i-Buddie 4 Desknote Review

[xander]

Well Guys,

As you all promised me it would happen - it finally did! My cable got hot and even with taken care putting it in and removing it it came out last night with the earth pin still in it! To be honest I am kind of relieved that it finally has come out! I recently was "given" an old i-buddie with a broken scrren but appart from that its all go! So what I would like to know is how easy is it to open it up (okay I think we have covered that) and change over the power adapter! What is it actually connected to inside! What I guess I am asking is what kind of a job is it that I am looking at?

Any help or comments will be appreciated!

Thanks alot!!

Neil

PS On that topic of a complaint about the i-Buddie, count me in!

 

[marcovth]

I searched google with "@ecsusa.com", and I came up with the following

email addresses:

Management: (e-mail address removed); Mi(e-mail address removed); (e-mail address removed); (e-mail address removed); (e-mail address removed); (e-mail address removed)

Others: (e-mail address removed); (e-mail address removed); (e-mail address removed); (e-mail address removed); (e-mail address removed)

This is my message to them.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hello ...

The plug from the AC adapter going into my DeskNote A928 computer is burned.

This is clearly a design fault described by many of your customers
in websites like this one: https://www.pcreview.co.uk/showthread.php?t=578&page=7

I trust that your company will issue a recall to fix this problem free of charge.

- Marco.

 

[PrimaryMaster]

Hi everybody,

I too have the melting plug problem with my A928 Desknote. I had this sh*tty computer for a little more than 2 years now. The warranty provided by the dealer was 2 years. The problems showed up before the warranty was up but i was too lazy to take it to them. And anyway even if i did take the pc for repairs i am 99.9% sure that they would turn me down, saying that it is a physical thing.

Anyway, the bttom (third) prong of the notebook side is stuck on the adapter cord side now for a long time. And for a long while i have been experiences sudden shut downs, and melting, and smell etc. Lately my hard drive gave up after so many sudden shutdowns. There might also be an issue with the bios or the mb too i suppose. When i switch the pc on now, it can't find the primary drive. It has done it before a couple of times but after switching on and off, plugging and unplugging the hard drive a couple of times and jumping around screaming around the house and swearing at myself for deciding to purchase this monstrosity, it would eventually boot.

Now no boot at all.. Primary hard disk is not found... Hard disk detection.. u-uh.. no workie.. opening the hd housing and plug out and back in.. no workie..

I don't think the hd is the problem. I have yet to try another hd to figure if the hd is the problem. And for the power cord.. Man, i dunno. I dunno if i should put myself to the risk of taking it apart, since i may not be able to put it back.

A few last words for the potentian i-Buddie buyer:

HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND? GO BUY SOMETHING DECENT! THIS THING HAS GOT SO MANY FLAWS THAT I WOULDN'T BE SURPRISED IF IT IS YOU WHO GETS BURNT AND NOT THE POWER CORD! NO SANE PERSON SHOULD COME CLOSE TO THESE I-BUDDIE(!!!)S!

I wonder if ECS can be sued for this. I mean, they got all those industry standard certificates like ISO or TÜV etc. right? How can some product bearing those standarts MELT???

P.S.: U know as time progresses the kiddos get smarter... Here i have been reading the posts and i see that there are youngsters out there who went out and bought this thing and now they feel obliged to stand behind it. You know it is a kiddie thing saying my stuýff is good, or better than yours When reading the posts, if possible, check the author's age and experience. I am 27 and i have been using computers since dx486s first appeared and i am saying, THIS IS NO GOOD!



"The system is "well designed" in such a way that the desknote only fails after warrantee period. "
Fatice

100% Agree on that!

Ahhh and btw, who updates the review pages? It still says a lotta good stuff about A928 and i find that misleading. As a person who always reads reviews before buying stuff i think the review needs urgent updating.

(I read reviews of A928 before buying but i was one of the first who bought it and noone had those problems when they first bought it... I read somewhere that plugging the AC in and out is tough but noone knew that it melt...)

