Updates from Asus

If/When aramis109 gets off of chastity's jock maybe we can all get back to tha business

She + Gamer = pretty damn common
Grow up or get hitched.

 

The "new" asus for Benelux: G73JH-TZ216V-BE

Core i7-740QM 8GB DDRIII 1TB SATA 7200rpm 17.3"Full HD Glare 1920x1080 ATI Radeon HD5870 1GB DDR5 VRAM Blu Ray Read + DVD SuperMulti DL WLAN HDMI Gaming Bag & Mouse Windows 7 Premium AZB

Should be available begin september. Same price as the previous model.

It seems they keep using the 5870m which means... another reason to solve the issues!

 

If the 5870m gets the correct video BIOS with full power saving features and Asus fixes the thermal pasting issues then there is not much wrong with the laptop. It's sells good because the price is right.

The biggest problem with this laptop was the initial Q&A disaster which Asus ignored at first but as the months passed by they realized they actually needed to put a manager on it to get things done and fixed.

It's a performance laptop so off course it gets into the hands of the technically handy which then burn you down to the ground if you messed up stuff. Asus should have realized this earlier.

Then again. I think this was a valuable lesson for them. They learned several things:
- don't use mass production TIM techniques on high performance components( should be about time);
- Ati and NVidia have taken control of driver releases because they have too( lots of bugs and performance issues to fix). Asus just needs to listen when either of those companies issues a video BIOS with critical fixes and then respond to it.
- don't use a crippled video BIOS with no power savings at all. The battery in a laptop is not for gaming. It is there for office work.
- use saver flashing techniques;
- open up the BIOS of these performance laptops a little more.

 

YES!!!!!!!

 

+11111111!!!!!!!

 

So you thinking there will be a recall ? so we all get repasted ?

 

There wont be a recall. It would cost Asus too much.
You can RMA it and tell the techs its overheating and tell them to do a proper repaste if you trust them to. Perhaps theyll fix it perhaps they wont. Thats why i do such things myself.

 

Uhm, we were having a conversation about audio. Go on and play outside, the adults are talking.

And btw, I'm 35 and married, so I don't need to look on the interwebs 4 lub.


On topic, I'd love to see the BIOS opened up a little more. I'm a little surprised it's not, being that this is a gamer laptop.

 

I was thinking about doing a repaste myself, but when I saw that I literaly have to remove the motherboard to reach the GPU, I changed my mind

 

Whoa. I got my G73 back in April and it's been working fine. Except for a minor case flex issue, I haven't had any GSODs, PSODs, or much of anything bad. Also, I'm on the newest ATI 64-bit Catalyst Mobility drivers. However, my Furmark levels off at about 100C. Ambient room temperature is about 76F. Yours only runs at 89C? My video card doesn't seem to be unstable; I've been playing a somewhat non-graphically-taxing game, but it still gets the GPU up to the upper 80s/lower 90s, very occasionally 99C-ish, and in any case it hasn't crashed even once, yet. But is 100C too hot on Furmark (my old G1s ran at 100C all the time just fine, though it eventually died due to nVidia's manufacturing defect)?

If I do need to repaste, what are my options? I have several questions.
1.) If I RMA it (I still have their shipping box from my case flex RMA, so it should be free on my end), they'll just repaste with ASUS's paste. Wouldn't something like IC diamond be better?
2.) If I do it myself, won't my warranty be voided?
3.) If I don't do it at all and just leave a shoddy paste job on there, should I expect a much reduced life of the laptop?
4.) I tried to take the thing apart myself to fix the case flex issue, but I got stuck on the keyboard. It was so tightly bound to the pad behind it I was worried I was going to rip the pad or break the keyboard. Any suggestions?
5.) I've never thermal pasted something before, is there a good way to know whether or not I screwed it up once I get the machine back together?

 

Practically, I really doubt that Asus will actually spend the money and time (money being the primary concern here) to repaste all the notebooks with better TIM. Not gonna happen.

Of course, a company that actually understands the importance of branding would know the cost of fixing the heating issue is nothing compared to the cost of losing goodwill, but Asus doesn't really fall in that group does it.

One of the more prominent users in the forums already pointed out, what I believe is the essential (and unpleasant) truth about Asus. They believe as long as they keep selling their machines at affordable (or lower than its competitors') prices, people will keep on buying it, even if it means putting in cheap parts, horrendous after sales and software support, and shoddy RMA work.

Pip! Pip.

That will be all Guv'nor!

 

According to Gary and ATI, that's well within normal parameters. They're saying 110C. There's a quote from him in this thread on the subject floating around somewhere.

 

You get what you pay.... So we shouldn't complain.

 

^ We did pay at least 1300-1500 so we do have the right to complain, the product needs to work for that amount (or any amount, technically). But yeah, I don't see them doing a massive recall either. And knowing them, it'd take about two months to get your computer back to you, if they're slow about normal RMAs.

 

You forgot to link to the thread. Are you referring to this thread?

 

YaaaaaY!! Back to business.
I agree.

What's so lame about all of this is that I have a friend who I recommended, purchase the G73JH. She has GSOD, I do not. This is her second G73 with GSOD. Everyday when I go to work most of us play SC2. She just sits there and complains. Yesterday she RMA'd her G73 and this morning she is dropping it off with Fed-Ex. When she receives it she's going to sell it and buy my extra A1 or look elsewhere. She replaced the thermal paste at work and showed us the awful job Asus did.
Because of Asus/Friend my entire deptartment thinks poorly in regards to Asus craftsmanship.

I so agree

 

Can't she just run the 9.12 or 10.1 they work perfectly for starcraft 2 until the 10.8 drivers are released.

