~Official G2S-A1 Owners Lounge~

[Bludragon]

another one bites the dust
my G2s-A6 fried this time after the RMA that repaired a bad trace while still under warranty. I got it back and it lasted until just after my warranty ran out and then the cpu fried...
I am really disappointed with asus and their handling of this issue. I spent $2500+ on my machine with upgrades and all and feel i should be re-compensated somehow for my loyalty to their line. To bad they don't feel the same way...

does anybody know where i can find a dis-assembly guide for this machine? i got it back from my tech in parts and there seems to be some of them missing. I would like to determine what goes in the empty slot so i can confront them about it.

[gengerald]

Are you in the US? If you are, you may have some recourse. In any case, you can contact any of the merchant on these forums that sell/service Asus products and they should be able to help out. By way of dissembling, I have seen only 1 or 2 guides that were not great. If you take a picture of the slot I feel confident someone here can id it. Please take a hi-res shot and link to it, blurry cam isn't to useful Sorry to hear about your issues, maybe time for a Clevo...

[simsimi1004]

hey guys my screen keeps flickering and turning white and stuff
i think its just a looose connection. if i move the screen around a bit it stablizes at some point. or could it be the inverter? but it should go dimmer if its the inverter right?

anywaays anyone know how i can access the connection? where do i take it apart ..

thakns guys...

[NeO_M0jo]

Mine Died on 07/28/2010

If im out of Warranty for at least 2 months, what would you suggest me to do ... ?

During the working time i noticed some "blue line artifacts" mostly on white pages.

Does it means my gpu was faulty in first hand or this was a driver issue ?

I dont know how work the 'Legal warranties' here in Canada, but i think even after the manufacturer warrantie ends, you would expect a 2500$ notebook to live a bit more than a straight 3 years .

Thanks for your advices

[Oelmuvun]

I would like to bump this thread a bit if I may.
I am a new owner of an ASUS G2S-A1.(just opened it up a few hours ago)
Now of course it has obviously failed, I knew that when I got it.(though I did not know that the PO had severed the end of the trackpad ribbon )
At the time it was cheap enough that it seemed like it might be fun. :P either a) I get it working for a little while. or b) I cannot get it working, plop the wifi n in my DV4 and part out the rest. Either way, hardware fun involved and minimal monetary loss.

Now, this thing must be possessed.. I have never actually used it... but it is making me want to actually fix and use it. I no longer want to part it out. As such, I have been poking about teh intarwebz for some info.
From what I have gathered, the only boards that are a simple direct swap are ones that will fail, basically what it shipped with to begin with.
Looking at things like the G2SG and G2SV(mentioned on page 65), they have non-8600(I cannot remember just what else exactly was trash) but the issue there-unless I am mistaken-is different LCD panels.. since the mobo drives panel directly a simple board swap is out.(unless ASUS did some incredibly unlikely work and made any newer boards compatible with the displays in the old ones. but yea, very very unlikely as far as I know.)
But, presuming the panel was the only hurdle, what about getting hold of one of the panels that was used with the board one wanted to swap in? Are the G2SG/V actually physically similar enough to drop into the A1 case? It looks like the G2SG has a different mini-PCIE layout.. though the rest looks the same. I have not seen the guts of the G2SV unfortunately.
The things I cannot check atm would be the holes for screws and such lining up properly.

I know these computers are old, but so far my total is $250cad, and I am willing to go a bit higher if it means playing with some hardware and making this doorstop work. Yes, I have tried baking it but it is almost totally dead and is currently still in the condition that it came in. OLED and a couple LEDs light up, fan comes on, no boot chime, no HDD activity. The PO baked it once and it worked for a bit but then it died again. He was too busy with life to continue screwing around with it and just bought a new computer.

Anyway, yea, I wanna make this sucker work, but I need the guys who know these machines inside and out.

Opinions?



*Edit

Ok, a bit of an update. It is working again! I was not baking it at a high enough temp. Was using 390; 430 did the trick.(I have a thermometer in the oven during baking)
The plastics did not like that though, clockbatt holder broke and seems to have shrunk(yey for epoxy) and most of the black plastic insulatory mabobs are shrivelled so I trimmed the protruding parts.

I still know it is going to fail though so I am reluctant to really use it because I do not want to have to bake it again.
If no suitable boards can be found and used then I am going to rig up some custom watercooling! I have been wanting to WC for at least a few years, perhaps now is the time.
Anyway, yea, that is the update. I still want to know about potential board swaps though.

[gengerald]

Sounds like fun Oelmuvun. I went down that road to get other parts...I was told by multiple resellers and Asus themselves that this would not be possible, they would not sell them. Reasons ranged from "you must already own the laptop model in question to get a part for it, thus have a serial to match" to "we just cant get this part, it is unavailable". In my opinion, use it, abuse it, then throw it away. At any rate, good luck!

[Oelmuvun]

Hmm, well that is discouraging.

Oh well, my waterblock right at this moment is cooling after a little brazing session.
I went into the local PC shop and picked up a watercooling kit from six years ago(sitting on the shelf all this time waiting for someone to buy it :P) and have modified the CPU block to fit into my lappy.

