Sager NP9380-S 120hz 780m SLI flickering/lines problem. Please help...

So when I have my 780m's in SLI mode and I'm in 120hz on the control panel I get this issue with ALL games that are in fullscreen.

Sli flickering and scan lines, Nvidia 780m in 2x SLI on a Sager Notebook. - YouTube

If anyone knows how to fix this I would be forever in your debt.

Ive done everything from patching the pixel clock, to uninstalling and wiping the drivers and installing new drivers to doing the beta drivers. Nothing has worked.

I heard that it is common for this issue with clevo laptops. Does anyone else experience this?

Please help me.

I would hate to have to RMA this laptop as its only a couple of weeks old and I have a lot of college stuff on it and its my only computer.

 

heres a video i just made like 10 mins ago.

VIDEO0005 - YouTube

 

It may be a cable issue.

 

Duplicate post by accident - please delete.

 

Seems more like software to me - wouldn't a cabling issue be evidence regardless of the 60 vs 120 hz setting? I'd probably RMA it now though while its still within warranty - maybe call them first and explain the situation (show them that video too just in case its a quick fix). I had a similar issue once on a machine and it ended up being driver related. (though admittedely the 60 vs 120 issue wasn't a potential issue on that machine)

 

ive heard from other forums that its common in the clevo laptops, but when I first got this laptop I didnt have any issues, then a week or so into it it just started happening randomly. I didnt over heat the graphics or overclock anything, just turned it on one day and started playing a game and it started to show its ugly face.

 

another thing i noticed last night when playing skyrim, when the gpu2 temp went past 63 degrees Celsius, it just stops!? it runs smooth as butter. then when I sit there for a couple of secs and the temps drop below 63 but is more then 54 the issue is there.

 

Has it always done that or only after you updated to the newest drivers. Try reverting to previous ones to see if they go away.

 

I am currently having the exact same issue. I just got my laptop last Thursday. I immediately installed the latest beta drivers so that I could play the BF4 beta properly. The "white-tare" that happens sometimes starts as soon as I get into a game, and sometimes after a few minutes of play. I have tried everything as well have yet to find a way to fix it. I will say tho, I paid for the custom calibration for my monitor, and when I loaded the stock Sager color settings, I saw 0 display artifacts when playing at 120hz using 3D. But, the picture quality is horrible. Xotic's custom calibration is flawless, but the 3D doesn't work properly with it. I don't know if its a driver or BIOS issue, or what. But it sucks.

Have you had any problems with your booting? When I first setup my laptop, I installed all my programs and updates before I enabled SLI. I had a few restarts that were required, every restart my boot was quick and flawless. But when I enabled SLI, I have noticed that sometimes when I first boot, right after I see the Sager logo screen, my display just shuts off, or my boot freezes, I can't tell what it does actually. The second reboot always goes into windows, but its not as fast as it was before I enabled SLI. I thought it was my Bitdefender not being compatible with windows 8 and my current setup, but I removed it and there is no change. I am curious if you have had the same experience before I start diving into more research. I am hoping I don't have to RMA it.

Here is my setup: Also, I have not overclocked.

Windows 8
256GB Samsung 840 Pro SSD
SLI GTX 780Ms
i7-4800MQ
WD Black 7200 rpm 500GB Sata III HDD

 

Troy could you try installing he stock drivers to see if you're still having the issues. It could be the Beta drivers which the could identify whats causing it and fix it with the WQHL release.

 

I had the computer for a week and then it started happening, so I updated the drivers to the most resent ones and it still showed up, then i downloaded the beta and it still shows up, then i reformatted and tryed it over again and its still there.

The issue wasnt there for the 1st week of the computer, then randomly it showed up. I thought that a wire was loose or the sli cable was jacked up, i looked at it, wiggled it while the game was on, nothing did anything to activate the scan lines or make them go away.

The only way I can fight it is to use 60hz and thats not one of the reasons why I went with the 9380-s

i went with this computer for the integrated 120hz screen and dual 780m sli.

im starting to regret this purchase. especially since its a $3.5k laptop

 

I havnt had any issues with boot up, I seem to start up my computer and within 12 secs im in windows.

 

I just uninstalled the entire Nvidia driver package and installed the last package (non beta). I rebooted and jumped into crysis 3 with 3D on at 120hz and it was flawless this time, and the frame rates were actually greatly improved. I rebooted once more and jumped back in, still same result, flawless 3D gaming. So am assuming there is probably something wrong with the beta 3D vision driver and not necessarily the graphics card beta driver. Unfortunately BF4 and Crysis 3 are all that I have installed that fully supports 3D. I can't play BF4 without the beta driver so I am limited to one game to test. I was never able to get crysis to work with 3D running the beta.

