Dreadful situation Clevo P770ZM-G catastrophic failure

So reading up in other threads involving the fall of Mythlogic chances of any recourse of getting anything done warranty wise are as dead as my laptop.

That just about right?

 

Have you tried?

 

Well this will mark week 2 since the unit failed and my trying every method available to attempt some sort of contact during their business hours. Or leaving any messages in general.

Left one in Facebook Messages, found an email address back before when contact was reliable with them and sent an email. Called their phone number and left a message. Been calling just about daily just to see if anyone would pick up. Nothing.
Any idea on how to proceed would of help.

 

Still no responses seeing the pattern of those attempting to get something done this is all a lost cause.

Which isn't a good thing considering cost and how behind the ball I'm now on work.

Also made me hesitant to look into future purchases from other builders what's the point of buying unit and a warranty from someone that isn't there anymore. Ending up out a few hundred more bucks I just couldn't have spent. Which is terrible since otherwise the units are perfect for being a mobile workstation and entrainment system.

 

Other resellers could look into paid repairs but there is a risk with the smaller resellers sadly.

 

Let this be a lesson for you. Don't buy clevo and get something like MSI etc. instead. that way you don't have to deal with this garbage,

 

Which is a shame as at the time purchase Mythlogic was pretty on the ball. Responsive to emails and inquiries good at responding to post purchase emails and situations on the build.

Then they fell apart over the last year or so it seems.

Shame as they were the most regional builder around the Great Lakes area and had been around for long time. Guess things happen.

To ask what would the rate be for such a repair? Judging by where the smoke and fire was it was the power button board assembly that burned out.

 

It depends on the damage, if the mainboard is fried it can be rather pricey.

 

I could not say without the unit being inspected, it really depends on what has been damaged, if it's a simple secondary PCB then not too much, if it's the motherboard then that's certainly more expensive.

 

Roughly what magnitude of expense would one be looking at? From the minor catastrophic to major catastrophic?

 

No, then you have to deal with MSI garbage support. (I've seen the horror stories from them too) Every maker makes machines that will fail, it's a part of the business. Ideally it's a small percentage, and part of shopping is knowing whether the reseller will be around in 1-2 years.

@Fastidious Reader If the motherboard is shot, you may want to look at a new notebook instead, as it can be upwards of $800+ for BGA mobo replacements, since they have CPU and GPU on them. Plus you also don't know how much collateral damage you have sustained, like the memory modules or secondary boards.

At least with a new system you have a new warranty from a new vendor, and you know it will work.

 

Yea did that went with one that directly built systems and not repack Sager units that would then be sent to Sager if heavy maintenance. But it was just bad luck things went wrong.

All that probably extra cost makes me nervous putting down another few grand on a unit. No matters how needed it is.

 

There are systems that perform well and aren't bank breakers. Where do you live?

 

Ohio area, dunno any builders of note that aren't in California or Nevada now.

 

Maybe this is what you mean by 'builder's of note', and they're a Clevo boutique not Sager (and also not a Prema Partner), but isn't AVADirect in Cleveland?

 

Never thought to look. Yep all the way up out towards Cleveland. Other end of the state from here. But as you note it is Ohio. Might be worth a shot. What's been the average relationship with them and buyers?

 

There's also MicroCenter (gotta pitch those PowerSpec laptops) I see there's one in Columbus, Mayfield Heights, and Sharonville.

@Fastidious Reader

 

To also ask does anyone know of a guide so I can remove the keyboard and check the other side of the board and the connectors in the ignition area. Find out if its just PCB or more extensive damage before possibly trying to send it off for repair.

 

i never really had a problem.

I had a Clevo X7200 from them. In for a warranty repair when one of the exhaust fans conked out. Machine was out for 5 biz days including ship times to/from IL. I didn't consider this too bad.

Machines are general Clevos... One nicety, they ran/printed off the benchmarks and temps from the utilities they used during burn in. Other than that, don't expect too much above a stock machine. In other words, nothing too much extra than what you'd expect from a normal Clevo in that regards.

 

Yea looking at them compared to others like Xotic or Hidevolution who offer all sorts of extra cooling addons and extended support and tuning for screens and components along with warranty services.

