ASUS G73SW Owners' Lounge

Hey guys I just got my G73SW-A1 a few days ago and I was thrilled. However, when I tried to turn it on yesterday, it refused to boot Windows and stopped at the ASUS sign! Now when I unplugged my two external hard disks from it, everything worked out fine. So can somebody tell me if this is normal because I didn't have this problem with my old laptops?

 

The Asus g73SW-XA1 from Amazon, is it true that it does not come with the backpack case and the mouse? Because it said it did on their website. They have removed it this week.!!!

 

It depends on which model you get. Some come with 1 yr warranty, some with 2yr.

You may want to check the boot order setting in the BIOS. If you have selected to boot from USB before internal hard drive, it would behave that way. I generally leave the internal hard drive first in the boot order unless I specifically want to boot from CD, DVD or external USB.

 

which ones come with 2 year warranty?

 

Thanks Phaeron but since I'm an idiot when it comes to these things would it be too much to ask if you told me how to do that

 

Yup, no backpack or mouse, was just a misprint on Amazon's part, though if you call in about it, you may get a discount.

And yeah, guess the XA1 only comes with 1yr warranty :\.

 

2 years for me, my credit card adds an extra year of warranty

 

On a routine visit to the website I ordered from, "Now in stock for next day delivery". I'm too excited about the glorious Monday or Tuesday coming up

 

My ASUS G73SW-3DE 's receipt shows that it haves a " Global Two Year Warranty + 1 Year ADP + 24/7 ASUS Support "

 

The BIOS is the bit the computer uses for basic hardware management, you have to get into it after the machine is turned on, but before it starts Windows. So make sure you've done all your reading before you try to get into the BIOS.

If you're messing about the BIOS it's a really good idea to understand what you're doing. So, try this short introduction from Tom's Hardware Guide:

Bios from A to Z | Introduction

Part 2 (on the same page) will tell you how to get into the BIOS. You need to know that the keypress to get into the "setup" screen for the G73 series is F2, and that you usually have only a very short moment in which to press these things - so keep your finger hovering over the key from the minute you press the ON button! Then keep pressing it until you get into the setup screen. Be prepared for some beeps - don't worry about them.

The next page, you can reach by clicking on the Next Page button or go to

Manipulating BIOS settings


Section 3 will show you the basic "front end" which most users see when they get up their BIOS screens (note to Dell users: this may not apply to you - Dell keep much of the BIOS hidden from end users)

Take a look at the screen where it has options for "Load Fail Safe Defaults" - this allows you to reset the BIOS to simple settings if you really muck it up. This can be very useful!

This page of the guide also shows you the most basic BIOS screen.

From there you need the Advanced Features, described here:

Key Settings

(Again you can use the link at the bottom of the previous page to get to page 3)

This page starts off with the bit you need to change the Boot settings - it's in section 5 "Establish Boot Order Priority" and that might be useful to you. Note that you can simply tell the machine to leave some devices out of the boot order all together. Take your external drives out of the listings altogether, unless you really want to boot from them.

Sometimes people want to have (say) a USB drive in their boot sequence, so that they can use a USB drive with a rescue set up, or even a complete Linux setup to get at the system when Wndows is totally fouled up.

You might find that you need the next page as well, since it starts with section 8 "Fixing Problems with USB".

DO read all of the first two pages, or you could end up messing up your BIOS, which can be a pain to put right. Either write down exactly what you want to do, or print out the pages on the site, unless you have a second computer to hand - you won't be able to see the site and change the BIOS at the same time.

There's lots more you can do via the BIOS, but for the most part you should leave it alone until you really need to change something. However, the rest of the stuff on the THG guide will give you an idea. To repeat, most beginners with great ideas and an urge to impress themselves try out changing BIOS settings which they ought to leave alone until they know what they're doing. This is particularly true with overclocking.

If you do manage to make a mess of things, you can manage to re-set the BIOS to fail-safe defaults with most computers. The exception to this is when you have tried to get clever with re-flashing the BIOS, or upgrading it. Even this is safer than it used to be, but should be avoided unless it's really necesary.

If you want to experiment, don't do it on a machine you need to work on. You can make life unnecessarily difficult for yourself. If you have a setup that works for you, then leave it be. Re-setting back to factory defaults will make the computer work again, but may lose you useful tweaks.

However, changing the boot order is a manageable task, and easy enough to restore if you get it wrong.

HTH

 

I got that one and it did NOT come with any backpacks, cases, our mouses.

I got the g73SW-XA1. Anyone elses' system fans stick on full? Is there any key combos or power settings that max out the fans and keep them there?

