Windows 8 Consumer Preview on G73jh

Hey folks! I just installed the Windows 8 Consumer Preview on the G73 and I'm trying to figure out how I feel about it. Regardless, I noticed that the keyboard lights don't work, audio only comes out of the sub, and a few other incompatibilities. I'm sure Microsoft will have this ironed out, but is there a resource where I can find the drivers for this?

 

If you haven't done so already, i'd install the windows 7 drivers for ATK and Audio and see if that fixes your problems.

 

All of the general Windows 7 drivers seem to work perfectly fine on the G73JH. I actually just performed an upgrade install from Windows 7 x64, and had to do the following:

Reinstall the Synaptics driver for touchpad
Uninstall the Creative X-fi software I used previously, clean the registry of Creative Remnants and then reinstall and re-hack it for it to detect the Realtek devices
Replaced my Corporate Cisco VPN client with Shrew VPN client which support W8 x64 IPSEC VPNs (like the PIX) where I have found no other VPN client that works
Uninstall the latest W7 ATI Radeon HD5870 drivers and install the latest W8 Preview drivers

Every device is working fine now and I have all of my needed functionality having found the Shrew VPN client replacement

For Keyboard lights etc, you'll need to install the ATK drivers and probably the Power4gear software. For Audio, you'll need to grab the latest Realtek drivers from the Realtek.com.tw site (both the HD audio and HDMI drivers need to be installed) and that should resolve any audio issues. Installing the Creative packages will improve audio on that, but is not required.

I will reiterate though, EVERYTHING is working 100% now on my W8 install from my W7 upgrade.

Get drivers/utilities here: http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?1150-G73-Series-Driver-and-Application-Reference

 

Figured I'd update the thread considering I'm sure this is one of those things a lot of people will be considering.

Windows 8 stability has been completely perfect, and I have not been able to find any bugs or issues as of yet. The new start menu takes a bit of getting used to, but I've setup the applications I commonly use as pinned items on the main start strip and I'm already finding myself preferring the new way of working.

Gaming performance seems to be the same as on Windows 7, but one thing that I don't quite understand is that memory usage per the new Windows 7 task manager is down considerably from Windows 7.

I'm pretty happy with the consumer preview so far and would definitely recommend doing the upgrade for anyone that doesn't mind having to reinstall a few drivers or do a bit of troubleshooting post upgrade to make sure everything is working as expected.

 

Hi guys I have some questions:
Currently I have two hard drives, One has a windows 7 on it and the other one is empty. Is it ok for me to installed windows 8 on that empty drive? How do I make windows 7 as my default operating system? Do I also get to choose which one to start up?

 

You can definitely install it to the empty drive and at that point you'll get a boot menu allowing you to choose which OS to boot. You can change the defaults via the boot menu.

 

Thanks. Do you know if G73SW supports sd card booting?

 

Figured I'd drop another update...

I found minor but annoying lag on my system every so often which I couldn't figure out for the life of me. I updated pretty much all of my main drivers in an attempt to figure out the problem, and finally I have discovered the culprit.

I had set my desktop wallpaper to cycle to the next image every 30 seconds, and each time it would change it caused lag/delay in mouse scrolling and minor graphical stuttering (almost unnoticeable) in videos.

Turning off/increasing the interval of the display picture change definitely corrected the issue for me, but it was one annoyance that it took a bit of digging to correct.

And no, I can't say for sure if you can SD card boot the G73... I personally wouldn't though as the performance will probably not be all that good.

 

Did the W8 Preview create a 32 or 64 bit environment? Do you get to keep it once W8 retail versions are released out does it start asking for license keys?

 

I could not get the 64 bit installer to load in Virtual box, but 32 bit worked flawlessly!
What is the Expiration Date for Windows 8 Consumer preview - Microsoft Answers
I do not think you would want to keep it (it is not even at release candidate stage)

 

As was the case with Windows 7, I'm sure that Windows 8 Consumer Preview will be upgradeable to Windows 8 Final once it's released. The fact that the Consumer Preview isn't even at Release Candidate stage actually is meaningless considering that Windows Update will likely update the Consumer Preview to the latest release code. I'm not sure if there'll even be any specific "Release Candidate" builds released.

