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One man’s ASUS G73JH nightmare

One man’s ASUS G73JH nightmare

This is the story of one man’s dream of owning a working laptop and one company’s never-ending quest to crush that dream.

Love at first sight

Our story begins at CES 2010, at a party hosted by a company called AMD. Now, AMD was celebrating, and for very good reason: they had just completed the launch of a phenomenal product called the Radeon HD 5000-series GPU. At this party, there was a laptop on display that was handling games like a boss. It was one of the latest games, too, and the graphics flowed smoothly even with the settings cranked up. I knew immediately that I had to have this laptop. I discovered that it was the ASUS G73JH, and it had been announced the day before at the ASUS press event. It was supposed to be available almost immediately, and would be everything I wanted in a laptop: powerful quad-core CPU, top-of-the-line mobile graphics, 8GB RAM, good quality 17.3″ display, dual 7200RPM hard drives and a Blu-ray drive. And so the search began. Web store after web store had no knowledge of the laptop, but I would not be deterred. After what felt like an eternity of searching, a small handful of web sites started selling this notebook. Those few sites were narrowed down to XoticPC.com because it had the best combination of price and customer support (their support community is quite good). The laptop was configured and ordered. The estimated ship date was mid-April due to an extreme level of demand. It was early February. The wait was excruciating, but in mid-April, my laptop arrived. Eagerly but carefully, the laptop and its components were extracted from the packaging. It really was everything I wanted in a laptop.

The reviewing process began in earnest.

Trouble in paradise

Right in the middle of testing, half of the screen went blank, and the other half turned all sorts of colors. The first RMA was set up and a two week turnaround was quoted. “No problem”, I thought. It’s still late-April, a review will still be relevant then, and Expo Icrontic was still months away. So my laptop was shipped to one of ASUS’s repair facilities, to be returned in about two weeks.

And the wait began.

Two weeks had passed and I had received no update or confirmation my laptop was on its way back, so I checked the ASUS customer support web site to see what was going on. The repair status was listed as “waiting”, with no other information. A call to ASUS produced a promise the laptop was being worked on and it would be ready…within two weeks. The representative said I should continue checking the web site for updates as this would give the most timely information.

Rinse, then repeat—weekly. During the course of this seemingly infinite loop, late June rolled around and with it, Expo Icrontic. Sadly, I still did not have my laptop back.

To really kick me in the balls, I received a phone call from ASUS the day I arrived to ICHQ for Expo. The good news was my laptop was shipping out and would arrive at my house…the day before I returned home. No, they couldn’t rush the laptop to me at ICHQ because that wasn’t the address they had for me and ASUS will only ship via FedEx 3-day. I could pay to upgrade to next day shipping but, as it turns out, that’s really expensive.

But wait, there’s more

The laptop was waiting for me when I got back home. I was pretty disappointed in the timing, but whatever. At least I had the laptop back and it was in working condition. I opened the box, plugged the laptop in, and turned it on. I was greeted with the normal splash screens and then…

click…click…click…

It was a sound I’m all too familiar with: the sound of a dead or rapidly dying hard drive. That’s probably just bad timing. So another call to Asus and a cross-shipment RMA for a new hard drive was set up. No big deal. The new drive arrived and the old one was swapped out and returned. With the problems now resolved I began testing again until…

Not again

Right in the middle of the first gaming test, I had an experience similar to that of the following video:

Now, this video does not do the noise justice. It’s not nearly loud, deep, and horrifying enough, but it should give you an idea of what was going on. Of course with something like that, the first thing I did was shut the laptop down as fast as possible. Once things calmed down, I turned the laptop on and resumed testing, thinking it might have been a really odd one-time glitch.

Not so. The game testing finished without issue, but things started going downhill right after that. About five minutes into testing video transcoding the noise returned and the fast shutdown was performed again.  Testing clearly was going to be an issue until this problem was resolved. With this in mind I began poking around the internet to see if anyone else was experiencing the same problems. Apparently I was far from alone. Owners of just about every version of the G73JH were having the exact same issues, and then some. Several had sent their laptops in for repair only to experience the same insanely long repair times I had only weeks prior. Things were not looking good.

Unfortunately this all happened right in the middle of a rather busy period of frequent travel and overtime at work, so a new RMA wasn’t possible for several months. It was probably for the best though, because I started experiencing other issues that were commonly noted on various forums: the touchpad receives phantom input and/or stops working, extreme keyboard lag that can sometimes rearrange keystrokes, overheating due to improper application of thermal material, rubber feet coming off due to the overheating problem, and, of course, the aforementioned sound issues.

