Death of my G73JW

My first reaction was screaming at 2am when this occurred two nights ago. And then the problem worsened...

I was doing some light web browsing on my beloved month-old system at midnight Tuesday evening when, all of a sudden, most of the laptop suddenly, quite unexpectedly, shut off. I say "mostly", because all that was left on were the blue LEDs in the upper left corner and the beginning of my fans blowing harder than they ever had before. No power to the screen, keyboard, or hard drive. Holding down the power button didn't shut it down completely either. I had to unplug it then do a battery pull. Most subsequent restarts of the system (if you could even call them "restarts") resulted in only the blue indicator lights coming on and power to the blu-ray drive. That's it. Once every 4-5 reattempts, at first, would get me back into Win7 -- briefly. Then, like an unpaid power bill, the power dropped out again. Never again was I to gain access to Windows (not that the event logs showed anything, nor NB Probe, but it was obviously a mobo or psu issue). I laughingly blamed my new wife who just two days prior had looked at my happy laptop and playfully told it "I hate you." She was stunned when I told her what happened, but I told her that electronics can be very sensitive to having their feelings hurt and you have to be careful what you say around them!

Yesterday from work, I phoned Asus to let them know what happened. They suggested I do the "hold the power button down for 30 seconds" thing. (And, for anyone who doesn't already know, the G73JW does not have the CMOS reset button beneath it that the JH has. It has the hole for it, but no button). So I decided to call Ken at GenTech to see if he'd heard of such a thing ever happening to a JW. He was completely stunned at what I described happening, saying he'd never heard of a G73 doing that. I did find other Asus systems in general had done such before (searched various forums), and either the 30-second thing would work for them or it wouldn't. Interesting.

As expected, the power button hold failed with flying colors. So I called Asus to set up an RMA. They were very pleasant, though I was annoyed, despite free FedEx shipping both ways, that I'd been told to expect a 14-business-day turnaround after they receive it. Grrr...

So I decided to see if I could get it into Windows once more to back up some data. It went to its typical "blue light special" power status (not including the rear blue strip light which never came back on) allowing me to boredly open and close the DVD tray at will. I let it sit like that for a while because, one time earlier when it did boot into Win7, it did it so spontaneously after sitting in that state for 20 minutes. Not this time. Instead, it decided to severely overheat the bottom of the laptop and emit the familiar electrical discharge odor from the right rear vent. (If ever there was a Star Trek II "KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!!" moment, that was it). After quickly unplugging and battery-pulling again (and ensuring my bed didn't catch fire), I called Asus to update my system's status to completely screwed up. I'm hoping for more than a motherboard replacement at this point. Once the system cooled down a bit, it returned to the blue light special mode, and i gave up on it for good. Tonight I'll have to pull the drive out to backup my data before shipping it off Friday.

I realize that this is a rare situation and am looking forward to getting another JW as soon as is humanly (or Asus-ly) possible. I'd love to have a brand new one, but I suspect I'll get a refurb and have to go over it with a fine-toothed comb for any other issues afterward. The system had never been bumped, dropped, or abused in anyway (except the aforementioned verbal abuse). And the only time it would have been opened is for Ken to swap in my 6200 wifi card when ordered, so we all know that's not the problem. Guess I just got an iffy board. The moral of the story? Always speak nicely to your system. You never know how it'll react otherwise. Ironically, I found that same day that i have to ship back my new Droid 2 for a stuck pixel, too. As a sysadmin, I'm just trying not to anything else electronic off this week. *gently pats the work PC he's posting this from*

 

This sucks, there is no other word for it but I can't but notice the "and ensuring my bed didn't catch fire" part... did you often use your G73 on your bed and if yes, how were the back vents? were they cleared or were they blocked because the laptop was burried in the bedsheets?

