Asus G53SW Owners' Lounge

Wash your hands before using your laptop? Just kidding, sorta. Honestly I don;t know, I've never tried to clean the touchpad.

 

yeah you can't remove it even with windex. not really much of an issue just a bit unsightly.

@ dragonwolf - TuneUp Utilities full version was going $15 cheaper a couple of days ago. Think i missed out on that oppurtunity. Guna get the whole version when my trial expires. Great program - cheers.

 

For Tuneup Utilities, that sucks on the deal, and I was going to buy another copy for my old laptop (see signature) oh will. As I've said about my self and friends when we miss out on a deal, "You snooze, you lose." lol. Yeah it is a great program once you learn your way around it. Maybe they will put it on sale again before your trial is up, how much longer do you have? I'll just wait until it goes on sale again, my old laptop has been running without it for long enough I think I can wait. lol. Good luck and if you need help concerning Tuneup, don't hesitate to pm me or even ask here, since others may be wondering also.

 

I have four days left on the trial. If it runs out and it is still at full price I will probably still buy it. Thanks mate.

Just a quick question about battery life if anyone knows. I feel that my battery is running out quicker than when I bought it. When the battery is fully recharged you are supposed to remove the power cord right? I try my best to do this every time but sometimes I do go over a bit.

What was the original battery time of the laptop supposed to be? Is there a program or somehow I can check if my battery is running out quicker?

Thanks again.

 

Yeah whenever your computer is fully charged you should unplug it or remove the battery and keep the chord.

As fir a program to check your battery capacity you can download everest (I think it's called AIDA64 now) from here. To check your battery capacity with it expand the 'Computer' category, then go to Power Management. What you're interested in is:
1. Designed Capacity: how much power your battery originally could hold.
2. Fully Charged Capacity: how much power can your computer currently hold when it's charged at max.
3. Wear Level: Basically an indication of how screwed up your battery is (lower is better) (mine's at 70% btw, which sucks) You can actually lower this by fully charging your battery, then fully emptying it a few times.

 

Battery time is a little over 3 hours. Actually running a battery constantly will reduce it's charge faster. I have a 3 year old laptop that still get it's full charge only because I run it down once a month. Contrary to popular belief, batteries today and even from about 5 years ago DON'T suffer from memory charge (example: charging at 75% makes the battery think that 75% is the new 100% thus losing charge) and stop charging when they are full. In another words, no it won't ruin it keeping it plugged in. What will shorten the life span is using it constantly. Batteries have whats known as charge cycles. Usually 500 or so. This means after roughly 500 charges they start losing their capacity. Which means roughly a year and a half if you do this daily before your battery starts wearing out. Compared to the 3 years I'm still getting out of my original battery and I only lost about 10-15 mins at max from the original timing. (I still get over 3 hours battery life on my secondary system). The best thing to do: 1.Use the battery when you need to, 2. Once a month run it dead or until Windows forces you to shutdown due to low battery then fully recharge. (Number 2 is important to prolong the battery life)

My friend has lost his battery life span by not following these "rules". He would run is laptop on battery as much as he could, even when there was a power outlet. I tried warning him and now after just one year his 6 hour battery is down to 2 hours. He has changed nothing else keeping his laptop running like new except for the battery. Needless to say, he'll be replacing his battery soon. If I can find where I read this I will post a link for battery maintenance. Otherwise, it's up to the owner, but I follow those "rules" I stated: Use only where needed, run down once a month to condition and enjoy a far longer battery lifespan. Again it's up to the user, but I have had good luck running mine like this and feel you will too. Hope that helps.

 

Wow. Ok well that pretty much contradicts exactly what i thought or was doing. So you are saying I can leave the cord in when it is 100% charged and not have to worry about it as long as I let it run to 0% once a month?

im at work now - don't know whether or i should plug it on or not haha. because anyone i have asked about it has always given the opposite response to you. what you are saying makes sense though.

lucasc i am download that program now. will let you know how it goes.

Edit: Ok well -

Designed Capacity: 72800
Fully Charged: 71470
Wear Level: 1%

So I guess i was wrong. Then again i only bought the computer a few weeks ago so I am not sure if this is normal or not.

You guys rule with your programs - this one is good too. What else can it be used for?

Cheers.

 

I run it down at least once a month as well. I use mine mainly at home from the table. Most of the time, I'll remove the battery at 65% charge when it is connected to the power outlet. I've read that is the best percentage to store your battery in.

