Asus G50V-A2 CPU Problem (About to Pull Hair Out... or just RMA)

May be this can help:
From device manager kill (delete) this oddly mouse. After that restart computer and when Vista64 is on and you log in, run the driver install (I presume it is .exe). Only after that put this receiver back in USB.

 

I've tried a fresh install of Vista and the CPU is running at 80% or higher now, all the time. This is right after a system recovery re-install, i've done nothing to it. I think I have a messed up CPU or main board. I guess I will be calling Asus tomorrow to see what I can do. Just discouraging as I really like this laptop but im just having so many issues!n

 

Guys, guys. Good news. (Or so I hope). I just got my A1 today and had exactly the same problem (80+% from Kernel etc). I did some research and found out people had similar problems in past, while few of them described that Norton Internet Security was the cause of the issue, because it's not fully compatible with X64. So I tried uninstalling it, rebooted and got CPU at 0-1%. Hopefully it will solve it for you too.

 

Argh. Anyway, Norton Internet Security is, in my personal order of things, bloatware. People should uninstall it and replace it with a streamlined AV + Firewall, regardless of whether it is causing this problem or not.

 

this is Really Good News.
The sad part - it is too late for some...

 

I am sorry to hear that man.

 

I'm all right. Some other folks from this thread have ...
Thanks for compassion

 

Unfortunately Norton was the first thing I got rid of, replaced it with AVG. Which I'm wondering now if that has some issues with Vista 64-bit. I have no problems with it on my other systems but it seems to do some strange things on this one. Like it taking a minute or two for a download to be completed once it hits 99%. Someone on the AVG board said it had to do with the Linkscanner, but even with that disabled it still seemed to do it.

Can anyone confirm/deny if they have issues with AVG and the 64-Bit Vista on their G50V? If so, any other suggestions on a nice free anti-virus program?

I actually talked to Asus and the tech support guy just RMA'd it and as of tomorrow will be sent off to Asus. Hopefully whatever they fix or replace it with doesn't have this issue!

I still find it odd that the first few times I didn't get this issue until I plugged in the USB dongle for my Logitech VX Cordless Mouse (before and after driver installation). Although after my 3rd recovery and fresh install I never installed the mouse and still had the CPU running at 90-100%. I'm just worried since it seems Asus might not have a clue what's wrong that it will happen again

 

It looks that these problems have nothing to do with ASUS and arise with let's say not full compatibility of some old software (including drivers)with 64 bit OS.

To square out AVG you can close it (and leave computer unprotected for a while) and to see what is next

 

I thought that too until I did a complete fresh install and it did it again, without me doing a thing to the notebook. Installed Vista and the Asus recovery disc and after about 5minutes of logging back in the first time, off she went to about 80-90%

 

If you really made everything right (clean and complete) give your NB a break, do not rush to conclusions and let VISTA set dust down. Right now Vista is going to install bunch of updates and SP1 and is very busy on-line

 

I think I have mine beat. I thought the new 204 BIOS fixed my problem but the CPU was back to 80-90% the next day. So I decided to try the video card drivers because I have had nothing but problem on all my computers with Nvidia drivers. I used Mario64's procedure from post #8 of the "Blu-ray doesn't work on G50V-A2?" thread to use Nvidia mobility modder to re-mod and install the 177.92 Nvidia drivers. That was last Friday night and I have not seen the problem since. I have rebooted several times and the laptop has been in and out of sleep at least five times a day. After seeing others with problems with their mouse drivers, it may not have been the new video drivers but the fact I ran CCleaner after uninstalling the old drivers but before I loaded the new drivers. Originally I was using the VGA driver from the ASUS driver disk. I will let you know if the problem comes back.

 

I did that too, it sat over night in my office on and I turned off auto-updates, and had the screen set to off (no sleep or hibernation mode) and when I came back it was running low. But when I looked at the activity over night it had spiked multiple times. It also did it right when I was about to use it again in the morning. I understand there's indexing and other fun little things Vista does but NONE of my other laptops/desktops ever hit 100% when idle, no matter what Vista was doing, and this notebook is much more powerful.

