Game-related issue (Windows 7 or ATI Mobility Radeon 5870 related?)

Hey everyone. First of all, if this is documented somewhere and I missed it while scouring for information, I apologize.

I recently purchased an Asus G73 of the Best Buy variety - Windows 7 64-bit, i7 720, ATI Mobility Radeon 5870, 6GB RAM, all that. Even got one with an LG screen and 1333 RAM, so yay me. I've been redownloading Steam games and transferring files, but I've been excited to see how much better this one runs games I had a hard time playing on my Toshiba - notably Empire: Total War.

I've encountered an intermittent problem. Sometimes while running the game - I've experienced this in Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising as well, but only once - the screen will bug out and display blocks/lines in a vertical patern. That's about the best way I can describe it. After this, the system stops responding - no alt-tab, no alt-F4. It doesn't always outright freeze with a buzzing noise, but has done that a few times. Regardless, I have to manually restart the laptop.

I've read about the problems Windows 7 64-bit has with games. I haven't experienced any crashing to desktop. None of the games have refused to load. Just the problem as described above. I installed the newest video card drivers from AMD/ATI; the Catalyst Control sweet, dated as 5/27 in my Device Manager and version 8.741.0.0. The system doesn't feel hot at all, and I'm running it with a chillpad just because, but I've not installed any GPU temp software. If I need to, I will.

Thanks for reading this. And if I posted to the wrong sub-forum (I don't remember seeing one specifically for help, and I figured the Gaming/Graphics Cards sub-forum would be the way to go), again, apologies.

Can anyone give me some ideas or an answer?

 

Head over to the Asus forums, there is a plethora of information about the G73.

You can try the usual: sticking with default Asus 9.12 video drivers or even updating your VBIOS with the one Xeven/Ziddy put together. Overall, if you keep having problems with this and you can return it, that would be my advice.

 

Sounds like either a PSOD or GSOD. If you aren't running stock drivers, do so. Any other driver version other than Asus's tend to have a habit of triggering the GSOD.

If it still happens, give Ziddy's or Xeven's vBIOS a try.

If that doesn't work, RMA it.

 

Thanks very much for the replies, both of you.

After initially posting, I reinstalled the ATI drivers (prior to your responses). Just did a do-over, just to see if I'd have any luck. Uninstalled, rebooted to Safe Mode, used Driver Sweeper, rebooted, reinstalled the 10.6 from their site. I've either had a bit of luck, or it's just not acting up, but I had a good few hours of stable play.

But I tracked down the 9.12 from Asus and have downloaded it, just to be safe.

Repped you both.

 

Yeah, back to 9.12 for me.

Thanks again for the help.

 

take photos of your artifacts now and in case you decide to replace your G73 send the photos to techsupport b/c it's likely they won't be able to reproduce them.

 

Thank you sir.

Since you are no longer having any issues so far, it would most likely be a GSOD, in which case is perfectly fixable via a vBIOS mod. If you want to be able to use driver version 10.6, then using a custom vBIOS with it perfectly compatible, without any problems.

 

Or you could just overclock your graphics card to a stable level 705/1100, and have it perfect with the latest ATI Drivers.

 

Yeah, GSOD. After you first brought it up, I google'd it, and that's exactly what was happening. Semi-stable after a 10.6 reinstall, but perfectly stable with the stock 9.12.

If I was confident I wouldn't brick my laptop, kill my keyboard lights, or otherwise up my machine, I'd go right through the step-by-step Chastity posted for the vBIOS 3 (I think), do Asus's 209 that's out (mine came with 206 stock), install 10.6, overclock the GPU, and what all else. But I'm not running Crysis or BC2 or anything else supremely-intensive, at least not at the moment, so why run the risk?

Although I am a Premier Silver member, so I suppose if I do mess it all up, I could bring it in, say it had a faulty some-such something-or-other, and get a new one. Only then I might not get an LG screen. I don't remember how many other G73s they had stored in their overstock.

What say you?

Or I could not screw with something that isn't broken. That works too, as was essentially originally suggested above.

 

i think its a GPU issue because my desktop 5870 has that issue sometimes in modern warfare 2, where there will be vertical blocks going through the map