Asus G53JW (A1 & 3DE) Owners' Lounge

Let us know how long it takes just to get an idea since you're the first person to RMA a G53 that posts here. I'm crossing my fingers for you

I wonder if you can get special treatment since it's quite new. Make sure to mention that in your phone conversation and see what they say.

 

My first G73JW has issues from the first boot, blue screen while installing windows, i manage to get by the install like in 3 resets, but it continue to have blue screen and really slow boot times, my guess was a defective hdd, i didnt took a chance and return it for a new one, the second worked great from the start, installed fine boot and all operations seem normal, but i didnt test it too much, i swap to ssd and to my old reliable 500gb, everything is working great atm. I think this 750gb drives might be fine, but my guess is asus had a huge demand and got the first batches, so idk i just dont trust this drives.

 

for everyone wondering about how to turn on the backlit keyboard at log in... Just click the LIGHTS ON/OFF button twice... and voila!

thats the only way soo far...

I'm trying to do a reg edit for the lights, but it involves tricking the os into having a non existent fingerprint scanner.... Omg, just realized, I can tie it with the asus smart log on instead!

back to the drawing board....

 

does everyone have -
"e-Driver" program preinstalled on there computer

does it update other drivers too ?

 

I ran the ATK driver and no luck.

This info did not turn up in a search, and I cannot tell what driver (if not the ATK) I should be installing, so any further help getting my keyboard lights back on would be appreciated.

 

@Custom
Try pressing FN + F4 to adjust the brightness of the keyboard

 

hmm...
installing the atk drivers after a reboot should have fixed the problems...

 

make sure the "all lights" button at the top left is pressed...

 

Success, thank you!

 

Mine is arriving in a few more hours..!!

It's arrived..!!!! Yayyyy!

 

My computer will be picked up by fedex tommorow for RMA.
As a side note... anyone's GPU heatsink have heaps of thermal compound seaping out???
This does not look normal to me....

 

They put to much?

@Custom
Glad that fixed your problem

 

That looks like what others have shown in dis-assembly videos. The heatsinks rest pretty far above the cores, and instead of using thermal pads Asus has increased the amount of thermal paste so that it fills the space adequately. The unfortunate side effect is that it oozes out a bit around the edges.

Heat transfer wise there's been some debate so far, but I don't mind the current setup. I'd rather have thick paste than thermal pads, which I haven't found to be particularly useful at dissipating heat.

 

Yeah ordered this beast finally.. cant wait to have it in my hands.. Ordered through Xotic PC, it says Phase 1, can anyone who ordered from xoticpc give a rough estimate of when this beast will be delivered??

 

Ulags did you order a 2nd hard drive?

 

i didnt... xoticpc doesnt have the brackets and so got an external 500gb hdd

 

my spacebar is squeaking and it sounds its giving a sound that is similar to that of the extending of lead in a mechanical pencil.

 

oh ok.. im still waiting for the brackets.. they're taking so long to at least have an ETA I'm tempted to just have it sent to me first without the 2nd bracket

 

Just posting to subscribe to this thread as I am a proud owner of this beast now. Ordered mine through ebay got default config very cheap but will upgrade myself in future. For those who compromize bcoz second HDD brackets availability problems.. Guys come on powernotebook is shouting out 2nd hdd brackets are available... and xotic and pnb rates are almost similar.. I found them very co-operative and responsive but cudnt buy from them as I am from France and found customs and shipping too expensive. besides no paypal makes life diffuclt.

Another seller I recommend is hidevolution less options for customization but very co-operative seller accepts paypal for intl buyers. Responds faster when contacted through ebay than his own site ... but good price and recommended for international buyers. upgrade to hybrid drive is only 65 where as PNB and xotic charge arnd 130+ no clue if they deliver the original 750gb along with laptop if upgraded to hybrid. anyways... will keep in touch for more.

 

Just beat black ops on this beast. Never thought I would be able to do that on a laptop. Only complaint I have so far is that while playing it does get pretty hot right around the area where the Microsoft product key info sticker is. Has anyone else seen this?

 

Just a quick question about some benchmarks from the first post.

Should I be concerned about my texture fillrate? I just got my G53JW-A1 and ran GPU-Z 0.4.8. In the XoticPC screenshot, it's 28.4 while mine is 20.9. I do have a newer driver installed, 260.99.

