G73SW-HST6 Bloatware Problem

I just bought this laptop as an impulse buy when visiting my local Best Buy. I knew there would be bloatware, so I was expecting this, and got my clickin' finger ready.

I can uninstall the non-Asus bloatware just fine, but when I attempt to uninstall the Asus bloatware, or 'utilities' as they call them, they'll effect some of the drivers, cause them to crash, and then cause them to not recognize my laptop as an Asus anymore. It wouldn't be a problem if it wasn't effecting the only two GOOD 'utilities'; the Power4 Gear Utility and the ATK Keyboard Utility, but it is.

I've ordered a drivers CD from the Asus website, as the Asus website doesn't seem to provide all the required drivers for a clean OS install, but I'm a very impatient person. Is there any way I could extract the drivers installed from the Asus installation, and then slipstream them with an OEM copy of Windows 7?

 

Not sure about taking the current drivers (I know it can be done ...) but the driver CD asus provided with me was fine. Also, when I do a reinstall, I only use the ATK driver from the asus website. I'm not sure what else you need, or what drivers are missing ...

 

The main driver I couldn't find on the website was the webcam driver. I'll hardly ever, if ever, use it, but I hate having something on my system which doesn't function. I had to use Driver Detective to find most of the drivers for the system, even after I had the Asus ones installed. After that, it still couldn't help me with the webcam issue. It knows that there is one there, and it has a generic driver installed, but it won't function. Programs do not see a device, only device manager does.

What I would like to do would be to have a fresh, Asus OEM installation, with nothing but the OS and drivers. Why can't the biggest gaming component company provide a laptop without bloatware?

I hope the driver CD they provide me with will cover everything on the system, or else I'd be pretty upset.

 

The standard Windows driver works perfectly fine for my Webcam. You can literally download every driver so it's whatever, I have the drivers CD and I never use it.

Check here: G73 Series Driver and Application Reference

Should have everything you need.

 

That thread is a great resource for the JH and JW series, but not the SW series. I wish it had the SW series drivers CD, because then this would be a lot easier for me.

 

The G73 series uses similar drivers across the board IIRC, the SW specific ones there should be the only differences.

 

The webcam drivers are up for the JH, I can't imagine they're different for the SW.

 

Well that's weird, i didn't have any problems uninstalling everything but ATK and P4G on my JH. Anyways there's a very good chance that your webcam is a chicony 1.3 or 2.0 Mpixels. I have both chicony cams in my JH and N50...

Oh and by the way, you need all the ATK software except ATK media for P4G and ATK to work properly. Well technically, ATK hotkey isn't necessary but then your hotkeys won't work .

 

Another problem was the fact that a lot of the drivers and utilities which I actually wanted to have on my laptop during a fresh install weren't recognizing my laptop as an Asus, so they wouldn't install.

On a fresh install, the hotkeys, backlight, and P4G worked completely fine, and I see no difference with the uninstall of the bloatware, and the reinstall of the utilities I want, so I don't understand what the problem is.

 

Ah. This happens when your windows activation / slic doesn't match up as an asus.

As for the drivers and utilities that don't install, which ones are you talking about? There's only one that checks for an asus mobo, though.

 

I can't remember which ones they were; I've done 4 recoveries since then, so everything's really become a blur.

Will the driver CD I ordered cover my specific laptop revision (HST6)? It's for the G73HW, but unlike HP, Asus only really covers basic models, not revisions. I don't want to end up paying for a Windows install DVD and drivers CD only to figure out that they don't play nice with my computer.

 

Are you using the SW's activation or a separate activation?

 

I'm using the key on the bottom of the laptop with a retail-turned-OEM install disk. It doesn't register to any manufacturer as prebuilts usually do.

Also, to add to that, apparently my drivers disk will be here tomorrow. Gogo Fedex!

Again, will this drivers disk contain every driver I require? If so, Is it worth it to delete the recovery partition?

 

... Your windows install method doesn't register to any specific manufacturer. It's the activation that I was talking about.

Anyways, it seems that you don't actually have a problem - just a bit of a navigation issue for the asus site. No worries, it's a bit of a mess, and until you get used to it, you'll probably overlook other things.

