Manufacturer Warranties and Protection Plans

[texruss]

Greetings!  I am a computer technologist, have owned about 26 laptops since my first one in 1994 (the very first IBM Thinkpad for $7,000).

At Christmas 2011 I bought at Best Buy store 940 in Abilene, Texas the 15 inch Asus i5 laptop model U56E-BBL6 for about $600. I enjoyed the great battery life and decent speed, and was looking to utilize the internal WiMax chip by buying a Clear plan.

So about 6 weeks after I bought the laptop I went to Clear, bought a monthly broadband plan and tried to get the Asus to connect using Clear telephone help. No luck...so they suggested I flash the Asus BIOS.

Now I have flashed over 5,000 PCs and other devices over the years and only had one old, old Dell Dimension die from a BIOS update. So I wasn't too concerned about downloading and trying a BIOS update from the official Asus support website.

So I got the file from their Taiwan website, used the EasyFlash BIOS utility in the SETUP screens and the flash failed. Now the laptop was totally dead, no lights, no power. Tried a few things, but knew it was needing a reflash back to the older BIOS through some procedure I assume ASUS or Best Buy warranty techs would know how to accomplish.

I took the dead laptop to my Best Buy store and the manager Wes called Asus and sent the laptop to the Bestbuy Kentucky repair depot for repair.

Now the story gets ugly. Because I admitted I flashed the laptop Asus denied the warranty claim, stating the motherboard was ruined by my software actions. Now this was done with their own file from their support website using their instructions.  I learned from the Internet this is a known issue with the Asus flash files using their EasyFlash utility. Known to them, but not corrected by the Asus company.

So anyway I refused to be billed for a motherboard replacement, will be receiving the dead laptop back in a few days from the Best Buy "repair depot" (I hesitate to call them a repair place if they can't fix an issue that should have a resolution besides replacing the motherboard). The manager Wes was unwilling to offer me any store credit for the dead laptop. Nice guy, but I need some constructive solutions.

Apparently from Internet chatter if I had LIED and said the laptop just died then I would have received a replacement motherboard. But because I was working for a solution that might help me as well as alert Asus to  their faulty web site Flash files I am penalized. Thanks a lot guys! Glad I could help! *;-)

So I will be attempting to repair the laptop myself when it arrives and with no help from Best Buy or Asus. Prior to this I had a very good opinion of both companies...I have older Asus laptops (the little 10 inch netbook that started the small laptop craze) and have three of Best Buy plasma TVs, and assorted electronic gear I have bought since they came to Abilene 10 years ago. Now my opinion is tarnished...far worse for Asus, but by association for Best Buy.

All the best,

Texruss

[AaronE]

Since you've decided to do this yourself; do you know if the BIOS is socketed (like in a PLCC32 socket) or if it is soldered to the motherboard? Do you have tools like a hot air reworking station, desoldering braid, flux and a soldering iron? Have you done extensive soldering before?

Shame ASUS decided not to replace the motherboard because you bricked it. 

I also assure you that Geek Squad City is a repair depot, they fix over 4000 computers daily.

[Mbrguy Emerging Expert]

---

texruss wrote:

So anyway I refused to be billed for a motherboard replacement, will be receiving the dead laptop back in a few days from the Best Buy "repair depot" (I hesitate to call them a repair place if they can't fix an issue that should have a resolution besides replacing the motherboard).

---

As AaronE stated, the Service Center can repair the computer, but they do not work for free.  Since the computer is covered under ASUS's warranty and ASUS denied the claim, ASUS would not reimburse Geek Squad for the repairs so that is why they didn't repair the computer.  

It's an unfortunate situation, hopefully you can get something worked out with ASUS.

[texruss]

No I haven't opened the case other than to get the hard drive out and back up my data before I sent it off. I will have a closer look when I get it back since there is apparently no warranty on it now. I didn't want to void the warranty, but that's moot now.

I have some ideas on reflashing it and hopefully I WILL fix it. But the fact I have to spend hours of my time finding a solution is not what I had in mind when I bought this laptop.

Asus knew of this issue and they should have pulled the files from their website or disabled the BIOS from accepting their defective files.

