G73JW Freezes when not in use

UPDATE: Possible solution found to issues with G73JW: freezing, rebooting, usb ports stop responding, BSOD USB bugcode driver error. Please read Post # 20 in this thread for the solution, I have used this solution for some time now with NO MORE of the above issues.

One consequence of this solution is the CPU now idles @ 1.86 ghz instead of 1.73 ghz.

Would like any of the pros on the forum to offer insights. Wondering if ASUS has/could provide a fix for this.

First off, I did search the forums, most issues seem to be with the H variant of the G73.

I have a G73JW (i7-740/8gb/460M). I have no issues when the computer is in use. Great machine. But when the machine is left alone, it will sometimes freeze - and requires a hard reboot. Other times I notice it has crashed and rebooted on its own.

I don't think the G73"H" solutions are really applicable.

The only other thing I have read is issues with the PowerGear software, which while I have not uninstalled, I have virtually disabled. I disable all power settings, and just run a screensaver. This has not solved the issue, as it continues to exhibit the freeze/crash behaviour.

Any thoughts?

Thanks.

 

Some people were having same issue:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus-gaming-notebook-forum/536734-weird-problems-asus-g73jw-a1.html

First try to uninstall Creative software also check idle temperature of CPU/GPU.

 

Simple: you have something running that doesn't like it when the OS goes into sleep mode.

 

Check if its your screen dimming that is causing it. My JH had a paddy once everytime the screen dimmed. Didn't do it again since I reinstalled the OS.

 

Ok ,I will ask the obvious have you tried a differnet screen saver?
Also does it freeze while in screen saver only?

 

Thanks for the replies.

Yes, I have disabled all the power saving features - display does not dim, hdd and monitor don't go to sleep, etc - basically disabled all the PowerGear functions. Uninstalled the bloatware I felt comfortable removing.

Issue started pretty much from day one, so if there is a program compatability, it is with something preloaded.

Still, I have the occasional freeze, more often, though, the computer just simply reboots on its own.

And this happens 99% of the time when no one is on it.

As long as I am using it, I rarely have an issue.

My thinking is this is too specific for hardware, it seems to me to be a win7/preload software issue.

Thoughts?

Thanks.

nuke235

 

uninstall microsoft silverlight

 

Thanks for the reply. Could you explain further, ie why you think/suspect silverlight is the issue? Not even sure what silverlight is.

 

i got a windows update last week with silverlight, and my computer started randomly freezing so i removed the update and it now works fine. i re-did the update with everything but silverlight and it still works.

silverlight is just a crappy version of flash player

 

Just do a fresh reinstall. Then you can eliminate any software problems. For all we know, you've got spyware or windows updates restarting your computer on it's own.

Silverlight gets updates frequently, and you may be getting WU restarts.

Seriously though - there isn't any way of "breaking" the computer by uninstalling. And since it sounds like software (it does it from no user input? There must be something running causing it to fail ...), a fresh install (not a system restore) would be your best bet to get up and running clean again.

 

Agreed on the clean install. Use Chastity's drivers thread on the asusrog forums to get the latest up to date drivers for things like GPU, sound etc.

 

I hate to just mention this but I'll say it. It's most likely a hdd issue. Yes I have the infamous Seagate Momentus as well but had 200gb version on my G50V-X1 fail and guess what it was doing prior to not be able to boot up the OS? It was freezing. Go to the Seagate.com and dl the tool then check your hdd and run the long generic test. It will take awhile but I tell ya, I ran ever other test including the Windows 7's own disk scan with all options checked and it did not detect the bad sector(s). Seagate momentus hdds are literally garbage. I recommend either replacing with a $70 Scorpio Black HDD and doing a image back up direct to the new HDD.

 

I am leaning this way. I read Chastitys post about fresh install and immediately installing SP1. I left a reply in another g73jw issues thread.

Sorry, my thread should have been in there.

 

Thanks for the reply. My issues started pretty much day one, b4 any recent silverlight updates like you experienced, so not convinced that is the issue. I'll keep in mind though. Thanks.

 

Well, I am not convinced my issues is hardware related. I though of RAM or hdd issues, but why not when in use? RAM errors are usually unpredictable, mine are VERY predictable. And hdd issues should be under load, but that is when my laptop is stable.

