Clean Installation for Asus G74Sx-BBK8

[LeeEang]

After I had my laptop installed a clean windows 7 home premium, my laptop has become slower that is very noticable. The boot time takes up to more than 1 minute where before it took about 25-30 seconds. I did google it about the booting time, and found they mentioned about the new update of NVIDIA (301.42) which caused the booting to be longer. So I went on downgrading it (using Roll Back function from Device Manager) but it still took more than 1 minute to boot .

Another problem I figured is that the windows is not as smooth as it was before. I don't think I did anything wrong, but it's just slow. I also experienced something I've never encountered. Everytime I open an application, for instance Asus GPU Tweak, it asks me for the permission to open. And it's not only this app, some others app behave the same way too.

Please help me with this.

P.S. I installed all the needed drivers ATK, KB Filter, NVIDIA Driver (296.16), Sound, Chipset, LAN, Wireless LAN, Touchpad (Synaptic not Sentelic) and BIOS 203.

[chrsplmr]

You need to go through windows now and 'tweak it', for one thing. Everything is on. (back to that in a bit.)

Where is the hang up in the boot ? What do you see for that minute ? (Is there a music disc in the dvd/bluRay(if it has one)?
Is there anything plugged into the USB's?
Long boots show it's looking for something that it expects to be there usually .. what is on the screen ?
Once booted, is all the ram show ? and What antiVirus .. ect.?

As to Windows .. We all have our own quirky ways when it comes to Bill. Depends on your flavor.
Down and dirty? just the basics of 'what you need'? or everything On.
64bit?
Charles 'Black Viper' Sparks ---- is the master of all windows (since 1999)... and is a great place to start.
http://www.blackviper.com/Windows_7/supertweaks.htm >>> you will notice that 'user control' is first.

http://www.blackviper.com/os-install-guides/windows-7-install-guide/ >>> just to review.

http://www.blackviper.com/sitemap/ >>> everything else ... Service tweaks ... in example.

You will have to turn on some things .. to turn some things off..
Is the 'run' command in start menu ?
Is AdminTools in the start menu? ---
*Right click the task bar (the bottom of the screen)>click properties>Start Menu>Customize
Scroll through the list-enable run and admintools....and change others to menu if you like.
*now 'run' will appear in start menu -- click run -- type 'msconfig'/enter>Start Up tab>
uncheck any 'bloat' that you dont need.
*That's a start .. BlackViper should be able to handle it from here ...

One last .. just as UserControl waists valuable time clicking for idiots .. so does some
of the other waist clicks that windows 'needs' ...
One of the first things I do is 'Snap to' in Control Panel>Mouse>PointerOptions>enable SnapTo..
...the cursor will move to the obvious choice .. as in ... 6 browser tabs are open, you click the
red X ... windows box appears and asks .. 'close tabs'? hahhahahaa yes ... with snapTo...
click twice and it does what you asked it to do when you click the red x the first time ..
best of luck.
Welcome to ROG.c.

[LeeEang]

The hang up boot is between the boot logo and welcome screen. It will stay there for about 30-45 seconds. And no, there was nothing plugged in the usb nor cd or dvd in the cd drive. All the ram is shown (8GB) and I don't have any anti-virus since I know it slows down the laptop. In case you wonder if my laptop has virus, it doesn't have any virus. However, I had Advanced Systemcare installed and I did turn all of the unnecessary programs that run at start-up including Advanced Systemcare.

Thanks for the link, it did give me some useful information I've never known about windows 7. There are "run" command and Administrative Tool in the start menu. Nothing is missing from start menu. Once again, I turned off all of the unnecessary programs and I didn't install any bloatwares I know I won't use. ( I installed Power4Gear Management since I can use function key to change the power plan).

There's another thing I noticed in the screen resolution, it says Mobile PC Display. Is that the way it's supposed to be?

Thanks Chrsplmr for helping me out.

[chrsplmr]

Lee my pleasure, I assure you..

Im guessing without it on my desk .. but its hang'n in windows ..
taking a hard look or for something ..
Have you looked through the bios ? Is it expecting an ssd and not finding it ?
and do you have the latest drivers to the video installed ?

as to resolution/mobile display.. idk.(ill read more today) .. but right clicking
on the desktop should give you screen res. options...

It is a simple setting somewhere .. c.

[LeeEang]

I had the latest BIOS (203) and I had the latest video driver removed (301.42) and installed the one that's on ASUS website. I had the latest driver removed because I googled it and found a forum saying that the latest driver slows down the booting speed. If you were me, what would you do? Should I just re-install the latest video card driver?

About the resolution, my question was that if it should be NVIDIA video card instead of Mobile PC? I feel like it's using on board video card instead of NVIDIA. I'll attach the photo of it.

[PILGRIM]

LeeEang wrote:
I had the latest BIOS (203) and I had the latest video driver removed (301.42) and installed the one that's on ASUS website. I had the latest driver removed because I googled it and found a forum saying that the latest driver slows down the booting speed. If you were me, what would you do? Should I just re-install the latest video card driver?

Did the nVidia driver from ASUS solved your "long boot" issue?
If not, maybe you should try the later nVidia BETA versions i.e. 304.48, upwards.

Might want to read this similar issue: http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?17758-OMG-pls-help-me-G74SX

About the resolution, my question was that if it should be NVIDIA video card instead of Mobile PC? I feel like it's using on board video card instead of NVIDIA. I'll attach the photo of it.

I think that's just the way Windows OS names it- Mobile PC Display.
But we know that we can configure nVidia settings in its own Control Panel.

By the way, is 1600 x 900 the highest resolution allowed on your G74?
Or is it by choice? Is your GPU the 560M 2GB model?

[LeeEang]

Neither new or old version effects the boot time. I just re-installed it. I figured it's something else which I need to put some time into it to see what's going on that effects the booting. Thanks for the help and the links. 😉

Sadly, 1600x900 is the highest resolution I can set to. The laptop didn't come with full HD (It's 560M 2GB model). But is there any possible way to configure to a higher resolution? Just curious.

[LeeEang]

Just restored everything back to its factory. I noticed the boot time is pretty much the same with the clean installation (that's even without disable start-up programs). Is there something wrong with the windows 7 dvd? or it is something else?

[PILGRIM]

I saw on the web your G74 version's native resolution is the 1600x900.
Methinks it's your lower version of the GPU that's bottle-necking it..

I'm not a fan of BETA versions for the GPU, but I'm making exceptions at this time.
I've tried the 304.48 and, currently, the 306.02, and both work well on my G74.
So, I suggest you try any of them.

Also, just a shot in the dark, but you might want to repair or reinstall the Fresco 3.0 driver
for your "long boot" issue. I'd experienced an issue from it, way back- but it was a "long shutdown", though..

[LeeEang]

PILGRIM wrote:
I saw on the web your G74 version's native resolution is the 1600x900.
Methinks it's your lower version of the GPU that's bottle-necking it..

I'm not a fan of BETA versions for the GPU, but I'm making exceptions at this time.
I've tried the 304.48 and, currently, the 306.02, and both work well on my G74.
So, I suggest you try any of them.

Also, just a shot in the dark, but you might want to repair or reinstall the Fresco 3.0 driver
for your "long boot" issue. I'd experienced an issue from it, way back- but it was a "long shutdown", though..

I'll give the BETA version a try as well as the Fesco 3.0 driver. But do you think I should keep the factory's windows? Or should I do another clean installation? Can you also provide me the link to download the official Windows 7 from Microsoft which uses the product code underneath the laptop?