iBuyPower computers... has anyone had any trouble with them?

[gulfcoastfella]

I bought a computer from iBuyPower, and within a month of the warranty expiring, my computer slowly died until it would no longer boot.

I called iBuyPower's tech support, and they walked me through several diagnoses, after which they told me to send it back to them for diagnosis and fixing.

So I sent it to them. They reported it was a bad power supply, and that once they replaced the power supply, they were able to run 3DMark for two days without any problems.

I got my computer back, hooked it up, and it still wouldn't boot.... power is being supplied just fine, fans turn and I can hear the harddrive spinning, just no POST.

So I called iBuyPower's tech support again, and they instructed me to test the computer with 1 stick of each RAM at a time, and when that didn't work, they told me to do the same with my two video cards and my sound card.

None of this changed anything; the computer continued to fail it's POST.

So they've instructed me to send it to them a second time. I'm getting sick of not having my computer, and I'm disappointed in iBuyPower's "tech support".



Has anyone else had problems with either iBuyPower's hardware, system reliabilities, or tech support?



Any feedback would be awesome!

!Edit! For anyone not in the know, iBuyPower advertises in gaming magazines alot; next time you see a computer or gaming magazine, iBuyPower is probably advertising in it. !Edit!

 

[Joel~]

Have you tried simply clearing the CMOS? It's usually one of the first things I try when a computer won't POST. It's also still possible that the PSU is at fault - I've had several computers come in to my work room where fans and drives will spin up but the system won't POST, and the PSU has still been the fault.

 

[Atomic Rooster]

Have you doubled checked all wires, cables and connections to make sure none have come loose in shipping?

My father in law has an iBUYPOWER system and hasn't had any trouble with it.

 

[gulfcoastfella]

Have you tried simply clearing the CMOS?

I tried that before I sent it to them the first time. I didn't bother to do it this time since they told me they had it working fine before they returned it to me.

Have you doubled checked all wires, cables and connections to make sure none have come loose in shipping?

In the process of carrying out the tests in my first post, I reseated the 2 RAM sticks, video cards, video card power connectors, and sound card. I didn't check anything else.

 

[Holysky]

Possible Cmos battery change might fix it.

 

[gulfcoastfella]

Possible Cmos battery change might fix it.

If they really got it to work like they say they did, then apparently the CMOS battery is just fine.

 

[Dieter]

I had iBuypower build my computer and it's been a horrible experience... it came not even fully installed with the OS. A couple of my components didn't even work. The tech support did NOTHING for me... I will never buy from them again.

 

[gulfcoastfella]

I had iBuypower build my computer and it's been a horrible experience... it came not even fully installed with the OS. A couple of my components didn't even work. The tech support did NOTHING for me... I will never buy from them again.

Were you able to get any compensation or claim out of them... or did you end up eating the cost so you could just buy a computer from a different manufacturer? I think that I would be willing to eat the cost of the dud, but I REALLY DON'T WANT TO.

 

[wol-va-rine]

Were you able to get any compensation or claim out of them... or did you end up eating the cost so you could just buy a computer from a different manufacturer? I think that I would be willing to eat the cost of the dud, but I REALLY DON'T WANT TO.

if worst comes to worst, whatever you do, don't eat the WHOLE cost, there are components in there that should fetch a decent amount on craigslist or ebay towards another computer, you said you have two video cards in there...? they should be decent cards, no use SLIing or X-firing crappy cards so those alone could get you a decent amount...

I have two suggestions before selling off your parts though...

1. the best thing to do is troubleshoot, find the defective piece of hardware and then replace that, it should be relatively cheap...
----->1a. have you tried booting up with just one video card...? try to boot up with each video card one at a time and see if the system will boot...

2. take it to a computer shop, depending on how much you paid for the system, getting a trained professional to fix it should be a fraction of the original cost and a fraction of the cost to buy a new one...

 

[gulfcoastfella]

Yeah, I've tried booting with one video card at a time, and I've also tried booting with one stick of RAM at a time. I also removed and reinserted the sound card for good measure. None of that changed anything.

The idea of taking it to a computer shop locally is sounding better and better. And you're right, if I can get it properly diagnosed, there's no need to sell off the parts and get a new computer.