Asus G53SW Owners' Lounge

Both are solid drives, i'd go with whichever is cheaper. The Samsung Spinpoint F3 still remains one of the favorite drives of the techs a GW2Guru. WD drive prices are inflated right now, even more than the other drives. I personally never had any problems with drives from WD, Seagate, Samsung and Hitachi which are pretty much the only drive manufacturers you see on the market at the moment and Samsung and Hitachi will probably disappear since they were respectively bought by Seagate and Western Digital.

 

Alright, bought the Samsung drive, the optical drive caddy, and an external enclosure to put my DVD drive in afterward. I'll let you guys know how it goes.

 

Hey if everything works out could you link the caddy you bought? I figure if it fits those large capacity hdd's it'll fit anything and I am really thinking about doing away with my dvd-r/w drive. I just bought a portable usb2.0/3.0 blueray burner/DVD/CD burner (Got it for $71 at microcenter) and figured I can use it when i need optical capabilities. I'd rather have capacity over an optical drive (specially when I can use an external portable optical drive at anytime.) Heck if you can link all the parts you bought for the future so other's may be able to do the same. Thanks!

 

Alright, got the hard drive yesterday, and the caddy today, so of course I installed it right away. It involved opening it up to the point of removing the bottom plate, then removing an extra screw in that area to be able to slide the DVD drive out.

I noticed the caddy was a little smaller than the stock DVD drive, perhaps I should of gotten a 12.5 mm caddy and hard drive? Anyway, I unscrewed the metal piece that was connected the the DVD drive, then attached to the caddy. It took a little trial and error, and force to get the caddy properly aligned to fit into the SATA connector, but it eventually popped in after pushing(theres probably a more professional way to do this). Even after screwing it back in, there was a little room to move if I tried to, so I used some of the packaging foam to pad it a bit, so it won't move at all.

Everything worked great, formatting was almost instant. Moved everything over, and got speeds up to 60mbs/sec which I think is great. In actuality, it's 931 GB, but that's to be expected.

Now, about the faceplate... It snapped off the stock DVD drive, but did not fit on the new caddy, so I ended up cutting the inside of it up quiet a bit with a knife, wire-cutter, and a flat head screw driver. Then I put tape on the inside, and stuck the faceplate on.

Here's what I bought:

Caddy: Amazon.com: Protronix® SATA 2nd HDD Hard Drive Caddy for 9.5mm Universal CD / DVD-ROM Optical Bay: Computers & Accessories

HDD: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0053YLTBC/ref=pe_175190_21431760_M2C_SC_3p_dp_1

So, it wasn't too complicated in all, not sure if I should of got a 12.5mm drive, but it worked out, so I don't care. Maybe 12.5mm would be too big. Anyway, I think it's a worthy upgrade, I don't think I've ever used my DVD drive, but I can definitely use another 931GB, only 616 of that is free now, after moving a bunch of stuff there.

Good luck to anyone else who wants to do this.

 

Wow, that actually sounds like an excellent idea; I'm honestly considering putting a storage hdd in to replace the DVD drive. Sorry if it's too much to ask, but could you do an official write-up with pictures? I'm sure a lot more people would want to do this if given adequate information.

 

I am gonna copy paste something that I posted in the general asus forums, but hopefully someone in here could answer a few of my questions, as it seems the vx7s model is based on the g53 model.

 

Sorry I didn't take any pictures. I'm not going to open it up again just to do that, but honestly this isn't too hard of an upgrade.

Just follow this guide to open it up:
ASUS G53JW 2nd Hard Drive Install by XOTIC PC - YouTube

Then once it is open, you just need to unscrew this screw(the one I circled):


The DVD drive will slip out, and you can unscrew the metal piece you'll see from the DVD drive to the caddy you'll have bought, then stick it in and screw that one screw back in.

Sorry I couldn't give you anything more in depth, but I'm sure you'll be able to do it if you want to.

 

Full G53 disassembly guide: BTOtech.com | G53Jw & G53Sw Disassembly Take Apart G53 g53j service manual - YouTube. I'm pretty sure the ODD in the G53 is a 12.5mm unit, if i'm right, then getting a 12.5mm caddy would be the best idea.

 

tijo: the problem with the BTO video is the absolute crap position of the camera.
For the best view (and best explanations) see XoticPC's video.

 

Guys,

Wifi ac is out. Any ideas where we can get wifi modules to upgrade our G53?

 

hey guys, has anyone tried out the vertex 4? been debating whether to get the crucial m4 or the vertex 4 for a while now (256 GB). anyone use either of those?

 

The Crucial M4 has been around for a while now and has a great reputation for reliability.

I have heard there are some issues with the OCZ Vertex 4 drive, because of the new controller they are using (non-SandForce). A firmware update might fix it.

I'm not sure if the deals are still going on, but the last I checked a lot of folks have been jumping on the Crucial M4 because of the $1/GB price.

