Asus G71

Great!!! It will be nice to see if the divisor changes when you do that. Thanks for checking that as I am at work with no access to my pc still

 

Actually Master, it was you that clued me off to this as you'll notice in my first post on this I referenced your post. I'm just hoping we can get all on board to nag Asus to fix it now. I'm really glad you noticed. It clued me in to check mine as well.

 

DOX 185.85 drivers, you only need to specify that you're using Single/SLI gfx card when you install, and the OS. Also can do you still have hibernate as an option now that you installed video drivers?

Go here and click on "Register here for Upgrade" and enter your stuff and it'll give you an email to mail/email/fax in so you will have your upgrade sent to you in Oct 22.


Here's my CPU-Z about RAM:


15% OC'd:


Is this too slow? Am I even looking at the right tab?

 

Bob, no you are looking at it right. The first one shows 667Mhz and the second shows the 760MHz I posted earlier. You to in fact have the same issues we are reporting here.

 

Just in case anybody is wondering why I keep saying we need a 2:3 divider, here are the examples. If you have a 4:5 divider, it takes 266/4 * 5 which equals 333 and take 333 * 2 and you get 667Mhz. If they "fix" it, a 2:3 divider would give 266/2 *3 which is 400 and 400 * 2 is the 800Mhz we are supposed to be running at.

 

I'm gonna hold off on DOX for now since my games are running to my satisfaction anyways but I might later on if Asus never gets their drivers in. I also have no idea about what INFs are or do and what I'm supposed to do with them (things I read about having to download modified inf files), new concepts to me lol.

I just gotta figure out why my external display is getting cropped...

 

ooooohhhh, I gotcha. Hopefully people are popping Asus some tickets and saying this in their forum. We need Asus to drop us another Bios update or something to fix this issue.

 

Even though the ram issue is definitely a legitimate reason for another BIOS to be produced, I hope it doesn't delay the G71GX-A1 another two and a half weeks.. I'm getting antsy now considering if they did delay it, I'd have to wait damn well near August for my laptop. :|

Hopefully Ken gets his shipment today so I don't need to panic about a possible delay for the rest of the weekend.

On a side note, I'm not familiar with RAM at all other than DDR3 / DDR2 is faster/slower, but is it possible that the maximum speeds for the BB model is 667Mhz? That it was another communication mishap by BB? (Like how they have a different Wireless card than stated on their specs and I think someone was talking about HDD speed was wrong too?)

 

I want to say this is normal for how ASUS sets up the RAM in their latest laptops, i.e. it is set to run slower at stock to save power and create headroom for the use OC'ing via TurboGear.

Im trying to find/recall out of the 800+ pages of the W90VP-x1/x2/a1 owners thread as I am almost positive this came up because it was also running at 667 instead of 800. I don't think their was much concern or worry or calls to action.

Maybe we should check with the G51 folks to see if they have the same issue with their RAM (they don't have TurboGear to be taken into accound).

 

Does anyone know if this was there from the start i.e. the first BIOS or did it happen as a result of the new BIOS.

 

Yes, but even at the max 15% overclock you still aren't hitting 800Mhz. Also, this means that you HAVE to overclock to run at the advertised frequencies. Nobody should HAVE to overclock to get the advertised frequencies. If this really is the case, I'll return mine in a heartbeat. RAM bandwith makes a huge difference in all applications these days.

 

Also, just so everybody knows. BB's site doesn't even say anything about 800Mhz or PC6400 RAM. This is really a screw job. I think BB knows this already just so people can't take them back as it does have 6GB RAM in it regardless of what speed it is running at.

But Asus's site does says this:

DDR2 800 MHz SDRAM, 3 x SODIMM socket for expansion up to 6144MB SDRAM

So, I think we do have a leg to stand on maybe.

 

If this is truely a 800Ghz RAM set, same as the G71GXA1 model, I'll run tests for you guys to see if this is ASUS' fault. If mine turns out to be 800ghz then you got screwed by BB as rawidema says, they didn't even specify the speeds :\

 

http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx...3&model=G71Gx(BestBuy)&page=1&SLanguage=en-us

We just have to cry up a storm again to Asus and they most likely will do something about this ram thing...

 

Ok guys, just got my G71 (BB version). But before I celebrate I need help with a few things:

1. What should I test to make sure my model isn't defective? So far it seems to be running fine, Vista loaded rather slowly which kind of scared me but it's running normally now I guess.

2. What bloatware do I have to uninstall? (Just in case some of them are important and I accidentally uninstall them.)

3. I don't have any security programs on my computer, should I get one?

4. Any other advice for me? This is my first gaming laptop (not that I'm naive about them, but I'm just weary cause I spent a lot of money on this thing) and I want to make sure it lasts me awhile. At least 2-3 years.

