Category: Tech Stuff

Anything to do with computers or anything of a similarly helpful / confounding nature

CyberPower Refund Finally Realized.

It took a while but I just wanted to wrap this up.

Yesterday (April 7, 2010) my credit card finally showed the refund! The amount was, as expected, the price I paid minus the shipping costs.

Here is the the final exchange we had in email leading up to the refund.

My follow up on April 2, 2010:

Hi,

Another week has passed. I’m not sure how you personally regard $2,500. But I regard this as a large sum of money.

It has now been 3 weeks (15 of your business days) since you have received the PC that I returned.

I elected to do business with Cyberpower on the strength of a friend’s recommendation in spite of your B+ rating with the Better Business Bureau ( http://www.la.bbb.org/Business-Report/Cyberpower-Inc-13080817 ).

Please respond to this email with your confirmation that the refund in full has been issued.

Marc

With the response being (April 5):

Dear Marc,

According record for RMA under 181144, refund was credited back to your account on 3/31/2010, bank or credit card company will take 2-3 business days to process, if you have any question please email or contact us.

Thank you.

RMA Status

Cyberpower Inc.(888) 900-5180 Ext. 151

I’m pleased that things have finally worked out. It was somewhat disconcerting to have to go around like this to elicit the refund. At the back of my mind I was still holding on to the option to dispute the credit card charge but – looking at the credit card fine print – this option is supposedly one that’s limited to businesses within my physical locale (within about 500 miles). But I imagine in this day of internet purchases, that that anachronism is one that is largely discounted and trotted out by the credit card folks only when they no longer wish to retain a particular customer.

iTunes Auto Delete for Podcasts Gone?

Running iTunes 9.1.0.79 on my new Windows 7 64 bit box I noticed that none of my podcasts were auto deleting any more. So I checked iTunes on my recently replaced 32 bit XP box to see if I was imagining things. The Auto Delete was still on that one. So I upgraded it to 9.1.0.79 as well and, sure enough, auto delete disappeared.

I can only assume that Apple was finding too many people becoming confused by this feature and just did away with it completely. I am a little disappointed because I very much love systems that maintain themselves.

The workaround is simple, I listen to my podcasts using a smart playlist where the play count is less than 1 (yes the very same playlist that won’t sort correctly on the iPod because Apple’s iPod programmer’s don’t understand the concept of “Sort” columns as implemented by their iTunes programmers).

I have always maintained a smart playlist called “Obsolete podcasts” that just looks for podcasts with a play count > 0.  From there I could see when there was an issue with the auto delete or I could resurrect (’tis the season..) podcasts that needed repeating – such as “learning Spanish”.

Now I’ll just go into that “Obsolete Podcasts” playlist from time to time and wholesale delete everything in there. The Smart Playlists will ensure that the older podcasts won’t clutter up my day to day listening experience.

Making Networked HP LaserJet 1012 available to Windows 7 64 bit

As mentioned before, I absolutely *love* my HP LaserJet 1012. So I was disappointed to find that HP does not offer drivers for it under Windows 7 64 bit.

After some searching I found that HP did create 64 bit Vista drivers and with a little cajoling you could use them under Windows 7.

There really wasn’t much information out there for attaching to it over a network but I stumbled across a post in this thread by “dragoster” that I wanted to highlight and repeat here to help anybody else looking for this information to find it more easily.

I initially found directions for installing the LaserJet 1012 drivers if the printer was directly attached to my machine, so I unplugged it from the back room hooked it up locally and then installed the drivers. My hope was, since the drivers were now installed and recognized by the OS, when I then attempted to install the printer as “network attached” that my machine would say “Oh, I have drivers for this already installed, I’ll just use there.”. Ah well.

The situation is that I have the LaserJet 1012 attached by USB to a Windows XP Home (32 bit) machine. The printer is shared so it is accessible to all other computers in my house (XP and Vista 32-bit).

Paraphrasing the steps here:

1) If this link doesn’t work, Google and download the file lj1010serieshb-vista64.zip . Unzip in a straightforward location.

