Y580 - Screen tearing? Flickering Horizonal Lines? Fl

Hey guys, had my Y580 for almost a week now, been away though and just finished installing a few games but I've come into quite an annoying graphics glitch...


This happens in Skyrim, Crysis 2, and noticed it faintly in the background on StarCraft 2.

It's tough to explain, I tried to take a screenshot in Skyrim but for some reason the printscreen button wasn't working while in-game (is that planned?) but basically there are thin and thick (all different sizes) of horizontal (mostly) and vertical lines starting from the center of the screen that are constantly flickering and pretty much make the games unplayable because you can't see anything really. In Crysis 2 there were blue, in Skyrim they were grey, couldn't really tell in StarCraft 2 (didn't really play it, just went to the title screen.) Also, if I just try to play with it eventually (1 or 2 minutes) little blue dots randomly start popping up. I just installed Fraps as well and in Skyrim the framerate was low 40s so not sure what the deal is. In the areas of the screen where I can see, the games look amazing with great detail, it's just like this is an overlapping thing.

I tried a couple older games (Morrowind/KOTOR) are didn't notice anything and watched a Star Wars blu-ray and it played great, so I don't think it's the screen itself, just a GPU problem, or needs a new driver? I checked the updates and it said none were available...

Anyone else encountered this?

 

Could you take a photo with a camera or phone with a camera?

Also, check GPU temperature with HWMonitor or similar program.

 

Just tried LA Noire as well, this one didn't have so much of the lines but dots and parts of buildings and the streets were randomly flickering and turning green... Tried to take photos with my phone but can't really tell, so took a quick video of Skyrim. uploading to youtube right now...

 

Skyrim GeForce gtx660m ideapad y580 - YouTube

 

Like the guy above said, check your temps. While I haven't played those games on the 580, that seems like a hardware problem.

To rule it out, try the beta drivers from nvidia, 304.48. I didn't think they were great drivers but if you encounter the same problem, it might be the gpu itself.

I haven't heard anything like that from anyone else. I've been running Diablo 3 and tried Amnesia and they both run without any issues.

 

What will the temps have to do with it? The surface and bottom of it are pretty cool...?

 

Yeah, I think the spikes means the GPU core is overheating or malfunctioning. The dots would mean that the memory is possibly overheating or malfunctioning. I might have the symptoms mixed around..

Anyway, it would be good to check temperatures and as above try different drivers.

The heatsinks inside the computer are designed to take heat away from the outside of the computer. Not to mention if the heatsinks aren't connected properly that those won't be hot and only the computer's GPU or CPU chips will be hot inside.

 

no idea what the levels are supposed to mean... that seems hot though?

 

Temps are okay so far. You can get worried if you get into 80C or higher.

You need to open a game before you open HWMonitor or your GPU temp isn't listed since I think your laptop has Optimus.

The levels are your battery's charge levels..

 

I know, I meant the temperature levels in general haha

Okay, that's a relief.

Opened up skyrim and HUH, no 'spikes' (as you called it) cept the framerate was down to 20-22ish, never changed anything...

heat levels again:

 

Try game for a few minutes until you see the symptoms and then check the max temperatures recorded by HWMonitor.

 

High 50s/low 60s.

 

Tried LA Noire and Crysis 2 again, and yea, no longer any spikes, and the only difference has been the laptop has been running on battery now... I had unplugged for some reason, and now the frame rate is slow, but no spikes... weird...

 

Test while plugged in as the GPU seems to be throttled while on battery.

 

Hmm, never thought about the battery/power settings. I've just been keeping it on the 'Balanced' plan regardless if it's plugged in or on battery. Will try again with it on High Performance.

 

Literally the second that I plug it in, those spikes come back, unplug it, they go away... whats the deal with that? even after changing the power settings to high performance...

 

From what I can see in this video you clearly have a hardware problem. Either the GPU itself or more likely the memory is malfunctioning. I've seen the exact same thing on a desktop pc before and it was a bad card. I'd return this laptop as faulty, you don't need the hassle of trying to diagnose it yourself.

 

Hmm, alright. I'll contact Lenovo tomorrow.

 

Called Lenovo support, I couldn't really explain it that well, he was convinced it was an issue with DirectX 11 and that I need to install DirectX 9. Over remote control I opened Skyrim to show him what I was talking about, he put me on hold and said he talked to the "supreme technical staff" (lol not really, can't remember who he said exactly) and that is wasn't a hardware problem but software. Gave me a service request number and said they will call me back in 10 minutes... half an hour ago.

Been playing around while I waited and it's really weird how when I unplug my laptop and run on battery, the flashing spikes and everything completely goes away and the pictures looks great (Crysis 2) except the frame rate drops from mid 30s to 14-15 idle 4-10 moving/shooting. Plug it back in, frame rate comes back up and the flashing 'spikes' come back.

Looked around for a few solutions myself and it seems like when laptop is on battery it might switch over the Intel GPU, but I have set it so it wasn't auto and is always the Nvidia one. Even on battery I have the power settings on High Performance, so whats the deal....

 

Maybe check if the GPU core and memory clocks go up and down when you plug it in with GPU-z. Check the sensors tab. Don't forget to tick the box that will make GPU-z update while is in the background.

 

Good call. While plugged in it the GPU core is 835.3 MHz, on battery it drops to 405 MHz, and randomly (whether plugged it or on battery) it drops all the way to 135...

EDIT: Seems to only drop to 135 if the CPU is lagging I guess. Skyrim is playing great (aside from those horrendous spikes) on High settings in 720p windowed with high 30s-low 50s frame rate.

 

Nvidia just released a new beta driver today, gonna download that and see if it fixes my problems. *Really* don't want to have to send my laptop in for repair/replacement.

On the driver:
"Power management mode settings now persist across driver overinstalls." - hopefully that stops the downclocking of the GPU.

"Fixes an intermittent vsync stuttering issue with GeForce GTX 600-series GPUs." - would that be what those flickering spikes are? something to do with the vsync?
"Fixes an issue where some manufacturer’s factory overclocked cards default to and run at lower clocks." - hopefully?

EDIT:

After installing the new drivers - they helped a bit, but didn't solve the problem. There are still flickering spikes/spots but there doesn't see to be as many. Again, running on just battery removes them, but the GPU core clock still drops from 835 MHz to 405 MHz, killing the frame rate.... ugh...