(2014-02-01) Number One Son Asus Vivobook

Number One Son found his AlienWare Lap Top to big/heavy to carry to school when he'd need it after-school for debate team practice. So we sold it via Craigs List.

And bought the AsUs Vivo Book Q301LA-BSI5T17 - 13", Intel i5 - 1.6GHz, 6GB RAM, 500GB drive laptop. 4lbs.

Of course you have to take MsWindows v8, which is now 8.1.

Sometimes the trackpad sticks when pressing the left-mouse area.

AutoDesk Inventor ran for awhile but now won't.

Sometimes the screen starts flashing on and off.

• Live Chat https://secure.livechatinc.com/licence/1792571/open_chat.cgi?groups=0 - busy, so call 888) 678-3688
• Their suggestion: do factory reset: Go to PC Settings; Update and Recovery; select Recovery and re-install Windows.
• took it to BestBuy - Geek Squad guy said "it's a known issue with Win8.1 of backlight turning off, so might just have to update the Intel graphics card drivers"
• but when they ran diagnostics found that it's an actual hardware issue, so will have to get shipped out for real repair. (Also confirmed the trackpad issue, so that will get taken care of at the same time.)
• I told them to ship it out on Tuesday, and it was back to them on Friday! They replaced the motherboard and re-seated the touchpad. No charge!
• (this didn't solve the AutoDesk problem)

Apr13 - mouse is now not working in many games. Research says this is also Win8.1 issue. Between this and AutoDesk issue, Number One Son votes for refresh.

• does refresh to Win8.0
• some strange after-effects in terms of directories where they shouldn't be. Research tells him he should do a full reset. So he did.

May05 update

• everything's been working fine.
• Except AutoDesk Inventor, which worked for a couple weeks and then stopped working again. Giving up on it.