LITEON's dark secret?

No Longer a LiteOn Customer wrote:
"Jan Alter" wrote in message ...

Since you've not gotten satisfaction with Lite-on you might go back to the
original retailer and explain your story; no remedy to the problem, poor
communication, run-around, etc. I've had pretty good luck with their
products, but never had to deal with their service support. It is clearly
lacking from the details of this story.


Jan, thanks for your advice. I don't believe the original retailer
should be held responsible for the manufacturer's inadequate customer
service.

I will, however, notify the retailer (Newegg) about this case. It is a
very reputable retailer with EXCELLENT customer service. I have seen
certain brands disappear from their product line, due to poor customer
service. Try, for example, to find an item from VIA on their web site
(www.newegg.com). They used to sell VIA mini-ITX mainboards. They no
longer sell them...

I can back up his problems with technical support. I bought a Liteon
LV5001 that was on sale for $199 after rebate. I couldn't get it to
work. I called tech support but they were stumped. I have an older
model TV with only coax jacks no component or composite video jacks.
the owners manual didn't say anything about not being able to use
two coax cables(in and out) on this unit. Everything in the tech
manual said try composite or component video. I tried running the
signal through an RF modulator from radio shack and that didn't work.
Support said I needed to check with radio shack on a port that
wasn't open or something. this box had only one setting and it
wouldn't do any good. they supposedly were going to send me to
second level support and I'd hear from them in a couple of days.
It's been a month and I still haven't heard anything. I took the DVD
recorder back and got it exchanged for another unit. THIS one is
phillips and works fine.


--
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Darrell Mayeda


Knight of the ERmoron Round Table.


NOTE: I'm tired of all the spam in my mailbox please leave my
last name in the body of your reply. Thanks

rotor wrote:

On 24 Jan 2004 21:23:33 -0800, (No Longer a LiteOn



FOR ****S SAKE JUST BUY ANOTHER UNIT YOU TWITWIT !!!!



I guess you've never heard of Caveat emptor(let the buyer beware).
this is a serious problem that we can't judge in a store when we buy
a unit. I won't buy Via or Tyan because their tech support is on the
wrong side of impossible. If I have a problem, I need info not
silence. FYI, if you ask a chipset maker about the chipset THEY
MAKE, they will know if it's a problem with the chip or the
motherboard. sometimes it's a matter of knowing who to ask. I still
don't know why a Pentium 2 MX would appear to run slower than a P-100
even with more than enough RAM. I'm afraid to upgrade to the newest
P-4's because they will run like molasses. NOT something I want with
my PC.


--
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Darrell Mayeda


Knight of the ERmoron Round Table.


NOTE: I'm tired of all the spam in my mailbox please leave my
last name in the body of your reply. Thanks

JonnyCab® wrote:



My current system? Barton 2800, A7N8X-Deluxe (not the -E version, but at
least 2.0 with BIOS 1007), 2 sticks of Corsair XMS PC3200 C2 512MB (total
1GB in dual-channel mode), Pioneer DVR-106, Plextor 48/24/48, MSI Ti4200
128MB AGP 8X ViVo, and the same programs as above, and some updated---like
Visual Studio 2003, CorelDraw 11, Photoshop 7, Flash MX, and a bunch of
others.

No problems here, either.

And I'm not trying to "convince" anyone of anything. I don't work for
VIA, obviously, and I'm not really brand-loyal, although Asus usually gets
my first look.

??? You're going on about how Via has no problems when thousands of people
have had unsolvable problems, mostly Via driver issues and claim you aren't
brand loyal?


That's my experience. I never seem to have trouble.

But you fail to understand, you are one of the lucky people who didn't get a
"bad mix". It's all to easy with Via system to end up with flakey
hardware/driver conflicts. Sometimes all it takes is a video card update
and the system becomes flakey when these same video drivers work great with
other makers chipsets. So then you end up with a system that locks up in a
certain game because of a video driver issue but then locks up constantly
if you try to update the driver. I don't need those types of headaches.


If yours is different, as much as I hate to sound like I'm starting a
flame war, you're probably doing something wrong somewhere.


