G73 jumping/choppy

Back again, seem to have more probs than anything with this laptop now that i think about it!

SO this time it's choppy gameplay. And general navigation so it would seem. Everything has ran fine game wise (except the GSOD now fixed), smooth as anything. I play Civ 5, Black Ops, MOH and BFBC2 for examples and the play has always been smooth. Until recently, there has started to be very annoying freezes, no more than a second or two or three however it happens too frequently and spoils the games for me. I cannot play online now as i die instantly. Playing FIFA on full spec is the only game un affected. COD2 is unplayable and i cannot move for a second without the game jumping. CIV5 freezes a second every time i try to move or click on something. But for the 5 seconds or so inbetween any of this happening, the games are smooooooth??! SO obviously the laptop can run them, but there is a hidden problem perhaps? Any help would be appreciated.

 

You don't have a power saving profile of some kind selected do you? I sometimes have this happen to me and the way I notice it is that my games run like crap. I put it back on High Performance and all is well.

 

No i always play my games on High Performance :S especially ones like Civ and COD. Like i say, it's smooth as anything in between lags, which is a shame because it lags every few seconds :S. SOmetimes i get 5 seconds if im lucky.

 

Have you done any hard drive diagnostics? Normal fragmentation won't cause the kind of stuttering you're describing...but a failing drive will. Just one of the many things to check if you haven't already.

 

strange but true

 

If you have the regular 500GB drive, Ruckus posted a firmware update that he scrounged up from Dell tech support that is for the identical drive that is in the G73JH. It speeds the drive up quite a bit.

If your machine has the hybrid drives then you have to update the firmware on those too. A lot of them shipped with a crappy firmware that will cause pausing in games.

Other than that, I'm out of ideas, bro.

 

I've ran a defragment as i do every week. Also done a disc scan which came up clear. Ran anti virus, spyware, everything. All came up clean with 0% fragmentation (in all partitions). I do have a momentus XT hybrid HDD as my main drive....

 

we've made some HDD testing in this thread
http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus-gaming-notebook-forum/553138-slow-hardrive.html

i just noticed this in one game ... i hope it won't freeze anymore

 

I don't have that drive. I wish I did. I remember that the factory firmware is no good. You need the "S24" firmware that was put out later. It will cause what you describe. There are several threads about it but I'm too lazy to link it at the moment.

 

Mite Jan - thanks, i'll take a look at that in a sec!

Jody - I dont understand, you want the drive even though you know it has problems? And also, if you could post that link sometime would be greatly appreciated. Do i need to download something then?

 

I've read that it's a pretty great setup after you update the firmware. The update I was thinking of is SD24. Here's a link.
Momentus XT Firmware Update

If yours doesn't already have that revision it is supposed to work miracles on the performance of the drive.

 

Unfortunately, even after I updated to SD24, the problems continued to exist. I ultimately ended up returning the HDD. I'm willing to give the Momentus XT line another shot, so I'll probably be exchanging it instead of a full refund. If this doesn't work out, I'll end up getting an SSD as an OS/boot drive and replace my current 5400 RPM drive with a standard 7200 RPM drive (WD Black).

 

Meh. I downloaded the firmware update AND i flashed the VBios for the GSOD probs and i still have no joy. Though (so far) the GSOD hasnt happened yet in gameplay, i am unable to play COD as the game is so choppy, FIFA Runs fine, Batman Arkham Asylum plays ok but the video is really jumpy for some reason. Gotta test me other games but so far even with these few games having probs, that isnt what i paid my money for with this laptop. Reckon a clean install (again) could help? Also i am unable to open my Cataylst Control Center....:S

x

 

That's because you need the patch for COD to get it to run right, it's a software problem. You may want to test your windows power settings, though.

 

Nah, because before a certain time it WAS running perfectly, thats how ive managed to get so far in the game. I've even played this particular level before without it chopping. Not i cannot.

 

lol well, it's not a vbios update that did it. Check your power settings. A fresh install is *always* a good idea.

 

Power settings are good :S. If i do fresh install, what can i also do about the Catalyst COntrol Center? As this has never been working ever since i did a clean install.

 

A fresh install means - new install of windows, and new install of all the drivers. You shouldn't have any problems after that.

 

I done that though, and i installed the drivers but after they were installed, they didnt work (Catalyst). Could it be anything to do with Drive Partitioning?

 

Nope. And your issues seem so strange, I wonder if you're installing the right version (x64?) or if you did a proper new install, or a system restore.

 

Yeah it does seem odd :S. I followed the clean install of windows 76 instructions from these forums though, to the very word, even asking for advice along the way. And these problems are here now after that. God...what a carry on this has been haha! Suppose its a hobby though eh .

Im considering cutting my losses and taking my sister up on her offer of an xbox haha.

 

So, i dont the full clean install again and re installed the drivers using the asus support website and the games are STILL chopping :S. My BIOS is 211 and i updated my vBIOS also. IS there anything else i can do or am i doomed?

 

Sounds a lot like a botched vid driver install. Especially with the CCC not working.

Driver Sweep/ATI Crap Cleaner the deal, re-install the 11.1a ones.

 

As sorry about this but i was a bit vague earlier haha! Right so my situation is this, since starting this thread, i have since done a clean fresh install of windows 7 AFTER updating the BIOS and vBIOS. I have also since managed to install the newest version of CCC, and it opens and runs fine, however i am still experience stuttering during games.

