Official Asus G73JH Owners Lounge

Hey guys. I just got my A1 on Thursday. So far all looked fine but when I played torchlight for an hour the grey screen of death happened. Not sure what to do now. Very disappointed. I try furmark .. I have 10.3 with a clean Win7 64 installed.

 

Hmm the G73 crashes after maybe 15 sec. in furmark. In a different thread I saw that someone mentioned 4 out of 8 G73s had this issue at BB. Sounds like a REALLY big issue. A lot of people i guess don't even know it since it seems that its only if the GPU is used. Since it seems to happen at around 80-84 degree of the GPU it seems heat related but I mean even at low temps. I really hope portable one can help me and I don't need to go through RMA.

 

What exactly is the grey screen of death?

I know Torchlight has had issues with certain ATI drivers when it was released (still doesn't work on my bootcamped xp on my mbp).

Does it crash in any other games? 80-84C isn't near a hot as what others are getting.

 

Well furmark crashes after seconds. The very first time It happened was playing A. Creed 2 were the screen became grey and lighter bars from the top the bottom. It happen only maybe after 10min or so. I was running after that woman in the hallway and boom. The game was my friends so I tried it only shortly.

To me its that furmark crashes that shows me something is wrong. The crash screen is similar but sometimes its yellow or orange and usually it flickers a couple of times with the SOD and I can still stop furmark. That around maybe 82C. If I wait maybe 10 more sec. the crash becomes permanent and all I can do is shut off. What think what really bothers me is how many seems to have this problem. AS I said I guess many don't even know because they have not yet try a stress test on their GPU.

 

Wow, I didn't realize that the 5870 grey screen of death issue was not specific to this laptop, but found in 5800 and 5700 series Radeons, period. Is it just that the mobility Radeon chips are more prone to the problem than the desktop cards?

I've been running Furmark on my desktop PC right now for the last three minutes and the temps have stabilized to 86* C and there doesn't seem to be any stability issues.

 

Furmark Log GPU Temperature test, and also extreme burning mode, man it destroying the gpu, i totaly agree with mandrake the gpu and the cpu needs to repasted with OCZ freeze which i have, i just wish why they make it so hard to do something that is important to do for stability during long sessions.

 

I was having a huge problem getting my Chicony camera to install because the drivers kept popping up the crypting error:

"Error" "USB2.0 UVC VGA/1.3M/2.0M WEBCAM"

ASUS has two drivers on their site: one for the Chicony CNF7129 and one for the CNF7246. Neither of them worked.

I noticed that they have the driver version V061.005.200.270. After doing a search for my hardware ID: USB\Vid_04f2&Pid_b106&MI_00, I found a link to the Chicony CNF7129 driver version V061.005.200.2 50. Now my camera works!

So for anyone else who cannot install the camera drivers on ASUS's support site, these might work for you:
http://www.filecluster.com/Drivers/...NF7129-Camera-Driver-Windows-Vista-64bit.html

 

I am not having any of the issues being discussed here using the default drivers and settings that came with the system.

Since all my games work and I'm happy with game performance I am reticent to make any changes. On my DIY desktop I used to update the drivers every time they came out but seeing what people are experiencing I don't think I shall do anything for the foreseeable future.

Cheers,

 

Well it appears afer about 3 weeks of owning it I have discovered 1! stuck pixel.

It's always green and it's only really visible on a black or darkish grey background... Rest of the time I can't even tell that it's there. (Unless I strain *reaaaally* hard now that I know it's there lol)

Now I'm wondering.. the rest of my system is performing fine up till date.. is it really worth RMA'ing with the 30-day 0 bright dot policy for just 1 stuck pixel that I don't even notice half the time..?

Also, I have no idea how long the wait would be since the g73s are new models (I have an A1). Plus maybe coming back with some new problem or.. whatever else that might happen.

Does anyone have any stories about length or experience?

If it helps I'm located in Canada, if RMA'ing here would be different.

And if anyone has done it for the dead/stuck pixels.. do they replace the whole laptop or just the screen..?

If anyone has any opinions in general on RMA'ing is worth it for such a problem.. Lemme know!! I really can't make up my mind on this one!!

*edit*

After inspecting the screen more closely after noticing the first one.. I can see that there are in fact 2 more near the top of the screen.

Same deal as before, stuck pixels.. However without really lookin at em dead on from the top of the screen I've never noticed them, and really cannot during any kind of use-age.. but they are there!

More food for thought..!

Anyone have any experiences with the rma for this and turn around time etc?

