Asus N73JQ Owners' Lounge

hi everyone, I need some advices about a fresh and clean instal.
Can I do one with a W7 Home Premium Retail disc and then just register it with the key that's in Control Panel\System and Security\System ?
Is there any other option instead of creating those 5 DVD's with the AI Recovery tool.
Oh and something else... if I unlock the Administrator account I have full acces to everything? is the same like doing these steps? How to Take Ownership and Grant Permissions in Windows Vista My Digital Life

 

You should be able to do the clean install as described. I would definitely save the original drive, or at least an image, until the new installation is successfully activated. If you want to save a system image for recovery backup, it doesn't have to be on a set of DVDs. Other options include (1) saving to an external USB drive, (2) saving to a second HDD in drive bay two, and (3) creating a recovery partition on your existing single drive and saving it there. In evaluating these options, it may be helpful to know that the image will be roughly 25Gb.

I've heard of the "unlock" trick for the administrator account, but never used it. I'm not sure what it's for, since I find the default security credentials with my administrator account are adequate for most tasks. Whenever I come across something that seems to have limited access, I just go to Properties and take ownership from the system.

 

Hard to beat the ".iso method" very helpfully and clearly described here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/win...-7-download-links-just-like-vista-before.html

Then you have your clean, 100% legal and reliable Windows 7 disk.

Happy New Years, all!!!

 

Thanks a lot both of you...
Happy New Year!!!
5 hours and a half for me

 

Although their sound is adequate does anyone know why our B&O speakers volume is artificially capped at level (4) in the BIOS?

 

i think it's just the level for that startup sound when Asus logo appears

 

Yes, that's exactly what it is. If you disable the post sound, that volume setting is grayed out and can't be set. It has nothing to do with the volume during normal use.
​

 

Thanks guys, sorry for the noob questions i'm relatively new to computers and learning as i go (learned most of it here), gotta love this forum

 

No apologies needed! We're all just here to learn and share, and any questions that anybody asks are likely to help others along the way.

 

It´s me again.
Late Happy new year to all
Since it´s my birthday and also deadline for school project, I´m very much doing anything else just to avoid school work (I´m shure you know what I´m on about).
One of the things I´ve tried is look at the function of the Hotkeys. The play, next and previous buttons only work in Windows media center and player and there´s no OFFICIAL way to change this, but...

After instructions below, you´l be able to assign hotkeys to any key combination, program etc.
My main use is for the winamp to be able to play/pause, skip tracks while writing in word.
As I´m shure, many of you discovered this, but for those who haven´t, this is the way:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/150016-asus-notebook-keys-v1-3-a.html

After doing what you´re supposed to, it won´t work yet, you´ll possibly get an error. If yes, here´s how to fix it:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/150016-asus-notebook-keys-v1-3-a-13.html

I want to thank people in this forum to their support and advice that made me buy this laptop and who are the "real product support" . I hope I can be helpful as well in the future.

 

Happy Birthday, deekaysk!

 

Thank you!

 

Last day of holiday...And here I am on NBR!

Asked in the N71 forum and Asus Support about the N71 keyboard fitting our machines. Only reply came from Asus, and here it is:

"Thank you for your reply. The keyboard should work as it is pretty standard for a lot of our models. However to ensure it will work with your model please double check with support at 1-888-678-3688 and or you can live chat at ASUS eStore.

Thank you, Teresa P.ASUS-eStore Customer Service Representative"

Now what do you think the odds are of somebody at phone or chat support knowing the length of the keyboard's ribbon cable, and where the cable is set in the keyboard?

In other news, my Windows 7 Ultimate started getting a little buggy. I mentioned earlier about the touchpad driver problems. Apparently, messing around with the registry had some side effects. First, Windows 7 Backup would not work, giving me I/O errors. When I tried to do use SFC /scannow, it hung every time at 56%.

I tried a lot of fixes, but finally used the system image I made with Windows 7 Backup/Restore right after installing Ultimate. Now all is fine.

Thank goodness for the easy system-image utility in Windows 7!

