The MSI EX625 Thread

I tried call of duty 4, works fine. Played the first three missions no problem.

Then tried Mass effect, and the bsod (black screen) happens on that game too.

So for me NFS Carbon, GTA IV. GRID, Crysis Warhead and Mass Effect have made the computer crash.

Assassins Creed, Far Cry 2, Pro Evolution Soccer 2009, Call Of Duty 4, Need For Speed Undercover and Mirros Edge have worked fine with no BSOD

I´m almost cartain now, something is wrong with our ex625. The driver related issue seems not possible since others tried it on windows 7 and other set of drivers and it crashed too. i´ll wait the results from vaant that sent his laptop to msi. hope he keep us updated

 

Not everyone is having this problem, so we can't say every ex625 has an issue although there are enough people for something to be done.

 

Yeah, i gues maybe a few of the latest EX625 have this issue. because it just come to public now. But there are 7 people we know with the same problem.

ammm i dont think its overheating, GTA IV crashes in less than 5 minutes, while GRID and Crysis Warhead y played for around half an hour

Maybe the HD4670 has some defective vram chips?

 

MSI have my laptop now. I'll keep you all updated don't worry ^^;

download26, I was also thinking it could be something to do with defective vram. If you look on the other ex625 thread on this site, someone else had an error which sounds like the one we're experiencing, although he had the laptop when it first came out. He had to have it replaced because of defective vram.

UPDATE-

MSI called me while I was at work today. They told me they've scanned the whole computer hard drive and memory and find nothing wrong with it... They're asking if they can do a factory restore, because he believes that will fix the problem.

I've already wiped the hard drive once, and I'm almost positive them doing a factory restore won't fix the problem.

Before I speak to them, is there anything you guys think I should tell them?

 

Tell them there is a video card related issue occuring on your ex625 which a factory restore would not help.

 

called him back and left a message telling him i've already done a system restore and he can do one if he feels he needs to but the problem is the graphics card.

 

Its definitely something with the graphics card. They need to replace it plain and simple. Why does tech support always do a stupid scan and say everything is alright? You have to stress test all the system component(s) that could have something to do with the issue and find out by process of elimination. Tech support kills me sometimes.

 

I think I found the issue, I was playing halo 1 and got the black screen. The laptop was not hot but I touch the power brick and it was scorching. I think at least for me that the power brick was over heating on the carpet possibly causing the screen to go black. I do more testing to verify

 

Definitely verify because my power brick gets pretty hot while I play games and I don't get a black screen/BSOD, so like you said maybe its just you. Let us know your results though, you might be on to something.

 

Tell him to play a game, or get furmark, if your GPU is defective, this test shoudl indentify the problem within a matter of minutes.

 

See even you know what to do. Why is it technological-adept users know how to troubleshoot but tech support doesn't? I'm sorry I'm just ranting but is it that hard to do?

 

1chaoticadult, I'm sorry if you already said it, but can you play the games we listed? Such as GTA IV and Crysis?

 

My fan keeps buzzing whenever it is at a slight angle and I have to turn it upside down to get it to stop. It sounds as though something is touching it. I did some research and found out that I may have to apply oil to the fan, but i dont want to open up the laptop and void my warranty. I tried a compressed can of air and it didnt do anything. Will my warranty get voided if I open up my laptop?

 

I would say no based on what I heard from others (opening it but not breaking or shorting out any components), but if you are that worried about it, let MSI tech support take care of it.

 

Seems that MSI have shipped my laptop back to me, no word on what they may have fixed or even if they've done anything to it at all... the fact they only had the laptop for 2 days doesn't sound promising, unless they're extremely quick.

I've sent then an email asking if they fixed it and what they did, no reply yet though.

Just don't like being left in the dark like this. Only time I heard from them was when they left a message telling me that there's nothing wrong with the hdd or memory and that they wanted to do a system restore to factory settings. I couldn't get ahold of the support person working on my laptop so I left him a message telling him he can do whatever he feels he needs to do but I think the problem was the graphics card. That was last night, and today I heard no updates, just what appears to be an automated email with my tracking number.

