ASUS N56VZ issue: Crashes when playing 3D games

When I play 3D games (such as LOL & Skyrim), sometimes the notebook crashes, the screen becomes freaky display.
Here is the video: Youtube.

Finally I found everything is OK except ram.
The compatibility is a big problem.
I swap ram three times from G.Skill and finally get it stable.

Here is the swap list:
1. Kingston KVR1333D3S9 (4G*2, 1333, CL9, Hynix): Unstable, no error.
2. G.Skill F3-1600c10D-8GSQ (8G*2, 1600, CL10): Unstable, found error.
3. G.Skill F3-1600c10D-8GSQ (8G*2, 1600, CL10): Unstable, no error.
4. G.Skill F3-1600c10D-8GSQ (8G*2, 1600, CL10): Stable, no error.

 

Did you try the NVIDIA BETA 304.48 driver?

You can download it here: http://www.geforce.com/drivers/results/46046

 

Hello my name is Jeffrey and I work for ASUS Customer Loyalty Team

So you have done the memtest and found no error. Have you tried changing the memory speed to 1066. Maybe the memory stick is not working at it's full speed of 1333.

I see that you purchase 1333 and not 1600. Have you tried using a 1600 memory stick and do you still have the same problem?

 

Thanks for your reply.
Yes I did, but it crashed too.

Thanks for your reply.
Sorry, but I don't know how to change the speed to 1066?
The 1333 memory is stock, and I have ordered the new 1600 memory but not arrived yet.
I really hope it will improve the problem.

 

Shouldn't there be actually 1600MHz RAMs in the stock edition?

 

I returned the original one because I think I have 4G×2 memory already...

 

I used the 1600 memory but it still happened.

 

i facing with this problem too when play 3d game with the same model

can teach me how to fix this?

 

Make sure your Intel HD 4000 drivers and your NVIDIA drivers are up to date. I'm sure you've done this already, but still. It's 99% a software problem, not a hardware one.

 

Try forcing the use of Intel GPU first and see how that goes, even on low settings. Then do the same with Nvidia.

In Nvidia control panel you should have 3D option. Choose there what cards to be active, not auto-select.

 

still facing the same problem after i update all driver that asus live update recommend. help..i cant play dota 2

 

Asus Live Update...

Download the Intel HD 4000 drivers from here and the NVIDIA drivers from here. See if that helps any.

 

OK. Let me do it again.

Update: It still happens.

Yes I did that already. It never crashes when I forcing to use Intel GPU. It only crashes when I use Nvidia.

 

after done as u say. yet i still facing the crashing problem playing with 3D game.

 

i think this problem is happening on n56vz with nvidia geforce gt 650m graphic card only. my friend n56vz with 630m no facing this problem

 

any one can help in solving this problem?

 

I changed my memories again (total 3 times).
It still happened, I have no idea and decide to send it back to ASUS...

I only found the freaky display would become a little different when I use different memories.

Have you updated the BIOS to 204?

 

i found my problem. the problem causing it crash is the 4GB RAM i add when i bought the laptop. i unplug it and it works great without crash. so i bring the ram back to the shop and asking for changing a new 1. i put the new ram in and it back to normal without crash when playing 3d game.

i think u should put back the original ram when u 1st bought the laptop n try.

 

Kenny89 and hodxer, can you share the memories models please ?

 

It's really a bad news for me. I do not keep the original ram. I used 4G*2 Kingston 4G*2 and change to G.Skill 8G*2 G.Skill ram now.

G.Skill
F3-1600C10D-16GSQ (F3-1600c10D-8GSQ * 2)

 

SOrry i missed the third model of ram. G.Skill, Kingston and ?

Also do you remember which kind of model were Kingston ? I mean timing, etc etc ?

thx a lot

 

Two model, three times.

1. Kingston: KVR1333D3S9/4G *2 (CL9, Hynix). You could find their pictures at #1
2. G.Skill. I ask G.Skill swap the memories for me but it still crashes.

 

i solved my problem already. by taking back the ram to the comp shop n change for the new 1. my ram is 4GB X2. one of it is the original ram another is Kingston KVR1333D3S9/4G

 

I think that your laptop is using the Intel HD graphics 4000 video card. In BIOS set your main video card to Nvidia GT650m.

 

I refresh the BIOS and set the shared memory to 64M. Now it seems stable.

 

Um... I'm getting this problem too... Just bought the labtop. Could you tell me how to set bios main vid card to Nvidia?

 

Sorry, I almost forget this post.
Everything is OK except ram.
I swap RAM three times from G.Skill and finally get N56VZ stable.

