My negative experience with the ASUS GL502VS

I bought a GL502VS-DB71 a little over a year ago, it has been my daily driver, even replacing my desktop setup, I haven't had a problem until the r̶i̶g̶h̶t̶ left hinge housing pop-ed open. I was in Taiwan at the time, so I walked into their service centers, the rep there was pretty nice, but I didn't have time to repair it there as I was coming back to the States in less than a week. I contacted ASUS in the US, who said they wouldn't cover it under warranty, but it was covered under their ADP program (waving the entire repair cost), so kudos to them, albeit repairing took over a month without up-to-date status updates.

A little under 4 months later, the e̶x̶a̶c̶t̶ ̶s̶a̶m̶e̶ other hinge broke in the exact same manner, what's worse is that the warranty is past expired, and ASUS gave me an estimate of $690 for the repair, I know an estimate isn't final, but considering I live on the west coast and the nearest repair center is in Texas, shipping is a bit expansive. The first repair cost was billed at around $300 (I have the original invoice somewhere), and the repair estimate in Taiwan was 5000NTD (~170USD),..

I always loved ASUS products, I own an ASUS router, phone, tablet, TUF motherboard, ROG motherboard, 2 GPUs, disk drives, and was even considering buying one of their new upcoming phones, but this damn hinge and that absurd price estimate (it'll be cheaper for me to sell the laptop as-is, give free shipping and buy a new one) are driving me away from buying another ASUS product or even being able to recommend an ASUS laptop.

EDIT for clarification: The plastic housing the hinge attached to the screen is broken, not the actual hinge
EDIT 2: Actually, the other hinge broke this time, which means both hinges have failed to date.

 

I know this doesnt really help, but its why I dont buy laptops that I know I cant repair on my own.

The thinner is better mentality that swooped into performance machines only makes repairing on your own more complicated. I had been a broke Uni student for the past 3 years, and just like with cars doing the labor yourself reduces most costs by 80%.

But thats where my bias comes from...

 

I have heard too many stories like this about Asus laptops. As far as I can tell the quality of the components and materials they use is very shoddy - either that or the engineering is very poor. They might make good motherboards, but they don't know a thing about making a good laptop.

I'd suggest either repairing it yourself, or selling the laptop and buying something with better build quality (and that is easier to repair).

 

Is it the frame the broke or the actual hinge?

It might be worth looking into especially since the price is so absurd to send in for repair.

Most (if not, every) laptops have breakdown tutorials on youtube.

Just might be worth looking into

 

Unfortunately the plastic hosing itself is cracked open (or rather, the cruddy retainer clip holding it together is), i would replace it myself, but the entire bezel and top of the hinge covers are one solid piece, so finding a replacement might be hard. I did find a screen replacement thread (which requires removing the hinge) over at ASUS' ROG forum, but again, finding the part is going to be hard.

 

Look for your service manual online, typically, thats where you will find the part numbers then you can reference it on ebay (generally the best place to find replacement parts, I find).

 

post pics. I wanna see your busted laptop.

Plastic laptops usually bust open eventually after long term use.

I've taken apart the GL502, and the part where the hinge attaches is actually reinforced with metal.

the metal hinge itself never breaks. But the excessive torque causes the case to bend and pop open.

These hinges usually have a nut where you can lessen the torque so it doesn't put so much stress on case.

 

I should have clarified earlier, the hinge itself isn't broken, but rather the plastic housing that connects the hinge to the screen is.
Above: The second time its cracked (taken yesterday, this is the same image sent to ASUS customer service)
Below: The first time it cracked, that image was taken by ASUS at their service center.

Normally this woulden't be a problem, but whichever dumb engineer designed this thought it'd be ok to hold an entire screen assembly with something shaped and sized like a sideways flathead screwdriver off a multitool and a plastic retainer clip instead of using screws and a plate to properly hold the screen and distribute the stress. Seriously, I've seen pin comnectors with beefier construction.

