Random beeping and no G-sync after clean install in P870DM-G

Hello everybody,

Yesterday I decided to perform a long overdue clean install of my P870dm-g. Having installed recent versions of CCC with XTU support my fans sometimes decide to kick in randomly which is a known issue that can be very annoying when in a silent room full of people.

On top of that, sometimes when I'm simply browsing the internet the laptop starts beeping out of nowhere for a while and then stops. This happens once or twice a month for no apparent reason on idle, never happened during gaming though.

So having experienced these issues I decided yesterday to perform a clean install using @Mr. Fox 's debloating guide. Everything went smoothly and the install completed successfully. However, once I installed the latest Nvidia driver I found out that I no longer have the G-sync options in the Nvidia control panel, and my refresh rate is stuck at 60hz. I tried different drivers after that including the stock Clevo drivers as well as Nvidia drivers all the way back to 362, utilizing DDU between each new attempt but that was all in vain.

I also checked the bios for any noticeable issues but I couldn't spot any. I have @Prema 's modded bios and I've been using @Phoenix's 4.2 Ghz overclock settings with no issues since I bought the machine almost a year ago now.

So does anybody have any suggestions as to what might be causing this issue and what I can try to fix it?

Cheers!

 

When did you flash the BIOS? Have you had G-sync working with it?

 

The bios was already flashed when I bought the machine, so yeah G-sync has been working all along up until the clean install.

 

A little update: I tried resetting the CMOS battery but that didn't help.

One thing also worth mentioning is that sometimes after the EVOC logo disappears the windows login screen doesn't appear, the screen just stays black. Eventually the machine restarts on its own after a minute or so and the second time the login screen always appears. And during this transition between the EVOC screen and the login screen sometimes I notice vertical lines appear for a split second.

Any ideas guys as to what the problem might be? @Mr. Fox @Phoenix @Prema @Meaker@Sager @Donald@HIDevolution

 

Disable Fast Startup under Control Panel > Power Management > choose what the power button does (from the left pane)

As for the GSYNC issue, what driver are you running, ensure you are running this one and do a clean install using DDU (make sure you have no Windows password or pin set otherwise you will be locked in safe mode forever) = nVIDIA GeForce Driver v381.89

 

I've already tried all the Nvidia drivers since v362 till v381.89 using DDU in safe mode with no success. Do you think the issue can be hardware related?

 

I would wait for @Prema to chime in. Perhaps you can try reflashing the BIOS again?

 

Yeah I hope that @Prema can make sense of what's going on because I have no idea what to try next. I thought about reflashing the BIOS but I don't have it, it came preinstalled.
I contacted Zoltan from HIDevolution as well to see if he can help and asked him if there is a newer version of the BIOS, but that was on wednesday and I have yet to hear back from him.

 

Sounds like a failing GPU. I had a problem like that with the Eurocom Sky X9 developer unit and @ssj92 had the same problem when a 980M died. Clevo does not use beep tones like Dell and some other do, so something serious could be wrong. Maybe @Prema has encountered something other than a dying GPU, but that is the only time I have ever experienced what you are describing. Come to think of it, had the same problem with the P570WM when one of the 980M cards in that machine died.

The rebooting itself, vertical lines and beeping all point to a failing GPU based on my past experience.

 

I suspected that it might be a failing GPU, but apart from these issues the GPU is behaving normally. So that made me think maybe it's the display? But how can I test what exactly is causing the issues? As you said maybe @Prema came across something similar before and can chime in.

 

I would say your GPU is most likely about to die, but you don't have a 980M according to your signature.

I haven't heard of any of the 200W 980s dying. But maybe yours might be?

Do you still have warranty? Given about 1-2 more weeks it should fail if it's going to fail. It's doing the exact symptoms the others and I have experienced when our 980Ms died.

 

You could also try reseating the GPU in the MXM slot. Maybe you'll get lucky and that will fix it.

 

My warranty I believe expires in a week or so, the GPU couldn't have picked a more critical time assuming that indeed it's about to die. And yeah the 200W 980s are reliable from what I've seen so that would be pretty surprising.

 

To reseat the GPU I would have to repaste don't I since I'd have to separate the heatsink from the GPU?

 

Yes.

I would call HIDevolution if it is still under warranty.

 

I've made contact with HIDevolution's tech support so I'll see what they have to say.

 

Yes, highly recommend calling them while you're still under warranty.

 

Does the warranty start on purchase or delivery day? If it's the former then my 1 year warranty would have expired a couple of weeks ago, but I didn't receive my machine until May10th of last year. I hope that HIDevolution are going to handle the repair costs because as it is I would still have to pay for the shipment back and forth from France to the US.

 

Actually, it is neither. Your warranty starts on your ship date, which was April 30th. Since you opened your Support Ticket on April 26th, if it needs to be returned under warranty, and you return it promptly once your RMA is issued, it will be covered.

 

That's good to know, thanks for the help Donald. I'll wait for Zoltan then to address my issue.

Cheers

 

You lucky man...

You kind of get screwed over warranty wise in the US... In Europe, it's 2 years min sop you are much better covered!

