Contest #4 - "A Product That Sucked" - Sponsored by ASUS

[Rob Williams]

It's our birthday, so we are celebrating with some contests. This is the fourth and final birthday contest, sponsored by ASUS!

We want your dirty laundry for this one. The contest is simple, because just about everyone has been in this situation at one time or another. The task is an easy one -- write 200 - 500 words describing your experiences with a tech product that you purchased and wound up hating. Whether it was a product that simply didn't work, worked poorly or burst into flames, we want to hear about it. (Especially if it's funny.)

Write in a professional style; no cursing allowed. Spelling and grammar count here, just as they do in the professional world. Style and flair count for a lot as do good use of the English language and good grammar. Remember, the best work wins, so get writing and good luck!

Prize

The winner of this contest has a choice! ASUS was kind enough to donate a motherboard to the contest, but it's up to the winner to decide which one they want. If you have an AM2 machine in your upgrade sights, you can choose the Crosshair board. For Intel Core, you can go with the new Commando. Both are incredibly solid for enthusiasts thanks to their overclocking ability. This is really the biggest of all our birthday contests this year, so if you've been holding out, now's your chance. (Rest assured -- these prizes don't suck.)

http://deathspawner.net/guess_the_game/asus_commando_crosshair.jpg

Contest Details
Enter before 12:00AM, April 17, 2007
Contest open to visitors in Canada, USA and Europe.
Review must be at least 200 words, no more than 500 words.
Up to two entries allowed (both in separate posts for easier tracking)
Two product photos can be uploaded (through forums only) per review; this isn't required, though.
Five (5) finalists will be judged by Techgage staff
Contest winner will be selected at random from five finalists
The prize will be shipped within five business days of the end of the contest.
No one likes a sore loser – if you don’t win, don’t complain. We’ll delete forum posts that complain after-the-fact about the contest rules or the way judging was handled. We know that the criteria for this contest can be a tad subjective, but it’s our contest, and we can do what we want.
Forum membership is required for verification of e-mail address and contest entry submission. You will never receive e-mails from our forums.
Void where prohibited; residents of Canada may be required to answer a simple math question.
No Bull Policy: Don’t muck around with us when it comes to these contest rules, or you’ll be disqualified. We’re dead serious about this. It’s our contest, and we can do what we want.Post your entries in THIS thread. Only entries posted in this thread will be considered. Good luck to all who enter!

[Rob Williams]

Here is an example of what your submission should look like, but a true story:In the summer of 2005, I purchased what I believed to be the best "bang for buck" card at the time, BFGs smokin' 6800GT. Not only was the card blazing fast, it cost significantly less than the 6800 Ultra which offered only a pinch of extra performance. As it stands, I would be only using 1280x1024 resolution, so there was no need to go any higher.

For the first month, I had enjoyed the card quite a bit. Actually, I was in a state of euphoria for the entire first month simply because the performance was so jaw dropping. That was until temperatures began to go out of control. How bad were they? Imagine your video card reaching temps of 100°C and higher during gameplay. Yes, it was THAT bad. Needless to say, I RMA'd the card in reaction to fear. I didn't want that card burning my house down! Or at least heating the bedroom up past comfortable levels.

I received my second card.. brand new and ready to go. Was this card any better? Upon first boot, the card sparked up a storm and blew a fuse. In the process, it killed my monitor. After debating with tech support for a bit, I managed to get yet another new 6800GT in. Of course, I was wary to give another one a go, but it was fine. If 100°C temps can be considered fine! I RMA'd one last time... which was a quick process. I received my fourth BFG 6800GT and it idles at around 70° and goes beyond 90°C under stress.

Yes, that is one purchase I highly regretted.

[PapaMambo]

Well, my issue here is not with a product that sucks (per se), but with technical support that really blows. A few years ago - back when the earth was green, and no one had thought of optical mice yet, there were ball mice. Each mouse was essentially the same as the next - until Razer came along, with their BoomSlang series of mice. At the time, these things had UNHEARD of resolutions of 1000, or (gasp!) 2000 dpi, and were the most accurate, precise, smoothest mice on the planet. The fact that I live in Canada precluded me from getting these mice anywhere near me, so I turned to Ebay. I was able to get a BoomSlang 1000 dpi for a decent price, and was happy with it - for a year or so. I started having problems then with the scroll wheel which worked intermittently if at all. Having tried to do the usual sorts of things (updating drivers, reinstalling software, CLEANING the mouse), I was still stuck with a wheel that turned, but got me nowhere.

Coincidentally, this was the same problem I was having with Razer's tech support. In a string of emails (10+), I tried in vain to have this issue resolved. I didn't expect that they would replace the thing for me (nor did I WANT them to), but I did think they should at least point me in the direction as to how to fix it on my own. It turned out that they didn't support the BoomSlang any longer, as they had gone through a "restructuring" (ie bankruptcy), and they claimed that the new company had nothing to do with the old products (other than A - still selling them, and B - offering drivers on the same site they had up when I originally bought the mouse - I'm not at all sarcastic here am I?? :mad: )

Did I MENTION that I wasn't looking for a replacement? I wasn't even looking for warranty work, as the mouse had surely surpassed the warranty period. I just wanted to be pointed in the direction so I could fix it myself. Did I also mention, that when I originally bought this mouse that I bought it from "Razerguy" on Ebay.. I believe, though I may be mistaken - that this is the SAME Razerguy who is the proud spokesperson on the Razer website. How very convenient for them - and completely inconvenient for us poor schlubs who weren't able to get ANY sort of technical support from them during this time. I was eventually able (through searching of my own - no help from them, and no GOOGLE at that time) to find a website that posted how to's on how to disassemble, clean and repair the BoomSlang..

