Asus G73JH-B1 Owners Lounge

[AriStar]

it's on sale for $999 from ncix markham store for today's door crasher.
NCIX.com - Canada's Premier Computer Store - Great Technology, Service and Selection.

i cant find it anymore...

[teksavvy1]

i cant find it anymore...

of course it's one day deal

[sean473]

what if this new driver gsod or crapped out on me, can i revert back to my old driver?

yes u can.. u just do the same steps.. the ATI 10.1 driver from Asus website will work with ur G73 for sure. Plz try it out. If i had my G73 , i would do it but i'm getting mine next week.

[AriStar]

of course it's one day deal

well that sucks.

[kamitorial]

ok, so I've had a day or so with the beast... so here are some observations. Please note that my previous notebook was an Asus G51jx.

- I tried the driver package from ATI (official site) and as soon as it's done installing I get an error that Catalyst has crashed. After clicking Close the computer behaves as if no video driver is installed. (When I move a window around there is choppiness and a dragging impression)

- The B1 since it was built in August 2010 comes with the latest bios I think, which is 211 if I remember correctly.

- I kept getting an OpenGL error when trying to adjust the resolution in RTCW:ET (the only game I play at the moment). This happened after I uninstalled a few Asus applications that seemed unnecessary to me. I burned the recovery dvd's (1.5 hours) and restored the system. Everything works great now.

- The B1 is so cool. On a pretty hot summer day the temps for the CPU and GPU stayed in the 60's while playing ET for many hours. Compared to the G51jx it replaced this is ice cold. The G51jx would hover around 80 for the GPU and 70 for the CPU in a similar scenario. Besides, the palmrest of the G51jx was too hot for comfort while playing. Very pleased with the cooling design. The right vent seems hotter than the left; not sure how the division of labor works here. I thought both would blow an equal amount of heat.

- there are 8 gb of ddr3 1333 Kingston ram inside, an expensive and welcome choice from Asus. I thought my previous G51jx was special because of its Kingston ram because supposedly Asus ran out of the cheaper 1066 ram.

- Love the material covering the notebook; not shiny, perfectly understated, no stickers, screaming colors, swooshes or other puerile visual gimmicks. I do think there's an LED around the hinge but it's very subtle. The materials seem durable. I particularly like the rougher surface of the palmrest.

- The large touch pad is great but I found my left thumb touching it accidentally (and firing at a team-mate). Got used to it quickly though.

- Amazing screen compared to my former notebook, the G51jx. More comfortable viewing angles, better contrast, and (this may be just me) less glare.

- Hate the mouse that it came with. I had to buy separately the Razer Abyssus which I thought the G73jh was supposed to come with. No biggie, it was under $40 with tax.

- Backpack, meh. It does the job, but it feels very cheap. For a freebie it's fantastic though. It's very comfortable and fits the notebook well. I wouldn't drop it because the padding seems minimal.

- Power chord: the plug that enters the notebook is straight, and is located on the right side... Yup, right above the mouse pad. It gets in the way of my mouse cord. I would have liked at least an L shaped plug if not a left location.

- my left Shift key (used for sprinting) started squealing/squeaking in less than a day's use. What gives?!

[FlowCpu]

hmm so this means a no go on the b1 and a yes for the a1 that basically has the same components blahhh i been here sitting quietly waiting on a great response lol

asus is turning into a sponge

[manson66]

Originally writen by Gary Key

This solution is to fix the GSOD problem that has been reported. It is provided as is and will only be supported by yours truly until officially released on our support site. If you are not comfortable flashing the vBIOS on the G73Jh and have a GSOD issue with drivers other than those at the ASUS support site then I highly suggest you contact our Service group to arrange a RMA. Although every precaution has been taken to ensure the safety of this flash, there is always the possibility of a failed flash due to power outage, hardware modifications to the unit, or simply bad luck.

That said there are three compressed folders within the downloaded file - 93vBIOS.rar. The fine people at HP produced an excellent USB Disk Tool that allows you to create a bootable USB Flash Drive and this program is located in the HPUSBDisk.rar folder. In order to create a bootable drive you will also need the required DOS files and the great personnel at Microsoft provided the files in the Win98boot.rar folder. Extract both folders to your hard drive and open the HP USB Disk tool and follow the instructions to create a clean bootable flash drive. Additional instructions on how to do this are easily available via Google. After creating the bootable flash drive (FAT32 is the safest option) then you will want to extract the three files listed below to this drive.

For those of you who already have a bootable USB Flash Drive then you will want to extract the atiflash.exe, BR3852.001, and Vflash.bat files to this drive. Now you are ready to wave bye bye to the GSOD blues.

1. Insert your bootable USB flash drive with the 93vBIOS.rar contents extracted on to it.
2. Reboot and quickly start tapping the Delete key to enter the BIOS. You will want to navigate to the Boot section of the BIOS and then change the Hard Drive boot settings on Option 1 to your Flash drive. Exit the BIOS while saving the settings and the unit should boot of the USB drive now.
3. Once you have booted off the USB drive, simply type VFlash and you should see a flash completion screen in a couple of seconds. Remove the flash drive and power down the system.
4. Wait ten seconds and then power up the system and enter Windows, hopefully without any GSOD problems.
5. I highly recommend BIOS 0211 or above with this fix as the vBIOS was certified on BIOS 0211.
6. Although they are rarely mentioned, a big thanks to the beta testers (Chasity, etc) and our engineers/product managers in Taiwan for their dedicated attention on this matter.

If you have any questions or concerns please contact me. If this fix proves successful for you then it would be nice to hear it but more importantly if it did not work then we need you to PM me.

Sincerely,
Gary

93vBIOS.rar
There is the vBIOS FINAL + ATi Remove Drive Tools (just for precaution) + HP USB Disk Tool + Win98 boot files...

ENJOY! WOOOOOOOOOOTH

PD: Works at 100% with no GSOD and in the Lastest NON-ASUS Ati Catalyst Driver =)

PD: Links thanks to asusxperts.com and User "lord_neno"/"Staff"

PD: Spread the Word

[kalawera]

Does somebody know if we have this model in Europe and what exactly is called? Thanks

[sean473]

why buy the europe model when u can buy from US for way cheaper? Although there is a wait like i'm finding out.. USPS isn't very fast even for their express shipping..

[iaTa]

USPS Priority Mail to the UK normally takes around 4 weeks (it isn't priority at all). USPS Express Mail International usually takes around 2 weeks.

UK customs sometimes keep parcels for over a week depending on how busy they are. Then you are supposed to wait for the official Parcelforce letter to arrive with your VAT, duty (zero on laptops), brokerage fees and reference number. Call them and pay and only then will they deliver.

Ship via UPS, DHL or FedEx and it will take 3 to 4 days door to door.