[SOLVED] Asus G51J BSoD thread - part 2

I'm depressed; Asus apparently thinks we're delusional!

anyway
@thanalix & groceries, I'll up load my results as soon as I can get some free time! I have most of it ready so it shouldn't be long.

 

Quoting from the original post re. the thread's topic:

For the sake of keeping the density of helpful information reasonable and to prevent a chance of having the thread degenerate, I would suggest to stick to the technical issues at hand.

 

@thalanix: Tried Test #2 and #3 on my PRO62J, but was not really able to reproduce your results.
#2: I have these little drops to 900MHz that you also had BEFORE the fan spins up. The boosted core runs at 2.66 GHz most of the time, but beside these drops it goes down to 2.53 GHz for a moment from time to time. But there is no relationship with the fan spinning up or adjusting display brightness.
#3: All cores running 1.6 GHz. Is that what you meant with "flatline"? I suppose it's not, because my expectation is that there is no Turbo Boost when all cores are busy.

I did both tests with W7 because I have no Win XP at hand. There are some programs like antivirus etc. running, this could explain the 2.53 GHz drops.
And I had to run Furmark with 1024x768 because my display won't support 1440x900. The PRO62J has a different motherboard (from M60J) and the GT 240M, but my bsod problem looks exactly like the one discussed here.

What do you think about this? Don't know if it's representative due to different notebook model and using W7...

 

We need to have a separate portion of the wiki dedicated to directions for doing the test and a a separate part for the results. Each person needs to provide the driver versions and software numbers for what they are running.

For games affected, please tell us the version of the game (what patches and what kind of game is it, retail, steam etc.,)
We need to know what settings you are running in Power4gear(if you are using it) your brightness levels, what is plugged in to the computer (usb devices, wifi cards etc.,) whether you are overclocking anything from the stock settings, if you have had any hardware modifications done to the laptop, and what in game settings you are using. The more raw data we have the better.

Should we consider collecting the minidumps from people too? Also should we collect serial numbers of the laptop models affected? Any other idea of raw information we need to present our case? Worst comes to worst, if Asus won't listen to our collection of information, we can attempt to start up a storm on the blogosphere/social news websites (Reddit, Digg, Slashdot)

We need an exact list of information we need from each person.

I will be posting information and attempting to do all tests later tonight (work is piled up high)

 

the g51j doesn't provide enough power for the whole system. that doesn't have to hold true for every model, and with the GT240 i would say it's almost certainly not the case for you.
the flatlining refers to dropping all cores to 900MHz.

 

I hav to say im felling your pain guys. I thought i was getting one hell of a system of a nice price. I ended up buying a bomb.

I was looking through the net to see if asus is doing anything about the laptop. It runs out, they discontinued manufacture of it and they are releasing a new one.

ASUS G51JX-A1

Code:

http://www.jr.com/asus/pe/ASU_G51JXA1/

It's basically the same computer but it has more ram, less HD, and a different video card. I was wondering if changing all of this will stop the BsoD but that sounds like wasting more money after dropping 1500.

 

I agree. There seems to be a power supply problem with the G51J, but as mine does not show these symptoms, the PRO62J/M60J does not seem to be affected. But though I don't know how to prove it, I'm suffering the same bsods and strongly believe they have the same root cause (though the power problem might play an important role in this on G51J).

This is getting more weird every day. Btw: Still no bsod since I turned off Virtualization Technology and Legacy USB support in BIOS, but still no idea how to explain this if it turns out to be the solution...

 

I guess the possible solution we can have is an updated BIOS which can distribute power to components more properly from a higher watt PSU.

 

Hi Guys,

even if I am not owner of a g60j anymore I would still participate my findings on hints that could resolve the problem...

I stated in my first post something about the Dell 1645 with Core I7 also... an a small percentage of users are having the same problems too

http://en.community.dell.com/forums/t/19306277.aspx

Maybe the G60j or the g51j have the same limitation too which would explain everything... ok, we do have better PSU but that doesn´t seem to loop the problem with the dell (they use that throttlestop with a 130W PSU and it works for them)

We are pulling max 125 Watt from the wall... with efficiancy 80% this would mean g´s are using 100 Watts, 93,75W at 75% eff and 87,5W at 70% efficiancy

with prime95 and furmark i pulled 127W...
with 3D Mark (where the glowing things are and the wooden face) I pulled 122W ... cause this is a gpu benchmark i would think that the cpu isn´t that involved -> ergo no throttle but high wattage...

HT disabled reduces temperature of CPU up to 10c (thus allows it to clock higher longer) ... if the BSODs do not return in this constallation it would really mean that heat or power dist are the problem

Up for questions:
1. Has anyone tried cooling his laptop with external tray and had problems?
2. Can anyone make a testrun with HT off?

One more question...
Has anybody with one hd been affected by bsod?

