i-Buddie 4 Desknote Review

Help!

I need your help. Rather desperately.

I know virtually NOTHING about computers except how to use one for everyday word-processing, etc. My ex was the techie in the house. This same ex bought me an i-Buddie 4 almost 3 years ago and this past weekend it completely died. And I thankfully stumbled upon this site.

I have been reading through some of the previous messages and it seems that my desknote is/was afflicted with some of the same problems other users have had. The power adapter had been getting increasingly VERY hot, and now seems like it has 'melted' into the port; I can't remove it and don't want to force it. This past weekend, it all of a sudden shut down and started rebooting over and over. I shut it off and tried again the next day. It did the same thing, rebooting on its own, then it simply shut down. Now I can't even turn it on. I have taken it to several repair spots in town and no one has a clue what to do with it, nor have they ever heard tell of a 'desknote', etc.

It is still under warranty but I have no idea where to send it to get it fixed. I am no longer in contact with my ex and I have no idea where he bought it. Virtually no paperwork came with the thing so I am at a loss as to who to contact next. After reading what you have all said about ECS, I am not very optimistic about sending it to them. David Cai sounds like a magician, but I do not want to pay for repairs that should be covered under warranty.

Any advice??
 
Save the aggravation, bite the bullet, and send it to David. It's not worth messing around with ECS, warranty or not. Very good machines, other then the !?*##$%! power plug.
AL
SDM said:
I need your help. Rather desperately.

I know virtually NOTHING about computers except how to use one for everyday word-processing, etc. My ex was the techie in the house. This same ex bought me an i-Buddie 4 almost 3 years ago and this past weekend it completely died. And I thankfully stumbled upon this site.

I have been reading through some of the previous messages and it seems that my desknote is/was afflicted with some of the same problems other users have had. The power adapter had been getting increasingly VERY hot, and now seems like it has 'melted' into the port; I can't remove it and don't want to force it. This past weekend, it all of a sudden shut down and started rebooting over and over. I shut it off and tried again the next day. It did the same thing, rebooting on its own, then it simply shut down. Now I can't even turn it on. I have taken it to several repair spots in town and no one has a clue what to do with it, nor have they ever heard tell of a 'desknote', etc.

It is still under warranty but I have no idea where to send it to get it fixed. I am no longer in contact with my ex and I have no idea where he bought it. Virtually no paperwork came with the thing so I am at a loss as to who to contact next. After reading what you have all said about ECS, I am not very optimistic about sending it to them. David Cai sounds like a magician, but I do not want to pay for repairs that should be covered under warranty.

Any advice??
Click to expand...
 
Ecs 980

Hey
i havent had any big problems with my desknote so far, except that my screen has like 4 desd pixels.
anyways, i want to ask you guys if any of you have been able to play counterstrike: source on an desknote 980.. i can play it, but its incredibly slow... (lag up to 300!!) i guess its some graphic card problem..
and for the grond prong falling out, i'd recoment you that you pull the plug out as seldom as possible, and if you have to pull it, wait until the plug is cool ( turn the pc out for a few minutes before pulling it out) since the plastic is weaker while hot.
Dont know what else to say.. you guys seem to have a lot of problems with it, im getting scared that my desknote might just randomly feel like not working some day (seems like this series kinda suck) :(
 
Need Advice

Hi to all,

Our company has bought a bunch of a928s since late 2002. We have been (extremely?) fortunate enough that practically all the units are working fine except for one that has been abused substantially.

However one unit has a PCtel HSP56 modem instead of the standard Conexant. We have not been able to obtain any driver for that, even from ECS Taiwan. Would really appreciate if there is anyone who can advise us on where to obtain the driver (for Windows XP).

Also, the keyboard labels on several units have literally faded away leaving the keys blank and unlabeled. As not all of our staff are touch typists, several of them have problems typing on the units. Has anyone had the same problem? Would appreciate any input.

Thanks in advance.

BR


Jeffrey
 
Deskbook fixes!

Hi, I just wanted to let you know that I have now installed PC2700 (yup 2700!) LOW density, 1 gig ram chip, and it works PERFECTLY in my deskbook! It's also MUCH faster, and video graphics render a LOT quicker than they ever did before. (set memory speed in cmos to 166 mhz) I got the memory chip here:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6765186585

(ebay id: qualityrams , I have NO financial interest in posting his name, just being helpful, as he was good and cheap) and he was very fast on shipping, and more than $30+ dollars cheaper (even with shipping) than the best memory internet site had quoted for the same memory chip. I also bought the copper memory coolers that clamp onto the memory chip, and it still fits in the memory slot, and I was able to screw down the plastic cover just fine. I permanently set my swap file to 250meg, as some programs didn't like it when I tried to go completely without a swap file, hoping they would just completely use the faster ram. I haven't received the 2.8 ghz processor yet, so haven't upgraded that, I'm running on the original 2 ghz processor. I've now been running on this memory chip for 3+ weeks, and it has absolutely been rock solid!

