E-wrecked and the Whitebook community

E-wrecked I know we go back and forth sometimes in the heat of competition it happens. However, I think we have lost sight that we are on the same team. We both want to see nothing but the most out of these notebooks. You have spent decades of time on the system and so have I. As you once stated a consolidated effort would accomplish much for this community. The whole community needs to work together to make this happen because it has become glaringly apparent that OCZ is not going to do anything more than they are forced to do.

OCZ needs to provides us with mobility drivers for the new ATi 8.12 drivers, period! This modding desktop drivers is BS. I think we all agree on that. These are the first drivers with substantial improvements and I think we deserve an update from June from them! I don't know if people realize it, but OCZ has not released a video driver since JUNE of this year for these cards. We are in December.

The end users and various system builders shouldn't be the soul development team FOR THEIR PRODUCT!

In all reality who is getting or using anything from OCZ that hasnt had extensive modifications done to it?
The answer is simple, "No one."

There is an old saying," The squeaky wheel gets the grease." Our efforts, while admirable, are talking the focus away from the culprit and who we should be focusing our aggression at, which is OCZ. They have dropped ball on this system, point blank. Why are we at each others throats over who can can come up with the best bubble gum and baling wire fix first when they are responsible for providing us with the foundation of drivers! Aren't we just enabling them to continue to do nothing, belittling efforts and playing us for suckers?

Yes the video drivers are very important but with the advent of the 8.12 stream technology wouldnt we all like to see this in a mobility driver? Up until now we have been focusing on just the video drivers.

• What about the surround sound support for HDMI 1.3?
  What about the turbo memory?
  Alienware has a built in utility that shows hardware interactivity on the screen when you change it (which every notebook supplier has except OCZ.)
  What about foreign keyboards?
  3 months for batteries and power supplies?

The dirty little secret of this notebook is the cosmetic defects in the majority of them from OCZ! There are blemishes and bubbles, scrapes and scratches to the tune of Killer Notebooks claiming 20% of the notebooks delivered to them were refused before they demanded hands on inspections before they were sent out. He told me, "This isn't Killer, and I am not going to sell it to my customers. Let them (OCZ) sell this to someone else looking like this!" There are tons of issues at hand that may seem isolated to the end consumer like yourself and myself that have only seen maybe a handful of units but from what I have been told in actuality they are at epic proportions.

In closing I think its great for what you have done for the community E-wrecked and I dont want to take anything away from you. I dont have the time to mess with the x9100 and the qx9300 since you have one and I have the other are joint efforts will be much more succesful. I spent alot of time helping to achieve a release of the new BIOS and I am not saying that to take some retroactive credit. I am saying this to all the people that have worked hard on this... now it is time for us all to work together to focus on getting a new release of Video drivers that are MADE for our laptops and these other issues addressed!

It doesn't matter in the end who you got your system from . We are all happy with our purchases for whatever reason.
Example: I have the Core Optimization program, the overclocking database, the Boost Button and the fact I don't have to spend hours creating my own drivers. Most important to my buying decision is that I have the person who thought all that up himself and IMO spearheads the groundbreaking advances in this industry.
someone else wants the security from buying form a large company like DELL/Alienware.
Yet another person may want to spend the lowest amount possible on a starter system.

We all bought were we did for whatever reason we did. Let's move past where we got the system and move forward together to demand the ultimate distributor of the product OCZ has some accountability to us and gives us what we need!

I am starting a formal petition against OCZ in regards to the video drivers. If you would like to sign please PM me so I dont have to dig through this thread. Thank you

 

hoop, I've been preaching this for quite some time. 2 heads are always better than one..unless those heads bump into each other. In either case, I'm on your team if you're on mine. I'll support whoever can help take this notebook to the next tier. And, whoever can get OCZ to get off their rump. Im hoping AW, being such a public entity, will have some pull with accomplishing some of these goals on their own accord and then we can benefit as well.

And, thanks for that BIOS - I get BSOD's @ 13.5 - I'd love to offer feedback to Mattoby. I don't think he's properly coded the BIOS. My 2 cents. He's using an unorthodox OC method, as opposed to enabling true multipliers. Anyhow, I sent you a PM last time with those details. Jamie at OCZ can asssist, but Im not sure she can get much accomplished.

 

Yea I cant get mine to crank up to 12.5+ either. I get random glitches or BSOD's as well. Can you put yours to 13?

I dont think Alienware is going to be much help since running this thing at low settings is going to yield results adequate to them. They do not endorse OCing.

The BIOS is no means perfect, however it does do wonders for the QX9300 is was also addressed to help the hibernate mode..um yea.. but anyways.

