G50v 2nd RMA and nervous about keeping it!!

I have loved my G50v since the day I got the first sample unit in the US after it was debuted. I have used it for misc gaming on the road and work related use (Sketchup, web and email) until around November of 2009 when it up and died.

The system was running smooth as silk with no hiccups then one day while doing a skype video call it made a small pop sound (could not tell if it was over the speakers or inside the unit) then shut down as if there were no power. Everything was dead on it.... no power light, no LED and no spin up sounds. The brick had a power light on it UNTIL I plugged it into the unit then it went off. Battery removed or installed made no difference. Reset did nothing. Basically it acted like a dead short on on the motherboard.

This was upsetting as I was in the middle of a proposal for work. I was able to pull the data off that I needed via another external usb drive that had a sata drive inside. I swapped the C drive with the external and hooked it up to a desktop.

I ran into my first problem with ASUS support when they told me the shipping was not 2 way overnight shipping like it says on my box and instead was 2 way ground. After arguing they said they would overnight it back.... well they did not ;(

The repairs were a new motherboard and new C drive HD. They replaced my WD 250gig with a Seagate 250 giving me a mixed pair of drives. They also shipped the unit back to me with Vista Home on it instead of the Vista 64 Ultimate. Not happy about that but they did not loose any sleep.

Well its been a few months and the G50v has been running great UNTIL.... Surfing the net I hear a pop again..... SAME DAMN PROBLEM. Totally dead unit with no powering up at all.

At first one would think bad power or some sort of surge. First time was in Texas and second time it happened in La. Second time the unit was on a cooler pad and a powerline surge/conditioner.

I think the power brick is the cause. They did not replace it last time. I just do not know what else could burn out two motherboards like this. Really pisses me off.

This time at least I sent them an image of my box which has 2 Way overnight shipping on it and I got it approved before the RMA was issued.

It has been 5 days now that they have had it (over the weekend) and I am hoping to hear soon what the issue is.

I do not think I am going to keep the unit. I am a bit gun shy now and just do not trust Asus(this laptop) anymore. I really loved it too. Hope you all have better luck than me.

 

Ok, now your making me nervous. I had the exact same issue, got it RMA'd a bit later than you and its been working fine. For me, all they did was replace the mobo since I took out the HD. The HD was fine, hooked it up to my desktop and everything was there. I even did put back in the HD cold too and everything booted up fine.

I love my G50 but thinking about it dying like that (again) is pretty painful. I would ask for a replacement power brick and see if that solves anything but results might take while.

*Also, I shipped it in the original box, yet they gave me another models box and "stuff" inside. Did this happen to you?

 

They replaced my HD but there was nothing wrong with it. They say it was corrupted but I pulled both of them and ran tests to see but I found nothing. Both of them had all my data and there were no bad sectors.

Whats the old saying..... Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. Thats how I kinda feel about the G50v. I can not afford to have this happen to me later down the road. I only have 5 or so months left in warranty and I can not see myself buying a mobo when this happens again.

 

They gave me a new mobo, it has a BIOS newer than whats available for download. I hope that makes a difference, since now I'm expecting it to fail within a month. I believe my RMA is up, but if it fails the same way after "fixing" it, there should be some recourse.

 

Two RMAs for the exact same issue..... Pop and mobo dies leaving the system unable to be powered by battery or power supply.

Seems very odd that it would happen to me on two motherboards. Only thing that was the same is the powerbrick. It has to be the cause. I asked them to replace it and when it comes back I guess I can cross my fingers.


How many other people how this happen? Pop/dead motherboard no power at all.

 

Well today is 1 week since I overnighted my G50v and no one has any new info. I was hoping it would be a week but guess I am going to be looking at longer down time.

Looking at other laptops out there for gaming but Asus really has the affordable gaming laptops niche wrapped up. Guess I will have to spend more money, just hope the others brands are more trustworthy than my G50v.

 

Still no update..... I called and I get the "In repair" line.....

Last time I sent my laptop in to Asus they rocked but this time they are dropping the ball. I just want to know what they are going to do BEFORE they ship it back to me. If they ship it with the wrong OS installed again or change my HD losing my data I am going to bust a blood vessel screaming.

So much for 14 days line I was told ;(