Help! I've messed up real bad!

So a month ago I bought an Asus Series G751JY gaming laptop. In what might be one of my dumbest moves in awhile last night I decided to install the preview build of Windows 10. Unfortunately, it wasn't until AFTER installing it that I realized all the reasons why this was a very dumb decision on my part. This was all compounded by a very costly mistake I made during the install process.

Which brings me to why I'm here. Basically when it came to formatting hard drives I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing and I choose which hard drive to format poorly. In short, Windows 10 preview build is now the only thing on my PC. So all Asus programs are gone (for better or worse) and all the backup partitions are gone. The laptop came with Windows 8 preinstalled but I now don't have any way (from what I can tell) to go back to Win8 because all of the back up and restore files were mistakenly eliminated by me during the Win10 install. On top of all this my laptop battery has stopped charging (which may be related to the removal of ASUS programs?) but it's at least at 95%.

I guess my question is what steps do I need to take to get my laptop back to some degree of normalcy?

 

The battery not charging at 95% is fine. There is a % where it wont charge to prevent your battery overcharging and damaging the cells. If your machine is not charging at all then there is a problem.

Going back to win8 should not be a problem. Since now you register your email with windows keys, you should be able to get your key from microshit. (Unsure how to go about this, phone? Email? livechat? someone with experience shed some light on this?)

All Asus programs should be available via the website. Also, as far as I know OEMs will supply discs with their own custom windows installs (Though may charge for sending to you)

 

Your Windows 8.1 key should be embedded into the BIOS, once you reinstall 8.1 and go to activate it, it will know where to find it automatically.

You will need to get Windows 8.1 media, which you can do here http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/create-reset-refresh-media

Then the drivers and utilities will be on the disc included with the computer and you can download them directly from Asus.

 

First step when you get a machine or if you are about to change the os is to create restore media using the asus software A bit late now but good advice for the future.

 

This guide will help you do a clean install of Windows 8.1 on your ASUS G751JY.

Phase 1: Windows Installation

1) Download and extract the Windows Product Key Viewer (you may skip step 1 & 2 if your laptop did not come pre-installed with Windows 8 and doesn't have a product key built into its BIOS)

2) Run pkeyui.exe by right clicking on it then choose Run As Administrator, then find your Windows 8 product key and write it down somewhere safe

3) Go to Control Panel > System > Device Manager, then click on the + sign next to Network Adapters and Bluetooth, then note down the exact name that shows for the WLAN, LAN, and Bluetooth chipsets in order for us to be able to choose and download the appropriate driver for them later on because the G751 laptops come in different configurations so it is vital to know what driver you had installed before to avoid headaches.

4) Download the Windows 8.1 ISO depending on the edition that came with your laptop [Single Language, Core, or Pro]

5) Burn the ISO to a DVD or better yet, use Rufus to make a bootable USB, make sure to choose the UEFI/GPT partition option in RUFUS as per the guide in the link



6) Shut down your computer

7) Insert your Windows 8.1 x64 DVD or USB Flash Disk and keep pressing the ESC key on your keyboard quickly while turning your laptop on. If this doesn't work the first time and you find yourself back to Windows, then simply restart your computer while continuously pressing the ESC key it should work.

8) When you get the boot options, choose UEFI:Matshita or UEFI:USB Stick as we want to install Windows 8.1 in UEFI/GPT mode



9) Wait while the Windows setup loads





10) Accept the license agreement



11) Search for Windows 8.1 Default Installation Keys on Google then use the one appropriate to the edition of Windows 8.1 you are installing, these are not cracked keys and are NOT actual keys that you can activate Windows with, they are just for the sake of installation. You will need to enter the product key you got earlier in step 2 when you're in Windows to activate.



12) When you get to the partition wizard, delete all the partitions, then proceed to create new ones, I personally install Windows on my SSD which is a 256 GB SSD so I create a C: Partition of 100 GB and the remaining space goes to the D: Partition (your needs might be different so just use this as a reference but change the size of the partition as per your requirements, you may just want to allocate the whole space to C

To do this, while you are at the partition wizard screen, press SHIFT + F10 to get the command prompt, then type:

cd\ then hit enter
diskpart then hit enter
select disk 0 then hit enter
clean then hit enter
convert gpt then hit enter



now exit the command prompt and click on REFRESH in the partition wizard screen

You should now only have 1 un-partitioned disk, click on CREATE to create a new partition, if you want 100GB exactly for C:, then enter the following value in the size box: 102936 otherwise if you just want one partition just leave it at the default size suggested.



