Weird problems with Asus G73JW-A1

Thanks. This is a new approach. You said none of your machines which you've done this with encountered freezes, so if I can ask, DID you encounter freezes b4 this solution?

Now, I'm new to laptops, so please forgive my ignorance in asking this next question:

All I got with my g73jw-xt1 was a driver disk, no win7 cd. So how do I reinstall the win7 os after reformatting the hdd?

Are all the drivers I need on the Asus CD? I also noticed your thread on the asusrog forum with an extensive driver list. Which is better, d/l all those and use those, or install from the Asus CD and update?

As an aside, I'm so used to desktops, I feel kind of illiterate when it comes to this laptop.

Thanks.

nuke235

 

Laptops and desktops are pretty much the same as software goes. Pop a windows 7 install disc (either one with all the versions unlocked or home premium) into your G73, let it do it's magic and use the key at the bottom of your laptop to activate your windows. I used a dell windows 7 install dvd to do this once. It was kinda funny seeing the dell logo in system properties on my G73...

Use the drivers in Chastity's thread, they are way more up to date. She went through the trouble of making that thread, the least we can do is use it . There's also a dl link for a win7 install dvd in that thread.

And look up the bloatware guide stickied in the asus forum.

 

Thanks, tijo.

A win7 install disk - is that the same thing as the Asus recovery disk? Is that what Chastitys win7 install dvd is from the asusrog forum?

I agree with using the latest drivers. Which are the ones I absolutely need? I want to keep excess drivers to a minimum.

Thanks again.

I appreciate all the responses. I generally enjoy the laptop, it is functional for me, but I would like to resolve this freeze/reboot issue.

I just want to make sure if I go through with a reinstall, it works, and I am just unsure both about laptops and win7. I try not, at least not often, to break my "if it ain't broke, don't fix it motto".

 

You own a PC and use Windows... get used to reinstalling

 

@Chastity
I'm afraid you're wrong. They've only provided a solution for mac users, and that solution is only half-witted and contains no effort from their side.

Trust me, the only solution I have found for PC is to force SATA 1 mode on the Momentus xt hdd, and that solution doesn't even seem to solve it completely. I have scoured the web for hours and hours about this.

Get used to reinstalling? Sigh..

 

Hah. I know it. To my previous question, is your win7dvd the same thing as the asus recovery dvd?

 

There's no such thing as "excess drivers". Each device that requires a driver gets a driver, that's it.

For other bundled optional software you can review the "Asus Utility and Bloatware Guide" to help decide if you want it or not.

 

No. there are 2 images listed: one is a Win 7 Installation disc (ala Microsoft), the other is an Asus Recovery Disc. They are tagged as such.

 

Ok, thanks. In your Asrog post, you say to use the license# on the sticker, I don't have a license number. Unless it is on the packing box.

Would the license # be in a typical cd format? xxxxx-xxxxx-etc?

If not, what do I do then?

 

Yep, it is. It is on the Microsoft Windows sticker on the underside of the laptop, you certainly have one.

 

Why, yes it is. Thanks very much tijo!!

 

So i've been following this forum,
I've been having freezes quite often now.
The screen will just turn off, after a few seconds the fans will go to 100%
Can be during a game... or just idle in windows.

I've done a memory test which is fine...

Sometimes after the crash.. the laptop wont boot up... takes several goes.
like i turn it on.. and nothing.. and sometimes just turns off or the fans go 100%

i've re-installed windows 7 with SP1 Clean
still happens...
This morning just didn't turn on (wasn't in hibernate)

I might RMA this...
I have bios 205, latestes nvidia drivers etc... no creative drivers installed.

Any ideas?

 

Log your temperatures. GPU-Z, Hwinfo, AMD GPU clock tool.

Sounds like thermal shutdown.

 

well i've done fur mark etc... it's a 460m...
the temps never go above 80c

but they do fluctuate erratically sometimes on idle...
but only low temps.. like 55 to 53 to 57

i'll try a log tonight when i get home
btw... how to i access the advanced menu in the bios again?

 

Disregard this, I've still had hard locks after this.

I've actually gave back the laptop to the place I've bought it as its still under warranty and they are trying to reproduce the crashes.

They ran Crisis (game) for a week on the laptop on their own harddrives and said they could not reproduce it. I told them to explicitly use every component of mine including the hard drives, I told them to wipe my entire system and install everything fresh.

