john_from_ohio,
As a fellow Best Buy G75 owner, here's what I found out and did when I first got mine:
1) The ASUS Live Update doesn't do much and doesn't show any of the newer drivers to date even though they exist.
2) I installed the newer version of WinFlash then installed BIOS version 207 from the windows environment using WinFlash. It completed the flash OK but hung when it said it would restart the computer (didn't restart after 15 minutes...power was on, screen was not, no activity whatsoever) so I had to do a manual power cycle. Worried that the flash messed up, I tried to re-flash the BIOS but the update utility both in Windows and in the BIOS itself won't let you re-flash to the same or an older version. The computer's working fine though since the 29th so I think everything's fine, although looing back I'd recommend flashing from inside the BIOS per the BrodyBoy guide.
3) Here's a list of drivers that are newer than the stock ones as of 4/30 (listed in no particular order):
- AI_Recovery_Win7_64_Z1024
- ATKPackage_Win7_64_Z100016
- Audio_VIA_Win7_64_Z600110400
- CardReader_Alcor_Win7_64_Z3114260386
- FanFilterChecker_Win7_64_Z100001
- InstantOn_Win7_64_Z220
- MEI_Intel_Win7_64_Z8031427
- USBChargerPlus_Win7_64_Z209
- VGA_nVidia_Win7_64_Z817129644
4) I didn't unload any of the bloatware as I didn't notice the ASUS having as much as say a Dell, so I left well enough alone.
Hope this helps.
Edit: The new audio driver doesn't fix the left-heavy audio issue.