Harvey Norman Problems

kig

I have just returned from a very frustrating time at Harvey Norman and would like to warn all who would listen to beware!
We bought my daughter a laptop (Toshiba L855-149) from Harvey Norman in July 2013 (together with their extended 'Product Care' warranty). The laptop started overheating and cutting out as a result almost from the start, but as she needed it for college she didn't want to be separated from it for an extended period. So in May 2014 we took it back and they 'repaired' (?) it the first time, after a few months it started overheating again. Again she struggled on up to the summer break, when we took it in the second time (June 2014), this time it has become so bad that we were forced to take it in now even though she will in all likelihood be left without a laptop for a few weeks when she goes back to college in the new year.
In the Product Care booklet it states that the extended warranty starts when the product is purchased, and if it has been repaired twice before, they will either replace it or give you your money back (No Lemon Guarantee), however today they tell me that this only comes into effect if it has been repaired twice under the Product Care warranty, and our first repair was under the manufacturer's warranty, therefore we have to have it repaired again - I have read the booklet from cover to cover and cannot find this distinction/clause, however the booklet does quite clearly state that the warranty is in effect from the date of purchase.
This has been the 3rd time in the last 6 months when I have been p****** off by Harvey Norman, and have felt ripped off by them, as a result I have gone from a loyal customer who has bought a lot from them over the years to someone who will never purchase another product from Harvey Norman, and I would warn anyone else contemplating buying from Harvey Norman to think long and hard whether they want to have these hassles in their lives.

STEINBERG

Hey Kig, sorry to hear about the bad experience. Can i ask though if you possibly know how your daughter uses her laptop?

What i mean by that is does she use it alot on the bed on resting on a cushion etc. I had a friend of mine who's laptop was constantly over heating, it was not until we found out she was always using it on the bed. This will cause the laptop to over eat pretty fast as there is no air circulation happening, the laptop is literally screaming for air.... Solution was for her to use a chopping board or something along those lines. Problem was sorted pretty fast.

kig

She bought one of those cooling bases, which has additional fans, which the laptop sits on, and that doesn't even cool it sufficiently so that it doesn't cut out constantly. She is doing an animation degree, so it's quite heavy work, but we were told an i7 laptop would be able to handle the work easily. The overheating problem has got so bad though, that it overheats even when accessing the internet now.

ZENER

What indication does the laptop give that it is overheating ?

Ken

riclad

Try using a old version of linux,
boot from cd , live cd linux mint .
See if it still overheats ,maybe do not turn on central heating in room when using the laptop .
Sounds like the graphics card is overheating .



http://www.linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=38

fits on 1 cdr disk.set boot options f12, boot from dvd/cd .
Under eu law you have 2 years gaurantee ,
on any laptop, pc ,
ask for a refund or another laptop ,brand new cpu i7 .
of the same rating cpu, ram, etc but not the same model.
i burned out a laptop,
severe overheating.my fault .
the only fan outlet was underneath. when i was using it the fan outlet was blocked 100 per cent.
my present laptop has air outlets on the side .

Linux mint runs on old pc,s uses alot less resources than windows ,
can be used for web browsing,
has music ,video player ,office software, firefox , built in.

set brightness on laptop to 50 per cent or less .

you can buy a new laptop on power city ,see Ex display model ,
30 per cent off .
Comes with gaurantee , in as new condition .

www.powercity.ie

19inch laptop ,
409e , quad core cpu 2.4- 2.6ghz intel cpu
http://www.powercity.ie/?par=10-30-770494

check the graphics card video ram vram,
is it fast enough for animation ,

kig

The laptop gets extremely hot and then starts cutting out

mach1982

Just doing a quick Google and looks it a common problem for that model

https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=Toshiba+L855+over+heating

looking at the postilion the air intake I am not surprised .

http://www.instructables.com/id/Extend-your-laptop-s-life!-Clean-the-dust-out-of-i/

Personal I prefer to buy from Harvey the guys in PC word don't have clue.

kig

thanks I'll try the cleaning out and see whether that works

ZENER

The danger of blowing into the air vents is that you force any fluff or dust into the fan and jam it up altogether.

Have you checked the Task Manager to see if the CPU is being run at high level by some rogue process or program ?

Having more than 1 AV application can cause the system to get bogged down and this is common where the store sell you Norton even though there's an AV installed on the computer. As said above, Currys are well known for pushing non essential software on unsuspecting customers.

Ken

kig

This machine was bought at Harvey Norman. I was also of the opinion that Harvey Norman staff were more informed than Currys, but their lack of interest in sorting out the problem is annoying me, and means that I'll try Currys or Powercity, or anyone else next time. I tried sucking with a vacuum cleaner and all sorts of gunk came out so maybe mach1982's suggestion will help - only time will tell.

ssmith6287

Are there smokers or hairdressers in the house ?

I remember fixing a laptop that belonged to a smoking hairdresser. You can expect for dust to build up over time but the insides of this machine had ash, tar and sticky gunk from hairspray. This caused serious overheating. Also the whole using on a bed etc not allowing ventilation

mach1982

kig wrote: »

This machine was bought at Harvey Norman. I was also of the opinion that Harvey Norman staff were more informed than Currys, but their lack of interest in sorting out the problem is annoying me, and means that I'll try Currys or Powercity, or anyone else next time. I tried sucking with a vacuum cleaner and all sorts of gunk came out so maybe mach1982's suggestion will help - only time will tell.

They mostly all the same , though I found the Harvey Norman( in Naas) guys are more knowledgeable than Currys/PC word , who would not know a PCI form USB . They probably tried every they allowed too. If it a case of badly designed intakes the there northing you really can do .

kig

The advice on vacuuming seems to have helped so just have to do it regularly and hope for the best.

ZENER

mach1982 wrote: »

They mostly all the same , though I found the Harvey Norman( in Naas) guys are more knowledgeable than Currys/PC word , who would not know a PCI form USB . They probably tried every they allowed too. If it a case of badly designed intakes the there northing you really can do .

I listened in amusement one day in Currys when a sales guy told a customer that the Video Card he was looking at (AGP) would work fine in a PCIe slot but the reverse would not work !!! The customer bought the video card from him too !!

They insist on asking if you need any assistance when you walk in but most really are clueless. Try asking for a USB > Ethernet adapter and they begin searching through the cables rack checking every USB and Ethernet cable before declaring they're out of stock. They seemed grateful though when I showed them what I was looking for in a different section of the store.

Ken