Clevo laptop switching off when playing games

Hello, I own a Kobalt branded Clevo laptop, the specs are as follows

Processor - Intel® Core i7 620M Dual Core 3.06GHz - 3.33GHz 4MB Cache
Video Card - ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870 1GB GDDR5 1
Memory 1 - 4GB DDR3 1333Mhz CAS9 2x 2GB DIMMs 1
Hard Drive - 120GB OCZ Vertex 2E
Hard Drive 2 - 500GB Western Digital 7,200rpm with 16MB Cache

Recently I attached an external monitor to the laptop for work purposes, everything has been running relatively normal. But now when I try to play a relatively easy game (Dungeon Defenders) the laptop will switch off as the game is running. No warnings, it’s like someone has removed the psu and re attached it right after. I’ve never had this problem so frequently in such a short amount of time whilst running computer games, far more demanding ones, too

The laptop is plugged into the mains all of the time. The monitor is also plugged into the mains as well & I haven’t updated my Graphics card in a few months.

Could it possibly be the 2nd monitor eating up too much power and forcing the reset? Or maybe the graphics card drivers being out of date are the cause of the problem?

Since Kobalt is out of business I am unable to get help from those guys, so I apologize if threads like this aren’t permitted. But I’m really stuck
Thanks for reading, I hope you can help

 

An external monitor wouldn't be drawing any power from the laptop, so that's definitely not the issue. Have you checked your temps at all? Install HWMonitor and try recording your temperatures when gaming. You should also check that your fans are clean and operating, because it sounds like either overheating or a faulty power supply.

 

I just ran the same game with HWMonitor on, the CPU and GPU were getting to around 70c before the laptop switched off again, 1 of the cpu cores were this high, the rest were lower.

I will clean out the fans and give it another try! Is 70degrees a high temperature? I guess with it being a laptop it is?

EDIT - upon switching the laptop back on I noticed that the fans were whirring considerably louder than usual

 

this is an old post but gives a good idea what to look out for.
70c is fine especially for your spec.

 

Thanks for that, I'm stumped then, I've had no problems in the past. The laptop runs just fine when im doing work :s

 

was going to send you a pm but i think you need 10 posts before you can send or receive messages.

wonder if it could be something to do with the ocz. as you know one of mine (works) totally died but im not sure how solid states work. will they start having problems and then slowly die or just fail straight away.

also have you still got the external monitor connected. if so remove it and have a good gaming session to see if it happens again.
as malibal said, it wouldnt be the power side of things with the monitor but im wondering if having old graphics drivers might have something to do with it.
just a guess by the way as i know nothing about amd/ati drivers.

 

Lol you say that... I've been through 3 SSD's so far with this laptop within a year, each one ended up dying, the guys at Kobalt just put it upto extremely bad luck, which I went with, the first time

I will try using just 1 monitor, but DJ, do you know any uk based shops that sell regular laptop hard drives? Pretty much like my 2nd HDD? To be honest I bet it would be the OCZ, the previous SSDs all used to shut down/reset so... bit of a pain now with this being the 3rd model D:

I cant have my laptop bricking with so much work on my plate right now!

Thanks again for the help

 

anywhere like maplins, ebuyer or dabs can supply hard drives.
i swear by western digital scorpion black. i do some hunting but not sure if i can post links to them.

Shhh, dont tell anyone > Hint

 

guess i could get 10 posts to be eligible for PM's!

 

I'll check out the western digital scorpion black anyway, thanks for all your help man

 

Out of curiosity is it 2.5" SATA HDD's that i should be looking at?

 

replied to pm.

good question. im not sure
i just picked the first one that said notebook on it.

mine was 320gb 7200 sata-II with 16mb cache

anyone else confirm 2.5" is the right one for a clevo.

 

I'll check that one out, cheers

 

It should work with a 2.5" HDD.
3.5" is too big and its the most common HDD size for desktops.

 

Here's another quick idea for you:

Deficiencies in, or deterioration of your power supply could be the culprit.

