ASUS G73: Windows 7 Freezing when Using Wifi

Hello,

Recently my ASUS G73jh has been freezing a lot. Windows does NOT go to a blue screen whenever the freezes occur, instead the graphics on screen become frozen and I have to do a hard restart of the system with the power button.

The interesting thing is that I noticed that Windows only freezes when I am at home. If I am at work I rarely ever have problems with the computer (which I use all day). The big difference between home and work is that I use an ethernet cable for an internet connection at work, while at home I am using wifi.

I did have a couple of bluescreens back in July when I was using wifi at a university and bluescreen viewer picked up a conflict between Windows and the wifi card drivers (Atheros AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter) and indicated that was the source of the bluescreen. Since that time, the freezes have only become more frequent. Therefore, the most likely suspect for all of the freezes is some conflict between Windows and the Atheros wifi card.

I am currently running driver 8.0.0.238 for the atheros card and the computer usually freezes after about an hour or two of wifi activity at home. I tried using the newest Atheros drivers 9.2.0.104 ( Drivers for Atheros AR9285 and Windows XP) last night, and the computer would freeze up after a couple of minutes of internet browsing. This seems to confirm to me that the wifi card is the problem. In the mean time I have rolled back to the v8 drivers where at least I can get some stability.

Is there a simple fix for all of these lockups/freezes (other than just switching to a hard cable at home), or should I think about replacing the wifi card? I know that wifi cards are pretty cheap and they are also fairly easy to install on the g73 (just next to the RAM under the keyboard).

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

Check out this link - Any Kind of Lag and Atheros WiFi Card

 

many thanks. I will give it a shot.

 

I tried upgrading to the Atheros 9.2.1.432 drivers suggested in the post above. Initial results were not encouraging, however, I think everything is now stable.

Attempt 1: I upgraded the drivers, then took chrome for a spin and received an immediate blue screen of death.

Attempt 2: I then went into safe mode and uninstalled the drivers. I then re-started and re-installed the drivers. This time everything was at least stable, however, my wifi would not work at all (could not view wireless networks). I then tried to open a chrome window and the computer froze immediately (but no blue screen). Restart into safe mode, un-installed the wifi card from the control panel and started over again.

Attempt 3: Went on the ASUS driver website (now using ethernet hard line for internet) and saw that they recommend installing ASUS Wireless (Wireless Console3) Utility Switch prior to changing drivers. I downloaded that program, and it turns out something was wrong with my wireless console (for example my fn + f2 key combo was not toggling wifi). I did a repair installation of the Wireless Console Utility, then I re-installed the wifi drivers. Now everything seems to be working again, so, it seems like most of my troubles can probably be attributed to a broken Wireless Utility Console program. My fn+f2 now also works for toggling the wifi.

Bottom line: seems to me that the problem was stemming from the combination of a broken Wireless Utility program.