Official Asus G72GX Owners Lounge

Hey, everybody. It's cool to see a place for owners of this laptop to connect! I've had mine for about two months now, and I've loved it.

Tragedy struck recently when I spilled some Mike's Hard Lime on the keyboard and speaker area. I've gotten most of the keyboard to work again (still trying to see if I can get it fully functional), but I want to see if there was problematic seepage into deeper regions.

I was wondering if anybody knows whether the case can be fully dismantled without breaking the warranty sticker? I'm a do-it-yourself kind of guy, so I want to see if I can fix anything obvious before getting professional help (especially since I don't have the patience for weeks of waiting, nor the cash if the damage isn't covered). However, I haven't been able to find ANYTHING on disassembly of this model. I figure I'll just get a USB keyboard if all else fails and hope for the best.

Does anybody know anything about this? Thanks ahead of time!

 

My framerate appears to cap at 50 fps once in a while. When this happens I have to restart in order for things to be normal again. Everything looks fine on GPU-Z so hopefully it's just a driver issue but has anyone encountered this?

 

The only problem I have is this weird colors on my screen when surfing on the web specially when I scrolldown and worst ( turns pink, the other day turned green ) if I scroll really fast. But when I play what, like 5 hours straight of Mass Effect or other game it doesnt do that.

Its driving me crazy because IDK what to do...

 

The big thing with all the copper ramsinks is the GPU. It has an aluminum heatsink on it which while a good dissipator of heat is not as good as copper. By adding the copper ramsinks to my GPU I was able to add cooling surface area and drop my temps to the levels mentioned in my signature.


To all those seeing skipping, I would recommend running GPU-Z on your secondary monitor and playing the game on the primary monitor. The second tab of GPU-Z displays the current clock speeds for you GPU. You should be able to tell if your GPU is downclocking on you. Also if you run HWMonitor andhave it up on the second screen, you should be able to see what all the temperatures are for your components while running a game.

 

That's called artifacting. It happens when a GPU overheats. This hasn't happened once with my G72. What exactly are you doing that it's getting that hot? You should check to see if your fan is working. If it's not, you should get it repaired before you damage your motherboard. If your GPU is already getting hot enough to artifact, your motherboard is probably already damaged.

 

I would highly recommend that you guys purchase an notebook cooler that pushes enough air, if you will be playing intensive games for extended periods. The venting on this model isn't fantastic and so pushing cool air through the system will greatly help.

I have one of the first G71Gx-A1's released (from the first batch) and I have not had any of the problems you guys are reporting. The key here is diligence and preventative maintenance (which includes the aforementioned cooler). I am not trying to be the lecturer here and tell you how to use your laptops, just hoping that the measure I took, if implemented, would help prevent some of the problems you guys are seeing.

All the best!!

 

I find it a lot of these problems bizarre and have to wonder if these people just happen to get one of the handful of mishaps out there or if there's something else you guys are doing to your laptops.

I'll admit, I don't play any brand spankin new games...as I've mentioned before, the absolute newest game I play is AudioSurf...which I'm not sure how graphically intensive that is, I know my old 2ghz Turion with 128mb shared VRAM on the Radeon Xpress200M could barely get decent framerates at 1280x800 with detail turned down to absolute minimum..so I know it's probably harder on the GPU than my other games. But...the list of what I play is in my signature (not counting the Tiger Woods 2010 online beta I play...which runs at 1600x900 with full detail and not a dropped frame)...so I suppose part of the reason I have no complaints is I play relatively old games (what can I say, I spent so many years being 4 years behind things I'm not used to being only a year or so behind)...but anyway. All these games I play at either full resolution or close to full (except for RTCW which I don't think supports 1600x900) and I tend to have detail turned up as far as I can. I can't say how much this stresses the GPU as I don't have HWMonitor installed...i do know that every time I look in the bios the temps are down in the 120 (F) range (and it's not like the thing was sitting turned off). I get no real glitches in my games, no lagging (unless I'm in Postal and blow up a room of 30 people, that also causes a massive spike in CPU usage)..I get the studdering in the middle of the game if I change my TurboGear mode...but I expect that...changing the clock causes a bit of resync. I get the disappearing WiFi issue at times (although since I fixed Ubuntu, that's gone away) and if I do something silly like leave my USB HDD plugged up, it locks up on sleep mode...and those problems...those are minor hiccups compared to what my last two laptops would do to me (ever have to hit the lower corner of a laptop with your palm pretty hard to get your lid sensor to work or pop your bottom cover off and apply pressure to your southbridge to get your chipset to work?)....I really wonder if these are software issues caused by users who just...aren't sure of what they're doing or, if like anything in life, there is a mishap or two happen during assembly and these things get missed.

