ASUS G73SW Owners' Lounge

Soul, I used the liveupdate without any issue to make sure the regular drivers were updated. After that I uninstalled it because it kept nagging me about my video drivers, which I'd gotten from Nvidia and were newer (and better). 275.33 is the latest official driver, but there are newer beta ones.

As for RAID 0, the BIOS itself does not support raiding, so you'll have to use software raid. You need Windows 7 Professional or Ultimate, and the boot partition (not boot drive) can't be a part of the array. I suggest getting both of best worlds - put one of the HDDs in a HDD caddy into the optical drive slot and use an SSD as a boot drive. The optical drive goes into an external USB enclosure, and with the USB3 port on the laptop you don't have to worry about power draw.

Extra RAM depends on your usage pattern - I typically run 40+ browser windows/tabs, office apps, specialized work software and some virtualization now and then, so I needed 16 GB. I routinely hit 10 GB memory used (task manager, performance, commit). Check your usage - if your commit number is getting close to 8 or above, you need more RAM. As for installing it, if the easy accessible slots are filled, you need to pretty much take the entire laptop apart to get access to the others. Check first using CPU-Z which slots are filled - if all 4 are used to get 8 GB, it might make sense to simply replace two of the sticks to get 12 GB total.

 

Skywise, thanks for the reply. I'll probably do the same as far as liveupdate is concerned. I can already see it's going to be a pain as far as nagging no matter how it's configured. I grabbed the 375.33 drivers so I'll go ahead and install those for now and then see what's up with the beta drivers.

I'd hoped there was another option for RAID but feared there wasn't. I'll have to give that one some thought. I read something about putting one of the HDs in a caddy in the optical drive bay but I'm not sure I want to deal with external enclosures at this point. It's something to think about though. I'll monitor it but I don't think my usage is going to get me above 8GB. I popped the back cover off already and the easy slots are filled which sucks big time. It really irritates me that that in this day and age they design laptops with memory slots in anything but a simply, user serviceable location. I also already checked in CPU-Z to see that I have a 4x2GB configuration so all slots are filled. I watched a video on youtube of a ASUS laptop tear down which included several models. I was really hoping the G73SW-A1 wasn't quite that involved. If anything I'd probably just upgrade the easy slots to get 12 as you suggested. Thanks again.

 

I've had a weird issue recently. While playing League of Legends online and using Skype to chat at the same time, my game will periodically freeze for a second or two and makes a loud noise through the speakers. I've had the same issue in Left 4 Dead 2 (while Skyping again, since game chat isn't so great). I know that Skype hogs some resources, but could that really be enough of an issue to cause this problem (I pretty much only play online with friends, so it might be a while before I can find the time to test these games without Skype and see what happens)? And the weird thing is that I've done the same thing for a week or two, but the problem only just now emerged. I would guess it was throttling related if it only occurred in L4D2, but League of Legends obviously isn't a very demanding game, so I'm not sure why it started there. So, any ideas what's happening? The last thing I had done before the issue started was run Furmark for 10 minutes and rerun WEI. My GPU didn't pass 86C, so it isn't possible that Furmark damaged something, is it?

 

Did you try Throttlestop?

 

Okay, I've never been quite clear on how to use Throttlestop. It sounds like I just have to install it and open it, then close it, and everything's fine, or at least nobody ever goes into more detail. Do I need to adjust any settings or anything?

 

No settings, just start and close.

 

I found a weird issue when I reformatted my laptop. Before reformatting my idle temps for the GPU would be below 50 C. Now it's above 50 C. But as for the load temps, tested with furmark and kombustor, the preformatted temps were 85-90 and now they are just around 80. CPU temps are the same though. Should I be worried in your opinion?

Edit: Pre overclocking had higher temps as well for whatever reason.

 

I have the G73SW-A1 with the Blu Ray reader. If I wanted to swap the Blu Ray reader out for a Blu Ray burner would the drive linked below work? If the tear down video on Youtube is accurate it looks like swapping out the drive is a piece of cake. Are there any other technical considerations/problems with doing this? This is the drive I was looking at although I assume just about any slim, internal, SATA drive would work:

Newegg.com - SONY 6X BD-R 2X BD-RE 8X DVD+R 5X DVD-RAM 6X BD-ROM 4.5MB Cache SATA Blu-ray Burner BD-5740H-01

 

That'll work just fine. The only thing you have to watch out for is if the drive or laptop uses a proprietary design, but that's not the case for the G73 or this drive in question. When using the optical faceplate that comes with the G73 with a optical -> HDD caddy, I did have to shave off parts of the plastic to get it to fit, but that hopefully won't be an issue.

 

Ok, cool. I thought it should be pretty straight forward. I would think for just swapping an internal for an internal like this it would be pretty straight forward but I can see where your situation could prove more difficult. I would guess there might have been some blu ray burning software that might have have been installed on machines with the stock/OEM blu ray burner that I won't have, but that shouldn't be a big deal.

 

Actually, I think it is going to be an issue now that I look closer at the Blu Ray reader in the G73SW-A1. Due to the aggressive styling of the G73 with it's sharp angles, the front faceplate IS angled to match the side of the case. It's not flat like most internal optical drives faceplates are. I will have to see if the faceplate on the existing optical drive is removable so I can move it to the new Blu Ray burner (if I go that route). I know the full size desktop style/size optical drive faceplates are removable (from what I've experienced) but I'm not sure about internal laptop optical drives. Do you (or anyone else) know if the faceplate on the existing optical drive in the G73SW-A1 is removable? I'm going to have to take a closer look at it I guess.

 

Yes, it's remoavable and you can swap it just fine. Just be careful and try to avoid breaking any of the plastic.

 

Actually there's NOTHING to "shave off" and or "make fit" with this, or any other slim DVD/BluRay optical drive or burner, they all will fit just fine without any mods to the burner at all.

What you have to do is simply REMOVE the faceplate that the Sony comes with, by simply popping it "off" straight out and away from the drive's auto-sled door, then install the Asus OEM optical drive faceplate that you will REMOVE from the OEM drive, whatever it is, the same as above. It's a piece of cake, and there's NO disassembly involved at all, NONE!

This action makes the new drive configure correctly with the laptop, whichever laptop you happen to own...those are ALL slightly different, to a one, to conform to the given laptop's side's shape and other ports nearby, so that's why you use the laptop's faceplate every single time, no matter the brand, or model, it doesn't matter!

There's ONE SCREW to REMOVE from the bottom of the laptop, and that is all....removing that single screw loosens the optical drive 100% and you simply slide it out of the cavity on the front-side of the laptop to remove the OEM optical drive, whatever it happens to be.

