Asus G53SW Owners' Lounge

When or if I decide to upgrade I think I will get some of this: Newegg.com - ADATA XPG Gaming Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Laptop Memory Model AXDS1600GC4G9-2
I was hoping by upgrading it would lower the timings like when I upgraded my U50F with DDR3-1333 I got 7-7-7-20 1T, but from the looks of it by a review at Newegg you just get a 1600Mhz speed with 9-9-9-24 2T.

 

I know memtest says to run at least 20 minutes but from what I read, the longer you run the better. (I do need my computer during the day so I can't run memtest then.) I'll be doing a test on my memory tonight while I am asleep. And report back once I have some results.

 

Not sure what memory test your using but memtest86 would probably be best, but you would have to make a bootable CD with it loaded to the CD.
Prime95 stresses CPU & memory and can be ran from the desktop.
I'm sure there are other good or even better memory test out there, I'm just old school. lol

 

I just went with two kits of:
Newegg.com - G.SKILL 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Laptop Memory Model F3-10666CL9D-8GBSQ

Its sad that all that work to dismantle the entire laptop to replace the memory and the WEI score went up to 7.6 from 7.5....

At the same time, I just wanted to change the memory with something else and my friend needed the old memory for his G73 anyways so it worked out in the end.

 

I get a 7.5 WEI with the 10GB setup I have now. As is my video card has the lowest score in WEI with 7.1, SSD HDD the highest, CPU 7.4.
I think the CPU score could be better if there was a way to lock the CPU at a higher speed since it is almost always setting at 798Mhz even when testing.

I been looking into ways to do this, but no luck yet. If I could get it locked to a 20x muti that would be fine, 27/28x even better.
This of course would be for when its plugged in only.

 

I used Memtest86+ and had it run through one full test. It showed zero errors. I don't know if maybe having it run all night may make a difference, I don't really want to wear out my ram. So unless someone tells me otherwise, I think my ram and slots are ok. Though my hard drive may be dying since for some reason Windows started the checkdisk (and had been trying to run checkdisk the past few startups but I would cancel it, I didn't this last time.) Which may have something to do with my issues.

 

Be best to let it run over night it will not hurt your ram, but I would let check disk do its job first & let it check for problems.

 

I'm getting these red lines that won't go away on my G53SW-A1's screen. They don't show up on an external display. Any ideas what I can do to get this fixed?

 

I let disk check do it's thing it found a few errors that it deleted, then said all was fine. Now I will run memtest86+ again tonight, all night and report my findings.

Almost looks like the screen is cracked on the inside. Carefully take a paper towel or maybe a screen cleaning cloth and rub it, if it smears don't touch it and get ahold of Asus for warranty information, if you don't feel anything but it seems to smear on the inside do the same thing. The other possiblity is that it's a graphics glitch software wise but if it's only on your laptop screen and not an external display, chances are the screen is cracked. Those are my thoughts. Hope that helps. Anyone else have any ideas? (Hoping I'm wrong, and it's just a software issue somewhere, because display being cracked really sucks.)

 

Did these red pixels spring up overnight, or did they slowly show up? If they showed up suddenly, I would have to agree with Dragonwolf and say that it might be due to some sort of damage to the screen, if they are slowly getting worse and worse (the amount of red pixels) I would say that it is intrinsic to the LCD screen, and the bad pixels are showing up with time. Either way, in both instances you should contact Asus to get it fixed.

On another (and more pleasant, atleast for me ) note, I FINALLY received my G53SW back from the Asus Service Center here in Poland for the SECOND time, and I am pleasantly surprised. They must have done a heckuva pasting job on the GPU, because my temps are considerably lower (even after breaking in the paste) than they were before. With Furmark, I would hit 90C after a 5 minutes BURN-IN test, this time around it hits 84C. Quite the difference, and when I use my newly purchased Coolermaster Laptop Cooler, it hits around 81C! Needless to say, I am very happy, even after the month and a half long fiasco of sending the laptop back and forth and wasting my time talking to 8 different Tech's on the phone. Another thing that is interesting, when i received this laptop this time around (as opposed to when I had it brand new) it seems to be quite a bit louder than before, when sitting there idling. I did some research and read that this laptop has 3 fans, 1 for GPU, 1 for CPU, and 1 for intake/RAM fan (can anyone confirm this?). When I touch the bottom of the laptop, where the grill-part is, I feel air being sucked in, even at idle. I never noticed this before (but never really checked), and am now wondering maybe it never worked to begin with, and that is why the high temps occured when I first bought the laptop. They replaced my GPU, my CPU fan assembly, and the MB (2 dif RMA's, what a pain), but the lappie seems to be working better than before. Anyway, just going on about things that aren't that important, but if anyone has any input, feel free. Oh, and btw, Skyrim is amazing, runs full HD, all settings on High/Ultra except shadows, FXAA on, and im getting a steady 42-46FPS avg. Wonderfull experience to say the least!