Anyone mind sharing what type of setting they are on for Grand Theft Auto? Thanks

 

You can do what you want, I've just had a lot of laptops and have done this from the start. The part that I find contradicting is, heat a a battery's worst enemy right? Will when you use it, it will heat up some from use, then once it's dead you have to charge it, in which it heats up again from charging. Wouldn't this contradict the unplug it and plugging it in? If heat is the issue then it would run the battery down faster. Also the charge cycles that I mentioned before. Especially in the newer laptops, say from 2000 to present they cut off charging when full. You will notice also your laptop power brick is at one of it's hottest moments (not counting gaming) when your using your laptop and charging your battery at the same time, that's because the power adapter is trying to do 2 things.
As for the program, the best thing to do is run your battery down until windows shows critical battery, then charge it all the way until it no longer shows charging. Then run the program again. If you've done this already chances are the program is right on that 1%. After all no battery keeps perfect, especially if your using alot right from the start. It will show a little wear. As for what to do now? Not to sound bossy or however you may take it, but I suggest to follow the "rules"I set for myself. 1. Use when needed, 2. Do a full discharge and recharge cycle once a month. Up to you, but again I stand by what I do as I've had quite a few laptops and every one of those ran by those "rules" and are still running close (within 10-15 mins difference) then they were 5 years ago. I sold them off (incidentally someone brought one back to me to install some more ram and it was still running at near full capacity, they told me they were following all the "rules" including others concerning pc maintenance, he also happened to be the first one who used Tuneup (2006 version) that was installed by me. Has been very happy. Just wanted a little boost in ram before he gave it to his daughter.) So his laptop is also a testament to what I have been saying. That and taking care of your computer and it'll take care of you (won't cook or clean or anything, but you know what I mean). Ultimately, I always treat my laptops and desktops like I would a human, Don't throw it, keep it clean, use a surge protector, perform monthly maintenance by doing a full overhaul of it, taking it apart and such to clean it (In a laptop's case I would just open the bottom panel and blow some compressed air into it as a whole. Also personally, once the warranty is up on my laptop's I will do a re pasting of the cpu and gpu heatsinks. Only do so if the warranty is up as your WILL void your warranty when you do this. It'll last you a long time if you follow. It seems like a lot, but only if you make it so. Hope this helps and if you need more help, we are all here for you. (I'm sure I'll need help more then enough times myself.) Lol

 

Hey dragonwolf,

Just bought TuneUp Utilities - discount price

At the moment I am using my notebook plugged with no battery in it. Took it out when it was at 65% like der-kaiser said. You reckon thats a good idea? At the moment I am probably over paranoid about wearing it out hehe. I'm guna try and only use the battery when i have to.

What's a surge protector? Don't really feel comfortable with taking it apart either or opening any panels.

Ugh stilled pissed about my touchpad button. Just when i think i'm out they pull me back in.

 

Anyone having graphical issues with their laptop after service pack 1 of Win 7? After updating, Nvidia Drivers keep crashing and I will be stuck with a pink grapical blocky image in certain areas as well as the top of my menu bar, where the "Close" "Min/Max Window" and Minimize Window buttons are will be like a yellow tint. I was running stock drivers then updated to Asus's, which while not the newest, I don't feel brave enough to do the hack for the newest updated drivers. After some checking I guess others are having this issue, not everyone, but it seems to be related to SP1. Mind you it's not from our laptop, it's general, but I was wondering if anyone else here has had any problems, as they say the best thing to do is not install SP1 until this has been resolved. Hope Asus releases a driver update soon.

I never really pulled my battery out, that and I see a possible problem with leaving it at 65%, what if you lose power or you go someplace, (in my case class, and need more then the 65%? Also another issue with power, what if your doing something important and lose power before you have saved. Honestly, I'm paranoid, but my personal opinion is pulling the battery is even more paranoid, (No offense to anyone who does it). Honestly I think your be fine leaving it in. As I stated before, they stop charging once they are fully charged. So there is no risk of overcharge. Either way is fine, but the way I do it is I guess you could say more prepared in the event I need my battery now. I kind of look at it this way, my laptop battery is pretty much a portable UPS (Uninterruptable power supply, its safe how it is, if power goes out I won't lose all my data) It also allows my laptop to run wherever I go. (if for a short while.) Again, I stand by my way, but I don't really see any Major issues with pulling it out either, other then the small ones I listed that I personally couldn't deal with. It comes down to a personal opinion really. As either way will allow the battery to last, I just like my way because my battery is there fully charged and ready for me when I need it. The ball is in your court now, you can do what you choose, I really don't think your hurt anyone's feeling with whatever you choose. But do what you want because it is your laptop. Don't try to please anyone, if you like my idea, do it, if you like der-kaiser's idea, do it, if you come up with your own do it. This is all about learning.

