Official Asus G73JH Owners Lounge

Luck will have nothing to do with 1333 being returned if my X1 is replaced with an X1, armageddon might as well begin if they send me an X1 with 1066 because all hell will break lose between Asus and I. Congrates to you.
However, if they want to throw me an A1 or A2 with 1066 as a replacement, I will dance the jig with pleasure.

Good point. Yes, it should all run 1066. Why can't you get the the last stick? I never tried.

Crap! Anymore detail on why?

Q

 

Drivers correspond to hardware so you need the drivers appropriate for the specific hardware. I personally always make sure I have all the model numbers documented before killing an OS install. You can get the current installed devices and driver version numbers from the device manager.

You can find downloads and possible updates for drivers and ASUS utilities on the "Download" tab on the G73 site.

 

2 partitions are just easier for some organization. Your first partition is cut from the inner, fastest part of the drive so for a large drive it's always good to make one for the C: and that's what Asus did. You could F9 while booting and choose to restore to entire drive I think, check your manual, but why would one do it to a 500GB, idk. Update windows only for a bit and just use it the way Asus intended to see if any problems develop, if you start updating drivers and loading questionable programs right away, you may have a harder time figuring out if a malfunction is manufacturer or user error.

Q

 

Thanks for the advice quagmire. I don't intend to do any overclocking or much manipulation of any kind. Through a few hours of use, I've noticed no problems yet. I'll most likely just keep things as is, for the sake of keeping things stable and the way they were meant to be. Just wanted to make sure I'm up to date with everything and getting the full potential out of my system.

 

Q, only 3 sticks of RAM are accessible. The fourth can only be pulled by tearing the machine apart. I theoretically could do it, but I would need a picture walkthrough to do it.

As for my problems, the ol' F9 at bootup worked so far. I haven't been able to discern what is the root cause of the lockup. It's something that I installed though. The last thing I remember doing was installing ArcSoft TotalMedia Theater Platinum so I could watch Blu-Rays on the Sony 5703s Burner I installed. I also deleted a couple files I thought I didn't need. I think "Punk" something or other was one. I am slowly downloading everything again. With each program, I am running tests.

I know Aramis has this Sony BD-5703s-01, what programs are people successfully using to watch Blu-Rays on the G73?

 

Sadly, Asus does not provide Blu-Ray playback software. I really like Arcsoft's TotalMedia Theater 3. There are several other choices as well.

Ira

 

The failure rate of these laptops HAS TO BE WAY ABOVE NORMAL!

What are the odds of the same person getting 2 lemons in a row?

Sheesh...

 

you have to think though man that members of this board probably make up only at the most 10% of G73 users... and you will always here more bad reports than good reports... im here to say mine is great with 0 issues...

 

Hmm, that likely means they won't be to keen on swapping my 1333 mem if need be. Guess they better up me to an A2 or find an X1 with 1333 if they replace.

Ok, that's a little better, always fine when you can attribute to a software installation and deleted files. Fingers crossed.

I use a copy of WinDVD9 Plus I've had for a while.

Q

 

Thanks Q. So far so good. Downloading Arcsoft software again. And tell your cat not to steer my new G73 straight into the dirt, mmmmmmkkkk?

 

I use Powerdvd9 ultra to play directly as a blu-ray from disc

Another alternative I sometimes use is Media Player Classic Home cinema, thanks to being able to directly access video playback streams via AnyDVD HD

 

Hey guys.
Well,I just don't have time to read all the pages,so,waht's up? Any relevant news?What about 10.3 stable drivers?

BTW,rember I was getting black screen with white stripes every time I tried to play using OC?Well,it's not happening anymore...I think it was because of the memory clock...I used to use 1100,now I'm using 1070 and its fine. 770/1070.
I used to use 750/1100 And got the black screen...just like when using 800/1100

 

Question, what is the maximum battery life you can expect with the G73? Two hours pushing it?

 

From what I got when I was running some programming stuff on it, about 2 hours. You probably could squeeze out 2 1/2 if you clean everything off and make your own max battery power plan (absolutely everything off/min).

 

My experience has been 1.5 hours without trying... that is is I do nothing and leave the power plan at "Max Performance". If I turn everything down, I get about two hours.