2) Add a new local printer, create a new Local Port, and at the pop-up window insert \\Computer\Printer where Computer is the desktop the printer is attached to, and Printer is the name of the shared printer.

3) In the driver window choose Browse driver. If asked if you want to keep the current driver say no and proceed to pointing to the folder you unzipped on step 2. (this isn’t exactly what you see but you should be able to figure it out when you get there. I’m not uninstalling and reinstalling my printer to get the exact wording here – I’m just thrilled that it works and am leaving it alone) 🙂

4) Find the only .inf file in the folder and choose the printer you have (1010 hb, 1012 hb or 1015 hb).

5) Print Test Page and Voila!

Again thanks to “dragoster” for putting me on to this!

CyberPower Refund still pending…

Back on March 5 – a few days after my CyberPower machine raid array went toes up, I received this RMA approval:

Dear Marc,

Your request for a refund has been processed under RMA# xxxxxxx and the computer may be returned to Cyberpower for a refund. The refund is subject to the terms of our warranty policy you agreed to as part of the original purchase.  Please ensure that the computer and other items are well packed and clearly write the RMA # xxxxxx on the outside of the package. You are responsible for shipping the items to Cyberpower at your own expense and it is recommended you insure the package or accept the risk of loss or damage during shipment.  Please ship the computer to the following address:

Cyberpower Inc.

5175 Commerce Dr.

Baldwin Park, CA 91706

_____________________________________________________________________________________

*ITEMS BEING RETURNED FOR REFUND MUST BE RETURNED WITHIN 15 DAYS FROM THE DATE THE RMA IS PROVIDED, OR A 15% RESTOCKING FEE WILL BE ASSESED.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Once we receive the package it usually takes seven to ten business days to inventory the items and process the refund before the credit is posted to the method of payment.  As detailed in our warranty policy the original shipping and handling charges, including rush and fuel surcharge fees, are non-refundable.  All items must be returned and in good condition. The cost of any missing or damaged items will be deducted from your refund.

Please review the Cyberpower warranty located at http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/company/warranty.aspx if you have any questions regarding our return policy.  For status updates send an email to rma.status@cyberpowerpc.com and include your customer and RMA number in the message.

If you had changed a repair RMA to a refund RMA, the UPS Return Shipping Label, that was issued to bring the computer in for repair, will no longer be valid. As stated in the warranty, all shipping charges are non-refundable and we do not cover freight charges to bring back any items for refund.  Should you elect to use the UPS Return Shipping Label, there will be a $50 charge deducted from the total refund amount.

Cyberpower Warranty:

http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/company/warranty.asp

______________________________________________________________________________________

RETURN AND REFUND POLICY: (a) 30-day money back guarantee is on all notebook and desktop computer systems. For the first 30 days from the date of the invoice, CyberPower will refund your purchase price on returned product. Shipping charge, handling charge, & fuel surcharge are not refundable. A 15% restocking fee is applied to all returned product between the 31st day and the 45th day after the invoice date.

No refund or credit is allowed after 45 days from the date of the invoice. (b) For part purchases: All returned items must be purchased from CyberPower and returned in good condition within 30 days from the original invoice date.

No refund or credit is allowed after 30 days from the date of the invoice.

ALL Products to be returned first require obtaining CyberPower’s written permission via an RMA (Return Merchandise Authorization) number. Product must be securely packed and delivered to CyberPower in an undamaged condition. Shipping charges are non-refundable.

RMA Status

Cyberpower Inc.

(888) 900-5180 Ext. 151

I went ahead and shipped off the computer the next day. I sent it with signature required and I insured it. From the terms above it looks like my better bet would have been to set it up as a repair RMA and then call and change to a return RMA. They would have charged me only $50. As it is I ended up spending $91 to ship it 🙁

Anyway a few days later I received this:

Dear MARC BOURASSA, your package for RMA# xxxxxx has been received. Please do not reply to this email, since replies to this message are routed to an unmonitored box. For status updates please email rma.status@cyberpowerpc.com and include your customer and RMA numbers in the message.

