~ Asus U6 Owners' Lounge ~

WTH? Has anyone heard this? This is a quote from my Office Manager:

What Gives? Has anyone heard about this? Maybe I'll have her try via a different source.

 

Off topic: SMG = sweeeet

 

whaaat ?? that's impossible ?? any one have any info about this ???

 

That's what I said, but I checked and it is no longer available on CDW or PCMall's websites (My work has limitations on where I can order laptops from)

I think I'll sit still for a week or so (Please hold on T4110!) and see if anything interesting happens on this front...

Also see here: http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?EDC=1476964

(It's also no longer available from NewEgg)

 

There is something interesting !! I think asus will back to sell this model on the first of July with some fixes ( battery and so ) , coz I remember asus did this when I bought my asus w3v ( it was having overheat problem and they solved it )
I think this is a very good news for you and for every body who didn't order his laptop yet !!! ( like me ) i will waiting for this laptop coz I really love it ~~

 

Or maybe they're just preparing the launch of the Asus U6V, which was announced at the recent COMPUTEX 2008.

 

Well, this is certainly interesting. Asus does still list the U6Sg on their Finnish website, though. Also some finnish websites still have it available.

On another note, I finally yesterday got the replacement 6-cell battery. Although the Asus support person I talked to said they would require me to send in my 3-cell in return, there were no instructions for this in the shipment. Neither have I received any instruction by email or phone. And I'll be d***ed to contact them anymore; if they can't be bothered to give me instructions how and where to send the 3-cell, then I won't be bothered either.

 

Doubt it.

That would pull the U6 model completely off the market for another 6-8 weeks, minimum, given Intel's projected availability of the Montevina platform to OEM's following the launch next month.

Doesn't make much sense financially with one of their more popular models.

 

I don't know what I have missed in the last few days gentlemen, but let me tell you, I just got back from some business in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and wouldn't you know what was waiting for me when I returned? That's right, this brand spanking new notebook that was just begging to be toyed with.

It is late right now, but I will have more on the developments of my brand-new U6 within the next few days. It was a real ***** getting the wireless card to recognize my home network (pilot error though, not hardware error) and this keyboard is magnificent for a 12-inch form factor. It will just take me a little bit to get used to it, since I've been typing on a desktop for the past five years (Making a question mark or using the right-shift key in general is challenging, however the left shift-key is proportional)

As promised, benchmarks and opinions at some point this weekend. I must say, I'm highly impressed with what came out of the box at me earlier this evening.

For those still looking for U6Sg-1As, check out BTOtech and GenTechPC. I believe they still have some there before ASUS takes them off the market.

This thing is impressive for such a small form-factor. It's sitting on my Zalman NC-1000 right now and it fits the cooler beautifully and I can't hear a noise other than the soft cooler-fans right now. If it wasn't 2:00 (or for those Europeans on the thread, 02:00 ) I'd probably play some games, but generally work doesn't look too kindly on someone for 'calling in sick' so that he can try to see at what settings Medieval Total War II can play at.

Later Gators.

 

Yay!!

Congrats for you Looking forward to your opinions and benchmarks!!

Wee, I can feel your happiness radiate through my 22"

-COW

 

Congrats. Make sure you don't have "bugs" like me .

=============

Seeing many people on the board like to upgrade their laptop, I would like to add more RAM on mine. At the moment my U6 has 3GB but I would not mind having 4 GB and maybe upgrading to 64 vista or server. My questions :

1. Where can I find good fast rams for the U6?
2. Is it difficult to replace them?
3. Will I void my warrantee?
4. Has anyone done this on the U6?

 

1. Any compatible RAM from a major manufacturer will do. You won't see any real-life difference between them, perhaps it's best to decide on the basis of the warranty.
2. No. See e.g., Info Booth for a guide.
3. Technically, yes, practically, no. Make sure you keep the old RAM in case you need to send it in for repairs; in that case, replace the old RAM just to be on the safe side.

