G73 keep or return?

Hello all! I just joined this community a little late (after buying my G73) but I did! After reading many posts regarding GSOD and experience all this problems firs hand, I think I’m going to return this laptop for a full refund, but at the same time I like the laptop till I play games on it. Do you guys think I should get a replacement or not? Do you think the problems with this laptop will be solve? Is really sad to see such a great computer fail at his main objective… games. \

Thank you in advance for any advice.

 

It does not fail at games, and as of two days ago we have a asus manager talking to us about getting a fix for incompatable ati drivers.
Its looking very good for getting a fix out in the near future.

I really dont like telling people what to do with there money but I love this laptop and plan on keeping it.

 

I can verify that the Asus Manager involved is working with ATI & Asus R&D on getting a permanent fix.

 

He's also taking down the names, addresses and phone numbers of all of us that repasted our GPUs so as to void our warranties.

I'm kidding.

Or am I?

 

Would you by a car that you knew was broken and needed to be repaired before it would function as it should have when you bought it? If so I have a car to sell you.

It's your cash man, but I would return it as soon as humanly possible and go get yourself a Sager.

 

Repaste of our GPUs does not void our warranties!!!!!

Or does it?????

 

Id return it if i were you. This laptop has caused me nothing but grief. I wish i had bought another Clevo...

 

I'd get a replacement if it's not working right. Mine works fine no problems what so ever.

LoloBond, you have to remember people don't come to forums like this to say nice things about a product. so your not going to get true reviews from happy users.

 

Good point. It's part of the reason I've curtailed most of my posting here. I mostly peek in to see any new developments.

For the record, I continue to be very pleased with my laptop. I hate to see all the people having problems and wish them luck, but some folks just like to fuss.

 

Oh im sorry for making a fuss after going through replacements and still having the same issues which the techs tell me they cant fix. How out of place i am...

 

LOL, who said that post was in reference to you? Defensive much?

 

Let's hope that means a new video BIOS. Because eventhough I haven't seen a GSOD yet on my G73JH I would like a proper functioning BIOS which downclocks properly for heat and battery reasons. And a permanent fix can only be a BIOS fix. Ati releases a new driver each month so a driver fix not a proper solution. MSI, Clevo and Alienware can do it. Now it's our turn, Gary.

I have finished playing games like Bad Company 2 and Singualarity on the G73JH and am playing GTA4 and Metro 2033 but it is rock solid. My repaste job works very well.

By the way. I see the Ziddy BIOS uses 1,05V for 700/100. If that works without any problems why is the default Asus BIOS pumping in 1,15V? That is interesting to get an answer too.

 

I just dont care much for people who say such things... Its real problems that should have been adressed long ago and Asus hasnt done anything yet. If youre running what you want without problems and are happy good for you, but please refrain from badmouthing us who are trying to achieve something here.
I am also pained to see this laptop still being recommended considering all its problems and that theres no real solutions for them. People are still buying them and more and more are having problems. Sad really.

 

BUt GSOD only happen if you install an unsuported no-asus driver... install a generic catalyst is under your own risk. It is not an issue I think... Until recently both nvidia and ATI didn´t launch gerenic Drivers for mobile gpu, and now they warn that this drivers can not to work well with some Notebooks...


ATI:

NVIDIA:

I think some people complain that fails they try to do something that is not supported...

If the notebook don´t work fine then return it, but GSOD causes by generic catalyst is not a reason I think

 

@lord_neno: Except that Asus has on numerous occasions mentioned thru tech support that the generic ATI driver packages are supported by the hardware. Also, being forced to using old OEM driver packages on a gaming machine is not a solution, since new games may require the use of newer released drivers.

An "AsusXpert" would and should know this.

 

I agree with you... I only say that in my opinion this is not a defective notebook because this. (I remember that in the G1S we can´t upgrade drivers because nvidia didn´t release generic drivers for M gpu and we had to modify .inf of desktop GPU, and we never said that G1S was a faulty notebook for this... ( al least until we discovered that nvidia had launched defective 8600gt xDD)

I hope that ASUS will launch a new driver or VBIOS, but at the moment with 10.1 from ASUS all games work fine (unless FFXiV benchmark I know) And I see no need to update, but it is clear that in the future will require new drivers.



PD: asusxperts is a web community about asus

 

Its completely unacceptible however you put it. They can cover their behinds by claiming only the driver they uploaded is supported, but thats infact just a reference ATI driver they are using if were at it.
If the notebook is sold as a gaming machine i expect it to be able to run all the games i want it to (thus requiering regular driver updates) or i consider it faulty. What ticks me off the most is they are the only company with this problem, so its not something that cant be solved. They just dont consider this a priority or perhaps not even worthy of their time.

 

The problem is that the ASUS upgrade policy with GPU drivers is a ... But at this moment all games run well with asus drivers...

 

Not true. FFXIV (both benchmark and beta in nearly all cases) do not run on asus drivers.

