Official Asus G72GX Owners Lounge

just an fyi I was looking into this further and the 22 mil copper is .022" which is about .5 mm, if you guys used that then that is ok, but should I be looking for something that is actually a full mm thick, or am I confused somehow?

I contacted a guy on ebay about his 1mm thick shims and it says he can custom cut the pieces and have them cleaned and deburred and ready to go. I will post his reply and info when he gets back to me.

 

OK....I have read this thread off and on almost since it started but have only gotten to around page 75 as it's been awhile since I checked it....Here is my story....Got this laptop for running 3D software and ACAD while away from the office....No gaming.....Only time I seem to get BSOD is when first booting on battery power and then pluging it into the AC adaptor....Anyone else having this problem....? Or is this just something that shouldn't be done on any laptop....?

Bios is still from 09.

Running 192.62 Nivida driver...I think thats right....Have to check to be sure.

I do get the screen flicker some people report but If I OC it with included ASUS software the flicker goes away.....? I always run it on the AC adaptor and OC both CPU and the graphics card back to stock Nivida settings....It never over heats....GPU max temp is around 75. I guess my cad stuff doesn't really push it hard enought to over heat.

For the price it has been a great addition to our office.

Any help on the BSOD after pluging in the AC adaptor....?

Should I update the BIOS....?

I disabled sleep mode right off the bat because of the early reports of trouble with it....Has that been fixed with an updated BIOS....?

 

I'm wroting this post for 2 questions:

1 - Just to inform that the new Linux Backtrack R2 is working amazing good with G72GX, is just install and run. No cracks, no freezes, no extra software needed.

2 - is a question, I was formatted my note and I don't want to put the lot of waste software from Asus that come with factory defaults, but I want to use the keyboard shortcut (the blue icons on the left of the power button). I want to know exacly what software I need to enable the shortcuts (I use windows 7 ultimate 64 bits).

About the BSOD, I had this sometimes, I opened the memory unit and use a rubber to clean the contacts, after this, I changed the position of the three Ram Units. This works for me.

I don't know the others respondes, but the flicker is very easy to solve.

Please see this post

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...-asus-g72gx-owners-lounge-81.html#post6622998

ps: this post is for everyone that had some problems with flicker, Before the solution, I try a lot of miraculous ideas, but the solution is very simple. I thinked in LCD inverter, Video card with problems, monitor going to dead, video driver, etc. The problem is just a cable a little bit out of the slot.

I repeat one more time.

THE FLICKER OF G72GX IS EASILY SOLVED WITH THE SOLUTION OF THE LINK ABOVE. Please try the solution of the link before try another solutions.

Lyron, please see my post above.

 

Long time owner here - had my G72GX for a year or so with little to no problems, but have a big problem.

My G72 makes a gravelly, whirring sound only upon starting, stays for about 2 minutes then doesn't come back until I turn it on again (even when playing games). Opened it up but couldn't see any obstructions so I'm very confused as to what's wrong :S

Also, hopefully unrelated, it keeps overheating during games even when getting good performance in them and at standard clocks. Some games it does this in and some it doesn't... it's really weird. Been running Stalker COP and Assassin's creed 2 at reasonable settings (settings that other G72GX's handle very well) and after a while it overheats then dies (akin to the underclocking problem that was fixed with a bios patch but my clocks don't change and my bios is the latest version, 602) Anyone have the same issues/ anyone have any advice?

 

Sounds like your fan is failing, or is completely degraded. You may also need to get it repasted as well, but since your fan is not working at optimal performance, I would look at getting the fan replaced first and foremost. I would also suggest getting a laptop cooler as well, if you don't already have one. You very well could be pushing the GPU very well past 110C and that is extremely dangerous if run like that hot for a while, especially in multiple sessions.

Now, if you don't have a warranty on the laptop anymore and a bit of a handy side to you, I would suggest for you to take out the fan and once you get that out, to try and pop the fan blade off and spray some WD-40 or some Kroil on and around the bearings. I would only do this as a temporary fix though, until you can get a replacement fan.

