Loving my new G74Sx BUT

[FenrirMH]

Hey fellow ROG users 😮

I am now the proud owner of a sexy as :cool: stealth like G74Sx, had it nearly 3 weeks and I'm already seeing issues, mainly that I keep getting explorer.exe has stopped working errors (mainly from just opening my dropbox folder, any folder in fact, simply refreshing the desktop, basically anything I do seems to make explorer.exe stop working and restart) and that some of my keyboard shortcuts no longer work, mainly the keyboard illumination (fn + F3 / F4). My Current BIOS is 201 and my current ATK driver is 1.0.0.3 and thanks to JRd1st as well as Chastity for the updated driver links by the way 🙂 all new drivers have been downloaded to USB already. My ? is I'm looking to do a Clean Install beginning next year (or sooner), but as I'm currently beta testing SWTOR (Star Wars: The Old Republic, which you can also test using Nvidia's 3D Vision as had to disable my Stereoscopic 3D as the character creation screens were out-putting 3D), I would rather perform a clean install after the beta has finished, in order to get rid of all the included bloatware and out-dated drivers, trouble is I'm not 100% sure how to go about this so a step by step guide would be most helpful. I know that I need a Windows 7 Ultimate (x64) ISO (as a Win7 disk wasn't included, as with all desktops and laptops now) so any help with this will be most helpful, I have already downloaded Microsofts Windows 7 USB-DVD Tool ready for mounting the ISO image file, so again a guide with doing a clean install via USB instead of the Windows 7 disk would be helpful too as well as the correct order for installing the new updated drivers (thanks again JRd1st and Chastity).

I am a tech geek, but I'm also a perfectionist and have OCD 😄 and I've always been told if your not 100% certain ASK.

I have also downloaded TCPOptimiser http://www.speedguide.net/downloads.php as I have heard this is a nice little free program for tuning and optimising your TCP and IP parameters allowing better perfomance and speed. What are your thoughts on this little tool? Does anyone else use it?

Thanks

Also any help in runnig Crysis Maximun Edition would be ost helpful as Crysis and WARHEAD all crash to desktop after 5-20mins of playing. Tried using compatibilty using XP SP3 and Vista SP2 but they still crash. My Nvidia driver is the new Verde 285.79 beta, although Nvidia have just updated this to Verde 290.36 beta check it here http://www.geforce.com/Drivers/Results/40043

Thanks again

[ScottinSoCal]

FenrirMH wrote:
My Current BIOS is 201

The current BIOS is 203, and it's supposed to fix various keyboard and touchpad issues.

[JRd1st]

Asus web storage is knowh to cause that explorer error. Uninstall it and the rest of the asus crapwsre, too. 🙂

You should update to bios 203 using the easy directions in my New Drivers sticky. Also update to ATK package 1.0.0014

[FenrirMH]

Thanks JRd1st, will remove the crapwsre after I get back from work later this morning. Already printed off your new driver thread so can follow your BIOS and ATK update procedures (brains al mush after a 12hr night shift). Hopefully that will help, I can post links to my dropbox account as it has pics of my currently installed software, if helps tell you what I should remove. The only stuff I've put on since it arrived is Steam, OnLive, Crysis Maximum Edition, Crysis 2, FarCry, FarCry 2, Starcraft + Broodwar, Starcraft 2 and World of Warcraft, oh and the SWTOR Beta Client (20.4GB) there's no torrent software, just VLC Media Player, MediaCoder, Dropbox, Evernote, CNET TechTracker, Cyberlink's Power2Go 8. EA's Origin Client, Adobe Software. But will try removing ASUS's WebStorage and other bloatware, see if that helps, do I need to remove ASUS's Virtual Camera as well?

Love the notebook, decided on the G74Sx over Alienware, due to the G74's better spec sheet, without having to spend £2k+ in order to get an Alienware machne upto spec.

Thanks again

[Boosted_R]

JRd1st wrote:
Asus web storage is knowh to cause that explorer error. Uninstall it and the rest of the asus crapwsre, too. 🙂

You should update to bios 203 using the easy directions in my New Drivers sticky. Also update to ATK package 1.0.0014

+1 read bios instructions, before you attempt bios update, or you can brick it like many have already.

[JRd1st]

Boosted_R wrote:
+1 read bios instructions, before you attempt bios update, or you can brick it like many have already.

Definitely!

[FenrirMH]

Hey have now updated my BIOS to 203 🙂 and have installed ATK Package 1.0.0.014 after first uninstalling the old ATK Package. Now my problem is that after restarting to Apply the new driver, the system installs a standard PS\2 keyboard and a Microsoft driver. I can then download the KB Filter Driver from JRd1st's NEW DRIVERS sticky, I can then install this driver and after another restart go back into keyboard setting and find that the keyboard is installed as ATK 1.0.0.3 this seems to make no difference as the Fn F3 & F4 key still doesn't allow me to adjust the keyboard backlight 😞 Did I miss something in installing the ATK Package, it shows up in my installed programs list as ATK Package and the version is 1.0.0.014 however how do I then manage to get the Fn keys working again and why is there a light permanently on which is located next to the CAPS Lock light?

Thanks

[dstrakele]

FenrirMH wrote:
... I can then install this driver and after another restart go back into keyboard setting and find that the keyboard is installed as ATK 1.0.0.3 this seems to make no difference as the Fn F3 & F4 key still doesn't allow me to adjust the keyboard backlight 😞 Did I miss something in installing the ATK Package, it shows up in my installed programs list as ATK Package and the version is 1.0.0.014 however how do I then manage to get the Fn keys working again?

Be aware the keyboard backlight keys do not function until you've logged on to Windows.

When you press Fn-F3 and Fn-F4, do you see a display of keys with "Brightness Down" and "Brightness Up" respectively?

[FenrirMH]

dstrakele wrote:
Be aware the keyboard backlight keys do not function until you've logged on to Windows.

When you press Fn-F3 and Fn-F4, do you see a display of keys with "Brightness Down" and "Brightness Up" respectively?

No display, when I first got the machine I got the brightness UP and Down display, like the ones I get when I adjust the Battery Level with Power4Gear. After bout 1st week, must of been after I installed Far Cry the Backilght keys stopped working, was after i had installed the AMD64 patches and 1.4 update to FarCry or it was after I installed FarCry 2, can't remember which.

[380mcn]

the few times i lost keyboard lights i installed the atk xxx14 without removing nothing.. seemed to work at least for me..