Asus G73Jh down

Black Ha... Asus G73JH down



Relevant system Info:

- Primary bay: Corsair F120 SSD 120 GB

- Secondary bay: Seagate HDD 7200rpm 500 GB

- Windows 7 Home Premium

- 8 GB Memory

- Windows update set too: Criticals only (but often manual minor updates).

- Antivirus software: MSE (med level) + Spybot S&D (no active guard)

- Windows security default: default

- AHCI has always been enabled

- Recent laptop activities have been: MS office 07, safe web browsing, gaming.

- Both HDD and SDD properly secured.

- Overclocks GPU: 756/ 1057 (50% of max value)

- BIOS 2.11, GPU bios: latest.

- Temps are normal.

- Latest drivers from list at these forums.



I really don't know what do right now. I need my laptop fast for work and I don't secondary system I can rely on.



I don't know the best way to explain, but the story is as follows:

Yesterday I was minding my own business in a game, did not multitask or run any background processs either. It was several days since last driver update and most recent software update was 3 days ago (adobe flashplayer).



System has run very smooth the last couple of weeks/ almost months but all of the sudden the game freezes, several seconds later explorer (ie. start menu) along with desktop gadgets freezes, explorer recovers, returns with Aero Disabled and right after BSOD.



BSOD error: Physical Memory Dump failed with status 0xC0000010



Fine I think and I shut down computer as I was going to end my session anyway.

Next day, after logging in - it takes be about precise the exact (3 min) same time for the same crash experience to happen every time after login. This happens



even in Safe mode.

Once: I was able to spot that a message from MSE slided up right before the BSOD occured but I was unable to read it as the message didn't have enough time to fully slide "onto" the screen (it was red on the top like a warning message).



I'm pretty much clueless about what it is, and I have tried the following:

- Uninstalled latest recent software (3 days old).

- Attempted to use system restore but it failed to "restore." (all restore points; except two which were less than 2d ago)

> Interesting spot: I had MANY "Critical Update" of system restores, often logged as several times a day (maybe virus was updating itself).

- Reinstall OS completely with recovery disks, however, cannot format SSD due to partition error: 0x80070057

- Uinstalled Display driver as it was modded and found on these forums.

- Checked if it was the memory chips and ran memtest + removing one and testing everyone one of them.

- Restored registry.

- Also, windows cannot install due to missing: 0x8007048F.



OS on SSD is no longer recoverable, but I'm not able to format it (from disks), and sometimes it simply dissappears from "select drive to install windows on." No damage on sata ports as I can see.



Also I did try to update windows defender as I noticed it was out of date (it said) but it was unable to due to "error" (what).





I strongely suspect that I got a hard broadside from a virus as to summarize:

- Also BOOTMGR is damaged (maybe virus targeted booting, sometimes I cant get further than the power button).

- Windows update and some windows functions were disabled.

- Windows cannot create crash dumps, something is preventing windows from doing so.

- Windows tries to save itself in the crash experience but fails to do so after the save.



(Was this a sleeper virus? Does it spread to other storage devices? Similar virus symtoms? A link to virus symptoms database/ news?)

Please help me, I really do not know what to do!

... For now I want to able to reinstall Windows again, and Im wondering if it was a virus or simply the SSD malfunctioning. (but I doubt a SSD malfucntion hits windows components only (and after exact 3min)).



(Probably sleeper virus).



How do I recover my SSD if its booting was targeted by virus?



I might be able to spit out more information, but so much happened and I cant think of anything else at this point (maybe later).

Reply 1 : Asus G73Jh down

You could try to run a Linux liveCD to rule out defective hardware. With this you should also be able to reformat the SSD. (secure erase using linux: https://ata.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/ATA_Secure_Erase)

Reply 2 : Asus G73Jh down

you can't format your disk? I would suggest doing a disk check then. Maybe it can fix it. If not, try reading on this thread Major problems formatting/partitioning Intel SSD for Windows 7 install - Flash-Media - Storage



After u sucessfully do a reinstall of windows, install wirless drivers then update to win7 service pack 1 (or just install it if you have it downloaded). If you get an windows update error, go to service, stop and start windows update service.

Reply 3 : Asus G73Jh down

Sounds like it could be an SSD issue. If you've done a fresh install and are still having trouble you may want to try a "secure erase" of the ssd, and then reinstall. Secure erasing is controversial, some people say it is useless, but I have seen others with SSD problems who have had them fixed by a secure erase. You can google it and download a program that will do it for you. Hopefully you have another computer you can install the SSD into to do this.



Once the you've done this try reinstalling again, and let us know what happens.



Sorry about your bad luck.

Reply 4 : Asus G73Jh down

I attempted to follow the steps of the latest thread here:

Major problems formatting/partitioning Intel SSD for Windows 7 install - Flash-Media - Storage



but during the disk format at 10% it said:

Diskpart has encountered an error: the parameter is incorrect.

See the system event Log for more information.





And poof, the disk dissappeared from disk list.



Shall I return the disk to the store or should I go for the secure erase? If so, is there any consequences?



Please advice.



PS: Specified the wrong disk type it was F120 series instead. (now corrected)

Reply 5 : Asus G73Jh down

Turns out the Corsair F120 SSD was faulty. The explantion received was: "Some Corsairs SSDs just don't work on some Asus laptops." What?



Got Intel x25 SSD now, and the performance is much better than the Corsair SSD and even that was an improvement. LAL



... Don't buy a Corsair SSD for A G73...



... case closed.

Reply 6 : Asus G73Jh down

Glad you figured it out. Just to mix things up a little bit I would like to add that I've been running a Corsair Nova V128 128GB SSD on my G73JH for quite some time now and have had no issues.



The store told you that Corsair SSD's don't work on Asus laptops simply because that removes any guilt from them. It's a silly statement really.



Intel drives, obviously, have the greatest reliability rate but after that all the others are pretty much the same. (Kingston, OCZ, Corsair, G.Skill, etc. There aren't that many component manufacturers.)