G73 GSOD Fixes and Resources

1) It's GSOD, not PSOD

2) Ziddy's v3 BIOS is the Asus BIOS with modified settings and unlocked Overdrive. I wouldn't have recommended it if it was crap.

3) I have also heard that running gadgets / apps that monitor the HD5870M can cause instability. No confirmation, but hey, why not.

 

I can safely call shenanigans on this one personally. I have System Monitor II, GPU Monitor, Network Monitor II along with the Intel Turbo Boost gadget running all day long and it has never GSOD'ed on me.

In fact only time it ever GSOD'ed on me was when I tried 800/1100 clocks on the stock vBios.

 

I guess i will try Zidy's v3 BIOS.

Another problem i am getting is with FurMark.. when i run Stability Test (with Displacement mapping and 2x MSSA Samples) i am getting red lines accros the screen.

Note i haven't called the company i bought it from, but i'm sure i can send it back. I am tempted to have them send me the equivalent W880CU with similiar stats.

Also, i have a i7-840 QM.. could this be affecting the performance of my laptop under these tests?

Also, if i changed the bios, will i void a warranty?

 

I tired clean WinPro7 install with no apps or gadget was still unstable.

Curious what settings have you been running to gain stability? I been tweaking, seems like my card like 710/950 and been working with 725/1075 stable for the most part, but get weird "screen like tearing" glitch everyonce and awhile, which I notice come before a GSOD sometimes, so I haven't found the ultimate setting to keep this laptop at.

 

Just to report back, i upgraded the ATI drivers (which were already 10.6, but i went ahead and did it anyways). I also upgraded the power4gear.

I did not upgrade the bios (Mainly because i don't know how to and i am going to have to wait for someone who does know how to to help me.)

However, after these changes i was still getting GSOD's. Then i decided to use the AMD GPU tool and overclocked to 704.99/1100 and i haven't noticed any issues since then. I'll post here again if i recieve another GSOD.

 

I think the video memory likes certain settings. 1050 was bad, 1100 works beautifully. Experimentation is key, but I would stick to nice round numbers until you find something stable.

 

I'm running FurMark Stability test at the moment on the ASUS at 1920x1080 and 2x Multi Sampling and i'm nine minutes into the test. I've never made it past four without having a GSOD. So at the present, it seems to be really stable. The only noticeable difference is the temperatue increase which was to be expected.

Well now 12 minutes into the test, so that is a good sign i'm sure.

I don't wish to overclock it too much, as i don't want to shorten the life on the card too much.

 

Haven't been on the g73 forums in a bit, but I just got a gsod and checked hwinfo on next boot. Here is a screenshot. those CPU clocks seem a bit freaky, since they were staying that high.

The super weird part is that the intel clock meter at the top right says the CPU is at 3% usage while it's really nearing 180-200% usage

 

for some reason.... the pic didn't attach....

 

as long as the temps doesn't skyrocket, I wouldn't worry about it

 

:laugh:


Too10charfunny

 

well, I'll skip the fresh installs and stuff since I think everything seems to be working fine. Thanks for the links. I'll update power4gear right now

 

Sorry....GSOD....GSOD.....I will try and remember that.

After too many GSOD's...I gave up and went ahead and installed Ziddy's v3 BIOS. The actual install was uneventful...hardest part was just making a bootable USB drive.

Haven't yet reinstalled Power4Gear Hybrid yet....haven't determined if I want it or no.

In playing a couple of games after installing Ziddy's vBIOS, I have noticed a couple of time where I "felt" like the video "wanted" to go all GSOD, but it just didn't....I was getting some flickering and video jumping, and once I even had 2 seconds of a GSOD screen, which the system seemed to quickly recover from and everything functioned properly.

I obviously need to keep playing/stressing my laptop and make sure everything is OK.....but thought I'd post my progress.

Oh yeah, was running the Intel Turbo monitor gadget, have closed it just in case....

thanks

 

I just installed stock drivers from the asus website (uninstalled Power4Gear Completely). Didn't get a Gsod after playing BC2 for 2 hours twice. I think that is the best option if you don't want to fool around with the vbios. on stock drivers now...everything is fine

 

Which MSI vbios are people using? Is it hard/risky to install?

