Asus G71Gx-A1 Nightmare

When my G71Gx-A1 first came in the mail, I immediately fell in love. It was awesome! It was infinitely better than my five-year-old Gateway desktop. When I first played Fallout 3 and Mass Effect on maxed settings and the gameplay was smooth as silk, I thought I got an amazing deal. That's where the happiness ended, I'm afraid.

Three months after my purchase, during Christmas vacation, something happened. I'm not sure what, but the fan started sounding extremely loud and high-pitched. Concerned, I called Asus customer support and they told me that it would require repair. Everything was pretty slick. They sent me my RMA paperwork via email right away. I brought the laptop into FedEx with the paperwork and they created the label and stuck it on the box. It was nice that Asus paid for the shipping. It's not something that most companies do anymore. At that point, I was pretty impressed with the level of customer service.

One week passes and then two... No word from Asus. Not even an automated comfirmation email that my laptop arrived and a technician was working on it. Nothing. I sent an email out of curiosity to check on the progress. A day or two later, I get an email back saying that they no longer had the parts required for the repair. They told me that they could replace my laptop with a G71Gx-RX05, which is pretty insulting. Was Asus really telling me that I have to accept a downgrade? And, yes, they said that replacement was my only option, I couldn't get a refund. I'm still fighting their customer service, who have been extremely resistant with me every step of the way.

If I can't get my old one repaired and they don't have any G71Gx-A1 laptops left to replace mine with, I suggested an equivlent from their current G72 line. In that case, a G72Gx-A1 is nearly the exact same laptop as its predessor. When I last spoke with customer service, they told me that they'll see about getting me a replacement from the new line. I flat-out told them that I will not accept anything except an equal-value replacement.

I'm justified in my frustration, right? I can't be the only one who thinks that I deserve to get a laptop of equal value after my last one failed within three months. Three months!

 

Stop emailing and pick up the phone instead.
And if nothing works:
There is a reason for 'Small Claims Court'

 

Phone -> asus supervisor

If that doesn't work tell them you'll make a complaint with the BBB and call your credit card company....normally their attention to your case will magically increase...

 

Alright, I'll call them hopefully in the next few days. Hopefully it'll work out if I do. I'll let you know what happens. Thanks for the advice.

 

You are completely justified in expecting a G72 if they can't fix the G71. That's the point of a warranty! What they are doing to you right now is absolute BS!! I concur with the others that posted, contact a supervisor, escalate it, and if that doesn't work Small Claims Court. Also there is usually an ASUS rep on this forum...send him/her a PM.

 

Dhoom !!!
Not a single company in this world has 100% customer satisfaction. These brands MUST hear to the frustrated customers who put their hard earning money into such products, else MUST be ready for heavy penalty through court. Consumer MUST always be the KING.

 

Here's some additional information. I sent my laptop in because of my fan sounding weird, but Asus reported back that my motherboard got damaged and needs to be replaced. That's the part they no longer have--and what a part to be out of stock on.

One of my friends thinks that my CPU overheated when the fan started acting up. After the fan started being weird, my system stopped being sufficiently cooled. Since my laptop runs really hot to begin with, Ren3 probably knows what I'm talking about, it wouldn't take much for it to overheat without proper cooling.

 

Did you call them yet? It sounds to me that this would be easily remedied over the phone with these nitwits. Be stern, be firm, and take no prisoners. Don't roll over and die, because they will do their best to get the better end of the deal.

 

Man that really blows, deff. get on the phone and see whats going on.

 

@ynobody01
Yeah I had read that there were heating issues with the hardware and so I proactively purchased the NZXT Cryo Lx when I bought my laptop. Then, just to err on the side of caution I applied the copper ramsink mod to my GPU and heatpipes, and undervolted my CPU. Consequently, I have had no heating/overheating issues with the laptop.

Hope you get everything resolved and if you have any questions about adding the copper or anything else, feel free to ask. I believe I posted a pic of my copper and my temps here.

 

this is the only thing holding me back from getting an asus laptop, i do want to purchase the new asus g73jh but im probably going to wait in case their build, although redesigned, will keep the computer from breaking like most previous models. then again... maybe a new beast gateway fx will surface... that'd be nice.

 

Wow! You really decreased the temperature. I wish I knew how to do that. I bet the warranty voids if you mod it like that, though.

 

Instead of voiding his warranty, they should come to his house and ask how to build a proper cooling system.

 

No it does not void any warranties as I can remove the copper ramsinks at any time. They are attached using thermal tape. The undervolting is in the OS so I haven't changed anything that would affect warranty.

I gotta thank Forge, Soviet, E1ement, Sach and Tev amongst many others for posting how to do the copper mod, undervolting etc. It definitely helped me control the temperatures and improve the longevity of my hardware.

 

You're going to have to show me how to do that too. I'm not that technically inclined, but I do have a few friends who are.

