How to Fix Your GSOD Blues

There are 3 updates you need to do:

1) Update the motherboard BIOS to 211
2) Update the video BIOS to v93 using the package in the 1st post
3) Update drivers to latest (10.8)

 

Update:

So, apparently, this vBIOS update WILL NOT APPEAR ON ASUS' SUPPORT SITE. (I kind of figured that) It also appears this vBIOS is the final official version, so I guess they decided "no" to an official Overdrive version. So, if you are waiting for an official release, I wouldn't hold your breath.

If you want it done "officially" you will need to RMA it.

 

I dont know yet... Im talking to Gary Key from Asus and Ken from GenTech. Gary said he wont have time to answer until after Monday and im still talking to Ken now. He suggested i wait for an official vBios release if it will be newer, but it seams thats not happening...

 

So your OC version will be the only official


Any update about faulty touchpad??

 

Apparently my G73 was updated to the "latest firmware" for the GPU last week. Still waiting on the screen to come in. T_T

 

I have had this machine for 3 months and haven't been able to use it properly because of the keyboard lag. This is maybe why America is so bad...because they prioritize leisure (gaming) over work related things. Next time I'll just pay extra for a Clevo or a Dell.

 

ROG= republic of GAMERS

G series= GAMING Series...

ASUS= taiwan

 

Be happy youre not getting GSODs like me at least...
Ive been plagued with every problem you can find on this notebook...

 

Last time I checked ASUS is based in Taiwan. This is advertised as a gaming notebook so maybe if 'work related things' are more important to you then maybe you should look into getting a business notebook.

I'm waiting on a fix for the missing keystrokes myself but I don't blame the problem on other random countries.

 

I've also GSODed a bunch while using a variety of 7xx/1100 and 800/1100 clock speed. I'm trying it out with 700/1000 now- but it's kind of sad that I can't go to 800/1100 anymore (I used to be able to until about 2 weeks ago on the old vBIOS).

 

Swaaye,

I used to think the same. Please refer to my post here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus-gaming-notebook-forum/515309-how-fix-your-gsod-blues-66.html

I posted the above awhile ago, and I think many people have missed the point of my post, and only 1 person has replied acknowledging the seriousness of the issue.

I 'was' one of the lucky ones Swaaye ... I unboxed my G73JH in May 2010 and ran solid with no GSODs for 4 months straight on bios 206 and Catalyst 10.5. My friend purchased a G73JH as well around the same time, and he was not so lucky. We both came to the conclusion that my machine must have a better quality GPU and Vram. That theory was crushed just the other day when I started experiencing GSOD as well.

Quoting Chastity:

"The problem was that Asus made a revision to the video card for lower temps (C1x series) that was not 100% with the existing vBIOS, and needed updated settings. The new vBIOS also works for the C0x cards."

If that's the case, why did their revision work perfectly with my stock vBIOS for 4 months solid running on just bios 206 and Catalyst 10.5?

Keep in mind that my friend and I had the same mainboard bios and vBIOS out-of-the-box. He ran solid for awhile actually, and then suddenly one day he started GSOD'ing. I kept running solid up until a couple of days ago and finally experienced my first GSOD. The only difference between him and I is that he initially did game a lot more heavily than I did. I would only game occasionally at first. It's only recently that I started gaming more and for longer until finally one morning I experienced my first GSOD. Since that morning, I would GSOD on every game I tried ... something that would've NEVER happened to me before.

Conclusion - Deterioration of GPU hardware(inferior quality) due to low thermal tolerance. My friend's G73JH GSOD'ed earlier because he accelerated the rate of deterioration by gaming much more than I did. My machine lasted longer with occasional gaming but eventually did give in recently due to heavy gaming.

 

I don´t thing that it is the problem. GSOD was random and MSI vBIOS and asus 93 vBIOS fix it.

That's what happened to me, but if I ran Driver sweeper and reinstall the drivers (10.6), the problem was going for a few days.