I must tell you that this install takes about 2 minutes once you have found that key screw, and it's easy to find, also! You can't miss it in fact...it is a single screw that deadlocks the optical drive in its direct center on the bottom of the laptop. So find the optical drive's direct center and BAM! You will find the screw attaching to a small screw-retainer which is on the back of the optical drive, a permanent fixture that all SLIM optical drives have!

On that topic they are all standardized to the SAE standards which define the SLIM optical drives, or they cannot be called that direct name...SATA drives at that, all of them but Apple OEM drives which are proprietary in nature. Other than that disclaimer, they are ALL IDENTICAL in their construction in terms of size, SATA port configuration (including the data and power ports as one item), and tray action for the drives with trays.

The sliding DVD/CD/BluRay optical drives are a bit different in terms of their front construction because they don't have trays but a mechanism for *inserting* the discs from the front of the unit, but the ports, size etc are all the same as the tray drives...end of story!

That is all the unexpurgated data of the SLIM optical drives being made today, and it doesn't matter which brand you choose, they are all made identically to the Sony 5740 BluRay writer/reader optical drive, identical!

rexrzer727 - 8-6-2011

 

Hey guys I have a question hopefully someone can help me. I'm not sure if I disabled something or if the driver screwed up or what. But out of nowhere the Power4gear onscreen notifications no longer show.

I still have the power4gear program installed but they just won't show. Because of this I'm not able to use the Turbo boost button, other than that its mostly aesthetic but I'd like it to work. I'm also no longer able to switch power settings with Fn + Space

When I plug in the AC adapter instead of getting the Power4gear on screen notification, I get a default blue box up in the corner.

I'm close to restoring the computer to factory state but am hoping to avoid that.

Edit: Reinstalled ATK Driver. Fixed it

 

I took a look at removing the faceplate on the optical drive today and I found two of the plastic tabs. One is on the far right edge (as you look at the tray from the bottom) and one is about 1/2 inch over right where the metal part of the tray starts. However, there is at least one or more tabs holding the faceplate in place but I haven't found it yet.

Does anyone know where the remaining tab(s) might be or how to release it.

Thanks.

 

Im new to MSI afterburner, and was wondering if someone could give me some clock settings to try on my gtx 460. according to afterburner im at 675 1350 1250 which im assuming is a default. I have a G73SW 3D model

 

With Afterburner the Shaders increase to 2X the Core clock setting, so that's automatic. Increase the Core clocks to 725Mhz and the Memory clocks to 1400Mhz, as that will give you a good place to start testing in OCCT v3.1, to see if you get any errors. Slowly increase the Memory clocks first, then the Core clocks, also by 5-10Mhz at a time and test in OCCT to make sure that you are not getting any errors (enable error checking in OCCT v3.1), and keep doing that until you ARE getting errors: Memory clocks first, then Core clocks second, in sequence like that.

This is a quick and easy way to determine maximum clocks for your particular video card, and I highly recommend doing the OCCT v3.1 exercise because it doesn't lie, you will get honest, true readings out of that utility++ it's my No.1 GPU checker because it happens to log nice, fat graphics for every function of the laptop in Documents/OCCT Folder, which it will *make* for you the 1st time you use it like the above.

If you have any questions about that technique, ask me or baller about it (ahl395) because we're both well versed in the technique above, which I originated back in 2009--it's simple and it works, if you want to find out your optimum Mhz values for your video card the sure, safe way, not a bunch of guessing and hocus pocus that you won't keep records of. OCCT will keep the records *for you* with its graphs of the various functions...it's foolproof and simple to do, just takes a little time that is all!

Soulrider, you're being too shy! Don't *worry* about that tab you're scratching your head about, because it isn't there after all...it's simply that the two that you have found are all there is. Simply grab that thing securely on each end and PULL it off! It will SNAP OFF the first time you do it, but it will not break anything...the tabs are just tight when new or the 1st time it just seems harder than it is. Same for the new Sony 5730's action, it will also be tight the first time you do it. BE BRAVE and pull it off!

I have removed dozens and dozens of tabs off of optical drives in my time, and never broken a single one, it's really easy after you do it once...then you'll know how much pressure it takes to do the job, and you can apply that knowledge to your next job, whatever it happens to be.

Good luck, and GetRDone!

rexrzer727

 

I got it off. Actually, there are two more tabs. There's one just to the other side of center of the drive and there's one more tab at the other end. I pulled harder and the middle one popped free but the end one wouldn't release. By wiggling it I could see now that you could pop the last one loose with a screw driver which I did. I'm sure it would have probably come loose by tilting the faceplate far enough away and just pulling hard enough. However, once I saw how the tab hooked in I just popped it out with a small screwdriver. I figured there was no reason to potentially break the tab if I could just pop it loose.

Thanks though, I wouldn't have probably pulled hard enough to get the 2nd one loose which I think you "have" to do since I see no access hole, slot or other access to it like I do the other three.

 

Congratulations on getting the faceplate "Off" completely, good job...now if I'd have tried to explain about the *other tabs* on the faceplate I would have had ZERO success in convincing you to pull hard enough to get the thing loose enough to see that final tab sitting there! And see it you did, being a thorough and meticulous newbie tech artista, Hah Hah! :smile:

To be honest about tabs there are sometimes the 4 that you found, and then there are 3 tab faceplates, it varies by manufacturer. However they all pull off eventually, and when you get to be experienced at it like I am you learn to *twist* the end of the tray ever so slightly to release ALL the other tabs, one way or another, and the Hell with protocol! I am glad that you figured it out your way, but all you had to do was *twist* that end strip of the tray just a little downward/upward, whatever was the opposite of how it actually hooks onto the tray's edge, and BAM! It would have fallen off into your hand neat, clean, and easy. :yes:

Next lessons: how to disassemble the top layer of this laptop so you can find the 2nd layer, which also has to be disassembled for finding that extra couple of RAM slots the thing has...JUST KIDDING!

I am just glad you turned out to be a brave person and handled the job successfully, eventually, after some encouragement of course, but nonetheless effectively. WAY TO GO! :wink:

rexrzer727

 

Ignore. I typed a reply but saved it by accident before finishing it. I tried to edit it but it created a new post.

 

Oh it's not rocket science but thanks anyway. Far from being a newbie, I was actually a computer tech for many years. I actually dealt with all the laptops for my company along with pretty much anything else that plugged in but we never had occasion to change out the laptop faceplates. We did on desktops from time to time but not laptops. I had entire laptops fail or HDs but never optical drives for some reason so we never had reason to swap them out.