5. Oh, and one last thing, how do I check the BIOS version? I guess I can look it up but since I'm asking questions already anyway, I might as well.


PS, Pretty funny, I went to change the settings so my computer doesn't go on hibernate, and all of the settings were put to Sleep.

 

Well you're gonna have to update the BIOS and play some games. I think that's the best way to test.

Uninstall all the junk you don't use, simple. But I wouldn't uninstall Expressgate or any of the Asus utilities since they come in handy. Also if you like the Cyberlink DVD burning utility you can keep that too. It's not as bad as I've seen on some other laptops. Can't really tell you to delete what because everyone likes different things and finds different uses for them.

Yes, you must get antivirus program. I suggest ESET NOD32 but that's just my preference. It's not free (unless you know how), but Avira a free antivirus. I think there's a daily popup though and I didn't like that, but it was OK in terms of reliability.

To check BIOS when you start up it will tell you the version. I think you have to press F2 to skip the "Loud" Asus startup screen (I turned that off because I didn't like it). The version stock should be 1102. You will have to get the 1201. Need anymore help just ask.

 

Does this happen to anyone here? Bob...

http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx...3&model=G71Gx(BestBuy)&page=1&SLanguage=en-us

 

You don't use modded inf's for DOX drivers, you install them just like Nvidia's drivers but they give better performance! But it's your choice.

I just turned off the TurboGear option from BIOS, there's an option to completely turn off TurboGear or to just disable the "DRAM frequency something" and leave TurboGear activated (I'm guessing this is what changes the frequency/divider).

CPU-Z with no TurboGear:


Does this get us the 800MHz? I'm taking 400/2 * 3 = 600 then you did *2, but that's like 1200MHz.

I completely turned off TurboGear because I don't want to risk OCing the RAM, not sure how that could go wrong but I'm sure it can, and I don't even play games with the CPU OC'd, just used it to benchmark.

Sorry I use an external keyboard so I can't say I've had this happen to me, but I typed the alphabet a few times and didn't have the laptop double-type a letter accidentally on me.

 

I am getting the double key too but it's very rare. Maybe 1 out of every couple hundred words I type. Then again it could be human error. I don't think it's to the point where it bothers me. I'm still trying to get used to the keyboard too.

Thanks for the info. What are all the modded INFs I see then?
E.g. http://laptopvideo2go.com/drivers?dev=&sub=&whql=0&lang=0&orderby=version&dir=desc&os=&os%5B%5D=vista64
I go there and was looking for drivers and it told me to get the INFs too?

More of them mentioning it here: http://laptopvideo2go.com/drivers/vista64/185.89/disclaimer

How did you know 185.85 was the most recent one? Does "DOX" only get posted in the forums as the official ones?

 

Modded INF's are what they would normally use to get drivers to work in laptops. But you don't need them for DOX's drivers, I guess he combines everything for you? More than that I wouldn't know.

From what I've read about DOX drivers is that they give the greatest performance, I haven't tested the ones that use the modded INF's but I gained a couple hundred points to my 3DMark06 score by just updating drivers to DOX 185.85.

You can just download from the website I linked about DOX's drivers. The procedure's just: Download DOX/Driver Sweeper, uninstall current display drivers, restart (into safe mode if necessary) and use Driver Sweeper to clean any remains of the drivers, install DOX's drivers (gpu config=Single/SLI), restart and enjoy.

 

bob1182006... you've figured out the ram problem, that is 800mhz - does turning off turbogear cause this or is there some other way to achieve 800mhz while still being able to use turbogear?

 

Play games? Gotcha. Gonna download the demo for Crysis in a bit. And I also have Spore. Sure it's JUST Spore but why not right?

Uninstall - pretty self explanatory I guess, thanks.

Antivirus - I gotta check those places out. I was never a fan of antivirus programs because they always seem to get too complicated but with my first computer in 9 years I won't take any chances. I assume Norton and Mcafee aren't that great? Or are they just overpriced?

And BIOS.. I'll check that right now.

Thanks Grandfinale.


I have a question about the battery. Can I keep it plugged in or will that kill the battery?

Also, is the BIOS in the Setup under the category AISBIOS (or something like that)? If so mine is at version 1001, weird.

 

I Disabled TurboGear from the BIOS, I tried to Enable TurboGear and just Disable the DRAM Timing something thing, sorry forgot the name again.

So after I did that I saved and exited the BIOS, and then windows wouldn't boot! I had also taken out the dvd from the tray but why would that be a problem?
Anyways, got vista to the loading bar, then it crashed and restarted... It wasn't a BSOD with a STOP error or something, it was a blue screen but it said Windows has crashed with a bunch of #'s and just a counter saying "Windows is restarting ..." couldn't read everything before it finished and restarted.
So I just Disabled TurboGear and I'll leave it at that, if I want to OC then I'll enable it from BIOS first.

