Something very odd is happening to my G73JH!

Okay so first let me say that I like to use photoshop a lot, and never ran into a problem (with the program) until like two days ago. All of a sudden it crashed unexpectedly, which sucks cuz I was working on a project that was very tedious and had to start over. Then I began to save my work every 5 mins or so, and it crashed again and again unexpectedly (Note that it was working flawlessly until two days ago).

I tried reinstalling, but it didn't help. And now today, within 30 seconds of opening a picture (was running very slow at this point) it simply stopped responding and my entire computer froze (this has never happened before)! Not even ctrl+alt+del would work, and the strangest thing was that my cpu use/free ram gadget was displaying that I was using 5.55GB out of 5.93GB! (I've never seen ram in use go above 3GB). So I hard-reset. And now it seems like my overall system is running SLOWER!

It seems like these problems arose when I installed Bulletstorm and got a tip to turn off superfetch (but I turned on superfetch back on within a couple minutes). Now I suspect it might be a virus so I'm currently scanning the entire computer with trend micro titanium. Also note that I'd prefer to NOT reinstall Windows 7 because I have a lot of games/programs/music/movies on the C drive and it would take a long time to get it back to how it is now. (I know I should have reinstalled and created a partition when I got the notebook, but I was simply too lazy!) Oh and I also got an update to install Windows 7 service pack 1 a few days ago, but I noticed my computer was slower so I restored it to before the update.

Sorry about the long post, I just want to make sure that I have all the variables covered! Thanks for any suggestions!

 

On POST hit F2 and look in the BIOS for the mobo BIOS and vBIOS versions, and copy them here. Also tell us what Catalyst you are using.

 

Oh sorry I should just put that info in my sig lol.
The BIOS version is 211 and the vBIOS is 012.020.000.032.0383.G730 (I believe I flashed your vBIOS, Chastity).
The Catalyst version is 11.2

On another note the full system scan (Trend Micro Titanium) reported no issues.

 

Actually, you may want to try not running with Trend Micro... that was very crashy on the machines I tested.

 

I've had TM for 4 years and never had a problem.

 

I *hate* TM, fwiw. Honestly, MSSE works better for me. Well, it's more stable, and I browse smart ...

 

Well I wanted the Kaspersky 6 month trial but Best Buy ran out (they were giving 6 month trials of Antivirus with purchase of new laptop). Now I'm stuck with trend micro until June unless I want to spend money

 

Have you tried updating your Realtek Drivers? If you have already updated it recently, try re-installing it.

 

Na I haven't messed with the audio drivers at all.

 

That is weird. I'd try scanning the computer with Malwarebytes, it tends to pick up stuff AVs always miss.

 

Before, I installed the updated Asus Virtual Camera, while I have already the latest Realtek Driver. Then after rebooting, the Windows lock-up problem returned. What I did is that I've reinstalled the updated Realtek Drivers again and it fixed the lock-up issue.

Maybe it would work for your lock-up issue.

 

Okay I did a quick scan with Malwarebytes, and it said there are no infections. I attached the text log.

Well actually I use an external sound card (obviously uses its own drivers), but my system ran fine after I installed the ext card drivers (3+ weeks ago). I guess it worth a shot to reinstall those drivers, but then what about the internal sound card drivers, should I reinstall those too?

 

I had the same problem. I also thought that bulletstorm caused that freeze. But in my case, it was the ASUS Gaming Mouse driver I installed 1 day before I installed that game. After uninstalling that mouse driver, my G73Jh is running normal again

 

Malwarebytes is worth a try, like frosty5689 said.

As this seems to be a problem that appeared recently I'd recommend trying to restore the system to a point before the crash happened. You will lose all recently installed programs (e.g. Bulletstorm) but it's worth a try.

Otherwise, a fresh install should solve the problem, but it can be a pain if you have a lot of software installed of course.

 

I think you just skimmed through the posts because I did run a quick scan with malwarebytes and got zero issues. As far as restoring, I mentioned in the first post that I restored my system after I got the windows 7 service pack 1 update, which was AFTER I installed bulletstorm but BEFORE the crash happened.

Anyway today my system seems to be running fine. It is opening programs as fast as it used to and photoshop, which has been notorious for crashing lately, after an hour of use isn't locking up and is running stable like it normally did.

I guess if I notice any more weird phenomena I'll reply to this thread...but thanks anyway to those who responded!