 

But I bought my machine from a US retailer so does that still allow me to benefit from Europe's min 2-year warranty?

 

Not exactly. Your warranty is still through your original seller and subject to their warranty terms, no matter where you are.

 

Yeah that's what I thought as well, thanks for the clarification.

 

so did you RMA it?

 

First thing tomorrow morning, the box is all wrapped up

 

All the best man, hope it gets fixed sooner than later.

 

Thanks a lot buddy I appreciate it. I'll keep you posted.

Cheers

 

Just as a note unless the company has an office in the region you are ordering you would certainly be subject to the laws of the country you are ordering from. However such an issue would be a nightmare to raise internationally at all usually.

 

Major Update:

The post office informed me that should I go ahead and ship the laptop I will AGAIN have to pay the full VAT value when it will be shipped back to me. That's $700 on top of the shipping back and forth cost which is around $300.

This means that I'm looking at roughly $1000 just to RMA my machine which is ludicrous!

With that said it's no surprise that I decided not to ship the laptop and to try and find the solution myself.

First thing I did was reseat the GPU. Ever since I did that I haven't experienced any beeping and the machine logs into Windows every single time. On top of that after repasting with Arctic MX-4 which was the only thermal paste I had readily available at the time, the GPU now idles at 40 degrees Celsius instead of the 49 degrees it used to idle at before, knowing that the original thermal paste is IC Diamond which is a bit surprising.

So that makes me believe that the GPU is fine, and it is performing just fine in gaming. So the only issue now is that I don't have G-sync and the 60hz refresh rate. Therefore I started looking at the display for possible answers. I checked a thread on Tech Inferno about display EDID issues in Windows 10. @Mr. Fox and @Prema have extensive knowledge in this area so maybe they can assist me here.

I compared the EDID info @Mr. Fox left generously in the P870DM-G thread with mine. Here's what I get in MonInfo:



What do you think @Mr. Fox @Prema ? Does that mean that my EDID is corrupt and needs to be reflashed?

 

Wow, now that's not good. Let's see what @Prema says, but I hope we're not ready to go through another round of this EDID corruption nonsense with NVIDIA and Micro$haft. Did you install Creator's Abortion by chance (RS2)? It was LVDS last time, but yours is eDP. @t456

 

Well I downloaded The Windows image from the Media Creation Tool when I did the clean install, so yeah I most likely have the RS2. Should I be concerned?

 

I don't know. Don't jump to conclusions... yet. Everything went to hell in a handbasket last time in lock step with the retail release of Windows 10, back in July 2015. That's why I ask. Guess what just got released... Creators Abortion. Also, Tornado F5/MSI 16L13 owners that have 120Hz screens experience the backlight being turned off using newer GeFarts drivers. Don't know if that has anything to do with anything, but I'm definitely not liking the fact that your EDID is corrupted. That brings back some bad memories. I just hope we're not going to see a repeat of that.

 

Okay I'm gonna hang tight for the time being and hope that @Prema and @t456 can shed some light into this matter.

 

Me, too. Hopefully, you can flash it with Linux and make everything right again.

 

Cheers old friend let's hope that this is the extent of it.

 

Your edid is fine. The 60 Hz / checksum 22 edid is simply another variant compatible with this screen. Since gsync worked previously that would suggest this edid is not present in the white-list in your current bios and/or vbios. So either flash those back to supported versions or flash the 75 Hz/3E edid to the panel (which should be white-listed by default).

Spoiler: edid flashing (quite a bit of effort)

With LVDS and older generation cards that would be possible, but am not aware of anyone succeeding with pure software flashing on these newer systems. Hardware is sure to work, yet that'd need a programmer and soldering skills. Earlier attempts suggested that the write-protect pin on the eeprom (storing the edid and other firmware) were set to 'active' and if so then not even dropping in an older gen card or hooking it up to an lcd cable-based programmer would work 'as is'.

Think the easiest option is to simply desolder the chip and use an adapter board. It would help if you're a watchmaker by profession, these chips being about as small as they get:

Spoiler: SSOP8 0.65mm pitch

Actually, chances are your newer panel will have a 0.50mm pitch, which is a tad more difficult. Hardest part is soldering it back since you cannot verify the connection to each individual pin (too small).

An alternative is to solder wires to the pcb's soldering pads, these being intended just to make writing to the eeprom without desoldering possible:

Spoiler: CMN1735 - N173HGE-E11 - edid eeproms and solder pads

Spoiler: CMN1735 - N173HGE-E11 - connector and eeproms

An edid-override would be much easier, but afaik no one has been successful with that method, either. Probably because if it were that simple to trick Nvidia's driver then laptop manufacturers wouldn't bother buying gsync-validated panels (more expensive due to Nvidia's license) and write an override option into their laptop-specific software tools.

