Weird problems with Asus G73JW-A1

Hi,

I've had the Asus G73JW-A1 for a little over a month now and have been having weird/annoying issues with it since day 1.

Upon first receiving the laptop, I would get BSODs (pointing to the USB drivers) and random crashes where everything locks up and requiring a forced shutdown. The random crashes would occur mostly when the laptop was idle. The crashes happened when the laptop was idle anywhere from 2 minutes to 5 hours so it was pretty random.

After a fresh install of Windows 7 and after only installing the essential drivers, the BSODs have stopped (thankfully!), but the random freezes still occur. They happen maybe 2 to 3 times a week. Also, I'm also having problems now with the USB ports shutting off randomly.

I'm pretty stumped as to why this is happening. I've turned off USB suspending in the power management which has not helped. I've ran diagnostic tests on my harddrives and RAM with no signs of problems. I've reflashed the system BIOS which didn't help.

Anyone experience any of these problems?? Any ideas? Could it be a motherboard issue? I really don't want to RMA this...this problem seems to happen randomly and I wouldn't be able to reproduce the freeze. Would Asus even know what to replace if the problem can't be reproduced on command?

Thanks!

 

When you reinstalled Windows, did you use the drivers from the Driver CD?

 

I actually did 2 fresh installs. The first time I used the drivers from the Asus CD...BSODs and random freezes still occured so I did another fresh install with drivers from the website. The BSODs are gone but the random freezes and random USB ports shutting off remains.

The really weird things is...the laptop will run fine when it is running games or playing a movie. It has never crashed under full load.

It seems like it only crashes when the computer is idle.

 

Mine does the same thing, never when gaming, just when idle or when I am surfing the net. This is driving me and a few other people completely INSANE. My wifes 250 dollar laptop never freezes, but my 1700 dollar beast does it all the time.....ARRGGGHHH this needs FIXED

 

Do you have the Creative software on there still...

 

No Creative software is installed.

Nocturnalis - Are you also having USB problems? Along with the random freezes, my USB 2.0 ports will stop working randomly as well and sometimes give me a USB BUGCODE DRIVER BSOD. Have you reinstalled Win 7?

I've done 2 fresh installs of Win 7 and the problems are still there. My freezes seem to happen in bunches...the laptop will work fine for 2 to 3 days, then start crashing again....and repeat...it's weird. I'm thinking it may be a hardware issue now. I've also flashed the BIOS to the latest version...no dice.

I have an RMA set up (with assistance from my reseller XoticPC) but I'm kinda freaked out that they won't really do anything and send it back...since the freezes cannot be reproduced on command.

 

I had a bad stick of RAM do that once. The computer would just freeze up on occasion. Have you run the memory test available when you press F8 on startup? It could be a bad stick or a bad slot. The USB problem makes me think you need a motherboard replacement. It definitely sounds like a hardware problem that needs RMA work in my opinion. Mine is out for RMA work right now. I waited a long time because I hated to give it up for weeks so I feel your pain.

 

I ran Memtest86+ for about 7 passes with no errors.

Jody - How long has your laptop been out for RMA work? When do you expect it back? I am willing to go without this laptop for 2 to 3 weeks if it comes back with the problem fixed and no additional new problems (fingers crossed).

 

Hello everyone - just doing some research and googled "asus g73jw locking up" and this thread came to the top. Consequently, I am experiencing the same exact problems with my newly purchased ASUS G73JW-XT1 Laptop Computer - Intel Core i7-740QM 1.73GHz, 8GB DDR3, 500GB HDD, Blu-ray Player/DVDRW, 17.3" Full HD computer.

As mentioned, my system similarly does not lock up when I am tasking / using it rather when it is sitting idle, then upon return, I find it locked up. Then I have to power it down and turn it back on.

I have not gone to the extent of re-installing a fresh copy of Windows, but it doesn't sound like that would help anyway. On mine, I simply performed a "Windows Anytime Upgrade" after I received the laptop, upgrading from the included W7 Home to W7 Ultimate (64 bit edition obviously).