Like not picking the hardware mix you stumbled into? I'm glad you never have
had these problems but do a google search on Via's problems and explain how
all these issues IT engineers have found are all people who are doing
something wrong. Everything from issues with memory controllers, PCI buss
latency and USB, they have screwed up.

--

Stacey

??? You're going on about how Via has no problems when thousands of people
have had unsolvable problems, mostly Via driver issues and claim you
aren't
brand loyal?

You *really* don't take the time to read very well, do you? Maybe that's
why you think that "thousands" of people have "driver problems".

So, *slowly*, let's recap. I said I'm "not brand-loyal, although Asus
usually gets my first look". Asus makes MOTHERBOARDS, not drivers or
chipsets. Strike 1.

And, even if you *were* thinking that I was talking about chipsets, you
obviously also overlooked my mention of my *current* board, which is
*nVidia*-based. The last time I looked, nVidia was not related to VIA, or
vice-versa. I'm surprised that 1) you didn't notice my current board, and
2) if you had, you would have pointed me to some nVidia forum, where
everyone was "complaining" about all of the "problems" with nForce chipsets.
[sigh] Strike 2.

Finally, even if a thousand people complain, there are HUNDREDS of
thousands, or even a MILLION people NOT complaining. A few posts in some
forum does not mean EVERYONE is having the same problem. I, for some odd
reason, happened to be one of those happy, normal, and well-adjusted people
NOT HAVING ANY PROBLEMS. I'm really sorry. I wrecked the forum bell-curve.
Strike 3.

Next?

That's my experience. I never seem to have trouble.

But you fail to understand, you are one of the lucky people who didn't get
a
"bad mix". It's all to easy with Via system to end up with flakey
hardware/driver conflicts. Sometimes all it takes is a video card update
and the system becomes flakey when these same video drivers work great
with
other makers chipsets. So then you end up with a system that locks up in a
certain game because of a video driver issue but then locks up constantly
if you try to update the driver. I don't need those types of headaches.

I never *had* those types of "headaches". My A7V333 had an ATI Rage Fury
Pro ViVo, and, while not the most advanced video card on the planet, I did
have Windows 2000 SP1, then SP2, then SP3, DirectX 8, then 8a, then 8b, then
three different versions of ATI's drivers and two versions of its Multimedia
Center. Add service packs for Sound Forge, Office, CorelDraw, Nero, ... I
swear, I must have been doing something wrong for everything to work right.

Next?

If yours is different, as much as I hate to sound like I'm starting a
flame war, you're probably doing something wrong somewhere.

Like not picking the hardware mix you stumbled into?

"Stumbled into"? On which planet is the Pioneer DVR-104 an uncommon DVD
burner? On which planet is Plextor's 48/24/48 an off-the-wall CD burner?
Is Crucial or Corsair memory so uncommon that you've never heard of it? Is
an Athlon XP2600 a hard-to-find chip? Is Asus not the LARGEST MOTHERBOARD
MANUFACTURER ON THE PLANET? And I'm guessing that you also think ATI is
just beginning to "stumble" into the video card market with a sprinkling of
one or two hard-to-find cards.

Are you for *real*?

Wait---I know---it was my Teac floppy drive that made everything just right.
I'm really sorry. I'll replace it with a Sony or Mitsumi drive.

snicker

I'm glad you never have
had these problems but do a google search on Via's problems and explain
how
all these issues IT engineers have found are all people who are doing
something wrong. Everything from issues with memory controllers, PCI buss
latency and USB, they have screwed up.

rolling eyes (again, the ever-loving obsession with the forums)

So, you're saying that because of a few posts in some forum, I SHOULD have
had nothing but "problems", even though I didn't? OK, hang on a sec---I'll
wack the side of the PC with a ball-peen hammer for you.

snicker

If some bubble-headed bird-brain cut her finger on a can opener and then
posted it in some can-opener forum, you'd probably run around the world
screaming that all can openers are deadly and should be avoided. I READ IN
A FORUM THAT THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE ARE COMPLAINING ABOUT CUTS FROM THEIR
CAN-OPENER!!! AVOID THEM AT ALL COSTS!!!