 

no updates today? is catalyst 10.8 comming out this week on wednesday or not? I can't take this

 

Where is Gary when you need him :'(

 

Terry Makedon (CatalystMaker) on Twitter

 

hmmm nothing about the keyboard backlight?

i thought there is a winflash version with the fix waiting for release

 

I guess "WEDNESDAY is the plan"

 

RMA is the solution to that. They can reflash the KB lights controller firmware there or get you a motherboard replacement. I understand its unconvinient, but at least theres a solution unlike for the other problems, so id say thats the last thing they should be working on right now.

 

Hopefully Wednesday will be are salvation from GSOD!

 

i bloody hope so.. chasity here sending one signal that it won't come out this week and gary is being vague and turning around and saying its still in testing although its supposed to come out this week.. i'm confused all around... but does the mobile catalyst come out with the desktop one?

 

I don't think Gary promised daily updates.

No sense in an update unless something has changed from his previous report.

 

its the minimum he can do for us with all the trouble we've been through..

 

Has your laptop arrived yet?

 

besides, I don't know if the public 10.8 will have our fix

 

True, or it might just have a "workaround" Like temporarily removing XYZ (voltage fluctuations etc etc)

 

Sometimes she gets GSOD with 9.12/10.1. Her arguement is that she should be able to use other up to date drivers.

I agree

 

Yes that's the one, lol sorry I was up all night

I agree as well, the newer drivers allow for much better framrates and overall performance so it's a huge loss not to be able to use them.

 

Let me put it too you this way. There is now 30% of the people who have purchaced their laptops either from the very first release to even people buying it now who have lost their lights because of a problem with Asus' flash program and method they have recommeded. Sure you can send it in for an RMA and lose your laptop for two or more weeks. Or maybe even get a laptop back with more problems and/or physical damage. And for those who have upgrade parts for the laptop like the cpu, ram, hard drive, wifi, and other parts, its a pain in the butt to get everything back to stock for something that we didn't cause a problem for. Hey, I wouldn't even be complaining if Asus said NOT to do it a certain way and I did it anyway, and then lost my lights. That would be my problem. BUT the problem is people have followed the way Asus has said to do it and now we lost our lights.

Now the GSOD isssue is important, but guess what? You can still play your games with the stock drivers without a problem. But as for the Keyboard lights, its GONE and NON-EXISTING. Does that mean keyboard light is more important? No. But does that mean that its the least important? No. SO, WHAT AM I TRYING TO SAY HERE? As I and others said before, all problems need to be FIXED in a timely matter without people trying to tell what Asus should fix first. SO enough with what is more important than the other. Everyone that has a problem regardless of GSOD, keyboard lights, keyboard lag, TIM issues, etc has the right for the problems to be fixed quick.

 

Has anybody that is experiencing keyboard light issues tried flashing to previous BIOS versions?

 

RMA is the solution to GSOD as well. I've never had a GSOD once, and I've had this laptop since it came out. Go RMA your laptop, HellCry.

Oh wait, you're afraid they'll break something else? Maybe they'll give you back a laptop with the GSOD issue?

Yeah, now you know how the people without lights feel. Hell, in my eyes the GSOD issue should be pushed to the side - Simply because I'm not affected.

Yep, no dice there.

 

Feel your pain. But honestly, I think there is about 0% chance that Asus will be releasing a fix for you. They may fix the bios or whatever to ensure it won't happen again, but a fix for the affected, don't think it's going to happen.

So if you want it fixed, IMO you are stuck with RMA. Either RMA it or continue complaining about the issue. RMA seems like a better decision to me.

I'm not trying to troll you, just in my personal opinion, I don't think Asus is ever going to release the fix to the public.

 

Update -
1. I will release a new vBIOS tomorrow that allows the use of current ATI drivers and should solve the GSOD problems. We still have some regression testing to complete but so far I have not had a GSOD event today.
2. Working on the keyboard light problem as there is a way to recover it after a bad flash but the solution could brick the notebook if not done properly.
3. No updates to the previous update yet.

 

thank you!!

 

I'm giddy with excitement! I would hope vBios flashing instructions will be provided on the site, just in case.
Also, what is regression testing? :3
Since I didn't GSOD with 10.7, I'm hoping I won't have the other issues I had with 10.7 with the new vBIOS (screen flicker/bouncing and horizontal black bars on occasion). It will be so nice to have the performance of 10.7 though, everything was smoother with it.

 

Sleep for tomorrow! Thank you!

 

Win!! Hopefully this will cheer some folks up

 

Does the new vBios have proper support for Powerplay? With decent downclocking like 200/300?

Does the new vBios have support for ATi OverDrive?

A little skeptical here, but a big thank you for working on the vbios!

 

Hope that new vbios does it all!!! Thanks Gary!

 

Thank you Gary! We can always count on you =].

 

Thanks a lot Gary, I really appreciate what you and the teams behind vbios done so far. But I hope powerplay and overdrive are functional in new vbios as vbios from MSI allows it on their gaming laptop. I for one and probably other asus gamers also hope we can get the best out of our gaming laptop.

 

The new vBIOS addresses the GSOD problem first and foremost. I have asked for other enhancements already but the primary focus here is to solve the top five problems from a user comment viewpoint first.

 

Really Appreciate All Your Work!!

 

Awesome sounds great

 

Yey, now I get to run all my benchmarks again to see if it improves my overclocks

 

ty so much garry for all the hard work and everything.. this goes to show the support asus and friends have for their loyal customers. funny to see that when the fix got announced people can only say their appreciation in a sentence or two. but when it comes to their problems. 2 paragraphs arent enough. just my thoughts...