This is a very annoying and frustrating problem, especially when I have never had this particular problem on much less capable systems and I spent 3 times the amount on this system than I have prior.

There absolutely has to be some logical reason this is happening. I don't think it is a bad stick of RAM or hardware per se, especially since we are all experiencing the same problem. I have tried different screensavers, etc... My system will go two days, no problems, and then I'll use it, let the screensaver come on after I have walked away, then when I get back (hours later), the thing is locked hard. Only a power recycle will bring it back, losing my programs I had open. You don't dare leave anything open you haven't saved. Otherwise it'll be gone. Next thing I am going to try is to disable my screensaver.

I really love this laptop as it has exactly the typed of power I need for the work and play that I do, but the locking up / freezing up issuse HAS TO GO!

I will be very interested in following this thread in hopes of a resolution. I cannot be without my laptop for even a day so RMA is not a viable answer for me. Hope we can get it figured out soon!

 

Try going into the advanced power settings and turn off hibernation. My JH was doing the same and I think that fixed it. I also think it is a Windows 7 issue rather than a problem with the laptop hardware.

 

Thanks for weighing in Morecoffee! I would agree. I am betting it is almost certainly NOT a problem with the laptop hardware, rather a setting somewhere in the OS that needs to be adhered to. We have to keep in mind that this is an extremely high end piece of hardware, and as with automobiles, the more high end you get, the more tuning is required to achieve optimum performance. I will give your suggestion a try. Thanks!

 

If it was a problem with Win 7, I would expect a lot more people in the G73JW owner's lounge complaining about these issues. It seems as though this lock up issue has only been brought up by a few people here.

I've tried changing around the advanced power settings and I still get lock ups. I've experienced lock ups when I stepped away for maybe 5 minutes...not long enough for any screen saver or hibernation modes.

veriatech - Are you experiencing any other issues besides the lock ups?

 

I have changed a lot of settings on my machine, to be honest I can't remember all of them. If memory serves... mine was locking when I left it, I thought the sleep mode might be conflicting with the hibernate mode. I went into the advanced power settings and turned the time to over 700 minutes before the hard drives hibernate for when it is plugged in. I think that was the change that fixed it.

I have had lock ups since then but it has done it when I have been using it. One thing I have discovered is that when it does lockup there is a good chance it will lock up again after the reboot. I am not sure why it does this. The last time mine locked up I had to do a power button shut down three times. Finally it stayed on long enough for me to choose restart, after a normal shut down and restart it seems fine. I have now turned off the windows start up sounds, I am not sure if it will help. I also installed the latest video drivers off the AMD site.

I have not done the vbios or updated to the 211 bios. I guess I will eventually if I have to. If I do not have anymore problems I will probably leave it as is. I am not worried about getting a few more frames per second, I just want a stable machine where everything works correctly. My philosophy is, if it is not broken don't fix it'.

 

I have the same lockup or freeze problem with ASUS G73JW
Hardware: !!!BIOS Update 203, i740, 8GB, Geoforce GTX 460M, W7 Ultimate 64Bit, a second partition with W7 Enterprise 64 Bit.
The problem is in both W7.
I have this problem mostley in idle time, but 3 times while working normaly.
I think all G73JW have this problem, but most poeple like i are only "watching" the Thread and hopeing for a solution - i have no solution at the moment, but this is a bad problem and ASUS do not "hear" us!!! This makes me not happy. AND I NEVER WILL BUY an ASUS again!

I have also an ASUS EeePC - and what? THERE IS THE SAME PROBLEM!!!!

So ASUS - take a look to us if you want more CUSTOMERS !!!!!

 

It did not happen to me until I updated the BIOS to the new 2.03 release and the video driver to the latest revision that ASUS had posted. It's now frozen on me 2 times since Saturday while I was surfing the net. I've rolled back the video driver to the 2.63 Nvidia driver that I was using previously. Can the BIOS be rolled back if that doesn't do it? It seems that winflash will not allow me to do roll back to an earlier BIOS release than is presently installed.

