Asus G53SW Owners' Lounge

Just curious but when did you purchase that G53 m1_1x?

 

I've noticed for the last two weeks, Newegg has had a lot of open box models of the G53/G73/74 either in SW/SX/JH. The G53SW-XN1 was discounted to $749 after a $100 mail in rebate "card" from Asus the week I bought my open box model so that might be why it was so cheap. Newegg actually updates their open box list twice a day, once around noon PST and once around 5pm PST. I just so happen to have caught it when they just posted it. I noticed a lot of people put the open boxes on hold by putting them in their cart so even if they are in stock (not deactivated) you couldn't buy it. There's been like four G53SW that's been put on open box since I bought mine(kept checking for friends that wants this laptop), if anyone is looking for one, best thing to do it to keep refreshing the open box search filter a few times a day.

Also, mine is from April 2011 as well.

 

So I got my asus g53 today waiting for me after my exam! (aced that so I feel really gooood =D)

and holy hell this thing is huge; like I expected it to be big and heavy but this surpassed my expectations. So far opened it up and everything and it seems to be running everything well (only been like what, 20mins lol?)

One thing thats going to get used to is the mousepad clicking buttons...they are extremely stiff lol <_<

ill let you guys know more about this, so far i love typing on this keyboard; i think it might develop some flexing later on?

but whooooooooooooooo!

I pray to whatever is out there that I dont get any of the problems steelblue described T_T

 

Congratz m1__1x. As far as the keyboard flex, mine had a bit of flex but I ended up just putting 3M double-sided sticky tape under the keyboard(left the other side with the paper so it wouldn't be stuck to the casing) after reading about it on the forum.

 

@steelblueskies

So last weekend I have replaced 460M in my G53SW with one I have got on eBay. Everything seemed to work OK.
Till today, I have started VirtualBox 4.1.4 running a Linux VM and after I started Firefox I saw corruption again, this time not red dots but pale blue blotches all over Firefox window. I doubt two different card have memory corruption, so it is either 460M hardware problem or driver problem. Anyway I am becoming really disappointed with nVidia. I will try to find ATI card from older Asus G model and see if I can replace 460M with ATI.

 

stress test it, and give it a little while. once a month or so passes theres some double sided tape under the region of the f2,2,w,s key space that should still have it's paper on. you can pop up the keyboard without removing any connections and access it, peel off the paper and set it back for a little more stability, although personally i feel the t->c, t->n and spacebar trangular area is the most flexy.

gotta say the keys themselves are just.. i dunno, sexy good? to lay hands on.

mousepad keys should ease up a little over time.

and no fear. if that overview of issues scared you you ought to read a few years worth of say, intel processor errata sheets, and the equivalent for intel. you'd be too scared to buy a computer for the possible problems that could show up just from the lists the manufacturers acknowledge!

asus is a fine company. the all over the place nature of the issues that occur runs through their entire product array, but they generally do pretty well about handling things without too much effort on your part. the companies biggest downside is they spend too short a time supporting one line before releasing the next and things fall off the table forever.

g73sw is energy star, g53sw crams the same hardware into a smaller chassis, no energy star certification. probably wasn't enough time, or they didn't care to spend the $$$ to certify the 53sw, after handling the jh,jw,both 53 and 73.

g53 jh,jw,sw,sx, and now sx-dhxx all variants of the same design and with no bios compatibility for flash updates for common issues. thats 5 revisions of the hardware discounting the sandy bridge chipset recall on the sw, in about a year and a half.

nice system overall, but given the odds of a bios fix to a few nuisances is unlikely, i kind of wish i'd opted for the 73, or held out for the 74. but one will always want the improved version that comes just after the one you got eh?

but nothings perfect. and compared to the worst of the fiasco's i've seen with some apple units, or compaq/dell units it's not so terrible. and compared to the worst cases with acer it's downright heavenly.

i suppose the biggest reason the 53's are out of stock most places now is that they're "old" models now. the 74/53-dh71 have a different vent design, the smaller nm gpu process for an equivalent chip (the 560m also seen in the sx series) ostensibly without the memory bit depth limitation of the 53sx. a flush keyboard and touchpad instead of the recessed assembly, with different key spacing between the numpad and main area, and with the keyboard area backed by an aluminum panel for strength and cooling to boot.

don't think it was using sandy bridge e-series goodies yet though, so that's probably due in the revision coming after, with ivy bridge soon after that.

asus definitely manages that" by the time its shipping, it's already obsolete by the new model coming out net month" joke. so see what i mean about drooling over the next minor improvement?