Try a straight jacket, or maybe just some simple, slow, meticulous assembly
quality and installation. And you should stop reading National Enquirer,
the Tattler, the New York Post, and anything else that claims that aliens
ate the local sheriff's dog and then painted the fire station green.

shaking head The gullible live among us.

Stacey

No need to clear that up. snicker Now take a nice sedative, close the
all of these forums, and walk away before they convince you that clear soft
drinks are causing diarrhea in mountain goats.

LOL

"JonnyCab®" wrote in message ...
??? You're going on about how Via has no problems when thousands of people
have had unsolvable problems, mostly Via driver issues and claim you
aren't
brand loyal?

You *really* don't take the time to read very well, do you? Maybe that's
why you think that "thousands" of people have "driver problems".

So, *slowly*, let's recap. I said I'm "not brand-loyal, although Asus
usually gets my first look". Asus makes MOTHERBOARDS, not drivers or
chipsets. Strike 1.

And, even if you *were* thinking that I was talking about chipsets, you
obviously also overlooked my mention of my *current* board, which is
*nVidia*-based. The last time I looked, nVidia was not related to VIA, or
vice-versa. I'm surprised that 1) you didn't notice my current board, and
2) if you had, you would have pointed me to some nVidia forum, where
everyone was "complaining" about all of the "problems" with nForce chipsets.
[sigh] Strike 2.

Finally, even if a thousand people complain, there are HUNDREDS of
thousands, or even a MILLION people NOT complaining. A few posts in some
forum does not mean EVERYONE is having the same problem. I, for some odd
reason, happened to be one of those happy, normal, and well-adjusted people
NOT HAVING ANY PROBLEMS. I'm really sorry. I wrecked the forum bell-curve.
Strike 3.

Next?

That's my experience. I never seem to have trouble.

But you fail to understand, you are one of the lucky people who didn't get
a
"bad mix". It's all to easy with Via system to end up with flakey
hardware/driver conflicts. Sometimes all it takes is a video card update
and the system becomes flakey when these same video drivers work great
with
other makers chipsets. So then you end up with a system that locks up in a
certain game because of a video driver issue but then locks up constantly
if you try to update the driver. I don't need those types of headaches.

I never *had* those types of "headaches". My A7V333 had an ATI Rage Fury
Pro ViVo, and, while not the most advanced video card on the planet, I did
have Windows 2000 SP1, then SP2, then SP3, DirectX 8, then 8a, then 8b, then
three different versions of ATI's drivers and two versions of its Multimedia
Center. Add service packs for Sound Forge, Office, CorelDraw, Nero, ... I
swear, I must have been doing something wrong for everything to work right.

Next?

If yours is different, as much as I hate to sound like I'm starting a
flame war, you're probably doing something wrong somewhere.

Like not picking the hardware mix you stumbled into?

"Stumbled into"? On which planet is the Pioneer DVR-104 an uncommon DVD
burner? On which planet is Plextor's 48/24/48 an off-the-wall CD burner?
Is Crucial or Corsair memory so uncommon that you've never heard of it? Is
an Athlon XP2600 a hard-to-find chip? Is Asus not the LARGEST MOTHERBOARD
MANUFACTURER ON THE PLANET? And I'm guessing that you also think ATI is
just beginning to "stumble" into the video card market with a sprinkling of
one or two hard-to-find cards.

Are you for *real*?

Wait---I know---it was my Teac floppy drive that made everything just right.
I'm really sorry. I'll replace it with a Sony or Mitsumi drive.

snicker

I'm glad you never have
had these problems but do a google search on Via's problems and explain
how
all these issues IT engineers have found are all people who are doing
something wrong. Everything from issues with memory controllers, PCI buss
latency and USB, they have screwed up.

rolling eyes (again, the ever-loving obsession with the forums)

So, you're saying that because of a few posts in some forum, I SHOULD have
had nothing but "problems", even though I didn't? OK, hang on a sec---I'll
wack the side of the PC with a ball-peen hammer for you.

snicker

If some bubble-headed bird-brain cut her finger on a can opener and then
posted it in some can-opener forum, you'd probably run around the world
screaming that all can openers are deadly and should be avoided. I READ IN
A FORUM THAT THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE ARE COMPLAINING ABOUT CUTS FROM THEIR
CAN-OPENER!!! AVOID THEM AT ALL COSTS!!!

