Hi everyone. I apologize in advance as I know this is a long post. Just thought I 'd share my rather sad experience. I am surprised but somehow reassured to not see anybody else report this major issue after the X13 and XG Mobile have been out since over 5 months.
Got my X13 just 2 weeks ago - Supernova Edition with XG Mobile 3080. Pretty excited but also super cautious as despite appearances, I was sure this little piece of technology was probably fragile. So I've been taking care of it like a newborn, literally nursing its little butt and overly paying attention to every cry and fart. Like we all do I'm sure :rolleyes:
Anyway, here I am having the time of my life with my beloved newborn and occasionally switching from laptop/tablet mode to massive destruction Schwarzenegger weapon when I plugged in the XG Mobile. I was always anxious with this proprietary PCI-E bulky connection, afraid it would break if I was being clumsy or uncareful.
And then it just happened. After just 1 week as I wanted to disconnect the XG Mobile the plug would just not come out. Like one side of the connector was locked in, like literally stuck inside. Of course I was doing everything by the book : pushing the lock switch (when in white LED mod) to unlock, and then pressing the sides of the connector to remove it. I initially tried very kindly and softly, and progressively put a little more strength to it. But believe me when you are manipulating your $4000 investment (3500 Euros) you are clearly being extra careful and fearful anything would break thus voiding your warranty.
I sent an email to Asus Support. Got an answer then next working day. Answer couldn't have been less useful : I was just sent a link pointing to the official procedure : https://www.asus.com/support/FAQ/1045151/), which clearly didn't help as my problem is "physical".
After 2 days I resigned myself to pulling the connector out with more strength and finally managed to separate it from the laptop. When I say more strength, I mean "a lot" more strength guys. Like the thing you would only do when you are out of options and completely desperate.
Fine, so now I have the XGm separate from the X13 laptop. But then it wouldn't plug back in unless I apply the same level of strength the opposite way, which seems very unreasonable since you would normally expect these will fit into one another like daddy into mummy. And here again, I'm talking about pushing real hard. No way I'm gonna spend the next 5 years struggling to connect/disconnect all the time, risking to damage something irreversibly. Let's note here that once plugged in, the XGm and X13 were working just fine.
I therefore decided to take it back to my dealer and ask for an exchange, hoping another unit would solve my problem. After the technician acknowledged there was clearly an issue and didn't manage to plug the XGm himself, we proceeded to the exchange and I picked up the replacing brand new units (X13 + XGm) 4 days later.
I've now had this new gear since 5 days. Brand new X13 Flow and brand new XG Mobile. And as you can imagine I've been as soft as can be with the PCIe connection since then.
This morning I had to pack my gear to go to my friend's house and work on some heavy-duty video editing. As I was unplugging the XGm, same problem again ! Impossible to unplug the XGm. Doomed ! 😞
We are talking about 2 brand new X13 + XGm in a row people. So either I am doing something terribly wrong here, or this connector has a serious problem. In both cases I can only assume any John Doe out there is likely to come across the same very annoying problem with his setup at some point.
For the time being, I can only advise that you owners of this XG Mobile be super careful when disconnecting/connecting your XGm. I will escalate this to Asus of course, and post any update here.
I will try and post a video too so all the above becomes a little more visual.
Thanks for reading ! Love this laptop but very disappointed on this particular point as it definitely defeats the very purpose of the big bucks investment 😞
=== edit 21.07.01 ===
No reply from Asus Support (Europe) after 24 hours. I chased again this afternoon.
After looking closely I managed to figure out what the problem is. See my explanatory masterpiece below :
Got my X13 just 2 weeks ago - Supernova Edition with XG Mobile 3080. Pretty excited but also super cautious as despite appearances, I was sure this little piece of technology was probably fragile. So I've been taking care of it like a newborn, literally nursing its little butt and overly paying attention to every cry and fart. Like we all do I'm sure :rolleyes:
Anyway, here I am having the time of my life with my beloved newborn and occasionally switching from laptop/tablet mode to massive destruction Schwarzenegger weapon when I plugged in the XG Mobile. I was always anxious with this proprietary PCI-E bulky connection, afraid it would break if I was being clumsy or uncareful.
And then it just happened. After just 1 week as I wanted to disconnect the XG Mobile the plug would just not come out. Like one side of the connector was locked in, like literally stuck inside. Of course I was doing everything by the book : pushing the lock switch (when in white LED mod) to unlock, and then pressing the sides of the connector to remove it. I initially tried very kindly and softly, and progressively put a little more strength to it. But believe me when you are manipulating your $4000 investment (3500 Euros) you are clearly being extra careful and fearful anything would break thus voiding your warranty.
I sent an email to Asus Support. Got an answer then next working day. Answer couldn't have been less useful : I was just sent a link pointing to the official procedure : https://www.asus.com/support/FAQ/1045151/), which clearly didn't help as my problem is "physical".
After 2 days I resigned myself to pulling the connector out with more strength and finally managed to separate it from the laptop. When I say more strength, I mean "a lot" more strength guys. Like the thing you would only do when you are out of options and completely desperate.
Fine, so now I have the XGm separate from the X13 laptop. But then it wouldn't plug back in unless I apply the same level of strength the opposite way, which seems very unreasonable since you would normally expect these will fit into one another like daddy into mummy. And here again, I'm talking about pushing real hard. No way I'm gonna spend the next 5 years struggling to connect/disconnect all the time, risking to damage something irreversibly. Let's note here that once plugged in, the XGm and X13 were working just fine.
I therefore decided to take it back to my dealer and ask for an exchange, hoping another unit would solve my problem. After the technician acknowledged there was clearly an issue and didn't manage to plug the XGm himself, we proceeded to the exchange and I picked up the replacing brand new units (X13 + XGm) 4 days later.
I've now had this new gear since 5 days. Brand new X13 Flow and brand new XG Mobile. And as you can imagine I've been as soft as can be with the PCIe connection since then.
This morning I had to pack my gear to go to my friend's house and work on some heavy-duty video editing. As I was unplugging the XGm, same problem again ! Impossible to unplug the XGm. Doomed ! 😞
We are talking about 2 brand new X13 + XGm in a row people. So either I am doing something terribly wrong here, or this connector has a serious problem. In both cases I can only assume any John Doe out there is likely to come across the same very annoying problem with his setup at some point.
For the time being, I can only advise that you owners of this XG Mobile be super careful when disconnecting/connecting your XGm. I will escalate this to Asus of course, and post any update here.
I will try and post a video too so all the above becomes a little more visual.
Thanks for reading ! Love this laptop but very disappointed on this particular point as it definitely defeats the very purpose of the big bucks investment 😞
=== edit 21.07.01 ===
No reply from Asus Support (Europe) after 24 hours. I chased again this afternoon.
After looking closely I managed to figure out what the problem is. See my explanatory masterpiece below :