 

GREAT so far! Been installing all my dev stuff and finally got to game a bit. I only played Far Cry and Half-Life 2, but really nice to crank up all settings at 1920x1080 and have them run smoothly. Sorry, no frame rates - just subjective: playing looks and feels awesome!

My A1 came with 1333MHz Hynix RAM and the 5 button mouse (which is sleeping in its cool little Asus mouse box since I already had a new unopened Intellimouse Explorer 3.0 (don't laugh - I like that mouse))

I updated the SSD firmware.

Did an Anytime Update to Win 7 Ultimate (which I already had).

Downloaded and installed the Intel SSD Toolbox so I can run the optimizer weekly.

Combed through device manager and wrote down all device model numbers and current installed driver version numbers.


It's my first Asus and I'm unfamiliar with the utilities, so I combed through them carefully...

Removed:
Trend Micro Internet Security (already had 2 years of Avast! waiting to be installed)
AI Recovery (there was no recovery partition to burn so I couldn't use it)
FancyStart (could have kept it - didn't care about something I see for 1 second)
Live Update (I hate live update software - running processes that only get used .000001% of the time heh)
SmartLogon (come on - what is this, CSI Miami? hehe Seriously, though, I'll never use it)
Virtual Camera (don't know exactly what it is but I know I won't use it any time soon)

Kept:
Creative sound stuff
ControlDeck
FastBoot
LifeFrame
Power4Gear
WinFlash
Splendid
ExpressGate (tried it - probably never use it again but WTH - it's cheap)
interVideo WinDVD BD for Asus

That's all the "bloatware" there was (thanks PNB!)


Ordered my A1 customized with an Intel 6200 Advanced-N Wireless so I dialed that in. The installed drivers were older and I could "only" get 270Mbps connection - Got new drivers from Intel and was then able to get full 300Mbps connection to my router (just needed that one option checkbox for dual-channel mode) - sweet.

Didn't change any other drivers.

Downloaded Intel's CPU ID app just for the heck of it. The reported speeds were:
Twin Turbo Off
CPU: 1.72GHz
IMC: 1333MHz
Twin Turbo On
CPU: 1.83GHz
IMC: 1410MHz (got an "overclock advisory" warning lol)

Hours of dev tool installs...

Installed Steam - copied my games over, and finally played a little!


Overall I love it so far...

Looks great - much better than the pics I've been drooling over for the past 6 weeks. Cool lighting, subtle exterior - good for cool game playing in the dark and also for plopping on a meeting room table at a client for work. (I would have hated the Qosmio I almost bought)

Screen is beautiful. I was worried about glare but haven't noticed it once. It's just crisp and bright.

Keyboard is nice - no problems for me.

Touchpad works fine (the buttons are stiff as reported), and I love that there's an option to have it automagically disable itself when I plug my mouse in. Maybe all laptops have that these days but this is my first new laptop in 7 years or more, and I hated having to manually disable/enable it all the time.

BluRay/DVD drive seems slow, but that's just because everything else is so damn fast lol.


My old 3.2GHz dual Xeon desktop is going to get lonely and jealous...


I just took all the stickers off the hand rest so it's totally stealth....hope that's not what causes the GSOD...

 

One I have that never gets mentioned here is Roxio CinePlayer; works great, really nice interface.

 

i just started messing with mine and am currently burning the recovery disks...im up to disc 4 so much fun...

i finally figured out it was cpu z that shows memory speed...having intermittent internet access didnt help much...but im happy to see that i have dram freq of 665 which is 1333

i dont know what else to do now...
just want to finish burning these discs and then shutdown and read what everyone else has done

format...etc etc...

this thing is totally cool and gorgeous to look at

cant wait to test this out fully over the next few days...
thanks PNB (donald and tim )

uggh my internet connection sux now...
gotta figure out what my first pc game will be
open to all suggestions...my bro loved dragon age on xbox...
anyways glad to be on the owners thread

 

Wha...? I got my A1 and can't find any BD software. Where did you find this?

 

Where did you find this, Mark? I didn't seem to have this on my A1!

EDIT: LoL, I was in the same boat, socrplar - wonder what's up with that!

 

I don't get it...

So, there is NO SOFTWARE to play blu-rays with the A1 that has a built-in blu-ray player???

Are the blu-ray playing software free downloads?

