i-Buddie 4 Desknote Review

My i-Buddy A928 is equipped with a QSI DVD/CDRW SBW-081 NK01 drive. It stopped reading music CDs and CD Roms altogether. DVDs run fine still. Searching through the net, I found that others have had this problem. Has anyone here had it and could offer solutions?
Thank you in advance for any help.
 
Yeah, the QSI's a piece of junk

I had the same trouble with my drive too. Actually when I first got it I had trouble writing CDs. About a year after I had it, it started to have trouble with commercial DVD movies (DVD-9). Then it quit practically all together. I think it can still read DVD-R's, but I don't use it any more. It is really a bummer when you want to copy something from someone else, and then, oops, it doesn't work. I don't think you can really do anything except get a replacement from ECS.

Umiwangu
 
BIOS upgrade?

I don't know if anyone is still watching this thread, but I thought I'd try.

Do your A-928's beep when they start up? My used to, until I first sent it to ECS to get fixed. When it came back, it didn't beep anymore. I looked in the BIOS and found that there was an option for it. After I sent to David for the real repair, it beeped again, and I can't find the option. Has anyone had any luck updating the BIOS on these things?

Thanks,
Umiwangu
 
Attn. A928 User

Hey A928 User,

I can't believe I didn't think about this before, but today I just thought about replacing my CD drive with an older one from another computer, and it worked! I used a slim CD drive from an old Dell Optiplex. The drive is basically the same when you take the proprietary pieces off. It is working now in my laptop. I want to take the DVD-Rom from my Mom's laptop and see if it works as well. I am really happy about this since not having a CD rom is a drag.

If you want pics or help with doing it, just post a reply here and I can send an email to you.

Umiwangu
 
What is the fastest CPU you got in there....929

What is the fastest CPU that the 929 will take? Or reply back and tell us what speed CPU that you have in yours.
 
A928?

I have a 2.4GHz in my A928. I don't know what core it has, and I know that this is not an A929, but just fyi.

Umiwangu
 
Hi Jeff,

Just a quick question to you (an the others). I am a Scottish guy living in Austria - bought my i-buddie in the UK and now am gonna send it to David. So Jeff, I know how shabby the Royal Mail are and was really interested in how you packed it to send it to David! Would you mind letting me know as the Austrian postal service could rival the Royal Mail for incompetance! :-)


Thanks!


Neil
 
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counterstrike source

I wonder if anyone has been able to run counterstrike: source on an ECS laptop ( I own an A980 with 2.8 GHz and 1 GB RAM, but my graphic card is just the onboard shared RAM the computer has.. turned it up to 64 MB) I get this awful latency though.. has anyone been able to run it with a reasonable latency?
 
My desknote is the 929 running the AMD 1600 mobile cpu.

What is causing the heat at the plug is a poor negative connection, it arcs a little over to the positive pins. That is what is causing the heat at the plug. Take your car battery and connect the positive and negative wires together and you get the picture. I fixed mine myself, new negative connection. Now the temperature at the connected is cool.

Then, I was having an occasional problem everyonce in a while with the blue screen of death. I thought it may be the ram. Tried a few sticks I had on hand. Nope, I found out that it was anytime I connected anything to the USB port, and the laptop went into standby, it wouldn't come out of standby. I connected a USB to Ethernet adapter to see how it would work and ran a ethernet test and it would fail or the blue screen would appear. IF nothing was connected to the USB ports then it operated fine. So I just went to Via.com.tw and got the latest driver for the USB. And that did the trick. So I recomnend to all 929 and 928 users, upgrade your USB drivers to the latest one. Its nice having no problems.
 
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umiwangu said:
I don't know if anyone is still watching this thread, but I thought I'd try.

Do your A-928's beep when they start up? My used to, until I first sent it to ECS to get fixed. When it came back, it didn't beep anymore. I looked in the BIOS and found that there was an option for it. After I sent to David for the real repair, it beeped again, and I can't find the option. Has anyone had any luck updating the BIOS on these things?

Thanks,
Umiwangu
Click to expand...


