Maximum PC

I wish I would have taken my own advice and done some more home work before buying a computer. Cyberpower Pc advertises in Maximum PC and I was under the assumption (I know it makes and ass of me) that they were at least a semi professional company.

Cyber Power was very happy to take my money when I finally decieded to take the plung and buy a new box. And for me it was an expensive box. But soon after getting the computer (well about a month) it started acting up. After a few calls to tech support and swapping out the memory sticks the problem was not solved. I sent it back, at a good cost to ME and picked it up about two weeks later when I was in California. Within a few days of getting it home it stopped working. Now I'm upset and when I called Tech support they copped an attutide and told me I could fix it myself or sent it back and they might get to it in a couple of weeks.

It took a complaint to the Better Business Bureau in Los Angles to get any answer from Cyberpower. When I or my wife tried to call they were very rude and would tell us the computer was fixed and had been shipped and then give us fictious tracking numbers.

Well you might have guessed what happened next. I recieved the computer back on the 14th of December and today 1-1-08 (some happy New Year) it will not even come on.

THE LESSON FOR THE DAY BOYS AND GIRLS. Do your home work and check the BBB in the area that a business resides. If I had done that I would not have purchased from Cyberpower. To review the complaints about this company go to http://www.labbb.org/BBBWeb/Forms/Business/CompanyReportPage_Expository.aspx?CompanyID=13080817

I know that Maximum PC makes an income from this advertiser, but if they, Cyberpower, are not going to give their customers good service why would you want to promote their product to your customer base. This does make me question your other advertisers.

If this posting will prevent one person from making the same mistake I have made with Cyberpower then I can at least feel good about some on this first day of the New Year.

Happy New Year to All

Cactus Chuck

Welcome to the forums!!!

I am not affiliated with MaximumPC other than being a member of these forums. Many of the editors are members and post here, though.

CyberPower is a big company. Their support is definitely lacking. Work purchased a PC for a workstation with basically the same specs as I had built previously for our database server. The CyberPower pc was less expensive, less responsive and less stable. Not all features worked, either.... i.e. case temp. display. The support site has nothing for drivers or specs on this PC, fortunately they use off the shelf parts.

You get what you pay for.

If you aren't happy with their support, perhaps you can get help here in figuring out what's wrong. Post your problem / symptoms and specs in another, more appropriate forum here.

I am sorry to hear you had such a bad experience. Pretty much all manufacturers go through ups and downs.

First let me say that the system I purchased was not cheap. I did shop around and look at prices of the different componets I had installed. The price was compairable to everyone else. Some companies did not offer what Cyberpower did and like wise Cyberpower did not offer what others did. Had the system worked the first time I would have nothing but good things to say. It is the after sale support that is the problem. They do not replace the part, they just keep the system a few weeks and send it back saying it's fixed. All I want is for them to live up to the advertisement or give me my money back. At this point in time I do not think either one will happen. I can not afford to buy another computer so I suspect that will end my hobby of using a flight sim. I use this laptop for work. It is to bad that companies will take advantage of people this way but that seems to be the way our society is headed.

I apologize if it seemed I was saying your computer was cheap. That was not my intention.

In my experience with them, they advertise like a high-end company, yet looks can be deceiving.

How long have you had this computer, and what is left of the warranty?

Have you discussed the issues with a CyberPower higher-up related to your woes? You can ask to speak to a supervisor, or someone higher.

What exactly is the issue with the PC other than "it started acting up"?

Apology accepted. I have been to the shop and it is in one of those industrial parks. It is not very big. They basically do not do walk in business. I have talked with one person that represents themself as being in charge. After being at their office to pick up my unit the first time I don't think they know who is in charge. I did try to talk with the president or who ever was in charge but was told he was out of the counrty, and they did not know when he would be back. Under all the glitter of their ad i believe it is nothing more than smoke and mirriors. When one person gets tired of talking to you, you will be passed off to another.

To answer your question. I purchased the computer mid August and was only able to use a couple of time when in October it started to fail. In mid October it failed completely, and that is the first time I sent it in. It has a three year warranty which is a long time. The problem is getting them to honor the warranty the way they should. The first time they were cheerful about fixing it. The second time is when they got an attutide, because I was angry that it had failed again so soon.

Wife called for dinner and will discuss what is wrong in a post later tonight.

