G73CatModder

For those who find they can only use the Asus stock drivers on their G73s...

After spending several days comparing the Asus Catalyst driver installations (9.12 and 10.1) to the newer ATI Catalyst reference driver releases, I've written a little utility to modify the ATI installation package to the Asus package settings.

I've been using the modified 10.7 install for a couple days but I have no idea if it's better or worse as my system has always been stable.


Download G73CatModder here



Currently Catalyst version 10.7 is supported. I saw no reason to do previous versions. Run the utility and click the "Help..." button for instructions. Anyone who used the old "mobility modder" should be familiar with the process. (Note this is for Windows 7 64-bit only!)

The utility modifies the ATI reference driver configuration settings for all the Asus Catalyst configuration mods that differ from ATI's that I could find.


This has NOTHING to do with performance or heat. This is simply using the settings from the "stable" asus drivers on the ATI reference drivers.

I have no idea if it's going to help or not until others try it out. It may not help anything, but WTH - we're being more proactive than our friends at Asus

I've read every G73 post here since a couple months before the first G73 shipped, and I've still seen no indication that the video problems are anything other than crap hardware. However, many report stability on Asus stock drivers so it's worth a shot to see if Asus changed some settings to make something more stable.


It's a work-in-progress so I'm totally open to adding anything anyone finds in the Asus driver installations.

Cheers!

 

I never had to mod anything to get it to work on the G73 just dont use the WHQL releases use the leaked releases that have all the mobility vid/pid enabled.

If this works though I guess it could be good for a lot of people that dont trust leaked drivers.

I think the official mobile drivers work without any modding as well but not sure.

 

I haven't ever seen a custom driver which boasts enough of a performance boost to justify its use.

But I guess we'll see.

 

Not the point of the utility.

(added to the OP) This has NOTHING to do with performance or heat. This is simply using the settings from the "stable" asus drivers on the ATI reference drivers.

 

What leaked drivers, and whats the difference between those and the WHQL ones?
And what official drivers do you mean?

And to OP, i will test it out when i have time, gotta sleep now.

 

Checking it out man, I will love you for life it fixes everything.

 

Heh I don't have high expectations but it's a shot. Nothing better to do except work, and who wants to do that?

One relatively obvious change Asus does is disabling DirectX video acceleration for at least WMV...Doing the same may at least help some who have problems watching some videos on the newer ATI drivers.

Personally, the only SODs I've had on my G73 were watching videos...

 

Yeah did quick test with FFXIV benchmark on stock clock and it gsod with modified driver. Had 10.1 installed previously. Does the program use my driver install or is it just within the software it modifies the new 10.7?

I appreciate the effort put in place though ^_^

 

i'm using the regular drivers from AMD ATI, not the mobility ones, and it works just fine here.... even furmark for 1 hr, didn't crash...catalyst 10.6

 

The program currently only touches the installation files so it needs to be done on the 10.7 install package before installing 10.7.

 

Yeah did that, have the info changed to your catmod.

 

Downloading FFXIV Benchmark now to check it out. Maybe I'll get to see some psychedelic SODs too!

Thanks for the feedback!

 

Not a great score - do I need to loop it? No SOD though

 

Here's a low-resolution run...

 

Nice job I might just have to try this out as the stock 10.7 gave me the nice checker boxes when trying to run this.

 

Hi Mark, I'll try this in an hour or so when I'm at home

 

Hey Mark, thanks for the effort, but it seams it doesnt really work, still get GSODs in furmark.

And Xellos didnt get GSODs on single runs, but loops. Try a loop of say 10...

Back to stock for me... *sigh*

 

Actually on FFXIV I got a GSOD halfway into the first run lol (but typically have to run loops). Back to 10.1, played alien swarm and Serious Sam HD for like past 6 hours without any GSOD haha... Damn I guess ASUS will be the ones to be updating the drivers.

