Sager 8170 6990M artificating and freezing when gaming - anything I can try to rule out a hardware failure?

Greetings,

I'm not having the best of days!

I have a Sager 8170 I purchased back in December of 2011 which suddenly started giving my critical problems today.

I was playing Guild Wars 2 and my screen suddenly started artifacting, then froze (couldn't alt-tab, ctrl-alt-del, go into sleep-mode, hibernate, etc. it was completely frozen and I had to manually shut-off the computer). When booting back into Windows, the first attempt to boot normally fails (automatically shuts off before getting into the windows login screen) the second attempt to start-up works and boots back into Windows as normal.

I tried playing again, and the same thing happens. Within 10 seconds of loading into the game (i.e. as my GPU begins being taxed), the exact same thing happens (and the same thing happens when trying to boot back into Windows the first time).

I tried running a different game that would drive my GPU considerably (Borderlands 2), and again, within a few seconds of being in the game, the same thing happens. I updated to the latest Catalyst 12.8 ATI drivers, and still, the same crash happens whenever I begin to play a game.

I monitor my GPU temperatures regularly, clean out dust from my system frequently, and always use a notebook cooler. The temperature wasn't abnormally high or anything today to cause a system failure such as this so I'm not sure what the issue could have been. It seems like a hardware failure to me but I hope it is not.

Is there anything I should try to rule out a hardware failure before sending it in for repair with my warranty?

Thanks for your time!

 

I've been facing the exact same issue, I have a Clevo P150HM with 6990M.

I though that it could possibly be a hardware issue too but I don't think so anymore now after reading your post. For me it started a few days ago after the most recent Borderlands 2 update (This might've been on the 19th/20th of October). The first time I launched the game couldn't make it past the main menu without the screen going black and the machine losing all function. Like you said the only option was to force power off the laptop and restart it.

I haven't tested it with any other games (I haven't been playing any others recently) and this problem started directly after the Borderlands 2 update I mentioned. I installed Catalyst 12.9 (CAP 1) (Previously I was using 12.8 too and it worked fine for the last however many months) thinking the problem had been fixed but after launching the game a second time to test I was back to square one.

I'm going to reinstall Windows tonight to see if this will resolve it and if not I'll be sending it off for replacement.

Kind regards

 

I can't even boot into Windows anymore (except in Safe mode) so I'm definitely going to reformat and reinstall Windows as well.

 

what hard drive have you both got? i had similar problems a few months back and it turned out to be one bad sector of my western digital scorpio black hard drive.

if you both have ssd's then ignore this post

 

I'm not entirely sure, I have whatever the default HDD sager packed these models with at the time (500GB 7200rpm SATA 300 Hard Drive).

I'd have to open up my laptop and check the p/n later. Which one did you have that was causing problems. Did you have to replace it entirely?

 

Hard drive issue wouldn't surprise me either, I haven't formatted yet but I actually will tonight. I'm buying a SSD to install windows on so if it was a HDD issue I guess I won't find out now but I'm betting a format will fix the issue regardless. I'll let you know

 

Are you guys overclocking at all? Just wondering cause this could lead to similar symptoms if your card can't handle the higher clocks. I can get my 6990m to about 950mhz core before it starts to freak out completely on me. Then again, anything above 900mhz isn't really stable 100%. Ive only Batman Arkham series so overclocking isn't necessary.

Otherwise other causes could be corrupt drivers, bad hard drive, or worst case bad gpu. Good luck! Maybe a clean install fixes it for good

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2

 

I'm leaning towards corrupted drivers, I haven't overclocked my 6990 ever and on the whole it's behaved itself!
The problem is even after completely uninstalling the drivers and display reinstalling it I still suffered from the same issue.

And @ Batmanic, I had the same thing was having trouble booting windows normally had to keep going into safe mode to uninstall drivers which would then allow me to get back into windows normally which is why I don't necessarily believe it's a problem with out HDDs

 

I'm pretty sure my GPU is dead.

I reformatted my HDD, did a fresh install of Windows 7. Booted up fine. From there, I installed the chipset drivers, rebooted, then installed the video drivers... and now it can't boot again (only in safe mode). Definitely sounds like my video card is gone. That sucks. =(

 

Me too Batmaniac Looks like I'll need to send it away but maybe it'll come back with a better GPU

 

Yeah, could be the motherboard as well.

I'm sending mine out today. Sager says 4-6 weeks minimum. Well, time to dust off my old M570RU/5790 with a broken hinge and wait patiently...

 

how did you guys go? get it repaired?

 

Did you buy it through a 3rd party vendor? Eg powernotebooks or xoticpc? If so, contact them and let them run interference. I got my keyboard replaced in less than two weeks counting shipping

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