The G73: An Ongoing Battle

Thanks for the info.
I've just gone to the IC diamond website, and got the same thing as you said. It's clear enough for me now.

so I think if the thermal pads squish out from the edges after you highten the heatsink down maybe a reasonable measurement for the quantity used for pasting?

 

The thermal pads are actually over the memory chips and a couple of other outlaying components. Unfortunately there's really no way to know that you put the right amount on there from squeeze out since you won't be able to see it. If you are really worried, I guess you could drop a pea size in the middle of the GPU and then measure it's approximate diameter by hovering a ruler over the top of it. Don't touch it with the ruler though.

There's plenty of compound in the tube. You could squeeze out a pea sized amount on a test area like a piece of paper and then measure it. You could even press something hard and flat down on it to see how it spreads. There would still be plenty left in the tube to do a repaste.

 

Not a great idea... ICD7 is too putty-like to spread well at room temps. It really needs to warm up to spread properly, so don't waste your paste that way.

 

Well, the second attempt at repasting the GPU has just taken place. Arctic Silver 5 was once again the paste used and I've heard that it does have a lengthy set time (longer than ICD 7).

I ran a bench yesterday and it didn't have a thermal shutdown so that was a good sign. Currently, I'm running another Furmark bench and after about 15 minutes, it is sitting at around 102-3C.

Are these higher temperatures a result of the paste not fully setting yet (website says that it can take up to 200 hours to completely bond) or should I be worried about this... because I am!

 

1. According to ATI spec sheet, working temperatures under 111C are considered as normal before shutdown occurs at 114C.
2. ATI also pre-set additional protection mechanisms to down clock the GPU at 105C and then again at 108C depending on load conditions.
3. Running Furmark is dangerous on both the mobile and desktop GPUS, it shortens the life of the components and to be honest, does it really tell you anything about stability if the system turns around and crashes in a game.

 

Thanks I have been looking for the normal operating temps of this gpu.

 

Gary, I've been wanting to read the ATI spec sheet that has info on max die temps. Can you point me to the spec sheet that has this info ?

Thanks !

 

responses are at main gaming page... ATI response

 

Hey, guys
finished repasting, I got about 15C drop for the GPU and about 10C drop for the CPU, everything seems OK up to now,
will run furmark and report back later.

 

everything is ok, but you got a voided warranty according to some. not according to others.

mine doesn't work at all... any driver
even at 300/300 gpu timings it gsods...
700/1000 gsod
705/1100 gsod

9.12 gsod, 10.1 gsod etc etc 10.7a gsod

scarcraft 2 = 114 degress and shut off. 3dmark06 = instant gsod in 1 min. FFIV benchmark = overheat/gsod whichever first.
Singularity= gsod/overheat. Photoshp CS5= GSOD GSOD GSOD... awww just drew the best hand ever GSOD aaarrrgghh!

i need it for work dont know what i am going to do, if I RMA and wait for a fix then i have no work computer for 3-4 weeks and maybe get back a non working half fixed laptop like others have.

I have always bought asus motherboards, laptop, etc etc but this just is so terrible. somehow have to buy another laptop now to supplement this one not letting me do my job

--> just want to add that it did this since i bought it in april. I put in a intel x25m g2 SSD and reinstalled windows (to load photoshop faster)... i blamed myself the first month thinking i did the SSD or windows wrong, i wish i new about these problems so i could have given the laptop back for refund.

i am happy we have guy here responding that they are working on it. I am sure the majority of g73 users are happy. But for those of us who got royally screwed out of 2 grand$ what are we to do? We have a non working/ overheating laptop, terrible RMA turnaround with countless cases of it doing nothing to fix the issue... for us just saying there is a issue you are working on is not enough. There needs to be a replacement... sending for RMA waiting 4 weeks, getting back a bad job/gsod again then again sending for RMA and repeating is ridiculous

 

Sad to hear that, but as others say, if you got GSOD under stock driver, you need to RMA or replace it.

hmm... I actually removed the warranty tap to get the CPU heatsink down, i think ASUS will happy to see this

and about the furmark test, it hit 93C after 15mins' run, compared to shot to shutdown just about 1mins before I repasted it, So I think it's acceptable....