CyberPower Inc.

I waited just under two weeks and sent them this:

Hi,

I need to get an update on this. It’s been nearly 2 weeks since my return was received by CyberPower.

This was not a simply return because I decided I didn’t want the merchandise, but rather suffered from the catastrophic failure of my raid array which erased everything on my system. Exactly the sort of thing a raid array is supposed to guard against.

The tech working with me wanted me to rebuild the array and start again, but since we did not know what had happened in the first place, there was no way to guarantee that the raid array would not simply fail again. I depend heavily upon my primary machine for work and home finances not to mention all the usual entertainment purposes. I could not spend that kind of money and have a black cloud of impending failure constantly over my head.

I would ask that you refund the entire, shipped cost of the machine in addition to the $91 that it cost me to ship it back to you.

$2480.27 + $91 = $2,571 is my expectation.

I appreciate your attention in this matter,

Marc

And a day later they responded:

Dear Marc,

As detailed in our refund policy the original shipping and handling fee is none refundable, customer’s respond to ship the system back for refund, once we receive the package it usually takes seven to ten business days to inventory the items and process the refund before the credit is posted to the method of payment. As detailed in our warranty policy the original shipping and handling charges, including rush and fuel surcharge fees, are non-refundable. All items must be returned and in good condition.

The cost of any missing or damaged items will be deducted from your refund.

RMA Status

Cyberpower Inc.

(888) 900-5180 Ext. 151

Naturally I wanted some more detail:

Hi there,

OK, fair enough. It’s been ten business days as of today.

Marc

And so now I’m waiting:

Dear Marc,

For the refund status, as per the information from our accounting department, it is under processing and the amount is waiting for approval, and we will follow up with it.

Thank You

RMA Status

Cyberpower Inc.

(888) 900-5180 Ext. 151

I suppose they could be really busy, but many of us consider $2,500 a lot of money and I’d sure like to see my refund soon.

I’ll reiterate that my friend from whom I got the CyberPower recommendation is still very happy with his machine, so my experience could have been just a fluke. When the raid failed I was already trying to get ahold of them for why my machine had already spontaneously rebooted once and took exactly 5 minutes to shut down (power off after windows shutdown). So I was not very confident with the machine already when my raid array failed.

Computers are fickle, but it would sure have been nice to have done this locally. I might even have been able to get it repaired and shipping would not be such a burden. I still can’t find any local boutique-computer shops that would be able to do this.

I very nearly bought one from my local MicroCenter. But theirs came with only 4 Dimm slots and, since it’s nearly impossible to get 4 Gbyte Dimms, and any that *are* available cost a fortune, the best I could do was an 8 Gbyte system. I really wanted at least a 12 Gbyte system for some of the picture work I want to do. And because it’s cool.

Don’t Laugh – New Computer Coming to Bourassa Central (*3rd* time’s a charm?)

In the saga that will not seem to end…

I did receive my computer from CyberPower PC pretty much on time. There was a week delay when I decided to wait for the memory that I wanted which had been backordered. They kindly gave me a nice rebate for the delay which they really didn’t have to do but I appreciated the effort.

However, I ended up having some problems with the unit which culminated in my getting up one morning, after spending 20+ hours configuring it and actively using it, where the raid array had simply failed.

After troubleshooting, the tech decided the only thing left to do was to reinitialize the raid array and start from scratch. At that point I balked. I had purchased a Raid-0+1 array to prevent EXACTLY that kind of issue. If you’re not familiar with this, in my configuration it meant that my reads and writes were performed to 4 disk drives simultaneously. About half of the information is written to each of a pair (the raid 0) which is supposed to provide a performance boost, then all that is duplicated (the Raid 1) so if one of the disks (maybe two if it’s the right disks) fail I have no worries.

When the actual raid array fails.. well.. you’re completely toast. The thing is that the Cyberpower tech was unable to diagnose exactly what had happened and could not offer any plausible guarantee that it would not happen again. Who knows, maybe there was a defect in the motherboard? Maybe there’s a bad battery someplace?

