G74SX Keyboard Issues? ATK 1.0.00010 / BIOS 202 Available (SOLVED)

[dstrakele]

Having to type with my hands floating above the surface of the computer is kind of annoying, I'll say that. I wish there was a way to "remap" the surface of the touch pad.

If you have a Sentelic touchpad, the 9.1.7.7 version driver has a feauture called "ASUS SmartSense". It essentially deactivates most of the touchpad surface when typing, leaving only a small circle area that must be touched to reactivate touchpad functionality. You can configure the size and location of this reactivation area. I've found the default settings to be sufficient to avoid any unwanted touchpad movement during typing.

[hirethestache]

Awesome, thanks. What are the pros and cons of upgrading to BIOS 202/203?

Edit: Just upgraded to 9.1.7.7 and noticed it completely deactivates the touch pad when typing. While this is all fine and dandy for desktop computing, couldnt this pose as a problem for people who play games like WOW, or use programs like Photoshop (where keys+mouse strokes are used)?

Is there any solution to this other than slightly elevating my wrist above the touch pad? It seems that if they can specify an area of the touch pad, they would equally be able to do the same type of region limiting that does NOT deactivate the touch pad when typing.

[dstrakele]

Currently you have 2 choices for Sentelic touchpads - 1) the ASUS SmartSense in version 9.1.7.7 you now know about, or 2) the touchpad reactivation time method used in earlier Sentelic drivers. It is configured to 0.5 seconds by default and can be increased to avoid inadvertant cursor movements or selections when typing.

Neither method allows for simultaneous touchpad movement and keyboard entry. They both must be disabled. An alternative is to disable the touchpad and use a mouse. You could submit your idea to Sentelic as a feature request for a future touchpad driver. I think your idea of being able to configure a smaller active touchpad surface is a good one if it is possible to implement.

Updating to BIOS 203 (contains all the changes implemented in BIOS 202) will put NumLock in a permanent active state, change the Numpad keys to their true Numpad values (instead of copying the number keys on the top row) and give you a hotkey to enable/disable 3D vision.

The downside is the system may become unusable if the BIOS update fails, requiring an RMA to ASUS to fix under warranty. You can increase your odds of success by using the EasyFlash utility in your current BIOS to perform the update and use a flash drive formatted to FAT32 to store the BIOS file. http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus...notebooks.html is a guide for all your BIOS updating needs.

[hirethestache]

Currently you have 2 choices for Sentelic touchpads - 1) the ASUS SmartSense in version 9.1.7.7 you now know about, or 2) the touchpad reactivation time method used in earlier Sentelic drivers. It is configured to 0.5 seconds by default and can be increased to avoid inadvertant cursor movements or selections when typing.

Neither method allows for simultaneous touchpad movement and keyboard entry. They both must be disabled. An alternative is to disable the touchpad and use a mouse. You could submit your idea to Sentelic as a feature request for a future touchpad driver. I think your idea of being able to configure a smaller active touchpad surface is a good one if it is possible to implement.

Updating to BIOS 203 (contains all the changes implemented in BIOS 202) will put NumLock in a permanent active state, change the Numpad keys to their true Numpad values (instead of copying the number keys on the top row) and give you a hotkey to enable/disable 3D vision.

The downside is the system may become unusable if the BIOS update fails, requiring an RMA to ASUS to fix under warranty. You can increase your odds of success by using the EasyFlash utility in your current BIOS to perform the update and use a flash drive formatted to FAT32 to store the BIOS file. http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus...notebooks.html is a guide for all your BIOS updating needs.

Thanks for the heads up on flashing. What would YOU recommend is the easiest route for someone who is more-or-less relatively tech savy but has never flashed the BIOS?

[BrodyBoy]

Thanks for the heads up on flashing. What would YOU recommend is the easiest route for someone who is more-or-less relatively tech savy but has never flashed the BIOS?

dstrakele's recommendation in his previous post is both his recommendation and the best method. Use the EasyFlash method. It's very quick, easy, and painless....just follow the directions carefully.

[dstrakele]

Yep - like he said! Thanks for picking up my slack, Brody! I got distracted over at the Galaxy Nexus forum on AndroidCentral...

[twofourzero]

my "fn" volume keys no longer work...in fact only the fn dim works.

[300mph]

In general, when people report keyboard issues that involve having to "press harder" to register a keystroke, doesn't that sound more like a physical problem than software? I guess I've never understood how drivers could fix that...

To those of you who have experienced missed keystrokes and noticed that you have to press a key again or harder than usual to get it to register I have observed the same thing on my G74SX-DH73-3D.

I have done some experimenting and found that my problem is indeed a mechanical one. The issue here is the mechanical design of this keyboard lends itself to this type of problem. If you place your finger lightly on a key and move it from side to side you will notice that the key surface will rock back and forth and will not stay level with the surface plane of the keyboard. This can cause a situation where if you hit a key off center near the edge it may stop before the key registers.

In my case I noticed this on the '5' key on the numpad. If I place my finger on the edge of this key and press down until I feel the key click, but no harder, it will never register because the side of the key has hit the bottom of the stroke but the center of the key has not. If I then rock my finger to the center it will register.

This IMHO is a very bad mechanical design that leads to missed keystrokes. In this design the keys do not have that much travel in the first place so any rocking of the keys will cause missed keystrokes when the edge of the key hits first. I think ASUS should fix this problem and replace these marginal keyboards.

[OviOneKenoby]

Hello.
I ordered a few days ago a G74SX (G74SX-TZ340D) witch, should arrive in one day or so..
I`m curious about one thing.. Do all G74 have backlit keyboards?
Asking because some sites, state that it has a backlit keyboard, other sites dont (this exact model).
And i ordered assuming it has an illuminated keyboard..
Would like to know if i was wrong. Thank you

[BrodyBoy]

Hello.
I ordered a few days ago a G74SX (G74SX-TZ340D) witch, should arrive in one day or so..
I`m curious about one thing.. Do all G74 have backlit keyboards?

I believe they all do, yes.