Most notably are FIFA11 and Civ 5 which is frustrating because it puts me off playing. I have also noticed in BOTH games, the sound seems to weeve in and out of foreground and background. for example in Civ on the title screen, the music stops for a brief second every 6 seconds or so. And in gameplay, it is roughly every 6 seconds i experience the game jump. In FIFA, the commentary and crowd drops in and out of the foreground during gameplay. Do you think it could be something to do with the sound??

 

Then technically everything should be working right.

If you do a software re-install, the video drivers for instance, which shouldn't take more than 15 minutes, you can definitively rule them out as a cause for the stuttering, which would aid everybody in diagnosing your issue.

If it isn't a software issue, then I can only assume that your hardware is the causing the stuttering. Somewhere along the line your components got jolted or something causing the issues. Or dirty connectors from dust that got blown around.

Conjecture at this point until you start eliminating the possible suspects. Procedural cop show 101.

 

Run the DPS latency checker - though, if it *only* happens with these games, then it's a software issue. Also, check the Event Viewer for errors.

 

@Bumbleboner - Thanks man you're helping a lot here. Though i'm telling you now i am not exactly tech savvy. Everything i've done so far has been through step by step instruction so i'm just learning the ins and outs of all of this. I wouldnt really know how to go about re-installing the software (ie video drivers) although i could have already done that without knowing it haha!

What you could be saying is, however, is if my components have been jolted, or dust thats been blown around...i could just have a dead laptop and i should arrange a funeral?

@DCx - I will google this DPS latency checker and run that if i can. It does not only happen with these games however, these are just the two ive been playing mostly recently. I have previously played them both without this problem before i decided back in september to update the BIOS and become adventurous !

Oh dear. I have the DPS Latency checker running but i have NO idea what any of it means or represents !

 

Either post a pic, or type what it says

 

There is an older thread where someone had exactly the same problem... http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...es-freeze-like-1-second-every-minute-two.html

I read through the thread and the same steps were followed... clean install, driver updates, DPC latency checker, etc. It turned out to be a slow hard drive. It really reinforces my belief that there's something going bad with your Momentus XT. It may be failing. Can you download and run some HDD benchmarks. I finally bought one of these drives over the weekend and updated it to SD24. It's my primary drive now. I'm really pleased with the performance. I'll be glad to run the same benches that you run so we can compare results. Maybe we can determine if your drive is failing that way?

 

Hey guiys sorry for the late reply, havent had access to the lappy. Right so i'm gonna read through that thread soon, cheers for that Jody and yes if i can download some HDD benchmarks i'd be happy to compare the results!

I currently have Civ 5 running in the background with the latence checker running, and a few times (roughly every 40 of those green little bars) it jumps up to around 4000. I dont know what this means. Current latency is averaging around 170-205, and the maximum is 4392. What does this mean?

Here is a screen of results from Performance Test 7.0 Evaluation Version

 

Nobody anything? :S

 

Look up a definition of latency, I'm sure google can explain it better than I can.

 

I've looked up latency but it doesnt really help me with solving my problem. I'm not sure what to do. Worst thing is, i cant even find my reciept for the Seagate Momentum Hybrid HDD so i think im just gonna have to buy a new one, 100pounds down the toilet there! Going SSD i reckon.

 

Did you update the firmware on your momentus? There's known issues with those hybrid drives and stuttering, etc.

Momentus XT APM spindown feature causes "lag spike... - Seagate Community Forums

Quite a few threads here on NBR too, but the above has seagate employees posting in it.

 

Yeah i've updated the firmware, think it was posted earlier in this thread, either way i did do it though and it hasnt helped :S might give i another shot after having a read through those threads you linked, cheers mate.

 

It should have helped based on what others have said about the firmware. It may not completely eliminate the choppiness, but check to make sure it actually updated and you are on the new firmware.

Here's another thread to glance at: http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...cs-pre-ordering-available-41.html#post7015102

 

Gonna have a skim through that one as well, cheers to you too AllurGroceries. I'm not up to scratch with everything but from what i gather G73 does not have RAID, and that earlier thread on momentus is based on problems with RAID and the HDD compatability. Hopefully i'll find something.

 

I updated the firmware to the latest one and tried the game again. The lags seem to be more spaced out now but still every ten seconds tops, almost makes the game playable (civ 5), ALMOST.

Apparently there are a lot of issues like this, after reading the forums, reported by LONG TERM users of the Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid HDD and there is another FW update in the making (last update on that 23.02.11) so hopefully that will be out soon and i'll give that a go.

My only question now is, why does the VIDEOS ie Intro to Civ, inro to COD all play smoothly without any hitches, but in gameplay these lags occur??

 

video playback is streaming a single file, whereas gameplay is accessing multiple files and libraries.

 

Well that one was easily explained, thank you . Just gonna have to wait for this FW update and if that doesnt work i'm just gonna have to cut my losses i suppose. Cheers for all the help guys

 

danielfc3 -- I too had exactly the same problems you are experiencing with my G73JH. I tried everything (firmware updates, bios updates, vbios, etc.) .... searched the net for months before I finally decided to remove the Momentus XT's and replace with the original drives. My lappy worked perfectly after that ... games scream. I would recommend that you try replacing your original drives in your lappy and see if it improves the gaming experience for you.

 

Chili Palmer - Thanks for that man, that was actually my next step in all this, although i'm away from home at the moment without access to a home broadband etc so i wouldn't be able to install any new games, so waiting till i am home to do so. Also, i would reccommend you keep an eye out for the next FW update by momentus as they seem to know about the issue and are working on fixing it! Should that fail though, it will definitely be an SSD for me!