Just got my G73 back from RMA, and I'm kind of furious.

So, Gary was nice enough to introduce me to one of Asus' repair managers (maybe their only one? I have no idea).

This gentleman, Mason, was equally helpful and friendly. He set up an RMA for me, gave me an overnight shipping label, and all told I sent my laptop in on September 7th and got it back today, September 14th.

Mason was more than happy to replace my heatsink, and even apply the ICD7 paste I supplied him with to both my CPU and GPU.

Naturally, when I got home I fired it up and started tinkering. Ambient temp in here is about 25C, and I'm idling at about 57C. Not as amazing as Chastity's temps, but I was previously idling at 70C, so I figured this was a marked improvement.

Mason also said that after a 21 hour overnight Furmark test (yes HellCry, he says he used Furmark on my machine for 21 hours straight) my GPU temp never exceeded 90C. Not too shabby considering that it previously hit 106C in less than half an hour of Furmark.

But now I haven't even played a game on it yet. Instead, I'm writing an email to Mason and Gary, and starting this thread here. Why?

Because my ethernet port doesn't work. Because one of my four USB ports doesn't work. Neither of these devices show up in Windows, and neither of them are responding to me plugging things into them.

As if that's not irritating enough, my spacebar no longer depresses correctly. It presses fine along the top edge of the key, but the bottom edge where my thumb naturally strikes is very difficult to depress, making me fail to space when typing about 80-90% of the time (I'm typing this on an external keyboard).

Simply put, I'm furious. I applaud their effort to fix my laptop, and the speed with which they did so. But this is not "fixed." This is almost precisely as broken as it was before, just in a different way.

This is completely unacceptable, and I'm simply livid. As a college student working on campus, I live off my laptop and do not have time to send it in for repairs a week at a time mid-semester.

What I want, but do not expect to get, is a new G73 sent directly to me--already set with proper thermal paste--and permission to put this G73's hard drive in it before I return it.

Better yet, send me one of the new G73JW units instead. I'm an NVidia guy anyway (I bought the G73 due to the significantly higher performance ratings of the 5870 over the available NVidia cards at the time, and it's the first ATI card I've owned since 1998).

But this is, in a word, intolerable. I have neither the time nor the patience to do a second RMA in the midst of the school semester. I am beyond "angry," and am impatiently awaiting a response from Gary and/or Mason. I'll keep you all updated in case anyone cares to know how things pan out.

 

Not sure about the ports. Could be a driver issue since they did probably do a fresh Windows install or something. But it's possible it's a hardware issue.
They probably didn't replace the keyboard when it was removed, and that's why the spacebar is giving you gruff. Try to remove the space bar and see if you can see any issues. You can try to at least demand a cross-ship for a new keyboard, not sure about the other issues.

 

All my installations, settings, etc are identical to their previous state. I highly doubt this is a fresh Windows install, as that would mean they took copious notes on my system's setup.

I'm obsessive-compulsive, and extraordinarily particular about the arrangement of my desktop, hard drive organization, etc. If anything was out of place, I would notice.

Maybe I'll check the space bar when I'm less agitated, but that's hardly my biggest concern right now.

 

You should also check the BIOS and see if any of those ports are disabled.

It can also be due to a loose ribbon cable or wired connection. I bet if I had it, I could probably fix it in about 5 minutes.

 

That's a good idea, and I'll be sure to check the BIOS. I'm quite confident I could fix it myself too if it's just a loose cable (I've been doing tech work professionally for over a decade now), I just have no interest in opening my freshly-RMA'd G73.

Same as when I had no interest in personally repasting it when they offered me free overnight shipping... Maybe I'm supposed to be learning a lesson here about letting other people work on my hardware?

EDIT: Chastity, maybe I'm just blinded by irritation, but I scoured the BIOS and saw no option for either USB or ethernet enabling/disabling. Am I missing something?

 

If you've been doing professional tech work then you should open it to see if anything is out of the ordinary on your freshly raped G73. That's what they basically did to the insides of my unit. They even finished it off by splooging all over my gpu/cpu. I had to go back and straighten out a few things in there after I got it back.

 

Check I/O Interface Security under the Security heading in the BIOS Setup. The LAN & USB port security settings are there. If any are locked those ports are disabled.

Cheers,

 

Checked and double-checked. Nothing in that menu (or its sub-menu) is locked. Pretty sure it's simply not put back together properly at this point.