 

i want to. just cant loose my comp .. will loose too much work if i wait weeks for rma.

thats the problem... RMA is no guarantee here. if it was a sure thing i get a fixed laptop back i would suck it up make arrangements and do it. but too many people have posted getting back their RMA and sending it right back the next day or a few weeks later.

there needs to be a guarantee of quality. I don't consider the state of the faulty G73s and the RMA service an actual warranty. If you have a faulty device and warranty it, then it should be fixed. Not like the post after post i read of rmaing solving absolutely nothing in these g73s.

 

Have you read these threads concernig crashes with g73jh's? As it stands, there are no "faulty" laptops other than those which have been bricked by bad bios/vbios flash by the end-user.
Each and every G73jh is suffering from GSOD problems when using the newest Ati Catalyst drivers and that is a known Asus vbios (=software) problem that is being officially worked on.

In the meantime, you can flash your vbios with the older MSI bios from March (that has been linked many times in this forum) and get rid of the problem, however you lose vga and hdmi functionality as long as you have this vbios installed. This is the only known *real* solution (other than going back to 9.12/10.1 stock drivers) at the moment, other tweaks may just lessen the frequency of gsod's but don't really prevent them.

 

you gotta read my post up a few.
i GSOD on stock drivers, 10.1, 10.2... 10.7...10.7a
i GSOD on 700/100 stock timing, 705/1105, 755/1100 705/1100 300/300 500/500 695/895

never changed my vbios, but GSODed on every bios from 206 up to 209

Temps increased in 3 months to an idle windows temp of 81 degrees as i type this

and to top it all i cant RMA because then i loose my work comp for weeks and get back a laptop that is still "faulty" (most likely)

You want to tell me there are no faulty laptops? i would hate to see what is considered a faulty laptop.

i have a 2000 dollar typing/internet machine that isnt even stable to do that

--> i think people having to repaste after a month or two themselves because RMA service doesn't do a good job is a faulty laptop
--> Gsoding with such terrible ""software"" issues is a faulty laptop, having to use a MSI vbios

and in my case yeah its faulty, its terrible
i thought i had it stable at 10.7a 705/1100 but just as i got comfy with it worked in CS5 doing my work absorbed for an hour and BOOM lost all my work

 

Yeah, this is what i think and why i repaste it by myself, actually ASUS won't do this job for you and they'll say these temperatures are normal and no problem!

 

man ohman.

yeah i wouldnt complain if i had to overclock to get it stable. i probably woudlnt have even come on these forums if i could play a game on my gaming laptop for at least an hour. If i cold work 4 hours on adobe and do my work and listen to music, man i would be shocked the computer is so weird but not complain

but this rig... man i am going to draw a venom ripping this POS apart

 

Overclock doesn't really turn these rigs stable under newer drivers, perhaps a bit more stable for some people but still basicly under the risk of GSOD. If you are getting these crashes also when using Asus stock drivers 9.12/10.1, it might be there are something messed up with your system. Perhaps you could try reverting the notebook back to factory condition and if it still crashes without any driver updates etc. then you should RMA it.

 

yah i did reinstalled windows 7, and put all stock on and just photoshop cs5 for work. I know it needs RMA but Asus RMA is not reliable at all, it usualy comes back gsoding or overheating again, thats after weeks without my work computer!

like my previous post::
i want to. just cant loose my comp .. will loose too much work if i wait weeks for rma.

thats the problem... RMA is no guarantee here. if it was a sure thing i get a fixed laptop back i would suck it up make arrangements and do it. but too many people have posted getting back their RMA and sending it right back the next day or a few weeks later.

there needs to be a guarantee of quality. I don't consider the state of the faulty G73s and the RMA service an actual warranty. If you have a faulty device and warranty it, then it should be fixed. Not like the post after post i read of rmaing solving absolutely nothing in these g73s.

 

Ok. You have to remember though that most people here that have RMA'd their G73jh's don't have a problem like yours, they just RMA because of the general GSOD problem that every g73jh has. And they get back the same machine or new machine that still gsod's because the vbios problem still exists and Asus has no fix available yet.

If you RMA your computer in factory condition and attach clear info what is the problem I guess it might actually be worthwile. You shouldn't use the word GSOD though, because that is practically misleading techs to the general problem, not yours. Maybe it would be better you just mentioned constant crashing and overheating that has become worse with time.

 

OMG the DRAMA!

