ASUS G60VX-RBBX05 Sound Driver and Other Issues - SOLVED

Hey everybody.

These are still good laptops, esp. if you don't change the OS!

I am posting this as a way to hopefully save someone some time and effort by concentrating the good solutions spread far and wide across the web i've found for this model into one place.

**some background** I just got my hands on one of these g60vx laptops. I know, a little behind the curve. I needed a semi-cheap laptop on the fast and bought one used from craigslist. They are still pretty great for a couple hundo.

I made ONE HUGE mistake not taking the aftermarket SSD with it (as i had my own. . and my seller had the original recovery DVD set. grrrrr.)

You see, this computer has passed hands a couple times now, and unbenounced to the previous owner, in order to get decent or at least full functionality out of it you MUST have the hidden recovery partition! !

if you've ever tried to get this thing working right on a clean install of any OS, without using the recovery disks, you know where i'm going;

*My Problem: (aside from this being my only computer right now. gawd i hate thinking - that will make sense in a minute.) With an aftermarket drive that hasn't been cloned from the original, you don't have the information that the recovery set is trying to access. The DVDs are trying to restore a hidden partition, so it will tell you it completed when actually it failed; my experience. .

In this case with an Intel 320 SSD, trying to use the recovery set will invalidate the Master Boot Record (MBR) and make every windows installer tell you there is no hard drive.

This can be remedied.

(Intel tech support! inyoface!)

( if running 7, haven't tried any other OS yet )
you will have to use an aftermarket OS boot, run setup, press Shift +f10, type DiskPart, type Select Disk 0 (if only drive, otherwise type list disk and choose the screwed up one,) type clean. restart. (do not just refresh the drive list.)
You will now see your drive, ready for an install, but it will now also be empty. (WHEW)

***long winded, hopefully useful explanation of Sound and Driver Issues ***

!! Half of the people on the interwebs eventually seem to come to the conclusion that these machines (the RBBX05 model )have defective sound cards, problematic driver software, etc. etc. Others say this is not the case.

Well, as it turns out, these machines work very well but ONLY with a
** model specific OEM build of windows 7 64bit ** which
A) has to be loaded from the ASUS Recovery DVD set.
B) cannot be done without hidden recovery partition.

No other operating system will run it properly, including any aftermarket install of 7. None.

No joke. Not troll.

*If facing my problem and want full functionality, skip all the way to bottom now.

If you INSIST on using an aftermarket OS build of any kind,
you will be plagued with issues;
some of which have work arounds but not all.

The sound card especially will make you want to scream or break out the sledge at some point.

** I am including the best driver load order i've found for aftermarket OS builds below, but first read these important notes.

You can fix the DPI related sound stuttering in games if you've got the balls to go through your registry and disable Nvidia's MISER gpu downclocking feature. . it works but i will let you read how elsewhere. .

You can get it to play sound reliably, though not support SRS, by completely uninstalling all sound devices and installing the Realtek drivers BEFORE installing the SB Audigy driver set. (skip all the extra soundblaster programs, they will be useless.) (also, uninstall SRS console. or deal with that message every time you boot.)

By doing this, you will even be able to export sound to HDMI by forcing the HDMI output to be the default. but I dare you to try and change a video setting or flip through projector/lcd options after exporting the sound. oops. start export process over. .

Fix the issue with the WiFi switch on the front disabling your internet in both positions by installing the Wireless console BEFORE the wireless drivers and ATK sets, but AFTER the ATKDrv.


As far as i know, with any build of Win pro7 x64, there will be no way to turn on your backlit keyboard lights. :sadface:

*Quoted from MCZ, a forum moderator at vip,asus,com , in 2007 LOL here is the aftermarket OS driver install order as promised:

** "This is the order in which you should install drivers for ASUS notebooks:

1) Chipset driver (INF update in case of Intel chipset)
2) ATKACPI driver [ATKDrv]
3) VGA driver
4) UAA driver
5) Audio driver
6) Modem driver
7) LAN driver
8) Card Reader driver
9) Wireless Console
10) Bluetooth driver (optional - if you don't have BT just skip it)
11) Wireless driver
12) Other drivers
13) Utilities (optional, if you don't like Asus apps just skip it) [but don't skip power4gear, it's def. good.]
14) Microsoft updates

If you follow this order then for 99.9% you will get your hardware to work. [does not apply to us, promise..]

Regarding point 4:
1) UAA driver is only needed for XP OS and it's common for all notebooks.
You can donload it here: http://dlsvr01.asus.com/pub/ASUS/nb/F3SC/UAA_XP32_070906.zip " **

I'm probably (almost certainly) mental blocking some of the things i've dealt with in the last 24 hours but if i remember, i'll edit. .

***light at the end of the VoIP tunnel***

believe it or not, some or possibly most of the asus phone techs don't even know that you have to do this. the first lady told me there was absolutely not a driver install order, so i hung up. i got lucky on the phone finally on 3rd call. +1 (888) 678-3688

"model specific OS build" was the first and only useful thing i got out of them. aside from the immediate: Me:"workaround?" ASUS Mike: "No." (thank you for knowing, Mike!)

YOU CAN CALL ASUS @ +1 (510) 791-3705 and purchase a different, "special" recovery set to restore your model specific version of windows 7 x64 and rebuild your missing hidden recovery partition (and unfortunately reformat your hard drive. . . again. . .)

Hope it helps!! Good Luck!

P.S. i would be interested to know if Intel SSD MBR is the only one that gets corrupted by those recov disks if no ghost partition, because as of yet i haven't a way to check. Guy i bought comp from said they worked great, but has not replied when asked if he cloned original hdd or his SSD came loaded in comp when he got it. see what i mean? so far i assume ASUS Mike wouldn't have lied to me. .