G73JH GSOD under 70degrees C?

First post, be kind, looking for feedback.

I just bought an ASUS refurb and did the HWinFO32 and Unigine Heaven benchmark for about 20 minutes. Everything seemed to be in line temperaturewise, since I'm interpreting temp scales as Celsius when people say 90 degrees max with ambient temps in the 50's.

My ambient low was 44 degrees celsius across the 4 categories.

Idle temp doing stuff like this:
Thermal Diode: 51-54C
DispIO: 49-51C
MemIO: 51-54C
Shader: 49-52C

Max temp, on Unigine Dx11/4xaniso/8xalias/1600-900res/fullscreen 20min:

Thermal Diode: 73C
DisplayIO: 69-70C
MemIO: 73C
Shader: 71-72C

Typically during WOW gameplay the temperatures of the 4 sections hover in the 56-65C temp area. With a spike here or there. HWiNFO32 has never tracked GPU fan speed above 30%. Also noticed, I don't have the GPU utilization % tab under my fan speed tab.

The problem:
Yesterday I got the GSOD for a split second when the temperature got up into the high 60's and it immediately went away. It was like a quick GSOD burp. So I'm looking for advice on what I should do. I'm still within the Newegg return/exchange policy 30day window. I have plenty of RMA time with ASUS, but they treat refurbs like trash to begin with.

Or should I flash a Bios or VBios. I grabbed info and will list it below.

Bios Vendor: American Megatrends
Version: G73JH 209
VBios: 012.017.000.004.0359.A33G
EC Version: b12c180203

Other info that could be helpful:

UEFI boot: disabled

Boot options--
1) PO: st9500420AS
2) P1: HL-DT-STDVDRAM
3) Atheros Boot Agent

(version 1.28.1119 copyrighted American Megatrends)

I've followed that there is a Bios 210 and 211 out and that most people seem to hate 211. However, I can't tell if my VBios is up to date and if I should just wait for a real GSOD to occur rather than the blip. Should I run Unigin Heaven longer than 20 minutes?

If I do have to flash my Bios or Vbios, what minimum size usb stick is necessary?

UPDATE (2/2/2011 11:12AM):
Just had a full on GSOD at under 60C!!!!!!

Then ran two full Unigine Heaven Benchmarks. (one without and one with vsync)

Score was 352 (w/vsync)
FPS was in the 20's for both
First day I had system FPS was in the 50's if I remember correctly

Temps after two runs (max temp caused no GSOD):
73C
68C
73C
70C

Just ran it a 3rd time, much longer than 20 min and it never exceeded 73C or 30% fan. No GSOD? What the hell? Why did it GSOD after 15min of WOW?

 

GSOD isn't related to your temps bro. Flash your vBIOS, read the sticky.

 

Well, everything I read is just about the fix and the references in all the tutorials/Bios/vBios/setups and such seem to revolve around temp.

And as stated, I don't even know if my vBios is or isn't up to date. Considering that they say just upgrade but I actually haven't seen an actual number for the correct vBios update. Like I do with version 209-211 for the normal Bios.

 

Your temps are fine, however, you need to flash your vbios. Hit my link below (New VBIOS to fix GSOD Issues on G73JH with Overdrive Option) and download the vbios package. Then download my updated vbios:

http://pcaudio.ath.cx/stuff/fix_od2.rar

Make your bootable flash drive as per OP's directions, but use the rom file and bat file in my OD2 pack.

Once done, it will fix those nasty crashes, and you'll not need do it twice.

 

This is mine using Gary's vBIOS. Yours is different so yeah, go flash it.

 

Uhh....can you just type the number? Your link does not work. Oh and I see you have Bios 213. I thought it only went to 211?

 

lol damn Imageshack. thar you go, BIOS 213 is for the touchpad/keyboard problems. If you're not having any of those problems then ignore it.

 

All the links you need are on my Driver and Application page, linked in my sig. And the GSOD issue is NOT temperature related. It's a timing issue with the updated drivers and Asus's firmware settings on the 2nd revision of cards.

 

Awesome, thanks Kuro. Hey by the way, what is that desktop schematic you are running? I love the right column real time computer tracking and left column RSS system.

I would love to flatter you through imitation.

 

Yup. Read your stickies. As for temps, read my sig for some temperature safe-zones (and explanations)

 

Ahh ok, there was so much talk about temperatures that I thought that there was a trigger point of some sort. I thought the driver updates were to manage this trigger point. Chalk up a point for beginner fail.

Yeah, thats why I was a bit confused and worried about my interpretation. My temps seem to be uncannily low by posted standards. So I figured maybe I was interpreting the temp info wrong and the bios info wrong.

I knew I had to post once I got my GSOD and figured I'd post what I knew, which as is apparrent was not much.

 

It's called Rainmeter. Have fun.

 

Eh, low temps are caused by 3 things: A good chip, good ambient and good cooling (your heatsink, TIM application, etc). Some of us aren't so lucky, but others have mid-40s idle temps. Personally, the difference even between high-performance and power saver settings gives me a 7 degree difference, so that may have something there too.

Load temps are your key indicator. If your load temps are under 100, you're fine. Period.

 

I take it your two files replace the Vflash and the BR38352.001 files?

 

you would be correct Plus your battery life when off AC should extend