~Official G2S-A1 Owners Lounge~

so what do you suggest i should upgrade? i mean what are the "recommended" to upgrade? is the bios v300 safe to use? thank u so much for answering my questions.. im kinda noob in this...

 

If you are so uncertain I'd recommend you don't upgrade anything. Don't fix what ain't broken just because people tell you fixing is nice.

You could at most upgrade your video driver. The BIOS, only if there are changes that affect you (check the change log).

 

ok2x.. the video driver in the asus support site is old.. where can i get the latest or the best video driver?

 

laptopvideo2go.com . Check the so-called modified INF file, you'll need it to install the driver.

 

ok.. thank you so much E.B.E...

 

@ EBE: I am on the fence about updating to the Laptop2GO drivers. I have been doing ok, but I guess I am the average male, always wanting more. I do video editing as well as gaming. Have you noticed these drivers doing any better/worse than the originals. Within this last week I have had and resolved some lovely app issues, so I want to be very careful with the new updates I am doing. I know these drivers come highly recommended, but I have not yet read a review about the nitty-gritty of these things. Thank you for your input.

@ Bly- I have updated the webcam drivers and noticed better display. As for the BIOS, I agree with EBE, dont fix it if it works. Unless your using like esata or upgrading your cpu (I wouldnt...warranty...) dont worry about them.

 

I've never used modded vid drivers myself so I can't give opinions on performance. Stock is doing fine for me

 

when i play crisis the sounds get distorted.. help pls....

 

i have sound stuttering issue.. help

 

@ EBE - TY

@ Bly - Try using headphones and the onboard speakers, if no luck try uninstalling,restarting, and reinstalling drivers. Also try reinstalling the Audio Manager.

 

thanks gengerald.. i fixed the stuttering problem in crysis by turning off the dolby home theater in the audio manager.. anyone wanna share their graphics settings on crysis.. im on low settings with stock gpu drivers..

 

Dolby digital huh..are you using XFI FIDELITY as a PCMCIA card...no....then dont turn on dolby or EAX1 or EAX2 options in games. If you are really into high sound quality gaming then go for creative XFI..i am sure your laptop will love it. You can play games with 5.1 surround and the drivers for you sound card will generate emulated surround sound on your Asus G2S or G1s provided that you have decent headsets but not DTS or Dolby or THX or EAX.

Sound issues; i have posted multiple times to Uninstall the ADSM Asus data security manager....it sends too many damn read write requests to your drive that game's fetch algorithms for sound files gets suppressed.

I loved the game Far Cry by Crytek. I like Crysis as well. Playing it on Vista 64 bit. I am playing on LOW settings like 90% of other people even with a decent desktop. There is so much hype about shader model 3 and graphics used in Crysis that critics are calling this game way ahead of everything else (designed for future generation of cards due in late 2008). My point is Bsit....have you played COD 4...i played the hole game and i do not recall a map or an action moment when i didn't say Ho***s**t...if COD 4 can come out with such awesome quality cinematic why the F**** Crytek can't? design a better game engine. I am personally not to big of a fan of Crysis now (still playing it though) since to me its a Cut and Copy of Graphics from Far Cry with more Textures.

If you wana see your Asus laptop Screen, brightness, gaming capability at work and really admire 2000 dollar well spent then please buy COD 4; simply AWESOME.

BTW: Did you know that you cant play Crysis with full settings even on a GTX 8800.

 

I definitely back that. ASUS Data Sec Mngr is known to cause stuttering issues. I think we should make it mandatory for people to remove the bloatware before they come asking for questions.

 

i already uninstalled ADSM.. haven't played the COD 4.. i'll try to get a copy of that game.. thank you both raikay and e.b.e...

 

Does ADSM read/write even when not in use, just installed? I have not uninstalled it yet, but I think in the future I may need some secure solution. Does it access the hdd regardless of your using status?

 

raikay, what is the version of your graphics card driver that you're using right now?

 

gengerald: No, it doesn't access anything while it's not running, of course. You should just make sure though that it's not running without an icon in the system tray (for instance it could run as a service). But ASUS apps are typically not that advanced. After all, the guys programming them didn't graduate from Computer Science (joking)

 

lol EBE on the computer science joke i myself have background in computer sciences. I can tell you this much about ASUS based outa Taiwan that they use some crazy butt coders the schooling for computer sciences in Taiwan and Singapore is lot different than states and Canada. These nerds are taught how to program washing machines and microwaves using Assembly and C++ at college levels.

blythkitz:
I am using stock drivers at this point that came on the CD version is: 7.15.11.119
Games played so far on my machine:
Fear
C&C 3
Max Payne Blood Money
COD 4
LOTR
NFS Carbon
Crysis
FIFA 08---Sucks
PREY
UT 3
Beowulf<<< needs a 3.2 GHZ processor WTF??? installed but get error message cause lack of processing power.

