Motherboard the cause of graphical artefacts Clevo P751DM2-G?

I have just reached the point of my third graphics card failing in my laptop and am now wondering if either the motherboard is the problem or (hopefully not though) the motherboard could have killed the cards. Has anyone ever heard of the motherboards in these laptops causing graphical artefacts?

This seems to be a very strange problem. The card that came installed on my laptop, a GTX 1070, lasted about 18 months with no noticeable issues before developing a very strange issue whereby it would take about 20 attempts to get the laptop display/external monitor to actual display anything upon booting the laptop. So, not being able to send my laptop for RMA as I needed it for work I ordered a GTX 1080 for my laptop, sending what I presumed to be the broken card off for RMA to PCSpecialist. However upon installing the 1080 I experienced the issues described in this thread. So rather than attempting to sell the replacement 1070 I received, I installed that into my laptop and attempted to RMA the 1080 instead. About 4 months down the line now with the replacement 1070 having seemingly solved my issue it suddenly goes pear-shaped. It is probably worth mentioning I had a few graphical artefact glitches on games with this latest 1070 but each time it happened totally in isolation and after a reboot + driver update it didn't happen for at least a weeks. Yesterday however it just went out in spectacular fashion. It crashed twice in quick succession with the exact same artefacts pictured in the above thread. So I updated the driver and it got worse. It was then artefacting horrificly on just the desktop. So I ran up DDU and it seemed alright for a minute, except it wouldn't allow the driver to reinstall, right at the point of the screen flickering as the resolution changes it just fails. Now it's reached the point where it's artefacting at the boot screens despite no driver being installed. I tried putting the what I believed to be broken 1080 (don't even get me started on why I still have that) back in and weirdly it experienced the exact same artefacts (style and during OS loading screens).

If it is the motherboard though I'm completely stumped as to why the issues took time to manifest with each card. I'm also completely at a loss of what to even do now. I could buy a new motherboard but I can only find the board on Eurocom and it'll set me back £450 I don't have to spend. Plus that might not even resolve the issue meaning I'd then be truly buggered.

 

The motherboard does supply power to the card so there is a chance something is wonky with the power circuitry.

 

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It's hard to say with this kind of issue especially without spares to swap in.

 

Did you mod your heatsink? Doing die pressure mods will kill cards if not perfectly even. Check if somehow your heatsink is appling a torque to the card in any direction, which a faulty heatsink that isn't modded can do.

Clevo made a mistake by not having any heatsink screws for the gpu other than the 4 core screws. This makes any uneven pressure go straight to the die, straining the solder connections. The unified gpu/cpu heatsink models have it even worse as there is little tolerance for misalignment with the cpu screwed to the same heatsink on the other end. I'm thinking your heatsink is slightly bent and that's what's killing your cards.

 

Not an issue i've encountered on any of my 4 screw machines (every laptop I ever owned).

 

The older heatsinks with the memory/FET heatsink in a 2nd piece are fine, since there isn't much weight left in the core's heatsink or anything it can hit that can pitch or twist it. It's mainly Clevo's design after they ditched physical MXM form factor that concerns me, especially on the models where the the GPU and CPU heatsink are unified. The 1080 I am using is right now is one I fixed where the core solder BGA went bad from an ebay "for parts" listing.

 

Look at the MSI GT60 graphics heatsink, that's the kind of heatsink I am talking about, also the P570WM heatsinks.

 

So I ended up sending the laptop as an RMA and they ended up replacing the graphics card, fortunately under warranty and it now seems to be working fine again. They suggested I just have extremely bad luck with my cards, which after reading your suggestion @Khenglish I am concerned about. I haven't done any pressure mods on the heatsink but it certainly seems possible the heatsink is slightly bent and that's what is causing these issues. Do you have any suggestions as to how I could best check how level it is, aside from lying it on a floor and using my eyes?

Furthermore, if this pressure has been killing the cards how would I go about repairing broken ones? I have a GTX 1080 that is currently packed away unusuable due to whatever is causing the graphical artefacts. I have no experience fixing these sorts of things but since it's dead anyway I'm willing to give it a shot.

 

Just make sure your VRM pads make good contact, then monitor core temps. That should be enough.

 

Thanks, last night I managed to undervolt my i7-6700 by 0.175v and the 1070 by about 0.2v which along with putting some Kryonaut on seemed to drop temps on both by about 10-15 degrees so that's a good start.

Although I will check the VRM pads, wasn't aware that was a thing I should check and it does sound like it could have been an issue...

 

Always worth double checking there is an imprint on the pad.

 

Make sure the radiator isn't hitting the frame, or that for any reason anything would be pushing on the heatsink/radiator other than where it screws on to the GPU.

 

It wont sit flat if that happens and your core temperatures would be awful.

 

I now have the same issue with my P751DM2-G (Origin Eon 15-X).
With your replacement GPU, is it still up and running?
Also what vendor did you buy your laptop from? Thanks

 

The first replacement failed again after a few months but I think they might have attempted to repair the part. So I sent it back for another RMA and they replaced it again, must be getting towards a year ago now and no issues. The vendor was PCSpecialist.

 

Well, at this rate I'm upgrading then.
That doesn't sound good.

 

Depending on your budget a 1080 might be worth considering.

 

Can the cooling on this laptop handle it adequately, without crashes, etc?
Would that also work without the need for modding drivers?

 

No modded drivers and you may want to undervolt it or look to get the TM series heatsink.

 

This caught my eye.
What heat-sink would you recommend? A part number, etc?

 

Which reminds me: Last year, I replaced the heatsink on the P751DM2-G with this part on eBay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/new-for-Cl...=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

It's a bit heavier than the original. I'm assuming it will treat the GPU temps much, much better.

 

Ah yes, that's the one designed for fitting a 1080.