 

Yeah sorry, GSOD during my first run of FFXIV Benchmark (but i ran furmark for 10min before it and no crash)

 

Dont expect anything from Asus, ive gone over their history and they had the same problems with keyboard missing keystrokes becouse of a conflict they have with synaptics and this issue has been around their notebooks since 2006 and still hasnt been fixed.
Also the same issues with drivers came up on the W90 and Asus never released newer drivers customised to work on that system. Same thing is happening here.
Theres also been tons of unresolved issues with them, just google it or go look at their vip forums.
Dont get your hopes up. Asus just doesnt care as long as their sales are up. Once you buy it youre on your own with such problems. The only thing theyll do is replace a dead component, but that wont really help here.

 

For those with GSOD and you know its drivers try these.

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B5e8EbgR4qQyMDU0ZTMwYzctYmJkZC00YWRiLWI5MDItNGRkNDMxODJhYWEx&hl=en

Its driver version 8.740, after install reboot to see changes.

We called these the "10.6 alpha" drivers. These are the ones I am still using and can run the FF benchmark without problems also was the first set of drivers to fix the long BFBC2 loading times in DX10

 

Sorry to hear it... And 10 min in furmark is not enough to always see it .

 

Ill try these out. Thanks for uploading em.
What do you think of THESE - those are also beta so not WHQL right?

 

They are just an updated 10.7 with the AA fix for SC2. Probably does not have the same stuff as the leaked drivers I use.

Plus the ones I just leaked have a neat hardware accelerated video encoder, works great for converting FRAPS recordings into Youtube videos.

 

Cool man, i'll give it a shot.

 

Crashed after a few minutes of furmark. Thanks for trying though Vicious.

 

Yeah, was just getting impaitent

I played WoW a full day on 10.6 (6hrs or so) then the next day I had a GSOD every 30min - 1hr Just wish there was a quick way to test. Using the FFXIV Benchmark seems to quicken it's occurance.

 

Hmm interesting, no crash for me with the same drivers.

You did reboot after installing right? You may also need to run DriverSweeper and what not to get rid of all the old drivers if you had some shady drivers on there before.

Should be uninstall --> reboot --> run DriverSweeper --> reboot --> Install --> Reboot

If your still crashing on a good install I think its indicating a hardware issue more so than a software one unless there are hardware differences between various G73 models (like a different GPU version) and that to me is seldom heard of.

Also in the case of furmark since its so intensive make sure your not overheating.

http://www.guru3d.com/category/driversweeper/

 

I always do a sweep with driver sweeper in safe mode . And the previous drivers were the stable 10.1 ones. And i have the same temperatures in furmark with 10.1 drivers and i dont gsod there. Max temperature is in my sig.
And this is already the second gpu and both gave me same gsod problems.
A tech also tested 4 random units for me in their warehouse and all gsod on newer drivers so its hard to believe its just a few bad cards, but probably the whole g73jh series.

Any other idea ?

 

Man, I hate GSOD, it's been hunting me for years I have an old NVidia Geforce 4 Ti4200 VGA and it randomly GSODs, sometimes twice a week, sometimes no GSOD for months and I've never been able to find out why...and now my G73 gives GSOD with newer drivers..

 

Thanks for all the feedback!

If anyone with GSOD problems on 10.7 has a minute, I could use .REG copies of the following registry hive (with 10.7 installed):

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E968-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

(use regedit, navigate/search to the key above, right-click it, and choose export...email to me )

Need data...Would be greatly appreciated!


FWIW, I always delete that entire registry hive between Catalyst installs (after rebooting from the uninstall phase). For those using a driver/registry sweeper, I would recommend making sure the sweeper is clearing that registry hive!

 

Ive tried deleting the whole hive in regedit but the result is the same .
GSOD within minutes.

 

Of course... we've known it was hardware since the first month units shipped

I haven't seen ANY indication or proof that these display adapters shouldn't be able to use newer ATI drivers, and I find it hard to believe Asus writes there own driver code, based on the quality of some of there simpler software...

