For those with a fried dc board from the d-800 PL, Frustration from not having my Cube back Options Menu

[Nicolas]

It's been close to a month now and I remember talking to Bill at Powerlogix when I realized that my Cube was fried and he told me :"We'll get your computer back to you in no time".
Well, that doesn't seem to be the case any more, as it's been over 3 weeks that they've had it and I still haven't received it and they aren't advancing at a very fast pace either.
Their excuses range from "We're only 7 employees here" (which I can sympathise with) to "It's hard to get parts for the Cube, almost impossible".
My frustration is mounting, as I'm sure anybody's would if they had their beloved Cube in the shop for almost a month with no hope of return in the near future.
I would like to hear some news from the people that also had their cube fried. Did you get it back? Is it still being repaired by Powerlogix? Apparently, there were 4 Cube owners to whom this happened and it would be nice to hear about their experiences.
Thanks.

[millieg1]

I purchased a DC-DC board from MacOnly of WA. Maybe you should give them a try.

MacOnly of WA. LLC
4421 NE St Johns Rd, Suite
Vancouver, WA 98661

(360) 737-0712 for direct Visa/MC

[Nicolas]

I think there is more than the dc board that is fried. That's why they're running diagnostics on the hardware, *all* the hardware.
But thanks for the tip, anyway.
BTW, were you one of the "lucky" few that had their board fried too?

[pzellner]

Yeah, I am one of the fried troop. I trust PL will get me my Cube back in perfect shape. I am patient.
Ciao

[ludi]

Nicolas,

four weeks ago I send me old, destroyed cube without the hard disk to PowerLogix. After a week I asked Bill, how long PowerLogix approximated need to repair the cube. "A couple of months" was his answer. Because I need the cube for my work I bought another one at ebay. I tryed to use the new cube with my old hard disk, but the operating system could not find any disk. Then I opened the rubber around the disk and saw that two small chips were fried too. Therefore I think that my whole old cube was destroyed by the dual 800 card.

I payed a lot of money for the dual 800 card and I lost my cube with 1 GByte ram, a brand new barracuda disk and an airport card. I lost round about $ 2500. And now I must wait a couple of month to get my old cube back. I will say it in Lisa Newmyer's words: I'm pissed.

[Nicolas]

That's unacceptable! There is no way I'm going to wait 2 months to get my Cube back from PL when all they have to do is send it to Apple to get it repaired.
Apple still repairs Cubes, last time I checked. I can understand your frustration since you need it for work.
So far my correspondence with Bill has been via email. Tomorrow I'm getting on the phone. Nothing like a little direct chat to get things going.
I'm going to demand they either send it to Apple to get it fixed, or send it back to me so that I can get it fixed and just send them the bill.
What really pisses me is the fact that when I called the first time I realized my Cube was fried, Bill said: "We aknowledge the problem and we'll get your Cube back in *no time*". Well, "no time" is not 4 weeks and definetely not 2 months.
I suggest we all do the same.
As a sidenote, my clear case also cracked during transport, but my courrier said they would pay for the cost of replacing it. I called an Apple repair center and they said they could obtain a clear case from Apple Canada. Whether this is the case in the US is another story, but if Apple still has parts like clear cases in stock, they definetely have other parts to repair broken Cubes.

[pzellner]

Nicholas, let us know te outcoe of the phone call.
All I can say is that sure apple might repair them but that is very expensive and it would not cure the issue with the powerborad frying.
I think PL has problems to get the ne boards in and that is the reason for the wait.

[Nicolas]

I realize that it is expensive to get it repaired by Apple, but if you're going to give customers service, one should go all the way, IMNSHO. Their hearts seem to be in the right place, but the way they're going about it is unacceptable. They should have had our Cubes back after 3 weeks, not 2 months.
At this point in time, I just want my computer back. I'm not interested in upgrading it anymore and I'll be asking for a refund for the dual 800.

[maxlee]

Nicholas,

Let us know what happened. Hope everything turned out well. Did you get your Cube back? Did you send it to Apple?

BTW. Here is an 2001 article about Powerlogix: http://austin.bizjournals.com/austin/stori...16/smallb1.html

Your statement "We're only 7 employees here" seems a little low given this article. "Twelve of the company's 20 workers are in Wichita"

[CubeOwner]

They don't have a Witchita office any longer, hence fewer employees, all in Austin as far as I know.