 

I just got my lovely G53SW today! I am loving it.

What should I download from ASUS support?

 

Hey mate,

You have made your point well! I would prefer obviously to leave my battery in for the reasons you said, so thats what I will do. So yeah just for the record - gunna leave my battery in at all times and charging and I won't forget to do a full recharge every month. Boo to that computer tech who once told me doing that would ruin my battery. Thanks for all your help DW. Peace.

 

My G53SW came in today and I love it! It runs all of the games I play at full HD and maxed out video settings without a stutter I do have one issue that I can't seem to figure out though. It takes the laptop a good 2 minutes to start up for some reason. It was doing this before I removed all of the bloatware and it's doing it now even after I have removed most of it. I tried a selective startup and disabled anything from starting with windows but it still takes forever to start... Has anyone else experienced something like this?

Update: I just used the recovery partition of the hard drive to set everything back to factory default and that seemed to fix it.

 

Thanks for the recommendation. I'm gonner give this a try as well. What should we be looking to do after installation? Are there any settings you recommend? thanks

 

Hi,

Can anyone help me in choosing between XN1 and A1? I have the following issues in choosing:

1.A1 is being provided with 2yr global warranty unlike XN1 with only 1yr global warranty. Is that 2yr Warranty really worth? I can extend the XN1 warranty in Newegg but it hasn't mentioned whether it is a global warranty or only for NA. I need global warranty cause im from India.

2.Is Newegg reliable enough? the price is catchy but i couldnt find XN1 being sold in xoticpc or gentechpc. so I'm a bit paranoid.

3. Newegg doesnt provide customization facilities for the laptops. could u guys please help me with a website which provide XN1 for better price and customization facilities cause i need an SSD drive in my lappy?

 

The Newegg warranty is U.S.-only. (Scroll down to number 11.A in the link). Also, Newegg only ships to the U.S. so you'd have to get a friend to bring it to India for you.

Despite this, I would still get the XN1 if you can. You will only find the XN1 for sale at Newegg: the "N" in "XN1" stands for Newegg. If you want to customize by upgrading to SSD, upgrading RAM, or whatever else, the cheapest way would be to buy the base XN1 and then also buy the upgrades from Newegg and install them yourself. The XN1 is also considerably cheaper than the A1, but if you want the extended warranty, you'll have to get the A1.

Other good [American] resellers of the A1 besides xoticpc and gentechpc are BTOtech, EXcaliberPC, and PowerNotebooks.

 

Random gaming Question, this goes to everybody who has this laptop with 2630qm n up:

As everyone might already know BF3 is coming out in october. I am guessing the specs for my(0ur) laptops will be fine for Battlefield 3, but just incase. What do you people recommend/upgrade/tweak on the laptop to get ultimate performance while playing this upcoming next gen FPS...???

 

Just got my G53SW-XT1 from Tiger Direct, and man what a machine!

The guides on here have been invaluable for the clean OS install!

I have two very minor complaints and one issue:

1) Placement of power cord: Need to get a 90 degree converter.
2) Clicky touchpad buts...

But these are soooo minor I hate to even mention them!

My issue is after I have done a clean format and install to one HD: the ASUS backup proggy pops up but wont work: says I don't have a backup partition... Start is greyed out.

Any ideas would be appreciated. I'd like to back up my initial state.

Thanks,

The reviews and comments made me want to buy this machine!

DiNGoD

 

Will once it's installed launch the Utilities part first and at the main panel there will be 2 or more areas that want your attention. Follow the prompts. For speeding up your system (which it will even attempt to speed up your internet connection from your computer to your access point, I just select the type of line I have "DSL/ Cable" and then select 100mbps for speed. This way it'll set your network adapters for the best possible speeds. Your understand more once you've tried it out. Once Utilities is done, I double click on 1-click tuneup and let it run it's course. (It will also do a weekly maintenance, as long as your running your computer at the scheduled time, which is by default at least on mine which is version 2010, runs on "Idle, every 3 days." Probably the best setting as it gives it a chance to do it's stuff and you won't need to worry about keeping your laptop or desktop on overnight to run it. (It will: Clean Registry, Defragment Registry, Remove Broken Shortcuts, Free up disk space, Optimize system Startup and shutdown, and defragment your hard drive depending on level of fragmentation. The newer one may do more. You can also launch all that by double-clicking in the earlier mentioned "1-Click" icon if you feel you missed a run or wish to do a secondary run. If you have any more questions, general or more specific, please don't hesitate to ask, and I or someone else who has learned or learning and knows will answer, we are all here to help and occasionally be helped.

