BIG problems with Go 7600

Hello,
I have just bought an FS Amilo Pi1556, Core 2 T7200, 1 GB DDR2 533, 120GB HDD & Go 7600 256 MB.

During the first week-end I have installed 3 games (F.E.A.R., CSF and Heroes IV) and for 10-12 days they all went fine. But then, something happened, and I get artifacts in all three games and for the first two also balck polygons ot other strange shapes which prevent me from playing (you can see the attached files) I have to mention that I did not try any overclocking or any other change...

Since then, I have updated the drivers or tried to follow any other advice I have seen on forums, but nothing worked out.

I start the game and in a few minutes I have to stop. If I use ALT/TAB and switch to other program, the moment I'm back the image is ok. I feel it has something to do with the temperature (cause it happens simultaneous with the fan accelerating), but I repeat - it did not happened for the first 2 weekes, although I have played for severeal hours without pause.

Could you please HELP me? I feel I am going crazy here..

 

what driver are you using?

have you tried reverting to the manufacture's driver?

 

The laptop came with 84.63 (if I recall it right).
And I have updated drivers only AFTER this problem appeared, now I am using 91.48.

I also tried to revert - nothing happened.

 

Try original drivers, then if that doesnt work, underclock and see if its just as bad. If your still getting artifacts then either your cooling system cant keep your card cool enough or your card is just plain bad.

 

Are the fans working OK? And is it only happening while gaming?

Also--are you maxing out the settings in the games?

 

The artifacts are usually caused by overheating or errors caused by overclocking. Check your clock settings, and if you overclocked it, turn it off. Your cooling system may just be shot, and you may have to send it in for warranty work because of errors.

 

OK, I will underclock it and then come back, although my stock is at:
core 450 / mem 350 (isn't this already too low?).

I think the fans are working ok, or at least it sounds like they do (I can hear it accelerate during the games). I am not maxing out the settings, just medium, but it does hapenns only during the games.

As I said, I am not overclocking.
The front part of the laptop (where my right hand rests while typing) DOES get too warm, I think. I hoped it was not the case of sending in to warranty, but I think I'll call the Help desk

 

Sounds to me like it's a cooling system issue. See what your tech support has to say about it.

Good luck.

 

I switched back to original drivers, I did underclock to core 400 / mem 300 and the same thing happened.

Moreover it is happening sooner than before. As I said for the first 10-12 days eveything was ok. Then some artifacts appeared during Heroes V. Then, when playing F.E.A.R., after 10 minutes or so some artifacts appeared and after more minutes some strange shadows and black polygons.

NOW, almost from the second minute in the game the image is totally corrputed. So the effect is bigger, stronger and it appears sooner. It is like something os going worse and worse.

The problem is Fujitsu Siemens DOES not have tech support in ROMANIA... and I am using this laptop everyday, at job and at home.... uuuh, terrible.

 

Sorry to say it, but that's a core artifacting. Underclock the core some more and check temperatures. A reasonable temperature for the core is under 60.

 

Pulp, I have read many of your answers and threads and I can say I'm really impressed by your knowledge. So could you please tell me why did it work just fine for a couple of weeks and is getting worse and worse now?

The stock core was at 450 when I first played all these three games and everything was ok. Maybe the right part of the upper case was getting too warm, but there was no real trouble as I use the mouse with my right hand and th A-W-S-D keys are on the left side . I DID not overclock anything (I think I said it before), I did not change any driver, I did... nothing (except working Excels, Outlook and other software at office).

Now I am thinking of something else: I am keeping the temeperature tab open whie I am using the laptop for office job (excel, mails, internet). And I am noticing values like 72C and even 75C at the core (with ambient of 58C or 60C. I think this is not good.
I do not know if you know, but this Pi1556 has a stange feature called SILENT MODE FUNCTIONALITY - "Enjoy tranquility. Just click on your silent mode button and the fan noise is reduced distinctly by clocking down the processor speed and the graphic card. You will be able to dedicate your full attention to your work or enjoy listening to the music of your choice on your notebook in best and undisturbed quality."

I clicked that button once or twice... nothing happened really, but maybe did something permanently do the fan speed... or functionality... could it be?

 

I would call the FSC support in your place, sounds like some sort of hardware problem that need to be replaced or something like that.

 

I have a Toshiba P100 with the exact same GPU and it should NOT get any hotter than 66-68 degrees!.. Even though its rated for much more than that, anything in the 70's will cause problems..
I know this because my 7600 mostly stays at a target temp of 52degrees and when gaming, it goes into the low to mid 60's.. Once when the fan didnt work for some reason, the gpu core temp went to 75-78'c and i started to get artifacts.. Turned the laptop off and back on again and the fan kicked in and the temp shot back down to below 60. Now working prefectly as was jst a fluke.
But from this i can say that i think its a bad sign when the gpu of the 7600 (in a laptop) goes above 73-75degrees.

To sum up. The Gpu isnt the issue, the fan is. It is being allowed to overheat and cause problems. Fujitsu's are thrown together and you shud send it back asap to get replaced with new one!

 

WOW, short and clear! I have just emailed the tech support describing everythinh it happened, the temperatues adding also some print screens. I hope I'll get an answer by Monday.

Thanks a lot!

 

Actually after looking at your pics, your GPU is faulty!!. Them artifacts are WAY to extreme to be an overheating core issue!.. Send it back!!

 

Lots of reasons it could have failed. The heatsink worked loose from moving the laptop around, being dropped, badly anchored in the first place, could have worked loose from heat expansion, could just be a marginal chip that started failing once under load, could be your fan failed/failing, dust in the heatsink, blocked heat vents, inadequate cooling around the machine...

Yes, your temperatures are too high, though. Call the manufacturer, tell them what you've seen, and get them to fix it. Kinda like cars, every once in a while you just get a lemon.

 

Off Topic, but I was born in Romania Bucharest as well. Then I moved to america when i was 4.

 

Send it back would be very difficult. Actually none of the FSC distributors has this kind of notebook on stock, as it is too high for the egular market demands. So it will take arround 4 weeks to get a replacement. I hope I can keep it until replacement comes (if they agree toreplace it).

However, I have seen on another forum, some guys with Zepto laptops, same graphic adapter, same problems and they have resolved it with BIOS update...
http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=10213&hl=go 7600&st=20

I have written to FSC Romania and also to some tech guys and now I am waiting thei reply

 

I have just came back from the FSC service and their conclusion was: memory interruptions from the video card. So they ordered a new one for replacement.

More than that, the service engineer said that the same problem could sometime be caused by the motherboard (or by its connections to the video card) so they also ordered a new motherboard for replacement.

They will call me back in 15-20 days, until then I can use my laptop for usual work (office stuff).

SO I'll give you some more news probably in december.

Thanks all of you or support!

 

Sounded like a heat problem (which can be caused by video card or motherboard faults as you said, or sometimes caused by something stupid such as the heat sink not attached correctly). From my experience, 70 or higher is pretty bad (even if you don't have artifacts, your computer will probably need repairs often due to wear and tear from the heat and constantly running your fan at full speed). If you go over 75, many laptop models will auto shut down because it is afraid that it will burn up. Try to game at about 65 or lower.

I remember on my desktop, I upgraded from a Radeon 9800 pro to an X850. I didn't notice much improvement (although it should have been huge). I then did a $10 upgrade on the fan on my X850 and the temperature went down from 75-78C (I had some weird bugs and auto shutdowns) to 55-60C, and had enormous improvement in performance. Funny... best upgrade I ever did was upgrading that stock fan (before it did some automatic throttling/pausing/downclocking stuff to try to control heat). If you let your machine get hot, it won't perform well.