"New" B53S laptop

I'm new to ASUS products, but have just received a new B53S and have a burning question....

Looking in Programs/Features I'm seeing a list of odd programs. It appears that the system was imaged in Sept 2011 - the serial tag shows that as the production date.

But, there is a handful of programs that appear with an install date of 4/1/2011, and one (Windows Live Essentials 2011) installed on 3/31/11. Of those installed on 4/1/2011, there are a couple listed in foreign languages. Such as Windows Live Mesh ActiveX - there are 2 entries with Asian characters before and after the name. There's another ActiveX installation with 3 entries, 2 in Spanish and 1 in French.

The event log shows events a handful of errors (Kernel-Event Tracing and PrintService) dated 2/18/2011 and 4/1/2011.

My concern... did I truly receive a new laptop or does this look like it had been re-imaged or refurbished? Are these normal occurances or really odd?

BTW - It was purchased from a very reputable dealer that I have dealt with many times.

Thanks for any thoughts!

 

This is not normal. Please install Hwinfo32 or 64 HWiNFO32 Download
Then launch it, open the main window - check out the battery status and see what the wear level is. please let us know (it should be 5% or less)
You could also contact ASUS they should be able to tell you the history of your machine AFA being refurbed.

 

Thanks for the reply.

hwinfo indicates that the battery wear level is 1.3%, so that's fine it seems.

I have called ASUS and they maintain that it is a new machine, that sometimes the image will include date stamps that make it appear older. While I get that the files and folders created dates don't jive with when the OS was installed, it bothers me about the programs installed and event viewer showing old dates.

I'm attaching a shot of the event log so you can see what I'm talking about there.

Maybe it's all on the up and up, but I just want to make sure. I don't like the idea of spending good money for a top end machine, and have parts wear out prematurely because it had been a demo, or previously used.

I've some other laptops that I've started up new out of the box and all programs show an install date that matches the date the system was imaged by the manufacturer.

Thanks!

 

If no one has a better idea, you could try using the recovery partition to set windows back to factory settings. (press F9 after power on)
(If you have any data on the machine be sure to back it up first)
More details here http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/99105-how-use-recovery-partition.html
There is no way you should see all those errors when the machine is new (or used for that matter).
How did asus explain the programs with oriental characters in your screen shot?

 

Asus didn't explain those programs. Just kept insisting that the laptop was new. But, he did give me another phone number to call designated for support for business customers. Am planning on doing that today.

I'm debating on just sending it back and have them send me a new one, but since the thing seems to work ok I have a hard time doing that. I'm mostly concerned with premature wear on hardware.

But if I keep it, then yeah, I'll do the recovery. Thanks for the link to info on that.

 

Just to update this thread - I've sent the laptop back. Turned out the DVD drive didn't work. I was about to keep it, but then found that out about the drive. That just reinforced my suspicions, whether they're right or wrong.

So now I'm waiting on a replacement.