sad thing is the improvements they integrate keep coming out at a rate that forces three new models a year to keep up >,< . bought my old m50sv and was grumbling a month after over the m50vm models coming out with the smaller nm cpu process and heat and battery life improvements. always gonna be that way.

pick the one that fits your needs, vet it so you know its stable when worked hard, and do what you do, because the grass is always getting greener in the hardware world, but you need something today.

i think maximumpc said pretty much the same thing in their 2011 dream pc build writeup.

anywho, i've gone on long enough on all that. still a beast of a machine for its potential quirks, and remember- if you thought this was one big honkin machine, you should imagine the 17.3 inch g73/g74 and the poor guys trying to carry it around

p.s. and no worries, like i said before the issues almost always either show on arrival or immediately after, or you go stable and smooth unless you personally bork something, right up until the warranty goes out. so put it through its paces, work it, and if nothing goes bump in the night be happy with the solid goods you got.



@deadbeef: hmm. the ati gpu's were no better in the jw series with vbios hacks, and grey/black/purple/green colored screens of death.

i have considered seeing if the 9500m from my old m50sv might be slot compatible. it's an asus card, and asus generally uses funky reverse mxm for their gpu slots. probably not worth the warranty issues though imho.

as an aside who says it can't be two cards with the same issue? the artifact/ddm tdr event crash indicating a dying card rate for the 460 desktop cards across multiple manufacturers and brandings climbed up to 1 in 3 on average over any 6 month window worth of threads on nvidias forums. you have people there going through as many as 6 460 desktop cards and seeing the same issue until finally finding one that was stable.

back to the main point though, generally a voltage increase results in stability in most such cases with the desktop gtx460's, but for the mobile variant we are stuck at certain predefined max voltage settings. so no way to play there.

my present direction of pursuit after finding out if i shipped for rma now i wouldnt get the unit back until after christmas ><, has been trying to track down what settings bitcoin's poclbm gpu core is feeding the gpu, as i've exceeded my previous uptime between graphics blowout by keeping that rolling, whereas nvidia system tools manual clock state settings, powermizer manager and several other tools have left it doing "something" leading to gpu memory table corruption.

i've been noticing as well that the cpu seems to like to throttle down the 798/or 1100ish mhz even when set to 100%/100% with throttlestop actively running in monitor mode
system set to favor performance, ie spin up fans instead of downclock cooling strategy, but whenever cpu temp exceeds 85C it drops until 72C for a few ticks, then ramps again.

gpu meanwhile churns 24m/hash/s at a stable 76C.

logging using throttlestop, over 3 megs of log so far.

irony is i was under the impression that A) cpu hardware thermal throttle was at 95C+, B) bios fan speed control sets cpu fan to 100% only at 95C+, C) thermal max for the i72630qm was 100C, and D) throttlestop(currently using v4.00) purportedly stopped gpuload+cpuload= cpu throttling for non thermal reasons, simply by running it.

might be a deeper system problem. getting tired of running multi-day test suites to try and catch an occurence, yet having them pop at random throughout os'es, drivers, etc.

popped my old 5400rmp 500gb seagate drive into the second hdd bay just to make a number of partitions and throw different boot os'es on them. tested pulling some ram chips, running no hdd's at all off a live usb boot, and a ton of other things. it's either a very very sneaky cpu( as in the chip with all its features, including the memory controller for the system in this case) error, a mainboard fault of some kind, a gpu being flaky, or a power problem. well also in theory a thermal problem, after all there can't be a temperature sensor everywhere. sigh.

should have pushed for xotic taking this one back and shipping out a fully functional unit when i first contacted them about it a few days after i received it, but stuck for going through asus for rma repair, so here's hoping it doesn't drive me too far up a wall before the christmas shipping blackout ends :/

meanwhile my next project is trying to learn my way around the windows kernel and stack trace tools and see if i can find something more useful out the next time it goes up in flames.

until then try looking up vmt1.7, also known as virtual memory stress test. it includes a bootable iso and poor documentation if you only read english, but can boot and perform the same suite of tests as memtest86 on your gpu ram without windows getting in the way. takes a bit more configuration though. - hint- make sure to figure out exaclty how much vram you have in bytes before booting the boot image version, and no, it is not simply 1,500,000,000 bytes. /wink.

also wending my way through the cuda sdk and examples seeing if i can find anything helpful there.

devconn to try manually scripting a display driver device disable/reenable cycle and driver reset just won't work in win7 64 bit. in 32bit win7 it got me nowhere, as the memory address table was still borked the same way it was after the problem and a restart instead of a full shutdown>5count>poweron.

used to be a small tool in the windows driver development kit specifically for force resetting a graphics adapter while running and flushing it then reloading stock drivers, but it doesn't exist anymore.

meh. couple more months of this and i'll probably go nuts enough to not want to part with the unsolved puzzle we continue coping with.

goodnes i hope it doesn't go that far lol.

