New G73JH-X3 issues?

I recently purchased a G73JH-X3 from TigerDirect as the big brother to my M11x (M11x is awesome but a little small for the gaming marathon).
I seriously considered the M17x but decided I wanted to roll the dice on Asus as it was about 50% the cost of the M17x I desired.

Anyway, booted it up the first time, thought wow there's a crapton of bloatware on here and it was running like crap.
Used a clean install from an x64 Home Premium DVD I had from my desktop. Installed ATI 10.4 drivers, Realtek audio drivers, and the utility required for the Asus function keys to operate the backlight. That's it.

Started up L4D2 via Steam and it ran absolutely beautifully and my jaw was literally hanging open for about 5 minutes. Then I got a puke green colored screen and stuttering audio letting you know it's time to hold the power button.

After this, any time I boot it up and try to launch a 3D game I get a grey colored screen with vertical stripes (looks similar to a TV test pattern, but only grey scale).

CoD:MW2 does it immediately during the spinning logo sequence in the intro.
L4D2 will let me get all of the way through loading a map then it does the grey screen.

Is this the famed GSOD everyone is talking about?
If you all think it's a driver glitch I can try installing Win 7 again but it's really odd that it ran fine for 5 minutes then croaked... almost like the hardware cooked on me but I touched nothing at all to do with fan control or overclocking.

 

Yes it does sound like the Famed GSOD, and U don't need to reinstall windows, rather roll back to the stock 9.12 drivers that came with the laptop (drivers & utility cd). Alternatively, u can check Asus support site, which has the 10.1 set of drivers which are as stable as the stocks and try that.

This is a known issue that a number of users had with their G73s, and we have to wait until Asus releases their official drivers....god knows when that will be.

 

Or, you could flash the vbios(not truly recommended if you ever use the HDMI/VGA port). But exchanging it it for another or RMAing it to Asus has been another way to fix it.

My first G73 had the GSOD prob, but my second one didnt(of course, my second died due from something else :\). When others exchanged theirs out, it fixed their problem too. Reason I say to do it, is because the more Asus gets back returned laptops from companies like Tiger Direct, etc. The more likely they will care enough to get a working solution out.

You SHOULDNT be getting GSODs, if all Asus laptops did, then I would not say that. But since for the most part, G73s dont have a problem with 10.4 drivers. There is no reason to be stuck with Asus driver releases only.

 

Deleted(double post).

 

Yeah in this particular case I'm pretty sure its an HW issue, running 3dmark 06 on it - runs fine for the first scene, then after that the image starts corrupting, looks like colored snow, then finally dies with either grey lines or a bunch of red lines separated by black. It's still in the 30 day window for TD return so that's probably the route I'll pursue

 

As more and more im reading this asus forums i got feeling it's better to stay away from this G73JH model.It sounds like total disaster.

 

Yeah, I had the GSOD issue too with stock drivers. I was really disappointed. I returned that unit as I did not want to face RMAs for a unit I bought brand new. I don't think that is too much to expect.

Next I looked into the ENVY 17 but realized that their On-site warranty was non-existent for it's consumer grade laptops and everything had to be RMA'ed if you found issues.

Finally I settled on the Alienware m17x after I found a great deal on it. All in all I paid just 22% over a similarly configured G73jh-A2(Guess i was lucky). For my purposes, the 22% premium I paid over the G73 was necessary as I needed the 1900x1200 RGB screen and also wanted the ability to upgrade my laptop in future if I wanted(Like add a second HD5870). The availibilty of eSata, express card, firewire,and display port also made sense to me. And to top if off, I would not have to suffer to send in my laptop for RMAs as I have very good personal experience with their On-Site Warranty service the last 4 years. If i ever had a problem like the GSOD issue, it would just be a simple call to a tech who would bring in the mobo or GFx card to swap in my house.

I think the G73 is a good laptop, but unfortunately, my bad experience with it pointed me to the right decision now for me.

Hope you are able to solve your GSOD issue. Cheers!

 

Although, it took 2 G73s before I stopped, I did the same mobilezila. Well, sorta, I went the Sager route since I couldnt afford more. Specs in the sig, but it came out to about 1390 after shipping. So I would say it's a good enough deal for me. I technically didnt need a quad anyways. So I should be fine with the 520m.

Of course, I feel the same, no hard feelings against the G73, the laptop just isnt for me since I had bad luck with it.

 

I found out today that J&R Music World in Manhattan NY is an authorized Asus repair Tech center, which is great for me since it's a 40 minute drive. I'm going to see how they handle this.