 

Let me know who you talked to I would like to get a shipping label sent to me also.
I have a G73 JH that I got at Best Buy, it has not worked from day one. I have been run around about all I am going to be.
I have taken it back to best buy and they told me Asus has to handle the issues and repairs, this was in the 14 day return time, they would not trade it in or give me a new one. I have talked to Asus and they said to take it to Best Buy that they had a repair contract with them, This has been going on for 9 weeks now!
Best buy took it for repairs and kept it for two weeks, and said that they opened it up and found that the motherboard was bad, and that they had ordered a new motherboard, then they sent it back to me last Wednesday and said that they would not work on it because it had bodily fluid in it from the factory, and that it was infested with bugs from the factory. What! why did they not see this when the said they had opened it. Well now Asus says send it in. But I have to pay to send in a Brand new laptop that has never worked. And I have to wait two more weeks for the honor to use my brand new G73 JH laptop that I have not got to use yet.
I am disabled, and I saved for close 15 months to get this laptop , now I have a broken laptop from the factory that did not work more than 15 to 20 minutes from the start and I have to pay more to get it fixed.
I want a brand new laptop just like I paid for , not a brand new repaired laptop. That is not what I paid for.

You know we come to these sites to see there ratings on what is the best and what to buy. Well now we or I need this sites help getting the laptop that I paid for A new laptop that has in it what I was told it did, that works like it should. Not what I have now.
I'm not blaming anyone here for what happened, but what I do need is the help that this site can give to get what I was to have in the first place. I have been lied to at the store all I am going to be, I can not make them do anything as I do not have the money to hire legal help to make it happen. And they know this and use it. I am not the only one that has the same issue with the same type of computer here where I live.
So of anyone here has a number or anything where I can get this done please post it so I can get it.
If anyone here knows who or how I can contact someone at ASUS to get what I paid for in the first place I will be very grateful . Or can get in contact.
Also I am going to post this in the forum so more will see it, so please do not delete it.
AM I mad , you bet. But not at anyone here , I want to make that clear. After reading about what buyers are getting back after there repairs it just makes one wonder what is going to happen .
Thanks for anyone that has any information that I can use to maybe get this done!

 

BattleNut,

I'm sorry, but being that I'm still in the process of getting the services I personally require, I don't feel comfortable putting you in direct contact with someone whose job may not normally be to directly communicate with customers.

My advice to you is to do precisely what I did. Send Gary Key a PM on this forum explaining your situation. When I did, within a day or two he was in email contact with me and got me the help I needed.

Unfortunately, as my initial post explained, the help has not been satisfactory. But Gary seems to be the face of Asus' laptop customer service here, so he's your best starting point in my opinion.

I do know from email correspondence that Gary is out of his office until Monday, September 20th. So he may not reply until after then, I don't know.

Perhaps a braver soul than myself will give you more a direct means of contact, but as I stated, I'm not comfortable with it at this time. Until my G73 is working as I expect it to, I'd rather not risk incurring more irritation and/or anger from the people at Asus than I have to.

EDIT: On a note unrelated to BattleNut's query, I did get around to some actual gaming. After spending a few hours with three reasonably high-end games in 1920x1080 with settings maxed, I found that my GPU temperature did not exceed 81C. Not too shabby, and hopefully once my paste settles in that'll improve by a few more degrees. I'll have to turn the heat up (literally) tomorrow with some lengthy sessions on games the likes of Mafia 2 and Crysis, but if these temps are any indication I think the repaste was fairly successful. Now if I could just fix these ports (and the space bar, which I was not able to repair by simply removing it and searching for obstructions), I'd feel reasonably pleased with my machine.

 

Thanks for the reply, and that is ok. I fully understand. I will try to get an email off to this person and just wait and see what comes up. I am sure that someone will have a way to get some help. It is that you reach a point where you have to get mad to get someone to listen to what you have to say or need.
Thanks again

 

@Shadyn: I'm in the same boat you are. Except, I sent mine in, during the summer, so it would be ready for the work I'm doing throughout the semester (a little research, a little teaching, a little gaming).

So I feel your pain. Keep in mind that mine went in for work on July 23rd, and SINCE THEN, it hasn't come back without problems. I'd contact Gary, but his inbox is full, and has been every time I've tried to contact him. They even "fixed" my GPU at one point by flashing the vbios ... to the non-working beta version (which they would have seen if they bothered testing it, as it exhibits problems 2-3 minutes into FurMark, and 30 seconds into zombie driver ... and 10 minutes into starcraft) ...

Although I agree; I've been repairing computers probably longer than many of the people here have been alive ... and I don't want to open my G73 and lose my warranty. I suppose that's part of the reason I'm so angry - I keep being told that it is *my* problem, on *my* end.

