G73jh Sleeping on lid close

First off, I'd like to say hello to the community. I really need help with this one, so much that I actually registered to a forum and am seeking help from professional strangers.

This issue has been brought up before by another member, SirIssacNewbton I believe was his name. The issue was not resolved.

My monitor lid is cracked. It sucks, but that's how it is. Now, in order to use my G73Jh, I have to use an external monitor or TV. Luckily, I also have an external keyboard, so I can set the laptop to the side and play as though I'm using a desktop. However, about 7-10 minutes into any graphic intensive game I play, the computer automatically goes into Sleep mode. I do not want this to happen anymore.

Here are the many solutions I have tried already. I know many people will start with these, so please read this list before asking if I've done them.

1) Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Power Options. I've set every single option in all three plans (Balanced, High Performance, Power Saver) to "Do Nothing."
2) Just to make sure, I also clicked on "Choose what closing the lid does" and confirmed that it was set to "Do Nothing" on all 3 plans. Furthermore, I checked the advanced power settings, and double checked all 3 settings by clicking "Sleep >Sleep after" and also "Power buttons and lid" just to be sure they were set on "Do Nothing."
3) I have uninstalled Power4Hybrid and restarted multiple times between changes to be sure this was not an issue with P4H, as well as re-installed it a few times to be sure it would not solve my issue.
4) To be sure it wasn't a Hibernation issue, I manually turned off Hibernation in the command prompt by typing: powercfg -h off
NOTE: I typed in "cmd.exe" and ran the program as an administrator, as I am aware that Windows 7 has a secondary program similar to cmd. Why this is, I'll never understand.
5) Tried to use cmd to manually set the value index to "Do Nothing," aka 000. The command I used was: powercfg –SETACVALUEINDEX acecdc74-b90c-42bd-b92c-787f82d2bcfb 4f971e89-eebd-4455-a8de-9e59040e7347 5ca83367-6e45-459f-a27b-476b1d01c936 000 IF YOU KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS, PLEASE TELL ME IF I'M DOING THIS WRONG. If you don't, don't help me with this part. Unfortunately, the response I get from cmd is "Invalid Parameters -- try '/?' for help". This command is then not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file. .
6) Going with attempt 5, I went into my Kernal Power Manger and checked the PATH to be sure Windows/System32 was there, and it was. Also, powercfg is located in System32, so there should be no issue.
My PATH looks like this: C:\Program Files (x86)\AMD APP\bin\x86_64;C:\Program Files (x86)\AMD APP\bin\x86;%SystemRoot%\system32;%SystemRoot%;%SystemRoot%\System32\Wbem;C:\Program Files (x86)\ATI Technologies\ATI.ACE\Core-Static;%systemroot%\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\
7) Running out of options, I contacted ASUS directly. The gentleman had the idea of going into the advanced options and setting the number of minutes on Sleep mode, so I set it to about 16,666 hours. This did not work. The representative also told me that the computer is designed to automatically go into Sleep mode after about 10 minutes with the lid closed, no matter what, to conserve power.

This last bit makes no sense to me. I can leave the lid closed and do just about anything else no problem, but once a graphic intensive game gets on the screen, 7 minutes and poof, insta-sleep. Why would the ASUS rep tell me it's impossible when I've already done it?

SIDE NOTE: While playing League of Legends, I sort of glitched it and I was forced to play a game on low resolution. Surprisingly, I managed to get through the entire game, once again proving that my computer only goes into sleep mode when there are graphic intensive things going on.

I have the most updated drivers on just about everything, as well as the most updated BIOS. I do not believe there is a way to change battery settings in the BIOS, as I have browsed many a forum and everyone agrees there is no option in BIOS for lid settings or whatnot.

If there is anything I am missing, please let me know. I am completely at a loss here. Also, after posting this I am going to call ASUS one more time, and hopefully try to get someone else to try again on this issue.

Thank you everyone in advance!

-K-

 

I just wana ask to verify but are you sure its going into sleep mode and not thermal shutdown due to GPU temps reaching a certain temp?

Its just unusual for sleep to active when intense gaming vs non-intense gaming. If it is indeed sleep, it would just shut off after a certain time regardless....hmmm....

 

I had the laptop sitting on an external fan, lifted from the ground on a wicker chair. I've been checking and rechecking but it's never felt beyond mildly warm. HOWEVER. You may be right, because that seems the only solution. What program would I use to check the GPU levels while I'm playing these games?

Thank you for your fast response!

-K-

EDIT: I downloaded a program to see it. Idling it runs between 52C and 66C. I'll try it with a game on, see what happens before it dies.

SECOND EDIT: While in gaming the temp goes around 77-80. Hasn't gotten higher than 81.

Another interesting thing happened while testing. With the laptop closed, for some reason the resolution choices were not the same as the TV resolutions. In other words, while the laptop is open, in-game the resolution max is usually 1600x900. Closed, the resolution is usually 1776x1000. However, I glitched the game out again and the max resolution I could get on the TV in-game was 1600x900 while the lid was closed. Naturally, this meant I wasn't using the full TV screen. For some reason, even though I was playing on the full 1600x900 resolution, my computer did not go to sleep during the duration of the game, or anytime after. Why did my computer not go into sleep mode during the game? Was it because I wasn't using the full screen of my TV? That doesn't make sense at all.

It appears as though I am coming up with random solutions to my problem, but they are only causing more headaches, because I have no idea how I'm getting to these conclusions.

-K-

 

Hmm...im completely stumped. We've established that there's no way that it's a thermal shutdown since the temps dont even get past 81c.

At this point, im completely stumped. Have you tried gaming on another monitor/tv and checked to see if it also goes into sleep mode like that?

Just throwing it out there, but have you tried the latest gpu drivers? If not, try to update to those. If you're on the latest, roll back a version and see how that goes.

 

Keltzon, before you close the lid, do you have your machine set to display only on the external display? (Fn F8)

I justed tested on mine, after 30 minutes of inactivity the G73JH did not sleep, I just had to flip open the lid and Press fn f8 once to reawaken the display

(Using windows balanced plan with the do nothing setting for lid action)

 

Oh wow, I never considered that. I'm doing the Fn F8 now, gonna see if that works. If it doesn't, I'll try Zombie's ideas next. Thanks for the amazing support guys!

-K-

 

Hey guys, hope you enjoyed the holidays!

Ok so, I tried a few things, including Josea's idea. The bad news is, nothing works still. The good news is, I'm about 97% sure it's a heating issue. My GPU is getting to about 85C and it shuts off almost every time it stays there longer than a few minutes.

I have my laptop sitting on a wicker leg stool (open air under it) with a laptop external fan underneath it. Maybe one of my internal fans isn't working? How do I go about making my GPU run colder?

 

First verify that the fans work - install HWINFO HWiNFO, HWiNFO32 & HWiNFO64 - Hardware Information and Analysis Tools Launch the program and look at the sensors dialog. Look at Asus G73EC and let us know the Fan RPM. If either stays at 0 RPM abouve 50 C you are correct. As Zombiepikmin alluded to thermal shutdown will occur above 110 C. When I use an external monitor I always leave the lid partially open out of habit.
Your issue could also be a bad sensor on the motherboard if it is shutting down (not going to sleep)
Have you done any steps to remove dust accumulation inside you machine? That should reduce temps