What the heck is going on here?

Hey all,

I'm a long time reader and fan of this website but for about the past year I haven't been keeping up to date as much with all the new information going on around here. I've been a proud owner of my m17x for about 2 years now and the only problems I've ever had with it was a faulty video card that was easily replaced. But lately, for about as long as I can remember I've been experiencing this issue that has been driving me crazy. I can't quite seem to figure out what the problem is. And being at my wits end, I've come to you wonderful, inspirational, and experienced people.

My problem is as such:
During gameplay (such as LoL, WoW, Stalker, CS:G, etc) my fps will be smooth and steady. But sometimes at random (and especially during very intense LoL games) three terrible things occur. The sound immediately becomes extremely distorted, my game freezes as if it has been hit by a gigantic lag/fps spike, and my fps drops considerably from anywhere between 1-4 seconds. But after those brief moments of insanity, game-play resumes back to normal as if nothing were ever wrong. Then, as I continue to play, the freezing and sound distortion will happen again for a brief amount of time before returning back to normal. I'm at a loss of words for what to even name this issue that I'm experiencing.
- Is it stuttering?
- Freezing?
I don't know. I'm almost positive it's not due to overheating because I keep my laptop cool and still experience this issue even while the temps are running just fine.

I'm beyond flabbergasted as to what to do about fixing this. And I most certainly don't want to beat a dead horse here. So, if this issue has been discussed and/or solved in the past I would greatly appreciate some feedback or a link to previous threads about this issue. Because like I said, I don't exactly know what to label this issue as.

As always, you guys are the best and I truly appreciate the time and effort you all put into helping people like me. Thanks guys!

Take care,
Derek

 

just throwing out ideas.. have you tried updating or removing/re-installing video drivers?

 

Yes, sir. I try to stay up-to-date with the latest video drivers and I've experimented with multiple versions.

 

ok. possible failing hard drive? i've experienced similar symptoms before with a failing hdd.

 

I know you said you keep your laptop cool, but that doesn't mean that internal temperatures are the same. I would certainly look at monitoring temperatures closely during gaming. Have you checked the heatsinks/fans etc for dust and debris build up? - sudden fps drops are commonly associated with gpu downclocking due to temps. I'd try and check this before looking at other causes. Use something like HWiNFO to log temps, then check them after it occurs.

 

The sudden drops in performance and getting back to normal suggest that the most common cause could be throttling due to overheating.
you can monitor your temps using hwinfo and gpuz
try cleaning the vents, or you can open the cover and clean out the heat spreader at the end of conducting copper pipes. They can get notoriously clogged!
do post your temps

as a thumb rule
i would lime my cpu to stay below 80°C(max 85)
and gpu max 75°C
it could differ for different configurations
like for extreme cpus etc

 

Overheating is my initial thought/impression. Last time repaste?

 

Since it is an online game. Are you using a wireless connection? If so try to use wired internet for once and see if it goes away. Everyone has said thermal problems already, I would suggest you take out the fans and see if there is dust in the beginning of the heat spreader (the metal fins that the fans blow at).

 

After monitoring my temps all day today during game play, the highest temp reached was 86C. I'm assuming that this could be the culprit here for the throttling. I plan to take this beast apart tomorrow to do a routine dust cleaning. Once that is done, I'll report back with the results.

If this is the problem I'll be super thrilled to know it's something so easily solved!

 

I'd say close to about a year. Last year I repasted the GPU and the CPU with AS.

 

What application did you use to monitor temps? And did you leave it logging in the background during gameplay? The reason I ask is 86C doesn't usually throttle the 5870M's. Also check what are your max CPU temps when this happens.

Did you purchase your laptop with the crossfire config or upgraded later on? If you upgraded by yourself, did you upgrade the PSU to the 240W as well? This is just to check if you aren't being throttled by insufficient power.

From your excellent description of the problem it does seem to be throttling of some form, either heat or power related.

 

I was using HWiNFO and GPU-Z to log everything during gameplay. There was an overwhelming amount of numbers that HWiNFO logged though, haha. I'll make another log today during gameplay and check the numbers, as well as for my CPU and post back here.

The laptop came with the crossfire configuration. I think you're totally right. This does seem like a throttling issue. I remember awhile back that a lot of people were complaining about this issue. I just don't know if it was ever solved.

 

You actually don't have to log to file unless your machine crashes. Leaving GPU-Z open (two instances, one for each GPU) on the sensor tab with "Continue to refresh this screen while GPU-Z is in the background" ticked and leaving ThrottleStop or any CPU temp monitor open and minimized is sufficient. When you experience the throttling exit the game and check the max temps for each component.

 

I had something similar happen when I had my R2 and I found the fans really choked with dust. I did a clean and a re-paste of GPU and CPU and everything was fine. I hope you get it sorted quickly.

 

After running GPU-Z and ThrottleStop in the background during gameplay I've noticed that:
- The highest temp recorded on GPU-Z was 90.
- The highest for ThrottleStop was 65.

I'm assuming I can rule out the CPU as being the problem. My next step is to clean out the dust and repaste. Hopefully that will do the trick.

 

While you are in there I would clean both fans as well as the heat exchangers.