 

Oh i got one with the 2nd hard drive
it works fine tho its not the original bracket

so all the people scared dont worry get it with 2nd hard drive
i feel its worth it when you tell the reseller to do it for you

they know what they are doing

 

the toughest job in this world is to wait for something you are crazy about .. Am in india! I should wait till my brother staying in US getS it and then sends it through his friend who is coming to india for christmas.. Lol

 

You speak the truth brother. And so the story goes and I let my patience get ahead of me lol. I just asked Brett from XoticPC to start the customization phase for my laptop which he says will take about 3-7 business days and then it will be sent to me. I just got really disappointed with how ASUS is handling this. The resellers don't even have news on when the 2nd hdd brackets are coming. I figured I have experience with tinkering with desktops, I'm sure laptops aren't that much different (it's just that I haven't tried that yet). Oh well, wish me luck!

I think only powernotebook is has it available for some reason. Everyone else doesn't.

As seen in this consecutive posts by paladin44(Donald from Powernotebooks) and Justin@XoticPC. http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...53-smaller-version-g73jh-401.html#post6900705

 

Well I'm having a nightmare problem, after installing nvidia driver 260.99 and installing a usb vga adapter...

- Zune software displays all black
- Skype can't start my webcam
- Java 6 keeps failing (Any Java apps/dev kits, even installations)
- Youtube full screen won't work, must shut off hardware acceleration.
- Playing any videos (from VLC or WMP) won't work... only sound
- Can't view pictures using Windows Picture Viewer (Stuck at "Loading")

I mean it's pretty obvious that it's the nvidia driver... but anyone had any of these issues before?

 

Hi everyone,

I'm thinking about buying this laptop but I need to upgrade it with 12GB of RAM and add a SSD as second drive.

The problem is, I just arrived from France to Canada (Montreal precisely) and so far, I couldn't find a company here like XoticPC to sell me an upgraded version of this computer. I'm looking for a canadian company because the import taxes are outrageous here...

I'm wondering maybe somebody know a company like XoticPC but from Canada?!

It would help me a lot,
Thank you for your time,
Best Regards.

 

Actually, there are no import taxes for bringing a laptop into Canada, there are only the same taxes you would pay if you were to buy it locally.

 

What do you mean about "same taxes"? For example, when I get a price on XoticPC after a customization does include the taxes you are talking about or does it not?

 

No, it will not include taxes. You pay the same taxes at Customs that you would pay if you were buying it locally in Canada...

Importing from the US to Canada does not cost you any more in taxes than if you were to buy it locally in Canada. Therefore your statement that "I'm looking for a canadian company because the import taxes are outrageous here..." is not true.

 

@Paladin44: Are you the owner of PowerNotebooks.com?

 

I got mine from NCIX.com. You can also try pccanada.com or canadacomputers.com. None of these sites however do custom work.

Since you're in Montreal you'll need to order them all from online so, like paladin44 mentioned, you could easily purchase it from XoticPC.com which would be great if you want some customization.

 

Guys i have ordered the a3 version and upgraded the hdd to 500 gig drive.. A Member of Xoticpc mailed me that since i have changed the primary hard drive, my hdd do not have a recovery partition now.. What does this mean?

 

Thank you for your advice. My problem is I don't understand how taxes work here...

I bought two things since I'm here, both came from the United States (a pair of Nike tennis shoes and a package with a scarf and a hat from Abercrombie&Fitech). For the first one I'd to pay the UPS guy about 10-15% of the amount I paid on the website corresponding to I don't know what and for the second one I didn't have to pay anything...

Since if I do the upgrades I want for this laptop, 15% of the total amount represent about 300$, I'd like to know if I'll have to pay this amount or not...

Can somebody explain me how it works and if I pay the 1800$ + shipping fees XoticPC ask for this laptop with the upgrades, will it be all I'll have to pay?

Thanks a lot,
It might be easy for you but I have to admit I'm a little confused here...

 

BTW, i was thinking of reformating the laptop to get rid of the bloatware and of course to partition my drive since it only has one drive where windows is installed..does the asus drivers disk have the installer for P4G? i was hesitating on reformating it coz i might lack some of the necessary software for this notebook as mentioned a while ago.

need your help guys! this is my first laptop and i just want to be extra careful with it..haha

 

I am one of the owners of PowerNotebooks.com, yes.

 

Hey,

I've almost made my decision about buying this computer with my Canadian taxes problem

I'll buy the original version and do the upgrades by myself (RAM + 2nd SSD hard drive).

I'm planning on buying 8GB (2*4) to get a total of 12 (2*4 + 2*2) but I can't figure out what type of DDR3 SO-DIMM 1333Mhz it is... Is it PC3-10600? PC3-10660? PC3-10666...

Does somebody could tell me this please?

