©ASUSTEK COMPUTER INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

SigilFey · ‎07-13-2013

My Specs:
G75VX
Core i7 3630QM, 2.4 GHz
24 GB RAM
256 SSD + 1 TB HDD
GeForce GTX 670MX
Windows (frickin') 8 64-Bit

*All drivers/updates are up to date using only ASUS auto-update options.

Issue #1: Lag on the internet makes online gaming impossible.

There is not a single online game (or multiplayer LAN game) that I can play on this machine. The problem is the same across the board: ~10-20 minutes of flawless gameplay followed by an immediate boot from whatever server or a hard-lock of the entire system (requiring an CTRL-ALT-DEL and forced shutdown of the game). Do note, I'm not being "kicked" from the server, just dumped back to the menu with a message about "connection to the server was lost". This has been occurring (every time, without fail) for the following titles for the past 4 weeks--Planetside 2, Star Conflict, StarCraft II, Minecraft, and Tribes Ascendency. Upload/download, web-surfing, streaming videos (ala Youtube, etc.) is perfectly fine, but not a single online game will work.

Issue #2: Constant Hard Drive Spiking.

I receive regular freezes using any program (game, MSWord, Photoshop, etc.) when running from the HDD drives on the system. The freezes occur ~every 2 minutes and last for about 3-5 seconds during which the entire system is frozen and unresponsive to any input (mouse, keyboard, or psychological). I receive perfect, rock-solid performance from the exact same programs as long as I run them from the SSD drive. Not a huge issue, but as it may be related somehow to the internet lagging issue, I included it.

For over a month, I have read the forums, contacted ASUS via tech support live chat, contacted ASUS product support via phone, searched the web ad nauseam, and fiddled with more settings than I ever wanted to see from Windows 8. For the $2500 I paid for this system, I seem to have encountered some shockingly horrendous problems. I just sold an ASUS G73 rig that I purchased back in 2010. It was the most solid and dependable laptop I ever owned. How could things have gone from that to this? Anyone have any ideas on how to fix these issues? ASUS doesn't.

REAPER1 · ‎07-14-2013

Issue#1

Maybe the firewall of windows/anti-virus software is blocking your connections? Make exception rules for the games you want to play.

Issue#2

I did read something about a hardware acceleration issue in windows 8. Maybe disableing it would solve the freezing?

http://www.wikihow.com/Turn-off-Hardware-Acceleration

SigilFey · ‎07-14-2013

@REAPER1

Thanks for the reply! Unfortunately, I've tried virtually everything concerning Firewall, Wndows Defender, and Anti-Virus right up to disabling all protection software completely, including User Account Control via an Administrative Command Prompt executable. No go, I'm afraid. Windows 8 just grins in it's stupidly antagonistic way and kicks my network connection square in the nuts.

As for the hardware acceleration suggestion: How dare you, sir!? (I kid, I kid.) But seriously, there's no way I'm going to purposefully handicap $2K+ of gaming hardware barely a month after taking it out of the box so that it can run a title like Terraria without stuttering. If hardware acceleration is, in fact, the issue, I may demand a free system upgrade along with a free plate of brownies from ASUS in recompense.

Zygomorphic · ‎07-14-2013

Hardware Acceleration in Windows 8 isn't talking about games, but about the OS. That is why it may be worth turning off (At least, as a check).

Please try booting a LINUX live CD (or USB) and see if you get the same connection issues for web-browsing and uploading/downloading. If they continue to occur, then you have a good case for ASUS to replace your system (every company ships a bad computer occasionally, just statistics), otherwise, it might be issues with drivers and/or Windows 8.

I am disturbed because I cannot break my system...found out there were others trying to cope! We have a support group on here, if your system will not break, please join!
http://rog.asus.com/forum/group.php?groupid=16
We now have 178 people whose systems will not break! Yippee! 🙂
LINUX Users, we have a group!
http://rog.asus.com/forum/group.php?groupid=23

d_2 · ‎07-14-2013

Well, if you solve the problem with the HDD, please let us know. I've moved all my games to the SSD for this exact reason, and i'm not the only one.
My guess will be that the HDD inside it's a piece of crap, and the only solution is another drive. My HDD is set to turn off after 20min, however, after 5 if you try to access it, you will hear it start spinning.

SigilFey · ‎07-14-2013

My thanks again for the responses. Here's a bit of info on the Internet Booting Issue.

It's not solved, but by forcing a channel on the router (instead of allowing the router to auto-assign a channel) and increasing the lease renewal to 24 hours instead of 1 hour, the overall situation has...well..."stabilized"...ah...somewhat. The unceremonious kicks still occur, but I might get about an hour of gameplay in before it happens. So, yeah. Baby steps.

As for the "Hardware Acceleration" suggestion: I was not aware of this. Thanks @Zygomorphic for that. I'll give it a shot and return the results.

JulianPaulXD · ‎07-15-2013

I have the same laptop, had the same issues.
I found out that mine has to do with programs that uploads constantly.
So I stopped seeding on uTorrent and turned off the McAfee firewall and everything went back to normal,
used to have about 800-900 pings, now 10-30 :cool:

SigilFey · ‎07-16-2013

Well, hardware acceleration was not the issue. Enabled or completely disabled, both issues (HDD spiking and internet latency) continued.

One point of interest: with no other devices connected to the router, wirelessly or otherwise, I was able to play Planetside 2 for over an hour without a single issue. The minute another computer logged on--almost instant sever disconnect. It's definitely not a bandwith issue, but it'definitely is an allocation of bandwith issue. First-world problem; I know.

I can confirm with almost 96% certainty (read: "I have no idea, but a strong gut instinct.") that these are entirely Windows 8 hardware compatibility issues. To be fair, I have to say that I've found Win 8 to be surprisingly easy to use and program-friendly. I truly wish that Microsoft could have just left well enough alone with Win XP, but since that would have been far too plesant for humankind to cope with, I would say that, ever since, Win 8 is the version I hate the least.

Zygomorphic · ‎07-16-2013

@SigilFey, the problem with XP is that it doesn't support the newer hardware as well, multicore processing wasn't as good, and neither was its SSD support. That, along with necessary security upgrades sort of make it necessary for MS to update stuff.

Check your router, and your WiFi card, since those need to play well together for it to work nicely. It seems odd that it is when someone else connects (but it does make the suggested solution meritworthy), but if your router's settings are wrong, hat can cause issues.

I am disturbed because I cannot break my system...found out there were others trying to cope! We have a support group on here, if your system will not break, please join!
http://rog.asus.com/forum/group.php?groupid=16
We now have 178 people whose systems will not break! Yippee! 🙂
LINUX Users, we have a group!
http://rog.asus.com/forum/group.php?groupid=23

Kaelys · ‎07-16-2013

I've found the wireless card isn't that good for gaming. At least it isn't on my wireless router. But it also happens that I had an Asus USB N66 lying around so I plugged it in at home and use that to play games and such. The latency is flawless now.

G75VX Internet Latency Issues and Constant Drive Spiking