I'll still poke around on the software side because it's fun, however.

 

I know for a fact its the hardware since i got confirmation from multiple sources (as well as ATI).
But there is something different with newer drivers that makes the hardware fault come to light. ATI told me they changed 2D clocks to improve stability and that could be it, but theyre not certain either...
ATI Technologies hive

Edit: i gave you the wrong hive...
Ill upload the other one once i install 10.7 again if someone doesnt do it before me.
Playing around with something else right now.

 

had to re-install 10.1 so i could play sc2 without fear of gsod

 

In GSOD We Trust

 

Interesting about the 2D...I've never had a crash doing 3D extensive stuff like games....only viewing videos in web browser, watching BluRay movie, and one while just clicking on the desktop.

And these have been rare....if it happened to me even once every other day I would have returned this machine long ago - that's totally unacceptable for a $2000+ PC considering I could probably go to newegg and order parts to build a hundred +-$500 machines and they'd all work flawlessly.

The G73 is not a "beast" or a "monster"....it's just an expensive PC and it should f*&^kin work

I'll take as many as I can get from different machines, thanks. Please let me know when (or if) you upload it!

 

Ran it looping for just about two hours (that's 15 or more loops by my calculation), high resolution/random character settings.

Nothing.

 

Just a thought, why not instead of looking into the drivers, have a look into the vbios. I mean comparing the asus one that we have and probably the clevo vbios. I remember reading Xeven saying he has the tools to unbrick if a flash went bad. I looked into the Hexdump of the vbios and couldn't understand anything.

 

I'd love to compare the firmware! GET me the source code!!

 

MarkS: You can also look in the 10.7a Beta that's out. Seems to work great here at stock speeds. The download package is meant for both Desktop and Mobility. Should be an interesting read.

PS- Furmark at 01:23:00 at 700/1000...

 

Been running 10.7a beta at 705/1100, stock was unstable for me. Tested twice, 1st lasted about 2 mins, 2nd about 5. At 1:15:00 so far..

 

You are bringing me down off my high. (j/k)

Damn, I was hoping this was going to be a good fix. Did you uninstall first, safe mode, Sweep, reboot and install and reboot again?

 

Yep, uninstalled > reboot, safemode driver sweep > reboot, installed > reboot.

 

Looking in to it, thanks

Great job on your upgrade project!

 

is it ok if I just use CCleaner instead of sweet for reg cleanup? I also dont do it in safe mode is that a problem?

 

driver sweeper is the free one I recommend but the only one I know cleans the right stuff is no longer free called driver cleaner.

Solve Driver Problems, Fix Crashes - Driver Cleaner

But since it is not free anymore I dont usually recommend it, it does get stuff that driver sweeper does not get though.

 

When you say source code, do you mean just the .rom file? Because from what i saw, there was a "hex dump" option in rbe. And lots of numbers appeared.
Anyway i'll upload the vbios that i've collected later when i'm on my laptop. Currently on the office computer. Basically they are all found in these forums, Asus Stock Vbios, Msi and Clevo. I'm interested in the Clevo because fan controls are unlocked. But the problem is, hdmi and vga don't work on the Msi and Clevo.

 

Alright, gonna stop at 2.5 hours, seems stable enough so far where I can just try the lengthitivity test [aka USING my laptop ]

Anyways, Xtreme Burning Mode & Post FX - 705/1100 for 2.5 hours [stopped manually, no GSOD]. TS0 temp = 85.5, TS1 = 95.5, TS2 = 86.5. 10.7a Beta driver.


Edit: Ended up getting a GSOD a few hours later, after doing some gaming and then watching youtube, went back to 10.1

 

Excuse me but didn't that response you got from Ati actually state that they changed the *general* clock/timings setting in order to improve 2D stability? Instead of just some 2D clocks?