G1s GPU Fried - Out of Warranty - Any Idea on Cost?

You guys have all had wonderful endings to your RMA's, I hope I send mine out in time. I'd hate to get stuck in a loong waiting period.

And I agree, my G1S has been, generally, a poor experience and quite problematic. I'm starting to lose my faith in good ol' asus. =(

 

well asus kind of knew that this would happen when they released a botched computer. The GPU already had overheating problems and they still decided to release it.

 

What about G51 ones then? I'm seriously considering ordering G51J (the new one based on Core i7 processor), but reports of 190+ F (87+ C) GPU core temperatures really bother me.
Thanks in advance!

 

The 8600s had different soldering materials (which was their downfall).

 

Well my g1 graphics card died today too... i'm pretty sure i got it over 2 years ago. I guess i should give customer service a call... i was about to write off asus and move to a diff manufacturer but i'll see what they say first.

:-( i even had a cooling pad under mine and in quit.

(it would be nice if i could handle it on here though! lol)

Does anyone know if the new Gseries has these issues?
Mine also has a bunch of stress cracks throughout the case which this (my girlfriends 4 year old dell) doesn't have any humph... time for a phone call i guess

 

I'm pretty sure the 9 series of mobile cards are unaffected by the soldering issue.

 

I really wish computers were made like the good old days. My dad used to rant about how soldering nowadays don't contain any lead anymore due to the US environmental laws imposed on manufacturing lead free components. Lead gives soldering more rigidity and durability at higher temperatures and stress.

 

And yet there was no product recall for a defective product? I know that you found out 6 months later but you still did nothing to help prevent this. I understand that you guys are fixing it now and I appreciate it a lot but it could've been prevented.

 

Warranty and RMA service has been sketchy up until this point. I hope ASUS' continued presence on this board will change that.

 

I've heard some bad things, and am going thru the RMA process myself right now.

Like i said before, I love asus, I've used them exclusively for 9 years, but my experience with the G1S has been subpar. Unless this RMA is handled wonderfully, I won't be buying from them again.

One of my fears is them actually having the G1S parts in stock and replacing it with another dreaded 8600, just to break again 2 years down the line....

They shouldn't charge for repairs on a product known to be faulty (even out of warranty)...but then again, I'm sure many people aren't aware of the 8600 issue. I guess they don't care, money is money.

If I understand correctly the 8600 is basically a bomb waiting to go off. The more the temperature fluctuates the more likely it is yours will fail. "Oddly" enough the G1S IS a gaming computer, and games tends to cause big temperature changes. it wasn't abnormal for my gpu to hit 100c, even under a laptop cooler, then to sit at night room temperature. rinse and repeat.

I feel like a nagging wife, but i spent nearly $2000 on this thing, and a few months out of warranty it just dies. I can't help it, I feel jipped. Meanwhile I've had a7n8x deluxe mobo and radeon 9800pro for almost 9 years now with no problems at all. On their behalf though, the G1S was an earlier notebook model, right? and nvidia was really the culprit, right?. Maybe asus just needed to work out some kinks in their notebook services and will learn from their mistakes. It still doesn't excuse the lack of a recall, or good support for people who are having these problems though. Again, I'm keeping faith, but this is my last straw asus!

(imagine they offer me this http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=5315&review=asus+g51j rofl)

 

wishful thinking. I've heard that they've got a ton of G50VT's in their inventory right now so that's what they're going to get rid of. If they did give you that, I would demand that right away too.

 

Just received my G50VT-X5 replacement yesterday. Have to get used to the lower screen res but other than that, a very fine replacement for a 2 yr old machine. I was even able to make use of my old HDD and put it into the extra slot!
RMA from start to finish took about 3 weeks.
Thank you Asus USA!

 

Yea, the lower resolution I'm still not okay with, but everything else on the machine is flawless. I've grown to accept the fugly orange color scheme on the X5, since I spend 99.9% of the time in front of my laptop and not seeing the lid at all since it mostly sits on the cooling pad at home on my desk. Well, mostly because I use it like a desktop since I have like 4.5TB of disk space plugged into it.

Just waiting for my Win7 Ultimate 64bit OEM to come in and then I'll have it the way I want it. I was a little disappointed that they said they will be shipping me an X1 but received the X5 instead, they could have at least apologized for the mix up or something. I actually would have preferred the X1 over the X5 for the slightly faster CPU and the color scheme.