By the way, one of the plastic legs on the bottom broke off a long time ago, so I took the screw cap off of a pop bottle, and glued it to the bottom of the deskbook, in the middle of the plastic harddrive cover! It works perfectly, and has never given me a lick of trouble. I also permanently glued the other leg in the extended position, and it's never broken off, or caused any trouble after being glued. I also have upgraded the harddrive to a toshiba 80 gig model, and it works perfectly. I have never, ever removed the power cord, so I haven't experienced the "melted power cord" issues other seem to have. That connection also never gets hot to the touch as others have reported.

All in all, I have been extremely happy with my deskbook, and I've had it for two years now. I have fully upgraded all drivers from SIS website: http://www.sis.com/download/ (use the scanner "identify the model number of sis products" link on the right side of the page, it'll tell you your chipset, and use that info to download the proper drivers).
 
Last edited:
Nearly Fixed Laptop

I am a highly indebted student who acquired an inoperable A928 with a melted connector. I do not have the money necessary for any professional repairs, so I need to fix it myself. The previous owner claimed that it worked fine before it melted. She opened the unit herself and, consequently, many screws are missing.

I am currently experiencing nearly the same situation as described in post #212 of this thread by vanhorn on 30-03-2005. I cut the wire coming from the power supply and soldered it to the motherboard directly. After reassembling the unit, and pressing the power button, the power light on the left edge of the case illuminates, the fan starts, and the disk spins and seeks briefly, but no image appears on screen. The unit just sits there with its power light illuminated and fan spinning. The system shuts off if the power button is held for five seconds. No other button combinations appear to result in a response.

I would greatly appreciate any advice. Thank you,

Robert
 
Robert,

I just recently recieved my laptop from David Cai of canada. My laptop was fixed, and to be honest some preventive action was actually done. My laptop was showing symptoms of over heating and David corrected the problem. Total out of pocket cost was just under 150 dollars us. That included shipping there, back, and the repair. It was really worth it.

Unfortunately you are in a bind, but what ever you do, dont try to fix it yourself. Usually when you cut corners to save a buck, you just end up screwing yourself. I would love to see a class action law suit against the company, however in the mean time, get a professional to fix it.

Eric De Ford
(e-mail address removed)
 
Many thanks to the people posting in this forum.

My A928 suffered the same melting-plug problem discussed here, and the advice given in the forum was very useful.

Lucky for me that I live in Toronto. I e-mailed David Cai Tuesday night, and got a prompt reply. We arranged for me to bring him my broken machine Wednesday, and he fixed it in a couple of hours. A nice guy, and he really knows what he is doing. From talking with him, I got the sense that he takes good care of people who aren't so lucky as to live in T.O. He makes sure the shipping is as cheap and fast as possible.

So I recommend him : he's competent, trustworthy, and he is the expert on A928 meltdowns.
 
Weird clicking.. HD?

Hi all,
I purchased an i-Buddie 4 as well, and it used to work fine. i tends to get very hot, but i have't experienced the plug problem really (even though that thing is CRAZY hot). Sure, it's alittle meldet, but i just don't pull it out.
The problem that i have is, it just shuts down, and reboots on it's own. Now there's some weird clicking, and i have lots of trouble working with it. It's slowly but surely dying on me. Since i don't know much about computers, i asked some ps friends, and they all say, my HD is breaking down.
So i went to go buy a new one 60gb, but after reading all those posts, i am not sure anymore, if it's relly the HD that's messing up.. or if the CPU or whatever has been posted here.
Is this "clicking" normal? I think not. Is it really the HD?

I'll be happy about any response, i just don't know what to do with this desknote anymore.
Help please.

Thanks a lot in advance
 
Shorty82 : That is sounding something like some of the problems I had. I'm no expert, but I suspect its the overheated motherboard problem. First, you've got the connector melting. Second, as my problem progressed, my computer would shut off on its own a few times. Third, when my problem got worse, I had more and more trouble getting it to start up (until I couldn't get it to start up at all). And when I was having trouble getting it to boot, there was a clicking noise : just after I pressed the "on" button.
 