81C idling is way too high. You need a repaste job. You need to either:

1) Repaste it yourself.
2) Take it to a local shop and have them do it.
3) RMA it

If you cannot or unwilling to do either of those choices, then you deserve losing $2000 for living in fear. Simple as that.

 

Just a suggestion for in the future. If you need your laptop for work and can't handle losing a work day, you might want to look at a business class laptop like a thinkpad that offers on-site repairs. I know this doesn't offer any help now, but it is definitely something you may take into consideration on your next laptop.

 

Seriously, grab some Xanax and get that thing RMA'd! Or repasted at the very least.

Something on your G73 is messed up that goes beyond the typical GSOD problem.

Also, since your work seems to depend 100% on a working a computer you might want to consider picking up a cheapo PC on Ebay as a backup. I've been running 2 or more computers for years now and can't imagine having just one, mostly to avoid the very kind situation your in now.


p.s. I got my first GSOD about an hour ago (yay) Running 10.6. Everything else factory stock. I had Dragon Age loaded and was about to load a game. Not very graphic intensive eh? I've gone 20+ minutes in Furmark pre and post 10.6, and have played hours and hours on stock driver.. so I don't really think this is a heat issue. (not to say that extreme heat can't cause a GSOD)

 

Alright, I mentioned this before but I'm going to put a slightly different spin on it. My G73 has been repasted twice now. The first time, my friend performed the operation slightly incorrectly and the GPU went into thermal shutdowns. I got him to fix it, but now I'm not getting any better temperatures. A 30min benchmark on Furmark has the temp maxing out at 103-104C. Now, for games, its been running great in the past few days since the repaste, however the temperatures are a little worrisome.

I have another couple days on my 15 day direct exchange warranty through Canada Computers. Should I accept that this computer just runs a bit hot or exchange and start back at square one?

(note: i'm aware that those temps are considered normal by ATI, however some of the other members here with considerably lower GPU temps have me more than a little bit worried...)

 

if you have a direct exchange... why not use it?!

i would guess the pasting is still not perfect... did you use IC diamond 7 ?

 

You are running hot. GPUs are not made identical in the manufacturing process. Some are better and some are worse. If you repasted properly and are still getting over 100C you got a bad, hot running one. Id replace it now.

 

Sorry, but that's incorrect information. I'm running 10.7 and have yet to see a GSOD. Don't make sweeping claims without any hard evidence.

 

I used Arctic Silver 5. I heard its not as good as the IC Diamond stuff but I should've seen some sort of decrease in temp...
I'm going to take it back. I just called the dude I know at Canada Computers, he's gonna check out what they've got in stock.

 

I think your repasting has not been done properly.

And you might also like me find that the part sticking out over the resistor and has a RAM pad doesn't actually have room for a RAM pad. This might prevent the heatsink getting flat on the core.

 

You seam to be a rare exception here, but you also dont want to fully test your laptop so we cant be sure. You can just say you havent expirienced any GSODs with what you ran so far.

 

hmm... would that mean that the RAM pad would have to be removed altogether, or just have a thinner pad inserted?

 

Not really that rare. Vicious just posted in another thread earlier, and there was another user that I quoted when you jumped on me about saying some folks like to fuss. So that's 3 counting myself that've posted today.

As far as fully testing, that's in your opinion. I've run other benchmarks. I've played Crysis, Borderlands, messed with the Stone Giant test (though I don't have that currently installed), played a little Gothic 3, Dirt 2 and haven't had any issues. I'm not the only person running around that doesn't put Furmark as the end-all be-all, and as such that's enough for you to dismiss what I say entirely.

I have to ask- why would I lie? If I wasn't happy with the laptop's performance, I would RMA it. I don't see any gain from saying that I don't GSOD, with the possible exception that it seems to rankle you so.

 

My G73 also does not GSOD. I'm presently running 10.7a and I've also posted a 2 hour FurMark screenshot. We may be in the minority, but there are working G73s out there.

 

Add me to the list of 0 GSOD's. I game 50 hours a week and purchased my machine on February 9th. I could care less if I haven't tried running Furmark for 3 days on my machine to prove its "broken". And haven't run into a Catalyst driver yet that gave me issues and I have used all of them.

 

I used Arctic Silver 5 as well, just because I had some in the fridge from a new desktop build a couple months ago.

