Issues/questions about G53JW

Hi there,

I found some more -old- 'new' things about my G53JW:

1- It does not have any activity LED on LAN port as every LAN card is supposed to have like green/yellow leds.

2- It doesn't have any expansion card slot like ExpressCard or PCMCIA, don't be fooled by lousy documentation which shows card reader (MS/SD) as expansion slot, but it isn't.

3- Boot up logo (Asus logo at boot up) cannot be disabled. No option either in BIOS or with function keys.

4- No hard Wifi/Bluetooth switch! That's not such good

5-Sound level isn't satisfactory at highest level (double-checked from windows mixer and realtek hd audio manager) with built-in speakers, though my friend's Toshiba has the same Realtek audio chipset, the audible sound volume of his Toshiba notebook is much higher than my G53JW's...

6-There's a bug in ExpressGate. When you turn off Bluetooth in Windows, then shutdown it. Power up computer using ExpressGate, use it for a while then, reboot to Windows, you'll see Bluetooth is enabled again in Windows though it was disabled before launching ExpressGate using Wireless Console Utility.

Does anyone agree with me about these issues?

 

1. This is normal - it's uncommon for laptops to have activity/link LEDs these days
2. This was discussed in the pre-release thread, it is definitely a typo in the manual
3. I don't know any way to get around the boot logo

The rest I don't have any good reply for.

 

I can answer number 3: Its in the BIOS setup section you can select startup animation and turn it off or at least you can on the JH.

Oh and number 4 you have an option in the icon section called Wireless console to turn wireless and bluetooth on and off.

Then you lose me.

 

Since none of them bothers me at all, I personally would not consider them issues.
But that's only me.

 

Hi Dallers, unfortunately, there's no such option in BIOS to disable startup logo to see what's going under the hood during boot up. There's only "Startup Logo type" in BIOS whose options are only "Static" and "Animated", there MUST BE an option like "OFF" to completely disable it, but there isn't.

I used almost 5 different brands of notebook, (that's the 6th one), and this is the first notebook i see which has no option to disable startup (POST) logo completely. In the manual, it's advised to press TAB to see such information during boot up, however pressing TAB has no effect as system boots without hiding startup logo which means the documentation is wrong.

It really surprised me. Maybe Asus engineers forgot to implement it. (I'm using BIOS 209 which is initial).

Hi AllurGroceries ,
I accept your comments about these three ones. I wouldn't desribe them issues but annoyances.

However another thing i disliked is the WEBCAM. For all Asus users, please be aware that, this webcam's some setting is hidden or not implemented as it's TOO SLOW. My friend's ancient Toshiba notebook (he bought for 600$) has super-fast WEBCAM (Chicony) with satisfactory response rates. Maybe G53JW's built-in webcam (so-called 2 megapixels) is such crap, or some of the crucial webcam settings have been hidden by the manufacturer such as FPS control (not available). Also LifeFrame application is not the issue by itself, swithing to USB 2.0 UVC Webcam from Asus Virtual Camera may impress you by a dramatic response speed-up, however it's still too slow for a built-in webcam.

 

Yes the webcam is a common complaint. I've found that on certain webcams if you go to their advanced properties and get rid of some of the filtering the framerate can improve. My guess is that this is really variable depending on the model, so I'm not sure if it will work or not for you. It is a common complaint though, so you aren't alone in that regard.