G51 Owners' Lounge

I'll check out those reviews, thanks. And I have no problem with the 80s while gaming. 87 C (right now) while doing nothing more than surfing the web is when I get worried. Thanks again.

 

Hmmm. I'm afraid my problem was different, but you might try something. You could turn the explosion sound off, restart, and then on from BIOS.

Let me tell you about what happened to me. I turned the explosion sound off. After several days (I don't use hibernation, and rarely stand by, so after several on and offs) my speakers stopped working. Searched for help, everyone was saying about the pin and flashlight. After some time I found someone who was saying I should turn the explosion sound back on. I didn't think about it because I had turned it off several days before. The speakers came back to life. If your explosion sound is on, you shouldn't have triggered the same problem as mine. But maybe you should try it. Good luck!

 

What I own:

ASUS G Series G51Vx-X3A NoteBook Intel Core 2 Duo P8700(2.53GHz) 15.6" 4GB Memory 320GB HDD 7200rpm DVD Super Multi NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260M

Two hardrives: Stock one whatever it is 7200 320GB, wd 7200rpm 320GB

My questions:

I ordered the Q9000 off of eBay to replace the original proc. I also plan on bumping the system mem up to 8GB. Looking into getting the Corsair Nova Series CSSD-V128GB2-BRKT 2.5" 128GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive. I was also going to replace the thermal compound (arctic Silver 5) on the GPU and CPU while switching everything out. Are there any potential pitfalls to these upgrades? I don't really game on this system and it runs dual boot Win7-64/Fedora14. Would've been better with a different proc?

 

Hi i think my hardrive is failing and I may need to replace it. Does Asus cover that? If not can someone give me the name of the hardrive. And if it is the OS hardrive isnt there like some kind of "hidden" partition to were i can restore it to factory settings the name escapes me at the moment, but how will i make it factory settings on new hardrive?

 

Should have a seagate drive in it. The hidden partition can be copied using drive imaging software and restored. Since you have a seagate drive this is very easy. But if the laptop is under warranty call ASUS first or a reseller if u bought it from one.

Seagate Disc Wizard has Acronis True Image functionality built into it for seagate drives. You can backup the partition from windows but the entire point of this is to have a bootable cd that can do the backup and recovery for you.

The app is here - Seagate

Download it, install it, reboot, in the app or with it is a bootable media builder. You can use this to burn the CD that can be booted from to do image backups and restores.

You will of course need something to write the image to. The partition is around 10GB with 8 or so used on the G50's should be similar on the G51. The app can compress the Image. The images is less than 7 GB on myne so an 8GB flash drive might get you through this, check to make sure the boot cd can see the drive.

I like the recovery partition as it does a more exact install as the laptop shipped then the CD's that came with the G50's not sure how the 51 was shipped.

 

I'm being plagued by the low-signal 5GHz N-mode Wifi.
Via Google I found out that the 5100 agn is known to have this problem and no driver update fixes this.
I've been using 2GHz this whole time and recently swithed out my old router for a dual-band and now my Wireless-G connection signal is Excellent but my N-wifi is low at best, from the same location.
anyone know what I could replace the 5100 agn chip for? I can clearly see it but I dont have the knowledge to figure out what alternative chip would fit.

 

In my G51VX i replaced the 5100 for 5300, it used a full size card. Now laptops like G51J use a half size as most of the new laptops, so really depends, but if you have half size you can go to a 6200/6300 (depends on how many antennas your comes with).

 

Very new to the terminology of laptops.
I'm assuming half-size means "mini" ?
and normal doesn't usually have this term in its name.
saying this because I'm hunting on ebay for a replacement and some say mini and you can tell its "half" the size of the other modules.
I've taken a photo of the G51 upside down and I can confirm its the "normal" size....
so what you are saying is that ANY normal size will work?
I have the budget to get the "best"... any suggestions?

 

I personally woudlnt recommend buying on ebay a wifi card, there are lots of counter fits or engineering samples. Its best to buy it from an Intel authorized dealers, either way they are cheap, between $20-35.

What model is your G51?

 

was already taking pictures when you asked.
(its upside down because I just flipped up laptop and took the photo )

 

It seems the same as i had before, the G51VX-RX05 has a full size wifi card, i think the best you can get is the Intel 5300 Ultimate N Wi-Fi Link Wireless Network Adapter $35 (it uses 3 antennas, you have 2 in use and 3rd is below the yellow tape). Just make sure when you buy it to be full size card (not half size). Also check if intel has anyother full size card, i dont think they do, but just check, maybe there is a 6300 full size.

