Weekend come and gone

Well the weekend has ended. I am typing the following in the car on the way to work (don't worry my wife is driving). Reflecting back I can't say that I accomplished much.
I did't feel very good Saturday. My wife's mother visited us but I slept almost the entire time. Against all odds I did manage to put up one more wall in the basement. It seemed as if fate was against us, as anything that could go wrong did. We vowed to complete at least one wall before giving up.
I played with my laptop a little last night. Since I got it back it has frozen twice and powered down once. I found my 64bit windows ultimate cd this weekend so with a deep breath and a silent prayer I started a reinstall last night.
I prepared for this reinstall (or so I thought) in the nights previous by fownloading all the vista 64 drivers from the asus web site. After successfully reinstalling all I would have to do is run the various driver installs. As luck would have it however some of the installs had damaged or corrupted files. In the end however I was able to get around the problems and went to sleep while windows installed it's seemingly endless updates. I am bringing my laptop with me work to finish the various installs today.

[iBlogger'd from my iPod!]

Asus Laptop Story comes to a close

The laptop was delivered on Tuesday. Unfortunately I was not at home at the time (partially because I didn't know it was going to be delivered) so I missed it. I stayed home the following day however and the package was redelivered. The packaging was very good, similar to when I first received it. After letting it warm up for a while I opened the box, setup the laptop, and read the enclosed summary. The hinge has been fixed and I am happy to report that it no longer squeaks. According to the letter it needed tightened inside. No USB problem was found, but I was unsure as to whether the issue was hardware or software and so I was not unhappy. The cause of the overheating was found and fixed! The summary shows that unit was overheating due to an excessive amount of the compound used to fix the heat sink to the video processor as well as some installation blockage. This is fantastic news! The found the problems and fixed them without any hassle! I've been using the laptop for the last few days and still no squeaking! I have had no immediate shutdowns or freezes. I haven't been able to put the unit under much of load yet but I am intend play some Warhammer later tonight. In the past the game was notorious for causing pretty quick shutdowns. I am so glad I chose to have a positive attitude about this entire experience. It has been hard, but looking back now I would have been anxious and worried about the possibilities that never came to pass. Even if the worse case scenario had happened worrying about it was pointless because I hadn't reached a juncture in which I could affect any outcome. Thanks ASUS, I really appreciate your customer support. I need to remember to post a comment on New Egg where I purchased the items to let people know that I was pleased with their product and their service.

Asus Laptop Update

I tried to post yesterday from my IPod but for some reason I just wasn't able to publish it. Friday I decided to check on the status of my laptop using the Tracking number supplied by Asus. One slightly bothersome item is that although the email tells you that you can track that status of your repair and gives a handy little number in order to do so, they don't actually tell you how or where to go. I was however able to find the correct url after a little digging through their site. When I checked the status it says: ASUS After-sale Repair Status Route is as below: Product Received > (Waiting) > Repairing > Final Testing > Packing > Ready for Shipping > Repair Finished Then in a box below it shows the status as Repair Finished() . Great! So the repairs are done, but without any notes I have just be optimistic and assume that since I have no emails they must have found the problems and fixed them. Although I can see the current status I really wish there was a way to see when the status changed. Since it appears to be at the end of the process and repair center is in the same state I should see a package in the mail any day. In a way its kind of frustrating however because I don't know when to expect it or how long to wait before I should I call and check on it. I'm going to try to put it out of my mind until at least Wednesday.

Asus Laptop Update

I have an update on my laptop that I am having repaired. Today I sent it out with the information provided by ASUS for shipping. I read through and followed all the directions. The destination is actually in my state so the turn around time might not be very long at all. Attached is a copy of the letter that I enclosed with the laptop for the technicians. I am still in good spirits with high hopes! To Whom It May Concern: The following is a list of the three reasons for which I am sending this system into support: The bottom left corner of the LCD screen does not meet up correctly with the Laptop at the point of the hinge. When the laptop is open even the slightest movements will cause the location around the hinge to squeak. You can visibly see a difference at the hinge when the screen is opened or closed when compared to the right side. Because the microphone is in the LCD screen, the noise interferes with its use. The laptop will frequently shut down while being used or completely and instantly power off. My first assumption was software so I restored from the provided backup. Shortly after the restore I still noticed the same problem. From observations I believe the issue may be due to heat. I have noticed when it is cooler the "power off's" seem a little less frequent but still persistent. I thought perhaps it was only when the machine, particularly the video card, was under a heavy load. However I have had the machine "Power Off" moments after a fresh restart with only a single browser window open at the time. Sometimes when a USB device is plugged in or remains plugged in it will cause the system to error and shut down. When this occurs there is a message regarding USB Power loss and a recommendation to change the settings. I have noticed the the USB ports are somewhat loose, particularly on the right side. I have not wanted to "experiment" with the USB port for fear of damaging the system. This machine is one of two identical machines from the same order. To date the other machine does not exhibit these symptoms. I am still pleased with system and ASUS, and I would like to thank you for you time and help. I hope these issues can be fixed. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me via email at xxxx.yyy@zzz.com or by phone at ###.###.####. Thanks,

Asus Our story begins

Well I went to the website a few days ago and submitted a support ticket. In it I outlined my 3 key issues. Yesterday I received the following email with my ticket attached at the bottom. Dear valued customers, you could the send in the machine to have it serviced for inspection, you could contact our service department for more information. Sincerely, Edward PerezNotebook Technical SupportASUS ACI. I have to be honest the grammar and punctuation didn't give me a warm and fuzzy and kind of played into some of my fears, but I decided to look past that and call the number. A positive attitude is said to bring positive results. Today I called the number and outlined the same issues. I have to say the gentleman I spoke to was very polite and agreed that I would need to send the machine in. He gave me service number and followed up with two emails regarding shipping information. The conversation helped to renew my confidence and I am generally feeling better about the situation. Tomorrow is a holiday so I believe the earliest I will be able to ship the laptop will be January 2nd. I'll keep you posted.

Asus The Saga Begins

Around May of 2008 I purchased 2 Asus M50Sa laptops. One for me, and one for my wife. Overall they are nice machines, and we chose them because the hardware was "beefy" enough to meet the demands of both our work and play. Aside from some minor problems they weren't too bad. However shortly after receiving them my laptop screen began to squeak. I don't mean your little random *squeak squeak*, its more of "plasticy" creaking sound that is triggered by even the slightest movement. Aside from being extremely annoying its made using the microphone very difficult as it attached to the LCD and each creak gets picked up. The other issue I have had has been with what I believe is overheating. The laptop simply freezes randomly or even worse it will often times just suddenly completely power off. At first I thought it was software or games that were causing the issue but as time went on it would often happen after a fresh restart and with only an IE window open. I have noticed that efforts to lower the temperature often lead to extended time between these incidents but they still happen much too frequently. Overall I'm really kind of bummed. I really wanted this computer to work out. However both machines came with with a 2 year warranty as well as 1 year accident warranty. In a perfect world all I should have to do is submit a ticket or call the number, send the machine in and everything will be fixed and sent back, and that's still a possibility. To be fair I have no idea how this process will go, but I'm going to try and keep a positive outlook and hope for the best. Additionally I'm going to track everything I do concerning the matter on my blog. Hopefully everything will go really well and I will have a shining example of what great customer service they provide and walk away with an overall "warm and fuzzy" about my buying decision. Hopefully! -stay tuned-