1.) Are you using the stock supply designed for your laptop? If not, even if the numbers match 1:1 with your stock one, sometimes replacements don't supply enough continuous current when under load. (I personally have seen this behavior where BOOM laptop off, and it's random).

2.) Because of my experience in #1, I'd wager that an older supply, or one just simply stricken with the bad luck of dying before its proper time is due, could then also be worth mentioning.

Ex: Perhaps some of the components within not functioning to full, under load, while gaming. Remember, even non intense games are going to turn that GPU out of whatever power saving features it might have.

 

Firstly thanks for the reply, to answer your question I use the stock PSU with my laptop. The only thing I've touched inside the laptop is the SSD & the RAM

When you say worth mentioning, to who? The company that built my laptop have (for now) ceased trading, so I wont be able to send back the laptop for testing.

I didnt entirely understand the example you were trying to put across there as well are you trying to explain a possibility as to why my laptop would switch off at any given time?

Sorry for my lack of knowledge here! But thanks for being patient with me :]

 

just tried running a game i've had zero problems running in the past with world of lolcraft, I left it running in the background, after 15 mins the laptop switched off, the strange difference here though is that upon reboot the laptop gave me the "Windows has recovered from a serious error" message, and i had to re enter the password for my skype, which is something i never have to do. Yesterday the laptop was turning on like nothing happened.

time to test it without the 2nd monitor anyway

 

That type of error sounds like a hardware issue. Have you run Memtest on your RAM and/or checkdisk on your hard drive yet?

 

I'll get on that, are there any guides on either of the programs? As I've never used them before

 

Memtest is pretty straightforward. You download the package and create a bootable disk. Boot it up and run through the wizard to test each stick of memory.

Memtest86+ - Advanced Memory Diagnostic Tool

Checkdisk is built into Windows. My Computer > Right click your C Drive > Properties > Tools > Error Checking > Check Now > Tick both boxes. It will need to do a reboot and run the tools when Windows starts to boot.


Hiren's bootCD is also a good resource as it contains a bunch of useful tools for testing and diagnostics.

Hiren's BootCD 15.1 - All in one Bootable CD » www.hiren.info

 

thanks very much - I'll get on it right away

 

I updated my GFX drivers & unplugged the 2nd monitor, my game still crashed after 15 mins.

I just ran CheckDisk, everything seemed ok, I didnt really know what to look for but i didnt see any errors or problems arise whilst it was scanning.

With memtest, can I run it on a pen drive? And will I have to change the bootup priority? I heard that you had to chose for the pen drive/disk to boot up before the hard drive.

Thanks again for all the help

 

I just ran Memtest, 2 passes, I got 0 errors, so I guess I can safely say it isnt the RAM.

So I've tried updating GFX drivers - same result
Unplugged monitor - same result
Temps are normal whilst games are running
Checkdisk showed no errors
2 Passes in Memtest showed no errors

The last 2 things I can do now is buy a new PSU or a new HDD.

I really dont want to have to buy either, & I would really hate to buy a HDD only to found out it was the PSU that was the problem.

I'll remove the battery and try again with the laptop plugged into the mains, I dont know if it could be the battery but at this stage i'm willing to try anything.

 

If checkdisk came back clean and the memory checked out, then odds are it's related to your PSU. What were the results playing on AC only with the battery removed compared to with it installed?

Before buying any new hardware, I'd say a Windows reinstall would be a good choice so you can completely eliminate faulty software. The first place I'd go after that is to try a replacement AC adapter as you've already eliminated memory, overheating, and HDD.

 

I use my laptop with the battery plugged in whilst its plugged into the mains. I will try without the battery plugged in now. Here is some useful information though that Im pretty sure will interest you.

I ran an SSD life program a month ago or so. It said my SSD was perfect. But I cant even turn off my laptop now, because it will tend to fail to load windows upon bootup, and the windows error recovery reports that it cant fix the problem automatically. I usually just try booting it up again and it works.

I just removed my battery to run the laptop straight from the mains, and when I booted up my laptop windows failed to load, I tried again and it loaded.

The SSD no doubt has problems and I guess I should buy a regular HDD to replace it with.

