Magnetic sensor/switch issue on Asus G53SW-XN1 when closing the lid

[Sadozai]

I ordered my ASUS G53SW-XN1 from newegg back in August. When it arrived it worked for the first week or so and then I powered it off and didn't use it for two weeks afterwards. But then the problem occurred that it just wouldn't power up. It was practically impossible for me to RMA it because it was out of states and had to resort to some other means. For days it lay dead and I had no idea what to do with it. Scouring the internet in desperation I came to a clue that led me to the touch pad ribbon issue. I opened it up removed it form the connector and voilà! it worked. And since then a month has passed I am using it without the touch pad, status indicator LEDs and the lid closing functionality. But I got fed up and tried to make it work cuz other than the touch pad; the status LEDs and lid closing functionality are a must.

I have tried to reconnect the ribbon and it works as long as the lid is not closed. If I close the lid while it is running the system goes to sleep or whatever option is selection in the window's power options but when I resume all the lights are lit, the keyboard illuminated and the HDD working, in shot the system keeps running but the display just vanishes, its black screen. And if I power off the system it wont power up again. Now that I have come to know and I am sure of it that it was never the touch pad ribbon problem but it is the magnetic field sensor issue. Again, I started the gruelling search on the internet and yet again I stumbled upon a solution from some fella who used some mild magnet and rubbed it at the lower right area of the touch pad where the lid magnet comes in proximity when lid gets closed and it worked for him but I am still not clear how it is done. I mean how and where exactly to rub the magnet and which type and size of magnet should specifically be used to rub it and in which state on or off to rub it and for how long and in which direction etc. Too many questions I know. But I am in a dire need of help here, remember it will be a real drudgery for me to RMA it from outside the states and will have to wait for like 2 to 3 months to get it back. Not only I'll have to spend extra bucks but also have to cope with the trepidation of getting it back dysfunctional. You never know so I want to try every other safe option before RMAing it finally.

I'll be grateful and much obliged if guys who know about it or have fixed this issue, post the steps they did to make it work or any other solution that might work. Thanks in anticipation.

[BrodyBoy]

JRd1st wrote:
I think I have a weaker magnet than you're describing. My compass needle didn't look like it wanted to fly off the axis.

Yeah, seriously, I used about a 1-1/4" washer, and as soon as it gets close to the magnet, it snaps into an upright position and stays there! (I took pictures. I'll post tomorrow.)

[dstrakele]

+1 Interesting post, @Sadozai! Happy New Year!

[Sadozai]

dstrakele wrote:
+1 Interesting post, @Sadozai! Happy New Year!

Thanks:) And happy new year to you as well.

[Poyta]

So, what is the ultimate and best solution?

[BrodyBoy]

Poyta wrote:
So, what is the ultimate and best solution?

Though some owners have found workarounds, the only real fix....the ultimate and best, as you put it.....is to RMA the computer to Asus for repair.

[skoobiedoo]

Laptop went RMA last week... so annoying :mad: I tell myself now if I get it back and it's working it's off to eBay I go to sell it! After waiting on hold for quarter of an hour and speaking to a tech the guy is like nah all these forum conversations about lid sensor are wrong they apparently don't know what they're talking about... Yeah okay 🙂 Might have a 1 month old G53SW going on eBay for spare parts it seems... 😞 I mean who's gonna buy a laptop with a CAUTION note of "Oh if you have trouble turning it on try using a maget ova the lid sensor 🙂

[ugokind]

hy I'm new to this

I read all the 3d, because of same interests

I have the need t mod a lot .. I've a G53sw

the1st need is to replace the cam.. and after the easily unmount of the frame of he screen (no screws.. woa!)
I saw a rectangular magnet exactly at the left of the left hole of the microphone..
so I was sad becase.. seeing 2 holes at right and left of the cam I supposed to have a stereo mike input..
but when I removed the frame I saw only one microphonecapsule.. the other hole is empty! bah

So I confirm.. the small magnet is about 5 cm at the left of the cam.. in the same orizintal axis

What I'm asking.. contributing .. is because my laptop's behavior in the sleep is normal.. the magnet works fine.

but abviously there's no wake when the lid is opening.. as I had in the DV6 Hp series.