Weird clicking.. HD?

pampelmoose said:
Shorty82 : That is sounding something like some of the problems I had. I'm no expert, but I suspect its the overheated motherboard problem. First, you've got the connector melting. Second, as my problem progressed, my computer would shut off on its own a few times. Third, when my problem got worse, I had more and more trouble getting it to start up (until I couldn't get it to start up at all). And when I was having trouble getting it to boot, there was a clicking noise : just after I pressed the "on" button.
Click to expand...

Well the clicking noise I'm talking about is ALWAYS ( since a couple of days)...non stop.. and it's really hard to get anything working.. keeps on crashing, error msges and so on.
Soo.. I'm just wondering if it's even worth changing the harddisk or not. Cause otherwise I'll just throw this Desknote out.
Anyone?
 
Desknote A928 overheating fixed

I had been having the same overheating/melting plug problem with a Desknote A928 I bought on eBay. Having read about David Cai on this thread I contacted him. Excellent comms, and a very swift service at a reasonable price.

Following instructions elsewhere in the thread I took the machine apart first to remove the memory, processor, screen, drives etc, which made it less heavy and less valuable to post. I sent it from the UK to Canada care of Royal Mail, and it was back again within a couple of weeks.

It now works fine and does not overheat at all. However, the main plug is still dodgy and the machine will reset if it gets knocked, which is rather inconvenient. (I did try reshaping the plug with a file and some epoxy resin glue (Araldite) but no effect. I also considered buying a replacement PSU, but after a bit of fiddling around, I think it's more likely that the problem is with the chassis-mounted socket on the machine itself.

Any ideas on how to fix this would be much appreciated.

Jeff
 
A928 auto shut down problem

Hi,
I agree with pampelmoose. I fixed his A928 last month.
You could take out the hard drive firstly to test the computer system alone. It is not the hard drive problem if the desknote could not work over a half hour. Then maybe the system is overheat or the power system problem.
ECS ibuddie A928 desknote power system has the common mainboard design problem. It will slowly melt the AC adapter plug and the power jack on mainboard (the pin out) after about two years, sometimes it make the mainboard defective (Can not boot up, only cooling fan running). It is impossible to solve this power system problem by using a new AC adapter, its plug will be melt again soon. ECS does not how to fix this power system problem and has to replace A928 mainboard.
I can repair the mainboard to components, already found the solution and fixed a lot of A928 without replace the mainboard. Recently I found some different cases except what I said before,
1, No power, only the power signal green light flash then off;
2, No power, even the power green light not flash, but system working fine if connect to external monitor;
3, the computer auto shut down after work about ten minutes.
I already fixed a lot of A928 with power system problem. The power connector doesn't need to be replaced to another kind (keep to use the original AC adapter) but I have to change mainboard inside structure. If the laptop already can not boot up, then an IC chip on mainboard also has to be replaced.

To other models of ibuddie laptops, there are some common problems I fixed a lot recently:
1, Ibuddie - A900 or A901: the LCD screen no display, only show data but no back light;
2, Ibuddie - A929: not boot up, only cooling fan running or only the power signal green light on.

Hope I can help ibuddie laptops' users.

David Cai
Tel: (416) 788-6788
E-mail: (e-mail address removed)

Shorty82 said:
Hi all,
I purchased an i-Buddie 4 as well, and it used to work fine. i tends to get very hot, but i have't experienced the plug problem really (even though that thing is CRAZY hot). Sure, it's alittle meldet, but i just don't pull it out.
The problem that i have is, it just shuts down, and reboots on it's own. Now there's some weird clicking, and i have lots of trouble working with it. It's slowly but surely dying on me. Since i don't know much about computers, i asked some ps friends, and they all say, my HD is breaking down.
So i went to go buy a new one 60gb, but after reading all those posts, i am not sure anymore, if it's relly the HD that's messing up.. or if the CPU or whatever has been posted here.
Is this "clicking" normal? I think not. Is it really the HD?

I'll be happy about any response, i just don't know what to do with this desknote anymore.
Help please.

Thanks a lot in advance
Click to expand...
 
Downclocking to reduce heat

Hi,

Another update on my i-Buddie 4. I have had it back from David for a while and it has worked great. Thanks David! I also discovered the option of overclocking in the BIOS. I overclocked my P-4 2.4GHz to around 2.8GHz. I just did this for fun, and would not recommend it, esp to those who have not had their A928s fixed by David. However, I decided to underclock my 2.4 to 1.6, in order to reduce heat. I have barely noticed a difference in normal work (I have not tried video rendering yet). Now when the CPU usage is up to %100, the fan barely goes much louder than normal.