 

Hi Cary,
maybe picture of this ebay keyboard will help you determine if it can fit
NEW ASUS N60 N70 N71 N71J US Black Keyboard Backlit - eBay (item 310283618101 end time Jan-27-11 23:36:41 PST)

I´m aso considering replacing the keyboard
One possoble problem is that you won´t be able to close the lid without damaging the display if the keyboard is higher than standard one, and I doubt tha backliting will work

 

Thank you, deekaysk, for this helpful link showing the underside of the N71 keyboard. I'm sure it will fit just fine! (But I don't know where to plug-in the light cord! )

Note that below I attached the picture in the link because I see that the link is going to expire.

At least now we know we could order the N71's slightly sturdier keyboard if needed.

(I tried the N71 and did like the keyboard better--a little.)

BUT, looking carefully at the N71 keyboard, the numberic keypad buttons look smaller than what I've got, and they are already a little too small and close together now.

In the meantime, I'm still looking for the 1/8" thick rubber strips Hatcher used to reduce the flexing in a few spots. I'm going to try an auto-parts store later.

 

Yes, indeed! I remember the old days when intractable OS issues often meant reconstructing the whole installation. What a pain. But now, these images are such an easy way to go back to a functioning setup.

Out of habit, I guess, I always save my original image and then run a new one once a month. How often do you save a new image? I back up specific data more frequently (like my email profile every night), but I'm kind of wondering if I should just run more frequent images too. The question becomes how many to save at a time....they're each around 25Gb.

As an aside for others who don't yet save system images, I can't emphasize enough how important it is to make one while the system is healthy. If you suddenly have a questionable HDD or flaky Windows installation, you'll want the peace of mind knowing your system is already safely backed up. This is because imaging is a fairly low-level process and running it on a problematic system can be hit-or-miss. It may not complete at all or it may produce an unreliable image, and some imaging programs may work while others do not. I've become a firm believer in saving more than one kind of image, just to cover all bases. I save an image by Windows Backup and one by Acronis True Image, but there are several good programs available.

Great link, deekaysk.....unfortunately, that keyboard has the exact same layout as ours. While I don't really like the "flimsy" feeling of our keyboard, it's the layout that bothers me the most. Specifically, I hate that (1) the arrow keys spill over into the numeric keypad, (2) the numeric keypad keys are undersized, as Cary noted, and (3) there's no separation between the QWERTY and numeric sections.

Cary, I've never seen an N71. Can you elaborate a little on what you preferred about its keyboard? Since the layout is the same, it would really have to have an improved "feel," I guess, to make a switch worthwhile for me.

I agree with you both...I don't think the backlighting would work. You can see under our keyboards where that connector should be soldered on, and it's just not there.

 

Actually, I think that powering the backliting could be done in some way. We need to know what voltage the keyboard needs.
Then we can make a connector straigth from battery etc. I don´t think there´s much more than diodes in there
The disadvantage would be taht you can´t turn it on an of by buttons because it´s not regulated by software

 

Maybe you could be really brave and solder on a little ZIF connector (or whatever kind it takes) to that spot on the MB! I wonder if that even gets any juice....

Be sure to let us know if you actually get this and try powering the baclight directly from the battery.

 

When I´ll have time, I´ll order the keyboard from ebay and try it. Just for fun of making something better than stock
But that´s not going to happen until February or later.

 

The BIOS would need to support the keyboard backlight for the motherboard connector to matter. I think it's the N61 that actually has the connector on the board, but won't power on the lights even with the right keyboard. You have to find voltage on the board and wire it up the way shown in the backlit keyboard mod threads. Good luck.

 

Can you point me to those threads?
Thanks

 

Sure:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/465841-ul30-backlit-keyboard-mod.html

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/507561-n71jq-backlight-keyboard-implementation.html

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/455143-n61jq-a1-backlit-keyboard-2.html#post6312296

 

Thanks,
Now I´m wondering if I can get a backlit keyboard with slovak character set... I found czech one which has only one different character but costs 100 euro excluding vat and shipping! The ebay english one costs 40 dollars including shipping...
Why does everything in europe have to be 3 times the price?! Ahh....

EDIT: and now something about the media hotkeys - they are awful! And I´m not mentioning the inconvenient design in the style of: lets put small rectangles in one big and call it a design" .
I don´t know if it´s only my laptop but the play/pause works only every second time. It clicks but it doesn´t always react.
And all of the buttons are slowly falling into the laptop when you press them with a bit more force (which you have to because they don´t want to work!). If it only wasn´t for the keyboard, what a great laptop this would be...

