G73SW-A1 Intermittent Freezing

[tontor]

I bought this laptop back in July. It worked flawlessly until about two months ago. It suddenly started "freezing" every couple seconds whenever I would play any video games(World of Warcraft and Left 4 Dead 2 for example) and even when using programs such as Microsoft Word. In the games, it would "freeze" in place for a second or two, and the audio would start looping until it recovered. In Microsoft Word, it would take seconds for words/sentences to appear on the screen, and then go back to normal a second or two later. This problem also seemed to occur whenever I would open any sort of menu in any of the games or with Word. When navigating through My Computer or My Documents and anything similar, there are also little freezes as well.
I used Fraps to monitor the frame-rate when playing Left 4 Dead 2, and used WoW's in-game performance monitor to check frame-rate and latency. The frame-rate is usually very high in both games, and the latency is always low. I tried both of these games on my desktop to see if there were problems with my network, but there were no problems when I was playing the games on it. I opened up the task manager on the laptop and noticed that during these freezes, the CPU usage would go down, and then go return to normal(about a 10% difference in CPU usage).
I have tried re-installing drivers multiple times, uses drivers from the sticky posts in this forum, using Driver Sweeper to delete the old drivers, and have tried using the Asus recovery tool to restore the laptop back to the factory settings. I have also tried using ThrottleStop to see if that was the problem and it made no difference. I have noticed that the max temperature recorded for the CPU 98 degrees. I know that these processors run hot, but I don't think they should be getting THAT hot. I have ran memory checks and disk checks, and both showed no problems.
I am out of ideas on what to try to possibly fix this. I have tried a forum search but with no luck. Any suggestions? I'd much rather see if there is a way to fix this problem rather than to send it in, which I have been thinking about for a while now. Thanks for any replies in advance.

[BrodyBoy]

So the exact same behavior continued even after you did a factory restore? And it didn't do it at all for the first couple months or so?

[tontor]

That is correct. The factory restore did not help at all. And yes, it was fine the first couple months.

[BrodyBoy]

tontor wrote:
That is correct. The factory restore did not help at all. And yes, it was fine the first couple months.

Boy...that doesn't sound too good. If it were just a software conflict or snafu, it should stop when you revert to a known working configuration. A hardware defect or failure, on the other hand, will affect all configurations, and it sounds like that's what you're seeing.

In my experience, overheating would cause the machine to actually shut down, not just freeze up repeatedly. But if you want to open it up and re-paste the CPU and GPU, you could try that to see if it helps. I'm not too optimistic that it will. Beyond that, I think it might be time to RMA it to Asus. If this video behavior is as consistent and persistent as you suggest, they will see it and do what's necessary to repair it.

[JRd1st]

Don't give up the ghost just yet. Try this - http://www.asusrog.com/forums/showthread.php?5126-Any-Kind-of-Lag-and-Atheros-WiFi-Card

[tontor]

BrodyBoy, I was afraid that it would be a hardware related issue. I don't think I am up for attempting to re-paste though. And JRd1st, I actually had tried installing that driver before I did the factory restore. I will try that one more time just for the sake of trying though.

[JRd1st]

Updating that driver can't hurt. The old one causes the same type of problem you have and can only exacerbate it.

Uninstall the old driver first.

[tontor]

I just uninstalled the driver that I had and installed the one that you linked again. It did not make any difference. I guess I will have to send it in. I cannot think of anything else to do. Thanks for the replies, I really appreciate it.

[JRd1st]

Uninstall the Asus crap?

[nuke235]

I have had freezing/rebooting of my G73 as well. I also noticed the "stuttering" in MS Word. I have RMAed my laptop, they replaced the cpu and reinstalled the OS. The stuttering appears to have gone, but I have already had a freeze and a BSOD in the 1 day since I got my laptop back.

I suspect an issue with the power saving function. My issues, though, are when my G73 is IDLE...........under load or stress, it seems to work just fine.

nuke