Nvidia Crash, CPU, and Overheating?

Hello Forum!

Sorry that my first post will be a cry for help, but I'm at a loss.

I've only had my Z12 (win7x64/ i5) for about a year and a half and have been fighting with these troubles since about the 6th month in. I'm really hoping that either I can fix the problem or find an answer for the next time I send in my computer to the repair center.

The first issue is with CPU/memory spikes and over heating. Upon start up my computer's fan will kick loudly and the unit gets pretty toasty on the side of the fan. Sometimes this happens randomly, the computer will start fine but then kick into high gear without warning. A quick ctl+alt+del to my performance tab shows some pretty crazy spiking (CPU 25%/1.97 memory ----> 98%/2.40+ memory). Sometimes this will even happen when I am away from the laptop and I can hear it kick up from another room!

Furthermore, it has recently started freezing. The cursor will stop moving and I usually have to give it a second or two before squiggling my finger around the touchpad will cause movement again. But sometimes the cursor freeze will be accompanied by my screen flickering, going black, and upon coming back I get the error report "- Display driver stopped responding and has recovered, display driver Nvidia Windows Kernal Mode driver, version 188.80".

And it takes longer and longer to transfer files. Moving a 1g file from my laptop to a flash, phone, or external can take up to a half hour.

I used to just leave my Viao in the Stamina mode to avoid the crashing, freezing, overheating, and loudness, but after the most recent update, I get then no matter the setting.


I sent my Z12 in for a repair twice already and have spent countless hours on the phone with support. But my work takes me around the globe and I won't have the chance to send it in again until this summer. And calling tech support from Korea requires me to wake up at 2-3am and they have never been able to fix (or even pinpoint the cause of) these issues.

I really don't know what I can do and if there's anyone who can help me, I would be eternally grateful.

 

Sounds like you could have some malware. Why don't you just restore the system?

 

I did. System restore, adaware/malwarebytes, avast, and finally just reformatted when all else failed. And the problems persist.

 

Sony Korea are usually rather good at fixing these kinda issues (and offer pretty good solutions to boot).

Can I ask what Task Manager (if you can see it) is reporting as causing the spikes?

Either way. I'd suggest clean installing. Got this gut feeling that Vaio Media Center is analysing those music, picture, and video files in the background. But no idea whether the Z12 ever came with that preinstalled.

 

When viewing my task manager, I can't tell what is causing the spikes. Is there anything specif I should be looking for? I'm not nearly as tech savy as most people on these boards. Sorry.

The last time I reformatted I ended up with this exact same issue after a few weeks. I'm worried it may be a fault with my graphics driver or even the ssd.

Thank you for suggesting Sony's support in Korea! I hadn't even considered it.

 

Vaio Media Center is a horrible piece of software for consuming CPU. If you have it installed and don't use it, I'd recommend removing it. You can tell if you have it as when you press the Vaio button, it starts the program (otherwise it just mutes the sound).

In task manager, first "show processes from all users" and then sort by "CPU" and see if you can see what program is consuming the CPU.

 

I did my best to avoid as much Viao bloatware as possible during my last format.

Thank you for the advice about sorting my task manager! I actually haven't had a spike, screen flicker, or generally bad session of use in about two days now. It's so sporadic, but often follows a system update. So, right now the heaviest toll on my CPU is Chrome and the task manager itself.

One more thing, is there any easy way/optimum way to install drivers for my fn keys and graphic card switch? Every time I format this is really tough to get correct. Sorry for all the questions and thank you so much for helping me. I really appreciate it!

 

Hi Krishire,

I experienced the same issues. Techsupport and Repaircenters seem to be clueless. Please let me know, if you are still investigating the problem. I'd really like to discuss that issue in detail.

I am really tired reading posts about various vaio models freezing, hanging, locking-up, or randomly restarting.

Foreget restoring the System or checking the System for Malware. You are wasting your time. I restored the System many, many times in the past months without any result. I experienced those problems even on a clean system.

 

I would love to hear what you have tried and trends you have noticed with your Viao. Perhaps it could help us narrow down the infinite list of possible quirks. When I have more than 15 minutes at my disposal, I'll start compiling my "evidence" collected thus far. ^^

 

Hi, first of all my System is a VPC-Z12X9E which was bought in summer 2010. A couple of months later, the following problems occured. The Distpay or the entire System locked-up and reboots. Sometimes the Display went black and the computer did not respond anymore.
I also noticed the Display driver 188. not responding message.

After a couple months and an number of phone calls and insufficient services it now turns out, that drivers and firmware was not up to date.

What is Vaio Care good for, if it does not provide up to date drivers?

I would highly suggest to check with Sony to get the SSD Firmware checked first, as it may cause display and System freezes, also similar to your description. See: SSD Freeze windows 7 AND crucial C300 firmware update

After having done that, try to request new display drivers from Sony.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/569746-display-driver-nvlddmkm-stopped-responding-vaio-z.html

SONY pretends, that the 188. is fine but NVIDIA itself recommends to use newer drivers. I though, the idea behind SONY VAIO CARE ist, that the system is regularly updated with the latest SONY Certified drivers.

I fear, this is an illusion...

 

Hi Krishire,

What anti-virus are you using and what are you using to scan your computer. It sounds like a virus, or even possibly a bad anti-virus program. In either case, one way to keep your laptop under control is to, under advance power settings, make the maximum CPU frequency 99%, that way your CPU does not turboboost and heat up as much. Do that until you get the problem again, and that time, ctrl+alt+esc (to bring up task manager) and sort processes by Memory, then CPU and see what's using all those resources.

