G73JH Heating problem and cooling options

Hello all. I recently acquired this laptop and the heating problem does no allow me to play games. It shuts off from overheating. Web surfing, even on battery saving mode, the GPU temperature is in a constant 80-85C. Playing Kingdoms of Amalur with crap graphics it survives, not going over 92C. However, with any decent graphics the temperature rises fast. Running Witcher 2 on the lowest settings is a funny experience: see how in the very opening of the game the temperature slowly goes up and up until poof.

This laptop is used, and it was almost always used with a cooling pad. I read around here that the thermal paste Asus uses is crap, so I may take it to a shop for them to do the job (I wont even try it; this baby cost me the salary of a whole month), but in the meantime I want to learn about cooling pad options. Now, this is my gaming setup:

Im on a lazyboy in front of my 32 HDTV to which I connect the laptop via HDMI, so a pad that I can use on my lap is ideal. They seem to be bulky, so I need some advice here. In the end, if I cant put it on my lap I guess I'll have to play with an Xbox contrller or a wireless keyboard (which I would have to buy). So what do you guys recommend in terms of cooling pads?

 

There are some suggestions here http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus-gaming-notebook-forum/469421-cooling-pad-solutions-g73.html
Also more info can be found using bing site search
site:http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus-gaming-notebook-forum/ G73JH cooling pads - Bing

 

You bought it used or new? If you still have Asus Warranty on it, you might want to send it in for them to replace the cooling pad / heat paste.
If you have canned air, your could also try to clean the fans yourself, maybe they are just clogged full of dust (if it was a used machine).
pato

 

A cooling pad isn't going to help you. They only help by a few degrees at most under load, especially on an ASUS RoG laptop that has an already great cooling system.

 

Like Srikar said, a cooling pad won't do much at all. It's like putting speed fins on your car to make it go faster.

 

try to clean dust first

 

Its used. And I dont know much about computers, but I think if its overheating its because the cooling system sucks. A good cooling system wouldnt allow a laptop to get to 85 degrees celsius just by using youtube.

I did try cleaning the dust...results that there is none. It is pretty clean inside.

 

The thermal paste drys out and becomes less efficient with time as it is exposed to heat. As you surmised, a repaste is likely in your future to control your laptop's overheating issue. Check out this thread: http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthrea...Observations-and-Suggestions-(Read-This-First)

 

This laptop has one of the most efficient cooling solutions in the industry. Having this type of problems with it must have a pretty serious cause. There is something terrible wrong with either paste/cooling fins getting clogged/vents not working at all.

 

This laptop have the best cooling system on the market.Something is wrong with Your machine.

 

I wouldn't say the best cooling, but yeah there is something wrong somewhere, either dust, but you said you checked for that, a badly seated heatsink, a dead fan or degraded thermal paste.

 

The person that sold it to me told me that he constantly played on it with a cooling pad, so he never had problems with it. I guess Im gonna have to take it to someone to repaste.

I really hope that fixes the problem; I spent 700 dollars on this and for me, that kind of money amounts to a full month worth of salary, so I'd be suicidal if I can't get my money's worth out of this. And if there's something wrong with it, nobody would buy it from me :'( (and to think that with alittle more I could have have somebody build me an ever better gaming desktop)

Thanks for your answers. Of course If I had known about this I wouldn't have bought this laptop; but guess I gotta make the best of it to get my money's worth. I'll take it to some shop to check it out, see if its the past, heat sink, fan, or all three.

It seems there is a service provider in my country who is an Asus partner. I'll see what I can do there.

 

You can got o Asus' website and check if there is an Asus service provider near you. Do you know where the original owner bought the laptop?

 

Yeah, I actually did and found one. Gonna go check the place out during a week day. Thanks for the info!

 

So it turns out the laptop doesnt have a warranty, so I will have to dish out $150 to fix this issue, probably more depending on what happens (they charge me $75 an hour!!!)

Im starting to think the fan is not working, or its the quietest fan ever. I downloaded MSI Afterburner to keep track of temperature, and the option to adjust fan settings is greyed out...as if the program did not recognize a fan.

Im starting to think that using a cooling pad with the panel below open might be a quick fix while I sav up the money to take it to the service provider :\

 

KhalDrogosKitty, install HWiNFO, HWiNFO32 & HWiNFO64 - Hardware Information and Analysis Tools 32 or 64 bit version and check the sensor tab- fan RPM (ASUS g73 ec) and let us know, the results (ignore the 30% reported it is not accurate)
Fan are quite but even at low temps (50 Celcius) I can hear them
See attachment in this post if you need an example http://forum.notebookreview.com/8434594-post9.html

 

Hello,
Install this - HWiNFO64 Download, start it, check RPM numbers (GPU should be ~3000, CPU ~3500). If the numbers are correct - buy canned air (remove RAM cover and carefully! use the can). If not - your laptop needs repair/repaste. Sorry for my bad english and gl

 

150$!!?? Thermal greace is like 10 usd or something . But yea repasting is a 2 hours process.