And Prema partner support since Prema seems to be refining the recent Intel fixes right now that could be a important factor.

In the end I guess it boils down to cost and such. Maybe see if AVA could do a repair job and what that would run me.

 

To add does anyone know if can source clevo parts from somewhere?

 

http://www.clevo-computer.de/index_e.htm

 

Leads to the question what parts to look for not very clear

 

either diagnose yourself or send it to someone who can.

 

Power switch board fried itself that I know. I just can't sort out the part needed

 

Now as a guy who diagnosis these things and repairs to some extend notebooks, I have to ask you, did you figure out the reason why it catched fire?
Also do you know that replacing the daughterboard will fix it?

Because for all you know that thing might catch fire the moment you press the button again.

 

Going by the source point it was something to do with the action of pressing the power button. I've see similar failures before. Last one this dramatic was in an old Radio Shack handheld game.

 

Well then you might want to figure out how to prevent it from shorting, or rather what shorted the board by pressing the button. The partnumber would probably be something meaker would know since he's a reseller.

 

One of the next steps. Wish I could mod it into a flip switch. If I can get the unit running again

 

And to other queries. How many other Clevo builders are in the US? Just to ask around if my current inquiries don't pan out.

 

Mate my P750ZM went down in a blaze (literally, smoke and all). Some sort of power overload that left a charred mark on the MB. Trust me buy new current gen laptop now or you are wasting your time and money buying spare parts. I recouped almost $1500 selling salvageable parts on eBay (CPU, GPU, RAM and SSD were completely intact). RAM prices were nuts earlier this year so there was that added benefit considering they were 3 year old DDR3.

I went out and bought a P775TM-G from HID, shipped all the way from US to Australia. Best laptop decision I ever made.

 

I don't know how current this list is, but it should be a start - http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...info-read-before-posting.592609/#post-7677633

For example, I didn't notice HIDEvolution , RJTech or AVA Direct, PowerNotebooks has been absorbed by HIDEvolution and Mythlogic, I believe, is either dissolved or has filed for bankruptcy.

 

Where was that confirmed @jclausius ?

 

Where was what confirmed? Can you be a bit more specific?

 

You edited the bit I was questioning.

 

OK

 

So what's a good measure of the current builders? Best track record and such.

Looking to make sure I'm not out in the cold again on another unit.

 

Being active on here and other places is always a good sign

 

Looking in here, or emailing or finding support on their page to make sure they will respond to inquires.

 

That's the hitch. They were. And then they weren't. And that's all she wrote. Who could be next?

 

I don't like where this is going....

Literaly never in my life seen notebooks literally burn. Apparently 2 clevos literally went up in flames, which is odd since clevo usually builds good boards etc. but suck so bad at software.

 

Yea and the same series with the difference being screen size. That does leave a concern to that models design. And those that still carry the same layout.

 

I'd still like to know how on earth it can catch fire. I just don't see that happening. Even if something shorts, how can it short to an extend that it catches fire? I've heard notebooks catching fire by purchasing an ebay battery or a mod went horribly wrong, but catching fire just like that is absolutely new to me.

@GMLP
Can you enlighten us what part of the board catched fire and a possible reason for it??

 

See my post here

 

Read the post and it was exactly the same thing. Everything stock normal then smoke and flames. All from what looks to be that exact same position.

 

So it's the power supply which surged to much amp into the system causing the fire. Welp, I'll stay away from those P7xxZm's for now, they seem scary to me.

 

To be fair the laptop had had a month of hard shutdown before the final firy death. The 4790k and 980m combo, no delidding and basic IC Diamond, plus 3 years of AAA gaming, dust and no repaste I felt all played into this.

I thought it was just another shutdown when I heard the pop sound and smelled plastic burning.

 

Not really since this is obviously caused by overload, if anything the lack of repaste etc. should throttle down the components causing them to drain less electricity.

 

This is now sounding like a failure of some components in the power supply itself. The draw of those high consumption parts over a period of time causing some type of wearing and eventual failure.

A failure over almost the exact same period of time give or take some months.

 

What power supply did you have with it?