Asus N73JQ Owners' Lounge

[Sn1g3l]

The secret to disassembling it is really to find all the screws that hold it together. There are A LOT! Quite a few are hidden under pads and cosmetic covers.

The top should snap off quite easily. If not, you are still missing a screw somewhere.

Here are some more pics. Some of these screws are unrelated to holding the top in place. I unscrewed everything until I could get it off. Maybe I will do a complete disassembly guide when I get it back from repair.

Screws unscrewed -



Backside of laptop. Hidden screws marked. -

[DragonglassTM]

Holy mother. I had no idea that there were screws underneath those rubber cushions! Awesome man, thanks so much for those pics. I just find it weird that you had to take apart everything to reach the CMOS battery. Then again, yours is JF not JQ, so that probably explains it.

[DragonglassTM]

Forgot to post this in the one above, you could always send an email to Asus tech support, asking for an RMA, like, BIOS update, bricked, nothing works. Then you could send it in, and they would either replace the motherboard, or just send you a new one. Because I'm quite sure that the place where they fix laptops, they'll have to order a new motherboard for it. I look forward on how everything goes! And best wishes!

[Sn1g3l]

The CMOS battery would actually be accessible through a hole in the thin metal plate under the keyboard, but the plate is covered with a sheet of plastic foil underneath it, covering the hole. You would have to cut through the plastic foil with something like a hobby knife or a scalpel to get to the battery. If you don't want to do that you have to take it apart.

Regarding RMA. The website says to contact the retailer for all support requests. It's pretty common practice in europe.

[DragonglassTM]

Oh right, I forgot, you live in Denmark so no RMA. darn it. Forgive my ignorance and lack of observation. Regarding the CMOS battery, that is extremely interesting. Why cover it up with a foil if they made a hole there? And personally, I think Asus support is a last resort, since they truly suck. I mean no offense, but really, they fail.

I found something rather surprising. if I use a notebook cooler, my laptop overheats. If I don't use the cooler, and keep a bit of space beneath my laptop, or just don't turn the fan on but still usethe cooler as a stand, it can run anything I throw at it for hours on end. Any ideas on that?

[BrodyBoy]

Holy mother. I had no idea that there were screws underneath those rubber cushions! Awesome man, thanks so much for those pics. I just find it weird that you had to take apart everything to reach the CMOS battery. Then again, yours is JF not JQ, so that probably explains it.

It's common for a CMOS battery to be rather inaccessible on a laptop....those batteries often outlast the computer they're in, so access isn't really critical. I seriously doubt that there's anything very different, in terms of parts locations and dissasembly, between the model configurations, so it's probably just as cumbersome to get to in a JQ model. But as he already discovered, popping the battery does nothing for a corrupted BIOS anyway....so it's kind of a waste of time (and a risk, for most owners) to try that as a bricked BIOS solution.

....I think Asus support is a last resort, since they truly suck. I mean no offense, but really, they fail.

Your experience is by no means universal (read Cary's report of his Asus service experience). And service is, in fact, what's called for when the BIOS has been corrupted.

I found something rather surprising. if I use a notebook cooler, my laptop overheats. If I don't use the cooler, and keep a bit of space beneath my laptop, or just don't turn the fan on but still usethe cooler as a stand, it can run anything I throw at it for hours on end. Any ideas on that?

Yeah....stop using the cooler!

Perhaps the cooler's intakes/exhausts are not appropriate for the N73. If a cooler tries to blow air into a laptops fan exhaust openings, or conversely, sucks air away from the laptop's air intake, it's working against the laptop's own cooling system and making it less effective. The machine would run hotter.

[DragonglassTM]

Hmmmm. My N73JQ, all I do is remove my keyboard, and the batteries were right there, in a square cut shape, easy to pop out, no foil. So either mine is an anomaly, or it really is different between models.

Yeah, I know it isn't, it's just that I sent them an email about some issue, can't remember what it was, but I do remember that I had typed in 'updated all drivers from the Asus website and their respective websites, tried uninstalling drivers and re installing, ran a virus and malware scan, etc.'. And their reply was, Please be sure that you update all your drivers, run a virus scan and please check for malware.' If that doesn't help, then we're always ready to help you.' Yeah, right. Some help. I traced the problem to a dumb toolbar that somehow sneaked in when I installed Furmark. I used System Restore, and walla, problem solved.

Yeah....stop using the cooler!

Captain Obvious to the rescue. Yeah, cause now I noticed that on the bottom of the N73, there were air vents right where the CPU was located. It was probably used as passive cooling, and the laptop cooler most likely blew the hot air in and trapped it.

[BrodyBoy]

Captain Obvious to the rescue. Yeah, cause now I noticed that on the bottom of the N73, there were air vents right where the CPU was located. It was probably used as passive cooling, and the laptop cooler most likely blew the hot air in and trapped it.

The N73 draws air in through those bottom vents, across the heat sinks, and then blows it out the left side. So I'm guessing your cooler pulls air into its top surface...away from the laptop...and out the back. That probably makes sense for a lot of machines, but not ones like the N73 that sucks air in from the bottom. Any way to reverse the fans in the cooler?

[DragonglassTM]

Wait. What? It draws in air from the bottom? I never knew that! Then the fan should've worked because it was blowing air in right? Because my laptop cooler was just a huge fan. About 9 inches across. And no, can't reverse it.

[BrodyBoy]

Wait. What? It draws in air from the bottom? I never knew that! Then the fan should've worked because it was blowing air in right? Because my laptop cooler was just a huge fan. About 9 inches across. And no, can't reverse it.

Double-check the air flow direction of that cooler. It actually makes sense, if your were designing a cooler that's basically a 9" fan, to use it to pull hot air away from the laptop. It just doesn't happen to make sense for the N73.

Sometimes, reversing the wiring will reverse the fan direction.