Screen blacks out and then computer starts beeping

Has anyone else had a problem where their p170hm's screen just blacked out, the numlock, capslock, and scroll lock lights lit up, the fans went to full power, and the computer started beeping VERY loudly, but with a second or two delay in between?

I was playing guild wars and all of a sudden this happened to me, I immediately held down the power button and then restarted the comp and everything seems fine so far. My specs are in my sig and I am using the 285.27 beta drivers from nvidia. Not sure if its related, but ever since i installed the beta drivers, if I open up the nvidia control panel it keeps telling me an older version of the control panel is running.

 

Those are certainly symptoms of a hardware lock-up. My first guess would be overheating, but it could also be a hardware issue. Drivers could cause you a bluescreen, but I'd be surprised if they'd dump you all the way to a black screen with everything locked. Monitor and see if it happens again, noting the conditions under which it happens - and contact your vendor for warranty if it becomes common.

 

How long have you had your P170HM? Laptops tend to collect dust faster than usual, you may want to take off the bottom panel and spray some compressed air out through the exhaust ports.

 

As others have said, that sounds like overheating. Do you use the machine on a hard level surface (cooling pad, desk?). You may also want to clean the vents out or consider repasting the CPU/GPU.

Use a program like HWMonitor and record your temps. If your GPU is reaching up into the 90C range, then it would definitely be overheating related.

 

I got my laptop a little less than a month ago and I use it on a flat desk. I was playing guild wars, which came out in like 2005, last time i checked the temps were below 80C max.

I just go another crash, though this time it was different. I was playing dragon age origins and the game crashed, which has happened before. So I thought nothing of it. Less than 30 seconds after I terminated the process, my computer froze. At the time my mouse was hovering over some text and the text cursor turned blue. A pixel on my screen turned green, and there were small light green lines randomly flashing around my screen. I had to use the power button to shut down. I was monitoring the temps the entire time I was playing and the max was 85, and at the time my computer stopped responding, It was down in the 50s.

The only other time besides today I have had issues was the day I first got the comp. I would be playing Bad Company 2 or some other game and then randomly my computer would just turn off. This occured a few times the first day, but after day, I have never had it happen.

I am going to reinstall the old stable video drivers and see if this occurs again.

 

^^^^ Yes good idea about going to a known stable video driver.
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Video drivers first, RAM second. Check your RAM settings/voltage with a monitoring program CPUID works well, and run Memtest. If it's not either of these, ensure your power settings on your system and GPU are set correctly and that it's not dropping voltage while under load. It really does sound like Memory error's to me, maybe you have an application with a memory leak also?