ASUS G73SW Owners' Lounge

From what we have seen, the screen on the SW is actually the same that was on the JW model. There will be some "bleed" on these types of screens just as a nature of the technology. Some panels can be worse than others though.

 

If you get the hannstar panel then yes, there will be lots of bleed on the top and some on the bottom.

I got an XA1 that has the CMO panel, and besides the tiniest bleed on top, its great. Far better than when I had the JH with the hannstar.

Guess it just depends on if your lucky, I did have 2 JHs before ultimately returning them and the first panel was super bad, and second panel wasn't so bad, but still crazy noticeable if the screen was the least bit dark.

So Brett is right, it will vary among same panels, but pray to get the CMO as that seems to be super with not having any bleed while maintaining the great viewing angles, color reproduction and having great whites/blacks.

 

Hello NBR, I'm new here, and quite honestly a real noob. I will probably be asking what seems like silly questions. Please be patient as I haven't had a new comp in quite some time and a lot has changed.

I fell in love with the G73 when I first saw it whilst walking through a BB a few weeks ago. I bought my Viao from BB long ago. I am so glad I didn't plop down the cash for the BB model. Thanks to NBR! I ended up ordering the G73SW-XA1 from Amazon with free shipping. I play EVE-Online so patience isn't a problem lol.

I think it will be here tomorrow so I will have the weekend to mess around with it. Anyway, I'll report back with massive noobish questions soon. o/

 

Ok Damn..

Im considering buying the JW with HD+ panel instead.. Cous i havent heard that it would suffer from lightbleeding

 

glorious day!
finally got the email I've been waiting for, and I can now expect the machine (3de model) early next week. In my fervent wait period I've been all over this and other forums getting all the info I can to make the transition smooth. I've got just a few questions if anyone has the time/patience.
I've decided not going w/ the clean install for now and see if i can just uninstall the progs i don't care to hold onto. so i'm assuming all i really need to take care of upon arrival is driver updates. which ones would you all recommend as necessary right off the bat. I'm assuming the nvidia driver that's constantly updated concerning the 3d view. not sure if there's really any others of supreme signfigance, let me know if i'm forgetting anything.
also, the stereoscopic 3d that is controlled in the nvidia CP, is that running all the time, or does it only kick on when it recognizes a compatible game/movie?
also, does the movie have to be in 3d format? or does nvidia provide software that will post-process movies as well. I've heard tell of a few that exist, not sure if this is capable of converting movies on the fly out of the box.
what does the ATK driver control exactly, as that's been mentioned quite a bit as a problem sometimes.

sorry for the overload here, just crazy excited about this, feel like a 5 year old on christmas eve. i've already got my copy of Fallout NV unwrapped and waiting to go, this is going to kill me...

 

I've got my eye on this one:

G73SW-91136Z

which is described as having:

"17.3" Full HD 3D ( 1920 x 1080)"

Does that mean that it gets the superior screen? Anyone have any model numbers I could check online?

 

Yeah, 3D screen is the LG matte panel. I havent seen it personally, but I havent heard any backlight bleed complaints, or much complaints at all other than its really bright.

 

I've got a 3DE with the matte panel, and it's hella bright but no bleed that I've seen. In fact the screen is just perfect and honestly being bright shouldn't be considered a complaint as you can adjust the brightness and I'd MUCH rather have a screen that goes really bright than one that doesn't.

Tom

 

Hi

I just got this laptop (non 3d model)

I have a question:

In the bios or during post the keyboard is briefly illuminated and then it turns off again. And there is no way to turn it on my pressing the fn+F3-F4 keys.

The illumination comes back on when booted into windows.

Is there a way to fix this?

 

It's not a issue, you can only control the backlight of the keyboard in Windows.

 

Thanks, i didnt say it was a fault but merely wanted to know if it can be done

If I have a boot logon or post screen or want to operate the bios in the dark I'd like to set the keyboard to always be illuminated.

Maybe they could have added the option in the BIOS?

 

Yeah, Amazon told me it would be the first or second week of May. I was happy to get the "surprise it's on the way" e-mail too.

 

Hello guys
I got a problem with my Ac Power Adapter.
It don't work anymore. The led go on and off right away and don't work for a while. I need to keep it off for 30 min and then it do the same thing. If I turn it on in less the 30 min the led don't even turn on.
Is there a way to fix it? Has anybody ever seen this?
Tnx

 

Hey Ken, any update on the CPU upgrade pictures?