Regards to all,
PM

 

[mikekniner]

Hey,
Ya I agree with you, Avoid with all costs. This was quite good at start but the problems are really aggrivating. One point the power adaptor failed, was really load and sounded like it was struggling so one day it blew and also caused the fuse to go off, perhaps the ground threw it off. Well anyway that fried my Memory (RAM) so I took it in (Still under warranty) and they replaced the RAM. I took it home. plugged in the adaptor and 20 minutes later Adaptor blew again, this time however the adaptor finished itself off lol. Then I took it in for service to the dealer, but he said he had to ship it to ECS. So he did so, he shipped off the computer and power adaptor. He originally said 2 weeks however it took 2 months with constant faxes demanding info, and when I finally got the desknote back it was at a different location than I originally dropped it off at! Now about 1.5 years after the horrible incident the three prongs melted, I didn't want to go through the horrible service again so I opened it up and resoldered the third prong. Now Im looking at digikey for some parts to replace just the three prong plastic piece that keeps melting so that we can fix it ourselves for alot cheaper instead of buying a more expensive power adaptor. I found some parts and I will be ordering them, once I recieve them I will post part #'s for all to see if they are good. A few days ago I went to buy an ANTEC notebook cooler, this seems to really help and the A928 actually feels quite cool, however the notbook cooler (which acts as a heatsink and fans suckt he hot air from the notebook away) gets really hot. And if any lawsuits against ECS count me in!

 

[dc system]

I have found the repair method to fix i-Buddie 4 A928 problem.
All of i-Buddie 4(A928) Desknotes happen the same problems after using about two years:
1, AC adapter cable head burn;
2, DC power jack of mainboard damage, one power pin out from the jack sometimes;
2, Can't boot up system after starting, only the cooling fan runing.
These are the mainboard wrong design problem and hard to be fixed really. If you ask ECS, they sure say that the mainboard has to be replaced, the cost is about US$200 (parts) + labour. But not easy to get new A928 mainboard now (even from ECS) because too many desknote A928 need to be fixed.
So you could consider just to fix the A928 motherboard, the cost is cheaper. I can do that and already fixed a lot for my customers.
Please send me e-mail at (e-mail address removed) if you need help.

David
DC SYSTEM, Toronto, Canada

 

[Vortex-5]

David do you fix the ECS EM-929L batteries as well?

My battery recently stopped "beeping" the sound would start after one half beep. I'm thinking it's a cap not carging fully, or the curcuit that shuts it off after you depress the button always being on.

Althought this same curcuit is certainly not on when you have it upplugged. (lights don't light up).

Point is the batter works fine so I don't feel like ordering another one from ECS 2hrs 15min is how long it lasts. Also anyone know where I can order KC-1206? I'm gonna try replacing the buzzer first cause it doesn't make a sound when it's out-of-curcuit.

(specs say it should sound at 4-8v )

I appled a 6v battery pack to it, (desoldered it from curcuit first) and it doesn't make a sound can anyone confirm if this is inteneded behavior?

I've also attached an LED to the positon the buzzer is in, I can tell you that the led flashes once so I doubt it's the buzzer, more the sounding curcuit.

Since we have the picture on the web can anyone point out to me the "tone" generator curcuit? Followed by the "off" toggle curcuit?

Oh and David if you do fix the battery I'd be willing to send it in just name your price (privately) and I'll consider your proposition.

 

[dc system]

Sorry. I did not fix any battery for ECS i-Buddy Desknote, even I can rebuild battery of laptops. But I already fixed some of A929 AC adapters, same problem not working.

David

David do you fix the ECS EM-929L batteries as well?

My battery recently stopped "beeping" the sound would start after one half beep. I'm thinking it's a cap not carging fully, or the curcuit that shuts it off after you depress the button always being on.

Althought this same curcuit is certainly not on when you have it upplugged. (lights don't light up).

Point is the batter works fine so I don't feel like ordering another one from ECS 2hrs 15min is how long it lasts. Also anyone know where I can order KC-1206? I'm gonna try replacing the buzzer first cause it doesn't make a sound when it's out-of-curcuit.

(specs say it should sound at 4-8v )

I appled a 6v battery pack to it, (desoldered it from curcuit first) and it doesn't make a sound can anyone confirm if this is inteneded behavior?

I've also attached an LED to the positon the buzzer is in, I can tell you that the led flashes once so I doubt it's the buzzer, more the sounding curcuit.

Since we have the picture on the web can anyone point out to me the "tone" generator curcuit? Followed by the "off" toggle curcuit?

Oh and David if you do fix the battery I'd be willing to send it in just name your price (privately) and I'll consider your proposition.

 

[dc system]

Hi everybody,

I too have the melting plug problem with my A928 Desknote. I had this sh*tty computer for a little more than 2 years now. The warranty provided by the dealer was 2 years. The problems showed up before the warranty was up but i was too lazy to take it to them. And anyway even if i did take the pc for repairs i am 99.9% sure that they would turn me down, saying that it is a physical thing.

