m570u shut down issues, not heat related.

This has been perplexing me for about 6 months. Bear with me...

Laptop will shutdown in clusters, by clusters, i mean, regularly for a few weeks at a time (mostly while gaming), then Ill get weeks trouble free.

Ive started to run rivatuner servers showing gpu & cpu temps etc on screen in game, nothing untoward occurs prior to a shutdown, no spikes in temp, no unduely high temps reached. All shutdowns are preceded by a few seconds of apparent downclocking, then blink, its off. Rivatuner is set to force perf 3d, so downclocking shouldnt occur, powermizer is also set to off (no downclocking)..

Observations Ive made...

- When it shuts off, occasionally it fails to reboot immediately. When i attempt to reboot, it gets to the rock splash screen, then blinks off. If I unplug the mains a/c, it has a better chance of booting. There have been times in the past (but thankfully not recently, where the laptop wouldnt boot up first thing in the morning after being a the night before, so heating isnt a directly obvious problem)

- If i disable all enhanced cpu states in bios, shutdowns tend to be eliminated, however, this is essentially downclocking the whole laptop and isnt desirable especially as im a 80% laptop usage gamer. I had all states off for approx 1 month, bit the bullet for the sake of (ugly, low res gaming), a week or so i flipped em all back on, got stable gaming at original levels, and was comfortable enough to start lite oc'ing in rivatuner. All was good until a day or so ago, then got the dreaded momentary downclocking then blink. Its been bad now for 2 days.

- Cooling & heating isnt a factor. I regularly clear dust and whatnot from insides, have repasted my cpu & gpu thermal paste a few times since, inside is squeaky clean. I also have a 12" fan directly beside the laptop constantly on, laptop is raised up off the desk on 4 jengo blocks, Fn+1 fans to max at all times.



This has BAFFLED me for months. Ive changed hdd, have checked all ram, have handed it to local tech for help... have no solution. Tomorrow, Im probably gonna clockgen the problem, disable cpu states and manipulate the clocks etc manually to see if i can find some solution...


Im hoping some saviour here will cast some new light here for me and save me the inevitable $$$ of a new toy.

 

it might be power related if its not heat related.

 

i considered power as a factor, but couldnt be sure.

its not to do with ac delivery thats for sure, as it will also blink off (if its in 'one of those moods') when i try to run it on battery (powermizer off). laptop power is a field im not au fait with, what can you suggest?

cheers.

 

I would recommend to try another power supply.... if you can find one.

 

even though the issue persists when im on battery only?

 

hmm... if it persists when on battery as well....

when your system crashes/restarts, do you do a CHKDSK C: /F (in command prompt)?
- you should, since crashes can cause HDD errors (orphan files and such) to stack up
- when the errors stack up, more crashes are inevitable.

as for it crashing... causing it to power down....
- if it happens in all software environments (in different Windows version, in the BIOS, DOS, etc..).... then I think its very low-level.
- I might try to update the BIOS/firmware to see if it helps.

if the BIOS/firmware updates do not help....
- I am afraid it might be hardware related.

for hardware diagnostics:
- remove all NON-essential components (Battery, Optical Drive, TV Tuner, Wifi Card, turbo memory, bluetooth adapter) and see if it still crashes
- only leave the following components in: CPU, RAM, Videocard, and a good (non-errored) HDD.

 

yes, the same shutdowns occur when on battery also (when the laptop is in one of its periods of erratic shutting off), but as stated, if i instantly try to reboot after a shutdown, it will likely not reboot unless i remove the ac mains, reboot on battery, then, once im past the splash screen, i can reattach the ac and continue.

genuinely, ive done all those things in checking to this point. it has a new hdd since this problem began, have removed all unessential hardware & checked w/out.. my bios is latest version too (no later updates were released beyond the one installed when i bought it).

due to the fact that it happens much less when i disable the various processor management states, i suspect it might be some odd issue with cpu sensors, but as stated, when i run rivatuner hardware monitor, NHC, cpuid etc, all reports suggest normal operating parameters with no misreported temps or excess loadings etc

and the fact that its a problem that comes & goes further compounds my frustration. the shutdown stops logs being written, error logging shows nothing, gpu seems stable even when clocked a bit, cpu appears normal, nothing necessarily precipitates a shutdown (not a crash btw).. its just as if the laptop decides, 'im bored, im off'.

 

I recommend using RMclock for the CPU.

or try not using any CPU utilities and see if it crashes.

 

so far... RMclock has yielded a no-shutdown-under-cpu-at-max scenario, so, ty for recommendation. I cant say if its resolved the problem tho, as it might simply be a period of time where its behaving. Given that my lappie is stable when i disable bios cpu states, and rmclock is working in that environment (all bios states disabled), manipulating my cpu from this downclocked position and firing it up to max on-the-fly using the power on demand functions..

cheers for the posts gophn, fingers crossed this might be a workaround.

 

try running it in balanced mode for a while and see what happens

 

Have you tried disabling one cpu state at a time from the bios to try and see which one is causing the problem?

 

yes theriko, i have literally tried every bios setting, combination of hardware, operating condition possible. its a pure mystery as to whats causing it. but as i say, the rmclock operating in the environment of all bios cpu states being disabled has, thus far, not given me any shutdowns.

im currently gaming at max gfx settings with no downclocking or shutting down happening, but its only been 24 hours. ill repost if it turns out to be only temporary.

 

I have had great results and stability as well going with RMclock.

 

unfortunately, it has started shutting down again... even with rmclock. however, there appears to be a more noticible period of downclocking prior to shutting off.

regardless, rmclock is a superb utility. wish id known about it previously.

i havent used them together yet, but using rmclock & clockgen together would be:
a) good
b) bad
c) asking for trouble

 

only use RMclock exclusively (by itself).

you can read flipfire's undervolting thread, its very famous:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=235824