 

What you need:
- Sekisui Thermal Tape
- Copper Heat Sinks x3 Packs of 8
- Jeweler's Phillips screwdriver (i.e. a small phillips screwdriver)
- Googone or some solvent

1. unscrew the back cover of the laptop (should be about 8 screws), which exposes the GPU, CPU, RAM, 1 of the HDDs and the Fan.
2. use the googone/ solvent to remove the black sticky substance on the back of the heat sinks.
3. clean the heatsinks of all residue.
4. the tape is wide enough to stick 2 sinks side-by-side so peel one side and place 2 down side-by-side, then cut the tape to form a 2x1 heating block These are the ones you will use for the GPU. Cut the pairs into singles to place them on the copper heatpipes.
5. Once you are ready to stick them down, just peel the other side press firmly (space the blocks as needed).

Thats it! You should be all set...PM me if you have any other questions.

Also here are the 2 threads I used for reference.
G51 Optimization Guide by Tev
Copper Mod Thread by Forge
All the best and Happy modding!!

 

Here I was thinking that Asus was a brand riddled with overheating problems and horror stories. In reality, though, Asus produces the most reliable laptops, according to this chart. Mine breaks within three months, though. I have to have the worst luck.

 

Okay, I followed your guys' advice and I called the RMA helpline, but all they told me to do was to reply to the emails. They didn't help at all.

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 

It seems that my nightmare is slowly coming to an end. Asus has informed me that they do not have any acceptable replacement parts available right now; however, the replacement parts for my old laptop will be there at the end of the month. They'll fix it then and send it back to me. It's kind of ridiculous that it's taken over a month for parts to get shipped to them, but at least I'll have a laptop again.

 

I purchased my G71GX-A2 notebook from tigerdirect november 17, 2009. On January 1st is shut down on me and when I attempted to turn back on it would not post and the screen showed nothing. I RMA'ed it and the Indiana service center recieved it on January 7 of 2010. I was told at first it would be a 3 to 4 day turn around time but that came and went. I called a week later and asked for the status and they said they were waiting on parts to replace it and that it would take 2-3 weeks for them to recieve them. Well 3 weeks went buy and I called several times during that time and always got the same answer they are stil waiting on parts. Well on the 4th week I called and they told me they recieved the parts and that it was under final testing getting ready to be shipped out. I called the next day and they told me they were still waiting to receive the parts!!! I was pissed due to the fact that the previous day I was told they had them and was ready to ship me my notebook so pretty much I was lied to. I finally got ahold a supervisor and she told me she would contact them and see what was going on. I got an email a few days later and was told my parts woul be in by the end of the weekthis is what email said quote
"We apologize for the delay in service and the inconvenience this may have caused you. We would like to inform you the replacement part will be received end of this week and the unit will be repaired immediately and be shipped as soon as possible. You will be provided a tracking number once unit shipped out. Please contact us if there are any questions, issues or concern, you can call at: 510-7393777 or log-in at: http://livesupport.asus.com."

Well I called the following monday to check on status and they said the service center sent me an email and to check it and this is what the next email said quote
"We apologize for the delay in service and the inconvenience this may have caused you. Due to non-availability of the replacement parts up to this time, we would like to offer you a comparable unit as a replacement. The model number of the replacement unit is G72GX. This is final and data will not be back up to the replacement unit. However, if the parts become available while the replacement is being processed we will repair original unit. Please review the attached specification and confirm if you are willing to accept the replacement unit after further review. To do this, please send us an email to: [email protected] to confirm."
So after a month and a week of waiting and being lied to this is what the ending result is. I dont know if I should take the new one or wait longer what do you guys thank? I really like the look of my G71GX-A2 but I an really getting sick of waiting.
Got an email they are replacing my notebook with the G72GX-A1 due to no parts available for my G71GX-a2

 

Although ASUS offers outstanding value to product and warranty, nothing is perfect. Based on my own experience with their customer support, the response from them is slow and initiative. I waited over 1 month with phone calls back and forth to get a replacement for a faulty UL30-X4 and it wasn't the same model either. I've made the agreement to accept what I justified equal value of notebook though.

Glad to hear you will have a working laptop back

 

I got a G72Gx-A1 back. From what I can tell, it might even be brand new. It works great and is even better than my old G71Gx-A1. It has more space, better speakers, a better design, and the fan actually works--always a plus. My only complaint is that I can't seem to get the wireless adapter to work. It worked at first just fine, but it stopped working in the middle of updating Windows 7 and hasn't worked since. I'm afraid that it somehow broke and I'll be out a laptop for another two months. What the hell!

 

try uninstalling the wireless drivers and re-installing from the factory disk. Windows update might have messed with it.

 

I haven't actually tried that yet. Good idea.

 

Thank you so much for that suggestion. I uninstalled the driver, deleted it when I was prompted, re-installed it with the driver disc and updated it via internet. After updating the driver, my wireless started working again.

I tried updating the driver before, but it insisted that the driver already was up-to-date.