Official Asus G73JH Owners Lounge

Lol I am going to leave everything enabled for now..maybe disable some later as I figure out which service/start up does what.

 

If furmark does not crash I would have been already a happy camper. The short lags happen to me as well. Not sure never used furmark before my G73.

 

Yeah I do. I usually learn all process. No kidden. Its my virus defense number 1 (especially with special task managers that show hidden services) . Since combofix does not work under Win7 64bit I am back to using normal virus scanners which do a so lala job. I do hate all those totally unnecessary services from adobe, quicktime and so on. They do cost a lot of performance or at least startup time depending on the service.

 

Oh man, ADOBE! Don't even get me started. Yeah I kill those too.

Anything that filters keystrokes, DirectX, etc, or checks for updates regularly (not mentioning any names ADOBE) has to go!

 

Got the new laptop, been messing around with it.
Couple of interesting days...
I seemed to have been plagued with the 'grey screen of death issues'. After a bit of playing around I thought I'd be RMAing.

I went to remove my SSD and reinstall the HDD to make ready to RMA, and I installed all factory off the disk drivers. Well, low and behold, I fired up a few games to test with, and the issue has completely gone away. I'm currently a bit scared to try reinstalling the 10.3 cat drivers. I think i'm going to wipe and reinstall win7 to my SSD, and attempt the same off disk 'clean' install. Rather than immediately grabbing the latest drivers from the internet's. Sadly I may still end up doing an RMA because I have something underneath my screen, le sigh.

I've been searching for a way to install windows with the UEFI boot method. There is a staggering little amount of information on this, I was wondering if anyone had some good sources.

 

Yep, just did a 15 minute burn in test. Sounds like the 2-3second hiccup is normal as I see it as well. Temps hit 100 and stayed there due to the fan going to full at 99. Here's the screenie:

 

Figured it out, have to boot the windows install DVD using UEFI.

 

Yep, have the same "hiccup" in Furmark as well, so guess that's normal.

 

I hear ya. But what worried me is that it could mean no future drivers will work on it and that only "ASUS drivers" will be supported and that's unacceptable. The whole point of ATI's new Mobility driver program is to get around the way the OEMs will not release updated drivers. I've been in that boat before with other notebooks.

Also, while waiting for Newegg to stand on their heads, I bought a Best Buy G73 and this one works flawlessly with 10.3. Others here have said the same.

I'm pretty sure Newegg just decided that I was not allowed to run even ATI's official mobility drivers and only the ASUS pack. They probably never even tested the ATI drivers. Notebooks scare me like this. It's a $1600 notebook and I am just not going to accept hardware that may only be "mostly" ok.

I really tried to talk them into a refund but they absolutely refused me. Best Buy on the other hand takes stuff back no questions asked now. I know this because I managed to get two other defective G73s there!! Different defects (one missing RAM, the other bad LCD) but wow these G73s are not properly tested.

 

Yea i think so too. Any games i ran, there was no lag and everything was smooth

Thanks

 

I believe the hiccup may be due to Furmark 1.8's sensor monitoring. It is definitely not limited to the G73s. It does seem to happen with all ATI chips.

You can run Furmark 1.65 and it will run completely smooth.

 

Add me to the club!

I needed a new laptop for work

After looking at Alienware's and others I some how found this laptop.

MicroCenter in Duluth, GA had 3 last night. By the time I got there today I managed to get the last one in stock. The salesman asked what I thought about ASUS since he had noticed they were selling really fast lately. I told him that they are the best bang for the buck in gaming laptops and also told him how I am still running my nearly 3 year old ASUS P5W-DH Deluxe with an E-6600 and a GeForce 8800 GTX.

This laptop ROCKS!

I would love to see ASUS offer it with crossfire. That would be SCREAMING!!!

Has anyone tried the G71 or G72 harddrive cage on this PC? Any other solution you guys know of that has a cage instead of velcro or tape?