My boot issue still remains. Seems to always happen in the same pattern. Boot PC, it hangs up after the Sager logo. Restart and it boots slowly, but it makes it into windows. I reboot a 3rd time, it gets into windows in under 3 seconds. The pattern repeats itself every single boot in 3s.

 

Actually, I take that back. I checked my control panel and SLI got disabled during the reinstall of drivers (new to SLI). Since 3D vision works flawlessly with one card, and my frame rates are somehow higher with 1 card running at max settings with TXAA set the highest in crysis 3, then it seems to be that there is something going on with SLI. That also disproves my theory of SLI causing my boot issues, now I feel like its my SSD

Edit: I will renable SLI and test 3D vision a few times more.

 

I was thinking it was from the ssd as well, i tryed to remove the cache ssd but windows wont boot up even with the cache disabled.

 

I really hope it isn't lol. I waited a long time to get this laptop for something as simple as the SSD to be bad. Do you know of any programs I can use to test it?

I re-enabled SLI and the white tares are back, so its definitely SLI. I even disabled SLI once more to test the 3D on a single card and it works perfectly fine.

 

Troy you can check to see if there are any firmware updates for your SSD, you can find them on the manufacturers site.

 

I just made sure that I had the latest firmware. I also ran the Samsung Magician Optimization and then ran a benchmark. My score's reads are right where they should be, but any idea what's up with the writes? Those are horrible! I ensured I had the latest firmware and ran a benchmark with two different optimizations and I got the same horrible results each time.

Sequential Read: 550 MB/s
Sequential Write: 257 MB/s
Random Read: 94651 IOPS
Random Write: 5095 IOPS

 

I just reformatted my HD again, still have the same issues with both the disk supplied drivers and the updated drivers. I dont know what the hell I should do!!!!!?????

 

Check the monitor connections if you're comfortable doing so. If not there isnt much else to suggest checking short of sending it in to get looked at.

 

Yea but the odds of multiple people with the same model having the same issue right out of the box are slim for it to be bad hardware. Could it be a bios issue?

 

I test for a few hours running both a single card and SLI and I've narrowed it down to being an issue with SLI and 3D. I installed a few other games that supported 3D to try instead of just one game. Same results each time, a single card produces a flawless 3D picture at 120hz, while SLI gives the distortion with 3D at 120hz.

Have you tried 3D with a single card to see if it works? I know we paid for SLI to work properly, but maybe this could just end up being a driver or BIOS issue.

*Edit* I just fixed my SSD issue, turns out it was just the fact I was running an older version of RST. Now the only issue remains is the bootleg picture quality in 3D on 120hz running SLI. I'll try messing around some with the SLI settings and report back if I'm able to figure out any fixes. Please let me know if you're able to find a fix as well.

 

When I run it with SLI (on) @ 60hz, the problem isnt there.
When I run it with SLI (off) @ 120hz, the problem isnt there.
When I run it with SLI (on) @ 120hz in windowed mode, the problem isnt there.
When I run it with SLI (off) @ 60hz, the problem isnt there.

BUT as soon as I turn SLI on @ 120hz in fullscreen, it glitches out! I dont understand what is going on. I dont know who to point my fingers to, Clevo/Sager or nVidia. I just want what I paid for, A kickass 120hz 2x780m SLI that can play anything without batting an eye.

I posted on both XoticPC's forum, nVidia's forum and this one, no one can help... >.<

 

So I contacted xoticpc and I'm going to RMA it. Hopefully they can fix it. It became unbearable.

 

After further testing and research I have concluded that this is a voltage issue with the 780Ms. Running 3D vision and with the 120hz monitor requires more of a power draw. People are saying they were able to fix this issue by overclocking their graphics cards. But given the 330 watt psu we get with these, while running sli I'm not sure how much room for overclocking there is. I've never attempted any sort of overclocking myself so I am not willing to try it. But as it stands, it appears that running SLI 780Ms at their stock clocks using 3D vision, they are unstable. Please let me know if XoticPC is able to find you a solution, I am at a loss at the moment.

 

Stock card maximum TDP is 110W (and throttled above that) so if changing the frequency solves the issue they wont go above that anyway.

I'd say you have about 20-30W to play with usually anyway.

