Avoid POWERLOGIX upgrades...they SUCK

[Muxlow]

Last week, I made the mistake of purchasing a PowerLogix PowerForce Series 133 Dual 1.4 G4 upgrade card for my Mac. Without going into the gory details, I spent half of my weekend repairing the damage this piece of [bleep] did to my machine (kernel panics, disk damage, corrupted user profiles, etc.) and will be returning it for a refund later today.

Avoid this company's products like the plague.

[AverageJoe]

No, you know what sucks? Posts like this from people who slander a companyafter having one bad experience. They don't help anyone, and are a waste of space on the DUC.

I have a PL upgrade in my PowerBook- works great, and has from day one. I run an MBOX with PTLE 6.2.2 on it, no problems at all.

There are many other cases on the DUC that are opposite of yours. Powerlogix is one of the best CPU upgrade companies out there, and your bad experience doesn't warrant a thread like this one.

[leftalive]

To all those who are interested:

xlr8yourmac.com

Check out their cpu upgrade database and decide for yourself.

[skylab001]

Mine works fine and has for over a year...never a problem.....maybe some user error involved, or maybe you purchased the wrong one.....they do have different chipsets available for the same machines

[Muxlow]

They don't help anyone, and are a waste of space on the DUC.

On the contrary, posts like these help the next guy who's smart enough to search the DUC for opinions before he buys something (which I did) avoid making a regrettable decision.

And as long as I'm back on the topic, I can also say that:

• The chip was certainly the right model, as stated by Other World Computing (www.otherworldcomputing.com), and by the PowerLogix rep I spoke with.

• There was no user error in installation. See the next bullet point.

•*The PowerLogix rep I talked to acknowledged that "a certain percentage" of their upgrades behave this way (kernel panics, radical instability, etc.).

• PowerLogix was supposed to call me Monday morning to coordinate a RMA and I've yet to receive that call.

•*Even if the upgrade HAD worked and had NOT jacked my machine up, it was damn loud for the short time it was running. They throw an extra fan on the heatsink, it runs constantly, and they don't bother to make it a quiet one.


For $1150, I expect a chip upgrade to work right and work right the first time. PowerLogix failed miserably in this department, not only by sending me a bad chip, but by leaving my machine in a state of disarray after I removed their chip and firmware update (thank god for backups).

Then, to top off my disappointment by telling me that I was one of an unlucky but expected "percentage" of their customers that get bum chips, and then neglecting to call - as promised - to coordinate a repair...?

Sorry man, but that does indeed "suck."

[Naagzh]

I ordered my Gigadesigns dual 1.33 upgrade awhile back, and when they were backordered, I asked the guy on the phone (who deals both Giga and Powerlogix) whether I should instead get the Powerlogix of the same type.

He said, and I quote:

"The Giga is the one you want. Trust me, it will be worth the wait."

And it certainly has been so far. It's no louder than my old single 867 MHz, and my machine only crashed once after the first boot up. Nary a flicker so far after that.

And I know it was cheaper than $1150.

[sean shannon]

Mine has worked fine for a year now. Screamin fast, no crashes, no worries.

[cwhite771]

Powerlogix is one of the best CPU upgrade companies out there, and your bad experience doesn't warrant a thread like this one.

Considering that there are only 4 companies that make processor upgrades for Macs, it's kind of tough not to be "one of the best". I'm not even quite sure how anyone could make a statement like that about ANY company-- unless of course you work for their marketing department

Seriously, saying that they're "one of the best" because of your good single experience is nearly as out of line as the original post saying that they suck. What are the metrics for either statement? I would agree that xlr8yourmac.com is probably the best place to go to research such things.

There are plenty of good resources online for anyone to research and compare before making an intelligent decision for just about any product they want to buy-- if they take the time. Personally, I don't make any decisions based upon input from any one source.

I'm sure if you were going through what Muxlow has, you'd be pretty steamed too. I know I'd want to let people know if I had had a bad experience with a particlar product or company-- though perhaps in a slightly more subtle manner.
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[AverageJoe]

On the contrary, posts like these help the next guy who's smart enough to search the DUC for opinions before he buys something (which I did) avoid making a regrettable decision.

OK, Now THAT post helps someone... your original one didn't. Now that you've given some details, it can be considered informative. Sorry you've had a bad experience... but come on, your thread title is pretty polarizing.

And to CWhite, thanks for the review, I don't work for their marketing company, I have owned more than just this one upgrade from them, and my opinion is based on research, at xlr8, the DUC, and other Mac sites. I'll give you the point about "one of the best" but the point remains they are a solid company with solid products. The title of this thread is totally over the top.

[cwhite771]

And to CWhite, thanks for the review, I don't work for their marketing company, I have owned more than just this one upgrade from them, and my opinion is based on research, at xlr8, the DUC, and other Mac sites. I'll give you the point about "one of the best" but the point remains they are a solid company with solid products. The title of this thread is totally over the top.

Hey Joe,
I wasn't specifically referring to you about the research thing or trying imply that you, yourself, did not do any research-- the statement was intended to be more general-- more to the fact that if anyone just stumbled into this thread and made a decision based upon this thread alone, that's their problem. Any intelligent person would/should comprise a decision based on multiple sources and weighing the good and the bad.

Also, you have to take into consideration that your powerbook upgrade is an entirely different beast than the one Muxlow had. Just because they make one solid product doesn't mean they're all flawless. Admittedly, when I researched upgrade cards for my G4 desktop, I had ruled out the purchase of a powerlogix because there seemed to be more reported "issues" than other upgrades for the particular model that I was considering at the time.

I do agree that the title was a bit over the top, but as I had mentioned in my previous post, any of us would be pretty steamed if we were going through the same. And again, I think any intelligent person should be able to look at such a thing objectively and understand the circumsatnce, weighing that against other research or information that they have gathered.
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