Thanks Razer! You really know how to treat your customers! :mad: I loved my Razer for a long time, and it's one of the most comfortable mice I've ever used - but I won't be buying another anytime soon.

[Babrbarossa]

Putting the Cat Down is Not Always a Sad Occasion

Some time ago, in the very early years of this millennium, I became the delighted recipient of an unusual device that resembled a miniature polar bear in repose, attached to a long wire with a ps2 connection on the end. My mother gave it to me while I was visiting home, and said that it had appeared at her office at some point, though she really wasn’t sure what it was. She did say that she had heard it was a miraculous little device that could read books. This sounded quite intriguing at the time, so I happily stowed this mysterious little creature in my duffle bag and brought it with me when I left.

As an exceedingly lazy person, I never completely unpack when I return from a trip, and so my hitch hiker remained forgotten in the bottom of that duffle bag for months. When I did finally stumble upon it, my interest was rekindled and I eagerly began exploring the mysteries of the literate polar bear.

My first major discovery, as I inspected the underside of the device, was that it was not a polar bear but a cat, according to the label. The label also verified that it was, in fact, an infra-red reader (or something like that). Satisfied that I had identified my specimen to species, I proceeded to attach it to my computer and began to poke its little infrared nose into books and magazines, imagining that it would be greatly relieved to be pursuing its true calling once again. However, there were no satisfied purrs or anything, for that matter. It seemed to have completely lost its sense of smell. After about an hour of fiddling with it, I decided a little internet research would be in order.

It took all of fifteen minutes of surfing to completely open my eyes to the true nature of my white cat. The first thing I discovered was its name: CueCat. The second was that it was not a useful device, but a reader for some sort of defunct system of barcodes used to represent internet addresses, and that it did not know how to read anything but these useless barcodes. The third thing I discovered was that my cat was not only useless, it was malicious, and conspired to collect and share all of my surfing and purchasing habits with some malevolent corporation. Bad Kitty!!

Needless to say, I took some pleasure in putting that particular cat down, and might have even taken pains to neuter it first if I had actually fallen prey to its nefarious machinations before ditching it. Today I decided to revisit the CueCat online to see what kind of legacy it had left. Apparently by 2005, after lawsuits and an almost complete lack of demand, this useless product was being sold off by liquidators for $0.30 each in lots of 500,000. There are still jerks out there trying to peddle them to unsuspecting techno-dummies as something that they need.

[BlindMonk]

I once bought two 4-pin to 6-pin power adapters for my video cards. After hooking everything together I gave power to the board and hit the on button. Instantaneously, the connection to the main card began smoking. I reacted quickly and cut power, but smoke had completely filled the case during the second or two that it was live and the adapter wires were melted and tattered while the plastic connector heads were browned. Was this a faulty adapter cable or did I fail to ground something? Near as I could tell only the cable was destroyed, and only that up to the 4-pin connector it was plugged into.

I re-checked all connections, got up some nerve to try again, and ended up destroying adapter cable #2 exactly like before. It's a sobering prospect to witness that silky smoke steam out of one's computer, especially when accompanied by that wonderful smell of things burning :(

The odds of me getting two faulty adapter cables in a row was very slim so I naturally worried about either the video card or the PSU, though the PSU had worked flawlessly for the past year (not to mention just two days prior when I replaced my old system with some new stuff) and I had used the same connector which powered the old video card.

In any event, the problem did turn out to be the adapter cable -- or rather, the entire line (http://www.link-depot.com/POW-ADT-PCIE.html) of adapter cables! Others had been running into difficulties with this as well, having to actually cut one of the wires to make it work properly. What I did was simply not connect the faulty wire to the PSU, and it now hangs shriveled and listless off the side of my video card to this day, working like a charm. See here (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16812189120) for information on how to get around this mischievous product should you happen to come across it yourself (this was the only such adapter sold at Fry's Electronics locations for a while as well -- and may still be -- so be careful). It's rather pathetic how I eventually had to ring up "tech support" from comment reviews on Newegg :rolleyes:

[sixgun]

I recieved a new product that really,really,really sucks, itis the new ADSL modem I recieved from Telus. The new 2wire ADSL 2770 HG-E modem is a pain in the butt. I had one heck of a time trying to find out how to access this modem to set it up the way that I wanted to.Even then I was having problems with it. I called some tech friends and we scoured the net for a couple of days and found out you had to go to tech support to get the required information and even they were very vague. Throughout our search we found out that this modem had hidden wireless access, so to the common user thier computer is running wide open to the net.This modem is definetly more pain than it is worth and I am going to stick with my D-Link DSL-300G which has given excellent service with no problems at all.

[aeromaestro]

A long long time ago, just before the age of dual core processors was a generation of gamers who were preparing their rigs for Battlefield 2 and beyond. I was such a gamer and the motherboard I had chosen to be the backbone of my system was the MSI K8N Neo4-SLI Platinum. It had state of the art SLI technology and an incredible design that would help to create a gaming euphoria unlike any conceived before. This thing was truly state of the art. It had SATA drive support, optical interfaces, on board 7.1 sound systems and most importantly a Northbridge fan which spun at a mind blowing 7000 RPM! Mind-blowing not because of the speed but because of what I wanted to do after dealing with MSI support when trying to replace it! I’ll get back to that….

The location of the Northbridge on this motherboard is directly underneath the video card slots. In fact its location is so amazing that only a handful of video cards will fit and in my case – I like so many before me, I picked up a 6800 GT SLI which fit snug right above the Northbridge fan. What I didn’t know when I conceptualized this setup was that normal fans spin at about 4000 – 5000 RPMs and that 7000 was on the high side. I also didn’t think that the Northbridge fan would have an aneurysm after 5 months thus creating my computer to sound like a can opener had been kidnapped and strapped to the inside of my case. Let’s visualize that for a moment. Picture the use of a can opener and now hear the sound of the shrieking motor as it tears open solid aluminum. That sound… Yes – THAT was my Northbridge fan!!

