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Today, I went to Staples to check out some stuff. Right at the entrance, they have put large ASUS banners. I was surprised and rushed into the store to see what ASUS products they are selling. I saw that they have the ASUS F8SN-X1, M51SN-X1, as well as the Eee PC 4G version available for display.

The F8SN-X1is a 14″ laptop with 3GB of RAM, 320GB of hard drive, running with Intel Core 2 Duo T5450 CPU. It is selling for $1079 at Staples. The M51SN-X1 has a very similar specification as F8SN-X1, it’s just that it is 15″ wide screen and selling for $1097. The Eee PC is selling at the stand price at $399.

Marketing Strategy

With Staples selling ASUS branded laptops, I can see that ASUS is really pushing its brand to fight for the market share against other big brands such as HP, Dell and Acer. The prices of the systems above are very competitive. When I was having my own computer retail business, ASUS has been always the most aggressive company to promote their products. Every month, we received their promotional materials such as catalogues, banners, stickers, display boxes,and so on. From time to time, their sales representative would come to our store to explain their newest products and help us in promoting ASUS products. No other companies have done such marketing strategy with us.

I still remember over a year ago that ASUS was talking with Gigabyte about the possibility of a merge. The outcome of that would be the lost of the ASUS brand. However, it now doesn’t seem that ASUS is thinking merging again.

Why ASUS?

Why do I like ASUS so much? You may want to check out my reasons here. Another reason I want to add is that ASUS is now providing one-year accidental damage warranty. So if you have spilled your coffee on your ASUS laptop, or dropped it on the ground, ASUS will replace a new one for you.

More ASUS

I can foresee that ASUS will be a major laptop brand in the next couple years. We maybe able to see more ASUS branded products selling in large electronic stores in Canada such as Staples and Futureshop. Another possibility is that we may have an ASUS store in the near future, just like the Sony store.

My client has an external hard drive and it has 2 partitions, one is FAT32 and the other one is NTFS. My client pulled the USB plug before the drive was finished writing data. The NTFS partition was then corrupted. When plugging the hard drive to a computer, Windows could detect both partitions and assign a drive letter to them. However, the NTFS drive could not be opened to view its files. The size of the drive was reported as -1MB.

I tried to perform a scan disk on the corrupted drive but Windows reported an error saying that the drive could not be scanned. Then I tried to use the Pandora Recovery, which I have discussed about it here. However, because the drive was not accessible, Pandora Recovery was not able to scan it for deleted files.

GetDataBack

After doing some research on the Internet, I have came across with GetDataBack for NTFS from Runtime Software. It says it can

“recover your data if the hard drive’s partition table, boot record, FAT/MFT or root directory are lost or damaged, data was lost due to a virus attack, the drive was formatted, fdisk has been run, a power failure has caused a system crash, files were lost due to a software failure, files were accidentally deleted…”

I downloaded its demo and installed it. Then I used it to scan the damaged drive. It took a couple hours to scan but the result is brilliant. The lost files were found, so I paid $79 USD for the software to recover all the files for my client. After confirming with my client, most of the files were recovered successfully.

GetDataBack is quite easy to use. With just 3 steps, it will be able to recover your data. However, as you may have already noticed, the version I used is for NTFS only. If you are recovering a FAT drive, then you will have to purchase GetDataBack for FAT which is $69 USD. Maybe because of this specialization, the rate of successfully recovering data is higher than the competitors. If the data is critical, then it is worth to pay for it if the free software doesn’t work for you.

I just got myself a new laptop a few days ago and was busy transferring my data from my old system to this new one. It was time to retire the old one as I have been using it for 3 years. The new laptop is the MSI S262 Mega Book in black. I picked this laptop because of its size (12.1″ comparing to 15.1″ of my previous one) and at the same time it is only $700 as I got it from my supplier. I want to be able to blog anywhere so 12″ size is perfect for me. The retail price should be around $899 CAD with Windows Vista Premium pre-installed. The following is the specification:

• Intel Pentium Dual Core T2080 1.73Ghz processor
• 1GB DDR2 memory
• 120GB 5400rpm SATA hard drive
• Intel 945GM + ICH7-M chipset
• 12.1″ WXGA super glare TFT display
• Dual layer capable DVD burner
• Gigabit LAN and modem
• 4-in-1 card reader
• 802.11G wireless
• Bluetooth
• 3 x USB ports, 1 x VGA, 1 x Express Card slot
• Li-Ion 8 cells battery
• MSI 12″ carrying case included

