My CF30 might be a lemon

Well, it seems my CF-30 might turn out to be lemon.

I have owned the notebook for a little less than a month and have gotten a few BSODs. At first I attributed it to RAM, maybe the G-Skills just didn't like it. Then a couple of days ago while just doing normal things, the screen would be all distorted and the computer frozen. I haven't downloaded anything, installed anything or made any changes to its hardware.

Then today, it happened again, over and over to the point where it will happen RIGHT after I log in. Things just started to go down hill from there. When I see the windows loading screen, it would happen. I called up Panasonic tech support and they said the only thing to do is to reimage the hard drive, basically a fresh install.

I really didn't want to do that, but had no choice. I rebooted and tried to go into bios so I can select the boot from CD drive, but then it happened right before I was able to go into bios! I swapped out the RAM, even swapped out the hard drive with another, no dice. I called the vendor I ordered from asking for an exchange, and of course, the department that can approve it won't be available til Monday. They have a 30 day return policy, but I ordered on 9/19, but didn't take delivery til the 25th. If they don't honor it and won't exchange, what can I do at that point? It seems like its a hardware issue.

 

CF-30s are pretty new.. Wouldn't they still be covered under a Panasonic warranty? Did you start that conversation with Panasonic tech support?

 

Yes, it should still be under the 3 year standard warranty. Check your serial number to make sure. the serial number is located on the back right under the model number. It will begin with a number and follow with a group of letters. The number is the year in which it was manufactured. The first letter corrosponds to the month it was manufactured. A = January, B = February, and so on.

Call Panosonic support at 1-800-LAPTOP5 and explain the whole situation about having trouble even in BIOS. They should issue you an RMA number and you will be able to AIR ship it to the warranty repair facility with shipping costs covered by Panosonic. Normally this is a huge pain in the you know what, but with the toughbooks they have an average turn around time of 2 days - meaning that once it gets to the repair facility it will usually be fixed and shipped out within 2 days.

It does sound like a hardware issue, possibly a bad hard drive. Try pulling the hard drive out and then booting into the BIOS. If you can then get into BIOS, without problems, it is no doubt a hard drive issue, other than that, I would have to see it to diagnose the problems. The In-warranty route is very fast.

http://www.panasonic.com/business/toughbook/warranty.asp?page=service

 

One of the best thing about the toughbook is its standard 3 year warranty and lifetime phone support. Yes its still covered under warranty, but being its still under 30 days, I would rather exchange for a new unit rather than have it fixed.

I was told it most likely is a hardware issue even though the chances of that is extremely slim.

I have installed a new hitachi hard drive, and at first I thought maybe it is the hard drive, but then after I inserted the original one in, the problem still persisted, and I did the same with the RAM, same thing. So I ruled out the RAM and hard drive which were the only things I replaced. But when it freezes and distorts the screen even before entering BIOS, this tells me its hardware related. I'm going to call the vendor on Mon and see what they say. Worse case, I'll send it to Panasonic for repair or replacement. I'll keep you all posted. My first Toughbook experience isn't turning out too great though, but nevertheless, I still strongly believe in their quality, I just happen to be one of the few unlucky ones.

 

I know it has to be frustrating to buy something as expensive as a toughbook and see it start having problems this soon. Sorry to hear about your troubles.

Since you have ruled out the hard drive/RAM and the problem presents itself before the OS is ever loaded, it really can't be anything else but hardware related. If you do end up going the warranty route, they will also test it with another hard drive and when it still causes problems they will simply replace the mainboard with a new one. That won't take long at all. they will also run it through a full series of diagnostic tests to make sure nothing else hardware related happens. The repair facility hardly ever gets toughbooks back that have the same problems. It isn't any fun for technicians when they do. Quality control is top notch and one of the single most important things they focus on.

Good luck to you - it would be nice if the seller would step up to help you out.

 

You're right. I'm sure my case is rare and the QC at Panasonic is great, and it is very fraustrating to buy something so expensive and have it fail on me so soon.

I'm hoping the vendor would step up to the plate, but worse case they don't, I would go the warranty route. I spoke with a tech already and he said the turn around time would be only 3 to 4 days, now that is FAST. I love their 24/7 tech support and they all speak perfect english!