I'm not seeing dramatic decreases in temps like the ICD folks are seeing, but definitely helped...Idle temps down ~6C, Furmark plateaus at ~95C - down from 108C+.

How much Arctic Silver 5 was used? The size of a pea would be way too much. I used about the size of a grain of rice. Applied it using the vertical line method. I did it twice - I took the heat sink off again after the first try just to make sure I was getting the coverage I wanted with the quantity I used.

I'm still only about 30 hours into the 200 hour Arctic Silver break-in period

 

Silly Arctic Silver 5 people! Actually, I find this amusing since I have 2 tubes of AS5, but I happen to see ICD7 on the shelf and I remembered Ken Lee going on and on about it, so I bought a tube. Am I glad I did.

 

Ya, even after the repaste (its possible that too much of the stuff was used), I'm still running over 100c with Furmark. In game as well. I called my friend that works at the store and he found a G73 that ran Furmark w/o crashing at 91C for 30 min. I'm going to make the exchange because the unit seems to be a serious improvement over my own.

Now... to find some Blu Ray software...

 

Hey, its all I had at the time. Would've been past warranty by the time IC Diamond 7 arrived.

 

I would grab that laptop fast! Good to see that some stable ones exist.

 

Heading to the store in t-minus 1 hour.

 

THAT'S UNPOSSIBLE! It must've been faked.

 

I did some bending on that part. Thinner pad might work also.

And I would get rid of that AS5. Just some MX2, MX3 or ICD7.

 

Im just the unluckiest guy in the universe. Ken Lee wasnt able to find one good GPU that wouldnt GSOD in his warehouse and the techs here also cant find me one. Its like these Asus GPUs and techs are plotting against me... They must have found out how much i torture my hardware.

Youre right, its just bad karma. I must have done something horrible so this keeps happening to me. Ill refrain from claiming its a wide spread issue, since i really cant proove it, i can only tell you what ive expirienced and heard. Hope you dont mind if i still discuss possible solutions for us unlucky few.

 

LOL. I'm just glad you're not bitter about it.

I'm giving you a hard time. I recognize internet sarcasm some of the time. I'm pretty sure that there are quite a few people with GSODs. I have no way of knowing if it's 50% or 1% but I bet it's closer to 50 than 1.

 

Here to report Im one of the lucky few with a working G73. Only time i do get GSODS is when its 80+F out and I dont use my laptop cooler. Other then that i can play any game for as long as i want =)

 

Well... it finally happened. After 5 exchanges, I've come across a functional G73! I can confirm that the unit runs Furmark with a max temp of 91C and can do so with the newest drivers and BIOS 209. I haven't tried 211 yet and probably won't due to the rather unflattering responses to its release.

Anyway, to all who have provided advice and support, thanks for the help. It was much appreciated and refreshing to find out that I was not alone.

The tech at Canada Computers informed me that numerous others had returned their G73s recently and that store as well as numerous other locations have taken the computer off of display until "the issue is resolved."

 

Wow thats great to hear. I am also on a quest to keep returning GPUs until i am given one that works... I gotta get one someday if theres so many working ones out there right?

 

I am tying to wait out my RMA to see what Gary and his crew can come up with...

 

Well... apparently I spoke too soon. Now I'm just getting furious. The laptop runs cool when I use Furmark (91C as previously mentioned) and yet upon loading up both Half Life 2 (a steam game) and Crysis, I got GSODs in under 5 min. I am overclocked at 704.95/1100. Currently using 10.7a and 209. Seriously, what is this!

Anyone have any suggestions?

This current machine has my old hds in it with all of the proper setups required to play Steam games... I have no idea why this one is doing this. After starting it back up after one of these GSODs, the computer locked up (no mouse movement, screen froze mid load) when I tried to go onto the internet.

UPDATE: just got a GSOD using Furmark about 3 minutes in with those clock settings. And that definitely didn't happen on friday when I went to pick this computer up.

 

exchange number 6

 

Just wait for Gary. I think the GSOD is already fixed because they are testing a new video BIOS at Asus. I bet this thing already existed months ago but no one at Asus was listening when Ati notified that the newer drivers needed ciritical fixes in the BIOS.

The new laptop graphic card lanscape is that both NVidia and Ati have taken control over driver releases. In the future laptop manufacturers are not responsible for that anymore. They just need to provide the video BIOS update if Ati requires it.