Having problems with my 5870m PCIe

Hello all,
I was playing BFBC2 just fine on max settings... played the whole game through two times without a single issue or a slowdown... constant FPS both times i played it... however about a week or so ago, as i was playing, it kind of slowed down (about 5-7 FPS i guess)... it made me really nervous so i checked other games and every game i have really runs slower then than it used to... this slowdown mainly happens in a dusty/foggy/steamy maps in every single game i own be it Crysis, BFBC2, DIRT2... i didn´t have this problem before and i´m 100% positive about it... so i checked everything in everest (clocks are ok... temps too i guess)... then i found this in GPU-Z and in CCC hardware section. Most of you G73 owners have your GPU PCIe running at x16... mine however runs only at x8. What do you think is causing it ? I really don´t know if it was running at x8 from the beginning because it didn´t really occur to me to check i just started to check everything recently when my notebook started to slow down during gaming... i will post images of it later because currently i´m not home. So far i´ve tried flashing BIOS to 209 (nothing), updated drivers to 10.8 from 10.7 (nothing) i even reinstalled windows (F9 reset to factory default because when i bought it it was ok) to eliminate the possibility of a software error or a virus and it still didn´t help... if you have got any suggestions how to fix this i would be delighted to read them. i think that somehow my GPU got damaged... can´t imagine how... oh one more thing, after the slowdowns began, i noticed i was no longer having GSODs... at least in games (never tried hairy donut test or any other benchmark). I will post the images later so we can compare mine GPU-Z results (notice i said all of them because i think the numbers are generally lower in my case then in your case). So please post your GPU-Z results here so i can confirm that mine GPU is defective.

So here are the images and a GPU-Z sensor log with temps on BFBC 2 :



Thank you, Pistino01

 

did you check yours temps?

when the gpu gets too HOT, it will slow down ...

 

about 85-90°C... i dont see that as a unreasonably high temp when running BFBC2 on max... and as i´ve said, the clocks stay at default setting during gaming 700/1000... it doesn´t downclock the GPU clocks so i dont see any reason ( other than the issue with the PCIe running at x8 instead of x16 which is my main problem) why should it slow down.

 

You are the third European poster to have this issue in the last two or three days. It's very odd and I haven't seen a fix yet. One user did a complete clean install and the problem did not go away so I don't know how much good that would do. One posted a screen shot at x2 and the other was x4 I think. I've never seen a computer suddenly lower bus speeds like that. Both of the previous users were overclocking slightly. I think the last guy I was comparing notes with was running 790/1090 or something like that.

 

yep, im also one of the lucky ones here
gonna call to asus today see what are they gonna say.
@Pistino0 be lucky your one is still runing @x8, my one is on @x2

 

I dont know exatly what this is but I think its a common occurance with alot of laptops. Normal wear and tear on them for one thing will cause this, plus not cleaning your internals can as well. It does sound more of a software glitch or hardware malfunction though then the things I mentioned. Your tempertature can at 90-110 celcius degrade your componets quickly. When this happens slowdowns will occure obviously. I guess im not all that familear with temps, but I do know idle temps at around 40 celsius are desirable and gaming at around 77 is acceptable. Some hit in the low 90s when doing bench marks tests like vantage but only in rare cases. If your hiting 90 after gaming team fortress 2 I would imagine there is something wrong.

You can always take the view that nothing has bricked the laptop and there hasnt been a major mechanical failure so all is not lost. OVer time things magically disolve themselves for some which is the case for me most of the time.

 

Can one of you post back on this thread when you find out something so the info is recorded for posterity?

 

I still think the solution is to reset the Bios by taking it apart, remove the CMOS battery and put it back in. Should return to X16

 

@ziddy123

plz share us your brains and try to explane to us, how a CMOS battery removing is gonna give us differnt result when pressing the reset button?

All new PC mobos have a switch backside for clr cmos. Battery is history.

There must be something wrong with the gpu, it cant run @16 so mobo is runing it on a lower speed.
No soft, no bios error. Pure hardware failure.

 

Could also be caused by dirty or marginal contacts with GPU and the PCI-e slot. You may want to try reseating the GPU and blowing out the slot.

 

So the images of my CCC hardware section, GPU-Z and my GPU-Z sensor log are up... please everyone who has their PCIe bus running at x16 post your GPU-Z results here so i can compare them and see if my GPU is in fact slower than it should be.
EDIT : @ziddy123 so do you suggest reseting the BIOS ? ... what else will it change other than the PCIe bus issue and also how have you come to this conclusion that reseting the BIOS will help ?
@Chastity yes i see that makes sense but thats a little extreme for me considering that it is a notebook... wont i void the warranty by taking the thing apart ? or if not by taking it apart surely taking the GPU out of its socket will... or wont it ? please shed some light on it.