DO NOT CREATE the 2nd partition at this point, just leave it un-partitioned otherwise the Windows setup might place your boot files on the second partition

13) Install Windows on the 4th partition which is the 100GB partition which we just created or whatever size you may have chosen.



14) When you get to the first screen on Windows 8, do not choose EXPRESS SETTINGS but rather, choose CUSTOMIZE















15) Make sure you disable Windows updates for now and turn off "automatically get and install updates for drivers" otherwise you will have Windows update silently install the VGA, Bluetooth, WLAN, and other drivers which you don't want! Always stick to the drivers from ASUS

16) Ensure you are connected to your wireless network, then launch Windows Updates from Control Panel. Install all available updates but do not install any drivers or drivers from Windows update; right click on any driver that shows up in the available updates list, then choose Hide.

The only exception is the Microsoft Wireless Router Module, that can be installed but NOTHING ELSE with regards to drivers from Windows updates





17) Reboot your computer after the updates have been installed, then search for updates again and install the 2nd list of updates (if any)

18) Go to Control Panel > Programs and Features > Turn Windows Features On or Off

19) Check the first box which says .NET Framework 3.5 and click OK, when asked where do you want to get it from, choose Download from Windows Updates.

20) After .NET Framework 3.5 has been installed, search for Windows updates again and install any updates that show up after the installation of .NET Framework 3.5

21) Go to Control Panel > System then scroll down to the end and click on ACTIVATE then click on Enter New Key and enter the product key that is built into your BIOS which you acquired earlier in this guide. As soon as you enter the product key Windows will be activated automatically over the internet.

22) Optional step: Right click on the desktop, then choose Screen Resolution, then choose "Make text and other items larger or smaller", then choose "Medium 125%"

 

Phase 2: Drivers Installation

ASUS G751JY Windows 8.1 Drivers
Download the drivers from the below links and install them in the numbered order. When asked to restart please DO restart immediately as that is vital for the proper installation of some drivers. Do not take any shortcuts!

01-ATK Package 1.0.0037

02-Intel Chipset Drivers 9.4.0.1027

03-Intel Collaborative Processor Performance Control Driver 1.0.0.1016

04-Intel Management Engine Interface 9.6.0.1038
05-Intel Rapid Storage Technology Driver 13.1.0.1058

After you download the *.ZIP File, extract the *.ZIP File then go into that folder

Right click on PNPINST64.exe then choose Run As Administrator, reboot when asked to

After you restart, go back to that same folder, then right click on IRSTPatch.exe then choose Run As Administrator. Then continue to install the drivers below in the same order.
06-nVIDIA GeForce Driver 9.18.13.4400 (Even though there are newer drivers, it is advised to stick to the ASUS version of the graphics driver. If you must have the latest nVIDIA Driver, then feel free to download it from their website and ensuring you select your model followed by the M indicating mobile graphics chipset)

07-Realtek Audio Driver 6.0.1.7432

08-Realtek LAN Driver 8.034.0617.2014

09-Atheros AR9485 WLAN Driver 10.0.0.288 or Atheros WLAN Killer Driver 1.1.46.1285 or Broadcom WLAN Driver 6.30.223.228 or Intel WiFi WLAN Driver 17.0.5.8

10-Atheros Bluetooth Driver 8.0.1.330 or Broadcom Bluetooth Driver 12.0.0.9550 or Intel Bluetooth Driver 17.0.1405.0464

11-Genesys Multi-Card Reader Driver 4.3.1.1
12-Elantec Touchpad Driver 11.5.16.2
13-Keyboard Device Filter 1.0.0.5
14-ASUS Wireless Radio Control 1.0.0.3

15-Thunderbolt Driver 2.0.4.250
Optional:

16-ASUS USB Charger Plus 4.0.2

17-ASUS Gaming Center 1.0.5

18-ASUS Splendid Video Enhancement Technology 3.02.0001

19-ASUS ROG MacroKey 1.0.0.28

20-ROG Game First III 1.00.16

21-PixelMaster Video HDR 1.1.23

22-ASUS DVD 10.0.5710.52 (3D) or ASUS DVD 10.0.5710.52 (Non-3D)

==================================================

 

Asus Backtracker for Windows 8.1 download
http://support.asus.com/download.aspx?SLanguage=en&p=3&m=Backtracker&hashedid=n/a

Asus Backtracker FAQ
http://www.asus.com/support/FAQ/1008640/

A USB 3.0 16GB Flash drive is all you need.