I actually have been in communication with the top tier of OCZ so any input as to what you would like to see in the BIOS let me know as I dont know the experience of the x9100. And I will try to get feedback on ETA's etc.

Also I have an ongoing list of issues so if you would PM me your issues that might help.

We need to really focus on pushing them for new video drivers. So that is why the petition will help as I can forward it to Flex, Intel and OCZ.

I have a couple of things to do then will be availabel for most of the weekend. I also am going to send you a PM with a few fixes to the drivers you posted and maybe we can get a kickass set for the meantime. Although alot of this should be pushing for OCZ to provide us with the foundation to build on.

 

wow im sad to hear about the cosmetic defects. this may in fact stear me over to the aw camp after all. i will be PISSED if i recieve a system with those types of defects in the finish. if and once i get this machine ill do anything i can to help as well. i really want one of these but your post is making me re-think that not because of you or any vendor but because of how picky i am and i know if i recieve one of those suspect machines ill never use it because im that ocd about things like this. if what mark said is true i wonder if thats why alienware has them covered in the matte finish

 

Zfactor,

I know that Mark didnt send any of the ones with ANY defects to his clients and can only hope that other companies would reject those as well.

I would guess that is why Alienware did matte.

 

yeah but imo mark is to expensive for this notebook. nothing at all against him but he doesnt sell it barebones. if i dont get a barebones one id go with alienware because the pricing is so good i can still order one with almost nothing in it from them it would be awesome if mark sold barebones imo or have a ultra cheap starting packing for those that know they will upgrade these themselves

 

I think OCZ has been upping their quality control in that department. I know I just placed an order for one, and before they would ship out same-day. This one took three days to ship, because they were apparently checking each one by hand before shipping out.

And I'd agree with mhooper1124 - I wouldn't think there would be any company that would send out a system after seeing it has defects.

 

well now....now your speaking the same language!
it has always been about helping each other and not who is better. (benchmarking comp's against each other is suppose to be fun and informational as well) not all about who has more secrets to hold and try to better the other. that is why i gave the comment about being "pretty violent" on this side of town. if i had a whitebook, i would be putting my all into understanding it's weakness's and trying to over come them. that's just me. i do that with any and every notebook i own. but i also share my findings with the laptop community so they can help better their systems as well. to me, that's what it's all about in the end. helping your fellow laptop owner get better results is what it's really all about....

yea yeah...yeah... i know i don't have a whitebook, but you would be surprised as to what i have contributed to it's evolution. just think if i really had one...

 

I agree, it's nice to see people working together for the good of the system. And by the way, I'll sign that petition for better drivers.

 

Amen. John and I met a long while back(seems like a long while) while OC'ing the dv9000 series via BIOS OCs. Without his words of levelheadedness, I'd be in a world of hurt.. johnksss has given as much to the community as anyone else, if not more. Just saying thanks bro. (not trying to make this a bonding session or anything) In any event, let's make the best of what we have to work with. And *shameless plug* my new .inf will be released soon..testing now.

 

well thank you sir!

 

Mine does not have any defects by the way. Since most of the resellers in US are getting small batches of these systems (may be 50) I think they check each one of them when they receive it.

 

Ali! You got a rep! You're green!

..i tried repping you too but ive given out too much today.

 

apparently i haven't given out enough. still wont let me rep.

ok, says i have to wait 24 hours...and i found a long list of folks who need it.
guess you can only rep 4 people in a 24 hour period.

 

it's ok john..we still love ya.

 

guess im going to have to start paying closer attention to that sort of thing...

 

Man, that sucks, and I'm sure this would make potential buyers second guess purchasing this model in particular.

I definitely agree that OCZ is lacking in support. As a matter of fact, their support system is garbage. I visited their forums at OCZtechnology.com and I was amazed at how lacking and uninformed the support team/moderators on the board were regarding certain issues. I even saw E-wrecked's post over there and moderator didn't even know about the Whitebook/OCZDIY17A2. I even tried registering on their forum, but they won't even let me post in other peoples threads to help them unless I post in some other section to build reputation or some non-sense like that.

Anywho, my experience with this notebook is great so far. Also, with some resellers being more involved in the building process of the notebook (i.e. Shane of Dark Smiley Systems with mine), there should be less concern regarding these cosmetic defects, though it's a reality when shipped by OCZ in bulk.

 

but when people order it as a whitebook most resellers just have it drop shipped from ocz to the customer. so they usually would not handle it. i asked shane about it and he assured me he would take care of any cosmetic issues there would be with it..

 

This is true zfactor, actually its ASI that most of the resellers use to do the work. (that wasnt meant to be condensending.)