 

Thanks a bunch deeplyblue

 

Just received my parcel! super exciting. Did anyone else get ROG headphones in the box as well? I did, but I don't remember reading about it so far on this forum.

edit: included with the headphones is a separate clip-on microphone and what appears to be a headphone jack extender/volume controller.

edit2: I haven't noticed any windows install CD included - I'm running the recovery dvd process now, so I'm assuming that's all I've got to go on if i want to reinstall Windows... but then people have been installing it on their new SSDs! Witchcraft, I say.

 

I had to order the Windows 7 clean install DVD for an extra $15.00 . Well worth it to me .

 

I have a brand-new Windows 7 Ultimate that my father gave me... Can I clean install it and afterwards use the Recover CD just to install the drivers?

 

Ahh so it doesn't come as stock, that explains it!

On a rather different note, upon trying the overclock button at the top-left, it just seems to change the power management setting the same way that Fn+space does. I assumed that there would be some turbo mode.

Last one now. I'm assuming this is a solved problem, but when I try and play the 3D demo video in cineplayer it just shows as 2 side by side 2D videos, same issue in media player. The test on the nvidia setup works fine though so I'm guessing it's a software thing.

 

My 3DE is still stuck in the UPS ground black hole. What's the point of the tracking number if it just shows the day it shipped and then evaporates for 5 days? Seriously, NO activity since it left Cali on 3/16. I was really hoping for a magical early delivery, happens sometimes with UPS ground since there is some flux in their estimated shipping date, but doesn't appear so in this case. UGH tomorrow can't come soon enough!

 

Mine shows out for delivery which means it'll be delivered sometime between now and 7PM . So here I sit developing patience lol

The first thing that I'm going to do is adjust the Core Parking from inside Windows 7 . I read about how to do it from the forum .

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/494232-how-adjust-core-parking-inside-windows-7-a.html

Have you adjusted the core parking feature yet ? It put the computer more or less in turbo mode all of the time which does away with the little pauses that occur due to the second or two it takes to wake up one of the four cores ( power management ) .

 

May I asked where you ordered it from ?

 

You can do a clean install from your Ultimate DVD and then either use the drivers DVD that comes with the computer or just download all of the drivers from the Asus website . Another option is to upgrade your already installed Win 7 to Ultimate by just entering the Ultimate product key from within Windows . All of the versions are the same , the difference is which features are turned on . I believe this is correct anyway . I've been researching and reading and rereading posts and articles for weeks now in preparation for the delivery of my 73GSW-3DE today ( I'm now waiting on the UPS delivery man .

 

New Memeber Here.

Picked up G73SW-BST6 from Best Buy over the weekend. I'm not a gamer (play but not enough..) and wanted a 17" screen with new revison i7 chip.

So far so good.

WebCam is kind of crappy and I cant sem to find a place to play with settings. Was using it through skype and my kids 400 laptop has a better cam...

Anyways, I look forward to reading and learning from this forum.

Was the ASUS site down over the weekend?? I tried a ton of times to register this thing but was not working. (their site)

 

I ordered from Asus Laptops & Asus Peripherals available to buy direct - Asus Outlet, it's the best/only option for UK orders at the moment it seems.

 

OK, I just answered my own dumb question.

When trying to activate warranty through asus I was getting an error message saying my s/n was not valid (and it was). But today I just noticed they put in red at the bottom...

"These retailers are currently among the companies that do NOT participate in the ASUS 360 Notebook Service Program and Accidental Damage Warranty: Best Buy USA (stores and website), Best Buy Canada (stores and website), OfficeMax (stores and website), Staples USA (stores and website), Costco Wholesale (warehouses only), Microsoft (stores and website)."

 

Well mine just magically appeared as of 1pm at the central UPS site. Very unlikely that it will go out for deliver today, but you never know. I'm keeping my eyes on it but most likely it will come tomorrow morning judging by past experience. At least it's showing up in the system again, I hate watching no updates for 5 days straight!

 

I just did that now, nice tip - can see through task manager that all my cores are keeping themselves busy now. However I thought, from what I've read, that the overclocking button would take it beyond stock speeds. Or is that just made redundant in the new processors? It's slightly annoying having a button that doesn't have a specific function.

 

Good deal ! You've bypassed the Turbo button by setting it to run at 2.9GHz all the time instead of the 2.0GHz to 2.9GHz that the power management feature was using . The overclocking ( Turbo ? ) button now does nothing . I hope I've gotten that right . I'm a newbie with Windows 7 and Asus settings , my last notebook being a Dell 9300 with Windows XP SP3.

 

would be nice to get confirmation from another knowledgable person on this matter.

now, however, the problems start rolling in .

I used http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/380681-asus-utility-bloatware-guide.html to trim all the rubbish out of the C drive. A restart later and my keyboard lights aren't working - they come on briefly as the system is started, but then they're gone - Fn+F4 and the top left lights button don't aid the matter either. Furthermore, when Windows loads up I get 2 messages.

