GL553VD, had to do fresh install of OS, need Asus programs, Asus support

[Stalker6Recon]

Since I just barely had this laptop for a week, and was still working on getting rid of the bloatware that was installed, I did not set up the back up just yet. I took a break from configurations to try out a game on this thing, which was already running extremely slow. (no surprise there, with only 4GB of kingston VR and a 5400rpm platter, no shock it was slow from day one). I was having problems with the pre-installed mcafee continuously flagging the Asus Game First IV as a virus. I was in the process of getting a new AV, so I allowed the mcafee to continue running. Anyway, I downloaded/installed my steam account, and installed Half-Life2, just to see how bad/slow this thing really was in the "out of box" configuration. Sure enough, the game caused the laptop to crash. No BSOD, just straight crash, lights out, black out, done.

I restarted and checked my temps, thinking that a rogue cat had blocked the fan from cooling properly, and the temps were fine. I wanted to check to see if my game had saved, so I started the game again. Less than 10 seconds in, crash again. Then things went from bad, to worse.

Soon after that, I began having strange errors. First, I lost the programs pinned to the taskbar. Then, I lost the taskbar itself. Then I lost the desktop, and was left with only a cursor on a black screen.

So I opened the task manager and began to start moving files from this laptop, to a storage drive. Fortunately, there was not a whole lot of items I needed to protect. Not know what exactly was causing the problems, and since Asus decided not to include any support/disc's inside the box, I was left to my own devices to try to fix this thing. I contacted Asus support, as the link to my laptop was dead (this problem was from day one) and I could not find support for my registered product online. They wanted me to take my brand new laptop to their service center, and even asked me for my credentials, so they could log into my account and my laptop hard drive, which also means they would access my microsoft account, since there were linked at the time. I of course said they were out of their mind if they thought that I would A. give them my passwords B. give them this brand new laptop for an undetermined amount of time, with my hard drive and all my banking/personal information stored on it, so they could do what ever they had to do, to try to fix it.

I know a few things here. First, that unless I backed up my profile on firefox, I would likely lose all that information and be screwed, when they "fixed" my laptop. Second, that they would then have access to all my information, banking, etc, and that there was no way in hell I was going to trust them with this sensitive information.

So I had to make my own back-ups of my profiles and try to use windows installation software (which I had to download, no thanks to Asus) and run "repair" software from the microsoft toolkit, which is next to worthless. When that failed to fix the problems, I tried to run the "system restore", another useless program. Strangely, I only had one restore point, but I should of had dozens. Each time I ran REVO un-installer, I made sure that it created a "restore point". Only one showed up when I tried the restore program. It failed to restore, needless to say.

Finally, I had no choice but to reinstall windows, using a fresh copy I got from microsoft. First, I ran jellybean to get my key, just in case something went wrong. Having that key is a must, anyone that has a computer/laptop that had windows pre-installed, should run a "key finder" and email a copy of that key to themselves, just to be safe.

So now I have a laptop that is bare, and I figured that I could download the Asus proprietary software, from Asus, like "game first iv", but shocker, THEY DON'T PROVIDE these programs on their website.

If Asus is going to be cheap, and NOT include a few discs in their retail boxes, like "utilities/drivers/software" installation discs, then they sure as hell should include those items on their support page. Now I can't find any of these items, and like one of the uber-goobers said, I already tried a "google search" for the game first software, and have found nothing. I will probably have to dig around to see exactly which programs/utilities I need, then try finding them via torrent. This is embarrassing for Asus. I have owned many of their products, built rigs with their MB's and video cards, used both nvidia cards and AMD. This is the first time I have bought a "gaming" laptop from Asus, and I expected so much more, and got so MUCH LESS. I am waiting for them to reply with me about a possible resolution to these ongoing issues, and I don't expect to much from them. I am sure they will just tell me to bring it to the service center for repairs, and that is the best they will offer, which is shameful. I would much rather get my money back, and buy a new laptop, one that is built for gaming. The GL553VD, is little more than a pretty word processing machine. I have considered upgrades to the RAM and changing to an SSD, but I am not confident that this will actually change/fix the poor performance of this machine, it is junk in this configuration.

