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    Black Screen - System Crash after 30mins of Gaming

    Discussion in 'Sager and Clevo' started by Cuggull, Sep 17, 2008.

  1. Cuggull

    Cuggull Notebook Enthusiast

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    Hi Guys,

    I would seriously appreciate any help, or similar experiences.


    Symptoms:-

    Consistently when ever I play Warhammer Online, Supreme Commander & Forged Alliance (Sup Commander Expansion), after about 30 minutes of play i get a black screen and the system seems to have crashed.

    I'm pretty sure it has crashed as sometimes i hear the sound card stuck playing the same tone over and over.

    The only way to recover is to do a full reboot.

    The only other games I play on this system have been World of Warcraft & Warcraft 3 both of which don't crash the system, but which are both NOT graphic intensive as the above titles.

    Previously I used to get black screens of death, when the system would blank the screen, and then the screen would not come back. I solved this by going to the Latest Nvidia drivers - the ones from the Sager site would cause this problem still.

    Attempted to Resolve with no improvement:-
    - Upgraded to latest video drivers etc. vista patches etc.
    - Ran warhammer in lower graphics mode and with less detail to see if it would extend time before crashing, the system still died after about 30mins.
    - Made sure fan was operating at full speed Fn+1
    - There is no overclocking or unusual settings going on

    I sincerely hope it's not my video card needing to be replaced - but that's what I'm thinking.


    Specifications:-

    Notebook Sager NP5793 - Purchased Feb 08
    Running Windows Vista Ultimate 64.
    17" WUXGA (1920 x 1200) "Glossy" LCD
    Silver Trim
    nVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTX w/512MB - Will get new NP5793 Body
    Intel® Core™2 Duo T9300 2.5GHz Processor w/6MB L2 On-die cache - 800MHz FSB
    4GB (2 SODIMMS) DDR2/667 Dual Channel Memory (64bit Vista Required)
    200GB SATA 3Gb/s 7,200 RPM Hard Drive (16MB Cache Buffer)
    Combo Dual Layer DVD +/-R/RW CD-R/RW Drive w/Softwares
    Built-in Intel® PRO/Wireless 4965 802.11a/g/n
    Built-in Bluetooth Wireless

    Manufacturer Clevo Co.
    Model SANTA ROSA
    BIOS Vendor Phoenix
    BIOS Version SROSA001.86C.
    BIOS Release Date 01/09/2008

    Description NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTX
    Manufacturer NVIDIA
    Total Local Video Memory 506 MB
    Total Local Texture Memory 506 MB
    AGP Aperture Size 1.75 GB
    Driver File nvd3dum.dll
    Driver Version 7.15.11.7792
    Driver Date 8-15-2008
    Driver WHQL Certified true
     
    Cuggull, Sep 17, 2008
    #1
  2. Xirurg

    Xirurg ORLY???

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    What are your(notebooks) temps?
     
    Xirurg, Sep 17, 2008
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  3. Megacharge

    Megacharge Custom User Title

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    What are your temperatures like? and have you done any overclocking? it sounds like there may be a heat and or damage issue with the card. You should give Sager a call and explain the symptoms to them because its not normal.
     
    Megacharge, Sep 17, 2008
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  4. Bog

    Bog Losing it...

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    Use a can of compressed air and a vacuum cleaner to clean out the computer for dust and other debris.
     
    Bog, Sep 17, 2008
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  5. Cuggull

    Cuggull Notebook Enthusiast

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    Well guys, appreciate the quick responses - yes watched the core temp climb to 80C, while playing.

    Shutdown the system gave it a thorough cleaning and now it's peaking at around 50-52C for the same settings, and no crashes so far.

    Thanks alot! I'd previously cleaned out my desktop systems to keep them from similar behavior - but the laptop seemed clean and I feared the worse with all talk about Nvidia parts overheating.

    Cheers,
     
    Cuggull, Sep 17, 2008
    #5