P150EM freaking out at AMD drivers

Hi all,

So I recently bought a second hand P150EM for cheap because the guy had GPU trouble.

It's a 7970m and whenever I install the latest AMD drivers I immediately get a BSOD accompanied by a horrible sound and the fan starts spinning like crazy. I had to restart in safe mode and use DDU to clean out all the AMD drivers. Currently I have her running on Intel HD 4000 graphics with no problems. Physically the 7970m seems fine so I'm sure it's some sort of driver issue.

Now, the previous owner took it upon himself to install a dodgy copy of Windows 8.1 Pro, which obviously wasn't what was on it day one. Could this be what's causing problems? I've had a look at a couple of the sticky's on here but no solution presented itself. Apologies if the answer does exist on here somewhere and I just missed it; I usually don't start new threads unless I'm really stuck . So......

If anyone has heard of this problem before, or has any ideas as to which drivers I SHOULD be using, then any feedback would be much appreciated:thumbsup:

Thanks!:hi2:

 

I would ask if the 7970M is the original GPU that came in it or if he replaced it. Its possible he put one in there that isnt compatible like a Dell version.

You can check the capicitors, TurbodTalon posted a pic here http://forum.notebookreview.com/att...vo-7970m-350-clevo-dell-7970m-capacitorsa.jpg

 

It depends on the vbios on the card I believe. I've tried to put in a Clevo 7970M once in my P150HM and it would report "overheating" and make the fans spin like crazy, couldn't flash vbios because it would never complete POST. The same card works fine in an AW m17. Does the card look like it had some resistor/capacitor that are hand soldered? Those are the very first batch of 7970m.

 

Cheers for the replies folks.

So the guy got back to me today and said the card is a Clevo and was in it day one. I just removed it there and the soldering confirms this:

 

Do you get any kind of beeping pattern followed by a reboot or just the fan spinning? Also, what is the EC firmware and BIOS version on your P150EM?

 

No, I haven't heard any beep codes. There is an awful noise though accompanying the BSOD, and of course the fans going nuts. She didn't reboot automatically; I had to force a shutdown. I'll try it again this evening so I can better describe the sound.

I disabled Intel HD 4000 just to see how I'd get on and the laptop works away fine through the card without AMD drivers. It just shows Microsoft Basic Display Adapter and of course things are at a lower resolution.

When I removed it last night I did notice the heatsink was dry as a bone. Pretty much no paste left. Could she just be immediately overheating when it get's the drivers??? I don't have any thermal grease here right now so I can't check that.

Bios appears to be 1.00.04:

 

Without any thermal paste, it only takes a couple seconds to cook the GPU to high temperature since it can use up to 100W of power. When you installed the driver the system would've set the GPU to stock clock which would draw enough power to heat it up fairly fast. I would stop using it and get some thermal paste ASAP.

Also, do the LEDs flash a specific way? Either the left or right side.

 

I can borrow some grease from a friend Monday morning.

As for lights flashing, I remember all of them left and right were flashing on and off in unison.

 

OK, so the problem persists.

I took off the heatsinks, cleaned them and the dies and applied new compound.

Again, as soon as I clicked "finish" on installing the latest drivers, I got the black screen.

This time I took note of the noise and lights. I don't get a beep but more of a long drone out of the speakers.

The fans started up but nothing crazy this time, just standard speed.

As for the lights, the only two illuminated were the same two I had on, which were num lock and wifi; so nothing there. I guess I was just imagining things the last time.

So:
-no beeps, just a long constant sound
-fans start at a continuous normal speed until forced shut down
-no lights flashing
-black screen and need to hold down down the power button to shut down

Anything else I could try? I don't really want to give on the card as dead just yet.

 

So I had a look at what GPU-Z had to say about my card.



What it says in the vbios, "K0*J" or whatever, is that right?

Now, I've never looked at a vbios before but that doesn't look right to me.

 

To me this looks like a defect 7970M, because when you install drivers you get a BSOD / black screen.
Maybe it overheated too much because of dry paste and killed it slowly, usually the memory dies first and start giving artifacts but you did not mention those.

 

No, nothing like that.

I might try flashing the bios, because what's there now looks suspect. Any guides on doing that?

 

Hello, I came here and I think your problem is my problem. I have had a P150em since 2012 and I love the computer. It is rock solid and has never let me down. There is one disappointment, and it is a big one. The 7970m. The card works great, I play Skyrim on ultra settings and have over 500 hours clocked.

So here is the "deal" with this notebook. The drivers suck. Period. The only drivers I have ever been able to get working are the original drivers that came with the PC. In Jan 2013, I tried upgrading to Catalyst 13 and it failed miserably. BSOD, Catalyst saying no hardware installed on the system, no ability to connect external displays, nothing. I emailed AMD and had a back and forth for about two weeks trying everything to get the upgrade working. Nothing worked. Absolutely nothing. Complete uninstall/reinstall, clean Win7 Ult, just install new drivers, even tried a step up install where I went from my version to the next version until I reached latest (well, that was the idea, after the first update...fail).

I am here now because AMD just released a new version of Catalyst and I was hoping someone had finally figured out how to get the drivers updated successfully. As for your issue, try and find some original drivers/copy of catalyst that came with the PC. That will probably fix your issue.

Good luck.

 

I believe I ran into a problem very similar to yours.

My computer suddenly froze (during CSGO) and then would refuse to boot. The only way it would work was if I would disable the 7970m in the settings (in safe mode or otherwise). Installing drivers would either cause a crash immediately after installation was completed, or a black screen on reboot.

I tried many things, formatting and reinstalling windows, reverting to older driver versions which had worked fine before, etc. However, nothing worked. The laptop would work fine with the card disabled/no drivers, but as soon as I would try to enable the 7970m, things would go south. Also, the GPU fan would run at very noticeable speeds.

SOLUTION: I got my GPU (7970m) reballed, and it has been working fine ever since.

Now I understand this might not work for everyone, but if you have exhausted all your other options, I would recommend going for it.
Especially if your card stopped working abruptly without any symptoms for failure. If your card is showing artifacts etc on the display, it might be too late though.

 

Or you can always upgarde to nvidia gtx 9xxM

Gesendet von meinem SM-G920F mit Tapatalk