 

More info on the keyboard:
There seems to be another thread about N73
http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus-reviews-owners-lounges/514688-asus-n73-owners-lounge.html
You can clearly see the N71 replacement keyboard in the video nicely put into the N73 and I have a suspicion that they´ve originally intended to put that one in. For some (I´d guess not very convenient reason) they´ve put this one in.

BTW a friend from this forum, which also owned a N73 sold it and bougth this:
B/NEW Dell studio XPS 17 2.93 i7, 1TB,12GB,3GB NVIDIA on eBay (end time 28-Jan-11 11:41:20 GMT)

it´s about the same price as N73
it has more ram, more disk space, a subwoofer...
I don´t want to say it, but I regret buying the asus a bit seeing the price of these dells

 

Thanks for that link. I didn't realize there was another thread.

IMO, laptops have some key "buying dimensions" that can't be evaluated by price or spec sheets. Most importantly, the usability factor is a very personal preference that is completely unrelated to price. It seems there's always some sort of compromise we have to make.

If you look into the Dell and actually do like it better, by all means you should consider selling your N73 and getting one. I personally wouldn't be comfortable buying a laptop from an eBay seller, so in looking at the pricing from standard sources, that fully-loaded model is much more than a (mostly) comparably-equipped N73JQ, probably because of the upgraded video card (which seems oddly paired with a 1600x900 screen). The upgrades you point out are actually very inexpensive for the N73:

1 Tb HDD.........~$100
12Gb RAM........<$150
Subwoofer....not available (but really, who cares? Laptop audio always sucks anyway )

My N73JQ has the same RAM, CPU, and display resolution as the Dell, but a better WLAN card, better storage (an SSD system drive and HDD storage), and better OS.....all for much less than the most comparable XPS. Video card upgrades do add considerably to the cost as you go up the product line, but the value of that really depends on usage.

My point is just that the apples-to-apples pricing is not better, but there's a lot more to laptops than pricing anyway. But again, you should try to get whatever laptop your prefer using.

 

I may have overreacted a bit

But what pisses me of is that the damned dell is not even on their web page (only 15inch one) so I haven´t even considered it...
The N73 is ok.
To be honest, I´ve heard about quite a few broken Asus laptops, but not one Dell.
Also in here, they provide a 2 year warranty where they guarantee you, that within 24 hours they get your notebook fixed, or you get a new piece. Noone else provides that! I think that alone is worth the money.
But I already have the N73 so screw dell, maybe next time

 

Do you know if Dell makes their own laptops or just re-brands like many other manufacturers? On laptop reliability rankings, Dell is fairly decent (though not as good as Asus, Toshiba, and Apple...not sure about Sony). IMO, their desktops are some of the crappiest made, and I think that tends to taint my impression of their laptops. But if their laptops are outsourced, it's not necessarily a fair association.

When I looked at the Dell site (for the U.S.), it does show a 17" XPS, but the one you linked from eBay isn't a standard configuration. You have to click though the "customize" wizard and add a lot of upgrades. To get a configuration comparable to my N73 (except for the video card), you add a bunch of upgrades that quickly push the price close to $2000.

I tend to be skeptical of warranty and service promises.....what companies promise and what they actually do are often separated by a deep chasm full of fine print.

 

You really don't want the Dell XPS 17!
Asus is MUCH better quality and if your ears are at least a little bit sensitive the Dell is gonna drive you crazy.

Review Dell XPS 17 Notebook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

has a review of it.

 

Why do we have three slots but only get dual channel? Is it the motherboard?

Must dual channel operate in pairs? If so, what is going on with the third slot?

BTW, I'm lovin' the N73Jq for school, but it is a little heavy with four textbooks, the power brick, an in-line surge suppressor, a bottle of water, and my lunch in a Pyrex bowl!

But, oh, once I sit down in the library and open it up with all that screen real estate...

 

hello guys, i want buy ASUS N73JQ-XV1 this model, but I`m interesting can i add then another HDD or SSD, Is there place for another HDD ?

 

Hi,
don´t know about the XV1 because I´ve never seen description of a N73 like that. It should start with TZ....

But YES, the N73 has a space for 2 HDDs.

