BenQ sucks; crazy fan and bad service.

BenQ does not rock, maybe the specs look nice but the service and hardware is *not* rocking. I've bought a S32B and I can tell you that if fan noise annoys you this notebook/brand is one to avoid. It seems they put the trigger value to turn the fan on around 40 degrees in the bios, which is about the temp. when the laptop boots up. So you can imagine what happens when you do some surfing or use msn. Yep, the fan goes on and then off and then on and then off and then on, etc, etc. It is driving me nuts.

Even just scrolling around to edit my post the fan keeps going on and off. No bios update for this model since 2007 on their website and no chance of anything coming soon. Also their bios is packed up with some crappy Qbios, so you can't just extract it and edit the bios yourself to change the temp to something a bit higher. BenQ technical staff emailed me and told me that they ran some tests on a S32B and told me the trigger temp. should be 50+ degrees but didn't offer any solutions. This is the 3rd notebook I have after finding a dead pixel at the PC Fair they got me another one, and later I did a one-on-one swap at the reseller. How many notebooks will it take?

BenQ who initially sold me this notebook with on-site warranty now refuses to come and fix it because they say it is on-site pickup only. They conveniently forgot to tell me that at the PC Fair where I asked the sales staff several times if it is on-site repair like Dell and HP do, and they said yes, one sales person even added that if they can plan me in they will come on the same day instead of NBD. Boy was I taken for a fool.

I feel I wasted my money (845$ USD), I wish i bought the cheaper yet less specs having HP 520 business laptop. Now I'm stuck with a noisy 13.3inch, T8100, X3100, 1GB machine which I can't use because of the fan coming on and off constantly. I wish I never bought this piece of crap. BenQ customer support just says I have to bring my notebook to them or send it (at my cost of course) and wait 2-3 weeks or even more if they need parts, and even then who guarantees me they can fix it?

Also the on-line ticketing system is very slow, if you're lucky you get a reply in 3 days if you're not it takes them at least a week.

Another reason to stay away form BenQ are the "warranty void if removed" stickers that block access to the hard drive so you can't upgrade or even replace it yourself without voiding the warranty. Only the memory has no sticker.

My advise, spend that 50-100$ more on a decent brand that has a unified website, up-to-date drivers and proper customer support/warranty and stay away from BenQ cuz they only rock at sucking.

PS: This (3rd) BenQ notebook is not even a week old!

 

as far as I know , benQ is a good company with good service, their laptops are great , especially S41 seris.

all your prejudice, and your prejudice against a minor company makes it look so bad, and it is your fault cause you did not research what on-site service means before buying it.

and it is written clearly in BENQ site.

you should have known that the more power in a small case the more noise or heat it generates.

and you can't avoid it.

 

Did you even read my post? The BenQ staff at the P Fair told me that it had on-site repair probably to make a sale and get some commission. I've owned a lot of notebooks and none of my previous 12/14" got any fan activity when just doing some surfing.

Even when i force the cpu to run @800mhz it does not help, and the fan kicks in at 40+ instead of 50+ on both S32 notebooks.

Also i don't like your tone towards me as if im some noob or something. Do you work for BenQ? You know it all? Its easy for you to accuse me of not doing research but you fail to read my post properly and just to conclusions. Besides, since when is BenQ minor? They're huge. Maybe you should do some research before flaming me here.

Also the BenQ technical department told me in an email it is *not* normal that the fan kicks in at 40+ degrees. They said the trigger should be at 50+. They however fail to give me a solution I'm lucky the reseller allowed me one-on-one swap but I got the same issue, faulty batch? Service is crap. Telephone staff is rude and clueless.

And again please read what i wrote about the warranty, BenQ sales staff told me it was on-site repair just like Dell and HP, or didn't you read that in my post above? Maybe read it carefully before posting here with a flam-ish undertone in it.

 

I'm wondering how you are measuring the temperature - it may be that the GPU or chipset is getting hot as well which could cause a fan to kick in. I had that happening on my old Dell - the CPU temps would be low but the fans would still be on.

