G53 Stuttering - I give in!

I've finally given in trying to troubleshoot this myself - I've spent more time trying to fix this laptop than anything I've ever owned hehe

The machine in question is a UK spec G53JW-IX162V and I have to say - other than this issue - Im in love with the damned thing!

Firstly - thanks for taking the time to run / use this forum. Its been fantastic in helping me try different things - unfortunately none of them work so far.

I have gone through the forum plenty - but if I have missed a killer 'how to fix this issue' thread, feel free to point it out - Ive got thick skin

Ok so where to begin? How about the problem....

When I play any game it seems (by any so far I've tried Rift, World of Warcraft, Mass Effect, Dragon Age 2, World in Conflict) I get stuttering during gameplay and often this manifests itself as a loop or break in audio too. It can sometimes be 20 mins before I get one, or it can be every couple of minutes.

Before you jump in with "ah yes, this fixes that" let me give you a brief overview of how I've spent the last 2 weeks!

- Restored base ASUS build from recovery disks
- Clean WIN7 install then ASUS driver disk for non-bloaty install
- Tried many (and I mean many) NVIDIA drivers ranging from stock to ASUS downloads, to Latest WHQ, to Beta, to Leaked 270 drivers
- Updated Audio Drivers to Latest
- Installed Intel Chipset drivers / Rapid Raid (normal install / forced install)
- Adjusted WIN7 pagefile (none, double ram, seperate partition)
- Disabled Superfetch
- Disabled Aero
- Checked RAM
- Checked HDD
- Disabled Nic / WLAN
- Updated Nic / WLAN
- Updated BIOS
- Reverted BIOS
- Disabled Core parking for i7
- Adjusted HDD Wait3 timer
- Tweaked all settings in Nvidia CP
- Swapped Refresh from 120 to 60
- Disable HD audio
- Disable Nvidia HD audio
- Updated DX9
- Disabled AV
- Minimum background apps

and I'm sure some other things I can't remember yet.... If any suggestions are mentioned that I have tried come up, I will update this list.

I've read that some people blame WIN7 for this, some blame the i7, a lot blame the Video card and Verde drivers, some blame the HD audio and the others like me are just running in circles with no joy hehe

So.. I decided to finally register and perhaps get this issue solved finally. I an happy to try anything - even those things I've already tried if someone feels strongly enough

Well this is me, asking you to help me get my little G53 ticking along nicely.

Thanks in advance for any help or support.

 

Have you tried running your games in DX10?

 

Thanks for the reply!

I haven't done any kind of DX forcing - as far as I'm aware though - Rift, WoW and Mass Effect all default to DX9 - Dragon Age 2 defaults to DX11.

Happy to try if you know an easy way to test

 

Do you have a momentus Xt drive installed?

If you think you have gone through everything software possible, you should take in consideration
1. monitoring temps - high temps lead to throttling that induces stuttering
or
2. a hardware failure, such as the psu not delivering enough current to the laptop under high loads (thus throttling that induces stuttering)
or
3. psu/gpu going berzerk on you.

 

I've monitored temps and they seem no higher than those others have posted. I have considered HW failure - but there seems to be far too many other people out there with similar problems for it to be that I think. Not ruling it out mind.

The drive in mine is a WD - I've changed the wait3 timers at bios level on the drive from the default of 4secs to 5 mins.

 

RMA in this case? As you said you are running out of things to try, which might lead to think that it's a hardware failure. Are you still under warranty?

 

I had the same problem in games with my g73. I had a WD drive also (Scorpio Blue 640gb 5400 rpm). I switched it to a WD Scorpio black and solved the problem.

 

Only had it 2 weeks.

In my opinion RMA will be pointless as you actually have to be a gamer and play the games to see the fault - it won't show on a benchmark or burn in. I will be without the machine for a while and then have it sent back to me with no fault found and a bill for the courier for my trouble.

My money is on there is something I'm just not doing or a combination of things that need to be done together - I see on the ROG fourm they have a list of recommended drivers for the G73 ( G73 Series Driver and Application Reference) - would this be a good list to follow for the G53 too? Although Chastity's sig states its G73/G53 the thread itself seems to be just for the G53. Is it the fact that the machines are almost identical?

Appreciate the suggestion buddy - but seems a bit extreme to get a gaming laptop working. I do have another notebook I could swap drives in - think its a Hitachi 5400.

 

I would swap the internal drive to a 7200 rpm HDD and then throw the WD in 2.5" usb case.

 

Well it does make sense that it would be the drive - I dont see any such stuttering in my other laptop even though its a lower spec - so I think I'll try swapping the drives and reinstalling as a test first and then if sucessful - I'll be going for a 7200 as suggested.

Any other recommendations than the WD? Don't really want to give them my money if they have caused my frustrations! hehe

I see the Seagate Hybrid is getting rave reviews - just not sure I want to throw another £100 at a machine thats already cost me £1300

What about two smaller 7200's and run them together in a stripe? I know I'd need another caddy but I assume the onboard controller can handle that - other than the extra battery drain are there any real issues or bennefits?

 

Try a Seagate Momentus 7200 rpm drive. I personaly would not spend the extra money get the hybrid version (Seagate Momentus XT).

Edit: To mount a secondary drive you need a cage which Asus doesnt bother to deliver and you have to order it separately. Apparently those mountings are rather scarce.
I was lucky to find in a old/dismantled laptop a mounting that almost fitted and used it to mount the SSD since it doesn't tend to overheat nor it vibrates.

 

I'm posting a new Win7 Hotfix that MS posted. It's not on WU yet.

 

Thanks again for the replies

I've bought a 7200 Seagate and am just about to do the update.

Hey Chastity - what is the hotfix for and where have you posted it please?

 

check the threads, it's current

 

I'm not going to get over excited just yet - lots of testing still to do but to the guys that suggested upgrading my disk to a 7200 - I may well owe you a beer!

I'll report back once I'm sure but early indications would suggest that it was indeed the WD 5400 Scorpio Blue that was causing the problems.

 

I would say that the 7200rpm drives are the standard now. So it was a good choice to replace that 5400rpm drive.

 

Still testing this in depth but I haven't seen the stutter yet, fingers crossed

 

I think I have the same problem with my new SW-3DE. It came with 2 500G Seagate momentum XT hybrid drives. I knew there was some lag issue with this drive and some report said the new SD24 firmware fixed it. I flashed both drives from SD22 to SD24. But I still experience some lag or stutter in game. I'm still thinking what to do now, it seems the Asus support won't do any good and I don't think it's a real defect that I can prove to the seller (Amazon) to return it with full refund. So worst case scenario, I have to change the hard drives. Just need to confirm the hard drive is the real problem.

 

I don't have the XT drives but you would think that a 7200rpm drive with 4mb of ssd space would make this thing a really good drive. I would check for other factors as to why you get stutter/lag

 

Please don't hijack this thread buddy - create a new one.

 

If you can use wired ethernet it might be worth trying to disable the wireless adapter and see if the stuttering continues.

 

what he said