G73 JH/JW Disassembly & Repaste Guide

[Yiddo]

Here are my results from my recent repaste. I dont have a fancy cam so just took pictures and uploaded short movies of the tricky parts. Hope this goes towards preventing the common problems of busting the Audio cable or the keyboard etc and hopefully give you a straightforward guide. I will cover all aspects of dissassembly and mark in the sections that dont actually require you to the remove the item if you only intend to repaste.

Tools Required:

Flat head screwdriver, Philips screwdriver, Cloth tape, Thermal Compound and alcoholic swabs (If repasting) you might consider replacing the Vram Pads also.

Before Starting:

I dont ground myself and have never had a problem but you should because it prevents the possibility of static shock and if you short the board its a costly mistake. Remove the AC power supply and then the battery and hold the power button to discharge any power that may remain in the laptop. Also if you intend to repaste the CPU you will need to remove the Warranty sticker possibly voiding any warranty you have in place, this does not apply to the GPU. You do any of the following at your own risk this is for information purposes only and only covers the G73JH/JW model, the only difference being the JW has compound on the heatsink/Vram not Thermal Pads.

Step 1: Casing Screws

Flip over the laptop to see the underside and grab your Philips screwdriver and get to work. Illustrated in the picture as light blue are the screws you need to remove to begin with. When you flip over the maintenance panel it works quite well as a tray to hold your screws and keep them in sections

12 Screws to be removed

Step 2: Rom Drive and Hard Drives

Firstly remove the DVD/BD Drive to do this remove the single yellow screw in the picture and then wiggle the drive until it comes loose if it is not coming out you can give it a hand by pushing the bracket either side of the screw itself, and slide it out. Next we need to get the Hard Drive/s out depending if you have one or two will depend if you need to remove 4 or 8 screws.

5/9 Screws to be removed.

Step 3: Wireless Card and RAM

Now we need to disconnect and remove the Wireless card (this does not need to be removed if you only intend to repaste) The two connectors pull upwards and sometimes are slightly stiff, undo the 2 screws marked and the wireless card will flip up and can be removed easily. Next, we need to remove the RAM the clips are pulled away from the modules as shown in the picture and the module being removed starting at the top and working your way down will also flip up similiar to the wireless card. (It might be an idea to keep the RAM in order if you are involved in QM overclocking changing the order can affect your results). Finally remove the 3 screws shown as marked in the picture on the motherboard. (the RAM also does not need to be removed if you only intend to repaste)

3/5 Screws to be removed

Step 4: The Screws that are always forgotten

This step is added because I have done this many times the 6 screws shown go through the laptop to the keyboard and top of the casing if you dont remove these when you reach step 9 and begin trying to pull the case off if it does not clip off easily you have not removed one of the four screws bottom and right, and if the panel at the back does not come off you have not removed the 2 at the top.

6 Screws to be removed

Step 5: Removing the Keyboard ( Patience Required )

Plan an afternoon off for this Step the keyboard is a tricky blighter due to a funny joke by Asus putting double sided tape underneith it and you will be sweating pulling it free thinking half the motherboard will come with it, there is a nack to it. Firstly find the 5 gaps positioned at the top of the keyboard shown with arrows in the picture, use the flat head screwdriver to flick the catch free and gently hold the underside of the keyboard and work your way from left to right until the top of the keyboard is free of the catches.

I have marked in yellow in the picture where the two connectors are under the keyboard for the keyboard itself and the key lighting. Once you have your hands under the top of the keyboard hold the top left and right corners and GENTLY lever left and right while applying pressure upwards to pry the keyboard away from the sticky tape. Take your time with this do not apply to much pressure or you can bend the keyboard or tear out the connectors once it comes loose. Once free tilt the keyboard up and move onto the next step.

Step 6: Keyboard Connectors

Ok so here we need to remove the two connectors, use the flat head screwdriver and slide out the locks as shown in the picture they have black plastic locks that should slide left and then the connectors should come loose and you can pull them out and remove the keyboard.

Step 7: ATK cables and Audio Plug

Next you need to remove the two connectors blue tabs by lifting the black plastic locks upwards and taking hold of the blue tab and pulling them gently free of the socket. Then you need to remove the Audio plug (yellow arrow) which goes into a very small and tricky socket, watch my movie and using the flat head screwdriver take your time and gently lever the plug out of the socket. Finally remove the 4 screws highlighted in the picture.

(If you just attempt to pull this up you can/will lose your audio if you pull the socket from the motherboard and there is no fixing it once its broken)

4 Screws to be removed

Blue Connectors Video / Audio Plug Video

Step 8: Removing the screen

Ok now we get to the fun bits. Lets get the screen off close the screen down and turn the laptop around now you need to remove the cover at the back (Important: Make sure all 6 screws are removed from Step 4) lift the cover upwards as shown in the first and second pictures this might be a little stiff but should click off easily. In the next picture you have 4 screws to remove either side 3 are for the screen bracket and 1 is for the top casing, that is 8 screws total.