 

how is the turbo button suppose to function on the g53sw? cause all it does with me is cycle through power4gear profiles. is this normal?

 

Hi again,

As my power brick died a few days ago, I bought a replacement one while waiting for Asus to send me a new one. I've waited a few days to confirm it works as expected.

So if any of you need one, the FSP NB-150 works perfectly. It gets a lot less hot than the stock power adapter even after hours long gaming sessions. It also has a much easier to use 90° connector and is more professional looking.

You can get it in europe for about 50€.

Cheers,

BTW, is there a hidden BIOS menu somewhere ? The options in the default menu are somewhat limited. No power options, can't disable HyperThreading or generally tweak anything beyond very basic options.

On some motherboards (Gigabyte and others) you need to press CTRL-F1 to access advanced settings so I figured maybe it's the same for the G53SW ?

 

Dragonwolf i love ya but following your "rules" my battery has worn down 6% in one day. Forgive me if i remove my battery permanently from now on. Can not reccomend this procedure to anyone. Sorry.

Edit: I had my notebook for two to the three weeks before i downloaded this aida64 program. For that period i did the usual unplugging of the power source when it reached 100%. After a few weeks Aida64 showed that the wear level of my battery was 1%. Now after leaving the battery charging after it reached 100% for about a day or two the wear level has gone up to 6%.

I think the debate on which is the better option has been settled.

 

What type of settings are you guys on for those playing GTA4 with throttlestop on?

 

Alright fellas.
Couple Questions...
1) How do I clean install ? I assume I'll need a Windows 7 disc? (EDIT: realized there's a flipping product key at the bottom of my laptop, its self explanatory from there lol)
2) Also my computer decides it wants to turn on when it wants too now...I tried updating the bios, worked for a bit then went back to the same way (have to do the hold power button w/o battery or power for 30 sec trick to get it to turn on)
My friend said something about knowing the proper voltages for the laptop..as stock voltages suck. He said his asus in the past gave him this trouble
should I RMA or if you guys know the voltages could you help ?

 

As far as I know the BIOS options on the G53 and G73 are very limited.

I do not think this is a good indication of the norm. The EC in your laptop will prevent the battery from charging past 95% in most cases, to prevent overcharging. Your battery may need a recalibration or be defective, or be giving a bad reading. If you see 6% wear in less than a few months either your battery has been abused or it is somehow defective.

 

I would have to agree, something else is wrong as no matter what you do, your battery shouldn't have worn down so fast. Even if you had used it every day a 6% wear so early in ownership seems wrong to me. I bought mine about 2 months ago (I believe, may be off by about a week) and it's showing a 0% wear level and 98% charge. I've used it on battery only a few times for about an hour or 2 and did my monthly rundown. So ALLurGroceries is correct in saying that it won't always charge to the full 100% just to help prevent overcharging. Something else is wrong or your program may just not be reading your battery wear correctly. There are numerous reasons though it could be happening, your height above sea level is also something to consider, batteries wear out faster, the higher you go. Now don't be paranoid here, you have to be pretty high up. Hopefully the collection of us all can figure your issue out. Oh attached in a screenshot of my system temps/and wear for reference.
Ultimately, no matter who's advice you follow, that much of a wear so quickly is not good and shows other issues. Could be as simple as the program mis-reading. Try out another one, I suggest CPUID Hardware Monitor- CPUID - System & hardware benchmark, monitoring, reporting
They also have a pro version that will record everything as it happens and saves graphs in a log folder. (I have that version). Hope we can manage to figure and fix your issue.

 

hey, just some questions concerning memory (i have the asus G53SW-XN1 from newegg):
1. What type of memory stick is in the Asus G53sw-XN1 (brand)?
2. Is the memory 4gb and a 2gb or three 2gb?
3. I'm going to take apart the asus to put another hard drive so i decided to put another memory stick with it. However i heard that putting the fourth memory is easy-sorta but putting the third memory requires taking apart more of the laptop than required to put the hard-drive. So... is it worth it (time-wise) to put a 2gb memory in the asus?