Best of luck!

Hi AuVaioVai, there *are* updated Official drivers, essentially the 190 drivers which you can find on the Z13 site (but not the Z11/Z12 driver site) or on the link i linked below. Also in that link are a few community modded drivers. I'm currently using the 263.14 signed drivers from that. The problems you are experiencing ARE related to the 188 drivers. I've been on this forum since the Z11 released in Mar 2010, and for the first 6 months everyone was getting the black screen of death where the screen just goes black until you hardware shut off. I think one of the main triggers was watching youtube videos in 1080p or something. In any case, try those drivers, I've not heard of that problem since (it's amazing considering how many threads were devoted to that problem back then)

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/342947-my-discoveries-vaio-z-s-hybrid-graphics.html

 

If that is the solution, why didn't we get the new driver and the firmware through VAIO update? Why did the SONY Hotline assure me, that all my drivers are up to date? Even if I look for new drivers on the Sony support site, I can't find any Updates. Why?

My Notebook has been send in for a couple services, because I keept on complaining about those problems for almost one year. My Notebook has been dismanteled and almost every part has been swapped.

But for some reasons it came back with old drivers and firmware every time it has been servied.

 

Because you have a Z12 and the "new" drivers are for the Z13, which have absolutely no differences when it comes to drivers, but Sony is infamous at this point for having practically no support for their laptops after they've been released. Nice hardware, but the execution leaves some things to be desired. If I were you, if you want good driver support and updates, go get a thinkpad, or just follow this forum

 

With the exception of video drivers - which this forum has updated regularly - I find most generic drivers from manufacturers (Intel, Synaptics, etc) do the trick and when they don't, you can often install Lenovo's updated drivers - eg, their Bluetooth driver is far more stable than Sony's, which often requires you to remove/install devices previously working, etc.

Each of the past 3 computers (Dell, HP, Sony) I have owned and used daily had rotten manufacturer driver support but wonderful communities on NBR keeping critical drivers updated and providing advice as to when/whether to update. This isn't the way it's supposed to work, but it sure is a godsend.

 

agreed, the only problem with the Z is the fact that the graphics solution is a custom solution so that rules out using any form of standard drivers. Otherwise, all other drivers you should find from the corresponding manufacturer's site, I'd consider any company that updates their own stash of updated drivers for the multiple different devices in their laptops as going above and beyond. However, for custom solutions and bioses I believe those should always be updated and maintained which Sony fails in this regard, but we have the awesome community of NBR to help us

 

I am not sure but I never updated any drivers until I was told to do so by a Support Technician, because I fear to loose warranty.

I used Kaspersky instead of the pre installed McAffee. Of course the technician on the phone blamed Kaspersky for my problems. So I had to reset the System and prove that my Z has thoses problems with or without Kaspersky.

I need a reliable notebook or at least a notebook with reliable Service. Should I go for a new LENOVO ultrabook u400s?

IdeaPad Multimedia Laptop PCs for Home Entertainment | Learn | Lenovo | (US)

 

You can do with your PC whatever you want when it comes to drivers. The only thing you're not really supposed to do is overclocking. As long as you set everything back to standard stuff when you turn it in for repair they won't complain at all. In fact, I had even sent in my Z13 with the unofficial nVidia drivers and a hacked BIOS and they still fixed it twice without any comments (and for free).

Try the unofficial nVidia drivers here on the forum, they're a lot better. Also, get your latest drivers and BIOS here: Sony : VAIO VPCZ13M9E/B drivers | Download drivers and updates for VPCZ13M9E/B
It's got some updates that aren't on other websites. Don't install VAIO Care/VAIO Gate/VAIO Update/PMB. Useless software.

It says Z13M9E but all Z11/Z12/Z13's are the same when it comes to drivers. The only driver you need to get on the right website is the WWAN driver since it can change depending on your country.

 

I installed VAIO update and Vaio care for good reasons. I expected that this will keep my Drivers and firmware up to date. In fact I resieved updates that were deployed through VAIO care. I rememper a BIOS update and a patch for some issue with vertical lines during boot up. Besides that there was a power management update. So its not complete useless, but It seems as if Vaio care is not really maintained propperly. Otherwise we should have get the other updates as well.

Not to be missunderstood I appreaciate this forum but I prefer running computers without spending much time crawling problem threads.

 

I recently removed the the VAIO bloatware from my computer and found that it automatically took my active processes down from 123 to 91 at start up and that helped for a little while. I think I will try installing the newer drivers and see if that helps anything.

At this point, Im starting to think it's driver related. When I do a format, my Z12 stays cool and quite for about 6 months. Then at the 6 month marker, the issue starts. I have tried Malwarebytes/ Adaware and I had Avast in my first 6 months and now I have McAfee instead. I have also had the fan and usb ports replaced (I said the fan was kicking up during the spikes and that it can take 20 minutes to transfer 1g of data, so support replaced those things and just shipped it back).

Every time my unit updates, the problems start. Just this week there were 2 update batches and my CPU/Memory spikes started with the first one and have decreased a little with last night's second one. This is exactly how my problem started in the first place while I was in London. There was a big update and I started having spiking issues on the very next start up.

And randomly, this overheating/noise really kicks up when the computer is idle. If I leave the computer alone for a few minutes, it starts to get noticeably louder. As soon as I tap my keypad, it dies back down instantly. I can even watch the this 'idle' spike fall as soon as I tap the keyboard.


Sorry for the late responses, in the middle of a move!