Here's a couple of links for the fan from both the parts store in Europe and Stateside US. You can pick either one to get your fan, but if you need that ease of mind and faster shipping, get the one from stateside.
CPU Fan Europe Store
CPU Fan Stateside

EDIT: I got this link as well Lyron, in-case the inverter does go out. Inverter Board Europe The shipping is expensive, like ~$30 when converted, but sometimes you can't put a price on absolute need.

 

Yeah, that's what I thought too but it's a bit odd how it always happens at startups then ceases to be an audible issue even whilst playing games. The fan seems to push out air just as much as it did before but the random overheating is a big issue. Thanks loads for the links, no idea how I'd go about taking the (I assume GPU?) fan out and replacing it, though, would it require thermal paste?

I've opened up my laptop before and only spotted the GPU's fan. Is there not a HDD and CPU fan, too? I only undid the main backplate and the HDD compartment's backplate btw.

If it helps, just before the FPS starts dropping to ~4 in games, my temps are 72 for the CPU and ~96 for the GPU. Pretty damn hot :/

Just opened it up again and cleaned the GPU fan - it's definitely a GPU fan problem not a HDD one like I thought. Although after having cleaned it the fan is noticably quieter on startup sitting here with the backplate off atm, definitely not much of a 'clunking, whirring' noise going on anymore, though there was a slight, quiet whirring noise but I can't remember if that level of noise on booting is normal or not.

There were a load of dustbunnies in the heatsink, maybe with those cleaned out there'll be a difference... I'll find out shortly

 

Ya those are some hot temps. Most definitely would be a good idea to repaste GPU, CPU even north bridge if you decide that you want to do both sides of the graphics card. I myself run at most in the mid 80C range with a taxing game, but I just play The Sims 3 at the moment at about 78C max, that's without the Notepal U3 cooler that I'm still waiting on.

As for fans, there is only one. That fan you cleaned out is THE fan for the CPU, GPU as well as the north bridge. No hard disk fan in there. I'm assuming that you aren't running with a laptop cooler, correct? Look to invest in one if you don't, Notepal U3 is one I would suggest if you don't care for USB hubs and want total control for cooling hot spots. For the fan noise, I would leave the laptop off for about 30 minutes to an hour and turn it on again to check for noise. Usually if a fan makes that kind of rattling, whirring, mini wood chipper noise, it's on the verge of failing. With failing bearings, they will usually make an initial grinding noise when you start moving them after about a minute or two, depending on how fast they move, then they will stop. This is the fan telling you that it's going to commit suicide and doesn't want to take your crap anymore and that you should find a better, less emo fan. This crap of a laptop cooler I have, the fan does just what yours does on initial start up and goes away after a couple of minutes.

The ultimate thing in dropping those temps, and very noticeable in your position is to get the chips repasted. There are a couple of things I've posted as well as others have posted that can help you out. Mainly the video I linked a page or to back will help you out with dis-assembly.

Since you are cleaning out the heatsinks from all the dust bunnies, I can tell you it's going to be a pretty decent drop in temps as well. Usually you want to get it cleaned out every 1-3 months depending on your usage frequency and the amount of dust you have in your home. I generally clean it out every 2-3 weeks because of my cover mod and the fact that this house needs to be dusted damn near every other day. North Dakota kinda sucks for how much dust is generated in your home and it's so damn cold. I should just over clock like mad and beat everyone's 3DMark 06 score while I sit outside with my laptop in this -7F and watch you all cry (ultimate cooling), while I'm crying cause it's so cold, and feel my tears freeze to the side of my face.

 

Haha, yeah it's much better now I use the cooler (btw I have the Zalman NC-2000 cooler) with the back cover off - getting ~47C at idle, doesn't actually go higher than ~67C under load (playing TDU2 atm, surprised the laptop copes with the recommended specs of the game - GTX 260 - and yet I'm running it @ all very high, 1600*900 with 2xAA) But yeah, the fan's definitely dodgy although it's no immediate problem as cooling seems to not be an issue now Thanks loads for the fan links, I'll need to get one soon to make sure my laptop doesn't die or anything

However, I've encountered a problem when overclocking (possible instability with these clocks?) when OC'ing to 575/950/1440 (a very modest overclock from 575/950/1375, really) After a couple minutes and without the lappy's GPU getting past 70C the game freezes and the GPU downclocks to 766/300/383! I'm fully aware of the previous downclocking when reaching 80C that was solved by the 602 BIOS update and GPU drivers however mine isn't getting near 80 and my VGA drivers/BIOS are updated :S Maybe my chip's just not capable of OC'ing past the stock 260m clocks of 550/950/1375?

