My W3J fell 10 feet into a pile of rocks/gravel/mud

and it still works!

I'm amazed by the sturdiness of this laptop. I've had it for about 6 months now and I am an over the road truck operator, which means it's constantly bumping around in the back of my rig. While I was impressed with that alone, yesterday's test has made me ecstatic. You simply can't damage this thing.

I put the laptop on the hood of my truck, which is about 10 feet high, because I left my keys at the shop. So I went to get the keys and got back to the truck and turned it on totally forgetting my laptop was on the hood like a moron. 5 minutes later I remembered and looked on the hood. No laptop. I panicked and ran to the front of the truck and there it was, face down in a pile of rocks and mud and grave. Wet, muddy, and at first looking destroyed. I picked it up and quickly wiped the mud away with paper towels. Since it was wet I got as much of the water off of it as I could. I didn't want to boot it up because it was probably wet on the inside, so I waited about 2 hours til it dried out completely and booted it up, crossing my fingers and hoping for the best.

And it worked! I'm blown away.

This is my first serious laptop and I can easily say I will never purchase anything other than an ASUS laptop again. And probably nothing other than the successor to the W3J series.

 

WOW!! thats awesome! The w3 quality is very very good and the proof is here.
But now it have scratches? Because of the fall,no?
W3 series, for me it's the best well built laptop. ( like my v6 )

 

can we please see some pics?

insane!

 

Some picture please....maybe your W3J was branded as a limited edition Toughbook or Thinkpad!

 

Unfortunately, the W3 series has ended its 'reign'.

Hopefully the V2 can continue its legacy in terms of quality and design, while the A8 will continue the struggle for more, more and more power

 

lets spam asus with emails requesting to continue the w3-series

And I also wanna see pics

 

I don't have pictures because there isn't a scratch on the thing! I mean, I can take a picture of a perfectly fine W3J if you'd like because that's what it still is. My friend who is also a trucker has one of those Toughbooks and it's scratched like crazy while mine can sustain 10 feet falls onto rocks.

What is the V2? Is it a sturdy laptop with a great video card? That's the description of the W3J in my mind. I agree wholeheartedly that ASUS should continue the W3J line. I can't imagine being more impressed than I am.

 

Wow, that's terrible news, but glad it still works. Be more careful with your notebook!

 

Well, the OP beat out my tallest and hardest drop... 10' onto a pile of rocks is pretty darn hard to do, but I'm glad it survived. Now... no scratches is really hard to believe, but even if that was the case, it's really not that big a deal to replace some chassis parts.

Consider yourself lucky and I wouldn't suggest letting it happen again because that's just too hard of a fall to survive twice...

 

W3 = End of Line

Continuing ASUS's 14" lineup is:

A8 = Budget, Powerful(max current 7700), 14", plastic build
V2 = Business oriented, CF+Magnesium build(like the V1), docking station, 3.5g wireless, weak GPU(forget what it was)

 

That's great to hear your lappy is still working!

 

Im glad I own a w3j, and that yours is allright. But I'd have to see it, or atleast see some pics to believe no scratches etc, i mean 10 ft is pretty darn high.

 

The V2 is really what's picking up the slack of where the w3 left off. It's got an x1450 in it, but in reality, it's the closest thing to a replacement for the W3 we'll ever have. The w3 was the "professional" model, but everyone wanted more features and more battery life... for the professional graphics person that's traveling... the x1450 is going to be a good chipset. It won't be the best at high end gaming, but that's really not what this system is about. It's about weight, battery life, and all out functionality...... in a quality chassis.

 

I told Asus your story, it looks Asus wants to use your story as their marketing material, just wondering if you can provide some photos.

 

While you're at it, tell them to bring the W3 back lol! There isn't much of a point marketing the story when that notebook isn't even in production

 

Asus can still use EOL model for marketing purpose, just like Asus is still using A2H for that purpose.

It is not because Asus wants to discontinue W3J, and it is not because higher RMA rate either, the reason W3J goes EOL is simply because W3J stoped moving after A8J showed up.

The first time I saw W3J and A8Jm was late March last year, at that time, they were not in production yet, they were just sample models and prices were not set. I ask them why they wanted two models that close, they said they wouldn't care these two models competing with each other, as long as one of these two went well in the market, then it would be fine. It turned out that both W3J and A8Jm were popular.

When A8Js kicked in, the W3J started moving slower amd slower, I told them lots of people like W3J very much, but Asus said: if so, why it was not moving?

Right now, Asus is still trying to clear out W3J H0026, the one with T2500 CPU, the other day they asked me to make an offer to take them, I was hesitating on this, and offered a very low price, but I knew my offer was too low.

A question for you guys: At what price the market can accept W3J H0026?
BTW, it is T2500, 1024M,100G, DVDRW, XPPro, 1 yr global warranty.

A few other models Asus wants to move too, please tell me what you think should be done to move them in the market, please be serious and reasonable.

1.MCE --> W2JB-Y007M

2.XP Pro --> V1JP-AK006P

3.Vista Home Premium --> A8JR-4P021C

4.Vista Business --> V1JP-AK023E

Sorry to hijack this thread, maybe the mod wants to move this topic some where else if necessory, I am just helping Asus to get some public opinions here, to give them a feed back next week.

 

I guess the W3J survived due to the aluminium lid.

I am not sure how the W3J successor V2, would survive a fall like this considering the chassis is lighter and does not use aluminium..

 

10 feet? That can't be right... that's like falling from the height of a basketball hoop! The laptop surely would be smashed to pieces. There must be some hyperbole action going on here...

Either way, sounds like a great story and I'm glad it held up!

 

w3j with 2500 needs a price about 1600 minus t7200 retail price

or 1300$

 

either one hell of a story, or some fanboi action going on here.

I'd love it to be the former. Would be great to show it off, would put in in the panasonic toughbook league.


insane

 

I think the wet mud must of acted as a cushion. I can't imagine any laptop falling from 10ft into rocks/gravel without having any scratches.

Congrats on the survival though... I wonder if the toughbook would survive that kind of drop.

 

Although i dont want to be the bearer of bad news i felt you should know. Out of the majority of rma claims we decline due to spills most are sent in by people who do not mention there was ever a spill. these laptop come in broken and need mainboard replacement with obvious water damage that can be a month or a year old. Just becuase your laptop works now does not mean that the water damage inside is not affecting it. take off every panel and kb and make sure there is no liquid inside. you probably will not see it anyways. all it takes is one little bitty drop and then death takes its toll sometime later. i see it pretty much every week sometimes more. I find it funny how reluctant people are to admit it until i send them pictures or tell them exactly what was spilled on it. My advice is take it to your dealer and have them "wash" the mainboard with a proper solution if your deale ris even equiped to to that. Otherwise wait for it to die and call asus. maybee you got lucky maybee no water got to the inside.

 

The thought of seeing a notebook drop hurts me >.<

 

I remember reading this 6 months back....

I doubt that the V2 would be able to survive a fall like this, much less come out unscathed.