This experience was only the half of it. I purchased the motherboard in June 2005 and have replaced 2 Northbridge fans so far. Each fan gives a random timeframe before the evil can opener comes back. What’s also fun is that with the loss of air-flow from the evil shrieking scream, my video card’s own heat dissipaters send the heat to the Northbridge causing a system shutdown. This means!!! More mind-blowing tendencies, and I begin to sound like the evil can opener from hell!

MSI customer support was the other part of the fun. It seems that in California, MSI has no problem sending out replacement Northbridge fans for their clients. It’s the MSI support in Canada that ideally should follow suit. Well maybe after they learn to read. It took me about 20 emails in correspondence and 10 phone calls to explain to them that all I need is a Northbridge fan, that I’m quite capable of replacing it myself. They kept insisting that I needed to RMA the whole board. See I moved from Las Vegas to Toronto – Back to Canada where I’m originally from. This should be a moot issue when it comes to RMA processes but it seems to be quite the dilemma. Not just for MSI but for WD and BFG as well and many companies.

After many headaches and frustrations and 2 weeks of correspondence with MSI-Canada, I FINALLY got a fan shipped to me. It’s running nicely now. I’ve also ordered 5 more from MSI-USA which Mom will be sending me soon.

This mind numbing experience has taught me a great deal about the components one decides to get and the consequences and run-around one faces should one want to replace or repair one’s component. My advice: Get a US address! It helps to keep your mind intact! Oh and get a motherboard that doesn’t use a Northbridge fan or have one in place RIGHT underneath the exhaust for a high performance video card!

230

[aeromaestro]

This is the Altec Lansing AHS-515 headset. Here’s a review I wrote for it from where I purchased it:

“The sound quality is nice; the gold connectors are a bonus. The ear muffs are great because they don't hurt my ears. But the reason for a worst review is because it's made of very flimsy plastic and is extremely fragile. I've been a long customer of Altec Lansing and have owned several 502 and 602 headsets and they are by far better than this.

I've now gone through 2, yes 2 AHS515s because the right muff broke from the speaker portion. There are 3 small and extremely delicate tabs holding the speaker to the muff. Don't drop this headset, don't even pick it up. It's badly made. Don't get a flimsy headset. Get something made with rigid plastic.”

The Altec Lansing customer support is atrocious. It’s not nearly as bad as Linksys though! Is there a contest for the company that provides the lousiest customer support? AT is terrible. They could care less that I’ve spent hundreds of dollars on Altec components and surely don’t care about keeping me as a customer.

After I get this thing replaced, I will not be spending my money with Altec Lansing again. Very disappointing.



This is what the headset looks like online:
231


And this is what mine looks like now that it broke and is useless:
232

PS: Thank you for running this contest. Good luck to everyone. I really enjoyed writing my two entries. Thanks.

[CoolAlex]

In my first entry I want to describe you how miserable the service was when
i bought my HP Photosmart 850 camera.
When i bought it at first,everything seemed ok,but after a while,the camera's
defect started to be obvious.The thing was when I made photos in natural light,on the pictures appeared a dirt,always in the same place.After i figured this out,i went to the shop where i bought the photo camera and after waiting a week and a half,they brought me back a SECOND HAND camera,which was scratched all over the place and the protective cap the camera lens was falling off.Also the camera lens were moving left and right instead of standing still.I went mad and went again to that shop to get the camera back.
After waiting TWO Weeks! they gave me another SECOND HAND camera but this was already at the end of the guaranty.After a week of using it i realised that this camera too had a big scratch on the camera lens,but fortunately this is not seen in the photos i make.I also realised that the camera i last received was 2 year older than my first camera.Shame on you HP!
This is what i got after buying this 700$ photo camera!

[CoolAlex]

In my second entry i want to tell you a story about the problems i had with my Western Digital 80GB JB hard drive.After buying a new computer that contained this drive,9 months passed,and after a reboot,Windows Xp was not loading at all and was missing some files.
I went to the service and i told the guys there that i have checked and rechecked the hard drive and it was developing more and more bad sectors and lost more data.They had formatted it in one hour with a program that put zeros on the drive and after this SURPRISE!The drive had zero bad sectors.I went home very confused,because i lost a LOT of data from this process,i reinstalled all the programs BUT,after 2 months,the thing happened again.I was again loosing files and went again to that shop.They said if the drive develops software bad sectors,they cannot change the drive with a new one,so i must remain with the damaged one.
So,when i went home i decided to CRACK THEIR HEADS by damaging myself the drive,so the shop could change the drive.At home,i took a little screw driver and made a short between the hard drive's motor contacts.The drive went up in smoke,and the second day i went to the shop,gave the drive to them,and i luckily managed this way to get a new drive.

[moon111]

After months and months of saving, I finally was ready to upgrade from my Via C3 / Biostar MB system. At the same time, I got a chance to write a review on a SuperFlower PSU. Shipped from the other side of the planet, I received a beautiful looking unit. Took it out and a screw fell out. Nothing looked damaged so I hooked it up in my new system. Immediately it sounded like a electric motor that won't turn over. Now having to reset the motherboard didn't seem that abnormal after what it had been through, but my OS was toast as well.

After contacting SuperFlower, they sent me another unit which to this day is working perfectly.

