Faulty Nvidia GPU claims another victim (my laptop!)

So it finally fell victim to the Nvidia GPU issue that I'm sure has claimed a few of your machines as well. The machine in question is a ASUS G1S (revision A1).

To be honest, I've hated this laptop since I got it. The hard drive is slow as anything, it's heavy, the lid scratches almost instantly (2 days in my case) and it's poorly made (I've got cracks everywhere, some of them serious) and you can't shut the screen while it's warm or you get stuck pixels everywhere. I treat it like a baby (coolers, wipes, etc) and it's still breaking, god knows what would happen if I actually moved it around like....erm.... a laptop.

A few weeks ago it started locking up while I was out. It'd be left on for a while and wouldn't come out of screensaver. A couple of days ago it started locking up during light gaming, and this morning the screen just crashed (horrible horrible GFX issues everywhere) - and now it won't even post.

I suspect it's down to the Nvidia graphics card in it (8600M GT) that suffers from the well known manufacturing problems that were affecting all notebooks last year. Luckily it's got another couple of months warranty on it, so it's time to contact ASUS support (again, this is the third time it's been into them for various things) to try to get it fixed. Pain in the backside really as this is my main rig and I didn't get the chance to do a recent backup before this happened (Ironically I was planning to do it this morning).

Soooo - time to crank out Norton Ghost to image it - Truecrypt the disk (I always do this to prevent some 19yo bored kid at the service centre from going through my stuff) and to send it back in.

As I've had nightmare issues with ASUS support and the service centres in the UK before, I thought I'd keep a running update as to what I'm doing with the machine, and the support level I've got - so that other's can follow/watch in horror at the spectacle of getting it fixed again.

-BTJ


------------------UPDATE 1------------------
24/04/2009

Sent in a warranty request to ASUS's UK support centre. Stated the problems (graphics no longer working). Waiting to hear back from them now.

------------------UPDATE 2------------------
27/04/2009

Received an automated email from Asus stating that not only they would be collecting my laptop within 2 days, but they'd send out a box to package it in, and I'd be informed of pickup via text message, impressive!

------------------UPDATE 3------------------
01/05/2009

I knew it was too good to be true. Four days later and I've had no pickup, no text message and no contact of any other kind. I have emailed ASUS's main support desk with a complaint and asking to be informed of what's going on.

------------------UPDATE 4------------------
01/05/2009

Response from ASUS Europe, to say that they're looking into it for me

------------------UPDATE 5------------------
04/05/2009

Update from ASUS to say that the laptop should be collected in two days time.

------------------UPDATE 6------------------
04/05/2009

Replied to ASUS Europe, asking confirmation that packing materials will be sent out to package the laptop in (as was specificed in the origional email, I don't fancy un-wrapping the laptop to find that they're not sending a box, and I have to package it up again).

------------------UPDATE 7------------------
05/05/2009

Reply from Asus stating that the courier should bring their own packing material

------------------UPDATE 8------------------
06/05/2009

Courier collected the notebook, and did bring packing material to transport it in!

------------------UPDATE 9------------------
19/05/2009

Sent another email to Asus Europe asking for a status update on this laptop as it's nearly been 2 weeks without any word. Also asked them to contact me before returning the notebook as I will now be at work and won't be at the collection address.

------------------UPDATE 10------------------
19/05/2009

Asus Euope replied and directed me to http://support.asus.com/repair/repair.aspx?SLanguage=en-us. Checking on the warranty status shows that it's 'waiting' - which apparently is the next stage after recieving it (but before repairing it). I'll give them another week before asking for a more detailed explanation.

------------------UPDATE 11------------------
11/06/2009

Still nothing from Asus UK, and the status page still shows as 'waiting'. I refuse to believe it takes almost seven weeks to replace a simple motherboard. I emailed Asus again (using a previous reference number) asking for a realistic ETA on when I'm getting it back

------------------UPDATE 12------------------
12/06/2009

Reply from Asus Europe. Their exact reply was:

"Your notebook had to wait for parts that are not in our stock. As such, it is now waiting to be Swapped with another model. "

I hope what they mean is that they've replaced the motherboard with the G1Sn board that they should have been doing, rather than giving me a brand new laptop, as guaranteed Im going to get messed around by them.

------------------UPDATE 13------------------
08/07/2009

Email from Asus. It starts with:

"We would like to inform you that unfortunately we are not able to repair your Service Case as".....with no reason

It then goes on:

"For this reason we would like to offer your the following Swap Unit"......no details at all, not even the model to swap with

And then goes on about refunding me part of the cost of the laptop (Approx 60%) if the original supplier is still around.


So I've emailed Asus back asking for some details about this replacement machine, and why it was so hard to replace a motherboard, so I can get my original machine back.