It seems more driver corruption in the drivers which interfered with the VBIOS

 

HellCry,

Yes, I also believe that they are. Please consider reading my post(s) from awhile ago which many have chosen to deny/ignore:

Pg. 66
http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus-gaming-notebook-forum/515309-how-fix-your-gsod-blues-66.html

Pg. 72
http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus-gaming-notebook-forum/515309-how-fix-your-gsod-blues-72.html Pg. 72

You may be singled out as being the ONLY one to experience GSODs after the new vBIOS release, but I can reassure you there will be many to follow in the upcoming months/year ... myself included.

 

It could be component deterioration, and it could be thermal increase due to TIM deterioration. And sadly, once it hits that magic point, redoing the TIM doesn't help.

This is why I suggest everyone to update: so you don't have to deal with hitting the magic point.

 

Yes you are correct in that the MSI or new asus vBIOS fixes the problem albeit temporarily. In fact I'm running on BIOS 211, the new asus vBIOS, and Catalyst 10.8 right now with no problems yet. My point (if you would please read my original post on Pg. 66) is I wouldn't even need to (and had no intention of) upgrading any of my bios(es) because I was running fine w/o GSODs out-of-the-box with 10.5 drivers installed. Now it ran consistently solid for 4 months using the SAME untouched configuration of bios, vbios...etc. Now all of a sudden it decides to GSOD consistently on me out of complete randomness and corruption of drivers? My drivers were untouched. They've remained at Catalyst 10.5 for the longest time.

Yes GSOD is random, but there is always a cause and effect. The ONLY reasoning I can think of with my situation is GSOD due to hardware deterioration and failure. What else could it be if this happens 4 months later to an "UNTOUCHED" configuration?

Like I said in my earlier posts, I have no idea what was implemented in the new vBIOS (whether it be looser timings or the like), but whatever Asus did, I believe it is merely a means of delaying the inevitable deterioration and breakdown of the GPU hardware.

 

I was 1 month without gsod (benchmarks, games...) and one day, oh! 1 GSOD, then some game or bench gives me GSOD... but when i unninstalled 10.6, ran driver sweeper, and reinstal 10.6 I had another month withouth GSOD... until I Updated to 10.7

If it was degradation of the hardware, reinstalling the driver should not help...

And remember that with 10.1 and 9.12 GSODs didn´t happen

 

I too have a hard time believing this is a hardware deterioration issue.

However, I only game on this system so it is only used infrequently.

Cheers,

 

That's what I believe has happened to my machine.

If everybody would please take notice to some of the things that were implemented in the new bios releases:

BIOS 211 - fan speeds modified resulting in lower GPU operating temperatures

new Asus vBIOS v038352 - lower GPU idle clock speed of 405mhz again resulting in a lower GPU temperature at idle.

It's obvious that Asus realizes their GPU hardware has low thermal tolerance. Their objective here with the new bios releases is to ultimately have a lower idle temperature when you start up your games and to hopefully maintain and prevent operating temperatures from reaching the "magic point" that Chastity mentioned with the ramped up fan speeds of BIOS 211.

Everything is pointing in the direction of "delaying hardware deterioration and failure"

 

we shouldn´t see "conspiracies" everywhere .D

the lower clock speed in the new vbios is caused because powerplay is implemented well...The stock vbios had bad powerplay profile.

And I think the 211 bios was an attempt to camouflage the problem of bad thermal paste application

 

What? You mean, they implement proper powerplay support (one of many things we've been complaining about) and you think they're trying to pull an nvidia/dell?

Yeah, asus really dropped the ball on this. But I don't think it's a GPU power/heat issue they were addressing.

Think about it... Stock drivers, rock solid. MSI vbios, rock solid. New vbios, rock solid (so far for everyone but Hellcry and I, and we likely got faulty hardware).

Seems to me the asus GSOD is similar to the Microsoft BSOD all throughout the late 90s. Not usually a hardware problem (though it could be caused by hardware failure) ... just bad programming and implementation.

I figured it was probably just shoddy programming, too many shortcuts in the code, which generally give better performance but lose out on stability. Even if it was something else, I don't care - 90 at load is actually pretty good for a gaming laptop with such a hefty GPU. Have you ever had a decent nvidia card run cooler than 90 at load? Have you ever *used* an apple computer? Both hit 100-105 quite quickly. I'm not saying that's good. I'm just saying that in comparison to other computers in it's power bracket, the g73 is quite cool.