[Dick Nixon]

Hey there, I fried my dc-dc board too after I installed the powerlogix dual 800 about a month ago. I was told by powerlogix not to send my cube in but that they would send me a modified dc-dc card but did not give me a time frame. looking at all these posts is not encouraging though but I just saw a posting on cube-zone that says powerlogix will not produce the modified boards now but will use the standard apple boards. Has anyone with a fried board heard anything about this latest development and how soon will they get to the people who have been waiting to get thier cubes back up?

[maxlee]

Dick,

If its only your DC-DC board that is fried perhaps you can go buy yourself another one (see source above). You have a one year warranty with Powerlogix, use that to get one of their new boards.

Powerlogix really tries hard but they are a small company and appear swamped right now.

BTW. Check out this PL user experience half way down the page from Aug 2002

[Joe]

Well I guess I was one the lucky ones. I didn't fry my dc-dc board but my L3 did not function properly. I have since sent the processor back to powerlogix for replacement or repair. After hearing the announcement about lower power consuming chips I was excited and emailed powerlogix to see if that's what I would receive back. Apparently not according to the email I received. On top of that I was told not to reinstall it until I received the new dc-dc from Powerlogix. I am beginning to regret ever purchasing this upgrade and in all honest could not recommend it to anyone else until these problems are resolved.

Edit: Just received this email

Joe


We received your card today. The problem is that the Apple dcdc board is not powerful enough for the dual cards in the Cubes. We are designing our own dcdc board that will allow you to use a dual card in your Cube. We will have the new dcdc board in about a month. We'll ship you one when we get them in along with your upgrade card. We will have to modify your card as well to work with the dcdc board.

I apologize for the delay, the Apple dcdc board just isn't powerful enough for dual cpu's.
--

Thanks


PowerLogix Tech Support

Now I can't even get my upgrade card back until the new boards are built. They have to modify the upgrade card to work with their board. I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt, but for now avoid Powerlogix until they get this mess straightened out.

[you_are_right]

I have also bought the new DL 800 upgrade, but did not install it so far...waiting as told by PL for the replacement DCDC board.

Then i read the article about the new design coming in January, allowing to keep the old DCDC board...and upgrades possibly as high as 1,2 GHz times 2. So i emailed them asking what would be with the unlucky buyers of a useless DL 800 board of the first generation.

The answer was confusing as everything i read here or elsewhere about this issue:

- they say they are still making a DCDC board (why ?, if they have a new cpu board, which can work without it)
- second answer was, that owners of the old dual cards will receive new ones for free when they are available.

To me while also considering the information from above and the path forward so far in getting these problems solved, this sounds like something not very trustful.

I have decided to return it for a refund to the seller and buy a new powermac in January.

:angry_smile :angry_smile :angry_smile

[freakboy]

Well I guess I was one the lucky ones. I didn't fry my dc-dc board but my L3 did not function properly. I have since sent the processor back to powerlogix for replacement or repair. After hearing the announcement about lower power consuming chips I was excited and emailed powerlogix to see if that's what I would receive back. Apparently not according to the email I received. On top of that I was told not to reinstall it until I received the new dc-dc from Powerlogix. I am beginning to regret ever purchasing this upgrade and in all honest could not recommend it to anyone else until these problems are resolved.

Edit: Just received this email

Joe


We received your card today. The problem is that the Apple dcdc board is not powerful enough for the dual cards in the Cubes. We are designing our own dcdc board that will allow you to use a dual card in your Cube. We will have the new dcdc board in about a month. We'll ship you one when we get them in along with your upgrade card. We will have to modify your card as well to work with the dcdc board.

I apologize for the delay, the Apple dcdc board just isn't powerful enough for dual cpu's.
--

Thanks


PowerLogix Tech Support

Now I can't even get my upgrade card back until the new boards are built. They have to modify the upgrade card to work with their board. I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt, but for now avoid Powerlogix until they get this mess straightened out.

I emailed them and they told me that the new dc-dc boards _support_ 1.2gig g4s X2. So you'll still need a new dc-dc board for the faster dual g4's.. not as good news as we thought :-(

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