Thanks for listening

Bert

 

Thanks for the replies, guys.

Do you know if I needed to register anything within a certain time after purchase to get the 2 year warranty it's supposed to come with? I know you need to with 60 days of purchase to get the ADW protection, but not sure about the standard warranty.

 

You do not need to register for the standard two years warranty, at least didn't

 

I let memtest run overnight, it managed about 3 1/2 passes and had no errors. Safe to say my ram and slots are ok I'm assuming. On another note: I did read something about how certain lcd monitors (external, since i don't seem to have the issue with my laptop screen.) tend to default to 59hz instead of the normal 60hz, and that the difference while negligible can mess up games and even windows aero. I went into my settings and found out that my external Dell monitor was indeed running at 59hz, I changed it to 60hz and so far so good. I also managed to switch to hdmi output, which may or may not help. (Switched from VGA, I had to buy an HDMI to DVI adapter, but it seems to be working great so far.) Something to keep in mind. (I don't want to get a new lcd as my dell is still good, and is a 24" one. (Model 2407WFPHC) has all the connections so it's almost like my second tv.

 

You really shouldn't need to register, at the most, they may need a copy of your receipt to verify purchase date, but since this laptop hasn't been out for even a full year (that I know of) and having a 2 year warranty it just takes common sense to know that it's covered. Your right about the ADW, I missed out on that by 1 day. Oh well in about 2 months my ADW would be up anyhow, at least I know I still have an additional 1 year standard warranty on mine.

 

What is the benefit of installing the SSD in the original HDD bay instead of the expansion bay? I installed an Intel Series 320 SSD into the expansion bay last month and changed the BIOS to boot from the SSD. Everything seems to work fine so far. Just wondering if there's anything I may be missing.

 

Funny, I JUST got those too. RMAing right now. Mine are 3 times as worse though . Went out with family screen was fine open on my bed, came back turned it on, and there those lines where .

EDIT:
I just now realized I have to take apart my whole laptop again -_-, get the stock 6gb RAM that I game to my mom... and then replace the stock wifi card, and place the internal HDD in slot 0, and take out my SSD.

Man this sucks!

 

I had read that the second bay was sata II, but I thinks its really sata III. I never had a chance to check for sure when my SSD was still living. "it died" after 8 1/2 days.
It would only matter if your SSD is sata III and on a sata II controller. Then you would loose some speed of the sata 3 HDD. Sata 3 controllers are backwards compatible with sata 1 & 2.
Software such as HD Tune or AS SSD should show info as to what mode its running in. Edit: since you have a Intel SSD: Intel® Solid-State Drive Toolbox

 

North American G53SW-A1 owners... where did you buy from?

Finding this SKU now is a bit difficult. Most places are carrying the XA1 or XR1 or some other variant. I've been a Mac owner for quite a while and bought my computers directly through Apple, so I'm not exactly sure what places are legit and what places are sketch- Amazon, NewEgg, and BestBuy all let me down in this case. The A1 on Amazon is currently going through Beach Audio and Buy.com has it, but I don't know anything about them. Can anyone vouch for either of them, or is there another legit retailer that carries or may carry the A1?

If not, is there a comparable SKU that you guys would recommend? From what I've read, it looks like the A1 is the definitive combination of performance and parts for the money out of all the models, and even seems to be a better pick than the G53SX's.

 

If you can get yours from Microcenter, I would go there. I bought mine from Microcenter and haven't had any serious issues, usually just software issues. And correct on the G53SX's if Asus hadn't limited the gtx560m's memory to 128-bit like they did then I would have to say get the SX, but in this case the SW models in general are a better buy. Since the GTX 460M has the 192-bit.

