Category: 10. Computer Hardware/Software

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buying a new samsung phone?

… go ahead with your purchase if you can accept/swallow the following (no saying it will happen to you, but it happened to me):

1. NO ONE-ONE (1:1) exchange even if your brand new phone gives problem within 1 day

2. Have your phone serviced, and it gives problem again within the day of getting it back

3. take time off your busy schedule to make as many trips as needed to the service centre

4. pay parking fees if you drive and expect no reimbursement (oh btw, LG gives service centre customers parking reimbursement)

my experience in brief: i bought a new Samsung Galaxy Note 3, gives problem within first day, no 1:1 exchange provided. serviced, gives MORE problems within same day. phone back in hospital, and no guarantee the above cycle won’t repeat itself. coming to 2 weeks now not a single day of ‘normal’ usage.

this is the little note that i dropped on Samsung Singapore’s fb page:

on 3 Jan I bought a new set of SGN 3 from Starhub. within a day I began to notice intermittent loss in data network, which is abnormal for a brand new phone. finally found time to send it in on 11 Jan. to my surprise, a big corporation like Samsung doesnt provide a ONE-TO-ONE exchange for a BRAND NEW purchase. and #iwonder WHY!?!

the motherboard was replaced and i got back my phone the same 11 Jan afternoon. within 6 hours, I had 2 problems, data network lost PLUS mobile network loss. am i SO LUCKY or is there seriously something wrong with Samsung’s product QC? 2 continuous breakdowns for 2 supposedly new products (phone & replacement motherboard)?

if Samsung provides a ONE-TO-ONE exchange, i think the problem would have been solved long ago. coming to 2 weeks after making a new purchase, i do not get to use it normally for even a single day. my SGN 3 is currently lying in the ‘hospital’. the management should review this and reflect your feelings on this if you were in a customer’s (or my) shoes.

btw, if i were to learn about the no ONE-TO-ONE exchange policy for BRAND NEW purchase earlier, i would have bought another phone from your rival companies.

would you still buy a Samsung phone? likely yes, but probably the above note will make you pause and think again.

updated on Jan 18, 2014 with Samsung’s response and my reply:

— samsung singapore’s reply on January 16 at 5:54pm —
Hi, we are sorry to hear about your experience. Exchange requests are evaluated on a case by case basis, based on the assessment of your device after repairs. Please kindly furnish us with your service number or leave us your contact number (Desktop: http://spr.ly/6183dC1h or Mobile: http://spr.ly/6184dCG6) so that our Customer Care team can follow up with you. Thank you.

— my update for samsung on Jan 18 4pm —
Thanks Samsung Singapore for the clarification. Fyi, we were told right in the face by the service centre personnel that

“No! We only do servicing here.”
“Is there anyway we can ask for a one-to-one exchange cos we have problem with a new Day 2 product?”
“Samsung doesn’t do one-to-one exchange even if you have problem Day 2.”

So, it’s either the service centre misrepresented Samsung’s stance, or your communication with your service centre has broken down somewhere.

I have gotten back the phone yesterday. And the service centre confirmed the replacement motherboard was also faulty. Two faulty motherboards in a row is real lucky indeed, but I think it also speaks extremely well of Samsung’s product QC. Hopefully this 3rd board holds.

For the matter, will my warranty be extended given the amount of pain and time wasted, not to mention the car parking fees that wasn’t reimbursed in this entire saga? Thank you.

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n61 battery flat rescue operation

my asus n61jq refused to power up for good yesterday. a symptom prior to this was the laptop was unable to remember the date/time and CMOS settings. based on my experience, i know the cmos battery is getting weak, but it continued to work for a while, and an ntp sync was able to fix the time/date out-of-sync problem. and yesterday, it refused to power up totally. this confirms some notes in the forums that an asus laptop will not power up if the cmos battery is flat.

thanks to youtube, i was able to preview the taking apart of the inner parts, especially locations of the screws and cables. this is the most useful video (though it’s in Russian):

the cmos battery is located next to the touchpad at the lower left corner. so one has to remove almost every screw you can find (counted a total of 4 different types), remove the heat sink, the hard disk, the optical drive, the keyboard, 4 ribbon cables before you can access it.

about 30 mins or so, the dismantling, replacement, and reassembling were completed. the CR2032 cmos battery lithium cell was replaced. and the laptop is now working again! *BIG SMILE*

131012-ASUS N61 rescue

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padfone 2 review – only one note

if u lands here via any search engine, chances are you are preparing to buy a new/used asus padfone 2 and looking for a review. OR, you connected your padfone 2 to the padfone station but your display/screen keeps on flicker flickering non-stop. this is not the usual review, but it’s purpose is to share ONE recent (shocking) experience with my own padfone2.

one fine day, i plugged in my padfone2 to the padfone station, and the screen keeps on blinking and flickering intermittently. yes, it’s absolutely abnormal.

