My Experience with Zepto (as it happens)

This is worrying. I have random shutdown problems not unlike yours and I may have to send in my laptop for repair service, but more then 15 days is too much...

 

Itake. My random shutdowns occured in bios 015, not 011. I never got
word on the solution for this. If you're using 015, I'd suggest downgrading
to 011 in the meantime.

Luck!

 

I have a 3415W so it's not the same bios?

 

No, to my knowledge they're very different computers. I'd try searching on
other threads for more info.

 

UPDATE (REFUND): The Laptop arrived today at Zepto. I'm told it will likely
be 2 or more Zepto days before they can confirm I get the full refund.

 

Two weeks have passed since I was promised a refund and nothing.
Zepto do not reply to emails I send and Mats on phone support knows nothing except it was to be paid 21st May according to books in front of him.
Prince Frederik has given interviews on his intent to be more proactive in Danish affairs and especially Denmark's reputation in world affairs and trade.
As Princess Mary is from same place as me in Tasmania Royal communications will be my next step.

 

UPDATE (REFUND): I still have not received word from Zepto about the refund.
I wrote an email this past Wednesday to them as well, giving them 2-3 days
to respond, but unfortunately not so much as a "We're working on in."

If I receive no update from them by Monday I'll call to confirm they're still
on the ball.

DAYS ZEPTO HAS HAD COMPUTER BUT NO REFUND: 9

 

This is horrible. I am definately never buying a zepto again. Bought my 6615WD last year by the end of january. Thought it was going to be a stable computer suitable for everything I needed. Took it with me when I went to Japan for work and study in April and after that there was nothing but trouble all the time. I have had the computer freeze up on me, overheat, random bluescreens and various malfunctions with the hardware which made me have to reformat the whole thing (roughly 10 times now I think). Two months ago the built in LANcard died. Tried using a USB one but got no internet connection, only bluescreens. I couldn't even install a USB mouse for a long time (a popup told me there were some 'Faulty Data') before it magically started working after a lot of bios upgrades/downgrades and reformatting. The support couldn't help me one bit with any of my problems, had to try by myself.

Now I'm back home again. Today it wouldn't even start and I have no Idea what's wrong. It was atleast running before I shut it down and went to bed yesterday. Not having been able to send it to the support while I was abroad, because I couldn't make the time it takes for them to fix the computer, my guarantee has run out and now I have nothing. I just wanted a computer that would work, the zepto wouldn't do even the simplest tasks without any problem.

I have no idea what it would cost for me to get this one repaired.. and since I don't have that much money right now, sending it to them does not feel like a good idea. I never want to see it or any other products from this company ever again.

Don't fool yourself into thinking that you are making an economically wise choice for a powerful computer when you by a Zepto. That's what I did.

 

As discussed elsewhere, a lot of the blame has to be passed to Inventec, who make the this and the 6x24W series. I understand that Zepto is shopping elsewhere for its next models. This, I hope, will give improvements for the future, but it does nothing for the present.

John

 

Just to add a little positive stuff in the topic,

My zepto (6625) has so far been nothing but a joy exept for some minor problems (that really dont matter). I dont feel by any means scammed or that I wasted my money.
Yes, there are things to improve, but you have to remember that Zepto is a fairly small company compared to the other big computer makers like Dell and Acer.

Theres allways laptops with defects, and some that gets unlucky with customer service by getting a person that has bad attiude against other persons or working overall.

Just my 2c

 

I have to agree with the statement. I have been fortunate enough to only need Zepto's customer service on a couple of occasions. All of which have been very good. Although they did not necessarily solve the issues immediately, the customer service was not at fault. I do not believe that shouting and screeming at anyone gets you anywhere. I also understand that Zepto are at the mercy of their ODM suppliers with regard to drivers and BIOS updates, maybe that is where the fault/blame should be rested. Zepto do have a responsibilty to us as customers, but they can only do so much.
My notebook is not without problems, GPU heatsink fitted badly being just one issue, but it far from faulty. I do intend to keep an eye on Zepto for future purchases, but when I buy again I will not be using the complaints in this forum as a basis for not buying from them ever again. Hopefully they will be able to get a more reliable ODM supplier for future notebooks.