Also.. If they do replace the whole laptop is it possible to take out the Hard drives so ya dont needa muck around and redo everything when ya get it back..?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

 

It might take a while to fix a few components here and there, but it should be quick due to its a screen that not only asus uses, you have a 1 year zero bright dead pixel thing.

 

Can any of you G73JH owners tell me how you experience the idle fan noise sound between left and right? The left side at idle doesn't run half of the time for me and when it does it runs almost silent.

The right side always seems to run 3 or 4 levels higher but never ever at the sound level of the left side. When that fan starts it immediately makes more noise than the 2 hard drives.

Also I notice that the Ati Radeon doesn't switch automatically between the 300 and 700 MHz core clock setting.

 

Sorry to intrude here, but I have a quick question for all g73 owners. I have a desktop currently running with an i7 CPU at 3.7ghz + an nvidia gtx285 overclocked. How does the desktop compare to the g73 laptop? I've read the CPU and gpu om the g73 can be overclocked, so was wondering if an oc'ed g73 compare with my current desktop. It would be nice to have a portable pc if it could produce the similar power as a desktop.

 

Dude, the drivers and now this, you have got to stop sounding like you know what you're talking about. Please post links with your statements, you could really mess people up.

30 day Zero Bright Pixel
1 Year Accidental Damage Protection. (Must be registered in 60 days of order. North American Only)
Other warranties vary with model and separate purchase.

Your perception on what level or unusual fan noise would be hard for others to grasp. The left side is CPU fan, run a cpu intensive app and you'll hear it. Either fan at a good speed will be louder than the HDDs, however, the optical drive is the loudest device on the G73. The right is GPU and it usually does run considerably more than the cpu fan.
I've never seen the 5870m do any auto downclocking on the G73.

Your desktop is similar to mine and I've seen many examples of my G73 being about half its power with gaming and rendering videos.
Only the i7 920XM can be OC. The 5870m can be OC'd and will provide a performance boost, but keep in mind it's a laptop and doesn't have the cooling of a good desktop.

Q

 

@Quagmire LXIX

So for you @idle you can hear the right the CPU fan constantly and at a level somewhat higher than the harddisks?

Is so then I would like Asus to come up with a BIOS update to do something about the fan speed. I wouldn't mind the Ati to run a little warmer @idle but I don't want to hear it. That to me was the whole selling point of this laptop. Clocked at 700 MHz it runs 60 degrees celcius and at 300 MHz it runs 56.

 

Facing the screen, the CPU is the left, I can hear that when my rendering ramps up in the 80%s on all threads. I can hear the GPU (on the right) when gaming (during the quieter scenes of a game). You can hear the GPU fan in my nVidia "Hair" and "Water" benchmarks due to no other sounds (except for the birds outside in "Water"). I have to have my ear about 3 inches away from it to hear the HDDs.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=6120799#post6120799

But I'm slightly deaf and old, are you one of those people who can hear a fly fart?

I can't really say your fans are abnormal unless you can record them somehow with a reference sound. Depending on what your ambient is, I would concur if those GPU temps are idle, they are a bit high.

Q

 

Maybe I can hear too much.

But if I compare to my Dell XPS M1710 that one is actually silent when idle.

To get a better sound difference I listen at the back of the laptop. When the CPU fan at idle actually does run it has a very low sound volume. When I listen to the GPU fan it has a much higher sound level. It never runs at the low volume sound level the CPU fan does.

So if my temps are indeed a bit high then I do think something is wrong in the GPU area. Either the 5870, the fan itself, the fan controller or the sensor must have a problem. If the GPU fan doesn't start at the low sound level the CPU one does then I find that strange.

Otherwise I consider the reviews and Asus to be wrong and this laptop is not at all silent when being idle.

On a side note though someone here http://www.xoticpcforums.com/showthread.php?t=5956 has made the same complaint as me yesterday.

 

Double posting here as I think this was interesting find, in case some of you don't read the general G73 thread.

Clearing Up Any Questions About Cooling With The G73

I have done some testing to push the cooling system of the G73 with NO NOTEBOOK COOLER or ANY additional measures for cooling beyond the G73 itself on a desk!

I hope this helps people to understand what the G73 cooling is capable of.

Myth: TSS1 or the "supposed" memory temps

The TSS1 or the Memory Temps people have been worried about are WRONG! The TSS1 is called the MemIO. This is the "MEMORY CONTROLLER." MemIO are often and normally between 10-15C above the temps of Core. This is not something you need to worry about. Even if your MemIO reaches 95C, do NOT worry, this is stable and fine.