 

I just received my G50vt-X5 yesterday as well. It's "refurbished", but it looks brand-new to me, no scratches or sign of wear and tear. Going to put in my old WD Scorpio Black 320GB when I get the chance. Performance is MUCH better than the G1s, there's no longer any issue with skipping due to overheating. It does get hot, but it sits on my desk plugged into a monitor for most of the time.

A few things to note: When I first plugged it into my external monitor (Dell 22") via VGA, it was really blurry, even at native. A quick auto-adjust on the display fixed that. Also, my battery wouldn't charge initially. I took the battery out, unplugged the laptop, and stuck a paper clip into the reset hole. That seemed to have fixed it.

 

were you guys under warranty still? someone told me they're only doing the replacement for people under warranty, but if im not mistaken you were out of it mr kubelwagon, no?

man i hope i get that replacement!

 

I was 2 months past the warranty, but I still called it in. They just charged me $185USD to get it replaced, said it would have cost that much for the G1S-A1 replacement board. I agreed since this is the only computer I have for home use to do all my computer stuff until I get my new desktop next year. Much happier with the G50VT-X5 replacement, even though I hate having the lower resolution screen which was a major downgrade in my opinion from the G1S-A1.

If it's past warranty, they'll charge you for the fix/replacement. They know it's a faulty GPU, and even if it's past warranty, they should still service your laptop because it is an Asus product still, and if you need it repaired, they can provide you with the repair for a cost of any of the parts you require to get it fixed or replaced (depending on what you have and what they can offer you in good reason).

 

Yep, I was 3 months out of warranty.

 

If I remember correctly, visa and mastercard have extended warranties if you bought the laptop with a credit card. Try contacting your credit card company about that if you bought the laptop with plastic.

 

kubelwagon how long did it take after you accepted the offer for it to arrive to your house?



P.S. I'm pretty sure all the replacements are refurbished, my rep said the unit would be refurb.

 

Mine was 2-3 months out of warranty

 

Yep... they pretty much told me that my Warranty just ended and they could fix it but they would charge me shipping both ways and for the repair its-self. I asked if they could give me an estimate and he said... nope....

Thats a bummer its kind of like the top of the pile of crap I'm under.
I just graduated college and got laid off from my engineering job cause well lets face it i'm low man on the totem poll. So I'm jobless with a mortgage and having to use my girlfriends computer to complain about it... Great....

It kinda sucks that its a known issue and since I've always used a cooler pad for it which i guess nursed the poor design long enough to get me through my warranty period and now i get screwed for trying to take care of my laptop.

 

just a note - i had to send my computer back for its second rma (of course, i had to pay for shipping...again...)

theyve received it and it is currently in the "repair" stage according to the support website

we'll see what happens this time

ive been using the netbook this entire time

EDIT - its showing as "completed" on the support site - again - no phone call (per my request) - i just hope the darn thing boots up when i get it back - with its "repaired" gpu

 

How long ago did you guys send it in? to which facility?

I wouldn't accept that crap. I'd bi*** my head off. They can't not give you an estimate.... (unless of course you were just asking questions and haven't sent your notebook in yet, then that's understandable)

"The squeaky wheel gets the oil"


I sent mine to Indiana on Monday...checked my repair status today and it says records for my RMA doesn't exist. What crap....I guess they're "updating"

And I'm pretty sure prices range from $198 to $250. these were people getting the G50 replacement, but the cost for the G1S mobo should be similar. definitely a bummer, especially considering dell and i think HP extended warranties for 1 year on these faulty products.

 

well the g50 is refurbished so the value goes down a bit more from that.

 

It only took one week. So there was like 5 weeks where I had no idea what was happenning.

 

Thanks for the reply. I accepted my offer on Wed. and I live about 2 hours away from the repair center so I hope I can get mine in less than a week.

Only think I'm scared about is no warranty. My old one expired so this one won't be covered with any. But since its a refurb it could have some hidden problems and I don't want to get screwed by them. Probably going to try to get a written confirmation it will be free of any mechanical and cosmetic defects and can expect it to be 'like new'. I mean I bought my G1S brand new not refurb and if its their problem the laptop broke I should be getting a new replacement not a refurb.

 

You can try to get an extended warranty thru a third party. That's what I'll do if I get a replacement...

http://www.eritech.com/results.php?category=Warranty

 

As far as I know, the refurb comes with a 90 day warranty, I believe.

 

yea im going to see if i can get a confirmation

 

The GPU in my G1s died last Wednesday after my warranty expired and all the information people have shared here has been very helpful to me, so I thought I'd contribute.