 

I also put Win8 on my G73SW. Have had no issues. I did a back up of my HD of win 7 and did the upgrade to 8. The upgrade saved all my programs/now apps and setting. It was so easy. SC2, batman AC, skyrim, all run with no issues. Steam and orgin had to do updates and now they work with no issues.

even my trend micro security is working after an update.

 

Install the ATK Package, do that as Compatible Mode with Windows 7 if you have anytrouble... i can run almost everything on Consumer Prev on my G73JH.

 

I didn't have to update my ATk. All sound and fn keys worked.

 

No it won't. You'll get updates, but no upgrades to newer code.

 

The G73 subwoofer has a own non-shared connection / can be controlled as single speaker oO?

 

The only point I had was that much the way Windows 7 and earlier could Service Pack in updated code, Windows 8 Consumer Preview will likely update along the way.

As previously mentioned, on official release, you'll likely be able to do a straight upgrade from Windows 8 Consumer Preview to the final RTM build.

If Microsoft has a need to deploy Windows code fixes to the Consumer Preview, they certainly CAN do it via Windows Update. Considering just how well it's running for me though, I don't expect they'll need to do anything major to the base code.

 

Thought you guys would need a little feedback, fyi, i just booted up from upgrade and this is preliminary results with no install or reinstall of new drivers.

Until now, my keyboard lights work fine, my GPU is not working but i didnt install the latest drivers, i can't turn off my touchpad, most FN+F keys work (except for touchpad), my idle CPU temps hover around 55 and were around 47 before upgrade.

Will post more later

EDIT: anybody has link for win8 ati 5870 drivers?

 

The touchpad drivers need updated from Synaptics site, search for the Radeon HD Windows 8 preview drivers, there's a working package.

I had to disable/hide the Windows Update Radeon driver update from Windows Update because even after installing the AMD drivers it was still overwriting them with the Update one. The Update one caused issues with my Logitech Gaming Software application where it wouldn't launch after driver update from MS update. Reinstalling AMD drivers and then disabling the update in Windows Update fixed that.

As mentioned in a previous post, my only real issue was keyboard/mouse scrolling lag when I had my display picture set to change every 30 seconds. I changed that to every hour and things have been smooth/stable and perfect ever since.

I have to say, I'm sold on Metro. Some people hate it, but it's really not that hard to get used to, and I can definitely see the benefits as more apps make use of it.

If anyone has specific questions, I'll try to keep monitoring this thread.

 

madnj have you tried to disable the welcome screen? I have tried a few registy hacks, none works, I do not see the point of not being able to easily remove/disable it. I know hitting any key gets past it. ( I am trying to get it to go directly to desktop from a cold start and am almost there) - old habits dies hard!! Thanks, Joe

 

Have you tried modifying this?

Right click My Computer via Windows Explorer and go to Properties, Advanced Tab, Startup and Recovery.

I haven't modified it since mine is only 5 second timer, but I was considering it.

 

Did you backup with the Windows 7 backup program or some other program?

 

I did that, removed the account password, and it boot directly now! +1

 

I tried installing the AMD Catalyst Display driver for Windows 8 preview (I did a fresh install) and the "Catalyst Install Manager" and the "AMD SDK Runtime" installed fine, the "AMD Display Driver" failed to install. I've tried it multiple times with the same result. Should I just try the Win 7 64bit drivers or what?

EDIT: Nevermind I fixed it. I removed the default experimental driver and used this one with catalyst control center: http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/Windows8ConsumerPreviewDrivers.aspx

 

is it just me or my mic and webcam arent working on windows 8? webcam is non-existent and i can only hear feedback when listening to the mic. anyone has a workaround on this? thanks a bunch

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My webcam works fine (tested it by taking a profile pic for metro) but you could try downloading the camera driver from here: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. -Support- Drivers and Download G73Jh

 

really? how about your mic? omg i've already downloaded the drivers from there, all 3 of em, not working. saying it's not windows 8 compatible and the mic, it's just feedback oh whut to do... (