I've watched a fairly detailed tear down video on youtube on tearing the machine apart completely. It was a slightly different machine than the G73SW-A1 but the title said it covered several machines including the G73. While involved, it didn't look terribly complicated. I just wouldn't want to deal with all the ribbon cables and such if I didn't have to. I also wouldn't want to see what state the keyboard was in after popping the tabs and prying it out. It looks fairly thin and flexible. I have a feeling it would never be the same if I removed it. Truth be told, I really have no need for more than 8GB of ram for what I do. If I did upgrade I would probably just put a couple of 4GB sticks in the easy to get at slots under the bottom cover and call it a day. Upgrading the ram to 12 or 16 would probably just be one of those "because I can" type of things. The same is probably true for the blu ray burner upgrade. I don't know how much I'd actually use the blu ray burner but it's an easy enough upgrade to do. Now for the complete geek factor... I like the blacked-out styling of the G73 but I do think a red LED behind each of the two fan exhaust grills in the back would look great. Sorry, just my inner geek shining through.

Edit: Ended up saving the post before I was finished writing it so I had to finish it.

 

"Apply date : 7/15/2011 4:49:12 PM(UTC Time)
[Contact Information edited out]
*Country : United States

[Product Information]
*Product Type : Notebook
*Product Model : G73Sw
*Product S/N : xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (edited)
Place of Purchase : Amazon.com
*Date of Purchase : xxxx/x/xx

*Operating System : Windows 7 64bit

[Problem Description]
The reason I am taking the time and energy to write Asus Tech Support tonight is a
simple one, thoroughly documented in the NBR Forum Thread for the G73SW-series
notebooks by DKillone and others, including myself, so I'm not going to spend time
describing the THROTTLING PROBLEM that our notebooks have, and the like, but
rather I am going to tell you how it affects my ownership experience of one of your
very best notebooks, the G73SW-3DE model that I own, apparently a virtually hand-
checked member of the G73SW family of notebooks, one that surely gets special
testing and treatment at the Asus Factory in China where they are made.

That's the model I own, and I bought it specifically to play games and do
Folding@Home both, it is not a mission-critical notebook for me, as I have a
MacBook Pro for business and app writing
and that notebook is a beautiful thing in and of itself, but of course it can't hold a
candle to my G73SW-3DE for game playing, content creation in Photoshop CS3,
Sony Vegas/Pinnacle Studio for movie creation, and other intense programs that I do
use on the PC notebook exclusively, of course. I look at my G73 like a special treat for
all the hard work I've done to (XXXXX XXXXXXX) in the app creation business, a
notebook I didn't have to buy but chose to after reading and seeking out the opinions
of experts in the notebook field for PC's, and PC's alone. The G73SW-3DE is
favored by many reviewers for its unique 3D abilities, speed of the Core i7 CPU it
has, and of course the premiere instance of power in VGA mode, the nVidia GTX-
460M 1.5GB DDR5 VRAM notebook video card, especially tweaked in my version for
utilizing 3D content.

So although the notebook is favored by the experts, and the reviewers bar none, in
the PC world, and by myself for playing games and content creation both, and
viewing BluRay movies in 3D also, it has this severe flaw of THROTTLING the CPU/GPU
during game play, where the notebook's normal output of 30-40+ FPS in GTA:IV for
example, which is very playable and beautiful in performance view mode, rather with
the THROTTLING issue happening things slow to a crawl of 10-15FPS or less even,
and the game becomes unplayable, a most disheartening process that just RUINS
my OWNERSHIP EXPERIENCE! Here you are producing one of the highest tech
notebooks in the planet earth, Asus, and yet you saddle the thing with an unbearable
situation for the owners who do play games like GTA:IV, Crysis 2, and more such as
StarCraft 2 and virtually any intensive GPU and CPU games, games that load both
GPU and CPU simultaneously. This is sort of like running LinX 0.6.4 with the latest binaries
for Core i7 CPU's, together with OCCT v3.1 in full blown GPU testing mode at the
same time...and that also will bring out the THROTTLING issue 100% of the time,
and shows us exactly how and where it is happening also...there is no doubt the
notebook has this THROTTLING issue when both CPU and GPU are loaded 100%
or close to it in each medium of the notebook's output.

So what's the fix, Asus? You know Hewlett Packard fixed certain notebooks like the
G-16 with a BIOS update on May 29, 2011, admitting the problem existed and that
they had a way to fix it with new, THROTTLING-specific BIOS and it worked a treat for
those notebook owners! I assume that Asus could do the same, correct? So WHY
DON'T you do that then, there is nothing to lose and you could save face with a ton of
G73SW notebook owners, and the G53SW series also needs this fix, as they are
screaming bloody murder about it in their forum also! If that's all it takes to fix this gosh
darn serious-as-a-heart-attack problem with THROTTLING in our notebooks, why
don't you spring into action, assign a couple engineer teams to work on the fix and
GetRDone!!? It doesn't matter to me but you could also possibly re-engineer the
notebook's power curves too for the PSU assembly, which is probably needed along
with newer, more powerful PSU's for the notebook, say a 180W to 200W notebook
PSU/charger system!?

We need you to do something and get off your arses and come to the rescue of this
notebook series, and do it NOW, not later! The time is NOW to fix this notebook issue
of such great importance, for every single owner who plays any stressful games like I
listed above, and you KNOW it's most of the owners of the notebooks that do this, not
just a small percentage of owners, virtually ALL of them do this activity and they need
to be satisfied for sure!

I know that I have spent more than $2500 on this notebook, so far, adding an (xxx xxx xxx) SSD, and (xxxxx xxxxx xxxxxx) instead of the silly Matsua
BD-RE drive that comes standard OEM equjpment...I wanted the best system for
BluRay and writing BluRay discs and I got it in the Sony Optiarc, it performs
amazingly better as does the Vertex 3 120GB SSD for my apps, games, and content
creation software. I think that I deserve a better ownership experience than you are
allowing me right now, you know that? Your bad BIOS is ruining my joy of playing
GTA:IV and other games because basically I CANNOT PLAY THOSE GAMES on the
laptop with THROTTLING ruining the CPU and GPU cycle that the laptop enjoys
normally. When you cut the GPU/CPU by 40% to 60% of their normal output you are
RUINING the laptops superior abilities, just RUINING them completely!! This is
wrong, wrong, wrong!

You say in your advertising that you are PC people with a heart, well then get on the
bandwagon and fix this THROTTLING issue completely, once and for all...and do it
NOW not in 6 months, because many of us will abandon this notebook and sell it
outright in the NBR Marketplace, or eBay sales, wherever we can get a fair price for
the things, and be done with it and then you lose, we all lose, in short it's a disaster
in the making and you can stop it if you simply frame a new BIOS for us and these
great notebooks, and GetRDone!