G73 Fan Control

The G73 fans are controlled differently. This has been tweaked more for retaining the "stealth" marketing for G73. I have clearly heard and seen that the G73 fans DO NOT GO ON FULL while gaming. Fans do not go on full until around 82-83C.

Crysis Benchmark

Crysis 800 Core, 1100 Memory Benchmark Cooling Stress.
- Chaos6 Particle Mod and Real Lifeses Mod used = Horrible Benchmark results
- Cooling is what we are after and this setup pushes max on the benchmark and temperatures.
- Fans NEVER went on full. Fluctuate between medium and low.
- In case you are wondering, without those mods, the average FPS is 34.



FurMark Xtreme Burning Benchmark 6000ms

Fans NEVER went on Full.



Vantage Benchmark, 800/1100 Overclock

Fans never went on full



FurMark Xtreme Burning Stability Testing 10 minutes

- Fans went on Full for the FIRST time while doing my G73 cooling tests. This was about 4 minutes into into the burn stability testing.
- It appeared to me about 82-83C when the fans went on full
- BTW fans on full are still quieter than my old G1 with 8600.



REAL TEMPERATURES



What About CPU?

CPU fan was never audible this entire time. I could barely even feel any airflow.

 

New G73 owner here. Spent yesterday morning researching. I was originally going to wait for a similar machine with USB3 but it was getting painful using my old 2001 vintage Toshiba Satellite.

Drove over to Memory Express and bought a G73JH-A2 along with an Intel X25-M 80GB SSD. It also came with a free WD250GB passport and the backpack and gaming mouse were a nice touch. By last night I had it up and running W7U off of the SSD. Wow, what a diff in performance.

The 1920x1080 screen is beautiful and watching 1080P movies in their native rez is great. Only downside is the battery life but I went in knowing this and its not going to be an issue with how I use it. Thanks to those who've supplied some great info in these threads, in amongst the noise, it's much appreciated!

Now gotta work on improving the Processor weak link

 

I would agree that is not normal. The fans should only speed up when needed (based on temp).

When the fan is blowing you should definitely feel the air coming out the exhaust port. IMO, If the fan is at high speed at startup and the air at the exhaust is cool then that's a problem - something in the cooling system isn't working right. If the fan is at high speed at startup and the air at the exhaust is hot then that's even more of a problem - it shouldn't heat up that fast, especially doing nothing intensive. In either case I wouldn't trust the cooling system.

 

Yep, read over my posting and you will see how how the cooling fan system works on the G73 and what temperatures to expect.

 

Hi, thanks for the screen shots and certainly about that AMD clock tool. So what I did is this:

So at the battery saving level of 300 MHz core and 1000 MHz memory the fan is running quite somewhat. The idle temperature is then 56 celcius. I used the AMD Clock tool to set the clocks to 200 MHz core and 300 MHz memory.

The temperature slowly dropped but at 48 celcius it took a long time for the fan to go off. And then it doesn't throttle down to the sound level of the left fan but goes off. From audible to nothing. And starts again at 52 celcius. Audible and certainly not at the sound level of the left fan.

What is really weird is that if I cold boot the machine after being off for a while so all components are cold this on/off point is at 52 and 54 celcius.

So it does really look like my cooling system is busted.

 

Can't tell. IDLE temps are different from G73 to G73. Why you are so paranoid about IDLE temp at 56C?

Stress the machine and tell us what the temps are then. The G73 is a GAMING machine, cooling system is made for that, not to be a MacBook Pro to sit there doing nothing viewing Facebook with passive cooling.

 

I want the thing to be silent @ idle. It makes too much noise now. Not at all like my Dell XPS M1710.

I thought the whole selling point of the G73JH was silent when idle.

 

Maybe sell the G73 and buy another Dell XPS?

Core 2 Duo with a 7950... Not a good comparison to the G73.

I'm sorry bare minimal fan noise is too much noise for you. Based on what you've written so far, nothing wrong with your G73. You just bought the wrong laptop... You'll have to look at a different one that is not the high end laptop with the world's fastest GPU in it.

And I'm pretty sure when Asus marketing said Strike in Silence, they assume that the user knows that the G73 still needs a fan and when air moves from fans, it makes noise.

 

That is nonsense because the left fan also makes noise @ idle just a lot less noise so why does the GPU fan never make that low noise even if you clock it a lot lower?

Explain that.

 

i downloaded win8dvd or what ever and it asked me to update the key..and i clicked yes it btrings me to the website and it says downloading..but nothing happens

 

Logically the GPU runs hotter than the CPU and Asus set the fan for GPU to run faster... If the fan wasn't on, your idle temps won't be 56C.