At this point I'm not worried anymore, I RMA'd it and it leaves today. When I get it back the first time I'm going to do is just let it sit for a few hours and see what it does. Then install that mouse driver and dongle again and see what happens. If it spikes again then Logitech will be getting a call. But at this point there's enough help on this board that I think the issue can be figured out.

I know you're thinking it was something in some software I installed but I'm the third person (and not even the original topic poster) with this issue in this thread alone!

 

I've never had this problem, and I also have the A2...it's very odd. Even when I was installing SP1 and updates for Vista, I never even got close to 100% on my CPU.

Don't settle for anything but the computer being back to normal. I'd be hell pissed off if my CPU was running at 100% the whole time for little or no reason.

 

Do you have a Virus Protection that starts at start up? This MAY cause it as well.

 

I think most of the people who have run into this problem have tried 1) full reinstalls, and 2) no antivirus.

Methodfilter, quick question, did you turn off Windows Search (auto-indexing)? I've heard that Vista can actually push the CPU relatively high when it's doing this, though it should only do this when its idle.

Hope your computer comes back ok. Wish I had any clue what causes this. My replacement should be here from Xotic PC (I stepped it down to the A1) today.

 

I turned it off on the second go through and still the same thing. Plus I figured after leaving it idle over night (which would be from 5pm to 9am the next day) that even if indexing was on...it would have been done by then! Even so like the other poster said, I've never had any of my other systems run that high and they all run Vista as well.

So I was told 5 business days, Asus Canada got it today so im hoping for it next Friday or the week after that. AS soon as I get it back the first thing I'm doing is installing that mouse driver, loading all my programs and then going to let it sit and see what happens...hopefully nothing!

I just hope Asus is aware of the problem when it comes in, I know its a low percentage of us with this problem, but it is a problem.

 

I'd recommend to install this mouse driver after SP1 is installed

 

I think it was already installed, but good advice if its not. I planned to do all the Windows Updates before doing the rest.

 

It might be a good idea to install software that can possibly be a cause of the problem, one at a time, with sufficiently long intervals in-between to allow the symptoms to show.

In this way, you may be able to isolate the cause.

 

Just as a note, I did all that from clean installs, and started getting my CPU problems before any drivers, after drivers, before software, after software, and it was never consistent.

The high CPU issue could be some sort of software issue, but I doubt it considering it was replicated on 100% clean installs of both XP and Vista on my machine. More likely, I think it's related to something else, hardware wise, such as the double BIOS Posting issue, which Ken from GenTech suggested may be, in the end, a bad sata controller or something.

As an update for me, I've received my replacement computer from Xotic PC (exactly one week after shipping the other back to them, with a holiday, kudos to them) and stepped it down to the A1 model (didn't really need blu-ray) and have been working with it for a few hours and several restarts now. If this had been the other machine, I would have seen the CPU load issue by now, but nothing yet. Running clean without issues. I am using my Logitech VX Laser mouse and it hasn't affected the load at all.

Oh, and just as a reminder on my last machine, on a clean XP install, I was getting a powersurge notice on the motherboard USB controller as well, which was weird.

Hopefully it keeps up this way.

 

No issues so far on the A1 model. I have restarted numerous times today and had the computer idling many times in many different environments. Even extended the second disc partition to create just one on that drive. Installed multiple games and made several tweak adjustments to Vista. No CPU issues yet and I have had Task Manager running pretty much the entire time. I have not had a CPU load beyond what would be normal in a regular game environment.

On the other hand, I've clearly run into a permissions issue. Vista won't allow any icons to be created on the desktop or in the start menu. Anyone know what is causing this? I have had to manually create icons in both places for the computer to run from. I've even tried installing from the setup.exe programs choosing specifically to run in Administrator mode.

 

You could try turning off UAC, but that will diminish the security of the OS as a whole. But if this works, once you install all the software, you could turn UAC back on, and then you get the best of both worlds.

 

I had a similar experience- but I believed I might have stumbled onto a fix that worked for my machine....

Day 1- After booting computer and letting it initialize and then doing some bloatware cleaning- I noticed the CPU being pegged from 75% to 95% sometimes 100% for a short period of time.

Would not go down to normal CPU usage %
Task Manager showed that there were no prgms being locked in the background and causing this.

