I've had my A51m for 6 weeks now, so I thought I'd post a final review of the entire experience.
I ordered the system on Dec 11, and recieved it on Jan 22, which seems pretty long but I figure was mainly due to the holidays. During the order process my daughter convinced me to go Cyborg Green instead of Silver and there was a change in the pricing so green was $30 cheaper ($100 instant discount vs $70 free shipping), so I called and they made the change for me. This was in Phase 3 so it shouldn't have made any difference in delivery.
So on Jan 22 I get my nice black box from FedEx delivered to my next door neighbor, and I wait all evening till about 8 and finally look up on FedEx's web site and see her signature on the 'Delivered' package! I go over and get it, take it home, set it up, turn it on, and start answering Windoze 2003 Pro's questions. One thing I noticed right off is instead of Computer Gaming magazine for one year I get a letter saying 'Sorry Charley, you get this piece of paper instead of the subscription'. Needless to say, I was pissed. I also noticed that they sent me a DVD+RW not a DVD-RW as they spec'ed on the order, with no notification. They even had DVD-RW on the packing slip.
I get to the point of setting up the wireless and start having problems, so I call AW Support. Surprisingly enough, they had me talking on the net in about 5 minutes. I got off and continued setting the system up, enjoying my new toy, and it freezes, disk drive starts making a clicking noise. I finally got irritated and rebooted, but it wouldn't come up.
I called AW back and spent a couple of hours or so on the phone, removing the cables from the disk drive, plugging it back in, booting off CDROM and trying to format the drive, finally they gave in and shipped me a new hard drive, which got there in two days. I installed it, loaded up Windoze, but found that they hadn't shipped me a Utility disk with all the drivers on it.
Another call to AW, they ship that disk plus a few other missing ones (Nero, etc), and in 2 days I get those. I was able to continue loading using a wire to my router and download all the drivers off their excellent web site, but I was unable to get the A/B/G internal mini-PCI wireless to work, at all.
I spent many nights on the phone with them, trying to diagnose my wireless problem. They even had me turn WEP off on my router, which I insisted was not a GOOD THING, and fought them on, but they would not continue to diagnose my problem unless I did. It didn't fix the problem. Finally, after three days of this they sent me out another card, which got there two days later, and did not fix the problem.
After many more days of trying to resolve this issue they asked that I send the laptop back to Depot maintenance. I was very against this due to the failed disk drive that I originally had, but finally gave in. I wanted a fully working machine and I was coming up to the 30 day refund limit, and I was
getting really pissed that I still didn't have a good working machine.
Depot was supposed to have a 10-12 day turn around. Mine took 3 weeks and they called me and told me that the laptop worked just dandy, oh, BTW the wireless doesn't work. DUH! They told me they were working to get a new card but currently had no fix for me. They had told me I was going to get a new motherboard when I had sent it in but I don't think they ever opened the case.
I was sitting there at lunch talking on my cell phone when the Depot called and tears were streaming out my eyes, steam out of my ears, and I was turning bright purple. The rep on the phone offered me a PCMCIA B only wireless card as a temporary workaround, which I refused, saying that I did not want to give them any inidication that they had in any way satisfied me. I asked how long it would be till a new card would be available and they did not have any estimate. I then asked them to return the system, keep the RMA open, and notify me when they had a fix.
I got it back in late February and called AW Customer Support, asking for a refund. They refused because the 30 day period had elapsed! My credit card company likewise couldn't do anything either since 60 days from the original charge had elapsed.
I had a PCMCIA Linksys card that I was using to get on the net and it was getting 100% signal, still zero out of the wireless internal.
So, after a week or so of setting up the system again with all my software (Depot had kindly reformatted my disk and reinstalled the system), I spent some quality time playing some games, which truely did rock, even if I did have to have that nasty yellow Ethernet cable hooked up.
Well, two nights ago I happened to go to the AW web site and check drivers and found there was a bright, shiny new WiFi A/B/G mini-PCI driver. I removed the old grungy one and loaded the new one up and 'WOOM'! I was on the net in minutes! 100% signal strength, 11mb/s transfer rate, everything working great! It even asked me if I wanted to turn off the Zero Config service. It didn't disable it completely though, so you still have to visit the control panel.
