INTRODUCTION:

Perhaps you own a Eurocom product, and perhaps it hasn't failed on you...yet. Well good for you. I'm not saying that every Eurocom product has or will fail. Heck, but then again, not every Ford Explorer equipped with Firestone Tires has flipped over, right? I'm just saying that my Eurocom 5100 laptop is a piece of crap and has been a source of constant problems and headaches.

Potential Eurocom buyers? I would recommend buying something else. Even if a Eurocom laptop may seem cheaper, I have already spent over $200 on associated repairs/service on my Eurocom laptop. Right now (MAY/2001) the Eurocom 5100 (with 12" active-matrix screen and 1 year warranty) is selling for approximately $1600 CDN. For approximately $200 CDN more you can buy a Dell laptop with a 14" active-matrix screen and a 3 year warranty. Think about it....

COMMENTS/MAIL FROM OTHER USERS:
(And these are genuine people who actually decided to e-mail me. How many hundreds more users are there that have had similar problems and haven't e-mailed me???)

Dan:
"hey man i bougha eurocom 8500c laptop through the newsgroups everything was working fine for like 2 months then suddenly my pcmcia controllers started screwing up they'd be there one time after rebooting and not after another reboot anyway i downgraded the bios to the 8500 and now i cant even turn the thing on :((( i was wondering if you knew anything about this ?
Thanks, Dan.
P.s. Eurocom is crap !"

Denis Chevalier:
"EUROCOM 5100 BOUGHT IN AUGUST 1999 - Hi! You should see the way I am using my laptop. Because of a problem that occured 2 months ago, I can't use my laptop screen anymore. I have to use an external monitor as a spare screen. It's like you have said, garbled and impossible to see anything on the screen even when the laptop is cold or had just booted up. So, my laptop is now a desk top. I have been told that the problem is the matrix which would cost approx. 6 or 7 hundred to be repaired. I would also recommend buying something else as well as the extended warranty that would provide you the piece of mind. Hope you understood everything. Should you let me know if you need more infos. Regards, Denis"

Brian Found:
"I faced the same problems, but thankfully, I didn't buy my Eurocom 5100C. Last year (Aug 2000) I won the laptop at Compusmart, along with an HP portable colour printer and laptop case. I already had a decent desktop, but I firgured I'd keep the laptop for a while to see if I would use it. I only turned it on about 8 times in the past year, and almost every time I used it, the screen would flicker and eventually freeze up requiring a power cycle. I also noticed the the battery would not hold a charge, even if it was not used for a few months. Anyway, I decided that it was not used much and would get rid of it. So I turned it on the other day to remove my data from the hard drive, and the screen no longer displays properly and is unreadable! Cold reboots do nothing. So I searched the web and found your site. I sure wasn't going to pay to get it fixed after reading your site, and I would feel too guilty to try and sell it to someone, even if the display was fixed. Oh, on another note, I recently found out the HP deskjet 340 printer I won is described by many reviews as the worst colour printer ever made. I agree. At least the laptop bag is nice ;-) "

Patrick Cloutier:
"I've been reading your webpage with great interest since I bought an Eurocrap 3100-C computer two years ago. I had most of the problems you had - overheating, screen flickering, battery problem, smoke from nowhere (well, a ram chip just blew up) and very long repair time - 1 to 2 months in average. I bought that piece of crap since I felt the price tag was good, the specs were interesting and that it would fit my needs. Everything went well for about 3 months, then, problems started. I don't know how many times I've called their tech support to get help, according to them, it was always my fault. The piece of crap that I paid more than 3000$ was never in cause. That sucks. I decided to buy another laptop, since I need one everyday. I went for a Compaq Presario 17XL462, works very good. I had a screen problem less than 3 months after buying it but it took only 36 hours to have it fixed and delivered to my door. Technology is not perfect but Eurocom is an exception, their technology will never come close to something good. Good luck and thanks for doing this web page, I don't feel alone anymore!"