 

Not as bad as I thought. I thought your whole laptop busted open.

that's weird. That's just a snap on piece. It should spin freely around the hinge.

I'm thinking there's gunk around the hinge that prevents the plastic piece from spinning around it, and then with stress it cracks open.

The other hinge doesn't have a problem

 

Actually, now that I look at the pictures, the 2 pictures are of different sides, which means both hinges have failed to date.

Idk how I forgot and didn't realize the left hinge broke the first time and the right this time.

Funny thing is, the right side spins freely now, as in, it flops around.

Update: I found the part on Aliexpress, but at this point I'm considering re-engimeering the hinge assembly.

 

what's the link for the plastic piece on aliexpress ?
i searched gl502 and it's not coming up

 

Its $28.95 with free shipping, 2nd cheapest is $38.80 with free shipping, try searching for 'GL502 LCD' and sort by price.
At this point I'm seriously considering repairing it then selling it or just selling as-is for repairs and buying another laptop, I've heard good things about Clevo's and Dell/Alienware's build qualities.

 

Alienware is worse, Clevo is serviceable.

 

So I take it for granted the recent Alienwares (specifically the 15 R3) are not built like the good old XPSs?

I was also looking at the Clevo P950ER, as its pretty cheap when stripped down and I have parts just lying around, but since it has yet to be released, there are no reviews, no known problems, and no benchmarks.

I've also heard that MSI is hit or miss, one of my buddies had to send his back twice for HDD failure, another for his bezel falling off, and another has a panal with very poor viewing angles, but the first two haven't had a problem since.

 

Alienware had a paradigm shift in mid 2014 and they've had serious QC issues on everything they have ever released since then and people are still arguing about how to fix it. Some are lucky and work just fine but most have to replace 2-4 systems (or heatsinks, since thats the specific issue) before having a system that didnt operate at 100c or throttle to 800Mhz on the CPU for no reason at all. They are still those that swear by them though... @Raidriar has many of the Alienware lineup up to 2013, he wont fluff his opinion and there may be some that disagree but he calls it like he see's it.

Clevo is serviceable, they've had issues with some warped heatsinks but from I heard good things about the P650XX type machines, but I have no experience with them or knowledge outside of that. If you decide to go with a Clevo machine make sure to go with EVOC so you can hopefully get a Prema BIOS (which enables more control over system behavior) as well as have them repaste for you and still be under warranty. I had a P157SM-A that was a solid machine but I just didnt like the keyboard layout and sold it to my brother, otherwise very respectable machine. @HTWingNut has had some experience with Clevo laptops in his reviews in the past. Not sure what he's up to lately but maybe he can give a different perspective.

From what I read on here, MSI is the best "out of the box" but they have their own issues like Hybrid battery so they cheap out on AC adapters (pending model of course), have on average better screens and the cooling systems are generally adequate. Of course that is pending the specific model your looking at. I would contact @Phoenix if you want more info, he's kind of the guru on that genre of laptop.

 

Darn, I've seen and briefly used a Windows 7 era Dell and own a M5000 series Alienware (bought from GoodWill for 20$) and both of them were built extremely well and seemed easily serviceable.

Funny thing is, I actually limited my choices down to a Clevo P650 and this ASUS GL502, and the GL502 won because of the 'ASUS' brand name, ROG forums, and local availability
Little did I know at the time that none of it actually mattered as Clevo has reputation much better than I realized, large userbase, and Prostar's HQ isn't far from where I am (or that they have members here on NBR).
REALLY regretting not choosing the Clevo right about now.

