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Question

system restore killed MS office - cant reenter key

by Feb 4, 2012 9:02AM PST

Bought a new Asus A53E i5 3 weeks ago; sometimes it either wouldn't shut down w/o a hard stop or would turn off just because it felt like it - displaying a major error message. And was slow as hell apparently from major bloatware according to Amazon (where I got it).
Also, the loaded antivirus "Trend Micro Titanium" was defunct - so I added MS Essentials. (Any other sugestions???)
Shouldn't have let Bozo coworker touch it, should have just returned it, but he did a system restore, started deleting programs he'd never heard of (to speed it up) and now I have no error log to document my previous issues and no MS Office. Since it came loaded, the key is on the bottom - but can't even get to the point to add it w/o an error message.
Is it totally fubared? Did I make the most expensive mistake of the year - because now my warranty is toast - or can I still send it back??
I can always add a different version of Office and it hasn't really done the funky shut down crap lately - but it's only been a week...... all advice will be treasured!
Sorry for the novel length story (hell, I'm a newbie here - what do you expect?)

Discussion is locked

3 Posts
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Answer
Yep, sounds like it is TOAST and ...
by Feb 4, 2012 1:27PM PST

you have learned an EXPENSIVE lesson.

On the other hand what exactly is keeping YOU from restoring it to factory configuration. If you have the recovery CD or DVD just boot with that and choose to recover to factory image. If you don't have the CD / DVD then you press F9 at start up and follow where the menu leads to get to the factory recovery.

Actually this link will show you EXACTLY how to go about restoring to factory image:
http://support.asus.com/Troubleshooting/detail.aspx?SLanguage=en&p=3&m=A53E&s=299&hashedid=pNhYyNnFj0hhaQb2&os=&no=1775

After restoring things if you do want to get rid of some of the bloat here is a link to a really handy utility to PROPERLY uninstall things. Be careful what you choose to uninstall and DO NOT UNINSTALL anything that you are not sure of.

SlimComputer freeware http://slimcomputer.com/features.php

Another option for doing the same is The PC Decrapifier http://pcdecrapifier.com/ and it too is freeware.

When someone hands you TOAST butter it and add jelly or whatever and ENJOY IT! Wink

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I'm afraid I'm making lemonade here...
by lucky0037 Feb 4, 2012 4:41PM PST

... with this shiny lemon. The random "catistrophic error message" shut downs and the failure to shut down at all were right out of the box. Even if/when I follow all your instructions (which I will do to the very last letter!!!), can this thing be saved?
I'm willing to take my medicine - and eat my burnt toast - but I'm afraid there is going to be a heck of alot of sugar in my lemonade. Joking aside, can I really pull this off? I'll get back to you in a couple days if you don't mind. Can I write to you again if I get stuck?
I'd give you my first born if I had one, instead you get my sincere gratitude. Thank you.

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If that happened
by MarkFlax Forum moderator Feb 4, 2012 7:39PM PST

right out of the box, then the warranty should still stand.

I would discuss this with Acer support. They may step you through the factory default restore first, but then if that fails, they may, (should), accept it back for repairs.

Mark

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