GTX 580M Crashing problems

Recently I upgraded from a 460m to 580m for my Alienware m17x r3. Everything so far so good, until the screen randomly goes black, and then auto-restart.

Note that I still can hear all application noise (music, games sound...) still running. The temperature at the moment of crashing is not high, around 50-60C.

I updated the newest BIOS and vBIOS available, re pasted, cleaning, researching everywhere with no hope yet. Not to mention the 78C throttling problems, but that's another thing.
Now I'm typing these lines in fear that my laptop could goes black screen and restart at any moment and I just wanna check my email in peace. Please help

Also, tried to place the 460m back, and got 8 beep error. Tried again with 580m and I can boot up again.

 

Did you buy the card new or used? Are you sure you installed the card correctly?

 

Thank you for reply,
The card is used, there is a possibility thats the card is faulty but there are some ponits to make:
-When i ran on battery mode, no more random shutdown, everythings fine
-When the screen goes black, the audio continue to play for few second, then it shuttering, finally restart.
-My ac adapter output is 19.5a-12.3a
Could it be something wrong woth the AC instead? It work fone with the 460m tho

 

Could be a short on your motherboard TBH with all the strange issues. I would also try another Alienware power adapter if you can get your hands on one.

 

Please continue to post updates on what you've tried and what eventually works for you. I have a similar problem with GTX 675M when it crashes to a black screen while plugged in. I spoke to a Alienware support guy who updated everything, still didn't work and was gonna charge me to restore to factory settings but never called me back. Also where could you get a new power adaptor? Would you need to order one online or would a certain store carry those?

 

I still doubt this is an adapter problems tho, plan to buy a new one but its quite expensive and chances thats not gonna fix anything. Anyway you are welcome to try, adapter can be easily buy on ebay, just make sure the roght in/output and model for your Alienware

My 240w adapter worked prefect with the old 460m, so i wonder it because of not enough power supply for the new 580m? But the fact that I my pc run normally on battery mode really confused me.

 

The 580m is really power demanding, but the max you can put on it is 240W so it should work fine. I believe the video card is DOA or as Tsunade_Hime states, the motherboard could have a short.

 

Computer noob here so if the video card is DOA (don't know what that means) or the motherboard has a short what are the next steps in order to get it fixed?

 

Ok, so there are few possible causes for this problems, but which is the one, I'm not quite sure: motherboard/ faulty LCD screen (try to install my old 460m back, which worked prefectly before, but got 8 beeps), AC adapter, and the GPU itself.
If we can identify the cause, it would be much easier to fix. All of this are hardware problems, so the only solution is to replace the faulty parts, either buy it online and install it yourself, or just go to the nearest IT workshop

 

DOA ~ Dead on arrival, if this is the case there are few things you can do. You could try baking the card in the oven, yes there is a guide to this. Or it could be motherboard related. If so you will need to install a new motherboard.

 

Hi, has anyone resolved this issue? I have pretty much the same problem. After installing a new GTX 580M it works fine in safe mode. If I run my laptop in normal mode with AC adapter unplugged, it also works fine. However, if I keep AC adapter plugged in, the laptop restarts as soon as Windows finish loading.

 

Only that the 580m is a pile of poo! I see them failing on a weekly basis. Had three myself. The last one did exactly the same as your and I used safe mode just to be able to browse. Dell replaced again - problem solved

On battery the card will be in low power mode so it is not being stressed. You could try driver version 314.22. Old I know but was the 'gold' release for fermi cards IMO. Many 580m users found that this driver gave them a few more weeks usage before the card failed altogether .

See: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware/721878-nvidia-320-18-driver-warning.html
and http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...x-580m-78c-throttling-see-post-191-later.html

for some history on these cards.

Do you have a 3D model or 60hz display?

 

First of all I have Sager NP8170, not Alienware. I just found that the problem looks similar (or the same) as mines so I thought it was fine to post here. I have 60hz display, and I downloaded drivers from Sager website which are meant for GTX 580M non-3D displays. I also tried other drivers for this card but the result was always the same so I don't think this is drivers fault.