So I'm asking you if there's a way to open / extract the ACPI table in the bios.. because the RW everything tells and shows the EC register.. and I'm not sure but the LID (open/close) is managed here.. and I like to test myself bios mods.. in order to see if the EC register changes when I open the lid.
But I'm poor of tools to mod the bios..

anyone is willing to help me?

bye

[ugokind]

hy.. since i've bought the G53.. I tried to do my best.. but most of those problems were unsolved

so what I did:

-changed the cam 2.0 with another cam 2.0 (from DV6 6xxx series hp)
(the connection is the same.. usb binout, but I brang +5v from motherboard because the cam of G53/g73 is powered with 3,3V)

-changed the Wifi minipcie: yes it run.. so why? because the newer PCB contains the damned BT chipset.. which is activated (only ubuntu 11.10+ and windows) via software through the COEXISTENCE function.
Then: I bought the 1st USB Dongle BT4.0 (yes... the 4.0 that Apple fits in newer macbook/ipad/iphone) .. and I sold it inside the asus. I've soldered the mini-pciè PINs 36,38 of the motherboard.. (now they are unused due to wifi card) for that usb signal.. and took the +5v and ground from other usb.

-I've changed the keyboard.. I'll never want to use the backlight functions..
SO if anyone of you wants the original US keyboard with backlight.. I'll give it!

[Sadozai]

@ugokind

Impressive indeed. You did quite some pro's engineering there.

The camera sucks and so does the mic on G53 but I figured out that modifying/replacing the inbuilt camera and mic still wont give me the results I want, so I dealt this problem through buying a Microsoft's life cam cinema HD webcam. It does 720p video recording at 30 fps plus has autofocus and much better low light results. The mic on this device is also above average, rather pretty much better than most headphone mics I've used. It cancels a lot of noise and also has nice sensitivity for anyone to use at a considerable distance. Plus its cheap too around $45 at amazon, so my understanding is that its a better workaround for the problem than taking apart the entire laptop to change the camera and mic which would still be sub-par to any external dedicated device solution. The only downside is that you have to carry around an extra piece of hardware, which may not be convenient at all, plus it also occupies/engages a USB port.

The keyboard on the G53 is also flimsy and has weird flex in it when you type. The back-light leaks from the bottom of the keys if you view it at a wider angle. Still it is not that bad that one wouldn't get used to it. So once you get used to it it is not that big of a nuisance as it may appear at first. So I didn't consider it worth the trouble and just let it be. Still you may appreciate the fact that often times you use your laptop in the night with room lights out, and if you are not used to typing without starring at the keys then back-lit keyboard is worth it all. Its still a handy feature and if you don't want it you can disable the lights.

G53SW has a meager wifi N 150, i.e. 150 mbps which is not something to write home about at all and I've seen many people change the built-in Atheros wifi+BT module with the intel offerings. I know intel wifi cards 5xxx and 6xxx are better, stable, long range and more throughput (data rates) etc but since I haven't experienced any signal dropping or data-rate issues I consider investing that money in something which would rather give me performance boost in my computing tasks, like an SSD. Well, this doesn't mean I wouldn't change the internal wifi card ever, on the contrary I might change it in future if I get the chance but for now I am not venturing into it at the moment, I think its not worth the trouble at the moment. But if you want BT 4.0, strong and stable wifi and 300 mbps or 450 mbps data rates then changing the mini-pcie wifi card is the way to go.

The built-in speakers/sound system is also shoddy. The loudness at its peak is muffled by the fan noise, plus at its highest the sound doesn't escape the room you are using the laptop in, its weak. I have seen louder speakers in cheaper laptops many as low as half the price as this one. The THX utility supplied does a decent job by breathing a little life in this otherwise dead sound system but still these speakers seem to be thrown in just for formality and are barely OK for normal use. These are no Beats audio or Bang and Olufsen ICE power or Altec Lansing or JBL or Harmon Kardon etc but I still expected better. Anyways not many folks, afaik, use the built-in speakers for listening to quality music or watching movies, they use headphones or external 2.1 and up sound system for best quality and experience. Therefore I went with some nice pair of cans, although I wanted Audio Technica ATH-M50S but they were a tad too expensive for my taste. Then I considered Sennheiser HD280 and Sony MDR XB500 but finally settled for the cheaper JVC RX700 that shipped for under $40. And I am happy with my purchase, they offer much more for the price you pay.