 

I've used it on my bed and my coffee table regularly. Never once had any heat buildup of any kind, and the intake and rear vents are always clear since I don't sit it atop a bunch of hot wrinkled comforters or put anything behind it (it's usually sitting on the bare flat topsheet at the corner of the bed by my head). The back exhaust vents were running in typical near-silent fashion. I'd never heard the fans get loud ever until they ran like leaf blowers the first time the rest of the unit's power went out.

 

They probably won't refurbish your notebook. For whatever reason, repair centers believe wasting time on labor, and ordering parts, and the extended wait time that sometimes come with it, the expense of ordering parts individually is cheaper. Doesn't make any sense.

Anyways, looks like they will replace your motherboard, that's all. If your CPU and GPU is still good, they will reuse them. Your casing, and LCD unless defective will be the same. So I doubt it will be a refurb.

But IMO good idea to check it over, read on these forums sometimes it's not put together right or not all the screws put back in etc.

But if you read the RMA threads, you'll see that in general laptops sent to Markham, ON in Canada and Fremont, CA in USA have good reputation on repair time and the actual repair.

Makes me think maybe somehow a bug or some bad particle got into you laptop somehow?

 

Anything's possible, but I doubt it. Prolly just bad luck of the draw. At any rate, we'll see what happens. Hopefully when the mobo fried it didn't decide to take out any of the other components. Esp since I had GenTech upgrade the wifi card. As for shipping it back, according to the RMA FedEx label they provided me, it's going to Jeffersonville, Indiana, at least initially.

 

Hmm, reading RMA thread, IN has some bad stories. Like G73 dusty, fingerprints everywhere, not assembled right, missing screws and sometimes, arrive with new problems. But these I would assume are just exceptions considering IN likely fixes thousands of laptops. And RMA thread also said Gary was working out those kinks so good luck with the RMA.

While you are removing your HDDs, remove the upgrade WiFi module, just in case. Asus are supposed to respect any upgrade done by an authorized reseller, but never know. Just be on safe side.

 

lol what?

Anyways, I hate when you have to send in your main machine for warranty work

I hope you get your comp back fast

 

I'm pretty sure if you got it from gentech, Ken would handle the whole RMA process. It will be quicker that way with less chance of screw up.

 

Yowsers. The problems my G73 has seem inconsequential compared to yours. Glad it didn't catch fire or something.

 

Well, I know someone who gives their laptop verbal and physical abuse all the time...but it never died on him yet.

It just gives him static electric shocks. :confused2:

 

ASUS Indy did my RMA and did a great job,came back cleaned and was back in 9 days from when I shipped it.I did hear of horror stories and was fearing of what would be shipped back .Good Luck!!

 

I'm shuddering whilst reading this....If my jw dies, me thinks that I too shall die, and we shall have to be buried together. I almost pooped myself earlier when it shut down on me while playing Modern Warfare. I booted it up and the Asus logo was pretty colors, but then I shut it off and started back up with no problems.....gods please don't kill me new best friend!

 

Thanks, Angel. One just has to find the humor in these kinds of uncontrollable situations sometimes. Thankfully, I have my wife and enough rum & coke at the house to get me by until what I estimate is Thanksgiving week til I get the laptop back. Having my i7 desktop helps, too. I just hope i fare better than this poor soul whose system went to the same facility:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus-gaming-notebook-forum/527705-help-asus-rma-g73jh.html

He's got my condolences, for sure.

 

My G73 arrived at Asus' facility in Indiana this morning. Here's hoping I get it back (and working) by Thanksgiving...

 

Ninjak - you have my deepest sympathy!

IT took me 14 weeks to GET my G73 in the first place! Then, in 5 days it just wouldn't turn on. I took it to the Markham ON facility, and was told, that because it was an i5 G73Jh-1ATY, it would take another 5 WEEKS to get the board from "Taiwan"!) I called the Asus facility in Fremont Cali., at 1:30pm, and spoke to a lady there, who called the Markham Facility who then called me at 2pm to tell me my laptop was ready to be picked up, with a brand new i7 motherboard *LMAO*

So Good luck!

 

I hope your G73JW would be fine.

This kind of stories really scares me.