The only hardware issue I can see, and others have reported the same thing, is freezes with the usb ports, which I used to get (usb2.0 only, though, not the usb3.0 port), but those seem to have stopped. At least lately. I have on occasion caught a BSOD prior to a "auto" reboot, and I get the usb error bsod.

That doesn't explain, though, at least in my mind, the hard freezes.

Thanks though for your input. I see my hdd is a seagate (ST9500420AS) - is this a Momentus drive?

 

Previously, my computer would freeze once or twice a day, especially when left on over night. After I disabled all the Nvidia High Definition Audio drivers under device manager and made sure that the hard drive wouldn't go into sleep, I haven't experienced one lock up yet while idling/light use, albeit its only been a couple of days now. Some games still freeze randomly however.

 

How long is the game freeze?

 

Flight Simulator 10: Would lock up in mid-flight. No amount of alt+tabbing would get out of it. Requires pressing power button till computer shuts off.

Civilization IV: Would also randomly lock up. Usually happens during the latter stages of a game, where there's a large amount of units moving. I am, however, able to alt+tab out.

Darkest Hour (Red Orchestra mod): Would lock up (randomly again) and would crash to desktop with an error message saying "lack of virtual memory." I doubt it's my laptop's fault, as it happens on three maps only and on other players' computers.

It's usually happens randomly. In hindsight, I should have checked the logs to see what error would come up...

 

turn off your hardware monitors and update your DirectX. If you turned off your pagefile, make one.

 

Ok, I found this on the vip.asus forum:

When I do this, go into the processor power management setting, and disable the processor idle states, I don't seem to get any crashes. Issues I was having before is:

* freezing mouse (actually, usb2.0 ports freeze or stop working, mouse works if I plug unified receiver into usb3.0 port). Have to reboot to get usb2.0 ports to work again.

* BSOD - USB bugcode driver error

* random laptop freezes

* random laptop reboots

The catch, though, is my cpu fan is much louder, and the cpu temps, according to hwinfo32, go from about 45 to 60 C.

So my questions are:

1. Is this ok to leave the process idle states disabled, ie, is the cpu temp now too high?

2. Why is having the idle states ENABLED causing the above issues?

3. Is there any fix or something I can do to fix this?

I should point out, I do not have long term evidence this is a total fix, but based on my experience so far, this seems to work.

Thanks.

nuke235

 

Nuke... Do you by any chance have a solid state drive???

 

same thing happened to me, i uninstalled power4gear, and i stopped my comptuer from going into sleep mode/hibernaton after a period of inactivity and i updated my vbios and i dont have tis problem anmre

 

No. Seagate Momentus st9500420as

ST9500420AS Momentus 7200.4 SATA 3Gb/s 500-GB Hard Drive | Seagate

Further to my post, by disabling the processor idle state, my 740qm, according to the desktop gadget, has a rest freq of 1.86, rather than 1.73.

Per my first question above, is this ok?

 

Ok, after leaving my computer with the "process idle" option DISABLED under power options (see post earlier), I can almost CERTAINLY say that when the process idle option is ENABLED, that is what is causing the following on my laptop:

Random freezes
Random reboots
BSOD - usb bugcode driver error
USB port freezes

The only drawback to this I see is that the processor now runs at 1.86 when doing nothing instead of 1.73, and of course, there is more fan noise.

Is that a concern?

Anyone venture a guess why this is causing my problems?

Anyone think ASUS can patch this?

Thanks.

Regards,

nuke

 

G73JH 740qm here, same issues ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus-gaming-notebook-forum/580528-g73jh-some-issues-system-freeze-usb-mouse-stops-working-keyboard-lights-stop-working.html)

I can confirm the rising frequency.
I still need to let it run for some time to be sure this works, but the sound is *very* annoying.

Anybody contacted ASUS about this?
I want to be able to leave my NB for a few hours without being afraid of potential freezes

 

Reporting with an G73JH-BST7 with constant freezes (like each two days) but I've noticed I've yet to get a freeze while running a game or having winamp playing music.

I've actively started to test if my laptop can survive the nights while running winamp (so far it has).

So here's another workaround that doesn't elevates temperatures as much!