I was astounded. After all this, 3 weeks of no machine, a DRIVER PROBLEM? Don't these guys even test this stuff? I know my Linksys router doesn't have any issues as I have 6 devices of many brands hooked to it, and all work great.
Now, on a different note, the machine truely rocks. It's fast as can be, relatively quiet, pretty heavy, 16.1" screen rocks, and the integration of all the AW stuff (Adrenaline, Autopsy) seems pretty decent. It is a fair amount of work for even an experienced computer guy like myself to reload all the drivers properly if you have to rebuild it. Patching from MS is a big part of that. Documentation is pretty minimal.
I haven't sent in my Matrix $100 rebate yet, need to do that now. I wonder if they are going to honor it.
One thing I'm noticing is that the power cord, being in the back, makes it a bit hard to sit the thing in your lap. I have a Targus lapdesk, and it helps, but it gets pretty hot and is a handfull to keep on your lap with all the weight. I might have to break down and hook it up to my 21" monitor upstairs.
Sound quality is excellent. I especially like the volume control on the left side so you don't have to resort to the task bar if you are in a game.
Quake III. Simpsons, and Matrix are the only games I've played so far, but I have a bunch more to load, Sin, Halflife, Doom, etc.
I've ripped a CD or two, and it's blindingly fast. I haven't tried DVD-X Copy or Nero yet, but I expect really amazing performance there too.
Was it worth $3700 and two months to get a good machine, in the end I would say YES! Is it all I expected, absolutely. Is AW's support staff 'The Best', and is the 24x7 3 year plan worth getting. in my opinion, definately, they were always doing the very best they could to help even when I didn't agree with some of the decisions (WEP and Depot).
The hardware is top quality. I have no complaints at all there. Cost is high but about right compared to the rest of the market, and even equivalent desktop machines.
My only complaint is that this wireless card went out without proper testing. That much is obvious.
Anyway, I'm a proud new owner.
Marc
I ordered the system on Dec 11, and recieved it on Jan 22, which seems pretty long but I figure was mainly due to the holidays. During the order process my daughter convinced me to go Cyborg Green instead of Silver and there was a change in the pricing so green was $30 cheaper ($100 instant discount vs $70 free shipping), so I called and they made the change for me. This was in Phase 3 so it shouldn't have made any difference in delivery.
So on Jan 22 I get my nice black box from FedEx delivered to my next door neighbor, and I wait all evening till about 8 and finally look up on FedEx's web site and see her signature on the 'Delivered' package! I go over and get it, take it home, set it up, turn it on, and start answering Windoze 2003 Pro's questions. One thing I noticed right off is instead of Computer Gaming magazine for one year I get a letter saying 'Sorry Charley, you get this piece of paper instead of the subscription'. Needless to say, I was pissed. I also noticed that they sent me a DVD+RW not a DVD-RW as they spec'ed on the order, with no notification. They even had DVD-RW on the packing slip.
I get to the point of setting up the wireless and start having problems, so I call AW Support. Surprisingly enough, they had me talking on the net in about 5 minutes. I got off and continued setting the system up, enjoying my new toy, and it freezes, disk drive starts making a clicking noise. I finally got irritated and rebooted, but it wouldn't come up.
I called AW back and spent a couple of hours or so on the phone, removing the cables from the disk drive, plugging it back in, booting off CDROM and trying to format the drive, finally they gave in and shipped me a new hard drive, which got there in two days. I installed it, loaded up Windoze, but found that they hadn't shipped me a Utility disk with all the drivers on it.
Another call to AW, they ship that disk plus a few other missing ones (Nero, etc), and in 2 days I get those. I was able to continue loading using a wire to my router and download all the drivers off their excellent web site, but I was unable to get the A/B/G internal mini-PCI wireless to work, at all.