That's why I wrote this passionate appeal to your better senses, and to your
engineering skills and talents, to all of Asus that cares about really helping the
customer when the issue is simple like this to fix, I mean it's just a BIOS re-write that
the notebooks need, bar none, and the whole thing will vanish! We'll stop
complaining and filling the blogs with complaints and bad blood for Asus the
manufacturer who "doesn't care about the G73SW Throttling issue at all" at this
time...so the choice is yours. LOSE us all in the process of sitting on your thumbs
and not doing anything about this THROTTLING issue, or make it a win/win situation
for the owners and for Asus the corporation both, and fix this terrible problem!! I vote
for that, don't you?!!

Honestly if you pull up my owner profile you can see that I've purchased quite a few of
your notebooks this past year and a half for my family and friends,
tried and purchased all of the really nice notebooks and EeePC's that you sell, you
know that? Not that I regret any single purchase as yet, but you are working on my
better sense of equality and performance here, as I'm not just your average Asus owner
by any means! I have 5 of your notebooks in service here, one way or another, for my
company and friends and employees, and all that I ask in return is that you FIX the
THROTTLING issue in the G73SW-3DE that I treasure more and feel more
passionate about than any other of my notebooks, bar none!! This is my Primo PC
notebook, the one that I champion to everybody that I know and my family also, they
all get to hear about the good things the notebook *can* do, not this Throttling issue
that ruins any/all ownership experiences, sadly this is very, very true!

I am finished now, but I wanted to express myself fully, completely, about the
THROTTLING issue in my notebook, in spite of all the wonderful and special
features it has, you know what I mean? There is just no excuse for this $2000+
notebook to have ANY FLAWS at all!! And yet you burden me with the worst of all
possible product failures, the lack of performance because of this stupid
THROTTLING issue, a most unwelcome thing I've inherited with buying the
notebook, a shame it really is!

Please FIX the THROTTLING issue, and get this done right NOW, not tomorrow, get
some of your top engineers at Asus at work on the new BIOS and let's just end this
fiasco completely, and do it NOW!! I know you *can* do this if you put your
engineering might and talents to work on the problem, right NOW not later, and just
GetRDone!! I expect you will write me back about this problem, and I hope that it's a
truthful and passionate Asus Tech Support that does the answering, not the blah
blah blah easy-money corporate stooges that inhabit Asus plain as day, the ones that
wouldn't even admit there IS a problem!!

Admit the problem, THROTTLING, such as it is, and FIX IT!

Thank you for your time, and please write me back if you care
about my business and Asus product ownership in the least, OK? PLEASE fix this
terrible issue in this most wonderful notebook, one of your best notebooks and you
do make some winners...but this one I have is super-special and nice...help me stay
in love with it and be a satisfied, happy-as-a-clam in Bodega Bay owner, once again.

Kindest regards,
XXX XXXXXXX"

That was the tech support query that I wrote to Asus.tw (specifically at this address for your perusal and action if you care about this problem we all are having with the notebooks

[email protected]

I don't expect that you COPY my tech support letter, but I did just that (but for editing out my name and case numbers) for your benefits if you are having trouble writing out the right words for a letter of your own to Asus Tech in China...be my guest and use the ideas in the letter or you can probably successfully integrate some of the key phrases and other things you might use in my email into your own, it's up to you.

The point is to WRITE SOMETHING!!

And do it soon, if not NOW, because the more letters to Asus in China that they get like this the better...it means you care about your notebook and the notebook experience you are having at this time. If you play any of those games I mentioned in my letter surely you've experienced the THROTTLING issue 100% by now, yes? Well if you do play those games it has happened bar none, so I hope you get my point here.

I wrote the letter to Asus TW on July 15, 2011, preceded by another in June, and another in late May about something else I don't like about the laptop, the Seagate XT Momentous HD's. The point is that I did write something and at least I got this response from Asus TW:

Dear Mr. Xxxxxxx,

Thank you for contacting ASUS and providing your feedback. I do apologize for your inconvenience. I've forwarded your inquiry to our support team for further review. An update will be provided to you shortly.

Thank you,

xxxxx xxxx
ASUS Product Support Team

At least they are THINKING about doing something for this issue, apparently, and if each and every one who reads this post tonight were to write a tech support query to Asus TW like I did in this example, but in your own words, then I think we might be getting some movement from Asus on the Throttling issue. Movement that will result in them finally re-writing our BIOS with the appropriate Throttling and Deceleration "keys" in the BIOS, not what we have now, which totally ruins the playability of many key games, not to mention performance testing also.


That's it for tonight, and by all means I hope that this post enables some new communications with Asus TW, and like NOW, not later!

rexrzer727

 

Anyone else have issues on and off with the touchpad? Sometimes it just stops responding, earlier today literally it would work somewhat with my left hand but not at all with my right hand. Must be conductivity or something, not sure, but it's really starting to annoy me. A reboot seemed to clear that up but it doesn't always. Just wondering if anyone else is seeing odd behavior on the touchpad. Most common thing it seems to do is think I have 2 fingers on there even when I just have 1, so it zooms or shrinks my firefox window. VERY annoying.

 

New nvidia drivers are out!
That's all.

Well, I tried out throttle stop, and I've seen some general improvements in game performance, but the freezing issue continues, and I've now seen it occur when I wasn't even playing a game (I was running Skype, iTunes, the League of Legends launcher, Chrome, and CPUID Hardware Monitor at the time however). Any other ideas?

Weird, running in entertainment mode seemed to help . . .

 

I bought the G73sw XN1 and i am satisfied overall exept for the microphone quality which is terrible. Is it the same with you?

I bought it from USA and asus site says all notebooks have global warranty. But when i called asus they told me that is does not have global warranty since the sticker does not say so. Is that true?

 

Same here, after using trackpad for a while. It started to lock up, its really annoying.. But after restart, it come back to normal for little time before it start to lock up again.

Hey ASUS, I know its a gaming notebook, but it doesn't mean you can give us cheap and troublesome trackpad. This is annoying..

 

PLEASE!?!?! Anyone here that can help me. I'm in need of the driver/utility disk for the G73SW as it didn't come with it. I recently did a complete fresh install of a retail copy of Win7 Ultimate to just find out the networking drivers are not able to be found by Windows.

Please do not refer me to the "Driver Download" site. I need and want an actual disk that has the drivers on it. ASUS is telling me they nave no way of getting the disk for me. I do know there are some G73SW owners that did get a disk with their new computer. Worse case scenario I would love a copy of it.

And no, I do not have another computer to download anything. Thanks in advance for your help all.