I haven't heard back from them but if they are able to reproduce it they will most likely RMA it to Asus for me. If they can't ... well maybe its a software issue then?

 

To everyone here. Has anyone considered static electricity for the freezes? I noticed since day 1 that my laptop would often give me static shocks, and have taken precautions to discharge myself before touching my laptop.

I live in Mexico and most houses don't have ground installed, and the air is so dry so it could be a reason. What type of electricity do you other people with problems have?

Someone also mentioned the different voltage being a possibility, or the power supply.

Another reason I think It could be static is because of the residual behavior of the freezes (needing a total shut down to recover) and the weird things I've heard about the touchpad and the tape (could it be causing it? I also have the touchpad problems). Also, I've never had a freeze while on battery.

By the way I have a g73jh from bestbuy. (flashed to latest bios and vbios, upated driver, reformatted, removed the creative audio drivers) Also, never crashed while gaming, just when browising/idling

 

Hi all,
got this freezes on my G73jw-A1 too. Two of them during last 5 hours, 3 more a week before and so on.

I did. Even carried out an experiment with the use of vacuum cleaner (its dust container may keep quite a charge) – no effect. This still can be attributed to some internal static charge…

Air is not that dry here, in Moscow, but freezes are still there.

Not sure if it's mentioned here, but some other topics suggest to re-flash latest bios, i.e. flashing procedure might be unreliable. I'm going to try it…

I've tried to disable suspicious devices in device manager. This helped with BUGCODE_USB_DRIVER BSODS. Now "usb virtualization connector driver" is always disabled (I never really used it) and those BSODS are gone. This seems useless in case of this hangs. Any ideas what to disable?

Anyone got any other common G73 bugs? Are there any correlations? Is you touchpad OK for example? Mine is not. I've even ordered new one…

PS.Ha.. just remembered I've recently installed Synaptics v15.2.20 instead of 15.2.11 ...

 

Allow me to be the first to post on this issue for the month of June 2011
Here's the good news - I just bought my G73JW a week ago (floor model at a great price - sweet) - love the machine but I find myself here reading this thread all 22 pages. I noted a few responses from the Chastity person and the fact that after all these months the problem is still occurring. Even better news is that rather than wasting hours and hours of trial and error debugging I can simply return it to the retailer next week for a full refund, which I intend to do.

Out of curiosity is the Chastity person here to help on a volunteer basis or as an official Asus Lurker. Either way their responses are both rude and unhelpful.

 

the Chastity person is a volunteer, and is sorry that you find it's services not satisfactory, rude, and unhelpful. My rep bar apparently indicates how unhelpful my services have been. (Actually, I consider the support here given to be a group effort. Props to all those who contribute!)

I do not know what problems you are having with your G73JW, but I am glad you are able to return it and no longer in need of services. I hope you have a more pleasing experience with your next purchase.

 

My hangs seem to be gone.... knock-on-wood... It's about 3 weeks since the last one.. Since then I've replaced (myself) buggy touchpad together with touchpad board (with reference ones "Touchpad Board Assy G73JW R2.0 " and "Touchpad for G73JW Synaptics TM-01254-002"), and unreliable WiFi adapter (with intel 6300)
Maybe,there is a possibility,this hangs were caused by one of this components.
Considering my previous post here, it can be just bios re-flashing. But not "Synaptics v15.2.20" -I'm using it now.


(by the way,thanks to Chastity for providing a link to parts reseller)

Asus, however, had lost all it's credits with me,if the issue is still not solved even for newly-shipped laptops... I'll think twice before buying anything with this label again...

 

well I had new crashes after several months without them, it is strange since I have not changed anything on the laptop, I just stopped playing due to time and as that happened while playing ... finally, the fact is that I'm getting them again and I noticed that when they occur the processor LED is off ... as if the power had gone, no one has any new solution?

 

Hm... Maybe power-offs and hard-hangs are independent bugs? Since hangs usually happened to my laptop while it was idle...

Had you tried any cpu/gpu burn test apps?

 

yeap but temperature are always ok

 

You need to uninstall the Power4Gear program. It does not interface well with Windows 7 and constantly causes crashes, especially if you have an SSD installed. I uninstalled it (as well as NBProbe) and my system has been very reliable since then. (My model is G73JW-A1)

After you uninstall these, check W7 Power Management settings and turn off the Standby, Hibernation, and HDD shutoff, just to be safe.