Thanks...time to load 150 gigs of games and break this puppy in. YAY!

 

Anyone know the answer to this? I see digital s/pdif out in my audio device control panel applet, but no port on the laptop seems to be for that purpose

 

With the laptop as it is you can't do it. You will have to buy an external USB sound card like the Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi external usb sound card. Don't get the express card version... you will have a hard time trying to install it

 

Installed those drivers that Vicious has uploaded. Real improvement in BF:BC2, loading times 10-15 secs now max. Also, idle temps seems to be a bit lower, but i think this is because fan is spinning harder at idle (not sure, may be my mistake)

Otherwise 8.74 works fine (although after instalation error said that no drivers were installed, but after restart everything worked fine)

 

Why is my G73JH boot up so slow?
It take more than 3minutes

 

Has anyone got a definite clue as to whether specimens than run ok with stock drivers, but GSOD with upgraded ones, are definitely due an RMA, or is it just a case of maybe order of installation, or phase of the moon, or what???

Really confused now. I really don't want to RMA this wonderful machine, but if the hardware is in any way substandard, then I think I'll have to.

 

Someone here tested it using the correct cable from the audio out jack and it worked. The post is here somewhere

 

Does anyone have pictures of G73jh with the bottom place unscrewed? I'm thinking about moving to an SSD, and would like a map to see where I'm going.

(Any pictures of where the GPU, CPU and memory are would also be nice. Has anyone considered upgrading the thermal paste on them to something like Arctic Silver?)

If there are no pictures, I promise some once I upgrade.

 

Under notebookcheck.net is an article about the G73 with quite a few photos with the bottom unscrewed. Unfortunately not allowed to post links yet.

Just received my G73, and happy as can be. Been following the thread from the beginning. Guess I was lucky with mine.

Cooling is awesome. In my, admitable rather cool room, Fur Mark all on, native resolution after 24 min 93 Degrees Celsius and stable.

 

Absurd statement. Newegg is just an etailer, not a reseller. They come in the door, they go out the door. Even the resellers don't get to decide on drivers, it's between ATi and Asus, the manufacturers of the card and laptop. Not "probably", I can guarantee they never tested the drivers, it's not what they do.

Their Returns & Refunds policy clearly states:
Return for refund within: non-refundable
Return for replacement within: 30 days
There must be a minimum of 8 dead pixels to declare an LCD display defective and eligible for return

You've got to do your research and speak with your wallet.

Q

 

The disassembly guide is posted to this thread.

Good Luck..

 

is the thermal paste on the BB models the same as the A1/2?

 

That's completely untrue. Please folks, unless you're sure of something, don't post it as fact. As mentioned, another poster tested it with the proper cable and it worked. It's buried in this thread somewhere but if you do a search for spdif I'm sure it'll turn up.

 

Unless they're created in a different factory I would assume so, but don't know for sure. There's no reason to suspect otherwise. I'm guessing that nearly all of the G73's are made in the same factory and then the different components of the different models are hand-assembled. I'm not sure as to that though.

 

I wonder... Some people report 90-95 degs, while some, like me, experience >100 temps on full load.

I have observed that once my GPU temp reaches 98 degs, the fans go into higher gear, and it temp is kept below 103, usually oscillating between 99-103. This is on stock drivers, BTW.

Also, looking at the disassembly guide, in order to get to the GPU you need to rip most of the guts out, so I won't be trying to upgrade the thermal compound.