 

I wouldn't hold your breath on a new unit. They'll replace all the innards, though.

 

An entire new set of innards (plus the return of my 6200 wifi card) will be perfectly fine with me. Finally, Asus listed my RMA as "received" in their system as of yesterday and set the status to "repairing" with the "Rate of repair completion" at 0.0%. No percentage increase in the past 24 hours, which is disappointing, but I'm hapy to see that my status isn't "(Waiting)" instead. Perhaps I'll get the system back a week sooner than I thought. I won't hold my breath, but I'm hopeful.

 

Good to see you kept your sense of huomur through this experience. GL getting a quick replacement.

 

So far, the support reps are nice on the phone, but they don't seem to be able to give me any more info than whatever the website lists for my repair status, unfortunately. It's still listed at 0.0% after having been checked-in at the Indiana facility since Nov 1. The best they can tell me is that if the status doesn't change after x number of days to call them back...at which point they'll tell me the same thing, I'm sure. They likely have off for the Veterans Day holiday here tomorrow, so that's another day to add to the wait. Nov 22 will be 14 business days since they reported receiving it, so I suppose I have to be at least that patient before I point a phaser rifle at them. But I don't have to like it since they seem to be listing through space with the speed of a damaged impulse engine...

 

There are a few members here (myself included) that went for 2+ months shipping back and forth trying to get their unit repaired/replaced. The problem is a) parts, and b) inept technicians.

For your FIRST rma, it may take awhile, but for RMA #2 and on, they will expedite shipping, bring stuff in from the CDN facility, and do a really fast repair.

But for a first time RMA, you don't get special treatment ...

Also, their "status" updates are slow to update. I've received mine back while it was still waiting for parts ..

 

Annoyed update:

Well, so much for getting my system back by Thanksgiving. I can't even get a status. The website still claims the system is at 0.0% repair completion and I know nothing further. On Nov 23, I phoned Asus support since it'd now been beyond the 14-business-day turnaround time for repairs, which they themselves acknowledged since they checked it into the RMA system on Nov 1 as received. They said they'd advance the ticket so that I would get a call back in a day or so with a status update. I never received a call. So I called back exactly a week later on the 30th. They said the same thing, and so far the same nothing was the result. So I just got off the phone with them again a few minutes ago. Whle the woman was repeatedly apologetic (I'll give the support staff one thing, they've definitely been friendly and polite), she said that all she could determine was that my system had been assigned to a technician already. I told her that I was already told that the system had never been waiting for parts and was already under repair, so, that being the case, just how long has this tech been assigned to the thing? I understand they have a number of systems to work on, but come on. This makes me really glad that I didn't buy the 1215N when I chose a netbook just over a week ago. Much as I loved the specs, I learned about its defect wherein the netbook's power pin tends to very easily break off and dislodge. And I sure as hell am not going through this again with another Asus system. At the very least, not if I can't guarantee it won't go to Indiana for repair. Hopefully I won't get an overworked tech who screws something up (or leave something unscrewed). It sucks that local places like Best Buy don't sell the exact same configurations else I could have gotten it from there in the first place and just returned it to them for an exchange. I wish they had more local authorized repair places like most other vendors. It'd be nice if I could just buy another one from GenTech now and just charge it to Asus for all the trouble. Thank the stars that's not my sole computer!

Captain's log: Stardate - 2010.12.02

The crew and I are perturbed, to put it diplomatically. I'd wouldn't blame them if they wanted to mutiny, however there's no ship for them to take over. Whether our vessel is undergoing its refit right now or listing through space in pieces, I cannot say. Communications with the starbase have been inconclusive, at best. Aside from our other two stationary command bases, we're forced to traverse space via our new light cruiser, the USS Toshiba (Registry # T235D-S1360). She's a sleek ship, and gets us where we need to go, but it's nothing compared to the power of our still-lost Federation battle cruiser, the G73JW. Hopefully, it hasn't been scuttled or towed off by a garbage scow. But we'll keep hailing, keep searching. I'll get our dead ship back. If a complete refit is, indeed, life from death, then I must return to this ship again...