 

The brand is Hynix. (Very cheap brand, I suggest against buying it... in fact, I don't even know if they're for sale. It's ok to mix brands of RAM in a laptop.) The memory is a 4GB and a 2GB. The 4GB stick is buried in the fourth slot that requires extensive disassembly to access. The 2GB stick is in one of the two slots on the bottom side of the laptop (the other bottom slot is empty). The one slot right under the keyboard is empty. It would be a simple matter (takes 2 minutes) to put one more stick of RAM in... all you need to do is pop the keyboard off to have access to an empty slot, no screwdriver required.

 

Does anyone know if the Bluetooth on the G53SW supports stereo sound as well? I was thinking of using both my bluetooth mouse and a set of bluetooth haedphones to make my laptop totally wireless, will except for the power cord, lol. Thanks.

 

It's just a matter of the driver supporting it, and I would definitely guess it does. I have tried streaming sound from my phone to the laptop and it worked perfectly, so the A2DP support is there.

 

Hey thanks for the heads up. I just tried connecting my iphone 4 via bluetooth and now am jaming to music from my iphone to my computer speakers. So now I know for sure that the support is there as if it works one way, it should work the other way as will. Thanks! Even if it dosn't I know my iphone's bluetooth system works! SO i won't be totally out on a bluetooth headset, now for the next question, anyone have a stereo bluetooth headset they could suggest for this awesome computer?

 

Should I get a cooling pad for my ASUS G53SW at this temperature as seen from the image below?

Seriously hot now using disk clean up its like 70 degrees Celsius >.<
the rear fans are extremely heated up..

 

That's fine, start worrying if it starts getting above 90.

 

Should I carry out preemptive measures like buying a cooling pad then? Since my Cpu easily shot up to 70+ degrees Celsius just cleaning up disk?
Or should I just wait till it gets above 90 and react to the problem?

 

It's fine.

 

Really you should only go beyond 90C when gaming. Besides, the way the laptop has been designed, a cooling pad dosn't do very much, I've tried an only had a few degrees difference, not much for me to worry about. I've been playing Borderlands on full everything, and the gpu reaches about 73-80C (I'm plying outside where ambient temperatures are anywhere from 75-100F. (23C- 38C) So under probably the hardest I've put this through to date in the hottest ambient temps without a cooling pad i'm not too worried, but yes as stated before if you start playing games and see your temps running at 90C+ under full load you might want to look into some sort of cooling, but as is these laptops already run fairly cool. I wouldn't really worry. And this is coming from someone who is paranoid about my computers.

I'd look into buying CPUID's Hardware monitor Pro the free one dosn't keep logs and it's always nice to have that: CPUID - System & hardware benchmark, monitoring, reporting

Below is a screenshot of my log information for the gpu only, but the logs record all kinds of things, I can post all of them if anyone wishes me to. Oh yeah, this was while playing Borderlands the other day: Ambient temp was 30C. You can see it spikes at about 81C under load (for me) and cools off pretty quickly too. This was over the course of a 30min session and it sat at about 79C most of the time. No cooling pad. Again if anyone wants all my screenshots of core temps and such, just ask and i'll gladly post all of them. Hope this helps and sets your fears aside.

PS sorry about the water marks, this was the first time i used the program to convert the image from bmp to jpeg so it would fit. I need to register the program.

 

I honestly don't thnk a cooling pad would do much with the G53SW, since hardly any ventilation is coming out of the base at all - it all's venting from the afterburners at the back of the system.

Besides, I really think cooling is one problem that this system will not have, barring something weird going on. It's so big, and has so much space devoted to ventilation, that it's really been a non-issue for me even with Throttlestop running.

 

I agree, mine has been running cool even after doing an overclock to 560M GTX speeds (At least according to notebookcheck.net) Only reason I tried a cooler was because of my paranoia, and I already had one from a previous laptop, that's how i found that a cooler really and honestly is a waste of money for this particular laptop, or at least I think it is.

 

Question:
How annoying is getting to the second hard drive bay?

I'd like to go the SSD path, but would rather add a small one and keep the 500GB data drive.

 

It's not bad. It takes a while, but it's pretty straightforward. These videos show how to do it.

Yeah good idea going for a small SSD... installing OS and high-priority apps on the SSD and using the HDD for data is a popular and proven method, but I'm sure you know that

 

Hello there, new G53SW-A1 owner here.