 

A repaste may remedy the situation, but it's not a guarantee. Every chip is different, you may just be unlucky for that matter. I myself haven't tried clocks that high, but I'm curious. I'll give it a try when I get my two new hard drives in and set up.

 

The 550 core clock seems to be the max that this card can handle. I've tried 575 and Fallout: New Vegas CTD on me. A few other game also CTD when trying that speed, so I keep my gpu at 550/950/1375 for games and at standard clock speed for everything else. You might be able to get up to a GTX 285M's speed if you take the backplate off a use a laptop cooler, but dust can become a real problem real quickly and even those speeds might be a stretch.

 

I've owned my G72gx for a little over a year now and loved it. Anything I played on it worked great up until about 2 days ago when a few friends of mine got me into a new game called Earthrise. Its a really new game that still has some bugs at the moment and is almost unplayable for me but not due to all of those bugs. The game is really CPU intensive being that it only runs off one core processor and doesnt support multi threading, the stand alone 2.53 is quite cutting it. I've been like a kid in a whole new playground for a little bit really getting into some of the cool features within the system and some of the things you can do with the GTX 260m once I updated my Nvidia control panel and tools but alas I still get a low fps no matter what I do. I found turbogear and went into the BIOS and enabled it but the 15% over clock its set to just doesn't cut it. With that my cpu should be at about 2.9 but results may vary with turbogear from what I'm to understand. I'm looking for a way to oc a bit more but not sure how and haven't found anywhere that tells me a safe speed to set it to if I figure out how. My cpu temp when under load and OC to 15% with turbogear is only at a max of 62C so I think I'm pretty safe with going a bit higher or at least doing something to know I'm getting a full 15% rather than some unknown amount. I'm not a total genius with computers but know a fairly decent amount. I'm not looking to do this for a long term fix but just up until the game gets a fix and its no longer necessary. From searching there isn't a whole lot of help out there for G72gx owners. Any help would be great.

Matt

P.S. I'm guessing somewhere someone has already asked this within the 100+ pages off this thread.

 

Refer to Optimization Guide as it has great information in overclocking and undervolting as well. It targets mainly for the G51, but you can use the same concepts for the G72/G71 as well. Happy reading!

 

You can overclock with SetFSB, (free). On the Control tab use Clock Gererator ICS9LPRS929AKLF, then click GET FSB. Next, you will see some numbers highlighted in yellow, (something like 270/760). Use the slider to the left of those numbers to increase the clock speed. Then click the Set FSB button underneath to set your new speed.

CAUTION: Go slow and increase the first number, (270 from above) in increments of 5 or 10 at a time. I've noticed that when making big jumps it will freeze your laptop and you'll have to do a "hard shut down" and start all over. I've done that a few times when experimenting, but it didn't cause any damage. Keep a good eye on your temps! I usually just use Turbo Gear to overclock, but I did play with SetFSB to see what it could do. Good luck.

 

Hmm well I downloaded setFSB and used it to figure out what turbogear over locks to and its about 2.8 but like i said i need a little more juice. I'm not sure if its an error on my part or what but from my tests with setFSB I was only allowed to change the FSB and had no access to the multiplier mention in the optimization guide. Also attempting to reach a speed of 2.9 resulted in a blue screen of death.

*Edit* through slowly increasing my FSB by a minimum of two and waiting a decent amount of time between increases I'm up to 2.953 and am now doing a temp test with running prime 95 for about a half hour to make sure my temps will be fine. With that what is a safe temp under max load? Another concern is the max voltage which I don't know and I have nothing to tell me what voltage I'm at currently so. Lastly thanks for any help.

 

For those with screen flickering, I thought I would add my experience with it. My issues are the same as previously described, flicker / white out / screen turning completely off.

Re-seating the cable did not help my issue at all. If you have screen flicker issues, and replugging in the cable does not help you, there is one other thing to try.