I really hope there's another BIOS update to help us users with the idle freezes, I've tried everything and I'm almost RMAing (and I don't know how likely is that they change my motherboard quickly)

I'm looking up to the results of your results of the 'disable idle' tweak, I think we can find something here. I also applied the tweak, though I'm scaredy about running my processors at full temperature all the time and turned it off for the moment while I test my winamp theory

(P.D. I got my first freeze while playing music today, so scratch that workaround. It happened while scrolling in firefox though) I'll be joining the 'idle disable' testing for a moment

 

Thanks, please post back and let me know if that works for you too.

Any long time users/members have any insight on this?

 

*sigh* woke up today, freeze.

If only the unncessarily increasing freq, temps, noise and waste of power weren't there.

I don't like to RMA the NB without knowing the cause.
A statement from ASUS on why this happens would be appreciated.

 

Okay *sigh*
There's no suspicous process the moment it freezes, in other words it's not a conflict between the processor and the process.

 

I've been running the idle tweak and have survived 2 nights (and days) with it, and have yet to run into a crash. (also connected a lot of usb devices, which normally would cause me bluescreens with usb errors)

I would like this to lead to a fix though, I'm not liking the temperatures at all.

I should keep reporting!

 

I have the g73jh and also have this problem My g73 never freezes when in use but sometimes if i leave it on overnight i will come back to it and its froze and i have to do a hard reset.

 

i know this has been suggested, maybe update to the recent bios?

 

Would a bios update affect power option settings though?

Last night, I re-enabled the processor idle, and promptly had a hard freeze within a few minutes.

I am 100% confident the issue is with this processor idle setting.

When I get some time, I will contact ASUS support, I just wish someone could give me an idea of whether that will be a fruitful endeavour or not.

Also, some people have suggested removing the PowerGear. Does it seem this is the root of my processor idle issue?

nuke235

 

I've bee leaving my laptop now for 4 days in the night (and day, with use) and still have to get a lockup. (they were getting frequent before enabling this)

So, I also think there's something wrong with this, or maybe a device reacting to the speed changes. Anyway, let us know how it goes for you, Nuke!

 

removed P4G long ago, still freezes

 

I have a G53 JW, with similar problem you are describing.
- random freezes when computer not attended to
- when froze, computer had to be hard-resetted by powering off
- when power is unplugged, the computer turns off despite having the battery
- usb3.0 become non-responsive after some hours of uptime
- even occurs after fresh install / image disc install of windows

I had asus involved with many times back and forth trying various thing and nothing worked. Including changing the motherboard x 2, changing power supply, and NEARLY changing the GFX but they finally was convinced it was not a repairable problem.

After 2-3 months of this they finally gave me a replacement which had no problem since.

 

I experienced this issue with my G73-JW back in November 2010. After troubleshooting it for a month and still getting the freezes, I sent it in to Asus for an RMA. The RMA process took almost 3 weeks and I got it back with a new motherboard installed in January 2011. Since then I have had zero freezes/usb crashes/BSODs. Looks like yall may have to RMA in order to get rid of these problems for good.

 

nuke235, I just wanted to say thanks for bringing this issue to the forefront. I have had the same exact problem - the computer freezes while idling - since I purchased it around New Year. When I searched for a fix at that time, there were no dedicated threads to the problem, and the people who tried to report it were basically told to just reinstall the software or whatever.

Has ASUS addressed this problem yet? I am a little bit hesitant to try the fix you suggested a few pages ago because one of the main reasons that I bought this computer was the low fan noise and operating temperature. Also, I will be moving soon and I don't have another computer so I can't send this one to ASUS for RMA (which, as someone said earlier can take upwards of 3 weeks).

Thanks!

 

Just a FYI regarding freezes:

I am working with a person in the IRC channel regarding this, and we pinpointed the issue on his laptop to a Windows Update which a occurred a few days ago. Rolling back to before the update fixes his issue. We're trying to have the system install each update individually, since apparently allowing the reinstall all at once brings back the problem. (His WU had several updates all at once.)

I just wanted to point out that these issues may not be hardware issues for everyone. Unfortunately figuring out the causes does require a bit of detective work.

 

@Chastity: can you give some details? which update/updates caused the issue.
I'd like to compare my update history

 

Well, there were several, and the chap hasn't responded yet as to which was the offender.

 

Reporting as the irc chap here

-I was already preparing my laptop for RMA, but decided to contact chastity for an opinion, and she told me to do a clean install, and install the drivers in a specific order.