 

I wouldn't say it's a conspiracy, but a logical progression of events.

On the stock vBIOS with a C1x part number, you have a configuration that is marginally prone to hardware lockup (GSOD) using drivers that post-date 10.3 due to embedded setting of vBIOS vs drivers and revised hardware configuration.

Due to the issue regarding the TIM application and installation, some cards, if not many, will slowly degrade in cooling capacity. These higher temps, while still within AMD's spec of 114C, will cause the card to be more susceptible to the marginal issue with the hardware, and you will GSOD more frequently. The idea here is that higher temps exposes the card to a higher % of instability.

It's also been shown through the users here that repasting can very well help, but isn't a sure cure for a GSOD prone unit.

The new vBIOS corrects the settings for the hardware to match AMD's drivers. While I think that further GSOD issues should no longer be a problem, as the main root of the problem has been corrected, it's still possible that some units may still exhibit a problem, being one of those less than 1% units.

 

Thank you for this.

I'm not here to start any conspiracy theories but just here to report my "logical progression of events" as Chastity stated.

 

I've been getting some blue screens with this vbios + 10.8s.

Sometimes, when loading a flash video eg. youtube the aero theme will turn off and then quickly turn back on again, with a pop up bubble in the bottom right saying the display driver failed but was able to recover.

The flash video doesn't play, but is solid green.

If I restart the web browser and load up the video again, the screen goes black and shows a blue box in the middle of it saying the display driver failed. It does a memory dump, I think, then automatically shuts the computer down.

When Windows starts again, it says the system recovered from a BlueScreen (see image).

This is annoying! (Goes without saying that this never happened on stock vbios and drivers)

edit: Wow, post-crash, my google chrome settings are now 'corrupted' and I've lost all my extensions. Great.

 

my friend said he is having the same thing happen with his desktop 5870. I'm guessing it's a windows / ati thing

 

This is a CCC/fresh driver install problem. Do a fresh driver install (after clearing out all the junk properly, I'm sure you can find something to that effect here), and the problems will go away.

ATI has a horrible history of causing problems like this, if you don't properly remove old drivers before installing new ones. And whatever other junk you've installed probably doesn't help.

 

Hello everybody. I have my First GSOD.
Do not believe it is a deterioration of hardware. My G73 has only 1 week. I had the GSOD after opening 2 second SL viewer. For me it’s a light program.
I upgraded to BIOS 211 and the backlight keyboard died.
I think ASUS is a great brand. My son has a G51 and play for many hours and never had a problems.
I had a DELL XPS M1710 for 3 years. I took the extreme playing for over 20 hours straight and never had a problem. Open 6 SL viewer in some time. I could fry an egg on the XPS but never crash.
I think ASUS made a premature "release" with various configuration problems.
Now if many people with problems, ASUS must post an official upgrade.

Well now I have two problems:

- GSOD
- Backlight Keyboard dead

I know about the topic Keyboard and the first page about GSOD but I see the solution as a patchwork since it is not official.

 

DO not upgrade your bios with winflash :_

93 VBIOS is an official solution, 93 vbios will not be into the asus download site. You can only fix GSOD updating vbios here or sending it to RMA then they will upgrade your vbios. ...

Read this to solve backlight keyboard problem and GSOD:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...492354-all-g73jh-problems-solutions-here.html

 

I have a clean 10.8 install, that is I uninstalled the stock drivers, restarted in safe mode, used driversweeper, restarted, then installed 10.8s.

 

Has Gary yet commented anything why MSI vbios still works 100% stable on HellCry's notebook but their's v93 does not?

 

I just bought a g73jh and updated to ati 10.8. I used the FF14 benchmark a few times and it ran fine and SC2 also ran fine for about an hour. Does this mean I don't have the GSOD problem or is it possibly going to show up later? The computer I got already has BIOS 211 on it.

 

This was a long way of saying "should I update to the new vBIOS?"