And! It's one of those generic "this-must-be-another-dumb-customer-who-knows-nothing-of-computers" tips that ACTUALLY helped. Fancy that huh?

Reset the BIOS. Press F2 on startup to get in, then press F9 in the BIOS to reset to the default. Save and Exit. I haven't had any problems with flickering since resetting the BIOS.

I've read around on some other forums that the sensor that tells the PC the lid is closed is somehow affected by the BIOS settings (ones that aren't accessible in the BIOS menu...). Certainly an odd chain of connections, from BIOS to LCD flicker, but whatever works right?

 

That's odd that a bios reset would fix that, but hey if it works, it works right? I went ahead and took off the display and cleaned both ground connectors top and bottom, even the screw, and where the ground meets the mount of the hinge. I also lightly cleaned the connectors on the motherboard. I also went the extra mile as to clean anything having to do with the hinge mount and where it connects to secure it. I even cleaned the big copper trace on the motherboard. Basically if anything touched those hinge mounts and is metal, it got cleaned with 70% isoprophyl alcohol and q-tips. So far it's been almost two weeks and haven't seen flickering.

So I finally received the Notepal U3 and am thoroughly impressed. The only problem I have with it is that it angles down a little far to my liking, but was quickly remedied with the foam blocks that came in the packaging. The movable fans, while not VERY powerful are very quiet and do wonders when put in the right place. Now a couple things have been done since before I received the cooler; two new 7200 rpm hard drives which rose the GPU temp to about 54-55C and I have also done some drilling to increase ventilation. I increased the RAM vents a little, added a vent for the hard drive that's next to the fan and increased the GPU vent a bit. Right now running idle the CPU has dropped to 28C, that's after I re-taped the copper sinks with sekuisi for the CPU, GPU and northbridge heatpipe only, and the GPU at 47C, still with the black tape on the copper sinks that are adhered to the aluminum heatsink. I haven't replaced the tape for the graphics card heatsink yet, because I'm planning on getting a copper replica made, hopefully. No load tests yet, but will post when I get to it.

 

A gpu heatsink copper replica? does it exists? I was planning on making some and maybe sell them...

BTW, Is there any way to solve the GPU downclock - windows Suspend issue? I mean, when I open a game on a suspended session of Windows, the GPU downclocks forcing me to restart.

I'm having this issue since I bought my G72.

 

No it doesn't exist, as far as I could see. Do you have a shop or something of the sort to make them? When you would you possibly get some made? I would buy one if it's not too outrageously expensive.

Unfortunately there is no fix for it other than preventing it from sleeping all together. Maybe there is a fix, I just don't know it. I find no reason to put it to sleep anyways. It's either on or off.

 

Well I'll try to make a couple really soon (I could use some xtra bucks ;-) ). How much does it worth the aluminum heatsink?

Oh, and I did the flickering screen solution.. So far so good... TY pentedemadeira!

Sorry for all the questions but I have an issue with the keyboard. Sometimes (randomsly it seems) when i'm typing, I get a letter repeated, like if I have pressed twice... Any suggestions?

I thought it was an Bios problem, but I downgraded with no results.

BTW, Which is the most stable Bios version?

 

I've had the screen flicker (if set on less than max brightness) and white lines (if set to max) on my G72GX for months now. None of the solutions I've found online, including popping off the hinge to reset the motherboard connection, worked for me. Today I think I've solved my problem.

My solution required me to take the plastic lcd bracket off and tape down a wire, which had been badly pushed out of position and was wrapped around a piece of plastic. I did it earlier today and I haven't had a single flicker since, something I haven't experienced in months. YouTube - asus g72gx screen fix

 

The keyboard thing is unsolvable, that's just the way it is but thankfully it only happens every so often (Like, once after 1/2 A4 page, 12 font of writing) and the most stable BIOS version is 602 and available on Asus' website

 

I have no idea how much the aluminum one would be worth.

 

Hey quick question, I've just ordered the Monta Fan Mylar G71V from Asusparts and they've emailed me asking me if I know the part that I've ordered is NOT a fan :S anyone else had the same experience? I would've thought that Monta FAN Mylar meant that it was a fan but whatever. Anyways I'm guessing that they mean the part is simply the fan housing, the actual blades I'll have to remove from my existing one and fix to the new one, right?

