Poll: Zepto Notebooks Startup and Shutdown Problems

some users have had a range of start, shutdown or restart problems. This poll is to summarise these problems and help better understand whether these are isolated and random or have some systematic problems.

If you currently have or have had these or similar problems then please explain in the post also indicating which notebook and BIOS version. Also indicate whether the problem has been fixed.

John

 

I've had random shutdowns with my 6024W, not during gaming and usually when I am away from the computer. Typically about one per week (but once twice in a day). It just goes off - no BSOD or other error message and nothing in the system log. When I restart the computer I get an "Unexpected Shutdown" message and the BIOS spends a minute or more checking if everything is OK. The problems occurred with both BIOS 05e and 06 (which contain Santa Rosa support - the earlier BIOSes did not).

Zepto have now replaced the motherboard. It is too early to say whether this has fixed the problem.

John

 

My 6625WD has had sudden shutdown reboots with browsing, word processing and gaming with all BIOS's and since I got penryn upgrade too..
Often when I am away from computer and average several/week
BIOS 4 was most stable if I did not use volume rocker.

 

My 6214W has had some CPU overheats while gaming, but after undervolting the CPU the problems have disappeared.

The games I've played while it crashed:
Civilization IV, Hellgate: London, World of warcraft

 

I got serious hibernation problems. I can't even go into hibernation anylonger, the notebook just keeps popping out of them.
Haven't had any other issues...

 

I once had problems with my 6024W bouncing out of hibernation. I can't remember how it got fixed. There might be some clues in posts many months back.

John

PS: I found the fix in an email I sent a friend:

 

Random shutdowns using 015 and failed boots here.
Using a 6625wd (see below for specs).
Laptop currently in service with Zepto for these problems.

 

Hmm i just installed SP1 for vista. and now i can actually stay in hibernation... I'll try it a bit more.

 

Iv had the hibernation problems on my 6625 bu thats cause USB unplugging

 

I've had both the failed boots and the shutdowns during gaming problems on my 6214W. The latter is only due to overheating. I now use a laptop cooler and clean the insides for dust regularly (about once a week), which takes care of the problem. I do have to open the computer and clean inside though, just vacuuming from the outside is not good enough.

The former problem I've had for as long as I can remember. The computer hangs roughly around one of ten times I turn it on or restart. The timing seems completely random, it can happen two times in a row or not occur for what seems like weeks. It hangs during the BIOS diagnostic screen, just after it has found and listed the drives, and just before it's supposed to go black and take me to OS loading. I have not been able to tell if this follows some kind of pattern or if certain actions causes the problem, to me it seems completely random. The fact that the problem occurs before the OS even starts to load leads me to believe that it has to do with the hardware or the BIOS, and not the OS or other software. (This is of course just my opinion). I've tried all the BIOS's that has been released since I bought the computer in September 2006, and as far as I can tell the problem has been present with all of them. It is certainly present with the current newest BIOS.

The specs of my Zepto:

Zepto Znote 6214W

Crystal Clear 14" WXGA+

Intel Core 2 Duo T5600 1,83GHz FSB667 2MB Cache

2x Kingston 1 GB 667MHz DDR2

Hitachi 2,5" 80GB S-ATA 5400RPM Travelstar 5K100, 8MB cache

Samsung DVD writer SN-S082D

Nvidia Geforce Go7600 512MB


I've been running Windows XP Professional both 32 and 64bit, Windows Vista Business 32bit and Fedora 8 during my time with the machine. The problem has been present with all of them as far as I can tell, though I have not been running Fedora long enough to say for certain whether it occurs after shutting down from it. In the different Windows versions I've been running both the official Zepto graphics card driver and a score of different versions from laptopvideo2go. Again I cannot say I have noticed any change in the problem from one driver to the other.

This problem is especially difficult to analyse due to the randomness it seems to occur with. Hopefully we will get closer to the truth with the help of this thread.

 

I'm using a 6224, and occasionally get restarts while booting up. I'll get through to the vista log in page, and if i leave it for 5 minutes, it just BSODs and reboots.. if i log in straight away it's generally fine.. hard to determine whether it's vista or the 6224 itself

 

I'm glad to see that the most submitted answer is "none of these problems" condsidering that people who end up going to forums are people who tend to have problems.

 

Actually MOST have submitted that they do indeed have a serious problem.

Only 7/24 say they are not affected by the items raised (but who says they don't have other non-listed issues) and the rest 17/24 do have serious issues.

So that makes 70% have very very serious issues so far! Not a good sign for Zepto

 

However, the poll doesn't include the silent majority who never come here because they don't have problems. I'm sure that Zepto have sold a lot more notebooks than we have participants in this forum.

John

 

x2

theres about 10-15 persons on this forum that has problems, and Zepto has more likely sold several thousands of laptops, so the % is quite low. And all brands have problems with defect hardware. Only point Zepto is behind on is their BIOSes.

 

Hardware faults are unpredictable so only a low percentage of machines are affected, but the bios, come on - thats in ALL of the machines and totally under control!

A bios is firmware which is the underlying static software for the hardware. All bioses are flashed (programmed) into the machines with checksums so there is NO way to flash it half right and get it out the door. It's either flashed 100% exact or completely rejected. It's something that is completely under Zepto's control and totally predictable.

The main reason why some people get more issues than others is that hardware has a certain tolerance (percentage) of error allowed and the bios needs to take care of that small margin of error when it happens. A badly designed or incorrectly modified bios freaks out on the smallest things, but a decent bios handles the not-so-serious error and takes some action to "smooth things out" as not to bring down the entire system by propagating it to the OS.

How many machines has anyone bought in their life with shoddy bioses that weren't corrected within a few months by the OEM?

Hardware faults I can understand - everyone gets that, but a bad bioses that must be taking over half a year to get right?? Sorry, there's not one single coherent excuse to get that part wrong in production machines. This comes from someone that worked very heavily in the embedded field.

 

I totaly second that remark... it is so sad Zepto, get a grip of your BIOS'ES

 

I just posted about this in another topic, I have had the unfortunate chance to suffer several of these problems. I'l quote my earlier post:

 

Well, an important thing to remember here is that Zeptos notebooks are manufactured by two completely different OEM's. Inventec make their 6XXX-series and Compal makes their 3XXX series. The problems can not in any way I can imagine be related, unless they are caused during assembly.

One thing I've been thinking about is: Do Zepto make the BIOS or do Inventec make the BIOS?

 

Wich way it ever is, Zepto is the one that sells the laptop, so for us, its Zeptos fault.

No point to start pointing fingers at eachother

 

It's the ODM's that do the BIOS; Inventec and the likes, according to Tofen.

 

My notebook has problems with random shutdowns and waking up when in sleep.

The one major problem it has is that 9 times out of ten it fails when when i boot it or resume it. I just get a blank screen but i can hear stuff is going on. I then have to shut the lid and sleep it, and then when i open it again everything is fine. This is just crazy.

I have already had to send my 6625 wd for repair once when it was 2 months old (it was bought in october), for a number of serious malfunctions, none of which were ever explained to me despite numerous requests.

 

The blank screen problem could well be a driver issue. Did you try the latest Zepto recommended or other drivers (as mentioned in other threads)?

If you are running Vista then I would also recommend you upgrade to SP1 which rolls up a lot of fixes issued during last year. The problem you describe is vaguely familiar.

John

 

I do have sp1 and latest zepto drivers, but you are right about the blank screen problem being familiar -i found it another thread just after i posted. Apparently it helped a lot to get the latest driver from laptopvideo2go, which are much more recent versions than the zepto ones.