 

Ahh your post was very soothing steelblue =] my worries are partially gone now haha (thank god for warranty) and YES TYPING ON THIS THING IS SO SOOTHING! No joke guys @_@ the keys are so soft and ughhhh its just really good to type on this haha.

and I purchased my g53 off of ebay AFTER the newegg deal was closed off

The guy sent me his invoice (so i have proof of purchase for the accidental warranty) and it shows he paid 580

None the less, when I think about how much I really paid for this, it makes me happy that I spent less but yeah all in all.

I am so god damn happy with this lug of brute force. Hopefully I can fully use this thing to its full potential and not worry about its size and weight. I cant imagine those who own the g73/74 series, how big their arms are when they lug those things around @_@

I just want to reinstall Windows here, cause the guy loaded it with crap (avg and what not). Also it kinda makes me sad that optimus isnt installed =[ I dont know how people get 3 hours with this, I can see maybe at most 2?

All in all, its been 1 day so far and I love this. We'll see how this goes, thanks guys for reading! Glad to be a part of this community =]

 

other than Alienware, you wont find Optimus on any other high end gaming laptop.

You can get 3 and a half hours easily, try playing a dvd or surf the web and typing word.

 

Alienwares m17/18x variants all have Optimus?

I showed my brothers the laptop and now they all think Im going to like launch missiles with it or hack into the pentagon.

I hope I can still get the ADP warranty even though the invoice from newegg shows the real buyer of this.

edit: I dont like asus tech support ._.

 

red flag raised in my mind at mention of battery life. feel obliged to mention.

notebook power supply 150watts max output.
notebook battery supply max ~75watts.

on battery you are not going to hit the same maximum output from the machine you would with the wall supply.

the gpu running full load at max speed alone would be consuming 75watts tdp or almost the battery's output. the cpu at full with turbo mode going full tilt hits 55watt tdp(which is not the same as actual power consumption. ram takes power commensurate with its amount as it must recharge each memory clock cycle(so more ram means more bits to power same principle holds with displays as a function of size).

i wrote about a page more after that detailing the difference in tdp and consumed watts, covered battery capacity and rate of output respective to runtime, heating, etc. and a ton more. then i realized i was sounding like i was TA'ing a basic dc electronics class again. the consumption range on this machine varies from less than ten watts for the cpu to over 55. the gpu has a similarly wide range. in maximal power saving mode, with not pushing the system much it can run a dozen times longer than at full output. unfortunately full output would draw twice the batteries capacity. 74amp hours means if you drew 1 amp an hour it'd last 74ish hours. if you drew 150amps, it'd last less than half an hour, would get really hot, and might explode if poorly designed. wattage is directly related to the amperage consumed. suffice it to say the battery could last between 15 minutes and 6 hours with this machine, depending on how close to minimal or maximum performance its running. asus wisely chose to throttle back performance when running on the battery to avoid instability and other issues, without making the battery the same size as the notebook.

and you got a supreme deal on the unit at 580ish. paid around that for a 4th gen intel classmate tablet/netbook(m&a branded companion touch 10) which may run up to 8 hours on a charge, but offers in the realm of 1/20th the cpu performance, and no gpu power to speak of. at 580 for this hardware it could randomly shock me, and call me names all day long and still would be more than worth it as a great deal.

 

you cant expect to game or do any heavy stuff while on battery. Those are meant to be done when you're on a desk, plugged in. The GPU will automatically downclock to 100-150 or max 240-300 for usual task.

 

so Asus configured the battery to put out 75 watts when on battery and 150 when its on the plug?

gotcha, so then with that setup 3 hours should be within the range right? I wonder if they implemented Optimus maybe theyd get 4-5

edit: im only mustering out 1:45 hours maybe 2hours on battery.

its on roughly 50% brightness on the battery saving mode

 

Im curious but what task were you doing at the time?

 

just normal stuff; browsing, music in the background and a couple word docs open (working on some assignments)

and it had around 2 hours at most (it was at 1:45 at around 85%? somewhere there)

I recently reformatted the whole thing and recovered it with Asus partition, so no games on it whatsoever just bare programs.

 

If Asus puts Optimus in the gaming laptops I will stop buying them, I don't care about the battery life, I bought this laptop to game. I usually get about 2-3 hours on my laptop. I do not like Optimus, after trying a few laptops that had optimus, I found that sometimes optimus wouldn't recognize the games to switch to dedicated and would mess up my game performance. Even after I tried manually setting stuff up it would be a hit or miss. Give me dedicated or integrated, or do what Ati did (I don't know if they changed recently) But Ati requires you to switch manually between dedicated and integrated by going into the catalyst controls. I'd rather have that then have it messing my games up every now and then.

