Couple questions with Asus G50

Hello just received my new Asus G50 and loving it (very powerful, can run Mass Effect pretty well) however there are a couple problems I'm having with it.
First question is there anyway I can customize my hotkeys? The one with the four blue buttons on the top and with the function keys on the keyboard?

Second I'm a college student and wondering if there's a way I can customize the power scheme in Power4Gear??

Third is there anyway to turn off the unnecessary lights like the small LED display or the exterior lights?

Thanks!

 

1.) I highly doubt it, thats like hard coded I think but it could be possible with some modding in the future.

2.) Yeah go into the windows control panel, go into power options and hit the advanced options and tweak away. Not sure what you would need to change. Power save mode for saving power and max performance for when plugged in is all I would ever use.

3.) Use the direct console, it has a tab for the lights, you can turn the side and top light off but the logo always will be on.

 

1) Have a look at ASUS Notebook Keys, linked from the Info Booth. Not sure if it works in Vista though.

2) I am not sure how the High Perf mode of P4G is setup. But if it forces the CPU and/or GPU to run at full speed, then that's a bad idea. Even when plugged in, a computer should use a Performance on Demand profile, where the CPU speed is kept low when the CPU is idling, and then is automatically increased when more CPU power is needed. Same for the GPU (I think nVidia Powermizer in later versions of the drivers does that automatically anyway).

With this type of profile, you get all the benefits of the power of the notebook (the switch to higher CPU and GPU clocks is near-instant so the lag is not noticeable), but you don't generate more heat than is necessary. Unnecessary heat is bad, because it's stressing the cooling system and diminishing the life of the components.

Therefore I'd recommend a power profile that allows the CPU to slow down when idle.

 

Thanks for the replies!

I have another question. I want to install Windows XP on this thing however I have one problem. I can't seem to find any drivers for the G50 for Windows XP, just Windows Vista 32 bit and 64 bit on those CDs that came with the laptop. I tried the Asus site but they only have it for Vista. Where do I find drivers for XP?

 

Ken from BTOTech (GenTechPC) just posted XP drivers on a neighboring thread (I think his review thread or the owner's lounge).

 

Thank you so much!

Okay another question lol. So I want to keep this laptop aslong as I can and whenever I play games (Mass Effect, Dawn of War, etc) I always feel the laptop and it gets real hot. Will the video card or any vital hardware in the laptop fry out? I really want to prevent this from happening. Any tips?

 

No, it shouldn't "fry out". Of course, the more you use it, the more heat-induced wear it will suffer. But there's no way around that -- either you use your laptop, or you keep it as a nice piece of furniture that lasts for 10 years.

That being said, in general, you should use sensible power profiles that throttle down the CPU and GPU when the computer is idle. For heat management under load, you can look into undervolting the CPU and, if your games aren't very demanding, also underclocking the GPU. All this is covered in my Tips and Tricks guide, under "How to save power with my CPU/GPU". Also be sure to do proper regular cleaning on the fan and heatsink.

If you follow these steps, you should maximize the amount of time that the notebook will work - barring of course random hardware faults, but noone can protect you from those...

You should also be aware that the G50 might also be affected from the nVidia fault, in which case an early death of the GPU might happen. AFAIK the G50 GPU is not on the affected list of cores, though. And even so, a large part of this nVidia business is just a rumor. So noone is sure of anything.

It's just something to keep in mind, not something to fret about.

All in all, enjoy your laptop, and don't be afraid to use it. Look into effective power management techniques though, -- that ideally holds for any laptop owner, although most of them jump straight at overclocking regardless of whether they need it or not, rather than paying attention to what they should, which is power management.

 

For a "gaming" laptop I find this thing runs much more on the cool side than the others. I have yet to really do a full load gpu test tho. But these things are designed to safely run at temps well above what they are.

 

I've been playing Mass Effect for hours now and the laptop gets hot! I mean I feel the left side of the laptop and it's hoot. I always get this feeling that this laptop won't be able to last me for years cause of the excessive heat playing games so I'm thinking about purchasing a cooling laptop fan for it. Are those actually useful at all? Never had one.

 

They can be useful sure. But depending on the notebook and cooling system layout, they might not offer dramatic improvements.

What temps are you getting for the CPU and GPU after such a gaming session? Use CPU-Z and GPU-Z respectively to measure the temps.

 

Yes, get a cooler for sure...one that blows UPwards. A lot depends on fans and air intakes of the laptop, but I can lower my GPU temp by about 5C or so.

 

I was thinking about getting this:

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.9184

 

I think its easier to measure temps with HWMonitor, since it keepts record of min and max temps reached.

Don't worry about the heat, it is perfectly normal to feel the hot air coming out of the side and while gaming and using most of the laptop power its normal for the computer to get warm or a little hot on the palm rests.

Of course this should only be mainly when doing heavy work of your CPU+GPU. If you feel your temps are hot whilst doing barely anything, thats when you should start getting worried.

 

Hi, i'm from Brazil. Just got my brand new G50 a few hours ago.

I was looking for that XP drivers at BTOTech but can't find anything. Could you plz post a link where do u found that ?

Ty very much.

 

Eddie is BTOTech (and hasn't been around in a while) which is why you find nothing at his site....

Ken's thread and post are here, middle of page 20.

 

ty VERY MUCH my friend.

apreciate it

 

Sorry, I confused BTOTech with GenTechPC (Ken). Yeah, Eddie hasn't been very active lately.

 

Okay there is one major problem with this laptop! I can't believe I have to say it but THE WIRELESS ADAPTER THAT CAME WITH THIS THING SUCKS! I was playing some really good Warcraft III games and I get disconnected in the middle of the game!

 

Works wonderful for me on wifi at work and my network at home. Dont be so quick to blame the adapter, its usually more complicated than that and often times your router or AP thats the real issue.