 

Mine is a JH, not a JW, but I mailed it in just before Thanksgiving. They received it on 11/24. I don't have an ETA. It's waiting on parts last time I checked. Mine went to California. I check the RMA status almost every day. I've read in these forums that it isn't always a good indicator, though. Some people have received their laptops and the RMA still says waiting on parts.

 

Since initially posting last night, I disabled hybernation, sleep, etc. and woke up this morning to a frozen screen (my screensaver). Now catching up on the thread and reading more frustration on this problem from yet more folks. Here is what I am trying next:

1. Disable screensaver
2. Change from Power4Gear Hybrid power plan to built-in W7 power plan - "High performance"
3. Going into Advanced power settings and disabling anything that puts computer to sleep, hybernation, HDD shut off, disabling USB selective suspending, etc.

I just want to get this thing to a poijnt where it is NOT LOCKING UP!!!!!!

Something else I am going to try is to disable the ASUS "TwinTurbo Mode". I believe this is achieved through the middle button on the very top left just above the keyboard.

 

Let us know how that turns out. I did all of those things you listed and still have lock ups. I've been troubleshooting this for almost 2 months now...my G73JW will most likely be going in for an RMA later in the week. I'm not even sure what they'll do...maybe replace the motherboard?

 

Has anyone considered trying Win7 SP1 RC?

 

Yes!

I have used (and do use) many beta/RC versions of lots of Microsoft products. I'm under NDA at MS and participate in many pre-public beta/RC releases, although I prefer Beta releases since the longer development cycle makes it worth it to install. RCs rarely get changed much, and since they're released publicly, they get plenty of eyes before release.

Of course, I can't say if any G73JW owner's woes are fixed by anything in SP1 since I don't have a JW...

 

Has anyone tried this? A computer that is running Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows 7 stops responding randomly it is a hotfix from Microsoft to stop random freezes in Windows 7. I've seen posts from people that have reported that it works. I'm going to try it when I get home today.

 

Update: After performing all of the items I mentioned I'd be disabling, I have walked away from my system on several occassions today and am happy to report NO lockups! Not really sure which of these played a role, but again, I disabled ASUS TwinTurbo Mode, disabled "Power4Gear Hybrid" power plan (this is highest on my suspect list) and lastly, my screensaver. I am now going to re-enable my screensaver and see where we go... I at least would like to have a screensaver running when I walk away from my system... could care less about the other things on the list (sleep, hybernate, turbo, etc.).

 

A greener alternative is to just have the display turn off, unless you really want to see something on the screen when you walk away.

Cool that you narrowed down the problem!

 

I use P4G Hybrid with no issues involving lockups or performance. If you are having problems with it, I suggest updating it to the latest version, if you never updated it at all.

http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/nb/Apps/P4GHybrid/Power4Gear_Hybrid_Win7_32_Win7_64_Z1142.zip v1.1.42

 

I have never updated the P4G Hybrid power app. How do I tell which version I'm running?

Good suggestion on turning the display power off... I'll do that as well, in addition to letting the Screensaver kick in, save 5 mins, then turn display off at 20 mins...

 

If you never updated it, then you have the stock version. The link I left is the most current version.

 

Chastity - I cannot get the link you left for latest version of P4G to work and in checking on ASUS Support site, they have Version V1.1.37 available for download for this notebook. Can you please re-post the link, maybe in a format the forum software won't try to hyperlink it? Thanks much!

Nevermind on this last request to repost the P4G link Chastity. I got it! So, I uninstalled the former version, installed this new version and re-activated it as my power plan.

At this point, given I haven't had any locking up problems today, I highly suspect the ASUS "TwinTurbo Mode" as the culprit for locking up the system!