 

This is getting old, my graphic driver recently crashed again on my laptop, I'm running the latest Beta drivers. Everything else checks out ok, I even blasted the laptop with compressed air to clean it out. Ran memtest86+ for about 3 passes and ram checks out, cpu is fine. Temps when the crash happened was Idle: 48C. This is driving me crazy and I am getting sick of it. If anyone else has any ideas, please let me know.

 

Hey I'm having serious issue with the G53Sw-a1, performance wise. I've had it for about 4 months, and for 2 of the months it worked great with games. But now it's doing terrible. My HP laptop not even meant for games is running them better than my asus laptop now. I'm not too good with computers , but I have still tried the obvious solutions that I know of. (updating drivers, making some hard drive space, etc.) For example, I play starcraft on this laptop. It used to run on high nearly always above 90 fps. Now, when there's nothing going on in the game, I'll be lucky to make it up to 20 fps performance wise. This is stupid since my suggested graphics for the game are ultra, (well, it's actually extreme now since I updated the drivers)but in reality I can't even get through a big fight in starcraft on the lowest graphic level without being able to count the frames. I also just started playing skyrim too, and it's just been hell on me. I need this problem fixed, but I don't know what to any more.

Any help and suggestions would be appreciated.

 

I was told that I could leave my RAM, and SSD inside the laptop when I called customer service. Can anyone confirm that it would be okay? The man sounded pretty sure of it.

 

Thanks for the help DragonWolf. Unfortunately, I'm not finding the A1 specifically at any retailer that I really trust.

NewEgg does have the XN1 that has less RAM and a smaller HD out of the box, which is a shame since it's about the same price. But I'm think of going that route just for peace of mind. Is there anything about the XN1 that would deter me from getting that specific SKU? I know that some people have had issues with the XA1, but I haven't seen anything about the XN1.

 

The G53SW series itself has pretty much the same issues. The hall sensor and AC plug location are the biggest issues. I had to cut my hall sensor out because the magnet that comes with the laptop was too powerful and magnetized the metal plate that the hall sensor rests on so the screen never turned on since it thought the lid was closed. The AC location is at a bad spot but you can pick up a L adapter to relocate the power cord so that it doesn't get in the way when you use a external mouse and if you're right handed.

Other than that, they are pretty much the same except for the 3D models and the Seagate Momentus XT drive that the XN1 doesn't come with.

The 6GB of RAM is a bit annoying if you want to upgrade the RAM, you can buy another Hynix 10600 4GB to go to 8GB or take your chances on another off brand. If you want to keep the memory the same pair, to remove the slot 0 RAM stick requires you to dismantle nearly the entire laptop since there's a metal plate covering it.

Lastly, if you're not in a hurry for the laptop, you might want to keep checking the open box section at newegg, I got my XN1 as a open box for $580 back in the beginning of October and I've seen a few in the last few months. You just have to be lucky but well worth the savings.

 

I have heard that about the AC plug. Could you drop me a link to the adapter that you use? I'm having a bit of trouble navigating Google for the right thing. Must be using the wrong words for the search.

The RAM isn't a huge deal to me. I'm coming from a Macbook that is choking on 2GB and integrated graphics, so going up to 6GB and the 460M+1.5GB is going to be like heaven.

I am not in a huge hurry, but I'd like to get the laptop sooner than later. I know I just missed these puppies being on sale, but as the other SW models are starting to disappear I feel a sense of urgency about locking this one down since it's what I want. I was looking to spend just under $1200, so I really won't feel much remorse about getting it at this price unless is pops up as an open box like a day later.

 

Here is a link to the right angle converter above.
As for open box I think most where re-certified returns and & since there are no re-certified in stock at newegg there will probably not be any OB available until more re-certified come in.
I got my G53SW-XN1 back in Oct. as well for $580. Only thing I found wrong with mine was the DVD burner had problems burning disk, when ejecting it would get a BSOD.
A new $25.00 replacement DVD fixed that: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151242 the BSOD only came after a copy of a DVD movie with DVDFab then eject for blank.
I found upgrading it quite simple once I watched a online video of how it replace the hard drive: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ev8y8xlCdHE&feature=related
not the same model # but the tear down to upgrade for the G53SW-XN1 is the same as this.

