G74sx rising temperature ? Please help.

[Sttyx]

Hi, I have g74sx the no 3D notebook, 8Gb ram, gtx 560m, i7...standart edition. I bought it on first days of august 2011. So far so good. But lately I have noticed, that my idle and max.performance temperatures are rising. In the first two months, those temperatures were :
Idle 36-38C and Max. 58-62C...I was suprised, how this notebook can manage cooling without noise.

Now, after 7 months, my temperatures are :
Idle 41-43 not much change here.
Max. 69-75(depending on activity/game). In just one minute, the temperature can rise up from 58-70, and it also can cool itself from 70 to 62-65. And all I do is alt+tab to desktop.

I have no virus/malware or s*it in my laptop. I used compresed air, to clean fans, but I dont know if it did any good. Also my GPU is not OCed. I am running Win7 Ultimate. Also all drivers are updated. Any help or advice ?

Thanks, also I am sorry for my bad english.

[Sttyx]

Thanks for the open hardware monitor, I will use it 🙂
So, room temperature when I am home is about 21-23C(I am writing in Celsia, we dont use Fahrenheir where I live). When I am at college room temperature is 20-25 depends on how often I open window 😄 If it is open for more that 10 mins, room temp. drop to 10 or 15, also it is depending on weather :D...
I bought my laptop on 02.08.2011 from a guy, that my father know( I dont know him, but he was giving us 20% discount, as he doesnt pay VAT) and that guy bought it from his friend, who works at some local store ? I think...I didnt care about it much, there was 300 euro discount and laptop came next day( I have phone number on those guys tho)...SO I have my laptop for 6 months now. Warranty is for 24. SO much for the second option.

IS there a way how to remove the sticker without damage and then put it back on ?? I dont think so, but I wanted to ask you guys.

Also, while playing I dont see any horrible bad artifacts or messed up texture. When I played Witcher 2 medium-high my game used to crash almost every 3 hours. Few minutes before crash, I almost experienced messed up graphic.

BUT the strange thing I noticed, while I was traveling to my college(where I am right now) is that the air intake fan has closed pipes/lines, I dont know how to call it, so I send a photo.
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/269/190220121168.jpg/
I never noticed that. I swear to everything, that those lines/ducts/vents whatever were opened...I do not know how it could close it, or if I did it in some way, I really dont know :confused:
It may be the real problem here ?

[BrodyBoy]

Sttyx wrote:
IS there a way how to remove the sticker without damage and then put it back on ?? I dont think so, but I wanted to ask you guys.

I've tried....and I couldn't do it. 😞 They're these weird, deceptive little stickers.....worse than those anti-theft sales stickers some stores use. The adhesive is fairly strong and you can't even see the serrations. So you inevitably pull it apart even as you try gingerly to remove it. Very annoying! (This image is from the heatsink on another Asus laptop.)

[BrodyBoy]

Thanks....I'll check it out. 🙂

[dstrakele]

Sttyx wrote:
For example, today I played game Alan Wake...I set it on medium-high, I had 23-35 fps, and my GPU temperature rised up to 76C and CPU temperature was from 60-63. Only about 17 mins of play, game stoped responding(I have original).

1) I don't believe the Alan Wake game stopped responding due to overheating. Your reported temperatures are not high enough. However, I recommend congfiguring your temperature monitoring software to log temperatures, then try to reproduce your issue. If you remain under 90 C, I would suggest looking for other causes.

2) Review the game-specific forums and pages about this issue such as: http://segmentnext.com/2012/02/18/alan-wake-pc-crashes-freezes-errors-and-fixes/ This page states

"#6 Alan Wake Not Responding Error
You should verify the integrity of your files as some files may have been corrupted or missing. If this doesn’t help, then first delete AlanWake.exe from Steam\Steamapps\common\Alan Wake\ folder and check the integrity of the files again."


3) While your checking file integrity, do so on your HDD. Right-click on the C: drive and choose "Properties" from the popup menu. Select the "Tools" tab and click on the "Check Now" button. Check the "Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors" checkbox and click the "Start" button. The reboot your system to allow C: to be checked.

4) Download and run DPC Latency Checker to help eliminate DPC Latency on your system. If you have an Atheros WLAN card, confirm your Atheros driver is version 9.2.1.432 or later. The early Atheros driver that ships with G74SX systems is notorious for high DPC Latency that can rob your system of performance and cause other issues.

5) Look into ThrottleStop to eliminate CPU Throttling: http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?2329-ATTENTION-G73-53SW-Owners-CPU-Throttling-to-798mhz-and...