Anyway, does anyone have a link to download the software/utilities (i.e. game first iv, etc) so I can try to get it back to the way it was, out of the box?

[haihane]

Good that you didn't give them your credentials.

when i read about your firefox dilemma, i feel compelled to recommend you to try Google Chrome as alternative, since google chrome has this function to save,sync, and load from your profile.

as i read the rest of your post, i googled your laptop model and got this: https://www.asus.com/us/Laptops/ROG-GL553VD/HelpDesk_Download/
it had the rest of the drivers, but not ASUS Gamefirst IV. you can try this, i got this from my ASUS motherboard support site: http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/misc/utils/GameFirst_IV_Beta_Installer_Ver_1517.zip

i can't know for sure if it'll work on your laptop. but at this point, i don't think you'd mind trying it out.

[Stalker6Recon]

haihane wrote:
Good that you didn't give them your credentials.

when i read about your firefox dilemma, i feel compelled to recommend you to try Google Chrome as alternative, since google chrome has this function to save,sync, and load from your profile.

as i read the rest of your post, i googled your laptop model and got this: https://www.asus.com/us/Laptops/ROG-GL553VD/HelpDesk_Download/
it had the rest of the drivers, but not ASUS Gamefirst IV. you can try this, i got this from my ASUS motherboard support site: http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/misc/utils/GameFirst_IV_Beta_Installer_Ver_1517.zip

i can't know for sure if it'll work on your laptop. but at this point, i don't think you'd mind trying it out.

Thanks for the ideas, and actually firefox has a sync function as well, and I have tried to use that in the past, and it destroyed the current profile I had been running, so needless to say, I don't use that anymore. I have used firefox for a very long time, and like an old dog, and old vet doesn't like new tricks. If I can import all those details, I will try it out.

I was able to find most of the software on my own, going through all the files on the old drive, I installed the gaming center, but all the buttons at the bottom are missing. I don't even remember which buttons they are, but they include "fan boost" and "splendid video", something like that. I would like to get the entire package installed, and I am still having no luck with Asus support.

Also, just to let you know, since I am new to this site, I have not figured out the settings quite yet. I was NOT notified that there were replies, I thought I was being ignored. Thanks for looking at my post, and trying to help out. I will figure this out soon enough.

[xeromist]

This does not sound right. Was the machine advertised as only 4GB of memory in your region? Here in the US the GTX1050 has 4GB and the system memory is 16GB. That along with the sudden crashing, I would probably return it to the retailer. It may have hardware problems causing the crashes because that's not normal for a new laptop.

[Stalker6Recon]

xeromist wrote:
This does not sound right. Was the machine advertised as only 4GB of memory in your region? Here in the US the GTX1050 has 4GB and the system memory is 16GB. That along with the sudden crashing, I would probably return it to the retailer. It may have hardware problems causing the crashes because that's not normal for a new laptop.

Since I live in the Philippines, there is no such thing as advertising really, and the stores are mom&pop stores, with no returns after 7 days, they are out of the loop. Yes, I thought that it was strange that it only had 4GB, there was no listing of RAM on the box, anywhere. I think that they may have opened it up, took the ram and replaced it with ****ty kingston VR, but I am not certain. I am waiting to here back from Asus on all these matters. It is a shameful laptop in the configuration that I got it, slow platter drive, worse ram, no wonder it funs like crap.

Sorry I did not reply sooner, I am not getting notifications of replies, and figured that nobody bothered to read my post, or just didn't know how they could help. Thanks for tips.

[toronto699]

Driver page GL553VD Tiawan
http://support.asus.com.cn/Download.aspx?SLanguage=en&m=GL553VD&p=3&s=927

Driver Page USA I assume
https://www.asus.com/Laptops/ROG-GL553VD/HelpDesk_Download/

[xeromist]

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