 

I don't understand people at times, for instance this post above...how/why could/would this newbie poster expect anyone to be interested in helping him, as the perceived attitude is certainly not one of trust and general courtesy. Why should anyone help this person out with this demand that we should cough up a copy of the "disc" and send it to someone none of us know AT ALL? One post wonder?

First, Asus would be more than happy to send a new Driver and Utility DVD ROM to anyone who could submit proof of ownership to the Tech Support Dept., especially if the user is in the USA. I don't see why Asus would categorically deny an honest-to-goodness owner of this laptop in its many forms a Utility DVD, I really don't see that happening at all...Asus Tech Support may not be perfect, but they do make requests like this happen easily, IF the user actually owns the laptop, is courteous and honest with them when called (they do have a phone number in the USA), so I think this is a case of a person being in a frenzy over nothing to speak of, and/or someone wanting something totally unreasonable.

Does anyone else have a comment about this situation? I would be happy to provide such a "disc" if the person (?) requesting this type of help were to be known to us somewhat, at least that, and if he/she could prove ownership of such a laptop, and also demonstrate how all other avenues have failed. I simply don't feel comfortable with such a request thrown at us like this one was done, no introduction, no courtesy, no nothing at all. End of my take on it, and you all know that I am pretty much straight and stand-up when it comes to helping people in need.

rexrzer727

 

You most likely have some sort of software conflict going on, and you can eliminate such issues 100% if you do a Clean Install of the OS and Drivers/Utilities.

I definitely recommend that you start using, and never stop using, a Registry cleaner/fixer like Glary's "Registry Cleaner", or if you want to go all-out get the paid programs that do such fixes on a subscription basis, such as Registry Mechanic, etc.

If you have not ever used a Registry fixer/cleaner you will have up to a couple THOUSAND Registry errors of various types and severeness so it would behoove you to do that first, before you do anything else...fix the Registry and use it every time that you start up the computer/notebook. I've been using Registry fixers since I began using PC's back in the 1980's, and the principle still applies 100% even with today's OS's...a messed up Registry can mean lots and lots of problems while you are running the computer at virtually anything at all...it doesn't matter what you are doing a messed up Registry can cause terrible issues with notebooks and desktops. :wub:

You can also "clean up" the whole system with a program like Glarysoft's (free--Glary Utilities) "Startup Manager" (or "WhatInStartup", same principle with a slightly different execution) to find and solve all startup issues.

Those programs allow you to selectively turn off or eliminate completely all of the startup items that are just resource-hogging extensions that don't need to be running at all for the programs they are associated with to work. I have been using WhatInStartup for years on all my PC's, and I have ZERO issues with programs interfering with each other and messing around with the startup of the system itself, not to mention solving program conflicts that can render the OS inoperative....such as what you are experiencing. :cry:

If using those simple software fixes doesn't eliminate the issue, then you *may* have a hardware issue, and the symptoms normally point to a bad RAM SODIMM in the notebook. You can diagnose that yourself by using Memtest.org's (memtest.org) software memory tester, which you do NOT use in the GUI, it takes the computer offline and starts it up and performs a very comprehensive test sequence on the memory SODIMMs. This test is almost foolproof, to the extreme ends of that statement, barring user error of course, but it is very reliable for checking our your RAM 100% in about an hour and a half or so, with an 8GB contingent of RAM in the house. :yes:

If you do get any errors in the test, then it's time to selectively test the DIMMs one by one, starting with the ones you have access to first (of course!), and eliminate them as culprits. Unfortunately unless you have a lot of experience with laptop assembly and fixing, the two DIMMs that potentially also are the problem are deep within the laptop's 2nd tier level of components, and the internal chaos to get to them is extensive for a novice. I don't recommend that a first-timer take apart this laptop by any means, it is just too complex with a TON of ribbon cables to deal with, just too difficult for the average user to do. :confused2:

The best you can do about those potentially suspect SODIMMs that are deep inside the notebook is to eliminate the DIMMs that you *can see* and work with easily, and the Memtest.org CD ROM (startup the laptop with the CD and it automatically does its job without having to do anything at all...it AutoRuns its program--if you build the CD correctly, that is) will perform its exhaustive memory tests until all views have been covered. :wink:

Make it clear about one thing: in order to solve issues like this we must be pro-active and act ourselves to diagnose the issue fully. You don't have to wait for tech support, just proceed logically and sanely step by step, and keep a notebook (written) on the problem as you go along so that you can document all that you DO to fix/solve/diagnose the problem also. The Memtest.org CD ROM that starts up the laptop is as good an example as I can think of: you have to *make the CD ROM* with a burning software so that it is bootable and will startup the laptop, and then that disc is good literally forever and will work with other notebooks and desktops to solve their memory issues. :yes:

Be pro-active and work within yourself, logically and faithfully because the alternative is simply giving the computer over to Asus Tech Support and letting them do the deeds, and chances are that you can do just as good of a job other than being able to disassemble and reassemble the laptop easily, so go for it, and make something happen! :smile:

Those are your options: Registry fixing; Startup devices and programs fixing; and Memory testing...that about covers all that could be wrong with the notebook barring some distasteful anomaly that you'd best be sending it into Asus Tech Service to fix up, after making the requisite calls.

Hope this helps you out, as sudden lockups are well worth fixing before it gets terminal and too bad to do anything about other than send it in for servicing.

Whom did you speak with at Asus for such a gloomy set of predictions? Did you call USA Tech Support, or Taiwan Asus Tech Support? Where are you now that you need tech support at this time? Did you register the laptop with Asus, online or mail?

Generally speaking the laptops, with rare exception (Best Buy, Costco et al are the exceptions) are all covered by a Global Warranty for the duration of the time after registering the notebook with Asus online. There are some exclusions, but they are rare and Asus as a company is generous to a fault about covering their notebooks without much hassle or headache, at least that has been my experience with my own, and other customers' laptops.

Unless you fall into one of the exclusionary categories your laptop indeed will have a global warranty of some sort, it's pretty normal for all the notebooks that are not exclusions.

As for the notebook's microphone, I personally have no issue with the one in my laptop, and there's a port for a microphone as I recall if you are not satisfied with the performance of the device's mic, just plug in an external mic and go that way after adjusting your sound Preference to match the physical setup. Have you tried adjusting the Preferences under Hardware and Sound, or Sound CP? There's a place there to test the mic and it's pretty straightforward--I mean it's simple also. If your mic is underperforming somehow Windows has several adjustment pots for the mic(s) you choose to use, under it's Control Panel moniker of course.

That is about all the advice I personally have on microphones and their uses in the laptop. Mine works just aok fine, and I believe my friend's does too (identical laptops) who has one of these in another country. I hope this helps you out some.

