Back to the Depot

[howeird]

The Asus Zen is a FAIL. The deal-breaker was it doesn't type all the keys I hit, especially the "a". I sat in front of a simple text file and pounded in some of our favorite patriotic phrases about the sunshine soldier and the summer patriot and when in the course of human events, and half the a's were missing. If I typed really slowly (10 wpm) they would all be there. Also a PITA is the home and end keys require holding down the Fn key. And the touchpad doesn't scroll.

I wanted to test it with a bluetooth mouse, and I know I have one around here somewhere but cannot find it.

Moot point, though, the main part of the computer is the keyboard, and if that doesn't work for me it's a show-stopper.

To make life even more interesting, the return terms said I needed to wipe all my stuff, and you can't test the machine without setting up a Windows account, so I did the F9- factory reset, which is supposed to reload the machine into its virgin state from a partition on the drive, but it just kept coming up with a "starting windows for the first time" message and then rebooting. From the split-second display of an error dialog, it seems the reset partition is missing a few crucial pieces, and the machine needs a recovery disc, which they did not include, so I'll let that be their headache.

Also points against it is it is too heavy for a thin book, and the cover is difficult to pry open.

The Toshiba ought to be here Friday or Saturday, and Office Depot's RMA email said they want to pick up the package from me Friday between 8:30 am and 5 pm, but that's not going to happen so I'll call and see if I can just drop it at an Office Depot store.