Random shut down while playing games

Ok, so I was playing Limbo on battery for about half an hour, when the rig just froze for 2 seconds and then shut itself down. At first I thought I ran out of battery, but I knew that half an hour won't kill a 90% charged battery with minimum brightness. This is not the first time it happens and I decided that it maybe isn't something of concern if it happens now and then, but lately it started to get on my nerves and it seems that it doesn't matter which game I run, it sometimes just shuts itself down. This is also the case when I have my computer plugged in. Temp reads are within normal limits. I use MSI Afterburner and I always take care not to have temps above 85 while gaming.

I'm starting to think there is another issue here. What do you guys recommend I do? Is it possible that I could have faulty memory chips? Should I run a memtest86+ or something like this? Is it necessary? I might be missing something.

 

With a ram/vram problem i think you should get artifacts or at most a BSOD + restart, a shutting down issue sounds like a lack of power juice. Do you overclock the GPU? Have you tried lowering a bit the frequencies in case? Does this issue comes only while gaming?

Have you tried to remove the battery while on AC and see what happens? It could be also a short circuit while charging the battery and having the system under load simultaneously.

 

I can think of 2 scenarios: Your GPU is overheating and automatically shuts down the machine ... or your HD may be failing (it happened to me a while ago).

Hope it helps.

 

I didn't overclock the GPU yet. I use stock freqs. Yes, the issue concerns gaming. I will attempt to remove the battery while on AC to see what happens. But like I said, this time it happened on battery power. I didn't get any BSOD or artefacts on my screen.

Like I said, I always monitor my temps and this time was doing LIMBO on battery... the game is not demanding by any means. It wasn't the case this time I think.
My card failing? I only have my rig for 3 months and I barely stressed it. This last month I used it only for school: some CAD, Office, internet. Games I've played so far on it: DX: HR, SC2, Hard Reset, D3 Beta, Limbo, LFD2 (all while monitoring temps and keeping things in check).
Could it be that I received a faulty card from the start? Do I already have to RMA it? This kinda sucks...

 

Sounds like an RMA to me. Random shutdowns aren't easy to root cause. If it's still under warranty, make use of it and send it in to get evaluated/fixed.

 

Bought it with 3 years warranty (c&r, parts and labour), so it is no problem... but it kinda bites to send it back already... This is my first Clevo and I already seem to have issues with it. Should I ask for a GPU replacement? Maybe switch to a GTX 580M? I'm not running away from the Red team, but if I can get a replacement without differential cost... I would do it.

I'll do some tests without the battery and see if I can rule this variable out.

 

You can ask for whatever you want, but you'll probably get a negative response and possibly a dirty look. I don't see why they would give you a free GPU upgrade just because a part (not necessarily the GPU) went bad. It happens. They'll likely be more interested in just replacing whatever part is defective.

 

Well... since most Clevo retailers dropped the 580M price, thus narrowing the price gap between the two, I would dare to ask.
My last laptop (check sig) died from a PSU/Motherboard issue. I had the same symptoms. Whenever I launched any graphical demanding application, it would shut down shortly after that. Now it is a rare situation, but is does happen and I don't want these issues anymore.

 

You can ask. They may give you a "discount", but I wouldn't expect to pay just the difference of the 6990m and 580m.

 

I went through three Asus 1201n netbooks that would always shut down when running games...the third one still does it, I just ran out of warranty or I would be on my fourth.

 

That sucks. But then again, there's a big difference between an Atom based netbook and a 17" gaming notebook!

 

system over heating?