Zepto: Nothing but Problems?

Hi,

I have heard a lot about Zepto recently, and so far it hasn't been good.

Why is there just so much problems? As if all the customers have had bad service, poor computers, and hell. What are the chances of them buying Zepto again? Is Zepto just heading for bankruptcy?

If the laptops are bad, why doesn't Zepto just change ODM? Inventec seems to suck!

I am seriously thinking about buying a Zepto, but it just doesn't seem right?

What the hell is going on?

Thanks

Nick

 

People come to forums when something goes wrong and they want help or just want to complain.
Almost nobody comes to forums to say how great everything is working. So you dont ever read about it.

Zepto does have problems. Heat problems and so on. A lot of problems come because Zepto has the option to buy notebooks without windows. People want to save a few bucks and install windows later. But they dont know how to configure it right and it causes more problems.

 

Are you a Zepto computer owner?

 

My Zepto is like a super-modern powerful hybrid car...

...which you have to start using a crank and where the trunk only opens if you first close all doors, then turn on the radio for 2 minutes, turn it off again, open all doors, close all doors and then say "simsalabim" and knock 3 times on the hood.

The last part being the messed-up BIOS/Graphic driver combination.

But once being on the street and driving, it's a great thing

 

Well aside from the problems with most 6625's and the bios. I can say my laptop does everything i need it to very well. Except for 2 happenings where bits of the laptop have come undone, a bolt fell out from the insides of my laptop and i had to send it in and then the touchpad unplugged itself having to send it in again, which leads me to beleive poor build quality. I dont even move the thing that much and when i do its in a huge padded bag!

I dont feel i have had bad service but i dont feel i have had a notably good customer service either.

But like the guy said you only really get the bad things on these forums theres probably loads of customers living happily along with their zepto or id like to think so!

 

Note personally no. But my brother and best friend both use Zepto so I have close hands on experience.

 

Don't be put off by the rantings of people on this forum. All notebook manufacturers have problems. My bosses Sony Vaio thats only 2 months old has had 2 new power supplies because both got so hot they starting to burn the desk, and the touchpad surface is losing its paint. Not good on a notebook that cost £1500 plus VAT.
My Znote has had it's problems, but in general works fine.

 

in general it also seems that the 6x25WD series got more problems then the 6x24W series, i got two zeptos at home a 6224W and a 6324W ans both worked just fine ever since i bought them
just minor problems like a "flackering" view on connected monitors caused by a grounding error (could be solved by isolating the ground-contacts^^)

 

It was stated in one of the other threads that the next Zepto range is not coming from Inventec. The 3xxx series is Compal while the new Notus comes from Mitac. I think that Zepto have grown enough in the past year that they can get more attention from the better manufacturers. I expect (hope) that Zepto will continue to try to fill some of the market gaps left by the big names.

John

 

Would Zepto ever make there own notebooks? Rather than using a ODM?

Nick

 

I could see Zepto trying to have greater influence in the design of their products (such as preparing a detailed product and performance specification) but the manufacturing will done by others (I presume this is how Dell and HP operate). However, it remains to be seen how quickly this will bring products to market.

John

 

As stated before, complaints on forums are usually not representative of the population of (Zepto) users. My experiences are generally good. Before buying from Zepto I asked questions on here, and got quite a lot of enthusiastic response. In so far as these forums have recently had, and still have, several members of Zepto on who try to offer support to users, there may be a slightly higher incidence of complaints here, since it's easier tha nusing customer support.

 

as a owner of a 6625, it has been nothing but great, exept for buggy BIOS versions
But thats not really a problem either cause im not working with audio or video on my laptop.

At least the 6625, is a mobile desktop

 

I sent in my laptop (3145W) to Zepto about two and a half weeks ago for repair. It was suffering from random shutdowns when using graphic-intensive applications (eg, games) and some other issues I think were related to that. I also tested the memory and it turns out one of the memory sticks was damaged.

I got it back today and so far I really have no complains. Originally I was told it would take up to 3 weeks for the repair (I don't know what the industry standard is but 3 weeks sounded pretty okay to me) but then the actual repair only took 2 days. For some reason it took them almost two weeks to actually send it back to me though lol.

Anyway I got it back with a note that said they had cleaned it for massive amounts of dust and stress-tested it. I'm typing on it now and so far it's all good really. I don't have time to test it out today but I'll try it out tommorrow and see if they fixed all the problems.

 

So there are some happy customers!!! I have been looking at the 6024w? Is this known for problems? And does anyone have any notes about Ubuntu compatibility?

Thanks,

Nick

 

Personally, I would wait for a while. See what new stuff comes out later in the year, Zepto may adopt the 9m series GPU's in their next line up. Don't forget that Montevina will have a bit of an impact and AMD are promising some new stuff too. Even if you wait just to drop the price of currently available hardware, it will be worth it.

 

Yeah, I will probably wait for a while, what new stuff is Zepto going to bring out?

Thanks,

Nick

 

My Zepto's been okay, well, except for the fact that the DVD drive now seems to make the sound slow down and stutter when it's reading something at high speed...keep meaning to do something about that. And I also removed my keyboard once and now it's a little noisier than it used to be, but that just adds to the character! Yeah!

But I will say that the 6625 gets HOT if you do anything intensive on it (not just gaming...), so it's very worthwhile to spend a day testing the limits of undervolting your CPU ) It produced lovely results for me

 

Check that the optical drive interface has not dropped into PIO mode. It should be UDMA 2. If it is in PIO (which can be caused by errors reading a bad disc) then uninstall the IDE channel which is in PIO mode and let Windows redetect and reconfigure the interface.

