M9750 : BSOD with ATI 3870

Hello everyone

Firstly, sorry for my English, I'm french

I have an Alienware m9750 that I recently updated with an ATI 3870 (I'm waiting for the cable crossfire install the second card).

At idle, I have no problem, the system is stable, the video card is around 55 or 60 degrees Celsius. However, when I play Fallout 3 or Bioshock 2 for example, the computer heats up quickly and the card just go up to 110 ° Celsius.

After 15 or 30 minutes (it's random) I get a BSOD on the file ATIKMPAG.SYS.

Does anyone else have the same system as me, we encountered problems of this kind or other with the ATI video card?
What is at stake temperatures?

I noticed that the fans were stuck at 30%, they are never 100% for you too?

I specify my configuration:
Alienware m9750
Core 2 Duo T7600
160GB Sata
2GB RAM
Driver ATI Catalyst 6.10
Seven Windows 32bit

Let me also say that I clean the old thermal paste and applied Arctic Silver 5. I also have the cooling pad Cryo LX.

Thank you very much for your help

Kikwillou

 

hmmm those temps seem really really high. you might try updating the to most recent catalyst drivers as 6.10 is really old if I am not mistaken. I believe 10.6 is the most recent version. Also check and double check to make sure you have the correct amount of thermal paste on the card. It looks like its a themal crash your getting. Your gpu is doing it to protect itself from meltdown.
Check to see if alienware released a updated driver for your card. This card was used in the m15x I believe so that is where you might want to look as there might be a custom thermal profile in it that alienware is using to throttle the fans. Also what are you fans doing while this is all going on???

 

around 110 the card shut down it self to prevent damages as the above said 10.6 is the lastes get them direct from AMD


(does 6.10 even suport the 3870)

again as the above said your theml paste might be at stake here of cheq if dirt didn't bock your vents

 

I would recommend you avoid the second card, it's a bit of a waste of money on the m9750 only providing about a 20% boost. 55 to 60 is a normal idle temperature for the cards in the m9750, what is your max temp under load?
As I state constantly to people doing this upgrade, if you dont know exactly what your doing in regards to getting a good thermal paste install then dont bother as the card will fry easily if you dont get it right.

 

Indeed, I was wrong for the driver, this is the 10.6, the last one.

For temperature, it depends on the game, Fallout 3, I can climb to 110 degrees Celsius, with Bioshock 2, 85 degrees Celsius.

When I played, I let GPUZ turn to control the log after the crash.
I had a BSOD at 85, 100, 110 degrees Celsius at once, I do not think the problem was an overheating ...

simonmpoulton, what are your temperatures involved? Have you also problems with the fans who are stuck at 30%?
I thought I could control the fans with Notebook Hardware Control and ACPI script but it seems difficult ...

I already have the second ATI video card so I like to go crossfire.
When I applied the thermal paste, I made sure that the layer is as thin as possible.

You think that the thickness of the thermal paste may have as much influence?

Thank you again!

Kikwillou

 

I bet your heatsink is not touching the card properly, check it out just in case.

110 degrees is an abnormal temperature and your card should never ever hit that much if you want to use it for longer then a month.

 

If you've let the card hit 110 then you've probably already fatally damaged it, the card shouldnt exceed 90 degrees in normal operation and once your past 100 your already beginning to damage the card. Doesnt matter when it's crashing now if you've already allowed the card to overheat the damage has been done. Getting the thermal paste right is essential, the fact that you've gone playing games on it and allowing it to overheat without checking the paste is doing the job correctly is quite appalling.

 

nah 110 won't damage the card if it hapens once or twice ati's are tuff but watch out don,t let it hapen more often

if the thermal paste is fine something with your fans/heat sink must have caused it i've seen my GPu crash twice on me at 85 but that was because i forgot to plus back the GPU heat sink after changin the paste th card detected that heat was building up to fast and closed the thhing

 

I'll try to clean up and recover from the thermal paste. But the fact that the fans are stuck at 30% is already a big problem.

