Do you have experience with Asus laptops about durability?

Hardware
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Hello Friends

It could be an out of place discussion but your feedback is valuable.

A member of my family has the intention to buy a new Asus laptop (ZenBook serie). A friend told him that the new Asus models since few years ago are not the same than 10/15 yrs about its durability. Thus it would pass away in 5/6 yrs.

His nephew would be able to buy other for him to be used with Linux. Reason of this post too.

Do you have a kind of experience about this? It about its durability and performance throughout the latest years.

Perhaps by yourself, member of your family, co-worker, neighbor etc …

Thanks for your understanding

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Think its the same for most new computers no matter what make or model.

Newer machines come with a ssd and memory soldered direct to the motherboard and snap fit cases which break if you try to open. Hence no user upgradeable parts or replacement. They are wafer thin to cut down on costs and the batteries are inside the case so when connected to the mains are in constant charge discharge state, no battery replacement without risk of cracking the case.

Not just this make but just about all except apple where using a special screwdriver getting inside is very difficult, but as no moving parts why bother.

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For years I had ASUS Gaming TUF Laptops, they are put through extreme tests as the chassis is tough as houses. Mostly these days, the brand new 2024 editions come with AI enhanced CPU’s and bloated out because of Windows 11. You can of course easily install Linux on it and it’ll run like a dream. If ever wanted Windows 11 back, ASUS has you covered as after installing Windows 11 back on it, it will automatically update Bios and firmware for you. Plus you don’t have to go through the process of activating the Licence as that is activated automatically as standard. My time with this I had Peppermint OS 10 when Mark Greaves was at the helm and it ran so quick, blink and you’ll miss it.

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Thanks for the reply and for your time to write your important feedback

Paul

Think its the same for most new computers no matter what make or model

That is really bad news, a hardware is normally expensive

Newer machines come with a ssd and memory soldered direct to the motherboard and snap fit cases which break if you try to open

Ouch, I know about the soldered ram because I have a laptop Asus with that situation. But about the SSD that is tricky because is the first thing to pass away. About to open the case I case something similar but for MacBook Pro.

Hence no user upgradeable parts or replacement

Really a bad approach applied for the end users

They are wafer thin to cut down on costs and the batteries are inside the case so when connected to the mains are in constant charge discharge state, no battery replacement without risk of cracking the case.

About the batteries, that’s really a random luck for each laptop

Not just this make but just about all except apple where using a special screwdriver getting inside is very difficult, but as no moving parts why bother

If my memory does not fail: in YouTube there is a review about if you want to change a battery practically is mandatory unmount the MacBook itself and yes with the special screwdriver

Mark

For years I had ASUS Gaming TUF Laptops, they are put through extreme tests as the chassis is tough as houses.

I have one bought in 2016 and working so far with Windows 10 and Linux with VirtualBox in peace. A good acquisition

Mostly these days, the brand new 2024 editions come with AI enhanced CPU’s and bloated out because of Windows 11.

That’s an important consideration, have the new laptop working in peace for long time for Windows 11

You can of course easily install Linux on it and it’ll run like a dream.

I am assuming that right now Linux should work in peace with a processor with AI. Am I correct?

If ever wanted Windows 11 back, ASUS has you covered as after installing Windows 11 back on it, it will automatically update Bios and firmware for you

To avoid complications my cousin is going to use VirtualBox in case he needs borrow the laptop to my uncle to use MS Office, Adobe PDF etc …

For you both and the audience: Just in case: if you are able to buy a new laptop up to black Friday

Question

  • What would be your first manufacturer to choice? Asus, HP, Lenovo?

And Why?. In my case due my own experience Asus, but that current approach (if is the case) discourage to buy a new one. But of course your own experience and perhaps based in members of your family would give me a better orientation

Thanks for your understanding

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Linux may have trouble with any very new hardware… AI or not

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manufacturer to choice? Asus, HP, Lenovo…

I personally dont have one get each in turn to repair in my workshop.

Reinstalling windows is no big deal… IF the computer is alive and well, but imagine a faulty screen, will not boot, faulty memory or motherboard for a return. No way to reinstall.

Same with the mac if it starts and runs you can reinstall slowly from the apple website on boot, but if hardware issue perhaps not !

Sorry to spoil your ideas, perhaps running linux inside windows is the best option till warranty expires, or just live with windows.

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Would a dual boot void the warranty.? I dont see why… after all Linux is just a data partition to Windows, and you must be allowed to have a data partition.

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Heyy!
I think I missed this while starting my topic of pop os.