Texruss

[texruss]

Yes, I was a bit testy I guess in my dismissal of the Kentucky Geek Squad...I know their hands are tied with warranty issues. My apologies (even though the technician didn't offer his name when he called me...I was surely not going to assault him long distance. *;-)

I was a bit incredulous to hear my local store Geek agents tell me they have no access to Google in the repair shop!

Astounding! I have repaired over 15,000 Windows PCs in 23 years and the past 15 years I have relied on Deja News (later acquired by Google) to find solutions, drivers, etc...for esoteric repair issues.

 No wonder they were unable to downgrade a Vista laptop to Windows XP for a blind user. I had to do that with a hard drive driver from Intel loaded onto an external floppy drive and let the XP install scan that floppy so it would downgrade.

 Never would have figured that out on my own. I stood on the shoulders of giants!

Texruss 

[AaronE]

---

texruss wrote:

No wonder they were unable to downgrade a Vista laptop to Windows XP for a blind user. I had to do that with a hard drive driver from Intel loaded onto an external floppy drive and let the XP install scan that floppy so it would downgrade.

---

Ah good ol' F6 to load storage drivers? It's one of the only reasons we still have a disk drive and disks at my precinct.

I wonder what software the guy needed to run that it had to be downgraded.

[AaronE]

Oh and we have access to google in the repair shop. We also have internal resources at our disposal as well.  

[texruss]

Aaron typed these pixels of light:

Ah good ol' F6 to load storage drivers?

Texruss:   Yes, the "feature" in the Windows XP installation procedure that is rarely needed, but I have used it a few times. Same thing with using Acronis Home Image...sometimes a special string is needed during boot to make it see the hard drives. Great program.

[Justin-BBY Community Connector]

Hey texruss, 

As a fellow Asus laptop owner, I feel your pain-I really do. I hesitate to think about being in your situation because I love my 3.5 year old Asus laptop. Unlike you, I haven't had any difficulties and shutter to think that this can happen with these amazing machines. 

At any rate, AaronE and Mbrguy are correct in stating that we would not cover the cost of repair, as you have since found out, and that most likely you would need to take this up directly with Asus for alternative options. Otherwise, as you stated, you definitely seem computer savvy, so you can attempt repairing it too. I'm sorry that I have to be the bearer of bad news. 

Sincerely, 

[texruss]

I am very disappointed in both Asus and Best Buy in this whole sorry episode. I was assured by influential Abilene customers of Best Buy that my problem would certainly be resolved favorably by the store.

I guess when CompUsa and Circuit City went bust and Best Buy had less competition they became a little bit like the old reputation of Ma Bell (We're the only phone company in town and we darn well act like it).

I certainly will spend all my electronic dollars at Amazon from now on because they stand behind their products and control the behavior of their suppliers.

Best Buy has three times as many employees as Amazon and they both earned the same $50 billion revenue last year. We do have a Frys in Dallas and hopefully they will expand out to west Texas. Great store.

Still, Brick and mortar stores may well become second class businesses in the future as they have so little margin of profit they can't address marketing errors and struggle to compete with web commerce stores with low overhead.

Yes, I will try to fix my laptop motherboard firmware created by bad business decisions online by Asus and condoned by Best Buy.

If don't get it fixed I will have about $150 of spare parts and lose about $450 for owning a laptop 35 days.

If my repair fails I think I will make a Youtube video legally blowing up the motherboard and case out in the country with my 12-gauge Savage over-and-under shotgun. I'll tape my Best Buy Rewards card to the board for good measure. >;->

My highest viewed personal YouTube has 24,000 views.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cfh05RSduEk

I bet the Asus motherboard shotgun execution on YouTube will be more popular than cutting lemons.

If just 1 percent decide Asus sucks and/or Best Buy then I have influenced a sizable number of people to buy other products or elsewhere.

Small potatoes until they tell 10 more people and then they tell ten more and pretty soon we're talking a movement (Kinda like Arlo Guthrie's ending in Alice's Restaurant).

I'll post back with the URL if I blow up the dead Asus motherboard. Should be fun. It will be similar to the humor in the movie Used Cars where they blow up the Mercedes...

Cheers,

Texruss