G73 jh a-1 rma

Today I finally had to RMA my toy. After more than 2 years of trouble free ownership I started to get random BSOD. Talked with Asus many times, and followed their suggestions, Bios update etc.
They finally told me to RMA. It has gone to Milpitas, CA for repair.
Will be very interesting to see what they find.
Out of warranty, so no doubt I will get a call when they come up with a $ amount to fix it.
Just thought that since this has been such a good machine vs some people who had nothing but trouble from day one I would update the community on its progress.
This G73JH was one of the very first to arrive in the USA, March 3 2010.
I will update this thread when I get it back, to help other owners who may have a similar problem.

 

curious how your asus rma experience will be. please let us know when you get it back and what they say

 

This is my first RMA ever, and I have been dealing with Asus in Taiwan. They have been very prompt with replies and so far so good.
Now it is in the mail to CA and I hope it is not going to be a bad experience.

 

Update. Asus received my notebook Friday. Wedesday I was notified by email that 2gb of ram and the keyboard were going to be replaced.
Parts $40 and labor $65 plus shipping. Repair time 3-5 business days, after payment is received, and if the parts are not on backorder.
Looks like total turnaround time will be about 2 weeks, and total cost about $145.
Asus uses email and never calls with updates.
I am hoping that I receive a detailed report about the repairs when the notebook is returned.
Summary. Blue screens caused by bad ram, and missing key strokes, old problem, is new keyboard.
I will post a final update when I receive my notebook back. from Asus.

 

As a G73jh a-1 owner myself, i am disappointed with the quality of these laptops, after 2 years, my laptops hard drive died because of reasons unknown to me, I am really curios about your rma process, keep us posted:hi2:

 

Update. Yesterday I received my notebook back. Total turn around time of 13 days including shipping. It returned in good shape with no scratches. They also cleaned it while under repair.
The repair summary says that they replaced a memory module, keyboard, and thermal.
Now, it is worse than when I sent it in. Immediately on start up it went to a blue screen as before.
Today it not only went to a blue screen, but went from blue, to black, and totally crashed.
Event log now has 12 critical events, all the same. Event, Kernel-Power, event ID 41 (63)
It has had 12 critical events in 6 months, all the same, before, and after I sent it in.
Summary: Not repaired, and same as it was,before I sent it in.
What a joke. $145 later, and still the same problems as before. My only hope is to repair it myself,
using this site, and its vast knowledge base, and great members.

 

Final update: Since the return of my notebook, 3 days, it has crashed 12 times, and today it not only crashed, but bricked solid. Had to pull the battery to shut it down.
Before it went to Asus, actually Bizcom, is who they use for repairs, it only crashed about once a month. Now it crashes every time I turn it on, sometimes right after I turn it on.
Event log always says, Kernel-Power, ID 41 (63). This is the only critical error code I ever get.
Contacted Asus, again, and yes, they said RMA. So it has gone back to Bizcom, CA ,and I can't wait to hear what they say is wrong with it this time.
IF they fix the problem my G73 is going up for sale. Enough is enough. Now I am in the same category as all the other guys who have had nothing but trouble with the G73JH.
The nightmare continues.!!!

 

As a fair, and balanced account of this RMA, I must say that ASUS has been very easy to work with, and have tried to help, as best they can, from Taiwan.
Now this notebook is in the hands of the repair facility, for a second time, and this is where things start to go "grey".
I have asked for a detailed report of the repairs, and this time I hope they send me more than just a standard repair report, with a couple of boxes checked.
The reason I want to post all of this, is to try and help others who may have a similar issue with their G73JH.
The G73JH remains an excellent notebook, and something, suddenly, caused this one to go bad.
That, something, is what I am trying to establish. I will have an evaluation from ASUS USA in the next couple of days. They have already received my G73JH.
Fingers crossed, and waiting.

 

I wouldnt RMA it in the first place. If they dont fix it this time too, here's what I would do.
I would start by flash both BIOS and vBIOS to the lastest ones.
Then uninstall all drivers, and clean out the rest with DriverSweeper in safe mode.
Reinstall newest drivers directly from manufacturers, by checking the Hardware ID's and googling out the drivers (worked for me everytime).