Has anyone else tried over/under clocking?

Umiwangu
 
umiwangu said:
Hi,

Another update on my i-Buddie 4. I have had it back from David for a while and it has worked great. Thanks David! I also discovered the option of overclocking in the BIOS. I overclocked my P-4 2.4GHz to around 2.8GHz. I just did this for fun, and would not recommend it, esp to those who have not had their A928s fixed by David. However, I decided to underclock my 2.4 to 1.6, in order to reduce heat. I have barely noticed a difference in normal work (I have not tried video rendering yet). Now when the CPU usage is up to %100, the fan barely goes much louder than normal.

Has anyone else tried over/under clocking?

Umiwangu
Click to expand...


I have been running a 2.8 @ 107MHz for some time, very stable (and fast) 3.0 GHz. Cooler pad recommended, internal fan runs at low speeds only when setting a top one. Power the pad from a source other then the USB port if possible, use a Xformer or a Powered USB hub.
 
Short in headphone jack?

Thanks for the info albroswift. I have thought about using a cooling pad, but have not really gotten around to it. How does it work with the A-928? I know the middle fan sucks air from underneath while the CPU fan blows downward. Which direction do your cooling pad fans blow? Up or down? and does it cover the whole bottom surface?

Another thing I forgot to mention is that sometimes, when I pull a plug (like headphones) out of the headphone jack in the rear, the system shuts down, not through Windows, but like the power was cut off. I think there must be a short somewhere back there. Has anyone else had this happen? It happens almost every time.

umiwangu
 
umiwangu said:
Thanks for the info albroswift. I have thought about using a cooling pad, but have not really gotten around to it. How does it work with the A-928? I know the middle fan sucks air from underneath while the CPU fan blows downward. Which direction do your cooling pad fans blow? Up or down? and does it cover the whole bottom surface?

Another thing I forgot to mention is that sometimes, when I pull a plug (like headphones) out of the headphone jack in the rear, the system shuts down, not through Windows, but like the power was cut off. I think there must be a short somewhere back there. Has anyone else had this happen? It happens almost every time.

umiwangu
Click to expand...

The cheapest fan from office depot, 2 fans sucking downward and exausting out the back, smaller then the A928 footprint but laptop sets on it fine. USB powered, I run it off a powered hub as to not draw any more current through the machine then necessary (for obvious reasons). I have seen other coolers that come with a plug in power supply. Maybe when you pull out the earphone jack you are disturbing an already weak power connector?
Luck--
AL
 
umiwangu said:
Thanks for the info albroswift. I have thought about using a cooling pad, but have not really gotten around to it. How does it work with the A-928? I know the middle fan sucks air from underneath while the CPU fan blows downward. Which direction do your cooling pad fans blow? Up or down? and does it cover the whole bottom surface?

Another thing I forgot to mention is that sometimes, when I pull a plug (like headphones) out of the headphone jack in the rear, the system shuts down, not through Windows, but like the power was cut off. I think there must be a short somewhere back there. Has anyone else had this happen? It happens almost every time.

umiwangu
Click to expand...

I know the headphones output problem:

the A-928 allows digital sound output (S/PDIF) through the headphone output. When S/PDIF-out is enabled and you pull the plug from your headphone output the A928 will shut down.

solution:

disable the "S/PDIF output" option in the sounddriver.

Sebastian
 
Thanks, but...

-albroswift... I thought that the fan in the center of the laptop sucks in. If the laptop cooling pad blows down, does that stiffle airflow? But I guess since it keeps it cool, that is the best. I have had the power issue repaired by David Cai, so I am not sure if that is still affecting the headphone/shutdown thing. It did it both before and after.

-baruwaru... That sounded like a good idea, but when I checked my SiS 7012 system tray utility, the S/PDIF option was unchecked. The attachment shows what it looks like now. So... I wonder if it could still have something to do with it.

Thanks for the info.

Umiwangu
 

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David Cai

I had my Ibuddie 928 power plug issued repaired by David Cai last week. I brought it to David's office, I was nearby doing Citrix training in Toronto. David is very professional and had my 928 fixed in no time. It is running like a clock now and I am very happy with his service. I highly recommend David to anyone having the problems with their laptops. Thanks David
 
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