Annoying m15x problem!

Hello all, its been a while.
So I have a problem with my m15x and its driving me insane!
When I play a game for a while ( mostly happens in WoW ) it locks up, and then restarts automatically. This happens randomly but its becoming more frequent.
Anyone know what my problem could be? I have the x36 bios.

 

download HW Monitor and monitor your temperatures. could be overheating.

 

if its not the temp.... then....

do some system checks:
- RAM: get MemTest86+, burn the ISO onto a CD, and let it autoboot to check for memory errors
- HDD: START > Programs > Accessories > right-click on "Command Prompt" > choose "Run as Administrator" > in command prompt, type: CHKDSK C: /F
- then say YES and restart for Windows to look for HDD errors and it will fix them.

Then get HDtune and post a pic the benchmark to see if your HDD is performing up-to-par and still healthy.

 

Probably your CPU overheating... when was the last time you put new thermal gel on your cpu?

 

you dont just put it on there every other wekk? ^^^^



any way does sound like overheating.

try cleaning out your vents and lets us know.

 

overheating as others have suggested seem the culprit. depending on rez settings for the game you are playing, you may want to attempt to adjust them.
you may also consider investing in a laptop cooler. i, like whizzo, have the zalman2000.

 

Thanks for the responses. Overheating was my first thought too. Here are my temps at idle:

Hope that image shows! I will play wow for a bit and see what it reads after that.

 

WOAH. i don't think we've ever had an 80°C ACPI. that is most definitely not good. mine's idling at 46°C right now, the highest it ever gets (with my zalman cooler) is 64°C. even without the cooler, it never goes past 70-72°C even during heavy gaming. seeing how yours idles higher than that, something's definitely not right.

 

Whizzo, The X36 BIOS error? It makes it read 80C

The GPU is running quite hot for idle, too bad that XP wont down clock the GPU on idle.
What I would do, Open the service cover and clean out the vents and remove the fans and clean the heat spreader and the fans.

 

the X36 BIOS error affects the CPU reading, not the ACPI (if i remember correctly). GPU is running hot too, yeah. shouldn't powermizer fix that?

 

no, X36 messes up the ACPI.
I think he is on XP (I think the AW theme is only XP), and XP dose not like powermizer for some stupid reason. he could try to use a driver with powermizer, but it might not go back to normal clocks when he runs a 3d intense program.

 

I think I had the same thing for x36 i think that's what it messed up...

 

Dwend and WindyDays is right. 80C for the ACPI temperature is part of the X36 bug.

 

Lol I didnt mean he should continually put new thermal on it, it just might be an older computer... I had a similiar problem, turned out my thermal paste needed to be reapplied

 

well i stand corrected then. so i guess the 79°C GPU is the problem.

 

I mean I think must be the CPU problem, i am enjoying the m15x so much .... yes finally after almost 5 months =.=

 

I have the same problem too. ACPI is 80, I'm going to flash to x32 but I'm not sure if it works for 9800?

 

course it'll work with the 9800m-gt.

 

The X36 BIOS included a compatibility fix for the 9800GT, so I'm not too sure on that whizzo. If you'd still like to try flashing your BIOS to X32 pencilcheck, please do it at your own discretion.

 

seeing how the 9800m-gt is just a rebranded 8800m-gtx, why the "compatibility fix"?

oh and +rep for Oceanus cuz he's the best AW Tech Supporter we have here

 

hey, amazing!! with x32 it now display the correct temperature and finally tame this fan beast

 

I'm glad to hear it works!

N1kkon, your idle GPU temps are a tad high. You don't happen to have powermizer disabled, do you? And when your notebook locks up and restarts, does it give you a blue screen shortly before it does that?

*shrug* I try to help when I can.

 

For all who are wondering, yes I am using windows XP.
And sorry I didn't post sooner I was out all day. I shall clean my vents tonight =)
And yes Oceanus I did have powermizer off 0.0
I just turned it back on.

 

Good. Your idle GPU temperature was running high because your clock speeds were constantly running at its highest level. With it enabled, you should be able to have significantly lower GPU temperatures when you're doing something that is not GPU intensive (or when you're idling.)

Onwards to my next question, when your notebook locks up and restarts (as you say it normally does when you're playing WoW), does it give you a blue screen shortly before it does that?

 

i was just wondering, what is the difference between the x32 nad x36 bios,

and where can i get a powermizer?

 

I'm also pretty curious about Powermizer. I normally idle around 70 in Stealth, and 80 in non-stealth. I've never seen any Powermizer settings in my nVidia settings. Running 179.48.