 

From what i know, you will loose your hdmi and vga

 

Wanted to add an update. About 20 minutes ago a switched my profile (from my SSD to my normal hard drive). And i blue screened after playing WOW for about 5 minutes i GSOD.

Then thought maybe the overclock too isn't working now that i changed my default profile. Sure enough i was right. So i uninstalled off C and reinstalled onto D and overclocked the PC. No more issues.

I highly suggest if anyone is having troube with GSOD that they use the overclock tool and try that... that seems to have stablized my laptop more than anything else.

 

I'm fine on stock drivers but if I update to 10.6 (even after using driver cleaner and a regular install over stock) I have GSOD problems. Any idea of whats wrong?

 

It's been blackscreening and greyscreening, and I never get to check the temps right before it does, but it feels dang hot. i've set up an impromptu cooling pad, and ceased using the power4gear presets. With standard microsoft powersettings it seems I can keep the clocks around 1.7ghz

 

You're trying to limit the CPU clock? Why? Based on those bars seen on HWiNFO?

Your screenshot looked normal to me which is why I thought you were joking. What are you trying to achieve?

 

Using a modded Asus BIOS. My system is stable, and I get to use all my hardware. It's available in the first post.

 

Added info about Asus' finding about losing keyboard lights on BIOS flashes to OP.

PS - I wanted to give a shout out to everyone for rep'in me, esp the GenTech crew :wub:

Also added info about making bootable USB flash drives.

 

I am strongly considering Ziddy's vBIOS, but....

CONFIRM OR DENY: Will I lose HDMI out if I flash to Ziddy's vBIOS?

 

No You Will Not

It's the same stock vBIOS, so all your toys will work.

 

One last question, Chastity...

When making your bootable USB drive, do I unzip the Win98Boot file to the USB drive itself?

And do I need to make the drive in this way for flashing to BIOS 209?

 

1) Install the HP Tool
2) Unzip win98boot.zip on your local HDD.
3) Run the tool, and aim it at the directory you dumped win98boot.zip into

The tool will copy everything it needs over.

Now it should be bootable, and you are welcome to test it.

And yes, you can also use this for flashing your BIOS with EZFlash. Just copy the BIOS rom file to the USB drive, and run EZFlash from BIOS. Point it to the rom file you put on the USB drive. Mind you, you are running EZFlash from within the BIOS, so you don't need a bootable USB drive for that purpose, but you can use it anyway.

 

I used EZFLash and it worked like a charm... Couldn't be any simpler

 

Y'know I was just wondering... if WinFlash 2.29 had this bug, wouldn't the EZFlash utility also have it if it was programmed from the same stock code 2.29 was? When I flashed mine, it was from 206 to 209, and mine was made in 03/10.

 

But winflash has a higher chance of corruption due to windows where else ezflash doesn't.

 

Thanks Chastity, just a few questions before I go ahead and do this , has anyone who upgraded to Ziddy's vbios experience any screen flickering or blinking, go black/gray for a sec or 2 and restore back again?

Can i just upgrade the vbios and then ATI 10.6 without reformating / fresh reinstalling whole windows and softwares? will that work?

 

You don't have to reformat or reinstall windows. I did still get gsod with ziddy's bios. But it does underclock the card when it doesn't need its power so thats a nice feature. I used to set overdrive to 705/1100 and it ran quite alright. Now i run something completely different.

 

Just a thought, wouldn't it solve most people's problems if Ziddy's V3 had the 705/1100 clocks by default? Instead of 700/1000. It could be V4 then

 

1100 mem clock= Higher temps right? Not the best idea, considering that it's summer and most people have 100C memIO with their default clocks during gaming.

 

I only upgraded to Ziddy's vBIOS a couple of days ago, and so therefore don't have a lot of experience with it yet, but I have had a couple of instances of flickering and a black/gray screen for a sec or 2 that then restored.

Have had no GSODs or anything else since doing that upgrade though, and the flickering hasn't been anything widespread or anything like that.

