G53 Stuttering - I give in!

I've finally given in trying to troubleshoot this myself - I've spent more time trying to fix this laptop than anything I've ever owned hehe



The machine in question is a UK spec G53JW-IX162V and I have to say - other than this issue - Im in love with the damned thing!



Firstly - thanks for taking the time to run / use this forum. Its been fantastic in helping me try different things - unfortunately none of them work so far.



I have gone through the forum plenty - but if I have missed a killer 'how to fix this issue' thread, feel free to point it out - Ive got thick skin



Ok so where to begin? How about the problem....



When I play any game it seems (by any so far I've tried Rift, World of Warcraft, Mass Effect, Dragon Age 2, World in Conflict) I get stuttering during gameplay and often this manifests itself as a loop or break in audio too. It can sometimes be 20 mins before I get one, or it can be every couple of minutes.



Before you jump in with "ah yes, this fixes that" let me give you a brief overview of how I've spent the last 2 weeks!



- Restored base ASUS build from recovery disks

- Clean WIN7 install then ASUS driver disk for non-bloaty install

- Tried many (and I mean many) NVIDIA drivers ranging from stock to ASUS downloads, to Latest WHQ, to Beta, to Leaked 270 drivers

- Updated Audio Drivers to Latest

- Installed Intel Chipset drivers / Rapid Raid (normal install / forced install)

- Adjusted WIN7 pagefile (none, double ram, seperate partition)

- Disabled Superfetch

- Disabled Aero

- Checked RAM

- Checked HDD

- Disabled Nic / WLAN

- Updated Nic / WLAN

- Updated BIOS

- Reverted BIOS

- Disabled Core parking for i7

- Adjusted HDD Wait3 timer

- Tweaked all settings in Nvidia CP

- Swapped Refresh from 120 to 60

- Disable HD audio

- Disable Nvidia HD audio

- Updated DX9

- Disabled AV

- Minimum background apps



and I'm sure some other things I can't remember yet.... If any suggestions are mentioned that I have tried come up, I will update this list.



I've read that some people blame WIN7 for this, some blame the i7, a lot blame the Video card and Verde drivers, some blame the HD audio and the others like me are just running in circles with no joy hehe



So.. I decided to finally register and perhaps get this issue solved finally. I an happy to try anything - even those things I've already tried if someone feels strongly enough



Well this is me, asking you to help me get my little G53 ticking along nicely.



Thanks in advance for any help or support.

Reply 1 : G53 Stuttering - I give in!

Have you tried running your games in DX10?

Reply 2 : G53 Stuttering - I give in!

Thanks for the reply!



I haven't done any kind of DX forcing - as far as I'm aware though - Rift, WoW and Mass Effect all default to DX9 - Dragon Age 2 defaults to DX11.



Happy to try if you know an easy way to test

Reply 3 : G53 Stuttering - I give in!

Do you have a momentus Xt drive installed?



If you think you have gone through everything software possible, you should take in consideration

1. monitoring temps - high temps lead to throttling that induces stuttering

or

2. a hardware failure, such as the psu not delivering enough current to the laptop under high loads (thus throttling that induces stuttering)

or

3. psu/gpu going berzerk on you.

Reply 4 : G53 Stuttering - I give in!

I've monitored temps and they seem no higher than those others have posted. I have considered HW failure - but there seems to be far too many other people out there with similar problems for it to be that I think. Not ruling it out mind.



The drive in mine is a WD - I've changed the wait3 timers at bios level on the drive from the default of 4secs to 5 mins.

Reply 5 : G53 Stuttering - I give in!

RMA in this case? As you said you are running out of things to try, which might lead to think that it's a hardware failure. Are you still under warranty?

Reply 6 : G53 Stuttering - I give in!

Quote:

Originally Posted by s00tie The drive in mine is a WD - I've changed the wait3 timers at bios level on the drive from the default of 4secs to 5 mins.

I had the same problem in games with my g73. I had a WD drive also (Scorpio Blue 640gb 5400 rpm). I switched it to a WD Scorpio black and solved the problem.

Reply 7 : G53 Stuttering - I give in!

Only had it 2 weeks.



In my opinion RMA will be pointless as you actually have to be a gamer and play the games to see the fault - it won't show on a benchmark or burn in. I will be without the machine for a while and then have it sent back to me with no fault found and a bill for the courier for my trouble.



My money is on there is something I'm just not doing or a combination of things that need to be done together - I see on the ROG fourm they have a list of recommended drivers for the G73 (G73 Series Driver and Application Reference) - would this be a good list to follow for the G53 too? Although Chastity's sig states its G73/G53 the thread itself seems to be just for the G53. Is it the fact that the machines are almost identical?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xanderprime I had the same problem in games with my g73. I had a WD drive also (Scorpio Blue 640gb 5400 rpm). I switched it to a WD Scorpio black and solved the problem.

Appreciate the suggestion buddy - but seems a bit extreme to get a gaming laptop working. I do have another notebook I could swap drives in - think its a Hitachi 5400.

Reply 8 : G53 Stuttering - I give in!

I would swap the internal drive to a 7200 rpm HDD and then throw the WD in 2.5" usb case.

Reply 9 : G53 Stuttering - I give in!

Well it does make sense that it would be the drive - I dont see any such stuttering in my other laptop even though its a lower spec - so I think I'll try swapping the drives and reinstalling as a test first and then if sucessful - I'll be going for a 7200 as suggested.



Any other recommendations than the WD? Don't really want to give them my money if they have caused my frustrations! hehe



I see the Seagate Hybrid is getting rave reviews - just not sure I want to throw another 100 at a machine thats already cost me 1300



What about two smaller 7200's and run them together in a stripe? I know I'd need another caddy but I assume the onboard controller can handle that - other than the extra battery drain are there any real issues or bennefits?