A few questions about motherboard and gpu. Please help.

Hey NBR, I might need to get a new motherboard. I'm seeing the price range of g73jh/jw/sw being pretty close together. I know that graphics upgrade has been just out of reach, at least on the jh/jw. I haven't found about about attempting to upgrade the g73sw gpu. Seen a lot of threads talking about it though. Here's the bottom line- I found a g73jh motherboard for $399, a g73jw motherboard for $199, and a g73sw motherboard for $399. I want to just be able to get the motherboard and put my 720qm and 5870m in and be up and running. Any thoughts? I would like the sandybridge, since higher stock clock speed is attainable, and much cheaper. I can get the 2630 2ghz processor for $150, vs the price range of of the g1 series. I know that sandybridge isn't unlockable, but I run at stock clocks anyway. I just overclocked my cpu to be able to say that I did. I don't overclock my gpu either. So, stock clocks are ok with me, just need to be able to unpark the cores. I'm iffy on the sw and my 720qm- wikipedia says that g2 is backwards compatible with socket g1 isn't forwards compatible with g2. It makes sense. BUT, physically, the 6970m should work fine, but doesn't due to asus proprietary manufacturing. Makes me a little leary about getting the sw. Since I have an asus gpu, I wonder if the sw/jw motherboard will argue with me when I try to put it in. I imagine that power requirements are the same, and that my psu and chassis will work fine. I'm faced with doing this the cheap way (processor and gpu work fine), buying a processor/gpu applicable for motherboard replacement, (expensive, and my cooking wages won't allow it), or just selling my poor laptop for what I can get and start over.
I'll have the funds in 3 weeks to do this transplant, or those funds can be put with cash from selling my g73 to buy another laptop for $1000.
Thoughts and/or suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

P.S. The reason I want to replace the motherboard is that I blew a transistor that controls the keyboard backlight dimming function. I bypassed a leg on said transistor to get lights back. Lights are now noticeably brighter than before, but can't dim them or shut them off. They do shut off when laptop hibernates or shuts off (I never shut them off before anyway). Also, I shorted out the ribbon cable that runs to the touchpad. I put another cable in to test it, and it still doesn't work. It may be the controller daughterboard that attaches to touchpad. I'm ordering a palmrest in a week and will know then if I toasted that part of the motherboard, or just the touchpad. If the touchpad works, I can deal with the keyboard backlight thing. Laptop still works fine, typing this on it now.

 

Best solution is to replace dead transistor and if new palmrest is ok then you are good to go. You can rather invest money in ssd drive. And sell laptop after some time if something much beter comes out for reasonable price.

 

Agreed. And for the next gen models, I'd look to get something other than an Asus. Get a laptop from a brand that actually cares about their customers.

 

Like who, APPLE?

 

The only problem I have with this solution is this- I can't find any burnt out resistors, transistors, or capacitors. I'm pretty good at identifying these things, even on microcircuitry such as this. I broke out the magnifying lens and lamp, and I looked at the problem areas. Upon finding nothing, I then combed through all the etching, starting at each point of origin- the touchpad cable slot, and the backlight keyboard slot. Nothing. Plus, then I would have to do a lot of cross-referencing, trying to find a compatible match, since most manufacturers don't use the same part numbers as most distributors. Ugh. One thing I did notice- when I connect the touchpad ribbon cable, the light on the power button goes off, but the laptop is still on. Also, when I use the FN+F9 to enable/disable the mouse, my laptop responds. No lights come up on the touchpad/light cluster daughterboard. I checked it as well. Still nothing. When I grounded out the system (when I fried the touchpad), it was with the ribbon cable. I had put my laptop back together, fired it up, and had no touchpad. While on (stupid me), I removed the keyboard and the touchpad cable was crooked. I pulled it out to readjust and put it back in. Problem is, it didn't go straight in. With the confines of the area, I managed to slide it sideways/diagonally in, ending up with it being straight. Rebooted, still no touchpad. Then I remove the palmrest and looked at what was going on. The ribbon cable now had two melted etching lines, one of which was burned clean through. Could be that I shorted it out, and toasted the daughterboard. I've fried plenty of stuff in my life, and the ribbon cable looks to be more fragile than the surrounding caps and transistors. I dunno. I hope that's the case. If I get a new palmrest and the touchpad works great, I can handle the backlight issue- I have already bypassed the circuit to power the keyboard light so long as the laptop is on/awake. I found a motherboard for $200, but it says jh/jw. ???? ? But it has a white memory bank among the black ones. I googled jh, jw, and sw motherboard pics and the jh is the only one that came up (multiple times) with a single white bank. The sw had two that I could see, and the jw's all had black. It's $200 for the jh/jw (that's how it's listed) and the next cheapest is $289, and it is flat out stated as a jh, with the motherboard number and everything. Decisions, decisions. On a positive note- I just got my 1080p screen. Cost $137 for the glossy, with 3 day delivery. GREAT viewing angle. It's a Chi-MEI something or other. Meh, it works.

 

Then I would simply accept that loss of adjustable lights . You already invested enough on your laptop (just my opinion). Only thing I would invest more on my laptop is gpu upgrade. As I have upgraded cpu to 920xm and ssd. But as we all saw two guys that tried to upgrade to 6970m it didnt went all to well. So my advice is keep your dollars for later new modell (jump over g74 ) upgrade. I already have beginned to scope around for new modells becouse g73jh is impossible to upgrade to 120hz screen. And I hear it is much smother gaming on those screens. Now I just gving you my thoughts again.

 

I appreciate the input. The only reason I wanted to fix the issues is part personal preference, and part need of resale value. I'm just going to have to play it by ear for bit.

 

So, I got the keyboard backlight dimmer to work again. Yay me! I replaced the two transistors that control the variable ground, and it works great. But, it may be in vain. I removed the transistors from the touchpad daughterboard to see if it would still short out the power led when connected. It did. Those two transistors are located directly behind the slot that connects the ribbon cable from the daughterboard to the motherboard. BUT, it was just a thought. I still need a new palmrest, as I burned mine with a soldering iron, my touchpad cable is shot, and there are nicks on it. So regardless, I am getting a new palmrest. I just hope that the issue is with the daughterboard, and not the motherboard. Here's to hoping that it just works!

 

To those still looking at this old thread- case closed.
I have successfully repaired my touchpad interface. And I use the term "repaired" loosely. Turns out that the cable I was using in place of the burnt out one had a piece of etching on one end that was folded over two other contacts. Additionally, the touchpad cable is folded to a degree that makes one end reverse, in comparison to the other. The cable I was using wasn't reversed. So, I cut the cable and scraped off the plastic on the proper side, folded it to match the burnt out cable and it works fine now. I no longer have to buy a brand new palmrest with the cables and touchpad, nor do I have to worry about a new motherboard, cuz I fixed (not rigged, lol) my backlight dimmer control, and properly connected the touchpad ribbon. I can now just order a used, cable-less palmrest and order the cables separately for a fraction of the price of the new palmrest. To those who gave me input on this, I thank you. And to anyone else who decides to solder a keyboard led mod while the laptop is on, and you fry your dimmer control- it CAN be fixed by you
Thanks NBR! You guys rock!