 

So, I have been planning on buying this notebook for a while to use for college and gaming (Oblivion mainly and Skyrim once it comes out). I was just wondering how long some of you owners think the lifespan on this laptop is, because as of now, I'd like to be able to use it for all four years of undergrad. Is that a realistic expectation? I realize it won't be able to play the most current games by that point, but should I expect that it will still be in working condition and free from catastrophic hardware failure in that timespan?

 

a laptops lifespan is not predetermined by brand or quality or even specifications though all of these can and may play a role. The #1 cause for a laptop to survive for 10 years or die a premature death is the user. The length of time the laptop is on directly affects how long it will live. There are ofcourse other factors like environment, type of use, travel use vs. sitting on your desk. there are many factors but #1 is you the user and how you treat the laptop

 

Well, I am more than a little OCD when it comes to taking care of my possessions. Generally it will be living on my desk in my dorm, although I'm sure I'll have to (carefully) carry it around at times; I'm unfortunately not currently sure if I'll have to bring it to any classes with me, but hopefully I won't. So, unless there is some sort of horrible accident, the only strain it encounters will be that of gaming. I plan to order from Amazon and noticed there is a three year warranty available for around $150 ($300 if I want one covering accidents). Maybe this is advisable considering how long I plan to use it? Regardless, perhaps it wasn't a very good question, but I just wanted to know if some users could realistically imagine using this laptop for 4 years or so without encountering significant problems.

 

Hey guys! I was recently hanging around in the MSI forums and i came across a scam...then i come across another website that i find too good to be true.
ASUS G73SW-XA1 Republic of Gamers 17.3-Inch Gaming Laptop (Dark [G73SW-XA1] - $900.00 : ets4all.com
So now I'm just confused and don't know what to trust anymore

 

@Iadad that domain was created 4 days ago. It's on a free webhost and the domain has private registration. It's a scam.

 

i love it. if dealers could sell these things with 70% markup i would be A gazilionare by now. it must not occur to people that most dealers function on a few % markup. Rarely are there oportunities to sell technology with a higher then 10% markup. if it seems like it is too good to be true then it always is

 

Hi all,

Just received my G73SW-A1 today! I was hoping someone could recommend a good, simple program for monitoring temperature/fans.

Thanks!

 

I like HWMonitor the most for temps, fans I forget which program actually read the fans correctly. But I mostly just pay attention to how loud it is for fan speed.

 

hey guys,
For the lag in the new browsers turn of the GPU rendering.
FF4 runs very smooth afterwards with me. no need to turn off 3d.
go to firefox-options-advanced-uncheck hardware acceleration.

this option worked for me so far. Only it is strange that this wasn't necessary before.
Maybe the lag will be fixed in the upcoming 270 driver?

 

Great tip, I'll have to try FF4 again with that setting. Has anyone done a bug report with the firefox dev's for this?

Tom

 

I ordered mine from xoticpc and those guys are awesome. I just never trust a reseller I can't find copious reviews on, and theirs are all glowing. Upgraded my HD's thru them, they've held my hand the whole way, can't go wrong there for the price I think

 

I see that Xotic is out of stock of the 3DE as well as Amazon.ca where I ordered mine yesterday. Any idea how long these shortages generally last?

Did you add any options to your system? I'm wondering if the $75 thermal paste upgrade is worth it. (free with CPU upgrade). I didn't originally upgrade the drives as it's not an option at Amazon, but now giving an SSD/HDD combo consideration if I cancel at A and go with X.

edit: also a $57 mailing charge to Canada with Xoticpc that I have to consider, though the 3% cash discount offer would more than offset that.

 

My XA1 came today! My question is should I update windows and drivers before I make the recovery disks?
I can't wait to install EVE, I've been playing too long with 3.5-10 FPS that I just couldn't take it anymore!

 

The 3DEs are out of stock everywhere. Xotic told me they should get more in 2-4 weeks, and that was on April 4th.

 

@QUMOKO congrats!

The Ai Recovery Burner will just take what is on the hidden recovery partition and put it onto a DVD set. Unless you are using a different backup utility your windows installation shouldn't make a difference.

 

Stupid comment/question #101:

I was planning on burning my recovery discs to CD's. I don't if it is correct but I recall reading somewhere that CD's are more reliable than DVD's. Any thoughts/comments?

 

I've never heard that anywhere.

 

Agreed, use DVD's, if you are concerned burn 2 sets just to be safe.

 

Thank you, I will go ahead with it and then do the updates.