 

I could also suggest a notebook cooler, a lot of people have mentioned the Nalman ZM-NC2000, I am myself planning to get one, but I am looking into the Nalman ZM-NC3000U. Not sure which one to get haven't found any feedback with the Nalman ZM-NC3000U with the ASUS G73JH

 

There is a sticky thread on top of this forum within a collection of usefull infos.

Sticky thread

Zalman NC3000 + G73 pics

 

Tilla, that's the NC-3000S the model I was referring to is that NC-3000U.

I am debating now I've did so much research, it is either the NC-2000 or the CoolerMaster SF-19 do not know which one to get.

 

These pics are from me. And it is the U-version.

 

Ah ok my bad haha. Ok so I am deciding between the NC-3000U or the Coolermaster SF-19. I really can't decide between the two, so I'll ask for your opinion @tilla. I am aware of how loud the Coolermaster SF-19 is but it is very effective for temperature decrease, but the NC-3000U is very effective, and quieter, but I am not sure which one to take.

Like @tilla what are the good things about the NC-3000U and what is bad about it, I really just can't decide, and both are about the same price. So which one should I get for my G73JH? >.<

 

Anyone help me decide? >.<

 

Get this one:

NotePal U3 - Cooler Master - Leading Provider of Computer Case | Cooler | Power Supply

- and two 120mm fans:

Cooling -> Case Fan -> Blade Master - Cooler Master - Leading Provider of Computer Case | Cooler | Power Supply

- and one of these:

12vAdapters.com: 12 Volt DC Power Supplies Adapters. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Amp 12V (1A, 2A, 2.5A, 3A, 3.5A, 4A, 5A, 6A)

Place the two 120mm fans on the U3 "G73JH hotspots" - how? I won´t show you my solution, it´s crazy, find your own!

Connect the fans to the 12V adaptor - how? Same as the above!

Use the default U3 fans when browsing the net etc., and the 120mm's when gaming. You can probably solder some sort of powercontrol between the fans and the 12V adaptor, so they don´t run full speed, but I prefer full throttle, temps dropped 12C...

Enjoy!

 

A notebook cooler isn't a solution to the TC's problem. Something is wrong with his laptop and the heat will only increase, even with a cooler.

 

No, I just want to keep my laptop cool, it doesn't overheat and shutdown, it just gets hot. Also I just wanted to keep it cool as I will be playing it extensively this summer with Diablo III, so I wanted to pick up a cooler, I'm deciding between the

Zalman NC-3000u
or
CoolerMaster SF-19

Both have had good ratings not sure which one I want.

 

verify fans functioning. repaste.

interim- try taking the shoulderplate off. four screws on the bottom in the space the battery goes, then some finesse work pulling that plate off that sits above the vents and behind the display. that will expose the area above the radiators just inside the grille covers for the vents.

can direct an external fan directly across the radiator fins on a side thats not working. (facing the screen- the left for the cpu, right for the gpu. seems you are having mainly cpu issues.). such a measure should be a fair stopgap measure compared to an under chassis cooling pad.

still better to get the cause fixed.

cpu side sadly is the more annoying repaste.
fans are easy to replace comparatively, but hard to get replacements for offhand.

 

you can check out the types of mods you can do in my thread. Nearly everyone is good for any model.

repasting isn't hard and for 150 bucks thats BS price. Hell mail it to me and pay me 250 and i'll modify it with all my mods

 

hackness and Hopelessly Faithful, even if all it needs is repasting, Im gonna have a professional do it, and the Asus partner in my country charges $75 an hour; I have read this laptop is hard to open, so if they take more than an hour checking it out, thats gonna be $150 right there, plus any repair it would need. This laptop cost me a whole month of salary so I wont risk it by doing it myself. Im still looking for alternatives, see if somebody opens it up for less.

Here is the report, I scrolled it down because I figured what is at the top is not important.


By khaldrogoskitty at 2012-05-22

 

can I bump?

 

Was the screenshot made with or without any high load on cpu/gpu?

 

Khal what country are you in?

 

I would rather pay $200 to fix the laptop for good, than trying to fix it myself if its still under warranty.

Mine is having similar problem with my G73JH reaching 100C while playing Diablo 3. It is not normal and i am getting it fixed since its under warranty. Just hope the service centre is not ran by monkeys that will make things worse than fixing it.

 

pato, as you can see from the sreenshot,the only thing open was the program itself, and FIrefox. Skype is logged out, but its always there for some reason.

C4RN1, I am in Puerto Rico.