At one point, after a factory "restore", it came back and asus claimed that my windows install was messed up. Well ... I thought it was messed up too - all the junk they install when you restore to factory settings is QUITE a mess.

 

Hey everyone, I said I'd make some updates on this situation, so here we go.

First, let me state that while I consider the following to be a positive reaction from Asus, it is a positive reaction to a situation that should not have happened in the first place. In other words, it's a good thing, but it should never have been necessary.

I got an email today from Mason, stating that it could be a problem with the connections, or simply a motherboard issue. I'm not really sure I agree with the likelihood of that, but that's beside the point.

He said that he can set up an RMA with overnight shipping (again) to have the issue fixed, the motherboard replaced if necessary, and the keyboard replaced to fix that issue as well.

He assured me that he would make this a top priority due to the specifics of my situation (the fact that I just got the laptop back from RMA yesterday and they should have checked these things before returning it). He said this means it will be fixed in one day.

I'm really not happy about having to send it in, but the other option is to risk voiding my warranty and not even being certain that it's something I can fix myself. As such, I agreed to the second RMA and will be sending it out on Monday (to avoid the weekend extending the time I have to go without the G73).

Lastly, Mason was very clear that he reprimanded the repair team for not having noticed this during testing, and has assured me that he will make sure they're very thorough in their testing this time. Naturally, I don't know just how true that is, but at least he made the effort to reassure me of it.

 

Hopefully, mine won't come back splooged on, broken, or in otherwise worse condition. I was scared enough to not want to send my laptop in, reading some of the new stuff makes me fear more. But, hopefully Mason's chewing out will equate to better testing and my unit will hopefully come home unharmed. =S

 

id say give them another chance to correct a grave mistake. sounds like this mason guy is really down to help u out to the point of overnight shipping and top priority.provided he gets his promises done.good luck

 

That's awesome. I've only had to RMA mine 3 times to get someone other than an entry level tech to look at it. Oh, and asus refused to pay for 2 way shipping the first time, and so when I picked it up, they returned it to me without a box (so if I ever do want to ship it, I'll have to buy a packing box).

I hear Mason is good though.

 

Well I was referred to Mason directly by Gary Key, and hopefully that means something. As hard as Gary's been working to get the G73 up to the quality we all expect (and deserve), I like to think that he would only refer me to someone who can really get the job done properly.

 

It's a little frustrating that going outside of official channels gets you priority service, when those of us who follow the asus guidelines get to spend (so far) 53 days without a functioning $1800 laptop.

This isn't a criticism directed towards you - I'm voicing my discontent so that prospective ASUS buyers will see one more dissenting voice. I love asus products (and buy them religiously, probably still will ... but this is my last asus purchase over $500 unless they really impress me with this 3rd RMA), and this is the first one that hasn't been fixed with a super-fast RMA. Asus really dropped the ball, "repairing" my faulty mobo by replacing the Mobo AND GPU ... with a hot-running, GSOD-ing GPU. Which had hardware faults (still has problems with the new bios) that they didn't bother to check before shipping out. A hardware problem that caused problems almost as soon as furmark was started. Which causes problems in several (but not all) games that I tried, on every driver package I installed.

I guess I understand why Hellcry is upset...

 

So shadyn, how exactly did you work this RMA so that they would switch your ATI 5870 for the GF 460m? Is that a normal option for G73 owners with video problems?

 

What?? where?

 

I have to assume you're referring to this:

If so, I'm afraid you misunderstood me completely. That was wishful thinking, and no such thing is taking place. I'm a longtime NVidia customer (I've been a die-hard NVidia fan since the day 3dfx stopped making cards) and I'd love to have an NVidia GPU in my G73, but I was just saying it'd be nice. It's not actually happening.

Sorry if I was unclear.

 

USB ports can not suddenly stop working in Windows since it is a Windows base USB driver that takes care of it unless it has been disabled in the BIOS.

Since we can't do that it looks like you're going to get a motherboard swap.

I hope Gary's efforts to get RMA up to a standard that is acceptable is not only something that is done in Amerika but also in The Netherlands. I have heard some bad things from several owners that sent in the G73JH.

I live 16 kilometers away from the RMA center in the Netherlands but I can't go there. From what I understood Asus RMA Netherlands subcontracts another company in the Netherlands to fix G73JH. This is ridiculous. Asus RMA has always been bad in The Netherlands. If you send in a motherboard for repair it takes between 2 and 6 months to get one back.