Day 2 - Unplugged and set to power battery saver mode- noticed the CPU was now at 0% when the system was not being used. Would jump up and back down depending on the tasks I was doing. In other-words completely normal operation.

Did a Vista update a few days later... issue came back again. CPU was being taxed to 100% at times for no reason.

Did some investigating as follows:

Went into Windows Task Manager
Clicked "Performance" Tab
Clicked on "Resource Monitor" button at the bottom of the page
Expanded the "CPU" Monitor and noticed that my NT Kernel and System had 160 Threads going and CPU being pegged at 41-46 plus!

Hmmm... I redid what I did on Day 2 of getting the computer.
Shut down, unplugged and booted up to Power Battery saver mode... CPU was once again normal. No weird spikes or anything.

I have since restarted with the Laptop plugged back in and no more unexplained CPU jumps even when doing processor intensive work- drops back to zero % without any issues.

Hope this helps someone else who might encounter this issue in the future.
Rob

 

Hopefully it helps. This sounds like a buggy power management feature, but it's not clear if it's in the hardware, firmware, or software...

 

Hopefully I get mine back this Friday, as they said 5 business days. I just wisht here was a way to check the status of it. I went on Asus' website and when I click on the RMA Status link and put in my country...the page leads nowhere...fun times.

Anyways I'm going to try some of these tips and fixes when I get it back if I have the same issue. I'm wondering now if it is the power management as I had it set on their version of 'high performance'. Maybe I'll just have to do a custom set up. Who knows!

 

Well ASUS called and couldn't replicated the problem...yea awesome. So they're sending it back, and now I get to hope that it doesn't happen again.

 

That's what I was afraid of with mine. I'm sorry to hear that they are giving you issues.

My best guess is that it has something to do with the SATA controller or a conflict with the specific drives and, perhaps their settings... maybe try removing the limiting jumper and see if that has an effect?

I really think that there is an issue with the A2 series, because I RMA'd mine and had it replaced with an A1 and I have yet to see anything other than the noted keyboard lag issue.

 

Update on the double post/2nd HD won't detect issue:

It's not the SATA controller causing the problem, the problem is the BIOS glitch and has to do with the F9 hidden partition system restore feature, when use F9 system restore it'll disable the 2nd HD and enable it back, but for some reason the BIOS disable the 2nd HD even the computer is not in system restore mode.

So when that happens, just press F9 and go to system restore and exit out, it'll re-enable the 2nd HD.

 

OMG...It's happening to me also!!! A1...It was OK for two days, and this afternoon went crazy!!! The same situation like in the first post...What to do?

 

northwood - do me a favour, check ur temps and post back

also, leave your notebook off for a couple of hours (off off, not hibernate) then boot it

see if the CPU acts up (it shouldnt)


Then after a few hours of operation, reboot the laptop and tell me if ur processor is locked at 100% again


Basically these are the things ive discovered (since i also have this problem) I would like to confirm if it is just me, or if they are all buggy like this

 

yes, I've already done that...It was power off for 45min-1h, and when I turn it on, it was ok, after that I shut it down and turn it again, and guess what!? 100% locked again This drives me crazy!!! So, you're not alone...

ASUS COME ON!!!

 

So, to summarize:

- KEYBOARD LAG (someone has that)/ KEYBOARD ISSUE WITH BUTTON COMBINATION (everybody have)
- 100% CPU USAGE (most of us)
- TOUCHPAD LED LIGHT BUG (probably, everybody)
- what's next?

 

I can't boot with eSATA plugged in. I've got RAID 0 configured. Nobody has confirmed another case, but it's on my list of bugs.

Also we might have a solution for the random freezing issue. I just need more people to test my script, and I just modified it this morning for vista since I'm XP. See the other G50V problems thread...

 

I just want to know if the procesor glitch is a hardware or firmware issue.... If its firmware, theres still hope...

 

I don't know! Have you called support service???

 

not yet due to being busy with skool, work, more skool, etc, etc

but ill try to get in some time to mkae the call monday

 

Well after sending mine away to ASUS to basically be told nothing was wrong it, I've never had it happen again. Not sure what the touchpad LED glitch is, but mine stays on when its supposed to and goes off when it should be.