 

@Dragonwolf

good point, id much prefer a manual switch like they did in the m11x R1 version. Saves alot of power and your in complete control of the power (much like stick shift ^-^)

I transfered my Dirt 3 game over and there is one thing I wanted to see and that was the cooling ability this laptop has. One thing I notice was that, my right side fan is kicking into full throttle while my left side fan is barely make any output in terms of power...I couldnt even tell if it was running or not

 

Nice job on the stick shift idea, lol. Glad you caught on to what I meant. The left side of the vents is your cpu fan/cooler, the right hand side is the fan/cooler for your gpu. This is why this laptop runs cooler, it has a dedicated fan and vent system for the cpu and gpu each.

 

this is a function of the desired bios fix the other variants got that the 53sw doesn't have. the bios controls fanspeeds based on therm levels.

only hits 100% fanspeed when cpu is dangerously close to thermal shutdown temp. the modification carried int he bios updates for the other models dropped that temp at which the fan ramps up to max by 5-10C for both the cpu and gpu, providing a bit more headroom on heavy workload tasks like folding/primality testing, or other heavy duty activities.

nominally speedfan should be able to alter the cpu fan speed, but the last person i knew who had info on the control chip type was chastity and he/she was running the jh, and is presently unavailable having been hired by asus for customer care and undergoing training.

gpu fan speed is still bios bounded afaik.

funny thing is there are a number of notebook models out there with an i72630qm cpu and gtx460m or gtx560m operating with the older single vent single fan concept with the heat pipes for both the gpu and cpu leading to the same heatsink+fan. looking about the forum for supreme heat failures with those units it's not really a significantly better or worse than this dual layout.

could be if they actually worked the cooling system to hit everything it should and ensured good pressure matings and cleaner machining, then used better thermal pastes and skipped the pads for baremetal mating. so failing those things its void warranty diy, or a solution that isn't significantly superior at stock.

now if you are overclocking it does provide some benefit, as you can up heat output from one component(cpu/gpu) without significantly impacting the other .

unfortunately we again find ourselves bounded. gpu is locked to a small range of voltages, with a debatable option to again void warranty by moding it's vbios to hit a possible one or two more voltage levels. this means its mostly frequency alteration and without the ability to tweak voltage to suit your possible oc with frequency is absolutely bounded and luck of the draw.

cpu isn't an extreme edition with unlocked goodies so there's limitations inherent there as well.

but hey it keeps the user interface areas of the chassis from being sweat inducingly or burningly hot at stock configs, so that's something, eh?

 

So 53sw is left in the dust =[

Hey Im not sure what happened but it seems like my bluetooth is gone i cant even install the bluetooth drivers because its saying its not being recognized yet in my device manager theres a bluetooth bus there...

also idk why people were saying they couldnt update the gtx 460m on their asus (unless they changed something) but i got verde running here on the first try.

also not sure if its because of not enough space for ventilation? Not sure if it needs like a huge space for its air intake but the gpu ran 85 degrees running Dirt 3 on my 46inch tv in 1080p all high (some ultra) settings flawlessly. I thought this thing was supposed to have great cooling

 

Dirt 3 can really tax a gpu, even some of the newer good desktop gpu's (not low ends) can have issues on Dirt 3. And your running it in 1080p and high or better settings on a mobile gpu, which is always less then their desktop equals. Keep this in mind when comparing things. You really are pushing the 460 and it's mobile making it heat up quicker. Usually when I am gaming (Command and Conquer 3, Torchlight, Flatout: Ultimate Carnage, Split/Second.) My gpu goes between 45C and 85C, so 85C isn't really unheard of when pushing this card. I'd consider it safe in quick bursts of a few mins at a time, with cooldowns in between. (like less action or what not.) If you go past 90C cut something down, resolution, detail, whatever. I've not had much problem, but others really push their gpu's to the limit. I'm not hardcore, but I'm not causal either, I'm in the mid range of the gamer section, so no problems for me. Oh, and I use MSI Afterburner for keeping an eye on my gpu temps and such.

