Newegg Samsung SP1604N W/JVC whines... can I return it?

NetTechie · Post by **NetTechie** » Mon Jun 14, 2004 1:16 pm

What are my options here. I just tried this drive after stopping all my fans, and it makes a hellava wine. It's more silent than my wdc, but far from inaudable. What should I do? Can I RMA it? If I do an RMA I'd probly want to get a different model (8mb cache), would that be possible?

dan · Post by **dan** » Wed Jun 16, 2004 7:30 am

well,
i encourage you to RMA it and then go ahead and share with us your experience with newegg's RMA policy

-- this is especially relevant here, many of us order sp80 in the near future, and if i get a JVC rather then NIDEC, your experience with newegg's rma will help us to decide wheter we should order from newegg.

-dan

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Wed Jun 16, 2004 7:51 am

NetTechie - Does the term "guinea pig" mean anything to you?

hero · Post by **hero** » Wed Jun 16, 2004 10:26 am

Dude, as long as you're within 30 days they'll take it back with no hassle and will even refund the restocking fee if you ask them so long as you place another order with them within so many days.

This kind of service is what gives me the inclination to shop there when I can probably save a couple dollars (literally...usually just on tax since I'm in CA) somewhere else.

Keitaro · Post by **Keitaro** » Wed Jun 16, 2004 12:17 pm

Newegg has an excellent RMA policy. My hard drive was DOA so i shipped it back. This is probably the only bad thing. You pay for shipping to them, they pay for it when it comes back to you. So automatically got approved for RMA online, shipped it back. A week later, theres a fedex box waiting for me. Good stuff

NetTechie · Post by **NetTechie** » Wed Jun 16, 2004 12:19 pm

30 days.. oh boy. I think I better start counting.

Ok guys, I'll be the guinea pig

I'm thinking if that fails see how Samsung RMA service is, tell them that it sounds like it's going to eat me

bomba · Post by **bomba** » Wed Jun 16, 2004 12:44 pm

I've RMA'd to Newegg before, they tried to charge me a 15% restocking fee on a retail boxed motherboard that was DOA. With a minor amount of "negotiating" they waived the fee.

Just point out to them that Samsung drives are marketed as quiet and the one you received is not. They can and do waive the restocking fee. I believe it is a given if you order (from Newegg) a direct replacement for the item you are RMAing.

tragus · Post by **tragus** » Wed Jun 16, 2004 4:02 pm

A valiant experiment... BUT, what if your newly returned drive is ALSO a JVC motor that whines. How many iterations can be done?

I'm just guessing that the NIDEC/JVC motors go out in big batches from Samsung. It may well be that NewEgg's stock contains primarily JVC.

NetTechie · Post by **NetTechie** » Wed Jun 16, 2004 4:41 pm

03/27/04 was the date of purchase.

I got it for a friend (not based on silence, based on warranty/price since I don't like wdc now, after they were rude to me), and he has agreed to swap out for my wdc 160gb... now that I have the samsung I see it has a JVC motor (I hadn't installed it yet, after pulling from his comp). When I did install it... well, I'm very disappointed. It's far from silent.

Here is what Newegg says:

Standard Warranty
Products sold by Newegg.com are covered under our Standard Warranty, unless otherwise indicated. Merchandise under the Standard Warranty may be returned within 30-days of the original invoice date for refund or repaired/replaced within 1-year of the invoice date by acquiring a Return Merchandise Authorization number.

Many companies offer additional factory coverage so we recommend customers contact the manufacturer directly for eligibility and specific Terms and Conditions.

I will have to talk to them, but it looks like I have to get an RMA from samsung first to do it... or from newegg. RMA means it's deffective in some way I'm guessing. Western digital really doesn't care if the drive is deffective. If you want an RMA they will give it free. Almost no questions asked. I don't know about samsung or newegg tho.

aidanjm2004 · Post by **aidanjm2004** » Wed Jun 16, 2004 8:10 pm

NetTechie wrote:I see it has a JVC motor...

What is the low-down (I sound like I'm on Entertainment Tonight) on this "JVC motor"...? I'm guessing Samsung has made a batch of Spin-point drives using a substandard (whiny) motor...? How does one check what brand of motor a drive has? What motor should I be looking for? Is this problem limited to drives of a specific size, or does it affect all 3.5 inch Spin-point drives?

Has anyone tried Samsung's 2.5 inch drives, BTW? The specs make it look very quiet, and not too slow, either.

mpteach · Post by **mpteach** » Wed Jun 16, 2004 8:25 pm

Has anyone been sucessful in convincing a store to cherry pic nidecs?

NetTechie · Post by **NetTechie** » Wed Jun 16, 2004 9:26 pm

Now that's an idea right there.... just like they have the IQYHA mobiles picked out... same with the hard drives.... yeah... excellent idea! Who should we all spam about this first? Newegg, excaliberpc, who?

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Thu Jun 17, 2004 7:25 am

NetTechie wrote:Who should we all spam about this first? Newegg

Newegg won't cherry pick anything. Don't waste your time with them.

mpteach · Post by **mpteach** » Thu Jun 17, 2004 9:51 am

excaliburpc does cherrypicking but we might also have more successs with a vendor that caters to SPCR enthusiasts. Why not spam them all?

NetTechie · Post by **NetTechie** » Thu Jun 17, 2004 1:13 pm

mpteach wrote:Why not spam them all?

We should get an email list together, then BCC (blind carbon copy) so we can spam 100 companies at once about this, w/copy and past of the list

Let's start a topic for this, and list the emails of who to contact. Sound good? If we're gonna do this probly moderator should start it and make it a sticky maybe?

