Looking for some Hard Drive problem advice that Mailbal isn't really giving

I purchased my Malibal Laptop in August 2011 and up until now its been running fine except for the power supply blowing up once last year. Anyway, I paid for 24x7 support for 3 years and I feel like I'm getting barely 9-5 support with maybe one email response the next day, then I respond, then they send another email response the next day. Its the worst 24x7 support I've ever seen in my life and I'm starting to regret my purchase. I mean really, get on the phone and talk to people when they pay so much for support and over 5K laptop. The latest problem I'm having is that my computer started freezing with the blue wheel spinning, the hard drive seems to be 100% active, I can move the cursor while its showing a blue spinning wheel, but as soon as I click on anything like a web page, it just doesn't respond, control alt delete doesn't work, and I have to do a hard boot. They slowly sent me an email with a tool called Intel SSD Toolbox. I ran it more than 3 times and it showed errors each time. After sharing that with Malibal over a 3 day period, they finally agreed to issue an RMA. The process was ridiculously slow.

Since then, I uninstalled a couple of games and out of nowhere the one game I installed a couple of weeks ago I think completely disappeared from my hard drive. That game was Lord of the Rings Online. Anyway, now my computer isn't freezing, but when I go to explorer to see the properties of my hard drive, it is showing 232GB total. I could have sworn that total was much higher when I previously did dxdiags for my 250SSD drive. I ran the same Intel Tool and now its not showing an error and I haven't seen a freeze for 2 days. Now I'm debating if I should send it back.

Is this normal behavior? Should my 250SSD be showing 232GB now? Would you still send it back or hold onto it a little longer with behavior that had the SSD freezing which mysteriously disappeared?

Thanks!

 

Hello,

Did you format the new SSD drive to NTFS?
Also 250,000,000,000 bytes = 232GB = human v computer bytes
HDD formatting
1GB = 2^30 bytes= 1GB
Byte - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Everything is sweet.. Merry Xmas

 

Sounds like your hard drive problems have been solved right. As tron2^ mentioned your hard drive is showing right. 250GB is the decimal amount, once you reformat it, it goes to binary which is 232GB. If you get into your BIOS it will show 250GB.

 

I'm surprised you didn't get an angry response from Malibal refusing all service except offering you a refund I guess they only do that during pre-sales.

Anyway, I'd do the RMA anyway, just to be sure. Would suck to have your SSD malfunction at a later point again.

 

Thank you. I'm not very technical. I didn't format anything. In fact I don't even know what that means as far as formatting to NTFS and whether thats something a laptop for 5.5K would require upon purchase by the consumer. Anyway, the math you provided was helpful so thank you. Happy Holidays to you too .

 

Thank you. I feel better now. I just wonder what caused all of those errors from the Intel tool 3 times over two nights of testing. It's like when Lord of the Rings disappeared on its own, everything worked fine. Very bizarre. I think I'm going to hold onto the computer and just see if the freezing reoccurs as this is my third session since that occurred with no freezing. Now it will probably freeze after I type this lol. Unlike the previous days, I'm working from my home office today so I'll be able to monitor more extensively today .

 

They actually did respond unprofessionally this morning. Here is our current back and forth.

Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2012 05:30:29 -0800
From Malibal:

It's fine if you want to share your experience with our company but please don't exaggerate the truth. We responded twice to you on the 12th which was the day you opened your ticket. And after our last post on the 12th you didn't reply again until the morning of the 13th about 7 hours later, saying you would run more tests with the tool we sent, and then you didn't reply again with the results until the next day on the 14th about 34 hours later, then on that same day the 14th, which was two days after you issued the ticket, we said we could issue an RMA. Then you didn't reply to that until the next day on the 15th about 17 hours later. Then we responded to that email 3 minutes later on Saturday morning asking for your return info so we could finally issue the service label and you responded a day later on Sunday the 16th. And we only issues labels M-F so we sent the label on Monday at 11am, but it appears that 4 days later you still haven't returned the laptop yet.
--
From me just now:
I'd be very careful how you respond to me. It's exactly these type of responses which is how companies go out of business and its exactly this unprofessional behavior and lack of acknowledgement of your failings that will prevent high end paying customers such as myself from buying from you in the future. It is also why I am strongly considering reporting you to the BBB and if need be open a case in smalls claims court.

