"I bought this notebook (Sotec 820p) in Nov 2002 from Walmart.com. Honestly speaking I have been too disappointed with this purchase. First within 4-5 months, the notebook started taking 10 to 15 minutes to "wakeup" i.e. starting the POST after pressing the Power button. I thought the main battery had gone bad. I bought a new one from Sotec (Averatec) since 6 mth warranty had passed. No luck with this either. Sent in the notebook and received just after the 1 year warranty was over. It worked for another 1 month and the same problem started again. My brother figured out that the problem was with the CMOS battery mounted on the motherboard. He opened it and changed it. Started working fine. Aother 2-3 months same problem. Now the "new" main battery has died too.
Since then I have come across multiple reports about this Sotec 820p model notebooks with the same issue. Unfortunately, many people do not realize that the same company now sells products under the name Averatec.
All in all, a very poor product even though the configuration was very well priced when I bought the notebook. I would not recommend this to anybody since I use Dell and have never had so many problems with their Latitude models.
"
"i've had my sotec 3120x for a little over two months. a bunch of people have complained about a loud fan, but mine hasn't given me any problem. it's the best deal for < 5 lbs. laptop.
http://www.kotonk.com/sotec
"
"The company is the worst I 'd ever met. I purchased a sotec 820p notebook. The computer is fine generally. The sound is a little weird and the noise is a little bit loud but these are OK for a notebook at this price. The problem is the CD drive won't even recognize the computer's recovery CDs. Even worse, the recovery CD distroys one essential file in the system and crash the computer. The company said I got to return this computer to the comany for repair and I got to pay the shipment. There is nothing more they can do for such a simple problem. What they need to do is just sending me another copy of the recovery CD but they try their best to make the process more difficult. I will never have business with Sotec anymore."
"I bought this laptop at Sam's club after playing with it for a few weeks. I tried ALL the other brands at the various computer stores. For the price ( $1038 plus tax ) I am more than pleased with it's performance. DVD's play clear and crisp. CDRW hasn't missed a burn. I added 256 DDR for a total of 512Mb and it really screams. Made a newe profile , doing away with the XP glut of running services. Installed Norton Sys Works 2003 to keep things in order as well as Zone Alarm and Proxomitron firewall for internet security. Bought an external floppy, leather carrying bag, and a Cool Pad. With the one year warranty from Sotec ( three day turn around mail in ) and the three year warranty from Sam's ( if they can't fix you get a new one free ) the total out of pocket cost was right at $ 1550.00. I ame REALLY happy with my 820P.
http://www.sotecglobal.com/us/products/?catid=11&subid=100&prodid=1000
BTW..No Service Pack One for me !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
http://grc.com/xpdite/xpdite.htm"