John

 

They sell the worst Chinese crap ever produced and can´t control any part of the production. They´ve just slapped the brand on and every stupid brand concious idiots are clapping their hands. Zepto is a one time experience I would not venture down that path a second time not even their branch products like televisions more crap by default.

I´m sitting with a 6625wd which in many ways is far inferior to my old Acer computer quality wise. Although the 6625wd is technically better specced than the Acer it performs on par with the Acer which means I´ve invested money & time but didn´t get any extra performance out of my investment. Being a computer professional I wouldn´t advise any of my clients buying Zeptos because failure rate is far too great which in return will cost quite a deal because of lost data, time, and constantly having have to send the machines in for repairs.

 

I had endless problems with my Zepto. The suspend barely works(though to be fair has been behaving better recently) and tends to freeze the computer completely. The network card disappeared completely and wouldn't come back. I get BSoDs fairly often, it used to be Memory Parity error now it's some other bizarre thing. The sound card isn't working that well, with headphones plugged in I get this very loud noise level, as well as it having this bizarre effect where it does this kind of "Whooomph" effect just after a sound ends. At low volumes it goes up and down. It sounds like excessive dither or something(a small amount of noise added to low volume noises to help avoid aliasing). The build quality overall feels a little shaky. The keys don't go on and off as easily as I'd like. The screen is messed up but that's more my own fault maybe.

I guess Zeptos are for people who are really good at configuring their machines. I installed Windows myself I probably made a mess.

 

I've been running Ubuntu 7.10 and 8.04 on my 6024W - so I guess I'm one of those your asking for . It have at the same time been my fist experiences with Linux, so I cant speak as an super-linux-user.

For starters, I had the same Bios problems as anyone else - but it seems okay now, even thou it still is a bit noisy from time to time.

8.04 runs smoothly. I only have had trouble with the sound - but lots of Ubuntu-people has that. And it is easily fixed, just write one line in a configuration-file.

If I should by a new laptop, I would probaly go for the 6224W as I'm lacking the "show-off"-value that comes with good graphic-power, but otherwise its a good laptop.

But you should read John Ratsey review of the 6024W before you do anything - it says more about the machines specs and uses, than Zepto tells.

There
Anders

 

@nubis - agree totally! I'm doing the same thing here - never buying Zepto again and telling everyone to avoid it like the plague. Zepto can't pass the blame to Inventec since I feel 90% of the problem is bad management and decision making on their side...

@Kitty, Hell I thought my intermittent restarts were bad! Feel very sorry for you - that is just horrible I have a cheap 5 buck usb sound card that sounds miles clearer and less quantisized/aliased at low volume that the built-in realtek setup - dissapointing.

@Anders, I agree that Ubuntu runs "better" than even XP. I've been using linux for the last 6 years and the current Ubuntu 8.04 seems to stay a lot cooler and "feels" better than XP or Vista. But, gnome's UI draw speed is slowww compared to XP (compare firefox "feel" with xp vs ubuntu), KDE apps crash a LOT, and XFCE just sucks when you need to do any real work. Also driver support is very bad on certain things. I have a Wacom Intuos3 and Bamboo(black) both work perfectly in XP and Vista. I have them working in Ubuntu, barely, and the "control panel" is really barbaric and throws errors constantly, and I need to manually setup the config on login, etc, etc..

I definitely prefer linux, but I when need certain minimum things to work, so I am forced to use XP/Vista which is currently more than 50% of the time. And the audio controls - damn! The mixer UIs (I've tried a lot of them) all seem erratic (even uncontrollable) compared to windows' crap volume settings tray app!

I could go on, but I will say that if all you need is working in Ubuntu that is the way to go - definitely - as I would! But some things still need a LOT of attention and become a pain in the neck...

 

Well after close to a year of the Zepto experience I am out of it finally.
In the year 2008 I had 4 weeks use of my 6625wd the rest of the time was spent going to, at or coming from Denmark for Graphics card/ Mobo replacement but the last time my computer sat on a shelf for 3 weeks before being looked at - great customer service.
I received a full refund but that even took 3 weeks but finally I am free.
Fight for your rights folks - you bought from Zepto and it is them that must rectify matters by repair or refund not by adopting the ostrich approach of denial and bragging about the great stuff coming soon.

 

I'm getting a Gemstone Blue now. I recommend you should as well. How much did you pay for your Znote?

http://www.laptopsdirect.ie/Acer_Aspire_6920_Gemstone_Blue_Laptops/prod.asp

The one on the bottom has similar specs to that 6625WD, though the one down from it may be just as good.

 

I paid €2400 including upgrade to Penryn in attempt to run cooler after 1st GFX failure, included Vista Ultimate, Office SBE, spare battery and Samsonite 2in1 case.
Znote failed first on business in Australia so I had to buy replacement; a HP Verve DV2799EA which I am very happy with and it only cost €780. The only items less than Zepto 6625WD specs are 1280x800 screen and 8400GS GFX but it has Lightscribe, remote control, neoprene sleeve, cordless laser mouse etc and after clean re-install of Vista HP to remove all bloat it really flies along whilst keeping its cool.

I may get Gizmo CX15 or equivalent once price settles and reviews are in, Clevo cool their lappies quite well normally - they may be the OMD of the Zepto 15 and 17 new range.

 

My 6024W is continuing to behave correctly after its motherboard change. The below-average keyboard is the biggest drawback although it seems to be better than it used to be. There's no a little wobble in the display after 10 months usage but, overall, the notebook still feels very solid. I've had no unexpected problems with the BIOS (006). The display size / resolution was one of the factors in my original purchasing decision and I'm very happy with that aspect.

John