2 year global waranty

has anyone sent their laptops into to asus to be fixed?

I have an a8js with a
broken usb
broken screen hinge
broken ac input jack
and it over heats like crazy.

pretty much its a POS.

im wodering if they replace notebooks?

 

They will not replace notebooks unless the notebook in question has an issue that cannot be fixed by repeated visits to the repair center. (at least that's the policy in EU)

I suggest you RMA the thing. Most of those faults look like wear and tear though (which usually doesn't get fixed from warranty), the A8js is a consumer notebook and not designed to last very long, especially if you use it a bit heavily. The broken screen hinge is a known issue that might get fixed for free...

About overheating, you should clean your fan blades and the heatsink fins, there will be dust buildup there. An A8J disassembly guide has been recently posted, I have it if you want it, or you can search it in the recent threads.

 

thanks! what is RMA?
i just talked to the tech support guy and he said they will most likely replace to mobo because of the over heating

 

This is an interesting comment... I'm glad that this is an opinion that even E.B.E. has. I'm the owner of an A8Js, that in less than one year has been sent for repairs 3 times. I'll be posting a small review of this process in a few days. I'm just waiting for an answer from an email I've sent to Asus.

 

toe4: RMA = sending it for warranty repair (I forgot what the acronym actually means, or I never even knew )

p190x, sure, the A8 is a consumer notebook... I've never denied that.

 

E.B.E. I don't have any problem of the A8 being a laptop of a consumer series. The problem is that the quality of this model is lower than the quality of other consumer notebooks of other brands (HP, Toshiba, Dell, LG, Acer, and so on), and the price is in fact either equal or higher. Anyway, by wednesday I'll post my review (it's already written).

 

RMA = Return Merchandise Authorization

it allows companies to keep track of what's being returned for what reason and what they have to do with it.

and I would second EBE that it's your best course of action.

 

p190x:
I don't have much experience with other brands, but the impression I got from the forum is that ASUS consumer notebooks have in general good build quality. Sure, this doesn't necessarily mean that the A8J has good build quality... and it also doesn't negate the fact that consumer notebooks are not designed to last very long.

I do have some experience with the A8, since I did buy one recently for someone (an A8He, an entry-level model with integrated graphics) and I thought the build quality was OK. There was no significant flex anywhere, for instance; if you search for "A8He review" you'll find the details. I'll have to see how it holds up over time...

I doubt that the A8 is worse than Acers... for every Acer I touched in a store I could almost put my finger through the plastic... this is not the case for the A8.

It is comparable in quality to another notebook I bought recently, the HP Compaq Presario C700.

 

I believe the HP C700 is equivalent to the G7018EP that is being sold in Portugal for €499. Given that the A8Js cost me €1600 one year ago (it was being sold at this price all over Europe), I believe the price difference is huge and better quality was expected from the A8Js. In fact, that is exatly my point. A €1600 (~=$2000) shouldn't be considered a consumer notebook "not designed to last very long, especially if you use it a bit heavily".

 

It might be that with the A8 J you suffer from some faults that have been fixed in newer models. I'm thinking mainly of the cracked hinges problem which apparently has been fixed in later models. I don't remember exactly which models were affected and which not, the A8 owner's lounge might help you there.

Other than these minor things, unfortunately the quality of the A8 chassis is roughly the same throughout the series. The price premium on the higher-configured models is paid for the better components (mainly better GPU but also CPU, RAM, HDD) .

Another thing is that you can't really compare prices in EUR with those in USD due to tax differences between EU and US. From my experience:

Here in EU, you get an entry-level budget notebook for between 600-900 EUR. If you want to increase your config, you pay more (depending on the brand, config, etc.) If you want a business-quality laptop like the higher-end HP Compaq-s, you go above EUR 1500-1600 for machines with integrated graphics and without high-end configurations -- you basically pay a premium just for the build quality. To have good dedicated GPUs and high-end components, you need to move up to EUR 2000 / 2000+.

 

The $2000 is just to give a broad idea of the ammounts we are talking about. I've had problems with the hinge, with the fan (twice) that forced me send the laptop back to Asus 3 times in less than one year, on a total of almost 4 weeks. I.e., 4 weeks out of 48 weeks, so basically I've paid Asus to be without the laptop for almost 10% of the time. When I bought the laptop I had some friends that had asus laptops and they were all happy with their machines. Of course, these were bought in 2005/2006 when Asus seemed to be building high quality laptops. Now, not only with the A8J series (at least) but also with the recent V2, V1 and even some F3 series there seems to be problems. You've been around the forum E.B.E. and I believe I've seen posts from you regarding these models problems.

Actually I don't agree with you at this point. At least in Portugal, you can buy a Lenovo (14'1) at around €1500 with an NVidia GPU (probably not as fast as the Go7700, but then you have to consider the Lenovo build quality), or a HP 6xxx at around the same price .

 

I didn't quote prices on the IBM Thinkpad because I don't know them. My experience with HP, and also a high-end Sony SZ, is what I quoted (there is a thread I made on the What Should I Buy forum about these machines). About the A8, like I said, I believe you paid the price premium for the configuration and not the build quality, whether it was worth that premium is another question... (given your experience probably for you it was not worth it)

You are right in that there are major battery issues with the V series. (V6J/V1J have abnormal battery wear; V1S modular batt kills the main batt) I don't remember now the issues of the F3.

On a more general note now. There are quirks and issues with every model (hinges with A8, battery with the V6 and V1, CPU throttling down when batt charging with the G1S, etc. etc.) They are due in the first place to a lack of enough care by the ASUS designers and firmware programmers, and then they are perpetuated due to an unwillingness of ASUS to invest into fixing them. If you learn to live with these problems, you learn to use your notebook with peace of mind . Most people I see on the forum learn to do this, and they are happy with their purchase.

Because I have little experience with other brands, it is an open issue to me whether these other brands offer a better or worse experience than ASUS. But I highly doubt that any notebook, or indeed any product in our capitalist economies, comes without any compromises (in quality, firmware, or something else). These compromises are due to optimizing design and production costs, with little care for the user needs beyond those that affect the bottom line (i.e., the profit of the company). Some examples from my own research into possible next notebooks: the highly-hyped Dell XPS M1330 comes for many users with careless manufacturing issues like HDD bays protruding a mm from the case, uneven height of rubber legs, and also suffers from a major (in my opinion) design fault: in the lack of a screen protector, the LCD screen rests directly on the keyboard and touchpad!! The Sony SZ has a flimsy screen that you can twist and turn like a piece of paper.

 

That's exactly my point: not enough care from Asus designers and firmware programmers. Not only that but also the unwillingness from Asus to admit the problems and try to find a solution with the costumer. I've owned around 6 laptops in the last 12 years. I've had issues with some of them (batteries going dead in one year of use, HDD going bust, ODD having problems), but only with some models, and never 3 times in one year with the same laptop. Asus support has been great , with a turnaround of 1 week after contacting them, but I would prefer not to send the laptop for repairs every 4 months. The best laptops I've owned until now have been Toshiba (it's more than 6 years old and still runs) and HP (going on 3 years and no problem whatsoever). Never had to contact the support for repairs. They are consumer notebooks.

Anyway, we've highjacked this thread long enough. I hope to post the review tomorrow, and we can continue this discussion there!

All the best.

 

I am totally agree with you that Asus consumer notebooks are made of cheap & weak plastic that will get easily cracks.