I spent many nights on the phone with them, trying to diagnose my wireless problem. They even had me turn WEP off on my router, which I insisted was not a GOOD THING, and fought them on, but they would not continue to diagnose my problem unless I did. It didn't fix the problem. Finally, after three days of this they sent me out another card, which got there two days later, and did not fix the problem.
After many more days of trying to resolve this issue they asked that I send the laptop back to Depot maintenance. I was very against this due to the failed disk drive that I originally had, but finally gave in. I wanted a fully working machine and I was coming up to the 30 day refund limit, and I was
getting really pissed that I still didn't have a good working machine.
Depot was supposed to have a 10-12 day turn around. Mine took 3 weeks and they called me and told me that the laptop worked just dandy, oh, BTW the wireless doesn't work. DUH! They told me they were working to get a new card but currently had no fix for me. They had told me I was going to get a new motherboard when I had sent it in but I don't think they ever opened the case.
I was sitting there at lunch talking on my cell phone when the Depot called and tears were streaming out my eyes, steam out of my ears, and I was turning bright purple. The rep on the phone offered me a PCMCIA B only wireless card as a temporary workaround, which I refused, saying that I did not want to give them any inidication that they had in any way satisfied me. I asked how long it would be till a new card would be available and they did not have any estimate. I then asked them to return the system, keep the RMA open, and notify me when they had a fix.
I got it back in late February and called AW Customer Support, asking for a refund. They refused because the 30 day period had elapsed! My credit card company likewise couldn't do anything either since 60 days from the original charge had elapsed.
I had a PCMCIA Linksys card that I was using to get on the net and it was getting 100% signal, still zero out of the wireless internal.
So, after a week or so of setting up the system again with all my software (Depot had kindly reformatted my disk and reinstalled the system), I spent some quality time playing some games, which truely did rock, even if I did have to have that nasty yellow Ethernet cable hooked up.
Well, two nights ago I happened to go to the AW web site and check drivers and found there was a bright, shiny new WiFi A/B/G mini-PCI driver. I removed the old grungy one and loaded the new one up and 'WOOM'! I was on the net in minutes! 100% signal strength, 11mb/s transfer rate, everything working great! It even asked me if I wanted to turn off the Zero Config service. It didn't disable it completely though, so you still have to visit the control panel.
I was astounded. After all this, 3 weeks of no machine, a DRIVER PROBLEM? Don't these guys even test this stuff? I know my Linksys router doesn't have any issues as I have 6 devices of many brands hooked to it, and all work great.
Now, on a different note, the machine truely rocks. It's fast as can be, relatively quiet, pretty heavy, 16.1" screen rocks, and the integration of all the AW stuff (Adrenaline, Autopsy) seems pretty decent. It is a fair amount of work for even an experienced computer guy like myself to reload all the drivers properly if you have to rebuild it. Patching from MS is a big part of that. Documentation is pretty minimal.
I haven't sent in my Matrix $100 rebate yet, need to do that now. I wonder if they are going to honor it.
One thing I'm noticing is that the power cord, being in the back, makes it a bit hard to sit the thing in your lap. I have a Targus lapdesk, and it helps, but it gets pretty hot and is a handfull to keep on your lap with all the weight. I might have to break down and hook it up to my 21" monitor upstairs.
Sound quality is excellent. I especially like the volume control on the left side so you don't have to resort to the task bar if you are in a game.
Quake III. Simpsons, and Matrix are the only games I've played so far, but I have a bunch more to load, Sin, Halflife, Doom, etc.
I've ripped a CD or two, and it's blindingly fast. I haven't tried DVD-X Copy or Nero yet, but I expect really amazing performance there too.
Was it worth $3700 and two months to get a good machine, in the end I would say YES! Is it all I expected, absolutely. Is AW's support staff 'The Best', and is the 24x7 3 year plan worth getting. in my opinion, definately, they were always doing the very best they could to help even when I didn't agree with some of the decisions (WEP and Depot).
The hardware is top quality. I have no complaints at all there. Cost is high but about right compared to the rest of the market, and even equivalent desktop machines.
My only complaint is that this wireless card went out without proper testing. That much is obvious.
Anyway, I'm a proud new owner.
Marc