Aww, the AI Recovery Burner will not burn anything. I spent two hours trying, so I did the update driver disk and everything went on except the AI recovery update. It also kept telling me I need the ATK0100 Driver. The only things I've done is cut it on, switch IE to Firefox and install antivirus lol. Any ideas? is there another way to burn recovery disks without the AI?

 

Here you go :

 

I changed out the stock HD's to x2 750's ( I didn't like the reviews of the stock HDs w the ssd portion. Lot of Newegg reviews were subpar, w issues mentioned. I'm always wary of the first attempt of a new technology )

Also got upgraded intel wifi card, downgraded bluray to just the player to save money, as I don't forsee actually buying blurays to burn (I'm done w physical media) and paid for the xoticpc guys to over clock the system, as I'm a novice at it and like the idea of it still being covered by warranty as opposed to me burning the system out.

Didn't get the upgrade cooling paste as the system runs so cool anyways and I stuck w stock processor.

I had ordered mine from xotic near the end of march and they told me the same, but I got a call maybe a week later that I made the list. Think it's just hit or miss, showing up in spurts.

Hate to say it but the tragedy in Japan could play a factor as they produced a large majority of parts, I had read a few times it's affecting all sorts of industries just now, from phones to cars and everything with a chip in-between

Think you gotta pull the trigger and hope for the best, or I just got lucky

 

quick qeustion,
I am having 9 programs running on the desktop and my physical memory never goes over 2.6gb of usage.
Is this normal?

 

Hey guys have any of you found that the G73SW has abnormally high powered usb 2.0 ports.

I have a 7200RPM Seagate momentus 750GB that battles to run on some PC's even using both ports on the Y cable, forget just one port it would just make a noise...

But on the G73SW I plugged it into one port and it started and works fine!
I almost feel that this isn't right, can this be safe?

 

i am still having no luck with the usb 3.0 port - is anyone else having any problems ? i guess i will have to drop it off at asus and let them have a look at it - they already gave me a replacement computer - i am sure the asus tech guys are better then from the store i bought it from and hopefully they can fix it

 

My USB 3.0 wasn't work too. I just uninstalled it from Device Manager, rebooted the NB and everything was good!

 

I am lost. My brand new G73 won't make a backup, I've tried using the AI burner with many different disks and it just sits there counting down the hours without doing anything. Windows won't let me make a backup of the OS drive (it only wants to backup an empty partition). I feel like I can't try anything until I get that done. I used the driver installation disk that came included. everything but splendid and live update installed. Now all of the Fn keys won't work and the speakers pop loudly when I click on certain things in windows. When I reboot it keeps saying "install ATK0100" and "this is only for asus computers". I downloaded the only ATK driver I could find on the asus website and that didn't fix anything. I've searched everywhere about the ATK bug, I don't even know where it's stored on the computer. And BIOS stuff, I'm not ready for any fooling around in there. I just wanted to get everything going stock until I felt more comfortable with the G73 enough to go deleting this and installing that. I'm new to windows 7 and everything. I just want to play games on this thing. I don't want to send it back and wait a month to get another one that might do the same thing. I am sorry for writing a wall but, I don't know any tech savy people to ask in person. if anyone here could help me I would greatly appreciate it.

 

Awesome thanks Ken, you are right that doesn't look that bad.

Tom

 

Good news! I got the ATK package working somehow. \o/ for keyboard lights.

Right now I'm not worried about the recovery disks, I guess if all else fails one day I can figure out how to use the recovery partition lol.

Sorry about my QQ rant earlier. It was really frustrating not knowing what to do. I apologize for that. Sadly there might be more in the future.
Now it's time to DL EVE and play in HD! I'm not going to worry about Nvidia drivers just yet >.>

 

CDs just won't work.

 

Hello everybody, first time over here on the ASUS side of the forum, so I will admit I know nothing about this brand.

What brings me here is that the HP 17" Envy (2nd gen) is not available is Australia; however, this model of Asus is - Asus G73SW-A1-BD here - Best Deal 4 You

Does anyone have any comments on this model? What upgrade options should I definitely get?

How about this sales line "---NOTE: This i7-2630QM is up-to/OVER 30% Faster than I7-840 3.2GHz 8MB CPU!!!---" is that true?

Thanks for all comments & suggestions, John

 

Since this is the G73SW thread, you can sit and read through all the posts here, since most of them comment on this laptop.