[moon111]

One of the reason's I chose Intel was because GlobalWin asked if I'd like to review their new Super Conductor heatsink. Would I ever!!! Well the unit I ended up receiving had a little sticker on it, with the #1 on it. With the exact same mounting system as the stock Intel cooler, I tried to mount it. But the pressure I was applying was extreme. In fact, when the slotted screwdriver slipped and hit my motherboard, I almost cried. Thankfully it survived. Maybe it would be safer hooking it up with the motherboard out? Well I finally got it on, but my new motherboard was warped so bad it looked like it was smiling. I contacted GlobalWin and found out I was shipped a prototype by mistake. Hmmm... #1 maybe?

So after being electrified, gouged with a screwdriver, and even bent, never mind a few unsuccessful over-clocking attempts, my ASUS motherboard has never let me down.

[slugbug]

A few years ago when socket 478 was the shiznit, I decided to buy a new Gigabyte 8KNXP motherboard and build my dream PC. Everything ran fine for a while until one day I began experiencing a massive amount of windows errors etc. I tried a fresh install and swapping different parts to uncover the problem but was unsuccessful.
I applied for an RMA and removed the board to ready it for shipping. While I was waiting for the RMA to be authorized I decided to try one last thing. I reinstalled the motherboard in the tower and connected everything once again. I pressed the power button and the motherboard suddenly blew up in a puff of acrid choking smoke.:eek:
After the smoke cleared I took everything apart once again to find out what had happened. That's when I discovered I had accidentally mixed up the front panel firewire and usb port connections.:o The motherboard tray had a quarter sized scorch mark where a circuit had blown. Luckily Most of the other components survived my screwup.
Once I got the RMA number I decided I'd send it in anyway and see what happened. They told me the motherboard was not repairable and unfortunately they had no more available. I was offered a credit which I used to get a different motherboard and a Geforce 6200TC video card.
Suffice to say I haven't made that mistake since :o

[jadegato]

Two years ago I was building a pc from scratch for my sister. Since I upgrade every year and a half or so I build computers for my family out of the old parts. So I decided to buy a Linkworld 32302-C2222U Case which came with a 300 watt power supply for a whopping 22 dollars, a dinner cost more than that!

I set everything in the case up with an Epox and AMD Athlon 3000+ setup. The moment I turned it on it was roaring with its delta fan on it (those 37dba tornados, you know the one!). 30 minutes into the XP install the fan suddenly gets louder than a Honda civic with a fart can exhaust. It made little poof sound and the smell which did not leave my apartment was terrible.

The psu ended up overpowering itself somehow and burnt not only the Motherboard, Power supply and the RAM but upon putting the case aside the faceplate of the case broke off. After trying to RMA the motherboard and the ram which ended up with a run around and me not receiving anything back this quickly became a lesson which I will not forget and neither will my apartment. From that moment forward my cases were never made of anything but aluminum and I never purchased any psu which didn't have at least 10 positive expert reviews. Funny how 22 dollars destroyed 400+ dollars worth of computer?

[Gvidix]

Hi! First of all wanted to congratulate techagage with their 2 year birthday and of course with the fabulous competitions, that simply made me to write something!
So, about the happening! 2 years ago I was building my first PC, of course had some help, as I knew a few IT specialists. I was really confident about my knowledge when building the system, I had checked out the connectivity and the parts, everything seemed fine, also the guys claimed that everything would work fine.
Well got everything in place, everything checked, connected everything, even all the plugs in the wall socket! With everything done finally managed to press the power button -
At first I thought - Wow!!! What a quiet PC!!! No sounds at all!!! Note that the case had no lights or LED's what so ever!! But after 2 minutes, steering at the monitor I understood somethings wrong!! Pressed the monitors power button a few times, so did with the PC!! But nothing! Checked the PC again, yeah everything is fine!
Told the problem to my specialists, and asked to come, so that they could tell me the problem! And they said that everything is connected, but it still wont work!
Finally told my problem to my mate, he said have you really plugged everything in the socket?? I said: "Come and see for yourself!!" And he did, while he was checking the PC, I washed the dishes in the kitchen. While I was doing that, I heard him asking me:"Are you sure, you connected everything correctly ??" I said - Yes! , the specialists also said that everything is OK!! My friend: "Oh, I guess then, that the specialists and especially you are so stupid to not connect the power supply to the socket!!" :D

P.S. The system worked by the way!! Although after one year my PSU broke!!! It seems that I have been cursed from the very beginning !!! :D

But Till that the product that sucked - was me!!!

Cheers,
Gvidix

[Cjmovie]

My entry deals with a product manufactured by the same people furnishing the prize:
Every once in a while I find myself assembling a computer for a family member or friend. It seems that anything technological gets directed to me, so it was natural that when a person asked me to get a budget computer together I was prepared. I had seen a new budget ASUS motherboard available that packed a nice feature set: The A7S8X-MX. I paired it with an AMD Duron and had them shipped within the day. About a week later, after the late arrival of the CPU and another choice component, the hard drive, I assembled it in my workroom and powered on. I reach for the monitor cable and get it connected up to the board's integrated video adapter.
The screen flickers for a second before an ASUS logo appears. However, something is off; there are random streaks of white showing. In addition, the BIOS advances no further. No search for a boot device, and in fact, no sign of any life on the LCD. The first thing that comes to mind is either a CPU or RAM issue, even though I was lacking tell-tale diagnosis beeps. First action is to swap out both CPU and RAM with pieces I know to be working, ruling out the possibility of those two devices. Also, I disconnect all the IDE devices and remove the wireless card. To my dismay, nothing has changed except for possibly a speedier power-on.
With my first call to ASUS support, I'm instructed to return it for repair. I package it, send it, and wait. For 6 weeks I wait, before it finally comes back. The information slip simply reads “BIOS re-flash”. I attempt to power-on the computer, after re-assembling the entire desktop. To what was likely little surprise, I find the same glitch. A tech support call told me some old news – try another CPU. But I figured there's no harm in trying again. In my utter disbelief, I find that the CPU I had ordered originally worked! Well, almost did, at least. The motherboard recognized it at a speed 100MHz above its rating, so after some instability I had to manually clock the motherboard down. I install windows, and go through the usual load of unneeded driver installations from the CDs shipped with each device, most with more bloat than functionality. It seemed everything was working.
Well, everything apart from the sound. I spend half an hour trying to find a software issue with the sound until I attempt hooking headphones up into the case's front audio ports. Almost expectedly, I'm able to hear the song playing in iTunes. Figuring I'd already had enough of a problem with this motherboard, I hooked the speakers into the front port on the desktop and was done with it. From that day on, I avoided all low-end ASUS motherboards.. I've had issues with video cards manufactured by them as well, but that's an entirely different story.

