My New G73JH-A1 - What to do and what not?

Ok so I odered new G73JH-A1 and it will be arriving tommorow.I started gaming recently and kind of dumb when I try to get little technical with the computers. I have been looking around the forum for a while and am a bit scared with people having trouble with GPU overheating,GSOD, BIOS upgrade and other driver problems. Have few question and I need your expert advice to help me with my new notebook and what should I and should I not do with it.

1. Do you guys suggest a clean windows install as per kalim's guide ? or I can live with the stock windows and uninstall some of the bloatware manually?In case of later what all should I uninstall.

2. What should I do to check that my notebook does hot have that too hot to handle defactive 5870 graphic card issue?

3. Should I upgrade the BIOS to 209?

4. Should I use the new ATI 10.something catalyst drivers?

What else should I check for to be confident that my 1500$+ notebook is not lemon and works perfectly as it should. I have 7 days before I return it and get a replacement. Looking forward for your advice.


Sorry if some of this questions are repost. I found it difficult go through entire forum to get exact answers.

Thanks in advance!!

 

Clean install is suggested. Uninstall works but is not as through. Bios 209 is highly recommend. Cata is fine with stock. (but you won't get the new benefits in the new version). This one has risk; may or may not be as stable as stock. Overheat is a rare problem with g73 as most users never experience. Those that do usually have a defective gpu or thermal paste not being installed. There's also a vbios thread (ziddy, everything but PP thread) which is worth doing for even better temps and battery.

NOTE: bios and vbios may brick your laptop of you fail to install it properly. READ the steps; may have risk.

 

1) If you aren't that experienced, then I would just uninstall bloatware. I would however recommend uninstalling Power4Gear Hybrid, and installing the newest version. See last sig link for link to software. I would also download the Asus Cat 10.1 package. It's newer and just as stable.

2) You can run an application called HWINFO or AMD GPU Tool to monitor temps. This way you can start it monitoring, play a game, and then see what max temps you are reaching.

3) If you know someone who knows about these things, then yes, I would suggest 209 since it actually fixes a few things. Using the BIOS EasyFlash tool and a FAT32 formatted USB flash drive for the rom file is my suggested method.

4) Use 10.1 for best stability, unless you play a game that you feel needs additional support (Dirt2, BFBC2, etc) If you want to try 10.6, then see my third sig link for instructions if it proves unstable for you.

 

Thanks for quick reply's. It certainly helps!!!