Asus disappointment, just got my Asus back from warranty..

my F3F had power issues. If moved around it would turn off, or the screen would turn off. I had this problem for about 6 months but slept on it. Last week I called Asus and sent it in for repair.

I got it back yesterday and they replaced....THE MOTHERBOARD! what a disappointment, aren't they supposed the best motherboard makers. I am so glad I got the 2 year warranty as part of the purchase. If I didn't have that I could have thrown the laptop away. I am not sure my next laptop will be an Asus, for as much as I am an Asus fan. I was very happy with their warranty process though: fedex next day delivery and fast turn-around time.

I paid $900 for it - a $100 rebate from Asus, so $800 total. In december 2006.

I guess their low-end are just as bad as Dell. what do you guys think?

 

You have a problem because they replaced a board to fix your system? Actually, it seems like they did everything they were supposed to do.

Parts die...people have to live with it. And from what I can see, you had the infamous power-jack-solder problem...which affects ALL notebooks from ALL vendors.

 

Greg is right, the AC adapter plug is soldered right onto the motherboard. They could have done a solder repair on the board, but that would be too much work, and a lot less durable. It will be an occurring problem if they fixed it that way and probably disappoint you a lot more.

Besides, aren't you happy to get a new motherboard?

 

I think you should be HAPPY with them, considering the way you described their service... "fast turnaround time" and next-day delivery is pretty sweet.

 

Scratching my head on this one.

 

I was VERY happy with the service, and it was not a power-jack problem, the board was loosing power. It just seems that there's been a lot of issues with the F3 series. If this would have happened a few months later, I'd be screwed.

They are known for their motherboards but doesn't seem to me that the laptop motherboards stand up to their desktop counterparts.

does that make sense?

 

No, just because you had issues with the motherboard does not represent the entire F3 reproduction line. I don't think the chances of it happening is very high.

You should read E.B.E's Asus Survey. http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=284738

 

Yeah...board loosing power = power-jack-solder problem.

Solder pops off, PSU sometimes cannot connect to board = power off!

 

LOL No need to get frustrated , some people don't understand circuit board logics.

 

If you expect ANY manufacturer of ANYTHING to have a 0% failure rate, you are in a severe condition of naevity, sir. Even Nintendo and ASUS have a few hiccupy units sometimes.

Be glad that it works now and that it was replaced in a timely fashion with few questions.

And if it was a Dell (speaking as a former customer and as an iT guy that deals a lot with Dells) it would die on your piece by piece and still look like **** even when totally replaced.

 

Typical "annoying" customer.

Customer - "OMGGG My notebook keeps turning off!"

Asus quickly repair the problem by replacing the motherboard.

Customer - "OMGGG They replaced the motherboard that they were so good at! Asus sucks!!!! Hate it!"

Stop complaining when people does the job properly =. =

 

so that would affect the motherboard also when the laptop is running on just the battery?


I have no complaints about the service I received. I guess it's hard to discuss something like this in an ASUS message board. I am wondering if buying a low-end Asus laptop is worth the extra $200-300.

 

I don't hate them and I didn't freak-out. FYI I was a computer tech for a couple of years and I dealt with customers.

 

Well, I mostly sell mainstream and low end laptops from HP, toshiba, sony, dell, even Asus.

What I can tell you is that most of the time, after one year, the HP laptop has an issue, either the motheboard dies, or wireless lan, or screen. Those three problems are the most recurring ones. I just hope the thing does not get worse after the whole Nvidia issues.

Toshiba also has problems, but their problems most of the time don't need to be taken to repair, and a recurring problem is overheating.

Dell is fine for the most part, as with Asus, they seem to have less issues but as you mentioned, it depends on which line and model you have. Dell's customer service is a bit... difficult but it gets the job done.

Sony, surprisingly has the least failure rate so far, however... they have the most annoying customer service. They just are too picky before helping out.

Acer just sucks, they do have amazing models sometimes but their build quality is subpar...

Well the point is, all manufacturers have their issues. No laptop is perfect. Having a low failure rate does not mean your laptop won't fail, just that it is unlikely. At least you had your laptop reparied, and it was fast-- keep in mind I have had to wait up to 25 days for some HP laptop to be repaired.

 

it could be worse, I had three motherboards in 6 months!!

 

There is only going to be one line for the electricity to get from a source (either one) to the motherboard electronics - if the fault lies somewhere in from the power jack connection then yes, it could.

Asus tech support will quite frequently swap motherboards as part of their repair service; that's been true for some time and evidenced by many people reporting that TS did a swap as part of the repair. The fact is that if a problem could potentially be due to a fault somewhere in the motherboard, it is far easier and cost effective both from a technician time and a parts inventory perspective to simply do a swap rather than spend hours troubleshooting precisely where a problem might lie, and then attempt a fix.

Say, 20min vs several hours, and you can see where from an economics and customer service point of view do much better -- shorter turnaround time for customer units and a single tech can get through many more waiting units in a given day... Asus probably recycles the removed parts anyway, and the size of their operations makes it less than trivial that they're swapping out one of the more expensive parts of a notebook (although since they make it the true cost is much more minimized, compared to swapping a HDD or LCD).

Otherwise, this thread is starting to get a bit off track and people need to stop taking shots at the OP over his initial post etc. Let's be polite.

 

thanks ClearSkies for the great reply. is there a way to know what motherboard have they put it? I noticed that the VGA port is a different color. is it possible that it is an improved version?

 

It's possible it's a new revision, yes.

 

I think that the premise of this thread is incorrect. Someone on the previous page already said this, but it is unreasonable to expect that any line of products will be 100% fault-free. It is also incorrect to conclude that a product line is bad, on the basis of a single random fault.

But we do, of course, know that the F3-s have another, severe, recurring build problem: the crack in the palmrest corner... That's another thing, and that does allow us to tell that the F3 is not a very good machine from the point of view of build quality.

Also, ClearSkies did a good job of explaining why it is easier for ASUS repair techs to just replace the motherboard.

 

Depends how the notebook was designed.