I would just have to deal with the laptop as it was for a while. There was just too much going on to risk another two months without a laptop, even if that meant abandoning its intended purpose—portable gaming and workstation tasks. Expo 2011 would again see me having to work around this miserable piece of equipment. No video editing…it’d all have to be done on a desktop. Just basic computing tasks that any bargain bin laptop could handle.

In October life settled down to the point that the laptop could be sent in for repairs. CES was far enough away that even a two month repair wouldn’t be an issue. One call to set up the RMA, and a quick trip to the local FedEx and the laptop was away to get all of its problems fixed.

Um, guys?

ASUS tech support

ASUS' crack tech support team (not really)

The day after the laptop arrived, its repair status was changed to “Waiting-[WF9]-Wait for customer confirmation – NTF”. NTF means “no trouble found”. The rest means the repair center is supposed to contact me via phone or e-mail for further information on the problems. Neither one happened, and despite repeated calls to customer service (the customer cannot call the repair center directly) and subsequent promises of returned calls “within 24 hours”, I was never contacted. The laptop, as far as I could tell, was just sitting there waiting for information to be magically passed along to the repair center.

After two weeks of calling customer service, I was able to speak with a supervisor who would elevate my case.  Apparently “elevate” is code for “tell the repair center to ship the laptop now”, because within a couple hours of that phone call (another in which I was promised a call from the repair center) the status was changed to notify me the laptop was on its way back to me. No word on whether anything had been done. In my research, I had stumbled across a secret (at least not easily found) customer service escalation system… Perfect. I whipped up the following:

* Subject:RMA Problems
* Topic:1.Product Quality;2.Service Quality;
* Description:
I purchased the G73JH in April 2010 with an extended three year warranty. Since the day it arrived I’ve had nothing but problems. First the display died. It took eight weeks to get fixed. As soon as the laptop was returned, one of the hard drives died, causing a second RMA. The third RMA (USG11A4754) was requested on October 26 for the following:
-Since the day the laptop arrived, I have been unable to play games properly. Randomly during gaming the laptop will emit a very loud static/roaring sound. This is not the sound of fans nor does it appear to come from the speakers. It happens at the same amount of loudness regardless of volume settings.
– The touchpad does not function correctly. Despite making sure that nothing but one fingertip is in contact with the touchpad, the system acts as though many fingers are attempting to provide input.
– The keyboard misses keystrokes. I have to type very slowly as a workaround. This is unacceptable.
– Both the CPU and GPU overheat, causing shutdowns. I understand there was an issue with thermal paste being improperly applied and I believe that to be the issue in this case as well.
– Due to the overheating, the rubber feet on the laptop have come off.

All of this was detailed on the RMA form included with the laptop.

For this third RMA, my laptop arrived on October 31. On November 1 the repair status was changed to “Waiting-[WF9]-Wait for customer confirmation – NTF”. At no time during the repair process was I ever contacted to confirm anything. In fact, I called around November 3 to find out what information was needed. I was told someone would contact me regarding the repair. On November 10, having not been contacted, I called ASUS support. The representative promised me a call from the repair facility within 24-48 hours. This promised call never happened – three phone numbers were provided and none received any calls regarding the repair. On the morning of November 15 I called ASUS support again, and was told the case would be “elevated” because problems were not immediately found. I was promised a call from the repair facility that day. Again, the call never happened. Instead I received an automated e-mail that night stating my laptop was being shipped back to me.

The laptop is scheduled to arrive on November 18, and based on the previous description of events I do not expect to find the problems resolved.

This is my third ASUS laptop (also have a W2P and F3SV), and will likely be my final ASUS laptop based on the troubles I have had in getting repairs and poor customer service.

I want my laptop fully repaired. It should not take multiple RMAs to do this. If the repair facility is unable to duplicate the problem, I expect them to contact me for further information. If I am promised a phone call within a specific time period, I expect that promise to be fulfilled.

It was jumping the gun a bit, but at this point I figured it would just be a preemptive strike. After all, the notes on my case indicate that nothing had been done and I had little to no confidence that anything would come of the service anyway.

A ray of hope

Surprisingly, within a day (November 17, to be exact) a response was waiting. The system put me in contact with Chris Ambrose, a Customer Care Specialist who (as I found out later) also owns a G73JH laptop and is very familiar with its internals. His response was somewhat promising:

Dear Mr. Mertes,

I look forward to seeing the results. Email me back when you are done.

