Help with G73JH, games lag.. even Minecraft

Hi there, been reading through a lot of threads the last days trying to figure out whats up with my pc.

The problem is, whatever i play, be it Minecraft or Batman: Arkham asylum i have troubles with the computer just stuttering.

In Minecraft, i get stuttering now and then, sometimes 2 seconds apart and sometimes longer. When i press f3 to get up the data, fps etc i sometimes see red or white spikes going all the way up. I can see the hdd working every time the game stutters.

When playing Batman for example, i dont get through the starting videos whitout a lot of stuttering making it unwatchable..

I have played through Fallout 3 earlier without a hitch, and i think all this started a few months ago but i cant recall if i did anything or updated anything at the time which could be the problem..


So things i have tried include a lot of tips i found on this site.

Reinstalled Windows through repair partition, opting out most of the bloatware and stuff.

DPC latency, found out about atheros wifi and disabled that one. Helped a bit according to the dpc program since there was a lot of red spikes going up which disappeared when i disabled the wifi.

Bios flashed to version 213.

Updated all of the Windows updates.

Installed Catalyst 11.5, but i dont think that helped very much since the control center wont start. Seems like it just thinks about it for 15 seconds and then decides to stop. Do i need to install an earlier version?

Used SeaTools to see if i could get anything out of that but it insists everything is fine.

Tried the powersettings etc.

Updated the Realtek and such.

Tried the QuietHDD with not much luck

Tried the Core parking thing, but that did not make a difference.

Ran memtest 86+ and that came out fine.

Cant remember at the time what else i have tried, so i turn to the forum to see if any of you could help me to not just having an expensive pc to surf the internets, but also playing games as intended

Regards

 

Well you shouldnt have used the recovery partition to reinstall, because whatever was causing the freezing came with the Asus install of windows..

Anyway its too much to reinstall now, have to tried uninstalling the creative drivers? that helps some people

is there any overclock/underclock or voltage change on your gpu?

If CCC isnt opening or working properly, uninstall > driver sweeper > crap cleaner > reinstall

 

I thought since everything worked fine earlier, playing through Fallout 3, Mass Effect 2 etc it would be better to reinstall.

I have tried to uninstall the Creative drivers, i tried the procedure with the drive sweeper, downloaded from phyxion.net i think but still no go on the ccc..

I have not tampered with any overclock etc, is there a way to check that the voltages is as it should be?

I have no idea, even when writing here sometimes it goes like a second or so before the words appear onscreen.

 

Well AFAIK you've covered all the basic reasons why people keep on freezing with this notebook.. I used to have intermittent freezing earlier too and it went away after i did a reinstall from a stock win 7 iso and not the recovery partition.
You can wait and see if someone else hopefully has a solution for your issue, if not seeing as you've done all the steps to fix the common problems i suggest you reinstall from a stock iso and then directly install the latest stable drivers from chastity's page.
You can just dl the home premium iso and then enter your cd-key given on the bottom of your notebook for licensing

Also. since you asked.. you can AMD Gpu clock tool or MSI afterburner for overclocking and for monitoring voltage and clocks try the gpu observer gadget.

 

Captmolo, KurkC makes many great points, I saw you are on the latest Driver for the GPU but you do not mention update of the VBIOS.
You need to update the VBIOS to avoid issues with newer GPU drivers.
I am not sure if this will fix stuttering, but it is a good idea to do this before a fresh install of WIN 7 per Kurtc's post.
This thread is a bit dated, but the advice re: VBIOS flashing still is valid.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus-gaming-notebook-forum/515309-how-fix-your-gsod-blues.html
I would recommed one of the BETA vbios from here
http://pcaudio.ath.cx/
If you have Q's about VBIOS update let us know, it can brick your computer is not done correctly.
Also have you checked for a firmware update for you hard drive(s)?
This is especially relavent if you have the seagate momentus xt .

 

Hi, I've been having the exact same problem as CaptMolo.

The problem only started about a week ago, not sure what could of caused it, I've flashed the bios to 213, and the vbios to Garys version.

I've reformatted my hard disk and reinstalled windows 7 (64-bit) from the disc, updated my realtek drivers and uninstalled the creative stuff

Also updated the firmware for momentus xt to SD25.

This freezing is happening every few seconds during game, with each freeze lasting a few seconds itself, so basically any game is unplayable. These have only been happening for the last week or so, it'd been working fine for about a month before that.

One note of interest is that with one of my games, League of Legends, if I uninstall it, restart, then reinstall, it'll work completely fine until I shut off my system again.

 

You haven't mentioned temperatures and no one has asked.

If your computer used to work before and now it does not no matter reinstalls, etc.... it is most likely you just need to give a good clean up to your ventilation system.

Please go and get CPU-Z and tell us what your temperatures are before and during gaming.

 

The gpu is at around 55 degrees when idle, and goes to around 65 during games, I don't think that's high enough to cause issues is it?

 

I tried the cpu-z and i get the same as Firefly; 55 idle and going up to about 65, also i cleaned the ventilation etc earlier.

Josea, i did the vBios install today but i cant say it did any good. But then again i havent got a iso for a new windows disk. I have w7 ultimate but the link in kurtcocaines post did not work, and i dont know if i can use the nr underneath for other versions like home premium?

When i come across an iso file to download, should i do the windows updates first or is there a certain way to go with drivers, catalyst, realtek etc?

 

Dont know if anyone is interested, but now everything works fine.. installed a new 128gb ssd and a 640gb storage disk into my g73. Installed windows 7 and used a activation, backup and restore program. Now i dont have a recoverypartition anymore, but all drivers and stuff is updated and running fluently.. i almost shed a tear when i fired up Borderlands and the video never lagged, and when i played there were no more looping in the sound etc.

Concluding that the problem was with my harddrive..

Anyway, a big thank you to everyone for the help, and the super information one can find on this site.

 

Yeah, if your system came with one of the 5400 RPM drive options, you can definitely get that issue when gaming, especially if the drive is fragmented.

I haven't gone to full SSD as of yet, but I'm running a Momentus XT which is a bit better than a standard 7200RPM drive because of the onboard 4GB of SSD memory. When stuff just doesn't work quite right though, it's always worthwhile to go back to a fresh/clean install of Windows. If you know what you are doing, the entire process only takes maybe 2-3 hours to get everything fully back up and running. That way you KNOW you have everything setup as it should be and all of the drivers installed properly.

 

Yes i have become pretty proficient re-installing windows both from the recovery partition and new haha.. so i have downloaded as much drivers and updates i can find and keep them on a hdd for next time

It was actually the momentus xt 500 gb that came with which have been giving me all this problems, probably got damaged or something. I take the computer with me going to work offshore each month so it gets some travel action.