I thought you could download something that allows Windows Media Player to play blu-rays?

 

As far as I know, Microsoft still has their knickers in a twist over losing the format war, and don't want to pay for the codec for blu-rays, so no.

But I may be totally wrong here too

 

Great Review!!!

 

The only bundled software listed on the Asus site that I didn't find is the Asus NB Probe (downloaded it and tried it - didn't seem real useful) and Nero 8 Essentials (I already have Nero 9 Reloaded anyway).

My machine was customized for me, so installs were on the HDs and/or the lone driver/utility disk.

Maybe I got lucky?

 

Mine was customized as well. As far as I know, you're the only one to receive a G73 with BD software. Congrats. Lucky dog...

 

Glad to see everyone finally getting their A1s, mine has been on backorder since Jan with Provantage and they're telling me now that the ESD is 12 April? So sad, I wish I had gone with a better reseller but it's too late at this point I suppose

 

Yeah, I just hate paying 50 bucks or so for the software - working trial versions right now, and I guess I'll see what deals come along in the meantime.

PowerDVD9 trial does work great right now - kinda like the program atm.

 

I'm curious, will codec packs such as CCCP or K-lite be able to play Blu-Ray discs?

 

Hmm this forum seems to have some answers: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/268847-33-what-bluray-player-software

 

I am the proud new owner of an Asus G73JH-A1 purchased from abt.com, it arrived yesterday. I am waiting on an Intel SSD to arrive today, and am planning on installing that in the next couple of days by writing down my OEM W7 key and installing from the ISO's mentioned here. I thought I would put the laptop through its paces a bit to look for problems before I replaced the OS and a hard drive.

For the First 3 hours, here were my results:
Cons:
No Blu-Ray Software
No Recovery Disc
Windows Experience Index lists results of: [7.4, 7.1, 6.0, 6.0, 5.9]. Those might be a tiny bit off, doing it from memory, but I would expect the 2 graphic scores to be higher than 6.0. Did I read something here that the WEI doesn't rate the Asus ATI card properly? I recently tested out a new Sager, and its only low score with the final Data score. I was hoping to the Asus would be the same (which the SSD would solve).

Pros:
Everything else. I could completely live with above cons, I am loving everything else about the laptop. 5 Button Mouse was a nice surprise, laptop even quieter than I expected. A DoWII performce test produced better results that the Sager I tried out.

Here's the problem I'm having. After about 3-4 hours, I was just surfing the web a bit when the computer locked up with a black screen. The flash video I was watching audio cut out at the same time, so it was a full lock instead of just a screen problem. Over the next hour, it did the same thing a couple more times, although the screen color would vary every time, Brown or White. I started searching through these forums looking for similar problems or suggested solutions, and for another hour it locked up twice just reading forums. I swear 4/5 times I was scrolling the mouse wheel down when it locked, likely just a coincidence.

Here is what I checked:
Windows is recognizing all 8 Gigs of RAM (forgot to look at the speed)
Tried to update video drivers off Asus site, running the installer said I was up to date.
Removed a few more Bloatware processes that were running.


Any suggestions of something I should try? Should I try installing the SSD anyway, or does this sound like a GPU problem and I should leave the HD intact? I heard people mentioning disabling some creative driver or installing a more stable video driver, but I cant find the forum post of that original descrription. I appretiate any suggestions.

 

the gpu should score 7.2 or thereabouts on both graphics scores. Mine does with the default 10.2 drivers, so it does seem something is off with your system.

Definetly pull the creative drivers as they just seem to cause issues for everyone.

---------------------------

Unrelated: Something I've noticed after comparing this to a few other systems is that the default gamma for the ati drivers is a bit high. I changed the setting from 1.0 to .85 and everything looks more 'right' now.

 

Also try using the 10.3 beta drivers. My WEI overall score is 7.0 [7.0, 7.4, 7.2, 7.2, 7.7].
A bit of a warning about the intel SSD. I am still having a problem where HDtune reports that my seq. read speeds are about 150-160mb/s instead of the 200mb/s I used to get on my other laptop. I have not figured out what the problem is but it doesn't seem to be a huge problem as my boot times are in the 15 sec. range and my WEI score is within normal range. Please check your Intel SSD and update me on how it performs on your machine if you don't mind. Btw, there is another user that reported the same problem with the same Intel G2 drive.