 

oh yeah I understand im just comparing this to my rc512 that had a 525m (was originally underclocked) so i used afterburner to put it to stock clocks and it ran it in all High details with 1-2 Ultra settings ....only difference was that it wasnt on 1080p nor on my tv, yet it ran only max of 80-81 degrees on its 1.4inch chassis with a single fan/vent for the whole thing. This is my first 1080p screen so i didnt know if it was supposed to increase that much on an asus G series (huge exhaust vents, id figured max like 75 hah)

 

Hey hows it going... havent been o nhere in awhile as im in the sandbox but came across this thread in the ASUS ROG site. mine started acting up and found this, not sure if it has been posted here but didnt notice it maybe I over looked it. But it is cool I tried it and fired up first depress of the button. Other then that Im loving the G53 my first true gaming laptop/PC so its awesome. Heres the site

Magnetic sensor/switch issue on Asus G53SW-XN1 when closing the lid

 

Anyone use the express card slot on the g53sw-a1 yet?

Its PCIe 2.0 so I thought someone would hook up a eGPU by now.
I know the lack of Optimos makes it les desirable, by why cant a desktop gpu use the full x16 capability of the express card slot? I'm a newb at this stuff so any insight would be great.
I frequent the DIY eGPU threads.

Love this laptop and also wonder about underclocking the gpu to save power on battery.
I have been toying with 500/1000/1000 but dont know whats safe.

Cheers.

one more thing I have a 60GB SSD, can I use that hybrid rapid storage tech with SSD and HDD?

 

I think its official, somehow I lost all functionality of my bluetooth. I cant even install the drivers or any hotfixes because it cant detect it.

 

Will keep in mind, your weren't running in 1080. The higher the resolution the harder a gpu needs to run. Meaning the hotter it gets. What I'd be interested in seeing is: back your settings down to what you used on the rc512 and then see what the temps are. They should be close if not maybe cooler. Exhaust vent size won't matter compared to a fan. Take for instance, you have a really small fan inside a large box, your only going to get air from certain areas. Mainly in front of the fan. The outer ares of the box may show a little air movement, but it may not be enough to trigger our senses. Same way with the rear vents. My suspicions are that asus created the exhaust vents larger mainly due to design. If you dug deep into the g's chassis, the fan is probably, for sure not the same size.

As for your bluetooth, I am at lost there. Though I have to suggest, to go buy an Intel 6230 if you wish to keep bluetooth, it's a much better wireless card and has better bluetooth as well. It doesn't cost very much, (why asus didn't just go with that instead of these pos atheros cards I'll never quite understand. Though I'd suggest a clean windows install when you swap the cards, as even when I uninstalled the drivers for the old card it screwed the intel one up on range. You may be able to get by with a windows reinstall to fix your old card too. I really didn't look too deep into if you already tried that, so my bad if you did. If you need I can link the wireless card I bought should you decide to go that route.

 

Well I reinstalled windows through the Asus Recovery partition in my HD (I love this soooo much more than using a disc) and my bluetooth is back online.

I only had one game on the harddrive (4th day using this) so it wasnt no big deal. And yeah when I transfer Dirt 3 ill put the settings I used there on my 512 and see if it runs cooler. I do note that my rc512 the i7 temps were around 88-90 degrees on each core where as the g53 had around 82-84 on each core when running dirt 3

I think the reason why my bluetooth failed was that I tried to connect my ps3 controller via bluetooth to my g53 using MotionInJoy program. I guess that program screwed up windows for recognizing it or something, cause I tried everything possible to get it back online.

edit: dragon youre running 285 drivers right?

 

Uhm how prone is this screen to dead/stuck pixels? I already just found one that wasnt there before

its a dead pixel cause theres no light whatsoever coming out of it and I have a stuck pixel on the other side.

 

I recieved My laptop with large number of dead pixels on the left side of the screen almost forming vertical lines.After informing ASUS, Now waiting for the screen to arrive over here since in india only the G73/74 models are being sold and they have to order the screen from taiwan for my case, But i can still play all games without any issues.

 

Yes I am, actually I just upgraded to 285 and it improved my temps by 3-5 degrees cooler. (I re-installed windows over the weekend.) So 285 actually helped cool my system.

 

Im sorry if im posting only problems and what not, Im just new to the G53 series and wondering if its normal or not.

but today I just noticed that "Asus" logo area when you open the laptop (bottom of the display) has like a tiny gap that you can slightly push. you dont need any force whatsoever, but its noticeable that its not fully "glued" or whatever its called to the bezel.

Anyone else have this? Im wondering if its a problem for dust to accumulate in and somehow work its way inside the bezel

edit* I tested Crysis 2 using the same exact settings as my rc512 did (even resolution) and it ran it on the same heat output (80c). The 1080p settings ran it 4 degrees higher. The only thing different I notice on my g53sw thats different from my rc512 in terms of heating was that the i7 processor ran 5-8 degrees cooler. The gpu regardless if its 525m or 460m ran the same. I guess its more stable than the 525m.