 

You are one patient fellow! I would be demanding a replacement by now. One month is unreasonable for a brand new product. My JH has been in Starbase for about a week and a half now.

 

Believe me, they're going to see my well-known patience expire very quickly if I don't get an update by Monday when I call. (Yeah, now instead of calling me like they said they would the last two times, I'm the one who has to call them back). If they can't fix the damned thing or tell me what's taking so long, then they need to supply me with a new one. I'm not exactly going to hold my breath expecting them to comply, but considering it's a brand new model (and only technically since it's still based on a JH to some extent), they've really got no excuse for not at least saying "Your system is at stage x of repairs because of y" or "Based on the extensive damage, we need to replace rather than repair it". Geez, I'd hate to see what they'd do if it were accidentally damaged by being skewered. I'd probably hear that they're still trying to find duct tape to cover the holes...

 

I spoke to Asus support again yesterday evening. The first rep I spoke with actually said that, from what he was seeing, my system's repairs were complete but that it hadn't shipped out yet. He had no idea how long ago the repairs had finished and couldn't tell me how long it usually takes between completion and shipment. He was reading me my case number (likely the one from my warranty info) when, as luck would have it, my office desk phone fell over and hung up on him. So I called back and, after being on hold again, spoke to a different rep. This one had could find no information about a finished repair whatsoever and all that he could tell me was that my system was still listed in repair status. Confused that the reps wouldn't all have access to the same info (and a tad irked, though composed), I explained to him what the other rep had just told me. It was of no use, as he could not confirm any of it. So I asked to speak to a manager or supervisor, and...*drumroll*...I got one! (albeit after another 10 minutes of holding and a call transfer that took 12 or so rings to be picked up). Troy was very receptive and seemed perplexed himself as to why my system would be taking over 5 weeks in RMA if it wasn't waiting for any parts to come in. Nor did he know why two reps would tell me two different things (unless one entered my RMA number in incorrectly). So he said that he personally was going to contact the tech group for a status and have one of them call me back within 24 hours. Just when the voice in my head was sighing "Here we go again" and assuming no such call would come, Troy then added that I should call back and ask to speak to him again should no call come through. So, now I have a little bit of hope here. Hopefully the first rep was correct about the repair completion and I can get a confirmation on that. Worst case scenario, I'll learn that every rep since early Nov was wrong and that my system's actually awaiting a part from Taiwan. Either way, that 24-hr call clock runs out at 6:30pm EST. If I haven't received a voicemail or call by then, hopefully I can reach Troy when he's not too tied up with another customer.

 

If I get a G73JH, I hope it doesn't turn out like your JW. I wish you good luck and keep us updated with this situation.

 

Called Asus back last night after 10pm. Was on the phone for 40 minutes, most of which was being on hold. I hadn't received a call back per my previous post, so I wanted to let Troy know. It took me 10 minutes to get past the first rep, who didn't seem to quite get what I was saying when I informed her that I was told by Troy to call back. After listening to her yammer on for a while, she finally figured out that I just wanted to be transferred to Troy, if he was available. He was, so, while on the line with him, he emailed the tech staff directly to ask what was going on, saying that he expected he'd likely get a reply from them within a half hour and would forward me a copy of their reply. He even called me back right after we hung up to make sure I check my junk/spam filters as well, just in case. He really does seem to care, which is much appreciated by now. Unfortunately, now 11 hours later, I see that nothing has arrived in my inboxes. I can't fly off the handle just yet, though; the techs may not have sent him a reply before he went off-duty. I'm about to call back to have a rep leave a message for Troy to that effect. One interesting observation came about. When last i checked my RMA status online last night, instead of saying it was in repair stage with 0.0% completion, no percentage at all is listed and it just says "Repairing". Could this be progress? It might just be clutching at straws at this point. I do, however, want to thank everyone on this board for their support, and I'll keep on updating with my progress until the system is back in my hands and functioning properly. It's really a shame that the thing I want most for Christmas at this point is to just have back the laptop I'd bought 2.5 months prior.