Sincerely,

Chris A
Asus Customer Care Specialist

So at least someone at ASUS was interested in the results. That was refreshing. I resolved to get back to Chris as quickly as possible.

Seriously, did you guys even test this?

The laptop arrived and I immediately unpacked it. The repair papers simply stated that new thermal paste had been applied. Windows booted up without an issue, but for some reason the touchpad wasn’t working. That’s usually a simple fix—there’s an Fn-combo to enable/disable the touchpad and I’d probably disabled it before sending the laptop in.

No dice. Some poking around revealed that Windows didn’t even see a pointing device connected, much less one that might have been turned off. Great start so far.

I grabbed a mouse and plugged in. That worked just fine, so I proceeded to test the remainder of the issues. As it turns out, everything else was fine. There were a couple of scenarios I knew would reliably cause problems before the laptop was sent in, but even those weren’t causing problems.

So with one problem remaining, on November 17 I composed the following message:

The laptop seems to be mostly working now. It is definitely running cooler since the thermal paste was re-applied. So far the laptop has been able to handle normal usage without an issue.

The only problem that remains is the touchpad. When I sent the laptop in, the touchpad was behaving erratically. Now it doesn’t function at all (the touchpad and its buttons are completely dead). I have tried using the Fn keys to enable/disable the touchpad, but this has not worked and will need another RMA to be fixed.

My only concern here is how long this will take. Each of my previous RMAs has taken well over a month to complete and return. I will need the laptop back in time for CES in Las Vegas in early January (I depart Jan 6, so Jan 5 at the latest would be needed). Do you think this would be a problem?

Thanks
Nick

And with that, I pressed the Send button…

Gotcha

… and an error message popped up:

Can not input HTML tag

I was unceremoniously dumped back to the ASUS support login page. Thinking it was just a random error, I tried again. Same result. OK, third time is a charm. Nope. The Technical Inbox was having problems, and I couldn’t relay my message back to Chris.

Every day after that I’d try two or three times to send the message, but without success.

Finally

On December 21, I was finally able to get the message through. And, true to form, Chris replied back within a day:

Dear Mr. Mertes,

Your new RMA is XXXXXXXX, and will be coming to me here at HQ. If it’s just a loose TP cable, which I suspect it is, the turnaround time should be very quick. If you want, you can have a local tech check for this before shipping.

I can have it here for Tuesday/Wednesday, and possibly ship out same day.

Cool. The laptop was packed up and shipped off. Sure enough, the delivery was set for Wednesday. Sure enough, on Wednesday Chris called me. He informed me that the touchpad repair was badly botched and that the glue the tech had used was improperly applied (I don’t recall if glue was even supposed to be used), and the cables hadn’t been connected. He had cleaned up that mess, made sure the touchpad was working, and double-checked the previous overheating issues, and everything was looking good. The laptop would be sent off that evening and I would have it in hand by Friday. Sure enough, Friday evening FedEx delivered.

Once again, I unpacked the laptop and turned it on. Once the touchpad was configured the way I liked it, things behaved nicely. It looked like everything was in working order.

I clicked on my ASUS Technical Inbox shortcut to log in and tell Chris the good news…

ASUS rageHoly crap guys

…only to find out that about half the keys weren’t working. It wasn’t anything as simple as one side of the keyboard not working either. Nope. Random keys didn’t work.

I actually had to turn the laptop off and walk away at this point. There was an immense level of rage building and I was actually afraid I’d hulk smash the laptop.

The next morning (December 31) I returned to assess the situation. Twenty-eight keys didn’t work, and there was no logical grouping of those keys either.

The laptop was returned yesterday and I have to be honest…I had to wait until this morning to compose a reply. I am simply livid and disgusted. The touchpad mostly works now, though I had to turn off almost every feature and reboot for it to work as a basic touchpad. The keyboard, on the other hand, is not functioning properly. Below are a list of keys that simply do not work (listed according to keyboard rows):

458=
rti]
dfgk’
vb,
backspace
enter
both control buttons
left, right arrows
number pad keys: 4568*end

This is going to require a fifth RMA. Unfortunately unless ASUS pays for overnight shipping to and from the repair facility I won’t be able to get it in for repairs until after CES—I depart Friday afternoon.

I cannot express how thoroughly disgusted I am with this laptop. I am still waiting for day one of having a working laptop that was purchased April 14, 2010. I don’t believe a refund to be an unreasonable request at this point.