What’s Working

I bought this MSI S262 Mega Book without the operating system as I was going to install Ubuntu Linux on it. I am very surprise with its compatibility with Ubuntu 7.10. A lot of the built-in functions are working in Ubuntu without the need of entering commands, including the graphic card, wireless G, and gigabit LAN. More importantly, it is able to suspend and hibernate in Ubuntu and can wake up successfully. Desktop 3D effects worked like a charm without the need to install extra drivers. The hot buttons (email, web browser, wireless, except for the search button) worked out of the box.

What’s Not Working

Unfortunately, the card reader doesn’t seem to be detected and I didn’t have an Express Card to test. I will need to do some research to see if there are ways to get them working. Also, the speakers are not up to par as I can here the buzz noise when turning the volume over 80%. (But sound is not that important to me as I have it muted most of the time.)

The general performance of this laptop is better than I expected. The 3D desktop effects are very smooth even though it is only Intel’s on-board graphic. I have also setup Virtualbox to run Windows XP as a guest machine. Everything in the guest OS is running faster than my old Pentium M 1.6Ghz laptop. The responsiveness is much better.

I will keep you updated after I have experienced more on my new laptop. Hopefully I can get the card reader working too.

I had a customer complaining about his weak wireless signal at home. His wireless router was located on the first floor and he was using his desktop PC on the 3rd floor. Unfortunately, he could not relocate the wireless router to a place closer to his desktop to get a better connection. Therefore, I suggested him to try the powerline ethernet adapters.

What is Powerline Ethernet?

In simple terms, powerline ethernet is to use the power outlets on the wall, through the powerlines, to transmit data between devices on the network. There are a number of choices in the market such as the DHP-301 from D-Link, the XE103G from Netgear and the PLK200 from Linksys. These powerline ethernet adapters convert a power outlet on the wall into a RJ-45 jack in which you can plug in a normal network cable. Some models can even convert a power outlet into a wireless access point. The top models should provide a 200Mbps data throughput theoretically which is good enough for normal internet surfing.

Work or Not Work

So how are the powerline ethernet adapters working in reality? I have tried using them in three different houses. In two of them, the powerline adapters were working very well. I didn’t experience any difference in terms of downloading and uploading speed comparing to a wireless connection. I have tested with one adapter on one floor and the other one on a different floor and they were still performing very well.

However, in the third house, the powerline adapters almost could not function properly. The connection kept dropping frequently in which you almost always get timed out when trying to visit a website. The throughput rate is too low to be usable. It seemed like the connection was affected greatly by the wiring of the house.

Test Before You Buy

Because the powerline ethernet adapters are greatly affected by the wiring connection of a house, it is better to test it out before you decide to purchase a set. I would keep a set of adapters on hand just for testing purposes. If a customer is interested, I can go and test them on-site. If they work, then I can sell my customer a new pair. If they don’t work, then my customer will not waste his money on them and I can find him a different solution.

What is your experience on powerline ethernet adapters? Which model are you using?

I have been promoting ASUS laptops in my store extensively. One reason is because of its quality. Comparing to other brands, most of the time when a customer brings in a notebook for repair, it is very seldom an ASUS notebook. It could be that there are less ASUS users out there but it can also be ASUS technical support team are doing well on their part.

Why ASUS Laptops?

Some of the reasons why I prefer ASUS laptops:

• ASUS produces high quality motherboards — the most important component in a computer
• All models are designed in-house to make sure every part is working well together (I have seen some laptops from another brand with poor design, causing overheating problem)
• Very stylish designs available to choose from
• Lots of innovative ideas such as the W5Fe (auxiliary LCD display) and Eee PC (small, cheap, Linux!)
• Most models come with a high quality carrying bag (Targus bags) and mouse

Another thing worth mentioning is their warranty service. ASUS provides 2 years global warranty. If your laptop needs repair service, you can simply call their toll free number and they will arrange a shipment for you to send it in. They will fix your laptop within 48 hours in most cases and ship it back to you.

Although most of the ASUS laptops are in the range of $1000 to $2000 CAD, I think it is worth the money and they give me the confidence in choosing ASUS laptops. If you are looking for a reliable, dependable laptop, ASUS should be your number one choice.