M15X + GTX 560M hard locking during gaming

Hello! Long time viewer, first time poster here. I used some of the info from this forum on my purchase of a GTX 560M a few months ago to get it up and running with customized drivers.
I have the Eurocom version flashed with the latest Dell vBIOS running on 310.33. (Also did this on 306.97) PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1251&SUBSYS_02A21028&REV_A1

I'm thinking it is heat related, however I have only recently had the issue after using it in no different way for the last three or four months.
To answer the easy questions: Yes, I have seated and re-seated it properly, Yes, I have cleaned out the fans and heatsinks. Yes, I made sure the heatsink and CPU/GPU dies were pristine before applying thermal grease. Yes, I have applied a satisfactory thermal compound (Arctic Silver 5). Yes, I have tried re-pasting to verify quality. Yes, I have a satisfactory power supply (using 240W M17X adapter).

The GPU seems to float around 80C-90C while gaming. Every so often, recently, the PC will hard-lock and everything stops. Screen image is frozen, fans are full blast, and all the lights are on but nobody is home. Laptop responds to adapter being unplugged in this state, as the screen will auto-dim and then resume full brightness when plugged back in. Function key to enable/disable touchpad also works in this state. Eject and other touch-keys do not respond.

I was under the assumption that auto-shutdown would only occur at temps much over 90C and would actually shut it down, not lock it up.

Has anyone else experienced this situation? Or does anyone have suggestions that I have not tried, yet?

Thanks!

Edit: Bumped back to 306.97 to see if it continues to do this. GPU idles around 45C and runs about 85C-86C during games.

 

Hi, I just looked up and it appears the 560m thermal limit is 90c! While many users in looking around report repasting and having adequate heatsink pressure lowers their 560m temps from mid 80s to 60-70c. The fact you're getting hardlocks is more curious to me! Generally a GPU overheat will cause a shutdown or at least freeze with the screen cutting out and turning black a few seconds to me.

I hate to advise this route, have a clean install and whether on another drive unless you're running an SSD. Just so we can eliminate the possiblity of OS/Software/Current drive! I've had experiences with random lockups gaming with bad hdds in the past and they're always been a PITA to initially find the problem.

 

I am running on an SSD (256GB Samsung 830 series). I was hoping to avoid the reinstall, but it may be necessary. We'll see if it hard locks on me any today, I suppose.

Any clues as to why my temps would be so high? I have the stock heatsink from my old 260 on very securely. Used the existing thermal pads for memory and VREGs are they all see to have sufficient contact for heat transfer.

 

Well, if your paste is good, contact good, and fans/heatsink clean. Is it hot in the room? Do you use a laptop cooling stand or set the rear of the laptop propped on a book. See if that helps a little.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 2

 

Room temp is fine; probably around 65F-70F.

When not propped up, the card is running around 85C-87C. If I prop the laptop up with a notebook (makeshift cooling stand), it drops down to the 75C-80C mark. Haven't seen any lockups with 306.97, this time around, but still perplexing as to why it would run so hot.

 

After some monitoring and testing, I've determined that the hard lock is not caused by heat. It did a lockup at 79C, which is well within an acceptable temperature range.

I bumped back to 304.79 modified drivers and it seemed to help quite a bit, but I still got a lockup. It -only- happens while gaming, so I can't suspect anything other than the video drivers or the hardware, itself.

Going to try out the 310.54 beta drivers, modified to my card, and see if that does anything... if not, I'm really running out of ideas other than reinstall Windows or buy another card

 

Have you tried downclocking the card? Try downclocking the core clock by -75mhz and the memory clock by -50mhz and see if that helps. If not try decreasing it by -125mhz core and -150mhz memory.