Asus G53SW Owners' Lounge

That's what I have been hearing, but hopefully someone who actually owns it can confirm it for you. I myself just took one of those pink erasers, cut it down to size and used it to hold my secondary hard drive in place. Its been working since I got the computer about 2 months ago and no problems and I travel with it alot for classes and such, so it tends to jostle around and no ill effects. I'll probably buy a bracket sometime just because I love perfection, but it works for now. You will be very happy with this machine for what you want to do. The i7 is best used for what your looking at doing. Most gamers can actually do with higher end i5's, the i7 is overkill. Oh yeah and as for memory, on my model (Was a microcenter model) the only ram slot open was the one directly below the keyboard and mine was configured in 3x2GB, so the max ram I can go without voiding my warranty (Since you really got to open the laptop up to get to that one slot) would be 3x4GB and 1x2GB for 14GB. I may add that much ram once my warranty is up, but until then 6GB has been good enough for me. Though for you, I might look into putting another 4GB in that extra open slot since your be doing alot of video editing and such, I know that stuff can eat ram for a snack. I'm sure your be ok with what your starting out, but it's an option, and adding an SSD is another great way to aid in video editing, I think your on the right track to an awesome mobile video editor pc. Hope you enjoy it and as always, if you need any help just ask and someone I'm sure will be able to help as we all have different specialties here. Enjoy!

 

Thanks, I do plan to add at least another 4GB or another 2GB so I have 8GB of ram. Photoshop open and using chrome with various tabs will eat 4-6GB easy. I hate having to close apps just so I can avoid that windows 7 low ram close photoshop cs pop up.

I'm into my notebooks and getting inside them, I swapped out this here Acers i5 460m for a i5 580m and repasted the GPU and CPU. Even went has far as soldiering cables to the USB port and removing the kengsition lock to add a switch for a backlite keyboard mod. I may repaste the cpu/gpu with IC7 and look at that ram slot. But that would be only if I really see myself hanging on to this laptop for a few years

I tend to upgrade every 1 year and a half. Just can't do spindle drives anymore as a main drive. So the OCZ vertex will be the first upgrade my G53sw will get. Looking forward to it. Just need to wait a few weeks for it to arrive. (I'm not in the US)

 

I know what you mean on the spindle drives, I'd have an SSD in mine now if it wasn't for the fact that I don't have the money for one now. I did have a 96GB OCZ Vertex in my old G73JH, but it died. (Don't use Asus's Recovery Discs on them, that's what I did and for some reason when it went to create the recovery partition and all it just crashed the drive, which was working fine until I decided to do that. I'll be just doing a clean install from now on.) But my birthday is coming up soon, maybe I can get one then from some sucker, oh I mean friend or family member, lol. J/K about the sucker part, but in seriousness, if and when I get one, does anyone know of a good stable 128GB SSD? That won't totally break the bank. (The way my itunes database is done, all my music is stored on "C:" Drive and I really don't want to redo the 100 or so playlists on telling them the new location of songs. Thats why I need a 128GB or larger.) Thanks for the heads up. I have been looking but there are so many different choices and I think I'd rather have someone on here point me in the right direction (You've had experience or someone you know real well has had experience.) Thanks.

 

Help me out here. I'm kind of limited on choices since it's my parents planning on buying me my SSD for my birthday. I have narrowed it down to these 2 SSD's:

Micro Center - Kingston SSDNow V100 Series SV100S2N/128GZ 128GB SATA 3Gb/s 2.5" Solid State Drive Notebook Bundle SV100S2N/128GZ

and

Micro Center - Samsung 470 Series MZ-5PA128/US 128GB 2.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-5PA128/US

May push for this one if it's worth it:

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0364545

Both within the price point they said they were welling to spend $200, will the Kingston will be after rebate. The issue is they only wish to go to a brick and mortar store (no amazon or such) Microcenter is about an hour away. If anyone can help me in deciding it would be greatly appreciated.
I was looking for something around 100GB or more within the $200 range and these are what I came up with. Thanks for your input.

 

How in the world could that have killed your SSD? It should be completely irrelevant what you write to it. Are you sure it's dead?

Even if it is, it CAN'T be due to Asus Recovery.