-My laptop was then stable for a week, surviving entire idle night and heavy usb usage with no bluescreens or freezes (I was putting it into strain to test it, as it rarely survived a night, or gave me bluescreens with usb devices)

-I got a freeze on wednesday, but I noticed it was just after a windows update I applied.

-I rolled back that day, and it was stable again, till saturday, when another windows update happened (I didnt realize it after I was talking with chastity, after considering C++ as the culprit, but I think it another update as I installed C++ Reditributable without problems yet)

-I did another system restore, and it has been stable again (just a day and a night now, but I was getting continuous crashing before the last rollback)

Anyway, here's the list of my installed updates, (And still being stable) if this helps to pinpoint the problem

Thanks to Chastity again!

 

Sabotage by Windows Update... I had this happen once on my desktop. (Quality control is a thing of the past my friends.) I got around the issue by rollback, and then installing the updates one at a time. Apparently applying them all at once was a recipe for fail.

 

Which windows update was the culprit? I would be curious to uninstall it, and see if that helps me.

As an update on my no-idle tweak, I have had NO crashes, reboots, etc. I re-enable the cpu idle, and I invariably have a problem.

nuke

 

I'm not sure yet, probably one of these (The checked ones)
You can try uninstalling them all to see if the freezes go away, and maybe later we can pinpoint the exact one, or even find out if installing them togueter is the problem.

Btw, and didnt get a single crash when using your tweak for a week, either

I still have to get a freeze since my clean install, while NOT using these windows update (I did have an update soon after reformatting, but it started freezing with the second batch of updates, as windows seems to separate the updates with conditions)

 

I will look into that

btw, I found another method to prevent freezes.
I let chrome loop a youtube video -> no processor idle -> no freeze.
A bit dirty, but at least, it seems to work.

 

I have an Asus G73JH and have also been experiencing hard lockups during idle as mentioned in this post: http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus-gaming-notebook-forum/584170-g73jh-hard-freeze-eventid-13-a.html#post7572892

Are you guys experiencing any ACPI errors (event id 13 and 15) under Windows Event Viewer?

 

Just got another freeze, and there was no windows update happening :/

That probably makes my last two posts irrelevant. I don't know anymore.

And nope, hankysmoo, I'm not getting those errors.

Chastity: Is the Inter Turboboost driver primordial to install?

(Edit: Make that 6 freezes in day... I didn't install anything to my knowledge, I don't know where to attack this problem now, just hoping for ASUS or INTEL to come up with an update to fix compatibility with the idle disable)

 

AFAIK, The TB Driver is purely optional, and is mostly there for the monitor, but I think it's obsolete now.

 

Was doing some further research on this, and found another way to disable processor idle, or 'parking'.

Along same line, it's a registry edit, usually a few, but very simple.

From cakewalk.com:
In short, here is the better method from sky60234:-

- Go to Regedit

- Find this key:- " 0cc5b647-c1df-4637-891a-dec35c318583 "

- Within this key, there is a value called: " ValueMax "

- This value represents the % number of cores the system will park - the default 100% ie: all Cores are potentially park-able

- Change the value from 64 to 0 so the " ValueMin " and " ValueMax " are both zero

- You will have to find the key a few times and repeat the process for each time it is found - the number of instances will depend on the number of power profiles in your system [ in my DAW it was only found twice ]

- Do a full shutdown and power-off and cold-re-start

Easy way to check if this is happening, open resource monitor, cpu tab, and click a few low use apps. On the graph to the right, CPU1, you will see [parked] right next to it.

Once you remove the ability (reducing %idle/parked to 0) to have app enter idle state, you should be all clear.

I don't know if this solves the crashing (I just RMA'd my computer today, started getting crashes every 30 min or less, was just terrible, and I've had it with this ridiculously testy machine re drivers/firmware, etc) but 1 thing it does do is get rid of that awful C-state whine.

Just an fyi.

Thanks for the initial direction Nuke, been dealing with random crashes since I bought this (g73jh) last Oct, hoping for a miracle.

Dave

Oh, have all the same issues as you (mouse, thought I was the only one..), but with this adjustment, no temp change or increase in fan usage...

One other thing of note, I found it easier to locate proper reg strings by just searching data fields for "core park". (I had three in my reg, differs from 1 comp to another)