Optimus - GT 540M, odd problem. Hardware failure?

I have an odd problem which I have been struggling to find the solution to.

I have just bought an ASUS X93SV (aka K93SV), I5-2410M, GT 540M, 8gb ram.

From the first day I haven't been able to make it swith to the dedicated graphics. I have tried every trick in the book (see below) but it actually gives fewer fps than the built in HD3000 graphics.

First I thought it was a driver issue and it never switched to the dedicate GT 540M graphics. Now I'm finally thinking it's a hardware failure.

At all times, windows and Nvidia control panel has shown it to work correctly. And at no time have I achieved the fps I should. In Dirt 3 i get 15 fps and should get 60 fps. In 3dMark06 I get 4400 with the built-in HD3000 graphics. I should get 7.800-7.900 with the GT 540m graphics, but get 3800-3900. At first it was also 4400, so I thought it never switched to the GT 540M

But I can see from the graphs in "Nvidia Inspector", and sidebar monitoring that the GT 540M GPU works 100% when I run 3dMark06, but it ends up given a score of 3800, which is less than the build in HD3000 graphics (4400) and lot less than it should, i.e. 7.850.

Since I can see it uses the GPU 100% I shifted from thinking a driver problem to thinking a hardwareproblem.

I can see from Nvidia Inspector that it runs at 95c to 101c celcius when it runs 3dMark06. To my knowledge this is hot, but not nescessarily where it starts affecting performance. Someting is, though The GT540M idles at 70c-75c celcius when it is not in use and the HD3000 runs (ordinary windows use).

- Does anyone know what the critical temperature of the GT 540M is?
Hopefully actully knows, rather than "I think it's too hot"...

- Does anyone with the GT 540M (who has it working) have temperature readings from idle and work, e.g. from "Nvidia inspector" (there is a graph icon left to the heading "GPU" which gives readings over time).

At one hand I can't think of anything else than a hardware failure. On the other hand that happens so rarely so before leaving my new laptop to repair I like to hear your oppinions.

Kind regards
Jens

To problem sove I have tried
- every Nvidia driver from 268.39 (from ASSU) to recent 280.26
- all Intel graphics driver
- switching back and forth to auto-select and dedicated select of graphics card in Nvidia control panel
- selecting dedicated graphics for PhysX
- running High Performance mode for battery
- installing a clean windows 7 SP1 764bit
- reverting to "Recory of ASUS"
- googling for days
- plus much more


And all the time with the same result. I don't get the expected fps, and always windows/nvidia reports everything if fine.

From googling others who experience problems, it is normally for a specific game, whereas other games work. I haven't seen one single thing actually giving the expected fps's.

 

this post is from about 2 years ago and is for dedicated cards so im not sure what the threshold 540 card should be but whatever it is them temps you are getting are way too high.
rma it back to where you bought it from with a printout of them temperatures.
think you could well have a dud there.

have a read > http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-540M.41715.0.html

 

What's the GT540M clocks speed?
Does it drop when you are doing the 3dmark06 ?

 

Run gpu-z and see what your clocks are getting.

I get 672mhz, 900mhz, 1344mhz for the clocks on my GT540M on my Toshiba P750

and with 3dmark06 , at 1366x768 native for me, the rest on default, I get HD3000 4105 points , GT540M 9102 points.

with Intel 8.15.10.2353 and Nvidia 280.26 , on Windows 7 premium x64 , see sig for spec.

I have an i7 so it might affect the score some what.

 

GPU-Z gives me the same figures:
672mhz, 900mhz, 1344mhz for the clocks

In 3dMark06 i get around 4200. I the beginning I got the same on Nvidia but now I'm only getting 3800.
8.15.10.2345 intel and 280.26 Nvidia.

It must be a hardware failure or cooling failure. I guess I'll have to give it in for repair and have my fingers crossed. I hope it hasn't damages the GPU. It sounds a bit worrying that the performance from it has dropped over the few weeks I have had it.

 

Have you tried a full system restore, from the recovery partiton/dvd`s before you return it.

And reset your bios to default settings.