[chton]

This may be a stupid question, but is it possible the blog author was given a refurbished device? These all sound like exactly the kind of problems you'd expect from a device that was pre-owned and sloppily reinstalled.

Either way, the proper course of action would be to return it to the store right away, especially when it refuses touch input.

[lnanek2]

Honestly, I've bought some ASUS gear before, like the EEE PC netbooks as loaners at events and classes. They often have ghost in the machine problems like this. One has, for years, frozen for 1 second ever 15 seconds, no matter what software updates and drivers are applied. I mentioned the issues to some other OEMs in the same country and they just said it is well known ASUS build quality and consistency is generally terrible. I suppose that is why they manage such low prices.