You mentioned that the video card is stressed more when I connect AC adapter but how does that work? Why is it stressed more if I don't start any game or even play a video but I just look at my desktop? Is it possible to control that manually and make the video card always behave as if AC adapter was unplugged? Also, do you really think it's card's fault and, for example, not motherboard's or power supply's?

 

Bit of an unknown for me on other machines. laptops are very manufacturer specific in the way they use the hardware.

When the NV card is initialised as windows starts - on the intel I am thinking, the card is failing causing the crash. On mine, and may well be the same on yours, if it is running on battery there simply is not enough power for the card to run at full speed. It automatically throttles down.

If you use nvidia inspector you can see the 'P' (power) state the card is in. In windows it will be P8, the same as battery mode. Jumps to P0 when a game starts. I'm guessing during initialisation it hits full power and it dies. I do know that card resets will trigger a brief P0 before the card recognises that it does not need to be in full-on games mode.

I don't think driver either but I only mention it as this driver stresses the card less and might help. Not a long term solution.

It could well be a MB or some other component but based on the history of that card, and the fact you are experiencing EXACTLY the same issue I've seen many times, points at the 580m.

Will the machine start with the NV card removed? AW's will start on the intel GPU and are perfectly usable (but poor gaming) without the card at all.

You might need to track down an expert on your machine to know for sure how it deals with multiple GPU's.

Good luck

 

Hi MickyD1234,

I have some updates of my problem if you are still following this topic. I found a local repair service that had GTX 580M from Alienware. They agreed to put it in my Clevo P170HM to test it. Everything was working fine so we concluded that the seller on eBay sent me a faulty card for the second time. I managed to get this Alienware card from them and I am planning to stick to it. The only problem is that temperatures are higher than they should be. On startup it's around 40C, if I'm browsing internet it goes to 50C, if I start an HD video on youtube it goes to 60C, after playing Starcraft 2 for 5-10 minutes it went up to 82 C. I tried Furmark and it reached 90 C quite quickly and then I stopped it. I'm using a heatsink from AMD 6990M and I thought this could be a problem. My retailer that I bought this laptop from said that I shouldn't use a heatsink designed for AMD card and should get another one designed for GTX 580M. However, on forums some people say that they were using AMD heatsink with some extra thermal pads. Do you know if the heating issue could be related to something else than thermal paste, thermal pads, or a heatsink? My fan is working fine. Also, do you know if AMD heatsink is really compatible with nVidia card?

 

Hi, good news about the card. Now you can see that even two faulty cards in a row is not inconceivable with that dam* 580m!

That is way too hot for that card - do NOT game, you'll kill it quickly!

The standard for the card slot specifies where the hot bits go so physically they will look very similar. With a little care it can be re-used.

It is the heatsink that is the problem IMO. First off you need one from a card with the same or lower power draw, is it a 75w card or a 100w card (AMD original)? Then there is the x-bracket. The height of the posts is the critical factor. Different cards are a different thickness and this can seriously affect the contact pressure.

Using the x-bracket from a 580m is what you must do but then another problem arises. The captive screws are a different size and you'll need to source 4 of those and replace the captive screws (that can be fun, work under a towel to catch anything that 'pings'!).

Getting the pad thickness is usually an eyeball job but to do it professionally, you start with some modelling clay. put a small blob on each of the components that are marked for padding. A small amount of talc on the heatsink to stop sticking and assemble dry - no paste. Open up and you have a bunch of clay blobs showing the clearances. If you use similar amounts then spread patten will also show the closer components. You would be looking for around (up to) .5mm thicker pads than the blobs. Of course clean up with alcohol afterwards .

The Clevo may run hotter (the chips 'explode' at ~100c) depending on a few factors and you'll need to ask users for their temps. Max temp I saw on mine was 72c, but at 78c the AW throttles badly!


Good luck.