Needless to say, I've been EXTREMELY happy with my laptop. I've owned it for just over a month and the ONLY times I ever had issues...they wound up being non hardware related. I'm not saying you guys are crazy...I honestly believe you guys are having these issues. I'm just wondering what variables are occurring that might be causing the problems...like are you guys suffocating these things or using them where they're sucking in huge amounts of dust.

Anyway, the place I was going with all that...laptop coolers. The one I use....doesn't even seem like it's going to work that well with the G72.. because it's a "wedge" that the back of the laptop sits on and it basically sucks air from the top and blows it under the laptop. It's pushing a bit of air..if i put my hands on the sides i can feel air movement...and ONE of the fans sits just under the exhaust port...so I'm actually recirculating part of that hot air. Still...I leave it on, I can overclock....do a virtural flight across the US and not once do I have a hiccup, studder, BSOD or anything. I'm looking at HWMonitor right now and it's reporting that my GPU is 56C..and it's been idle..except for Windows....that seems pretty high to me. I wonder if this thing is reporting the value right.

Oh well...I THINK my geeksquad deal covers overheating...maybe I can take it in in a few months and have them swap the thermal compound.

As far as the other temps:
TZ00 in ACPI is reporting 46C - my CPU is running 37C on one core and 32C on the other - GPU is running 56C - and the other listing, i'm guessing is hard drive, is 33C. I actually wonder if the GPU sensor is mis-reporting or if my GPU is running that hot...it doesn't seem like it should be...it seems like if it's running that hot in idle it would absolutely die when I fire up a game.

I guess I'll leave HWMonitor running, fire up Postal2 and see if the max-temp goes up. *EDIT: CPU got up to 60C/56C and GPU spiked up to 70C*

 

What are the copper squares that's all over heat sync? Is that something you added yourself?

 

I just got the laptop

just how long would it take to format and install windows again? that's the only reason I don't want to go through with it...

 

Like the other poster said, I think that's a terrible idea. Could wreck the drive. That's one of the reasons I'm trying to get a system with two drives in it already. Don't care about the drives, but I want the caddy! :lol:

Just so you know, MAC address filtering and hiding your network do NOT provide any security, in case that's what you were using it for. You need WPA2.

 

Hi guys! I may not be a G72 owner, but i will soon be.
And i'm glad there's an owners lounge here to seek help.
I'm planning to buy a G72 very soon. And i would like
to know where i can find one with a T9600 or P8800 CPU?
And which CPU will have better performance when it comes
to Battle field: Bad Company 2, and Warhammer Online, the dual
core or quad core(Q9000)?

 

Hi everybody, this is mi first post, I'm from Argentina.

I'm writing because I'm about to buy ASUS G72Gx-RBBX05 laptop after reading a lot of it and the ASUS G51JX.

I'm have just decided to buy the G72 because I want it for gaming and I readed about G51J(X) bsod and cpu throttling problems, am i doing right?

So, is there any issue like g51's ones that I should be aware of?

Thanks!

 

Yes they are copper blocks along with sekisui thermal tape, that I purchased on ebay.

I ordered 3 packets of 8 blocks i.e. 24 blocks total. I then removed the crap thermal adhesive on the back of them and replaced it with the sekisui thermal tape and attached them to the copper heatpipes and heatsinks for the CPU and GPU.

 

I think the G72Gx-RBBX05 is a good purchase and it is a solid laptop. A couple of the users on this forum have had issues with it, stemming from the heat generated by the GPU. This can be greatly mitigated by purchasng a good notebook cooler like the Cryo Lx and if you feel a little more bold, adding the copper ramsinks (which are easily removed if you need to get it serviced).

One other thing I will say is that when I bought my laptop from XoticPC, I had them replace the stock thermal paste for the CPU and GPU with Arctic Silver 5 (the benefit of buying from a reseller instead of bestbuy) and have not voided my warranty by doing so.

All in all the G71Gx/G72Gx is a fantastic gaming DTR for the price!

 

A higher clocked dual core will be better for video games. If you plan to do more with the laptop, like I do, i.e run virtual machines, develop software etc, the quad core is a better multi-tasker and hence a better investment.

Guys correct me if I am wrong, but you should be aware that the best buy versions don't support the quad core.

