ASUS G73JH Audio and system lag

[Scarecrow]

Now i know this isn't a PC or technical forum, but I've notcied that there are several here that has good insight in computers. I decided to give it a go here to try and get some help, if anyone has any ideas.
Now, onto my problem.

For about 7-8 months I've been having some pretty frustrating problems with my Asus G73JH; Audio and system lag is the best way i can describe it. Randomly, but often, my PC will get short lag spikes where the computer and image freezes for 3-5 seconds. Sometimes more, sometimes less. What usually accompanies this is a lag in the audio, where the audio gets stuck in a loop for about the same duration. However, the audio and image lags can happen independently of each other.

Theese freezes can happen when just moving my cursor around the desktop, while im browsing files, or when im playing games etc. Some programs however are worse than others. For instance, SMITE and Archeage are really sensitive to this problem, and it happens frequently while im browsing through files aswell. When im playing Sui Generis, listening to music or watching stuff on Netflix on the other hand, these problems VERY rarely occur. Needless to say though, this problem is super annoying.

I've tried updating graphics drivers and audio drivers, which didn't help. I've tried updating my BIOS which didn't help either, and I've several times done a "Reset to factory settings" when booting up the PC. This didn't help either. Searched around for this on the internet, but haven't found any solutions to the problems that I am having, so decided to post this here, and will do elsewhere too.

If you are still with me and can offer any help, it would be greatly appreciated. If there is any more information that I can provide to help you help me, then I will of course do so if you state it.

Cheers for taking the time to read, and possibly replying!

 

[Parco]

got any bluescreens? how old is the pc? i do suspect it might be caused by some faults with your ram, what ram cards do you have? that the image freezes for some seconds and the sound is looping is something that happened to me right before i got a bluescreen when i had problems with my ram, but that was fixed by increasing the MHz from 1600 to 1866 in the bios. see if you can change the ram speed and see if that helps.
do you stream your sound through the graphic card? if so then it might be the graphic card itself that is failing. would explain the freezes by moving the mouse, i think (just guessing, im no expert)
it could also be windows itself that is (part of) the problem, try disabling visual effects found in the "Performance Information and Tools" window

 

[Scarecrow]

I get bluescreens occasionaly, yes. The PC is a little under 4 years old, so it isn't a huge surprise it has started acting weird i guess. But it hasn't been ill treated, and I have cleared it of dust with compressed air several times. Thanks for suggestions, I'll give them a go and see how it turns out. Im not sure if i stream my sound through my graphic card though. Not even sure how to find out.

 

[Parco]

I get bluescreens occasionaly, yes. The PC is a little under 4 years old, so it isn't a huge surprise it has started acting weird i guess. But it hasn't been ill treated, and I have cleared it of dust with compressed air several times. Thanks for suggestions, I'll give them a go and see how it turns out. Im not sure if i stream my sound through my graphic card though. Not even sure how to find out.

download bluescreenview, then you can get information on what went wrong.
to see where you stream the sound from just right click the speaker icon in the task bar and press playback devices

 

[Scarecrow]

Thanks Parco, alas...

After fiddling around a lot with BIOS and whatnot, doing the things you said and what others have said aswell, there is still no luck in fixing the issue. I do feel a bit uncomfortable screwing around in BIOS though, and surely there are many more things I can try there, but I don't like doing much of it on my own.
I do not stream my sound through my graphics card it would seem.

Could the problem be physical perhaps? That some of the hardware have gotten damaged somehow. Anyhow, I'll keep looking. If anything else comes to mind, further input would be great. Or if someone else has any ideas, feel free to sure.

 

[Parco]

most likely something physical then i would guess, would bet on the ram, could be the graphical driver as well but then the sound shouldnt be affected i think(i think), you could buy new parts but would be a waste if it turns out that those part were not the problem, if you have a spare computer laying around you could harvest the ram and try switching those out, could also try switching harddrive then.
or send it in to service, if you still got insurance.

 

[Vold]

Have you tried rolling back video drivers to older versions? I've heard that some people were getting BSOD issues with newest AMD catalyst video drivers (14.xx).
Do a clean uninstall of the drivers and then install catalyst 13.12 or 13.9, it may be worth the shot.

I have a HD 7770 and I am also having troubles with newer versions of catalyst control center, so I am running with v 13.9.

edit: I am assuming that you have THIS laptop.

edit 2: Check out this forum, they may be talking about the problem you are having.

 

[Scarecrow]

I tried rolling back to one of the older versions after doing a clean uninstall of AMD catalyst video drivers, but all sorts of nonsense started to happen. After 1-2 hours of trying to get it to work, i gave up. It then occured to me that since I've reset my PC to factory settings several times before, then my AMD catalyst video drivers would've gotten reset as well, and thus I don't think it will fix my problem.

I did just open my computer though, plugged some stuff out, blew of dust, and plugged it back in (My warranty is over already, so that isn't a problem) I don't know if anything I have done has helped yet though, will find out soon enough. Thanks guys.

And yup, thats my laptop.

 

[Brendan]

Could be throttling due to overheating I guess but it sounds more likely to be a software problem to me, that laptop has a bit of a dodgy sound card set up so my guess is it's related to that. You have integrated Realtek audio then some Creative software layered on top and the HDMI out uses the AMD Catalyst driver instead... Plenty of scope for problems there!

Are you using the HDMI for audio out? If not you could try disabling the AMD audio drivers in Device Manager which are only used for HDMI (expand Sound devices and right click > disable anything starting AMD). Failing that I would try uninstalling anything audio driver related (i.e. anything starting with Realtek or Creative in uninstall programs) then reboot and install just the base Realtek driver from Asus, link here: http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/nb/Drivers/Audio/Audio_WIN7_6015978.zip

 

[Scarecrow]

I tried doing the things you said Brendan, but unfortunatly it didn't help. Still getting the same issues as before. I actually haven't seen anyone with similar types of problems get it fixed, which is quite peculiar.

 

[Fawz]

Not sure if it'll help but I'd recommend trying out a driver update tool (I really like Advanced Driver Updater if you can get your hands on the full version). I used to have all sorts of small but annoying issues including sound issues and BSOD, but using the same hardware after a clean format (using the windows disc) and full driver update using the tool, it fixed all my issues. Might help you out.

 

[Scarecrow]

I've been considering doing this, but I have decided to buy a new PC I think. This one is pretty old, so it's about time anyways. Might give the Advanced Driver Updater a go first though. Thanks for the help anyways guys. One way or another I won't be having these issues for much longer.

 

[Brendan]

Yeah fair enough, if that doesn't work it's probably worth doing a clean install of windows too anyway though, doesn't take long and might well fix it.