We have an Asus laptop from 2016 at home.
It has i3 6th generation I guess.
It came with a 1TB hdd and DOS os.

The seller put unactivated windows on it(win10).
We still have it, although we have removed the disk reader from it and placed ssd 256gb instead of it.

Even with the ssd, ut is pretty slow. This is acceptable ig cuz its 8 yr old now. Asus was not a very popular company at that time… and yeah I have not put linux on it as its the only laptop in the house with win.

But I think things have changed in Asus now. They are making good laptops these days. Both the gaming ones and the productivity ones too.

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Indeed ,new laptops (often waver-thin) normally can’t have a second life…sadly
Currently I have 3 laptops: 1) Dell E6330 (2013) 2) Apple Macbook Pro (2011) and 3) Sony-Vaio (2014) ,this one a freebee , found discarded at a recycle centre.
Nr 1) running Zorin 17.1 Nr 2) running Zorin 17.2 Nr 3 running LM22
All with 3rd gen I5 CPU and fitted with a new (lowcost Chinese made)SSD.
The 3 original HardDrives re-used as data disks fitted in low-cost USB3 external enclosures.

I can’t see requiring any new laptop in the years to come .

Frank in County Wicklow Ireland

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All of mine (5) are second hand repair jobs or rejects for new machines. All running linux mint debian edition , except one netbook on xfce as it only has 1gb memory and too old to find more memory for now, one running mate 19 at 32 bits as my copy of dreamweaver only runs on 32 bit under wine, tried it on other machines and failed so sticking with this. One is a apple macbook pro 2010 which runs superb, but as i often give présentations hooking up to a big screen needs another cable purchase so have not bothered since i lost the last one.

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Do you know, that you can install XFCE instead Cinnamon on LMDE?

You can easily create 32 bit WINE prefixes on a 64 bit Linux anytime and continue with that app, which will think it runs on a 32 bit Windows…

Just add the possibility to install i386 libs:

sudo dpkg add-architecture i386
sudo apt update

Then if you already have wine installed, install wine32:
sudo apt install wine32

If wine was not present, install wine:
`sudo apt install wine wine32 winetricks’

The winetricks is optional, maybe you don’t need it, but it’s very useful to get workarounds into a wineprefix.

Then create a 32 bit wineprefix specifically (no sudo, do it as your regular user):

WINEARCH=win32 WINEPREFIX=~/32bitwin wineboot
If you don’t specify the “~/32bitwin” wineprefix name, the default, “~/.wine” will be used, so if you don’t plan to use another prefix fro 64bit Windows apps, it can be omitted.
Setting WINEARCH is vital, as this wil cause wineboot to create a 32 bit Windows-like environment.

Alternatively, if you prepare your 64 bit Linux this way, you can just copy over the ~/.wine directory as a whole from your 32 bit machine to it, and the there installed 32 bit Windows apps. remain fully functional (assuming, the paths don’t change in a way).
You need to copy the desktop launchers separately, to have the icons in the menu.
I have spread the MS Office 2007 (installed into 32 bit wineprefix) among my family exactly this way.
It has to work for you too…

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For myself I choose either from Dell or Lenovo. Maybe Acer. :wink:

Almost 3 years old Asus laptop (ASUS Zenbook 14 UX431FL-AN014T) used by the wife of my friend: the motherborad died.
I myself had 2 Toshibas before, while they worked, they were great to use, but in both of them the south bridge gave up.
I had one MSI, the fringe broke in less than a year - otherwise the device worked great, just display was loose…
So I if choose something for myself, I strictly stay in the triangle drawn by Dell-Lenovo-Acer. I never regretted any of them.

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Thanks for the detailed reply and advice on xfce on lmde, i dont have a problem swithing between the 2 desktops

My issue is with dreamweaver as once installed i have to run a crack to get the licence to work and it looks for a file in a hiden area done it about twice and struggled each time to find where and make it work. As i am running down my web development It is no longer a priority to change.

Desperate to retire so no new clients

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I somehow managed to download ma office 13 on pop os on my fathers macbook with the same technique. Works pretty well!

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Cannot be outside of the wineprefix! So if you copy the whole .wine, it will be there and working.
I expected the MS Office 2007 to have to be activated again on each machine after I copied the whole .wine. I was ready to do it as the licence allows us to use 3 copies the same time.
I was wrong, the activation was intact on all instances :smiley:

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Really Thanks to all for the replies …

that’s why I really enjoy this network, polite friends and geeks :nerd_face:

I think this thread is valuable for all because soon or later we should buy a new laptop

Paul

I personally dont have one get each in turn to repair in my workshop.