Gengerald:
ADSM is not the way to go for data security just caue it says security manager. You have 2 options:
1) Built in Vista Backing capability. I heard its darn good and works well when recovering. Can backup entire hard disk. I believe the option is only available in certain versions such as Business or Ultimate. Feature is in control panel called Backup and Restore Center. External disk or internal doesnt matter for backup. Also supposed to give option to restore image at boot time if you boot from the Vista bootable DVD.

I personally use Acronis True Image has saved me few times and i love the software.

*
Waiting on the freaking Vista SP1 Public release. Rumors that it might come out tomorrow and is supposed to be out in first quarter 2008.
Takes care of few major issues in Vista.
1) File transfer speeds are enhanced such as USB, SD card and other medias on Vista.
2) Boot time and sleep were supposed to be enhanced. Boot time stays the same but sleep feature and reliability is improved.
Numerous other fixes.

 

As mentioned in my previous post, I had to install Hotfix for Windows (KB940105) because Crysis said I needed it after installing the game. The game is still choppy even at min settings. Later on I kept getting "Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered."

It wasn't that bad or frequent then. But now I seem to be getting the error almost every other day. The only significant change I did was enabling the Guest Account over the weekend.

Any advice?

 

My suggestion is to first go through and do the usual CCleaner, RegMechanic, Spybot checks. After this, attempt to Update your display driver and see if anything is updated/...After this uninstall and reinstall your display driver, downloading the 'latest' one from Asus's site. If that still yields the message, try the www.laptopvideo2go.com driver. Good luck.

 

[ask] where is the 2nd memory expansion slot in Asus G2?
Dear all,

I'm trying to upgrade an Asus G2.
By default, it came in with 2GB of RAM, so I want to upgrade to 4GB (2x2GB)
but then I only found 1 memory slot in the bottom with 1x1GB installed.
I wonder where I can find the 2nd memory slot in this notebook?


Regards,


Hendrik

 

It is a bit weird, but it is under the keyboard. I would suggest that unless you are going up to 64bit, you wont need to upgrade to a full 4. I have upgraded to 3 and have a huge speed bump, and remember 32bit has a record of only recognizing 3.5gb ish in OS. But if you want to upgrade to 4, there is one underneath, and one right under the keyboard.

 

Yes, thank you Gengerald,

I tought about looking under the keyboard but I didn't find any clue to open the keyboard.

 

That there is where I have no information. Usually there is an upper panel with screws you take off, then it pops out, but I have not touched this section on mine yet.

 

How do i open the keyboard panel? any1 have an idea? i think my laptop is getting dusty. The fan goes off at max speed on games that i have been playing before. It never did this before T.T

 

How to Open the Keyboard on ASUS G series:

Do the following. this works best (does not leave any marks even in the inside of the keyboard) USE A PAPER CLIP OR
A tiny tiny flat head screw driver (not recommended)
How to open a Keyboard on G2S-A1 for cleaning or upgrading RAM:
Tools Needed: Large Size Paper Clip
Points of Insertion 3 total: OR 3 tabs to PUSH IN & BACK with Paper Clip

• Above Key: DEL (delete key)
• Above Key: F8
• Above Key: Esc (Escape)

• Next to Key: Caps Lock-is a holding tab

Steps:
1)Use paper clip to push in & Back the little tab right above DEL key
2)Use your finger tips to lift the far right UPPER corner of the keyboard tray (black corner up)
3)Keep on holding it up and don't let the tab over Del key go back in.
4)Push in & back the tab behind the F8 Key lift the keyboard trey from far right corner to all the way to F8 Key + give slight push towards the screen.
5)Push in & back the tab behind the ESC (escape key) this gives you enough room to pull the whole keyboard towards the screen.
More points of Interest:
4 slider tabs under DOWN ARROW KEY, 2 on each side of the SPACE BAR and far left bottom corner Control key....under these keys there are 3 sliders.

6)As you push the keyboard towards the screen try to get these 3 sliders out no need to use paper clip just put pressure on keyboard to slide them out and at the same time shake the far left last remainder tab next to the caps lock. That is it your keyboard is out. Underneath; open the plate to install more RAM or simply use the air can to clean your keyboard.