1) Though I don't have the paperwork in front of me (I do have it), I paid for 24x7 support. That is what you advertised. I don't know what planet you all live on but 24x7 does not mean that I open up a ticket on 12:57am then get a respond at 9:07am 8 hours later. It means that when I contact someone at 12:57am, someone should be available at 12:57am.
2) Yes, my responses take a little time because I'm actually at work and can't troubleshoot from there. There would be no delay in my responses if you actually offered the 24x7 support that is part of what I PAID for!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
3) My initial response to your first email which you sent 8 hours after the ticket was opened was sent at 9:01am. You didn't respond to that until 5:44pm, almost 9 hours later. That is TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE!!!! for 24x7 support on a $5.5K laptop.
4) Then I responded after running the tests the next morning at 12:37am when I'm not working and can actually monitor. I'm the one who is troubleshooting, not you. All you did for the entire first day is say it may be software or HDD related and to run a tool. Just like any other 24x7 support, you should have had a resource working with me to troubleshoot, not send 2 emails with large gaps in between from the point of my response and not in any way troubleshoot with me. If I called Dell or Symantec, they would have been either on the phone troubleshooting or via online chat troubleshooting...not sending me emails 6-8 hours later with one line troubleshooting tasks. You basically did nothing. I did everything.
5) On 12/14, your responses were so slow that I tried calling during normal business hours thinking I might actually be able to talk with someone to speed this along. No luck. All I got was a voice-mail. That is not the 24x7 support I paid for.
6) Finally, at 9:05 am, not until the next day after me sending responses throughout the day on 12/14 and leaving a voice-mail, you provided an RMA basically doing no troubleshooting.

You have a lot of nerve and if anything I understated the lack of troubleshooting and quick turnaround times one would expect when paying for 24x7 support and expecting to be led with troubleshooting, not sporadic emails with one or two line responses. Anyone who thinks that is an acceptable process for 24x7 support should be fired. I would have been better off using local support as my issues would be resolved within 24 hours and I wouldn't have to ship back my computer which I also use for work from my home office after 3 days of lackadaisical support. It is the same support I received when my power supply didn't work twice and I wasted days without a computer and nobody from your company could tell me immediately what troubleshooting tasks were done that caused a third power supply to be sent to me when the 2nd didn't work.

If anything I should probably update my comments with additional detail including times and responses of each email so that can see how you view 24x7 support.

Keith

 

I'm interested to see if they even respond to that last one.

They have a pretty website but it seems thats about it.

On another note, your SSD might just need new firmware.

Quote:
Originally Posted by frickfrock99

I'll try to find the links, but there were quite a few.
One was with Intel drives where they would delete all your data and bring you down to 8 MB. Another was with Crucial drives where they would mess up after a certain amount of time. And there was a whole bunch with OCZ drives.
After reading about them, I just decided to stay away altogether.

That Crucial problem didn't delete your information. It caused your PC to restart after a certain amount of time. It was promptly fixed with a firmware patch soon after it was discovered.

 

Epic. Malibal, reseller of the year! Epic. I have better service and at odd hours for no extra. Mythlogic better service and I didn't even buy from them. Mythlogic, got ahold of them in 1 min and didn't need to call them.

 

Thank you. To be honest, I've never updated the firmware on my hard drive on any PC. I did try to update the drivers by going to Device Manager and having it search on the web if that was needed, but it said my drivers are up to date. Is a firmware update process different for a Hard Drive? The only time I ever did a firmware update is on my router and router extender...both from Netgear...whoops and for my Panasonic BluRay and Sharp Elite TV . Sorry for my ignorance.

 

With that 250GB Drive you have an Intel 510 series drive. It doesn't have any firmware updates for it. So I would say you just have a failing drive. It happens every once in a while, I would see if they can just x-ship you the drive and you can replace it yourself as long as you can handle a screwdriver Just as a suggestion

 

Hmph a 510 is last years drive i thought for sure it would have one. My mistake. However others have reported that problem.