This brings the story to today. I haven’t received a reply yet, but that’s likely due to the holiday weekend.

It’s been twenty-one months and I am still without a fully working laptop, and CES is right around the corner. Fortunately thanks to some previous review parts I have a workaround, though it’s less than optimal. No in-flight work, and certainly nothing on the show floor.

Lesson learned

So to anyone still contemplating the purchase of an ASUS product, be it a motherboard, laptop, GPU, or some other thing…don’t. If, after reading this, you still decide to go with ASUS, good luck if something goes wrong. The RMA and customer support processes I have fought with for nearly two years are the same terrible processes for every other product the company produces. ASUS has proven at every step of the way that they don’t care once your money is in their hands.

Congratulations ASUS. You’ve figured out how to lose a customer.

UPDATE: Here’s a continuation, unbelievable as it is, to the saga.

Comments

  1. QCH
    QCH WOW... I know the author of this article and he is very precise and not one to lose patients, or exaggerate events so this is VERY disturbing. That does not bode well. ASUS, I'm ashamed to have recommended your products to my personal customers.
  2. djmeph
    djmeph I have been pretty loyal to Asus for quite some time now, from the early days of the AMD Athlon processor. Throughout the years I have noticed that some of their mobos are poorly designed out of the box, and some of them have been solid as hell. However, I never really found a more reliable, consistent brand, so I just stuck with ASUS. I can't say that I have ever had any problem as severe as this, but I can say that I never liked dealing with their customer support, it was always just terrible.

    This is also quite surprising to me, because a recent study showed that ASUS was the 2nd most reliable laptop next to Toshiba. But what good is a "reliable" laptop if you can't get support for it, and you happen to be one of the few people that ends up having problems like this.

    I have to agree, I'll never buy another ASUS product again. Even if I go with a brand that is less reliable, you can damn well bet they'll have better customer service.
  3. djmeph
    djmeph Also, I seem to remember once reading that ASUS declared war on Intel, then started making Intel mobos about a year later. Am I mistaken, does anyone else remember this?
  4. ardichoke
    ardichoke Sucks to be sure, but at least you didn't have to RMA it 5 times for the exact same issue. That said, if my experience with MSI is any indication, you'll probably end up with better results if you demand that it be replaced with a newer model of comparable value as opposed to a refund. Just my 2c.
  5. Alex My last 2 motherboards were from ASUS and both of them sucked. Both of them had problems with the USB ports (random lockups, speed drops, unable to see anything connected to them), the ethernet port on the first one died. But the worst problem, however, was with the second motherboard; it took a few weeks before they came out with a BIOS update that made it work properly; before that, the PC was nearly unusable...

    I know ASUS has a good reputation, but given my prior experience with them, I just don't want to see another ASUS product ever again. Also, their website is a joke... One of my motherboards wasn't even listed on their website, you had to know what the page for it was.

    Oh yeah, one more thing. I also had an ASUS video card. It died after 2 years of usage...
  6. Kwitko
    Kwitko
    not one to lose patients
    Nick's a doctor?
  7. shwaip
    shwaip
    not one to lose patients
    Nick's a doctor?
    A damn fine one, apparently.
  8. Thrax
    Thrax The only brand of mobos I've ever had consistent trouble with is Asus.
  9. GHoosdum
    GHoosdum Sadly, I think this is a general trend for the RMA process on laptops.

    My wife has a laptop from "iBuyPower" (I purchased it through Costco several years ago)

    Last year this laptop started experiencing the lost video symptom that seemed common on that generation of laptops with the GeForce 8600 chipset - the melting solder issue.

    I RMA'd the laptop, initiated the RMA through the Costco Concierge Tech support, which is great to use. Unfortunately, as soon as they handed me off to the tech support from the manufacturer, things got ugly.

    They kept the laptop for several months, lagged in replying to my queries for status, and ultimately they sent it back and said all they had to do was change out one of the two sticks of RAM. I knew that was a lie because when I did my own troubleshooting prior to the RMA I had taken out BOTH sticks of RAM and put in a known good stick, and still had the problem.

    Luckily I had a spare laptop at the time for my wife to use, otherwise she would have been completely without a PC for months.