PS: Please try to post one message at a time, rather than consecutive posts. Clutters up the thread / enlarges the # of pages unnecessarily.

 

Well kids, you're going to have to wait a bit for the review. After spending three days getting everything set up just the way I wanted it, my HDD started to make little digital skipping noises and refuses to boot anything.

Marvelous. At least the damned thing is under warranty.

 

Oh my god!!! Are we related? I waited 3 weeks, used it 6 days, sent it to Asus, its been two weeks now, because of a broken 9300 and a broken optical unit. I do not want to know what will happen after a year with the U6 after heavy usage.

 

I don't know. But at least the HDD is a simple fix compared to the GPU and optical unit.

Worse come to worse, I can bite the bullet get another decent HDD for a hundred bucks and reload everything (Luckily, the HDD had a total of... Microsoft Office 2003, FireFox, and FutureMark software installed ) So it's more annoying than critical.

Though it did send me to the store today to get one of those 8 GB flash drives that goes on a key chain? Mostly for .doc files that I'll need.

Alright, time to figure out the best way to go about it.

 

You've got a custom machine from BTOTech, and they're going to be handling any/all warranty work on it as such. Your first contact should be to Eddie for discussion re: possible RMA or HDD swap.

 

Yep, gonna talk to him tomorrow. They've been excellent so far, so I have no reason to feel any sort of concern over it.

 

Sorry to hear about your problems, Affirmative Inaction. Hope you get it fixed soon and with minimal hassle!

 

Yeah, good luck!!
Sounds like we (esp you and wishy) are very unlucky

I hope you can resolve the problem very soon!

-COW

 

2 Weeks and Asus still have my U6 .

 

EDIT!

Okay, I'm into the BIOS screen, and it detects the following:

My CPU (Intel Core 2 Duo T9300)

and my system memory (3072MB)

I see no detection of HDD anywhere in the BIOS screen.

I take it, that's a bad thing?

(and don't worry, I know this isn't the U6's fault. Poor guy is getting a bad rap these days. And I'm not going to blame Seagate, I've used them for a long time now, and this is the first HDD that has ever crashed on me. Hence my lack of knowledge of just what to do here)

 

It is not the U6!!! Far from it !! These things happened because of high petrol prices .


I thought I had a problem with my drive so I ran the seagate utilities and it passed with flying colours. It should be detected in BIOS. If it is not, faulty disk, connection, mobo, who knows .

I called Asus Holland today. Asked about my U6. They said, "we have no idea when we will receive the required parts. We have no idea when we are going to send it to you". As you can imagine I am jumping around like a sissy girl, I cannot contain my happiness.

My first Asus laptop...and my last.

 

As you may recall,
I, while looking around for a smaller power brick
than the ginormous one asus gives us U6SG peope:

I ordered a 65w from ExcaliburPc.

I was displeased with what I first got, a Liteon that was a
hair smaller and actually heavier than the original!

I had difficulty getting any response out of them and was
unwilling to pay restocking, etc. fees for the RMA since I
didn't get what I should have got.

Anyway, this SteveW guy there took command and found me a smaller one that works well.

I ran some benchmarks and there was no performance diff between
the two adapters. I think the battery charges slower.

Here's the dimensions:

Original 90 watt asus:
5.2 X 2.2 X 1.25

65w(Delta Electronics - is this ASUS after rebranding??):
4.1 X 1.6 X 1.1

Even though that may not seem very much it's a big difference- looks like it's half the size. It's some 40% smaller and, I don't have a scale but
I would guess 33-40% lighter.

It's noticiably smaller in your bag. I'll edit this with any info I receive from SteveW at excaliburpc how to make sure you get the correct adapter-
not the friggin Liteon.

 

That is terrible - have you tried the usual routine of speaking to the manager, asking for a full replacement rather than repair, etc? Taking it up with the retailer you bought it from, etc?

Feel for you man.

Petrov.

 

This is great info, thanks - I'm also looking for a smaller brick that works - charge times not an issue for me as I rarely have it off-socket. Got to find one of these in the UK now...