 

Thank you. Unfortunately, in their extensive troubleshooting with me (I say that sarcastically), they concluded it was either the HD or Software related. After sharing with them the failed test results from the Intel Testing Tool, all they did and say prior to giving me an RMA # was whether the problem is something they can repeat themselves. Unfortunately (or fortunately) depending upon how you look at it, the problem has disappeared and the Intel Tool has run now twice without error...so all they would do is just send it back to me. Maybe it was something in the Lord of the Rings Online Program itself that mysteriously disappeared that was causing a conflict on the drive. Who knows. If it fails again I send it back, but so far 4 days and no errors or freezing. I've never seen this before.

 

Wow, so stingy. They can't just help you get a warranty replacement with Intel if they are too cheap to provide you warranty service themselves that you paid for? That drive must still be in warranty period. Malibal is truly the scrooge humbug when it comes to CS.

As Mythlogic has said, drives failing do happen. And it's intermittent. Just because it works fine temporarily for now doesn't mean the drive isn't faulty and will fail in the near future. I would much rather have the drive replaced while it's still under warranty personally than have to pay out of pocket later. See if you can call Intel? Intel I bet will be much better with their warranty than Malibal and just want you to send the drive back. They likely won't test it and just ship out a new one to you.

While at it, go give them a zero on reseller ratings. That's the only Malibal has going for them. Whenever someone has issue, they tell the person to F off, and that they are almighty Jesus because they have good reseller rating. Go wreck their reseller rating for this scrooge humbug service. Also file a BBB report too. If they are going to take your money for warranty and service and then make you jump through hoops for selling you a faulty drive (their fault), then do something about it, where it hurts.

I'm just happy that I've never had to experience this type of service from Asus, Sager, LPC, XoticPC or Xcaliber, I've had good experience with notebooks. I've never had to deal with this crud that you have.

 

Thanks. Isn't a normal warranty 1 year for a Hard Drive? I may call Intel Directly to see if I can get anywhere since Malibal said the problem has to be repeatable and now I can't repeat it. As far as direction due to being mislead now twice by the 24x7 support I paid for and don't receive, I am probably going to take your advice. I think to them 24x7 means they have 24 hours to respond and expect to be without your notebook for at least 7 days.

 

ive had 2 hard drives fail in the last year. a western digital scorpion black that had a 5 year manufacturer guarantee and a ocz ssd which had a 3 year manufacturer guarantee so even if someones warranty with their reseller is over they can still get faulty hard drives replaced.
you just have to contact the maker directly fr a rma.

 

Last time I had an Issue with my 9150, Malibal responded within 2 minutes- 1hours of my emails, and even overnighted me an upgraded video card so I could install it the day before I shipped out on deployment. For some reason I feel like we're no getting both sides of this story accurately, or there responses are just slower as it's the holiday season.

 

You could try going directly through the manufacturer as suggested. While i believe they warranty isnt valid since you bought it in a part of a computer i have had hard drive manufacturers call to verify a purchase date as if they were honoring a warranty for someone.

 

Considering their past attitude and threats of lawsuits against NBR members for making public complaints, I wouldn't put it past them. This isn't the first time. Their responses are always defensive and frequently bully-ish. I guess like many others here live and learn. Don't buy from Malibal in the future. Stick with the companies represented positively here at NBR: LPC-Digital, XoticPC, Mythlogic, Pro-Star, PowerNotebooks, etc.

In the case of the SSD, as long as it isn't an OEM SSD that requires warranty through the OEM (like Malibal) then you should be able to get it replaced by the drive manufacturer. If it's an Intel then just contact Intel directly (through their website) and they will likely ask for your serial number. Just don't provide it until they ask, however. Most SSD's come with 3 or 5 year warranties. It sounds like it may just need a clean install, and while you're at it check for an updated firmware, should be part of the SSD toolbox, as long as you have the latest. In any case, try a full format, preferably secure erase, then reinstall Windows. DON'T do a system restore as it could also be due to some other issues like malware or virus.