 

Thank you so much for the link! Will definitely nab one of those.

Yeah, I think I'm too worked about getting a new laptop to wait for that to happen. I want it NAO haha. Thanks for all the help you guys.

 

I saw one of the G53SW-A1 at az for 899 just after your first post new.
But I didn't link because I figured you had already seen it, plus you wasn't sure if you wanted to order from there.
Wife & I get a good bit of stuff from Az and haven't had any problems.

 

Looks like it went up a 100 now: http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-list...p?ie=UTF8&qid=1325473270&sr=8-2&condition=new

Edit: Looks like they now have the Right Angle 90 Degree Converte back in stock at Az, where I got mine. Get it and the G53SW-A1 for 1,006.94 shipped.
That's below your 1200 limit, you could get a SSD hard drive with the other 150/175.

 

I'm actually totally down the Amazon and would prefer to order there... I'd just read in a few threads around here and other places that the XA1 has typically had a knack for more manufacturing issues than the other skus, like the A1, XN1, etc. so I was avoiding that particular sku.

Is that an unfounded concern?

 

You may be correct it didn't catch my eye I posted the wrong laptop, I thought that was the A1. I know nothing about the XA1, Sorry my bad.

 

I've poked around a bit, and I'm going to chalk up the handful of negative XA1 reviews to unlucky people complaining on the internet.

I think I'm gonna go XA1 for the extra RAM and saved money, then maybe track down an SSD, as you said. Since I can go Amazon, I feel confident that I'll be able to sort things out through them or Asus if I get a lemon.

Purchasing in 3... 2... 1...

(My lady will be overjoyed that I'm not spending hours scouring the internet for laptop specs and reviews anymore haha).

 

Good luck with the new laptop, I'm sure you will enjoy it. let us know how you get along with it once you have it in hand.
As for the unlucky few, there seems to be those with almost everything you buy now days.

 

Will do. I'll be able to speak for the XA1 whenever the next person like me comes around.

 

I'm also having some other problem's with this, if anyone could please help me out. I'm having serious driver issues on this laptop.

My first problem is that most of my F# buttons don't work ( the only one that works being F5/F6, which are the brightness up/down controls ). I'd like to fix this as it got annoying fast.

My touchpad also won't work at all. I have to use my gaming mouse, which I really don't want to be constantly using.

Finally, my last issue is I got a blue screen playing Skyrim. I used to get these all the time for starcraft 2, but after they released a patch it worked again. For Skyrim, this isn't exactly an option.

Could someone please reply to this post and my other one on page 168 if they have any clue what I could do to fix these problems? Thanks.

 

Uninstall the ATK driver download the latest from Asus: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. - Notebooks- ASUS G53SW other drivers for mouse and other stuff are also there.
Get the latest Nvidia driver: Drivers - Download NVIDIA Drivers I'm using the 290.53 beta haven't had any problems, game play is even better for me than the latest WHQL Certified.
Be sure to place a check mark to do a clean install & reboot when done.

 

um It's telling me the source/file was not found. I uninstalled the ATK package then in the middle of installing the newest version it told me the file was not found, I should verify the file is there. But I already know the file isn't there because I just uninstalled it. What am I doing wrong?

 

Hello guys,

Could you please tell me your i7 2630QM max temperature after intensive gaming??

Would appreciate the info a lot.

Regards

 

Download the ATKPackage_WIN7_32_WIN7_64_z100007.zip file from the link I left. Once its done downloading, double click it,
a window will open, now right click in a clear area, a popup will appear, select extract all at the bottom.
Another popup will appear, make sure show files is checked so it will open the files folder after there extracted, click or double click the setup.exe.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/8191839-post1634.html

 

After playing Skyrim for several hours, max CPU temp was around 80C.

 

Here's a couple hints for those of you thinking about making a image backup of your OS drive. I used Seagate DiscWizard.
Go to control panel/system/Advanced system settings/ advance tab/performance/advance/virtual memory/ change, set to no page file, click set then ok.
You'll need to reboot, this will remove the page file and save you time and space "about 10GB" on your storage backup unit.
This will have to do with the amount of ram you have in your system. I have 10GB of ram so my page fie was 10GB.

