Hey, stienman,
I actually called the Asus customer support hotline earlier today. They told me that, as long as we don't damage the laptop, it won't violate the warranty. I was surprised as well (and slightly suspicious; but I'll call them back again...).
Also, we've tried booting it up and copying files over. Windows explorer runs at a snail's pace, then completely freezes and restarts whenever we try to open a window; it doesn't recognize any USB sticks plugged into it, and our other recourse (attaching files to e-mails) has worked maybe one time in ten.