I would suggest re-installing the Trackpad software and the ATK Key also, as it seems to be a crucial component in the functioning of the mouse and trackpad both. Restart after installing the control software and see if that helps the situation some in your case. It should fix it 100%!! :yes:

*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***

I do hope that my advice helps some of you out, because I haven't been able to hang around here for quite some time and it isn't going to be getting any better for yours truly until my summer jobs are long gone...sometime in late September or thereabouts I should be getting ready for the Holidays and taking it a bit easier. I'll keep taking my sabbaticals until then, and posting once in awhile and hitting the posts for comments where I see fit, but I didn't want to go on without any contact whatsoever lest you think I've sold the notebook or worse! Hah!

Au Contrere' mis amis!!

Even with the stupid Throttling problem this laptop has, it's only one of the few faults it *does* have, and I generally love this notebook a bunch...I just hope that Asus does assign a couple engineers to work on our BIOS and get the thing remedied 100% in that manner...we could have Nirvana with this notebook if only the mother ship does see what we're experiencing at maximum warp settings, testings, and the games we play that show the numbing inconsistency of a laptop that is unable to work 100% when it needs to do just that.

A ship is only as good as its worst fault, you dig? Otherwise they sink, don't they? This laptop has so many great things going for it that I am normally very protective or should I say "permissive" with its shortcomings, so that is my take on things thus far into the model run. Asus Tech Support is usually responsive at some point with curing the bad thangs that laptops are made with, saddled with, and/or burdened with...to wit the original G51J-series notebooks finally got a BIOS re-write to cure it's throttling issues with the 740QM CPU from Intel, and it pretty much rocked to the good for those owners...at the point where the model's replacement was for sale, no less...

I hope we are as lucky or more so, and you know a few posts back in this thread I did give my own example of a letter and phone call that I made with the goal of garnering some movement from Asus Tech and getting those guys to commit to doing something to change the status quo as we have it now...which is not a good place to be in at all. A simple BIOS rewrite is all that is needed in our case with the Throttling issue, and the problem will simply go away. :tongue:

rexrzer727

 

I'm thinking about swapping one of the hard drives in my G73SW-A1 with a SSD. I'm starting to read some reviews and such. What are peoples opinions on the best SATA III 120GB SSD currently available? So far I'm leaning towards the OCZ Vertex 3 (120GB). Although, I've read in some reviews that the Vertex 3 tends to fall short of the listed specs in real world use. Does anyone have any opinions on the Vertex 3 or other possible candidates? Thanks.

 

I follow this thread for that information

http://forum.notebookreview.com/solid-state-drives-ssds-flash-storage/429972-ssd-thread-benchmarks-brands-news-advice.html#links

 

I, for one, totally agree with you. I figure if you bought the laptop and have the know how to upgrade, you should at least be smart enough to prepare properly for this.

With my G73SW, I could not get Windows Ultimate in the configuration I wanted, but I bought the upgrade and did it that way, no re-install was required.

 

I absolutely agree with you. Mic is really bad,camera looks like having .6 fps(works better than my previous laptop though) and speakers are weak (again comparing to my old toshiba with harman kardon).Besides this,computer is great!

 

I had a problem with an OCZ 120GB SSD in my customized A1 and ended up returning the laptop for a refund. It worked great for the first couple of months but then started freezing up with no remedy for a fix. That's not to say OCZ makes a bad product. If there's a lemon in the bunch, I'm sure to get it so take my comment with a grain of salt. Intel and Corsair have had issues with their SSD's as well so it seems that it will be sometime before the technology is perfected. With that in mind, I'll likely wait till the bugs are out and there's more bang for the buck before investing in an SSD for my recently ordered G74-3D. If you do an SSD install, it's a good idea to upgrade the firmware immediately.

Maximum PC | Intel SSD 710 Prices Leaked to the Web

 

Thanks for the info. I'm kind of shying away from the OCZ Vertex 3 120GB at the moment due to some things I've read. I'm leaning towards a 128GB Crucial M4 at the moment but am still undecided. Oh, undoubtedly, upgrading the firmware would be done before anything else. I did that with my two Intel X25-M 80GB SSDs I have in my desktop (RAID 0) before installing the OS.

The_Snowman, thanks for the link to the SSD thread. I've been going back a ways and reading that thread trying to get a feel for what people are buying. I just haven't stayed current on SSDs and what's out there since I built my desktop last year and put in the two Intel drives.

Edit to add: I had to laugh. Just after writing this post and going back to my email, I saw I had an email from Newegg. I looked at it and it was one of those, "RECOMMENDED FOR YOU!!" deals where they were recommending a SSD for me. I assume they tracked my browsing of SSDs on their site and the system kicked out the email. They recommended the OCZ 120GB Vertex 3 first and the runners up were drives like the Intel 510 series, the 128GB and 256GB flavors of the Crucial M4 and others. I just found the timing and the fact that they're recommending the two very drives I looked at, amusing. To bad they didn't send me a $100 off promo code or something.

 

hey guys my laptop is having graphical glitches, it would be nice if someone can help.

Issue: What happens is that when I open a game the game keeps freezing with weird graphical glitches, the game would run but the image is very glitchy, after a few seconds the screen blacks out and then the game freezes or some games run fine for a few seconds and then the screen blacks out and glitchs come back again, and for some reason the brightness is set to max. Great, as I'm typing this now the net browser stops working properly and the screen keeps going blank and the screen freezing, this is the message I get :
http://oi52.tinypic.com/2zjfhno.jpg

some screenies:
http://oi56.tinypic.com/2n24sw2.jpg
http://oi53.tinypic.com/dcenx3.jpg
http://oi51.tinypic.com/29gef6p.jpg

When I went to the Nvidia site I got this message:
http://oi52.tinypic.com/5p0q3d.jpg

Current version : 275.33
Downloading : 267.54 (Latest on the Asus website)

Update: After downgrading to 267.54 everything seems fine for now, but is it possible thats its a hardware issue? Thanks!

 

Hey Guys,

I apologize if this is in the wrong place, but others seem to be posting tech issues here, so I think I'm okay.

I bought an Asus G73SW about two months ago, and overall I have been happy with it. However, I have recently encountered a technical issue that is proving to be quite annoying. This happens somewhat consistently whenever I open a game. It plays fine for several minutes, but occasionally the screen goes completely black. If the sound has not been previously muted, I can hear the sound continue as if the game is running normally. Usually I have to ctrl+alt+del out, at which point I wait a few moments and the task manager comes up. I can cancel out of that and go back to the game, which plays fine for another few minutes, until the issue repeats. I have experienced this on games requiring both very low and very high display qualities (Greed Corp and Total War: Shogun 2, respectively).