I noticed on the led's to the right that the bottom one was lit, I've never seen it lit before and it's not lit now.
Edit: That led means that the touchpad is locked, so it didn't mean anything important.

You can keep it plugged in and it will be fine, but I like to cycle the battery around 50-90% unless I"m gaming then it's just on AC.
You can check your bios version when the laptop starts, hit F2 and it should say Version: 11xx or something like that.

For antiviruses the big 3 that are free and actually good are: Avira, Avast, AVG. I've tried Avast/AVG, no complaints/comments, didn't have a virus when I used them, gonna try Avira just for the hell of it on this laptop.

 

Yeah an antivirus program is a must have these days. Surfing websites can have ads that instantly install crap on your PC... happened to me a lot of times. I don't like Norton or McAfee because they take a lot of CPU resources meanwhile ESET NOD32 is very minimal and I find very simple to use. Bob mentioned some ones that are common. Another one is kapersky.

The battery, I have no idea and would like to know too. But I always have my battery in. All I know is if the laptop gets warm and so does the battery, the surrounding temp will probably decrease battery life but I can't confirm that.

The BIOS you have now doesn't matter anyways. Just get the newest one to play games without worry of downclocking.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=395957
Check out this thread.

Hey bob what do you mean by cycling? Do you take it out or is there a way to stop "charging"?

 

Ram -

Its very common in a system that has built in overclocking to have a ram divider in place that leaves the ram with some headroom to overclock.

The bios is locked so you cant user change the ram:fsb and so for the greater good it has to be locked at the lower setting.

It is false if you assume the faster ram greatly increases performance of a machine especially such a small difference from DDR2 667 to DDR2 800 (before you overclock) I myself have tested ram speeds effect on games/benchmarks/applications several times in the past, and even compared DDR2 to the much faster DDR3 and there are no significant gains.

Infact nothing you would even ever notice outside of a memory bandwidth benchmark.

So here is the key, as FSB goes up the ram speed goes up. When you use turbogear and enable the 15% OC your just barely short of DDR2 800mhz.

What you read in that last sentence was probably exactly what I typed word for word, however if your a computer knowledgeable person this is what you just read from that.

"Since the G71 has built in overclocking I know it has a PLL generator that allows me to control the system FSB in a software level, once I find the PLL code I can overclock my cpu even higher for more performance without spending a dollar more, and run my ram even faster than DDR2 800mhz"

This is the case with all Asus laptops, my W90 for instance does 2.0ghz Q9000 with DDR2 800 ram in place that only boots @ 667. Turbogear runs the cpu to 2.3ghz and then the ram is just short of 800mhz. Via a program SetFSB though I run 2.7ghz and my ram is at nearly DDR2 1000 speeds!

If Asus had locked the ram @ 800mhz boot there is no way I would have pulled of the 33% OC on the CPU, and when I say there is little effect on performance vs memory speed its true, but cpu speed IS important.

I'd trade 2.0ghz stock no OC @ 800mhz ram for a 2.7ghz 1000mhz ram setup any day of the week.

Id even trade it for the 2.3ghz 787mhz or so that turbo gear gives you.

Things in a computer system have to be in a synergy, on part has to be on an equal performing level as another piece for the whole system to do well. While ram is important its main priority is just the storage space and a moderate speed as its already insanely fast, its your cpu/gpu that need to carry the most weight along with your hdd. So I am happy that Asus makes it so easy to OC the CPU and covers anything I do to my laptop under warranty as well.

Asus has been producing the best laptops for the dollar by far, so if your in the mood to pay more or downgrade to a weaker competing unit over something so minor that actually ends up being a benifit to you then by all means do so. You will regret it later when the G71 users have surpassed you.

 

as to the battery thing, the laptop automatically keeps the battery from overheating itself like a cell phone. if you put your cursor over the battery, it'll often say something like "93%, not charging". It lets the battery go down a bit and back up.

 

very good post vicious.
Question for you tho, since you seem to know alot. SINCE i've still yet to confirm the rumor of 12 gigs of ram capability despite asus manual, if I ever were to try and throw a 4 gig stick or two into the machine, it should be pc2 6400, 800mhz ram right? itll still work correctly with asus booting it at 667mhz.

also, can anyone confirm/deny the max ram yet?

 

Thanks V for taking the time out of your busy W90 forum schedule to pop in and lay it out. Feel free to stop bye more

The G71 already has had enough of an initial black eye from the 82 degree throttle down issue that we don't need another "EPIC PROBLEM" like many have been worried about regarding the RAM speeds and thinking that ASUS or BB was trying to pull a fast one on us.

 

I also thank ya ViciousXUSMC, that does explain things a bit and I totally get it now. I will care less of that Ram problem now and would rather be able to overclock than anything else !