And is it just me, or is it just plain sad that all management can do is email tech support themselves just to get basic information out of them?

 

I can't believe I never read this post before. Your problem sounds just like what I had with my JH. All they had to do was replace the motherboard (they also repasted the GPU). Should be an easy repair assuming they put it back together correctly. It is easier for them to replace the whole MB rather than try and diagnose the individual broken part. So the good news is you'll get your computer back with new inards (as you already knew). The bad news is that JWs are selling well so motherboards are probably back ordered, that is why you are waiting. It doesn't help that they probably didn't do any work thanksgiving week. Your repair status won't tell you much. They don't update it quickly as you already know. Some people have had their laptops returned before their status was updated. Anyhow I'm sure everything will be fine once they can fix it, sorry you've got to wait.

 

Just got off the phone with a rep. Had him leave a message for Troy that no email had arrived, if indeed he actually had something to send at that point. At this point, I think I'll wait until Tuesday to call back if nothing happens.

Until I get this system back, esp given that it's holiday gift-buying season, I'm going to feel like I basically took $1780 of my money and just threw it into the wind since I pretty much have nothing to show for it right now other than the backpack and mouse.

 

@Ninjak: You're experience is terrible, but not the worst that has been reported here. Hellcry went through 8 RMAs over 3 months, I did 5 over 2.5 months ...

Asus only claims 14 business day TARGET turn around time, which is 1 month. And yeah, it sucks, but don't crying about throwing away money. If you'd read up about the problems here prior to purchasing, you'd have known that it was a possibility. I'm thinking you should have got a JH, the JW parts/problems are all new at this point.

If you're really frustrated, try messaging Gary - he's helped out several people on the forum get their stuff back quickly.

 

Dear OP, I would extremely appreciate if you would post a summary of your post, I would like to help, but my real life issues do not allow me the time to read the whole post,which I may add is pretty long in my humble opinion , either way have my kind regards good sir.

 

To summarize:

Ninjak's G73JW went bust. Probably needed a motherboard replacement. He sent it in to the Indiana facility. And was told to expect the repair to take 14 business days. The status on the website was only changed to "repairing". But the progress stayed at 0.0%. After a while over the time, he rand the facility to get answers on how it was going. They were unable to tell him. Though one of the reps told him it was done. But he lost the line with him, and weren't able to confirm that information. Repeat and rinse a few times, and finally he got in touch with the boss. The boss seemed really helpful, and said he would get in touch with the tech department through mail, where he would forward the reply to Ninjak. So far nothing's happened, so he left a message for the boss.

U thunk thut's ut.

 

ouch , that really sucks
Hope you can get your Laptop back soon enough! I remember being without mine for about 2 weeks and it sucked

 

Wow, cut the poor guy a little slack.

 

I actually did extensive research (as I do for all my tech purchases) including reading the forums here and knew all about the litany of JH problems. There weren't any real JW issues at the time of my purchase (natrually, since it was quite new), but most users and reviewers were noting a lack of the problems the JH exhibited. Besides, I detest the unibrow mouse button on the JH and am not the biggest fan of ATI's drivers, so the JW was just what I was looking for. As for the comment about throwing my money away, I only meant that in the respect I don't currently have anything to show for my money while the system is out for repair, not that I felt like I wasted it. As an IT professional, I'm accustomed to random things dying; it's just the nature of tech and the luck of the draw. But there's no excuse for such a turnaround time without a decent update to show for it. I don't mind waiting for something so long as I'm kept informed with good reasons behind it. I took the weekends and holidays into account when tracking the time, which does not automatically translate into a whole month for 14 business days (but yeah, roughly 3 weeks). Even so, the reps and manager I spoke to all agreed that it was odd the system was still there considering it wasn't awaiting parts. Its been about 28 business days now, omitting weekends, Veterans day, and Thanksgiving. Though not the best circumstance, I'm fine waiting that long, so long as I know I have a good reason I'm waiting. I realize people have been without their systems for a longer time, but that's going to vary from system to system and parts availability for some, and for other unknown reasons in cases like mine. This thread doesn't exist for me to bitterly complain but to keep people informed as to what experiences I'm having with support which may shed light on a similar situation for others. I continue to appreciate any feedback and am pleased to know that Gary may have some suggestions. Thanks.