 

.. so if asus didn't force the memory-timing and bus multipler, and simply relied on the spd-settings (like everyone else), this wouldn't have been a problem.

And expanding to high speed 16Gb ram (or a low volt version, to save some 2-3w on idle) would have been painless.

But nooo....

Make sure you drop Asus support a note, by the way. I.e., "I bought really expensive ram, for some reason it doesn't work in your laptop, and there's no reason why it shouldn't. Will consider carefully whether I will buy asus in the future. Blablablah".

 

I just purchased the Asus n56vz-ds71 and I'm having the same problem.

With the recommendation of GenTech PC, I switched the ram to 2x8GB (CMSX16GX3M2A1600C10) and I also installed a Crucial M4 256GB SSD 3G.

I updated the bios to 211 and installed the latest drivers from Intel.com and nvidia.com (as of Sept 12, 2012).

I've had crashing issues in Need for Speed the Run and COD Modern Warfare 3 similar to what appears in the the youtube video.

I just noticed that NVidia published new drivers today so I will try them now and report any changes...

OK I updated my NVidia drivers from 306.02 beta to 306.23 whql and the problem seems to have gone away.

I have been playing NFS the run and COD MW3 for about an hour continuously without any issues... I'll post again if the problem comes back.

Well it took a little longer than usual, but after all my PC crashed while player F1 2011 about 15 minutes into the game...

I will try playing with the NVidia control panel settings and if that doesn't work, I'll try putting back in my stock memory.

OK I set NVidia CP to choose my GT 650m as default 3D card and it still crashed in F1 2011.

I then ran a "memtest" using a program from the internet ( Memtest86+ - Advanced Memory Diagnostic Tool) and it showed that my 16GB memory is all OK.

Now I will put the stock memory back in the laptop and see if that fixes it.... what a pain.

 

^ but many thanks for going through it and documenting what you've done, along with explaining what happens.

 

No problem! Someone has to document this. It's totally unacceptable, but in all fairness to Asus their website does say 8GB max.

OK so I have put the original memory back in. (The original memory shows 0.1 more in the WEI by the way. From 7.7 to 7.8)

So after 2 hours of F1 2011 running the benchmark program continuously, 30 minutes of gameplay in NFS the run and about another 30 minutes in COD MW3 my computer is not crashing anymore!

CONCLUSION: 3D Games crashing on Asus n56vz-ds71 due to installation of 2 modules of CMSX16GX3M2A1600C10 Corsair 1600MHz 2x8GB ram modules.

Summary of parameters tested
-Nvidia 306.02 beta drivers and 306.23 drivers
-NVidia control panel 3D settings auto and GT650m forced
-Asus n56vz BIOS version 211
-games: COD MW3, NFS:The Run, F1 2011.

Future checks:

I will return the memory to Amazon and see if there are alternative 16GB upgrade solutions that work for the Asus n56vz that don't cause games to crash.

 

Mm. But they changed it after they got people complaining when their laptops didn't boot with 16Gb.

A marginally competent engineer would then say: "well, have a look at the bios-settings, then, the problem will be there if you switch to a different 8Gb brand as well. So if you're implying that any 8Gb setup will work, this isn't true either. Idiots!".

But Asus doesn't have a marginally competent engineer in the bios-tweaking department, it seems.

So what they're effectively doing is to lock the bios at some settings that appear to work with the setups the computers are typically shipped with. And then basically telling people that if they change it later, or upgrade the ram - then they will not have any support.

Same with the ssds or sata 3 devices. They're literally telling people with the earlier n and k laptops - and it's the same with the netbooks and smaller notebooks - that if the ssd fails, or doesn't run on the best speeds, then that's not their problem. Because Asus doesn't "support" those upgrades.

Note that what Asus would need to do to "support" these devices - on the hardware that does actually support these devices fully - is bios-tweaking. Nothing else. There's no expensive tour around the hardware design departments involved. There's no PCB-density magic involved, there's no "new standard" in here.

It's only about five-seven very simple bios-settings that any half-competent engineer can set themselves. I could do this in my spare time in 20 minutes, if I had some means to reset my cmos when something would go wrong. That's all there is to it.

So Asus can't spare 20 minutes to un their laptops. And note that this is ALL of their laptops - not just one model. All of them. And instead they'd rather spend any amount of time to change the specifications on their spec-sheets to something equally wrong as before, so their customers will have "no grounds" to complain.

And they really do seem ready to say that it's better for them - even though they do not actually sell ram-upgrades themselves, or earn anything on Apple-style ram-replacements -- they don't even offer that service -- to limit the hardware they're selling.

So no, there's nothing "acceptable" about this.

