G50VT-X1 (from Best Buy) and Windows 7? A Good Idea?

I'm considering a switch from Vista to Windows 7. Should I hold off or try it out? Anyone make this switch as yet? I have the RC 7100 version, the last of the beta releases.

Thanks,
Nick

 

I would say go for it.

 

I'm searching for info on the forums about how the drivers will work, compatibility wise. Any ideas?

 

I have used Win 7 7048, 7077 and 7100 on my G50VT-X1. No problems. Just get the Vista drivers and you would be set.
The things that will not be detected properly will be your Ricoh SD-MMC Controller. There will be sound, but the Realtek sound drivers should be installed (latest is R2.22)
There are new Windows 7 WDM 1.1 drivers from nVidia that will work great with your laptop.
Win 7 x64
http://www.nvidia.com/object/geforce_notebook_win7_x64_185.81_beta.html
Win 7 x86
http://www.nvidia.com/object/geforce_notebook_win7_185.81_beta.html

 

I bought a G50VT-X5 from Best Buy last week and installed Windows 7 quite easily. The Asus Vista drivers are a little cranky when installing (some need to be installed twice), but for the most part it works quite well. I played Left 4 Dead and never once dipped below 30fps!

My one gripe is the loss of functionality for the keyboard hotkeys and the touch-sensitive buttons above the keyboard.

After switching back to Vista for a few days, I decided that I can live without the hotkeys and will just live without until some updated drivers are released. Until that time I will be rocking Windows 7.

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Edit: Thanks for the linky mr_milo, keyboard hotkeys are working now!

 

My only issue has been losing my browsing while online. I can still do IM and such but it just drops like crazy. Disconnecting from wireless and reconnecting seems to fix it.

 

Do you guys have any problems with the touchpad? I installed Windows 7 64-bit and added all the Asus drivers. All my hot keys and touch keys work except for the wireless hotkey and the power gear touch key (well the express gate touch key doesn't work either but I never re-installed that). The key to getting the hotkeys to work was to edit the registry key that controls the hotkeys. Basically the change was to rename the file being called from "Hcontroluser.exe" to Hcontrol.exe" after that you get a security warning at boot but the hot keys work. I'll try to find the exact key again but it was here on the forums somewhere.

But back to my problem.... Every other time I boot / reboot my computer the touchpad and video card drivers can't load the device. The video card somehow defaults back to the windows driver and works OK but the touchpad does not function. If I plug in a usb mouse I'm OK but without it I have to reboot using the keyboard only. Any ideas? It's really weird since it seems to happen almost exactly every other boot.

EDIT: The hotkey fix post I was taking about above is here. Actually on the Asus forum site.

 

the easiest way to do it is an upgrade for vista. almost everything will work that way. and use dox 182.05 or 185.20(use vista compatibility) for video driver.

 

I didn't want to get rid of Vista just yet. I actually use XP Pro more than Vista but didn't know what I was getting into with W7 so I proceeded with caution. Currently my G50VT-A2 is tri-booted with Vista 64, XP Pro and W7 64.

 

When Asus gives us new drivers for 7 then I'll switch but I can't live without my function keys and my OLED display.

 

Rep for mr_milo!

I did the keyboard fix linked above to the ASUS forums and it does indeed work, but be sure to modify the registry to point it to Hcontrol.exe instead of Hcontroluser.exe!!!

Volume, mute, etc are functioning as they should, I will be testing out the rest of the buttons today.