 

Yes, many of us have added a second drive. It's really easy. (If you look back in the thread to discussions about this, there's some frustration that the drive bracket is not included in the second drive bay. But it turns out that it's pretty easy to work around and make due without it.)

The XV1 is just another N73JQ configuration. The main differences are that it ships with 4Gb RAM and a Super-Multi optical drive. Looks like a very nice option.

 

but is there for this model another sata port ? (in some models there are place for second HDD but there is not port...)

 

Which other models are you referring to?

With the caveat that I don't own an XV1...most of us here have the A2....I would be really shocked if there's no SATA connector in that drive bay. We're not talking about a different model of the N73- it's still the N73JQ. It's just a slightly different configuration of easily swapped components.

 

Finally got my N73JQ A2! (This was after waiting 2 months for $ and about another month for Christmas season processing at the reseller)

I have a few items to ask/discuss:

1) I hooked it up to an NEC E231W 23" monitor going from the HDMI output to the NEC's DVI-D input (Cables Unlimited, PCM-2296-06 HDMI to DVI D Cable $6 Amazon). Worked perfectly - laptop screen is 1600x900, monitor is 1920x1080.

2) This is a desktop replacement - I need to be able to move it occasionally, but not normally. I set up a power profile which it is ignoring.
2. a) First, I went into the control panel/hardware and sound/power options and created my own profile which I called "Always Full-up!", in which all power reduction settings were set to "Never". Going in and out of the app and even rebooting makes no difference - it shows me my settings just as I set them (even in advanced), but After 5 min. the screen goes black and I have to hit the space bar or move the mouse to get everything up again.
2. b) Secondly, I tried selecting "Power4Gear Entertainment" profile, modified it. Again, closing/reopening shows that my changes took, but it still blacks out after 5 minutes (same as above).
2. c) Thirdly, if I play music or use a screen saver, no blackout occurs - but when I set my screen saver to 7 minutes, the screen blacked out at the 5 minute mark (same as above).
2. d) Next, I poked around in the BIOS, but found no powersave settings - I changed nothing and did not save.
2. e) I decided to post on this forum to see if anyone could help me out!


3. Express Gate! This looks like a VM set up as a Netbook, is there something I'm missing? How would I restore it if it got virused? Is there some way to reassign that button to boot a VM of my own? Hmmmm...

4. I am using the USB 3.0 output with a LaCie 7200rpm USB 3.0 hard drive and it's working great - when I use the drive with my Dell laptop (USB 2.0) it is about half the speed as using the USB 3.0. I have no E-SATA devices, so that's simply used for USB 2.0.

 

Congrats!

Uninstall the Asus utility Power4Gear and just use the Windows power management function.

Uninstall ExpressGate if you don't plan to use it. It's just a basic browser that can start up before, and outside of, Windows. Why would you use it? You've got Win 7 and many options for more fully-featured browsers.

 

I speak about this model: N73JQ-XV1

it cost at amazon $999.

there is another model N71JQ-X1, this model costs $899.

basic configuration of new laptop i want : CPU - I7 720qm or 740qm (it`s better), HDD - 2 bays. for add SSD later. i have max 1000$ .

you can turn off / disable it from bios and it never starts.

 

Problem fixed - Thanks!

 

I understand that this is the one you're thinking about buying. I was asking which models you were referring to that have a drive bay with no SATA port.

 

ASUS N71JQ-XT1

 

Well, the 71 is a completely different model. But as to the N73JQ, the single Newegg reviewer for the XV1 configuration specifically discusses adding a second drive...so I'd consider that a reasonable assurance that the second bay does indeed have a SATA connector.

 

My touchpad is erratic, sometimes not functioning.

It is a hardware problem. When it seems to be working ok, if I touch the palm-rest with my other hand, the touchpad goes haywire. Something isn't grounded.

I thought (hoped) it was a driver issue, but this proves it isn't.

Anybody else?

Right at the beginning of a semester. I have an old laptop that should work while this is away. Geeze.

UPDATE 1 I was gently pushing down on the area just left of the touchpad when I felt and heard a dull click, as if something underneath the palmrest was locking into place. Since then, the touchpad is behaving. On the other hand, the N73Jq might have heard me tell my wife I was shipping it in for repair, and so stopped making mischief. For now.