Here are a couple of pics so you can see the difference,

 

I didnt get to look much into the antenna connections...
(really though it was more like one wire connected to the LED, another to the switch and the third was the Antenna...lol)

but is there any soldering required or it just "clicks & screws" ?

 

No soldering needed, just screw driver for taking the two screws out, and the antennas clip on, on the gold connectors, just a slight force and they go in.

 

Wonderful, then I'll probably buy the exact model you just posted, thank you.
Rep+

 

There is no full size 6300 but you can get an extender bracket to use a half height card.

 

Just stumbled across this, will start having a further look into the adaptors (half height adaptor)... Wouldn't the 6300 be the better option, or is that too simple an assumption?
Dave

 

Is the 6 there only to help differentiate the size or is it an "Actual" upgrade from the 5300?

Um, some noob help please, never installed anything other than a HDD on a Laptop.

Should I> Logical Rule: Install Drivers and Software before installing Hardware or..other way around?

Just received the 5300 and real excited to plug'er in.

EDIT: Does anyone know a simpler method than This
Like my picture in my previous post....do I have three antennas? and do I plug the one taped on top to the middle port of the 5300 (Aux goes in Left, Main in Right)

EDIT: Hmm... Looks like Impatience got the better of me.

(No Worries, I taped the three down to the chip with that extra tape ;] )

 

Seems fine, but try to tuck in the cables as best as you can, there is a canal where the cables are routed, follow it as much as possible and try to avoid masking the cables.

 

Has anyone tried any of these SparkLAN bgn & bluetooth half minicards? There are adaptors available around the place, it's just that my ( bestbuy) 51vx is let down without Bluetooth...

 

Not sure if they kept it or not but on the G50 there is a second slot in the upper part of the case where the TV tuner was supposed to go. If its on the 51, just saying

 

Am out at work now, but if your suggestion is right it opens up some possibilities...
Pretty close to trigger time for the combo card anway. Only other ones I found with a quick look were the Atheros unit...

 

I pulled apart my laptop today to find where it is on the G50. Its ahead of the GPU right under the corner with the vent. I slipped my 5100 in there today so I can use it with expressgate and my new 6200 with windows.

 

I bought the unit linked a couple of posts ago, just awaiting delivery, and when I fit it will have a look for the one you've referred to Clutch'.
If it's got an extra card, I'll find something to use it for
Oh, I picked up a P9700 28W CPU to install as well...

 

I'm fairly sure I either shorted out my mobo or blew a fuse while replacing a dc power jack because of a crappy accident. Anyone know where the fuse for the power connector is located on the mobo? Don't see anything that looks like a fuse I've seen on a laptop before.

I fixed my DC jack for about 10 seconds before I dropped my AC adapter and caused a short right where it connects, checked the voltage on the adapter and made sure no resistance or anything was coming from the connector. Only thing I can think of is blown fuse or fried board. Anyone know?

 

Where on this picture RainMotorsports?


Sorry Red, I don't know...

 

Bottom right corner under the plastic:



@ RED I have some hi res photos of the G50 boards I will take a look to see if i can spot where its at on myne.

 

Link is broken RainMotorsports

 

alright well it was just a pic of the mother board its still the very bottom right corner under the plastic in the pic u showed me. EDIT i think i fixed it from my phone its showing up now.

 

Did the VX come with a TV tuner configuration in any market and does it have an antenna port on the chassis? I'm not sure the G51VX has that extra pcie slot. I'm fairly certain the G51J/Jx doesn't.

 

You nailed it, great pic thanks...

No aerial port visible on mine sorry...

 

If its there u might be able to find i through the hole, it would onlt take a few of the screws to sneak a peak but to get to it safe and proper requires take the screen and keyboard off and disassembly of the lower half. The G50V guide works fine and I am willing to talk you through it if you need to.

As ALG points out last i checked this model came with the tv port missing and not sure if they sold it anywhere with a tuner or turbo memory something else my friend forgot about. But it might still be there.

I was able to plug a card and one screw in without full disassembly but I do NOT recommend it lol.