 

I'm not quite sure but i think paladin44 answered that already about taxes in previous posts where you just pay local tax.

I don't order many things from the states though so not really sure how customs works either.

 

You might have to pay Customs chargers.

 

Is anyone else REALLY disappointed by the really bad display that only has a 166:1 contrast ratio? Even though it is FHD, it is still really pallid.

 

My display looks good to me. I have very little light bleed from the top or bottom when the screen is positioned correctly, and the colors look fairly vivid. I've played left4dead2 over the past couple weeks, which has some dark areas, and have had nothing but a great experience across the board. I cant say I thought about the screen a single time.

I wouldn't re-format just for bloatware since there is little on the system, but I understand it might be a easy option if you are already adjusting the partitions. I cant remember if the P4G is on the driver dvd but would be surprised if it wasnt. Also, in the worst case scenario Windows 7 has largely the same options under the advanced power settings.

 

Hi there, I bought my sager from xoticpc, and also live in Canada. To break it down for you you will have to pay xoticpc for;

1. The laptop
2. The shipping (get the Express shipping to avoid brokerage fees)

Upon arrival of the package UPS will request either cash or credit for PST + GST on the US price of your package. keep in mind they do not accept debit and will not release the package w/o payment.

You may want to look at:
Reflex Notebook Canada - Your Source for Sager Notebooks and Laptops in Canada

They do not offer customization of the G53JW but you can set up a Sager there, they ship from Canada.

 

Hey guys is the g53 screen most worse when compared to other laptops? Is it a deal breaker?

 

I would say no. The G53 screen is a great screen. Very bright and reading is excellent.

 

What is contrast ratio? Notebookcheck reviewed g53 with contrast ratio 166:1 while g73 is 976:1.. Does this mean g73's screen is 8 times better than the g53? If so why would asus want to equip a high end gaming notebook with a 'not-so-good' screen while its big brother has a better screen?

 

It isn't exactly 8 times better, but 976:1 is pretty damn good for a screen, while 166:1 is even worse than the G72GX.

I don't have any idea why the screen is so bad either.

 

Contrast ratio is the relative ratio of brightest white to darkest black, and the numbers are generally not usefull because they can be skewed in either direction.

As two examples. Say you compare two monitors by measuring the luminance at full brightness and black. One gives you a value of black:1 White:100, while the other is black:0.5 White:100. The contrast ratio for the first set is 100:1 and the second is 200:1. That doesn't mean the second set is 'twice as good' as the first, it means the blacks are slightly better.

As a second example start with the same Black:1 White:100 set. Now pit it against some insanely bright monitor that is Black:1 White:1000. The contrast ratio for the new set is 1000:1, but that number isn't really useful since max brightness will likely fry your rods and cones when viewing from 3 feet away.

People like contrast numbers because they want simplicity, but they can easily be manipulated and often oversimplify to the point of losing information. Personally, I would look at absolute black levels as well as color gamut and use those for your reference, since I have yet to find a monitor that won't go bright enough for regular use. By that scale the G53 isn't great - its not a problem at all for me but there are certainly much better panels out there.

 

wow got it. thanks guys +1 rep. and am having a lenovo y460 now. you think i would be disappointed with the g53 screen?

 

The screen won't blow you away, but I also didn't feel it was inferior in any way when I first booted up.

Coming from your y460 you'll probably appreciate the increased resolution (you're getting about double the amount of pixels) but you might be surprised at the light bleed from the top/bottom. This can be largely mitigated by adjusting the screen to the sweetspot, but I'll admit if you lean forward or backwards too much you'll start to notice it. On any content that doesn't involve largely black screens you won't notice any deficiencies and the brightness if very good - I had to turn it down three notches from max to keep from hurting my eyes in the evenings.

 

Is a laptop cooler needed for the G53JW? I read that the two heat vents are actually angled up so will the laptop cooler actually benefit the laptop?

 

Nope, you won't need a cooler at all.

I've gamed on my lap when I owned it for 6hrs~ without feeling heat, since the vents are positioned on a slightly high angle, which prevents leg burning.

As for screen comparison, although I did enjoy the G53's and as a poster mentioned above, I did not feel inferior with the G53 screen. However, I will say that the screen in my sig is significantly better than the G53. I would rate the G53 as "slightly above average". The brightness level is imporant to me and I found the G53 had a very good level of it. If you're looking for a really, really good screen, consider the one in my sig. Ken (GenTech) also posted a YT video that has the G73 / G733DE side by side and you'll notice the difference.

I wouldn't worry too much about the G53 ...It's a great machine and I had 0 disappointments.