Asus Backtracker creates a bootable restore USB thumb drive that you can use to restore to the same or new media - a new SSD, a new HDD.

It is also recommended that if you are upgrading the boot drive that you keep the original boot drive on the shelf as a backup. 1TB drives are only $50 these days, and the included drive is slow and best upgraded anyway.

With the drive on the shelf, you can swap it back into your laptop at a moments notice to use in case your boot drive fails, gets corrupted, or you need to return the laptop for RMA - you can keep your private files at home safely and return the laptop with the original drive for system repairs.

A couple of gotchas to watch out for with Asus Backtracker.

1) Remove all USB storage devices from the laptop before using Asus Backtracker to create the Flash recovery drive.

People have accidentally selected the wrong USB device, and blown away a whole disk drive. Backtracker only makes at most a 20GB partition on any USB device, regardless of total size, so it is all wasted space past 20GB. A 32GB USB 3.0 flash drive is the largest recommended, if you want that extra 4-5GB to store other things on your backup flash drive.

2) Don't restore to your original HDD until you verify that the Asus Backtracker USB 3.0 drive you created actually works for restore. Some have found incompatible USB drives, restored back to their original HDD, only to find it fail and they are left with a blank HDD - the first thing the restore does is format and repartition the drive. And, now they have no working OS recovery. Only restore to a new media the first time.

3) After creating a recovery flash drive with Asus Backtracker, don't erase it and use it for another purpose - unless you created 2 or more of them and verified they all work, or you kept the original boot HDD on the shelf so you can make another flash recovery drive. I keep mine taped inside the laptop box.

4) Do this all before you do anything else, because if you find yourself without a recovery partition, you have a long and joyful ride ahead recreating the install, updates, drivers, and configuration to get back to where you were with the out of the box configuration.

5) Instead of doing a "Clean Install" from Microsoft media, simply uninstall the crap you don't want, it takes 5 minutes and can be undone should you want to reinstall one of the items you uninstalled - only to find you want it later. Blowing away the entire OS and Recovery partition, with out a backup, is forever...unless...

6) You can return your Laptop to the seller, telling them the boot drive is corrupted. Get a new one, and use Asus Backtracker, now that you know

7) RMA to Asus to restore the OS. They will do this under warranty.

8) Find another laptop of the same model and use Asus Backtracker to create a USB recovery drive from that laptop. It is supposed to work, and even if their Windows key is in the backup (I don't know why it would be) you can always return it to them, or erase it by creating a new Asus Backtracker backup onto that flash drive from your now working laptop.

If you just got your laptop a month ago, and you have a good relationship with the seller, try turning to them for help, and see if items #6 or #8 above work with them.

If you have to do a complete install of Windows, MatrixLeader6's posts look good. I will post a list of the places I look for driver updates in another post. Getting the specific download is great at a point in time, but updates happen, and it is nice to also know where to look in the future for newer versions.

Sorry to hear this happened to you, and you aren't the first. I really wish Asus would provide a USB Thumb drive in the box for everyone.

Try to keep in mind that once you are through this, you can look forward to many years of gaming

 

Here is the list of places I look for updates for my G750JH; the best way to get a stable fully functioning G750/G751 is to update all the drivers / apps to the latest Windows 8.1 release.

The G750JW/JX/JH/JM/JS/JZ download areas haven't had new updates for a while, BIOS updates still happen in your model's support area, so check there from time to time.

The G750/G751/551/500/etc share the same basic hardware components; check support download areas for new hardware for newer drivers.

Asus maintains central support areas for hardware component features common to all products, those areas usually have the latest drivers after new hardware releases, sometimes there is a lag before the newer drivers show up there, so still to new product releases support downloads for the latest drivers.

Asus G751 Support / Download areas - Asus hasn't updated all the versions of these support areas, this link discusses the 3 locations were started independantly and not sync'd/updated through to the latest driver releases - check them all to be sure.
http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthrea...Download-areas&p=461698&viewfull=1#post461698

This G751JM/JT/JY/JL download area has the latest drivers of all the G750/G751 support download areas:

G751 Support / Download Areas - Newest - has all 4 G751 models
http://www.asus.com/Search/?SearchKey=g751

G750 Support / Download Areas - Newest - has the G750JY/JZ/JS/JM/JH models
http://www.asus.com/Search/?SearchKey=g750

G750JX - new support location, updates?
http://www.asus.com/Notebooks_Ultrabooks/ASUS_ROG_G750JX/

