CurseTheSky
Diamond Member
Hi guys,
Right around this time last year, I bought an ASUS N80Vn 14.1" notebook (specs in my signature). I loved it at first - it seemed like the perfect compromise between performance and battery life (2.5-3 hours generally, and it can play modern games at moderate settings). As time went on, the little things started to wear on me and I'm now finding that I seem to avoid using it like the plague, primarily due to keyboard issues.
The biggest problem with the N80Vn is the horrible keyboard. If I type at my normal speed (which is quick, but not insane), I notice about 1/3rd of my keystrokes not being registered. After reading some reviews and seeing that I wasn't the only one with the problem, it seems that the N80Vn has trouble registering more than one keystroke at the same time. It's painful to type more than a few sentences, since I have to go back and fill in missing letters from half the words. To make matters worse, the keyboard is mushy and seems to lack any tactile feel of most other keyboards. I find that if I greatly slow down my typing and press each key firmly in the center, it doesn't miss any (or at least as many) keystrokes... but in my mind, that's something that I shouldn't have to do. I've typed on numerous other laptop keyboards (several HPs, a couple Toshibas, several Dells, and my girlfriend's XPS 1530, which I wrote two 10-15 page papers on) without any problems.
I contacted ASUS to see if they could fix the problem. Their initial response was to ask me to turn up the keyboard sensitivity (?). I replied asking them where I could find keyboard sensitivity settings in Vista (I didn't want to accuse the person of making a false statement without giving them the benefit of a doubt), and a different tech replied. The second tech said something to the fact of "you can send your laptop in for repair, but in most cases we've seen like this, we don't find any problems with the unit and send it back to the customer." Wonderful, so their first tech wastes my time, and the second tech basically tells me that there's "no issue" with the keyboard in their opinion (or they realize there's a problem and there's nothing they can do to fix it). Since many others report the same issue with the keyboard around the 'net, it's probably just shitty hardware, and there's no sense paying shipping to send it in if they're going to stamp A-OK on it and send it back.
Aside from the keyboard, my complaints are minor. The trackpad buttons are too stiff and make a loud audible click when pressed, and though the LED backlit screen is nice, the low 1280x800 resolution sucks. Those are things that I can live with, as long as I have a decent keyboard to type on.
Basically, I'm extremely unhappy that I paid ~$1200 for this thing and it's just about useless to me. Anything that involves typing takes at least twice as long to complete, and since I type code every day for a living (web developer / programmer) it's just not practical. I could lug around an extra keyboard or docking station to type with, but I bought the laptop for portability so what's the point?
Anyway, if anyone has had similar experiences and found a way to fix it, or thinks I should contact ASUS again and read them the riot act, I'm more than happy to listen. At this point, I'm considering selling or even giving away the laptop and buying an Acer Timeline 1410 or something similar... except this time, I'm going to play with one in a B&M store to make sure the keyboard and track pad are acceptable.
Thanks.
Cliffs:
- Laptop keyboard constantly misses keystrokes, other users around the Internet report the same issue; makes working with the laptop painful; other laptops haven't given me any problems
- Contacted ASUS tech support, got a disappointing answer (they'll look at it, but they haven't found an issue in most cases and simply return the unit stating that it works as intended)
- Looking for a way to fix it, or advice on what to say to ASUS, or considering selling it and getting a better laptop
Right around this time last year, I bought an ASUS N80Vn 14.1" notebook (specs in my signature). I loved it at first - it seemed like the perfect compromise between performance and battery life (2.5-3 hours generally, and it can play modern games at moderate settings). As time went on, the little things started to wear on me and I'm now finding that I seem to avoid using it like the plague, primarily due to keyboard issues.
The biggest problem with the N80Vn is the horrible keyboard. If I type at my normal speed (which is quick, but not insane), I notice about 1/3rd of my keystrokes not being registered. After reading some reviews and seeing that I wasn't the only one with the problem, it seems that the N80Vn has trouble registering more than one keystroke at the same time. It's painful to type more than a few sentences, since I have to go back and fill in missing letters from half the words. To make matters worse, the keyboard is mushy and seems to lack any tactile feel of most other keyboards. I find that if I greatly slow down my typing and press each key firmly in the center, it doesn't miss any (or at least as many) keystrokes... but in my mind, that's something that I shouldn't have to do. I've typed on numerous other laptop keyboards (several HPs, a couple Toshibas, several Dells, and my girlfriend's XPS 1530, which I wrote two 10-15 page papers on) without any problems.
I contacted ASUS to see if they could fix the problem. Their initial response was to ask me to turn up the keyboard sensitivity (?). I replied asking them where I could find keyboard sensitivity settings in Vista (I didn't want to accuse the person of making a false statement without giving them the benefit of a doubt), and a different tech replied. The second tech said something to the fact of "you can send your laptop in for repair, but in most cases we've seen like this, we don't find any problems with the unit and send it back to the customer." Wonderful, so their first tech wastes my time, and the second tech basically tells me that there's "no issue" with the keyboard in their opinion (or they realize there's a problem and there's nothing they can do to fix it). Since many others report the same issue with the keyboard around the 'net, it's probably just shitty hardware, and there's no sense paying shipping to send it in if they're going to stamp A-OK on it and send it back.
Aside from the keyboard, my complaints are minor. The trackpad buttons are too stiff and make a loud audible click when pressed, and though the LED backlit screen is nice, the low 1280x800 resolution sucks. Those are things that I can live with, as long as I have a decent keyboard to type on.
Basically, I'm extremely unhappy that I paid ~$1200 for this thing and it's just about useless to me. Anything that involves typing takes at least twice as long to complete, and since I type code every day for a living (web developer / programmer) it's just not practical. I could lug around an extra keyboard or docking station to type with, but I bought the laptop for portability so what's the point?
Anyway, if anyone has had similar experiences and found a way to fix it, or thinks I should contact ASUS again and read them the riot act, I'm more than happy to listen. At this point, I'm considering selling or even giving away the laptop and buying an Acer Timeline 1410 or something similar... except this time, I'm going to play with one in a B&M store to make sure the keyboard and track pad are acceptable.
Thanks.
Cliffs:
- Laptop keyboard constantly misses keystrokes, other users around the Internet report the same issue; makes working with the laptop painful; other laptops haven't given me any problems
- Contacted ASUS tech support, got a disappointing answer (they'll look at it, but they haven't found an issue in most cases and simply return the unit stating that it works as intended)
- Looking for a way to fix it, or advice on what to say to ASUS, or considering selling it and getting a better laptop