MSI's chargers couldn't possibility be worse than my ASUS chargers (plural), as I've had 2 of them fail from what I presume is the charger overheating and melting something inside (I actually stuck a heatsink and fan on the 2nd one, and it still overheated and failed), thankfully the service department at Fry's just gave me a new charger both times. (They weren't as helpful with the hinge housing though). The 3rd is actually rated for a lower power (120w as opposed to the 180w stock) and it seems to be fine as I've done overnight renders and simulations without anything failing or catching on fire (and the CPU blazing at around 95-97C), idk if its just the laptop limiting itself on power consumption after the infamous battery-drain-outrage-BIOS-update
I would consider a MSI, but the Clevo is far cheaper for the same hardware

The 3 other manufacturers I'm avoiding are Gigabyte, Acer, and HP
Gigabyte: I've had bad experiences with their tablets and lower grade motherboards before. Someone I know sent in a GPU for RMA because the heatsinks were horribly damaged and got the same GPU back, with the damaged heatsink still on it.
Acer: I believe they've had enough time to switch out laptop engineers (from the time when they were known for bad laptops), but new ones seem overpriced.
HP: I've had 2 of their laptops overheat to the point of permanent failure, enough said.

Back onto the original topic, I sent a complaint to ASUS's CS asking them to verify the estimate, and they confirmed it to be 690$. And whoever responded must've skimped over the case and complaint, because they think that I've only owned the laptop for 4 months (when the original message stated that the hinge broke 4 months after receiving it back). At this point, it's pretty obvious ASUS doesn't want to take responsibility for a faulty design, but I'm going to try calling them tomorrow (technically later today) and see if the guy on the phone can do any better (seriously, I've had it with these copy and paste messages).

 

Its not that they are worse, its that they spend less on them. Instead of just getting a 210w AC Adapter they opt for 180w and pull power from the battery at the same time, which creates a host of other issues. Most notably clean power delivery and undue wear on the battery.

As for the other mentions, I havent had any experience with them. Acer looks like they are trying to break out of the garbage mold though.

 

The MSI GS line is the cheap stuff that can suffer from the issues you mentioned. The GT73/75 are excellent, with high-quality screens and some of the best cooling available. The 16L13 (EVOC 16L-G-1080/Eurocom Tornado F5), which is an MSI chassis but not sold or serviced by them, also has great screens and is arguably the best desktop replacement notebook that offers some degree of portability. Unfortunately, firmware restrictions and fans that tend to die prematurely hamper its true performance potential. The Prema BIOS attempts to work around said limitations as best it can, but even then it's basically impossible to circumvent all of them. As such, it can take some time and effort to tweak the machine to balance performance and temperatures. I spent the better part of a month working around stability and thermal issues, but now my 16L13 is to the point where the CPU can handle Prime95 with AVX instructions running at 4.5 GHz on all cores, and the GPU passes the 3DMark TimeSpy stress test. The experience was certainly educational, but I'd hardly call it fun. Maybe if I were still in college, I would have enjoyed it more, but I work 2 jobs and have a family to feed so I have nowhere near the time I once did to really dig into this stuff.

Shoutouts to @Falkentyne @Lunatics @Huniken @Mr. Fox @Robbo99999 @Papusan @matyee for their valuable insights, and apologies to anyone who trolls the 16L13 Owner's Lounge I might have missed. Also props to @Donald@HIDevolution for another excellent sales experience and @Zoltan@HIDevolution for handling a tech support issue I had with the machine.

 

Yeah, I would say the 16L13 (EVOC 16L-G-1080/Eurocom Tornado F5) is an enthusiasts laptop, and suits best to someone who likes to really understand their laptop and enjoys tweaking it for max performance - to get the best out of it you'd want to spend some time tuning it, that's the impression I get from spending time in that forum. If I hadn't have put together a desktop, it's quite likely I would have bought that laptop, but then I like to tweak & tinker with them, so that would suit me. The inclusion of a desktop CPU in that laptop is likely it's most unique & compelling feature.

 

Im not sure if that is something the OP is interested in, however. THE GL he had is a bit on the lighter side in comparison to the F5 so I would assume he would want something in that range.