Normand R. Côté:
"Hello, I am looking for a new laptop. My choice was coming down between a Dell and an Eurocom. Not any more. It will be a Dell. Thank you for your comments. Regards, Normand R. Côté"

Hasan Almulla:
"Hi there, I read with great interest the spectrum of problems you faced with your laptop. Although I have a different brand laptop, but the similarity and in particular the chronological order of the problems was simply striking. Everything you mentioned in exactly the same order happened with my machine. Overheating, screen flicker when hot and then even when it had cooled down, the latch, the battery, really as if you were describing the range of problems I faced with my laptop. I bought it two years ago from a company called Pico www.picosystems.co.uk, that specialises in portable equipment including laptops. I have spent more than 250 British pounds so far, buying a new battery, front and rear screen cover and I am going to send it again for the overheating and flickering problem since I really need it to finish my PhD. I guess one learns the hard way. My next machine is certainly going to be either IBM ThinkPad or Dell Inspiron. I hope that was a consolation, even if its not, now you know you are not alone. One more thing, I'll be very glad to see the name of Pico added to the list of "NEVER BUY" systems in your web site. Regards Hasan Edinburgh, UK" [Ed note: judging by the diagrams of the laptops that Pico sells, it looks like it is the same form factor as the Eurocom 5100. I'm guessing laptops are manufactured by a 3rd party company in Taiwan and then Eurocom, Pico, Smartbook and ARM buy and re-label and sell to consumers.]

Dan Goold (11/2001)
A friend of mine purchased a eurocom 5100C a while back and just recently it died. He shipped it back to the company to get the data of the hard drive. One of the techs looked at it and said the motherboard was pooched and it would cost $800 to replace. This was 2 months after the 1 year warrenty expired. So I have it sitting here in front of me because I am hoping that someone out there has one they would be willing to take the motherboard out and sell it. Meanwhile I am trying to get ahold of a rep. from the company and haggle with him. So if you have one laying around and want to make a few bucks off it email me at dgoold@yahoo.com or daaaman69@hotmail.com and hopefully we can get at least one running.

Greg Skelhorn (11/2001)
I have a Eurocom 8500C. Well, I thought I was buying a top quality, well designed, Canadian made product. Now I am ashamed to admit it is Canadian. Not too sure of the time line of everything but it goes something like: 2 to 3 months old: laptop frequently crashing, called Eurocom to discuss possibility of over-heating but was assured their advanced cooling system was more than sufficient provided the fan was operating and unobstructed which it was. Within the first 12 months: - the screen began to display green-ish veritcal band the full height of the display and 4 to 5 cm wide. Sent for service under warranty. - the system continued to crash randomly and any intense number crunching resulted in corrupted data. The corruption was a random bit change. This pointed to a RAM problem which was verified and replaced under warranty. After the 12 month warranty: - the green-ish band came back, have done nothing about it though. - the system failed to power on one day. Sent in for servicing and a power board was replaced for a couple hundred. The hard drive was not sent with the laptop due to the data that existed on it but when it was inserted after receiveing the laptop back I discovered it was dead. Likely due to the power board failure. Bought a new hard drive and just as the installation of Windows was finished the system died and will not turn back on. That is where I am now and am not sure what I am going to do with it. I have been looking around the web to see if there were similar reports and stumbled on your page. Sure would like to see this page ranked higher on search lists as it might warn off the innocent... I have to admit Eurocom did provide good turn-around time for the service as they were informed I had to travel soon. Regards, Greg Skelhorn Halifax, Canada

Robert Michajlowski (12/2001)
Hey, You probably heard of the saying "The only constant in our society is death in taxes", I agree, but there is another constant to be said. "Death in eurocom". In 1999, I bought a 5100 series Eurocom laptop. I needed a portable computer fast and the local computer store only carried this brand. So, after listening to the sales rep for about 30 minutes, finding out the details of the machine, I took out my credit card and made the worst purchase of my life. Everything worked fine for about 3 months - then problems started. I noticed when I was typing in any word processor, the mouse starting jumping on me. Simply put, I thought I was typing on line 5 but when I looked at the screen I was actually back on line 2. I was forced to use an external mouse slowly turning my portable into a desktop. Soon after, the battery would not charge to 100%. It came to a point where the battery would only last me about 20 minutes or so. After replacing the battery another problem presented itself. Both shift buttons on the keyboard suddenly stopped working. So that was it for me. I sold the laptop to a friend for $50 (after paying close to $2000). When I asked him couple weeks later how he like the laptop, he said that he gave it away to an elementary school so that the students can take it part. Apparently, soon after he bought it, the top arrow key, back space key, bracket keys all stopped working. And if that wasn't enough, the screen became unreadable. BOTTOM LINE - PLEASE I ASK YOU, DON'T BUY EUROCOM. You might as well go to the casino and have a good time with that money. By Rob M.

