Bad Hardware Buttons, a Caution.

[Guest warriorscot]

On Friday I discovered that my back button for my vega is broken. And I don't mean broken because of messing around with key mapping I mean broken as in its stuck down and there is now a very suspicious rattle from the vega every now and again. From looking at some of the tear down picture it seems to me the problem is the internal button attached to the hardware controls board has come off I can't think of any other reason for the symptoms.

Now to me as someone who has had some experience in engineering and a tiny bit of design this shouldn't be possible. For one the button should be properly attached to the board with either rivets, solder, epoxy or glue of some kind. But the hardware button itself should have a retainer to prevent excessive force from presses being transmitted to the internal component.

As to the exact reason as to how it happened I am not entirely sure I had it out on the bus watching a video (inside the standard case) put it back in my bag(A very nice leather laptop bag that cost almost as much as the Vega). And somewhere between the bus and getting on the train 15 minutes later and watching the rest of the video the back button had decided to break. So with two layers of protection from accidental breakage it managed to break and the only answer that makes sense is that it was always a little loose and managed to shake itself free of the board as I walked. Obviously this is not something that should happen buttons especially one of the two buttons critical to the use of the device(either in use or entering recovery) it should last a long time.

Come Monday I am getting in touch with DSG and getting it replaced soon as. I have pmed #AdventVega on the forum in the hopes they can help avoid some of the hassles I have heard of other people on the forums have had in returning there units. I can only hope that the swap out doesn't take long as I am pretty attached to having my vega by this point and that the replacement has properly attached buttons.

So for all my fellow Vega users a warning, be careful of your buttons they are apparently more fragile than they should be. And its perhaps a thought some of the developers for vega should keep in mind that in the future we may need a better way of entering recovery than the button press combo and perhaps some form of auto-detection of failed boots like windows has.

Edited February 6, 2011 by warriorscot

[Guest Wizard]

I bought two in Nov, one of them was completely dead on arrival. I requested a replacement and the one they sent had the problem you describe, so it went back too (for a refund). You're not alone, and after two of the three they've sent me being unusable, I won't be buying any Advent products again, and after the awful service from DSG (it took six weeks and about ten phone calls to get it sorted out) I won't be buying anything from them again.

I'd send the tablet back and get a replacement or a refund.

[Guest warriorscot]

If it takes six weeks I will be annoyed, if it does take longer than a few weeks I will probably refund it and get an Adam as while I really like my Vega I would rather pay the extra for the Adam and get something better spec and hopefully more reliable. I did pm the advent vega account here on the forum in the hopes the guys from the vega team at DSG can streamline the process.

[Guest trevor432990]

Sorry to hear you've had this issue Warrior and do let us know how you get on with the exchange process. The new operating systems coming along for the Vega seem to rely less on hardware buttons in favour of on-screen versions which is a relief but obviously for rebooting (unless things change) they will still be required. The Adam was on my radar as well but it seemed to be taking a long time for it to come to market so if you get one I'd be very interested to hear how you get on with it. Anyway good luck and keep posting here mate :P

[Guest .stu]

I would rather pay the extra for the Adam and get something better spec and hopefully more reliable.

The key word being 'hopefully'. Personally, given the delays and whatnot going on around the adam I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole, coz if it does go faulty it's going to cost an arm and a leg to get it sorted what with all the fees notion seem to want to charge. A whole bunch of genuine honeycomb tablets are jsut around the corner, so I would wait. Well at least that's what I'm doing - took my vega back on friday and got a refund sorted no problem, even after owning it for two months.

[Guest Tony Williams]

On Friday I discovered that my back button for my vega is broken. And I don't mean broken because of messing around with key mapping I mean broken as in its stuck down and there is now a very suspicious rattle from the vega every now and again. From looking at some of the tear down picture it seems to me the problem is the internal button attached to the hardware controls board has come off I can't think of any other reason for the symptoms.

The first Vega I bought had a similar problem,opened it up and there was no switch at all on the motherboard, didn`t seem to be any sign of it having broken off so I can only assume that unit was faulty when shipped.

[Guest cjm106]

I bought two in Nov, one of them was completely dead on arrival. I requested a replacement and the one they sent had the problem you describe, so it went back too (for a refund). You're not alone, and after two of the three they've sent me being unusable, I won't be buying any Advent products again, and after the awful service from DSG (it took six weeks and about ten phone calls to get it sorted out) I won't be buying anything from them again.

I'd send the tablet back and get a replacement or a refund.

Had exactly the same experience and am now the happy owner of a galaxy tab (albeit a little poorer). They've completley dropped the ball on this one. Broken sd card slots x 2, dead pixels 4+, dust under the screen and terrible customer service do not make a great product. Shame Paul isnt across that as well, hmm maybe a modaco tablet?

[Guest warriorscot]

Problem with the Tab is definitely the price and the fact that it isn't Tegra. The Adams were delayed because of bad touch panels apparently after a shipping accident with any luck I will get it swapped out in less than a week or two so it won't be an issue but if its a month or more it opens up other possibilities and I wouldn't mind pay £50-100 and get a much superior Adam.

Quality control does seem to be a problem. I actually wouldn't mind getting mine repaired and sent back to me as I know it works. Honestly repairing it myself would probably be in my abilities but I just don't want to bother with the hassle when it is still in warranty. Although it's definitely a manufacturing defect so it would be covered by warranty for 6 years(5 in Scotland).

[Guest cjm106]

Problem with the Tab is definitely the price and the fact that it isn't Tegra. The Adams were delayed because of bad touch panels apparently after a shipping accident with any luck I will get it swapped out in less than a week or two so it won't be an issue but if its a month or more it opens up other possibilities and I wouldn't mind pay £50-100 and get a much superior Adam.

Quality control does seem to be a problem. I actually wouldn't mind getting mine repaired and sent back to me as I know it works. Honestly repairing it myself would probably be in my abilities but I just don't want to bother with the hassle when it is still in warranty. Although it's definitely a manufacturing defect so it would be covered by warranty for 6 years(5 in Scotland).

359+quicdo+£200 free media pkg isnt too bad mind given that it works, has a decent screen (albeit much smaller) and a 3g modem. You're prob right about the processor , Tegra +honey comb is going to be great but I really doubt the vega is going to be the one to take you there.

Get an adam if you can.

I wanted to love the vega, kinda still do :.(

Edited February 7, 2011 by cjm106