 

well yeah but you know what i meant

 

Yeah I got one. Altough I don't provide much support to people in technical aspects of notebooks, I believe once I have more people with my products and great prices, I'll have more reputation which also helps here to give people more confidence in their purchases. And also, I like laptops.

 

how many points did mine ad ali?

 

i have to wait about 20 more hours...

 

So... that means you can donate elsewhere *looks at his 5 green squares* Im ok tho.. pass around elsewhere

 

It is really sad to hear about the approach that OCZ has taken on one of the products that it distributes, it is a shame that such a reputed business does not provide the proper support, updates and attention to both the customers and the Whitebook, bleh, but a lot of businesses are like that, sadly, hopefully wtih the petition OCZ will get a really big slap on the head and get to work on their support department.

OCZ's support reminds me of Telmex, a telephony, internet services and communications corporation which offers overpriced and bad quality services country-wide in Mexico, trying to speak to their internet division's (Prodigy (Dial-Up) / Prodigy Infinitum (ADSL)) support team is like asking for support to someone who is totally computer-illiterate, oftenly offering senseless answers and solutions to their customers' problems, and "shielding" the faults and lack of quality on Prodigy Internet with split-second made-up excuses such as "A bird got stuck between the phone cables.", also, they blame their service's issues on the customer.

The number of OCZ Whitebook owners here at NotebookReview.com's forums is really big, and it is a nice thing to have an "open-box" / "open source" laptop, hopefully OCZ will stop hiding under the old woman's skirt and start paying attention to their Whitebook's customers, it has been long enough for them to settle everything down and start providing updates, quality-support and educating their support team to treat the customers properly and help with whatever issue those customers' OCZ Whitebook may have, it is not like that they are selling fried potatoes for really cheap to provide such a bad sale-time and post-sale support, but not even that is an excuse, they are selling a product which has a high price-tag...

Edit: Added something else.

 

I am also one of those who was heavily leaning toward the OCZ, but the word trickling out about the base package is very disheartening. Few notebooks have had the buzz associated with this model before its arrival and it would be a shame if OCZ messes it up by not offeribg even adequate service (to mention nothing of support, with most of that coming from the user community rather than the company).

 

OCZ is the ODM.. it's really not their responsibility to provide the drivers to the OEMs. IMHO. Kinda like folks complaining to Clevo that Sager doesn't offer a BIOS flash to OC the CPU. Well.. they just don't want to. This rig is immature, and as soon as drivers are viable, and available then they will be here. You can't be the guinea pig and want to also be the monkey flying to space. Given time, this system will be the hotness. And, I support hoop's effort to hasten that progress.. However, we really are at the mercy of motivated people outside of the ODM, and the OEMs. If we build it, they will come.. simple as it sounds. Even though, it's built, and now we must lay the sod..rake the field..and then trim the grass.

 

Actually the ODM for the Whitebook is Flextronics, who bought Arima's notebook and server division. The OCZ-Flextronics relationship is much like the one between Sager and Clevo.

Edit: Nonetheless, OCZ is still responsible for things such as Driver support.

 

What we have to push for is to get just a form of the 8.12 video drivers with support of the mobile cards from Flex. Once that is accomplished we can tweak form there.

The biggest mistake that Flex did was to encrypt the BIOS so it cant be edited and fixed.

 

A little off topic but, can someone explain to me the differences between the drivers that get released by ATI and are modded by the tool, the ati drivers get have custom inf files, like the ones e-wrecked put out, and the ones OCZ releases.

Thanks

 

First. don't diss on Mexico I currently live here.
Second. I just got my Whitebook from XoticPC today.. (well my brother did) he says its fine no blemishes or nothing like that.. I'll have to check when I see it.
Third. I agree that we should not be doing our drivers.. OCZ should support them and give us something to extrapolate upon.
Fourth. This thread is a great Idea we can all pitch in our 2 cents to make the best of our systems(since I bought it I'm on the same wagon as you are)
Fifth. Zfactor, if it has a blemish or defect get it exchanged.
Sixth. I want to sign Hoops petition
Seventh. I really want to get into developing working tools for this laptop so if you got some knowledge why don't we create a thread where we can show each other how things work and maybe someone else can help build upon the existing code.

I will create a working website with forums in order to X-change code and stuff more freely. If anyone wants to toss in tutorials, dissection of code, drivers,etc. feel welcome. Ill toss up the website by Jan.. I don't have a lot of free time ATM.