Maybe if I win, I'll have a different opinion of the company :-)

[linnerd40]

Everybody has that “special” moment with a product where they realize that what they just bought is complete crap. For me, that special moment was with my first PC... an experience I won't, and can't forget.
<p>It all happened 2 years ago. I was getting my first computer: the X1000 bare bone from XoticPC configured with a ASRock P4i4GV motherboard, Socket 478 Celeron D, 512MB DDR RAM, 2x 40gig hard drives, a ConnectGear Wireless card and a LITE-ON CD Burner. The system arrived, and, full of excitement, I unpacked and set it up. Time came for the big moment: the power on. I pressed the power button and.... nothing happened. Slightly disappointed, but not discouraged, I tried a new PSU. That wasn't it, so I try some other stuff and it turned out to be the motherboard, DOA. Annoyed, I sent the motherboard back, and requested a new one. SIX weeks later, I got it, just to put it in an find that it doesn't work... again! That time, it seemed the board had shorted on power on, giving off a bit of smoke in the process. Another motherboard, dead. I was starting to regret having purchased this system. After sending the motherboard back, and waiting another six weeks, I finally had a working computer, well, just about. It turns out that the motherboard had blown the PCI slot with my wireless card too, and so, I had a dead wireless card. This was in no way the card's fault (I am actually still using the same model, and am enjoying it). So, I sent that in, and I get a new one, that time in only 4 weeks. Sadly, the PC powered on wasn't much better than when it was off. Mainly, I noticed a horrible grinding sound coming from one of the hard drives. Imagine the sound of a rock lodged somewhere in a chainsaw motor. So, I take that hard drive out, and luckily the other one still worked. It is then I notice that the hard drive is labeled as “REFURBISHED.” Wow, I am thinking now, this is really crap. So, I send that back too, and ask for an explanation of why I was being sold refurbished goods... to this day, I have not gotten a new hard drive or received an explanation, but that is another story. So, my parents bought me a new hard drive, and I was happy. Until, I found out that the motherboard, using a special AGP 8x graphics interface, (some AGI thing) did not like the GeForce 6200 graphics card I bought, especially not when running Linux. So, I took that out, and waited for funds for a new motherboard, which took a rather long time to collect. Regardless, after more than 16 weeks, 4 returns, and a graphics card I couldn't use, I finally had a fully working computer. And, it being my first computer, it remains dear to my heart. However, it really was a purchase that sucked.<p>

[Babrbarossa]

You might disagree, but I would argue that the only thing worse than a product that doesn’t work, is a product that…..well….sort of works. While the product that doesn’t work can induce some immediate heartache, it can be replaced under warranty or ditched for a better product. The product that sort of works will often function just well enough to keep us hanging on; give us just enough reward (like Pavlov’s dog’s) to make us keep on keepin’ on, and forgo that RMA just long enough for the warranty to expire. The effects of living with such a product vary but can include: grey hairs, ulcers, bloodied fists from pummeling said device or nearby surfaces, reduced life expectancy, and general malaise.

During the most intense years of post-secondary education, I had the great displeasure of depending on a particular ink-jet printer called the Epson Stylus Color II. This little demon printed about 0.5 ppm if any; used ink cartridges that cost a small fortune; had a despicable knack for printing in strange iconic dead languages; and loved to collect little lint balls on the printer head which rendered documents totally unacceptable for submission. I shared this printer in network with my college room-mate, and it seemed that just when I needed to print something most urgently, the thimbleful of ink that was contained in the ink cartridges was depleted, or it didn’t work at all. I must admit that my lack of tech-savvy at the time might have played some small part in my inability to unravel the mysteries of this printer, but really: it’s a printer, not a space shuttle. I am sure my room-mate and I weren’t alone in our hatred for this product. There were numerous occasions when, after pulling an all-nighter to finish a report with minutes to spare before the deadline that this printer let me down, sending me into fits of rage. All told, I would estimate that it cost me at least .2 on my GPA before that degree was finished.

In the end, however, the Epson Stylus Color II did provide me with one pleasant experience that punctuated my undergraduate degree in a most memorable way: On moving day, my room-mate and I grabbed our nine-irons and solemnly escorted that printer out to the back parking lot of the apartment. We proceeded to lay an “Office Space” style beating on that Epson that left it in a pile of broken plastic and silicon, and our neighbors blinking at us through cracks between drawn curtains. Since then, my former room-mate and I have gotten good mileage out of that recollection and now, almost ten years later, the nostalgia ALMOST makes the suffering seem to have been worth the memory.

[slugbug]

Another item I had that sucked hard was a refurbished Epson SC400 Printer, which I bought for $149 thinking I was getting a deal. It ran fine for a few months and then it gradually began to develop clogged heads which required frequent cleaning cycles. I swear I was wasting more ink unclogging the print heads than actually printing.