So I exercised my right to return the system.

All this is not without a cost. I can return the system but shipping costs fall to me. Unfortunately that worked out to $65 for the original shipment out and an additional $92 for the return trip to California. There is a great argument for buying locally 🙁

They received the computer just about two weeks ago (March 11) and I’m still waiting to see the refund. I’ll have to call them if I don’t hear by Wednesday.

Unfortunately I really was not able to find any local shops that would build me the system I wanted. It’s really very hard to find these folks since they do not seem to maintain any kind of web presence. The irony of a computer shop not being findable on the web is not lost on me.

So, I ended up going back to Dell’s Alienware. This time I’m being a bit more modest on the specs. I ordered the machine a couple of weeks ago and am anticipating that it will arrive tomorrow. At least that’s what the FEDEX site says.

So, again, here is what should be humming under my desk sometime this week.

Take a peek and let me know what you think. And yes, I know, everybody else in the world gets their computers cheaper than I can. Hell, somebody has to pay full price for you to get the deals. You’re welcome.

You’ll notice that I only have the single disk drive now. I picked up a 1.5 Terabyte drive for the machine that this one is replacing and will be backing up to that. I also went with less ambitious memory, mostly because it wasn’t really an option at this level. I also am sticking with a single graphics card.

Alienware Aurora Desktop
Overclocked Intel Core i7 920 (3.2GHz, 8MB Cache)
12GB Triple Channel 1333MHz DDR3
Alienware MM Keyboard, US
Single ATI Radeon HD 5870, 1GB GDDR5
1TB – SATA-II, 3Gb/s, 7,200RPM, 32MB Cache HDD
Lunar Shadow, Alienware Aurora Chassis, 875W PSU
Alienware 19-in-1 Media Card Reader
Genuine Windows 7 Professional, 64bit, English
DataSafe Local BackUp 2.0 Basic
PC-Restore, Dim/Insp
Accessory Kit, Aurora, Eng
Dell Resource DVD with Application Backup
Alienware Optical Mouse, MG100
AlienFX Color, Plasma Purple
Single Drive: 24X CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) w/double layer write capability
Alienhead Glow
Dell Limited Hardware Warranty 7X24 Technical Support, Initial Year
Dell Limited Hardware Warranty Plus In-Home Service [after Remote Diagnosis], Initial Year
In-home Service after Remote Diagnosis, Initial Year
No Warranty beyond 1 year
1 Year Limited Warranty and Next Business Day,Desktop
Alienhead Chrome Red
Alienware High-Performance Liquid Cooling3

So there you have it. Maybe this time it will stick?

Quicken 2010 Deluxe R7 Warning – R8 upgrade appears to have resolved the issue

To put this to bed, I just applied the R8 update and my balance column is back.

Funny, I note that any reference to this problem on Intuit’s site is now missing. Not exactly the most transparent approach to providing customers with information.

At least they resolved the issue and I can use the product the way I want to again.

I sort by the “Cleared” column. So I always have any outstanding items right in front of me. It lets me know about checks that haven’t been cashed yet and highlights if I may have put something into the wrong register. MOST importantly, the balance showing next to the last cleared item should always match the online balance as the bank / financial institution is reporting it.

Quicken 2010 Deluxe R7 Warning – Final word from Intuit

After a few exchanges with the Intuit folks (see the comments here) here is what they finally had to say on this matter:

Recently you requested assistance from Quicken Customer Care. Below is a summary of your request and our response. We are committed to resolving this issue to your complete satisfaction.

Thank you for allowing us to be of service to you.

Subject
Need to revert back to R5 from R7 release

Discussion Thread
Response (Shivani)    02/25/2010 01:10 AM
Dear Marc Bourassa,

Thank you for contacting Quicken Customer Care.

I can completely understand your concern.