I was having an issue with Windows Explorer crashing on startup, but it had something to do with the media manager in the Blackberry desktop software.

My only issue (knock on wood) is that sometimes my downloads hang at 99% even though the actual file shows up, the window just wont go away for a few minutes.

 

so have you had problems like me and Silverio? 100% CPU usage or something else?

 

Yup, read earlier in this thread and you'll see what i've gone through as well!

 

I contacted XoticPC and they told me ASUS guys are working on it, but I don't have any idea when they gonna release it, so probably I'm gonna switch the laptop...Unwillingly, though, casue I really like it...

 

I think the problem is with the USB controllers and the lights. something is really weird with this laptop.

here are my 2 problems with this laptop:

1. The lights on top are white ( not blue ); the lights on the side are also white and very weak and they don't flash even if i configure the console that way.

2. the same 80-90% CPU in idle mode which I figured it out
--> just disable the USB controller 293C

does anyone have similar problems with the lights?

 

The USB issue may be a good idea of something going on in this issue. If you read earlier in the thread, you will see that when I had the issue, I tried to do a 100% clean install of XP on the machine and was getting an error about a powersurge on the USB controller.

 

*knock on wood* but I haven't had any problems what-so-ever in the past two weeks since getting it back (even though they did nothing). I've now got everything loaded on it, and more, that I did before the CPU went nuts.

 

Any news on this case? My roommate got this issue on his G50V.
We bought our laptops from the same store, but not the same shipment. Wonder if the more recent produced models are rid of this problem, as I got mine about one week later than him.

Anyway, we tried to disable the USB ports as well as uninstall misc. software/drivers mentioned in this thread without success.
We have also tried different versions of the BIOS; 204, 205 and the 207 beta (thanks Ken!).
In our latest attempt we reformatted the harddrives with GParted and installed a non-Asus related version of Windows Vista to see if it would help, but with no success.
It's mildly frustrating, hope someone finds a solution for this. Don't know how long it would take to RMA this here (UK).

Note: Some Linux distros are impossible to boot on the faulty laptop because it detects a current change on one or more USB ports. Don't know what this means or how its related to the CPU being stuck on 80-100% load. The CPU was however under no stress when we booted Ubuntu live-cd.

 

Bump? :-(
Nothing?

 

I had 1 doing that, and then i just let windows do all the security and updates it wanted. it was 189 or so clean install of vista 64. it rebooted, and it still had it. I then turn it off, took the battery and then rebooted of the battery only. Problem went away and thats how I fix it. It was weird never seen something like that.

 

I have this notebook (A2) and have the same problem with the cpu usage. I called Asus about the problem but they did not offer a solution (just a few words on identifying the process causing the problem). The G50V-A2 is not usable with this problem (I had to buy another notebook for my contract work).

When I got the A2 home it took several hours just to run Vista setup & complete the Asus install. The notebook very hot by the time it finished. My work apps run slower than on an 8088. It's the exact problem described here.

Are you people putting up with this issue? Asus should give us replacement notebooks. I have bought many notebooks, and this one is not good.

I am going to reinstall again (with the latest 205 bios) and then call Asus again.

At least I know others are having the same problem and I can try some of the tips in this thread.

 

Dwright i just returned it after seeing that issue to play it safe.

 

I was about to pull my hair out too... I ordered this computer on Sunday night, it got here Wednesday morning, and sometime while it was on a UPS plane on Tuesday, I saw this thread of problems, and started worrying. Lo and behold, the laptop got here, and I had that bizarre high cpu problem.

After trying just about every idea suggested on the previous 9 pages, I turned off the USB2 Enhanced Host Controller 293c, and lo and behold, the high cpu usage went back to normal immediately.

My question is this: It's not really optimal to work around one problem by turning stuff off. What does controller 293c (as opposed to 293a) do for me, and how does disabling it affect my computer? All of the USB ports appear to still be working (as tested by plugging the mouse [my only USB device] into all of them), so I'm a bit curious if disabling this controller reverts them from USB2 to USB1, if it causes something funky to change inside the innards, or if it really does nothing at all.