New F8Va messed up screen on first bootup!

Ok, so I just got my new laptop. I slotted in the battery, hooked up the power cord and booted it up. The screen was fine until the part where it asked me to pick a windows update option. Right after I picked one, the screen turns into a bunch of horizontal lines, and momentarily the mouse cursor hangs as well.



What is going on here?? Is this a sign that its going to be a defective unit?

This is so frustrating to have this happen to a brand new product!

 

Thats odd, did it happen again? If its a persistent problem then I would take it back to the store and get a new one, shouldn't be a problem if you just got it today.

I got my new g50v on saturday and the hard drive was dead on arrival, I took it back to the store and boom, got a new one, no questions asked.

good luck

 

It may have been just a glitch of the GPU drivers, or something more serious. As andrewe1 says, if it doesn't happen again, it was probably a transient glitch. If it does, post back with details and/or ask for a replacement.

 

Unfortunately, I bought it in store from NCIX, and they will charge a 15% restocking fee even for exchanges. So for me, paying a 15% charge on a 1400+ laptop is not an option.

Thankfully, so far it has only been a one time occurance.

There are two more problems which I have also encountered. The first one is also screen related. While running on the battery pack, my default desktop wallpaper would be replaced by an ASUS one. My desktop icons along with my right-side utility bar would disappear. And my taskbar would go into auto hide.



Restarting the notebook would sometimes help revert back to my default settings, but most of the time the issue still remains.


The second problem is sound related. I notice the HD produces audible clicking noises once in a while, but after looking around in the forums, it appears to be a common problem without a solution. However, there is still one sound related problem I cannot solve. I always hear this dull "ding" every few minutes; whether if the laptop is opened or in sleep mode. I know its not a windows sound because I had muted the speakers, but I have yet to find out what is making that sound on my notebook!

If anyone can provide me with some insight on these problems it would be greatly appreciated.

 

Ben good to hear 1st problem has not happened again. Are you sure 15% restock is charged on defective products? Does not sound correct.

I am waiting on my F8Va-C1 to arrive.

 

Even if there is a 15% restocking fee ASUS does have free accidental warranty coverage which could work if you need it.

 

It was probably a driver/gpu glitch....however, check the asus global warranty because I had that happen shortly after I got this C90s, it quit doing it, then the screen went bad. Screen got replaced under warranty after I sent to unit back. This all happened over one weekend and I shipped out on Monday. Over a year ago btw.

 

First, make sure it;s not the normal working sound of the HDD (because of the RW heads moving on the plates). If it's not, then it's probably the HDD parking the RW heads. The thing is, the RW heads should only be parked when the HDD goes idle or powers down; and the HDD is specced for a given # of head parks (in the tens or hundreds of thousands I believe). So if this is the problem, you need to address it, because it can shorten the lifespan of your HDD. I don't know a solution, you'd need to search. I think if there is one, it would involve tweaking / turning off power saving features on the HDD.

 

Well its best if I don't have to use the ASUS warranty, because it wouldn't really make sense to ship away your brand new laptop to be stripped and repaired.

Anyways, would such glitches show up on the administrative tools in event viewer?

I just thought of looking at that, and surprisingly, there were already some error logs.

 

@E.B.E

So there are two main HDD noises? The RW head spinning and the RW parking? How do the two sounds differ from each other?

Sometimes the HD makes noises even when I'm just typing a docuement.

I've created a new seperate thread regarding noises so this thread wouldn't go off-topic.

 

Those error logs record a lot of stuff, including application errors. Unfortunately in a Windows environment it's not too surprising to have some errors in a stock configuration that runs stably overall.

I do not see why you would need to use the warranty for this one-time graphical glitch occurrence.

Also, it can sometimes happen that you get a notebook that is dead on arrival or has very serious problems when new -- the proverbial lemon. It is a statistical law that says there exist users that will get these with probability 1. I know it doesn't help to know this...

Yes, there are several sounds a HDD makes:
- normal spinning sound (typically nearly or fully inaudible over background noise)
- read/write noise, caused by the RW heads being moved transversally over the platter surfaces (louder, depending on the particular HDD can be clearly heard or almost inaudible). It's should be a soft purring noise, but the "purring" is interrupted and has various lengths.
- RW heads parking. This is louder than the above and is a single "click" noise. In a normal HDD it should only happen when the HDD goes into power saving or power off modes. There exist however some HDDs (notably some Seagates) where a firmware bug leads to an OS command being incorrectly interpreted and parking the HDDs much more often than needed. Since the HDDs are specced for a limited number of head parks, this can cause issues in the long run. I also already explained this above.

And it is perfectly normal for HDD to make noises while the computer is apparently idle. Many applications and OS processes are working in the background, and some of them will access the HDD.

 

Hey Ben,

I just got my F8Va - B1 today, and after setting it up the first time, I played with Express Gate for about 10 minutes...no problems.


Then I booted up Vista, selected my language, country settings, and then I clicked my update option...screen went to horizontal lines, and the mouse cursor was on top of those lines, and it looked fine (not stretched out or anything) but wouldn't move.

I eventually had to hard reboot, and it's been fine since.
Letting Windows update, now.

I'll post if something related occurs

Casey

 

Wow!! When I first received my F8va the exact thing happened to me! I shrugged it off, did a hard reset and so far it hasnt happened again. I also purchased it from ncix... Strange!