 

Did you even read all the posts here or at least looked at the release notes of all the newer drivers?
Just a few of those:
FFXIV does not work, Unigine Heaven crashes instantly if framewire is turned on, using flashlight in certain games will give you a blank grey screen, green graphics corruptions in some games, grass rendered randomly...
It does NOT WORK FINE ON ODLDER DRIVERS. Thats why there are updates.

 

well FFXiV benchmark I know, but it is still a beta game, (benchmark don´t recognize more than 1 GPU in my 5970 and it doesn´t support fullscreen mode...) (unless you dont make some tweaks before to add fullscreen and crossfire support )

Even so, hope that asus release a driver asus or VBIOS soon

 

Thats not the only thing. Far from it. Just look at the release notes.

 

Thank you all for your feedback! Well I think Im returning this laptop... I just came back and to top the GSOD the keyboards lights and the turbo button are not working anymore.... I checked Sager and I can get,

Sager NP8760 - Gaming Laptop
17.3” Full HD (1920x1080) 16:9 LED Backlit Super Clear Glossy Widescreen
ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 5870 w/1GB GDDR5
Intel® Core™ i7-740QM (1.73~2.93GHz, 45W) w/6M Cache - 4 Cores, 8 Threads
IC Diamond Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU
4GB (2 SODIMMS) DDR3/1333 Dual Channel Memory (Only available with QM Processors)
500GB SATA II 3GB/s 7,200RPM Hard Drive (16MB Cache Buffer)
Combo Dual Layer DVD +/-R/RW CD-R/RW Drive w/Softwares
Built-in 802.11a/g/n WiFi Card
Built-in Bluetooth Wireless
Li-Polymer Battery Pack 3800mAh, 42.18Wh
3-Year Labor 1-Year Parts (Year 2 & 3 Labor by PNB)-Lifetime 24/7 DOMESTIC Toll Free Support Standard

For $1558.95 from https://www.powernotebooks.com

what you guys think? The only thing I will lose is my $232 cash back from Bing lol dang you Asus~

 

Its a good deal and configuration. Im sure youll be happy with this Clevo .

 

MSI any good?

MSI GT660-003US Notebook PC - Intel Core i7-740QM 1.73GHz, 6GB DDR3, 500GB HDD, DVDRW, 16 Display, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, Black at TigerDirect.com

 

I would stick with clevo as it's better made . Just my opinion!

 

great! thanks for the tip... getting it tomorrow.

 

What a sorry excuse for a battery though. I wish sagers would put in higher capacity batteries so at least you can use them as a notebook and away from a power source for more than 20 minutes.

get the 8850, I know you want to.

 

Id say its inferior to the Clevo. Only one fan to cool both the CPU and GPU doesnt look like a good idea and the build quality of the MSI machines ive seen wasnt as good as the Clevos - id say somewhere between the Clevo i owned and this G73JH, but if you want it, its still better than the G73JH, but i dont see a reason not to go with the Clevo you found since it still offers more for the price .

 

Ya my eyes fell out at that one too, since my D900F had an awesome 12-cell battery that made the laptop run longer with a desktop CPU and three hard drives than these new models with a mobile CPU and a single HD, but as i said, you cant really game on battery on any laptop, unless your gaming sessisions last under one hour .

And the Clevo W880CU (Sager 8850) isnt worth it. That gtx 480m is practically no better than the mobility 5870 and costs three times as much and its thicker and heavier becouse of it and thats all its different. It was made for the fanboys and braggers in mind...

Get a D900F / X7200. Just kidding, those will set you back alot more than what you found. But they are the kings of laptops *wink* ...

 

Sager offered to upgrade the 5870 with Nvidia 285 GTX for$75 extra.... wonder why if this is an older GPU.

 

Refund.. and w8 for the new G line

 

Nothing wrong with Clevo but they are far from perfect, there forums are just as riddle with problem posts as the Asus forums. (lots of overheat issues on Clevos most of the time)

I dont care for there big bulky brick like design & aesthetics on most of there high performance models and you cant get as much for your money with Clevo as you could Asus. However if the Asus unit was not working for you then you did not have much of a choice.

Shame there are so many issues for people I dont know why.

To this day as probably the first Asus G73 owner on the forum and one of the first owners in the world I have not had a single GSOD or problem with mine.

I am not using stock drivers I am using a leaked driver that is equivalent to the current 10.6 or maybe 10.7 drivers. I have upgraded the system bios to 209 with no issues. I have managed to get a 1.8ghz stable overclock on the cpu.

This has been definitely the best laptop I have owned and I am very happy with it.

Just wanted to share my little sucess story because it is indeed true that 95% or so people will post if they have a problem, but less than 5% bother to come post "everything is fine" so even if the G73 has less than a 3% RMA rate (stats from Asus) it seems like it has a lot of problems.

The average RMA rate for laptops (all companies) is 5% in that regard the G73 is actually a really good problem free laptop for most people. Just that it is the single most selling laptop in the world right now probably in this performance range so even if it is only 3% that is still a lot of affected people.