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Thu Jun 17, 2004 3:59 pm

Unless you guys know something I don't, there aren't anywhere near a hundred companies that sell Samsung Spinpoints. I personally haven't seen more than four or five.

NetTechie · Post by **NetTechie** » Thu Jun 17, 2004 6:12 pm

Ralf Hutter wrote:Unless you guys know something I don't, there aren't anywhere near a hundred companies that sell Samsung Spinpoints. I personally haven't seen more than four or five.

dan · Post by **dan** » Thu Jun 17, 2004 6:17 pm

i had an earlier thread on silicon accoustics as well as petition newegg

apparently they only sell nidec motors.

they are more expensive than newegg so i do not know whether the increase in cost justifies the risk you take when you buy newegg.

NetTechie · Post by **NetTechie** » Thu Jun 17, 2004 7:30 pm

dan wrote:they are more expensive than newegg so i do not know whether the increase in cost justifies the risk you take when you buy newegg.

All depends on how newegg responds to rma's for noisy. We'll see.

mpteach · Post by **mpteach** » Thu Jun 17, 2004 8:20 pm

http://www.siliconacoustics.com/quietharddrives.html has a small selection compared to newegg. Also only half of thier models have nidec motors. It is nice that they telll you though. I guess they list the motors that they got in their batches.

mpteach · Post by **mpteach** » Thu Jun 17, 2004 8:26 pm

Ralf Hutter wrote:NetTechie - Does the term "guinea pig" mean anything to you?

Hey were an association of guinea pigs:) Eveyone takes a hit for the team once in a while and that makes silencing our computers less painfull as a whole.

NetTechie · Post by **NetTechie** » Fri Jun 18, 2004 7:55 am

Just got off the phone with newegg.... good news, they will allow me to rma it, for exchange for another of the same drive, even though it's past 30 days. I have to pay shipping to them, beyond that it is free. Ofcourse.... who knows, next drive might also be JVC. :/ No guarantees on that. Think I'll try it though. Since I got this at the end of march, and its june, they might have a nidec batch now. I'll keep you updated.

POLIST8 · Post by **POLIST8** » Fri Jun 18, 2004 9:31 am

I could return dirt in a bag and call it a Power Supply to Newegg and they'd send me a new one. Newegg is so easy to work with it actually scared me a bit.

gabeyd · Post by **gabeyd** » Fri Jun 18, 2004 10:31 am

If you live in the San Francisco (San Jose) Bay Area, Microcenter (www.microcenter.com) has Samsung OEM drives out in the shelves in clear boxes, and you can sort through and find Nidec motors if you live close enough to go in in person. That's what I did for the 160G I recently bought. No whine on mine. They have the 160G for $99 right now.

mr_pickles · Post by **mr_pickles** » Mon Jun 21, 2004 6:26 pm

Just got a SP 1213N (my 2nd samsung drive). I ordered it from excaliberpc.com and it has a NIDEC motor. I asked for the NIDEC in the comments field when I placed the order though I'm not sure if they actually listened or if I got lucky.

It seems a tad quieter than the one I already have (which has the infamous JVC motor) but that is only when I have my head up near it.

But, in any case, if you want to ensure a NIDEC drive, give excaliber a shot.

dimva · Post by **dimva** » Mon Jun 21, 2004 8:29 pm

I went through 3 drives with Newegg and they were all JVC. All of these drives were SP1614C's though.

I might try talking to Samsung about this, but only once I get my new non-whine powersupply.

Anyway, look at all the insulation I had to put around them (here is shown only 1 harddrive) and I can still hear the whine pretty clearly if I put my ear right next to the outside of the case.

EDIT: BTW, with this insulation, I can barely hear the seeks. If I listen for them, they sound like a chair moving across the floor from very far away. Barely audible. If I don't listen for them, I can't hear them.

dan · Post by **dan** » Tue Jun 22, 2004 7:29 am

silicon accoustics gurantees nidec drives, but they cost significantly more than newegg. however 3 returns that higher price would have been offset

mpteach · Post by **mpteach** » Tue Jun 22, 2004 10:48 am

dan wrote:silicon accoustics gurantees nidec drives, but they cost significantly more than newegg. however 3 returns that higher price would have been offset

yeah but not any of the good models.

dan · Post by **dan** » Wed Jun 23, 2004 7:26 am

yeah i just got this eamil from them today that they only offer 40bgb and 120gb

not 80gb

mystic_fm · Post by **mystic_fm** » Thu Jun 24, 2004 5:54 pm

I read in another thread that one could visually check OEM 1604's on the shelf at MicroCenter. So this morning I drove two hours to my nearest MicroCenter outlet and went through several dozen 1604's on their shelves. Alas, every last one of them had a JVC motor. There were a few Samsung 120GB drives with Nidec motors, but I didn't know anything about their 120GB drives (haven't been reading reviews or anything about them), and I didn't feel that would be enough space for my needs anyway.

On a slightly different topic, can someone contrast the noise level of the "loud" 1604 or 1614 drives with the noise produced by the latest Hitachi and/or WD drives in the same 160GB range? I'm trying to determine whether the JVC motors are just loud in comparison to what people expect from the Samsungs and/or quiet PCs, or if they are even as loud or louder when compared to the competition. It's been a little difficult to ascertain this from reading the various Samsung threads here over the last week.

Newegg Samsung SP1604N W/JVC whines... can I return it?

Newegg Samsung SP1604N W/JVC whines... can I return it?

No dice at MicroCenter ... and how loud is "loud"?