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Retired · ‎08-05-2011

Hello,

I received my new G73SW laptop 2 days ago.
Everything was working great untill I started playing games on it.
Whenever I play, it would just randomly freeze (music and sounds still playing though). I have to manually turn the machine off using the power button. When trying to start it back up, the screen sometimes won't respond. After several tries I finally get the ASUS logo on screen and it will continue to boot. Sometimes it will instantly boot after a crash.

The Crashes occured with games like:
-Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
-World of Warcraft
-Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

I did a clean install yesterday, reinstalled my games and tried again. Last night I could play Wow for 4 hour straight, no problems (all settings maxed out). This morning I played CoD:mw2, and it crashed after 5 minutes of playing.

I decided it was time to do a FurMark Stresstest to see if it is a gpu problem.
After 6.22 minutes the machine freezes. By this time the GPU temperature was ~85C for about 4 minutes.

What could be the problem?

xeromist · ‎08-05-2011

First thing I would do is check Chastity's driver and firmware reference thread (stickied at the top of this forum) for any updates relevant to your hardware. Unfortunately the factory included driver and firmware releases often have stability problems so you'll have trouble pinning the problem down until you've got everything updated.

85C is hot, but not unusual for a laptop. Make sure that nothing is blocking the vents in the back and that's about all you can do. You could use a laptop cooler if you have one but most of the heat is exhausted out the back and only a fraction is radiated through the bottom.

You can also check the Windows Event Log to see if anything seems to be amiss there.

A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk, I have a work station…

Chastity · ‎08-05-2011

I would first try and use Throttlestop. Some games trip up and lock when the system throttles. I'm going to set up a sticky for this.

[SIGPIC]Kicking Ass Since Today[/SIGPIC]

Retired · ‎08-06-2011

Thanks for the replies,

I've done what both of you suggested, installed all the new drivers and Throttlestop.
I started playing Modern Warfare 2 and after 10 minutes it froze. The sound was switching between normal playing and freezing aswell.

So, I figured I'd check the minidump file windows creates after a crash.

I found the following:

VIDEO_TDR_FAILURE (116)
Attempt to reset the display driver and recover from timeout failed.
Arguments:
Arg1: fffffa800786d4e0, Optional pointer to internal TDR recovery context (TDR_RECOVERY_CONTEXT).
Arg2: fffff88010642f10, The pointer into responsible device driver module (e.g. owner tag).
Arg3: ffffffffc000009a, Optional error code (NTSTATUS) of the last failed operation.
Arg4: 0000000000000004, Optional internal context dependent data.

Debugging Details:
------------------

FAULTING_IP:
nvlddmkm+801f10
fffff880`10642f10 4883ec28 sub rsp,28h

DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID: GRAPHICS_DRIVER_TDR_FAULT

CUSTOMER_CRASH_COUNT: 1

BUGCHECK_STR: 0x116

PROCESS_NAME: System

CURRENT_IRQL: 0

STACK_TEXT:
fffff880`040a5b48 fffff880`10b51000 : 00000000`00000116 fffffa80`0786d4e0 fffff880`10642f10 ffffffff`c000009a : nt!KeBugCheckEx
fffff880`040a5b50 fffff880`10b24867 : fffff880`10642f10 fffffa80`0a8f3000 00000000`00000000 ffffffff`c000009a : dxgkrnl!TdrBugcheckOnTimeout+0xec
fffff880`040a5b90 fffff880`10b50e0f : fffffa80`ffffd84d ffffffff`fffe7960 fffffa80`0786d4e0 00000000`00000000 : dxgkrnl!DXGADAPTER::Reset+0x2a3
fffff880`040a5c40 fffff880`06cc1ec1 : fffffa80`0749d520 00000000`00000080 00000000`00000000 fffffa80`0a8c0410 : dxgkrnl!TdrResetFromTimeout+0x23
fffff880`040a5cc0 fffff800`0336d7c6 : 00000000`012fca09 fffffa80`0a5e98c0 fffffa80`066eeb30 fffffa80`0a5e98c0 : dxgmms1!VidSchiWorkerThread+0x101
fffff880`040a5d00 fffff800`030a8c26 : fffff880`030a4180 fffffa80`0a5e98c0 fffff880`030af0c0 fffff880`0124f2b4 : nt!PspSystemThreadStartup+0x5a
fffff880`040a5d40 00000000`00000000 : 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 : nt!KxStartSystemThread+0x16

STACK_COMMAND: .bugcheck ; kb

FOLLOWUP_IP:
nvlddmkm+801f10
fffff880`10642f10 4883ec28 sub rsp,28h

SYMBOL_NAME: nvlddmkm+801f10

FOLLOWUP_NAME: MachineOwner

MODULE_NAME: nvlddmkm

IMAGE_NAME: nvlddmkm.sys

DEBUG_FLR_IMAGE_TIMESTAMP: 4dd73a68

FAILURE_BUCKET_ID: X64_0x116_IMAGE_nvlddmkm.sys

BUCKET_ID: X64_0x116_IMAGE_nvlddmkm.sys

What to do now?

Retired · ‎08-06-2011

i suggest changing video drivers, assuming your using 275.33, update to the 275.50 or the 280.19 and give that a shot first. make sure you do a clean uninstall of your previous drivers and run driver sweeper in safe mode prior to installing the new ones. It however is still a possibility that your 460 is taking a sh$t on you. If changing drivers doesnt fix your issue i suggest using MSI Afterburner or similar software to downclock your card 25-50mhz on the core to see if that yields you more stability. good luck!

Retired · ‎08-06-2011

When I google'd VIDEO_TDR_FAILURE (116) I found some posts from people with the same problem.
I also found a possible fix:

This is what appears to happen. During the installation of the most current drivers 100.65 Vista, an OLD file "nvlddmkm.sys" is copied into windows/system32/drivers and not the current one in the install. As a result the new drivers are attempting to access a file dated 11/2006 instead of 2/2007 ver 7.15.11.0065 which is in the newest WHQL driver ver 100.65 vista 32.

Fix: Go to windows/system32/drivers and rename nvlddmkm.sys to nvlddmkm.sys.old. Go to the nvidia directory and find the file "nvlddmkm.sy_" and copy it to windows/system32. Using the cmd window (DOS box) type EXPAND.EXE nvlddmkm.sy_ nvlddmkm.sys. When the expansion is complete, copy the new nvlddmkm.sys to windows/system32/drivers and restart the computer.

I figured it was quite old, but as I had a problem with the "nvlddmkm.sys" I figured I'd give it a shot.

I followed the above fix, and but had to rename the resulting nvlddmkm.sy_ to nvlddmkm.sys (which did not happen automaticly but is required).

After restarting, I uninstalled the driver because the resolution changed to 800*600, and could not be changed to anything above 1024*768. The nvlddmkm.sys will not be removed so when you re-install the drivers, it will integrate the FIXED .sys file.

So far no crashes yet, its all looking very promising!
Fingers crossed, ill provide an update if something changes.

Retired · ‎08-06-2011

if it doesnt happen to work out for you update to the newest Nvidia Drivers and make sure you do a proper wipe of the old ones as the problem your describing can only happen due to a faulty install because of the old .sys file not being removed properly.
Hope it works!

Retired · ‎08-07-2011

Well, it didnt work.. Im just going to send it in for repair as I think faulty hardware may be the problem here...

My G73SW is freezing