Also you can do this to save space plus shorten the time of you backup.
What is hiberfil.sys and How Do I Delete It?

Doing these two things alone saved me 18GB of space plus shorten my backup time, before OS drive was 38GB after it was 20GB to backup.


These can be undone if you ever need to use the backup by just reversing what you did to remove these after the backup has completed.

Edit: Compressed backup state now 12.9GB vs 25.2GB before.

 

Hello.

I have an ASUS G53SW-A1 with a wireless card

ATHEROS AR9002WB-1NGCD

that doesnt work.

Can i buy Intel® Centrino® Ultimate-N 6300 and use it?
I read that the card shouldnt have bluetooth because this laptop use other things to control that. And this card doesnt have bluetooth.

Intel® Centrino® Ultimate-N 6300

I also attach a PDF about this card.

Thanks.

 

That should work, but the bluetooth dosn't matter, you uninstall your old card and install the new one. I got the Intel 6230 that is "N" and Bluetooth and never had a problem. The only thing the laptop uses to control the bluetooth card with is the fn+f2, but most laptops use a combination like that to control the wireless/bluetooth card anyhow.

 

Many thanks!

 

If you don't want to lose Bluetooth you can also try Intel 6230. It works like a charm in my G53SW.

 

Computer came in! It's definitely a beast, and my initial impression is good. I did have trouble with the power button, and did have to perform the "magnet" trick to demagnetize the area to the right of the trackpad. No biggie though, seems fine now.

I didn't realize that the drive would be automatically partitioned. You'll have to forgive me- I haven't had Windows since XP and don't have a lot of experience with backing up the OS and whatnot. What should I be putting where? Like, I figure images, documents, music, etc. will go in the D drive. But what, if anything, should be going on the OS drive? Programs? What about Steam and its games?

 

Glad to hear you got your new laptop, hope you enjoy it as much as I have mine. I haven't had any problem with my magnet yet, but mine stays open most of the time.
One day I may have to look into this magnet trick your talking about?

Use the Asus AI recovery software to make a image back, takes 5 DVD's is the first thing to do.
Ya its partitioned kind of funny, I didn't like it at first, but really works out.
I installed steam and all my games to D: and pretty much everything else except a few small programs like virus software.
This was mainly to keep the C: OS drive with as much free space as possible.
Just got to remember when installing anything to do a custom install so you can change the path, Most of the time you can just edit the drive letter to D and leave the rest as is.
I been doing it that way for years and as far as I can tell it doesn't hurt anything having a Program Files (x86) folder on another drive or partition.

I got my replacement SSD hard drive in yesterday so I been backing up and making images the day before it got here and since it arrived.
Man this thing is now smoking fast 13 second boot time and 8 second shutdown. I picked up a OCZ Agility 3 240GB from Newegg on the shell shocker for $269 and w/ 30 bucks rebate.
First one was bad but Newegg replaced it with no problems even payed for return shipping. 3 way free shipping. Gotta love Newegg's great support & customer service.
Hey that's a dollar a gig! Can't beat that for a SSD Sata3 of this size.

 

Do you mid sharing how you overcame the problem with the power button and carried out the "magnet trick"?
Thanks!

 

Thanks for the reply. I'll try starting the RMA process in a few days when I return to the States. Hope it goes smoothly - not sure how long I can be away from the Old Republic. :X

 

Got it! I realized that there was no way my Steam data would fit on the first partition haha, so I tried everything in D and it has been gravy so far. Thanks for the confirmations. Looks I need to go buy some DVD's. Been a while haha.

Magnet trick is below, in case you ever need it.

Well first things first, the problem with the power button really has absolutely nothing to do with the power button. It has to do the magnetization of some metal to the right of the trackpad. The magnet to the right of the camera (that's supposed to let the laptop know when it's closed, and therefore when to sleep) is way too powerful, causing them magnetization. The magnetization causes the laptop to think it's asleep even when it's open, therefore making it appear that the power button is "broken".

I got the fix from an Amazon review. It's simple- take a low-strength magnet (I used a fridge magnet) and rub it in circles directly to the right of the buttons below the trackpad. Some people have just swiped it once and gotten the power to come on, but have to do it often. I rubbed it on there for about a minute, and I haven't had to do it on subsequent launches.