 

I honestly don't know what happened, I just know it was running fine until I tried that. It was about a year ago at least and I trashed the drive, everything I could do and even my friend could do (he tried linux, using gparted which wouldn't recognize the drive at all, when it did before, motherboard wouldn't even read it and yes, we tried multiple computers) nothing helped. We finally gave it up. Maybe it was just a coincidence and the drive was a lemon. I'll never know now. I just know a clean install is better then using a recovery disc as you can pick what you want and that's what I have been doing since. Call it paranoia if you wish. But when I get a new SSD that's what I'm going to do. Clean install. Anyone have any ideas on the listed drives I posted earlier?

 

No doubt a clean install is better in any case.

I just can't seem to find any proper (comparative) reviews on the 128GB version for the Samsung 470. (You can't judge by the 256GB version as it has more flash chips connected to the controller, hence being faster).

You would have much better luck asking this in the Solid State Drives (SSDs) and Flash Storage section, or searching that forum.
Use this query in Google:

Code:

site:http://forum.notebookreview.com/solid-state-drives-ssds-flash-storage/ samsung 470 128gb

, as the forum search function is kind of broken/sucks.

 

Thanks, I'll post my question in that forum. And will let everyone know what I find out.

Quoted from HTWingNut:

"Samsung 470. That specific Kingston is a power hog and will diminish battery life if that's important to you. Crucial is nice too though if you can swing it, but I wouldn't stress over it. Real-world you couldn't notice a difference."

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sol...thread-benchmarks-brands-news-advice-973.html

 

Ive been enjoying my Samsung 470 128gb, here is my results on stock run, no tweaks. It has been super reliable, and boy is it nice and snappy. I totally recommend it even if it is just a SATA2 ssd.




I also get about 10-15min extra battery life than compared to running strictly on hdd, havent scientifically tested to be 100% it's that much, but definitely feels longer.Here is some test I've done to show improved speeds.

Samsung 470

• bootup = 10.670
• Portal folder in steam(265mb): 25secs to rar, 5secs to unrar
• Quake 4 folder(4.16gb): 13min 12secs to rar, 1min 10secs to unrar
• Pictures Folder(926mb)copy/paste:2.93secs
• Videos Folder(6.60gb)copy/paste:2min 23.90secs
• ^^Transferring to ssd:1min 7.35secs

Seagate 750gb(7200rpm) 2.5" HDD

• bootup = 22.900
• Portal folder in steam(265mb): 27secs to rar, 5secs to unrar
• Quake 4 folder(4.16gb): 13min 32secs to rar, 2min 09secs to unrar
• Pictures Folder(926mb)copy/paste:7.16secs
• Videos Folder(6.60gb)copy/paste:3min 1.39secs
• ^^Transferring to HDD:1min 21.22secs

EDIT: Added more results highlighted in red.

 

I think you just sealed the deal for me, I am gonna push for that Samsung one! Thanks for also posting benchmarks. That helps.

 

My G53SW arrived yesterday ^^

Meh.. the difference of performance compared with mine old G51 is huge but maybe because I'm using a SSD..

I decided to get a drive confirmed to work with the G53 so got the Crucial C300. After a clean install and lots of freezes and fixes, the system looks stable now after upgrading the SSD firmware to the 0007 version... I hope it stay like that xD

i did all the tips and tricks to maximize the lifetime of it ( link here), now im planning on moving some system "temp" folders to the HDD too ( link here )

but overall, very happy with it =P

ps.: ohh besides the location of the power plug and the no wireless hardware switch and the lights in front of it and the endless "burn your own recovery disc" process that ill never use =P

 

Yup, I was very determined to buy a SSD with good reliability, and hearing how the 470 is all in-house built by samsung, and that it has 2 controllers vs 1 controller that every other SSD has, made me decide to go with it. Of course, price helped too since at the time it was on sale for $220, so seeing it at $209 I definitely have to recommend it.

No regrets for me, even though people can get a Sata3 drive for prob same price or a bit more, I know my SSD is least likely to fail. So I feel pretty safe with my purchase as well as being incredibly happy with my current speeds I'm getting anyways.

I may do some more test, I meant to do more after those initial ones, but never got around to it. I do know that sometimes when I'm transferring files between SSD and HDD I see that the first initial speed starts out at like 330mb dropping down to about 100mb/per second only because I'm sure the hdd just can't send/receive fast enough.