------------------UPDATE 14------------------
09/07/09

Update from Asus. They say they can't repair the laptop because they don't have anymore of the motherboards to swap it out with. Even though the model is under 2 years old, and they brought out another motherboard (for the G1Sn) to replace the graphics card problem

They're willing to reimburse me some of the purchase price, as long as I send them an invoice showing when and how much I paid for the machine. They'll then pay the people I bought it from, and in turn they'll pay me (apparently).

I've emailed them back asking for a confirmation of how much they're going to reimburse me before I make a decision

------------------UPDATE 15------------------
10/07/09

Asus emailed me back to say that they're willing to give me roughly 85% of the purchase price of the laptop back. Given the amount of hassle I've had with this machine (3rd repair now) I've accepted the offer.

I'll keep this post open as I'm waiting to see how long it's going to take to get the cash in my hand

------------------UPDATE 16------------------

13/10/09

Yep, this is still going on. A large number of emails have been sent to Asus, with very few replied to. Asus say they've credited the distributer of the laptops, who should of then credited the reseller, who should have then credited me. Guess what? The reseller has no record of the credit and I'm left chasing Asus again.

I've now threatened legal action which got the ball rolling slightly, but after one email from a "customer service representative" I've been left in the dark again.

Honestly, how hard is it to give a single refund?!

Sorry for the downtime

Hi all,

Unfortunately we had a little unscheduled downtime recently which prevented PlanetAMD64 from working. PlanetX64 was unaffected.

The issue from first look seems to be caused by a server crash damaging one of the MySQL tables, resulting in the error you might have seen.

As you can see, it's back up and working now, but you might have to log back in again - sorry about that.

If you do come across anything like this - please drop us a line so we know about it (we can't monitor the server 24x7!), on admins@planetamd64DONOTSPAMUS.com (removing the obvious anti-spam bit).

Cheers.

-BTJ

GTA IV won't work on Vista 64 - no SP!

Just got the game - went to install it, and ..... it won't even install.

The only error I get is "Your system is incompatable with %P" - and a hyperlink to download SP3 for XP.

Typical.


I've just checked the box and it states Vista SP1 - so I'm going to download that and see if it installs then - stupid Rockstar!!

-BTJ

Building a Home Server - Suggestions please?

Hi guys,

I'm looking at building a home server to replace my existing one in the house. It's primary uses will be as:

1. A file server (Providing Storage to my main PCs and Media for watching/listening around the house)
2. A virtual machine host (Providing a webserver, Domain Controller, Email Server, Monitoring Server, etc etc)

It's not expected to do much processing as the virtual machines won't get much use as they're only really for personal projects, and there won't be any gaming on it, but I'm going to need a fair chunk of memory to keep them all running smoothly at the same time (My current server just doesn't have enough memory to run them all without paging constantly).

It's going to be running 24x7 so it needs to be as efficient as possible, I'd rather not have a rediculous electric bill! Uptime isn't as important as in a business environment, if the server crashes or goes down, I'll just reboot it / replace the components as and when needed.

The current suggested specs are below - what do you guys think?

Rig 1:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 (2.40GHz). Runs at 95W so its fairly efficent
Asus P5Q Deluxe
4GB (2 x 2GB) Crucial PC2-4200 memory (I already have this)
4 x 1TB Seagate 7200RPM Hard drives (I already have these)
1 x 320GB HDD (For the primary OS - I already have this)

Rig2:
AMD Phenom 9350e (2.0GHz). Runs at 65W
GIGABYTE MA78GPM-DS2H
4GB (2 x 2GB) Crucial PC2-4200 memory (I already have this)
4 x 1TB Seagate 7200RPM Hard drives (I already have these)
1 x 320GB HDD (For the primary OS - I already have this)

I'm open to suggestions on a graphics card, it should be low powered and ideally quiet, the server is practically going to be headless, so it'll only be for console sessions if something goes wrong. As for a case, I'm thinking of using an Antec Titan550 I have here.

I'm also considering watercooling the server (Just because I've got the parts here and they're not doing anything right now) - but with only the processor most likely to be cooled, and the risk of the pump failing, is there any point do you think?

For a power supply I'm considering something like an Antec EA 380 - but I haven't confirmed it will take the amount of drives/memory yet on th lines.

Ideally I'd like the motherboard to be on this list as it means I can run Vmware ESX server as the base OS, but its not nessassary.

The idea is to run the 4 x 1TB drives in RAID5, and one of the processor cores being used to handle the parity. That then leaves 3 processors for the base OS and the virtual machines.

Let the suggestions commence!!!

-BTJ

GTA IV is coming to the PC!

The Register is reporting that Rockstar has released news that GTA IV is finally coming to the PC!

Although many of our members would have already completed the game on their consoles, I'm sure I'm not the only one that won't buy the game until it comes out on the PC - and now it's definitely coming!


The Register names the release dates as the 18th of November for the US and the 21st of November in the UK, perfect timing for Christmas.

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/08/07/gtaiv_pc_launch/