[SOLVED] Asus G51J BSoD thread - part 2

Errr? What? I can't find 207 for the G60 or G51J... 205 is on the G60 page only:
http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?model=G60J&os=30&SLanguage=en-us

As for 206... IDK. But I can't find 207, do you have a direct link to the page?

Edit: nvm here it is http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?model=G51J&os=30&SLanguage=en-us

Edit 2: Must be something wrong with their server, click on OS a few times and switch to 'others' or 'windows 7' (non-64 bit), it doesn't always show up, even when I click my link above....

 

Thanks for doing the direct link I'm at work posting/reading entries and doing my job so I'm kinda’ stretched thin!


Edit:

yup your right I just sat for a few minutes watching it appear and disappear, we have a Houdini BIOS on our hands!

 

vbios and ec versions are the same... no new options in setup. Brightness still affects cpu throttling. I am going to play mw2 now until I bsod or my eyes bleed... I'll report back.

 

did you already flash your BIOS?

 

Yeah I am playing mw2 no bsod yet but it has only been a few matches... so nothing to report in other words...

Edit: rofl!! jinx... just bsoded.

 

I have a 2 questions
did anyone in this thread by their g51j from Xoticpc?
Cause no where in their furoms (owners area/tech support) has anyone said anything about BSODs!

Also has anyone got/(heard of) a g60j with any BSODs on it?

well now we know 207 isn't a fix, you want to go a head and up-date the wikia page

 

I've seen some posts somewhere where someone with G60J suffered from BSoD's. Too bad 207 bios isn't a fix..

 

I got mines from GentechPC but I don't have MW2 to test. I can say Dragon Age runs fine, as that was a reported game.

 

my bad I asked the question without searching first! turns out I found some!

Edit:
Portuguese Forums
German Forums
ect...

 

I need to get Dragon Age to test it!

 

I think that was on some other forum, but it was definately user of G60J. I guess it means that running games in lower res (1368x768) and with smaller usage of graphics card doesn't solve the problem at all.

I have some question - hgave anyone tried to give back their G51J on the warranty terms to get Your money back? Or maybe only some info about replacement (for example for G51Jx) ?

 

That’s weird apparently the review I put up on Amazon on the laptop is now all over the place.

nope, and at this stage all we can do is hope they still haven't forgoten about us! I say this though BIOS 207 was releast but didn't fix the issue.

 

LOL, that is the brutal truth. If I wasn't in linux 99% of the time I would feel the same way.

For the other 1% I spend it BSODing while trying to relax and play MW2. Oh, and lurking on this thread and the wiki...

 

I know how you feel.

Is there any way to get our voices heard for real.
I mean G51J and G60J owners are affected all over the world! And yet review sites are shrugging us off.

I don’t know about how they determine whether or not a fact needs checking. But if 90% of G51J/G60J users are having BSOD issues than there is a serious problem.

 

I dunno, the idea of a class action lawsuit has been mentioned, trying to get the word out via mainstream tech websites has been mentioned, but I think a technical solution could be possible. There is still some hope, but it does feel like we have been abandoned. I am almost worn out from troubleshooting. I'm not sure what else there is to do. There is no tool to decompress the BIOS, or rather, it exists but has not been leaked, so I am mostly at a loss.

That's it from me for now, I'll duck out of this thread again and lurk on the wiki until something major happens again. thalanix has made some good headway.

 

That is strange that noone has tried to RMA their G51J because of this issue...I just wrote an official service request to ASUS concerning this issue, so I'll report what they told me.

Anyway I'll not leave this problem, and if I have to I'll fight them through lawyers. Believe me - this is effective. But I hope it won't be necessary.

 

@Solaral....I bought mine from Xoticpc and I've only had 5 BSOD's, 3 from BF2 which seems to work fine now, 1 in Indigo Prophecy which is fine as well, and 1 in GTA4, which since I downloaded all the new drivers and downclocked to stock settings while running in high performance windows mode (not p4g), bluetooth disabled and the keyboard backlights off, it's fine now as well.

I don't think I've had as many BSOD's as you other guys here, but then again I'm not playing COD4, MW2, Borderlands, or WaW, as I have all of those games for my ps3.

Also Crysis ran fine for about 2 hrs last night, not a single error message from windows, and The Witcher:EE ran fine for about the 1 1/2 hours I played it last night.