Now, I realize that older watercooling gear was not that great and if you have a choice you really should build one yourself using new parts but they simply do not make blocks like I need anymore. As such I had little choice; either buy an old unopened package or find someone with an ancient block they kept in their basement/closet.
In my case I happen to know that the local PC shop has a bunch of ancient stuff that has been sitting on the shelves that time has passed by. The only people who ever go in there and buy that stuff are totally crazy people like myself.. Actually, as far as I have heard I am only person who goes in there looking for cards with specific chipsets or stuff made a decade or more ago.. <_< >_>


I think at this point my only concerns are these:
a) this waterblock is aaannnncciient and I do not know if it has the capability to dissipate the heat from a loaded CPU, GPU and NB. Sure I can up the flow, but waterblocks can be maxed out. The surface area in contact with the water and the turbulence in the block are important factors, both need to be high for good cooling and both are very low in old blocks. :/

b)The heatpipes. They are very thin; heatpipes have limits as to how much thermal energy they can transfer(as does anything). I am mildly concerned that part of the cooling issue might not be the fins hitting their limits, but the heatpipe for the GPU and NB hitting their limits... This is probably not a big deal though since the fins attached to the heatpipe are not very impressive.. The heatpipe may be ok.

Now, due to the spread pattern of the thermal compound I know that the GPU is getting pretty good contact with the heatsink.. that or I am mixing that image up in my mind with the CPU's spread... Anyway, it should be ok; and if not then it is time to whip up a custom backplate because ASUS were too stupid to add one themselves. The CPU has one, why not the GPU&NB? The two of those have a higher TDP than the CPU itself and since this is a desktop replacement gaming computer.... /me slaps ASUS.


Yea, that is right, I am mounting this WB right where the fins are sitting. That way case modification is minimal(cut out only grill) and I will not have to prop the back up since there will no longer be any airflow concerns under the computer. I am going to try to attach the rest of the hardware to the back of the lid close to the hinges. Hopefully I can manage a clean mount.

On a side note. If I wanted to use modern blocks I would have to cut out parts of the bottom of the case and create a custom mounting bracket.(front and back for GPU&NB, front for CPU cause it has a rear already) I would also need a third block because the NB is a bit too far away for proper coverage. And of course the thing to prop up the rear.. That is a fair bit more work than I am doing using this method. I hope.
Also, good luck finding a block that would fit between the mounts around the CPU. hahaha



Heh. What a text wall. I bet that block was cool a while ago!
I will keep you guys updated though. :thumpsup:

[Oelmuvun]

Sorry for the delay, I have been busy and distracted lately. :/

Watercooled ASUS G2S-A1 now known as:
ASUS G2S-A1-WC :P


On with the fun!


Not really sure how to start this out exactly.. Perhaps a quick setup with some pics and stuff?
This is the G2S beside my HP DV4:



To cool this computer I wanted the waterblock to be internal with the barbs out the back. I wanted to mount it right on the heatpipes where the old heatsinks were and have the barbs poking out the back through a cut out vent. At first I was looking online but all these modern CPU, GFX and NB blocks are all too thick and all either have vertically mounted barbs or horizontally mounted ones that were sitting on top of the block. I needed a low profile block, less than half an inch! It was soon clear that I would need to look at old hardware. There was a block and a kit with that same block that looked like it would work well but sourcing one would be a problem. I happened to be in the local PC shop picking up some other ancient&specific crap soon after(I hear I am the only guy who does that there) and as luck would have it there was a different kit(3-4 actually) that had been sitting on a shelf since sometime in 2004 apparently.


At first I was looking at the VGA block since it had horizontally mounted in-line(with the rest of the block) barbs but after taking the pretty little shiny cover off it was both too thick and also not wide/long enough. So I started looking at the CPU block, it was thinner and wider/longer than the VGA block but the barbs were on the top vertically mounted. I would need to modify it! :evil:

So back during the night of the 17th and morning of the 18th I was scrambling to get this stuff done before a quick trip to a city.
I sliced off the overhanging portion of the base, drilled into the block from the side, removed the barbs with a torch, cut up cover pieces for the old barb holes then attached the barbs to the side of the block and covers to old holes. Drilled new mounting holes in the base of the block, cut up one of the brackets that the block came with so I could mount it to the heatpipes, leaktest and realmount.

Ooooo shiiiny...


Testfit


Gettin somewhere now.


Ripping the fins off the heatpipes and taking the crap off the surface of the pipes:



Trimmin dat plastic.


Here we have a much needed slimming lap.(I should have taken the bottom and the top down further, actually. It is rough but suuuper flat.. not that I am mounting it to a single flat surface here, but w/e) Followed by a for realz installation:




I had absolutely no time to test it at home; I had to take it with me and hope for the best.




Guess what?




You knew it was going to work!






However
The GPU is making reallyreally bad contact with it's heatsink and wile it idles and handles a light load okish it cannot handle any real stressing! I need to fab up a bracket&backplate for it and the NB then I should be golden.
Also remaining is mounting the WC gear on the back of the lid and getting new tubing. Mounting it on the back and powering it internally will make this thing actually portable. As for the tubing, this stuff has been sitting in a box for six years with a bunch of kinks in it.. New stuff is a must.


*****************************

Done:
WB mounting
Initial testing

To do:
Mount WC gear to lid
New tubing
New GPU&NB bracket

[cdr0]

thats realy cool that you watercooled the g2. im new to this site but i have the same laptop as you the asus g2. im trying to sell it but i have no idea what it is worth. ive tried looking it up on ebay but none are listed.

[fggs]

I've checked all the pages but couldn't find a direct answer. Is it possible to fit 2 hdds on G2S-B2? I thought about using a small SDD for booting and a normal one for storage.