3. Can anybody make a testrun with g60/g51 with only one hdd so see how power comes along?

 

Here is another weird thing. I was playing COD:WAW at my friends house via the intel wifi card. My friend was playing the same game with me on his Macbook Pro and another friend was playing modern warfare 2 on ps3. We are all hooked up on wifi.

I got a bsod and both of the other games on their gaming machines would lag out with a connection interrupted error, throwing them out of both of their games.

This has happened twice already.

Is this not a strange thing?

 

the modified driver seemed to help a little as it gave me around 48 hours of play before bluescreen. However it does seem to be temperature related for me going to get a laptop cooler tomorrow.

 

you know when you get the blue screen you get the weird studder sound like a mini chain saw, well i hearing little studders (like half a second) when i am listing to music. it happens often.

unstable cpu ?

 

Guy!
You know what i just noticed!
that studder i was talking about when listening to music.
I Only get that when Im playing music from my hardrive.. BUt
when i listen music on youtube or the internet, not from my hardive, No Studder sounds!
Some good clues here.

 

Can anyone with try this:

instead of intalling a game (with frequent BSOD) on a harddrive, Install it on a removable usb.
Then PLay it from the Usb, Not the Harddrive.
If this works, im gonna be knocked right out of my seat.


tell me how it goes.

Hope it helps

EDIT: the bsod might be have to do something with the harddrives too.
We have to troubleshoot.

 

I get this as well. I hear it also while watching videos online.

 

powermizer downclocking the GPU. known issue since the 19x series on win7, no such problem on XP.

the only time i know for sure a client is forced to disconnect is because of a deauth packet. a flooded channel might be the reason, but iirc the iwl series can't put out enough data/packets at the firmware level to create that. speculation could lead to a power fluctuation making the card go berserk, but i don't find that very likely. a good observation worth looking in to.

 

Time to step back a little bit,

I think GPU/CPU throttling is Core i7 model wide problem. IIRC, Dell XPS 1645 and Alienware M15x also exerted this behavior. So how are we going to relate it to our BSoD? Have the non-direct3D 3D applications yet give this machine BSoD?

 

I do not really think that 2D Applications will BSOD the G series... there should be no problem there because all the other Applications run fine... I had mine on nearly 48 hours without running into problems (no gaming)... if it gets over temp limit... sure, then it will bsod... but else...


I am eager to hear about testing with the laptop cooler... if that works with furmark and prime95 then I rest my case

 

Yes and no... the hd´s will probably not be running on high spin so the overall energy consumption of the g playing from usb should be worth a test. But that is not a problem with the hd´s.

 

It happened another two times, so my friend with a broadcom wifi card built into his Macbook Pro running windows 7 ultimate 64bit got thrown out of his game both times, and my friend on the PS3 got thrown out once because the second time he was offline.

Also, the game crashed once without BSODing and that caused the same thing to happen. We were not playing a LAN game, rather both connected to the same COD:WAW server. Both of us have the newest version of the game and he have steam to update it for us. All three of us were connected to the same wifi hotspot via WPA2 encryption.

Could what I experienced in any way be related to what we are all experiencing? Or be a part of the mess? Sorry for not running the tests, got alot of work still left to do.

 

no, doesn't happen on models that were properly designed, ie. 150W power on the sager 8690.

if furmark+prime95 don't cause a BSoD, then there is no way it can be heat related. i don't see why people still go on that end...

drop the security to open next time. if it happens again, then there's a good chance it's due to the BSoD issue and not some WPA2 failsafe, and could be somehow related to power.

 

I stated this cause heat and power relations seem obvious... underclocking of cpu bcauuse of power issues or heating issues causes bsod in games... ok, with prime95 and furmark that doesn´t hit, but a general path could be noted...

But I am also into power issues as already stated (notebook cutting power, mobo c1e and lesser c options and speedstep)

If You cut heating by external means it could have the effect that more power can flow through ergo another means to max power output ergo no multiplier 7.

That is why I also asked about the internal hd´s and hyperthreading...

alright... all speculation, but it should be worth a shot

 

people have tried coolers with no luck. my gpu doesn't go over 88 in cod, highest fan state never triggers. in combat arms it probably wouldn't top 75. the bsod is still there.

 

Ok, heating will not come over my lips again... power issues from me from now on...

What about taking out the second hd then and checking that?
What about Hyperthreading off... does that still downclock i7?

 

hyperthreading probably won't change the throttling, as the point of my tests was to prove it is induced by a lack of power. removing the second hdd will make more power available to the gpu, but nowhere near enough to eliminate it.

 

hey guys, does anyone know of any asus models that are similar to the G51j.

I want to know this because i want to downgrade to Xp and use the downgrade guide but it's not available for the G51j.

