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Sager laptop having graphics issues and crashing

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Duskbane United States178 Posts May 28 2012 02:17 GMT #1 A couple years ago I bought a Sager gaming laptop, a NP5797 if that helps any, and around a year ago it started having this problem. I've searched everything on the internet I can and attempted every fix that I could find to no avail. I believe it has something to do with the graphics card because of the error message given. The graphics card is a Nvidia GeForce GTX 280M and it has all drivers available. The problem is that during certain games, (sometimes SC2, sometimes others but pretty much any newer game such as Diablo 3, Tribes Ascend, EVE, League of Legends, along with many others) during gameplay the screen will go black for a few seconds and come back with the message "Display driver nvlddmkm has stopped responding and has recovered". I've tried so many things and I can't seem to find anything that works so I'm asking here. Can anyone help me out here? It's difficult to play much of anything on this "gaming" laptop now.

DJFaqU 466 Posts May 28 2012 02:44 GMT #2 Wipe the drivers off completely. Then install the latest ones. If the problem persists, try older drivers.

Killerkrack 664 Posts May 28 2012 03:26 GMT #3 Had the same problem with my Sager. I tried a ton of different things that people on different forums suggested to no avail. I finally I wiped everything, reinstalled windows, and got all the most up to date drivers. It's been fine since.

Duskbane United States178 Posts May 28 2012 04:47 GMT #4 Problem is I don't have any discs to do a fresh install, is there a way to do it with no discs? Pardon me if that sounds like a silly question but I guess I'm not the most tech savvy in the world.

Ckalvin Australia150 Posts May 28 2012 04:59 GMT #5 at least you made a good choice with the sager i've been having the same problem with my newer model, but with a fresh nvidia driver install i haven't been getting any more crashes. another thing I can recommend is to get yourself a cooling fan/pad, as mine only crashes after heavy heavy extended usage. best of luck!

iloveav Poland1479 Posts May 28 2012 06:45 GMT #6 If you dont have any discs, you might have a hidden partition with the factory settings of your Laptop. F2 at startup was for my laptop. Getting the latest drivers.... you are getting them from nvidia webpage? Normally you should get the latest drivers from sager website (only get the ones from nvidia if the drivers from sager wont let you run games). In general tech savy users from laptops say that generic drivers (from nvidia) will most likely give you trouble unless you manually install the independent drivers (this is not recomended). Also, unless you use 3d vision, when you make a new install, choose custom install and take away all 3D related Drivers, and Audio Drivers, leave only the Basic Driver and the control panel. I also suggest running MemTest 86+ to see if its a Ram module issue (basicly a Driver is loaded to a corrupted Ram module). Cant think of anything else now, good luck!

Duskbane United States178 Posts May 28 2012 11:42 GMT #7 I uninstalled the drivers and installed the ones on the Sager website, but the Windows update automatically updated it back to what it was before! How can I make it not do that?

Duskbane United States178 Posts May 29 2012 05:01 GMT #8 Finally got the drivers cleaned and set to what they are on the Sager site, and it made the problem worse. Now I can't even play certain games on the worst graphics settings and worst resolution without the problem happening every 5-10 seconds. It's not heat related as the computer is actually cool to the touch, don't know the exact temps but it's not even warm so it can't be a heat issue. I seriously don't want to have to just give up on this computer as it was very expensive and currently it isn't worth half what I paid for it... anyone have any other suggestions?

Chalaza Canada46 Posts May 29 2012 07:57 GMT #9 i get the same problem sometimes, then if i dont restart my computer it will randomly go to a blue screen. i have an hp pavillion dv7 with a radeon HD6770

Yurick Australia22 Posts May 29 2012 15:16 GMT #10 Honestly, it really sounds like a problem with either drivers or overheating, since you have tried a bunch of different drivers im inclined to think its overheating. One of the issues could be that the 'seal' between your cooler and your GPU may have dried out (the Thermal Compound between them, that is). This would mean that the computer itself is not overly hot (as there isnt much heat being distributed from the chip itself before it crashes). Try downloading something like SpeedFan or CoreTemp, and have a look at the temperature on your GPU when you start a game. Report back once you have some more information :D.

wcLLg United States281 Posts May 29 2012 15:30 GMT #11 Instead of downloading the drivers from the Sager website, try downloading Nvidia's drivers. Sager's drivers for your model are 3 years old so it makes sense you are having troubles with new games, OP.