 

Is there a way to get 5.1 SPDIF out of this laptop through software? Not for just Dolby Digital or DTS encoded movies, but for say my games and all windows sounds (Such as youtube)

 

Guys, I know there are 2 exhaust fans at the back and I want to know which fan is for the gpu or cpu or hd, I notice that the right side Exhaust fan is blowing hard when running Furmark and also pc marks so I'm assuming that's the GPU and CPU exhaust?, what about the left side exhaust fan? Thanks

 

Looking at the support manual, the right one is GPU and the left one is CPU, with the corresponding copper heat pipes. I have also noticed mine is running most of the hot air from the right vent when running Furmark. But when you try something really calc-intensive, but without any graphics (like MatLab), you'll see that the right one is colder than the left one (although both heat up for some reason, but nowhere near as much as the GPU being burnt by Furmark)

 

Hardly, The HDMI will do surround but that's not what he was asking and allthough the Asus website claims spdif I'm seeing things to the contrary so I don't think its just me. The easy way to check is to peer into your headphone jack if you see a bright glowing red light you have spdif if not you will need the external sound card. I can't see the light...

 

Yep, sitting in front of the laptop it's back right vent is for the GPU. An easy way to tell is to run Furmark and hold your hand near both.

 

This is the info you are looking for on the spdif.
Sorry don't have the direct link anymore but this a direct copy/paste of the original post:


Must select the realtech digital device under the regular speaker selected in the sound control window in the right corner, not hdmi digital HD. Tested by yours truly.

Cable used was a mini-toslink to regular toslink cable I had laying around. Se pictures. You can either use small adapter from 3,5jack\mini-toslink and hook up regular toslink-toslink s\pdif cable or use one with the different configuration in each end. Bear in mind that optical s\pdif cable break easily and should not be bent to a smaller diameter than sodacan- give or take..

But I do recommend using the optical cable with different plugs in each end(read;3,5jack\minitoslink to regular toslink) because the optical fiber stretches all the way to each end with this configuration versus the adapter on the lower pic you can easily see that the red light have to travel through a mini tubing without fibre. This reduces the light emitting properties. and this in turn can give crackling sound or worse no sound at all.

These cables can be bought everywhere.

 

That is very good to know. Thanks for taking the time to repost. I searched for the original and didn't find it.

 

edit: d'oh, nevermind. Thanks adrian.

 

Still sure about that? I'm going to go with the guy who actually tested it vs. the one that's guesstimating on it. I remember the post below as well.

 

Odd that the Asus G73Jh webpage specifications don't list S/PDIF out, as a feature. It simply lists;

You can compare that to the Asus G51Jx webpage specifications, which do list S/PDIF out, as a feature. It's also odd that most of the US resellers I checked, including the Gentech PC Asus G73Jh specification page actually do list S/PDIF out support;

and Ken actually wrote in this post, (from the Official ASUS G73JH Crew Member's Lounge thread), that the G73Jh, (although he writes it as a G73Gx), will support S/PDIF out. evensen007 added in this post, (of the ASUS G73JH-A1 with ATi Mobility Radeon HD 5870 1GB GDDR5 thread), that Ken apparently spoke to Asus, and they confirmed G73Jh S/PDIF out support.

Trouble is, elvn posted here, and then again here, (in the ASUS G73JH-A1 with ATi Mobility Radeon HD 5870 1GB GDDR5 - Part 3 thread), that testing the G73Jh S/PDIF audio output, via the headphone jack, and a 3.5mm to optical out cable, did not work. Then, (and as referenced previously), TigerBeef posted here, and then again here, (again from the ASUS G73JH-A1 with ATi Mobility Radeon HD 5870 1GB GDDR5 - Part 3 thread), stating that S/PDIF out did work on the G73Jh, using the headphone port and the proper cable. There's even photos included in the post, of the proper cables.

So it seems there's one confirmation that S/PDIF output works, and one confirmation that it doesn't. Coupled with the fact that the Asus webpage doesn't list it as a feature, perhaps others who have actually tried S/PDIF audio out on the G73Jh can provide further confirmation here, one way or the other.

Good Luck..

 

For me Furmark stopped stuttering with the 10.6 leaked drivers.

Bad Company 2 now also has normal load times so Ati needs to get the 10.6 version out ASAP.

