This is a big “Thank You” to ASUStek computer company.
Last Thursday, on the way to buy another external HD, I was showing a SQL programmer Ubuntu and during the process, my disk drive tray was used and pushed back in. I didn’t notice anything at the time, but later, I couldn’t get it to open again.
I was on my way to the computer store to get a mini firewire to regular firewire cable for my next purchase of a firewireaudio converter and the notebook external HD, so I told them about my problem. They sell ASUS computers, but don’t service them, they told me everything goes back to ASUS. The sales person had an amazing swiss army knife with the right screw driver and so he was able to extract the drive and open it. A consultation with a co-worker led to a diagnosis that it had jumped off the rails. I was given a number to call and I phoned from the store. A quick cell phone call to the support person and my new drive was on the way. They cross ship the drive to you, then you send back the old one.
I received the drive on Wed. morning, a little less than a week later. I had to work and so didn’t unpack it until Friday night. After examining it carefully, I realized I would have to move a mounting bracket off the old drive on to the new one. I have done that now, but I tried to carefully slide it in and was not able to get it all the way in. I don’t want to force it and possibly break my new drive, so I plan to go back to the computer store and see if they will help again.
I will have to ship the old drive back within 14 days, so I have to try to do this today. There is so much for me to do right now, but I really appreciate the 2 year warrantee support from ASUStek. I could have shipped the whole computer back and not had this problem — but I am using it with no drive now and I need to keep it. I am glad they gave me the option, but I will need a little help to re-install.
One other topic that I brought up before is the unique Visa install that ASUS packages with their notebooks. When I visited FreeGeek, the individual assisting me pointed out that most Vista installs do not place themselves on a tidy partition and automatically leave a D: data drive for Ubuntu to be installed on. Usually, Windows will take the whole drive and I would have had to go into Drive Manager in windows to create that partition. The ASUS install also creates a small FAT drive partition that I think is for backup data. It shows that ASUS has tweaked Vista to make it more useful to the end user. I still may use Vista for something, so I am keeping it on the notebook for now.
I am using Ubuntu Hardy on the notebook to type this and have a couple of issues I will try to post about later. I am going to try to use Ubuntu for multi-media, but I could really use more help.
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Thurs. Jun 5, 2008
The ASUStek support recognized that the front black plastic optical drive cover was different on the model of computer than on the drive they sent me. The telephone support tech told me to pop the plastic cover off my old drive and fit it on the new one. I was a bit worried about breaking the plastic tabs, but they assured me that I could do it easily. That turned out to be the case, and I was able to switch the plastic cover without any problem. Then the drive slid in easily. It works well now and I consider the repair a success.
I had to open up the case on the old, broken drive, as it was jammed open and I had to close it to fit it in the shipping box. Next, I moved a little metal tab so I could move the tray past the tab on the rail and close it. I did not replace the plastic front, but carefully wrapped it in the bubble wrap with the drive and placed both pieces in the cardboard box. After preparing it for shipping, I sent it Canada Post to the ASUS Computer Canada address that I get from the customer representative. I hope that it gets there in time for the warrantee to still be valid. They say if they don’t receive it within 14 days they will charge for the new part, but I hope they give me a little more time because I had to phone to get the address and I had trouble with the plastic part on the optical drive.
I am very happy with the support I received from ASUS and I would recommend this computer to anyone. A two year warrantee at no extra charge beats Apple, as I had to pay over $300. for an extended service contract. I also notice complaints about other Windows custom installs that install “crapware”, but I think the ASUS install is quite sleek and automatically partitions the drive.
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