Linux Format forums

heiowge · Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2012 3:54 pm Post subject: Hardware rant

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... Mad

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AMD PHENOM II X6, 14 GB DDR3, 500 GB hd, 1GB nVidia card, running Linux Mint 14 KDE / Win 7. Damn thing keeps breaking.

eeepc 1015PX, 1.66 Ghz Intel atom processor, 2 GB DDR3, 320 GB hd running Mint 14 MATE. Running great.

Ram · Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2012 8:13 pm Post subject:

Let the steam flow Very Happy

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Ubuntu LXDE 12.04 running on AMD Phenom II*4; ASUS Crosshair III Formula MB; 4 GB Ram.....

Dutch_Master · LXF regular Joined: Tue Mar 27, 2007 2:49 am Posts: 2359

Steam for Linux? Wink

Bruno · Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2012 1:49 pm Post subject:

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

heiowge · Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2012 2:42 pm Post subject:

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.
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AMD PHENOM II X6, 14 GB DDR3, 500 GB hd, 1GB nVidia card, running Linux Mint 14 KDE / Win 7. Damn thing keeps breaking.

eeepc 1015PX, 1.66 Ghz Intel atom processor, 2 GB DDR3, 320 GB hd running Mint 14 MATE. Running great.

heiowge · Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2012 8:58 am Post subject:

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!!!
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AMD PHENOM II X6, 14 GB DDR3, 500 GB hd, 1GB nVidia card, running Linux Mint 14 KDE / Win 7. Damn thing keeps breaking.

eeepc 1015PX, 1.66 Ghz Intel atom processor, 2 GB DDR3, 320 GB hd running Mint 14 MATE. Running great.

Bruno · Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2012 11:44 am Post subject:

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

Marrea · Posted: Sun Aug 05, 2012 2:53 pm Post subject:

heiowge · Posted: Sun Aug 05, 2012 3:42 pm Post subject:

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.
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AMD PHENOM II X6, 14 GB DDR3, 500 GB hd, 1GB nVidia card, running Linux Mint 14 KDE / Win 7. Damn thing keeps breaking.

eeepc 1015PX, 1.66 Ghz Intel atom processor, 2 GB DDR3, 320 GB hd running Mint 14 MATE. Running great.

el chapulín · Joined: Fri Sep 07, 2012 2:13 pm Posts: 50

Paradigm Shifter · Joined: Sat May 19, 2012 1:16 pm Posts: 84

heiowge · Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 5:53 pm Post subject: Re: Hardware rant