REVISION: I've now had this computer for 5 months and I'd like to revise my earlier review. The notebook was fantastic until the power supply issues began. I've RMA'd the product back to Asus. However, they've had it for more than 3 weeks and are still waiting for parts. I can't imagine why they don't have parts on hand for a computer this recently manufactured. When I looked for a way to contact the company about my frustration at how long it's taking to get my computer returned, I realize that no addresses or "contact us" types of information is supplied on their unbelievably BAD website. When I call the customer service number given me with my RMA information, I am assured that they'll fix it as fast as they can, but the customer service reps won't give me an address, or connect me to a higher up so I can figure out what the hold-up is or how to get a replacement. I'm deeply disappointed in Asus--they were reputed to have the highest quality laptops () and very high customer service. Yet I'm reduced to venting about my unhappiness with them and their lousy product at Amazon!First impression review: Having very limited funds and a need for a solid laptop to last a few years, I did a lot of research into the best laptop for the money. I needed something quick and nimble to run various programs for animating and design work, and something utterly reliable, because I'm taking distance classes right now. I needed something that would still be versatile and functional 3 years from now, because I don't buy these things like potato chips. This computer fulfills all of those requirements beautifully. Perhaps anything would have been better than my 3 year old HP laptop, but the Asus seems especially quick--.pdf files open so fast I have to wonder about the laws of physics. It stays pretty cool. Vista wasn't even as bad as expected--though I appreciate the free Windows 7 trade-in.
Only one real problem: If you ever want to listen to anything without using headphones, forget it. I didn't take the warnings about lousy speakers seriously, and then I tried to watch a DVD with my kid on this thing. Simply COULD NOT be done--neither of us could hear, even with no background noise. Get external speakers! The only other problem I have had is that Vista installed funky at first and kept saying it was an unverified copy. I couldn't access the wireless network. After a websearch using a different computer, I found a quick fix and have had no other problems, crashes or freezes.
I purchased my Asus from the the Amazon seller J&R Music & Computer World, where it was dramatically discounted. It was actually so discounted that I was a little worried that they would send me the wrong model--that they must have made a mistake! No mistake, everything is correct. Moreover, they did a FANTASTIC job of packing and shipping. It think the computer itself was packed in something like 6 nested boxes, which may concern one on an environmental level, but I believe nuclear waste would have come through the mail safely in their packaging.
The repaired computer continues to work great. My wife is very happy with it.
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It turned out that the Nvidia 240M was bad on my unit. Used ASUS support to send my laptop in for service. ASUS sent me a FedEx label, so shipping was free. They repaired my unit and sent it back to me. Took a little over a week to get it back.
With Windows Vista 32 bit, it got a windows experience rating of 5.6. I installed a 500 GB hard disk, and installed Windows 7 Pro, 64 bit. It now gets a Windows experience rating of 6.4, better than my wife's AMD Athlon 64 6000+ based desktop machine.
Very happy with the laptop now.
Chris
> I cannot complete the 'Windows Experience Rating' without having the Nvidia display driver crap out and be restarted. I end up with a Windows Experience rating of two, > because of the lousy display driver. I've tried the version of the drivers supplied on the install disk, the versions of the graphics and sound drivers from the ASUS support > website, and the latest drivers from the NVidia website.
>
> Is this just another Nvidia driver bug? Or, is my hardware flaky?
>
> I just installed a new disk, and installed Windows 7 64 bit on the machine, clean install. Updated with all available updates from Microsoft, and I get the same error
> under Windows 7. In fact, I got the blue screen of death after the Windows Experience rating quit attempting to run.
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