One is from Power4Gear saying "This program can only be executed on the ASUS computer.", while the P4G Windows gadget is greyed out.

The other is entitled "ATK0100 request" and says "You have to install ATK0100 driver".

Funny thing is I specifically didn't uninstall anything to do with ATK, only things that the bloatware guide above advised to get rid of.

 

I'm sorry to hear that . I ordered mine with a clean install of Win 7 so that I wouldn't run into those particular listed issues . I guess you could reinstall the last app ( along with Power 4 Gear ) that you uninstalled before rebooting ( did you reboot after each uninstall , it's a pain to do it but it's easier to trouble shoot ) . I know that I remember reading about the light issue but I don't remember where .

 

Does anyone notice how the sound turns off after a few seconds of playing something? Or even you can notice a small crackle right before a sound plays, like it's turning on again.

It's a pretty faint crackle/pop, but I can mainly hear it with my in-ear headphones so it may not even be that loud with regular headphones or its even more impossible with speakers.

 

After a bit of tinkering I've got it solved. Ended up being as simple as going to the asus support site and downloading the ATK package for an uninstall/reinstall. Ideally without downloading the 32bit one by accident.. what a wally.

Strange that that particular driver governs whether Power4Gear is able to run, but quite a relief that I could kill 2 birds with 1 stone.

 

I did that too. I just reinstalled the ATK program from the Asus website and it fixed the keyboard lights.

 

Fantastic !

I had a problem that sounds like what your experiencing on my Dell 9300 with WinXP and here's how I fixed it .

Go to the control panel , Sounds and Audio Devices , Sounds and disable the windows sound scheme (set it on "no sound") . You'll loose the ability to hear those annoying clicks ,dings , dongs etc. , they were causing some kind of interference for some reason . I found that I never did miss them myself . Anyway , it's just something to try .

 

Anybody know if there are any apps that come on the system that can't be downloaded/installed after a fresh system wipe? I'll make the recovery DVD's first and then I'm thinking of flattening it and putting win7 ultimate on but I'm not sure if it comes with any apps that I'd lose by flattening?

Tom

 

Has anyone gotten QuickSync to work? I read through the entire thread and saw someone mention this was not enabled with the i7-2630qm.

 

Just a heads up on a problem that I was having . the touchpad wouldn't work no matter what I tried . I uninstalled it and reinstalled the drivers over and over again and read and reread every post I could find trying to find a solution . It turns out that my wife solved the issue by just telling me to unplug the USB gaming mouse . Lo and behold it worked . For some reason Asus disables the touchpad whenever you plug ina USB mouse .

I've had several notebooks , Dell , Sony etc and this was a new one on me . Well back to installing my programs and games . I'm very impressed with the G73SW-3DE so far .

 

Thanks for the idea, but it didnt work. I found some more information about it, and it may be from nvidia downclocking. I need to disable powermizer and do some more testing, if not I may have to look into getting a replacement :\.

As for the touchpad thing, if you go into the mouse properties, then Device Settings, you'll see the option to untick about the pad being disabled when a USB mouse is plugged in.

@ silver x0ne

I think quicksync only works if the igp within the 2630 is enabled, and since this laptop doesnt have optimus, I dont think it will work. However, I'm not 100%, so someone correct me if I've got it wrong.

 

Thanks for the info ! I fell silly now , I can't believe I wasted over two hours on a wild goose chase . Oh well , live and learn ,

 

That is what I am thinking, real bummer because that would make me buy instantly.

 

The IGP may not be disabled, just not interfaced correctly.

 

Interfaced correctly or not, optimus is not enabled on the g73sw, therefor the igp and quicksync do not work. (nor will widi for that matter, which is the real bummer in my case)

 

I have a quick question , on all of our other notebooks we had On-Screen Display but it's not working for some reason on the G73SW-3DE .

I have a program called On-Screen Display of all things and I've installed it on four different notebooks and then I'd have the volume , mute etc displayed on the screen . I installed it on the Asus and it just doesn't work . I was pointed to a 64 bit version of the same type program put out by HP and again it installs fine but it just doesn't work .

Is there a work around to fix this little issue ? Thanks in advance for any assistance .

 

Got the new laptop this morning and have been burning the stupid restore DVD's, takes FOREVER (going on 2 hours now). Very anxious to flatten this bad boy and stick 7 ultimate on there. UGH.