François Charbonneau (01/2002)
I bought a Eurocom 1200 in February 2000, six months before I departed for a year of study in France. I bought it in advance to make sure that it would be free of problems before departing. I must admit that aside form the horrific sound that the CPU fan makes, the laptop served well. I was in France for three months before the LCD display died on me completely. Since then, I have been using the computer as a desktop. What a load of crap. I called Eurocom, only to be told that they couldn't help. The service techs are probably the worst there is. I always feel like I'm annoying them when I call (then again, I only called 3 or 4 times). When I came back from France, I was told that it would cost 75$ for an estimate of the actual repair. ??????? I REPEAT: THE ESTIMATE WILL COST YOU 75$, even if they don't do any work on it. Talk about customer service! (think about it before you buy) I'm not sure what I'll do about the laptop that I own... but I know for sure that I will never buy another one of their crappy products.
F. C.

Tony McGee (11/2002)
Our little company has been using Eurocom for the last 5 years or so. Over the years we've gone though about 30 laptops. All the symptoms that you are describing I have witnessed first hand. Our biggest problem in the office is these crappy screens .... two of our guys have been using big binding clips on the upper left hand side of the screen so that it would work. They seem to work if you twist them a bit. One of our guys even taped down the top corners of his laptop to his desk just so that he could twist the screen enough to so that he could back up his stuff before taking it in. On that same PC there was massive over heating and something rattling in his CD-ROM and it wouldn't work .... after he got it back from eurocom they replaced his fan, his HD, and reflowed something in the CD-ROM. Now he has a boot problem where he can't boot up from the battery .. great portable eh? Anyhow there are almost countless bad stories here at the office with these Eurocom's and we're finally thinking about going with another vendor. There support has given us such a hard time that it's just not worth the hassle anymore. You'd think they'd be nice to us considering how many we buy and we're even registered as a distributor (a whopping 5% discount). I think we'll try Toshiba next ... maybe the Satellite pro. Oh and it's not like there's been one model that's a problem ... every model we get from them has problems! Tony

Anonymous (08/2004) - NEWEST SAD EUROCOM CUSTOMER!
Hello David i was lookin on the internet for ppl with the same problems that i have been facing with my laptop not sure if u have heard any. My laptop is a D500p one of the newer models out im not sure if u have heard of any but i have had some huge problems my screen casing on the lower left of the monitor hinge seems to crack on me .. i sent it in once and they claimed i didnt have a lemon or defective model .. i even contacted the president and .. in the end they sent it back repaired .. the wifi card was also defective which they said .. from the get go.

Now after approx 2 months of repair my screen is cracking in the exact same spot again and im so angry and dissapointed and not only that but the tech who worked on it also seems to have broken a circut board on the power area so that when i close my screen down the laptop nolonger shuts off haha what a joke anyway if ya do know of more occurances of this plz let me know

would be much appreciated

PROBLEMS WITH MY EUROCOM:

Two years ago, I decided that I would buy a laptop--since I am a student, I could not afford a high-flying, high powered laptop. Since the laptop was mostly for school work, I wasn't too concerned about performance, but I was sure that I wanted an active-matrix (TFT) LCD screen. The Eurocom 5100 seemed to be the answer--it had a 12" active-matrix screen and a 400 mhz Celeron processor. Little did I know it would be the source of constant problems and headaches. I am completely fed up with my laptop, so I have created this webpage in order to inform other consumers about my problems with Eurocom products.

First, the battery charging problems. After about a month of usage, my Eurocom 5100's battery stopped charging to 100%. Windows would say that the battery was only 70% charged, but the laptop's charging light had changed from red to green (signalling that the hardware had stopped charging the battery). After running the 70% full battery down, I charged the laptop again with it turned off. When the charging light had changed to green, I booted the machine up. It read 60% charged. Eurocom tech support claimed, at first, that this was a Windows 98 problem. I contacted Microsoft for any software patches and found nothing. This seemed to be not an issue according to Microsoft. I took the laptop into a local licensed service depot and the technician said this battery charging problem was normal. Uh? What?