 

I remember using an Alienware branded OS install DVD back when XP was awesome on my Vista HP laptop. It then began to believe that it was an Alienware, and was 'registered' as such. The disks which are being shipped to me include an Asus branded OS install DVD, so I believe it will do the same thing.

Otherwise, how would one be able to register their computer to a specific manufacturer after a fresh install? I don't believe I'm actually overlooking anything, considering that when searching for drivers for a G73SW, it doesn't list some of them, and others won't work because my computer is not branded as such. I believe that I simply am not getting everything I require.

 

Does it really matter whether you use the activation code on the bottom of the laptop?

Or can you just do a fresh install using the code and media you have from a retail copy of Win 7 Ult x64?

I suppose the next question is are they interchangeable?

 

It has to be the same edition of Windows 7, in this case Home Premium. If you use a retail version and use your OEM key to install, you have to call Microsoft to have them activated for you. As for the webcam, it'd help if you can post the Vendor ID and Product ID so we know which webcam it is and maybe help you find the right drivers. In terms of software not installing, are you refering to the Intel Turbo Boost Drivers? They never install, don't know why and you don't need them. Turbo Boost runs fine without those drivers.

 

How complicated would it be to install Win7 Ult x64 from a retail package onto your machine after wiping the drive(s)?

 

Provided you have a key, it's no different than any other win7 install

 

Alright, I've got the recovery DVD's from Asus, and I'm trying to install the OS to get into it and install drivers from the driver's CD, but it's not letting me get past the "Windows is setting up your new computer" screen.

I'm trying to use http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...lk-through-doing-clean-windows-7-install.html to assist me, but I cant use it really considering it's not letting me do anything.

 

The motherboard is recognized as an asus. That's how.

What do you "believe" you're missing?

 

The motherboard may be recognized as an Asus, but in system properties, it doesn't say "Asus" like it should.

I've got all the drivers I require now, as I have the driver CD, but would it be easier for me to just install using an OEM disk, or should I use the Asus recovery disk they sent me? Like I said before, my computer doesn't like the Asus recovery disk, and isn't letting me get past a certain point.

 

I don't know what you mean: Either it says "Asus" with the little picture - and that's a windows activation. Or you're looking for the information that's returned from an "Lspci" query in linux, which isn't usually displayed in windows. One of them doesn't matter (that's the little picture). The other always shows up when queried properly.

 

The little picture doesn't say 'Asus'. That's what I mean. It's a genuine Windows activation because I used the key on the bottom of the laptop, and it was activated online. Although it is an OEM key, it's still a key, and won't automatically register it as an Asus.

Does the little picture do anything at all? It seems as though some utilities and drivers won't install without it, as they don't recognize it as an Asus laptop, even though the mainboard is an Asus mainboard.

Alright, I just tried recovering using my AI recovery DVD's, and they proved to be useless. They finished, after an hour and a half, and I had no BOOTMGR.

After that, I tried using the Asus OS Recovery DVD they sent me, and followed Complete Walk-through For Doing A Clean Windows 7 Install up until "Setup is applying system settings". Once that came up, a little pop-up came up saying "Windows could not configure one or more system components. To install Windows, restart the computer and then restart the installation."

What should I do?

 

So? It doesn't say asus. You can get a problem to install any .bmp file in that spot.

The programs do a check against the mobo version, through the hardware IDs that you can find if you do some digging with your "device manager". They're not in plain text, but they're easily decoded with a bit of googling. The programs check the ven_ID and if it matches asus, they install. It has nothing to do with your windows install key.

I would recommend you download a copy of the windows DVD - instructions are around somewhere, and it's 100% legit and legal - and do a fresh install.

I keep asking you WHICH drivers and utilities won't install, and you keep ignoring the question. Since I can only think of ONE that is linked to the asus board (creative), and you refuse to actually name anything else, it seems more like a pebkac issue than anything else. Quite easy to fix, though you may need to see someone else about it.

 

I've just done a fresh install with the legit Windows DVD which I own, and then installed the drivers using the Asus DVD. Everything to this point seems to be working, so I'm not going to touch anything.

Are there any applications or utilities I should now install on the clean OS?

 

Nope. Make sure you have the latest bios and vbios. Nothing left to clean, really. You can uninstall stuff if you like, but creative (with the x64 mod update) and ATK are the only things I install from asus.