G50vt-x5-RF (Refurbished) Review and lounge

I'm considering buying the Asus G50VT-X1 refurbished from TigerDirect (X5 is out of stock). What are the opinions on this seller? I know it's not the exact same model, but they seem to be fairly close in most details. I'm guessing as long as you thoroughly inspect the laptop, refurbished products are okay to purchase. Yes, this would be my very first laptop as well as refurbished item, hence my hesitation.

 

I would suggest trying to install the ATK suite of drivers and software (ATK0100, ATK Generic Function Utility, ATK Hotkey, and ATK OSD2 if you want pretty icons when you push the buttons). Assuming the Vista versions work in W7. In fact the drivers (ATK0100) would be highly recommended for good power management in general.

Hmm that cable should be a few dollars at an electronics/electrical parts store. Is it worth the trouble/wait?

I guess during the refurbishing process they mistakenly replaced the top with the older version. In any case I would consider this an upgrade.

Can't advise on how safe it is to buy refurbished, but indeed I would recommend testing (including internals testing such as a bad pixels check and a stability test with CPU/GPU stress programs, if you have to opportunity to do that)

 

What would be the best way to test those things?

 

Well:

pixel test: Nokia screen test (I don't remember the exact name now, sorry), or Bad Pixel Buddy
CPU stress: Orthos, use "small FFTs -- stress CPU"
GPU stress: Furmark and maybe 3DMark06 (although the latter is more of a benchmark than a stress tester)
RAM test: memtest86+ (this one requires a reboot, runs off a CD for instance)

All of these except the pixel test should preferably run for at least half an hour each for meaningful results, so I'm not sure you will get the chance to do it...

 

Are these all programs I can find online? Also, how will I know how to interpret the results?

 

Mkay, I ran all the tests and things seem to be fine. One thing that seems odd, though, is it has two HDD's instead of the one 320 gb 7200 rpm. How can I look to see if these are 7200 rpm like advertised? Maybe its partitioned? I don't really have any experience with that.

 

+1
I'd like to know if this laptop is fully compatible and will retain all its features if windows 7 is installed, before mine arrives on Friday.

 

What do you mean 2 HDD`s? A software test is showing you that? I know that out of the box it comes installed with 2 partitions, one partition being for windows files and backups and system restore, and the other being for programs, documents, etc.

And there should not be 2 physical drives installed, If you want to be sure of what drive is installed, open up the bottom and take a look. The drive specs should be printed right on the back (I believe you may have to unscrew the top of the HD enclosure to see this info). Or you could get AIDA32 and see what the name of the HD installed is and do a quick search to find out its specs

 

The Windows 7 64bit ATK drivers from the ASUS N71VG fixed my function keys, LCD on/off, wireless on/off, volume, etc. The little LCD that says republic of gamers just says that and never changes but if that's all I'm missing I'm fine.

This is a fresh install with the Win 7 Pro 64bit which is what will be released on the 22nd and works perfectly. All business apps and games function and the touch pad works now that I installed the Synaptics driver manually.

Cheers,

 

nice, i actually really like the little LED display, but I can live without it if that's all that's really being sacrificed. thanks

 

Does anyone know where to get the Dolby Home Theater software? I can't seem to find it in the restore disk :S

 

so windows 7 (64bit) installed ok? no errors? what one to use.. the upgrade or the full install?
(besides the led console not working)
lost

 

asus released updated drivers, so everything should work as it should

 

I am offered one of these by Asus to replace my F3sv that contained a 8600, which have a very high failure rate. Mine had failed twice, but the mobo was replaced one other time, so it could have been 3! Anyways, I read that the geforce 9800GT is actually based on the 8800....isnt that a bit problematic? I mean, doesnt that imply that its(9800gt) going to fail just like all the other 8000series cards?!

 

I have had mine for almost a year now. It just recently took a fall off a chair and the bluetooth remote that was in the card slot pushed inside. I pulled apart the laptop to find that not only was the card slot destroyed, an IC and 2 capacitors were pushed off. Well after soldering a new IC on and the 2 caps back on I put it back together. I used some AS5 on the GPU and CPU which lowered temps a few degrees. After getting it together it turned back on and I was excited. I still have no card slot but I'm working on finding a new connector to solder on the board. I have on the way an X9100 and internal bluetooth mod. I also just flashed my 9800gs to the gts clocks and lowered the volts to 1.07 so far, on the gaming voltage. I dropped the other volts from .9 to .85-.8. I also Dropped my processor volts to 1.0250 and clocked it to 2.55 from 2.13. My CPU temps dropped 8-12C with the undervolt. The GPU dropped a few degrees C but I mainly notice that it doesn't heat up as quick. I also notice I'm getting a lot more battery life with the undervolting. I found the info for undervolting and gpu flashing on these forums and I just want to say cheers to everyone that put out some nice How to's!

Edit: The only thing I don't like about the laptop is that it doesn't have the backlit keyboard. I'm determined to figure out how to power a G51 keyboard with the G50 Motherboard. Other then that, this is an excellent gaming rig for the games that I play. Those are mostly things like grid, dirt, rainbow six, borderlands, command and conquer type games....etc.

 

well a few months down the line and im having issues with the GPU or LCD. It will flicker sometimes and create another image 10cm or so down the screen, and i will notice visual artifacts. Ive made sure the LCD cable is properly seated and my temperatures are within limits. Asus quality is getting really poor, I can no longer recommend their products to my customers or friends. They are going to go out of business offering these long warranties on poor systems. Time to use Toshiba for quality products and Acer for economy.