 

Not everyone that has a problem with the G73JH posts here. Many people in the Netherlands have problems and don't post here and also don't post in Dutch forums.

After I did a negative review on a Dutch tech site I got people saying they also have problems but never posted anywhere about them.

Virtually no one uses the Creative drivers but if no one complains nothing happens and there is also no problem.

 

And maybe that's because 95% of people don't actually update their drivers, therefore not knowing whether they have GSOD (well, it is a given that they will have) prone machine or not.

 

After reading the replies to this thread I would say, "There is not a perfect brand/model laptop exists in this world"

 

Dont take that "upgrade". The gtx 285m is actually worse in performance than the mobility 5870 AND has no DX11 support, but nvidia just charges more for their products, becouse their production costs are higher, since their manufacturing efficiency is very low, becouse they use huge dies unlike ATI, which doesnt have so many faulty cards that have to be scrapped at the manufacturing process and there are enough nvidia fan boys that will pay the premium if asked. That is not an upgrade, but a downgrade which they want you to pay for.

 

None is perfect, but some are just plain BAD. Read, ASUS. And some are just great. Read, Clevo.
In my oppinion and expirience Clevo is one of the best, thats why i reccommend it to those who still have a chance to get a refund and get something that wont give them daily migranes. Even if they get a defective unit by some unlucky chance, it will get replaced and fixed unlike the Asus.

 

Let's just say that if you have your G73JH already, you should have a very happy system very soon. Just hold the faith for a couple more weeks.

 

Well Put!!! - -

I can tell you that the "Gaming" laptop my company manufactures/sells is no different when it comes to having issues - We are currently testing/validating the 2010-Q4 and 2011-Q1 release candidates and despite the fact that these are 3rd/4th generation hardware the heat problems continue. Course, the CPU and GPU are always 1st generation - pushing the limits - never the same otherwise there'd be no reason for the next generation.

Imagine the outcry if laptop manufacturers decided to never build another "gaming" lappy? wouldn't that be hilarious? Every Quarter it is discussed here at this company, and for some reason; despite the high cost, low margins, and seemingly large number of complaints, they continue to produce and sell the product..

In Peace,
Trav...

 

And what are you going to tell him if there wont be any new vBios release to solve the GSOD problems (if its perhaps not possible or if Asus just wont do it)?
And theres still the keyboard missing keystrokes problem thats been around for years without a solution.
Its possible something will be released soon or later solving this or perhaps it will never be released and hell be stuck with such a laptop.
My advice is a more full proof solution, keeping it is more of a gamble, but the choice is his. Hes been provided with all the information already so he should have made his mind up by now probably?

 

Thats just sad, selling a laptop you know has problems and even after people complain so much. End users shouldnt have to deal with such things. Bugs and problems should be solved before the laptop hits the shelves. There are still companies that provide such quality, but there are fewer and fewer of those...

 

So does urs have any issues?

I don't mind waiting 7 days but hopefully this issue is solved.. i seriously don't want to buy a clevo due to poor laptop colouring.. it looks like bland black plastic and 2 less RAM slots...

 

Well after all I will give this badboy another chance... I spoke to tigerdirect.com and they will give me another 30 days to test the laptop so is all good, I get a chance to get a good computer and I wont lose my $232usd bing cash back.

In the other hand I spent some time talking to Sager yesterday and they told me that most of the problems people have with mobile ATI is because people keep messing up with drivers... they read this forum haha. I will report next week after I play with the laptop.

 

tiger rocks they shipped the laptop without receiving the bad one... i hope this one works.

 

Honestly I think many blow G73 issues out of proportion. Fact is Asus is rated #1 in quality by 3 different independent sources now.

And GenTech, BTO and others have confirmed the RMA of G73 is actually in the low single digits.

Yes they could have done more and better, agreed. But vast majority of people don't have as many problems as HellCry.

And considering the volume the G73 is selling at, their low RMA is impressive and speaks of quality, contrary to HellCry's statements.

I have no doubt the G73 outsold anything from Clevo, Alienware, MSI combined in the 17" and up gaming notebooks.

 

Don't pick on HellCry, he's gotten better. One can even approach him without snarling.

 

What are your settings for GTA4, and what are your frames like?
I'm about 70% through the game (I don't play daily) and interested in knowing how it'll handle when I install (and copy my files!) over to the G73.

 

Singularity was great fun. Played that for hours with no GSOD on my G73. I do like how at the end, it auto saved the last bit so you can go back and try various other options for the ending.

I know, he just makes it seem as if every G73 is doomed which is completely false. He doesn't seem to relent and accept that vast majority of people have no issues.

I've recommended G73 to two of my friends so far and both of them love their machines. One bought his from Best Buy another from XoticPC and neither have had a single issue and using the latest drivers etc. etc.

 

Since sales is a sign of quality. And your vBios is a magical cure. Im done here. Ill crawl back into my GSOD hole with all the GPUs ive had and tested.