If I played games, it is precisely to ensure proper functioning of the system and board temperature.

In light of the other topics which some people video card may reach over 100 degrees, I do not believe that the card is damaged. Otherwise I would have problems more serious than a BSOD screen.

If the heatsink does not touch the video card correctly, is what I would have the temperature around 60 degrees in idle after several hours?

simonmpoulton, you have not answered my question, if your fans are stuck at 30% as well? Your video card does not rise above 90 degrees?

Thank you, Kikwillou

 

Check to make sure you have the latest bios also on that mobo but definitely make sure your getting your heatsink setup properly. Also make sure you are replacing the pads for the ram correctly.

 

Kilwiolou tu es sur P4g?

hello c'est @tomX!

 

the problem as i have mentioned in several threads is the fan locked at 30 % and the mobo bios is the one managing this, not the vbios...

 

Salut @tomX, oui c'est Kiwi

Do you think the thermal pads may be involved? I have not yet changed are the original ones.

For the bios of the motherboard, I checked but I have the 7314 0C03 bios (bios Vista), the number displayed in the first screen of the bios is 7314.

 

I believe that it simply displays the fan speed at 30% no matter what it is. Because it is a laptop, the fans do not report properly to the programs that monitor it, and it cannot be changed.

Rather than using a monitoring program, physically listen to see if the fan speed increases with temperature.

The issue is likely a heatsink that hasn't been positioned properly, or poor application of thermal paste. Try reapplying thermal paste very carefully following expert guides, or better yet, take it to a computer shop and get an expert to apply the thermal paste if they offer such a service.

Do NOT play games until this issue is fixed. Repeatedly pushing the card above 90C will damage the card. Exceeding 100C will cause severe damage.

 

All fans are stuck at 30% because this is a graphical glitch only.

They are not really running at 30% there is simply no fan speed chip available for you to read the real speed.

You can hear the fan speeding up when the cards get hotter but your program (GPU-z for example) will show 30% anyways.

Just ignore the entire fan speed percentage.

[edit] Yeah what EviLCorsaiR said

 

if the issue is the same as the m17 (as far as i recall we can't see the fan speed eithier in most software)
the only software that can see them is the intel XTU

 

Indeed the 30% of the fans, you're right.

However, listening to the fans turned right from the start the computer, in a game or idle, you quickly realize that something is wrong ...

The fans make almost no noise and does not almost breath.
I tested putting my video card nvidia 7950 and fans were functioning properly.

In fact, the bios of the motherboard does not seem to handle correctly the ATI video cards.

For the moment, following advice is, I do not play with my computer. I will change the thermal paste and pads.

Thank you for your tips

 

I'm in a similar situation as the OP and recently started using a 3870 in an m9750.

At first it worked great and the temp seemed reasonable but two days ago I checked the temp, via HWmonitor, and saw the max temp had hit 122C! Since then I changed the thermal paste and turned the performance way down but still hit a max of 109. Although I have been checking the temp every five minutes when playing a game, I never catch it wiht the temp above 80 but still it shows a max of 100C. Are these max spikes typical?

I have been unable to find thermal foam pads to replace the pads over the video card ram. I've been reusing the pads on the heat sink. Where might I find replacement pads? I found thermal tape but I am afraid it might be too thin to make contact. Any suggestions?

Does the HWmonitor readout of GPU temp average in the temps of the ram or is the ram temp not measured?

Have I fried my video card already? At times I notice what looks like overly bright highlights. What are typical symptoms of a damaged video card.

I hope I'm not disrespecting the OP and I will bow out if requested but since this seems to on topic to might I thougt it would be a good place to post my questions.

dt

 

Evil and DHC:

(i have all three cards : 7950 gtx, 8700m gt and HD 3870)

there is a REAL difference when you try using either a 8700m Gt or a 7950 GTX : fan speed does regulate according to temperature rise.

plug in a 3870 and this doesn't work anymore, fans start at that 30% (i say 30% because i heard the fan go much louder/stronger with the other 2 "official" cards) even if no game or in game.. no difference in speed... this i have seen/heard for myself.

problem seems to me motherboard related...

