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G53SX - Most likely a fried motherboard, warranty question

Yurelle
Level 7
Hello there,
About two weeks ago, if that, the little rectangle thing inside of one of my USB Ports broke off, leaving the four pins - whilst they still worked - vulnerable. A few days to a week ago, I attempted to plug my microphone into the appropriate jack and accidentally slid it into the USB port next to it. This resulted in the immediate shutdown of my laptop, no signs of charging, no power, nothing even after plugging/unplugging various things.

Now, about a month and a half ago I sent my laptop off for repair because the charger pin snapped in half. Took them two weeks, and they made the unnecessary decision to replace the motherboard as well as format my hard drive. Since getting it back, I had major issues with the sound which thanks to a friend of mine we managed to fix, and now, this.

I phone up ASUS to enquire as to why the decision was made last time to format my hard drive despite it definitely not needing it, and if they could not do so this time. I was informed that it is their policy to always format the hard drive, no matter what. I don't think I need to comment on how ridiculous that is.

Anyway, the problem is this - how on earth do I get the data off of my hard drive without voiding my warranty? I hope someone will be able to give some ideas. I have an external hard drive but the laptop won't turn on at all.

Is it possible that if I gave my username and password details with the laptop that they would avoid formatting my drive? They've never asked for those details, but I'd do close to anything at this point to avoid having to sort all of my drivers again, all of my programs, and on top of that deal with having lost all my data apart from the small amount I managed to salvage before the last repair.

Any help is much appreciated, thank you - and my apologies if this is the wrong forum. Sort of at my wit's end!
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9 REPLIES 9

Pitcher1
Level 9
hi, why your NB can not access external HDD, who is your country and who is person that receive your NB?
Did you send back to ASUS RMA or reseller? if you don't know what is your warranty end date, you can provide your SN to ASUS TSD, they can search.

Mike_Lu@ASUS wrote:
hi, why your NB can not access external HDD, who is your country and who is person that receive your NB?
Did you send back to ASUS RMA or reseller? if you don't know what is your warranty end date, you can provide your SN to ASUS TSD, they can search.


What does NB mean? Sorry, I'm having difficulty understanding.

I live in the United Kingdom. My warranty doesn't expire until I think, June or July 2014.

My problem is, I want the data off of my hard drive that is currently inside of my laptop. What I want to know is, by getting a friend of mine to take the data off of the hard drive inside the laptop, will I void my warranty?

ASUS said over the phone to me that it is their policy to always format the hard drive no matter the circumstance. I think that's poor service, on top of the fact the laptop has a poor design in the first place.

Bottom line is, I want the data off of my hard drive, but my laptop will not turn on. The motherboard is fried. Therefore, I would like a way to take my data off of the hard drive without voiding my warranty or a way to make sure my data will remain intact if I send it in for repairs.

I hope this makes sense.

Technically that would, but I would have your friend carefully disassemble the computer and get the HDD out. Then, get the data off and put the drive back in. If done carefully, this won't damage the computer, and it will solve your problems. I would PM @cl-scott before you do anything. He is for the USA region, but he may be able to aid you by contacting the ASUS support in the UK and get them to not format the drive without contacting you.

I understand their reason for formatting the drive - they want to ensure that the system is damaged via hardware rather than software. Still, I would think that universally formatting the drives without thought is a little draconian.
I am disturbed because I cannot break my system...found out there were others trying to cope! We have a support group on here, if your system will not break, please join!
http://rog.asus.com/forum/group.php?groupid=16
We now have 178 people whose systems will not break! Yippee! 🙂
LINUX Users, we have a group!
http://rog.asus.com/forum/group.php?groupid=23

Zygomorphic wrote:
Technically that would, but I would have your friend carefully disassemble the computer and get the HDD out. Then, get the data off and put the drive back in. If done carefully, this won't damage the computer, and it will solve your problems. I would PM @cl-scott before you do anything. He is for the USA region, but he may be able to aid you by contacting the ASUS support in the UK and get them to not format the drive without contacting you.

I understand their reason for formatting the drive - they want to ensure that the system is damaged via hardware rather than software. Still, I would think that universally formatting the drives without thought is a little draconian.


Thank you for your response!

I'll PM him sometime in the next 24 hours. I'll slip in my username and password details when I send off the laptop so they can access it with no problems.

I just don't really see the need to format the drive if there's no problem with the drive itself. Having to tweak the operating system, install all of my programs again, possibly lose a lot of data etc is quite frustrating as you can imagine, there must be some way around it.

What sort of thing voids the warranty? I'm not knowledgable on fixing the hardware side of things.

Breaking it :cool:

Basically, the G53SX is really, really hard to take apart (no visible screws), so people who don't know what they are doing and aren't careful can easily break something, especially considering that you have to take the laptop apart from both sides to access the HDD. I would ask the ASUS reps to explain exactly why they need to format the HDD, because if something like a USB port is broken, they can check with your OS or boot an external drive.
I am disturbed because I cannot break my system...found out there were others trying to cope! We have a support group on here, if your system will not break, please join!
http://rog.asus.com/forum/group.php?groupid=16
We now have 178 people whose systems will not break! Yippee! 🙂
LINUX Users, we have a group!
http://rog.asus.com/forum/group.php?groupid=23

chrsplmr
Level 18
Good advice Zy ..

Best of Luck Yurelle .. it may be worth a trip to a 'trusted' shop to remove the drive ..
It is silly to format 'all' drives .. especially in a case like this ..
[ something is shorted with the intrusion of the broken usb.]

Keep your fingers crossed that cl-scott can get 'eyes' on this ..
hard from his desk in California .. but .. well .. hahah .. he is 'resourceful' .. to say the least.

I still dont see how it is more cost effective to replace a motherboard . than ship an updated ..
'newer' model .. I know. who asked? .. and how would that solve the HD issue? .. et.

Welcome to ROG.c.

Thank you, @chrsplmr, the approval is much appreciated.

If @cl-scott or an @ASUS rep doesn't deal with this thread in the next few days, I shall PM @cl-scott myself. I'd bet they are all off until the 26th, and possibly later.
I am disturbed because I cannot break my system...found out there were others trying to cope! We have a support group on here, if your system will not break, please join!
http://rog.asus.com/forum/group.php?groupid=16
We now have 178 people whose systems will not break! Yippee! 🙂
LINUX Users, we have a group!
http://rog.asus.com/forum/group.php?groupid=23

Hello everyone,

Sorry for my slow replies, obviously I don't have a computer anymore so it's rather difficult to access things, and touchscreen typing on my phone is rather uncomfortable!

At this point, my plan would probably have to be to get ASUS to not format the hard drive somehow when I send it in. Two of my friends are now on holiday and the other is not very experienced with hardware, more the software side of things.

I'd be very upset if they did format the hard drive, and I'm already past the point unfortunately due to the previous episode with RMA of telling myself not to buy ASUS products again unless they drastically changed in some way or another.

I will contact cl-scott at some point today hopefully, with hope that perhaps something can be arranged!

Thank you for all the responses so far, and also, Merry Christmas. 🙂

Just sent @cl-scott a message and a link to this thread within, so we shall see what can be done. 🙂