Why are you getting so angry over a little noise. If you don't like it then return the G73. As far as I can read, there is nothing wrong with your G73. It's just not the laptop for you.

CPU fan barely audible and GPU fan audible is the SAME for all G73 users.

Personally I'm amazed you bought a performance gaming machine looking for silent laptop...

 

Hello all,

I've been following the forums for the last 4 months. Pre-ordered my G73 from PNB back in early Feb, received it last Thursday, and opened it this weekend. (Great service from PNB by the way.)

Chalk up another G73 successfully delivered with "no issues"! Pixels are good, keyboard and lighting works as advertised, and the Catalyst driver was already loaded. I'll keep exploring and let you know if I find anything worth noting. Only thing weird thus far - I can't get the screen saver to activate. I've adjusted the time delay and appearance. I'll see if it kicks in after a restart.

Fortunately, I was able to remove all the advertisement stickers from the palm rests while preparing the recovery DVDs without any sticky residue left over thanks to the G73's "stealthy" coating. Real happy thus far...now let's see how she performs.

 

What I do is I don't use screen saver. When I know I'm going to be away but want the laptop on to do something, I just press Fn + F7. This turns off the screen as far as I know the only reason to use a screen saver to prevent image burning (screen "saver"). Turning it off would do the same and possible save on some power.

 

So my A1 goes RMA. The crashing could not be fixed. I spend a while in AMD/ATI's official forum and the 5870 seems really prone to the grey screen crash. It is not an Asus problem but it looks like there are really some bad 5870m out there. I can only advice people to run a benchmark tool like furmark and check if their notebook is really stable.
I first also though there was no problem until I started gaming. Unfortunately I also found 2 dead pixel but maybe I get lucky with warranty.

Strangely however I am not mad at Asus. The bad GPU issue is not their fault and other manufactures would not even consider repairing an LCD because of two dead pixel even if they happen only days ater purchase like with me. The guy from RMA was also very skilled and friendly.

Hope you guys have more luck!

 

I RMA-ed mine, too, and I don't think it was ASUS' fault, other than maybe bad QA.

I think depending on how long it takes to get my baby back might decide on just how upset with ASUS I get.

 

I also seem to have a few problems myself with raid, my friend deleted a few paritions here and there and well the storage 500 gig hard drive does show up in perfect disk and other programs but never in the computer explorer. What can i do to make it show up and start storing things?

 

I will test my stability in the 3rd year of my warranty (lol).

 

What I did was go into 'Windows Disc Utility', since I don't have Windows 7 in front of me (on OSX) - I am pretty sure there is a fairly visible option to map another drive, or add or something. Then you select the HDD.

 

I like your style . I'm right there with you.

 

Hi 2 issues with the G73JH Wondering if anyone has the same issue and can help

1. Mic is really bad, no body can understand me on vent they all say i sound like i am behind a pillow, is the mic really bad? or can i fix it with some settings or drivers?


2. when i play games i alt tab alot to check web sites, but when i alt tab a few times my whole laptop slows down!!!
E.G. when i play wow i get 60FPS all the time but after i alt tab a few times, it drops down to 6 -15 fps and the load time is heaps longer, even if i close the program and restart it, it's still just as bad, only fix is the restart my Laptop


anyone else have the same issues? any fix?

Thank you

 

My comments below in quote.

 

Just wanted to say that mine is actually very quiet. I cannot hear it at all in a relatively quiet environment. Even if it I am slightly more deaf than 2 months ago, I would say that it is 98.972314% quieter than my old toshiba satellite.

Screensavers used to be for preventing CRT burn-in. However this doesn't exist on LCDs. Pretty much they are there for visual effects. I would also just turn off the monitor, as it saves the LCD life and brightness (I think the LED backlighting will last much longer than older style cathod ray backlighting.)

 

I would say mine is much quieter than my previous laptop, but there is noise coming the fan, just the nature of fans, fans make noise. I also consider this very quiet, but it's not silent like passive fanless cooling. Meaning I agree with you!

 

The noise level is a bit strange to me. Mine stays really silent even when I played games. When I did the furmark testing; the same thing .. really quieted. The temp went up but the fans stayed quiet right until the GPU reached 84/86C and then the g73 crashed. My point is, the silent fans are great but maybe its part of my issue. Well but 86C should not be any issue for a normal GPU and since my GPU crashes before it even gets hotter it might explains why I never experienced my G73 noisy.