 

I had the same exact problem but it was on a CF-51 the screen would scramble with all these funky colors and lock up the system mostly intermittently or when a lot of graphics were on the screen. The problem turned out to be one of the RAM modules it was a 512MB DDR4 just like the CF-30 uses. I took that RAM and installed it on a CF-30 and in a few minutes it did the same thing. Not sure how you diagnosed the RAM but I would look further into that being the problem. BUt be careful you don't void your warranty in doing so.

 

I figured to be the RAM when I replaced the Gskills with a pair of Corsair RAMs and then finally using the stock 512MB RAM it came with and the same problem occurred.

Update:
I called up comparemaster.com which is the vendor I ordered from. The ridiculous answer I got at first was that you can't return the item if its not in the same condition as when you first received. So that means, if you received an item and a couple of weeks later, it malfunctions, you can't return it because it was working perfectly when you first got it. Does that make any sense at all? If its working perfectly, I wouldn't want to return/exchange it in the first place!

I left a message for the supervisor that if I don't get an exchange, I will file a dispute with the cc company AND file a complaint with the BBB even though I'm within my 30 day return period.

I ordered 3 items from them via 2nd day shipping. HDD, RAM and Toughbook. HDD was not in stock even though it showed in stock and had to be shipped from Hitachi itself and was lost during transit, so I never got it. I ordered 1 x 2 GB crucial RAM and I was sent 2 x 1GB corsair RAM, and finally the TB. And of course, it was shipped regular ground even though I paid 2nd day and they arrived seperately (still didn't get the HDD). Worse experience ever.

 

note to self: do NOT buy ANYTHING from comparemaster.com

 

Hmmmm... They have great reviews online... They also state they have a 45 day return policy.

Did you check the RAM with memtest? It's a great free utility that has helped me many, many times. It has a quick test and also an extended test.

 

Excellent advice on the memtest Toughbook! highly suggested.

You can download it for free --- http://www.memtest86.com/

 

Yes, I did the memtest. Problem is I used 3 different types of RAM including the stock one, so the problem isn't the RAM.

I called yesterday and I was told that this notebook isn't part of the return or exchange within 30 or 45 days. I made a big fuss about it saying I would dispute with my cc company and just wouldn't pay at all. I called back asking to speak with a supervisor, told him the situation, and he told me to email so they can have something in writing and they will determine what to do. I will wait til tomorrow and then call back and see what the result is.

I'm sure for the most part when you order things from them and nothing goes wrong, its fine. But if you're in my situation, it can get frustrating.

 

How can you order from Panasonic directly?

 

you can't. at least not on an individual basis. you'd have to buy from an authorized dealer.

 

That is what can make certain resellers stand out or sink back in the crowd. It obviously isn't good to do business with a company that can't even ship the products without issues - when that part is overcome I still rely on good customer service and support on the products I purchase. In that light, I would stay away from CompareMaster.

here is a link to their reseller ratings -- http://www.resellerratings.com/store/Comparemaster

They have a 6 month rating of 6.67 out of 10 with only a few review done within the last 6 months - that isn't all that good.

The negative reviews are thoroughly explained and it appears they had good reason to be dissatisfied. It looks like quite a bit of poor communication on the part of CompareMaster.

I hope your situation gets resolved soon Outrigger!

 

Update:

Last night I decided to turn on the TB to see if the situation is the same and surprisingly, its back to normal. I left it running the whole night using sling player and all day today just to see if I would encounter any anomalies. Regardless, I still don't trust it when I was getting these type of errors even before BIOS post. I will RMA it with Panasonic if the problem pops up one more time.

Regarding comparemaster.com. After speaking back and forth to them, they absolutely refuse to budge on the issue saying when you buy a computer/notebook from them, they are not responsible for it anymore regardless if its within 30 day period. Apparently their satisfaction within 30 days plastered on their home page excludes certain products. But I'm not looking for a return, I'm looking for an exchange and I believe its taking the consumer for a ride after he/she paid $3,000 for a notebook and it breaking down after a couple of weeks. I'm going to file a dispute with my cc company tonight and I have already filed a complaint with the BBB, but I don't know how effective that will be.

 

Update again:

Panasonic told me that they will replace my unit with a new unit. I just need to fax some info to them and they will start the process. However, it will take 3 to 4 weeks as to it will come from HQ in Japan. I hope they will send the unit to me first and then for me to send mine back to them.

Regardless, I can say for one thing, the customer service is second to none at Panasonic, its things like that, that have a customer keep coming back for more business. Why can't some company understand that you can make more money if you keep a current customer happy?

 

Well if all laptops would cost 3000$ things would be different, right?