Once done turn the laptop back around so you facing it and lift the screen upwards gently so that it comes off the back brackets and without pulling the wires place it above the laptop itself as shown in the final picture.

8 Screws to be removed

Step 9: Removing the Top casing and the Final RAM module

At this point you need to place your fingers under the top of the casing where you just removed the screen from and gently pull the casing from the top of the laptop, if you have removed all of the screws this should click off of the clips quite easily otherwise go back up and check all of the screws have been removed especially the ones in step 4.

You will be left with the picture below in which I have marked the final RAM module which can be removed if you need to or if you intend to place a new module into it.

Step 10: The final Step to remove the Motherboard

Ok here we need to do several things to get the motherboard out. You can do all of these things if you intend you just tilt the Mobo and repaste as many do but I personally like everything clear and accessible. (Video 1) Remove the two cables from the top and two from the bottom, then you must remove the two fan cables and finally a smaller cable next to the left fan cable that powers the blue light under the screen. (Video 2) Now remove the screen cable top right and the wireless cables will come through the motherboard itself. At this point you can remove the screen. (the left cables run through a white plastic clip that keeps them in place)

Finally you must remove the 3 screws labeled on the motherboard (left picture) and then remove the 3 screws that hold the fan in place do this for both sides (right picture).

Here is a movie of me removing the motherboard from the casing.

9 screws to be removed

Common Problems:

After Reasessmbling the Laptop will not turn on - Go back and check the wireless cables are not covering the reset button / Recheck all connections


Repasting.

If you are looking to repaste then you will have decided what compound to use I personally recommend ICD however any will do it just depends what you want to work with. You will need to remove the screws to release the heatsinks from the GPU and CPU (left picture). You might like to consider replacing the thermal pads if they are grubby or have any fingerprints on it is recommended, I have done this to show you this in the (centre picture) it is recommend you use 1mm pads although I have used 0.5mm because I have done a heatsink mod as further down in this guide but 1mm will make sure there are no gaps between the Vram and the heatsink and 1mm is what is used as stock. A 50mm/50mm of thermal pad is more than enough to cover each section of the GPU including the Vram and controllers.

You need to make sure the Copper part of the heatsink is clean along with the Die itself marked yellow (refer to the post above regarding cleaning the heatsink/die) Once done if you just intend to clean and not go all out on the copper you should have something looks like the (right picture) ready to repaste.

Apply the compound with a pea shaped (3-5mm) blob dead centre of the Die on the GPU.

(if you are repasting the CPU and specifically like it to reach over the entire chip, although this is not necessary as the cores are located generally centre top and bottom you can apply a horizontal line dead centre as below)

Reseat the heatsink making sure you dont move it to much to smear the compound, you then screw the heatsink back on as numbered at each corner and the compression will do the rest preventing bubbles forming from repasting methods such as the credit card trick.

Cleaning & sanding the Heatsink.

When you remove the heatsink you need to clean off the old compound and residue. You can do this the easy way by using a clean think cotton cloth to remove the tough stuff and then use an alcoholic swab to make sure the die is completely free of foreign bodies like dust and dirt, or you can do this the copper cooking way

Once the heatsinks are clean peel off the sticky tape holding the fans on, you will need to use some strong electrical tape when you put them back on and it must be able to handle high temps so that it does not just peel off when it heats up normally cloth tape does the job.

You can sand the copper if you like also known as lapping but be warned you must know what you are doing and must make sure it is done properly or you could make things worse if it does not sit evenly across the die. I did but I did not go all the way to the ''shiny'' ''shiny'' I just used upto 1500 grit to get a nice clean flat surface. (Left before) - (Right after).

Cooking the Copper.

At this point you have either cleaned or lapped your heatsinks you want them nice and clean and shiny and so to do this we need to do the following. Fill up a large bowl or saucepan as I have done (left picture) with warm to hot water - not boiling. Now you want to add salt and vinegar, I used distilled white vinegar the strongest but you need to dilute it into the water I cannot tell you how much because I wont know how much water you are using but for instance 1/10 depending how much you are using it shouldn't matter too much just make sure if it is the strong stuff its diluted. Place the heatsinks in the mixture and leave it for 30 minutes and go get cleaning. The outcome is shown (right picture).

Cleaning.

Once you have the motherboard out you can do an entire cleaning job by just dusting everything, the most important areas to clean are the fan ducts, the radiator and of course the die's and heatsink if you are repasting.

Cleaning the fans.