Petrov.

 

I bought a ASUS U6sg in the UK once it was released here back in late March.

Less than a month later the hard drive suddenly died for no apparent reason (no clicking noise, just no longer recognized by the BIOS).
It took over a month for Asus to replaced the drive (a Seagate Momentus 5400.4 250gb).

The laptop came back but started showing another problem, it would randomly go to sleep mode if I touched the laptop on the left handside of the unit. This behavior was I guess the result of a bad repair which ended up creating a new problem.

The laptop was then sent back again for repair, the motherboard AND the HDD got replaced (I don't think the HDD had to be replaced but why not....).

Now it's about 3 weeks since I got the laptop back, and guess what, the HDD failed AGAIN, this time with a clicking noise, and guess what what model it is, it's a Seagate 5400.4 250gb.

I have been dealing with one of the managers of ASUS support UK and I have now requested either a full refund or a replacement hard drive that is NOT from Seagate and therefore not a 5400.4 series drive.

This time round I am really p****d off because I lost several gigs of holiday pictures (ok we're supposed to back things up but it's not as if you have to assume our hard drives fail on a monthly basis??).

I will keep you informed but my piece of advise is to stay well clear of the U6SG and/or Seagate 5400.4 drives.

My little guess is that either the hard drive bay is not ventilated well enough or the body flexes so much when lifted from the bottom that it's possible to somehow damage the HDD.

Daniel

 

Hi Daniel,

I bought my ASUS U6S 6 weeks ago in London and have just encountered the same problem. The computer fails to boot and displays a disk read error, not recognising the hard drive at all. I bought it specifically so I could continue working while touring Europe for a few months. I'm currently in Germany for a week. Have spoken to German, UK and Dutch Asus customer service people (and their supervisors) and the only solutions they have offered are:
a) extend my stay in Germany to wait for the approx 2-3 week repair turn around (though that time frame isn't guaranteed) or
b) carry my brand new broken notebook around Europe for the next 2 months until I can return to London and have it fixed by them.

Obviously, neither of these are good solutions for me and I'm ready to do some serious complaining. Do you know who/where would be best to contact at ASUS in the UK? I'd really appreciate any info you could share!

Gidnett.

 

Gidnett

Out of interest how did the drive fail ?
My drives failed twice when restarting the machine after it's been in sleep mode.
IE the drive never failed while in use.
So I wonder if there is a serious flaw with these drives when they are powered down or up.

Could you enable private messaging so that I can send you my Asus UK support contact details ?

 

Surely this can't be a concidence and needs to have its profile raised - this is inexcusable on a premium quality laptop (could you imagine this happening on a thinkpad?).

Any way you could suggest I try to replicate a drive failure on my U6Sg (I'd rather know sooner than later!)?

Petrov.

 

I use the laptop on the train on my lap.
IIRC the drive failed twice after using the laptop I would then close the lid, the laptop would then go to sleep mode (light bulb flashing), I would then put the laptop in the sleeve and then in my laptop bag. Then when I arrive home I open the lid and press Start and that's at that stage (well it happened twice in less than 5 months) that the drive appears dead.
BTW and in case you ask me I am not a young kid doing skateboarding or that kind of stuff
The laptop doesn't get thrown around and AFAIK the drive shouldn't fail anyway considering my usage pattern.

 

Interestingly Seagate had serious reliability issues with drives mounted on Apple notebooks, issues that apparently were mostly on drives coming from China, like the one on my Asus U6Sg (laptop that I would like to get rid of ASAP now...).

Interestingly there is comment from a tech guy on RegHardware here: http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/10/30/apple_seagate_drive_warning/comments/

According to him, the failures that occured on these Seagate/Apple drives were mechanical in nature due to maybe either pressure or heat.

 

Hi everybody...