I am still gone buy a notebook cooler. The 4-8C lower temps people are getting seem worth the 50bugs. .. Oh I just noticed mine has the kingston PC3/10700 (1333) Ram ... well something

 

I went ahead and installed a second 500GB HD using some velcro to fashion it in the second bay and seems pretty secure.

However, Windows is not showing the new HD. I can see it in bios listed as attached to Sata port 4, but nothing in Windows. Do I need to change a setting in bios? I've tried reseating the HD a couple times, but same issue. Any advice appreciated.

 

To be fair and hopefully not cause ziddy's head to explode, I did say depending on what your ambient is.

ziddy as always, I appreciate your passion, but may I suggest stress management courses , you simply browbeat anyone that disagrees with you. I understand you're trying to limit the FUD on the G73 and I above most appreciate this, but sometimes you go off on the deep end.

As I recall (please don't make me go into your comment history), you were the first one of us early adopters complaining about the gap and measure in GPU temps and it's why you rebuilt with OCZ freeze. Now that you've done that, your temps are invalid to those that are concerned with the paste and pad job that ATi may or may not have done well on their cards.

In case I'm included with your fury, I only mentioned that the gap between core and mem temps is higher than what I was used to with the previous 2 5870m's I have used (and yes, on the G73, not Clevos ). Here are my temps from turning on my G73 in a 78F ambient room, running 20 minutes of Borderlands and letting it cool down for about 10 minutes. 700x1000 clocks. No laptop cooler, I have yet to use it on my A1, since there is still a possible issue and I'm working on that.

View attachment 48450

That's Stacy Keibler, I hear music and pretty women sooth the savage beast and I can't upload music. My core is excellent as all 3 cards have been (the last 2 better than the first), but you'll see the large gap and I was used to a 10C gap on load with my previous 2 cards. I did not say it was a problem, in fact I make mention it is in line with most others and one day I would reset paste and pads like you did.

PulsatingQuasar is upset because he wanted the "silent striker" laptop as advertised and thinks he might have bad fans or fan controllers or something, so I'm trying to get his perception on paper so to speak so we can help him properly evaluate his G73, not browbeat him for concerns.

One should not have to downclock to get into the 50Cs for idle with standard room ambients. I've had 3 5870ms now and they all idled in low 50Cs with 700x1000 clocks.

I'll consider myself lucky on the fan controllers then, since I can hear and feel air from either one when stressed. During gaming I can hear the GPU fan when the game scene is silent. When rendering videos and my CPU core temps reach into the mid 60Cs due to 80%s usage, I can hear its fan also, all be it quieter than the GPU fan. By no means do I consider these fans loud even when stressed, it is the quietest laptop I've ever had the chance to barely hear .

I've said it to you in a PM and I'll say it publicly, I def would hire you as a consumer advocate specifically because I want you to browbeat my opponent, by please chillax a bit for your bloodpressure

You are correct, read this. Take a read at the video description. Asus did a fine job fixing ATi's booboo for me and I hope you get a tech as good as the one I had. Good luck man.

Q

 

Well, no problems here. Although I miss the dedicated media (volume) buttons on my dell xps m1730.

Anyways, one thing bugs me quite a bit with the g73. When I go from silent to first notch of volume it's already up by 12%. Is there any way I can raise the volume without the installed asus software where I can raise volume in small increments?

 

Mine would not recognize the drive until I reset the bios defaults and rebooted.

Cheers,

 

Could someone tell me how to use Soundblaster to get the subwoofer to work? I have both Realtek and Creative on my G73, but the Realtek seems to be the one running. I went into the Creative Audio Center and enabled the bass and set to 7db but when I try to test the bass with music or even a bass test I dont hear anything but the speaker bar. I cant figure it out any help would be great, thanks.

 

I just got my G73 from Bestbuy and was wondering if the Spacebar is angled (Being higher and stiffer towards the bottom direction)

 

Volume control panel slider 0-100 by increments of 1.

Q

 

Bah, kind of a hassle to have to alt tab out of games just to set the volume.

Edit: Just messed around on my spacebar, no problems here. Even distribution.

 

Just no pleasing some people I guess

 

I know this might also be a hassle, but I use the Razer Carcharias gaming headset (~$80 CAD). It has a volume dial on it, as well as the noise canceling headphones and a mic.

If I am playing through the speakers then it is because I am playing music or can afford to have the sound on loud, otherwise I have the headphones on which allow for a better incremental sound decrease.

If you are maybe interested in picking them up, I'd highly recommend them. Awesome sound quality, has great bass, etc. Also will match your G73JH (I am such a geek... ).