 

So if overclocking does in fact fix the issue, would that be a design issue on Nvidia's part, or a bios issue on the motherboard? I mean, I did pay extra for SLI, especially for the 3D support so it would be nice to able able to take advantage of what I paid for. The 3D runs fantastically on just one card. But once both are enabled, that's when the stability issue comes in. I see the weird screen "white static" affect and after a few moments the cards crash and I get the error that's typically found with unstable graphics cards due to voltage issues.

Error: D3D11AppWindow::swap_window: device removed

 

That would be a vbios issue.

 

how would I got about to fix this?

I got the RMA accepted but wither or not it comes back fixed. I want to know what the issue is. does the video cards require more power or less power? in sli with 120hz that is.

 

I am going to try and talk to an Nvidia technician and see what they say. Most likely they'll tell me to RMA it. But I am curious as well on how to update a vbios for a mobile card.

 

You coukd buy svets vbios tuner and edit the required clocks/voltage.

There are warranty considerations with this however.

 

well if i get my computer back from my RMA and it still is not fixed then I will probally go the route to donate and get the vbios tuner.

do ou have any idea what I should do with my voltages? how much is too much, and what increment I should slowly increase it to until the glitching would stop.

 

i looked at my voltage settings for the stock settings using nvidia inspector's graph, and it caps out at 1012mV or 1.01V. I dont know if that is where it should be at but both of the cards cap out at that. I have never done overclocking and never thought I would have to, the thought of burning up a card or messing something up has scared me away from it. I have a old desktop with a 400 series nvidia gpu which i dont use anymore, I should try and tweak it some and get a understanding what happens when you overclock something and the safe areas of overclocking.

 

1V sustained with a 1.012V peak is standard for the 780M.

 

so its getting enough power?

 

Have they received your RMA yet?

 

I am having the same issue as you guys. I am starting to regret my purchase as well. i paid for sli and it worked up until this weekend with no warning started flickering when i play games. What do you guys find out about the rma? i will rma mine as well.

 

300% working solution for FLICKERING PROBLEM!!!

Flash both cards with svl7 780M vbios) I don't know why you haven't tried it before RMA.
NVIDIA Kepler VBIOS mods - Overclocking Editions, modified clocks, voltage tweaks

 

I cant download the vbios because the forum says i dont have the privilege yet. im not sure how to flash bios both cards. How do you flash both cards?

 

I have edited this post. As pointed out later, the author of this vbios runs the tech infernal website. So probably wants to draw users to the website. Also they have a donation link. So I don't want to bypass that, especially since if you really need to you can ger it for free. So the link below was removed.

---------------

This forum has the same file, it appears. The site is in french, but the link is downloadable. Fourth post down. &gt;&lt;link&gt;&lt;

 

Wow this is awesome, I can't wait to try this. If the flash fails, how do I revert to the previous vbios? Also, how do you flash both cards?

*edit* I am attempting to flash my cards but I'm stuck. I feel as if I'm missing a command to enter. This is where I'm at, where to next?

 

Sweet baby jesus that fixed it! Not only did it fix the 3D issue, I am noticing an increase in performance and I am no longer experiencing an issue with my monitor calibration when I'm on the battery! This is the vBIOS version I am using.

 

Be aware that SVL7 does not wish to share his work like that and it has been shared without his permission.

 

Does SVL7 have a website that we can link to?

 

He runs the tech inferno forum and would like people to contribute 5 constructive posts there as payment for his work.

 

I also noticed there is a donation link. So I don't want to bypass either of those. So I edited my previous post to remove the link. At least we know it fixes this issue, and it seems to allow additional OCing, per the thread. Here is the link to the official thread http://forum.techinferno.com/genera...-editions-modified-clocks-voltage-tweaks.html

 

Awesome, its a lot of work to get these things working and tweaked.

 

thanks for the updated screenshote. Sager should be made aware of this issue and the correct vbios needs to be utilized in these laptops. With the cost of these laptops items and programs should not just be thrown together. I am gonna wait and see the results of everyones RMA and see if Xotic or sager can fix the issue.

 

I wonder if somehow the vbios was corrupted, or over written at some point. It seems unlikely, as there is protection against accidents, and it should be clear if it was updating a vbios. Just seems strange it would show up after a while, fine one day, problem the next. Maybe coincidence, as the issue is not vbios, but it can fix it.

 

I was never able to get my 3D to work right out of the box while running SLI at 120hz. Though it worked fine with a single card. Each time I tried to play a game I got the same results, the only thing that varied was the amount of time it took for the cards to finally crash (normally 3-10 seconds of game play).