 

You know that would be sweet if you could get a few more tests in when you can, from the looks of it the drive will be on sale for about 14 more days, but I will call them tomorrow to double check. From the sounds of it though I really think I'll be happy with this one. Going from a 500GB 7200RPM with 32MB (I think) of cache. So this will be one upgrade I could benefit from all around. I didn't realize the Samsung one also had 2 controllers in it. I find that sweet.

 

I did not like how the flashplayer was saving my 1080p youtube videos of more than 1GB into the SSD every time =/ very annoying...

so i just moved the "Users" and the "ProgramData" to the HDD drive and it seems to be working =) I used Junctions and so far no errors, all the folders and configs still working.. ahmm, not sure how it will behave with future Windows Updates =P

See pic. included, C: is my SDD, D: is my HDD, and the Resource monitor shows the FlashPlayer writing 1MB/s to D: instead of C:, success ^^

 

Hello there, still rocking the G53sw-xn1

I plugged an external headset in the laptop for some sc2 action and since then (i guess?) I seem to be unable to get the recording working on the laptop's mic...

Tried to find a driver for the mic itself (couldn't find), tried to reinstall realtek hd audio manager, went in the device manager and deleted all audio devices to force windows to recognize them again, tried switching input while recording in Audacity... yet nothing, only noise.

Since I've tried everything I know, I'm starting to think that I busted the mic. Actually, I just tried to record in Audacity and all it would record is noise. I then muted the mic from realtek hd and the noise recording stopped and started again when I un-muted.

So watcha say? Busted mic? Time to see if there's coverage for that... ?!

 

What are people finding that works well to remove finger prints from the G53SW, especially the lid?

I've tried a couple things and the finger prints survive!

 

Trouble with new laptop:

I am having issues on boot-up, screen not turning on.... I can tell its booting into Windows fine, but the screen isn't turning on...

I have to hit escape and get into boot order menu... then screen starts with asus menu and boots fine.

Driver issue? Please help.

Thanks,

DinGoD

 

I damp a corner of a washcloth, rub gently over the lid, then use the dry side of the cloth to clean up the water streaks.

Do you have the Newegg model, or which model do you have?

 

Sorry I have G53SW-XT1 from TigerDirect in Canada.

 

A question for those who have purchased the 180w Targus/LiteOn power brick.

Does it make noise while under load? Mine does. It's an odd noise, not a hum or buzz but almost like an electricy clicking.

Normal? I hope not.

 

I'm about to receive an Asus G53SW in a few days. Is there only 1 USB 3.0 port and no USB 2.0 port? If it's true, I'll just buy a USB hub.

 

1 USB 3.0 and 3 USB 2.0 ports

 

Never heard any noise from mine. It may not be grounded properly... check to make sure everything is plugged in tightly, not just to the wall but also from the wall to the brick itself. That's as far as my thinking takes me, hope you find a solution

 

Ok, so I've been having a pretty serious issue off and on for the past week (my second week of ownership). The CPU will constantly run at 12.5%, or the full power of exactly 1 of the 8 cores at any one point in time. Occasionally one core will be favored over the others but the load is usually split between several of the cores and switches by the millisecond, constantly remaining at 12.5% usage.

Naturally, the first thing I did was hit Ctrl-Alt-Del and visit our old friend the Task Manager. The culprit process was simply called "System" and the description said "NT Kernel & System". To make a long story short, after consulting the internet and getting lost on many wild goose chases, I found here on this very forum that a few of our ASUS G50-owning forefathers had had a similar problem in days of yore. The most stable fix they came up with was somewhat bizarre: disabling a USB controller seemed to do the trick. ( The Yellow Dart only posted twice on NBR but boy did he make it count.)

Of course the exact steps specified in that thread don't apply to the G53, but the gist of it was enough to go by and I think I may have found a solution. In the Device Manager I first checked all the items under "Universal Serial Bus controllers" to make sure they were functioning properly and up to date with the latest drivers. I even tried rolling back drivers where applicable. None of this worked, so I figured I would try to disable stuff and see what happened. I planted a right-click on the first target in the list... the "FrescoLogicblahUSB3controllerblahblah"... and disabled it. Wouldn't you know it but, L I K E M A G I C!!!, problem solved. After staring at the screen for 30 seconds in disbelief (hey, it's 11pm and this problem has bugged me for hours), I decided to see what would happen when I re-enabled the controller. Well, nothing happened; the processor remained normal.