I'm from Brazil and I bought a U6SG for me five weeks ago. The seller advised that it will take up to 6-7 weeks to arrive. I've been reading this thread and I'm very worried with the problems people are reporting because, if these things happen to me, it will take very long to get my laptop fixed. About the HD problem, I saw over the internet people talking about a Vista and Ubuntu bug that makes the HD park their heads every minute and during reboots which would cause a premature kill of the drive because they are made to last a certain number of head parking. Acconding to some articles, the life of the drive will be shortened to aprox. 8 mounths with this bug. Besides Affirmative Inaction's case, maybe the hd problems people are having is related to windows vista bug.

 

matheusj

I wouldn't bother waiting for the Asus U6Sg when so many new models are going to be released in a couple of weeks after the official launch of the Centrino 2 platform.. Dell's got some pretty nice looking laptops coming as well as Sony and competition is heating up so you should be able to get something better and hopefully more reliable!

PS: I haven't done any extensive research regarding the reliability of the Seagate drives but it's now twice it failed after barely 1 month of light usage and this time it felt it was just to much to handle!!!

 

Mine went to sleep mode by itself a couple of times during normal usage, but then booted up ok afterwards. I used the notebook two days ago and shut down completely and when I went to boot up again around 5 hours later it went straight to a black screen advising that a disk read error had occured - no clicking sound and has remained that way. I've been using this notebook really lightly - just a couple of hours every second day or so, usually at a desk or on my lap.

Have enabled private messaging now.

Gidnett.

 

The problem is that I've already payed for it. I'm just waiting for it to be delivered. I hope that mine doesen't come with the problems posted here. I'll search about this bug I mentioned.

Matheus J

 

Interesting that yours was going to sleep mode by itself.
Out of interest would it actually go to sleep mode really by itself without any physical interaction of any sort (like it's standing on a desk for 5 minutes and it suddenly goes to sleep) or do you have to interact with it but it would then go to sleep without you asking (for instance by touching the lid, base, pulling the power cord) ?

 

Well, all I know is that my U6 worked perfectly for the first three or so days I had it. No problems, ran like a dream, it was fast, quiet and enjoyable.

I think the problem lies with the 250 GB 5400.4 Momentus HDD. Apparently the 5400.4s are causing a lot of issues.

Which is disappointing. I have sworn by Seagate for years. However, I believe I may purchase an after-market Hitachi 320 GB just to be on the safe side.

I run Windows XP, not Vista, so the vista bug should not have affected my HD. But it's good thinking. I wish that was a case.

However, I can afford an HDD error now, but not in a month.

 

It was going to sleep/shutting down when it was picked up or moved. I can't recall where I touched it, but I think it was on the side with the CD drive.

I just received a reply from Asus online tech support - reply posted below:

I cannot believe the lack of support from Asus. If anyone has any info on someone I can contact to get my problem sorted asap, please let me know.

Thanks, Gidnett

 

First, what solutions did Asus offer you that you find as lack of support (which it might be - outside of the US some units aren't known for stellar support - but perhaps you can elaborate)?

Second, it sounds like they're saying they can't diagnose something based simply on what you're telling them, they need to see it via RMA. That seems a reasonable thing, and pretty much standard across the industry.

 

That's interesting, I was having the exact same problem then.

I do recall the following instances when the laptop suddenly going to sleep mode (the light bulb would then be flashing) : repositioning the laptop on the desk by (IIRC) lifting it from the left side, gently pulling the power cord that was under the base unit and the last occurence was when adjusting the lid.
I was having this problem roughly twice a week and it was very frustrating because I couldn't find a consistent way to replicate this problem.
I did complain to the reseller and to Asus itself and just today (finally!!) after nearly 5 months of owning a Asus U6Sg I have been granted a full refund (although I still need to understand how this is going to work in detail because the email is a bit cryptic..).

 

They guy I spoke to, avoided direct answers. Did not ask for a manager or something because I did not want to get more pissed off. I simply told that geeza that I will want my full refund +VAT if my laptop arrives and it is not fixed.

Best case scenario, my U6 will be fixed and I will be dancing...or NOT. Seeing these last posts make me doubt my investment even more! What else will break on my U6?