 

I agree.

Let's find a solution. Do you think me trying to fit different modules in there is a waste of time?

 

OK so I decided to try the 16GB ram configuration again with the CMSX16GX3M2A1600C10. First I tried just using 1 module and it wouldn't boot. I tired both sticks in both slots for a total of 4 permuations. Nothing worked until I used them both. Weird.

Then my pc boots up and I decided to memtest the 16 again just to make sure it works. It shows two sticks at 1600MHz. I boot into windows and as expected my WEI for memory goes back down to 7.7 from 7.8.

Then I decided to play F1 2011 again. I do a full Silverstone weekend. 52 laps. Not a single crash. What the hell, now the memory works???????? I'm baffled.

 

That is weird. It should boot with a single 8GB module in either of the slots - I tried this when I was troubleshooting my DDR3-1333 problem.

This sounds like an intermittent fault somewhere else - if it's working now, I guess you should just keep using it and let us know in a few days if it's still stable!

 

Having the same with N53SV. One slot busy with 4 GB RAM (Hynix) and the lappy works fine, but when installing another RAM stick it works, but only 4 LEDs are shining (Power, VGA, CAPSLOCK and NumLock). I switched the 4 GB stick to other slot and it works fine. I have other 2 sticks from Corsair and they also don't work.

I've already contaced ASUS, but all they say is the RAM incompability. Kinda strange, because I bought prefered RAM with Hynix modules, other two are Corsair. None of them work together.

 

Does the new BIOS 211 something to do with 16 GB support? (since update the chipset)

 

New BIOS 216 is released!!! Maybe it will solve all problems.

 

I'm not even going to install it until I know exactly what they're changing..

 

- edit- post in the wrong topic

 

edit - wrong topic

 

I'm seeing the same problem and I don't even play games. I get the same lockup and weird distorted video output a couple times a week. I only use my laptop for web and office applications. Sometimes it happens when my laptop is completely idle. I was running BIOS v 2.15.1226 and I upgraded to v. 2.15.1227 (which is labeled 2.16 on ASUS's web site). Let's see if this solves the problem.

From what I understand having read the previous posts in this thread, others have suggested changing the primary video card setting in the BIOS. But there's no such setting as far as I can see. The only video card setting I can change is the memory setting, which is currently set to 64MB. Is there a setting I'm overlooking that will let me enable or disable the built-in Intel graphics card in favor of the nVidia card?

I also see others have suggested the problem is that the N56VZ simply does not support more than 8GB of RAM. Is that true? Mine came with 16GB installed. If ASUS is now saying it doesn't support anything over 8GB, that's a big problem. I wouldn't have bought the laptop if I had known that!

 

I too recently bought a N56VZ with 16GB of RAM factory installed and am receiving the same error. For me it happens particularly often on the desktop when powering my external display (which the NVIDIA card activates for).

I'm on a clean install and still getting the problem. Not happy.

 

I had this error, changed the RAM and suddenly the machine DIED (after working for an hour).
It seems the Corsair RAM is not the best option for this notebook.
I got the exact freezes in BF3, watching HD movies online - but not in dead space 3.

I will test it further after RMA with Kingston RAM.

 

Hi Guys,

I recently bought my ASUS N56VZ model S4231H which comes with 16GB RAM, i did not purchase those rams separetly, they cale WITH the notebook! You can see it here Asus N56VZ-S4231H 15,6" - Fnac.com - Ordinateur portable
It is a windows 8. And I already have upgraded bios from 215 to 216.

The things is it crashes just as you described! However it crashes with some games, not all. For example, it crahes with Empire Total War and Star Wars Old Republic. But it won t crash with LA NOIRE or Assassin s creed 1. That s BIZARRE, isn t it?
I have already tried all possible drivers including the latest one and that in the ASUS support website.

Right now I can t send it back to asus because I bought in France, and now I m in Brazil! But maybe my father will go back in september, but I don t want to waite up till september to get this thing done!

My questions are:

Have any of you succeeded in installing 16GB RAM and not having crashes?
Did any of you buy a N56vz that came with 16BG RAM as I did? Do you have the same problem as I do?
If open the notebook to remove one of the 2 8GB RAM that are installed, will I loose my warranty?

Thanks

 

No, you won't lose your warranty by opening the service hatch. No reseller or retailer can claim that. Remove one screw on the back, under a rubber thing in the middle.

And yes, probably will be a good idea to take out one of the chips. But you should contact the reseller and explain, very politely, that while their bundled ram works perfectly fine in any computer in general. Asus' locked settings in the bios prevent autodetection of the latency settings. Therefore causing issues with certain types of ram. And giving them the opportunity to send you a set of ram clocked lower or equal to the standard ram setup. Or to contact asus in order for them to issue a bios update with detection for the ram's latency settings and volt enabled, along with for example a dynamic bclk/dram timing setup..

