Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo Pro V3515 - Freezing Problem

[docboggle]

My latest experience with some Fujitsu-Siemens laptops has got me puzzled.
Aside from the batch of Amilo Pro V3515 loosing all their screws by themselves, and the whole batch now running at snails pace, one of them is experiencing some further strange symptoms.

The laptop is randomly freezing (in Windows, bootup, and even in BIOS), shutting down, or just not booting at all (press power button, power light comes on and fans, but nothing else).

I have tried reseating the HD and RAM. No evidence of overheating.

Can anyone please give me any ideas?

[docboggle]

Hmmm, thought I would try swapping the RAM with a working machine. Turned on the machine, and found the BIOS clock had reset. Put in the correct time, booted up into Windows, logged in, and after 2 minutes the laptop resets by itself and resets the BIOS clock again.

Thought I would then leave it for a few minutes in BIOS to see what happens. Clocks seems happy ticking away, lulling me into a false sense of security! Press the + to change the time and it freezes again.

"Curiouser and curiouser!" Cried Alice!

[john_robbo]

I've got a very similar problem with a V3515 - aside from all the screws vanished, the machine hangs almost straight away, with the Fujitsu logo on the screen and the F2 and F12 options at the bottom (neither of which work).

I also reseated the RAM and hard disk, but no joy. One thing I've noticed is that the fan seems to run at full belt whilst its frozen.

Docboggle, did you ever get any further in solving your problem?

[kmount]

Touched the cpu/hsf to see if its cooking?

[john_robbo]

It seems to be running fairly cool - left it on for about 5 mins just to be sure.

[docboggle]

Docboggle, did you ever get any further in solving your problem?

I'm afraid I didn't. I still have a dead laptop for me to look at over the summer holiday.
I ended up switching the hard drive with a spare laptop that I had so that the user could just carry on.

[docboggle]

Well, another one has died today. Exactly the same symptoms. Still no idea how to fix.

NEVER buying Fujitsu-Siemens laptops again.

[soveryapt]

I had 10 of these .. 7 got stolen overnight a bit back .. a firm we were working with to get some new printers then donated some lovely lovely HP ProBooks to replace them, and we bought an extra 3 to make the suite up and give me a few spares to shut some staff up from complaining about their Dell D505 machines being so slow.

To be honest, I was mildly gutted when I heard about the robbery, but the fact I've got 10 shiny ProBooks out of it ..

When I've had them running slowly, I've fully reimaged them and they've seemed to work fine, but it sounds like you've had a right old dodgy batch of machines there. The popular thing with ours isn't screws, but the coverings on the hinges for the screen .. they just fall off if you say boo to them!

[danrhodes]

Didn't you take out the 3 yr warranty on your V3515??

D

[docboggle]

Didn't you take out the 3 yr warranty on your V3515??

D

No, what a big mistake. When running against a budget, 3 year warranties aren't always the priority though!

[danrhodes]

We deal mostly with FS kit and have learnt the lesson to warranty all the kit up!

D

[docboggle]

Having bought these laptops in September 2007, the warranty has lapsed on these laptops. However, I am clutching at straws to see if there is anything that I can get FS to do.

As I have had three of four laptops die in exactly the same manner, with screws falling out, DVD-ROMs failing (latter non-terminal problems on all four laptops), it is most obviously a manufacturing fault with this batch of laptops.

Have I got any approach I can take with FS, or do I just give up and add them to my collection of door stops? (With the exception of phoning their out of warranty phone line at 60p/min to be told that the repairs will cost more than I bought the laptops for!)

[soveryapt]

Do you still have the other laptops that have died in the same manner? (i.e. proof to them that there was obviously some big fault in that batch)

If so, you might be able to do something, but to be honest, I wouldn't hold your breath if they are out of warranty as the life of product (especially with brands like FS) normally equals warranty length + 1-3 months ..

It's worth a shot so long as it's not costing you too much, you never know.. certainly wouldn't go down the out of warranty service route as by the time you've done that, paid for the call, repair check (£50 ish?) and then the repairs on top, you certainly could of got a new laptop ..

Good luck with it if you do decide to go after FS sorting it, but it'll probably be an uphill struggle.