 

Guys, i just noticed... MSI have updated the BIOS for the EX625 two days ago. BIOS version on my laptop is 1.0L. The latest BIOS version on EX625 product page on MSI`s website is now 1.0M. Could it be this BIOS update could fix our crashes when playing games?

Vaant, please check your BIOS version number when you get your laptop back, if it is 1.0M and now the games play fine, we may have a solution now

Is there anywhere where i can read the release notes for the new BIOS? or MSI just do not provide such info?

 

I just updated to this bios. The bios is dated from April 09 in bios setup. I think they fixed my cpu lag that I would get sometimes while in Vista. Still testing, will post if I notice anything different, but so far this is all I noticed.

Update: Vista seemed to boot a little faster for me after the flash, maybe its just my imagination. Also seemed like they did some tweaking to the fans as well. I agree with download26, vaant check your bios version and see if it was updated. Also other people having issues should try flashing the newer bios, maybe it might fix some issues. Lets see some results people

 

Hi! Can someone pls post the link for the 1.0m bios update. I tried searching the MSI website and it redirects me to the EX623 laptop with the nvidia vidcard instead of the EX625. Thanks!

UPDATE:
Never mind. I found the correct link Thanks!

UPDATE 2:
I finished updating the bios to 1.0m. Tried Crysis and after 30mins BSOD still occured

 

That's disappointing.

Anyway guys. I got a reply from MSI, just a blank email with a .xls file attached. I opened the file in excel and all it seems to be is a checklist of the parts in my laptop (battery type, ram size etc), no additional information or anything at all about what they may have done to it (i'm pretty much a n00b with excel but I'm sure I'm not missing anything).

So now I'm almost positive MSI did nothing to fix my laptop but I'm going to try everything I can to fix the problem when I get it back.

I'll try running the games again on the regular Vista 32-Bit, if I still have the BSOD issues I'll try the DNA Drivers and I'll run that Furmark program to perform tests. If that doesn't help any then I'll update to Windows 7 RC (I'm planning on using MSI's Windows 7 upgrade program anyway) and try all the available drivers on that too.

Am I missing out anything else I should try? All I know is that I don't want to send it into MSI again. It cost me $30 to ship it to them, and all it seems I will have gotten out of it is having no laptop for 3 weeks, so I'm pretty pissed at them right now (unless it turns out they just want to surprise me by it really being fixed and not telling me ^^

 

vaant, i did tried DNA drivers, DNA catalyst 9.4, and still got the BSOD

Also, i tried some program called Burn In Test, from passmark, which i read on another forum can test vram.. so, i run it, and the test starts, have got no errors on 3D or vram yet, everything seems fine. However, while doing the tests the gpu barely gets any hotter from idle, so i dont know if it is stressing the vid card enough

 

There is a dedicated video mem test, but it shouldnt be bsodding like that.

Can you get details of the BSOD?

I will fetch the VMT (VIDMEMTEST) Tool, you can test directx open gl and cuda.

I think i shall devote some time to this cause before i go on holiday ^^.

 

Great. We all appreciate the help, even me although I'm not having the issue, but I would like other ex625 users able to enjoy their laptop as well

 

Hehe as would i,

http://majorgeeks.com/Video_Memory_Stress_Test__d5896.html

Theres the test, i'd say do a full overnight run 256 odd tests in direct x memory, then if that passes do a small run of openGL, if these tests come back clean, i have a solution .

What games were bsodding again?

 

NFS Carbon, GTA IV, GRID, Crysis, Warhead, Mass Effect, The Last Remnant, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Some one can add to the list if they like.

 

In the latter, everything 1 solution coming right up, will update shortly*

 

Pretty much. A solution already? Wow you are good

 

Thanks for the test. i´m gonna run it right now

 

Okiiiiiiiiii

After vendor bootup picture/post screen

SPAM F8, you should get some options.



Hit disable restart on driver failure.

PLAAAAAAY BALLL or a game...either way lets find out if this works.

 

This is getting EXTREMELY exciting ^__^!

catacylsm, I can honestly say that we all appreciate your help with this specially since your not even one of us who're getting the error.

Wish I had my laptop back right now sow I could do everything you ask... I'll be having to wait until Thursday it seems!