 

Ya well that was the impression i got from a few posts a while back. What problems are people reporting with the new controllers? I thought it was suppose to be more stable :s

 

You can have a read for your self here: OCZ Vertex 4, Octane and Petrol SSD drives

 

guys,have anyone find a working Asus GPUTweak for G53?

 

Hey guys, Ive read a couple posts (several) about the power pin being broken from the g53, how often does this happen?

 

Depends on when you purchased it. But generally a lot, if you have the first version of the power jack. :/

It happened to mine, put it in warranty, got it back with a new power jack, with an "hexagonal" pin, not round. Much stronger in my opinion, never had a problem since. But it was replaced in france.
I know some people have had the same weak power jack after warranty and it broke soon after...


Here's my new hexagonal pin :

 

It happened to me. I am not sure if I have the same one as you, but it feels pretty strong.

I still haven't received the RAM ASUS swapped from me...

Oh and has anyone gotten UEFI to work properly yet?

 

Can you go into detail about which is the defective pin? I want to see if I have it, I got mine from newegg around January ish of this year.

Edit: yeah I have idea if mines going to break or not, ill upload a picture (hopefully my crappy camera phone can show it well) and if you can tell me if its like yours or not

 

Double post.

Heres a crappy quality of my power pin. I mean it feels strong even after the fact my dad tripped over the power chord which caused the plug to yank out.

Spoiler

 

It looks like the new pin, hexagonal on the sides.

 

Thank you soo much. I mean its been bothering me for quite some time since I kept reading reports about it haha.

 

HELP!

For one month or more im having a wierd problem...

When i POWER UP G53 windows 7 starts to load... After windows 7 logo i get one black screen for around 45sec or 1 min... After windows load fine to login screen and everything work fine.

OR happen this:

When i power up system my SSD boot normally in 15 sec, but all my USB things just starts in windows arouns 45sec after all programs/everything...

If i make one million of reboots whitout power off system everything works fine and fast. The problem happen when system is OFF and i turn it ON.

I already tried to change somethings in BIOS and reinstall VGA drivers... NO SUCESS.

Anyone can help me?

Thx

 

Try reinstalling windows, and reinstall the drivers. Have them already downloaded then install them before you apply any windows updates. THEN Update windows. See if problem persists. ALSO, try updating the firmware of the SSD. I had some issues with my OCZ drive until I updated the firmware.

 

I forgot to said...

I already tried to reinstal windows 7.

And same problem happened with a Corsair Force 3 and OCZ Vertex SSD.

 

WOW... exactly the same problem. I thought I was the only one. I made a thread about it: http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus-gaming-notebook-forum/669187-asus-g53sw-problems.html#

because my agility 3 ssd usually boots up in 10 seconds, i thought the blank screen was a hard hang and i usually manual restart. it was only afterwards i realize it wasnt a hang, it was just like a minute lag. It usually seems to happen when i installed new programs that need restarts. IF you let it hang there for a few minutes it starts normally and the next few boots should be normal, but after a few days it will happen again. Its got to be some software update or program thats causing it...

 

Its a mistery... I tried everything.... Even with a fresh windows install that thing happen...
Exist a way to reset and reflash the BIOS? I cant do that with Asus program...
I dont know what to do.....
The unique fix until now is never shut down the computer! LOL

Why hell just happen when i POWERON the Laptop and not when i REBOOT??
And everyday i think: Its a hardware or a software problem?? Sounds like something its take a long to see that the machine is ON: after 45sec something inside realize: 'Ops! its turned ON, its my time to work"

I never touch in the hardware inside, just keyboard and SATA plugs to put one second HDD.

Im living this reality since May... sometimes when i need something fast i get pissed!

Help guys....

 

i am not sure if flashing the bios will fix anything... usually windows logo is when the OS is loading the drivers and that finishes with no problems.

My guess is it is some conflicting driver or software. I have avast anti-virus, malwarebytes, 301.42 nvidia drivers, synaptics pointer device driver with touchpad disabled. i think these will be the most likely culprit.

please tell me ur settings!

 

Am I the only one who has set his screen res to 1600x900 so he can read it? Man 1920x1080 is hard on my old four eyes!

 

I already tried video drivers from g53 page and the last ones from nvidia.
I have skype, free download manager, dropbox, intel rapid driver monitor and normal services starting with the machine. I hav eone microsoft webcam and one mouse logitech wirelles. But if i unplug then the situation is the same.

 

Up the DPI and change the size of text. Don't diminish the quality of the screen .

 

I use 7 gadgets. Only 1 'resizes' the font properly.
Not to mention, I only use the laptop screen when I'm at school. At home, it's attached to a 22.3" 1680x1050 screen.

 

Hey guys just a friendly reminder to repaste your GPU and CPU and get new thermal pads. Asus really blasted the GPU and CPU with thermal grease. I did yesterday along with cleaning the vents. Temps are now normal and not hot like before.

