m50sv - shutdown when gaming only

Hi,
i have a odd problem. my m50sv shutdown when gaming only. its random sometimes after 5 mins, sometimes after 2 hours. odd thing is it happens only during games. if i run furmark to stress gpu, it never shutsdown, even when overclocked. i let it run for 7 hours a couple times and no shutdown. i tried many diffrent drivers, and still the same problem. even tried diffrent os's. i've brought it to Asus service, and they cant find a problem. it only happens during gaming, with all games. i've use programs to stress the cpu and gpu, and it never shutsdown. laptop is clean. i use it in a cold room with a cooling pad. max temps during furmark with gpu oc is 83 for gpu, 57 for cpu. during gaming its gpu 78, cpu 54. currently using win 7 64bit with dox latest drivers. anyone have any ideas what the problem is? im at a lost. thanks!

 

any ideas?

 

Anything in your system logs, or specifics listed after you reboot from windows 7 recovery popup (if it comes up.. look in the details..)? There are a lot of problems with this machine these days sad to say , if you don't believe me try looking at the ASUS support forum and search the M50 series..

Looks like you have a lot of posts about your M50 so maybe some of this is redundant but I thought it might be useful to combine all these probs/fixes into one post..

I have been working thru a lot of recent bugs on this machine, however I have theM50sa (radeon 3650 card instead of Nvidia) Slowly, I think I am starting to pinpoint the specifics of what originally seemed like a lot of random BSOD's, from multipule OS's as well (3 different HD's with 3 different O/S'). Worked good like many people for about 6 months, then it all went bad.. and worse and worse.. Still a fan of ASUS but... Here's what I can add..

OH, Specs:
Running Windows 7 x64 Professional, RTM (official release)
Newest Catylist Drivers, (although i dont think necessary anymore, modded w/mobility modder as I have been getting desparate and it doesnt hurt..)
I was running the RC win7, upgrading to RTM did seem to make the system a little more stable, but not that much..


So far, I have had the USB_bug Error BSOD

Fix for me so far:
Odd as this sounds, updating the drivers for Intel Turbo Memory and matrix storage manager drivers was suggested on a site and seems to work, get them off the Intel Site. I have also read that disabling turbo memory helps, but I dont have any options in the Matrix Storage manager to do this as I don't have a turbo memory chip. I know this sounded crazy to me, but turbomemory works with caching data instead of using the HD all the time, so maybe just bad code when it tries to look for drives to cache on USB.. dont know..but no more BSOD)

Random Crashing in Games and other: VERY common, I had read many people trying to replace everything under warranty, MB, memory, etc with no help. Read that Memory is cheap that Asus uses (not surprised with the price of these machines) and getting the mem swapped for more crappy memory seemed like a bad idea to me and read a lot of people not having good results on the memory from warrenty..and I just need the machine to work

Fix for me:
Although under warranty, I purchased new 4G of name brand ram, and I have had MUCH better luck, gaming for hours and no crashing now, as well as Photoshop and other without problems.. Memory I purchased supports up to 800mhz, but pm965 system chipset is limited to 677mhz memory from what I read, even though it has a 800mhz FSB.. also looking for a fix for this if there is a way.. ) I highly suggest this as a fix, but I am thinking the MB has a voltage issue with memory, as I have read using one stick of memory solves a lot of issues, and using 2 memory sticks requires more voltage.

Now Flash full screen crashing... Ugh..
I have read about right clicking on a flash video, and disabling hardware acceleration, but this did not solve my crashing issue, I am currently looking for a new solution, but good news is the computer seems stable except for this problem.


Fix?.. working on that..

I am still wondering if the HeatSink is crapping out and the memory on the videocard, GPU or CPU is overheating, The heatsink is staying quite warm and while monitoring the system with AMDGPUtool, the last recorded temps are 55C before crashing, which is not too bad, but I dont think there is a temp monitor on the GPU memory, so maybe it is overheating. I have read that people have swapped the thermal tape on the GPU with 1-3mm copper strips and thermal paste for overclocking, but I have not found a site going into the details of removing the heatsink. I have no problem voiding the warrenty, as I feel some MX3 thermal paste and a copper swap would do a much better job. I also wonder if all the components are using thermal tape to adhear to the components if I could just use MX-3 on all the parts.. assuming the heatsink will tighten down a little further.. Anybody Check that?