 

Anymore, a lot of games support more than 2 cores. Personally I want quad. Of course it's not even an issue to think about on an i7, since it's the best dual core chip in addition to being the best quad, but still, not something I'd worry about much with the Core 2 quad.

(Yes, I'm still considering the G72! Wish it was significantly cheaper than the G73...)

 

I have WPA2 as well.

 

If all your devices support Wireless-N 5Ghz you may also consider switching your router to only run on the 5GHz A/N band. That should make it even less accessible to outsiders, assuming most people don't run in that spectrum yet.

Alternatively, you might consider running dd-wrt on the router (if your router supports it). You could then play with the wireless, security and access restrictions tabs to see what works for you.

Here's a demo of the DD-WRT Web UI

 

No reason to turn off the broadcasting of the network's name, or using MAC address filtering though. Doesn't provide any security.

 

I see, I purchased one of those cooler pads. Also, it only happens when Im surfing the web but when I play it wont do that.

Though I have like 3-4 days that this issue hasnt happened again but my laptop is slowish when opening browsers.

The first week it never did something like that, it was some couple days later that it happened. BTW, the fan seems to work but Ive never seen it work at high speeds.

 

A higher clock doesn't mean anything. The FSB frequency and cache are the best indications for which CPU is better.

P8700: 3MB L2 Cache, 1066 MHz FSB
Q9000: 6MB L2 Cache, 1066 MHz FSB

The Q9000 should be faster because it has double the cache. Also, it has 0.5MB more cache per core.

 

I beg to differ...

Not necessarily, its a fact that the P8700 gets higher benchs and fps in games. As I said, if gaming is your primary concern then go with the higher clocked P8700. If multitasking is your primary focus then the Q9000. The Q9000 is by no means a shabby processor, its just that most games are not really optimized for quad core support and so you would see no additional benefit as a result of purchasing it instead of the P8700.

The Q9000 has 6MB shared across 2 dual cores, i.e. 3MB per dual core, which is the same as the P8700 for a game that is only optimized to use up to 2 cores.

 

Is anyone having trouble connecting to a wireless network? I can't seem to when my mom's dell has no problem with it. I can connect to the net no problem with the Ethernet cable, though.

I also had one of those terrifying blue screens of death, after trying to go full screen on a vimeo video... It has not happened again.

 

If the duo is faster, then where can i find a G72 with a P8800 or T9600?

 

I said should be. There are other factors. Architecture also plays a big role in speed. Frequency does not, however. That's a myth. A Pentium III 2.0GHz eats a Pentium 4 3.0Ghz.

I was only addressing this common misconception about CPUs: that a higher clock means it's faster. This is a mistake that most average users make, but an advanced user should know better.

Dual cores are faster sometimes, but there are games that are made for quad cores now. And quad cores usually get really good benchmarks in those games. More games will be coming out soon that also support quad cores. Dual core CPUs are a safe bet for the short term, but not the long term. After all, they're coming out with six-core CPUs now.

 

I know people here have broke through 11000 in 3dmark06, what were your clocks set at? I have me processor at 2.2ghz and graphics card at nvidia clocks I just got 10450. I tried to go to 2.3ghz on the processor but it locked up when i hit run benchmark...

 

Go into your Nvidia control settings, 3d settings and set things to performance and/or application controlled.

 

that was done, hrm. I will retry the Dox drivers but uncheck powermizer. Maybe that will stop the downclocking

 

sry sry sry sry

 

powermizer off and it still downclocks at 84C... In 8days i will be in the states and change my thermal paste. Hope that fixes it and i am just getting a hotspot somewhere in my gpu...

 

agreed 10char

 

Best Buy has the G72Gx-RBBX05 which has the P8700 processor. All other resellers have the quad core version. If you want a specific processor you could always buy the best buy version, and buy a better processor separately and upgrade it. I believe the best dual core out there is either the T9900 or the X9100 (the X9100 has an unlocked multiplier but that's not of any use as the asus bios does not support changing the multiplier).

You can buy the regular G72Gx with the Quad core (which is what I would recommend you buy, as I agree with ynobody01) from any of the reputable asus resellers like xoticpc or gentechpc or even newegg.

 

I just checked Xotic PC and Gentech, their prices are way higher than newegg, and that's without any customization???

Anyway is it possible that i buy a G71GX and replace the CPU with a quadcore like q9000-qx9300? Because it's selling for $800 only, at newegg?

 

Personally I think even for games, quad makes more sense. A large number run better on more than 2 cores, and that's only going to increase (and remember, the consoles have 3-8 cores, though of course each core isn't nearly as powerful, but a lot of games are being built for multiple cores now).