 

This is probably not necessary. xxlmaster had exactly the same problem you have. I doubted that Gpuz was telling the truth so he and I both ran a 3DMark Vantage and played Dirt 2 with identical settings. His system was running significantly slower than mine even though he had overclocked. I think you can safely assume that your system is running slower than it should. His GPUz was reporting higher throughput than mine because I don't overclock, but his 3d performance was much slower. Dirt 2 was running in the 30 FPS range for him and it was staying around 50FPS for me with identical maxed out settings at 1920X1080. My 3DMark GPU score was also higher.

 

i just want to see if you guys that are running ok have higher bandwidth and pixel fillrate than i have. i dont overclock so please try to post results with stock clocks.

 

Pistino01

Bandwidth and pixel fillrate changes when u are overlclocking, in stock they are sama.


Now the best joke for today.
I report ASUS today AGAIN whit the problem and here is the quote:

-Dear Erki,

Where do you check that it's running at x2?

Also have you tried with changing power saving mode with
Fn+Space or checking the battery icon near the clock.
For maximum performance you need to change to High Performance or Entertainment mode.

Best Regards,
Aleksi
Asus Support------
------------------------------------------------



Sorry, but what kind a idiots are there?
Power saving mode newer lowers the PCI-E values. Clock speed is only gonna go lower.

 

i did some digging on this issue and found out that some desktop users on various forums had this problem... som of them did RMA and some of them cleaned the contacts... the contacts cleaning worked for them... im just really nervous about taking this thing apart to that extent... but i think it is the only option we are left with other than RMA.

 

If I was fortunate enough to get one that didn't GSOD and I was confident that I could disassemble/reassemble, I would be tempted to take it apart, repaste my GPU and reseat the card. I didn't look at that very closely when I took mine apart to repaste, but I think it's just plugged into a connector on the motherboard.

 

Yeah, just to be sure, I actually played BC2 with everything up all the way this weekend for about 3 hours with the 10.8's It ran fun so its not a driver issue if your on the 10.8's

 

@ Pistion01

Can u give us the link what was talking about cleaning contacts?

I would open it allready but the keyboard is glued whit double side tape and u can destroy the shape.
BTW...u said desktop...its not the same as notebook.

 

Only because if you google this issue, the solution is to reset bios by removing the CMOS battery and the problem is resolved. The exact same issue is solved.

That's how, I don't care if you believe battery is history or not, but that solution appears to work for others.

 

If you are going to do this, watch the BTOTech video carefully. Read what I and others have written about the speaker connector. It is very easy to destroy. The keyboard is difficult to remove. Go very slow and do not yank on it or you will curl it up and wrinkle the back so badly that it won't be worth putting back in.

Or RMA it and save yourself the risk. If you break something taking it apart, they probably won't fix it under warranty unless you lie about what you were doing. Then you'll have to live with yourself after telling fibs.

 

Not sure how helpful it will be, but I remember info from some MSI lappys that involved a driver combination, powerplay, standby/hibernation mode, and their vbios that was forcing their 5xxx cards to drop as low as x1. Are you playing on battery and then plugging in or playing after coming out of hibernation?

It's worth a try poking that little hole that ziddy mentioned, and I'd return to stock clocks or 705 til you fix this...

 

@ziddy123

Really?

Plz post the link. I have googeld it but havent found any solutions.

Btw...where is the cmos battery exactly?

 

@xxlmaster sorry i cant provide the link because i cant remember on which forums ive read it. sorry i just remembered this. well yes it is a solution for a desktop but its essentially the same thing... they just blew compressed air into the PCIe x16 ports to clean them from dust... thats what they did so i cant confirm if its guaranteed to work or not... it just makes sense... to me atleast.
@ziddy123 i might also try this when i will finally find the courage to take it apart... any idea on where will i find the battery/switch ? is it visible ?
@Jody ok i will if i decide to take it apart... i probaly wont tho ...

 

Poke the little 'reset' hole on the bottom of the lappy, that's the cmos reset.

Also xxl, why is your gpu-z showing some things besides the pci-e rate differently? You have higher fillrates and bandwidth than mine (1gb, 3gb and 5gb higher respectively) and your gpu is identified as '5800 series' instead of mobility 5870. Can you try going back to 10.1 drivers?

 

@hakira

higer fillrater and bandwidth cause the oc.

here is the picture with stock values and driver what i got with the disk

 

@hakira thats because of the overclock he is using... you can see that he is running 790/1090 thats why the bandwidth and fillrate is higher.
right now im going to try to reset the BIOS. Will report back soon... keep your fingers crossed

 

@Pistino01

Plz keep us up to date,
I gonna go to vacation on thursday and then i dont have time anymore to diil with the RMA for 3weeks.
Just need to know is there a way to fix it my self.

 

well the little BIOS swith didnt work... at least for me.
@xxlmaster you can easily try it yourself just switch your lappy off turn it around and there you will see a small hole on the left side of the lappy stick something thin inside (i used a needle) and feel it click (sort of like a mouse button) and you are done... didnt do any good for me tho... please try it... i want to see if it will work for you.

 

reset switch i tryd the first moment when i saw the problem.
i thought that u are gonna take out the battery

Her is a topic of a guy hwo has the same problem.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/493207-asus-g73jh-cod-modern-warfare-2-fps-compare.html

 

so I was right about the dirty contacts

If it is dirty contacts, then a CMOS reset won't do diddly.