Hope it helps =)

 

Before it went in the first time, I had contacted ASUS support about the problem. They told me to change the BIOS to version 213, the latest firmware, and that is what I did.
I did not change the vBios.It went in the first time, with the updated BIOS, and they told me that I had one stick, 2gb of bad ram.When it came back the first time with the new
ram it was no better than before. I will know, very shortly, what they say this time and will decide then.

 

Asus has had my notebook for 3 business days, and no word. Also, it is not on the ASUS website, where you can check the status of your repair.
This RMA is very different from the first one.Maybe gone to a different department, or level of repair.

 

Sorry to hear about your rma experience with them.

I too have had to send my g53 in for repair. mainly for the power pin that snapped off inside the power cord. but it had other problems as well which did not get fixed.
both my usb ports on the left side lose there connection from the slightest touch and i had a screen problem where if my lid was a certain way and i pressed hard on a certain area of the laptop the screen would go all shades of yellow.

only the power pin got fixed. and the screen is a very erratic problem that doesnt happen too often.

i will agree that there customer service is fast and prompt and quite professional.... feeling.
but when it comes to the repair it just doesnt meet very good standards in my opinion.
i love asus but am finding it harder and harder to hand them over more money.
not sure i'll be getting another laptop from them i the next fer months when i upgrade.


hope yours comes back working!!!

 

I totally agree that the problem is not with the ASUS customer support. They are very fast, and try to help. The problem is with the repair facility which is Bizcom, CA, in my case.
This time, it has been 6 days since Bizcom received my notebook. I have sent various emails to ASUS Taiwan, and even they cannot tell me what the status of my repair is.
Dear Valued Customer,

Thank you for contacting ASUS Customer Service.

I have contact with Bizcom for further information.

If you continue to experience issues in the future, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Best Regards
Jackie

This is all I got from them. Not exactly inspiring. Now I have sent email to ASUS, CA, and should hear from them today. This is what other members can expect if their notebook ends up
with Bizcom,CA.

 

Here is the contact information for Bizcom, to help other users who may encounter similar issues. As suggested this information should probably be in the G73JH area.
ASUS Contact Thank you JamesAZ

 

With absolutely no communication from the repair facility, I found out from ASUS, CA, that my notebook has shipped, and will arrive Monday 26 November 2012.
At this point I have no idea what they have done to it, or if it is repaired.
Monday will be the day. Looking forward to having it back, repaired or not.
I know one thing for sure, and that is, it will NOT be going back to Bizcom.

 

My notebook arrived Friday 23 Nov. No damage and clean.They paid for the return shipping.
Turn around time 10 days, including shipping. Total turn around time 2 RMA's back to back,23 days.
Repair report: Reload factory software. No details at all from repair facility.
They also reloaded factory drivers.
I have done nothing but windows updates, removed some bloatware,and installed Firefox 17.
Nothing plugged in, except power and mouse, not even my backup.
System crashed multiple times, blue screens, and even Firefox 17 crashed several times.
3 blue screens today alone.
Refuses to execute, (download or install) some windows updates.
I am up to Windows 7 Service pack 1, and that installed.
I am trying to blame user error, but time is going to tell here. User is hopefully not wrong ALL the time.!!
No crashes while updating this thread.
ANY comments, suggestions, or advice, would be greatly appreciated.

 

Did you run a full diagnostic on your hard drive?

 

Not yet, but I have solved the windows update thing.
I will perform all the tests I can, but it seems to be stabilizing as I go.

 

I just keep getting this: Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: BlueScreen
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.768.3
Locale ID: 1033

Additional information about the problem:
BCCode: 1a
BCP1: 0000000000000411
BCP2: FFFFF68000B4CDA0
BCP3: E53000012E74C886
BCP4: FFFFF68000B54D21
OS Version: 6_1_7601
Service Pack: 1_0
Product: 768_1

Files that help describe the problem:
C:\Windows\Minidump\112712-20420-01.dmp
C:\Users\Gary\AppData\Local\Temp\WER-46394-0.sysdata.xml

Read our privacy statement online:
Windows 7 Privacy Statement - Microsoft Windows

If the online privacy statement is not available, please read our privacy statement offline:
C:\Windows\system32\en-US\erofflps.txt

 

I have run so many tests, I am not sure which one seems to have cured my blue screen blues.
Found no hardware issues. ALL crashing has stopped, for now. Not holding my breath, but this is the longest it has run with no issues.
Dummy, I know.!!

