I really like the sp3 but it is about to drive me crazy

[Mikewired]

I really like the sp3, it is a fun fast machine. The screen is second to none, the speakers are awesome, the pen I use on a regular basis. The problem is as I reach my 47th day and past my 45 days of returns at Best Buy, the sp3 now wants to drop wifi every day, this morning the unit locked up and would not respond until I held the power button down to turn it off. No electronics are perfect, not even Apple. I had an i5 256 that was curved so bad it looked like a skateboard ramp and returned it and got the i7. I have exchanged 2 type covers for different problems. I don't know if it's a Windows thing or the machine but coming from a Mac where all you do is open the lid everyday use it close it never shut it off it's getting a little annoying. The i7sp3 is no small investment at 1970.00 with accessories and tax. I am now about to beg BestBuy to take this machine back and all the accessories so I can get a MacBook Pro. Just venting here and hope someone important is listening. It like Microsoft won me over but just just let's you go... If it were not for the fast rebooting to fix problems, this party would have been over a long time ago. The sp3 is a unique device and some sacrifices are acceptable but I am also tired of pulling off the keyboard on a regular basis to get it working again.

 

[sharpuser]

Sorry about all that. Not a happy story, and not typical.

Have you tried the Refresh process? Seems some software is causing problems with your services, stealing time and machine cycles away from functions like networking and power.

Sorry to suggest obvious things. Not steering you towards or away from Apple or other alternatives. Just helping you protect the investment you've already made.

 

[jnjroach]

Look in your Event Viewer, do you see DHCP Errors under the Application or System Event Log? On some of the units I looked at that has this issue, IP Address renewal seemed to be the issue and some time during this process the WLAN driver would crash.

I haven't narrowed down if it is the Router or the Driver that is hanging, but it is possible that the WLAN driver was corrupted at some point.

Download the latest WLAN Driver (First) and remove the Marvell WLAN Driver (Uninstall and delete the driver), Reboot and install the latest.

Download here:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=38826

If that doesn't work the refresh and/or reset should fix it.

 

[Mikewired]

I'll give it a try.

 

[GreyFox7]

Under the heading of It takes two to tango, the router has a symbiotic relationship with wireless clients. You might need to reboot the router as well to clear up problems.

 

[nipponham]

The sp3 is a unique device and some sacrifices are acceptable but I am also tired of pulling off the keyboard on a regular basis to get it working again.

Tell me about it. I've been experiencing the same problem recently. CSR's suggestion was to do a refresh, (which happens to be the default answer to every problem). The situation has improved somewhat in that the attach/reattach works now 1 in four or five tries as opposed to the 1 in god-knows-how-many-times it took for the keyboard to be recognized, but the point is, a machine that is supposed to be a showcase for Microsoft should not have such an amateur problem like this in the first place.

I like my SP3 too, but it's getting hard to defend it

 

[Paul Towmy]

I really like the sp3, it is a fun fast machine. The screen is second to none, the speakers are awesome, the pen I use on a regular basis. The problem is as I reach my 47th day and past my 45 days of returns at Best Buy, the sp3 now wants to drop wifi every day, this morning the unit locked up and would not respond until I held the power button down to turn it off. No electronics are perfect, not even Apple. I had an i5 256 that was curved so bad it looked like a skateboard ramp and returned it and got the i7. I have exchanged 2 type covers for different problems. I don't know if it's a Windows thing or the machine but coming from a Mac where all you do is open the lid everyday use it close it never shut it off it's getting a little annoying. The i7sp3 is no small investment at 1970.00 with accessories and tax. I am now about to beg BestBuy to take this machine back and all the accessories so I can get a MacBook Pro. Just venting here and hope someone important is listening. It like Microsoft won me over but just just let's you go... If it were not for the fast rebooting to fix problems, this party would have been over a long time ago. The sp3 is a unique device and some sacrifices are acceptable but I am also tired of pulling off the keyboard on a regular basis to get it working again.

I hear you loud and clear. I have the same keyboard issues - not usually more than once or twice a day (but isn't that 2 too many?) and combined with all the other little niggles... overheating (or just getting hot/"ones mans over heating is another mans normal"???), screen freeze/reset... it just adds up and is very frustrating.

 

[Paul Towmy]

Tell me about it. I've been experiencing the same problem recently. CSR's suggestion was to do a refresh, (which happens to be the default answer to every problem). The situation has improved somewhat in that the attach/reattach works now 1 in four or five tries as opposed to the 1 in god-knows-how-many-times it took for the keyboard to be recognized, but the point is, a machine that is supposed to be a showcase for Microsoft should not have such an amateur problem like this in the first place.

I like my SP3 too, but it's getting hard to defend it

Aye to that. I like it too for functionality but these mechanical faults are tiresome

 

[theveterans]

I don't think those are mechanical faults. It's just that Windows is just quirky by nature due to it being able to just accept drivers/devices and a lot of those are buggier than what you get with Mac OS X which BTW has the same hardware as a PC, but seems much more stable due to the OS and drives being fully controlled by Apple. MS doesn't really control the SP3 hardware since you'll see that they still rely on OEMs such as Marvell, Intel or Samsung for the driver/firmware updates while Macs have vendor specific hardware that guarantees that their machines will work as good as possible on OS X.

OS X has its own quirks too like how the UI (mission control, etc.) slows down when too much apps are opened despite having full control over the hardware that Apple chooses.

 

[BOBEL]

are you LISTEN MICROSOFT