Asus UX303U not turning on/battery not charging

[alisonb]

Sorry that that it has taken me so long to update my laptop repair status, but I just this evening finally heard back from the repair shop. To be honest I feel like I am being jerked around by them, and would greatly appreciate some unbiased feedback here on both their (ongoing) diagnosis and whether it is time to cut my losses.

Recap of earlier stages:
1) Laptop was in perfect working order before I was away for a week. While gone I left it unplugged in hibernation mode. When I returned, it wouldn’t initially power on. I plugged it in and it powered on, but a few minutes later it shut down abruptly and wouldn’t power again.
2) After verifying the problem was not the power adapter (measured normal voltage), checking that it wouldn’t work while bypassing the battery (power adapter plugged in, battery cable unplugged) and realizing that I couldn’t easily tell where to trace power past the adapter port, I took the laptop into the repair shop. (Central Computer, Santa Clara, Ca). The stated complaint on record was that the laptop would not power on and the battery would not charge.
3) The shop’s initial diagnosis was that “two power chips” were fried. I think they said they were on the motherboard. They replaced the chips ($199) and returned the laptop.
4) I immediately discovered that while the laptop could now power on with the adapter plugged in, the battery would still not charge. I returned the laptop to them the next day and they admitted the tech must have missed that, but that he should have checked it since it was stated in the original problem. They sent it back to the tech.
5) The tech now said that the battery was failed. When I related that the battery had been in perfect health before this (several hours life between charges), they said that sometimes catastrophic failure could occur. Suggestions included the electric outlet not being properly grounded or inherent catastrophic flaw in the battery. They also said that the failure of the battery may have been what caused the two power chips to fail in the first place. Question – is that feasible or likely?

Current:
6) The replacement battery they ordered finally arrived. Now they are saying the problem is not the battery after all. The voicemail says: “It looks like after testing the technician over in the repair facility found out that with all the different batteries, he ordered like 2 or 3, he plugged them in and your motherboard is not detecting the battery and so that is why it is not charging. So, the motherboard is bad. But the laptop would still work with the AC plugged in, without the battery, but I don’t think that you would want to have it work that way. But the other option is that he says you can change the motherboard. And so for the motherboard change out, it would be overseas so it would take a while to get the motherboard and so the pricing for that would be $509. But since you did some other repair with the $199 I would talk with him again and see if we could work something out if you decide to go with the motherboard route.”

I have really lost faith in their diagnosis and repair capability. First, they initially returned the laptop still not fully fixed, clearly not testing for half the problem. Second, I assume he must have merely guessed that the battery was bad, rather than actually testing it independently. I don’t understand why he would have ordered multiple batteries – did he not know which one was correct? And if so, maybe none are correct? The motherboard being bad – is that just a guess as well? Can he actually tell whether the motherboard is not detecting the battery? If that is possible, why wouldn’t it have been checked before ordering a new battery? If it can’t be independently checked, then this would be just another (expensive and time consuming) guess. Could there even be a motherboard failure such that the only manifestation is it not recognizing the battery, but it otherwise works? Would it be likely? And how would all this tie into the two failed power chips they have already charged for $199?

Does any of this make sense? My job/field is reliability and failure analysis, but in LED lighting. I don’t know enough about computer hardware to properly evaluate the situation, but my basic failure analysis instinct is that this isn’t passing muster. I will definitely not pay them for the replacement battery since it was not the problem, and I am sorely tempted to take my laptop elsewhere at this point. I would really appreciate some feedback on what the problem might actually be, whether it is worth fixing or if I should just go without a computer (laptop was $1200 only 2.5yr ago, not shelling out that much again so soon), and if I should cease business with this repair shop. Thanks!!