This does not always happen, but it happens quite a bit. This problem only began a few days ago, and coincides with me updating windows 7, including updating to windows 7 service pack 1. That could well be a coincidence. Also, I feel like I should say I did some very minor messing with my storage space, which is detailed here:

[SOLVED] Question about Hard Disk Space - Tech Support Forum

If this is the place to post such tech issues, I would greatly appreciate any help. If not, then my apologies. Thank you very much

Edit: Additional note - I have noticed that particularly while gaming, one of my comp's fans is expelling very warm air, while the other one is not. I am going to check internal temperatures while gaming and see if that is the issue. I will return with heat reports.

 

@Cheesy bread
Try downloading the latest VGA driver from the Asus site:
http://support.asus.com/download/download_item_mkt.aspx?slanguage=en-us&model=G73SW

The blacking out is gone for me, at least for now and I hope it continues to run fine..

About the fan I think its normal my lappy also runs the same way.

 

Hello everyone,

I've discovered an interesting and quite weird issue between ASUS G73SW-3DE and Crucial DDR3 memory.

Couple of days ago I've upgraded my notebook with 4x 4GB DDR3 Crucial Memory.
Tech Specs: Crucial 4GB DDR3 1333Mhz (PC-10600)

After that I began receiving BSOD:
0x0000003B: SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION
EXCEPTION_CODE: (NTSTATUS) 0xc0000005 - The instruction at "0x%08lx" referenced
memory at "0x%08lx". The memory could

not be "%s".

Memory broken? Let's investigate. Here is the story.

I get BSOD only when notebook is on battery. With AC adapter, everything works fine


Tests I've done:

MemTest+ v4.20 DOS - for 4 hours with AC and on battery -- NO ERRORS


MemTest 4.0 Pro (windows) MemTest: RAM reliability tester for Windows -- GAVE COUPLE OF ERRORS, probably NOT related to memory as

another notebook with MemTest worked fine (explained below)

All tests were performed on clean Windows 7 Ultimate x64 installation, without any additional drivers or software that

might affect the test.

Knowing that sometimes memory modules just dont "like" the way they are placed in DIMM slots I tried various

combinations and still no luck. Still getting BSOD.

Then I decided to go with pairs and since notebook has 4 DIMM slots (1,4 on bottom and easily accessible and 2,3 on

back of the motherboard).
I leaved two crucial memory modules in DIMM slots 2 and 3 and tested notebook again. No problem at all with all memory

tests. Battery or AC - everything OK.
Nothing wrong even when I added another crucial module to DIMM slot 1. But upon inserting last module to DIMM 4 or

moving one from DIMM slot 1 to 4, I received same BSOD as earlier.

Probably hardware issue with DIMM slot or battery?
I thought so, but right now I'm using three 4GB Crucial memory in slots 1,2,3 and 2GB Samsung module (factory one) in

slot 4 and it works fine.

All modules including factory ones were tested one by one on ASUS G73 and another high-end notebook, and they showed

ERROR FREE.

I have an idea that its somehow connected to internal ASUS memory controller / BIOS / probably voltage or something

else because BSODs happen only when notebook is on battery power.
It is certainly NOT a hardware issue of memory modules or notebook.

Hope its a BIOS issue and ASUS releases new version soon. (current bios - 205)

Any suggestions, did anyone experience same issue?


BR
Shaliuno

 

Memtest86+ - Advanced Memory Diagnostic Tool

Download & burn bootable CD and let it run overnight (several passes).

 

Hey meowthemouse. I installed the drivers as you suggested, but all it seemed to do was make my game last longer before I got black screened

Any other ideas? I appreciate your help

 

Well, I ran registry cleaner and it cleared up a good number of errors. Memtest found no memory issues. And I haven't seen the freezing issue since, so maybe it was just due to the registry issues. Regardless, I'm still going to do a clean install of Windows 7, but I'll just wait until I get an SSD. Thanks for all the advice!

Still trying to pick a specific SSD, but I've been leaning towards an OCZ Vertex 3 120GB. I'd like a little more space, but I have to compromise between space, speed, and my budget. I know their reliability isn't perfect, can anyone speak for or against them in that respect?

And I'll need this caddy, right?
http://us.estore.asus.com/index.php?l=product_detail&p=3018

 

I was looking at the OCZ Vertex 3 120GB SSD myself but from a lot of the reading of reviews and such it seems the reliability and the speeds are not up to par. It seems the speeds as tested don't quite match up what a lot of people are getting and it sounds like hit or miss on reliability. Then, you hear from some people that it works great. I'm sort of leaning towards the Crucial M4 128GB at the moment.

Can anyone who has either the OCZ Vertex 3 120GB SSD or the Crucial M4 128GB SSD give us your opinion on these drives? Or, information on any other SSD that's working well for you. Thanks.

 

Hey fellas,

I had a problem with my G73SW if you don't mind helping. Recently, everyday on the first boot, my laptop would turn on and stay stuck on the Asus logo screen and wouldn't go past that. I would turn the laptop off, wait 10 seconds and it would work like normal after turning it off.

I read that resetting the bios would help, but the only thing I could do was reset the bios to default in the bios menu.

Does anyone have any opinions of what could solve my problem?

Your help is much appreciated, thanks.

ps: Is bios and cmos the same thing?

 

anyone with the g73SW figured out how to get more FPS out of their webcam? also wondering why the RoG separate microphone is so weak. i have to litterally hold it right in front of my mouth, and have the mic volume upto maximum... the built in mic is a bit pants aswel

 

Still nothing. It made four passes overnight, and all ram is OK.
As an alternative, there might be a also a windows 7 issue related to win32k.sys that handles memory. I'll also try to dig MS support site to find anything related.

 

I've been doing some research, and the M4 is looking rather attractive (good performance and more reliable than OCZ). I might up my budget and grab the 256GB, for the sake of extra performance and the ability to actually store a good number of my games on it. Apparently the M4 has some issues with performance degradation without TRIM, so hopefully someone here can tell me how to ensure TRIM is in use?

 

I'm not an SSD expert by any means but I think (and someone please correct me if I'm wrong) that as long as the OS supports TRIM you should be ok. The obvious caveat with that is RAID since, to date, TRIM isn't supported for drives that are members of a RAID array. Can someone confirm is it the drive that must support TRIM, the OS, or both? Up until now I've thought it was mainly the OS.

I also found this quote regarding the Crucial M4 in a review. "If you do have a TRIM enabled OS I'm not entirely sure how the m4 will behave over time. TRIM should keep things running smoothly but that will largely depend on workload. Again, I think that for most desktop/notebook users the m4 will do just fine but it's tough to say for sure without months of testing under my belt." This quote was copied from an article on Anandtech's web site at: http://forum.notebookreview.com/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=7822487 .