 

well now i know first hand ... and right now im even more discouraged to tak it apart because of this : http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...ld-warranty-voided-redoing-thermal-paste.html
i think ill just have to RMA it... i just hate the waiting damn it...

 

Just dont break anything and you will not void your warrenty.

 

for me its really hard to understand (talking about me at the moment) how a brand new notebook PCI-E contact can be dirty

 

well thats bugging me too... my room is definitely clean. maybe in the factory something messed up... :/ great work. although we are not yet sure its the contacts even if its very probable. maybe its really just a defective GPU or MOBO... someone that has this problem and isnt afraid/is skilled enough or confident enough to take his lappy apart and clean the contacts could perform this procedure and post results.

 

only part what i am affraid is here
YouTube - Asus G73Jh Disassembly Take Apart G73 Replace Video Card G73 service manual
@ 3:28 starts

 

IMO just have it RMA if you have any fears of taking it apart.

From the other person's experience it appears to be a problem you cannot fix anyhow. Likely a motherboard replacement.

 

Warranty system in norway suck really bad. They have all the time in the world. Calld them in morning 9 a.m, asked s/n and where did u bouth it, so then they say that we have to check something in the computer and we call u back. So far nothing.
Gonna call them tomorrow and make a little higer voice.

 

Luckily the guys here are total dopes... my brothers G51 broke and they just sent back his money and said that they donk know whats with it ... maybe ill get lucky and they will do the same thing... if so ill invest in some clevo or AW with 5870m xfire... i think ill take it to the shop on thursday... *sigh*

 

yh also have the same prob....showing [email protected] is only 8 active....Would be going to an asus workshop nxt week to see whats wrong...

 

woww, thats to mutch already.

I wonder what is causing that problem

@silvela

when/how did u noticed that problem?

 

Frankly speaking i noticed this reading after u posted urs...But i had earlier noticed a drop in performance but i thought it was because i was on stock....I used to play Crysis warhead @ high fps and there were no lags or so but after doing a factory restore(windows update couldn't install some important filed) when i lauch crysis it took more time to load and in game play it started to lag/break for some time when in foggy places or extremely bright screens(after xplosions)....I contacted Asus through em@il a couple of days ago...An they replied by telling me to update bios to 211 and drivers to 10.8...well i did that but it was still reading x8...so went back to my original settings(beta vbios and 10.7a)....Found out from other forums that running @x8 and @x16 were marginally the same(but hey why did i buy this laptop to get the best not to be second best) so searched enough and i think most of these ppl were able to fix this problem by cleaning out their pci-e and sticking it back in correctly making sure it had perfect contact...So could have done this by myself but i think my huge hands might break this keyboard when taking them out so took an asus centre nearby...Was contemplating of taking to an asus repair shop next week but took it there today....And funny enough they had no idea what to do...SO i've left my laptop with them to fix it. ...
ps h and oh i furmarked my lap over there and after them seeing a GSOD told me it could be a faulty GPU so they have to check...Would checkup on them on saturday....

 

These are some links that i found googling about this problem...Hope it helps...
check them out
magic touch
....this was a bug fix i also read about fixing pci-e x1 bug

 

got my lap from the tech guys today...well they've changed the GPU..been given a new one ..and its showing corectly now x16@x16 but i actually haven't seen any improvement on BFBC2...well let me install crysis warhead and check it out..and its on stock vbios...

 

install new vBIOS and use 10.8 drivers.. ur problems should be solved.

 

it came a little late for me... im already a week into RMA anyway its a good thing its finally solved

 

So my one is also in RMA and they said its gonna be fixed by a week.
Hopefully ill get it back next week.
Realy cant wait to see what this thing can do when its gonna work like it has to.

 

it seems that this issue is back.. its seems the 5870M is not running at ful PCI Express 2.0 speeds but 1.1X speed...

 

I also have a problem that behaves like this. When I play crysis(the original), when I first fire my gun after having not fired it for a while, it lags a bit. Just when I fire though. Does anyone else have this problem? My PCI-E is at x16, so it isn't because of poor connections between the GPU and the MB.

Thanks for the help!

Edit: I also saw something earlier in this thread about framerates when playing Dirt 2 on max at 1920x1080 resolution. My fps is at about 30-32 on the "stress-test", does that sound about right to you guys?

 

have anyone with this problem got it fixed by RMA by now?
Well my one is ready they say and hopefully i will get it back in this week. But the thing is that they said there was no problem. they just made some updates and updated the bios (what i allready did before i send it). So in one word it will come back the same way as it went there.
Dont know what do too. They keept it almost 30 days in it just to made a bios update what i allready did, really stupit. Can i demand a replacement now because its probably not fixed still?

 

..they replaced my gpu...and it was 3days over here and i even kept my laptop the 3 days only went in when it was ready and they had it for a day to test...........well may be urs has been fixed..js make sure they show u itsx16@x16 before sending to u...cheers