    So far I've only had halfway decent RMA experiences with HP and Dell, which sucks because it's not nearly as easy to find a laptop with discrete graphics from them as it is to get one from the likes of Asus or third parties (such as iBuyPower) that just rebadge the standard chassis from manufacturers like Sager and PowerPro.
  10. LazarusXero
    LazarusXero Sad to say, this story was the straw that broke the camel's back. I've been waiting for my backordered Transformer Prime since Nov. 26, but after reading the hell Nick went through, I cancelled my order. I was looking forward to my first tablet, but I am not putting myself or my wife through this customer service nightmare....

    I hope you are reading this ASUS...
  11. mertesn
    mertesn I don't have experience with HP's RMA process for consumer products, but I did have to get service for one of my displays (a ZR24w). Sent a tech support request and within a couple hours had a shipment notification. A replacement display arrived the next day along with a return shipping label.

    I guess the lesson is don't buy consumer-level products.
  12. primesuspect
    primesuspect I've had fantastic experiences with Sony, Dell, and HP for RMAs. The worst offender in my personal experience has always been MSI. They are horrible, and I had a "Nick and ASUS" level experience with them once.
  13. Kwitko
    Kwitko After reading this, I wouldn't even accept a freeasuslaptop from them. Quite sad. Poor QA, poor customer service. To top it off, I heard they just hired Paul Christoforo.
  14. primesuspect
    primesuspect I think a lot of it is cultural. I think companies that are based in Taiwan don't "get" American expectations and standards for customer service.
  15. Annes
    Annes I had an ASUS motherboard years ago and had so many issues with RMAing it I just bought something new. You couldn't RMA online and had to call a phone number which didn't even put your into a phone tree - it was either available or busy. Bullshit. Never again will I buy ASUS.
  16. RootWyrm
    RootWyrm Nick, you know my HP Envy17 from Expo last year, right? (The one that was giving me first and second degree burns on my palm.) Definitely 'consumer grade,' and I know for a fact it goes to the same repair center as Pavilions.

    HP sent me a box and shipping label, UPS NextDay Air. I shipped it on a Thursday. I had it back, repaired correctly, with a form detailing the repairs (cleaned out, new paste, new HSF assembly) less than 7 calendar days later.

    So yes, we can authoritatively say that HP 'consumer grade' service does great too. It's just a few truly terrible vendors who should be run out of business (or at least certain market segments.)
  17. mertesn
    mertesn
    Nick, you know my HP Envy17 from Expo last year, right? (The one that was giving me first and second degree burns on my palm.) Definitely 'consumer grade,' and I know for a fact it goes to the same repair center as Pavilions.

    HP sent me a box and shipping label, UPS NextDay Air. I shipped it on a Thursday. I had it back, repaired correctly, with a form detailing the repairs (cleaned out, new paste, new HSF assembly) less than 7 calendar days later.

    So yes, we can authoritatively say that HP 'consumer grade' service does great too. It's just a few truly terrible vendors who should be run out of business (or at least certain market segments.)
    That's really good to know.
  18. RootWyrm
    RootWyrm
    That's really good to know.
    Yeah, I am very happy with HP's service across the board (consumer through large enterprise.) They really got their act together over the past few years. These days, there's just no excuse for conduct like ASUS'. Especially when there's a clear pattern of ASUS shipping lemons and doing everything they can to avoid honoring warranty claims, repairing their own products, or even having basic competency to repair laptops.
  19. Annes
    Annes
    I think a lot of it is cultural. I think companies that are based in Taiwan don't "get" American expectations and standards for customer service.
    I don't understand how this can be possible. Is there no Taiwanese expectations that things they pay for work properly?
  20. ardichoke
    ardichoke
    I think a lot of it is cultural. I think companies that are based in Taiwan don't "get" American expectations and standards for customer service.
    I don't understand how this can be possible. Is there no Taiwanese expectations that things they pay for work properly?
    Probably less that and more they can't afford electronics in the first place.
  21. primesuspect
    primesuspect It has nothing to do with economics. It's just a cultural thing I've noticed in working with Taiwanese companies for the last 15 years.
  22. NiGHTS
    NiGHTS
    Probably less that and more they can't afford electronics in the first place.
    I was thinking more the other way - electronics are so cheap they're practically disposable goods. I'm not familiar with the intricacies of trade and markup of electronics, though.
  23. Mahmood Shaikh I've been using an asus laptop for three years, it's the G50vt. Never had a problem with it and it still handles a lot of the latest games and intensive tasks without any issues. So one guy had a bad experience, I think its kind of presumptuous to blame every asus product due to one persons bad experience.
  24. mertesn
    mertesn
    I've been using an asus laptop for three years, it's the G50vt. Never had a problem with it and it still handles a lot of the latest games and intensive tasks without any issues. So one guy had a bad experience, I think its kind of presumptuous to blame every asus product due to one persons bad experience.
    And I think it a bit presumptuous to assume this is my only Asus product.