One thing that confuses me though is that the games are on the 500gb HDD, all that I have on the SSD is Windows & a few other programs.

Each SSD I've had (all the same model) have had the same problems as this, and they all eventually die. But this new problem of my laptop just shutting straight off when in a game is brand new.

EDIT - I didnt know, the block (AC) that I plug into the mains. That is the laptops main power supply unit? There isnt a PSU inside the laptop like a PC would have? If so then cobsider me dumb

 

Ok I seem to be having a bit of luck right now. I'm running World Of Warcraft, its been on for about 15-20 mins by now, usually the laptop wouldve shut down. There is no battery in the laptop. Its just running from the AC adaptor.

I opened HWmonitor to see the temps, this reading is after 20 mins.

 

Hi, me again. No, you're correct, this is what is outputting the DC Power to run your system, like those "power supplies" do that are inside a full-size computer.

I read your response to me, and we're getting to sound more like I might be on to something.

Here's what I was getting at, that would have been "worth mentioning". Even though you can't send it in for repairs/examination, get a replacement PSU or borrow one from someone. Try your system out then.

Heed my advice from earlier though, make sure the unit you're getting is a stock replacement. If you can't find one online, contact some of the resellers that post here. They could probably provide the proper one for you.

 

Thanks for all the help Lauski. I've been running a game now for over 30 minutes & the laptop still hasnt shut down. I removed the battery and am just running the laptop from the AC adapter. So i'm hoping now that I've found the problem in the battery

I'll keep you posted, thanks again

 

Gotcha, yeah you ninja'd in that update before I submitted my post to you.
Ok, let us know what happens.

If it clicks off again randomly, check your supply for us. I still wonder if it might happen since you said:

Not a brilliant start running without the battery, but 30 mins now is looking good!

 

The SSD fails to boot up Windows regardless of whether the battery is in or not, that seems to be an entirely seperate problem.

I've just been told though my GPU temps are far too hot, and I noticed some crazy screen artifacts inside Adobe photoshop, so I'm going to clean out the vents in my laptop now

 

I see. Heh, just looked at your Screenshot too. Yeah 95C = toasty.

If the blow-out doesn't drop them enough, it might be worth your while to repaste your GPU. The performance of the low-end stuff tapers off over time, and higher quality pastes will provide an immediate difference in lower temps anyway.

How old's the system? Several years? Have you said already?

 

the laptop is just over a year old :s

 

95 seems awfully hot, WoW on full ultra for me is in the 65-76 range. Sometimes, will peak at 82 but only for 25 man stuff with a ton of spell effects going off.

 

right now on idle with only firefox running my gpu is clocking in at 74 degrees C

I cant find a blasted screwdriver so I'll have to wait with blowing the vents out.

 

yeah with a browser running mine is only in the 40 - 50 range, something is off there. Definitely worth the time to take it out and blow it clean with a repaste job.

 

I wouldnt know where to begin with repasting the gpu, I guess there will be some guides on the net though :]

Isnt it strange that thermal paste on a laptop that is barely over a year old would start to burn away already?

Thanks again

 

Back from thoroughly cleaning the laptop with my breath!

The laptop once again tried to load windows, but before the Windows icon could show up the laptop instantly restarted & gave me the "Windows Failed to load" screen. Same old same old :<

Anyway, I cleaned out my laptop, I blew it to hell, I unscrewed the fans, there was a fair bit of dust built up around the orange grill next to the fan, I spent a good 20 mins cleaning both sides, as well as the interior of both fans they’re now spotless. There wasn’t any dust anywhere else; I still blew the crap out of it though.

My laptop has been on for 5 minutes now, with just Firefox on and it’s at 52C! Which is 20 degrees Celsius cooler than before. So that definitely helped

Thanks for all of your guidance guys; It sure does feel great to narrow down the problems bit by bit!

Also regarding the heat sink, there was some paste on the chip, but I could see the chip underneath the paste, the upper part of the orange panel had paste on it too.

Thanks again! Next I have to make sure the battery is the reason why the laptop shuts down during games, & then the SSD.

Maybe I can give this star wars mmo a try