P171XL FX crashes in games on battery power

Well, crash is putting it lightly, this thing just shuts off cold. After 2-3 minutes playing Crysis, or 10 minutes or so in Portal the FX powers off without warning. It just goes click.

On AC power the problem doesnt come up, only battery.

Has anyone else experienced this problem on their FX? Power mode is Max Performance. Curious what this problem could be... maybe the machine cant supply enjoy power to itself on battery?

 

Is there a way to make Notebook Hardware Control or similar monitor the power usage? It could be a safety shutdown like you said.

 

thought i read in the review on here that he played crysis for 59 min before the battery cut out on him ie ran out of power . so it could be something else did you try to run it on a different power saving mode just to see the results ?.

 

I believe that is a saftey shutdown too. Maybe use RMClock and undervolt as low as possible? The XL FX is a serious laptop with a hefty CPU, after all.

 

Is it possible for it to be a bad battery? Is there another battery you could use?

 

Well NHC says the notebook is drawing 80w at max performance during a game quickly switching out of it.

Most of the time when this has happened, the battery is around 85-90%.

Any voltage suggestions for the X7900 at various multipliers?

 

He probably rebuilt it

 

Hah, well I think I may have figured it out.

On battery = playing on lap

Plugged in = playing on desk

Well when I fired up Crysis on battery on my lap with NHC running in the background, about 20 seconds later it came up with a "Processor at 95C shutting down, blah". This was a NHC safety measure... perhaps it was hitting 100C+ and the CPU itself tripped.

The design of the notebook is such that your leg blocks the entire main air intake.

 

it sounds like your CPU wasnt mounted right cause even with the airflow blocked off it shouldnt hit 95C in 20 seconds so i would rip that bad boy apart and redo it

 

Haha, well I will think about it. This is a review unit, and while I do like ripping notebooks apart I dont have any Artic Silver or anything on hand if I take off the heat sink assemblies.

 

Oh what the hell, took it apart, and the heatsink just seems overly small. Contact patch over the cpu was good.

 

Wow thats a massive amount of compound on that CPU although i doubt that would have been the cause of such a massive heat buildup so quickly . it could just be a bad cpu .

 

P-171XL FX? I didn't think these even shipped yet...are you referring to the Best Buy P-6831 FX?

 

We are working on a review right now.

Not sure if the problem is CPU related right now. 2 instances of Prime95 going for each core, and the thing was at 98C. That was with both cores maxed, which I dont think Crysis can do. Thinking right now that it might be the GPU, but the heatsink for that is not accesible without ripping the entire case apart (no outside access panel).

 

So under prime 95 it hit 98c ? thats friggin nutz and should never hit 98c under the cpu even if it wasnt crashing thats not good at all and it has to be cpu .

 

Ok, well it wasnt the CPU hitting 98C, it was NHC mapping to the wrong temperature zone. CPU was around 60-80C range under load. That one is actually the GPU.


The odd part is as follows though:

The zone for GPU reports ~66C when plugged in under full load. The split second you unplug it and refresh the screen it spikes to 98C. The next split second that you plug the AC cable back in, it goes back down to 66C.

Repeat about 10 times, no chance in hell temp is spiking that fast... I think something is screwy with the reporting. Something in the BIOS is getting messed up, and it is reporting the insane temp spike when it actually isnt that high.

I am going to dig a bit deeper and try out of a few more programs that report temps, and see if the trend continues.

 

ya thats abit weird but did you have NHC installed prior to your initial problems with the laptop shutting down under battery?

 

No, NHC was only installed about an hour or so ago.

 

Well atleast its a review model and not something you will have to deal with for a warranty claim personally i would just let it rest and give your gateway sources a call come monday . im going to grab a bestbuy model when i can get my hands on one (michigan and sold out everywhere) when there available cause it seems like the majority havent come across any of these issues YET and this seems to be one hell of a machine for the $$$ .

 

Interesting, same heat pipe on 44W CPU's and 35W CPU's. Is the same 120W power brick used? The Gateway site only list the 120W bricks.

Have you tried running TAT and logging in the background? You mentioned a possible BIOS glitch but may also be reporting software.

 

Hi there,
you know, you've mentioned the P171XL FX, right !??? The funny thing is that Gateway received their first batch of the P-171 FXs just yesterday (03.01.08). My point is, where did u get yours from dude !?!?
Dont get me wrong, but i am just concern ...

 

If you read through the whole thread you would have noticed that Kevin's actually part of NBR and they received that set as a review set for them to test out.

 

Ding Ding

I was sent one from Gateway directly for a review.

 

oh, my bad. Thanks for the input !

 

No worries.

So do I win a prize?

Can't wait for the review Kevin.