 

could be a good idea, but then you have to monitor both places all the time...

nah. it was to keep people like us out of it and changing stuff. because the first time we break it..most of us are screaming for a refund or yelling it's defective.. or the famous...i don't know what happen. it just stopped working. hahaha

 

huh? what you mean? i didn't break it

 

Just go to guru of gaming for putting that stuff in thread he has given the green light for us to post overclocking info there all we want.

That is where I am starting to compile all of my data.

He is making a sub forum for overclocking which will be up by Monday.

 

Some of us patrol multiple forums at the same time. One more cant hurt. Plus I'm thinking about including a fileserver so we can just upload or files there and download them from there for free. Have a newss feed of the product upcoming drivers parts ETC. We can easily link to the providers. Have our own OCZ Website where newbies (OCZ owners) can come to us for advice. (actually you know it all guys )

I agree.. I usually use you third option.

Would gladly go to GOG but E is banned from there and his input is also highly appreciated.

 

Yes thats similar to waht mark talked about going to have an overclocking section with the ability to upload files and host them right on the site. Also will have a list of all programs and each game will have its own official thread for tweaks for every benchmark. It is almost ocmpleted and I have already put in ALOT of data to it dont really want to do it all again.

It will be done and running this weekend.

 

i look forward to it as much as I do my bed right now..night folks

 

Nite E-.. Is the site OCZ Specific? coz the one I'm building will be only and Exclusively OCZ stuff. I'm off to bed also.

 

You can build one. The overclocking section is OCZ specific right now. The site in general is 95% OCZ releated.

It will have bascially ranks like Tester, OCer, learner

And will be able to provide the tools that each rank will need to get the most done.

It will also have all the current Data which I have already aquired and the programs that are being utilized.

If you want to build another site go ahead, however Im not transferring all my data twice sorry. I have spent WAY to many hours getting it all organized and uploaded and drawn out. I appreciate the offer though =)

 

Off to bed myself.

 

I will have to check, 8.12 drivers have all been released by our competitors already?

OCZ does not "ignore" our customers, never have, never will and if you EVER have an issue with support you receive from OCZ, you find me, which is not hard to do.

Drivers will be released as fast as they can be after testing and certification. Mobile drivers are never available as quickly as the Desktop versions over the course of history, which is why the INF modding community exists .
That is not an excuse that we can't do better than has been done in the past though.
I would say that we have done quite well for our first go round in the mobile arena, but there are always places we can improve.

Thanks for your input

 

ryder what about the issue being stated about cosmetic flaws on these notebooks. im totally ocd about the finish on my notebook and i know i would be seriously upset if i recieved anything brand new with bubble or scrapes or nicks etc in the finish?

also another question. as far as ocz warranty goes how does it work for really simple things. say the keyboard goes bad. they take literally a few minutes to change out. would ocz ship me one and i ship the old one back (even if maybe they take cc number and hold funds like sager and others do) or do i need to send back the whole thing just for say they keyboard? i use my notebooks for business as well as fun and i could not be without it for 2-4 weeks. that would really help in my desicion. btw i am a certified tech also if that makes a difference.

 

If you are buying the DIY from OCZ, then OCZ is your point of return/warranty. If you buy one from the SI's (Killer, Xotic, etc) then they handle warranty/repair work. OCZ supports them in that case not directly to the end user.

Blemishes should not make it to the end user if it comes through the SI, since they should refuse it and get it fixed. If such a thing happened with the DIY, then OCZ would make it right.

 

oaky but i would be buying diy since i obtain all my own parts (i own a repair business) so what would happen in say the above case with say (just a example) a keyboard issue or maybe a piece of plastic comes apart like maybe the inside lcd trim bezel or whatever (again just a example) would ocz be willing to ship me a specific part or am i then stuck sending back the whole unit for warr for 2-4 weeks? thanks for supporting us here btw

 

also you should contact a admin to change your status since you are a manufacture rep here. you need a few more posts so i could pm you or i would have done so with my questions. thanks again

 

I can't answer that question right now, will have to get word from the office, which will not be open for another 1.5 hours.

 

It is nice to see an actual OEM rep around, tho, isn't it.

 

Indeed, nice to have someone we can lynch when things go wrong J/K. Though it is nice to have someone here that can hear our comments and make them known to manufacturer straight away. Thanks for your support RyderOCZ.

 

Didn't think the Rep would be coming around these parts.. I know I've seen the name RyderOCZ on their support forum..

 

hoop, I already figured as much..they only have 2 or 3 mods/support folks(if I recall) over there. I remember visiting, typing on this OCZ Notebook, and reading their posts on how it hasn't been released so they couldn't offer support on it. They also couldn't provide any details, as the system isn't supposed to be released until the first quarter of 2009. That gave me a good chuckle.