Also since I reformatted, this test was under the 267 drivers. Ill test it once I get verde in.

edit 2: I tried 285 drivers and lowered resolution and everything, the temps were at 85c this time for Crysis 2, idk if i blocked off the vents or what but it went higher on my asus.
ALSO I just found out that my left shift doesnt work >_> like its not registering at all. Right one works.

 

no dead/stuck pixels for me. silvery asus embossed bits under the display panel are seated firmly, though the center bottom of the display is a flexible point( its a design issue, the same was true on the old m50sv from them as well, and that was the spot they put the backlight inverter on that unit).

rc512 lists 1366x768 stock panel resolution so 1920x1080 is just shy of double the pixels to draw. so nearly twice the work per frame.

(easy to confirm just do the multiplication and compare results. actually doubling both the height and width resolutions would equate to FOUR times the pixels to draw.)

i'm finding ambient plays an even bigger role that a cooling pad/fan for this model. 50degree F ambient versus 70F equates to a load temp of 72C cpu/ 77C gpu versus 85C+ cpu/87C+ gpu with all other conditions being equal.
75F ambient and the same tests result in throttling therm levels on the cpu for me as it tries to run turbo hits therm throttles and starts again so take it all well salted. (and yes i can usually get it to behave by disabling turbo with throttlestop, but that's a whole other set of numbers i wanted to present stock values)

could probably take the time to make an ambient to cpu/gpu temperature curve map but meh, not worth it( was just trying to sort out if there might be a in case ambient heat attrition problem with a gpu vrm leading to the issue i've been having as it appears irregardless of cpu/gpu sensor temps).

285.62 are the current whql drivers. advise double checking with a flashlight looking into the vents from the back, theres sheet foam just inside the grille material between the heatsink fins and the screening/grille and it can sometimes block much of the vents airflow, creating a high pressure area right on top of the radiator fins and negatively impacting cooling. you *may* be able to finagle it out of the way with a paperclip through the grille if its blocking airflow or moved in the way during shipping.

other measures would probably require a teardown and cleaning up the thermal paste job. could also play about downclocking the gpu core. seems it takes a higher than stock memory clock to fully take advantage of the stock gpu speed at high output, at least for most games/benches. video transcode and certain cuda/opencl tasks are another animal.

 

Yes the bottom center of the display (just above the Asus silver logo) has some flexible/looseness to it. That was what I was referring too. So thats normal?

Also I think I see the foam sheet obstructing a good portion of the vent, I always thought that some part of the vent design (was thinking it was weird at first) The foam is on both vents, Its obstructing maybe 30-40% of the vent?

What is the purpose of the foam and will it void my warranty if I remove it?

I still got nothing for my left shift key =[ it refuses to register a hit >_< pretty neccesary key for gaming.

 

foam just helps keep the fins of the heatsink from contacting the grille covering the vent exits. this has two purposes. 1) prevent vibration noise and help stabilize heat sink 2) prevent direct contact of heatsink fins to grille leading to the outer grating heating up enough to melt something/buckle.

the outer grille cover also acts as structural reinforcement for the opening that is the vent port itself, at least in limited fashion.

as to removing the foam, well, completely removing it is probably a bad idea as they could potentially point to the missing foam and say "aha you had it open and apart thus voiding your warranty". well that and it does serve some limited useful purpose. better to kind of slide it back downward and towards the battery side of each vent, or if you have it open maybe cut it down slightly.

as tot he shift key, i'm assuming it still moves normally and isn't suck down or something. the first thing to try there would be popping up the keyboard panel and reseating the larger wide ribbon cable with the blue plasticky bit to pull it by. make sure to watch the dissassembly videos to understand everything involved, and possibly look at the thread http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...um/527654-newbs-guide-repasting-your-g73.html which has some still images and notes that apply to both the g73 and g53 in that regard.

most of the dissassembly guides say if keys aren't registering after dissassembly/reassembly to try reseating that cable as that is the lead for the keyboard segment( the smaller one on the other side is for the keyboard lights). i get you didn't dissassemble it and have it start not registering, but who knows, if you have dead pixels, foam blocking the vents, and the letters on the front center of the display at the bottom are popped out, it kind of sounds like it had a rough ride through the mail at some point, so maybe the cables loose too.

p.s. as to the bottom center of the display panel, think of it like this hold a sheet of paper at two sides, the most flexible points between the points you are holding. the mounts+hinges are about an inch from the edge of the screen on each side so those are the stable points. the top center is reinforced by the camera and mic mountings. the bottom center is either just cable routing or cable routing and a backlight control board, which means not only are there spaces for the hinges, but also for the wiring in the otherwise solid outer frame in that general region. they did a really good job hiding them, but it's still the weakest area of the display bezel structurally, because its got openings and is mostly hollow. everything else is reinforced far more.