so the hospital it’s sent to, and guess what the doctor tells me? “there’s a black thing that’s missing that’s causing the problem” i look and look and i really have no idea what the doctor is saying cos i din even realise there’s something there in the first place! the most shocking part follows:

“the replacement for the parts costs S$100 (singapore dollars),” said the doctor.
“what!?!”
“yes, you compare the socket with the one on the padfone station you will see the difference.”
“errr … hmmm … (actually i still cant tell what’s there or what’s not) … but why did Asus install something that will so easily drop out in the first place? i have never heard of such a problem from any other phone.”
“yes, just to set your expectation there. for this time, becos it’s the first time (err…sounds like it’ll drop easily again and again and again?!?) we’ll waive the charges”

today, after 5 working days, i get to get back the phone. and the first thing i do is to examine what’s “new” that went missing … hmm … seriously … such a small piece of thing cost $100 !?!

it’s real small, so i have taken a close up shot of it here:
padfone2-connector-highlighted

for those who owns a padfone 2, you can compare my photo with your phone and you’ll get what i mean (i think).

so the advice is this, for anyone who’s going to buy a padfone 2, (1) get a new set with warranty cover, (2) don’t ever ROOT your device before the warranty expires, (3) if you are buying a used set, make sure you inspect the charging connectors very closely, and make sure the black ‘parts’ shown in my photo are intact, (4) don’t buy this model, get the latest padfone infinity instead.

for record sake, the proprietary charging cable cost S$15 from the hospital.

and for record sake x2, ASUS has done away with this (stupid) connector and revert to the standard mini USB. so this problem should effectively be no more? i’m not sure 😛

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padfone 2 station touch insensitive problem

lately my padfone 2 station appears insensitive to touch on the screen. it doesnt accept functions like “hold” which is needed to activate alternate character on the touch keyboard for example, and pinch to resize is also non-responsive. a search on the internet finally landed me on the solution shared in the padfone club. but the solution isnt available quickly through a search. perhaps not many pple have this problem, yet.

the solution to the problem is quite simple. it’s a software issue. a recalibration of the padfone 2 station is required. this can be done by downloading the software from asus support website. look for:

padfone 2 –> OS: Android –> Utilities –> Padfone2 Station Calibration Tool

you may need to download an RAR archive extractor to extract the apk file. plug in your padfone 2 to the station, run the apk (you’ll need to enable “Unknown Sources” software to run option found in Settings –> Security).

and it worked for me, and i hope it works for you too (:

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windows 8 installed (:

finally gotten in hand my pre-launch copy of windows 8 and started the installation almost immediately. one should always backup your important data files before attempting such a move, but all my data’s in cloud storage so i slotted in the DVD and the installation soon begins.

there isn’t much options to click during the upgrades. the only important one is whether you are going to keep your existing progs & data, or just data, or a fully clean install. as highlighted on screen, the machine will go reboot a few times. not too exciting, and the upgrade installation’s complete.

the EXCITING bit happened when after the first boot up into windows 8. my built-in wireless network card detects only 2 networks around me, but none of these are my own network!  *gasp*   which means after the upgrade, i have in front of me a crippled machine in today’s term. imagine a computer that cannot hook up to any network, wireless or physical :O  i tried plugging in my Linksys AE2500 N-adapter hoping it will work. and yes, you guessed it.

the lesson here is, one should always have another internet-enabled machine with you when attempting any OS upgrade. i tried to look for an updated driver for the AE2500. and guess what, there exists no official release for a win8 driver yet :O   i tried my luck to download a win7 driver pack, run. and thsi time i was lucky, it worked!  once the AE2500 spring to life, it can detect and connect to my wireless networks, and the next thing to do is to go to “Control Panel” –> “System” –> “Device Manager” and check for updated drivers for the built-in wireless adapter.  and to my pleasant surprise, there’s an updated driver. but i wonder why this isn’t downloaded and updated prior to the OS upgrade.

when the d/l’s completed, i regained a fully networkable machine, both wireless and physical. then next thing to run is definitely “Windows Update” found in the right swipe bar under “Settings” –> “Change PC settings”.

ok, so here’s the report so far. still have much to explore. but the current feeling i get is i’m using a Tablet-Hybrid. cos the default Metro UI is new, and it works perfectly with my Z5801’s touchscreen, albeit only two-point. once you launch a “legacy” software (cos win8 supports Metro apps similar to iOS and Android apps), you will be brought back to your good old familiar windoze desktop. EXCEPT the Start button’s no longer there which gives a funny feeling :O

shall update and report back here if there’s any interesting findings. otherwise, no news is good news (:   oh yes, one qn you may have is “should i upgrade from win7?”   if you own a laptop/PC without touchscreen, i think the tablet experience will be missing for you. another thing you need to be aware of is that the existing hardware may not have updated win8 drivers, and you may need to have workarounds like what i did. if these are no concern, or you just want to try it out like me (worst case scenario is to insert the recovery CDs to get back a fresh win7 desktop), JUST DO IT [tm] via online upgrade is cheaper during this time. enjoy (:

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