 

Purchased mine from California Computer. Would not suggest buying from them, but that's for another thread.

Laptop has been totally fine since that first occurence.

 

Nevertheless, it's still worrying that more machines exhibit this graphical glitch... it can no longer be called "one-time" I'm afraid

 

I just got this laptop yesterday, F8Va-B1, I hate the keyboard, I have to press very firm or else nothing happen, very unresponsive and very little feedback. It is pretty thick and heavy for a 14 incher. The ports location and DVD drive location is kinda awkward. The rest are fine

 

Maybe the keyboard will give in after a while. About the rest, yeah... nothing much to do. Still, most of it is in the specs reviews (weight, size, port location).

 

I updated the first page with photos of how the screen looked when the problem arised.

@CaseyP
Oddly enough, it was at that exact moment when I chose an option for Windows update that the screen became that way. Having 3 people confirm that the issue arises at the exact same point is quite unsettling.
Atm, we can only hope for the best that it will only be a one time occurance!


Going a bit offtopic here...
But, CaseyP or xbr50, do you guys hear a dull dung sound from your laptop every so often? If so, do you see an error log regarding the realtek pci card in administration tools ?

 

oh yeah, the DVD drive is kinda annoying too at boot up, make too much noise even there is not disc inside, Argggggggg darn keyboard, so unresponsive, I guess I am sending this one back

 

@ghettocowboy

Please remain on topic. I have created another thread regarding noises. You can post there.

 

Nothing like that, I'm afraid, Ben.

I do hear the hard drive at odd times, but it's strange, it's not like the normal humming or writing sounds, more like little tin clicks when doing basic browsing and such.

but nothing as specific as your question, no.

 

R/W head movements can sound like that, depending on the HDD. I guess that's what you hear.

 

okay, I decided to post again because the screen did the scramble thing again.


It was a day or two back, and I was booting up an online game. It turns out the server was down for the game, so the game wouldn't launch.


But instead of the application closing or giving me a connection error, the screen went horizontal on me again. The mouse cursor icon was not scrambled, just "behind" the mouse, but this time the mouse was frozen, and again I had to hard reboot.

 

hey

after weeks of deliberation, I just bought an F8VA-B1 today, and guess what? as if someone was trying to tell me I'd made the wrong decision, the screen went all weird and horizontal when I tried to pick my time zone in the initial windows vista setup. completely hung, needed a hard reboot....weird man, why has this happened to so many people? other than that I've been quite happy with the machine so far (but I literally turned it on 3 hours ago)....i hope this doesn't happen again!

 

This looks like GPU glitches... I don't know what you could do about it You could try to RMA but they may not accept the reason; and even so, replacing with the same type of component may lead to the same problem.

 

Hey Ben - I bought my F8Va-B1 back in the summer and I experienced those same glitches as you have. It seems to be rather random as I have experienced them rarely in different situations. However, I hope you have figured out the other issue (with the asus screen and disappearing icons).

When you are running on battery in "battery saving" mode, that "power saving" screen will automatically appear, your icons will disappear, etc by default. Its all in an effort to save your battery power. If you would like to restore your icons, etc. you can change the settings for the mode or simply choose a different mode (like entertainment for example). I was kinda shocked the first time that happened too

I am kinda disappointed about the horizontal glitching though - a search on the asus site didn't really reveal much.

 

well today I am pretty annoyed.


Yesterday, my computer glitched twice when trying to install fallout 3, I had to hard reboot it both times, and then when I was trying to task switch to an internet browser, from an adobe document, the screen glitched again!

that was three times yesterday, and when I rebooted my computer, and pulled it over to the right (with my hand on the right side)

the DVD drive on the LEFT popped open. there was nothing over there to touch it 0_0.


It was rather embarrassing since I have been bragging about my new ASUS to my coworkers, and they were all gathered around to see the opening video of Fallout 3.


Ben, I don't have the asus screen issues you do with power saving mode, and I didn't hear any noises with tilting my computer back and forth.




Hope this helps,


Casey

 

@ACK
Thanks for clearing up the issue regarding the no icons and taskbar. I'm not use to all these hidden power features Vista has implemented.

@CaseyP
Wow, thats unfortunate to hear. So far it still has only happened that one time. Post back if you find any other info on this issue. Someone in the first post had mentioned their screen failed on them because of this.

I also want to note. While playing the L4D demo, the wall and floor graphics suddenly became purple! Not sure if this is driver related or not.

Lastly, does the ExpressGate come pre-installed with the F8Va? I can't seem to find a way to access it.

 

the button furthest right on your top row of hot keys..it looks like a music note with a film reel behind it.


If the computer is off, that button launches express gate.

I haven't messed with it too much. Can't get online via express gate, yet.

 

I just noticed this when trying to reproduce some issues I had with this laptop in the NCIX store.

Try opening an internet explorer when you are not connect on the internet.

I noticed on mine that you can see the gradiant horizontal lines on the blank white background when looked at certain angles.

Unfortunately, I was unable to get a new replacement from NCIX. They only offered to ship it back to ASUS for repairs. Really frustrating...

 

In that case perhaps you can just send it to ASUS yourself. They are pretty fast in NorthAmerica (and by that I mean laptop is back in your hands in less than a week, typically).