  25. Tim
    Tim How much did that laptop cost?
  26. petesmom
    petesmom Nick's ASUS has gained Legendary Status as the benchmark of poor customer service and how to kill off customers through neglect. Anyone still willing to send ASUS money, defend their products and make excuses for their "service"...I have some swampland for sale....
  27. glen worstell I had extremely poor service for a broken eeepc; so bad that I gave up and put the unusable pc on the shelf. I will never purchase any ASUS product again.

    To be fair, a friend purchased a MB and got excellent service for a problem it had. He is happy with ASUS.
  28. Tushon
    Tushon I've only got horror stories from my two mobos from Asus. No mas!
  29. PirateNinja
    PirateNinja These companies just outsource all their customer service and RMAs to small "authorized" local repair shops, and you end up with paid under the table 15 year old who built one or two computers and thinks they know what they are doing fixing your shit and fucking it up at the same time. I would know, I used to work at one of these shops and I used to be that 15 year old.

    I've had amazing experiences with my Asus laptops. They work really well when they work, but the warranty and rma program is apparently a joke. I've had one Asus motherboard and one Asus video card. Both sucked horribly.

    Frankly, in this case, and ALL cases I think ordering something that is critical for your work should involve ordering a product that has been on the market for a bit and has had a very warm reception. Mr. Mert took a risk buying something like this. He didn't at all deserve all the madness that ensued, but still it was a risk and it didn't work out. It's life.
  30. Tim
    Tim My $300 Asus VE276 27 inch widescreen monitor has been working great so far, and it better stay that way for at least 2 years! I've had it about 3 months now.
  31. Simon I have been using Asus products for more than 15 years now... never had a problem with it, hell I even had a bad mobo ONCE and they just shipped me a new one in less than 5 days... I have 3 Asus laptop (No G series tho) and they never missed a beat, my newest one with the Gforce GTX 540m is running hot but its a K series and its how they usually run.

    As far as the laptop in the article, it would be nice to know, where it was built... I mean, I doubt it very much that ASUStek builds all their computers by themselves, wouldnt be supprised if they used a certain contractor to build that series of laptop.

    And also... I doubt ASUS does their RMA personally, I wouldnt be supprised if that also is a secondary shop that does the work...

    I hope you get all of your stuff back in working order tho, but I wouldn't shut the door on ASUS because of that.

    and for those that are curious, What I own with an Asus Badge on... :

    Laptops K53SV , N53SV, U41JF
    Video cards, two EAH6670, two ENGTX460, one EAH6950 DCII.
    mobo 3 P8bws

    6 VS247H screens.

    P4C800-E is the mobo that went south but that was a long time ago...

    PS the boss of MSI is the old CEO of ASUS so it is a good time to buy stuff from them.
  32. Tushon
    Tushon
    As far as the laptop in the article, it would be nice to know, where it was built... I mean, I doubt it very much that ASUStek builds all their computers by themselves, wouldnt be supprised if they used a certain contractor to build that series of laptop.

    And also... I doubt ASUS does their RMA personally, I wouldnt be supprised if that also is a secondary shop that does the work...
    The problem with this is that the customer only sees Asus, regardless of who manages their RMA or build process and Asus is ultimately responsible for the product that comes out.
  33. timuchan
    timuchan I was reading the latest issue of 2600 magazine last night and saw someone else mention difficulties with their gaming ASUS computer. The article was about the weak security of their RMA setup and how easy it is to find other customer's information and package tracking. I was beginning to be a bit of an ASUS fanboy before reading this article, now I am done with them.
  34. Thrax
    Thrax This would be a great time for me to step in and recommend Gigabyte's awesome motherboards, which have proven consistently reliable since the GA-P965 in 2006. ;)
  35. mertesn
    mertesn CES 2012 alert: We have just realized I have the XBOX 360 of laptops.
  36. primesuspect
    primesuspect He's on his 6th RROD
  37. PirateNinja
    PirateNinja Here here to Gigabyte motherboards. I haven't bought anything else for my last three builds.