So far we have the following:

1. Broken VGA output.
2. Broken Optical Drive.
3. Broken Momentus.
4. 3 Cell battery bug


My laptop needs a mobo replacement, so they guy doing it will do a ****ty job, like usual, and other things will break. Splendid...and I said Dell is rubbish .

 

Wow, very sorry to hear about your problems with the hard drives! That's one of the components you do NOT want to fail in your computer, especially if you have several gigs of important stuff and've been lazy with the backups *goes to get a few DVDs and do a back up*

I'm happy I have a Hitachi HDD in my U6Sg, though that doesn't guarantee anything...

I've now had my U6Sg for around 3 months, and besides of course the 3 cell bug, I've not had any hardware problems (which I'm extremely thankful of, reading this forum).

 

Here's the background:
I bought my ASUS U6S 6 weeks ago in London and have just encountered the same problem. The computer fails to boot and displays a disk read error, not recognising the hard drive at all. I bought it specifically so I could continue working while touring Europe for a few months. I'm currently in Germany for a week. Have spoken to German, UK and Dutch Asus customer service people (and their supervisors) and the only solutions they have offered are:
a) extend my stay in Germany to wait for the approx 2-3 week repair turn around (though that time frame isn't guaranteed) [and have now found out that this will be held up even further as they won't pick up my notebook until I've had a copy of the receipt sent over from London, where I have it in storage...] or
b) carry my brand new broken notebook around Europe for the next 2 months until I can return to London and have it fixed by them.

I'm just incredibly frustrated having gone out on a limb to buy this notebook especially to travel with and now to be in a position where I either can't continue travelling just so I can have it fixed or be left computer-less for a few months, carrying a dead notebook. While I understand the turnaround for repairs etc, I am disappointed in Asus' lack of assistance and understanding of my situation.

 

Does this happen only when it's running on battery (ie not plugged in) - if so, couldn't that just be the battery saving mode, if you leave it for a while it goes into standby/hybernate, etc?

Petrov.

 

Petrov

IIRC it happened in both situations, plugged in and in battery mode.
I need to re-affirm though that this problem started occuring after the laptop went for a repair where its HDD got replaced.

 

You guys will love this: I ACCIDENTALLY RAN OVER MY NEARLY-NEW U6S WITH MY TRUCK ON MONDAY--don't ask. My heart broke...and the LCD broke. The case bottom also cracked, but the darn thing actually boots up and looks fine after a complete disassembly!

Here's the rub: finding a replacement LCD has been impossible. No one stocks it nor can they order it. Does anyone have any leads? It's a Toshiba p/n LTD121EXSS. Maybe someone who's managed to decode Toshiba's part numbering scheme can recommend a different, but compatible screen that's more readily available, e.g. one that differs only in the type of screen finish?

This forum has been a great resource for me on other matters. I'm hoping someone can help with this little problem. If there's a more appropriate place to post this please let me know that too.

 

at anchovy: I am totally speechless! I would love to know why your laptop was in the path of your truck, but I won't ask

Anyways... If you purchased it within a year and you're located in north America, then asus will fix everything for you for free. I think its better to send it in instead of trying to just replace the screen yourself since there could be other parts that may be damaged that youre not aware of. However, if u still want to just fix the screen yourself, contact the asus estore and you can purchase the exact screen directly from asus.
I hope all goes well and good luck!

 

emporiumboutique, I didn't realize there was an accidental protection warranty so I didn't register the notebook until about 4 months after I bought it. They ask you to register within two months in order to receive the protection. I may be out of luck on that. I wonder if others have any experience trying to claim the warranty if they didn't register within two months.

 

I am trying so hard not to laugh!!!

I think I am failling..

..yup, i failed. I am laughing. Laughing hard...

Sadly I dont think I have any knowledge that could help you, im just a possible future u6s owner

-COW

PS: Still laughing

 

See, I knew someone would get a kick out of my story! Cow, suffice it to say the U6 is surprisingly sturdy for such a small notebook. I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

I can laugh along with you now...because I'm all cried out.