Sorry for all the questions recently - this fan business is such a damn nuisance It's a shame because I love this laptop but they really should have installed a capable fan - not just one whose magnet gradually wears away over time, eventually causing it to rattle and die :/

 

I have a rather interesting problem.

I'll be playing a game, specifically a new game called Rift, and it'll be running smoothly at around 30 FPS when it'll suddenly drop to 1 FPS for about 10-15 seconds before returning to the normal 30 FPS.
This happens every 5-10 minutes.

I've tried asking around on the Rift forums to see if anyone could come up with anything there, but all i was able to figure out is every person having this same issue is using my same model of laptop.
I've updated to the most recent drivers, and a few other versions the guys at nVidia have suggested, I've tried every variation of graphics settings and resolutions i could think of in and out of game, I've tried reinstalling the game, and tons of other "quick fixes". Nothing seems to have any affect on the issue.
I thought it might be an over heating problem, but the temps on my CPU and GPU aren't too bad, and are usually a good 5-10 degrees hotter on other games that dont have this problem.

I'm at a complete loss and looking for ANY suggestions to get rid of this problems.

 

Well, not to be rude but you apparently have not read through this forum. but since im here writing a reply i will throw you a bone. This problems occurs for most people after there rig goes into sleep mode and is then woken up to be used as normal. there has been speculation asus will release a fix for this but as i have disabled it all together i do not see the need to look out for a fix. Try disabling your sleep mode in all forms. This should fix your problem.

 

I actually have read through a good portion of this forum, and dozens of others, as well as reading at least 90% of this thread alone.

Sleep mode is disabled on my computer, but this isn't an issue with my model of laptop or my driver or BIOS versions.
I could start my laptop and immediately open a game and with in 5 minutes, the FPS will drop for a few seconds, and the cycle begins.

I opened up my laptop today and found the vents caked with dust. I cleaned them and my laptops already idling at a 20c cooler than it was before.
I had always assumed these guys run hot (considering they re notorious for it), so i didnt think of the high idle temps or high load temps as anything significant.

I'll post back with my results.


ps. thanks for the bone?

 

Ok, im sorry for coming off like a . Truly i am. You should mention what steps you have taken to alleviate said problem though. anyways, playing GRID (a driving game) i had severe fps dips after about a minute of playing. no temp changes. i went into the nvideo control panel and changed the global setting under "maximum pre rendered frames" to 8x. the global setting i think is 4. also it helps to use external headphones that has its own sound card. i use a pair of logitech g330's. that i have found increases video game fps across the board as the soundcard in this laptop shares system ram (or so I've been told). I would like to point out that i am not claiming to be some computer guru. i am merely trying to help. hope that helps! lemme know!

Also i almost forgot to mention that when i turn my sound down (without using headphones) fiixes that problem as well. it still does it without the headphones. never got any help with that. but using headphones fixed the problem pretty much.

 

turns out mine was just a simple over heating issue..

i guess they clock back the GPU when it hits a certain temp to such an extant that it was causing symptoms that mimicked other issues caused by driver issues and even bad HDD's.

after cleaning out all that dust, i've been playing on the highest graphics settings possible for about 2 hours and my GPU never went over 72c, and not once did my FPS dip below 30.

so anyone else having problems like mine (because i know there are tons of G72GX users that are), just clean out your cooling system.

 

I tired the posted screen flicker fix and it didn't work....I haven't taken the front trim off the screen and tired the other fix....Not sure I wanna tackle taking it off.....? How easy is it and what could I break....This isn't my laptop it belongs to the office.

Brian

 

Where can i get one of these aluminium heatsinks and is theere a guide for it?

 

Asus parts EU, this one should be the correct fan, no mylar about it. If it's from the Asus parts within the states, I couldn't see anything in the title having to do with mylar. It straight up says CPU fan.

Aluminum heatsink, although I don't know why you would want another one since it comes stock with the laptop, unless you took it off and shot at it with a .22.

Lyron! Any update to the copper convergence?

