Asus N73JQ Owners' Lounge

[Sn1g3l]

Ok, now I am getting frustrated, seriously.

Called the retailer. They refered me to Asus support Denmark. Turns out they do have an office.

I call them up and explain the problem. She first asks if I tried removing the battery and power and holding power button for 30 seconds. I already tried this since I believe it was suggested on this forum elsewhere. She then gives me a case number at tells me to fill out an rma form for it.

I go fill out the form and send it. Comes back in the email a couple of hours later.

Rejected! Bios flash is not covered by warrenty. Please add any troubleshooting information I have done and reapply.

I go to fill out the form again and lo and behold.. The entire asus website has crashed and doesn't come back until the next day.

So today I fill out the form again and add that I tried the reset advice. Comes back again after a couple of hours.. Rejected again.

Phone support is closed for the day.

[BrodyBoy]

Wow....not covered by warranty? That's incredible!

Are you certain that they understand you're not just talking about them flashing the BIOS for you, but about a failed BIOS flash that has bricked the system? I can't believe that they wouldn't cover that.

I realize it's probably written mostly with ASUS U.S.A. in mind, but have you taken a look at this thread- Asus Warranty and RMA Guide? Maybe it could offer some useful insights somewhere.

[Sn1g3l]

Third attempt. Got hold of Asus Support again. Got a new case ID and was told to just say 'laptop will not start up' and not mention the bios thing.

[BrodyBoy]

Third attempt. Got hold of Asus Support again. Got a new case ID and was told to just say 'laptop will not start up' and not mention the bios thing.

Ah, that sounds very promising! I hope this gets the ball rolling and you get fast service turnaround.

[DragonglassTM]

Yeah, I think probably because Asus doesn't want to cover the cost, so they'll say that you flashed the BIOS, we didn't tell you to do it, and if it breaks, well, that's your problem. Manufacturers are sneaky that way. They should seriously put out warnings for people doing BIOS flashes, like backing up your BIOS first, take it at your own risk, etc. All the proper warnings. Not just, 'Hey, update your BIOS! It'll take away many problems!'. I hope they'll fix your Asus now!

[BrodyBoy]

They should seriously put out warnings for people doing BIOS flashes, like backing up your BIOS first, take it at your own risk, etc. All the proper warnings.

I'm pretty sure they do include all those warnings in the instructions. In fact, I've often seen flashing instructions suggest not updating the BIOS unless it's actually "needed." Of course, the Catch 22 there is that they often don't tell you what a BIOS update includes or whether you actually need it.

But yeah....if the process is that fragile, they should find a way to be much clearer and more "forceful" in their warnings. For example, there are a lot of anecdotal reports of problems flashing from within Windows (WinFlash on Asus machines), and flashing from certain kinds of drives. They should just eliminate those options, then, and make it one specific process that has the highest probability of success when carried out properly.

In any event, sn1g3l, I think the latest developments sound promising. Keep us posted

[DragonglassTM]

Hmmm, I was reading through my motherboards manual, the P8P67 Pro, about BIOS flashing, and they don't put many warnings, other than, BIOS flashing may sometimes be risky. And that's it. However, they do say that if you back up your BIOS to a flash drive, and if the BIOS gets corrupted, all you do it stick your backed up BIOS into a USB port, and the BIOS will "repair" itself. I wonder how it does that? Everyone agrees that updating the BIOS through Windows is horrible.

Just wondering, I'm gathering opinions, does anyone think overclocking the GT 425M in the N73 a good idea or bad?

In any event, sn1g3l, I think the latest developments sound promising. Keep us posted

Yeah, definitely!

[Sn1g3l]

Hurrah! RMA accepted, finally. I just need to call UPS and make an appointment for them to pick up the laptop.

In my case I don't think backing up the bios would have helped. It doesn't seem to react at all, so having the bios backed up on a pen drive wouldn't help me. There was one short while where the battery led was on. It's possible that some diagnostic might have loaded the bios from the pen drive in that state, but I doubt it.

[DragonglassTM]

Hurrah! RMA accepted, finally. I just need to call UPS and make an appointment for them to pick up the laptop.

Excellent! Everything should go well after this now. Getting them to accept it is the hard part.

Yeah, well, then again, the backing up BIOS was for a full sized, full featured desktop motherboard, so maybe they work differently? I dunno, I don't want to try it.

[Sn1g3l]

UPS picked up the notebook today.