    ... Man I am sorry mertesn. I hope you can ditch that thing and get a replacement or refund soon. Horrible =/
  38. Brad Setzer I bought a G73SW back in June 2011 and it has been perfectly fine. Those early models must have been ridden with atrocious problems. If you still haven't gotten the thing fully repaired or replaced, I would probably consider having them replace it for the G73SW as it has been very reliable with nothing wrong with it at all. I also have other Asus products like DVD Drives, motherboards, and the like. I hope things work out for you and I hope I never have to RMA with Asus... o.o
  39. mertesn
    mertesn The laptop arrived at ASUS yesterday. I'm guessing it should be back early next week.
  40. mertesn
    mertesn The laptop should be delivered to me Wednesday. I spoke with the guy doing the repairs and he said both the touchpad and keyboard cables had come loose. Hopefully this will be the last problem I have with it.

    Out of curiosity, has anyone gotten a manufacturer to extend a warranty's duration? There's still another 15 months left on my laptop's warranty, but given the amount of trouble it's had, perhaps an extension would be possible.
  41. PirateNinja
    PirateNinja Asus gives a year extension on the warranty for free if you registered the product, but I've never done a special request for a warranty extension. Sounds like a difficult task, I'd almost think it isn't worth the time and effort as compared to just buying a third party policy on the laptop if you really want it.

    Edit: on that note 3rd party warranties are usually garbage
  42. mertesn
    mertesn You're probably right...it likely would be a waste of whatever time was spent.

    Are you sure they extend the warranty for free on registration? I paid for a three year warranty, and that's what shows up on my account with their support site.
  43. Tushon
    Tushon I've seen third-party warranties get extensions when they don't meet expectations (stated/contractual ones, not "zomg I shipped it yesterday why isn't it back" types), but I don't recall a manufacturer doing it in my short time paying attention to such things.

    My experience with our enterprise third-party warranty has been great (ITG), but consumer or other enterprise warranty companies may make your vision go red.

    Maybe @PirateNinja meant they extended the stock one year H/W warranty, @mertesn.
  44. PirateNinja
    PirateNinja

    Are you sure they extend the warranty for free on registration? I paid for a three year warranty, and that's what shows up on my account with their support site.
    I guess it might depend on the model or reseller. I bought both my Asus laptops through newegg, both came with registration cards offering another year of protection if I filled them out. I don't recall if NewEgg's product details included that extra year or not, but I know I would not have gotten it without filling out the cards.

    Side note: the second Asus laptop I bought, I couldn't register the product. I filled the card out and sent it out via mail and had it returned because there was a problem with the receiving address. I had put the exact address Asus told me too. I sent it out again, this time on a typed envelope because I assumed the PO couldn't read my handwriting. I got it back again three weeks later and by that time the 30 days I had to register it had expired. Sigh.
  45. Cheshire Matt I'm going thru a similiar issue right now. The other night I Rebooted My G73jh, went to grab some more coffee amd came back to a Black/Blank Screen. Tested the vga out and the HDMI but no response. Called Asus and they claim they won't RMA since the 1 year manufacturers warranty is up as it's 16 months since date of purchase.
  46. primesuspect
  47. ardichoke
    ardichoke
    I'm going thru a similiar issue right now. The other night I Rebooted My G73jh, went to grab some more coffee amd came back to a Black/Blank Screen. Tested the vga out and the HDMI but no response. Called Asus and they claim they won't RMA since the 1 year manufacturers warranty is up as it's 16 months since date of purchase.
    Why would they warranty replace something that's out of warranty? No company would do that. Especially once it's 4 months out of warranty.
  48. Basia I have EXACTLY! EXACTLY same situation!!!! And it is STILL roaring and RMA keeps telling me "no problem found". Also keys are not working (i am using external keyboard) and touchpad. I am never ever again buying Asus.
  49. MrTRiot
  50. djmeph
    djmeph I had a talk with a friend about this article recently, we are both ardent ASUS supporters who have built nearly every PC we've ever owned with ASUS mobos, and he owns an ASUS tablet. The point he brought up to me, something I haven't thought of before, is that every product I've ever bought from ASUS was warrantied through the retailer. I've never had to deal with ASUS tech support directly. I always got the impression that they didn't really want to deal with consumers, that they preferred that you RMA your devices through the retailer, and the retailer would then in turn deal with ASUS tech support in bulk. Is it becoming more common to purchase ASUS products direct?
  51. mertesn
    mertesn It wasn't a direct purchase from Asus, but the warranty is still through Asus. If I had sent the laptop to the place I purchased it, they would have sent it in to Asus from there. The only exception I am aware of is the Best Buy specific model, which has a special set of warranty terms.
  52. QCH
    QCH Guess what I have on my workbench? An Asus G73. Will not power on. If you plug it in, the power button and all of the special buttons all start slowly flashing. On battery it will power on for about 2 seconds before just shutting down. Unplugged the bios, reseated the memory, checked voltage on power supply, and it seems to be fine. The warranty expired in January. so they are probably SOL on this one. So sad... expensive laptop.
  53. Straight_Man
    Straight_Man How much do they want for a new battery??? some laptops get set up and left plugged in all or almost all the time and some have NICad batteriies still. Get one "set" to about 2% charge level acceptance, then design a power circuit with a battery having to be present in circuit to work-- recipe for early disaster if the battery is NICad and not cycled down to almost zero charge every 5-6 months.