 

Win, Im so on it.. You'll be the first to know about it ;-)

 

A few suggestions if I may. You should make the fins about 4-5mm taller than the original, I believe the copper ram sinks are 5mm tall, and that way there would obviously be no need for the copper ram sinks anymore. Maybe you could also leave some metal that make contact with the chips and such as to alleviate the need for copper shims as well, but I would leave some channels in there as to not have heat trapped where the copper would be recessed per-say. I would also suggest maybe shortening the base of the heatsink about 1mm as to keep the heatsink itself from making contact with components like the resistors or anything with bare contacts, but of course don't shorten the screw guide. Any questions to my suggestions, please let me know.

 

Alright, I finally got the spare cash to place the order (stupid mailman keeps delivering bills).

I just noticed that those copper ram sinks get shipped worldwide, so I might do that from here. What I would like to know is, if I should order the ICD7 from any store in particular and if I should get a 1.5g or 5g tube. I am having it sent to a town near L.A.

Thanks

ed: I already ordered the 5g tube.

 

Hey everyone.. how is this looking? I had it going like this for 5 minutes before I took the screen shot.

These numbers look ok-temp wise?

How about the overclock? Seem ok?

It's been running pretty good. I focused mainly on cooling.

feed back please!

 

I don't quite remember what my temps were without the mods I did, CPU anyways. What did you have running there that taxed your CPU? That can't be Prime. Try taking a screenshot when it's at solid idle and repost. Also the overclock isn't bad, but it's only okay if you can stress it successfully via Prime 95. By the way, you say in your sig that you have a mod, what mod do you have?

 

I was encoding a dvd, using ventrilo, using teamspeak, and that's about it. What are you talking about Prime?

So, this looks ok. I mean, temp wise, they don't look high right?

Here is Idle.

 

You are at about where I'm hovering. I'm currently running 72F room temp with the GPU at 48C and CPU at 29C. So you are looking pretty good. Although, I'm not overclocked at idle, only when I need it. Having both HDD bays occupied with 7200 rpm drives kinda shot my temps about 3-4C with the GPU, but you gain some you lose some. Now, hopefully soon, Lyron here will have a GPU heatsink replica made out of copper. It may be modified from the original, hoping that Lyron took to my suggestions. That should dramatically lower temps. While copper is about three times heavier than aluminum, I think that the trade off will be worth it IMO. It will probably be heavier though if Lyron gets it made to the suggestions I gave. I mean this laptop is pretty much a desktop replacement, not much moving around anyways. Although I still wouldn't mind lugging it around in my backpack if I had to.

Prime 95 is a program used to push CPU's to the limit and is a good indicator as well to overclocking. Basically you run this program, I use blend test, and run it for a while. Usually about 30 minute to and hour is good, if you don't get a blue screen then you have a good overclock. That's not the only thing you test though as usually when you overclock the CPU you overclock ram too. Memtest is a good program to test. If you don't get any errors, then it's a good indicator that the clock you supplied is good. If you do get errors, it obviously means that the clocks are bad, or the timings, and that you need to downclock. Though after you downclock, I would run memtest again to make sure there are no errors after the fact, cause if you get errors on a downclock either you are running bad timings, which I'm pretty sure we can't mess with to begin with, or you have a bad stick or two of RAM. Just giving you general info on the programs, not trying to scare you. Search the programs in Google to get more info on them and better familiarize yourself with them.

By the way what mods have you done?

 

Has anyone had a problem with at start up it gives the ASUS Republic of gamers screen, and then it gives you a black screen with a blinking cursor and it doesn't load windows? Or, if our boot priority is set to CD-ROM it gives you a message saying..."CD-ROM boot priority - no medium" and then just stops there with a blinking cursor. I tried doing a system recover using the Recovery Disk and the Driver Disk, when its finished, still end up with the same thing...

 

Do you have a usb drive plugged in or a media card? It might be trying to boot from them.

