After a week of use my C3500 it is going to the factory for what appears to be a defect in the hardware for the UC logic digitizer. When holding the pen close to the screen (not touching) it registers a click. This happens more towards the bottom of the screen and sometimes on the top right. When calibrating, (sometimes impossible) the crosshairs jump before you even touch the screen. If you have IE open and hold the pen over the taskbar button the window opens and closes repeatedly (as if it were multitapping). This IS NOT a SP2 issue, I have done a full system restore using the Averatec recovery disks (which only has SP1) and have the same problem. It IS NOT the pen (replaced battery). I took my pen over to circuit city to try and dupe the problem on their floor model, and it worked flawlessly. The only difference I noticed from the two latops was the bios revisions were different. My new C3500 had a 9/04/04 date and the floor model had a 7/04/04 date. Some other people on this forum had the exact same problem! How can other people who never met have the same problem if it wasnt a defect? You be the judge. Here are the other threads:

http://www.tabletquestions.com/showthread.php?t=3537
http://www.tabletquestions.com/showthread.php?t=3313

I was also told by Averatec I would get my C3500 back in a few weeks. I bought it online not in a retail store. If I bought it locally I wouldnt be complaining here, I would have exchanged it for a new one allready. My reasons for not returning the C3500 to where I bought it was, "What if I get another factory reject?" I would have wasted all that time returning (shipping) to get a placement (shipping) only to find out I have the same problem. If this would have happened I would have put a gun to my head and shot myself. To be sure the problem is corrected, it is a better decision to send it to the factory so they can see for themselves. And hopefully prevent newer units from having this defect. Despite this problem, I really like the C3500. It has some nice features for the price, but it has its drawbacks. Please comment if you have any.

A soon to be satified customer? :huh:

I agree that the Averatec is disapointing in many ways... mine is so hot, it is impossible to truely use it as a hand-held tablet. Their technical support suggested a special 3-rd party cooling pad, but I would have prefered for them to offer a BIOS update with an option to throttle the CPU speed.

Other problems include a first-menu that won't work in portrate mode, and calibration problems with the pen. Their technical support said this may be improved by downloading the new software drivers, but the drivers on the web site state that they are the version which were on the CD's that already came with the computer.

The tec support is fairly quick to answer, and will spend time with you... but ultimately they can only say "try the new drivers". The web support site is VERY sparce with almost no useful information.

Battery life for me is about 1 3/4 hours... definitely VERY short lived for a tablet.

But, for me, no other convertables are withing my price range... so I am sticking with the Averatec. But I am very glad I purchased the extended warranty from Circuit City.

Joe Dunfee

The new driver is available on windows update.

For the problem above (the "registering a click near edge of screen") i returned my machine and got a new one. I ordered mine from averatec on-line, so they cross-shipped me the new one.

The new one has no pen problems.

Glad that the new one is working for you!

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:bb: My C3500 is at factory, I hope I get my replacement minus the problem. I will be a happy camper!! :boat:

My previous problem with intermittent pen function seems to have auto-corrected. I really did not make any changes after my initial attempts and guess what...It has been working flawlessly for 2 weeks!

Incidentally the pen battery has shown a good charge throughout; I doublt that is the source of the problem.

I really do not understand why a driver would lead to such unpredictable behavior of this time span.

My system has had SP2 before and after the problem.

While my system does get warm, it is practical to use over the course of the day in my medical practice. I use a CompUSA cooling pad at lunch and recharge the battery while I put the system to hibernate status. I still end up plugging into and outlet after 2 hours.

I ordered an extra battery and stylus several weeks ago but have yet to receive the "backordered" item.

I have been overall very pleased with the Averatec as a tablet aside from the inconveniences noted above.


Bob L.