G50vt-X5 Malfunctioning - Thoughts?

I bought the X5 about a year ago for grad school. I mainly played Civ 4 and Oblivion on it while I worked on papers, and throughout the entire year, everything worked great.

Last night the thing died during a thunderstorm while I was surfing. The AC adaptor seems to be okay, but it cuts out when it's connected to the computer. Now I've been reading some of the horror stories here about Asus' crappy customer service and faulty motherboards. It's in the shop right now for a diagnostic and the last thing I want is to have wasted $1000 on a brick.

If it turns out to be a faulty motherboard, I'm looking at options:

- Work with my local repair to order a new motherboard ASAP. Grad school is in three weeks and I need a device to do anything.

- I try to twist Asus' arm as hard as I can. Talk to a supervisor over the phone, report to a third party, whatever. This will likely result in nothing, although it looks like they're giving away X5s to the loudest people.

- Buy another computer. Neither of these last two options are ideal. I bought this computer because I felt that it would be sturdy enough for at least ten years. Maybe that's not the case.

Frustrating.

 

sounds like a random act of God. If it died during a thunder storm, it could have shorted out from the wall socket. Do you have it plugged in a "GOOD" power strip?

 

Yeah, there was a storm passing through last night, and I was dumb enough to plug it in unprotected. I'm hoping it's just a power issue, even though it seems to share symptoms with problems people have had with their G1s.

 

My repair outlet just told me that it is indeed a motherboard failure. At the same time, it turns out that it wasn't from a surge, but from faulty hardware.

I think I'm going to give Asus an earful. Warranty or no warranty, this is a Day 0 problem from before I bought it.

 

what did they say was wrong with it. I have a g51vt and never had any power problems with my system and I have had mine the day the vt's came out.

 

The motherboard shorted out on its own, despite my original thoughts.

 

I don't mean to come off as a jerk, and I'm sorry for your loss, but would there be any chance you'd sell the OLED display assembly in case you part it out?

Best of luck!

 

Lol actually that's probably dead too!

 

Nooooo!

Well keep me posted on what you end up doing in any case