I finally had enough and took it in for warranty service. The technician said he would change the print heads, give it a good cleaning, and that I would have it back the following week. A week turned into two months and it was still not ready. During this extended wait I purchased another printer which was vastly superior and cheaper.

Ten weeks after I initially brought the printer in, they finally called to inform me that it was ready to be picked up. I went to retrieve it and and was shown a color printout which they claimed was printed with my newly serviced printer.

I no longer needed the printer so a friend offered to buy it from me. A few hours later my friend called me to say that there was a problem with the printer and that it would only print yellow. :mad:
I reimbursed his money and immediately brought it back to the store to raise hell.

The first question I asked was whether or not the print heads had been changed. The technician said no they had not and that only a cleaning had been done. When asked why he told me they would be, he denied ever saying it. I complained to the manager and was finally offered a new printer as a replacement.

I gave the replacement to my Sister, who owned it for two years until it died of stripped gear syndrome.

The morale of this story is, if a deal sounds to good to be true it usually is.

[NicePants42]

My excursion into crap-tastic product land began late last year, as I was building up a nice water cooled system with a red/black color scheme. I was looking for a decent fan controller that would fit in a 5.25" without looking like ass.

After considering many products from the simple Sunbeam Rheobus to a Crystlafontz LCD, I decided that the best looking unit seemed to be the Scythe Kama-meter. Not only did it have changeable aluminum bezels and several backlight colors (for it's nice, large display) ensuring that it would match any color scheme, it also had 4 temperature monitoring channels with probes included. The perfect combination of versatility in both form and function - all for $45. Modders rejoice!

The only question I had was how much wattage per channel could the unit handle – a question that wasn't answered on the packaging, the company product site, or any of the reviews I'd read of the product. Emailing the manufacturer yielded no response, but I did get a response from one of the guys who reviewed a unit. Together we concluded that designing such a versatile, highly featured unit with weak transistors would be incredibly stupid, and so I decided to risk it. Oh, the irony.

I have to say, the unit sure looked nice until about a week after installing it when I started to smell burning electronics and all my fans shut off. It turns out two 120mm fans on one channel is just too much for the transistors on this thing. Tech support took about 5 days and as many emails to reply, and no one there seemed to comprehend watts/channel. All I was told was that the unit was only designed for controlling up to four fans (1 per channel) and that I was supposed to know this because the box says 'control up to four fans'. Granted, the box did say that, but it also had a lot of Chinese all over it, the manual was terribly translated, and had though that there was a difference between specifying actual electronic tolerances and package marketing. Never-the-less, warranty is void by my own testimony.

This really gets under my skin – that such a well designed, feature rich and attractive product could be so blatantly hamstrung in it's core function. Have the designers never seen a dual 120mm radiator?? How much more would it have cost to use the same transistors as those used in the $15 Sunbeam Rheobus? Yet they opt instead to include temperature probes and changeable faceplates?! This, from the country who developed rockets, timepieces and seismographs centuries before the rest of the world?!

So for the past ~4 months now I've been rocking a $15 Sunbeam Rheobus with zero problems. Maybe some day I'll try and replace the transistors myself – might make an interesting write-up.

[PapaMambo]

Well, my second foray into craptastic parts... Let's see.. My current rig is (don't laugh it still works!!) an AMD Athlon XP 2600+, ASUS A7N8X deluxe motherboard, 1 gigabyte of OCZ Platinum el DDR 400 ram, and a Gigabyte Radeon 9800 pro 256mb video card.

I bought this system *gasp!* 4 years ago, but at the time, it was the cream of the crop, and I was making my first foray into building my own system. I thought I could get away with ordering just the motherboard, cpu, video card, and RAM, and "recycle" my old system parts that seemed to be serving me well. So, I ordered all of these parts from my friend who had a mail order supplier all hooked up. The prices were amazing, and I was happy as a pig in dark brown goo when it all arrived (the 9800 pro with 256 megs of ram had debuted the DAY I ordered it, so I was secure in knowing that I had the fastest GPU on the planet). But this amazing GPU meant I had to skimp in other areas...

With all these boxes lined up before me, I cannibalized my old system, keeping my old HDD, my old DVD rom, and my old NO-NAME 300 watt power supply in my craptacular beige box.. Did I say that the power supply was no-name?? I'm sorry, I'm mistaken. It's made by some company called "Deer" - just like Bambi.. I hook all the cables where they are supposed to go, stand back to look at my handiwork, and power the beast up.

Wait..... WTF? Why isn't this working? Turns out I thought my motherboard was DOA. I send it back, receiving another one, and go through the process again. WTF?? Still not working. Thinking ASUS had a bad batch of motherboards I send this one back. Along comes number 3. WTF???? Still no joy for me or my toy. I send this one back, and receive a fourth. If this one doesn't work I'm gonna cry, then take a sledgehammer to my system and send the whole damn thing back to ASUS. Before I power it up, a light goes on in my head.. Try a different power supply. I go to the local Mom and Pop Shop, drop a wad on an Antec 300 watter, hook it up and VOILA!! Everything works tickety-boo..

Pretty damn expensive way to find out that the crappy "deer" power supply I had should have be put down YEARS before like Bambi's mom. I now have a Thermaltake 420 in my system, and it's rock solid.

If there's a lesson to be learned from all of this, it's that when upgrading, you should be prepared to upgrade everything, not just the flashy "bling" that makes your computer look cool. The power supply is one of the most important components in ANY system, and I will never EVER skimp on one again.

[brajko2]

Hi to all of the people out there on techgage.
This new contest from Techgage is really interesting, so I decided to post my experience of my worst product I've ever used.

