ASUS G73JH Starting to slow down

[Kolokotronis]

Hey all,

I'm new here, and this is my first post.

I have an ASUS G73JH that I bought brand new back in the fall of 2010. It's over 3 years old now and has really started to slow down. Some of this may be due to the amount of software that's been installed on it over the years. Also, it seems like the wireless / ethernet card doesn't work too well anymore.

I have a few questions:

1. Does anyone else have experience with this laptop and has run into similar issues?
2. If so, were you able to resolve them?
3. What are some common things I can look for / do to speed up my computer cheaply (I could take it to a PC repair shop, but I'd like to try learning on and doing it on my own first).
4. Specifically with the wireless / ethernet card, how would I diagnose that to see if it has, in fact, gone bad?
5. (I know I'll need to provide more specifics for this) - Is it worth my time to try to get this old dog running, or should I invest in a new computer at this point, and if so, which one would you recommend? I'm looking for something I can use for gaming as well as game development.

Thanks so much for any and all responses/help/feedback.

 

[carnageX]

I have this laptop (well, my fiance is using it now, I now have an MSI GT780DX).

1) I've had other issues with it (freezing on boot / freezing when coming out of sleep mode), but that's another issue. I did have issues with the wireless not working well, though as well.

2) Somewhat. New wifi card solved wireless problem. Fixed the freezing on boot by disabling the ethernet port in BIOS. Freezing after sleep is still an issue though.

3) Make sure you clean out the dust (may have to disassemble the laptop quite a bit - there's a few good videos on YouTube on how to do this with the G73jh). Could also try putting new thermal paste on the CPU/GPU to cool it down - I did this and it dropped my GPU temps by about 20*C while gaming.

4) My issue I had with wifi was I had the Intel wifi module, which apparently is a bit flaky. Which wireless card do you have in your laptop? I'd look into just replacing it... you can get them fairly cheap. Are you having issues with the ethernet as well as wireless?

5) The G73jh is a decent laptop - my fiance uses it to play several games (nothing super intensive). It mostly depends on what you play. I played Skyrim on it on medium or so quality - I just had to have it elevated off the table, and a fan blowing on it so it could keep cool enough lol.

 

[Kolokotronis]

Yeah, I forgot to mention that heat management has been my biggest issue with this one. High graphics games (Starcraft 2) cause the video card to overheat, resulting in a crash where I get a bunch of vertical white and black lines on the screen. I actually had to exchange my first one because it cooked its graphics card almost immediately. My solution for this has been to turn the brightness on the monitor all the way down - that seems to manage it pretty well.

My issues lately are playing League of Legends with my roommates. They don't have powerhouses, but their connections to the same cable wireless modem/router are much more reliable. I frequently disconnect during matches. I tried plugging directly into the router, and that helped, but I still had some issues even then.

 

[carnageX]

Yeah, I forgot to mention that heat management has been my biggest issue with this one. High graphics games (Starcraft 2) cause the video card to overheat, resulting in a crash where I get a bunch of vertical white and black lines on the screen. I actually had to exchange my first one because it cooked its graphics card almost immediately. My solution for this has been to turn the brightness on the monitor all the way down - that seems to manage it pretty well.

Like I said, buy some new thermal paste and apply it to the GPU/CPU. Get TX-2 or MX-4 (cheaper than AS5, you get more compound, and it performs slightly better).

My issues lately are playing League of Legends with my roommates. They don't have powerhouses, but their connections to the same cable wireless modem/router are much more reliable. I frequently disconnect during matches. I tried plugging directly into the router, and that helped, but I still had some issues even then.

Which wireless card do you have?

 

[Kolokotronis]

I'll check which wireless card I have when I get home tonight

 

[Kolokotronis]

I have...

An Atheros AR8131 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller (NDIS 6.20)
An Intel Centrino WiMAX 6250
And a Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport Adapter

 

[carnageX]

I have...

An Atheros AR8131 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller (NDIS 6.20)
An Intel Centrino WiMAX 6250
And a Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport Adapter

Yeah I had issues with the 6250 as well. I just ended up replacing it and never had any issues after that.

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