Try a straight jacket, or maybe just some simple, slow, meticulous assembly
quality and installation. And you should stop reading National Enquirer,
the Tattler, the New York Post, and anything else that claims that aliens
ate the local sheriff's dog and then painted the fire station green.

shaking head The gullible live among us.

Stacey

No need to clear that up. snicker Now take a nice sedative, close the
all of these forums, and walk away before they convince you that clear soft
drinks are causing diarrhea in mountain goats.

LOL

Some of us appreciate your efforts, but alas they are in vain.
The guy is anti-via, anti-amd, anti-MS, anti-SB, and anti-ati. If you
aren't running an intel with linux, an nvidia card and anything but a
soundblaster there's no way possible way your PC can work right.

My Epox 266A mobo, AMD CPU, Win XP, Audigy and ATI kit never even
booted up for 2 years. Oh wait, it all worked just fine. I'm such an
idiot...

But if I am not mistaken the original poster said that it was *not*
DOA. It was a matter of a feature not working as advertised and the
lousy lite-on customer service simply ignored his inquiries (after
misleading him to ship the item for a "repair").

Perhaps he should have returned it to the retailer anyway? But then
what reason could he use? "Not as advertised"? "Not happy with item"?
"Not happy with customer service"? Newegg, excellent as it may be,
charges 15% restocking fee for those types of reasons-for-return.

I think the guy simply made a mistake by blindly assuming that if
lite-on made good CDRW drives, then it makes (and supports) good
"consumer electronics". Not every good OEM maker is a good consumer
electronics company...

Sam

Stacey wrote in message ...
Sly wrote:



Not sure whats the case in the US, but when you purchase something in the
UK, your "contract" is with the retailer you bought the product off, NOT
the
manufacturer.Theres no reason at all that you should have to talk to the
manufacturer, The retailers contract is with the manufacturer. I couldnt
give a crap what the manufacturers do or say, if its broke, i take it
straight back to where i bought it.


I feel the same way, especially if the product is DOA. If it fails like 9
months later I'll probably try to contact the manufacturer but if that
fails, I'll be back at the retailer asking why it isn't being taken care
of.

Some of us appreciate your efforts, but alas they are in vain.


[sigh] I know.

The guy is anti-via, anti-amd, anti-MS, anti-SB, and anti-ati. If you
aren't running an intel with linux, an nvidia card and anything but a
soundblaster there's no way possible way your PC can work right.

You know, you're right. Intel boxes NEVER have trouble (F00F bug, 845
memory controllers, etc.).

My Epox 266A mobo, AMD CPU, Win XP, Audigy and ATI kit never even
booted up for 2 years. Oh wait, it all worked just fine. I'm such an
idiot...

Then you must *immediately* start reading Stacey's forums so that you can
convince yourself that there's still something wrong with your machine.
snicker

I just gave my 2-machines-ago machine to my dad. It's an Epox 8KHA+ with an
Athlon 1900, 512MB of Crucial PC2700, an 80GB Maxtor, Plextor 48/24/48,
Pioneer DVR-104, Turtle Beach Santa Cruz sound card, and an ATI Rage Fury
Pro ViVo. For some strange reason, it works fine, too, after over two
years. I must have "stumbled" onto yet another combination of parts that
works right. snicker

In article , (Silence Seeker) wrote:
But if I am not mistaken the original poster said that it was *not*
DOA. It was a matter of a feature not working as advertised and the
lousy lite-on customer service simply ignored his inquiries (after
misleading him to ship the item for a "repair").


A feature not working as advertised or sold as working and never implemented
is reason to return. Most states has laws about advertising for sale a device
or product that cannot or does not deliver what it advertises.Example, If a
car advertised it has full time 4WD and didnt, you could sue.



Perhaps he should have returned it to the retailer anyway? But then
what reason could he use? "Not as advertised"? "Not happy with item"?
"Not happy with customer service"? Newegg, excellent as it may be,
charges 15% restocking fee for those types of reasons-for-return.