this makes sense though. closed it would be protected by being next to the solid battery/vent ridge and the rest of the back of the panel is fairly solid for loads sitting on it closed. on its side as in a backpack, the main body chassis helps take the load so the hinges don't suffer too much side force.
in a bag vent side down the display would only have to not wiggle open from gravity and motion. and it absolutely should not go in a bag laying on the edge that faces you when in use.

when open most force that could impact the display panel would come on the back or outer edges towards the top. so practically speaking the weakest point there is also the hardest to impact barring taking your hand and doing so manually can't imagine how the lettering managed to get forced out, should be flush or slightly recessed from the plastic around it. imagine its just metallic painted plastic with glue sitting in matching slots on the panel, so perhaps they didn't get seated well in the first place. shrugs.

 

Thank you so much steelblue =] I'll open it later on and see if I can wedge the foam under the battery.

+1 rep for post, was very helpful!

edit: I dont think Im going to open my asus, not experienced with that and will probably break something so Ill call up asus sometime soon and fix it.

 

Hey guys, bad news, after 6 months of trouble-free use, my G53SW-XN1 has crapped out on me. When running any sort of video demanding program (games, furmark, even the Graphics Test on Windows Experience Index) causes the computer to hang almost immediately (5-10 seconds), with a hard-reset being the only thing that can be done to elicit any sort of response. Weird thing is, when I browse the internet, or run a game that is not demanding (Secret of Monkey Island 2 Special Edition for example) the computer runs fine, and only hangs every once in a great while. Obviously it is something with the GPU. Unfortunately I am currently living in Poland, and am afraid to send it in to get serviced, but have no other choice! Anyways, I figured I would mention this here to see if anyone else has experience anything similar! Just my luck that this happened literally 24hrs before the release of Skyrim... bah, what a crock of s%*t!

 

assuming you've cleaned out the vents and heatsink on the machine and made sure to check your temperatures?

if not there's the start point.

 

Have you been experiencing any BSODs with all of this?

 

Has anyone else been experiencing alot of dropped connections or sometimes it wont even pick a connection up with their g53?

Im really starting to dislike atheros and I dont wanna spend more money just to replace some cheap part in a pretty high end laptop.


edit: on top of that is random slow connections. Compared to my previous laptops, I always got full bar connections from my room, but with this POS atheros card, Ill be lucky to get 4-5 bars, averaging about 2-3...somtimes even none.

 

I have not been experiencing any BSOD's, and recently i turned on my asus and noticed that the screen wont turn on at all, i hear the windows sounds and everything, but the screen is blank.

 

Honestly, that seems to be the first upgrade users seem to do, besides of course ram and an ssd. I have noticed much better performance on my Intel 6230 then the old Atheros. Stronger Signal, less, if no dropped connections (honestly I've had no dropped connections on my end, on the other end I lost connection but that was due to the school's networking crashing, which really sucked. But at home no drops and even better range.) I honestly would bite the bullet and buy an Intel 6230 or better card. You won't regret it. It only cost me $25 with free shipping. Just make sure you un-install your old wireless and bluetooth drivers before you shut down and upgrade. Otherwise your have what happened to me, slow network, dropped connections all that but with the new card. The drivers conflict. I ended up just doing a clean install and since been happy with all my upgrades.

 

Issue with the switch that shuts off your screen when you shut the screen.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus-gaming-notebook-forum/614039-new-g53sx-wont-turn-2.html

This ought to get you into the right direction, not exactly the same laptop (g53sx vs. the g53sw) But should help.

Here is another link:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...ch-issue-asus-g53sw-xn1-when-closing-lid.html

Hope it helps.

 

Yeah I guess ill buy the Intel card and replace it but not anytime soon (budget is tight, ironic eh for buying the 53sw lol) but yeah thats the only beef I have with this computer is its wireless card

 

I never really used the stock wireless card of my G53SW-XN1 before I replaced mine. I had an extra Intel 5100 that I put in when I was replacing the RAM with 8GB of 10666 instead of the stock 6GB of 10600. Just sucks the stock card doesn't support 5GHz wifi. The one real issue I had was after putting the computer back together, the monitor wouldn't light up half the time. I ended up just pulling the touch-pad cable back a bit before snapping it into the connector which fixed the problem for me.

 

LAPTOP SLEEVE QUESTION

Okay guys, I'm planning on buying the ASUS G53SW-A1 on Black Friday or Cyber Monday, and I was wondering which size laptop sleeve you guys would recommend. So far, I've hear that you need at least a 17 inch sleeve to fit this thing due to it's bulkiness.