 

Those using Vista do not have the option to adjust the Powermizer settings in the NVIDIA Control Panel. However, it should already be enabled by default (unless you decide to disable it by editing the registry.)

Tekian, I suggest updating your GPU drivers to see if that helps with the temperature. 70-80C outside of Stealth Mode is really high, especially when you're idling with those temperatures. Idle temperatures like that is 30-40C (86F-104F) higher than what it should be. If updating your graphics drivers do not help bring down your GPU temperatures, then I'm going to need to talk to you personally to diagnose where the issue is coming from.

 

No blue screen. Just a quick stutter of audio and then shuts down and restarts. =( I enabled powermizer but it did it once more.

 

Does this happen only while you're playing WoW or does this happen with other games as well? ( Can you test to see whether this happens in other games?)

 

Oceanus: Updated to 179.67. Looks like a pretty decent drop in temperature. Idle for 10 minutes after a cold boot is at 60 in stealth mode. Taking it out of stealth mode, it only pops up a degree to 61.

So I don't derail the OP, I'll talk to you in PMs if this still seems a bit off to you. Just let me know. Thanks =)

EDIT: Something I noticed is that if when it idles after a heavy load, it'll stay at about 65-70 degrees idle. Even after 20 minutes of non-use, it's normally this temperature. I can put it on Stealth mode and get it back down to around 60, but if I ever take it back to non-stealth, it'll climb itself back up to 65-70ish.

 

Is there any way you can contact me through MSN or AIM instead? I think the temperatures you are getting now are still a tad higher than what they should be.

 

Added to Buddy List. I'll keep an eye out for you.

 

Thanks.

 

Well I cleaned my fans today with a can of compressed air and I believe it helped the temps a little bit, however the problem still remains. I haven't seen it happen in any game except WoW so far. It's getting really annoying!

 

Only in WoW??

 

Apparently yes =(

 

then it's an error in the game. reinstall it and apply all the latest patches.

 

Well I know someone in game who has the same problem who did just that, but the problem remained. I ran the game in a window last night and there were no problems (so far )

 

UPDATE: It does not only happen in WoW. I just had it happen in half life 2.
This is really starting to get irritating and I wish I had some kind of solution

 

so we're back to either a) temp issue or b) OS issue. have you managed to record your temps with HWMonitor?

 

Yes, right after my computer froze and restarted I checked it and this is what I got:

This will most likely be hard to read, I forgot to resize it in printscreen. But you can use ctrl + to zoom in if you need to.

 

no problem. just noticed your HDD is running really hot as well. could you perhaps try to have a gaming session with the game windowed and HWMonitor beside it, so you can note down the exact temps when the system shuts down?

 

well when the system locks up it restarts in about 3 seconds. I can try though. Sometimes i can play all day, and sometimes only for a minute. I logged into wow and about 45 seconds later it froze and restarted.

 

double post: Well this may sound very impossible, and weird but i'm starting to think it might be my CD drive. I just opened it and my computer froze for half a second and it made the sound that it makes when my game freezes in games. Now I have noticed my smartbay cd drive to be kinda weird because it does kind of disconnect ( almost like a short in it ) sometimes. I wonder if this could be the problem?

 

every m15x has that problem with the optical drive. something about lag in the sound chip caused by the BIOS processing the Fn+F8 command for opening the tray, i think.

 

Ohh that sucks =[ I thought I was on to something. Well hopefully I can fix this ASAP

 

It seems that your comp is running on the hot side. The HDD and the CPU seem a bit hot just after a restart.

Try turning down the graphical settings on WOW and monitor the temps and see if it crashes. If it crashes on the lowest settings and the temps are in range then you have a software problem.

Also run a GPU stability benchmark, such as ATi fur or Ozone3D fur, in a window and monitor your temps as it runs.

 

careful with that one though, it's evil. my GPU went from 42°C to 90°C in like 30 seconds.

 

Yeah i just used thast ozone fur thing and it made my gpu heat up quick. I let it get to about 100c and i had to shut it off in fear for my PC. I can definitely say its never gotten that hot, so I dont thing my computer is shutting down and restarting because its getting too hot.

 

I didn't have time to read the entire thread (just the first page) but we have established that you are overheating. gpu is normally around 60c idle not 80. This always happens to me after reinstall and what always fixes it for me is installing the 180.42 drivers. They always give the lowest temps for me personally.

Try installing different drivers, waiting like half hour then reading your temps. Find your best one. stick with it.