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    M15X: Screen Randomly Turns Black When Gaming

    Discussion in 'Alienware' started by MAG, Oct 18, 2008.

  1. MAG

    MAG Notebook Deity

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    Hey guys,

    Recently when gaming my screen would randomly turn black or to one solid color (image below) and the whole system becomes completely unresponsive (whatever you do, it will not respond) until I hold down the power button; turn off the system and then turn back on. When it turns back on it acts perfectly normal. I doubt it's a driver issue (using stock drivers-167.55) because I've used these drivers for very long with no problems at all. What could it be? Anyone has ever had that problem

    Thank you.

    [​IMG]
     
    MAG, Oct 18, 2008
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  2. findvikas

    findvikas Notebook Deity

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    What game you were playing? Does it happen only with games (specific to that game?) Do you see any vista recovered from crash kind of dialog upon reboot?
    Have you installed anything lately?

    Definately sounds like a driver issue and I could pinpoint the culprit if you have a memory dump from the system.

    Do you have anything in C:\Windows\Minidump ?
    what is the time stamp of c:\Windows\memory.dmp is it latest ?
     
    findvikas, Oct 18, 2008
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  3. Oceanus

    Oceanus Ambassador

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    How often does it happen?
     
    Oceanus, Oct 18, 2008
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  4. Chef

    Chef Notebook Guru

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    I don't know, but on my Desktop, if i play without a jumbo-cooling fan, after like 10 minutes my pc will run, but the monitor just goes black, and says it can't find a signal. It might be heating up too much.
     
    Chef, Oct 18, 2008
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  5. MAG

    MAG Notebook Deity

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    Nothing at all. It happened in CS:S and Guitar Hero 3, but never happened in COD4 or TF2 yet. The thing is, I don't get any error at all.

    It happened 4 times in the last 3 days :(
     
    MAG, Oct 18, 2008
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  6. MAG

    MAG Notebook Deity

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    I tried to monitor the temperatures of the GPU while playing, but as I said, once it happens, the system is completely unresponsive. Any suggestions?
     
    MAG, Oct 19, 2008
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