 

It has arrived!

My wife and I just got back into town this morning from being away for the weekend since leaving Friday morning. She just called to let me know that the G73 was back because FedEx left a sticker saying I had a delivery on Friday. Since I was home for all of 20 minutes this morning before rushing to work, I hadn't bothered checking my mailbox in the lobby on the way out the door. Our apartment complex's main office takes our deliveries for us and thus has the package. Naturally, after attempting to grab it for me, my wife phoned back to say the leasing office is strangely closed due to some unmentioned renovations going on in there and noone's in the mail room. Hopefully someone will be there when I swing by this evening. Now I just have to hold my breath and hope it has all its parts. Afterwards, I'll leave Troy a message letting him know it arrived safely, or that something new is wrong with it (hopefully not). Not that anyone is surprised, but my status online still says "Repairing". On the bright side, this means that the rep I spoke to last week was correct about the system being completed. It makes me wonder why no other rep could see that same info. This could very well be an issue to bear in mind when other folks call in to get a repair status. Come to think of it, he was the sole rep who instead of reciting back my RMA number to me went ahead and quoted my case number, assigned to me when I registered my laptop with Asus. Another update coming this evening...

 

I guess the office was closed because they're gaming on your Steam acct

 

Thanks to some friendly folks in the office, we're ALL gaming on your Steam account

 

LOL @ MarkS & Chastity

Hell, it's nice to hear it's been dusted off and being enjoyably used since I've been trying to get back around to that myself for ages.

 

Damn it. The FedEx package that arrived wasn't the laptop! This was completely disappointing considering I hadn't ordered anything and wasn't expecting any FedEx packages (my friend sent me something). No wonder my wife thought it was the laptop. She was kind of confused and disappointed when I wanked into the apartment carrying a small box. Same feeling I had when I saw the box. So, it's back to giving Asus a call tomorrow since I've yet to receive an email with a status update. But hey, at least I had a brief glimmer of hope. Think I might have to use that Steam account again to distract myself til it arrives...

 

Now I'm just about fed up.

Called Asus back yesterday afternoon. Requested a status. After a few minutes, the rep mentions that he sees that the status was being updated by the techs at that very moment and should show up soon. Fine. I go home. Since I was up at 3:30am for something, I called the so-called 24-hr number back to get the update (since it still wasn't online). After the phone menu, I got dead air and random noises instead of the typical looping Asus message. After 3 tries, I went to bed. Moments ago, I called back and got through to a rep. After relaying to him what I was told yesterday, the rep pulled my record up and said that there was no status update of any kind. He added that they had never heard anything back from the techs either, despite the fact that it'd been escalated thrice and a manager had contacted them via email. They continue to have no idea why they aren't getting updates from the techs. So all the rep could do was escalate the issue yet again.

Were money no object, I could have just ordered a replacement from GenTech by now. But, since that isn't the case, it looks like my options are limited to impatiently waiting. I'll ponder what to say to whatever manager is on duty this evening if I don't have a status update or the laptop waiting for me when I get home. Naturally, I'm not going to be rude or hostile, but maybe I need to see if there's a way to escalate it to a higher manager. Someone in corporate is definitely receiving a complaint from me after this, even if my laptop comes back in pristine condition.

UPDATE:

Just left Gary a PM here to see if he has any advice.