The DC input power jack's placement is weird too. Firstly, the adapter plug needs to be inserted with great care, that includes rotating the plug and inserting at precise angle otherwise one may harm the jack. Secondly once it is in place it fits in snugly which raises the issue that if somethng untoward happens to the adapter or adapter cable it may break the power jack or board on the laptop end without pulling out the plug. Thirdly, The power plug connects to the DC input jack at a weird angle and precludes anything to be used freely on that side of the laptop like a mouse. And lastly and most importantly if you connect the Ethernet cable instead of using wifi, which is situated next to the DC input power jack, then it becomes a jumble. I had to deal with this sort of mess for some time but then I got rid of Ethernet and switched to wifi. Bought a cheap wifi N 300Mbps router, TP-Link TL-WR841N. Its cheap (got it for $23), DD-WRT compatible and rock solid with DD-WRT firmware. Although I haven't flashed it with DD-WRT yet, its still going strong and holding on its own with the stock firmware. Now, to solve the issue with the adapter plug and DC input jack, I bought the Bix Power LC53 90 degree (right angle) converter through amazon (~$10 shipped). I attached the adapter plug to the LC53 and LC53 into the DC input jack on the laptop and now it goes in easily, comes out easily, without stressing anything it rotates within the jack easily, this gives you the freedom of orientation, and if something goes awry on the adapter cable side it can detach itself much easily. In short it provides more space, you get the flexibility in movement and most importantly under pressure/pulling force (in case you step on the adapter's DC power cord) it releases the cable from the DC input power jack. It has solved almost all the issues related to the power jack/plug/connector.

The Trackpad buttons on the G53 are also very hard, you need to sweat in the gym and build some brawn if you want to get used to it or wanna use it comfortably. I'm never comfortable using the laptop trackpad so it is immaterial to me if it has got a nice or nasty trackpad. I bought a Logitech M315 mouse, its cheap and nice, I'm using it and loving it.

For the 15.6" display size this laptop is humongous and it wont fit in ordinary backpacks that are made for 15.6" laptops. So I didn't take the risk trying other things and other brands and went with the ASUS ROG G1 Backpack on their estore website. Although the description said upto 15.4" laptops but when I did a bit of search on the internet I found out that it works, so I ordered it. Besides it was cheap too just $30 on their website and $42 with shipment. The surprise, when it arrived the package had a pair of ASUS Eee Sticks included for free as well. Though I don't find any significant use other than a wireless 3D pointing device but it is still something nonetheless. The backpack is well built, strong and sturdy, the laptop fits snugly into the backpack which is a nice thing plus it is spacious as well without being over-sized. Overall, this backpack is worth every penny, well, including the free pair of ASUS Eee Stick.

The only thing, however, I so desperately want to change is the display. Believe me, the display brings this otherwise awesome machine down to its knees, its pathetic at best. Yes, its FHD and very bright but color rendering is awful so as the viewing angles. I have yet to see worse blacks. The blacks look either whitish or grey. If you look at the screen slightly above the normal angle (above the angle perpendicular to the screen) everything gets white washed which results in color dilution and reduce color sharpness. If you look at the screen below the normal angle (below the angle perpendicular to the screen) everything gets darkened and black. It happens even at the minimum brightness level. Prolong usage gives me headache. Gaming is just OK but watching movies is pure pain. Because movies have so much natural black in their scenes. I have yet to discover the exact angle at which I wouldn't get negative at either edge of the screen. If its not the bottom end its the top end or the other way round. Color shifts, washing out and negatives is the order of the day for its display. Pixel density, however is good thanks to its FHD resolution on 15.6" diagonal display. ASUS went with the idea to make its display extra bright so one can brag about its brightness but that's not the point. It ruins everything, the quality of the display matters much more than just brightness. I would rather take good viewing angles with dull brightness over extremely bright ones with terrible viewing angles. But I can only whine and complain, I guess that's the case with most cheap laptop screens these days but ASUS G53 is no cheap laptop, I paid a 1000 bucks for it and that's why I am disappointed. I've bought an HDMI to DVI cable to connect this laptop to my HP x23LED monitor, although that too is an average cheap FHD monitor but is like a gazillion times better than this laptop's display screen. And now I plan to game and watch movies on the external monitor for good.

I do plan to throw in a 128/120GB SSD in the second drive bay as a boot drive for OS+Software installations. And considering either SAMSUNG 830 or Intel 330/520, just waiting for the prices to drop to some reasonable level (~$1/GB). The other thing is I also plan to increase the RAM in tandem with the SSD, although RAM is sufficient and 6GB doesn't hurt me at all. Finally, the only thing I wish to change is the display, I rather wish ASUS charged an extra 50 or 100 bucks but should have included a better display. I even wish it were a 1600x900 display but with better quality. Sure you cannot have an IPS panel but you can have a VA panel instead of TN ones. In this case ASUS could have used AUO v7 display instead of AUO v5. But what can we do, they have to make such decisions to knock the price down.

[Sadozai]

A few guys have asked me to post some snaps of the magnet I used, so I thought I should take some and upload here:

The thing is that you can use any magnet without worrying too much, I am posting a few snaps taken from my cellphone's cam which has got no autofocus so the pics are a bit blurry and out of focus, their quality is not great at all but manage to give a fairly good idea.












More in next post...