If I understood very well, you don’t have the mentioned laptops but you had repaired them. Am I correct? If I am correct, what manufacturer was the minor problematic to repair? You would say: I repaired 10 of X, 5 od Y and 1 of Z. Thus Z is a good candidate

Reinstalling windows is no big deal… IF the computer is alive and well, but imagine a faulty screen, will not boot, faulty memory or motherboard for a return. No way to reinstall.

Agree until some point, my main concern is fatal and total failure because either the mobo or processor passed way. I know the first thing to pass away is a hard disk. I’ve never had in my life the experience about a RAM going down. About the screen I’ve heard problems about human error about to break the screen itself by an accident. Other scenario is when the video card fails and it affects the monitor but I’ve heard this practically few times.

Same with the mac if it starts and runs you can reinstall slowly from the apple website on boot, but if hardware issue perhaps not !

Apple has other philosophy … practically buy a new MacBook Pro

Sorry to spoil your ideas, perhaps running linux inside windows is the best option till warranty expires, or just live with windows.

All is OK, because the laptop is going to be shared by my uncle and cousin that approach is going to be taken through VirtualBox … but … if the laptop can’t support the next Windows 12/13 the SSD is replaced by a new one and install Linux in peace

Neville

Would a dual boot void the warranty.? I dont see why… after all Linux is just a data partition to Windows, and you must be allowed to have a data partition.

Perhaps there is a special case if you change the SSD and reinstall the same windows with the same key. The point is, the SSD was changed and because the laptop was opened the warranty is gone.

Kelkar

We have an Asus laptop from 2016 at home.
It has i3 6th generation I guess.
It came with a 1TB hdd and DOS os.

I have an Asus ZenBook as follows:

It is an excellent acquisition, so far working in peace. but two things I did not like

  • One RAM slot is soldered. I can upgrade the RAM up to 40GB (8 + 32) I’ve confirmed this through a YouTube video - but losing the dual channel feature.
  • It can only support 512GB of SSD. Few months ago I got direct and friendly support by Asus itself through email. Exists the risk to “burn” the Chipset if is installed a SSD of 1TB.

Thus my hope to upgrade to 32GB (16 + 16) with at least of 1TB SSD is not possible. Anyway the SSD is going to be replaced by other of 512GB to work directly with Ubuntu

Even with the ssd, ut is pretty slow. This is acceptable ig cuz its 8 yr old now. Asus was not a very popular company at that time… and yeah I have not put linux on it as its the only laptop in the house with win.

Very interesting, I bought my Asus at 2016 and is very fast and still is using the original SSD - what serie is your Asus?

Frank

Indeed ,new laptops (often waver-thin) normally can’t have a second life…sadly

Well, I brought back to life 3 laptops of my family and now belongs to me and works with Linux Faster

  • HP Pavilium
  • Toshiba
  • MacBook Pro 2012

All of them can be upgraded to 16GB and works with SSD in peace. The funny was that for HP and MackBook Pro in their official specs indicate they support max of ram as 8GB and it is not true, they support support 16GB. It happens for your MacBook Pro 2011 because my uncle has the same as yours and was upgraded from 4GB to 8GB (it thanks to the 2 RAM sticks removed from my Mac when was upgraded from 8 to 16)

So trust me, your laptops can work very fast with that upgrade

I can’t see requiring any new laptop in the years to come .

I am agree, but because my uncle needs Windows a new one is required in the family

László

For myself I choose either from Dell or Lenovo. Maybe Acer.

My 2nd choice is Lenovo, if my memory does not fail me it was previously IBM. My uncle has an old Dell PC Desktop and works so far very good but now He wants a Laptop and as expected He has the preference for a Dell due his own experience, but I don’t know its reputation about laptops

About Acer I got my sister’s old Acer Aspire, it was upgraded from 1 to 2GB and runs Linux Peppermint 11.6 for 32 bits, it works fine. Sadly it does not work with 4GB of ram - black screen - it even when the dmidecode command indicates the max support of 4GB - so I have a RAM stick there. Anyway I am assuming the new Acers available in the market are good enough

Almost 3 years old Asus laptop (ASUS Zenbook 14 UX431FL-AN014T) used by the wife of my friend: the motherborad died.

Interesting that failure of the mobo … Is there a specific reason?

but in both of them the south bridge gave up.

What do you mean with that?