 

Its back: Problem Event Name: BlueScreen
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.768.3
Locale ID: 1033

Additional information about the problem:
BCCode: 1a
BCP1: 0000000000041790
BCP2: FFFFFA80033AF920
BCP3: 000000000000FFFF
BCP4: 0000000000000000
OS Version: 6_1_7601
Service Pack: 1_0
Product: 768_1

Files that help describe the problem:
C:\Windows\Minidump\112812-19952-01.dmp
C:\Users\Gary\AppData\Local\Temp\WER-54990-0.sysdata.xml

Just not able to make it go away permanently. Its back to random BSOD as it was before 2xRMA's.
What tests should I run.? Bios updated to 213.

 

And again.Every time different values in the lines.
Does this make sense to anyone.?Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: BlueScreen
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.768.3
Locale ID: 1033

Additional information about the problem:
BCCode: 1a
BCP1: 0000000000000403
BCP2: FFFFF68000089920
BCP3: B47000013983C867
BCP4: FFFFF680000899C2
OS Version: 6_1_7601
Service Pack: 1_0
Product: 768_1

Files that help describe the problem:
C:\Windows\Minidump\112812-19609-01.dmp
C:\Users\Gary\AppData\Local\Temp\WER-46613-0.sysdata.xml

Any help, any suggestions. Please.!!!

 

To end this thread, I have taken the G73JH apart, and will use it for spare parts.
Switched to G73JW, which is faster, and problem free, for now.
Interesting to note that the ASUS repair facility,Bizcom, replaced 2 of the ram chips in the G73JH.???
Time to move on.

 

good to hear. cut your losses and move to the next battle. what the difference between the between the jh and the jw. i should know haha since i have a g53 but yea. have you owned both the whole time?

 

The biggest differences are the graphics card: G73JH/ Intel iQ720/ 1.6 ghz /ATI Radeon HD5870
G73JW/ Intel iQ740/ 1.73 ghz/ NVIDIA Ge Force GTX 460M
They both have the same memory, 8GB and the same HDD 2x 500GB.
They are both my machines, bought at different times.
The JW is faster, but I really liked my JH. Worked well for over 2 years.

 

Well the mobility 5870 would outperform the 460 in games. Could you move the card over?

 

The G73JH messed with me for so long, and after 2 RMA, and still not repaired by ASUS, I just quit.(Tried everything to fix it.)
Sold it today. Gone, with the mobility 5870.

 

You couldn't move the GC anyway, because it won't even fit in G73SW,
ASUS used some really weird PCB for 460m, so you can't EVER upgrade it's GC

The ASUS 460m looks like this:
http://i00.i.aliimg.com/wsphoto/v0/...-font-b-card-b-font-GTX460M-GTX-460M-N11E.jpg

 

Thanks for that information.I don't feel so bad now. The 460m on my machine seems to be doing well. Have not opened it up yet.

 

lol not even for blowing out the dust?
how long do you own it?

 

Yes, I have blown out the dust, but only took off the hard drive cover.
This one is also more than 2 years old.

 

good to see others have no problems with it too =)
My friends G73 had a couple of issues with almost all leds
battery led was on orange all the time, except when turned off and fully charged
the turbo button didn't work it was implementer in LED control button (when the LED cycle (all on/only KB on/all off) was completed) the turbo would change stance XD
etc...

but mine was working great from the day i bought it to the day i sold it =)
I have another G73JH now and M15x, but i have to sell G73JH due to financal problems,
will really miss it tho =(
great lappy

 

It's sad they put all that work into it and you put that money into it and you ended up selling it. Running memtest 86+ and hddsentinel probably would have found the issue. Good luck with the JW. If you ever break your dc jack there's a tutorial for that in my sig.