Two and a half years ago when I've finished college, I got my first job - and finally I was able to afford my new computer (I've used my P2-400Mhz for 5 years). And it's all from my own money! I thought that my my joy of new computer will never end! But was I wrong. I decided to buy P4-3ghz s775 (Prescott) with oem cooler, geforce 6600 Gigabyte passively cooled, PSU Tagan 380w with 8mm vent PSU & plain-old (better to say cheap) computer case.
Oh boy one of the worst mistakes I've ever made! I've paid the most for CPU about 240$ at that time. When I've assembled all the parts, and power-up my so called 'gaming rig'. I thought everything will go smoothly, but the problems just got started. After I've installed and configured all the new hardware they way is should be (I've reinstalled windows 2/3 times). But one bigger problem occurred, is the amount of noise that my new computer produced! Intel OEM cooler on maximum RPM + 2* 8mm ventilators on my Tagan (the other one starts when it's get extremely hot) - produced around 50-70 Decibels! And computer case was closed from all sides. When I've added 2 * 8mm ventilators, I've improved my cooling for about 2-3 Celsius :-(
I know when I launched motherboard monitor, CPU was around 75-80 (in winter)
I've spent first nights with my rig playing Far Cry and it was really horrible. I couldn't hear background noises or music because of the noise ventilators made with their rotation. I had to purchase headphone to be able to listen so something.
So that's when I decided to sell parts on second-hand marketplace one by one - and luckily everything went o.k. after that. It's just that my wallet was 'lighter' about 500-600$, because of my poor buying decisions.
So I promised to myself that I'll NEVER purchased any piece of hardware, before I read a review on computer magazine or on the internet. That's how I found about Techgage in the first place. I saw some news around the web, and here I am now,and checking new contest on a daily basis.

[Tech-Daddy]

You know em, and you love to hate 'em...


It is a shopping sensation like almost nothing else in the world. Most who know, never forget it. It can be both exhilarating and degrading… all in a span of 2 minutes. Dreams of electronic prowess mixed in with hopelessness and despair. It‘s mere name vulcanizes conversations into competitions of “Who has the worst experience?” and “You would not believe what I was told there!” Legendary deals mixed in with highly suspect hardware, grey market sales and the infamous “cult” that works there… I mean, “Come on!” They have multiple fan *hate* sites… (http://www.doofus.org/Frys/)

Any other retail institution would not last long, but to one company, it has not only survived…. It has thrived. Who could single handedly cause such a retail ruckus? None other than Fry’s Electronics! For those not lucky enough to know (or you may possibly be among the “blessed”), Fry’s Electronics can break you down…. then build you up… sometimes only to be crushed again. I, myself, am counted among the “walking dead”. Those zombies that can’t wait for the end of week Fry’s ad, tearing apart the “Fryday” paper to get to it! For those not in the know, it is like what walking into Toy R’Us used to do to us! We would stare with wide eyed amazement! Dreams, expectations… it was all there. So why is it that people look over the Fry’s ad with as much expectation as a Christmas morning (sorry Rob!)?? Why is it that… even though I have been burned, time and again by the deals at Fry’s… why do I continue to return?

It certainly is not the shopping experience. The “cult” that works there is an interesting lot. All wear black pants, white shirts, ties. None of them look like they should be wearing any of this… kinda like a dog in a jogging suit. You can, but it’s just wrong! Oh, and do *not* ask an associate for assistance or advice. 98% chance you are going to get a “guesser”. If the associate blinks more than 2 times on your question, walk away immediately! Shopping there is like a mental chess match that tends to toughen your will. Once you have your product you are home free, YAY!!! …. Nope! The check out procedure is a new level of degradation! Single file line that freezes you next to isles of impulse buys. 100’s of people on a busy day queued like cattle waiting to be branded and released. And GOD forbid you buy something defective! They have 50 registers open to take your money, but 4 or 6 open to give it back to you! And it appears refunds take more paperwork than the lost works of James Michener! And even after you have successfully navigated that emaciating experience… you have to queue up in the check out line *again* to have the receipt processed!!!


My brain has been “Fry’d”… I’m an addict, and the first step is admitting there is a problem!

[peti1212]

One and a half years ago, my dad decided to buy me a new computer. When I got my computer, I was really excited because now I could play a bunch of new computer games that I could not before. It all went good until I have noticed that my computer was freezing, shutting down, and giving me Windows shutdown error messages.

I thought that the hard drive was failing because I could always hear it turning off when the computer would crash. I talked to Hitachi for an hour about this issue, and they said that I should go and run a program on my computer that would identify any hard drive problem. I ran the test for a few hours, but the program could not find any problems. I was becoming angrier. I also have checked out my memory one by one to see if that was causing the problem. I took out all of my PCI cards, but I still had the same problem.

The only three parts that could be doing this was the Motherboard, PSU, and my Video Card. I had a 550-Watt PSU in my computer at that time, and I thought that it cannot be that, since I don't have any power hungry hardware in my computer. But I still gave it a try and see if that was causing the problem. I found out, that my voltages were jumping everywhere, and when the voltages went too low, my computer would shut down. Now I knew that the problem came from the PSU.

I went on the company's website, "http://www.justpcusa.com/550SF.htm" and I did a little research about the PSU. I was shocked what I saw, because the website says that my PSU has a maximum of 68% efficiency. I was really mad, why the company put this PSU into that case and newegg.com said that it can handle a really powerful system.

When I was putting together my computer, I was plugging in all the Molex connectors that go in my drives, and while I was pushing in one of the connectors, the power cords came out from the plastic where the cables were attached. This was another problem I had, because it was not possible to put back the cables. Before I noticed that this was going on, I turned on my computer and all of the sudden my hard drive burned out. Now you can imagine how angry I was because I had to send back my hard drive as well as my power supply to get a new one.