From what I've seen on Amazon. These 2 options seem to be good...

Amazon.com: Case Logic LAPS-117 17 - 17.3 -Inch Laptop Sleeve (Black): Electronics

http://www.amazon.com/Widescreen-No...amsung/dp/B000U1YBNQ/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

Do any of you have either of those cases? Or know if one of them is good or not? Or, if you don't recommend those sleeves, could you point me in the right direction to find a sleeve that will fit it well? Thanks a lot guys. I appreciate it.

-Ian

 

Hi I'm new to these forums (just registered), but I was scouting the g53sw for months. I finally just ordered one for my birthday really excited upgrading from a acer with a pentium dual core lol.

I ordered the Asus g53sw xn1 on amazon (new egg now has jacked prices for it) and I'm prepared to be mind blown. What should do first. Download what drivers and stuff. I hope mine doesn't have the cursed power issues!

I been doing lots of research (for months) and this seems like the best choice.

 

@armystrong:

maintain cautious enthusiasm until it arrives and can be vetted. seems like thats the biggest thing to ensure no let down syndrome. the worst feeling in the world is expecting greatness and finding a problem due to defect or shipping damage. i think the day after opening the box is the one to be excited over.

once you get it, vet it with something like 3dmark06/07/09/11/vantage for a bit and watch temps, and check your display for dead dots. and burn your recovery discs. if you are still looking good, make sure sleep and hibernate respectively aren't bugging out.

if you are still good after running through all that then you are only really at risk for the power button issue, and there's no better short term test for that then lots of driver installs and shutdown startup cycles(as opposed to simply soft poweroff with restart).

nvidia display drivers latest version is officially 285.62, latest beta is 285.79 and asus has a supposedly whql official driver at 285.69 from the german asus support site. if you pull these drivers and have issues you may need the updated .inf from laptopvideo2go . don't forget to remove old drivers in safe mode then run driversweeper before restarting to install new ones.

beyond that :
Latest NVIDIA drivers: Official, Beta, and Modded
and
G73/74/53 Series Driver and Application Reference or New Drivers

then depending on your config eyeball Any Kind of Lag and Atheros WiFi Card

and make sure to pick up throttlestop as well and look up the thread describing how to set it to autostart on these forums or the rog forums.

its a mighty machine especially for its price, and pleasant to handle and work with. hard to question it's capability to perform. just gotta dodge the bullets as you are aware lol.

the takeaway i guess is vet it with stock setup, then take a close look at the nvidia drivers and possibly wifi drivers. i'd personally leave the rest stock unless you have issues with them. and expect to be pulling a gig or so worth of windows updates if you don't plan to clean reinstall.

feeling link lazy tonight after a day at the hospital with family but if you need more specifics or have other questions i'm sure the fine people around here will get to them in turn, or i will after some rest .

 

Thank-you very much. I'm very nervous it's going to come in working and I will stress teat it to assure it's 100%

How can I rep someone?

 

Hello everybody.
I went through all the pages of this discussion and it helped my decision to pick up the G53SW-XN1. After a month with it, I still firmly believe that I could not have picked a better machine. Thank you all for your wonderful posts.

I've recently added an Intel 510 to the 2nd hard drive bay and made it the boot drive; however, I've been unable to get it to run at SATA III speed (current CrystalDiskMark 250 seq read). Does anybody have experience with this particular drive, or SATA III drives in general, that could share your success story?

Things I've tried:
- Installed latest chipset INF with -overall. I think I might not know how to do this properly, though, since Intel HM65's driver shows 9.2.0.1016, which is not the latest?
- Had the SSD in port 0, then port 1
- Uninstalled Intel Rapid Storage and used either Intel(R) 6 Series/C200 or Microsoft's Standard AHCI 1.0 for SATA controller

 

As far as I know, most of the ASUS laptops that use the HM65 has been locked out of the SATA3 functionality. So even though the HM65 supports SATA3, it only will run at SATA2.

 

In a slightly off topic piece of news, I am happy to report that my G53SW-A1 has reached the 50h mark in Skyrim without any issues. Max GPU temp on stock paste at stock clocks was 85 o Celsius, and the CPU was lower (I did not monitor CPU temps as carefully).

I bought this laptop with Skyrim in mind, and while it can't push the detail levels to the max, it works. I'm more than satisfied.

Also, if you are in Toronto, Canada, Costco carries a Swiss Army backpack for $25 that fits the G53SW perfectly and is a much higher quality than the original Asus backpack. At least it has more than 2 pockets. Sadly it's not online, only in local stores.