    Speaking of this, if the computer sits overnight plugged in but NOT switched on, what then happens???? If you tried this, and same, it is the battery or the charge circuit probably (could be power adapter).

    Had a Dell XPS do this to me, something quite similar to what you have, and replaced battery for 179.00 and that fixed it. My Lenovo, they wrote power management software that works with a smart charging circuitry and power adapter that lets the battery discharge 5% before the power adapter charges it. Then it charges back up when off but plugged in. Folding exercises the battery too-- :) .
  54. DKJF Nick, thanks for this article. I'm not sure to be relieved or disgusted. At least it's not just me. I am going through the same exact scenario with a G73jh-A1 right now. It's been 13 months and counting.

    As I write this, I have been on hold with a Level 3 supervisor for 30 minutes, while he "tries to open and review" my file. I am not sure who to contact at this point, as not only is the display a dud, but they are now effectively just holding my laptop. No information, not sure when I'll get it back. That's an expensive piece of my property for them to just hold carte blanche.

    At least you eventually got some resolution. Any suggestions on how to reach Chris A.? Sounds like he at least made an effort.

    Thanks!
  55. DogSoldier
    DogSoldier OK. THAT was an adventure... I've gone from being an ASUS supporter to Nope.avi in about 30 minutes. I'm glad to see there was some resolution to your torment mertesn, but not nearly enough in my opinion. Let's hope that someone from ASUS takes valuable note of this article. Also, kudos to "Chris", wherever he is.
  56. mertesn
    mertesn
    Any suggestions on how to reach Chris A.? Sounds like he at least made an effort.
    While I can't give you his direct contact info, there is an escalation service available. Use that and explain in as much detail (including RMA and reference numbers if available) the problems you're having.
  57. mertesn
    mertesn
    OK. THAT was an adventure... I've gone from being an ASUS supporter to Nope.avi in about 30 minutes. I'm glad to see there was some resolution to your torment mertesn, but not nearly enough in my opinion. Let's hope that someone from ASUS takes valuable note of this article. Also, kudos to "Chris", wherever he is.
    The replacement laptop, a G74SX-A1, has been a significant improvement. It hasn't broken in the three months I've had it.
  58. drkaren44 My ASUS came with no stickers w/ serial number and I hid my warranty card from myself. I couldn't access SN via bios because (part) of my problem()s included function keys that didn't work. I had to call 7 times before I got an RMA. Can't access status they don't have my number in their system. A week after sending it said they didn't have it even after I got confirmation from FedEX that it had been delivered. Last call support said repair was waiting for parts. It's been over a month since I began calling will keep trying. Needless to say I had to go out and buy another computer - got SONY vaio with which I've had great support over many years.
  59. Timothy I purchased a G73JH laptop in 2010 as well and it has had many problems (and is still giving me problems), but nothing as awful as the issues that have plagued you.
  60. Michael I 100% agree. I've got the G73Jh model and out of the box it had malfunctions and hardware issues. Every single component has been replaced inside the case since I bought the laptop. It has been a nightmare. Worst piece of crap I've ever bought.
  61. danwat1234

    I have a 2009 Asus G50VT gaming laptop with the X9100 top end CPU and I've been running seti@Home on both the GPU and CPU since the beginning and have not had a failure. I guess mine is pretty reliable even faced with full load, lots of heat nearly 24/7.

    That being said, I don't like their G750, it's too big and the CPU isn't upgradeable. Think MSI is doing it right with their GT60, GT70 laptops.

    I wish w00t would occasionally offer really good deals on gaming/workstation laptops.

    Of course the best deals are gently used laptops on Ebay.

  62. MrTRiot
    MrTRiot

    Used laptops should be avoided in general. The cost of replacing the battery is usually much more than the potential savings

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