This is still not everything! My PSU also did not have a SLI power connection. I had video card that required a SLI power connection. I had to go out and buy a converter, so I could use my video card. This took up a bunch of space in the computer, and I also had a bad ventilation.

After all this, I finally got a 650Watt Power Supply from Mushkin.

[werty316]

Some people think that all a computer does is crunch random data when it examines a file needed for processing but its more than that. Computers don't speak our language, they speak binary which is a bunch of zeros and ones.
When a file is written it needs to be stored on a non-volatile storage medium; one of which can be a hard drive and when things go bad, files are lost and unrecoverable.

We all know about a hard drives rated MTBF (mean time between failures) and how exaggerated these numbers can be and in my case the life of one particular HD was not even close to its rated MTBF several times over.

Whenever there is a great deal on a product it can be hard at times to resist the urge on making a purchase. A few years back there was a sweet deal on a 120GB Western Digital IDE hard drive that I couldn’t pass up so obviously I purchased one. It ran as it should for about two months and then all the sudden when I powered up my computer and during the POST screen I could hear some clicking sounds so I thought to myself, “You have to be kidding me…”. I checked the hard drive and surely enough it had a hard time booting up and once I had it running I did a diagnostic check ASAP. Failing the quick test assured to me that the hard drive was dying.

One good thing is I could get an advanced replacement so I can transfer what files are still recoverable. So after I received the replacement drive, guess what happen about two months down the road? The same outcome happened and some cursing ensued on my part; crap-tastic huh? Having a hard drive die on me within two month is bad but having the replacement hard drive die in another two months is horrible.

After the trauma I went through, I will never buy a Western Digital hard drive again.

[werty316]

Noob aka noobie.

definition as per the urbandictionary.com:
someone who is new to a game, or website, online game, or something.
lets go mess with the weak little noobs
I have used a computer even since the Pentium 66Mhz was released and then I owned a Celeron 400Mhz but I never really got into computers until back in the heyday of the Athlon XP CPUs. I didn’t really know much so I bought most of my parts needed to build a computer second hand on eBay. I, like some people, didn’t care about getting a quality power supply so I just wanted something that seemed to be good and was within my budget.

Once I had all the parts it was good to go to be put together. I powered it up and had no problems but as time went by the computer was beginning to become unstable. I thought to myself what could have caused this, so I started to disconnect any piece of hardware that was needed like a floppy or CDROM drive. All the sudden one day when I booted up my computer I heard a popping sound followed by some smoke coming from the back of the PSU. “This is just great” is what I thought.
So the PSU went south and I had to get another one and after I got it installed, the same situation happened. Let’s just say I was not a happy camper.

A PSU is the heart of a computer as it is needed to run everything and if you have a piss poor PSU, your computer will have “heart attacks”.

Lesson learned.

[stracy]

It was supposed to be a simple, routine operation. It wasn’t. And I’m still living with the nightmarish repercussions of my foolish lust for more RAM.

I had just bought a new computer. I loved it. It loved me. It worked beautifully, better than any I’ve ever had before. It was smooooth,... every task it performed was flawlessly executed in its smooooth style. But I wasn’t satisfied. I wanted more. More RAM. So I ordered the RAM from a “Reputable Dealer”. 64 megs SDRAM. It arrived at my door the next day, nicely packaged, in perfect condition. I couldn’t wait to it put in! What a fool I was.

I had done this countless times before. It was so simple, the new computer designs make it a snap. Nothing could go wrong.

It proceeded perfectly, by the book. Grounded myself out on the power supply, opened the ejectors, gently handled the RAM (don’t touch the connectors!), aligned the notches, and fit it into its slot. Reassembled the case. Way to go.
No go. No boot-up, no chimes, no mechanical sounds, no nothing! I check the power cord, that’s fine, check the keyboard and other inputs... everything’s fine. Then I notice the high-pitched sound coming from the power supply and the oh-my-goodness-is-that-burning-plastic smell.
I immediately pulled the plug and removed the new RAM. I reassembled my beloved computer and tried to start it; but alas, the damage was done, it would not boot.
I had killed my best friend.

I was devastated. Wave upon wave of guilt flooded over me... had I done something wrong? Was I guilty of computer malpractice? What did I do? I replayed in my head every step of the installation, over and over again, but could not see where I had gone wrong!I called the “Reputable Dealer” and told them of the devastation word by agonizing word. They asked me to courier them the RAM so they could perform some tests, so I quickly sent it off. After a few days, I heard back from the “Reputable Dealer”. A technician called me saying the RAM chip was bad, ....very bad. He described how they had installed it in one of their machines, only to witness a similar disaster. Both our machines had been murdered by Rogue RAM! They thanked me for bringing this to their attention, said they would investigate the matter immediately, and offered me a refund.

The next day I received another phone call. It was the same technician, calling from his cell phone. The connection was terrible, full of static, but I could still notice an unmistakable tremble in his voice. He described how, after they had tested my RAM, they had removed the chip and isolated it in order to prevent similar malfunctions.

Today, my computer’s lifeless body lies in state at a local repair shop. I told them I spilled coffee into it. I dare not tell them the truth, for they wouldn’t believe me, or would think I was crazy. I just want to get a working computer back. I don’t want to cause trouble, or start a panic.

But sometimes late at night, I wonder what became of that evil chip, and shudder in fear at the thought of it lurking out there, stalking and killing helpless silicon at will. Perhaps it is even planning and scheming of the day when it can find me again, find my repaired computer, and once again wreak havoc on my life!