Would think you could also use in-memory intercepting of the probed edid while the driver is installing and then adjust it accordingly to the gsync validated version (similar to tricking other driver- and bios-validation checks). Problem is that it would have to be a one-time procedure, with no after-install checks taking place. Hm ... or make the target registry entries read-only afterwards.

ps.
Noticed your MonInfo screenshot says ' Real-time', meaning it is a direct read from the panel. Might want to check the LGD0469's ' Registry' and ' Registry-active' entries as well, just to make sure these are identical. Windows and Nvidia's driver will pull their information from those copies and perhaps one of them has changed, breaking the gsync license check.

 

Thank you very much for the extensive info brother. I can confirm that my Real-time, Registry and Registry-active entries are all exactly the same.

Let me give you a brief summary of what happened so that you can maybe pinpoint exactly when the problem occurred. I bought my machine about a year ago and then in October @Zoltan@HIDevolution remotely flashed a newer version of Prema's modded BIOS. Here's a photo of my BIOS showing my BIOS and VBIOS versions, maybe @Prema and @Mr. Fox can help confirm that they are G-sync compatible.

Up until that point I had absolutely no issues G-sync was working great, and I didn't flash any newer BIOS nor VBIOS versions after that.

It's only after I did a clean install of my system about a week ago that I lost G-sync. So what could possibly have gone wrong all of a sudden?

 

Yes, I am almost certain that all @Prema BIOS mods include working G-Sync support for the licensed hardware entitled to it. If there is an exception to that, Prema would need to identify it for us, but your system for sure is fine with Prema firmware mods. Has @Zoltan@HIDevolution tried re-flashing the BIOS and vBIOS for you? Maybe give that a try if not.

The last part is what concerns me. If it was firmware related it would have been broken before your clean OS install. What @t456 said about checking the EDID in the registry may shed some light on this. Maybe those are messed up. You can delete those registry keys and force Windows to grab the real-time info from the panel and see if G-Stink and 75Hz mysteriously comes back to life again.

 

I did asked @Zoltan@HIDevolution last thursday to reflash my BIOS, I'm still waiting to hear back from him.

About the EDID in the registry I already confirmed to @t456 that they are exactly the same as the Real-times entries in MonInfo. However maybe you're right deleting those entries could possibly fix the issue. Do you know how exactly I'm supposed to find and delete all those entries?

 

You should be able to right-click and delete them. If you get a permissions error, open Regedit with NSudo or GiveMePower and use TrustedInstaller permissions. You can also compare what is there to what is shown with Monitor Asset Manager. If they are not the same, then Micro$loth and/or NVIDIA are back to playing games again.

This is my Tornado F5 120Hz aftermarket screen that gets the backlight turned off with newer NVIDIA drivers. I am going to compare mine now to what is on the display to see if they are different.

 

Thanks for taking the time to do this brother. This is an image of what my registry looks like:

As you can see I only have Device Parameters for the third entry, is that normal?

First I checked if the EDID values match those found in MonInfo and turns out that they do. I then tried deleting the EDID entries but upon closing and reopening the registry they would come right back. I also tried editing the EDID values to match those found on your P870DM-G EDID but upon restarting they reverted back to their initial values while G-sync and the refresh rate were never affected throughout.

I still can't quite understand what the fresh install changed in my system, I mean what could it have? If it were a registry problem shouldn't another fresh install have fixed the matter? Because I already tried that and nothing changed. So at this point I think that I should just wait for @Zoltan@HIDevolution to reflash my BIOS and VBIOS and hope that it fixes the problem because otherwise I'm not sure where to move from there.

 

You're welcome. I don't know if that is normal or not, but mine have Device Parameters/EDID values for all of the entries. This was on my Tornado F5. Let me check on my P870DM3 to see if those are there or missing like yours. Be back in maybe 10 or 15 minutes.

Did you delete all of them? I delete the entire "Display" key (both CurrentControlSet001 and CurrentControlSet) and only one entry came back after restarting, not all of them that show in my screen shot.

 

Yeah I just went ahead and deleted the entire Display key and only one entry came back. The EDID shows the exact same values as before and still no G-sync or 75hz refresh rate.

 

Sorry, that was a hellalong 10 or 15 minutes. Mine had Device Parameters/EDID for all of the entries. After I deleted everything only one came back. If you ever use an external monitor, that could explain the extra stuff that didn't come back after rebooting. I bet that if you hook it up to external displays a new one will appear for every connection you make.

Spoiler: Before Deleting

Spoiler: After Delete and Reboot

 

No problem brother and apologies for putting you through this whole process. I guess we know now what those extra entries were for, unfortunately for me however this means that they don't help us get any closer to resolving the problem.

I wish that @Prema were available maybe he would be able to get to the bottom of this much quicker.

 

Hey, no problem. Glad to try and help even though it didn't.

 

@Cerberus - what if you install an older version of W10, 8 or 7? Wonder if that will change anything? Maybe the version of Windows you clean-installed buggered things up.

 

You read my mind Mr. Fox that's exactly what I'm gonna attempt next. This could take a while so I will report back once the whole process is done.

 

@Cerberus - Prema gave me a couple of suggestions for your to try.

• Power off the system and disconnect the AC adapter for at least 30 seconds.
• Use DDU in Safe Mode to uninstall all current NVIDIA drivers, then install an old driver that you know for certain worked with G-Sync before.