G73 Honest Review from an Honest User

[MrPeter]

Newegg style review:

Note: I post things from most important to least important.

Pros: Price to performance ratio.
I bought my G73 for $1199.99 from bestbuy. Despite the warranty compromise* I'm still impressed with the performance I got for my buck.
Hardware priority.
ASUS seems to understand that I want a fast processor* fast video card* and a large monitor with not necessarily the highest resolution for GAMING. Higher res means lower FPS. Blu-ray and bluetooth means higher price for things I don't plan on using. Thanks for making a laptop catered to my needs ASUS :)

Cons: Generally unsolvable hardware issues.
I really feel like ASUS needs to test their hardware better than they did before they release it. My ASUS G73 was returned at least once* and may be returned again because of two common problems that ASUS has been slow to fix (but I'm not sure if I want to keep the computer past its return policy to wait for a fix)* which are not minor:
- Speaker crackle
Customers who own G73's have been complaining of superloud speaker crackle since the release of the machine. Regardless of OS volume settings* the speakers continue to blare static until the machine is reset or the computer arbitrarily decides to cease its potentially speaker-damaging noise (yes it's that loud).
- Wireless connection droppage
It would be worth it to have put in a $10-$30 more expensive card to avoid the common issue of dropping internet connections every 4-6hours. This may be my router* except that it happens to no other computer on my network* and didn't happen to my old laptop (a much less expensive Acer) before I bought this one.

Lesser so far unsolvable hardware issues
- Keyboard lag
I'm sure I'm not the first to bring up the issue (googling it brings it up on more than one forum) of Keyboard Lag. As I am typing this now* I notice that some keystrokes are simply not registered. Maybe it's a driver issue* but it certainly is annoying.
- No Raid 0
I bought this computer thinking I could set up RAID 0 with the two hard drive bays AS IS ADVERTISED ON MANY RETAIL SITES. This might be an issue of communicating the specs to the resellers* but in any case I was SERIOUSLY considering returning my laptop and not buying from ASUS again in the future because of this oversight. It's rather disappointing to see all other G73 models supporting this feature* but not for mine :(
- New bios breaking backlit keyboard
I got my laptop and immediately updated to the 206 bios* thinking whatever performance fixes I could get I would get from the new BIOS. You know* just in case. Instead* I was rewarded with an unfixable broken backlit keyboard. "No biggie!" I thought. "Ive never had a backlit keyboard before* so I can survive without one now." Boy was I wrong. Little did I know that this backlit keyboard with its light grey letters on the black keys was much harder to see in low light than a regular keyboard* effectively making my laptop's keyboard illegible in all but perfect lighting* thereby making the backlight not a feature* but a REQUIREMENT.
- The power supply
Minor detail* but I wish the power supply had a right angle connector instead of a straight one. It gets in the way of the mouse.

Other thoughts:
Dear ASUS*

PLEASE release a BIOS that fixes:
The backlight on the keyboard
The keyboard LAG/NONREGISTRY of keys
The speaker crackle
The wireless card disconnection issue
If possible (doubtful because of chipset) add a bootable RAID0 option

Sincerely*
Peter
An IT professional who buys ASUS motherboards* wireless cards* and video cards almost exclusively in the past .

P.S. Thanks Brian for the reference to this forum and listening to my Rave/Rant :)

[ASUS OC_Support]

Hi Peter,

Thank you for taking the time to offer your review of this notebook. Regarding the G73 keyboard lag issue, this is most likely caused by one of two things: either keyboard roll-off where if you accidentally hit a couple of keys at the same time then one or more of the key presses may not be detected, the other cause is if you are are typing faster than the keyboard buffer on this notebook can handle then some key presses will not be recognized. This is a hardware limitation we encountered due to having a numpad on this notebook. To my knowledge, this is not something that we can fix but it may be beneficial to contact our notebook support at 812-282-2787 to see if there is any rework or replacement keyboard we can offer that fixes this issue.