 

Fans in my system work fine with the hd 3870, when the temps hit 80 the fans spin up, if they get as high as 90 they go full throttle and the temp goes down.
BIOS = Latest Vista version OC03 I believe.

 

For thermal pads, I ordered a French site. You should find on the internet. If the video card is defective, I think there must be artifacts on the screen or other bugs. I have not had a problem because of BSOD appeared around 110 degrees to prevent damage I think.

@ TomX had updated the bios of the motherboard in 0C03, but he hasn't seen any difference on the fans.

I have not updated mine, because in the bios at startup, the number given was 7314 I believe that corresponds to 0C03. I will still try to update it.

simonmpoulton, maybe you have updated another component that allows fans to operate normally. We can only find one version of bios 0C03?

 

Can I make one other suggestion, as you have a cooling pad try the system with the bottom plate removed ontop of the pad and post up temps then.

 

Temps in idle or load ?

Regarding my BSOD, they appear only when the video card is fully loaded. I installed WhoCrashed for the error report. They wear each time the file ATIKMPAG, with an error VIDEO_TDR_ERROR.

This may be due to overheating, overclocking, driver, defective card ... and other.
How do I know if my card is defective when in idle or early in the game, I have no problem ?

On the other hand, I didn't have the bios 0C03. I flashed my motherboard with success the other night. The fans seem to turn a bit better but this is not the same behavior as for 7950.

 

Try another ati driver just in case...

 

Are you sure you did not forget to plug in the Fan on the Secondary Gpu? You should be hearing a fan from the CPU and both GPUs. If you clean your Gpu of Thermal paste. Put gpu and heatsink Together and look between both of them. If there a Gap. Thermal compound not going to help much on cooling. I had this happen on my M5550. There was like a Gap between the Card and heatsink. Which mine ran at 100c and shut down.

Please note dont put the heatsink and Fan back in with out thermal paste.

 

Hello everyone!

After performing many tests, I come to you ...

I still get BSOD, I recall that everything works perfectly with my 7950GTX.

I excluded a heat problem since my 3870 up to 83 ° max in full play

My BSOD is random, sometimes after 5 minutes, 2 hours or more ... and only in full play, the file ATIKMPAG. No problem when I do not play.

I tested the 2 ATI cards I have in my possession and I have the same problem (a problem on the 2 cards?). I also tested many drivers, including recent, 11.3.

The problem also is that on Windows Seven, when I uninstall the drivers and I go in safe mode, windows me reinstall the drivers built ... May be the source of the problem.

I'll try to reinstall everything on XP.

If you have any ideas, I'm interested

No one else has this problem with a 3870 in the m9750?

Thank you.

 

express uninstall all ATI software
CC cleaner
reboot
install drivers/etc


DO NOT install the catylest control center

 

Ok, thank you very much for your answer, I'll try that!

No way to stop Windows automatically install WDDM drivers in safe mode? After uninstalling the old drivers ...

 

There is a way to prevent Windows from auto installing drivers. That feature can be turned off in Win 7 at least. I don't remember how but if you google it....

My 3870 got up to 120 C a year ago and it still works fine. I later found that in my 9750 the 3870 chip fits unevenly against the heat sink. I had used the recommended thin amount of thermal paste. When I took the heat sink off there was no thermal paste on half of the heat sink. I reapplied the paste generously and that helped a lot. However, I still have to monitor the temps with new games and tune in the settings to keep the 3870 from getting too hot.

My GPU fan goes from silent to furious depending on need and full Catalyst ccc works fine for me.

I hope that helps.

 

After many new tests:
- Clean install of Seven, testing multiple drivers 8.12, 9.1, 9.6, 11.5 ...
- Same with XP
- Change of ram

I still get the BSOD randomly, sometimes on the file ATIKMPAG or ATIKMDAG and others ...

I need to test these graphics cards in another computer ...

 

the catylist control center causes those...

 

I only installed the drivers, so it's quite another thing ...