I got my G1s in September 2007 and had no major issues until around March of this year. Symptoms were subtle at first: more frequent game or computer crashes, graphical glitches, etc. I didn't have a repeatable flaw, though, and didn't want to send the machine away for repairs until school was over. There was a day that the computer crashed and wouldn't start back up. Power worked but couldn't get past the Asus boot logo. The next day it worked again. I ran into this problem off and on for the next few months until, in June, it seemed to settle on never working again.

I sent it in for repairs. The diagnosis was a bad motherboard and "corrupt OS," (never figured out what that meant), and the repairs were: new motherboard installed and Vista reinstalled. I was happy to have the computer back, and stupidly didn't think to look for info here before heading off to school again.

Problems arose again soon, but again I had no way to demonstrate this to Asus. My warranty expired, and about a month later (last Wednesday) I got the blank screen of death.

I called Asus and got the same story many of you did -- they'd issue an RMA but I'd be responsible for the cost of shipping and repairs. 90 days had passed since the last repair, so that wasn't covered any longer either. Then I came here.

I saw that Asus was starting to offer replacements in the form of G50 series notebooks, and a lot of you seem happy with this. But I used my G1s for design work and 3d rendering, and that screen resolution was one of the main selling points when I bought it. Further, I had my G1s built with upgraded specs and it cost me over $2000 when I bought it. As I understand the replacement G50s are base model machines. This seemed unfair to me, especially after Asus had serviced a machine they knew had a GPU defect and declined to address it preemptively.

I heard that some credit card companies have an extended warranty program and decided to check that out in (probably unrealistic) hopes I could score a refund. American Express has one of these programs, so... I've had to gather all the documents relating to the purchase, repair, etc., and send them to the credit card company. I mailed my G1s to them last night and it arrived there today. So here I am.

I'm supposed to hear their decision by Wednesday, so I'll be back with details in a few days..... Wish me luck.


TL;DR: GPU fried, out of warranty. Didn't want to settle for g50, so I'm seeing if American Express's Extended Warranty program will get me a refund.

 

welp - after one of the most hectic weeks of my career - ive finally gotten a second to sit down and check out my g1s that came back from its second rma

this time around - all i needed was a simple os re-install

i open the box - open it up - and i see the vista logo! yay! right? nope

they installed the os in french... =-/

im in the process of reinstalling the os as we speak - with the hopes that ill be able to use it to work in the morning instead of having to cart my butt into the office

my experience with asus customer service has just been abysmal - it was hard enough getting someone to even understand my problem - and now ive paid over $50 in shipping charges to receive a "repaired gpu" with a french os installation

right now - if all goes well tonight, im basically just waiting for the gpu to completely fail on me - at that point, im just going to try another manufacturer

im out of warranty (having had he computer for just under 2 years) - so maybe thats why theyre trying to stick it to me - either way - i just cant place any faith in asus anymore - in my personal experience, their service has been just awful - right on par with dell

but id like to thank all of you for all of your patience and help - you all would be much better working for asus than the people working in their notebook repair department...

 

just letting you know, you might have a repaired motherboard. An asus rep posted on this forum that the motherboards offered now should be fixed and there shouldn't be an overheat problem anymore. At least that's what they said.

 

I just began my RMA 4 days ago with ASUS for the popular but not so fun Nvidia defect - anyone have any updates on their out of warranty G1S repairs / replacements?

 

PM me if you want to know about my American Express Extended Warranty experience. I'm not sure if I should post it in a public forum.

 

Hey just to let you guys know I sent my G1S in for repair on Nov. 11th (out of warranty) and got a reply 2 days later (the 13th) asking if I would accept the Asus G50VT-X5. I am pretty sure the well has run dry of motherboards remotely compatible with the G1S.

 

luckily you only had to wait 2 days. I waited for 2 weeks and then another 2 weeks for it to get delivered.

 

I have the same problem as OP, but when i explained the problem to the asus technical person on the phone, she said it might be a monitor problem and asked if i tried to hook it up to an external monitor. I don't have one so I wasn't able to. I got an RMA number and I'm sending it in tomorrow. Was she wrong? I'm in need of a new computer so I'm kind of hoping that they offer me a replacement.

 

Yup, 99.999% NOT the monitor. The GPU is probably fried and hopefully you will get offered a replacement just like the last few people who posted. Good luck!

