Asus G71

is it me or did BB delete many of the reviews about the faulty bios?

 

Yes looks like they have deleted al of the reviews mentioning the gpu throttling. I remmember there were lke 5 of them, now 0.

EDIT: Yes, I see them, I was looking at the the G71 with the Q9000, and they were not there, but when I looked at the cheaper one... yeh they were there.

 

That's unfortunate. It would have given the laptop more of an edge aesthetically. Why they chose to only include it in the G71GX-A1 model I don't understand, but I guess if you're paying 2000+ dollars I guess it better come with something more than Bluetooth, BluRay and a red trim. Damn rich people, lol. I can live without it I guess.

Okay, sorry for the bother.

 

They're still there. It has the same amount of reviews, so unless BB made some new stuff up, I'd say they didn't delete anything.

 

As to the OLED, no one answered this question yet. Could it be possible to take an OLED from the G50 and connect it to the G51/71? (Forget the space for it for the time being).

 

May I ask if you updated anything (or is it straight from stock)? Just curious as to how I might be able to get such low temperatures and or improve performance (drivers/utilities, etc) thanks

 

Wow, everything was running great and then out of nowhere, It gave me an "exception" error message and now I cant even boot under safe mode. I'm starting to get really irritated and now considering taking it back (as much as I don't want to).

I don't get it, is anyone else having this problem. I was booting it up to run 3DMark so I could post my results with the new BIOS, but my computer is now inoperable. Someone please help, ya'll have been so helpful so far and I just hope we don't have to sit here and diagnose another computer problem.

I have a pic of the scren but i dont know how to post it

EDIT: My recovery disc will not load, it still sends me into a BS. Im getting frustrated!! Im in Alabama and I bought the comp in Atlanta. Does the computer have be returned to the store it was purchased? Just wondering because I want a product that works as intended. I'm thinking about building a Vigor laptop just because I have one of their desktops and it is flawless. Oh when will I learn

 

You can return to any best buy. Be prepare to explain fully and show them why ou think your comp is defected. Because if not you pay a 15% restock fee.

 

Using DOX 185.85 drivers. I hadn't done anything on the laptop this morning and then just went straight to playing Prototype, gonna try now that it's a bit warmer and see how things go.

Have you tried re-installing the BIOS? Maybe it didn't install correctly so now it won't load up? If you want to post a SS just use imageshack or photobucket and then paste here the thumbnail or the url to the photo.

 

ok, here is the screenshot. I reinstalled the bios, and this is the error message I get. WHOA SORRY FOR THE SIZE

 

Did you put vista into hibernate before this happened by any chance?

Googled the first line and got a page about hibernation and OCing but no solution was found I think.

 

Yeah, I had it unplugged and I believe it went into hibernation. I googled the same thing and got the same results.

 

Looking at the power options for Vista, for the Critical battery action it has Hibernate by default, but when I click to change it to something else it doesn't have Hibernate as an option...

I think this might be a problem with vista . If so I think it might be a good idea to change the Critical battery action from Hibernate to Shut Down or Sleep.

 

ok, can I change these w/o loading the OS? My computer won't load the OS so that isn't an option. Safe Mode isnt working either and I cant get my recovery disk to work properly. To give you an idea of my knowledge, I cant code or anything like that, but I can def work my way around a computer. The site you and I found for the TRAP error mentioned clearing the hibernation cache; any clue what that means?

EDIT: just realized the article is 10 yrs old... lol

 

Yea and the posters never replied that it worked or anything :/.

I think in the article they meant for you to load to DOS Command prompt and type those commands. There should be an option to load into some sort of command prompt.

Found more articles that said to fix the problem you needed to type powercfg -h off at a command prompt and restart. Good luck.

I posted that stuff as a warning to others, I don't want to try myself and I'd rather risk loosing some unsaved files rather than the laptop having a problem like that.

 

Thats it, i'm taking it back tomorrow. The only solution for me is ordering a custom built Vigor. I'd rather pay a little more and be confident in my purchase. Sorry if I sound rude, Im not trying to be but WTH is up with this computer. I buy or build a computer at least once a year and never had issues like I've has in the past week. I hope I am the only one that encounters this problem, it would be a shame for it have the same effect for everyone as the BIOS did.

I'm going to stay on the forum for the remainder of the night to see if I can correct it. The specs for the computer blew my mind relative to the cost, so it was a no-brainer to buy it. If it can be fixed w/o the risk of bricking the comp, i'll keep it. I just don't want to be in a similar situation a month from now... ya feel me!

BTW, Thanks to everyone on this forum. Its been a huge help.... all 72 pages of it.

 

Woah... those vigor laptops are pretty pricey...
Are you sure you don't want to give it the good college try again with a simple exchange for another Asus G71, you may get better results?
Instead of going with Vigor, have you looked at other options?
Gateway has recently put out their FX line laptops, the P-7807u and P-7809u (FX laptops have a huge fanbase too).
Have you tried the Sager laptops like the NP8662?
Just saying... you could get a similar powerful laptop like the Asus G71 for less money than the Vigor...

