The Netvista X40i Is Garbage
Written: Jul 15 '01
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Pros: Small Space-saving Footprint. Great (although unproven) advertising.
Cons: Useless at applications - crashes, freezes, blue-screens and useless Customer Service
The Bottom Line: Stay away - if you want a all-in-one look at NEC Z1 - it's not that great, but tons more reliable and robust
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| eatonesque's Full Review: IBM NetVista X40i |
Prior to anything I must state that my model is "last-year's" version - the current specs are for a bigger processor.
Bought the machine on IBM 'auction', but in fact a reserve price is set at only $100 less than the then current list price - with a Lexmark printer thrown in, and CA state-taxes despite the auction managers apparently being in Canada.
For the machine itself - setup is virtually automatic with the exception of the phone-cables to the modem - these are about 3 inches up a 1-inch tube - only accessible by very small safe-crackers.
For the rest, disaster. I didn't realise that the advertised 5 USB ports meant there were no serial-ports, so my Imation Zip-writer was obsolete for transferring data from my old PC to the IBM, and I have huge E-mail files which I needed on the new machine before I could start using the IBM. I bought PcLink which has USB-to-USB cables (from LapLink). During installation, the system hung, crashed and finally would only come up in Recovery Mode.
The hard-coded help-numbers in the IBM's 'Support' is no longer relevant, and after 7 different calls I got the real HelpDesk, whose only solution was to re-initialise from the Install CD. Did this (which takes hours, with required prompt every 40 minutes or so), and tried PcLink again, with much the same results, so I re-Initialised for the 2nd time the next weekend. (I must state that PcLink faired only slightly better on my old machine, so I suspect PcLink).
My other option was to get a CD Writer, which given I'd just shelled out $1,448 on the PC was not a purchase I relished, so I bought it on-line (not IBM and correctly NOT charged Sales-Tax), but 10 days before it was finally delivered.
With some bump-and-grind I installed this on both machines, and finally got the e-mail files transferred. More than a month after receipt before I could start using the IBM, and move it into its permanent position and move the old one to the temporary shelf.
I then started loading some of the programs I use for photo-editing, album-making, and Web-page editing and maintenance. Nothing installed smoothly, and I soon started getting intermittent freezes (where even the on/off button would become inoperable, and I'd have to pull the plug from the wall to switch it off in order to reboot). I suspected that maybe I'd somehow gotten a virus (despite some virus thing pre-loaded in the IBM), so I backed up my e-mail again to CD-W, and re-initialised again.
Because of the time this takes, it was only the next weekend that I had time to start trying again. This time, fearing the virus, I installed McAfee Clinic and Virusguard which I'd long subscribed to from their web-site, and found that it was now an updated version. I then installed some of the applications (Picture It, Ulead, FrontPage etc), and most installed a little more smoothly.
However, when I then tried to install the CD Writer (with the cables in as described), the install crashed, and then the system blue-paged and crashed.
When I came back up again, I was back in Recovery Mode, and it would not reset. I unplugged the CD writer and then I could at least come up, but without my e-mail files, and by then loads of waiting mails that I'd just been monitoring via a POP3 service. I did after much struggle, manage to install the CD software (which crashes when it can't find the actual writer), but then plugged in the machine after boot-up and could at least download the files. After this, I could never get the CD working again on the IBM for write or read, but at least had email.
After this, regularly 6 to 9 minutes after booting up (normally just as I'd dialed into my ISP, e-mail server, Website and IE5), a little green bar would appear at the top of the screen, and everything would freeze - I'd then have to unplug and reboot and I'd then have to wait 30 minutes before I could sign up to my ISP again. Of course, if I waited ten minutes before dialing up, it would happen later.
Other problems also started arising - any Internet page receiving a prompt would flash to the front of the screen, making any dual browsing impossible. Also if more than 1 page was simultaneously processing a .JPG, the system would blue-page. Also, after every start-up the Internet Options / Connection setting would be reset to Never Dial A Connection, whereas I of course want Always ..... So after every boot-up, I'd have to first go edit the Control Panel, or manually Dial-in before I could bring up email or IE5 (I now suspect though that the last 2 problems were caused by Registry changes made by McAfee).
In the meantime, I had to re-up the old machine, as I had photo-work to do and maintenance on my website, and the IBM with its JPG-crashes was too unreliable. I couldn't get my e-mail off the IBM so my sitting room looked like a typhoon in a CompUsa warehouse with 2 machines half-in and half-out and cable and power-splitters all over the place.
But I was being held hostage by my email files, and because of that still primarily had to use the IBM for Internet, despite its horrible proclivity to freeze up and/or crash. After a while on the old machine, I got a McAfee reminder to get an update for VirusGuard so I switched the Modem cables and got the update, which then included the install of the new version. Lo and behold, the Internet Connection switching thing started on the old machine, too.
I un-installed McAfee on the IBM and some of the crashing and the green bar stopped (although it still crashed at least twice every session), and from my old PC, where there was less improvement (McAfee's Help Desk of course is useless, and suggests only that I should ask for a refund, even though it has left me with a legacy of problems).
After this I did manage to get to use the CD-writer again on the IBM, so I could copy off my email, and move back to my old machine completely, and restore my lounge to some semblance of livability. And I don't have to waste hours a night re-booting a crashed system and waitng endlessly in order to do the simplest tasks.
I then contacted Customer Service about returning this pile of garbage and being refunded. After being passed around for a while, and repeatedly answering the same questions to clerks who seem unable to hear anything but what suits them, and then being called a liar because they can't trace a record of the Help Desk call I made when the system crashed with PCLink in the 1st 2 weeks I had it, they're refusing to refund me, as it is beyond their 30 days return policy (which incidentally is not stated on any documentation I've received (including an invoice I had to ask for, as it is apparently not their custom to send them).
My contention is that 1. it's a home computer on which I have limited time to even perform tasks when the applications work, never mind spend hours and hours trying to coax it through installs or boot-ups, and 2. its deficiencies are not immediately apparent on the 1st switch on - it is supposed to run various applications with some stability and robustness, but because of the time-line I sketched above, it was nearly 2 months before I became convinced that the problems were caused by the machine itself and not by the software (which I first suspected even though all of it was running succesfully on my old machine), and then I was held hostage for a while until I could use the CD-W again. They stink and their machine does too.
If you even think of buying this pile, challenge IBM to install the products I named above and show you the results - it's not a challenge they seem keen to take up with me though.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 1,488
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Pentium
Processor speed: 501-600
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Epinions.com ID:
eatonesque
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Reviews written: 1
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