m6400 Covet - Random World of Warcraft Crashes

Hi,

I have exactly the same problem when I play Crysis or Flight Simulator X.
Today Dell has changed the Quadro 3700 M, but what should i say, after 1 hour playing crysis it crashes again. My system: M6400, Win XP 32 Bit, ( but it although happend with Vista Business 32 Bit) Core 2 Duo 2,8, 4 GB, 320 GB, Quadro 3700 M, RGB LED non glare. I have although Bios A04, and the latest Dell drivers...

So changing the Quadro 3700 M maybe not the problem...
I have used Memtest for one day, no failure, and used "Heavyload" to check the processor, and although, no problem, it works fine.

GPU rises until 60 Grad when I play Crysis, so I don´t think heat is the problem. I have the "small" newer PSU, so I thought it may be a PSU problem, but when you have the older "brick" PSU with the same mistake, their should be another problem...

Lookink forward to a solution for this problem ;-)

 

andregermany, have you tried playing Crysis without the PSU and run on battery power? I think I have isolated the source of the problem but I need some confirmation here.

 

If you're using modified drivers make sure you've disabled physx in the 3d panel of the Nvidia Control panel. For some reason it's enabled even though only one gpu is present.
I've posted numerous times on this in the main page of the M6400 as I was having the exact same issue. Changing the video card did not help nor did changing drivers. So far since I disabled physx it's been running like a dream.
You should really be posting on that page to get the most information for you Covet.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=303226&page=220

 

Ok, thank you for your answers.

First, i used the original Dell Drivers and had the problems. Next I updated BIOS and all Drivers from Dell Page, same error, next I used a 3000 Euro AC MAINS System from my Hifi System, which stabilize and completely generates a new 230 V power, but nothing changes...

Then I used modified NVidia Drivers from laptopvideotogo.com, but again, it did not solve the problem. Next I cleaned the Harddrive and uses a new inatallation with Vista prof. 32 Bit, changed the two So-Dimms, checked them for 26 hours with Memtest (no failure there) and used "HeavyLoad" to stress the processor over 4 hours, anything works fine...

Playing Crysis or Flight Sim X without PSU connected is not possible, maybe I have 1 frame per second.

After changing the Quadro 3700M Dell want´s to change the mainboard, but I don´t think that this is the problem... So I will wait a time and may be Dell finds out what the problem is, when I use it for office there are no mistakes with the system. (only it is not possible to connect a Raid System with 2 Harddrives at the eSATA Port, but that is another thread)

The Dell Service is fine, and I think they will find the solution for this problem soon. I have bought about 10 Laptops and a Server for my company the last 4 years, all Dell Systems, and no problems.

 

Turning physx off didn't work for me.

andregermany, are there any other games you can play without the power brick?

I use xp 32bit and games that crash are Warcraft3 and Guild Wars, relatively old games that even my old P4 can handle. So far that only thing that stops the crash is playing the game with battery power, which lasts only about 1hr15mins, so it's not really a solution.

 

Argh..mine is crashing now and then again...only with Wow and BF2...coujld be the drivers..

 

I have had this black screen crash issue with my M6400. After reading through a couple of threads and having these random crashes (that only happen when running Guild Wars), I am guessing this is some kind of wierd legacy driver problem that they haven't straightened out yet. If anyone has resolved this problem I would like some info. I do have the duo extreme x9100, quadro 3700m and 4g ram. The most success i have had in resolving this issue was updating the audio driver and it bought me about 3 hours of gaming last night before the crash again. This is really aggravating and reading that people who have had hardware changed that didn't help is quite discouraging.

 

yeah, that is exactly what's happening with mine. will play wow for about 5 minutes or maybe an hour, and the screen will go completely BLANK or black, and system appears to hang. only way out is to reboot.

 

Same here, after many months of researching and doing everything that was said (physx off, new and/or modified drivers, heatsink), nothing could prevent random black screen crashes and every time requires manual reboot. Well, at least I am happy that this only happens in games. This seems to be one of the major problems in WOW threads. Same goes for Guildwars and Warcraft3 TFT. My GPU never goes above 45c

My only remedy is to play games on only battery power; I have no idea why this works though.

-RGB E2E, QX9300, 4GB (2dims), 2x250GB, FX3700-

 

As of last night it happens when i play COD4 as well. I thought i was home free, but 3 hours into it, black screen.