 

Just to contrast, I use P4GH on my 3 laptops here and no stability issues arise from using it. I would think jkrump that you would probably benefit from a clean install instead. A user pav in the IRC channel had some bad stability issues, and a proper reinstall using proper driver installation techniques solved his issues.

Also FYI: JH and JW users: do not use P4GH past version .37, as you will lose your Twin Turbo control and it uses a different power scheme meant for Sandy PC's.

 

Hello again dear Chastity and g73 mates.

Almost 1 year passed since I won the battle against the evil GSOD and seems like I'm the new freeze/lockup victim.

If someone wonders, here is how it started:
Yesteday I lowered down CCC 3D specs to better handle Counter Strike at 99 FPS(yeah... AIT and CS = strange things happening) and used the battery until it got really low and gave me only 15 fps (perhaps the power managment changed something automatically at this point), so I switched back to AC mode.
When I started my system this morning, my first website view gave me a BlueScreen and I'm facing several lockups ands freezes since then (need to hold the power button to shut down).

I'm reading the whole topic right now and I'll report later if anything fixes the problem.

 

before you go nuts, just shutdown and restart Windows a couple of times. you'd be amazed how many niggling little issues that fixes

 

Hello everybody... I recently have this error: BSOD with Driver Power State Failure... can anybody tell me which driver is causing this... I have attached the dumpt files for someone way smarter than me to look at and hopefully tell me which driver is the culprit.

 

ok, I've dealt with this long enough now with my g73jw. Event ID 41 is my hard lock error/freeze every single time (and I'll get to my story in a bit) since I purchased this beast mid october 2010. I had one bsod but I believe it was just a write error with my vertex 2 ssd 120gb (which is now in RMA process due to the infamous drive disappearance). And these event ID 41's happen randomly.

So since my vertex 2 is in RMA, I picked up an intel 320 series ssd 160gb, fresh install of Win7 64bit home premium, all known drivers updated from windows update (did not want to use modified drivers for this "now called test period") and for 6 days my g73jw has been on and no lock up then just about 15 mins ago, I locked up while opening chrome. Checked my event log and event ID 41 was the source. Now mind you, I have only the intel ssd installed and no other drives installed.

Now after several months of researching event id 41 and reports of power failure or graphics issue, I'm at a loss with this.

No heat issues, no trackpad problems ever- I use a razer naga mouse for macro purposes for work (very handy IMO) if that is any significance.

So, to the people with the hard locks/freeze, has anyone tried anything different than their "norm" of usage to either reproduce their hard lock/freeze? We can all list our problems here and obviously, we're still getting hard locks/freeze/bsod/blue balls/etc... but in the end, we're all getting the same results- frustration. Is ASUS even aware of this issue? Chastity- your thoughts? (since you are the ASUS wizard around here)

(oh and btw, if and when I get my vertex 2 rma back, one more drive disappearance and its going for sale with the immediate disclaimer of the infamous drive disappearance /lol)

 

Other than making sure the firmware on the ssd is updated. Also, since we do not use RAID, there's no need to use the Intel RST drivers. The MS AHCI 1.0 Controller drivers work fine, and support TRIM. I also added some of the older RST packages to help others on my Driver & App page to help troubleshoot these odd issues.

 

I have had the same crashes. When I catch a bluescreen (rarely) it tells me that the crash was in the USB driver, though it does not say which one. I have also been unable to read or write a USB memory stick reliably with this laptop.

I have uninstalled the Fresco USB3 driver, and now I can read and write USB sticks reliably, so there's already a bonus. I would not be surprised if the crashes go away now as well.

 

does your usb3.0 still work at usb 3.0 speeds? Or has it reduced? If it does, then what is the use of the usb3.0 fresco driver?

 

Event ID 41:

Event ID: 41
Level: Critical
Description:
The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly.

Well, I bought my g73jw about the same time, and I have had some issues with the hard lock, random reboot, occassional BSOD, as well as USB port freeze issues (Usb 2.0 only, though).

I also had event id 41s. Based on some considerable time of "testing", I believe the issue is with the CPU idle function of the laptop. When I disable the cpu idle process, or disable any of the cores from "parking", these issues GO AWAY.

