Ok, I'm moderately knowledgeable about computers, but I didn't realize until it was too late to check this forum PRIOR to doing anything with my new laptop. Apparently you aren't supposed to use the Asus update utility. Well I did, and updated all of my drivers, etc manually, and now I'm having a ****ton of problems.
For starters, the laptop flat out won't recognize my external hard drive. I've updated all the drivers, tried uninstalling the devices in device manager, and made sure the drive itself isn't faulty by connecting to other machines. Here is a link to a pc help site where I tried getting help on this issue.

Then there's the fact that my webcam is pretty much disabled permanently. If I try manually reinstalling the drivers for it, the install times out. Which is awesome.
Then there's the fact that the shutdown hangs for an extremely long time every few instances and bluescreens.
So what can I do to fix these problems?

I also have another question, simply because I guess I'm lacking some knowledge. I ordered a Samsung 128gb SSD to install because I want to load the OS off of it for faster boot times, whatever. Since you don't get a windows disk, how will I be able to do that? Apparently it has some software that might help, but there are problems associated with it and you are supposed to do it manually...?

Which leads into my next question. So there's all this business about recovery disks not being shipped or whatever. So what exactly is my recovery disk (I know it basically restores crap in the event of a problem) and what is the best way to make one? I'd use my external hard drive, but the damn thing won't connect!)

Is my best option simply to exchange the laptop and set it up correctly this time?

Thanks for helping, and I'm eager to learn.