Averatec Out of Business/Market?

Anyone else notice that NOBODY carries Averatec products anymore? Not online nor retail...not even their own online store shopaveratec.com has anything in stock. Not even refurbs.

I guess the "cheap" finally caught up with them. They don't even list a press release since their May 2, 2007 GPS unit. Looks like a matter of time until they close up shop

 

All I have to say is 'ha ha.' Didn't they shut down some support forum after there was a huge list of complaints and lawsuit threats?

EDIT: Yup, I was right: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=154132

 

I must be one of the lucky ones because my Averatec 6130hs still works after 3.5 years.

 

I must say that although my averatec 4255 eh1 is over 3 years old, used every day it has none of the problems described here. It even runs linux with no compatibility (driver) issues what so ever. It looks great as well but I would not buy another product from this company ever again due to all the problems people had with customer service. It will be some kind of name brand next time out. That's actually too bad because I really like the way this laptop looks and feels and I am in the market for a new one right after the holly days.

 

steve,
You note running linux on your 4355 eh1 with no driver problems. What wifi card are you using and what flavor/release of linux are you using?

I ask because I'm running a 3715 EH1 that uses the Ralink rt2500 and have no luck getting that card running on SimplyMepis. I'm up to rel 7.0 and have gotten close but no joy so far.

Any tips, tricks, or cheats would be much appreciated.

BTW, I do agree with everyone else regarding not buying another Averatec anything. Both quality and customer service are non-existant.

Even though I've had no problems after 2+ yrs, the lack of compatability with anything is irritating.

I even had many issues with drivers using MS XP as well as very iffy and weak wifi connectivity.

 

Sorry I didn't respond to you sooner but I don't visit here often.
I use Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy on this laptop and I think it comes with an Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG. Please note that this is a Centrino laptop that's very well supported by Linux. I have run into wireless issues with other computers running different distros and have allways been able to get them going using ndiswrapper and the Windows drivers. Here is a couple of links that may help:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/rt2400 or:
http://www.minitar.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=1107
The 2nd one is from the manufacturer, it appears that they offer Linux drivers.
Good luck
Steve

 

i hope this company goes down, and goes down hard.

 

I've noticed the same thing. I bought my first Averatec laptop from Circuit City a few years ago, but lately haven't seen the Averatec brand for sale in any stores at all... well, at least not in any stores here in the Portland, OR / Vancouver, WA areas.

Kind of a shame though. The company had so much potential to be a great competitor in the affordable laptop market; if only they had paid closer attention to their customer's concerns.

 

I got the RT2500 card configured in Mepis on my 3250 a few years ago when I first tried Linux. I think the Linux driver for that card was just released right around that time. It took me a couple months of hard learning but eventually I got it to work. Sad thing though, is that if someone asked me how I did it, I couldn't answer them to save my life. Maybe another month of mucking around and it'll come back to me

I vaguely remember having to compile the entire database or source thingy or something (I know that sounds really stupid but that's all I can remember) after I added the RT2500 driver and that process took a long time. Then I had to load up the Raconfig program and wlan/ra0 driver in a very specific order - the Raconfig would say "no driver found" or something and not run but I couldn't just load the driver without first attempting to run the program... Weird eh? Tried ndiswrapper and didn't work, probably due to user error.

I understand that I'm not really helping here but if anything, you know it can be done by a complete Linux newbie given sufficient time - I'm sure you'll figure it out soon enough. FWIW I didn't stay with Linux because I couldn't configure ACPI properly to enable hibernation.

Back on topic (sorta): I've had my 3250 for 4 years now and it's been through a lot, and I mean a lot. I take it to school every day and it clearly shows; once I slipped while running over a wet bench and landed on my butt/backpack with the laptop in it - there's a piece missing on the lower left corner; screen frame is cracked at every corner; there's a burn mark on the top cover from a soldering iron that I was using to fix the AC plug; battery completely died, bought new cells and in the process of hooking them up fried a diod on the battery circuit board, things like that. Given the physical "abuse" it has taken, it's simply amazing that this thing still works and I think that says something (just a little bit) about the "quality" of this specific Averatec laptop. I was actually looking for another Averatec as a replacement until I realized, as the OP pointed out, that I couldn't find them anywhere and I had access to IBM's EP Program.

I agree that they had a great potential in budget AND ultra-portable sector. I haven't yet read up a lot about common issues and never had to use Averatec's tech support (supposedly non-existent) but considering all the things that broke on my laptop (which were silly little things like the AC plug for example, easily DIY fixable), only if they had put in just a bit more effort to make better products, it might have been a different story.

Now that's a long first post