I cannot help but think the "lost power unexpectedly" is resulting from bad hardware or bad implementation of the cpu idle processes.

See my other post, disabling these processes seems to be helping a few people.

 

Yup, I had USB bugcode errors too (usual BSOD culprit). See my above post and my other thread, I suspect you may have the same issue.

 

Yeah I've been watching this thread closely since my incident and here I am to update you guys since my last post.

Since that weird event id 41 back on 07/05/2011 I have not turned off my laptop. Well technically I did but on that same day, my other intel ssd 320 160gb arrived via amazon and I just had to install it. But I have not turned it off since and have not had 1 single bsod/hardlock/freeze/etc...

Everything from my research pointed out the same thing you said, loss of power. Since that day, I managed to do something different- not the core parking reg edit, I just added my monoprice 7 port AC powered usb hub to where I normally plug my razer mouse in- the usb port next to the light switch/turbo button (usb port near esc key). In that port i have 4 devices connected (3 of which are always on/connected)- ipod/iphone usb cable (this device is usually disconnected), xbox 360 wired controller, usb plug to power my Patriot External usb 3.0 external enclosure which is connected to the usb 3.0 port (which I have not had one single usb 3.0 problem like others are reporting), and my razer mouse. And I'm going on 16 days straight of no lock up/freeze/bsod.

So i have been moderately watching my core temps and I'm averaging about 51-53oC across all four cores (according to core temp 0.99.8). Mind you, I live in Daly City CA- its in the SF bay area, foggy/wet all the time and cold, 50oF cold all year round. My usage hasn't been nearly intense- just approximately 8hrs a week of tf2/L4D2/darksiders, couple blu rays, burned a couple dvds, chrome tabs galore due to work related programs and alot of hours on netflix (about 20+hours of netflix over the course of 16 days).

Now, by all means this is not a solution to the freeze/hard lock/bsod nor should it be because I am no expert in computers. This is just something a little different than how I normally operate any laptop that I own. I am only posting this to share my experience on what has happened to me and what I have been doing to see if this is in any correlation to everyone's issue and so far I have been pretty successful in my eyes. As a gamer, and this probably applies to a lot of G73JW/H owners, I can probably bet that their mouse is connected to the same usb port and their cord is snaked around the back side of their G73. So it kind of struck me to "think" that the power loss/issue is somehow related to that port and that somehow my 7port AC powered usb hub is alleviating the power loss issue.

Sorry for the long post

 

I have similar issue. Even if I did a clean installation and didn't install any 3rd party program, it would do a lock up like once or more per month. It is really just some random freezes.
I am wondering if it is because I have two different hard disk (one is the HDD came with the default and another I have the Seagate hybrid)

sometimes the sound will get delay/bugged and then the laptop will freeze, sometimes it will just freeze and sometimes it will freeze right after I logged into desktop

mine is a JW btw

temp is fine, no overclock etc. Nothing is shown in event log, except my forced power shutdown Very strange indeed

 

well, my asus is pretty stable now, the closures and blockades occur rarely, unless you are playing, almost any game after an hour or so the laptop turns off without blue screen or anything. this is very frustrating so I'm thinking about buying a macbook pro and forget all about Windows. even if I can not play any game and programs costs me three times

 

A few months, a few windows installs and a HD replacement later, I can say for sure the random freezing issues is solveable by running a cpu intensive program like folding@home or bitcoin generation at 1 core on the background. I have a bitcoin generation program running 24/7, limited to 1 core and priority on low, so it will not distrurb me with anything I do on my laptop. No freezes or bsods since then, runs great for weeks without a reboot! A few times I turned off the bitcoin program to confirm it, and within a few hours it freezes. Seems to be the only workable solution. The laptop just don't like doing nothing . I'm happy to see other solutions seems to work for people here, but this was the only solution working for me. Hope it helps someone.

@ommadon, Are you sure your laptop isn't just getting too hot? The laptop will turn itself off then. Make sure there is enough space behind your laptop, The only time something like that happened here was when my cat was sleeping behind my laptop .

 

My post from another forum about this laptop and getting it serviced:

Here's the most terrible customer service and technical service experience I have ever had. It is the reason I will never use another ASUS product and will hopefully be returning my G73JW-A1 soon.