 

I don't know, it always seems to be 100% charged to me. Can you cap it any way?

 

As in install games, and plan to transport over my 30gb music library, i keep wondering about the second hard drive bay in this laptop. over at the asus forums, they said theres no mounting clip inside the laptop for a second hard drive, but the space is there. I'm not too keen on laptop construction or anything, but at the asus forum they said you can "modify another laptop hd bracket to work"
this forums much more active so i figured id ask here what they mean by that?

also ign just did a gaming laptop round up and geared each game and its graphical power towards a laptop, of course at the top of the list was crysis, and they had the base m17x with the weaker processor and all that listed for it. asus wasnt even mentioned v_v

 

Same here, I had it at 100% for like 20 mins, I'm hoping that the notebook just keeps it at 99-100% so the laptop just assumes it's at 100% all the time?

 

http://www.amazon.com/PacificBreeze-Laptop-cooler-Model-CF300-NEB/dp/B0006ON0QQ

i have this notebook cooler but idk if i should use it with my g71. it pulls air down and blows it along the bottom of the laptop, a lot of air too. But i feel like the air moving in another direction makes it harder for the laptops vents to suck it inside, kind of like breathing through your nose on a motorcycle thats going fast. What do you think guys, to cool it or not to cool it?

 

Yeah that isn't good. You want one with fans blowing up towards teh vents on the bottom. Going against air flow makes it worse. I wanted the Zalman but I feel that the size isn't that compatible with the G71 so I'm still searching for a good cooler.

 

No, it goes down every once in a while if always plugged in. 20 minutes? When plugged in, the laptop draws no power from the battery. If a fully charged battery couldnt hold its charge for 20 minutes then it would be epically useless. It normally keeps it about 97-100%, but if you dont unplug it for a long time (day or 2) it'll go down like 10 and back up. Anyways, unlike a cell phone it doesnt overheat the battery. If you leave a fully charged cell phone plugged in, the area around the battery gets noticeably hot. Laptop batteries dont.

I always left my gateway fx plugged in unless when i rarely took it out and a year later i got the same battery life as when it was new.

 

I think the zamlan will be ok, but i agree it has different orientation of the parts than the g51 aswell as vents, reason that i went with the NZXT CRYO, but i dont have the G71 yet, ill probably post some tests early august.

 

Ah I get it now. Thanks, I won't worry too much about leaving it on AC for too long then.

 

Has anyone bought the G71GX RX05 from BB in this thread? If so what does the model say on the back of your laptop? When I registered the product on asus' website it said I had a G71G. What's up with that?

 

I registered mine and it says it's the G71Gx(BestBuy) model. It could just be a SN that was put on the wrong list.

 

Hmm now I'm kinda scared they gave me the wrong model. Can you give me some screenshots of the product? Does it come with bluetooth? Whenever I use the toggle, it says bluetooth on for some reason =/. Also does it have a second HDD bay? If so where is it I can't seem to find it. Finally, can you turn on the OLED screen? Direct console says there is one but it doesn't show up on the laptop.

 

Also is your fan opening on the back? Cause mine is and I don't see a weird circle thing on the bottom that I see on the other Asus models.

 

There's no bluetooth, the toggle will say bluetooth/WLAN on/off though. Yes the second HDD bay is in the back opposite side of the vent, but there's no bracket so people are making their own right now. There's no OLED screen. Doesn't seem like you got the wrong model, just that Asus's system says you don't have a Gx from BB version.

The vent is in the back, that circle at the bottom was a speaker I think? I don't have it in mine.

 

I dont think the bestbuy model has secondary display.

This are some pics posted before, you could check if its similar to yours.

http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/4889/bottomwfl.jpg

The following pic isnt from bestbuy model but you should have the secondary HD there.

http://www.gentechpc.com/Asus/G71g_review/bottom.jpg

 

that second pic shows a label "modular video card"

does that mean that it could be swapped out in the future? cause i know most notebooks have em on the mobo permanently

 

Can I replace the vent?

 

Ok that looks the same, thanks, man that scared me. No secondary display? That sucks then what's the point of having that giant space before the touch control buttons?

 

Also, has anyone reclocked the GTX 260M back to original values? (Not Asus' downclocked values.)

 

How do you run furmark? I installed a version of it and whenever I set the parameters and run it, it dissapears. Is it because I have vista 64 bit but I'm using a 32 Bit one? Oh yeah I just ran supreme commander will native resolution everything set to high and 8x AA vert sync on. Runs like a charm with no glitches. After playing it with my hp dv6000 and a geforce go 7200, this is like I'm in heaven.

 

I played Prototype with stock drivers max settings got around 15-20 during intense parts but with DOX got 20-25. Well worth it. It's too bad Asus/NVidia's support sucks.

 

it really doesn't suck. they jumped right on that bios issue pretty damned quick