Cheesenium, it doesnt have warranty, since I bought it used. The owner says he always played using a cooling pad, so he probably didnt notice whatever it is thats happening to it. I found a place near me that fixes computers and laptops, Im just gonna ask them for price and if they got any expertise with this model (the service center thats a partner to Asus is waaay too expensive, they charge like $75 an hour, and Im a student on minimum wage.)

Can anyone give me an informed guess as to what's going on, using the screenshot as reference? I'd appreciate it.

 

Can you ask the previous owner for the original bill? Asus offers in most countries 2 years of warranty. So you might still have warranty on it.
But yeah, if your screenshot is without any load, then the temps are cleary to high (81°C for the GPU in idle is around 20°C to high!).
Ambient here is 25°C at the moment.
The harddrive has 10° more than mine, my CPU is around 56° at the moment (cut off on your screenshot).
One thing though, your GPU is currently running on 3d speeds (because of firefox). Could you close firefox, let the laptop run 5 minutes and then check the GPU temps again?
The GPU clock should go down to 405MHz.
Could you also post again which BIOS you have installed?

 

I checked and it says: BIOS Version/Date American Megatrends Inc. G73Jh.209, 5/13/2010
SMBIOS version: 2.6

And the warranty was for one year, and this was originally bought August 2010. I called Asus

 

If it takes over an hour for a professional to open, re-paste, and put back together then they need to find a new profession. I did it all in under and hour, and its the second time I have ever re-pasted anything. It was probably my 6th or 7th notebook that I have ever disassembled.

 

Good to know Syndrome, thanks. This is good info because at least I can use such arguments if somebody tries to rip me off.

 

You can also update the bios to 211 or better 213. That will also lower the temps a little, as they use a new fan profile in 211 (213 fixes some touchpad issues).
But yeah, repaste is probably the most important.

 

what are your readings in your country mates

at 29-30 C room temperature i get an idle readings

CPU - 47 C
GPU - 61 C

it is so hot

 

I updated the BIOS to 213, and still getting 80C while not doing anything.

I'll call a repair shop tomorrow, I'll keep you posted.

 

FYI, the vbios inside the 213 is from 09/01/09, all clock settings, voltage settings, and vbios version are the same if you compare it to the vbios inside version 204.

 

He was talking about the normal bios, which has new fan parameters since 209 or 211, which turn on a little bit earlier and thus cool the machine a tad more.

 

I was on normal bios too . Both G73JW and G73JH have a vbios in the bios if you check it using MMTool.

 

Hi guys. Sorry for not keeping you posted, although there is not much to tell. I havent been able to get it fixed. I was thinking of emplying a friend from work who builds computers to have a look at it...but since we work in the same place its been hard for us to coordinate (we are both minimum wage so spare time is limited, and work time too precious.)

However, I wanted to consult you guys on something, because I dont wanna get ripped off and you are a bunch of good people. For some time I have been thinking that I would be better off buying a cheap, used laptop for what I need (mainly writing my thesis, watching youtube, use Skype for work, reading comics...you know, low end stuff). However, I would like a gaming desktop. But, if Im gonna sell this G73JH, I would need to fix it first. However, looking up gaming desktops, I found this:

MD FX4100 3.6 Ghz QuadCore Processor

ASUS M5A78L-M LX PLUS AM3+ AMD 760G Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

8GB DDR3 1333mhz RAM

500 GB Hard Drive
EVGA 512MB 9800GT Video Card

Antec 500 Earthwatts [Dual Rails 12v rails with 22 amps on each! Enough to power some of the best video cards on the market!]
DVD RW Drive

AMD Thermaltake Mid Tower Case

Windows 7 Home Premium Installed

The guy selling these custom gaming PCs says he would be willing to trade my laptop, even in its state (I mean, he definitely would not need to pay somebody to fix it, he can do it himself), for those desktops he sells from his online shop, which go for about 600 bucks. I wanted to ask what you guys think of that trade, if I should go ahead with it. How much better is that desktop compared to our laptop?

 

If you go for that desktop you won't be able to play any Dx10.1 or Dx11 Games because 9800GT only supports up to Dx10.

 

Wasnt even aware this one had DX11 lol Aside from that, and with a better graphics card, is it a better machine?

I was bartering with him and he is willing to give me an upgraded card that could run BF3 on high settings.

 

Yes the HD5870M is a stronger GPU than the 9800GT, if you are looking for a decent card that support Dx11 and can play BF3 at high setting, desktop card GTX 460 is a good choice.

1 step down from GTX 460 is the GTX 550Ti, this one can also play BF3 on high setting smoothly.

 

So would you say that with a card like that that could play BF3 in high, and those specs for that desktop, would that be equivalent or higher than the G73JH I have now? Would you say its a good trade?

I dont even know how well I can play BF3 on this :\