G750JW - new support location, updates?
http://www.asus.com/Notebooks_Ultrabooks/ASUS_ROG_G750JW/

Here are the latest Asus posted VGA drivers currently 347.25 ; it's better to get the latest from Nvidia - 347.88

Asus doesn't modify the drivers, they release the identical driver packages as Nvidia releases.
http://support.asus.com/Download.aspx?SLanguage=en&m=VGA&p=3&s=111

Notebook Audio drivers - Realtek 7443 - current confirmed to work on G751/G750, some G750 users say 7335 works best for them, if you find a newer release version that works, please let us all know which version and G750/G751 model it works on.
http://support.asus.com/Download.aspx?SLanguage=en&m=Audio&os=30

Notebook Bluetooth drivers
http://support.asus.com/Download.aspx?SLanguage=en&m=Bluetooth&p=3&ft=27&os=30

Notebook WLAN drivers (no Intel)
http://support.asus.com/Download.aspx?SLanguage=en&m=WLAN&os=3

Notebook LAN drivers
http://support.asus.com/download.aspx?SLanguage=en&p=3&s=589&m=LAN&os=&hashedid=n/a

KBFilter driver
http://support.asus.com/download.aspx?SLanguage=en&p=3&m=KBFilter&hashedid=n/a

Asus Backtracker for Windows 8.1
http://support.asus.com/download.aspx?SLanguage=en&p=3&m=Backtracker&hashedid=n/a

Asus SmartGesture
http://support.asus.com/download.aspx?SLanguage=en&p=3&m=ASUS Smart Gesture&hashedid=n/a

Asus Touchpad
http://support.asus.com/Download.aspx?SLanguage=en&m=Touchpad&os=30

Asus ATK Package
http://support.asus.com/download.aspx?SLanguage=en&p=3&m=ATK Package&hashedid=n/a

Asus GPU Tweak for Graphics Cards, currently at release 2.7.9.0 for the G750JW/JX/JH and G751JT/JY
http://support.asus.com/download.aspx?SLanguage=en&p=9&m=ASUS GPU Tweak for Graphics cards&hashedid=n/a

Asus GPU Tweak for Laptops, currently at release v1.0.9 for the G750JS/JM/JZ and other new ROG laptops with Optimus
http://support.asus.com/download.aspx?SLanguage=en&p=3&m=ASUS GPU Tweak for Laptops&hashedid=n/a

Here are the Asus posted VGA drivers, it's better to get the latest from Nvidia - currently 347.52, for unlocked OC'ing for the 970m/980 use 344.75/344.80.
http://support.asus.com/Download.aspx?SLanguage=en&m=VGA&p=3&s=111

Nvidia Drivers direct from Nvidia
http://www.geforce.com/drivers

Asus stopped updating their Intel INFUpdate support area, so go directly to Intel to get the latest chipset INF - currently 10.0.26
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/20775/Intel-Chipset-Device-Software-INF-Update-Utility-

For the G750JH/JZ RAID and G751JY PCIE SSD, or if you have implemented RAID, the latest SetupRST.exe is currently 13.6.0.1002
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/SearchResult.aspx?lang=eng&keyword=Intel Rapid Storage Technology (Intel RST) RAID Driver

For all the Intel Drivers you can download and run the Intel Driver Update Utility. But, using the above links and doing an onsite search at Intel might find newer drivers than the Intel DUF finds...
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/24345/Intel-Driver-Update-Utility

 

Wow, thanks for all the help guys! I'm going to go ahead and give these suggestions a shot. I'll report back either way.


EDIT: So the Windows 8.1 iso link appears to be broken. Any suggestions on how I could get one? The official Windows 8.1 upgrade page doesn't work for me either as it doesn't recognize what version of Windows I have. If I acquired a Windows 8.1 Pro ISO (which I don't believe is what was on my laptop originally) would that work for me?

 

Tried this?

http://www.redmondpie.com/download-windows-8.1-pro-iso-file-legally-without-product-key/

 

If I would have gotten that much help when I messed up. I would not be a pirate today.

 

It's not too late to turn it around

 

I reached far in the sea there's no turning back now.

 

All you have to do is start buying legal software and then phase it into your current setup as you get it, over time you become totally legal

 

Create installation media for Windows 8.1
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/create-reset-refresh-media

"If you need to install or reinstall Windows 8.1, you can use the tool on this page to create your own installation media using either a USB flash drive or a DVD."

Read, and follow the link to Create media

 

Exactly, before Microsoft did not want the iso out there for some reason but now you can get it from them.