Back to the wonders of beginning XHTML...

 

Will be getting the N73JQ delivered tomorrow. Can't wait to get my hands on it! Finally, after months of waiting for it!
The model is the Asus N73JQ-TZ115V.
Full HD (1920x1080) screen, 6GB RAM, 1TB 5400rpm Hard drive, Blu-ray player incld.
Once I get my hands on it, will need to do a clean install and replace one of hard drives with an SSD to run Windows.

Any idea on the Crucial 64GB RealSSD C300 2.5"?
Read some good reviews on this and the price is good. It includes a data transfer kit (basically a USB to SATA cable and cloning CD). Would this work for the Windows software as well?
Sorry if its a noob question! Never installed an SSD before.

 

The Crucial SSDs are very nice, and they do indeed come with a transfer kit, though you won't need to use it when you do your clean install. 64Gb should be plenty of room...just be sure to have all your programs save their data to your second drive. (Does it ship with one 1Tb drive, as you first suggested...or two 500Gb drives....as you also suggested? )

One caveat about the Crucial: that drive is capable of 6Gb/s transfer rates, but that's a wasted feature in the N73. You can probably save a little by going to a 3Gb/s model.

I don't really understand your last question about Windows software. Since you're doing a clean install, you're not cloning anything....you're just installing the SSD and then installing Windows on it.

Glad this seems to be resolved, Cary. Do you think this was a little assembly snafu, or do you think it somehow came loose after you got it, just in normal use?

 

Thanks for feedback BrodyBoy.

I think its two 500GB drives. Looking at the Asus website it doesn't look like there is a one 1TB drive option.

Good to know. I'll check for SATA 2.0 drives then.

Its going to be a while before I actually buy the SSD. I was thinking of doing a clean install on one of the 500GB drives tonite and then simply copy it onto the SSD whenever I get it. Will this work? Or do I have to install the OS again on the SSD. That was my question.

 

Yes, that'll work just fine. (I know because that's the way I did it! ) Having two drives makes it especially easy. Go ahead and do your clean install on whichever HDD you prefer. I'd recommend using the essentially unused/empty second HDD. Once you have that installation all set up the way you want, use Windows Backup & Restore (or another imaging program) to create a system image of that drive....which you can easily save over on the other HDD, or an external USB drive if you prefer. That, or an updated version of it, is the image you will eventually restore to the SSD.

That may have sounded complicated, but it's really not.

 

Brody, thanks for sharing your SSD experiences. Someday, I would like to go that route.

My touchpad worked all day yesterday. I have no idea how the problem started, or if it is actually fixed now.

I've started a PC Shop class. Even though this is under warranty, if for some reason I do need to take it apart, the staff in the class are experts. (But they do have a rule--generally--against working on machines still under warranty.) The only problem is, I'm concerned, even with the exact part number, Asus might not send out what I need.

I wonder if anybody else has experience with Asus sending parts (paid for) for repairs, rather than doing the repairs at Asus?

Has anybody come across a complete disassembly guide for the N73Jq?

If I ever did have to send it in, I'd probably first replace the original RAM and NIC, just in case they decided to send a different unit back.

Hopefully the touchpad is fine!

PS The other N73 lounge is for a variation with a Core i5 and an ATI GPU; I'm guessing the motherboard is different. I never saw that variation advertised back in September or October before I ordered mine, and I never saw that other lounge until deeyask linked it. I'm also guessing that i5 version was/is rare.

 

No...I'd sure like to see one too. Be sure to post a link if you find one, as I will.

Unfortunately, this approach the N73 uses, providing no direct access from the bottom and putting all the screws on the inside, seems to be kind of unusual. I had hoped disassembly guides for other Asus models might offer some guidance, but the ones I've seen all apply to a more typical design where a variety of screws on the bottom of the laptop secure the assembly.

I think the Gentech folks have provided info on some other models....hopefully, they'll do that with the N73 as well.

EDIT: As people who work in this field, might the people from your class have access to the documentation?

 

The shop manager might know, but we are just getting started. Maybe next week I will ask him.

 

Good news everyone, I´ve ordered the backlit N71 keyboard (ebay).
Unfortunately, it´s going to take 2-4 weeks to get here

But once it´s here.... muhahaaaa Igor, give your master the screwdriver.