So I if choose something for myself, I strictly stay in the triangle drawn by Dell-Lenovo-Acer. I never regretted any of them.

Thanks for the valuable Feedback. But among them what would be your best option?

Thanks to all

Because I had the intention to create a new thread about:

  • Guidance to choice a recommendable manufacturer of laptops 2024

And your extra feedback was really valuable.

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Can’t comment about recent Asus laptop models…

In 2015 I got a redundancy / retrenchment - and used part of that to buy a brand new laptop (first one in 10+ years) - I assumed I wouldn’t have any trouble landing another job…

Anyway - I went to a Dick Smith electronics store (no longer with us) and bought a slim / thin / svelte 15" Asus “ROG” laptop (actually maybe a Zenbook Pro UX501?) - it looked a bit like a MacBook Air… 8 GB RAM, 256 GB SSD and mobile NVidia GTX970…

I installed elementary on it… Over the top of the Windows partition - but left the restore partition intact…

It ran really nice - I got NVidia Prime working so I could switch between Intel and NVidia GPU (still required log out, and back in - to X11)… All my games (Steam) ran sweet on it… Especially Borderlands 2 (had a native Linux build).

So I actually blew away the restore partition too… and used the whole 256 GB SSD for elementary…

Anyway - I was overly optimistic, didn’t manage to land a decent paying role again, did a few gigs, and ended up having to sell that laptop as a reluctant sale (and at a considerable loss).

Anyway - everything worked under elementary on it…

But - to sell it? I had to download Windows 10 again (I think the restore partition was actually Windows 8) and re-install drivers and everything again - took ages (HEAPS LONGER than installing elementary!) - and bitterly regretted my decision to blow away the restore partition!

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I realise i should make a note of what i do in the workshop, make model, problem to use as a future guidance but something i never got around to doing. Just happy to fix and take the money, never been into recording events.

So i cannot quantify how many of any make. Also they come in waves and where i live with regards to money on original purchases.

I live now in a holiday area, with many boat owners and close to a few golf courses so my clients tend to have money and go for more expensive laptop makes. Before i lived in a small farming village area so the computers were mainly cheaper desktops as they had space in the home.

For a technician a desktop is easier to work on as you can open the box to swap parts and have room to work, new laptops dont offer that. But harder to move around with, hence a lot have moved to tablets.

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Lenovo was born when a chinese brand acquired IBM, and the new name given was “Lenovo”.

I don’t know, but that wife is a pedantic lady. I just installed the laptop for her (Windows of course :confused: ). I was called on phone by my friend, that the laptop behaves strange. I told him, I suspect memory module error, and maybe that needs to be replaced, but I’m too busy, I cannot do it right now, and it needs more testing to confirm, so better take it to a service. Next day he called me, that it does not switch on at all, no matter the charger is plugged or not.
I told him, take to the service.
Ther they found that the motherboard is defect.

The laptop started suddenly to freeze at random times. I could run memtest for several days, no error was present - yes, because it tests the memory modules (+north bridge) and if the CPU is OK, this test will not fail.
Still the error was there, and narrowed down to the storage. So when the storage was used intensively, the freeze occured sometimes, otherwise the laptop worked flawlessly.
I was told, the south bridge got hot, and one or more of the BGA soldering balls were disconnected because of the tension that the thermal expansion introduced. It was possible to fix with reballing, resoldering the chip, but only if the PCB is intact below it. But it could be surely told, after the chip was removed. This fixing was done for a success fee, so if it fails, it does not cost (but if it succeeds, it would have costs a lot, still cheaper than a new MOBO).
It could not get worse, so I decided to give it a try.
With 2 of my 2 Toshibas that happened and the fix failed. They were completely different models, different ages, different “grades”, the older was an entry level cheap laptop, the newer was a business-grade modell, I don’t remember the exact type, but it had super-awesome speakers, they sounded very much like a small Hifi, not like a laptop…
So I finished with Toshiba :frowning:
(Others may have/had better luck with that brand)

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I don’t think anyone ever aquired IBM - they’re the aquirers :smiley: (e.g. Red Hat).

The line of desktop PCs and laptops that IBM use to manufacture, in China, were taken over by a new Chinese brand “Lenovo” - hence there are IBM ThinkPads and ThinkCenters, and Lenovo ThinkPads and ThinkCenters.

I have several IBM branded ThinkCenter small form factor (not tiny “NUC” formfactor) desktop machines - and several IBM ThinkPad T40/41/42 laptops…

IBM (Big Blue) still make hardware - but - obviously mostly in the BIG server and MainFrame segment…

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