 

Last night I phoned again for an update on my status. Lo and behold, unlike the last rep who knew absolutely nothing about a new status update, this one was immediately able to pull up the one that was mentioned to me two calls ago. And what did she report, you might you ask? That the tech support facility is, in fact, waiting for a motherboard and graphics card to come in. That revelation in itself doesn't bother me. Frankly, it doesn't even surprise me. What DOES vex me is the fact that the reps have told me up and down for a month now that the system was NOT waiting for parts when I'd specifically asked if it was on more than one occasion!

"No, sir, we're not showing that your system is waiting for any parts. It's in the repairing stage."

This begs the following questions:

1) Why on earth did their records not list it in the waiting stage?
2) What kind of incompetent tech group takes a solid month to answer a simple question the reps have been trying to get out of them repeatedly for weeks??

Yes, we all know techs can be swamped with multiple machines and stuff takes time, plus they can be understaffed or have other circumstances beyond their control (such as waiting for parts from Taiwan, obviously). Granted. But it should not take 3-4 case escalations and a manager emailing them demanding to know what's going on over the course of an entire month to get an answer that the reps should have had from them from the moment the techs knew that they didn't have the parts in stock!! At the very least they should have marked the status as "waiting" for the reps to see when customers phone them. At least I now finally have a confirmation. It's not as if I was asking for something exceedingly difficult.

Hopefully these parts will come in soon so that anyone else with system problems won't have to suffer this long a wait. My 6200 wifi card and power brick better come back since I included it on the parts lists in my shipment.

 

Oh.
My.
God.

1st post; ordered a G73JW (from Donald @ PowerNotebooks.com) last week- this is scary stuff.

 

I wouldn't worry much, dallasdon9. Despite the annoyance and inconvenience I'm experiencing, I'm quite sure I'm in a relative minority as I've seen almost noone else having to RMA their JW systems thus far. Ken from GenTechPC was shocked when I called him and told him how my system was behaving before I RMA'ed it, in fact. He'd never heard of such from a JW, which says a lot. But the people on these forums are a great source of knowledge and support. From my years on here I've seen them help fellow users through many problems that, at first, were assumed to require an RMA, but were determined to be less serious issues that just needed more testing and investigating to solve. And not every RMA experience, should it be necessary, is a bad one. That being said, however, I hope never to have to go through the process again. Welcome to the G73 family!

 

Thanks for the welcome.

Moving my Toshiba Satellite P105 to backup role after 5 years of excellent service (of 10 hours work a day every day); I might have to retake driving lessons before I take the G73 out for a ride.

Subscribed to this thread to catch your updates- hope to hear the end of this saga VERY soon!

 

I just got this in my email today and haven't yet replied. I wonder how they're going to consider a JH identical to my JW unless they're gonna install an nvidia card, the two-button mouse I want and match the JW's improved cooling. I avoided the JH on purpose. I'm going to point out the differences and see what they tell me. This doesn't bode well for any JW users awaiting a mobo and gpu. I don't want to hear that I may have to wait another two months if I turn this down. While I appreciate the gesture of an offer, I don't consider it the same machine.

-------

We apologize for the delay in service and the inconvenience this may have caused you. Due to non-availability of the replacement parts up to this time, we would like to offer a replacement. The replacement is an identical model, G73JH, with the same hardware configuration. If the replacement parts were received while the replacement is being processed, we will repair original unit and ship this instead of the replacement unit. Please confirm if you are willing to accept the replacement. This replacement is final, it is not a loaner and data will not be back up on the replacement unit. To do this, please response to this email to confirm.

Thank you for choosing ASUS products.

 

I would find out if that's a typo since it looks like standard Asus form text. If they'll really give you "an identical model" replacement and the replacement is new I would jump on that, as I've never heard of Asus doing that axcept refurbished replacements.

 

I agree completely. Somehow, I don't think I'll be lucky enough that they meant a replacement JW, but I'm sure going to find out. Will post my response to them tonight.

 

Absolutely agree with all- A JW is the only acceptable offer.

In your reply email, you might include a link to this thread, let them know more than one customer is interested in this outcome...

 

Don't take the G73JH offer. The G73JW is a good laptop to keep.

"They'll never know what hit 'em."