M1530 Graphics Issue

Hi,

I was just wondering if anyone thinks that my graphics (8600GT 256MB GDDR3) in my M1530 is going from the following:

1. 1. Laptop is 8 months old, I use it mainly for gaming and on average over those 8 months I would say I play games for at least 3 hours a day.
2. 2 weeks ago I bought Fallotu 3 to play it with mods, thats when these issues turned up which are:
   • After playing for a little while, the graphics went all 'strange', moving in game was impossible, alot of the textures went purple then BSOD. (15 days ago)
   • The game crashed on exit (not unusual if you know FO3 or Oblivion), then BSOD. (8 days ago)
   • Similar to the first one, however the screen went 'speckly' and you could see different parts of the level (as if I had noclip on). I exited the game, but the 'speckles' were still present in Vista, including the shutdown screen. I turned it off and then on again and it was fine then. (Yesterday)
   • Finally, similar to the above with the noclip style look, just no speckles, but I managed to exit the game, shutdown, restart and everything was fine again, infact I played for 4 hours straight after that. (Yesterday)

Unfortunatly I didn't get chance to read the BSOD errors.

Also bare in mind that I have played Fallout 3 for several hours each day since I got the game (16 days ago) without any serious issues (a few CTDs, but thats normal for FO3).

Apart from these issues I have never had a BSOD with this laptop, and very few other crashes that weren't 'understandable'.

So my question is; is this the starts of the NVidia GPU issue? Should I get a replacement or wait for more information?

Thanks very much in advance,

Alex



p.s. My DVD drive is very noisy on some DVDs (including the Vista DVD that came from Dell), are Dell capable of changing two parts in one trip?

 

are you using any type of software like nTune to overclock the core or memory? If you are turn it off, that may help

Almost sounds like an overheating problem. Try using a notebook cooler to see if that helps...

 

I haven't overclocked anything.

Temps don't seem too bad, CPU/GPU: Idle: 55, 65 Max: 65, 85.

 

If you turn off "Automatically Restart" under System Properties, Advanced Tab, Start-up and Recovery you'll be able to read the BSOD. Most likely it will be your video driver.

Try running the latest beta notebook driver form the Nvidia site. Unless you are seeing odd things in normal 2D mode like lines or multiple images you are not seeing the Nvidia GPU problem. If it's just happening in a certain game I'd guess it's a driver problem.

 

Thanks for the 'Auto Restart' tip, i'll dot hat when I get home.

As for the driver, I have been using R167849 up until 4 days ago, I then upgraded to R200183, the upgrade would have occured between the 2nd and 3rd error I was getting.

The only time I got 2D graphical errors is on my 3rd error as stated in my OP. (I guess it could be that the driver was already dealing with incorrect values and therefore it continued into the 2D environment?)

Any extra information about those beta drivers? I am always weary of the words beta and driver together! Also I didn't realise NVidia was making notebook drivers, I thought they were generally vendor specific (like the Dell ones I use) or hacked desktop versions (like laptopvideo2go).

Thanks for the info so far,

 

Always used to be that way bit recently Nvidia has released it's own notebook drivers - probably because since the GPU fiasco they want to make sure people are running the safest drivers in their opinion.

You can find them here

 

Does anyone have any experiance with these drivers? I tried searching, but nothing very helpful.

 

Been running them since their release. Working fine for me.

 

mine too.....using the latest nvidia beta drivers and I have no issues.....so far. Issues I have before with my graphics (speckles and graphics probs in games) are the result of using LV2GO mod drivers that are usually in beta versions.

Anyway, try using NFR (Nvidia File Remover) at guru3d.com and follow instructions on using it. Then install a fresh mobile beta driver from NVIDIA site. As for me, they are stable.

 

I would try the Nvidia Beta Drivers, however my download speed is awful at the minute for some reason, 4 hours for 100MB!

Also that Nvidia File Remover is over 5 years old! I'm always wary of using old programs on OSs that weren't even about when is was created.

I'm just wondering why these problems only seem to turn up in the one game. I assume it is something to do with the game's engine.

 

It's not unusual to have problems with certain games and certain driver releases. Quite often a new Beta driver will be released to address problems with new games and current drivers.

 

NFR basically cleans up your system of graphic drivers (specifically Nvidia graphic drivers -it can search for other graphic drivers in its options).....they are just a bunch of files which NFR searches in your system using file infos from files. So basically, it doesn't need upgrading. It's effective....believe me.

as for the nvidia beta drivers....try searching google for other download sites. filehippo.com might have one. use download accelerator so that it can download the driver by chunks and you can resume it later on.

 

Well I will try that NFR program tonight. Hopefully my internet has recovered from it's go-slow!

I did read about those NVidia Beta Drivers needing BIOS A12 for the M1530, I only have A09 and from what I gather A09 is the coolest (fans on at lower temperature) and A12 is somewhere inbetween A08 and A09. Any info about that?