 

Ahh, makes sense. Yes, I thought you somehow made the switch... I have to agree with you on 3dfx. I was definitely sad to see them go.

 

So after sending my G73 out on Monday afternoon, today (Thursday) I received word from Asus.

They apologized for not contacting me sooner, and informed me that my unit had been shipped back out to me yesterday and would be arriving today. This would have been inconvenient, as I did miss the delivery attempt, but with my class/work schedule I couldn't have been here even if I had known.

They explained that the issue was actually that the USB and LAN ports on the left side are not part of the motherboard. They're a small separate board, and the cable connecting it to the motherboard had come loose. They reconnected it and "made sure that it won’t come loose again."

They also gave my laptop another overnight Furmark run to make sure my temps were still good. They said it never exceeded 92C.

So now I'm just waiting for the truck to get back to the FedEx office so I can go pick up my G73. That's not a big deal for me, as I said with my schedule I'm not capable of being home for deliveries most of the time. So I'm actually very used to making trips to the FedEx and UPS offices (they're directly across the street from each other) to pick up my own packages.

They promised me overnight shipping and a one-day fix. I sent it on Monday, which means it arrived Tuesday. They fixed it, and sent it back on Wednesday. Seems like a pretty fair time frame to me. All in all, not a terrible outcome for such a negative situation. I'd still rather have an NVidia card in my G73 though.

 

Ya the excuse is plausible since the ports are connected through cables that are small little buggers. I wonder what the "made sure it won't come loose again" means lol. The temps while a bit high, probably will only hit around mid to high 80's when gaming normally so hopefully everything works and you should have a good fully working laptop once you get it back.

 

I wondered that too. I mean, did they glue the cable into place or something?

And yes, the temps are a bit high. My suspicion is that it's Asus' rather shoddy techs (poor spreading of paste, heatsink not tightened down enough, all the problems that other users have found when disassembling their own G73) counteracting the awesome power of ICD7.

But really, 92C is well within safe parameters and I don't need to worry about overheating to the point of shutdown, heat-related damage, etc. No game will ever push my GPU harder than Furmark (though some may push it equally as hard), so low 90s should be the highest temps I ever reach under a decent ambient temp. I'm really not worried at this point.

I may some day find the courage to repaste it myself and get some nice low max temps, but for now it seems I finally have the gaming laptop I paid for back in July.

 

It could also be that they just forgot to connect it the first time they sent back the notebook, but they don't want to say so as that would not look nice.

I had such a problem before with my older ASUS F3JP notebook. After it came back from RMA, the touchpad was not working at all.

I removed the keyboard and I saw the touchpad cable was left dangling.

 

If you connect those cables properly theres NO WAY it would come loose. Once its plugged in it will stay there - it takes more effort to pull the cables back out. Ive taken mine apart so many times i can say this with complete certainty. They just didnt want to tell you they forgot to plug it back in...
I had something like this happen when i ordered my first custom built desktop (over 10 years ago ) - they forgot to plug in the floppy drive and they told me it "got loose and fell out". After i plugged the ribbon and power cable in myself i knew what a lie that was - it was hard as hell to pull them back out. After that i never ordered a custom built desktop again, but built it myself to make sure everything was done properly. Its lies like this that make me furious, i mean if you messed something up at least have the guts to admit it, or at least make sure youre not talking to someone who knows its a blatant lie.

 

Maybe you should build your own laptop ... u won't have to complain about GSOD's and other problems...

 

The problem with laptops is while they do have a few barebones ones you can custom build a bit, they are not as refined or offer the options like a desktop model. Asus had one a while back I was tempted with but decided against it. You could sorta do it with one of those Clevo style laptops since almost all the custom laptop makers use the same chassis for about 4 years lol.

On the desktop side like HellCry, I have built my own systems since 2000 and always make sure to test every single part before delivery and can proudly say every system I have built is still working today. Quality and attention to detail are often one of the first things to go when you start cutting corners.

 

Yes,I strong believe actually ASUS tech forgot to connect the cable and the cable did not get loose during the transportation.
Usually, they would not like to admit their fault.

As HellCry I have also opened my N71JQ at least 6 times in the last 6 months.
I did many changes like RAM upgrade to 8GB, changed both HDDs, built in a new WLAN card, re-pasted both the CPU and GPU with Diamond IC7 and also built a custom backlit keyboard.
N71JQ does not come with backlit keyboard, so I built my own one with a hidden touch sensor.

@IM0001
I have also built all my desktop pcs myself since around 2002. My new gaming PC is only one month old.
Actually, computers are a kind of hobby for me. I have also helped many friends with building one.