 

If it comes to that level of dismantle, I'd probably baulk LOL.
I would love to know if I could fit a 1600x900 screen though as that would be a great balance for the 260'. Any ideas about screen options? I know there were a couple of posts/threads here regarding screen upgrades on the bb model which I have...

 

1680x1050 was the other option for the G50, thought it was the same for the G51. Does require a different screen bezel if im not mistaken. As far as using something other than stock You might be able to jam a 15.6 inch 1600x900 from an alienware or something.

 

Just did the Wifi BT upgrade and can't get it to switch on.

Any advice on settings I should be making?

 

Drivers installed? The Wifi and BT are showing in device manager? The wifi showing up under network connections?

I have had minor issue between windows, the asus crap and the card turning on but nothing a reboot or diagnose and repair wouldnt fix.

 

That's the way I'm thinking and working right now. Thanks for your help again Rain, good to speak with you.
I've had some success due to prompt contact and 15-20 minutes of the seller's time over Skype to Germany...

The Bluetooth function of the Ralink card was recognised immediately by OS, software supplied was by Motorola and after a single use decided to stick with windows own control rather than run additional services and software.

Asus strikes again (not for the better).

I was provided with software which is available here for the Sparklan WPER-101BN(BT) unit.
Installed driver only, but couldn't switch on the device after enabling in CPL, repeating front switch, Asus' craptacular Wireless console 3 (which barely shows itself in W7 and is again fully removed from my system).
Then re-installed with Ralink's own controller software, reset region channels and all good. The software has a "profiles" provision which will prove quite handy too.

So now I have the Bluetooth onboard that this model so sadly lacked without sacrificing another USB port, even if it was a bit of a pita...

 

Hello everyone,

New time poster here, the situation seems dire. I bought a G51Vx-A1 in August 2009 and I've always been a bit concerned about the high temps. I figured that's how asus engineered the product so it must be normal. I'm competent with PCs, but I'm not a pro when it comes to troubleshooting and optimization, which is why I come to ask for your help.

I'm using my PC for school and gaming (mostly MMOs, some shooters and RPGs) when i got my notebook i partially followed the thread on how to optimize your G51. As time went by i saw the performances decline slightly (I didn't monitor anything, just a general impression), notably my FPS in gaming. this week I tried re OCing to see if it would fix my lower frame rates. I also installed the newest nVidia driver (266.58). But after a couple minutes playing WoW, my FPS dropped my a good amount (to around 20FPS) and when i looked at GPU-Z, the clocks were 383/301/767 which are the throttle clocks i think? How could they get to that when i wasn't putting the GPU under any abnormal stress? my guess is they've always done this and i just never checked. I also ran FurMark and after a couple seconds an alarm went off becaus I had passed 100°C...at which point the screen shut down and I got a windows message that the driver had recovered from a crash or something...which was the 2nd time tonight.

Anyway, I guess it's a serious temp problem, what could I do to recover my inital performances (because that's why i bought this notebook) and to fix these issues? Ideally i would like to avoid voiding the warranty, but if really necessary I could live with it. I would love to go to an Asus RMA center but the nearest is a long drive away.

Any help would be appreciated, I'd like to keep it for as long as possible and, for the price I paid, have the performances such a machine should offer.

Thanks

 

Have you checked all the ventilation ports on the machine?
Buy a canned air duster and blow out the fan and heatsink areas.
Are the fans actually working?
Replace the Thermal Compound with better if you're stock still.
Dave

PS RainMotorsports makes a VERY VALID point regarding warranty stickers below...

 

David only thing id say is if he is still under warranty I would send it in before popping that warranty sticker on the cpu cooler screw. Its a reseller model so 2 years he has till august.

In the US it would be what 7 bucks to mail it sans power adapter? or has ups gone up lol.

Plus if the GPU has any possibility of heat damage id much rather him send it in under warranty on that complaint of performance degradation and high heat. Just saying, after august id go with davids suggestions. But you can still use a can of air on it a bit. Would definitely benefit from it.

 

Alright, I justbought a duster can and gave it a good clean. the fan was pretty dusted but the rest didn't seem too bad. Think I'm gonna take your advice and contact the RMA service before the warranty wears off... Just gotta figure out a way to do an efficient backup but I think Win 7 has something to help me out about that

Just going to wait for the end of semester because i pretty much need the PC for school (which is starting to hurt my back a little )

Edit: I did some checking in win7 and would you guys recommand doing a simple backup or a system copy to make things simpler when I get the PC back? this way i could just dump the whole thing back and not have to reinstall all my stuff... I was thinking after backing up to defrag my hard drives...never done it yet, it'd be a good time to do so.