 

Haha, i have MSI tech now, i work for us all

 

Really now. Secret weapon unleashed

 

Thanks for the suggestion cataclysm but unfortunately it still didn't work for me when I played Crysis

 

I have experienced crashing with Team Fortress 2 as well in Vista 32bit. So annoying....

So are you saying that you ran a video memory test and it passed? I am hoping these video cards are not defective... WHY YOU ASK? Well I am an idiot. When I recieved my notebook from newegg.com, the "warranty void if tampered with" sticker on the bottom was torn....meaning they will think I am the one who tampered with it... I contacted newegg about it but they thought I meant the box was damaged? Anyways I never pursued it like I should have and now its too late to return. My fault. So im really hoping its just a driver issue.

Also I wanted to note that my friend also purchased an EX625. Right when he got it, he reformatted to vista business ultimate or something (32bit) and installed the drivers that came with the cd, and he has never experienced any crashing during team fortress 2....

 

I ran VMT (Video memory test). No errors where found on the vram of my HD4670

 

Add me to the list guys. I've had no issues with Empire: Total War, ARMAII, FEAR 2 and Battlefield Heroes. But I downloaded the demo for Tom Clancy's HAWX last night and 15 minutes in I got a black screen. Had to hard reboot. No time to test it further but I've disabled autorestart on bluescreen if it happens again. Definitely felt like a heat issue but I'm not discounting other factors. Also ran VMT and got no errors.

 

just got a black screen on TF2. After many hours tho, around 4 or so.

 

Hi guys, I read through the whole thread because I was considering purchasing the MSI Ex625 (still available here in Aus) and obviously I'm concerned about the issues some have been getting. I noticed someone had no more problems after installing 8.56.1.13. If I'm not mistaken this should be the driver set included in Catalyst 9.3 which are unified drivers for Win Vista/7. Should be able to find them on guru3d, don't forget to use Driver sweeper (also can find that on guru3d) after uninstalling your current set. Let us know how you go

 

I tried getting the Catalyst 9.3 for vista from guru3d.com but the drivers dont install.. just the ATI control panel....

 

hmm i played for about 2 hours straight with no crash/blackscreen.. dunno if i can last playing for longer lol

ps this is on 8.572-090108a-074942C-MSI (stock drivers)

 

how are they better than the synaptics ones?

 

If you haven't tried them then you won't know if they are better or not, so why even ask this question. Plus I said they are better in my opinion.

 

Guys, would someone please try turning off the Catalyst A.I. and playing GTA IV, I don't have much time right now to test myself. I don't know if it has anything to do with it, but I turned it off and I finished the first mission on GTA IV, which I wasn't ever able to before it blacked out.

 

what kind of response is that? i'm asking you why, in your opinion, the dell ones are better than the synaptics ones? i have the synaptics ones installed.. and so instead of me finding and installing the dell ones to try out, i thought i would save some time and kindly ask you what the difference is since you already have them installed... geez.

 

I didn't turn off the speedstep while using RMclock.

But I found that, if you use rmclock to check the cpu when use speedstep,
the voltage can go down to 0.925 and it runs at 1.6G.

If you use rmclock and set at 1.0000v , it will run at 1.9g?


I want to know if there is a way to set it at 0.925?
Rmclock does not provide this voltage.....

 

And.....I reinstall winxp and the system control manger does not support xp.......
Is there any special version for..xp?

Has anyone checked out the cpu status using different modes by system control?

 

XP 32-bit or 64-Bit? The system control manager on the site states it supports xp 32-bit but I know it doesn't work on xp 64-bit as someone on this forum already tried without success. You could try using system control manager from ex620 or ex623 and see if it works for you.

 

Once I went to Windows 7, I turned speedstep back on so my statement concerning speedstep no longer applies. Turning off speedstep causes windows to search for a driver and makes some operations slower at least for me it did. Have you given speedfan a try?

 

I never tried any of these games and I don't have them available to me. Oblivion works without any crashes, which is the game vaant mentioned that was giving crashing the most.

 

Did you try manually installing the drivers through device manager from the extracted ati directory?

 

I tried it, turned off Catalyst A.I, ran GTA IV, black screen within 2 minutes of playing...