 

Is there a way to get 5.1 SPDIF out of this laptop (Asus G7) through software? Not for just Dolby Digital or DTS encoded movies, but for say my games and all windows sounds (Such as youtube). Such as converting the sound to 5.1 Dolby Digital or DTS......As my Realtek onboard only supports 2 Channel in Windows Volume Control.

 

Is there installation instructions for whacking an SSD into this bad boy?

I ordered the one with 2x 500Gb so i can sell one of the drives to recoup the cost of the X25M I just bought.

Ive heard its a bit of a fiddle...ive heard scotch tape mentioned, Velcro strips, Problems with BSOD if you don't set the drive to IDE or something via bios.... Updating firmware before installing OS, Enabling/Disabling stuff in W7 so the SSD performs as it should...

Its alot of stuff for someone who hasn't been following SSD's until last week lol.

 

Update on this.

Apparently it will take 24-48 hours (1-2 business days) to find out what the progress is on my notebook and if they can send it back to me.

What kind of response is that? It will take 1-2 business days to figure out if we can put it back in a box and ship it back to you...

 

can someone with an SSD run a sequential read benchmark, I'm seeing bad stuff when I do that to mine, but only in the G73

 

Its easy. You just need a small Phillips screwdriver, a windows disk and the windows key from the bottom of your machine.

Undo 2 screws holding the bottom access door in place
Undo 2 screws holding right (when looking at bottom of laptop from the front) drive caddy in laptop and slide drive sideways to remove
Undo 4 screws holding drive in caddy then put new SSD drive in caddy with same screws
Reverse above to re-install
Install windows on new SSD drive using key on bottom of machine. At this time I nuked the partitions on the second drive and made it one big partition. So now I have C: (SSD- OS) and E: (Data drive). D: is my optical drive.
Reinstall ASUS drivers skipping the bloatware
Windows7 will detect it's an SSD and set it up appropriately (trim etc.)
All I have left to do is move my c:\users directory to the second drive using the lifehacker guide. That's my mission for tonight.

My G73 now boots in 15 seconds.

P.S. I updated the SSD's FW after installing the OS. Just download the ISO from Intel, burn it, boot it and bob's your uncle.

 

If I install an SSD, how much faster is it in % for loading games

 

On my desktop it was about a 5-fold decrease in loading times for TF2 and BC2.

The G73 is doing some... interesting things on the sata bus, so it's only more like 3-fold.

Also make sure you get an SSD with a decent controller.

 

Fantastic mate, For some reason from all the comments ive read it seemed that it was a pain to do.

Thanks for clearing that up

 

Can you elaborate- maybe give some good OCZ/Intel examples and what you mean by "interesting things on the sata bus" ?

I'm closing in on purchasing an SSD in the near future- am looking at 120gb either from Intel or OCZ and would be interested in your thoughts. I'm waiting for my HD bracket to arrive to see if it'll even work first, but apparently it's stuck in customs still.

 

the G73JH reads at 130-160MB/s from the SSD. (tested XP and 7) (MS and Intel RST 9.6 drivers)

All my other machines read at 230MB/s from that exact drive. I'm trying to isolate the issue.

As far as controllers, look for intel, indilinx, or even samsung based ones.

Sandforce is also good, but overkill on cost right now

 

I think I figured out my "Grey screen of death" issues. Seems to HATE the 10.3 drivers, when I revert back to the asus drivers from 12/17/09. I have had absolutely zero issues while on these drivers.

I may still contact asus, because as best as I can tell, I should be able to upgrade without issue, and I have some sort of debris lodged under and between my screen and the glass/lexan whatever.

 

Maybe try updating your chipset drivers?

http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/topic/21147-latest-intel-chipset-drivers-whql/

 

My SSD made a VERY noticeable improvement in Windows startup AND app startup. I'm not gonna throwout a number but it was easily the best performance mod I've ever done to any PC I've owned. I won't own another machine without one now.

I'm getting 252.77MB/s sequential read times vs betaflame's 160. My machine's stats are in my sig. Drive has latest Intel FW.