 

You won't need any "caddy" if you have the version with two HD's! If you need a caddy then you have the Amazon or Best Buy version of the laptop, (not the best medicine in my book) but you will need a caddy if you only have 1 HD.

You're welcome of course, no problem...I wrote all that because I had a little time then, and it seemed a natural for me to step in and help with the basics, but those are NOT the only places to look for this trouble. :cry:

No Clean Install yet? Oh my, that is a drag...and could explain everything that you've been experiencing other than the Registry fixes that is. If you continue cleaning/fixing the Registry every chance you get there will be no problems from the Registry, so you can concentrate on other things.

I do recommend a Clean Install by all means, and have done the same on my Vertex 3 120GB SSD, and things could not be going much better for me and the new laptop. I still work on a MacBook Pro mostly as a system developer, but as for games and everything to do with power computing the G73SW-3DE is the best of all my notebooks (5 and counting). :yes:

If you're running all the OEM hacks and alias's and the desktop and program adds, along with the ExpressGate function, there could be tons of things wrong with *that* install, so don't think you're out of the chicken coup just yet, my friend! If things go South on you, just do the Clean Install on the 2nd partition of the OEM Seagate HD, save the Recovery Partition in case you ever need to revert to the OEM setup for some reason or other...there are other reasons to keep it, but I don't need to go into them here and now. :smile:

Download all the drivers from the Asus Support web site, and/or just use the OEM basics off the DVD from Asus that came with your notebook, and upgrade the important ones after the install is complete. DO NOT let the installer apply the updates, as it will shotgun all the OEM crapola back onto the OS and HD system and you'll never be rid of it. l Install the items from the DVD one by one, in groups of 3-4, RESTART, proceed...until you're done.

Later on, after you purchase an SSD, you can optionally use the Cloning feature of the better utilities to shrink the OS and apps and programs down to the SSD's size, even if it's 120GB in size, and here's one of those programs I use without hesitation for things like this:

Paragon Drive Manager 11 Professional

You can find that software here on the Paragon web site:

PARAGON Software Group - partition manager, drive backup, hard disk partitioning

Good luck, and come back here and post away if you need more questions answered, as I'll hopefully get back here every couple of days and see how things are going with all of you.

I happen to prefer the OCZ Vertex 3 over everything else, and to be damned to all those who don't know how to take care of their SSD's and keep it optimized over time. I have been using the Vertex 3 120GB for my startup volume on the laptop, and for programs exclusively, while I install ALL
GAMES via the Steam application on HD No.2, the 2nd Seagate HD 500GB that resides in the HD bay of the laptop... I never install games, music, movies, anything to do with media on the SSD, as it just slows down performance and makes an SSD full of things that should NOT be there.

I am still getting the advertised speeds, and better at times after the TRIM function has worked on my TRIM command app, after resting for an hour or two after that happens that is, and have ZERO complaints about the Vertex 3. It is faster than sin on the Bible, and twice as nice! :wink:

As for updating the SSD's firmware, you will need to do it in a desktop where the SSD is NOT the boot HD, and there alone, as OCZ's firmware updating system does not work in the bootable environment. Check it out at the OCZ Forums if you need to, but I am running firmware 2.06 and things are great!

Hope that helps you out with my SSD interaction, and I do recommend it.

NO! BIOS and CMOS are totally different things! In the laptop we have there is no BIOS "reset" function available in BIOS or anywhere else. Generally speaking BIOS is set and forget and don't ask about it in laptops...it is in desktops that you have/can have BIOS that is user accessible, and only there...sorry to say.

As for the problem you are having with the display not going past the Asus Logo screen? That would be a crystal ball you need to figure that out! Have you done a Clean Install of the OS and drivers, and got rid of all the Asus crapolaware that they load it up with in China, where they are made? I can't even begin to assist you on this topic unless you at least do that little number for yourself.......and the laptop's sake, that is!

Good luck, and GETRDone with a Clean Install, where most problems like that just go away afterward. :tongue:

TRIM is automatically working with any SSD and a Windows 7 install of any type! You do NOT have to beckon or ask for it to be working, it just works. There are things to do with SSD's to make them more reliable and function well over time, and that is for another post, not this one. :smile:

Again I don't store any games on the SSD, not a one, and you too can install your games on the 2nd HD of the system, and certainly you understand how to do this correct? The installers will ask you *where should I install the game* right? I think so!! Muy facilissimo, easy! :wub:

BS! Anandtech is just in it for the almighty relationship kickbacks that they undoubtedly receive from the Big manufacturers...sad to write. I highly don't recommend them beyond basic reviews and statistics, which they are very, very good at furnishing. As for the Crucial M4 it is a good HD, but none can match the Vertex 3 performance, end of the line! End of story! :yes:

An SSD is a crapshoot, pure plain and simple! You'd best have it backed up all the time, because they can go South at any time, ie the science of making SSD's is still in its infancy you all dig? Have some perspective on things like this for God's sake! The HD industry for platter-mechanical HD's in the modern high cache versions, with good speeds (7200RPM's and higher), is still booming because they are the standard which SSD's are trying to emulate. However the failure rate on SSD's is alarming, and scary if you don't know how to extrapolate the figures from the statistics you need to understand. Do NOT ever think an SSD is as reliable as a platter HD, it's simple really!

OTOH if you want speed per se, bar none, no holds barred, an SSD is a wonderful thing, especially if you can actually use such a thing. Most people buy them because their friends have one, or their shop recommends it, or they get emotional and see a reason to upgrade to one...that is all BS also! Look at what you are getting into with any SSD, not just the Crucial M4 or the OCZ SSD's which are kings of the performance Hill right now, just look at the failure rates and remember that like any HD you will need to back it up often, daily if possible if things are important that you are doing.

That is the lesson of the day folks, and don't forget it please!

By all means you should all be operating with HD's or any type of SSD with Clean Installs, period! That is the place to start, and if you are still having issues after you do that Clean Install then we can fix them with a little creative notion or two, barring hardware defects which this notebook does not have a bunch of generally speaking...they are good notebooks in the aggregate sense, and only are ruined by Asus and their OEM installs!

Have a good week, and I'll try and see my way back here by Friday...

rexrzer727

 

@rexrzer727 of course i did! lol...with all the updated drivers on chastitys site as well. I should have said this in my last post so my apologies, I recently bought a USB 3.0 hub. I have a portable hdd connected to that and mouse and keyboard.

I would take an easy guess and assume its either the usb 3.0 port or the hub itself?

And thank you for letting me in on the bios and cmos difference.