 

wow, seems that i have the same problem with my V1S (GF8600GT):

My V1S screen remains dark all along and after the booting process, it remains dark even through the bios/asus welcome screen. It's like the screen is disconnected. I know that the system still boots because I can see the laptop on the local network. This problem occured after a simple reboot and the laptop haven't been moved at all or knocked before and during the reboot. Plugged-in TV remains dark while connected through HDMI or S-video. The notoriously faulted GF8600GT probably fried. This highend-nearly-2000$-Asus-laptop got 3 RMAs (sound issue and overheating) under a warranty that expired just 2 month ago...

Do you think that Asus would still do something for me even if my warranty expired??

 

Not on their dollar. They will most likely charge you for repair/replacement, which, judging from the reports here, will cost between $175 and $250.

 

how come they propose you a replacement whereas you were out of warranty? is that for free?

 

I should be receiving my g50vt-x5 replacement tomorrow. i hope it performs well and doesn't overheat.

Still angry I had to pay $250 for a repair on a defective product. I've heard of people bringing similar cases to small claims court and getting refunds.

http://www.nvidiadefect.com/

can users who received the g50vt post their temps? I'll be paying big attention to that when it arrives.

 

I don't have a temp reader but I can tell you that it is a vast improvement compared to the G1S. The vent is on the left side of the computer so make sure that you have ample space in direction. The air coming out of that can get fairly hot (I can warm my hands up there while gaming) but the rest of the laptop stays cool. Its only around that area (on the bottom where that big covered hole is) that it gets a bit hot. You don't really feel it on the keyboard above. I was playing oblivion on turbo extreme (direct console overclock) and it did get a bit hot but not on the keyboard. Definitely a big improvement.

 

Well I got it today, pretty happy with it! Runs much cooler than the G1s and doesn't suffer from stuttering...it suffers from something else though...

The screen has such bad bleeding in the corners I cant see anything out of the top left or right when gaming. There is absolutely no "sweet spot" no matter how many times i adjust it i cant get the whole screen to show up properly. the only time it does it when i push the laptop far back, then it looks ok.

I heard the screen was bad but this bad? I can barely play torchlight or whats movies because of the bleeding. Could it be a defected screen? or are the g50 screens really that bad?

 

Well I RMA'd my G1S Dec. 28, 4 months out of warranty and received no phone call about the repairs. The status says that my repairs were finished and the laptop is being shipped back to me on Jan 4. Should I be worried about them replacing with another defective GPU and ask for a replacement instead or just suck it up and try and live with the repaired laptop since I'm already out of warranty?

Just wondering how some of us are getting replacements and some are getting repairs. BTW, mine was sent to IN for repairs.

 

^ i just wanted to post a quick update - after my nightmare of dealing with asus actually ended - i replaced the hard drive and slapped windows 7 onto the computer

so far - it seems to be chugging along nicely - im still not happy about having my unit repaired (i understand it was out of warranty - but this was a KNOWN defect with the actual hardware of the computer), but as long as the thing is working - i cant complain too much

 

How much did it cost you all together for your RMA including shipping+repairs?
Mines just recently died 5 months out of warranty.

 

im not sure if i ever mentioned what my final cost was - but it wasnt much - i just paid for shipping (twice - but only on the way to asus, not for the return shipping - it just so happened that they didnt fix the computer the first time and i had to send it back)

but they didnt charge me anything for the repair

 

Well so far my cost is about $20 shipping. They haven't called about any repair costs or return shipping fee yet. We'll see if the thing works when I get it back.

 

guys - i swear this is just a bad dream and not really happening - but i come home from work today excited to hook up my brand new canon wireless pixma printer (which just got delivered this afternoon)

i flip open the screen - press the power button - hear the asus explosion - but guess what i dont see? not a darn thing on the screen!

the gpu fried out on me - AGAIN - and on the SAME friggin day i post about how happy i am that its still working!

im on the phone with asus - AGAIN - so far, im 21 minutes into the phone call - total time talking to a human? MAYBE 4 minutes

asus service is a complete joke

again - i have to pay for shipping - again - my hard drive will be wiped (did i mention i installed a new 500gb hd with windows 7 ultimate? yeah - and i already installed my old drive into the old man's computer - so its not like i can just swap it back out)

i asked the rep how i could be certain that it would get repaired *this* time (considering its the third time im having to send the computer in to them) - she assured me not to worry because, this time, my computer will be getting sent to the "repair headquarters" - so "for sure, theyre gonna fix it"

what about everyone else's computer? do they get sent to some lesser repair centers where they "may not" get fixed?

what the heck is going on over at asus service? are you kidding me?

24 minutes now - still on hold...