Linux Format forums

Re: Hardware rant

heiowge — Tue Sep 11, 2012 5:53 pm

Author: heiowge

Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 5:53 pm

el chapul�n wrote:

The first thing I do with a new PC/laptop/netbook, is purge all of the OEM shitware utilities - that's if it's for family/friends... The vast bulk of the OEM's software is utterly useless and 3rd party shell extensions are notorious for causing the "windows explorer" shell to crash.

If it's me I nuke windows and install a decent OS...

That's the problem. It was my wife's laptop, not mine. My netbook never booted to windows. I wiped that crap off before it loaded.

And it was uninstalling the OEM utils that caused the problem. Leaving them in place fixed it.

Re: Hardware rant

Paradigm Shifter — Tue Sep 11, 2012 5:18 pm

Author: Paradigm Shifter

Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 5:18 pm

el chapul�n wrote:

If it's me I nuke windows and install a decent OS...

I always remove the default install anyway. Windows is never the same once it's had bloatware on it. That and it's usually partitioned up terribly. Why, on a 500GB drive would you want a 100GB Windows partition and a 400GB hidden 'recovery' partition?

Re: Hardware rant

el chapul�n — Tue Sep 11, 2012 4:59 pm

Author: el chapul�n

Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 4:59 pm

heiowge wrote:

Many many phonecalls and Asus trying to blame windows and I find out the culprit is a file called ... ASUSWSShellext64.dll Something related to one of their programs. So I'm fighting Asus over that.

Re: Hardware rant

heiowge — Sun Aug 05, 2012 3:42 pm

Author: heiowge

Posted: Sun Aug 05, 2012 3:42 pm

I only wish they'd put the techie on the line first time, rather than the muppet who tried to sell me it being a Windows issue, rather than one caused by Asus.

Re: Hardware rant

Marrea — Sun Aug 05, 2012 2:53 pm

Author: Marrea

Posted: Sun Aug 05, 2012 2:53 pm

heiowge wrote:

PC crash problem solved. Asus sent us a link to an updated version of their web storage software. Installing corrected the fault. I'd have liked to not have it installed, but since laptop is now functioning, the wife doesn't want to rock the boat.

Excellent. I had been wondering about the outcome of this, which you originally raised here.

Re: Hardware rant

Bruno — Thu Aug 02, 2012 11:44 am

Author: Bruno

Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2012 11:44 am

Good news mate. Don't forget to send them an invoice for your time if you feel that you have been unduly mucked about.

Re: Hardware rant

heiowge — Wed Aug 01, 2012 8:58 am

Author: heiowge

Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2012 8:58 am

PC crash problem solved. Asus sent us a link to an updated version of their web storage software. Installing corrected the fault. I'd have liked to not have it installed, but since laptop is now functioning, the wife doesn't want to rock the boat.

Got a replacement charger for the netbook yesterday. Works great. Didn't send them in my netbook, just the charger!

Victory!!!

Re: Hardware rant

heiowge — Sun Jul 22, 2012 2:42 pm

Author: heiowge

Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2012 2:42 pm

Thanks Bruno. I'll give the issue with the crashing PC a look see.

As for the charger, I told them straight that they could have the charger but not the laptop and they finally accepted and collected the charger last week.

Re: Hardware rant

Bruno — Sun Jul 22, 2012 1:49 pm

Author: Bruno

Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2012 1:49 pm

Hi Heiowge

Under the Sale of Goods act, your contract of sale is with the vendor, not the manufacturer (if they are not the same person/company as the vendor). This means that it is the duty of the retailer to honour any warranty, regardless of whether or not they need to chase their supplier of any goods a purchaser returns as a result of defect. The act (which has been updated [in some form that I can't remember] since 1979) requires that goods must be free from defect (fair wear and tear excluded in the case of a return), be of merchantable quality and be fit for their intended purpose at the time of purchase and for (at least) the first year since purchase. This minimum of the first year covered by warranty is a matter of law, not some nicety on the part of the vendor/manufacturer. In addition, the act states that goods must not be defective as part of manufacture and/or design and that claims on this aspect of the warranty are open forever.

In a dispute/claim on warranty: During the first 6 months, the onus is on the vendor to prove that goods supplied are up to standard, in the second 6 months, the onus moves to the purchaser to prove that they are not. In the case of the crashing laptop, it is demonstrable that the goods are not up to standard as they fail to perform their intended function (viewing pictures). The shifting of the blame to Windows is wrong as presumably the laptop was supplied with Windows and therefore constitutes a component of the goods. The same applies to any additions/modifications made by Asus to the Windows installation. If Windows is at fault (although you have identified an asus dll file as the culprit) then given the performance of the goods, one could argue that they are not of merchantable quality and that they are defective as a result of design/manufacture (and I'd like to be in the public gallery for that day in court).

On the EEEPC's battery charger issue, are you able to test (by multimeter, say) that the charger is dead? If so, I'm sure that it is reasonable to expect a replacement component, rather than whole system, particularly as in this case the components of the system are easily separable. After all, if one bought a new car and the windscreen wiper broke a week later, demanding a whole new car to fix the wiper would seem unreasonable.

If you get no joy on the EEEPC, can you swap out your HD for a blank/other one and send the whole system off? It's not what you should have to do, but it may be the path of least resistance.

Good luck,
Bruno

Re: Hardware rant

Dutch_Master — Tue Jul 17, 2012 12:13 am

Author: Dutch_Master

Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2012 12:13 am

Steam for Linux?

Re: Hardware rant

Ram — Mon Jul 16, 2012 8:13 pm

Author: Ram

Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2012 8:13 pm

Let the steam flow

Hardware rant

heiowge — Mon Jul 16, 2012 3:54 pm

Author: heiowge

Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2012 3:54 pm

Bah! ASUS!!!

In argument with ASUS over 1 laptop that keeps crashing windows explorer every time my wife looks at pictures. Many many phonecalls and Asus trying to blame windows and I find out the culprit is a file called ... ASUSWSShellext64.dll Something related to one of their programs. So I'm fighting Asus over that.

And....

My eeepc battery charger has gone. It's in warantee, like the other machine. Problem is that they want to take the eeepc, replace the charger, wipe the hard drive and reset it to factory settings. I don't want them to have the machine. I just want a replacement charger. The fight continues...