 

I totaly agree to all these coments but still think that Zepto has to take responsebielty for the product line that is current and by that i mean fix all the bugs which are not accepteble if they do i haveno complaints what so ever the znote 6625 is just great but a working bios is a minimum... if they don't fix this ignore it and puts focus on the upcoming line then i will never even look at a zepto again.. inventec may be the cause of errors but still Zepto is buying there services as we are buying the computers so each point in the production line needs to take responsebilety... Go o the supermarket and buy some bad meat and then go back to the store and complain... i don't think the store owner will say "not my problem it was the cow that was bad not my supermarket" Please take care of your customers Zepto... you make great computers but they need to be supported aswell....

 

UPDATE (REFUND): I've received no word from Zepto yet, and am sending
another email today for status.

As for negativity in this thread, this wasn't the intention at all for people to
jump on board and air their grievances. I'm trying to post only objective
comments here and recommend others do the same so others can benefit.

 

I second Infamy's statement about the meat! Agreed, Zepto has a problem with Inventec, but I did not buy my machine from Inventec did I? And to further Infamy's analogy - if the meat was bad, and you went back to the shop to get a refund or "fresh meat", you defintely won't like it if the shop said that you must be patient, "we will have the meat 'fixed' soon or if you want a refund, then we need to inspect the meat thoroughly and WE will determine how much refund you get even though you did nothing wrong to it."

Comparing meat to a notebook is very apt. You can't enjoy meat when it's bad neither can you enjoy a problematic notebook!

 

For those of you whose laptops has worked out fine for you, I'm glad. Those of us who hasn't been that lucky are quite a few, and I don't think that many still cares enough about Zepto to go online and write angly rants about them. They have probably drunk the name Zepto away from their memories. I have not yet forgotten though and that's why I wrote.

ChristopherGrant: It's pretty hard for me to believe that you are taking all of this so calmly. I don't take lightly to unkept promises when I've paid money for something which does not work as it's supposed to, and when the help/money I'm promised does not appear.

Zepto computers being faulty is not only the ODM's problem. After all, the Zepto company are the ones buying the components from them. What if you bought a computer at a local hardware shop and they sent you to the computers manufacturer, then the computers manufacturer sent you to the components manufacturer, then the components manufacturer sent you to China for the guys who made the capacitors used in the making of the components, and on and on for every part in the computer. Nice world eh.

 

I can see that people are getting a bit confused at my earlier comments of the ODM also being responsible. This is true, but I was not saying Zepto should not hold good their responsibilities as a retailer. They should. But when the resolutions are only available from the ODM and Zepto don't have the necessary technical expertise to find and implement said resolutions, Zepto are at the mercy of the ODM. I wonder if Inventec would take kindly to us placing our concerns directly with them.

 

It may be difficult to directly get at Inventec but we can try to warn people who are thinking of buying the PCMicroworks Impulse.

John

 

Inventec have a "Contcat Us" email address on their website. Could try that.

 

jits: Your absolutely right, it is very hard to take it calmly. I believe though
if I do, others can benefit from a level and hopefully rational journal of
experience with Zepto. It's hard to be calm, but by being so I hope to
ultimately show what so many others have already stated more directly.
Hope that makes sense!

 

I understand what you are doing, but not how you manage to do it .
Good luck!

 

UPDATE (REFUND): After 2 weeks of waiting, I decided to call Zepto again
this morning to find out what had happened. Over the 2 weeks I sent a total
of 3 emails, none of which which were replied to.

When I called this morning, while I was placed on hold I got dumped out
of their system 2 times. Having to call back and wait in line. Thankfully
they noticed this and called me back directly.