 

Hyperthreading off will reduce the power consumption of the system. with the hdd out there could be a fair chance that systems could run stable... all in all these cuts should bring ~10-15W more for system power...

 

The closest I have come to getting rid of the extra threads is by manually choosing in the boot options "7" processors. This still allows 4 cores, however you are only one thread less. I have been giving this a try for the hell of it, and so far have not had any BSOD now for over 48hrs. I am thinking that I have gotten lucky in terms of not having a BSOD (124). Hell, anything at this point is worth a try.

 

I haven't had a BSOD for 2-3 weeks and over the weekend I wanted to test something out. Over the weekend which is two days I pulled off about 18h of gaming only taking a break to sleep between the days. I played WoW in windowed with Ultra graphics, everything was fine until the end of second day where again I got the BSOD. I have never experienced BSOD in WoW and about 8+ in CoDMW2 this is was extremely strange as I haven't received one for a long period of time. I will try update the 207 BIOS even if it doesn't solve it, I will be waiting for ASUS to fix it and if they don't I will be taking legal actions like most us probably will.

 

? Doesn't Sager 8690 also come with 120W AC Adapter?

 

No, 150. I think the system itself seems to have a lot fewer problems though-apparently no USB problems, nor throttling, nor crashes, and putting a bigger PSU on the G51J or M15x doesn't fix any of those.

 

Although I find it weird how if this is a problem caused by the psu why would the results vary so much between people and te same games... could it be that the random uncounted applications that other ppl install in the background to blame?

 

Nope. Too many people have tried too many clean installs, etc.

 

Could You please tell me if the prime95+furmark run test still downclocks Your CPU? Would be nice to hear if that stops happening too...

 

can someone post instructions how to have it only use 7 cores as someone posted a few pages back?

 

follow the guide here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5353978#post5353978

it's all the same for G51J except the LAN and SATA, it's all mentioned in the guide

 

Unfortunately I still noticed the throttling with prime 95 and Furmark. For those who want to give the thread limiting a try (although its only taking away one thread) here is how you do it per Windows 7, Vista and XP (These options are found in the same way essentially).

Ashimmu,

1. Click on the "Run" command and type in "msconfig"
2. Click on the "boot" tab at the top
3. Click "Advanced Options"
4. Tick the box next to "Number of Processors"
5. From the drop down menu choose "7", apply and restart.
6. Open CPU-z and you should see 4 cores and 7 threads.

NOTE: It is not a fix, but damnit I am grasping at straws just so I can play my game stable enough not to BSOD despite the throttling issue that is ever present.

 

question did anyone's g51j come with the windows disc...because i dont see mine. If so what does it say on it

 

It should be on the recovery disc that came with it.

 

Got the new BIOS G60J207.T10 from Asus and this version has not been release yet, This BIOS is not the same 207 BIOS found on the G60J download page, according to Asus this one "should" fix the BSOD issue but since they didn't have enough time to test and will take another 5 days to complete the test but you guys can try it too:

http://www.gentechpc.com/Asus/G60J207.zip

 

Ok I can confirm so-far that the new 207.T10 BIOS has resolved my BSOD with Battlefield 2/Project Reality. Unfortunately I don't have enough time to test it out more, but usually I'd crash 3min into the game and I had a good 25mins of gameplay.

By-the-way thank you both to GenTechPC for providing us with the BIOS and my personal thanks to -=$tR|k3r=- for notifying me of this new release.

 

Do some more test, I don't have any G51J to try so if you find any issues let me know I'll report back to Asus.

 

Just Installed the New Bios and everthing seems to run fine.
Ill run some test with games and let you guys know.

By the way, really apreciate it Gen tech pc.

 

the new bios seems a bit more stable.

too soon to say its a fix tho..

it would be better if more people can get the new bios

 

Hmmm... if it stops BSoD, that's one thing. Will it also stop the throttling issue? Will the new BIOS + Throttlestop nullify all the problems we've gotten in this past 2 1/2 months?

 

throttling issue and BSOD could be related, keep testing and let's hope this BIOS fixed it.

 

Alright, I just had an interesting experience. I was running prime95 and furmac at the same time. as expected it went from 1700ish to 933 then when i unplug power cpu went to 1200, which i assume was because it reduce power to the gpu when on battery. So i plugged it back in again to test my theory. I was watching the load at 97% for gpu before i unplugged power and when i unplugged power it died....just went out like a desktop in a power outage. It's not supposed to do that right?

 

One at a time, let's focus on if the new BIOS fixed the BSOD issue when playing games.

 

On a g60j test I read this "feature" was spoken of. They asked Asus and they "blamed" it on a faulty bios and would fix ist. And no, this is no normal thing.

 

Well the new bios doesn't stop the throttling issue...now i don't have throttle step installed but i doubt that will work. If my system shuts down when doing prime95 and furmac when i unplug it. I am pretty sure that there is still a MB power issue.