I must make sure...

...that i check up on that customs bill to make sure that Bytewize were not just making an extra £20.

Customs problems

After much more chasing with Bytewize I found out that the laptop was stuck in customs somewhere and that they need a payment of £20. I was able to pay this by Paypal to Bytewize and they were able to instruct their couriers to pay the customs bill so the package is released.

Now all I have to do is wait for it to arrive....again..

It had better be perfect when I get it...or I will be very disappointed after all this time.

Laptop has landed in the UK

I have just chased the laptop again by chat with Bytewize in Canada. They have told me that it arrived with Royal Mail on the 23rd September, so hopefully I should be receiving it soon.

Inconsistent listing at Bytewize for Asus Z71v Barebones

I have noticed a few inconsistencies in the listing on the bytewize site (see link on the right).

The graphics are described as WSXGA+ in the title, but then WXGA in the detail under display, although it does show the resolution as 1680 x 1050 which is definitely WSXGA+.

Also, in the detail section it describes the product as ASUS Z71V 15.4 WSXGA+ 915P Sonoma Centrino WB Notebook, whilst the chipset is described as Intel 915GM & ICH6-M. Now bearing in mind that the laptop comes with descrete graphics in the shape of an Nvidia 6600, I assume that it has to be 915P, as the 915GM comes with integrated graphics.

And another thing...the hard drive capacity that it can support only goes up to 80gb in the listing whereas the drive I already have is 100gb. Although this is the 'company line' I have seen many built with 100gb drives on the net, so I am not sure what the limitation is.

So I am hoping that when it arrives it will be WSXGA+, 915P and that my 100gb drive will be supported and I will not be forced to go through a protracted RMA process with a company 3000 miles away.

I have two other concerns which can only be answered when it arrives.

Firstly will the power supply be in two sections. The bottom half of which can be replaced by a UK version plug? And finally will it come with a facsia for the optical drive that makes it look nice when installed?

I have found that there really is no point in asking any of these questions on the phone or via chat with the companies, as firstly they look at the same listings on their systems as we do, and therefore just read back to you what it says on your screen. And secondly when they do give you an answer, there is no reason to suggest that the answer they give has any relation to the truth.

My conversation with Ebuyer when they delivered a barebones laptop without a keyboard illustrates this:

EB: "No sir they don't come with keyboards"
Me: "They should have a keyboard. Even though they are 'barebones' they should still have a keyboard"
EB: "Hold the line, I will just check for you.....[long pause].....no I've just checked with the technical department, and they say that they definitely don't come with keyboards"
Me: "Ok, do you sell the keyboards seperately? Or do you know of anyone who does"
EB: "Hold on sir I'll check.....[long pause].....no sir we don't sell them and we can't recomend anyone else"
Me: "The reason you don't sell them and neither does anyone else is that they come with the system, they are a particular shape and size that fits an individual system"
EB: "Hold on sir, I will check with my manager.....[long pause]....my manager says that they don't come with keyboards"
Me: "Well he is wrong, and so is your technical department"
EB: "I'm sorry sir but they don't come with keyboards"
Me: "Ok....(getting a little perturbed at this point)...can you show me where in your listing, that clearly shows the product with a keyboard, that it says that it doesn't come with a keyboard? It clearly says that it doesn't come with a processor or memory or hard drive or optical drive. But it doesn't say no keyboard"
EB: "Hold on sir......[long pause]....would you like to return the product to us?"
Me: "No"
EB: "Sir?"
Me: "I would like you to collect the laptop from me and refund all my money including any costs incurred in delivery...."

I'll cut it short at that point, but you get the picture, it is impossible to get an answer that you can trust, so you just have to cross your fingers and wait to see what you get.

Asus Z71v Barebones Laptop stuck in a warehouse

After using the chat facility on the Bytewize website to chase the laptop, it was revealed that it was stuck in some warehouse somewhere in Canada. I was assured that there was no point in upgrading the delivery method for me, as this would involve retrieving the package back to Ontario before then sending it again, and this would take longer than simply leaving it alone.

This didn't inspire a lot of confidence.

I was also assured that the Delivery Manager would be checking up on this transaction to ensure its smooth delivery from now on.

Basically, I have to wait another 5-10 days for the laptop.

Still no news...

The laptop should have arrived this week, but nothing has turned up.

After chasing with Bytewize they have told me that deliveries sometimes get 'stuck' in customs, and that their Distribution Manager will be chasing it up on Monday.

I have managed to burn a copy of Vista RC1 ready for it's arrival using the DVD burner drive from the old laptop (having installed it in the laptop I share with Mo) so at least that works.

I'll update once I hear next week.

How it all started...

There I was happily using my HP dv1500 on my lap in my living room, when....pop.

The laptop died right there. No warning, no bsod, no ticking hard drive, just pop. I check the power and it is all connected to the wall, but no lights, nothing. So after a bit of head scratching it slowly dawns on me that my laptop is toast.

Whilst I use this laptop for work, I don't store anything major on it and therefore it is not a tradgedy in the "oh my god I wish I'd backed that up sort of sense". But it is a pain that I now have to share a laptop with my wife, until I can get it fixed.

So I needed a replacement, and started to look about on the net, but I had been running a Beta of Vista on my old laptop (which was working well) and wanted to run Vista on my new one. And more importantly I wanted to see the Aero interface on my new one. The old one didn't quite have it in the graphics department, so I needed a new laptop that had 128mb+ of graphics.

I couldn't find one except for real money.

Then I remembered reading in a copy of CustomPC magazine an article about building your own laptop, and slowly the pieces started to fit together. What if I took the pieces out of my old Laptop and put them in a new barebones laptop with better graphics. It all seemed so logical.

So I ripped the old one apart and ended up with a shoebox containing:

• Pentium M 1.7 (Dothan 533fsb 740)
• 1gb of 333 ram (will have to replace)
• 100gb Hard drive - Fujitsu mhu2100at
  
• Intel Wireless card - wm3b2200bg
• DVD / CD drive - gca-4080n
  

Now all I needed was to find someone in the UK that would sell me a barebones laptop.

This proved to be a difficult task. The article I read pointed me towards Savastore and EBuyer. I won't go into detail, but needless to say after trying both and actually ending up with a laptop from one of them (minus the keyboard) the whole process was a huge waste of time and energy. But not to be put off and having got my money back, I carried on looking.

My attention turned to overseas markets, in particular US and Canada as they almost speak the same language. I found one that appealed after some searching, Bytewize Computers in Ontario Canada. I selected an ASUS Z71v and went ahead. It cost me can$ 812.33 which translates to £395.15, this includes delivery....but not any tax, vat, or handling...gulp.

I am now waiting with baited breath for my delivery.