I think it's sometimes better to err on the side of caution with fans - the BIOS may well be triggering the fan to run based on something else you can't see.

 

and the OP does not get the point , the more power in a limited space , the more fan activation needed to cool it down.

so the more powerful laptop , the noiser it should be , and the BenQ has a bit more powerful GPU than most of GPUs in such a tiny 14.1 package as it is.

and the BenQ is very well built.

I am very impressed with it as my buddy's got it last week.

 

No you do not read what I'm writing. The X3100 is not a powerful gpu too, it is an integrated chip. Also my previous notebooks which were 14 and 12 inch models never had the fan running when doing minor things like browsing the net. So you need stop saying I don't get the point when you fail to understand me.

As to (unseen) system loads, RMclock shows the cpu/os loads between 0-5% when the fan kicks in at 40 degrees. Also BenQ themselves confirmed to me that the fan is not supposed to kick in when the cpu is less than 50 degrees. They just refuse to provide any solutions for brand new (less than a month) old notebook.

Also my re-seller allowed me some one-on-one exchanges and all units had the same issue. So to me it seems it does not matter which one I get they will all do the fan thing, maybe a bios update in the future will fix it but I have no more faith in them.

The only solution they can offer me is for me to bring the laptop to a repair centre and wait 2-3 weeks for them to "test" things and even then they can just say "this is normal behaviour". Which to me is not acceptable as the notebook is still new.

This is my first and last BenQ.

Also the fact that all their localized country websites have different versions of the drivers and even for different OS's is very annoying. For example the Malaysian website for the S32B has no XP drivers, you have to go to the Australian one to get the XP drivers for the same laptop. Also the driver versions differ between the country sites, even the bios version differ. So to be sure you got the latest drivers/bios you may have to check every single country's website that sell your notebook to be sure you got the latest driver or bios. How hard can it be for a big company to create one unified site with drivers ?

Next year when it's time to upgrade to the new Intel platform I will get another HP or Dell who in my experience always had nice silent laptops, the D430 comes to mind.

Anyway, there's no need to argue with "lappyforphotoshop" as he in my eyes is just a BenQ fan boy ignoring or not properly reading my posts and the points I'm trying to make.

I hope my experiences will help others who might want to buy BenQ. That is after all what we're here for. Not to endlessly debate whether I get the point or not.

 

Oh, sorry I was wrong .I thought you got a S41.Oh well, it is then not good.

But fan noise is always present in many lappies....... depends on how loud but.

Any way, dont get me wrong , I am not a benQ fan or anything but I do not like people bash a company like BenQ , Acer and ASUS as compared to HP, Dell or Lenovo.

There is no quality control difference among these brands ,you were just unlucky , your experience with BenQ does not mirror mine or my friends'.

So when you bash a brand be careful of your wording.

Dell or HP are not much better than BenQ , they are about equal in quality.
In the price like that, where else you can get a NV8600GS with 256mb gddr3 powered 14.1inch laptop?

Well, you might say the LG 's got it. But it is not a cheap laptop like the BenQ and I think BenQ is a better laptop than the LG epspecially when you like using Linux or XP. Plus , if you think the BenQ is noisy try a Dell XPS hard disc sound or a LG P300 cooling fan noise.

I hope you 'd be happy with a Dell or a HP.

Have a good one.

 

Guys, stimey is right.
I previously owned a Joybook 7000 (centrino 14" very robust and good battery) but switched to a newer S32B.
This laptop has MANY problems:
* the fan problem which makes using the laptop during the quiet night hours impossible
* the stupid wifi/bt button located at the front, i always rest my thumb on it while using the touchpad, thus turning wifi off
* the wifi/bt state is lost once you restart your computer
* the bios setting are... inexistent
* bad sound (but this doesn't bother me)
and the worst:
* no support - no downloads show up if you browse benq website. I found some drivers in the Australian version of benq website.

All in all, it is a great looking laptop, very powerfull imo, with good batter (but i seems not to be as good as 7000's) but with some major design flaws that lack any support from benq.

Stimey, did you find any solution to your problem?