MSI S270 Strangely Freezes (HW Problem?)

Hello folks!

About a week ago I recieved my new laptop (s270, MT-37 2gz, 1gb ram, Toshiba 5400rpm/100gb hdd).

Everything seems alright, solid computer with a nice exterior. However, from time to time if just freezes, with screen content becoming scrambled in a way that reminds me of when I had bad motherboard on my pentium133 ages ago.

This happens rarely, and so far i observed it in the following situations:

--when i install AMD CPU driver (both the one included on CD and the newer version from www.amd.com). with it the system doesnt even boot, freezes as soon as windows logo and progress bar get on screen. I have to boot in safe mode and remove the driver, then systm runs as usual.

--when running CPU intensive openGL screensavers... i tried several. In that case screensaver runs for some time (up to 20 minutes) then everything freezes.

--when running Ableton Live 5 (Music Production Software). This software also makes good use of CPU, with complex gui and ability to playback many sounds from different sources at the same time (synths, wav and mp3 files, samplers, etc). With Live it only froze once, I had many long successfull sessions as well.

All this is related for sure, because everytime this happens, the screen contents get scrambled in the same way (green component of the signal shifts about 5mm right, and everything gets kinda distorted, i wish I could make a screensot , the computer doesnt respond to neither mouse or keyboard, ctrl-alt-del doesnt work, and I have to use power button to reset it.

Now I have updated my BIOS, instaled newer chipset drivers, tried different video drivers, all in vain, this sh*t keeps happening.

It doesnt happen so often, so I can still use my computer for most of my usual tasks. And it might be something which may be resolved later with newer drivers, bios, soft, etc...

It also may be serious hardware malfunction and can become worse... Also I only had my laptop for about a week, so I might find that this happens more often than I think. Especially important for me is the ability to run music software smoothly.


What do you guys think of the above? Anyone heard or seen something similar? And should I send it back to XMELD, wait another month and pray I get it back in better shape?

Thans in advance, looking forward for the replies

Alex

 

Same problem here
I have a S270 (MT40 2.2Ghz ram1GB hdd100GB) since a week now.
I use the notebook a least 2 hours a day and during this last week I have experienced 3 times the problem (system freezes).

BTW: My laptop energy setting is always "Portable/Laptop" and the freezes happened everytime when I was surfing the net (low load!).

It look to me that it is heat issue related to the newer turions (MT37+), ATI video card and the some of the energy settings ("Portable/Laptop").

Maybe the next step is to contact MSI and explain the problem and then waiting for a new driver / bios update .

Greeting,

Mark

 

i know of this problem.. its a simple fix.. do not use any other drivers except the manufacturer's drivers or a third party driver such as the omega drivers.. i have had the same problem happen to me on my msi 1029.

my problem was that i installed mobility drivers from the ati official site which did not support my system.. it would run fine while it is plugged in with a battery but once i took out the ac plug the screen would start getting artifacts..

let me know if downloading the omega drivers fix your problem.. www.omegadrivers.net, i used the omega drivers which are compatible with all notebook manufacturer's and it fixed my problem.

ati to me has some pretty bad driver support, thats why im hoping to in the future purchase a nvidia gpu instead.

 

Hello!!
I'm Italian...so...sorry for my English
I've bought this notebook: s270, MT-37 2gz, 1gb ram, Toshiba 5400rpm/80gb hdd...
...and when I use the laptop, 2 or 3 times a week the screen become completely white...and I can only switch oof it using the power button.
Now...Did you solve your problem with the "omegadrivers"?
Thanks

 

The problem has to do with high clock speed Turions (MT-37 and MT-40) and MSI's buggy implementation of them. There are some workarounds that have been discussed in some detail here: http://laptoplogic.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1788.

 

Thanks for your quick reply...I have not yet read the discussion, but I hope to solve the problem...bye

 

HI!

the same problem here, but it starts in the very first seconds, even in the BIOS!!! the computer starts and in a few secodns the screeen starts changing characters and vertical lines and it ends hanging up. Any idea? Should i send it back to www.notebook.ce? must i pay the transport even being under warranty?

what about the dvd+rw driver, i am having troubles to, anyone else?

 

After reading a couple of very lengthy posts a few weeks ago about the S270, I think that the main problem is *not* with the chip, it is with the RAM speeds. The ATI chipset does NOT support DDR400, you need to downclock the RAM to DDR333 in the BIOS. That solved a majority of the problems, especially in the MT-37 and MT-40 cases, where most of the problems came up.

 

It's the same problem I had. See this link for the solution. The S270 is the same as the MS-1013. All you have to do it update the bios and change the ram speed to 333 instead of 400 mhz.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=44215
Fan control for MS-1013 - NotebookReview.com Forums

I had that problem twice in a day and now it look ok now. It's easy to update the bios and it probably will fix the problem. Just download the ois for 431.

BEWARE: make sure you have the proper chip set with CPU-Z or else you will have problems. You need to have RS480.

 

well, hoy can i update the bios? my dvd drive does not read anything, i have no 3,15" driver, and there is no SO!!! Any idea? are the dvd drivers universal, i mean, i can dissasamble it from a compaq portatil and use it in the msi?

 

by the way, i can not use this rom, i have the rs482

 

There is a version for the RS482. Contact MSI for it.

 

If your DVD drive is not working, your toast as far as updating your bios. What I did is get the Free Dos version and the bios and installed it on the cd as bottable disc. Stick it in and update bios.... but I think you have larger issues than bios if your DVD drive does not even read when you boot it.... try enabling it in your bios (Hit Del right after you turn it on). Or at least see if your DVD is detected in your bios....

 

well i wrote to msi and they say than will never give me any bios that is "beta" because they dont support such kind of software. I have the 6.10 bios, and the rs482 chipset, is this the better one? does anybody has this betabios for rs482?

 

Hi
I've bought this notebook too, an also have the same problem. After sending it two times to main service center in our country, tech guys sort it out. Upgrade of BIOS solved the problem.

It is up to me to test it with 2 GB of RAM.