Best Regards,

ASUS Support

[MrPeter]

Hi Peter,

Thank you for taking the time to offer your review of this notebook. Regarding the G73 keyboard lag issue, this is most likely caused by one of two things: either keyboard roll-off where if you accidentally hit a couple of keys at the same time then one or more of the key presses may not be detected, the other cause is if you are are typing faster than the keyboard buffer on this notebook can handle then some key presses will not be recognized. This is a hardware limitation we encountered due to having a numpad on this notebook. To my knowledge, this is not something that we can fix but it may be beneficial to contact our notebook support at 812-282-2787 to see if there is any rework or replacement keyboard we can offer that fixes this issue.

Best Regards,

ASUS Support

Dear ASUS Support and Brian,

Since I have seen that my post has made it to the first few hits from a google search for "G73 Speaker Static" I thought I would put this here.

Since my original post I have exchanged the computer for another one from BestBuy and I have to say I'm really shocked. How is it possible that ASUS, a company that I have grown to know and trust over the last decade can have such poor quality control? My issues are as such:

1) My speakers. They crackle. Extremely loudly. In fact it would not be unfair to say they BLARE static at random times CONSTANTLY, unless the device is disabled, using ANY drivers. I have tried Windows (generic) drivers, Realtek drivers from Realtek's site, Realtek drivers from ASUS' site, and every combination above. The *ONLY* solution that has worked for me is to disable the device and use a USB soundcard. This laptop has quite a few firsts in its design that made it quite attractive, so if there was an issue with, say, this new GPU overheating a bit and needing a BIOS update, or the backlit keyboard having some issue, then sure, I understand ASUS taking some time to fix the issues. BUT THIS IS A SOUND CARD PEOPLE. IT'S NOT NEW TECHNOLOGY. Possibly the most frustrating aspect of this is the calls to ASUS for support with fixes or new drivers results in a denial that they've ever heard of this issue (demonstrably false) and a promise of a quick RMA (which I am extremely hesitant to do since reports come back that the computers are taking months to be returned).

2) The wireless issue: was resolved. Turns out there were too many wireless signals competing for bandwidth in my neighborhood, so when I changed channels it no longer dropped the signal. When I moved the issue was gone.

3) The backlit keyboard issue: was fixed after I replaced the entire computer at BestBuy and opted to stay with the default BIOS until version 209 was released, hoping that it would fix the sound card issue (which it did not).

4) The RAID 0 ability: this was obviously not fixed, and frankly this is just disappointing. Without a solution to this (there may be none besides replacing my laptop with a non-bestbuy model) I feel that I have lost a lot of faith in the ASUS brand. ACER costs less, and at least has the specs promised on the spec sheet.



The straw that broke the camel's back:

When someone buys a very expensive machine and it has a defect that significantly hinders its usability, one would think that at the very least the manufacturer who was responsible for the mistake would take care of the issue at their own inconvenience. When I went to the INTEL sponsored LAN on INTEL's campus in Dupont (where I wrote my first post) I had shown an ASUS representative (Brian) the issue, and he recorded a video of the issue on his iPhone, showing how muting and adjusting the volume did nothing to change the speakers crackling. At that point I had resigned to send in the computer to ASUS and have it RMA'd. "No problem!" I thought...

Some time later Brian from ASUS emailed me, asking if I would mind helping him in his research of the issue by providing me with a new laptop, and trading in my own. Of course I was happy to help:


Hey MR PETER!
So we have been discussing with our HQ on the crackle problem you had on your notebook. I am wondering if it’s possible we can trade do a notebook swap for another G73. It seems like it’s happening only on bestbuy models and not our channel models. Please let me know if you can help us out.


Thank You
Brian (removed)

D: (removed)
M: (removed)


After that email, all replies to my questions about when this would be happening were just putting the issue aside, and got more and more vague. Eventually all I got was a text message:


Let me look into my ema te next week about this

Sent from my iPhone


And since then, no response. The first email was sent on June 4th. It is now July 27th. Still no fix, still no replacement.