So as of 15 minutes ago everything is running as it should. I am hitting the sack now but will have an update tomorrow, probably in the evening as it's a busy day for me.

Although I haven't seen anyone else having this issue, I hope my findings help to spare someone a headache in the future.

UPDATE 36 hours later: Well, everything is still functioning normally, so I guess this fix worked. The computer stayed awake all night the first night, saw moderate use the first day, and is still working as it should morning of the second day.

 

is the 1366x768 3D panel a good panel in terms of sharpness and brightness as much as full hd panel ?

 

Mine was making a noise like that when I first got it, but like ElKid said, it might be something loose, as now I never hear it/it just went away after I used it more. I did move it a few times after I heard the noise, so that's why I'm thinking maybe it was just something loose after reading ElKid post. Either way, I guess just keep using it for a while, check to make sure everything is connected securely and see if the problem goes away for you as well.

 

Will, I finally got my SSD's, Got a 128GB Samsung 470 for my G53SW and on side note got the 64GB little brother/sister for my older G50VT. Holy crap! I didn't know how fast my G53SW was until I put my SSD in! Windows Experience went from 5.9 to 7.5, now my GPU is the lowest score at 7.1 (not overclocked). My SSD speeds screenshot posted below as another reference point. I know it isn't SATA III but I was short on cash for the Crucial M4 SATA III. Still a big upgrade over my old 7200rpm. Posted are my SSD scores and the G53SW's new Windows Experience score for those who may be looking at upgrading.

 

Sorry it took awhile to respond, but I think you may have disabled the USB 3.0. Which is fine if you don't use USB 3, but if someone does, then this fix for those who seem to have this problem won't work. (I use usb 3.0 alot, have a 1TB portable drive. Didn't have the cpu problem you list, so I guess I'm lucky.) I just thought I would point that out for those who do use usb 3.0 or will be, that the usb 3.0 port may not work or will work at reduced speeds. You could always go back and enable it but Asus might need to release another update, who knows. Not to bash Asus, but it seems that they will release systems with bios errors and driver errors or proprietary drivers (460M GTX drivers). This can be a pain for the end user. (I should know as I have owned Asus systems for a long time. Again, it's not bashing them, it is just a observation I have made. I'll still buy their computers because they have yet to let me down in the long run. (Unlike other brands that I won't mention, that way I don't start a debate). Overall though Asus is good and I will buy the next gaming laptop when this one has outlived it's usefulness. (I'll still keep it as a backup, as long as it hasn't died.) Oh yeah getting a new one probably won't happen for me until they have 16 core cpu's and dual gpu's are standard in a laptop and you get like a 512GB SSD and like 32-64GB ram standard. lol. Won't be that long, but it tells you i plan on making this system last me quite a few years.

 

Oh yes, I failed to mention that it was the USB 3 controller, but good eye for spotting it and informing everybody else! And remember, I only had it disabled for about 30 seconds before turning it right back on as it is now, so there is still full functionality. Like I said, a bizarre solution, but it looks like it works!

Yes, Asus should make sure to have all bugs ironed out before shipping their computers, but I don't think it'll happen. It seems like we power users on forums are the only ones who encounter these bugs, and since we always manage to find solutions on our own, they don't see the need to do anything about it. Plus, they got us because they know we love their products anyway

 

I'm not very satisfied with this notebook. Right after it arrived I had many problems when gaming because the screen was flickering and I just couldnt play. What the seller told me to do was to format the computer and told me that it happened to many ppl, yeah I know. Right now, after I formated it, the pc still seems very laggy for its specs and the keyboard is just TERRIBLE. I can barely type a phrase without making at least one mistake because sometimes (randomly) what I typed simply didn't work, and it stresses me out, a lot. Has anyone had problems with their keyboard being non-responsive as well?

 

The G53SW doesn't seem to have a reset button on the base like the G73's and mine will not turn on.

Is there any way to do a hard reset of the CMOS (holding the power button for 30 seconds doesn't work either)?