*Don't be afraid to lift the keyboard from far right corner even if it twists/bends a little upwards, will happen till you open all 3 top tabs

Caution:
Do not hit the screen
Do not lift the keyboard too high there is a flat head wire strip underneath. Do not use magnetically charged screw driver or paper clip. Bottom base of the keyboard is magnetically charged.
Putting back the keyboard do the reverse: Far left tab under the ESC key goes in first then the holding tab next to the CAPS Lock and then sliders and Tabs on top. Its easy for the holding tab next to the caps lock not to go in completely if keyboard is not completely down flat repeat till the tab next to caps lock gets in Completely.
I meant to do all the above with pictures one day. Been delaying this post cause too busy with other stuff. Hope this helps those who want to clean their keyboard or upgrade RAM.
PS: Nobody taught me the above. I searched net for months but no info on how to open the keyboard. Trial and error is how i learnt.

 

It would help if you put up step by step photos, but the information is appreciated

 

+1 rep. I'm not going to be doing that myself for some time, though.

 

@ raikay

THANK YOU VERY MUCH!
this morning i red your reply and do exactly like you wrote
i succeed to upgrade the G2. now it's running on 2x2GB Corsair

@ Firecrack
i think if you just read raikay's posting (no need no picture, this man describe them very detail!) and do it step by step you'll do it good!

 

Firecrak:
I mentioned in my post sir that i didn't have time to take shots and organized my post a little better i am at an APO location overseas working 12 hours every darn day i don't get much time to reply here brother else i will post pics.

Mr. Hendrik: I appreciate your comments and glad you were able to upgrade your RAM. Enjoy the added speed and performance

Thanks Kierkes for the reps. Appreciate it.

 

i was thinking of doing some upgrade on my notebook and i think raikay knows his stuff so i wanted to copy him. and i was searching for his hdd and
from the site that i buy (directcanada.com) i see two
one is
Seagate Momentus 7200.2 G-FORCE 160GB 7200RPM SATA 11MS 8MB 2.5IN Hard Drive 5YR MFR Warranty
Seagate Momentus 7200.2 160GB 7200RPM SATA 11MS 8MB 2.5IN Notebook Hard Drive 5YR MFR Warranty

Whats G-Force? (its 6 dollars more expensive at 157$)

or even better
any1 care to name the best upgrades possible as of right now for the g2s? (if money was no object)

 

g-force is seagates new standard for building drives with better shock protection. basically better spindles, arms etc...
for $11 its gotta be worth trying. supposedly they offer up to 30% more shock protection.


as for best upgrades...save your money, dont buy a new internal hd, buy an external with serious storage capacity for less. dont bother upgrading the processor, chances are you are not coming anywhere close to using all of your computing power. if anything its gonna be the video card that needs to be upgraded, but of course thats not possible.
i would suggest upgrading ram to 3+gb and buying an external drive.

 

I would say definitely invest in a 2GB RAM stick, and eSata/USB external drive, and definitely a 7.2k internal drive. The difference between that and a 5.4k is tremendous, and the amount of battery saved on *this* laptop will have no effect, you are looking at the one hour mark plus or minus a bit. All together you could do it for $300 and improve your experience.

 

Definitely go for the Seagate Momentus 7200.2 G-FORCE 160GB 7200RPM SATA 11MS 8MB 2.5IN Hard Drive 5YR MFR Warranty Shock resistance is more of an importance on laptops than on desktops. Shock resistance comes in handy not only when and if you drop your laptop its of an importance while using the laptop in a car, plane or even when moving it around from your table to your bed. So go for it.

Gengerald and the fellow above him are right about upgrade opinions. You can only do so much to this laptop. 4 GB Ram with Vista 64 is a significant speed and performance boost. Processor can only be changed from 2.0 to 2.2 and 2.4 you cant upgrade it to the newer core and you know that your stuck with the display card. So a decent hard disk and Max RAM is the way to go. And if you are in the market for a External Esata See My Signature

 

When the ASUS XG station comes out we will be abble to "uppgrade" the videocard. The only problem is that you are forced to use an external screen

 

thanks for the info, for ram can u guys specifically tell me the model/name for ram?

any store that ships to canada will be good.

(should i get ram upgrade first or hdd upgrade?)

 

Tobbis, what's an ASUS XG station?