 

I'd suggest defragging first if you can...

Then;
1 Use win7's file and settings transfer wizard to set up a migration (as an extra precaution) with your current as your "from machine".
2 Do a complete C:/ system image AND a full system backup to en external drive (and make sure you create the required boot DVD (you can use a win7 install disc I reckon).
3 Remember to check the image integrity checkbox when selecting your backup options...

Or you could use Acronis True Image, Farstone (Recovery manager - which offer a "Green" or installation free process), Drive copy or Ghost or some of the others on the market...
Last week when having major troubles restoring the image back to my desktop's Revodrive (after changing stripe size) it was suggested by one of the posters at the OCZ forums that there were some occasional instances where some faults were found with the Windows install disc/routine...

Hope you find this helpful, it was pretty hard typing on the NokiaE63 when sitting in a swing stage 60' above the boiler floor LOL...

Regards,
Dave

Maybe even consider a clean install without the bloatware when you are re-built/ ready to go, files and settings transfer wizard should get you back in shape... Very good thread on Asus' bloatware in the forum around here somewhere.

-Sorry I couldn't edit the above post from my phone, tried about 3 times...

 

I just ran analyzed my disks on the Win 7 Disk Defragmenter and they show 0% fragmentation...guess i can skip that step!

What about formating, do you think it could be a good thin to do before sending the PC there after backing everything up? I think I'm going to stick with the Win7 tool for backup since i dont have 50 bucks to put into this atm. I'll just have to find a fresh DVD for the boot DVD...although my win7 install CD must be somewhere :S

thanks a lot for the help so far, I might ask for a litle more when I'm about to do the whole operation (should be doing that by the end of April hopefully). Also this might sound stupid, but what kind of box is suggested to send the notebook in for the repair? something safe and small enough to save as much as possible on shipping fees

 

I got a Asus G51vx used that came without a manual. Asus download manual is a joke, gives you nothing but the basics. Does anyone have a pdf of the full manual? Thanks.

 

I have a 30-page 1985kB pdf, looks like a joke too. BUT it's the same as the hard-copy I received when I got the laptop.

 

I have another question. I have a g51vx, my daughter has a g50v, and my son has a g72g. We want to know if they all can use the same hard drive caddy for putting in a second drive? If so, which one do we get at the asus e-store?

 

Was there something in a guide to assist in taking apart the g51 and re-applying the thermal paste to the cpu and gpu? I've googled and looked around the forums, maybe I'm missing it.

 

Its not any different than the G50 Guide i can link you when im home but. For thermal paste take the bottom off then remove the 6 screws on the cpu pipe and rock it up and off. The later i7 heatpipe is different and the 260M heatpipe might have more than 2 screws but its pretty easy if u can turn a screw driver its the easiest laptop to get to the cpu ive had in a long time.

 

There are very few differences between the G50 and the G51. Here is the link for taking apart the G50.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...8551-asus-g50-notebook-disassembly-guide.html

 

Post this in the optimization thread

Applied IC7 to the cpu, gpu and northbridge.

went in duke nukem forever for a few minutes...

seems CPU is ~45 idle, 62-63 load

GPU is 81 idle 97 load

Thoughts?

 

Did you OC?

Not recommended to do it on the Northbridge, from when i used to own my G51VX, it had a thremal pad on it, if you still desire to go with paste, then check how is it doing contact, many that went this route used a copper shim.

Load seems high but whith in what some get (i never passed 91C even on furmark). But the idle seems way to high, you should be idling at the most 60C, in my case i used to idle between 45C to 50C. Imo the paste is not doing good contact, i would reaply again, unless you are OCing really heavy.

Btw G51VX GTX260m is very picky with drivers, specially with downclocking to different presettings (2d, throttle, 3d and extra), all the Officila Nvidia drivers i used never downclock on their own, but the MS Update drivers did, i no longer have my laptop with me as i sold it, but the last good driver that did downclock on it own was NVIDIA Geforce/Ion/Quadro 198.05 WHQL Drivers (MS Update), i would try that, and different drivers, specially check for MS update drivers, i no longer see much posted here about them, but for the G51VX were the best drivers, in my experience.