YES. It's for everyone. Even you. Use it. All cards have the issue, only varying degrees of it. I've only mentioned this a few times. Over and over again.

TO EVERYONE ELSE WONDERING WHETHER THEY SHOULD OR SHOULD NOT: YOU SHOULD. Period.

The next person who asks this question gets the placebo stick, followed by being ignored. </rant>

 

Haha thanks for the response. I read through a lot of this thread, but there's so many more pages I decided to just ask my question. Wish me luck on the flash!

 

you something... I would bet all my money on the G73JW... you know why? One word: nvida! That's why. What do you guys (and lady) think?

 

I just still need some new info.

I NEVER, repeat, NEVER got a GSOD on any driver. My max temps in furmark are about 87.

I just need to know what this fixes. What does the BIOS actually do (not just answering fixes GSOD's)? If its something that is going to help me future proof then yes I will update, but right now im on the stance of "if it aint broken, dont fix it"

 

So this worked flawlessly for me.
Gary - Thank you for making an appearance, being an ambassador for your company. Thank you for your involvement with the community.

I believe Asus needs to be quicker out of the gates, to recognize and respond to issues like this going forward. While I'm disappointed it took so very, very long for the problem to be acknowledged, I am impressed at how quickly you deployed it once the engineers were brought in.

Chastity - Don't know who you are bro, but your presence on these forums has been a blessing for all of us enthusiests. I'm now many years removed from working as a PC tech, and have been reading your work on this forum since I got the laptop in July. You've helped me and many other tremendously during that time through your hard work and dozens of posts about how to make the laptop stable, in lieu of a fix. You probably played a role in getting Asus involved too.
Thank you.

Loving my G73J, it's been completely stable since the vbios flash without me needing to lock the speeds using the AMD util. I noticed the new GPU timings with this vbios set the speeds to 405 idle, 500 while watching videos, and 700 when gaming - and I'm fine with that. Can always go to 766/1100 when gaming using the util anyways.

Thanks again,
- Robert

 

You remind me of those people with Toyota's who decided to wait until the brakes fail to get them recalled and fixed.

So, yes upgrading is a futureproof against any upcoming drivers from AMD.

 

to Chastity,
Could you please tell me your current Bios, vBios and Catalyst?? No GSOD with your G73JH ????????? bye !!! thanks for all.

 

Managed to find a buyer for a decent sum and if all goes well hell come pick it up next week. Wont buy me a JW with i7-820qm, only a stock one and a wireless upgrade for it, but i guess ill take the i7-740qm over the i7-820qm+GSOD combo. (and im keeping the SSD of course ).

 

Well thats good found a buyer ...

My JW just arrived a half hour ago and just going through the motions now...

 

omg..
help, my card it constantly changing gpu clock with this new Vbios.. and this appens on idle.. look at gpu-z log--> http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3515104/GPU-Z Sensor Log.txt

 

Nice! Waiting for your tests.
Most importantly, does it still miss keystrokes with the touchpad enabled in bios and does it have any other problems like the GSODs ?

 

BIOS 211
vBIOS 012.020.000.032.038352 latest vBIOS
Cat 10.8 WHQL

 

Please do us a favor and get a MSI or Clevo.

I do not want to read your keyboard rants.

 

Not sure ill be able to type fast enough to see if i have keyboard issues but if i do ill be sure to post them ...

 

I just got my G73JH with i7-740 last week, yesterday i brought it to Asus service center to flash the bios to 2.11, and got ATI mobility 10.8

i came back, installed CoD MW2, still on the 1st mission, and bam. GSOD

could anyone help me?

 

update vbios: http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus-gaming-notebook-forum/515309-how-fix-your-gsod-blues.html

 

you forgot to upgrade the vBIOS too.

 

help, my card it constantly changing gpu clock with this new Vbios.. and this happens on idle.. look at gpu-z log--> http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3515104/GPU-Z Sensor Log.txt

 

aww shoot, didn't know that it had to be updated separately. sorry, noob here

seems like i have to return to the service center later today

thanks a lot, guys

 

So is there a tech explanation on what was fixed? I heard some sort of timing issue? Do we know anything else?