http://www.maximumpc.com | MAYMAYMAY 08 08 | MAMAMAXIMXIMXIMXIMUUUUMMPPPCC 17
fee, and stiffed her for shipping both ways.
Sounds pretty low.
The Dog tried to reach 3B Tech numerous
times for its side of the story but never received a
response. That’s no surprise, as the company has
a pretty lousy reputation. On ResellerRatings.com,
consumers give the company a rating of 5 out of
10, with several people making complaints that
echo those of Vance and Lynn: bad drives out of
the box, restocking fees for defective merchandise,
and apparently used items being sold as new.
The Better Business Bureau also gives 3B Tech a
thumbs down and has logged about 27 complaints
about the company in the last three years.
Since 3B Tech did not respond to interview
requests, the Dog recommends that readers
steer clear of the company. Readers interested
in seeing how many hours have been logged
on their drives should give Altrix’s Hard Drive
Inspector a spin. It’s available as a fully fea-
tured trial at http://www.altrixsoft.com.
YOKE ON MY FACE
On the recommendation of Maximum PC ,
(February 2008) I bought a full-blown Saitek Pro
Flight Yoke System to play flight-sim games. But I
can’t get the game to stay in virtual cockpit view
when using the controller. The game switches
views on me automatically, going from virtual
cockpit view to an external view, then to a side
view, then to a rigid cockpit view, then back to
the virtual cockpit view. This can be quite frus-
trating when trying to take off and land.
After talking to Saitek, it was determined that
the system was emitting phantom button presses,
which was causing the changing views. The tech
promised to send me a replacement unit as soon
as possible and advised me not to return it to the
vendor or Saitek through the normal RMA process.
After two months I decided to call the company.
I don’t remember the name of the tech I spoke with,
but he was very rude. He told me not to send any more
emails to Saitek and to be patient. I asked how long I
should be patient, and he told me the company was
shipping new units out between 30 and 60 days from
when the company was notified of a problem. The tech
also told me Saitek was experiencing problems with
the new flight yoke systems and was trying to replace
them as quickly as possible. Have you heard of this
problem? Please don’t growl, as I still put faith in your
hardware recommendations, but this “fix” by Saitek
has me a little angry about the way I have been treated
after spending more than $300 for these controllers.
—Thomas DeKalb
The Dog contacted Saitek and was told by
spokesperson Mark Starrett that “We did
encounter an issue with the Pro Flight Yoke
in the first production run last October. We
determined that a small percentage of users
encountered a ‘phantom button press’ phe-
nomenon when using the Pro Flight Yoke on
some PCs. The problem manifested as button
signals going to Flight Simulator when no
button is pressed. It was random, and the
majority of users will never encounter the
problem. Of course, this was still unaccept-
able to Saitek. We were able to modify the
product’s firmware to eliminate the problem,
and all the yokes from subsequent produc-
tion runs do not have this problem. PZ44 Pro
Flight Yokes with serial number 491277 or
later have revised firmware. All the product
that Saitek received after November 12 and
shipped after this date has the revised firm-
ware. Since the revision, the issue appears to
be eliminated. It is very important to Saitek
to take care of the consumer in the fastest
and most effective way possible. We ask that
any consumer be directed to our technical
support for assistance. Saitek will determine
if the unit is defective and arrange for direct
delivery of a replacement and pick up of the
defective unit. We have set aside units for
this purpose.”
Mark said the company has also been in
contact with Thomas and has taken care of
his problem as well. Woof.THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAILS
Several readers chimed in to say they disagreed
with the Dog’s position that Symantec isn’t at
fault concerning the wording on packaging for
its three-license antivirus and security bundles,
which confused one reader (March 2008). The
reader, who thought the licenses could be used
individually at any time, said that it isn’t clear
that the licenses for all three begin with the ini-
tial installation, even though the box says, “...
which begins upon initial installation.”
Reader Dave Grenker, an attorney, said
Symantec is in the wrong. He explained, “While
one reading could certainly be the one that
Symantec claims to intend (i.e., that there
is a single, unified service period for all PCs
covered under the license), another reasonable
reading of the language could be that there is
a separate service period for each computer
that begins on the initial installation on that
computer. If the language said something
clearer, such as “...during the service period,
which begins upon initial installation on the
first PC,” then I would be more sympathetic to
Symantec’s argument.”