Duskbane United States178 Posts May 29 2012 16:03 GMT #12 Chalaza, I also have a HP Pavilion dv7 for my fiancee and I just now got it back from repairs for a fried motherboard, this problem was sorta similar to what you are saying just without the blue screen, it was a complete crash. Not saying that's the problem for sure but it's worth a check. Yurick I will definitely check temps with something ASAP and report back on that. And wcLLg, I just did a fresh install of nvidia's drivers today and the problem seems to be gone at least temporarily, but I haven't really tested to be absolutely sure yet. It could just be back to the way it was before where it was just an occasional deal instead of very often. I'm not getting my hopes up just yet

aBoot Canada1 Post May 29 2012 16:03 GMT #13 I had a same issue with the op. Trying followin this guide Dusk, it should help you out alot. I'll be surprised if it doesnt fix your problem!! http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.aspx?m=1174372&mpage=1

Duskbane United States178 Posts May 29 2012 18:47 GMT #14 Just used CoreTemp to check everything out and nothing was above 65C when the display driver crashed. It's gone back to doing it often again after working fine for a couple hours. I'm really unsure as to what to try next. And to aBoot, I've got the drivers cleaned completely off and installed the latest one as nvidia instructs, I wish I had that link lastnight though... thanks though!

awakenx United States341 Posts May 29 2012 19:35 GMT #15 So... everything is fine? I recall seeing this problem happening on notebookreview, and the people there have claimed it was a simple driver update to 301.24 nvidia drivers helped.

iloveav Poland1479 Posts May 29 2012 20:12 GMT #16 Core Temp is a CPU "only" tool. You need a GPU tool. I dont know if Riva tunner has support for mobile GPUs but its worth a shot. In case you want to "not update" by windows, just select to "search automaticly, but let me decide what updates to install". Of course you will have to do this manually then. You said the problem became more persistent with drivers by Sager. In new games only or in all sort of games? Normally in this situation, assuming its not a heat issue, id reinstall the entire windows from 0. I did do that however once on my new laptop and it turned out my blue screens were created by a broken ram module. Did you have the chance to run memtest 86+?

jaj22 United Kingdom1376 Posts May 29 2012 21:37 GMT #17 HWMonitor reports GPU temperatures. Works with mobile GPUs too, IIRC.

Duskbane United States178 Posts May 29 2012 21:46 GMT #18 RivaTuner won't work for some reason, I've already tried it a long time ago. And it's mostly newer games that cause the problem but some older ones can occasionally do it too... sounds like it may be a RAM problem. I have Memtest 86+, but I can't figure out how to get the computer to boot from the disc. I'm gonna try again if possible, and look into HWMonitor if I can't get Memtest to work still.

iloveav Poland1479 Posts May 29 2012 22:01 GMT #19 The way i ruuned memntest: Burn on a DVD, get into Bios of my laptop. Set boot priority dvd frst then hard drive, rebot with dvd inside laptop. But if you are afraid to touch stuff inside the bios, better get someone who knows how to do it. Good luck.

Duskbane United States178 Posts May 30 2012 04:25 GMT #20 I've gotten MemTest86+ to run now, and while it was running my computer was running fans full blast and was extremely hot... not sure if that's an intended part of running MemTest... however, it actually did find an error. Tst 6 Pass 4 Failing Address 0013ef89719 - 5103.5 MB Good 00000800 Bad 00002800 Err-Bits 00002000 Count 1 So now what? Does that confirm there's something wrong with the RAM? And if so, what do i do to fix it? Do I have to just buy a whole new set of RAM? And if that's the case what kind?

Duskbane United States178 Posts May 31 2012 04:48 GMT #21 Still not sure how to interpret these results from MemTest... looked around but it still just sounds like gibberish to me. Can anyone tell me what I need to do now? Do I need new RAM or is it still something else?

OskO Argentina369 Posts June 02 2012 01:35 GMT #22 Try setting the 'Power Management Mode' in the 3D Settings from the Panel to 'Prefer Maximum Performance'. 'Adaptive' is the default value and what it does is slow down the GPU's Clock when full performance is not required. It's supposed to not cause any troubles, but in some circumstances it does. Note that there is a programs list thingy (a 2nd tab in the same panel) that may override this setting for some programs, make sure to adjust that settings too.

Duskbane United States178 Posts June 02 2012 10:47 GMT #23 So now that I've run Memtest I still don't know what it failing that really means, but after seeing this other thread http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=341630 I'm wondering if it's the same problem as this guy? There's no BSOD involved, but is it actually my RAM I need to worry about like suggested or is it the GPU? Or is it both?

Duskbane United States178 Posts June 04 2012 12:23 GMT #24 Sorry to keep bumping this but I ran Memtest like was suggested and I still don't know what the results mean... anyone help?

EdenPLusDucky 571 Posts June 04 2012 12:27 GMT #25 If the test fails, it means your RAM has problems and needs to be replaced

Duskbane United States178 Posts June 05 2012 13:36 GMT #26 Ok, is there a certain kind of RAM I should buy and how difficult will it be to replace in a laptop? I've opened the laptop before to clean dust so getting it open shouldn't be an issue.

OskO Argentina369 Posts June 05 2012 15:32 GMT #27 Before that, you should run the proper tests to detect wich DIMM you must replace. A Memtest failure may be a RAM issue or a RAM slot issue, and usually you have at least 2 pairs of 'em. If you refer to the Memtest FAQ, there's a pretty detailed explanation of how to do this properly, but It's about testing different combination of DIMMs/Slots and taking note of wich test fails. That way can be sure of wich DIMM to replace or in the worst case, wich is the faulty slot. Info: http://hcidesign.com/memtest/manual.html#error

Zim23 United States1681 Posts June 05 2012 18:05 GMT #28 I thought this thread was about:

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