I ordered a $3500 custom water-cooled rig from Cyberpower about a year ago. I usually build my own machines, but I liked the idea of having them install the expensive processor and the water cooling. BTW, I ordered it without Windows because I had already purchased a retail copy and didn't want to be hampered by the restrictions of OEM Windows. When the computer arrived, I started to load Windows on it. It shut itself down in the middle of formatting the HDD. Didn't know why so tried again. Got Windows installed and shortly thereafter, it shut itself down again. Called Cyberpower and they told me this is a common condition and I just needed to swap the RAM sticks. Of course that had no effect, but they did get me off of the phone. Tried calling again and got voicemail to contact their 3rd party technical support vendor. Called that number and got voicemail saying leave message and they will get back to me. Took them 24 hours to call back and they didn't have a clue. But we exchanged a couple of calls over the next few days, to no avail. Finally, I realized I could not count on these guys. I suspected overheating and installed ASUS Probe. More like a counter than a thermometer - watched it gradually tick up until it hit 65C and then shut down. When I placed the order without the OS, I asked them how they would test the build. They said they would assemble, load Windows, test for stability, then wipe the HDD and ship to me. Obviously, they didn't do that. If they had, they would have found this problem when they tried to load Windows. Swap RAM sticks ... give me a break. Cyberpower offers a no-questions-asked replacement or refund during the first seven days. I had burned up most of those days waiting for support to call back, so I initiated a return for refund. They sounded sullen when I made the request, but at that point I had no confidence in them at all. Thanks for letting me get that off of my chest.

reddogleader

Are you sure that was your computer and not mine. The only difference is I had windows installed. The heating problem started after I got it back the first time. The fan on the power supply was not working. Now it will not boot at all. It worked fine all day yesterday and I shut it down last night. Today, nothing. The only thing left is to take it to court but I doubt I will ever get my money back. And I spent more than you. Just call me a sucker, and I'm in my 60's so I should know better.

Just curious if there's something I didn't know about.

What restrictions are you talking about?

I know you can't do an upgrade, and support is all on you. Is there more?


Funny, I ordered the one for work from CyberPower without an OS also, it has always ran hot.

As a follow up. After talking with John at Cyberpower today it has been decieded that they would refund my money minus the shipping expense. I told him that I wanted one of two things. A computer that worked and all of the time or my money back. After several minutes of being on hold I was told I would get a refund. I have also been sent two emails to confirm this agreement. I will take the computer back on Tues the 8th and after they have inspected the unit to be sure I have returned everything, they will credit my credit card.

So I will be in the market for a new computer. Anyone have any ideas as to where to go?

Everyone have a great New Year. I will

Cactus Chuck

Congrats on getting your money back!!!


It isn't hard to "roll your own". I bought my first two, the rest I built. It's hard to build a low end machine cheaper than you can buy one, but I believe yours was high end.

Take a jaunt over to the "help me buy / help me build" forum. ^^ a few floors up.

jonnyquest - I was referring to the way OEM Windows keeps track of your hardware changes and makes you reactivate if you change too much. Since the rules governing this procedure were unclear, I was always afraid I would change too much or too soon and be told I had essentially created a new PC and my OEM Windows license was no longer valid. But I am embarrassed to admit I didn't understand the difference between the Retail and OEM versions of Windows for a long time. I thought all Windows versions worked like that and the difference was the support. The end result was I constantly hungered to add or upgrade various hardware items but didn't do it for fear of losing my Windows license. Once it was 'splained to me, I bought Retail.

Cactus Chuck - Great to hear about your refund. Guess Cyberpower deserves some points for stepping up. Regarding your new computer, I am with johnnyquest - build your own. There was a fantastic DIY article about a year ago in Maximum PC that gave step-by-step instructions (with pictures) on how to build a $1500 gaming (high-performance) PC. They listed the hardware to buy and showed how to put it together. You are not limited to the $1500. The challenge of the article was to build for that price. You can buy a faster processor, more memory, etc. I built one and it is the best machine I have. Trouble is - MPC didn't put that article on their website. I told several on-line friends about it and wanted to send them a link, but no luck. Maybe someone on the buy/build forum has access to it. Good Luck.