 

My asus g73jw-a1 don't go always to sleep mode lately and today it freeze. I have to shut down with the power button. This events happen after I try to install the wrong driver for my printer. Perhaps there is a link between this.

 

Did you uninstall this rogue driver?

 

This problems happen after I uninstall the driver.

 

You can roll back with System Restore to a save point before you installed the driver.

 

Thank you for the suggestion but I don't like the System Restore. I will test the computer for a wild before doing anything. It work fine now.

 

Did anyone find a solution to the random freezes? I get them quite often and very random.

 

Well, I don't know if you could say I have definitively found a solution to the random freezes, but I have certainly been able to minimize them in my particular case. In the last 3 days, I have only had 1 freeze, and I think that one could have been attributed to a massive cpu crunch in something I was doing. Here is what I have done to minimize the freezes.

I applied the Hotifx / patch from Microsoft as recommended by Rumplenutskin at the top of page 3 of this thread. That has certainly seemed to help.

I have updated my Power4Gear Hybrid software as recommended by Chastity, also found on page 3 of this thread. Again, this has seemed to help.

I have disabled ALL sleep triggers, on system, hard drive and on the display. I realize this isn't the greenest solution, but hey, it has certainly helped minimize the freezes.

I have disabled / turned off the ASUS Turbo Mode. This CPU already has built-in overclocking so I don't really see why ASUS has this on this laptop anyway. My laptop still seems super fast, at least as fast as I need it to be.

After going through all of this, my freezes have cut down from a few per day to just 1 time in the last 3 days.

We have to remember that this is a very high performance machine... and this is in no way to defend ASUS (because they should be equally concerned about this problem), but as with a high performance car, it requires MUCH MORE precision tuning to operate at optimum levels. This ain't your $399 deal of the week laptop from Best Buy!

Overall, I have been pretty happy with the unit, but this freezing problem has been a little nagging. It will remain as such until I one day experience NO freezes / lock up!

Hope this has helped! Good luck in your quest and let me know if I can be of any further assistance at all!

 

I'm getting the freezing now too. It happens when I'm doing something 'idle' like browsing the web or have the computer open with only a barren desktop. I have not updated my bios because I read that there are still freezing issues with that. I installed the hotfix as well.

It's not anything to do with the Asus software, I've had this laptop for a couple months now and after the first week I did a clean install with only the Asus hotkey service running for my function keys (as somebody who has had a ton of experience with PCs, I know to some people they feel safe keeping that software on but it's all bloatware. the overclock tool doesn't work right, the fast boot tool just delayed startup items, everything else just made the computer take longer to boot and repeated functionality already in windows)

Nothing's changed.... Once thing I am noticing is that when it freezes I'm always plugged in to the A/C. If I unplug it, the computer immediately turns off. This to me indicates a power issue with the battery perhaps?

 

I have no freezes on my system, so it's not the firmware.

 

add me to the random freezing list.

Mine is the G73JW-XA1, fortunately I am still within the return period.

I'll just come back to the machine and it's locked up.

Bone stock, as is from Amazon. I did do the windows updates, power4gear updates, etc... mine still freezes randomly anyway. Perhaps as a result of one of those updates, who knows, but does look like a power / sleep software / hardware issue.

Checked ram, fine.

It's clear that some basic Asus G73 performance issues have not been resolved yet. Some of these issues are absolute deal breakers, like this freezing issue.

My guess is this will more affect people who (need to) leave their computers on 24/7 and not those who close the lid or force sleep when not using their systems.

Probably a simple fix, hopefully one come soon.

 

count me in with a G73JH and freeze/lockups
(my pain here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...eze-hang-updated-win7-ati-bios-what-else.html)

as side note, I never had a freeze in Ubuntu (have a dual boot), Memtest ran 6times fine therefore suspect Win 7/ driver

 

I would suggest you start the long process of disabling applications and then hardware until the freezing goes away to isolate the culprit.

 

With this many people having freezing / random lockup issues, there is obviously a problem.

