Artifacts showing up when gaming: m15x

Hi,

Things started to go wrong yesterday. When I start up COD4, Crysis or Med2 TW + any other game, triangles start to appear. The game starts to slow down and becomes unplayable. If I leave it on too long, the system crashs. I have a feeling this might be the early stages of my 8800M GTX failing. (I hope not!)

Im getting maximum temps of 100C! Though the artefacts appear at around 80-90C which is under normal operating temps I think.

I also got a physical memory dump screen yesterday whilst playing Med2 TW.
I've had this a few times before when playing games.

Does anyone know whats going on?

I have the X34 BIOS installed if that makes a difference.

Ive already update my graphics driver to the 177.92.

Thanks

 

ooh, 100°C is not good. definitely sounds like overheating. upgrade to the X36 BIOS, and clean out your vents and fans with some compressed air. also, try elevating the back of the laptop with bottlecaps or something similar, or invest in an external cooler.

 

i would just call alienware to ship me a new 9800m gt, just incase there are any permament damage to the card.

 

I'll try upgrading tomorrow.

I just don't understand why this is happening now. I've never had overheating problems with this laptop before....

 

that's why i think dust or something similar is to blame.

have your temps gone this high before?

 

Not sure, I only downloaded this temp program RivaTuner today.

I'll do what you say and report back.

Gotta go to bed now tho, got uni tomorrow!

 

could memory dump suggest he is stressing the GPU too much...(i.e. high settings, max settings)

??

 

same thing hapened to mine a week after my warrenty expired. I thought it was the temp to but the temps were normal. I delt with it for 6 month hoping it would go away and it diddnt and i eventually repalced it.

IMO and from personal experiance i think your gpu i done and you need a new one.

 

Try dusting off vents reseating the GPU.

 

Your best bet is to call Roswell and get a new GPU. THis one is messed up already from the artifacting. You shouldn't be getting temps at 100c. Clean your vents with compressed air. Open up the bottom panel of the m15x and spray into the fans, and blowing the dust out of the vents.

 

Hi,

Thanks for the suggestions.

I opened up my laptop and cleaned the fans. There was a lot of dust!

I then ran Crysis ~10mins and got a maximum temp of 84C. So much better.
Artifacting was still present, but there was less of it.

I'm guessing artifacting is temp dependant but not caused by the temp.

I could install the new X36 BIOS but i'd rather not, since I havent done it before. Can't take the risk of f****** up my laptop.

I'm guessing im gonna have to send my laptop in. Was going to do that anyway since my left hinge is coming apart.

As I was writing this, black lines have started to appear horizontally across my screen! Gonna have to switch to integrated graphics. What a pain.

Well, I guess there's nothing else I can do but contact Alienware.

If anyone has any other ideas, pls post.

Thanks for your help.

 

The video card has already been damaged by the previous overheating issues. So, if you want to get rid of the artifacting, call Roswell and ask them to send you a new video card. And from now on, make sure to monitor your temperatures while gaming and keep the vents clean too, overtime.


-dhoang