Marc, I would like to inform that issue will resolve in next few weeks. You can visit the link given below to know more about:

http://quicken.intuit.com/support/articles/using-quicken/income-and-expenses/7733.html

You cannot revert back to R5.

I hope this clarifies.

I had found the link above on my own a couple of days ago and am waiting for them to fix the issue. In the meantime I’m keeping updates turned off and I will be ignoring future update reminders (when this issue has been dealt with) for a week or so to ensure that they don’t cock things up for me again.

HP Laserjet 1012 Printer – I love it!

Nearly 6 years ago (March of 2004) I paid $210 for my HP Laserjet 1012 Printer. When I did so, I took a look at the cost to replace the toner cartridge in it and saw that it would run me about $80 per cartridge.

Given that the cost for just black and white inkjet cartridges at the time was between $8 and $14 (depending where you shopped and if you bought in bulk) I decided that the LaserJet was worth the gamble.

My needs were:

  • Black and White only is sufficient.
    • Printing Color photographs is ridiculously expensive, they have a tendency to fade quickly (aren’t “fixed” properly as they are in a proper photographic process)
    • While pretty, color maps and printouts are not necessary for my personal use
    • Any of the above that I need can be done for pennies a page by putting them on a thumb drive or emailing to a local Kinkos or CVS.
  • Need a printer that can tolerate relatively long periods between printing (maybe even a few weeks)
    • I found that inkjet cartridges tend to gum up if left inactive for any length of time, ruining the first page or so.
  • Would like what I *do* print to be of high fidelity
    • I did not like the propensity for inkjet printers to pick up some dust or to have a jet malfunction and have a smear or a blank spot through the entire print job.
  • To be cost-effective
    • When inkjet cartridges are reporting themselves to be empty you can ALWAYS feel that they have more ink remaning in them
    • If you have a combo-inkjet where all the colors are in a single cartridge you need to throw a lot of good ink away in the remaining cartridge cells just because one of them is empty (at least reported empty)

Here I am, February of 2010 and I still have not had to replace my original toner cartridge. I have printed literally hundreds and hundreds of pages  – I really wasn’t keeping count of how many reams of paper I’ve put through that little printer – and I’ve never had so much as a smeared page. I’ve not even had to tap the toner cartridge to loosen up any leftover toner or whatever tricks may be necessary to eek out those last few printed pages if I do not have easy access to a replacement when it finally does empty out.

If / when it comes time to replace this printer, I’ll be looking to the same technology again. Inkjet technology has likely come a long way since 2004, but I don’t see that it will ever hold a candle to the laser technology or whatever tech eventually supersedes laser.

This is easily one of the most satisfying and worthwhile purchases I have ever made in the computer sphere.

Quicken 2010 Deluxe R7 Warning

Just allowed Quicken to go ahead and apply an update bringing it from R5 to R7 and have found that my registers now no longer have a “balance” column.

To be more precise, the column is still there but it is blank. No title, no content.

At first I thought maybe the balances were off the screen so I restarted Quicken and tried running in full screen but neither inspiration worked.

I then tried to use the “pop out registers” option thinking that maybe the different approach to rendering them may help but that also did not correct things.

I’ll send an email to Quicken and see if they have any ideas.

But just a warning, if you use Quicken 2010 Deluxe, you probably want to put off applying the latest update until this issue has been resolved.

New Computer coming to Bourassa Central (2nd time’s a charm?)

** Updated June 17, 2010 **

I wanted to note here that I actually returned this computer back in March and *did* eventually get my money back after suffering a catastrophic raid array failure.

The refund took a bit of effort to realize and I ended up paying way too much for shipping for a system that ultimately failed.

** End June 17, 2010 update **

OK, let’s try this again. My last computer purchase attempt fell through when, after I had waited a couple of weeks already, they let me know that there was going to be further delay on the box. I took a look around and checked with my boss who was very pleased with his custom built machine and, after checking them out online (in spite of the B+ rating at the BBB), I decided to go ahead with Cyberpower.

