M15x crash problem. Please help!

I know it is a common problem but so far I could not find a solution.

I sometimes get the following problem:

- a message: “Display driver stopped responding and has recovered”

or

- the screen turns black or some other color (mostly flickering green) and I have to reboot

or

- I get a blue screen...

It usually happens while streaming videos or watching from hard drive but not only. The system can work for 12h and more or it can crash 10min after start up...

I did a clean install of windows but it did not help.

I don't know what to do, please help.

The system spec:

- Intel Core i7 Q820

- Nvidia GeForce GTX 260M

- A09 BIOS

- Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit

 

A09 BIOS seems to be unstable with GTX 260M. I tried it 4 times, had a go at A09 again last week but reverted back to A08. Had the same problems you mentioned with A09.

 

I have my doubts thats the A09 bios because i actually got better performance from my 260m.

 

hmm is your 260m Overclocked at all? I usually get the driver crashed when i have my 460m overclocked to high

 

Nope, no overclocking at all. And apparently I don't have an overheating problem either. Temps are usually under 50C, when playing games under 60C.
I had this problem from the start but it got wors recently. I still have 3 months of warranty left, but it would be hard for me to be without a computer for longer so I wanted to know whether I need to call them and what to expect.

 

when i used to have my 260m, the problem usually occur from a bad VGA driver. check that out, may be the older version might help.

also most of my crashes are from IE watching youtube; try other browser like chrome or firefox.

 

I had this same problem too, and Dell replaced my motherboard, my 260m twice, and my power supply. I reinstalled windows several times, and tried several driver variations. Nothing solved the problem, so Dell replaced my computer with one that had the amd 5850 video card in it. Smooth sailing since then, do this before your warranty is up.

Tom

 

have u tried another driver? or have u tried check or PCI connection?

 

I have just installed the now graphics drivers from dell's site. Maybe this will help.

 

I've had this problem playing League of Legends...the screen will just lock up but I am still able to talk on Skype. Cant control alt delete out or alt tab out of the game. Usually have to hardboot. Running the 260m and thinking about just getting a new card, since I updated drivers and that did not work. Any advice?

 

i just notice that this actually happen to me sometimes if i overclock my CPU..., (not my GPU), funny huh..

 

Try the latest driver. Graphics Driver - Verde 285.79 Driver - GeForce

It has been the most stable driver for me so far, no crashes or lockups at all since install.

@otosan: I'm not sure how you overclocked the 720qm but after much trial and error on my 920xm, OCing the CPU also caused the problems mentioned on this thread. Was initially running at multipliers 26/26/24/24 then 26/24/22/22 and eventually 25/25/23/23 which has been the most stable so far.

Had this laptop since Jul 2010 and finally got it to work without any crashes at all...

 

I tried that video driver but it just gets to a black screen and stalls out....still having issues just with League of Legends and the video card just freezes. =(

 

I had exactly the same problem, 2 freezes per day during movie watching in full screen or playing Aion, League of Legend etc.. (even after upgraded/downgraded bios, graphic driver, checking temperatures, controlling RAM performance and so on :s) and I found a trick to avoid it :

Open your Nvidia control panel and change your Physx settings from "auto" into your graphic card (mine is the GTX 260m).

I don't have freezes anymore since I have changed it

 

In my opinion, do the power drain trick, along with the complete driver sweep, registry sweep (CCleaner), and a clean reinstall of drivers from Dell website. That'll help... always helped for me!

 

I am running A08 and tried the Physx settings and it still freezes with the 3 common ways being the blue screen of death, the green pixalated garbage, or just the lockup with the screen being on whatever was on it.

I am at a loss of what to do besides buy a new GPU and that doesnt seem like its going to be an option for several months =/

 

@Ovenmitt
Were you monitoring the temps of the gpu and cpu when you had those crashes while gaming? Are you using a laptop cooler?

I'm using a Cooler Master NotePal U2 and connected to a external monitor running at 1680x1050. Temps for gpu/cpu never went pass 75degC when playing BF3.

I never had any crashes when gaming, most of my crashes in the past were when I watched videos on Firefox.

 

Check your ram sticks with software known as 'Mem86'. The same issue occurred with my friends dell 5010 i7 even the warranty guys couldn't fix it until I tested the sticks with mem86 and pulled out the bad ram stick. Make sure u test one stick at a time.

 

I'll check temps and post them here....I repasted not too long ago and felt that I did it correctly with the awesome guide that someone made here. I will then check the Mem86....did he replace the RAM stick and get good results?

56 temp for GPU 58 for CPU....that ok?

 

Are those temps at idle or when gaming? Seems low if those are gaming temps.

 

Yes the issue got fixed after removing the bad stick. He got the new one afterwards

 

Those temps were right after a match of League of Legends, I'll try and grab temps in mid game. Also I tried to get that mem86 program and I'm a little confused on how it works? Anyone that has used it could guide me a bit I would appreciate it!

 

It will perform test to ur RAM memory.. And tell u whether it worked properly or not. As simple as that... =] actually u also can use windows memtest i think.

Btw, i just found that TDRdelay timeout on windows 7 also causing this crash. Turning off the TDR maybe can help.

On my case i found "auto" Physix setting also causing problem, so i set it directly choose the GPU,

And, last thing, which is my stupidness, i still have intel graphic driver installed from my previous system in my windows, never noticed it before. I think it also has cause several crash related to graphic error.

 

I guess as far as the mem86 goes, I understand that it tests your RAM I just don't get when its used. It seemed like it was a bios program and I tried to install it and seemed like it did nothing.

What is TDRdelay? I'm not familiar with that.

I changed Physix to GPU and it did not solve the problem.

Thanks for the help!!