Chastity - what power plan are you using? Right now, I am using "Power4Gear Entertainment" (with sleep & hybernation disabled) and have not had any freezes / lockups over the last 2 days).

Anytime I have switched my power plan to "Power4Gear High Performance", that is when the problems start. Personally, I think that is where the problem on this issue is... but... if others who have wiped their system from scratch and have not loaded back on the Power4Gear Hybrid software, then there goes that theory.

Sure is frustrating trying to figure this out though, that's for sure!

 

I'm going to start a lockup debugging thread since we have several threads derailing onto this topic. It will help if it's all in one place.

 

I think that's a great idea Chastity. Should we not be posting this info up on the ASUS forum as well? I know when you Google "asus g73jw locking" this thread comes up to the top of the list (and that's how I subsequently ended up starting to post here about the problem), but I think we should also focus on getting this info in front of ASUS too.

 

I would think that Asus would be looking at this forum as well as their own. We know Gary Key does. I guess a post on the Asus forum would involve that crowd as well though. If some is good, more is better

 

Strange thing is... and as odd as it may sound, there is not a "Notebook" forum, nor really any that would be relevant up on Asus Forums! Check it out for yourself:

ASUSTeK Computer Inc.-Forum-

Or am I just looking in the wrong place?

 

The new forum is ROG Forum, I think it's owned by ASUS.

They pulled their notebook forum without explanation a month or two ago.

 

ROG Forum

 

Hey all,

Been a lurker up 'til this point.

I bought a G73JW right when it came out. Have loved it except for this glaring issue.

I've followed veriatech in disabling/uninstalling things, and was optimistic until I received a lock-up this morning.

One thing I notice in regards to this lockup is that the fan seems to have just started running when it happens. Is it the CPU fan? The video card fan? I have no idea.

What I do know is, since the video card in the JW requires 'special' drivers, I am suspicious of it. I also know I experienced some respite from this problem when I disabled hardware acceleration in my Flash installation.

My next step, if this happens again (just went through another round of uninstallations of all Asus and related pre-load software), is to install a fresh copy of Windows 7, and avoid any specialized drivers or software.

 

I'm a little relieved I'm not the only one encountering this problem. I posted back in Nov. my problems but never got a reply. I have a G73JH and I have had this problem since the day I got it. It would randomly freeze and the usb ports would stop working. When I would try to restart after the usb ports stopping I would get a BSOD during the shutting down screen.

I did a clean Windows 7 install and the freezes stopped but the usb ports would continue to randomly stop working or the whole system would unexpectedly reboot. This would happen at least once a day. I have installed all the updated firmware from the Asus website and the important updates from Microsoft. The only non microsoft software I'm using to try to narrow the problem down is Firefox, but the problems still occur. My anti virus is MSE.

So I don't know what else could be making it do this. I have trouble shooting this since Nov and nothing really helped. Looks like an RMA after the holidays.

 

Here is what has happened to my G73jh sense I flashed the Bios with Gary's new Beta Bios.
Before this my Notebook would go into sleep mode and it all worked just fine.
Now when the computer goes into sleep mode it does not fully go into this mode. I can close the lid and it starts just like normal for the sleep, but it is not fully in as some of the software keeps running and doing things just like it is up and running. Nothing is hurt or seem to be damaged after this but there is something going on that is not normal.
I had one Freeze of the computer sense the reinstall of the Bios but other than that all seems to be working very well.

Anyone else see this or have it happen?

 

I have had one freeze as well, plus an 'unexpected shut down' as indicated by the system event log at 2:00 am, 2 hours after I had not used the machine.

Maybe this will mean something to someone...

The computer has rebooted from a bugcheck. The bugcheck was: 0x0000003b (0x00000000c0000005, 0xfffff88004944817, 0xfffff880085f5900, 0x0000000000000000). A dump was saved in: C:\Windows\MEMORY.DMP. Report Id: 121810-19812-01.