This system will be about $500 cheaper and one gpu shorter than my last attempt. But I think I’ve got a stronger system overall. I did a *lot* of research on the motherboard, power supply, memory and overclocking aspects and feel comfortable that I’ve put together a machine that not only kicks butt now, but will be solidly satisfying 3-5 years into the future.

CyberPower X58 Same Day (NO MONITOR) SAMEDAYI7Z, http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/CyberPower_X58_Same_Day/

  • *BASE_PRICE: [+1155]
  • BUNDLE: None
  • BLUETOOTH: None
  • CD: LG 22X DVD±/±RW + CD-R/RW Dual Layer Drive (BLACK COLOR)
  • CD2: None
  • CAS: * AZZA Solano 1000 Full-Tower Advance Cooling Case w/ Dual 230mm Fan + Extra 3 Fans [+60]
  • CASUPGRADE: None
  • CS_FAN: Default case fans
  • CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-920 2.66 GHz 8M L3 Cache LGA1366
  • FAN: Asetek LCLC 240 Liquid Cooling system w/ 240MM Radiator and Dual Fans (Extreme Overclocking Performance + Extreme Silent at 20dBA) [+79]
  • FREEBIE_RM: None
  • FA_HDD: None
  • FLASHMEDIA: INTERNAL 12in1 Flash Media Reader/Writer [+10] (BLACK COLOR)
  • FLOPPY: None
  • HDD: Extreme Performance with Data Security (RAID-0+1) with 4 Identical Hard Drives [+119] (1TB (500GBx4) SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache 7200RPM HDD [+52])
  • HDD2: None
  • IEEE_CARD: None
  • KEYBOARD: Xtreme Gear (Black Color) Multimedia/Internet USB Keyboard
  • MOUSE: XtremeGear Optical USB 3 Buttons Gaming Mouse
  • MODEM: None
  • MULTIVIEW: Non-SLI/Non-CrossFireX Mode Supports Multiple Monitors
  • MONITOR: None
  • MONITOR2: None
  • MOTHERBOARD: * (3-Way SLI Support) GigaByte GA-X58A-UD7 Intel X58 Chipset SLI/CrossFireX Ultra Durable™3 Triple-Channel DDR3/1600 24 Phase Power ATX Mainboard w/ 7.1 HD Dobly Audio, Dual GbLAN, USB3.0, 2 x SATA-III RAID, 4 Gen2 PCIe, 2 PCIe X1 & 1 PCI [+215]
  • MEMORY: 12GB (2GBx6) DDR3/1600MHz Triple Channel Memory Module [+209] (Corsair Dominator [+143])
  • NETWORK: Onboard Gigabit LAN Network
  • OVERCLOCK: Extreme OC (Extreme Overclock 20% or more) [+49]
  • OS: Microsoft® Windows® 7 Professional [+31] (64-bit Edition)
  • POWERSUPPLY: 750 Watts Power Supplies [+143] (Thermaltake ToughPower 750W – Quad SLI Ready)
  • PRINTER: None
  • PRINTER_CABLE: None
  • RUSH: RUSH!!! READY TO SHIP IN NEXT BUSINESS DAY
  • SERVICE: STANDARD WARRANTY: 3-YEAR LIMITED WARRANTY PLUS LIFE-TIME TECHNICAL SUPPORT
  • SOUND: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO
  • SPEAKERS: None
  • TEMP: None
  • TVRC: None
  • USB: Built-in USB 2.0 Ports
  • USBHD: None
  • USBX: None
  • VIDEO: ATI Radeon HD 5870 PCI-E 16X 1GB DDR5 Video Card [DirectX 11 Support] [+330] (Major Brand Powered by ATI)
  • VIDEO2: None
  • VIDEO3: None
  • VC_PHYSX: None

I just got an email (and phone call!) today that the Corsair memory that I spec’ed is on backorder and they suggested that I could go with the Kingston X memory for $10 less. But I’m going to have this for a while and the Corsair seems to be more highly regarded for overclocked applications so I need to follow up with them to see what kind of delay this will introduce.