Asus G73JH Hard drive woes.

[rnr80]

Hey guys - There seems to be no end to the grief that my G73 is causing me.

So. I've had this since Feb'10. Mid last year I started noticing one of my drives randomly disappear (the secondary drive, so I could still boot up my laptop), after looking around for a while and checking on this forum I realized that I wasn't alone and that this does seem to be Achilles heel for this model.
So I sent it for RMA in Dec'11 and had it back in Jan'12.
A few months later, now both drives disappear, so I can't even boot the laptop, it says “Select appropriate boot device”, when I check in Bios it does not detect ANY of the drives, SATA ports are all empty other than the DVD ROM!! This happens let’s say 5 times out of 10.
I took the drives out, they have a manufacture date of 6/2011 so I'm inclined to believe that they were replaced last year and when I ran HDTune last night it did not report any issues with the drives.

So has someone else noticed the same issues with their G73 and what are my options at this point. If the drives are fine, there may be an issue with some connections/cables?

What do you guys think?

Thanks.

[tijo]

The SATA connectors for the HDDs are on a separate board that is connected to the mobo through a ribbon cable, it's possible that it came loose.

[PFL]

I´ve had same problem with a OCZ Vertex 2 SSD in the 2nd drivebay, only problems and no-show, and finally dead and off to Asus RMA, because no boot. Yes, 3 times in 2 years, and now the warranty is over, I just sit and wait for the next problem.. This is Asus, not Heesus, or Jesus, but ASUS!!

What a pain it is...

[rnr80]

I´ve had same problem with a OCZ Vertex 2 SSD in the 2nd drivebay, only problems and no-show, and finally dead and off to Asus RMA, because no boot. Yes, 3 times in 2 years, and now the warranty is over, I just sit and wait for the next problem.. This is Asus, not Heesus, or Jesus, but ASUS!!

What a pain it is...

So did they fix the drive issue when you sent it to them? Because mine wasn't fixed when I got it back, just didn't notice it for a few days.

I'm pissed too because this seems to be a widespread issue and going by Asus's reputation I'm aghast that this is happening on so many of their laptops.

The SATA connectors for the HDDs are on a separate board that is connected to the mobo through a ribbon cable, it's possible that it came loose.

Thanks, I'll check that.

[rnr80]

Also, my thread and some other threads (reporting issues with Asus laptops) say "Moved".
Is there a seperate Forum for reporting issues with the Asus G73 model, or is there a different reason for moving these threads?

[PFL]

Yes, it was fixed, but in that process they broke the keyboardlight, and I just gave up on that horrible Asus Shop (SE Asia somewhere) - and will never go back there. Warranty is over now, and let´s see how long time before the next problem(s) arises. I keep the 2nd HDD bay empty, maybe two drives is too much for the mobo, who knows? The hardware quality is horrible though, am I alloved to mention that fact, tijo? Seems there are a lot of sensitive Asus fanboys around here doing PC work i.e. "political correctness" kind of work!

[JehutyZeroshift]

Well, the only issue I had with my G73JH-A2 is the battery and wifi LED aren't lighting-up anymore, 1 bright dot on LCD, and the occasionally zooming/jumping touchpad. No any other major hardware issue on my unit for the past 2 years and 1 month of ownership

[sherware]

I'm having the same problem. First my SSD drive 0 started disappearing on boot and now my 750Gb drive 1 shows up after boot but then about 5-10 minutes later it disappears.

[jnewbbie4]

The SATA connectors for the HDDs are on a separate board that is connected to the mobo through a ribbon cable, it's possible that it came loose.

Hi,
I dont want to make a new thread as I have the same problem. My G73jh randomly cannot detect hard drive on boot. Thought the drive is dead, I order a Western Digital Caviar Black 750gb and another problem with Intel Rapid storage continue to give me some headaches. So I decided to return the drive and go back to the default seagate 500gb.

The disassembly I've done so far is just replacing the hard drive and removing optical drive for cleaning. I just wonder is it enough to make the SATA connector become loose? BTW, regarding to this thread
I assume the SATA cable you mention is the blue cable in page 2-20?

[tijo]

Yes, it is the SATA FFC cable on page 2-20, now the cable is short, but for it to come loose, i had to go through three full tear downs before the cable on the SATA board came loose.