 

Sleey0 has in his sig a link for alienware wallpapers, but there's also a 23pages walkthrough to tear it down to the last screws

EDIT : Here's the shortcut : Guide to tear your laptop apart. Full Credit to sleey0

Btw, In the very beginning, someone wasn't happy with the fact of no 3D on this graphics card, but ATI has announced Stereo 3D, a 3D-viewing system for ATI-cards. Good thing is, you can run it on any ATI card with Directx9 till 11!

Bad news is, you need a 120Hz Monitor.. But at least our GPU can handle it ^^

 

Dudes, I ordered my G73JH-a1 from Amazon on 2/25/10 and just got an email yesterday that it shipped! Others who ordered from PC stores (excaliberpc, provantage, gentech, xotic etc) have been waiting for months. Amazon Rocks! Thanks Amazon! I will have my beast on Monday free shipping(2-Day) and no Sales TAX!

 

I use PowerDVD9 Ultra and it works on all my "problem" discs, but I also have TotalMedia 3 and it works pretty well too. I just mainly use PowerDVD9 all the time.

Still showing as pre-order on Amazon for me- are you sure you ordered the G73? If so, awesome!

 

I'm now an official owner of an X-1, and I may have the only X-1 in Canada

 

Yes I ordered a a G73JH-A1 from Amazon. It said preorder when I placed the order and Amazon told me they would email the expected ship date when info was available. Two weeks later I received an email from amazon stating it shipped. UPS tracking shows a delivery of 3/15.

 

So the 6.0 numbers for my WEI graphics scores sound like they are symtoms of a bigger problem. Can I get the 10.3 Beta drivers off of ATI's website? If they are less stable, I doubt that helps my crash problem, but its worth a try.

Damn, really starting to sound like I got a bum GPU. I'm not sure I'll even try the SSD install until I get this worked out.

 

Try the drivers from asus g73 driver page first, then try 10.3 i guess, but yeah graphics scores are 7.3 for me.

a No-brainer but just something to mention, make sure it's not on battery power

Also DL the amd gpu clock tool to see what it is currently running at in case it is underclocked for some reason. for some reason once mine had downclocked to 500mhz or so

 

I saw that once on mine as well. I think I rebooted and it was back up to 700MHz.

Is that what you did to "fix" the issue?

 

Can someone post a link to the 10.3 ATI drivers? I can't seem to find a link to them.

I've already tried to grab the latest drivers off Asus's site and they wouldnt upgrade me, they were the same as what I was running.

I will definately try the GPU Clock check tool.

 

Hey guys any suggestions where to buy Power DVD9 Ultra and not
lose an arm or a leg.?? Not a download but the disc

 

Google is your friend.

search ati catalyst 10.3 download, It is the first result.

 

I had the same problem last nite when I did a clean install. Couldn't get anything higher than 6.0 graphics score on WEI. I rebooted, then made sure I was running on High Performance and enabled "turbo mode". Next WEI run gave me 7.3 graphics score. The AMD GPU clock tool works great showing you whats going on when you're running the test (speed/temp). The hardware seems pretty solid to me so far. IMO, it is the software/drivers combined with the cooling system what will make this monster a solid and very reliable gaming machine. I hope you can fix your problem.

 

Does anyone know how many dvds it takes to make recovery disks? Just wondering so I know how many to get before my lappy comes in. Thanks in advance.

 

5, it is about 20gb total and it takes around 1.5 hrs to do.

 

Agreed, hopefully there will be a driver out at some point to be able to increase the speed of the fans. It's nice that they are quiet but it seems that they could be moving more air

 

It all depends on how AMD/ATI make good on their promises. If they manage to keep up with their driver releases, we should be OK. But it's still too early to tell what will happen. I for one hope for the best.

 

Myself and many others have experienced the same as you, and we have tried various things to resolve it, but to my knowledge it has not gone away for anyone--fresh installs, no Win updates, disabled drivers, etc. Those that have RMA'd it have reported it as bad GPU, Gentech has said there was a bad batch floating around. Count yourself unlucky and get a replacement ASAP.

 

It took 6 DVD's each for both of my G73's. I used them to reinstall after I upgraded hard drives and they worked great.