Of course I could be wrong

 

To be honest, I think this machine would have run fine if I just wanted a desktop equivalent laptop without any OCing or maintenance, I think at normal stock everything this laptop would have performed fine with a proper paste job. Trying to OC and bring the CPU up to 4.5...4.7...5.0GHz is pretty huge that some people even struggle to get to in their desktops, so the fact that a laptop can accomplish some of this, and with enough tweaking be stable and have decent temps is a credit to itself. I think that running this thing at stock 7700K speeds and everything else would give you amazing performance similar to a desktop, and not quite have to deal with any temperature problems or overheating or serious tweaking. I love my laptop and cannot speak highly enough about it and the service I got from @Donald@HIDevolution and HID in general. I still have my laptop running at a constant 4.7GHz and performance is good, CPU temps are always pretty good even during gaming (fans on high, no cooling pad or anything). The only thing I actually have an issue with heating up is my GPU which will go up to 90 degrees at times. I do not like it and I am sure there are things I could do about it but currently I am using the laptop for work so I don't want to get too involved with taking it apart and having to rush to put it back together. Some games will destroy the GPU and others will run fine, I don't get it. Runescape (LOLOL) will absolutely destroy my GPU for some reason, I have never been able to understand why that POS game seems to take such a toll on computers but when I had it set to default high settings it was pegging my GPU up to 90 degrees. I turned down some stuff like lightning and ambient occlusion and shadows etc and now it typically runs at about 60 degrees in that game. I have no underclocked or undervolted the GPU and am running the prema bios mod that allows it to draw more power, so I am sure that has an effect on it and I am sure I could be managing the GPU temps better but I will not be using it as my primary machine much longer once my desktop is built and it will go back to being a "laptop" that I use on the go and will not be AS worried about temps when I do use it.

I don't know if a laptop like this is something the OP is looking for, but despite the little bit of work and tweaking myself and other people put into this machine, I cannot speak highly enough about it. It is just such an absolute beast that I can carry a desktop around in my backpack and still be very portable for the power that is in it. I mean this thing weighs about as much as Thinkpad E550s that I use for work, and those are half as thick as this laptop and no where near as powerful. The thing is honestly so gracefully light and portable for it's power I still can't believe it. The one drawback to this is that the power brick is heavier than the laptop and that makes up for the weight of the computer, but the laptop itself is an extremely light and portable machine for its power imo. So much so that I did not believe the weight on it and that it was as light as people said it was, so I drove an hour and a half down to microcenter in New York just so I could see the MSI version of this laptop and get my hands on it and pick it up and feel it to see if it was actually as bearable as people said it was, and the whole drive home I could not stop thinking about how I knew this was the laptop for me and I couldn't wait to order it.

Desktop power, not an overly thick or heavy machine, can still fit in a backpack and be carried around fairly easily, can be debranded so it just looks like a basic black standard laptop. If it is something that fits into the OPs needs or is a consideration, I cannot recomend it enough. Only real complaint is I wish there was maybe 1 or 2 more USB ports on it, and or that there was at least 1 or 2 ports on the left side of the laptop and not just the right, but these are minor complaints and could easily be solved with a TB3 usb dongle in the back of the machine. Plus one of the best things is you get an active thread on the forum with almost 1000 posts now with quite a few people who have this laptop or experiences with it and can help, where as I have noticed some other threads for specific model machines do not seem quite as populated as this one has.

 

Unfortuntally TheRecievers right on the mark, portability and weight were factors when I bought the GL, the 16L13 sounds like an intresting laptop, but if weight and size hadn't been a concern, the Frys I was at had GT80 titans with dual GTX980s for less than the GL502

 

I looked at the P950 and on paper it looks to be a fine system, has a similar heatsink design to the P650XX I used to be interested in back in the day.

I would look over the owner's lounge to see how people have received that product line.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/official-clevo-p950hp6-sager-np8950-owners-lounge.804747/