[Sttyx]

dstrakele wrote:
1) I don't believe the Alan Wake game stopped responding due to overheating. Your reported temperatures are not high enough. However, I recommend congfiguring your temperature monitoring software to log temperatures, then try to reproduce your issue. If you remain under 90 C, I would suggest looking for other causes.

2) Review the game-specific forums and pages about this issue such as: http://segmentnext.com/2012/02/18/alan-wake-pc-crashes-freezes-errors-and-fixes/ This page states

"#6 Alan Wake Not Responding Error
You should verify the integrity of your files as some files may have been corrupted or missing. If this doesn’t help, then first delete AlanWake.exe from Steam\Steamapps\common\Alan Wake\ folder and check the integrity of the files again."


3) While your checking file integrity, do so on your HDD. Right-click on the C: drive and choose "Properties" from the popup menu. Select the "Tools" tab and click on the "Check Now" button. Check the "Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors" checkbox and click the "Start" button. The reboot your system to allow C: to be checked.

4) Download and run DPC Latency Checker to help eliminate DPC Latency on your system. If you have an Atheros WLAN card, confirm your Atheros driver is version 9.2.1.432 or later. The early Atheros driver that ships with G74SX systems is notorious for high DPC Latency that can rob your system of performance and cause other issues.

5) Look into ThrottleStop to eliminate CPU Throttling: http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?2329-ATTENTION-G73-53SW-Owners-CPU-Throttling-to-798mhz-and...

Thanks for help.
1. Which good monitoring software do you recommend ? I am using Asus GPU tweak and also RivaTuner sometimes.

2. First thing after Alan Wake crashed(stoped responding), I verified the integrity of files via Steam. After that, I could play a lot longer.

3.I have defragmented and checked my C and D drive a week ago, when I first noticed my temps. rising. First I thought that those temps are coused by some malware,virus or just messed up PC. Friend helped me with hijackthis log, I used Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and some other stuff to get rid of any unwanted files. Then I scaned for bad sectors as you mentioned. After that I defragmented my disk C(for OS and apps) and D(games,download).

4.Well, I have Atheros WLAN card driver 9.0.0.222. I used DPC Latency Checker v1.3.0 from here
http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml
I also have Realtek PCIe Family Controller v. 7.37.1229.2010.

5.I am still little confused about CPU throttling. Basicly, when you stress your CPU, at some point it will decrease it power(which I mean frequency) to 798MHz, so this little tool just stop it from doing so ?

[dstrakele]

1) I recommend SpeedFan or HWINFO64. Both are capable of logging temps. SpeedFan also has a neat online diagnostic summary of HDD's.

4) That's the Atheros driver version with bad DPC Latency. I recommend upgrading to the latest 9.2.1.470 version. I've had no issues with it.

5) That is correct. It is downclocking of the CPU to prevent damage as configured in the BIOS, but ASUS agrees this behavior is too conservative and is not helping the system, but just limiting performance. They are currently investigating release of a new BIOS to resolve this issue (but that doesn't mean they WILL). ThrottleStop provides a workaround in the meantime. It is possible to modify the existing 203 BIOS to resolve the issue, but this will void your Warranty and is not recommended.

[Sttyx]

Thanks.
I am now using fanspeed. I will check those temps. in a longer log. Should I put them here ?
Also, I found that driver for Atheros, but it was freaking long search...
And also I am going to use throttlestop, but need some time to get to know what is what 😄

Edit:
So now after some gaming and looking on temp.chart from speedfan :
GPU 68-75C
TEMP1(dont know which one it is) 72-77C
Core0 70-78C
Core1 70-75C
Core2 67-70, one time 76C
Core3 65-72 mostly, few times 80C

[fostert]

Yeah, I see that closed section on my G74 too at back. It looks intentional in the design, and they put a textured plastic cover there to blend with the fins of the open part behind which is the radiator/heatpipe. I don't think it opens: there probably nothing behind it.

[Sttyx]

Then I dont know now...Everytime I looked at them, it looked open. ITs bad that my memory isnt like a picture in .jpg 😄
Still, I thought that one side is air intake, and other side is air blow part.

[fostert]

Sttyx wrote:
Then I dont know now...Everytime I looked at them, it looked open. ITs bad that my memory isnt like a picture in .jpg 😄
Still, I thought that one side is air intake, and other side is air blow part.

Air intake on the G74 is from small vents located right under the open display lid, behind the grilled metal part in which the power and ROG buttons are in. The rear is entirely exhaust AFAIK.