I too wrote an email asking what their stance is on this and what they intend to do to rectify it, now just awaiting their response. (which doesn't seem likely)

 

That turbo mode the CPU automatically does can vary based on how well cooling is working, the individual CPU to some extent, etc. 2.6-3GHz sounds fine to me, so far as I know.

 

I've RMA'd mine twice. I got a windows reinstall and a new "VGA" so far, and it still is not working. I'd been holding off on a third rma hoping for a resolution in BIOS etc.

I'm waiting for end of month on it.

 

I flashed myself with the 207 Bios. The only difference I noted was that the screen slightly flickering when entering Windows didn't happen.

In terms of a fix, at the moment it looks like it will be more of a motherboard fix needed than just a new, more powerful power brick? We had one person try the 150w one right, rather than the 120w one we have. The new G73 has the 150w one btw.

Also, would there be a way to disable the CD drive so that it doesn't use any power?

Also, should the wiki reflect the fact that XP merely does not display the BSOD, but the proper amount of power is not being received by components is still an issue?

 

Yeah, someone's tried the 150 watt PSU.

It could still be a power issue (seems like one of the more likely options to me), but not in terms of the system not having a big enough PSU, but rather in terms of the motherboard not providing enough current to a component (chipset, CPU, GPU, who knows). I mean I have no idea if that's what's happening, but it seems to me to at least be a possibility.

 

This is really scary, I hope that this is not the issue, otherwise there might be some hardware failure in the long run, right?

 

I RMAed my laptop to Asus when my speakers stopped working. When I did, I said that I was getting the BSODs as well. When I got it back they had replaced my mother board as well as the speakers. (And for some reason my Bios version was 203 even though newer version were out.)

Since I got it back I have't had a BSOD, but I haven't been playing many games. When I got BSODs it was in Dragon Age and once in Star Trek DAC.

I have no idea if they did anything else to my laptop, but I am still following this thread to see if there is a final solution to make sure I don't get more blue screens.

 

Where are you all finding BIOS 207?

 

here

but i wouldn't bother it's already been established that it doesn't fix the problem

 

I shows under g60 not g51j.

 

Pick the Other OS's option, that will make it show up.

 

You got these BSOD in Dragon Age and Star Trek before RMA? If you have the possibility, check if MW2 in multiplayer or CoD:Waw gives You a BSOD.

 

there's a tickbox for ODD (optical disk drive) and camera in p4g

the motherboard is a g60 mobo in your g51j, ie, this is the correct bios

 

Ok, today I got a reply from ASUS Service center. I reviewd them the problem of BSOD and told them that this is NOT a software issue, and many users suffer from this, I also wrote whole bunch of text about it, because I didn't want to be treated as a newbie in this issue.

They told me to firstly install a new bios and (this is important) THEN a reinstall Win 7.

Could this be something that can change anything withe the BSOD problem?
I do not know if Windows adapts its power management strategy during installation within the BIOS internal settings? Can this be possible?

 

that's probably a low-level techie giving you a basic scripted reply. tell them you've reinstalled and it still persists and see what they say next

 

LeRoy: I don't actually have MW2 or CoD:Waw. Those types of games are not really my MO. Sorry! I'd try them if I could.

As for Asus telling you to reinstall Windows... Well, when I called them about my speakers not working they wanted me to do that too, even though I told them that it didn't work in Linux.

Then when I got it back they did something to it so my serial code for Win7 was not genuine. They had me reinstall windows twice (on top of the fresh install they put on) and then wanted me to RMA it again. (I fixed it on my own by calling the Windows Activation Hotline. That did something the web connection couldn't, apparently.) So I would agree with Ashimmu that it is probably just standard operating procedure for Asus to tell people to reinstall.

 

reinstalling windows won't help, you can do the same by deleting the DSDT reg key to force a reread.

now assuming my wattmeter has seen better days (50w idle? the actual drain i see is around 30), can anyone rerun the power tests?
eg.
idle load test (base)
prime95 with 8 threads (cpu)
prime95 with 1 thread locked at 900MHz (furmark offset)
furmark xtreme burn
to figure out exactly how much it pulls?