I think the guy simply made a mistake by blindly assuming that if
lite-on made good CDRW drives, then it makes (and supports) good
"consumer electronics". Not every good OEM maker is a good consumer
electronics company...

Sam

Stacey wrote in message
...
Sly wrote:



Not sure whats the case in the US, but when you purchase something in the
UK, your "contract" is with the retailer you bought the product off, NOT
the
manufacturer.Theres no reason at all that you should have to talk to the
manufacturer, The retailers contract is with the manufacturer. I couldnt
give a crap what the manufacturers do or say, if its broke, i take it
straight back to where i bought it.


I feel the same way, especially if the product is DOA. If it fails like 9
months later I'll probably try to contact the manufacturer but if that
fails, I'll be back at the retailer asking why it isn't being taken care
of.

And she tells me that "I fail to understand" that "most" other people are
having problems.

If you counted all of the posts in those "forums", that count would be about
1/100000 of the total number of boards sold. She just doesn't get the math
thing, so she assumes that 15 people complaining about "problems" means that
all 450,000 of those boards are having "problems".

Overheated Northbridge chips, scratched motherboard traces, incorrect
voltages, multipliers, or BIOS settings, and bad memory probably contribute
to almost every "problem" that people have, but this dizzy ditz assumes that
one post means THEY'RE ALL BAD!!! IT'S NOT THE USER'S IGNORANCE!!! IT'S A
BAD BOARD!!!

And nevermind that at least a few of these "problems" are contributed by
Intel evangelists or other people with agendas.

shaking head You gotta love the gullible.

for the record, there were early VIA problems, mostly related to 100mb+ files being transferred between IDE channels, and large
file transfers from CD-ROMs. KT133/Apollo era, My P3V4x has those problems( I still use it everyday as a 2nd gaming machine),
however it is not the blown out of proportion dramatic BS, some people would like you to believe. I don't use Via regularly, simply
because there is no real savings and other choices. My 2c I was bored


"JonnyCab®" wrote in message ...
It seems that you were very lucky. VIA's "support" forums are full of
horror stories. For example:

You can show me all of the links you want, but I've dealt with literally
hundreds of Asus A7V133, Gigabyte GA-7VTXE and 7VTXH, Epox 8KHA+, Asus
A7V333, and Tyan Tiger 200 boards. I've never had any trouble with any of
them. They're all VIA-based boards.

I can tell you what I *have* noticed about people's PCs that were giving
them trouble:

1) The PC is down on the floor, or on carpeting, next to the litter box,
boot tray, or garbage can. After being kicked, bumped, and treated like
something other than the precision piece of equipment that a PC *is*, is it
any big shock that something is going to go wrong with it? Most people
treat a PC like it's a toaster oven or a washing machine. But wait---take
it apart. Cat-fur tumbleweeds, pieces of food, dirt, and general *filth* is
not the way to treat a PC. That's why mine sits on the desk, and, for some
odd reason, the ones I put together never seem to have any problems.

2) I've seen IDE cables so hopelessly kinked, folded, and *stuffed* into
the machine that they look like someone hitched them to the back of a bus
and then drove around a gravel parking lot for an hour, before finally
running them over. Yanking them off the drive or motherboard connector by
grabbing the cable is also a sure way to make the contacts intermittent.

3) Putting memory on the board is not something that the ham-fisted are
generally capable of doing without cracking the board or shorting something.

4) I've seen two CD drives set to the same master or slave setting, then
the owner complains that both drives are "POSs". Right.

5) I've seen motherboards installed in the case with all of the manual
dexterity of a gorilla wielding a Snap-On torque wrench. Aside from nicked
areas around the screw holes, incorrect standoff locations, and bent
capacitors, do you see any reason why this would be a problem?

So I take anyone's complaints about a device being a "POS" with just a
little bit of suspicion that they are doing something wrong.

But, instead of insulting anyone's ability to comprehend that these devices
require a *little* precision and some research into what works with what
drivers and devices, I'll simply swipe a quote from the movie "Disclosure":

"This is a precision piece of electronic equipment. It's not a pickup
truck".