At worst, for games that only use 2 cores, you're talking about that dual core one having 26% more CPU power (assuming you're not doing something else). That's big, not not HUGE. At best, it's 58% faster...hmm, well that's not the hugest difference either, but at any rate, probably all games that really need tons more than what a 2Ghz Core 2 could provide are going to be able to use more than 2 cores, so...a 2.53Ghz Core 2 is certainlly totally fine for today's games, but I still want the quad, darn it

(Though remember, because i7 overclocks itself if it can while using fewer cores, it ends up faster even for games that only use 1 or 2 cores...though to me, still not a huge deal, and I have to wonder if the 1.6GHz i7 CPUs are really much different from the 25% faster clocked Core 2 quads? I'm sort of guessing not. I mean is Nehalam 25% faster than Penryn at the same clock speed? )

 

Theoretically it is possible. I don't know anyone that has done it but the chipset/bios should support it. I will say though, see how you like the P8700 as it does use less power than the quad core and it will overclock well, so you may not need to upgrade it right away. I would buy the one you saw on newegg, and use it as is until the warranty expires, at which time I would consider making tweaks to the hardware. No point in voiding your warranty right off the bat.

For that price, you can't beat that configuration, and there is no point in spending more money if you don't need to right now. If you want to buy one with a quad, go through a reseller like XoticPC though, because even though it is more, they can replace the thermal compound and you get a better warranty.

 

Oh wait, I missed that-the Best Buy dual core model will *NOT* support a quad core. It's probably one of the things that lets Best Buy sell the system for cheaper.

 

Yup Yup...that it does but they don't sell it for that much less...gotta pay all those useless employees that don't know what they are talking about and don't know where things are in the store (not to flame too much but I just had to say it )

 

Woo! Finally! Someone who knows better. I can't tell you how many times I've been flamed because people are convinced of the contrary.

 

Actually, it provides a slight level of security to the average user. By not broadcasting your SSID, the average joe who might be out looking for WiFi won't be able to see or connect to your wifi spot. Sure, netstumbler will "find" those wifi points...but it won't discover the SSID and therefore, unless they go through the hassle of doing a site survey and letting a packet-sniffer read ALLL the wifi traffic it can pick up...they essentially can't use your WiFi.

NoSSID and MAC filtering are passive ways of doing security...but they are effective on the average joe who might want to piggyback. Sure, someone who knows a thing or two can boot up a couple tools and be on your hidden network in minutes..and that's what encryption is really protecting against.

I personally have a much better method of security. I live in the middle of the woods and my router is in a location that you're unable to pick it up if you go any distance away from my yard. My neighbors, if they had computers, wouldn't be able to see it and the one neighbor that does...well I can see his router if I go outside...but he's been unable to see mine nor would he get on it.

 

At the end of the day, there is so much you can do. Unless you have a hard wire, you can't guarantee that someone isn't going to get onto your network if they really want to and have the skills/time to do so. Personally I just want to make it as difficult as possible to ensure that they pick an easier target than me.

My $0.02

 

thanks for all the answers... geez.

 

Have you tried using the Fn key + F2? this will enable-disable the wirelles card...

 

It seems that this problem hasnt a solution yet... I think it happens to all G72, and the only temporary solution, is to stop putting your laptop to sleep...

 

Same argument for have a security system (or just a sign in the yard). I personally use the WPA2 and Mac address filtering while hiding the SSID but certainly it's overkill to have all three.

Love this G72 but skill casting an eye over to the G73.

Cheers,

 

It wasn't that. Apparently, I had the password wrong

I've had pw related problems with Atlantica online too. I guess it's me having to get used to this keyboard.

 

yeah.. it does takes time

 

has anybody ran Furmark at 1920x1080 and gotten there temps to stabilize on a completely stock computer? I got to 93C after 12minutes and got scared and cut it off. How much higher can it go...safely?

 

Playing GTAIV makes my gpu go as high as 95C at stock clock settings. It's a little high but so far no problems.

 

95C is probably the upper bound or thereabouts. I believe the machine has safeguards in bios to shut down at higher temps. You will have to see what those are.

My G71Gx is not technically "stock" but when it was I did max out between 91-93C running Furmark. After adding the copper and using a notebook cooler my temps moved down into the 87-88C range.

 

Yeah i know that the bios has a CPU temp "lock"... but i dont know if it occurs the same with the GPU Temp... it should... doesnt it?