The only other item I noticed is that a couple of times after doing the vBIOS upgrade, when it was flickering, after leaving my game, my mouse pointer seemed to be corrupted for a bit. It seemed to be stuck on an odd combination of pointer "icons" for a little bit, and then restored itself back to the normal Windows pointers.

I must say I've been very pleased with the vBIOS upgrade so far, since the GSODs were making it very difficult to play any games.

 

Yes but when the gpu is not doing any work, it down clocks to 200/500

 

No Power4Gear installed
vBios installed
10.6 drivers
O/Ced to 705/1100

Still getting GSODs.

I'm starting to really hate this laptop.

 

Hey Guys, I've been lurking here since I got my own G73 (Albiet, I have the RBBX-05 BB model) and following Chastity's GSOD guide really helped me update to the latest ATI drivers (10.6) and become stable.

I found myself getting GSOD about 10-20m into a game with the stock clockspeeds of 700/1000. However, with experimentation I found that anytime I really rose the memory clock from 1000mhz, it would become more unstable (Tried 700/1100, 800/1100). The most stable clock speed I have been running is 705/1000, just 5mhz more on the core than stock. Ran the FFXIV benchmark on loop overnight as well as Furmark for a good portion of the morning with success. I hope this information helps everyone else here.

Cheers.

EDIT: I'm running completely stable using the ATI OverDrive function in CCC at 705/1000 with ASUS BIOS 209, Ziddy's vbios v3, and ATI 10.6 CCC. Also, in addition to Chastity's Driver Sweep steps in his guide, I suggest running CC cleaner on the registry, seemed to work fine for me.

 

The only screen distortion to expect is a very brief (1/4 a sec) flicker whenever the VRAM clocks change. (like from 700/1000 to 200/500) You'll see that happen during startup. It's normal and to be expected.

Sure, you can flash then install 10.6. If you have problems, uninstall all ATI, clean registry, Driver Sweep, then install 10.1 Asus, and then 10.6 over that.

 

@Timpura: Don't forget to vote!

 

HWinfo showed my clocks to be consistently around 2.4ghz (way above the 1.7ghz listed as stock) and my computer appeared to be overheating (hot room, no a/c). I wanted to limit it to stock clocks. I realize that the 720m has overclock potential, but thats not what I wanted at the moment. Either way, problem solved by not using power4gear.

 

it is very unstable for me (GSOD or just freezes while browsing the web, key doesn't respond, have t hard reset) when I set it to maximize battery life, (it's clocked to
300/1000 ) but on 700/1000 it seems stable
I just installed 10.6 :|
I am also getting artifacts, it seems that the VRAM gets corrupt, and rubbish is drawn onto the screen

 

Tried Chastity's suggestions with original OS. Now getting more GSOD's & freeze ups than ever. I can't do a clean Windows install cuz I bought a refurbished G73 & they deleted the recovery partition, thus I can't make recovery DVD's. *sigh* I'll see if I can try something else.

 

Ok, so I am in the midst of Chastity's steps, and I thought I updated to 10.1.... but the driver is listed as 8.692.1!

I thought perhaps I downloaded the wrong version, but the one on the Asus website and the one hardlinked in Chastity's original post are the same thing!

Am I missing something?

 

Added driver disc and Win7 ISO image for poor CowBoom victims who need to do clean installs.

 

Chastity has all the correct files you need in the original post.

 

Yes, I'm an idiot. The listed build 8.692.1 IS Cat 10.1, apparently.

 

Yes, that's correct.

 

I too have flickering screen. Mines lasted .5 seconds but nevertheless the screen flickers regardless of what i'm playing.

 

I was able to get rid of flickering in game continuing to adjust my overclock settings. I found for my system 725/1075.

I would keep messing with you settings until the flicking and gsod go away, its s possible. Just got to be patient. One other note I might add is that if you GSOD and just change the clock, I find it might GSOD again, to fix that you have to shutdown the system (not restart) and turn it back on.

I found that out by having a stable overclock, changing it, GSOD, hard shutdown, startup, and it GSOD on the stable settings. So you have to do like a double shutdown, IDK why it happens but been playing games on stable setting and haven't had one since.

 

Are the Asus 10.1 drivers generally considered stable?