(try and find efficiency by changing the advanced settings in a power profile to be the same on ac and battery). physical proof that the system power draw exceeds what the brick can provide (in practice or theory, if the draw is 120W+conversion loss with the CPU throttled, that is proof as well) is all we have left to do. mine is definitely reading wattage wrong, as a 100W lightbulb is drawing 140W.

direct link to 207: http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/nb/G60JAS207.zip

 

Yeah I was wondering about your power estimates. If I remember correctly, you said it was pulling 137 watts out of the wall. I don't know the efficiency of these ac adapters....but their ratings say they will supply 120 watts...so what they are actually pulling from the wall at full load of 120 watts will actually be more than 120 watts.

But in light of what you just said about the 100 watt bulb drawing 140 watts according to your watt-meter then I'm sure that the 120 watt power supply isn't underpowered after all. But personally I would be much happier if these laptops would be shipped with 150 watt ac adapters....it's always a good thing to have a little room to spare.

 

even so, it won't be much more than 5-6W off (higher). it doesn't take a lot to realize that a GPU rated at 65W TDP and a CPU at 45W TDP is 110, and that's only the thermal dissipation. the actual boards probably draw some 10% or so more, putting it over 120 without anything else added in. this, coupled with the fact the mobo can only handle 120W, is probably why every peripheral makes a difference.

anyways, after enough testing with xp, higher oc's = higher stuttering in CoD and a higher frequency of crashing. i don't know how it correlates to BSOD's in win7, but that looks like it could be because of the power drop.

 

Actually I just remembered that a guy at work has an inline ammeter or watt meter...can't remember which it is. Doesn't really matter because just knowing the amperage I can calculate the watts easy enough. I'll see if I can borrow it tomorrow when I see him next.

 

I have 2 questions. 1 Thalanix can you point me to a step by step tut for installing XP? I followed the tut from the wiki but i still get BSOD. 2 How do you send a pm on this board?

 

2) you need 5 posts

1) did you use the drivers in the XP section?
if yes, did you see the part about "!!! make sure you use PCHM 6-port from the list of available text-mode drivers in SATA !!!"?

if it's a BSoD in the actual games, is it the 124 stop code? because if it is, then that makes power the issue 100% (and i've been extremely lucky to not have had a single one since october and almost 200 hours of CoD)

i bolded the note just in case (+added another note to indicate SATA/one of the networks are the only necessary ones to slipstream).

 

Anybody else noticed CPUz having issues detecting speeds?

Intel's Turbo Boost monitor and CPUz (1.53 x64) show wildly different things. TBM shows clocking depending on load, which seems pretty much in line with what I'd expect, but even while idling, CPUz shows crazy things like 2GHz then 2.6GHz then 2Ghz but never 1.6GHz like TBM is 99% of the time while idling. Additionally on the RAM page it seems to fluctuate between 510 and 530MHz in a similar way. I've noticed the 1 or 2 MHz fluctuations on every computer I've ever seen it on but a range that big makes me think something strange is happening.

At least it manages to find something, other utils I've tried (Speedfan, Rivatuner's CPU plugin) only detect a constant 1600MHz for CPU speed.

PS re Borderlands: 6+ hours last night no issues (cross fingers touch wood... 204 bios FW 186.69 as what came with it). What I can say though it stressed my old lappy (the vostro) like no other game had, the very first ever I had to set every detail setting to lowest/off and fps still dipped into the 20's during fights and CPU&GPU temps still hit the highest I've ever seen in the 2 years of gaming on it. Why it needs such power for its cartoonish visuals ... makes me think it's poorly optimised.

 

No I didnt see that part. Thank you I will try again.

And no not in game just at install.

 

CPU-Z by default shows the state of core0 only. idle isn't really idle on win7. task scheduler likes doing stuff, which when assigned affinity to core0 and executed will show it as jumping to 2.6-3.0GHz as per turbo. after disabling everything but essential+theme+audio services on xp, mine is pretty much at 930 solid.

idk about the RAM, mine is at 533. trough of 531.9 and peak of 534.

i should note this is CPU-Z 1.52.2 and XP on 'Minimal Power Management'.

settings? (i just got back so i'll read the last few pages in a sec)

should be implied by my winXP 3dmark scores, as well as a non-OS specific summary.
added clarification.

 

If you mean Borderlands, highest everything. Mind you I've only had the thing 3 days and it was the first time I've played anything meaningful. GPU max was 93C. Was playing over WLAN with my brother, using a NOCD since it's an install using his copy. (Like I'm forking out 90 bux as well on something that might be unplayable!)