 

I have a sort of dumb question but do you think it would be a good idea for Geek Squad to install the new BIOS before taking it home?
Not sure if they would even do that but it may be a good way to cut out some of the problems of installing a new BIOS.

 

^ geek squad, like all best buy employees, are not trained well. if you happen to get someone who knows about this stuff from hobby then you're set but otherwise...

i guess if you bought it and never took it home if they mess up you should be able to argue enough to get a new one, i would hope.

 

Doubt it, considering it takes them days to fix even minor problems like a malware ridden computer or recover data, I would imagine a BIOS flash could only be done by their supervisor, and even that would take a week.

 

I noticed all of the power options for the G71 have it to hibernate when the battery hits 5%.

DeliriumTrigger had a problem because of this and it's possible others could have it too. Maybe a Vista thing?
I changed all of my settings so that the computer shuts down at critical power. Might change it so that it goes into sleep mode instead.

Just letting everyone know hopefully it's an individual problem and not something alot of people will accidentally run into.

Edit: Sleep mode works correctly. So if anyone is worried about loosing their work you can set the computer to go into sleep mode when the battery hits critical level.

 

^ At 5% sleep wont be enough in many cases. Theres third party software that works better than windows at hibernating in various situations on mp3car. I can find a link if someone wants.

 

Yes, please.

Thank you.

 

darn, i cant find it. i found several that hibernate as soon as AC is unplugged but none that have a battery low option, though im still pretty sure it exists.

another option, turn the "critical battery level" to 8% or so. The problem could be it doesnt have enough power left to hibernate. I've heard of this happening (on other laptops). Since these do have 6 gigs of ram I can see it taking a lot of time and energy on these things to go into hibernation. let me know if that works. if not i'll start a thread on mp3 asking for the software.

 

So since this is out now - the BIOS fix, does that mean any computers that are newly shipped and has newly arrived at Best Buy are already fixed? Or should I wait a week or two to make sure?

I guess there's no problem with me installing the BIOS myself but I'd rather not risk it since I'm not the best when it comes to more advanced stuff like this, just in case something goes wrong. Not computer illiterate, just weary.

PS, Just in case I run short of money and can't get the G71GX-RX05, would I still be alright with buying the G51GX-RX05? I'm mainly going to use it for gaming and Photoshop/art related programs. But as far as gaming goes, I would really love to make it so that I can play the games at near max settings without much lag, if not at full max settings. I'm a sucker for eye candy. I'd take any alternative suggestions if you guys have any.

 

Thanks I'll incrase the low/critical levels by 3% so that should be enough battery power to save the computer's work for a few minutes.

That could be the case that Best Buy will soon be receiving laptops with the updated BIOS installed, but the BIOS still isn't available at Asus's website so it might be a while before they officially start to put the BIOS to use on the new laptops.

I've never installed a new BIOS, if you do install it just be sure to be on AC power.

The G51's CPU is holding back the GPU so you need to OC it or replace it. You should look at the G51GX-RX05 review thread to see how the laptop is performing.
The price difference is $150 between the G71 and G51, the G51's gonna be more portable, but I think it should be a bit hotter since it's a smaller laptop than the G71.
At the $900-$1200 price range I don't know of anything else that competes with the G51/71.

 

alright, so I went to BB and replaced my G71. Im debating on whether or not I should flash my BIOS again, or wait for Asus to release theirs. Also, how is the "hibernation" thing going? Please update me on your performance.

Thanks

 

The one I linked to in my post is the real ASUS BIOS update, not something I made myself. It's even linked to on the official ASUS support page for the G71GX: http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?model=G71Gx&os=25&SLanguage=en-us.

 

So far nobody's posted about hibernating their G71's from Best Buy.

Another thing is that "Hibernate" is not an option in the Power Management Options in the G71, or at least it's not in mine. So maybe the computer is being told to hibernate but it doesn't know what to do?

Flaring Afro brought up a good point that maybe the battery just didn't have enough power to copy the ram into the HDD before the computer was forced to shut down. This might cause some problems when the computer tries to start up and loads an incomplete hibernation file.

I suggest either changing all of your "Critical Battery Action"s to Shut Down, or Sleep and increase the "Critical Battery Level" to 8% and "Low Battery Level" to 13%. If you choose to put the laptop to sleep it will buy you a few minutes, I'd guess 10+ minutes or so? so that you can come back and not loose your data.

Wow they finally posted the BIOS update on the support page! Wonder if people still need to use a USB stick to update it.

Checked some more and it could be that the BIOS just doesn't support Hibernation sleep mode. If you type powercfg -a in your command line it will tell you all of the sleep modes that are available. I got only S3 (Hibernate Hybrid Sleep) but googling S3 it says that S3 is just Sleep mode not Hybrid Sleep. Pretty much the computer shuts down everything except RAM, so you can still loose data if your battery dies.

I tried putting the laptop into Sleep mode and it came out of it perfectly fine, I don't think upgrading your BIOS will cause the problem, it was probably just the hibernation thing :/.

Wow they finally posted the BIOS update on their support page! Wonder if you still need a USB stick to update it though.

 

2 Questions:

1) How do we upgrade to the 1201 BIOS?

Is it best to use WinFlash? Or other methods?