 

have u tinkered around with windows 7 services? I remembered i did it when i first did a fresh install. I changed the workstation to "manual" and i havnt had the problem for the past 2 days now (fingers crossed).

svchost - XP Sp3 LanManWorkstation Service Starting Slow - Super User

 

Ya something I need to do but Asus made it such a pain to get to is why I haven't.
Mine runs hotter after the last RMA than it did before, quite a bit hotter CPU & GPU.

 

I am going to change the Thermal Pads as well but I don't know what thickness to get. I am changing the grease again to IC Diamond just to be that much more effective. The thermal pads have to be next though. I can't find where to get them or get them quickly enough.

I am upgrading to a 256gb SSD (OCZ Agility 4 ) for a tri or dual partition setup. Along with getting my G.Skill RAM, sadly I had to purchase more and sell the RAM ASUS gave back to me. Oh well, I am doing all repairs my self now. No more dealing with ASUS.

The Laptop is a PITA to open though, but its not hard just alot to watch out for.

I found this website for replacement parts - http://www.asusparts.eu/

 

When I replaced the 750GB HDD with my Seagate Momentus XT, what I did was place a strip of double sided tape on the desk. As I pulled out a screw, it went onto the tape, from left to right. When I put the laptop back together, the screws went back in right to left.

 

I will post some pictures of me setting it up along with tips I used to pull it apart and back together.

I ordered these thermal pads, I got it large so I will never have to look for more with my use.

My next purchase will probably be a 1tb HDD to replace the 500gb, and the Bluray drive. Does anyone know where to find the bluray drive DVD tray door so I can have it correctly show what I have?

 

mmm
Explain that more please!

 

I'm getting the exact same error. I just followed your solution to clear out then installed NVIDIA 296.16. I'm just wondering if this permanently solved your issue? Weird thing is I was getting the same symptoms in Windows 7 AND ubuntu (dual booting). Even upon reboot with the ASUS symbol getting all splotchy with pink streaks. Does this make sense that these would all tie back to the same driver issue? Thanks.

 

I had this problem with other Nvidia drivers, only one I found that didn't do this is 290.53.
I haven't tried the latest release 30x.xx so I can't say if it fixed in it.

 

Thanks. My problem is intermittent, so I'm wondering how long 290.53 has been working for you.

 

For about as long as that drive has been out.
I've tried many of the others and have always fell back to it.

I'm now testing the 301.42, so far I haven't seen any problems with it.
But this is my 1st day of testing with it.

 

Just recently I started getting an error that my USB has an unrecognized device.

...except all my USB devices work perfectly fine, and my computer seems to be working just fine. Is this a new form of virus or something?

The popup is obnoxious and I disabled the device. (All ports still work.)

Device Type: Universal Serial Bus Controllers
Manufacturer: (Standard USB Host Controller)
Location: Port_#0004.Hub_#0003


Where can I find a map of which ports/hubs go to which devices?

 

uhh scratch that... problem went away for 3 days then came back looking for more help, anyone!!

screen goes blank after windows logo at startup for a minute randomly after installing SSD. happens 50% of the time randomly, normal boot up only has the blank screen for half a second and boots into desktop in 15 seconds.

 

I am running 301.42 and have been running it since it released. it has been acting up and crashing a lot lately. I was forced to switch Windows to Basic and turn off all aero and such. I was then fine. I redownloaded the 301.42 drivers and did a clean install of the drivers, hoping that would help and the first 15 mins so far have been ok. I'm getting ready to download the 290 drivers mentioned as a backup. They may be old, but they seem to be the only drivers that don't act up as much if at all. I'll report on if my graphic drivers crash anymore in the meantime. I've noticed that If I do a complete system re-install things work fine for the longest time.

Also a note to all users. This may be a false positive but every time I visit this forum my anti-virus pops up a warning about malware and every time I click a link, like the next page it happens. See screenshot. If you could point me to who looks into this stuff I will let them know. But I figured I'd let everyone know and hopefully it's just a false positive. I know the website itself wouldn't do this deliberately so it could be sings that the site has been attacked or just a false. I'll keep my fingers crossed. Thanks.

 

Just got my thermal paste! Pics to come! IC Diamond, and some thermal pads to replace the worn out old ones. Should be simple and effective.

 

Well, all this talk of thermal paste made me wonder if I need to replace mine anytime soon... My idle temperature is 46C, and if I'm playing a really taxing game, it can get up to 82C. Are these too high? Should I replace my thermal paste?

 

Those seem fine when your idle temps are in the 60C range is when you should do some maintenance like getting an air dust can, and repaste. Hopefully once my paste cures it will be lower. My idle temps at the moment are 52C and high temps like 84C. I haven't tested the GPU yet.

 

Oh, those were my GPU temps, my CPU cores idle around 34C-42C and when under load, the won't go higher than 76C. I just bought some air dust cans from a sale, so I'll prolly use them when I start to see an increase. Thanks for the input.