i-Buddie 4 Desknote Review

[woden]

JUNK!!!!!!!! DO NOT BUY ECS PRODUCTS.
Also own a desknote....and yes....same problem with melting plug.
I fixed it myself and will sell it now. ECS are cheats....they will not sell individual
parts i.e. plug etc. ....offer no assistance unless you pay them to "diagnose" a problem they know too well. They want you to pay ongoing costs (shipping, labour) to fix a problem that will not go away due to a design flaw.
WILL NEVER BUY ECS PRODUCT AGAIN.

 

[Cushla]

Re: OMG My peg fell out too!

holly crap i thought it was just me but after seeing your post my PEG fell out too...

Actually I've used some instrumentation and the peg in question is not ground... infact it's the negative end of the battery.

As for the two plugs up top for some reason they have connectivity between them indicating they are not negative and positive like you might think...


Now after seeing your post I'm strarting to think that this is a design flaw. I mean what are the chances of two of the desknotes having the exact same problem if it wasn't especually if it is as serious as this?


Sadly desknote would not repair my unit because they claimed that that complonent was damaged by "physical damage"

So I opened my laptop and fixed it with a soldering iron myself.


If you've opened your desknote you realize how bad the problem was the area around the peg had all of it's solder melted.


I have since repaired it but am not sure how long it will last. It's an issue of design and I quite honestly can't figure out how to protect that area from the heat that must be building up from the graphics chipset. As it will blow it's exhaust onto the power connector. But could the miniscule heat that the graphics chipset generates really be the contributing factor towards the soldier melting?


I mean it takes alot of heat to melt your 60/40 but can air heated from the sis 650 really heat that much?

Hi there,
hey guess what? I thought I was the only one who had this happen to them! My ibuddie4 had exactly the same problem as you, my cord melted in the plug socket from over heating and a prong came out of the cord and remained in the socket as a result of it.

And yes same as everybody else it was not covered in the warrantee!!

However, I was wondering if you would
be able to give me the instructions
on how you fixed your one yourself,

as I would like to do this myself too.

Can you please let me know if this is convenient for you,
via my reply email address..

Many thanks
Cushla
(e-mail address removed)

 

[woden]

Cushla, not very difficult to fix. I suggest you follow the steps outlined by Vortex-5 (page 11). Very accurate. As stated…. be careful with the keyboard. It is held in by clips, so carefully wedge it out. Do one section at a time, put all the screws for that section in an envelope and mark it, than proceed to next section and use another envelope. My suggestion, is to fix it then sell it. The power plug on MB will only take so many solder repairs till its toast. ECS probably has a million of these extra parts lying around but rather than sell us one they want us to send it in for repair and make a killing. (cheats)Stay away from ECS products, they will not stand behind their product. Good luck. If you get stuck, post….and I will advise.

 

[JAGGED]

dc System.. I really hope you can help me .I have the melting adapter cord problem it also melted the cord from the external battery. I've read every thread in this forum for ideas and i've contacted the f*@#ing manufactures and the are giving me the run around ...Please can you help me i need a course of action

 

[dc system]

Hi,
I think that the problem of your A928 is same as which I fixed.
ECS A928 has the common mainboard design mistake, it will damage the AC
adapter connector and the power jack on mainboard (the pin out), sometimes
it make the mainboard system defected (Can not booting up, only cooling fan
runing). ECS has to replace A928 mainboard, but now they already sold out
this mainboard which cost was about US$200. I can repair the minboard to
components and already fixed a lot. Some were fixed already over a year.
The connector does't need to be replaced to another kind (keep to use the
original AC adapter) but I have to change mainboard inside structure.
You can give me e-mail, (e-mail address removed). Thanks.

David
Toronto Canada

 

[Addicted]

Hi, i am the 10000000000th person that have problems with the negative pin.
Some technical assistance here (not ecs authorized) replaced the power conector, but, as some people said, there´s no images on screen and the power turns on and the fan keeps rotating. Is my motherboard F*** UP? Or can be a CPU fail? there´s st i can do or the inevitable fate to my MB is the thrash?

Thanx everyone.

 

[PrimaryMaster]

Hi, i fixed mine myself and before i fixed it i had the same problem with you. It was the hard drive causing it probably, it was gone coz of the damn melt plug thing. I also would remove the cpu, hard drive and memory and put them back on to see which causes it but the screen wouldn't still show...

 

[Addicted]

Hi, i fixed mine myself and before i fixed it i had the same problem with you. It was the hard drive causing it probably, it was gone coz of the damn melt plug thing. I also would remove the cpu, hard drive and memory and put them back on to see which causes it but the screen wouldn't still show...