Anyway, the bttom (third) prong of the notebook side is stuck on the adapter cord side now for a long time. And for a long while i have been experiences sudden shut downs, and melting, and smell etc. Lately my hard drive gave up after so many sudden shutdowns. There might also be an issue with the bios or the mb too i suppose. When i switch the pc on now, it can't find the primary drive. It has done it before a couple of times but after switching on and off, plugging and unplugging the hard drive a couple of times and jumping around screaming around the house and swearing at myself for deciding to purchase this monstrosity, it would eventually boot.

Now no boot at all.. Primary hard disk is not found... Hard disk detection.. u-uh.. no workie.. opening the hd housing and plug out and back in.. no workie..

I don't think the hd is the problem. I have yet to try another hd to figure if the hd is the problem. And for the power cord.. Man, i dunno. I dunno if i should put myself to the risk of taking it apart, since i may not be able to put it back.

A few last words for the potentian i-Buddie buyer:

HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND? GO BUY SOMETHING DECENT! THIS THING HAS GOT SO MANY FLAWS THAT I WOULDN'T BE SURPRISED IF IT IS YOU WHO GETS BURNT AND NOT THE POWER CORD! NO SANE PERSON SHOULD COME CLOSE TO THESE I-BUDDIE(!!!)S!

I wonder if ECS can be sued for this. I mean, they got all those industry standard certificates like ISO or TÜV etc. right? How can some product bearing those standarts MELT???

P.S.: U know as time progresses the kiddos get smarter... Here i have been reading the posts and i see that there are youngsters out there who went out and bought this thing and now they feel obliged to stand behind it. You know it is a kiddie thing saying my stuýff is good, or better than yours When reading the posts, if possible, check the author's age and experience. I am 27 and i have been using computers since dx486s first appeared and i am saying, THIS IS NO GOOD!



"The system is "well designed" in such a way that the desknote only fails after warrantee period. "
Fatice

100% Agree on that!

Ahhh and btw, who updates the review pages? It still says a lotta good stuff about A928 and i find that misleading. As a person who always reads reviews before buying stuff i think the review needs urgent updating.

(I read reviews of A928 before buying but i was one of the first who bought it and noone had those problems when they first bought it... I read somewhere that plugging the AC in and out is tough but noone knew that it melt...)

Regards to all,
PM

I have found the repair method to fix i-Buddie 4 A928 problem.
All of i-Buddie 4(A928) Desknotes happen the same problems after using about two years:
1, AC adapter cable head burn;
2, DC power jack of mainboard damage, one power pin out from the jack sometimes;
2, Can't boot up system after starting, only the cooling fan runing.
These are the mainboard wrong design problem and hard to be fixed really. If you ask ECS, they sure say that the mainboard has to be replaced, the cost is about US$200 (parts) + labour. But not easy to get new A928 mainboard now (even from ECS) because too many desknote A928 need to be fixed.
So you could consider just to fix the A928 motherboard, the cost is cheaper. I can do that and already fixed a lot for my customers.
Please send me e-mail at (e-mail address removed) if you need help.

David
DC SYSTEM, Toronto, Canada

 

[laimatt]

Hello all,

I don't know if any of you have ever try out the TV-Out (thur S-Video) before. I have recently tried to connect my A-928 to my TV, but there is nothing showing on the screen at all. Does anyone have any idea why is it acting like this or if I have anything I missed in order to have it working? All I did is just:

1. connect my A-928 to TV by S-video.
2. turn on the computer and get into BIOS to set 'TV-Out' to 'PAL' (system work in my country).
3. Reboot, but nothing showed.

I tried with 'NTSC' but still not working. Please help!

Thank you!

 

[dc system]

You need to conect the S-video cable to TV firstly. Try again.

 

[dc system]

Yes, it happened to me too!

My prong came out with the power supply and I was wondering if anybody used the suggestion mentioned earlier for reversing the prong and re-inserting it? That is what I am currently using because I am out of warranty and can't afford to pay 300-400 for new M/B and shipping/labour etc...
The computer works fine, but I don't want to use this method if it is dangerous or can damage the laptop.
As for the lawyer part, if one of you know one in the US, you should definitely file a lawsuit on behalf of all i-buddie owners since this is obviously a design flaw. They should pay for it, not us customers.

I have found the repair method to fix i-Buddie 4 A928 problem.
All of i-Buddie 4(A928) Desknotes happen the same problems after using about two years:
1, AC adapter cable head burn;
2, DC power jack of mainboard damage, one power pin out from the jack sometimes;
2, Can't boot up system after starting, only the cooling fan runing.
These are the mainboard wrong design problem and hard to be fixed really. If you ask ECS, they sure say that the mainboard has to be replaced, the cost is about US$200 (parts) + labour. But not easy to get new A928 mainboard now (even from ECS) because too many desknote A928 need to be fixed.
So you could consider just to fix the A928 motherboard, the cost is cheaper. I can do that and already fixed a lot for my customers.
Please send me e-mail at (e-mail address removed) if you need help.