I ordered this laptop from a reputable dealer on Amazon about a year ago. The issues that follow have nothing to do with them or how it was shipped to me.

Graphics problems from day one. Seriously, on the first day I was getting errors saying the display driver had stopped responding and then recovered. The graphics card was quite new and the reviews had said the drivers weren't good yet, but that it didn't cause a major problem. I was also in the Navy and mailing my only source of entertainment away was both difficult and frustrating, so I dealt with it. Well, the drivers never ended up fixing the problem and one of the fans was getting loud, so I backed up some stuff on my wife's netbook and did it.

This is the story of finally sending in my buggy laptop. The names did not have to been changed to protect the innocent, because I didn't get any (and I should have).

First customer service guy. No problem with him. The shipping label system was messed up, though, and he couldn't give me one. I had to call back another day. Next customer service woman was good as well, but gave me a shipping label for the wrong service station. That didn't really cause a problem; just got an email with a new RMA#.

Btw, they pay for shipping, not packaging. $20ish to send it.

Laptop comes back about a week and a half after I first sent it out. It boots up and looks good, so I moved all my stuff back off my wife's netbook, seeing as she was low on space. About an hour after that, the laptop shut itself down and refused to boot. Sometimes just a black screen. Sometimes the ASUS logo boot page, but it would never even start to load Windows. It was time to call again.

Third customer service person. This guy was a moron. He seemed to have no idea about computers or didn't care about what he was doing. After explaining the previous and new worse problems, including the part about it shutting down RIGHT AFTER LOADING ALL MY BACKUP STUFF BACK ONTO IT (important to remember), he instructed me to do a system restore. After a couple of tries, I made him understand that Windows would not boot. He told me I needed to send it back. He asked the usual question about if they were authorized to wipe the system, to which I replied "NO" rather loudly and again repeated my spiel about all my crap now being on there. I wanted expedited shipping, seeing as THEY caused the problem, but nope. Wasn't going to happen. Whatever. I mailed it back.

Btw, I think the problem was with a connection, but I didn't want to open up my laptop and void my warranty.

After another week and a half-ish, I got my laptop back today. I pulled it out and noticed the paper with the explanation of what they did to fix it. It said that they had replaced my hard drive, you know, the thing I said they were NOT allowed to do. I had even made sure to not check the box for it on the paper I printed with hand-written info about the problem. So, I boot it up and all my programs and media, including ALL of my DJing songs, are gone. Oh, and there was a password. I'm lucky it booted past it the first time, like it wasn't logged out and just died or something.

Customer service guy four was alright. I wanted a supervisor, but he wouldn't get me one. At this point, I'm livid. I'm holding myself back from screaming obscenities, but I'm explaining the situation in a very angry manner. I want that HD and my info back. He put something in to escalate the issue. We'll see.

Called again about the password, when I noticed I couldn't remove it. It wasn't any of the common things like "admin" or "password". Had to do this F9 boot thing and basically reset Windows. It took like 20 minutes.

I noticed I had a backup image in my other drive, so I spent another hour or so getting that to start working (some other BS they messed up that I had to google and fix) and then wait the next hour or so for it to finally load.

Now I have my system and most of my programs, but all of my media is gone. All of my DJ sets and songs are gone. If my set links are down, they're just gone. The new set I had planned to do the day after getting my laptop back is gone.

I believe I'm done with ASUS. This has been the most horrid customer service experience of my life and they don't seem to really give a damn.

Btw, since receiving my laptop, it has crashed several times and I'll probably have to send it in again. Still no expedited shipping. Those Alienware's are looking better and better.

 

I've had Freeze and USB BSOD issues with my g73JW since the start, it would come everyday to every month. After changing to a 920xm cpu this would be more of a problem. So I found a thread here http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus-gaming-notebook-forum/571888-g73jw-freezes-when-not-use-11.html that has really helped me. After this I have NO issues at all.

 

Glad it worked

 

When you say "fresh install," do you mean from the Recovery Partition using the F9 keypress when booting? Or....

Thanks!

 

ACPI: ACPI BIOS is attempting to write to an illegal PCI Operation Region (0x4), Please contact your system vendor for technical assistance.

I have this error in Event Log (Event id: 10) after returning from system sleep (standby). Dunno if it's a big deal but it doesn't worth to update the system BIOS just for Microsoft!