BUYER BEWARE: ASUS Zephyrus batteries are a HAZARD.

[VixusFoxy]

I have edited this post to bring awareness of the issue. The original post is pasted below this.

I did a bit of research and for a laptop that's uncommon, this problem sure as heck is common.
Within 5 minutes of googling "GX501 battery problem" I had found 6 people who have had the exact same issue with the exact same laptop that has the exact same type of battery.

It's amazing that ASUS has not performed a recall, or even acknowledged the issue.
That's what amazes me.


User performs emergency disassembly of GX501 due to battery airbagging: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46UXQGXvdEs

Another user reports swollen battery with GX501: http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/zephyrus-gx501-swollen-battery.821843/

A user on these forums reports swollen battery with the GX501 right after having a battery replaced: https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?104841-Zephyrus-(GX501)-Battery-Swell

Reddit user on /r/pcmasterrace suffers from a swollen battery with the GX501: https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/97nxx7/rip_battery_swollen_like_a_loaf_of_unbaked_bre...

Not to mention the amount of users in this thread who have had the exact same issue.


What's up ASUS, Can we get a response?




__ Original post below __






What the hell is this?
The battery is bloating under my keyboard?

[Injustice]

I feel like this is just a soft bandage fix for a VERY big hardware issue that, at the price point, shouldn't have ever been a problem to begin with. It doesn't change the fact that we were sold lemons, nor that our batteries/machines have already failed. I'm still absolutely livid over the entire thing.

[VixusFoxy]

Injustice wrote:
I feel like this is just a soft bandage fix for a VERY big hardware issue that, at the price point, shouldn't have ever been a problem to begin with. It doesn't change the fact that we were sold lemons, nor that our batteries/machines have already failed. I'm still absolutely livid over the entire thing.

Failed multiple times, even.

[MasterC]

VixusFoxy wrote:
Failed multiple times, even.

In our previous conversation you mentioned that you went through Alternate for an RMA to replace the first battery, did you get an RMA number?
Please check your inbox, we are still waiting for your response.

[VixusFoxy]

MasterC@ASUS wrote:
In our previous conversation you mentioned that you went through Alternate for an RMA to replace the first battery, did you get an RMA number?
Please check your inbox, we are still waiting for your response.

I have PMed you the details.

It's been three weeks as of writing, and I haven't heard back from Alternate about this case.
I

[Reldan]

My laptop battery is also swelling. Purchased July of 2017, it may have been this way for a while but reading this post I checked the spot everybody is talking about and yeah, it's definitely bulging upwards.

Is Asus just waiting until these things start burning people's houses down? That didn't go so well for Samsung.

Between this and the incorrectly advertised "HDMI 2.0" this has been an unfortunate experience dealing with a brand I used to respect. It's not that I take issue that sometimes things go wrong or something didn't get caught during QC, it's the lack of any acknowledgement or solutions for issues that appear to affect every customer. Even Nvidia admitted there are issues with the RTX2080Ti and they're rapidly RMAing any customers who are having problems. I have a friend who had saved up $3k to buy a MacBook Pro but was thinking of getting a gaming laptop instead, and despite the Zephyrus basically meeting everything he could want in terms of size, weight, and power, I couildn't recommend it because I have no faith in the company behind it.

I'd be happy if somebody could show me that Asus stands behind their products.

[Reldan]

Is there somebody I can actually talk to get an estimate for the repair on this? I'll need that to put in an Extended Warranty claim with my cc company, and need to confirm they'll cover it before I start the process. Also I no longer have the original 512GB ssd - it had some problems so I replaced it with a 1TB drive instead. The RMA instructions say that there's a chance you won't get the machine you sent in back, which makes me think I should remove my SSD before sending it in to not risk losing it, but there's no mention of what to actually do in a situation like this.

[MasterC]

Reldan wrote:
Is there somebody I can actually talk to get an estimate for the repair on this? I'll need that to put in an Extended Warranty claim with my cc company, and need to confirm they'll cover it before I start the process. Also I no longer have the original 512GB ssd - it had some problems so I replaced it with a 1TB drive instead. The RMA instructions say that there's a chance you won't get the machine you sent in back, which makes me think I should remove my SSD before sending it in to not risk losing it, but there's no mention of what to actually do in a situation like this.

Sorry for the inconvenience, please send your laptop in to an ASUS Service Center in your region. They will be in a position to let you know the cost, if any. You'll have to send the laptop in with the same configuration as when it was purchased, so yes, it's necessary to put the original SSD back I'm afraid.

[Reldan]

MasterC@ASUS wrote:
Sorry for the inconvenience, please send your laptop in to an ASUS Service Center in your region. They will be in a position to let you know the cost, if any. You'll have to send the laptop in with the same configuration as when it was purchased, so yes, it's necessary to put the original SSD back I'm afraid.

I do not have it any longer and it wouldn't boot off of it even if I did. It's a user-serviceable part so I upgraded to a 1TB drive since the machine was past the warranty period anyways, and it wasn't worth trying to get it replaced (nor possible as I don't think you can buy the OEM Samsung drive you guys use, it's not one of their consumer models) when it cost less to get a larger, faster drive. You don't leave users much choice with a machine that has a single M.2 slot.

You shouldn't need it to have an SSD in the machine to replace the battery with one that isn't a safety hazard, or your service center could plug any M.2 in temporarily to verify the machine boots. Given that this is out of warranty, if you couldn't fix this particular machine for some reason you're not going to give me a free replacement machine anyways.

[xeromist]

Regarding your SSD, I would remove it I guess. Never send anything in you cannot afford to lose. That said, they might give you a hard time if they really do plan to just swap the machine out and yours is incomplete. I don't know there's anything you can really do though since you no longer have it. I guess you could buy a small used SSD and throw it in there so it can load Windows but that sounds like a bit of a hassle for the off chance they even bother to check. They are replacing a battery so the rest really shouldn't matter.

[Reldan]

Follow-up on my battery issue - I sent my laptop in to the service center a couple weeks ago. I was expecting to hear back after the diagnostic was done with some sort of price for the repair, but I checked the status today and it's marked as "repair completed" and is supposed to arrive back here this Friday (12/14).

Maybe they are repairing these battery issues now for free, even out of warranty? I'm assuming a repair was done, as I was never contacted either way. I'll update again once I get the laptop back later this week and can check and see if it's fixed.