I know thats a lot, but hopefully it gives you a few ideas and even though you have Nvidia, many problems are the same on these systems. If anyone else out there can shed some light I too would appreciate..

 

thanks for the reply. have you had crashing during gaming? mine doesnt bsod, but the laptop justs shutsdown af is its overheating. but the odd thing that really confuses me is that it doesnt crash or shutdown when using benchmarking programs, for hours on end.

 

I have had issues like this as well, and I still think there is a heat issue going on with these pc's. I think that maybe benchmarking programs aren't using the integration of the hardware as hard as the games or parhaps games are much closer to boarder lining on flakey, so more susceptible to memory or other errors. .. I say this as L4D had a lot of crashing issues anyway, and I found myself running around in circles trying to fix issues from the l4d forums, but I never got any consistent results (disable multi cor proccessing.. etc.). Fixing the RAM did stabilize the games. My M50sa is stable on A/C, but on battery it crashes still.. (noticed this since last post) I haven't tweaked the fan settings for battery mode, but that would be one thing I think that could be an effect of over heating.. I dont think the processor is working harder on battery mode, but the cooling might be under-performing, not keeping up with the CPU if it is already having heat issues.

Also, I am running bios 210, which is supposed to fix some sort of heat issue, but no details from asus.. It has not given me any new problems btw, even though other people reported it did.. might be a thought.

I have spoke with ASUS folks, and overheating is a common problem for many models, oddly not this particular series although they seem to have mystery crashing a lot these days. I think I may try a warranty swap with the fan or heatsink and see how that goes, and if no luck start working with thermal issues myself.. voiding the near ending warranty.

Have also been trying to think of things that could degrade over the time of use.. thermal paste/tape could definitely be a thought, and the fan but it doesnt even crank up to 100% that often..
Also not sure if some of the power components are starting to crap out as well.. I was reading you have had some warranty swaps, what is left in your system that is original? Any other thoughts on components that could be wearing out?

 

only had the hard disk replace. when i brought the laptop in, they reset the heatsink, which resulted in temperatures dropping 2 degrees. have tried bios 207, 209, 210 and all has the same problem. trying to track down 208. do you have a copy?

 

Mine randomly shuts down when playing bioshock...

I seem to be ok playing other games. I don't know why...no BSOD it just turns off. And I am also able to run benchmarking programs fine without any problems...

 

ok i pop in my asus m50 driver cd. and decide to install asus NB SW kit, and NB Probe. i let a game run for 7 hours and so far no shutdowns. have also oc the gpu about 15% and also no shutdown. now i dont know what those software has to do with shutdown when gaming, but so far so good. will let it run overnight and update results. but so far so good!

 

hmm, well I have NB probe installed, but not the nb sw kit.. I installed nb software kit now, so well see.. I'll have to google a bit to see what the nb software kit even is doin.. do you have any issues on battery power?

Edit: Odd looks like the nb software kit is a hotfix.. but for vista.. effects a usb_bugcode error though.. and issues with nvidia usb chipsets.. being I'm the other side of the industry.. might just make my computer worse... lol.. interesting if it corrects something in 7... your using x64 right?
this was referenced as what the nb fix is according to the net, but I see a couple versions..
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/936003

 

left the laptop running with a game on all night and no shutdown. gpu was oc 620 1240 425. no problem at the moment. yes installed the hotfix on win 7 64bit. give it a try.

 

Well no crashes, I have even used F/S flash with good luck, but not too long.. to be fair I have a lot of work to get done so not trying to crash the comp if I can avoid it.. I'll post if I still have issues..

 

well spoke to soon, shutting down again. anyone have any ideas how to fix this?

 

digdung, do you have bios 209 for the m50sv?

 

So far so good on my end.. not Oc'd right now but just need stability.. no prbs with gaming but I still think I had bad memory in the past.. that cleared up my crashing probs