...

 

Thank you for your answer. I have contacted Asus. I m waiting for their answer...

But don t you think it s strange that it crashes with certain games but not others? Does this configure a RAM problem?

thanks

 

No. What happens (the explanation is an almost true lie.. it's not a correct explanation, but it illustrates what happens with correct data) -- is that you have a ram-chip the bios sets to a slightly too fast "RAS" precharge delay. This is the time it has to take from one memory operation to complete before another one can be issued. This mapping->read->flush process allows for some errors to happen (and some errors always happen on a quick system, for different reasons).

But if you're nearby the limit of how many errors can be recovered, what happens is two things - you experience some slow-downs, and tolerant applications will recover from it anyway, eventually. Operations with direct memory access croaks. This is games, dedicated virtual servers maybe, that sort of thing.

It's the same you could do with sdram back in the long-long ago. If you had a cheap ram-chip with "2T" timing. Meaning that a memory operation can complete every two clock-cycles (it's measured in ms now, not clock-cycles), for a specifically tested setting. Then very frequently you could just reduce it to 1T timing, and only slightly increase the RAS delay. And still have the same stability as before, if the other options were tight.

For overclocking, this gave you pretty good yields. Sometimes you would be able to exploit sturdy ram by increasing the voltage, to make lower delays work. Eventually with sdram, practically any chip could be clocked down to almost no delays if you knew what you were doing.

..what happens nowadays with ddr3 ram is that the ram is designed a bit differently, and the really high speed ram is set with clocks that tend to for example increase some of the timings, to reduce others. The throughput tends to be the same in practice between the different schemes. But mixing settings from one scheme with another doesn't work.

So when Asus locks their bios, what you do is plug in some expensive ram with "low timing". And which... for example.. has a precharge delay practically programmed into the circuitry that has to last 18 cycles for all addressing to be current at highest "recommended" operating speed on the memory bus. And if the original ram had similar timing, but lower precharge delay, because it had higher latency settings, for example, this will cause issues sooner or later when under heavy load, when the error-correction can't compensate.

And then you get the hangs, because games aren't programmed to deal with corrupt memory like that.

It also predictable that it happens with ddr3 ram.. modern ram generally. There's spd-tables any bios can read the recommended settings from that is embedded on every chip sold now. And that has been the case for years. Many years. Only people buying ram with their allowance ever saw a chip without an spd-table. And even then, they haven't been sold for at least 15 years.

So.. *cough*. Yes, annoying. Specially because as you all see, the issues with this setup is inconveniencing, it lessens the value of the product, and there's no reason why Asus should find that situation a good one. It's in no one's interest. Not us as users, not retailers who are stuck with all these recalls, not for Asus who gets their laptop products plastered because of an easily identifiable omission. No one wins. And I'm still stuck with these 1.35v chips I can't even boot with.

But it really seems as if their solution is simply to correct their spec-sheets to say "we only support up to 8 Gb ram". Which.. they really did. Rather than spend two minutes on the bios.

I wrote them, and someone who talked like he knew what he was on about, suddenly broke me off and said they've locked the ram-timing (the latency settings), to prevent overclocking.

(It's somewhere nearby saying you're locking your aunt in the attic to stop the russians from invading. It's not really a "classic mistake" to make.. you know, oh, they're both about locking someone out of the house! And it's not funny, and it's not possible to build on logic like that. It's just not going to work. Ever. And you suspect the Russians really wasn't really the problem to begin with, rather than the Aunt, etc).

What I was going to do was underclock the system. But just autodetected ram-timing would be fine.

(sorry.. long rant again.)

 

Hi guys,
I've bought a the Asus N56VZ, added 16 Go ram (Gskill), evertyhing's whorking fine, excepting with some 3d games. It randomly freeze with an horrible crakcling sound. Most of the time I have to restart the computer. I've tried many drivers (from Asus and Nvidia) but it still happening... I've read all the posts, but it seems that there's not really a solution with this issue. If it's something about the ram, and I need to underclock it, how should I do that ? thanks for your answers.

 

I had the same problem when playing games with stock 2 RAMs in dual-channel. When I took out one of the sticks everything worked perfectly.
After months of crashing I think I have a solution. I've set “DVMT Pre-Allocated” (Graphics Memory size used by the Internal Graphics Device) to 512MB in BIOS and since then I've gotten no more crashes even with 2 RAMs in dual-channel.