According to their customer service, they are providing the full refund today
via bank transfer. This will likely take only 24 hours but will give it 3 days
before calling them again. I'll write once more, once the transfer has been
verified and my business with Zepto concluded.

 

UPDATE (FINAL): The refund was given in full yesterday,
roughly 3 weeks after the laptop was received. I won't rehash my
experience here, but I hope it's apparent to the readers the quality
service received and the speed at which it was received.

Would I purchase a Zepto again?
Possibly, but not likely anytime soon. Too many choices for a more
'secure' purchase.

What replaced the Zepto machine I had?
2 laptops actually. Alien Area 51 15" for entertainment and an
Apple MacBook Pro 15" for work.

Biggest Con
Laptop wasn't stable enough for work, I could never feel secure knowing
that one day it's various small problems might culminate in a large,
unrecoverable problem.

Biggest Pro
General quality of screen was a pleasure to work with.

Hope this helps!

 

Thanks for the update.

John

 

I always like it when even when you have had a bad experience, you would buy another one again! It always ends good in the end.

Too many people are quick at the keyboard to criticize, but never able to praise a company when it ends well.

Enjoy your newly repaired notebook!

Nick.

 

Either I don't understand your irony/sarcasm or you don't understand his refund and purchase of an Alien and a MacBook.

 

@Nick, are you for real?? Have you read the resolution at all? I'm sitting with a 6625WD that cannot be "repaired" because the BIOS is still f***ed up with no update in sight! What good will it be to send it in for repair when even Zepto can't fix these issues? And BTW, I doubt others share your oddity of enjoying putting up with problems for months, struggling to get them fixed, and then have it finally resolved - joy. If we were given these "high-end" machines for free or even paid to take them, then yes I might agree to that. But when you have to pay out hard cash for continuous disappointment, no, I don't think so... Chances of me buying another Zepto, new ODM or not, are less than ZERO! It's not just the products that make a company, it's the attitude too.

@Christopher, really good to hear you finally won in the end by getting a full refund. Pity they won't pay you for the time lost through this ordeal which would amount to much more than the cost of the machine I'll bet!

 

My experience with the Zepto 3415W is very similar to yours. I get randoms shut downs, and a ac adapter that overheats when i play games and then don't want to charge the computer, faulty ddr memory's (both) and the computer wont boot after that I move it.
And the best part, I am stuck in Japan where I study programing, animation and language for some years and so... have no money to fix the computer.

1. What could I do? Yes, I contacted ZEPTO that told me to get new items for the computer by my own. And that is the beginning of a big adventure... for a small power computer I mean.
So, when I got the computer sent from Denmark to Japan, I was really happy for the support from ZEPTO that could send me the computer over sea. So when I got the packet, there was a small and cute black computer in it.

2. At the first boot, It made a beep and gave me a windows boot screen at the speed of lighting. It did its best to impress me and succeeded. Until the day It showed me a blue screen, I had installed crysis on it that also installed a memory manager update for windows vista.
I used my knowledge from the 3 years that I had been stuck in a "computer school" to solve this problem. With a computer that after 2 weeks of use, failed to start even the simplest program, I found my self in a great problem. It took me a week to find that the ddr was faulty, that thanks to crysis memory manager, the log or blue screen did not tell me the real cause of the problem. And I had to boot the UBUNTU disk and use the memory tester to find out the problem.
The best is that both of the memory's I got with the computer did not work!

2. Now I could game on my computer again and the zepto computer did the best. After Christmas (2007), I bought the game Unreal tournament. My computer laughed at the game and and felt sick again.
To my surprise, it was the ac adapter that did not want me to have fun. It disconnected from the computer, and both the power button and the battery charge lamp started to go on and off. And then wouldn't charge until I unconnected it and plugged it into my computer again.
After making post here about it, I found out that the ac adapter to zepto znote 3415W shall not provide heat that could melt the plastic floor I have in my small japanese room...
After contacting ZEPTO about it, they told me I should find a new ac adapter I Japan.