2) What is DOX 185.85 and what good is it?

What does the version (185.85) mean for the BB G71?
Hows the compatibility with Multi/Ultramon?

 

1. Check this thread for instructions.

Pretty much just download the BIOS, put it in a flash drive, open up WinFlash, select the ROM file in your USB drive, click the button to restart and flash BIOS, let it do it's thing, you're done.

2. DOX 185.85 are drivers for the graphic card, they're modified by Dox who seems to do a pretty great job of modifying the drivers from nivida. They pretty much give you more performance than you would normally get using the drivers you get from nvidia's website.

If you upgrade your graphic card's drivers you might have to, if you upgrade and notice artifacts or any problems, use a program like Drive Cleaner.Net. Drive Cleaner.Net is no longer free though, costs like $9.99. I installed my drivers without it but then did a clean install just to be on the safe side.

 

Why are most people using v. 185.85 on the G71? What version should I use?

Do I uninstall the original drivers through the control panel (NVIDIA Drivers), or do I go through some 3rd party software?

Also, anyone have experience with Dox drivers and Ultramon?

 

Has anyone played with the wireless on the G71.

I am curious how it rates in comparison to the "a" typical Intel 5100 that is in most laptops and the G51. It seems for some reason ASUS decided to go with something different in the G71 (curious as to why, cost?).

At the BB the wireless adapter in the G71 is identified as an Atheros ar928x.

 

Need help!

When installing the Dox Driver 185.85, what is my GPU Configuration? Hybrid Graphics or Hybrid SLI? What is the difference?

 

It's hybrid graphics. SLI is when you have 2 graphics card. But that's odd... I shouldn't even be hybrid graphics...

By the way why doesn't the nvidia mobility drivers work?

 

Need help again!

Just installed Dox Drivers and my vista won't load?? It goes past the loading screen with the loading bar fine, but then it just shows a blank screen after that.

I uninstalled old Nvidia driver with Driver Cleaner.net and then installed Nox... can anyone help??

 

The GPU Configuration was the first option, I can't remember it's name but it had an example like Windows Vista/7 8800/8800+8800.
Edit: Just looked it up, the option is "Standard Single/SLI", hybrid graphics would be if you had an integrated and dedicated gfx card and the laptop switched between then to conserve power.

To uninstall the drivers you needed to just do a normal uninstall through Add/Remove programs restart, then use Driver Cleaner.net restart, and then install Dox 185.85 with the correct GPU Configuration.

You might not have installed the drivers correctly, try to get windows to load into safe mode and uninstall the drivers and then use Driver Cleaner.net to completely erase the Dox drivers and try again.

Nvidia mobility drivers are the drivers that nvidia releases for their gfx cards right? These are those drivers, just modified to get better performance out of them.

 

I'm thinking of buying this laptop since the G50vt X8's ran out of stock on newegg. Does the BIOS fix the throttling/heating problem? I'm fairly computer literate so how hard would it be to update the BIOS? Should I just wait until they introduce it into their laptops?

 

The BIOS fixes the throttling issue, there was never a heating issue that I can think of though.

You can check this post to see how easy it is. I never did it before and it took me a few minutes.

 

Eh, I started in safe mode and then did driver cleaner for "nvidia". After restart, vista still does not show.

What should I do?

 

The g51 has a card and the G71's is described as "integrated" so im guessing asus made a motherboard with built-in wireless. Im curious as to how it compares to but I've heard no complaints so far...

 

When they dropped the centrino certification by using the P43 chipset they probably just went for what was actually cost effective.

 

Your computer doesn't even start up?

 

so wait. it isn't centrino 2?

 

If it doesnt have an Intel 5000 series wifi card in it.... no, last i checked the P43 isnt centrino either but its advantage is the ability to use 16gb of ram on 4 slots, the G71 has 3 slots and takes advantage of 12GB versus the G51's limit of 8GB on the PM45.

 

So in essence the CPU in the G51 (Centrino2 Duo) and G71 (Core2 Duo) are not much different than just the Ghz?

What if any are the advantages of "centrino certification"?

 

There is no such thing as a centrino 2 processor kinda a misnomer from the early days when such things were advertised. Energy saving capability and if you change the wireless card to something that doesnt match that platform another intel thats wrong or say atheros its no longer a centrino certified system. Doesnt mean a 4965 in a Centrino 2 pc will be any worse on power but its just not correct.

Centrino/Centrino 2 was a platform the included a chipset, cpu and wireless card all designed to work to save power over those not paired. The platform name is being axed to wireless products only next year anyways.

If it has a Q9000 in it it has a Q9000 in it both the G51VX-A1 and atleast 2 G71Gx's have that cpu. G71 will never come with anything as low as a P7350 though lol.

 

Nope. The normal sequence of events is, BIOS load, loading bar, vista ball shows up, login screen, etc.

It finishes loading bar and ends with a blank screen.

 

so, this is better than centrino or something?

 

Since my first laptop was a hp dv6000 which heated up like an oven, I really don't know what's an acceptable temperature for a gaming laptop. From this thread I read that it gets to about 87 when playing games. Is that expected from a computer of this size/specs?