Just did a 3dm06, mid brightness stock clocks 9997. No stuttering observed.
edit: another, 9964, forced brightness to min each time as p4g kept increasing it on the vid mode change ?? so that may have stuffed up the first. I'll do proper ones later when i have time, stock & 260 clocks and min&max brightness.
And another n00b mistake, had vsync forced on in Nvidia cpl. Not that it'd make much diff since the only time it gets near 60fps is a couple of scenes in the proxycon one.

 

it's not stuttering per se, usually slowdowns into the 20fps from 50. if you have gpu-z running, every time it finishes a graphics test take a look at the usage graph. if it drops to less than 90%, that is where a slowdown occurs. with dual monitors, you'll see this as TMonitor running flat where it should be going 2 cores maxed.

on XP, this usually happens in the SM2 tests (and hence a lower SM2 score) in the times i listed with my results. on win7, in SM3 (with a significantly lower SM3 score). i don't know exactly why this is, but a good guess would be drivers. that's why the single scores mean more than total 3dmarks.

on my systems, both running 195.55, i have hit between 4.4 and 4.5k for both SM2 and 3 when running at lowest brightness and no additional things connected. 10.5-10.9k total 3dmarks. i have edited the wiki to clarify those points.

 

after getting bsod for awhile, now it just skips the bsod. I see the blue screen but only for a second. There is no physical memory dumping from 0 to 100. Does that mean it got worse? Also, Does Bsod cause any permanent damage to the laptop?

 

You Know what!
We've Got To Wake Asus Up and Demand Them To Fix This.

I suggest we keep Poking at them Until they come out with a fix

when i say Poke at them i mean call them everyday and send them messages.

 

no, a bsod will not damage the machine. under advanced system settings -> advanced tab -> uncheck "automatically restart" if you want to see them again.

 

207 Bios Fail by the way.

no improvments at all.

 

fresh from a win7 run (that i exited early to demonstrate). full brightness, external usb/esata on but not transferring. this is what i'm referring to as a slowdown:



another SM2 run:



SM2 with brightness down:



this is the only slowdown i've seen in stock win7 settings in SM2, will do more tonight.

SM3 performance, i've just realized, is 10-15% lower than XP out of the box. no slowdowns there (9.9k total, 4400 SM2 and 4000 SM3).

ok, win7 3d is just disgusting. bumping core up to 570 to compensate.

SM2, first run at 570/950/1375:



3dmark06 @ high brightness, 570/950/1375. win7 seems to be bad in SM3, so i don't expect it to come close to my winXP tests. but SM2 is showing the pattern. the latter image is SM3 test 2 showing only one slowdown.

,

brightness 10 (something is wrong with my w7 install, ignore the low scores. note i named the file wrong, too lazy to change it):

(missed a GPU-Z screnshot playing geodefense...)

brightness 5, missed sm2 screenie again...



and the last of the set, screen off:



unfortunately i had to break testing consistency from XP because win7 is either balls at 3d or mine has a few problems. the correlation is what matters.
adding my results to the wiki.

------
unrelated,

for people thinking the new ATi Mobility HD 5870 in the G73JH (couldn't resist ), these 3dmarks make me lol: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5736891#post5736891

my e6500 + 4830 scored better...

 

great job thalanix on reminding me I hadn't installed gpuz yet

P4G: High Performance, 100% CPU, no turbo

Run 1: full brightness, stock GPU

Run 2: full brightness, stock GPU

Run 3: min brightness, stock GPU


(final) edit:
the gpu usage graph in GPUz was only once or twice one pixel from the top otherwise full red, so no slowdowns at all.

I have to install other stuff before I can overclock so I might as well do new drivers anyway and do the whole lot again.

What this means is it looks like the issue isn't provable at stock clocks using 3dm06, which means Asus aren't yet skewered with hard reproducible evidence.

 

updated the wiki with the screenshots/results, as well as general spelling.

for win7, unless mine is the only one that seems to be really underperforming, for the furmark test to work properly you may need to clock up to stock 260 or higher. watch the temps if you do, my card seems to have zero wattage noise and doesn't top 97c on 600/1000/1450 (not stable in games, and certainly not being used due to the power limitation). 56c on idle. other people aren't as lucky, i don't think.

(if a win7 user beats my 12k xp run, i'll be surprised )