David

 

[laimatt]

Thank you dc_system! I tried your advise but still no good. However, I found that there is a new driver which can be downloaded from SIS website for chipset SIS650. So, I downloaded it and installed it. After installed the driver, it works, but only once. After the only one time working, I couldn't have it working again. I have no idea why it is acting like this. Anyone can help?

 

[yoshi]

L@@king For A928 Power Connector !

It seems like everyone got same problem as me,i've take out connector from mainboard by myself,and i phoned ECS head office (In Taiwan)3 month before,they said have wait for stock in,i am in toronto area(canada),wish anyone has any idea can help me work it out !my email address:[email protected]

 

[dc system]

Re: L@@king For A928 Power Connector !

It seems like everyone got same problem as me,i've take out connector from mainboard by myself,and i phoned ECS head office (In Taiwan)3 month before,they said have wait for stock in,i am in toronto area(canada),wish anyone has any idea can help me work it out !my email address:[email protected]

Hi,
I can fix your A928. You can call me at (416) 788-6788. I will go back to Toronto this Sunday.

David
(e-mail address removed)

 

[PrimaryMaster]

Hi again ECS struck herd!

After hanging here with you i contacted the dealer i bought my iBuddie from, they said they will charge me 30 bucks for only accepting it to their service but that they can't guarantee if they can fix it!

So taking courage from the guys here who already took theirs apart, i laid my Buddie on the table and started taking it apart. I have done a little soldering in the past and i had the right tools. Remember to have a solder sucker handy, not sure if it is called that

Well lemme cut it short... I took some photos along the way in order to put all the screws back when i am done with it. I reached the socket after about half an hour of disassembling. There was only one darn screw left to totally expose the socket and that darn screw broke. So i had to solder it from a very awkward angle but still managed to solder enough. Took me another half an hour, 45 min to screw everything back in place. In the end i had maybe 5 excess(!) screws ) hehe... not bad for a first timer...

Now my iBuddie does NOT work You thought it would right? NO! This time the hard drive is gone. And not coming back either. Must be from the ac socket, kept heating up, melting, shutting the thing down and back up a million times... So now i have to shell out 150 bucks so i can get it to work again... And God knows what will be next!


Stay ECS-less and be fine,
PM

 

[matthorne]

Hi, My name is Matt Horne and I am the one trying to initiate the lawsuit. Here is a little update, after several emails to ecsusa I have recieved no response. desknote.net has replied to me saying "user conditions vary..." blah blah not wanting to take responsibility.

So the next step will be when I go to University of British Columbia, I will go to the law faculty and see our legal options.

If any lawyers see this message and want to help pro-bono please contact me at (e-mail address removed)

People who have not allready contacted me about their computer may do so as well, the more people I have down the better.

Matt Horne.
-PS how has the mass email gone markov?

 

[kcamerud]

In fact you can buy a new keyboard in an online-shop in Germany:

http://www.desknote-shop24.de/

Until 22. April 2004 they are closed. Unfortunately the site is in german, so if you are looking for a new keyboard you have to click on "Ersatzteile" on the left side and then choose "Tastatur" from the list.

greetings,
Rita

Thanks. I see if my friend in Kaiserslautern can order one to her German address and transship it to me.

Kurt

 

[Robert Holmes]

I have found the repair method to fix i-Buddie 4 A928 problem.
All of i-Buddie 4(A928) Desknotes happen the same problems after using about two years:
1, AC adapter cable head burn;
2, DC power jack of mainboard damage, one power pin out from the jack sometimes;
2, Can't boot up system after starting, only the cooling fan runing.
These are the mainboard wrong design problem and hard to be fixed really. If you ask ECS, they sure say that the mainboard has to be replaced, the cost is about US$200 (parts) + labour. But not easy to get new A928 mainboard now (even from ECS) because too many desknote A928 need to be fixed.
So you could consider just to fix the A928 motherboard, the cost is cheaper. I can do that and already fixed a lot for my customers.
Please send me e-mail at (e-mail address removed) if you need help.

David
DC SYSTEM, Toronto, Canada

I had my i-Buddie 4 A928 pin problem fixed in Toronto by David. He was very professional efficient, and extremely courteous. I would recommend having David fix your i-Buddie problem.

Robert Holmes

 

[tjssmith]

please tell me how you fixed this problem with the pin, i also have the same problem the ground pin coming out.

 

[dc system]

Where do you live? You could send me e-mail, (e-mail address removed)