this all too common issue, and we are working with Microsoft on it still.

-Firewire disabled in the front.
The cap should have been removed, but we received a whole shipment with the cap on and the product team didn't know they were on. Glad it was easily resolved, but should not have been on your system.

-Windows XP not activated.
No, we are prohibitted from activating. The customer must do it, especially now that we are a direct MS OEM customer. Small shops can probably get away with it, but it's in violation of MS rules.

-AV was not installed, found CD in folder.
Customers have asked us to do this, just as another poster wrote. Also, the customer needs to accept the license agreement, and the current build does not allow for us to preinstall but have the user accept the agreement like in the past. Sorry for the added trouble.


We are always listening, and will take your feedback and use it to improve our products and process. Thanks for taking the time to share your percecptions, and thank you for your patience.

Randy
Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply. I doubt I'd see the CEO of Dell helping his customers on this forum :) Things like that set VM apart from the competition.

The driver issue I was referring to was with the ATI and Networking, you stated that networking gets wiped out with the preparation for shipping, but the ATI drivers were from CD, dated October 18th. The current version was out the 24-25 of January. Networking was solved by isntalling the drivers from CD.

From first glance the firewire seemed like the cap was forgotten, but I remember a user posting in a thread here about the firewire not being available and thus being covered with the cap.

I thought that Windows had to be activated. I remember a [H]Consumer system review where a company got deducted a point or two for not activating the OS, but perhaps this was a while ago?

After I posted the first post, I installed Mcafee, and I understood why it wasn't installed, as it required installation.

The case is very nice, everything is made of metal, and it's quiet. The door is nice and solid. Most of the gripes that I had have been solved, and good answers provided for them. I'll still be going to VM for my next build, whenever that is.

This forum should have an option for changing thread titles.

EDIT: My friend and I were just talking about the new Soundblasters on PCI-E, and it occurred to me that if I ever were to upgrade my PC, then I would lose functionality of my front ports. If I were to upgrade, could I buy one of those harnesses to connect the card to the ports, or is that not possible? (Way to go Creative, make a port nobody can use unless they buy from a OEM.)
 
Night Black said:
I thought that Windows had to be activated. I remember a [H]Consumer system review where a company got deducted a point or two for not activating the OS, but perhaps this was a while ago?
Click to expand...

Yes, it was a while back, and if I recall, it wasn't a stiff penalty. At the time, we weren't aware of MS's exact rules on the OEM sticker, activation, acceptance of the EULA, etc., so we just praised those that made it easiest on us :).
 
Night Black said:
EDIT: My friend and I were just talking about the new Soundblasters on PCI-E, and it occurred to me that if I ever were to upgrade my PC, then I would lose functionality of my front ports. If I were to upgrade, could I buy one of those harnesses to connect the card to the ports, or is that not possible? (Way to go Creative, make a port nobody can use unless they buy from a OEM.)
Click to expand...

We can hook you up with the harness when you upgrade to the PCI-E sound card, but I expect it will be a while before that happens.
 
Hi; I think your vCore should be fine. My E6600 at stock uses about 1.18 volts. My friend's Dell XPS (the big parallelogram-case one) has an E6300 and it runs at 1.000 volts...
 
Laminator said:
Hi; I think your vCore should be fine. My E6600 at stock uses about 1.18 volts. My friend's Dell XPS (the big parallelogram-case one) has an E6300 and it runs at 1.000 volts...
Click to expand...

Also depending on what software you use to check the voltage, it could be misreporting the voltage. The only thing to trust 100% is what it says in the BIOS.
 
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