Be very careful when taking the fan apart I wouldn't recommend removing the fins personally and disrupting the magnet if you do make sure you do not make contact with the magnet or the copper on the motor, but if you want to do a proper cleaning job it needs to come out. Firstly remove the single tiny screw in place as shown below, next gently bend out the clips in order to slip the casing off the fan case, finally once removed very gently remove the fins from the motor. Use a soft thin brush to clean the dust stuck on the fins and in the fan casing around the edges.

Modding the Heatsink (Not Recommended)

This might not apply to most of you because of each heatsink being different but with mine the lower part of the heatsink does not sit flat over the Die meaning not only does the Die not conduct properly with the heatsink causing a 10oC difference in temps but also that the Vram chips at the bottom of the GPU are not covered properly when using 0.5mm pads which I need to use in order to get my temps at full load below 78oC which is my sweet spot.

So what you can do although I wouldn't recommend this is to remove the screw locks in each corner and cut down the spring, you can also remove the clamp that sits underneith the heatsink which I have done but be warned by doing this you lose the clamping ability and there is some play in the heatsink so you must make sure the spring has not been cut down to the point in which it is not firmly pressing the heatsink down across the GPU.

I cut a half coil from each end of the spring before replacing it, in the (left picture) are the parts of the screw lock to remove it you need to put a small screwdriver into the gap of the clamp underneith and it will clip off releasing the spring lock.

Use a pair of wire cutters to cut the spring but be warned hold onto the little bugger of it can ping off around the room like mine did took me 20 minutes to find it. The difference is minimal as you can only screw in so far it will become stiff and unable to go in any further which is obviously the end of the thread, I was slightly worried of screwing into the mobo but it prevents you from doing this. The (right picture) kind of shows the difference from the left screw being stock to the right screw being modded but its hard to show the 0.5mm difference I needed.

[Darrenm1]

I've been havig some issues with overheating on and off since I bought this laptop in December, and its been getting especially bad the past couple days (playing the new Deus Ex).

I decided to take it apart to clean the fans, the likely culprit being dust bunnies. Anyway, long story short it was all going well until during reassembly, when I realized I broke that tricky little audio cable under the keyboard. Instead of the white jack coming out, the whole piece came off my motherboard. Is there really no way to re-attach it? Is it a COMPLETE loss of audio, or just audio through the built in speakers? I haven't completely reassembled it to turn it on and find out, I don't want to fry anything.

Thanks for any help!
I just want to get back to Deus Ex >_<

[Yiddo]

I've been havig some issues with overheating on and off since I bought this laptop in December, and its been getting especially bad the past couple days (playing the new Deus Ex).

I decided to take it apart to clean the fans, the likely culprit being dust bunnies. Anyway, long story short it was all going well until during reassembly, when I realized I broke that tricky little audio cable under the keyboard. Instead of the white jack coming out, the whole piece came off my motherboard. Is there really no way to re-attach it? Is it a COMPLETE loss of audio, or just audio through the built in speakers? I haven't completely reassembled it to turn it on and find out, I don't want to fry anything.

Thanks for any help!
I just want to get back to Deus Ex >_<

You are not alone sadly it breaks easily if you not realise its a plug in a socket I should have made this post sooner. You will lose the audio through the speakers above the keyboard the subwoofer will still function and there is not real way to repair this soldering has been met with failure as its just too small. RMA would most prob replace the motherboard so your best bet now is to get some cheap external speakers, unless your within warranty.

[Darrenm1]

Bad luck on my part, I think your (much better) guide was posted just minutes after I tried the disassembly using the BTO Tech video. I'm glad it's only audio I lost, and even better that's it's just audio from the built-In speakers. I mostly use headphones anyway, so hopefully it'll only end up being a minor inconvenience in the long run...don't think it's time for a new laptop just yet. Thanks for the help, and good job on the guide! Wish I had seen it sooner haha.

[Darrenm1]

Re-assembled it and now it doesn't turn on...great. Hopefully I just missed something easy, and taking it back apart will help.

Edit: phew...taking it apart and putting it back together somehow fixed whatever was wrong...I wasn't hopeful.

[Yiddo]

Re-assembled it and now it doesn't turn on...great. Hopefully I just missed something easy, and taking it back apart will help.

Edit: phew...taking it apart and putting it back together somehow fixed whatever was wrong...I wasn't hopeful.

Most likely had the wireless cables over the reset button i will add that to my guide it is a common problem.

[CrappyAlloy]

Seriously now, how many times have you re-pasted our beloved G73!? lol

Man this would have been nice before* I did mine <__< well done though aha

[Yiddo]

Seriously now, how many times have you re-pasted our beloved G73!? lol

Man this would have been nice before* I did mine <__< well done though aha

14th and final time I have come to the conclusion nothing more can be done haha, along with the fact many parts are worn and frayed along with the majority of the screws thread being worse for wear.

I need a new model now Asus

[Cheesenium]

Wow, nice guide, thanks Dallers.

[Chastity]

I guess it's safe for me to void that warranty