 

I have been playing with my new G73SW-3DE for several days now. So far so good, had some minor issues, mostly worked out now. The on-screen display works fine on my machine. It runs cool, cpu at around 30C idle, GPU about 37, both will go just above 70 under stress test. It's quiet, but not as quiet as I thought, heard a lot about how quiet it was. The gpu fan is running almost all the time at about 2200rpm (from HWiNFO32) even temp only 37C. And the hard drive is kinda noisy. The screen is very bright, I use 20% brightness settings most of the time during daytime and 0% at night. The matte screen is definitely a plus. I changed the font size to 128dpi, 133% of the general 96dpi, I feel it's better than the default 125%, or 120dpi, it looks sharper.

This morning when I installed battery bar update, I accidently let it delete the file explorer.exe.config. I don't know how important that is, so far everything is fine. Can anyone help me check in windows folder if there is a file named "explorer.exe.config.backup"? I guess that was renamed by the battery bar installer. If so, I can rename it back to explorer.exe.config, right? The file contains these lines:

Thank you.

 

Ok Win7 Ultimate is loaded and seems to be running well, doing a windows update now. Anybody tried loading Firefox 4 yet? I happened to install it and it runs POORLY, I mean even keyboard input is delayed and screwy. Also I feel like the touchpad is a little wonky, seems like it randomly puts the cursor in random places. Maybe it will just take some getting used to. Machine is FAST though and I haven't even loaded any games yet. Also I compared the windows experience numbers with the stock build and after loading 7 ultimate from scratch and it went up a little bit, not sure why, could be newer drivers or something but that made it worthwhile in and of itself... Someone try firefox 4 and let me know if it's just me with issues. I loaded 3.6 and that works just fine...

 

Might it be worth using Asus' own OSD? I have a sneaking suspicion that Power4Gear runs it. I wonder if a non-bespoke OSD would wor correctly, what with the model-specific hotkeys like keyboard brightness and 3D mode.

 

Thanks for the suggestion . That was the first thing I tryed but after installing Power4Gear and rebooting it still wasn't working . So I then started trying other programs that have worked in the past . But alas , it's still not working .


Edited - Solution I remembered you or another forum member mentionig that the ATKPackage must be installed too . So I downloaded the new version and it gave me the option of uninstalling or fixing the version that came installed so like a dummy I choose fix and it then finished running and rebooted . Well it still didn't work ! So I then uninstalled it altogether and again rebooted and of course it didn't fix the issue . So I went ahead and installed the new version , rebooted and walla it works !!!

Man , it sure seems that everything you do results in the need to reboot . But the good news is that the G73SW only takes 14 seconds flat to be up and running again from the time I press the enter key after entering the bios password . On my Dell 9300 with a clean install of WinXP SP3 it took over 2 minutes . That's quite a difference .

I had problems with it too . I'm now using Namoroka version 3.6.2 , it's the 64 bit version of Firefox . I really like it . I've been using Firefox for years now .

I've made some of those too .

I was going to do some searching to find out for you though . I'm snowed under anyway trying to get all my stuff transfed over to the G73 wil doing some file deleting as I go . It's amazing what a lot of junk builds up after using the same computer for years .

 

Interesting that you also had problems. Not sure where the issue is but 3 is working perfectly so I guess I'll stick with that until they get the bugs worked out. They only just released it so I suspect they will likely have many bugs to work on until the dust from the initial release settles. Not a huge deal. This laptop is crazy fast, I'm very happy with it and it's utterly silent even when playing games. The only time it makes a racket is when the optical drive is in use, I'm not sure if they could have found a louder one! Luckily I don't use it often so it's a minor gripe. Otherwise so far so good, just getting used to the differences in layout of keyboard and trackpad but no buyers remorse at all at this point!

 

Sounds like that ATK package is pretty important!

Likewise, Firefox 4 seems pretty garbage for now. Looks like I'll have to go downgrade mine too!

Agreed! Coming from an Alienware M17x r2 this is a breath of fresh air - from way better value, to the build quality being pretty rock solid rather than Dell's flimsy, skewed, gappy attempt! Far lighter too, so it's not as much of a leg crusher, and definitely far less of a leg burner thanks to Asus witchcraft. And I'm sure there's no material nicer than what they've got on the back of the screen unit and on the touchpad. Keboard sag is less noticeable than the Alien, and the trackpad is bigger, more responsive, and has a much more practical edge around it too (no more stroking the palm rest and wondering why the mouse isn't moving!). The non-glare screen is beautiful, and from a bit of a blast on Just Cause 2, the 3D looks incredible - snow and explosions and guys flying out of crashing cars all have a much larger sense of realism

 

Hi!

When im connecting the notebook to my panasonic 3d plasma i cant see the edges of the desktop the tv cuts it. i tried it with several hdmi cables it was the same all the time. But when im connecting the notebook to my dell monitor via hdmi its good and no problem. Does anybody know any solution?

 

@popeccc : make sure your TV settings for image resizing are on scan-only (or something like original, or just scan).