The Eurocom licensed technician told me that laptop users have to condition the lithium-ion battery. Every so often a battery would not charge fully to 100% and the user would have to toggle off the power-saving modes in the BIOS and run the laptop in DOS until the battery had completely run out. They claimed that this was a normal product of laptop usage. Well I know MANY people who own laptops: several friends own Toshibas (Sattellite, Sattellite Pro, Tecra, Protege), several people I know own Sony Vaios, one person I know owns a Compaq, another person uses an IBM laptop, and my older sister owns a Dell Inspiron. After inquirying them--NONE of them said they had problems charging their laptop batteries. None of them needed to condition their batteries, even after heavy usage (several of them had owned and used their laptops for several years). Perhaps what Eurocom should have said to me is that this battery charging problem is normal for Eurocom notebooks, but not for other laptops.

I complained enough that Eurocom shipped me a replacement battery (thinking this was a specific battery problem) The new battery was not much better. After only several charge cycles (3 or 4 uses) it began to stop charging to 100%...again it dropped down to 60% and through the week it progressively went worse. I have tried replacing the battery four times...each time the results are same. I have tried conditioning the battery each time in order to obtain 100% charged status, but this last only a few days before it begins its decsent. Besides even if this conditioning was normal...it should not be necessary after laptop usage. I could understand if I needed to condition the battery every 1 or 2 months...but every week? That's absurd. This battery problem is still an unresolved issue...I have just learned to deal with it. Currently, my laptop only charges to 65%.

Second, the A/C plug issue. After 10 months of usage, the plug on the laptop where you connect the A/C adapter failed. The plug was replaced under warranty, but did little to inspire confidence in the build quality of my laptop.

Third, the overheating issue (hanging, random power downs and screen interference/flickering). Around this same time, my Eurocom 5100 laptop began to exhibit overheating problems after usage. The CPU would get extremely hot (even with the CPU fan running, unobstructed) and the laptop would randomly power down, hang or there would be massive screen interference as the picture would flicker or would display all distorted. Turning off the laptop and letting it cool down for about an hour allowed it to be used again.

After several months of this, the screen interference/garble began to be a frequent occurence and even began to occur when the laptop was cold (or had just booted up). I took the laptop into the service depot. I booted up the machine right in front of a technician and the screen began to flicker wildly. I left my laptop with the technician for several days. The technician claimed that they were unable to reduplicate the problem and that the problem had just mysteriously gone away. The technician claimed that he put a piece of electrical tape to insulate something... With the laptop out of warranty, I paid $85 for labour...

The screen flickering problem has seemed to have subsided but it still happens (once every two months). Now that my laptop is out warranty, I have just learned to deal with it. Part of the ownership experience of a Eurocom laptop, I guess.

Fourth, the laptop lid latch failure. Around the same time, the external lid latch broke off, while the internal spring and hook still remain inside. When I close the laptop, I have no way to open it back up, unless I use a small object (like a pen) to slide move the spring. The technician wanted $25 to replace the latch. Not worth it. I have learned to deal with it. Another wonderful "feature" of a Eurocom laptop.

Fifth, the laptop A/C adapter failure. Several months later the A/C adapter failed. It stopped providing current to the laptop. Had to purchase a new one for $150.

Sixth, the laptop A/C plug failure???. Still not sure about this one....but just yesterday (May 19/2001) my Eurocom 5100 expelled a big cloud of grey smoke and shutdown. The laptop will still boot up on battery power, but will no longer boot or run on A/C power.

Final entry (updated August 2001). My Eurocom 5100 was sent into the factory depot. The technicians have told it will cost me over $800 to fix the laptop. Apparently the motherboard is dead and needs to be replaced. There is no point in repairing a 1 year old laptop for $800... The laptop now serves as an expensive doorstop.

Perhaps you own a Eurocom product, and perhaps it hasn't failed on you...yet. Well good for you. I'm not saying that every Eurocom product has or will fail. Heck, but then again, not every Ford Explorer equipped with Firestone Tires has flipped over, right? I'm just saying that my Eurocom 5100 laptop is a piece of crap and has been a source of constant problems and headaches.

Potential Eurocom buyers? I would recommend buying something else. Even if a Eurocom laptop may seem cheaper, I have already spent over $200 on associated repairs/service on my laptop. Right now (MAY/2001) the Eurocom 5100 (with 12" active-matrix screen and 1 year warranty) is selling for approximately $1600 CDN. For approximately $200 CDN more you can buy a Dell laptop with a 14" active-matrix screen and a 3 year warranty. Think about it....