As follow up I would like to report that Cyberpower is now playing games with my refund. Even after putting in writing that they would refund my money they are not doing so. Even though I agreed for them not to refund the shipping charges they are trying to deduct it twice.

If anyone out there even thinks about purchasing a computer from Cyberpower PLEASE, PLEASE don't. I know that they may be cheaper than most out there, but DO YOUR HOMEWORK FIRST.

i forgot if it was cyberpower, or ibuypower, but i remember one (or both...) of them had VERY polar reviews, some said the machines were amazing, some said it wouldnt even do a first boot...i will always go either mainstream oem, or diy...and i will ONLY go oem when i get a really good deal at my old work...like an ibm $1200 laptop for FREE after a $200 rebate...stuff like that...

The editors at MCP have been stating for years that they have no connection to the advertising in any way. Unfortunately, that helps no one who doesn't happen upon an editor's occasional post online or a few sentences of remarks once every few years in the magazine.

I imagine the magazine lost a few subscribers and failed to gain a few more, because someone trusted an ad and received poor service or product. I've long ago chosen to avoid buying from any MPC advertiser that I didn't already trust before seeing the ad in their pages.

reddogleader, I've had an OEM version for a while and I've changed enough stuff to have to reactivate. Naturally it wouldn't do so via the web, I had to call them. I explained what I did to the person that answered and was given a new set of numbers to put in for activation.

The OEM vs. retail.... retail you can transfer to another machine or person (person - as long as you notify MS in writing and it goes with the hardware it was installed on...). You aren't allowed to transfer the OEM to a different machine, it's tied to that hardware (according to the license). I have nearly every flavor of XP and have yet to have a problem moving to different hardware even with the OEM. (I may need to call, but they were always courteous and helped me reactivate after I told them it was a reformat...)

So, you can change hardware with both, the OEM license is a bit murky, but MS doesn't give you a hard time reactivating. Either people misunderstand the verbiage or it's a scare tactic.

Retail will also make you reactivate with hardware changes, IIRC. It's to prevent piracy.... Fat lot of good that did.

Also, OEM - no support, must purchase with hardware, can't do an upgrade from previous versions (98, ME)


So don't be afraid of OEM, reddogleader.

Yeah, making people call is just a scare tactic for Pirates, or for those who purchased pirated systems.

Thanks, I almost dropped a cool wad on one of their boxes.

DIY v6 for me instead. Sure wish they made them rock-solid like the old SE-440BX-2

I'm pretty surprised to read of the problems.. In late 2004 I helped a friend configure a computer as a Christmas gift for her son. We researched the parts.. made sure the ram would work with the mobo then put the order in. Since she was shipping it to me, they had her send copies of her legal info to make sure we didn't steal the card.

Computer came, no issues. Over a year into it, one of the rails on the cheap PSU went but it was no big deal. The computer is still running.. we're talking an AMD socket A 2400 IIRC, with a gig of ram.

We've recommended Cyber Power to a few other people over the years, one we replaced the mobo on last year, it was cheaper to replace at $50 then to have the owner take the time to see what kind of warrenty was on it. He wasn't happy with his original mobo and wanted to upgrade.

Next is one that was built in the last year or so. According to my print outs, I had it here last May, it's now back. I haven't booted it up yet, but I'm guessing the kid did something to it again as I also have his computer here that I built out of spare parts. I haven;t booted the CP one up yet but from what I was told, hard drive not found.



You ordered in mid August, when did it arrive?
Do you have specs? You mention the fan on the PSU, was it an included PSU or did you upgrade it?



I'm curious what happened in your case between the work computers and your own, did you fix them?

Both were work computers, different jobs for each.

Both are Athlon XP Barton core 2500+ with 1 GB RAM.

The one I built for a little extra price (it has a critical use) is much faster and more reliable. The Cyberpower just runs cad/cam stuff, I finally put a better cooler on it, and it's been cooler. It's just a cheap computer, and I don't mean the price. The price difference wasn't all that great, but the quality was. We really don't need the flashy display on the front that is supposed to display.... something... so we never pushed the issue as we need the PC daily.

They've both been running daily for around 6 years or more. No hiccups with the built one, lotsa maintenance and replacement parts for the cad/cam cyberpower. I just found it frustrating they have no drivers or info. on the system. Fortunately they used off the shelf parts. A check of CPU-Z showed me where to get information on the mobo.