Here is a link to all the bios upgrades for the A928. There are a bunch of them there, and one of them fixes the too loud beep problem. i would try the latest one, it will have all the fixes in it.

http://www.ecsusa.com/downloads/bios_a928.html
 
A928 Repair - David Cai

I have just recently had the power supply problem repaird by David Cai. David was extremely professional and helpful during all parts of the transaction. Sending my A928 to David was the easiest and surest way of getting things back on track with my A928, which I depend upon heavily for school work, and I would recommend David for any A928 repair work.

Noah Hopkins
Texas State University
San Marcos, TX
 
i-Buddie Repair by David

I also sent my i-Buddie off to David for repair. Thank goodness I found this site! This was the second repair I've had done to this notebook. The first repair was replacing the port where a cable modem cord connects. ECS did this for a $35 charge (which wasn't too bad except it cost that much just to ship the unit to California!). I could fill up an entire page with similar rants about this computer that others have voiced (such as the shipping cost for a new power cord, etc.) but it's pretty much been said. Anyway, I found David through this forum ... he promptly answered my e-mail. I shipped the unit to him, he fixed it and sent it back ... AND IT WORKS like new! I wasn't ready to throw a ~$1.5K computer in the trash ... thanks to David I didn't have to. I recommend him highly for fast, professional and friendly service! (could use some folks like him here in the Washington DC area!)
 
Here is is one I haven't seen posted yet, Last night when I tried to shut off the a928 with the on-off button, it wouldn't shut down. I went to start-shut down and it shut off, but now it wont start/ turn on. Probably a faulty button, any experience with this problem? Computer has already been to David once, fixed the melted plug problem, guess it will get another trip to Canada. Computer is 5 years old now.
 
i-buddy - Another repair by David

After a long search for what might cause the cable-melting problem on my laptop, I found this discussion and the postings about David Cai being able to fix the A928. I have shipped the laptop to Canada, he fixed it and shipped it back immediately. I strongly recommend David for fixing A928 problems - you can save yourself a lot of frustration by making use of this decent, reliable service. His e-mail address is y.cai @ sympatio dot ca

(mucks edit: for his security please don't post email address, you can all read what it says, but the 'robots' can't ;) )
 
seems like you guys have a lot of trouble with your a928's... I have an A980 which doesnt give me much trouble, a few program crashes here and there, but nothing to get to worried about, my plug never gets hot, and had never been close to melting (I always let it wait for a few minutes after turning off to unplug that wire just in case) on the other I dont have a graphic card on nthis computer ( just the shared graphic thing that comes with the computer).. been thinking that maybe your computers overheat so much due to the graphic card? That's the only difference I see between my computers and your, I have mine overclocked and all and doesnt overheat much...
 
Short in plug area

David fixed the laptop twice now but the three prongs of them is loose and it has a short in it. If I decide to send it back this will be the third time. I got it back it work for a long time and then when I stated taking the power cord out it would eventually would just die. Davis sent it back on 1 june 05 and it has a hard time powering up if the cord is not in the right place. In all fairness to David he did fix it both times. But now I need the three prongs fixed. Any suggesstions.


Tom
 
Short in plug area

David fixed the laptop twice now but the three prongs of them is loose and it has a short in it. If I decide to send it back this will be the third time. I got it back it work for a long time and then when I stated taking the power cord out it would eventually would just die. Davis sent it back on 1 june 05 and it has a hard time powering up if the cord is not in the right place. In all fairness to David he did fix it both times. But now I need the three prongs fixed. Any suggesstions.


Tom
 
Now my A980 is almost dead. The ping melted again, had it fixed, but now only the fans starts, but it doesn't display anything on LCD...No BIOS, nothing. Started and stopped the computer several times and once it started. If anyone knows hot to make it run again...send me an email. PLEASE...
 
FIXED as we speak I Buddie 4 928a

Thank God for Google, PC Review and David Cai

It would have not been like this a few years ago.

I now live in Mexico ( Ajijic 40 minutes south of Guadalajara on Lake Chapala ) ( Retired )

My wife is in Toronto visiting and dropped off my I Buddie with " THE " problem. In two hours David Cai had it fixed.

It ran all night without one reboot.

David , you are very competent professional and also a very fine young man.

Hope to see you in Toronto on my next trip

PS Thanks to you'all as well
 
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