To me this speaks volumes about how much ASUS values their customer base. This is the first time I've ever had an issue with an ASUS, sure. But when I had a problem with an Intel product, I got an overnighted new product with packaging to send the old one. Same with when I had a problem with my ACER, or my DELL. ASUS just leaves me hanging with no replies to my inquiries, and offering to have me ship my laptop at my own cost to them for an undetermined amount of time before they get around to fixing it (which may or may not actually fix the issue) and then kindly sending it back to me months later.

Reliability, performance, or value mean nothing without customer support.

I know no one from ASUS reads these threads beyond the first post, but I wrote this for you, potential ASUS customer. That way, you know the business practices of these folks before you give them your money, like I wish I had. After this experience I can't say I would buy another ASUS product.

-Peter Kucera

[kinudig]

Thanks for this frank post, Peter. This is why I always read before buying! :)

Any updates to your last post yet?

[MrPeter]

Heh, nope. Still using my USB headset because of my static-blaring speakers :-/

[MrPeter]

Update:

Still no word from Brian or anyone else from ASUS concerning a replacement or repair.

[AgentArrow]

I'm quite sorry to hear of your misfortune. It always seems to me that, due to the sheer mass of computers put onto the market, that there is always someone who gets a broken one right out of the box. Unfortunately, other than having the power supply kick the bucket, I have had zero of the mentioned issues. It may something more common among the Best Buy models than anything else, but I would say that you have hit a stroke of bad luck with your computer. It's interesting that both of your G73s have had the speaker issue. I was unaware of its existence until now.

[Limeyness]

Hi, I just joined the forums upon seeing this post =)

Okay the sound thing, Sorry but saying that it is only the BestBuy models is wrong, I have a G73 (which I am typing on now) I never bought this from Bestbuy, I got it from Newegg as soon as they were released.

Okay I had the sound issue that you are talking about and after a lot of searching forums and such found a cure. I removed all of the extra drivers, all of the Audigy sound drivers, and just use the Windows sound drivers. It seems a shame to lose out on the extras, but in all honesty at least I can use it.

Just as a side note, my GPU overheats a lot when gaming, shutting my comp down =(

[Brian@ASUS]

hey peter, try uninstalling the creative drivers and realtek drivers.

then update it with the latest realtek drivers.

http://www.realtek.com/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=14&PFid=24&Level=4&Conn=3&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false#1

let me know if that does not work.

[Brian@ASUS]

Hi, I just joined the forums upon seeing this post =)

Okay the sound thing, Sorry but saying that it is only the BestBuy models is wrong, I have a G73 (which I am typing on now) I never bought this from Bestbuy, I got it from Newegg as soon as they were released.

Okay I had the sound issue that you are talking about and after a lot of searching forums and such found a cure. I removed all of the extra drivers, all of the Audigy sound drivers, and just use the Windows sound drivers. It seems a shame to lose out on the extras, but in all honesty at least I can use it.

Just as a side note, my GPU overheats a lot when gaming, shutting my comp down =(

have you updated with the latest GSOD vbios update for your overheating issue?

[Limeyness]

Hi!,

Sorry if my last post was a bit harsh but I have been trying to fix these things for a while =)

Yeah I have updated the vbios and the idle temp dropped by 5 degrees, but when I am playing a game the thing still shuts down. I really dont want to RMA it, as its my only comp at the moment.

I am considering repasting the GPU with some IDC7.

As for the sound isues, I have tried multiple realtek drivers, and updated audigy software, but the only thing that works is running it with just the windows drivers only.

[a_non_moose]

I've got a slightly different problem where the speakers no longer seem to turn off when the headphones are plugged in.

Maybe it has always been that way, dunno.

[Spunkgamer]

I think that the speakers on with headphones plugged in is a realtek issue on my desktop when I plug in headset a screen pops up says devie detected and realtek needs to be opened to turn off speaks and play in headphone mode. (note on that I use optical audio system so not sure if it the same problem)

[INzider]

Another unhappy client here...... how much people those it need..... ARGH!