Hi, I think this cannot be a HD or Ram fail, because a pc can boot on with a piece of problem in this components... Should be a cpu or a motherboard fail, most probably the MB, caused by some overcurrent during the problems on the negative pin, damaging the circuits, or some chip on the MB.
Any repair here could become very difficult.... the technical assistance said me that was 5 burned components on my MB, and they didn't found all of then to sell (Muthaf** ECS).
only way is buy another mb, if you find one..
Good luck, leonardo.

 

[dc system]

Hi, i am the 10000000000th person that have problems with the negative pin.
Some technical assistance here (not ecs authorized) replaced the power conector, but, as some people said, there´s no images on screen and the power turns on and the fan keeps rotating. Is my motherboard F*** UP? Or can be a CPU fail? there´s st i can do or the inevitable fate to my MB is the thrash?

Thanx everyone.

I can fix this problem of your A928.

David
(e-mail address removed)

 

[supply]

Hi, all,

I met the same problem with my iBuddie 4 laptop. Power cord melt, pin pulled out. And I tried to ask COMPUSA to fix it. but they have never met the melt connect end issue. Compusa suggested me to contact the manufacturer, because it is definitely the design flow. Is there anyone solved the issue either with the vendor or manufacturer?

Many thanks,

Andrew

 

[tjssmith]

question to all: doe's anyone out there have an old battery for the desknote they want to sell, and do you know if the plug in the battery is the same one that is in the desknote? Battery model number ( EM-929L ).

terry, thanks
(e-mail address removed)

 

[djjones69]

Hey,

I'm new to these forums so bear with me. I recently bought an i-buddie USB 2.0 HDD housing (3.5'') and am having some troubles installing/using it. I have installed the driver(s) and although windows (XP home) says it is working I can't seem to be able to send anything to the 120GB hdd i have installed in it. Any ideas what i'm doing wrong????

Plus I appear to have not received a 'user guide' so if anyone has a copy they can e-mail or post I would be extremely grateful. Thanks

Dan

 

[dc system]

Hi, all,

I met the same problem with my iBuddie 4 laptop. Power cord melt, pin pulled out. And I tried to ask COMPUSA to fix it. but they have never met the melt connect end issue. Compusa suggested me to contact the manufacturer, because it is definitely the design flow. Is there anyone solved the issue either with the vendor or manufacturer?

Many thanks,

Andrew

Hi,
I can fix this common problem of i-buddie A928. Please contact me at (e-mail address removed) and (416) 788-6788

David

 

[dc system]

I have a A929 and I recently changed a few things in bios to help with the performance. Normally if I mess something up it just doesn't come on and I reset it and the bios returns to defaults. Well I messed with the Latency of the ram and I believe that has rendered my DeskNote useless. Now when I power it up it just sits there with a blank screen. No LED lights flash at all, the only thing that is on is the power LED and the whirl of the fan.

Is there some way I can reset the bios externally?

Thanks for the help.

Adam

Hi,
I can fix this problem. It is ibuddie desknote common problem, I already fixed some.
I can be contacted at (416)788-6788 or (e-mail address removed)

David

 

[dc system]

Hi,
I can fix this problem. It is ibuddie desknote common problem, I already fixed some.
I can be contacted at (416)788-6788 or (e-mail address removed)

David

 

[bobbajob]

has anyone had problems getting the LAN port to work. Previously this desknote had a dial up connection that worked fine,now broadband wont function.I have re installed XP and still no joy.Device manager tells me the the device is working.I'm confused.

 

[iwik]

hi,
Make sure firewall in turned off.XP SP2 turns this on automatically.
Goto Start then- Connect to -Show all connections- Right click on Lan icon and click on properties-
then hit Avanced- then settings and turn off Firewall.
With this on i could not get my lan to work after doing a new install.Hope this helps,let us know how you get on.Take care.
Les

 

[frognipples]

I had this problem a while ago and posted back in the early pages. Anyway I need a hard drive for my ibuddy. Anyone want to sell one or know of somewhere other than the manufacturer where i can get one. Lastly, does it have to be the desknote's exact hard drive or will other laptop harddrives work at all, anyone know? Thanks

(e-mail address removed)

email or post if you can help me out

 

[pjm_90041]

I had David Cai in Toroto fix my i-Buddie (A928) when it had the same power cord melting problem that many people here seem to have reported. He fixed the problem promptly and courteously (apparently by replacing some chips), and my computer has worked flawlessly for a week now since getting it back. I would recommend him. I'm sure his price was cheaper than I would have paid through ECS to get the same repair work done, even including the hassle of shipping to and from Toronto.

-Paul M
Los Angeles, CA

 

[tjssmith]

has any body had a problem with an ip address 68.242.108.90 trying to hack into your computer ? for quit some time i have and can not track it to it home location, the reason i ask my ip address real cloose. i also know some others how have ibuddies with near the same ip address's. just a thought, maybe ecs tring to trash there own systems to keep from repairing them, think about it who else would know your ip address better than them.