Clevo laptop maintenance in the UK

Evening all,

I own a Clevo X8100 which I purchased from a company that recently ceased trading.

I'm experiencing a graphical issue which causes the screen to suddenly go grey with dark grey and black lines flashing. This can occur at any time during operation and only effects the display, not the system itself.

Video of the issue: (Note: I curse in the video, sorry about that) x8100 issue 2.wmv | Game Front

It seems to occur while the system is running an application which uses hardware acceleration, such as flash videos, h264 movies and gaming.

My limited knowledge leads me to believe that the issue is either caused by a faulty GPU / GPU memory, a faulty SLI bridge, or even a dodgey inverter (I have not had a chance to test this issue while an external screen is attached).

Does anyone know what may be causing this issue, or an individual or company based in the UK that might be able to provide me with a diagnosis and list of possible solutions, such as removing a faulty card, replacing a faulty component or, if the GPU's are damaged, replacing them both with 460's / 560's?

If so please send me a PM.

Thank you very much for your help.

- Dan

 

Have you considered disabling hardware acceleration?

Seems like the fastest solution to try yet.

 

Thanks for the reply,

I have disavled hardware acceleration in flash video and codec playback, however the instances of occurance are so random that it would literally take 50 hours of useage to form a conclusion.

Plus, as an example this has occured during startup, right before the Welcome logo appears. After the welcome logo appeared however the screen restored itself.

Even if disabling hardware acceleration solved the problem with flasha nd codec playback, it remains with gaming.

If say one of the two GPUs was found to be faulty i would hapily remove it completely and play with a single 285M, which is more than enough to sustain 50+ FPS in BF3 with medium presets.

 

I'll start from the scratch.

Have you tried upgrading your drivers?
Have you tried working in safe mode? If the system works fine in safe mode and doesn't crash, say you try watching a movie I don't know. Something that you are positive that will make it crash. Say the problem doesn't appear in safe mode, try disabling all of your services and enabling them one by one to see if any of them contribute to your crash (requires a restart each time), of course, you would want to disable all of those you think seem suspicious, the print spooler shouldn't create such a crash

Or you can do it the manly way, pick a single 285M out, run a diagnostic or so, see if the problem appears, if it does, try with the other one, it if remains, there is probably something wrong with either your screen or your hardware linking, not to sure. I haven't really seen the problem for my self so I can't provide you with the exact same knowledge as I would if I was there

good luck

P.S. You could also ask http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/ for some help if you feel it's necessary or try going on the nVIDIA forums, they have a lot of knowledge

 

Hi Jaug,

Happens with multiple driver versions, too random to test in safe mode, PC Specialists wont repair it as i didnt purchase it from them

 

I would remove the secondary GPU and see if the problem still appears. If not, swap the two GPUs and retest. If not, buy a new SLI bridge and retest.
If you still haven't reproduce the problem you could try an external monitor to remove the dependency of a troubled LCD cable/inverter.

 

Thank you for the advice,

As i have no experience in maintaining this type of notebook and rely on it heavily, i would prefer to pay a professional to correct the issue rather than have a go at it myself.

Golden Star UK have quoted extremely good prices to undertake the job, almost too good to be true (£180 per GPU to replace the 285's with 460's).

Has anyone dealt with Golden Star UK in the past?

 

Goldenstar is the company Clevo contracts (Or I think owns) to do service work for them (They are the depot), and 180 GBP isn't a bad way to be for 460's, its about retail price. So yea they should be able to take care of you.

 

Thanks for the reply, i'm just waiting for them to get back to me with a price greakdown and lead time for parts and labour.

I'll be happy to have this laptop sorted out

 

No work from Goldenstar UK yet, but there has been a recent development.
Earlier today i turned on the system before i had completely opened the lid. After doing so i noticed that the display had failed immediately after turning it on, however when windows loaded the display was fine.

Could it be possible that the source of the issues is more likely to be the screens inverter than one of the GPUs, which apart from the display fasilure has shown no issues whatsoever (no games crashing, system is still operational after display fails, etc)?

I'll try to plug an external screen in the next time it happens. Any comments or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

 

It would be strange for a failing inverter to always fail and then work at the same points. That sounds like a Windows or driver issue more than anything. An external display will let you narrow it down to either a GPU/driver issue or screen issue.

 

Thanks for the reply.

this issue did not occur until around a year into use, and the system has been formatted at least 3 times with multiple GPU driver versions.

As this happened during startup before post i doubt it would be caused by a driver issue.

 

Might be a busted or crimped LVDS cable. Also another thing to look at. Another common issue a year into ownership.

 

Thanks for the reply.

I'll need to get this sorted out ASAP if possible, so hopefully i will hear from Golden Star soon.

 

check my forum out Dan