 

Does anyone remember the starting video when you first turn on the laptop? I wonder where it is located. I want to watch it again.

edit: argh! I can't disable the touch pad like usually, by just pressing the button. The Fn+F9 is not doing it either and it drives me craaaazy. I don't know what I could have done to change that, since the only recent changes I have done had nothing to do with it (network related)

 

Nope, have nothing plugged into it. I even tried to set the Boot Priority to just the Hard Drive with everything else disabled. Still, all i get is the Asus blow up screen and then the black screeen with a blinking cursor, stops there, and doesnt load windows.

 

I guess I'll try to see if I can pick this thread back up a for a little bit. So me and my buddy, who owns a G73, decided that he wanted to change the backlight on the keyboard to green. So I thought this to be a great idea as it was and decided to go with blue. Bright whites no more! I know there are a few tutorials around and the idea itself may have been around for at least a couple years now, but decided to post here that I have done it. The thing I like about it is that it's pretty close to the blue lights on here already and dulls it a little bit so it's not all blinding to one's eyes. It's definitely not visible in the day, heh, as it really doesn't need to be for obvious reasons. Sorry in advanced for the crappy pics, but at least you can see it.



This mod requires film that comes in a wrapping paper roll and only costs about $4 from a hobby store. I definitely have plenty left, haha. I also had to buy an Xacto knife that cost about $5 from the same place. I used two layers of it and I think it turned out pretty well.

 

That looks great! Kudos.

I just watched a youtube tutorial and I'm going to try this on my G72. Now that you've done it, do you have any tips for us? Like how to get the foil backing off and then back on the keyboard without ruining it? The video tutorial sort of cut that out and when it was done it didn't look like it went back on well. Also, are there any performance issues with the keyboard after the mod?

 

Here's the link. It doesn't say G72/71 in the title, but it's the exact same keyboard. Asus G73/53/51 Backlit Keyboard Mod
As for the brand of the film, well I threw the label away and I don't remember what brand it was. If you go to one of those hobby stores that has a bunch of stuff for crafting then you shouldn't have an issue finding said film. It will come packaged as if it were wrapping paper.

I would suggest getting a skinny PLASTIC putty knife for one. Now, you should start out getting a little bit of the edges separated first, about a half inch in. Then take the putty knife and slowly work your way from one SIDE of the keyboard to the other SIDE. Don't separate from the top to the bottom only because of the way the tape is routed in between. Of course make sure to take the two screws out before you do all this, lol. To make it easier in sizing and cutting the film, I would recommend separating the keyboard cable from the foil, just be gentle though. I also went the extra mile and lined the outer edges with electrical tape and cut the excess tape off after the film, led/foil and screws are back in. Putting it back on isn't really a problem at all just make sure that the holes line up and that you punctured the film where it sits over the screw holes. I only put the electrical tape on to prevent any light from bleeding out the edges of the keyboard and shine out of the cracks where the keyboard sits in. Oh, and make sure the film is cut at least a couple of millimeters in from the edges so the electrical tape can stick. Just make sure that if you do size and cut on the back of the keyboard itself, be careful as to not cut the cable.

As for performance issue, there are none, unless you are one that hates a little bit of flexing. I myself don't mind a little, but I guess it depends on one's taste. I put two layers of film in. If you just put one layer in it probably won't have much of a flex at all. Typing is just fine, unfortunately it doesn't get rid of the double letter typing bug. I'm typing on it as I'm posting if that says anything.

EDIT: Here's a better shot of the last picture.

 

What is a good SSD drive that can be installed on this laptop?

 

I just finished my keyboard light mod in blue. I decided to go with just one layer as two seemed a tad too dark, (in brightness, not color) for my liking. It was an easy and very inexpensive mod. I'm very happy with it.

Thanks for sharing win132001

I don't have time now but, will post some pics later.

 

No problem, glad it works for you and that you like it! Can't wait for your pics!

 

I now have an OCZ Vertex 2 240 GB SSD on my laptop, so just about any non-PCI-E SSD no larger than 2.5". Just for anyone to know, Newegg.com - OCZ RevoDrive OCZSSDPX-1RVD0120 PCI-E x4 120GB PCI Express MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) is an example of a PCI-E and the following link, Newegg.com - OCZ Vertex 2 OCZSSD2-2VTXE240G 2.5" 240GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) is what I got with my tax return check.

 

These are cell phone pics in the dark. So, not the best quality but, good enough to get the point across.