Since it was designed for the new Intel Sandy Bridge generation of processors, it should be faster than earlier machines. For how much faster it is you'll have to check out the benchmarks for yourself, try Anandtech

Anandtech review of Sandy Bridge range of processors

There's doubtless stuff on Toms Hardware site - google the site plus "G73SW"

The new Sandy Bridge range of processors were largely recalled by Intel after a problem emerged with the supporting chipset. There are now machines available (some of the time, some places) and mostly these are the new range with the working chipset. If you see any SWs going very cheaply, then they may be old ones with the dodgy chipset.

As for upgrades, it depends on the the base configuration which a supplier is selling - they are far from being all the same.

I would make sure that I had 8 MB of RAM, at least 1TB of HD and the fastest graphics card you can get into the machine. I wouldn't bother with RAID, since I am still dubious as to its value in a consumer laptop, however I might splash out on an SSD hard drive for the OS. Depends on your cash really. Do make sure that you have a 64-bit OS, since you won't get any extra use out of 8MB rather than 4MB without 64-bits.

I also hear that the SD screens are a mixed bunch, so I will be going for the extra money you pay for an HD screen, which is less glossy but a better built screen than the others.

I shall probably try for Windows Ultimate - but that's just me, it probably counts as go-faster stripes.

The laptop is still having some issues which sound like they are driver-related, but you always get that with a new technology machine. You may need to tinker about with it, and should factor that in to your time calculations.

People who have bought the new G73SW are generally very impressed by the machine, though there are quite a few frustrated by the teething problems. There are some grumbles about the low quality of the webcam, but almost everyone is wowed by how cool and how quietly these machines run even when hard gaming. This is one of my considerations, since over-heating has been a major feature of my relationship with my current laptop (an Acer Ferrari). The quality of the HD screen has impressed most owners.

I'm unconvinced by the layout of the keyboard, but someone sells a replacement which might do if I really need it. Others say the touch is odd, but you get used to it.

Some places are giving away a backpack and/or mouse with the machine - I suspect that they quality of both may curb your enthusiasm for both. Budget for a mouse to match the quality of the display (at least if you are a gamer - and this one really is aimed at gamers).

Pricing is a local issue.

BTW I've modified your message, as bright blue bold type is easily overdone - you don't need to wear a funny hat and use a megaphone to get an answer round here.

 

Thanks for the very through and informative reply, sorry about the megaphone text!

Now, I did find the free backpack & mouse on fleabay listing, Australia that is, at reasonable price and with 256 SSD + 750 HDD; can you tell me, does the CPU description of 2630QM indicate the 2nd gen chip set without the problem or do they have to indicate that separably?

Thanks again

 

Hi John - I'm fairly new here as well and not good at the numbers game when it comes to rating processors. CPU Benchmarks doesn't show a [email protected] so I don't know how you would compare it to the i7-2630QM which ranks #37 on this list.

PassMark Intel vs AMD CPU Benchmarks - High End

"Up to/Over 30% faster" leaves a lot of room for interpretation but if the claim is true, it would likely place the 840 somewhere between #60 and #90.

What's interesting is the relation between the CPU's available for the Asus G73SW.

2630QM - #37 (standard)
2720QM - #19 (+$400)
2820QM - #17 (+$580)
2920XM - #15 (+1,110)

It appears from these numbers that if you want to upgrade the CPU, the best bang for the buck is the 2720QM. Like you, I was considering the Envy 17 but after researching the pros and cons of the Envy and Macbook Pro, I decided that the G73SW better suits my needs. Besides, it looks so damn !

Regarding the earlier problems with the chip set, the updated version being produced now will have a "New Revision" sticker on the laptop.

Cheers ~ Kelly

edit: HP vs Asus

http://photos.macnn.com/news/0911/squaretradenov2009-lg3.jpg

 

Any fixes for the webcam so far?

 

Kelly, thanks for very informative post, my seller reassures me that there is a sticker on the laptop I'm buying. It has the 2820 chip and a 256 Samsung SSD, if that's not fast, I don't know what would be?

RE: your edit, wow, we went from one end of the scale to the other in a good way!

I get my G73SW tomorrow so I'm an official member of this thread now.

 

Hi Snowman,

I was about to link to another Aussie online dealer and while searching for his address in Whirlpool I found that you have just posted a message in the same thread, so I'm assuming that you are already aware of Logical Blue One - ASUS G73SW-A1 Gaming Notebook he is just slightly cheaper than your other dealer, and also very active on Whirlpool.

Cheers,
John

Whoops too late, forget what I just wrote