3. I ended up showing this computer to some shops in Osaka den den town (den = electicity) . And they told me that this is a strangely configured computer. "Why is the power adapter the 19V with 3.42A lite on adapter" they told me. After some geek talk in the support, they found out that these adapters don't exist and then asked me to change the computers "power handler" to something else. As I do not eat laptop motherboards to breakfast, I found myself clueless to the suggestion and told them that I should try to see if there was a safer solution.
My computer was almost crying at this time...

4. At this time, I used water bottles that I placed on top of the ac adapter, from my fridge every time I wanted to play a 3D intense game. It worked!
There was exceptions of course, I could not play for so long, the water got warm and I had to change it to colder water.

5. Then I found the cause to the problems with the zepto 3415W. I bought an external screen to play WII on. This screen was the key! I told the computer to only use the external screen. And so the ac adapter stopped complaining and did not provide so much heat any more. Until I unconnected the screen of course.

6. But it did not end there, as my computer has a loot of stuff connected to the usb. It did not want to boot up sometimes or if it did, it would load the bios really slow.
The zepto znote has 4 usb ports, on these I have a mouse, external keyboard, usb stick and a usb hard drive. As I figured out, the laptop could not manage the power output and then failed to use the "ac adapter" (black screen). It could barley go with one mouse and the screen on. If I turned it off and used my external screen, it worked to have more external things on it and still make a fast boot.
So I bought a external usb card with its own power connector, and now I can connect everything I need when it comes to USB. But I can still not use the computers screen for gaming, it drains the battery FAST, REALLY FAST when the ac adapter fails.

I learned programing, computer building that includes error searching at school, animation, networking, server administration, but not strange magic for errors that are impossible to identify and have strange causes.

I will buy a new computer at the end of this year!
And learn how to fix my English... thanks for reading!
end...

 

That is a 65W PSU. I would have expected to get a 90W (19V 4.74A) PSU with a notebook that has a dedicated GPU.

You should be able to easily find a universal replacement PSU which has 19V 4.74A (or more) and a connector that will fit the Zepto (it is the same as used by Asus, among others).

John

 

Thats the best reply I got so far, thanks John Ratsay. But how did u know a 90W (19V 4.74A) works. It does not sound safe to change the power input. Do you have a reference?

///UPDATE:
This post is solved, not the topic! And a thanks to andygb40 and John Ratsey!

 

I have a 6324W, which is basically the same as your's (just newer). This came with the "Standard" power supply that is rated at 19V 4.74A. Don't forget you could use a 200A power supply as long as it is only 19V. The notebook will only pull what it wants and that is controlled by the onboard power supply circuit. The 4.74A rating is literally that, a maximum rating. You won't be using all 4.74A available all the time.

 

I know from experience of having used too many notebooks. The basic rule is notebooks with integrated graphics have 60W or 65W PSUs (some ultra-portables have 45W PSUs) and notebooks with dedicated graphics cards have 90W PSUs. Some of the big desktop replacements have 120W PSUs.

I thought that Zepto supplied only 90W PSUs. I complained when I got a 90W PSU with my 6024W, for which the smaller 65W PSU (like yours) would be fine and I was told that they only stocked the bigger PSUs. Hence my surprise that you got the 65W PSU with a notebook that has dedicated graphics. It won't be able to deliver enough power when the CPU and GPU are fully loaded.

John

 

Just as refernece my 6625 got the 19V 4.74A PSU, gets hot, but you wont burn your fingers on it (maby 50-60C).

As for the usb devices connected on startup, I got a mouse, USB headset and a USB hdd that drains all its power from 2 usb-ports (no power supply with it). I have no problem starting up (BIOS is as slow as its with the devices unplugged )