HP Compaq 8710W crashes/artifacts in 3D - faulty power supply?

Hello, I recently received a refurbished HP Compaq 8710 mobile workstation. This is an older model from around 2007-2008 that had seen several years of use at a large tech company but looks to be in good shape. The specs are as follows:

• Intel Core 2 Duo T7300 @ 2.00GHz, 4MB L2 cache
• 8 GB (2x4GB) DDR2-800 @ 667MHz
• Nvidia Quadro FX 1600M 512MB GDDR3 @ 625/1250/1600 (core/shader/effective memory)
• 250GB 5400 RPM Seagate Momentus 5400.4
• 17'' WSXGA+ 1680x1050 screen
• Windows 7 Home Premium x64 w/SP1

The first things I did were to disassemble it, clean out the dust, reapply TIM to the CPU and GPU, and do a clean install of Windows 7.

Everything is functioning properly now except for 3D applications. So far, I have tried to run Furmark and a couple of DirectX games, but the computer will artifact and then hang up after a few minutes and either give me a black screen or crash to desktop. Then, I'll see a notification that the OpenGL or graphics driver has crashed and recovered itself and this "video hardware error":


So far, I've already tried the following:

1. Disabled GPU Timeout Detection and Recovery (TDR) in the Windows Registry. Didn't make the crashes go away.
2. Tried 4 different Nvidia Forceware drivers from most recent to a 2009 release on HP's website for this laptop. Even installed a driver with modified INF to detect GPU as a Gefore 8700M GT. Nothing worked.
3. Checked the system memory with MemTest86+. 0 errors.
4. Checked the physical seating of the fan and heatsink assembly after the repaste. Everything is right where it should be.
5. Temperatures are absolutely given that laptop was just cleaned out and repasted. Idle CPU/GPU @ 50C/50C, load CPU/GPU @ 60C/70C before crash.
6. Nothing is overclocked or physically modified.

The weird thing is that these crashes only happen when my laptop is plugged in to the ac adapter with or without the battery installed. I don't get this problem if I'm running on battery power alone. However, my graphics card is unable to run any higher than the 2D clocks (275/550/600) on battery due to the VBIOS configuration, so I can't test what 3D clocks (625/1250/1600) would do on battery. The fact that this only happens when plugged in and running 3D applications makes me wonder if the power supply is crapping out and not supplying enough power to the graphics card or something. But I don't want to spend as much as what the laptop cost to get another one only to find out that it's not the issue.

 

Usually you'd be looking at some faulty ram here, I've never run more than 4gb in these machines, but I know 8gb is possible. Since you say you've tested it, then I'd be looking at the GPU closely. There was a known issue with nvidia drivers and conflicts with stereoscopic 3d. Try nVidia 195.39 driver from 2010 and make sure to uninstall stereoscopic 3d.

Also, an HP OEM power adapter for that unit is under $15 from Amazon. I have the 8510...great older notebook, built like a tank.

Best,

Liquid Cool

 

I hate bringing the bad news, but: GeForce 8 Series - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

That GPU falls into that failing category and that could be the reason for your problems. Since the GPU is removable, you could replace it with a working one or give the current one some heat with a heatgun or maybe even throw it into the oven for a moment. Fortunately you aren't totally out of options yet.

Or you probably could just underclock/undervolt it to permanently run with the battery clocks?