 

since there really is no rush, i would just start looking through websites for deals. if you find a good deal on ram, get ram first. if you find a good deal on an hdd, get the hdd first. both should yield noticeable improvements, which is why i feel like it doesnt matter.

brand wise, really doesnt matter with ram to a degree. crucial, corsair, kingston, patriot, ocz etc etc etc.... i personally have never bought the same brand of ram twice, and i've never had any of them fail. at the moment i'm partial to g.skill brand ram, upgraded my dad's desktop and laptop with it this xmas, very nicely built chips.

seagate hdd's or death. (although i cant complain about the hitachi my notebook came with...its awesomely quiet @ 7200rpm.)

sorry i cant help you with places that ship to canada, but that shouldnt be hard to find.

 

an external GPU. Its basically a external pci-e enclosure via expresscard slot so that people with laptop can use normal pcie video cards on their laptop. but the xg station has overclocking options and sound card or something. i think these were not made to be used on gaming notebooks such as ours. The express slot is only supports a fraction of bandwith that a normal pcie does so we probably wouldn't be able to take full advantage of, say, a 8800.

 

thanks for the info simsimi1004.

 

can any1 tell me if this one is good?
http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=11180BD7501&vpn=VS4GSDSKIT667D2&manufacture=CORSAIR

 

anyone using x64 on their g2s? i'm going to install it tonight, i'm looking for any tips or random quirks you've noticed etc...

thanks.

 

@Sim: It looks fine, I am not sure about their lifetime warranties though. I have had a good experience with Kingston, so I stick with em.

If you are doing a full upgrade, why not go with DDR2 PC2-6400?

 

First of all, thanks gennerald for your response about the video. It frooze up THREE times yesterday . Hopefully I'll have time later this week to clean it up.

I thought these laptops were only capable of speeds of PC2 5300/5400? I've been planning on doing a RAM upgrade too. I do some moderate to high gaming on occasion so I was looking at OCZ, Corsair and Patriot sticks. Opinions?

 

what's the best video card driver right now? anyone playing crisis on high settings?

 

which do you prefer to use nVidia nTune or GPU-Z???

 

Please people, are there any general know problems with owning this lappy? I am thinking of buying one. Although screen is 17.0" WXGA+ (1440x900) Is this going to bring any problems to my viewing enjoyment?


17" WXGA+ Glare - Intel Core 2 Duo T7700 - NVIDIA 8600M GT GDDR3 256Mb - 3Gb DDR2 667 - 300Gb - DVD Super Multi DL Light Srcibe - Hybrid TV-tuner - 1.3MP camera - 802.11agn - Bluetooth - Vista Home Premium - 1Gb TurboMemory

 

For RAM: I have not tested or verified the 6400 mark, I just ran Crucial's ram application, the punched in my specific notebook. I am rocking 5300 and am definitely happy. I have heard good things about all three brands, so as long as they got a decent lifetime warranty, jump on the best deal.

@Blyth-I have not run crysis, but in respect to the drivers, I have heard the laptop2video drivers are doing best, as they have been updated and modified. The drivers you use depend upon what you are looking for. I have read it can be described as a triangle, you can have performance, color depth, and stability. I personally use Adobe Premiere Pro(video edit), Photoshop, Encore(dvd menu), Rainbow Six, CS 1.6 + Source Distro's with no major issues anymore. I used to have some heating issues, but it seems I have not gotten those recently. I may try those laptop2vid drivers soon, but life is busy atm. Also, I have just tried GPU-Z and it looks considerably simplified version of Ntune, while it does not allow me to edit any values, but should be cool for quick temp facts.

@BJ: It looks like a good config. Some of my notes would be the low screen res, as I love 1920 <3, 300gb hd, might be slower as it is probably not a 7.2k. Positives would be the 7700, 3gb ram, tv tuner (MOST DEF!!!!). Overall looks kickass. Good luck.

 

Thanks gengerald, will have to watch out for this one. It seems the 1920 resolution is only in the N.American market and the whole lappy is cheaper there after converting price to euros :confuded:

I am crossed btw this and the M51Sn now. It is kind of hard to decide Hd isnt 7,2k but 300Gb 4200rpm SATA. Is this now a bad deal?

 

and the M51Sn is:

Asus M51Sn with 15.4" Glare Type WXGA+ - Intel Core 2 Duo T8300 - NVIDIA Geforce Go 9500M GS 512Mb - 3Gb DDRII 667 - 250Gb SATA 5400rpm - 8X Super Multi DL Light Scribe - 8 in 1 -WLAN 802.11a/g/n - Vista Home Premium - Bluetooth - Finger print - 1.3MP videokamera - 6-Cellbattery. € 1131,20