Just got my system from B&H a few days ago and I've been using it a bit. I just installed DiRT 3 though, and tried its benchmark with all settings set to Ultra/High. End result was that I got only around 12~fps. You guys know what this is? I haven't updated any drivers yet, if it matters.

I also haven't tried gaming yet, the closest thing I've gone to gaming was that DiRT 3 benchmark.

So far I'm happy, but I already got my first BSOD that stated "DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE" on top. :\

 

Just a FYI for those of you who install from scratch instead of using the Windows image from Asus. The Realtek Audio driver can cause sleep issues.

My laptop wouldn't stay in standby mode. It was powering back on immediately after putting it to sleep or hibernation. With a bit of dichotomy and a lot of reboots I tracked it down to the realtek audio control panel. I disabled it in msconfig/startup and the problem disappeared. So I removed the driver to fix the problem completely, I now run the driver that comes with windows without problems so far. Unfortunately it doesn't support the advanced features that come with the realtek driver.

I haven't tried the modded drivers with the XFi stuff in it yet. I'll try that tonight.

Cheers,

Julien

 

The problem disappeared for me when I installed Realtek 2.62 drivers from Realtek's site.

 

Alrighty, small hitch in my plan...
The caddy the hard disk goes in was absent in the video when he first opened it up. I assume its this way by default.

For those of you who have added a drive, where did you get the 2nd bay HDD caddy, and what did it cost?

Also, who has experiences with SSDs in this machine and how did they turn out? Any brands to avoid? (im looking at 128GB or less)

 

Which G53SW are you getting? If it's the XN1, I can confirm that an empty caddy does in fact come in the second drive slot, so you wouldn't need to worry about that. The models in the videos are A1's, and I'm not sure whether they come with a caddy or not.

As for SSD compatibility, a poster in this thread about 5-10 pages back (sorry, don't remember the poster or the link - PM me if it's you) got an email directly from ASUS saying that the Crucial M4 series is incompatible with the GX3SW. However, I have heard good things about the M4's predecessor (the C300), OCZ Vertex 3 series, Kingston, and Intel (various posters in this thread are using these brands successfully, I believe).

 

That was me. I've since returned the M4 to the store and bought an older intel model with 160GB instead. I should receive it in a few days.

Crucial released a firmware update a few days ago for the m4 but I didn't find anything relevant to the compatibility issue in the release notes. It is supposed to fix the freezes though and maybe there's a link between the two issues.

Cheers,

J.

Thanks for the heads up, the 2.62 drivers have fixed the sleep issue for me also.

 

If I do grab a G53sw, I plan to use my notebook blu ray burner drive in it. Has anyone upgrade or swapped their drive? Its slots out and the new one in. My only concern is the bezel on the Asus. But this should clip off right?

(I've swapped DVD drive on my wifes Acer 4820 without issues but its the standard bezel size)

 

Yes, just carefully unclip the bezel from your dvd drive and put in on your blu-ray drive. I swapped mine with a Blu-Ray reader/DVD-R/W from an MSI Laptop, ironically. (Since they are like competing companies. Anyhow yes, I can confirm that they used a standard bezel clipping system. Only downfall as I had stated in a much earlier post, is your new blu-ray drive won't say blu-ray on it, since you used your laptops bezel, but as long as you know it, and potential buyers (if you ever sell) know it, it'll be fine. The only issue I had with the modding is that unlike alot of other laptops, you have to take off the bottom panel just to get to that one little screw that will let you swap the drives, which can be a pain in the butt if you ask me. Oh yeah, don't forget to take the mounting bracket off the dvd drive and put it on your new blu-ray drive as I found out the one on mine didn't match and I needed to unscrew the bracket on my old dvd drive and put it on my blu-ray drive. Hope this helps.

 

Thanks, Dragonwolf yeah as I suspected as much, they all seem to be the same. My UJ240 6x Blu-Ray writer will go well in it. Beats having it in the external case.

Just ordered a G53sw I was going to get a G74 but the slightly bigger dimensions might be too much for me. My G53sw will become my primary unit. Love my Acer which I'll just keep as a travel unit. as its so light and has UTMS. I do a bit of Photoshop work and at times my i5 580m struggles. Also looking forward to having a quad core for my video editing work. Gaming is not the primary job of the G53 but when Diablo 3 is out that 460m will get a good working

Now to add my OCZ vertex to it and use the main drive as a secondary. P.S I'm I correct in amusing the G53sw-XN1 has a bracket in the second HDD bay? And the 4th slot has a no memory stick in it?