 

Ah, I missed the part where you re-enabled it. Sorry. And yeah, your right, us power users would probably be the only people who would notice these things, the average user would just turn it on and use it. Wouldn't try troubleshooting it or anything. The only time we would return a system is if it's a serious issue that we can't fix at all. lol. And yeah a lot of us (me included, obviously lol) love their products. I just looked at my laptop with dare I say it, an affectionate look. Go ahead laugh if you want to. I did. But I do call my laptop my baby. lol. I and I think all of us do the best we can to take care of our equipment. Will I'm signing off for a little while. I gotta troubleshoot my old G50VT. Think I got a nasty virus or something. Gonna try a restore baring that a format. On a brief side note, anyone encounter a windows message stating something about "malware detected" right after downloading crystal benchmark? It's happened everytime for me. I won't be downloading it anymore. I'll just use AS SSD. (Used it for benchmarking before and it seems real good.) Anyhow I'm off for now.

 

My Asus G53SW will arrive sometime this week, and I've got two questions. I'm going to do a clean install when I get it, and I'm not sure how to best partition it. The model comes with two 500GB HDDs. Would the easiest solution be to simply let one HDD be C: and the other D: (or E:, or whatever it decides to go for)? Also, i'm planning on buying an SSD an swapping it with one of the HDDs when I've got the cash for it, could I just move all the files I want to keep onto one HDD and then put in the SSD and do a clean install of W7 on the SSD?

 

I would leave both hard drives partitioned as full. Specially since your planning on putting in an SSD. That way you can just back up your stuff from your main hard drive to the second one when you put in your SSD. Then copy back what you want on the SSD. That's my opinion. Other's may give you other ideas. the best to do is do what suites you. Just remember. You may need to install software to your second hard drive due to storage constrictions. Unless of course you go with a larger SSD. Otherwise, enjoy your new G53SW, I'm sure you will.

 

That's what I was thinking, just wanted to hear someone else's opinion. Thanks!

 

Will you came to the right place, lol. We are all here to help. So don't be shy on asking. I know I'm not. I just bought an SSD for both my G53SW and older G50VT and both are running like champs! Specially the G53SW. Of course having a stronger cpu and such will help. But still, the old G50VT got a performance boost too. So I'm not complaining. Lol. Will, I'm off for now, as I'm preparing to go to my parents to watch the house while they go away for a little vacation, wish they took me, lol. But I know they need it, so I'm glad they are going. I'll be back and checking in and out, later on.

 

I'd recommend otherwise. Check this post: link

 

My g53sw that i ordered from Xotic should be getting here tomorrow, it should be a better experience than my m11x which seems to be having persistent freezing issues.

 

Greetings mate, I own G53SW for almost 2 weeks now. I want to ask is there is a way to brighten the backlight keyboard.

I read there was 3 backlight setting, but I can't find it.


and there is annoying bug that when you turn Backlight off, it wont turned on again. you must remove and reinstal driver. which is annoying

 

Looks good, but i'll have Home Premium, which doesn't support this solution, (unless i misunderstood something)?

 

Yes, you would need to get Win7 Pro/Enterprise/Ultimate.

 

Fn+F3 brightness down
Fn+F4 brightness up
The leftmost button above ESC - toggles all lights on/off.

 

^
Thx a lot mate

and btw, is Moding the backlight (by putting colored Film) void the waranty ?
I saw some youtube vid about it, and the author say it should be okay

anybody have difrent oppinion ?

 

What would be better, buying Win7 Pro or a ~120GB SSD? No big price difference.

Also, they managed to ship my G53 to Kastrup, Denmark instead of Oslo, Norway, which will delay it by at least a couple days, and since i'm going away this weekend I won't get to use it until next week. And because I'm super-impatient when it comes to new things I buy, I wish I had it two weeks ago...

 

Can someone who bought this on newegg confirm if the warranty can be extended to 2 years by registering the laptop with ASUS??

 

I can't believe you reinstalled the driver to turn the keyboard lights back on but did not try the buttons with the light icon.

If a service technician notices modding/tampering, your warranty will be most likely voided.

 

I have G53SW from Newegg but am dissapointed with wirless connection speed of only 150mbps. Is this the best I can get form the AR9002WB-1NG card?

 

Yes. The stock wireless card only has 2 hook ups for antennas so I think that this the speed limiting factor. 3 antennas = 300 MBPs, I believe.

 

Wow so the G53SW has a real design flaw. I think I am going to return it because of this. Is there a solution?

 

If you switch out the wireless card for a Intel 6200 you can get 300mbps. 3 antennas is if you want to do 450mbps, which you would need a Intel 6300 card. There is only 2 antennas in the G53 though, but at least you can still do 300mbps if you just switch out the wifi card.