Video driver FAIL, literally!
November 27, 2011 9:18 PM Subscribe
TechSupportFilter: Laptop system freezing upon screen blanking -AND- driver fail issues (GeForce 360M edition).
I have an almost one year old laptop system that's been having video issues for the last month or so. (nVidia GeForce 360M.) It's the same system I talked about before, a couple times. Running Win 7 64bit, if I haven't mentioned it before.
I first noticed it when the screen goes blank (as a form of screen saver) -- it will not recover. I can wiggle the mouse and button-mash to my heart's delight and nothing will happen. I have to hold the power button down for about ten seconds before it'll force a shutdown and I can restart. Twice I was able to catch it immediately after blanking and it was fine, but I've caught it immediately other times and it still freezes.
I thought updating the video driver might fix the probably video-based wonkiness -- NOPE. Not only do I still have the screen issue, but now the driver's crashing!
This happens at odd times. It's happened while playing various games, while on TinyChat, and while viewing things on Netflix. I'd say 95% of the time the driver recovers and everything goes back to normal. (Except when I'm playing a particular game, which crashes if I don't keep it in the front, but that's a known issue with that game.)
One of the latest times, it crashed so hard my system bluescreened.
I looked on the nVidia forums and found a few others are having the same issue. No solution has been presented yet. Is there anything I can do about this or am I just going to have to wait for another driver update? Or should I take the system in to have the hardware checked again, in case the 'authorized' repair goon did something screwy to something else besides my wifi card six months ago?
TL;DR: Blank screen as screen saver causes system lockup, driver update means the driver's failing and causing games to crash. Wait for new update, investigate hardware issue, or some other computer-fu?
I have an almost one year old laptop system that's been having video issues for the last month or so. (nVidia GeForce 360M.) It's the same system I talked about before, a couple times. Running Win 7 64bit, if I haven't mentioned it before.
I first noticed it when the screen goes blank (as a form of screen saver) -- it will not recover. I can wiggle the mouse and button-mash to my heart's delight and nothing will happen. I have to hold the power button down for about ten seconds before it'll force a shutdown and I can restart. Twice I was able to catch it immediately after blanking and it was fine, but I've caught it immediately other times and it still freezes.
I thought updating the video driver might fix the probably video-based wonkiness -- NOPE. Not only do I still have the screen issue, but now the driver's crashing!
This happens at odd times. It's happened while playing various games, while on TinyChat, and while viewing things on Netflix. I'd say 95% of the time the driver recovers and everything goes back to normal. (Except when I'm playing a particular game, which crashes if I don't keep it in the front, but that's a known issue with that game.)
One of the latest times, it crashed so hard my system bluescreened.
I looked on the nVidia forums and found a few others are having the same issue. No solution has been presented yet. Is there anything I can do about this or am I just going to have to wait for another driver update? Or should I take the system in to have the hardware checked again, in case the 'authorized' repair goon did something screwy to something else besides my wifi card six months ago?
TL;DR: Blank screen as screen saver causes system lockup, driver update means the driver's failing and causing games to crash. Wait for new update, investigate hardware issue, or some other computer-fu?
When the screen blanks out, does the system still seem to be running normally?
(this would make me lean more towards it being a hardware issue than software)
Are you seeing anything related in your event logs?
(Right-click Computer -> Manage -> System Tools -> Event Viewer)
posted by samsara at 5:38 AM on November 28, 2011
(this would make me lean more towards it being a hardware issue than software)
Are you seeing anything related in your event logs?
(Right-click Computer -> Manage -> System Tools -> Event Viewer)
posted by samsara at 5:38 AM on November 28, 2011
Response by poster: I can't really tell, samsara. I'm inclined to guess not, since I sometimes leave the laptop on all night while I download games and such and I've woken up to something that was supposed to take six hours still having most of that time remaining when I turn it back on.
The Event Viewer shows a bunch of video driver crashes (and the subsequent crash from the game that REALLY hates alt-tabbing) but I don't think it's showing the system freeze from the screen locking so I have no idea WHAT is going on.
Meh, I don't want to have to send the laptop in again. I may ask a local repair shop (NOT the 'authorized' toshiba goon) what/if they can do and how much it might cost. Or I WILL go through Toshiba, mention this is my third problem with them in a year, and see if I can't squeeze an extended warranty out of them in the process.
posted by Heretical at 12:30 PM on November 28, 2011
The Event Viewer shows a bunch of video driver crashes (and the subsequent crash from the game that REALLY hates alt-tabbing) but I don't think it's showing the system freeze from the screen locking so I have no idea WHAT is going on.
Meh, I don't want to have to send the laptop in again. I may ask a local repair shop (NOT the 'authorized' toshiba goon) what/if they can do and how much it might cost. Or I WILL go through Toshiba, mention this is my third problem with them in a year, and see if I can't squeeze an extended warranty out of them in the process.
posted by Heretical at 12:30 PM on November 28, 2011
Response by poster: Also: What kind of diagnostics could I run myself before turning it in to help figure out if it's hardware or software? I have access to the Ultimate Boot CD, but only for malware-removal so I don't know how effective it is for hardware.
posted by Heretical at 12:38 PM on November 28, 2011
posted by Heretical at 12:38 PM on November 28, 2011
Try CPUID HWMonitor to get the running temps of your CPU and GPU. Since this is mostly happening when in use, I would somewhat lean towards overheating. If you can get some canned air, you could also try blowing out the fan areas on the laptop to remove any caked lint or dust.
Another angle you could try is running CCleaner registry clean about 3-4 times until no registry errors are noted. Then create a restore point and remove the video driver entirely using DeviceRemover. Change the view in DeviceRemover to remove all HIDDEN/DETACHED devices (you get to hidden/detached devices under the view menu, select all, and remove...just make sure you're viewing HIDDEN/DETACHED and not active devices)
posted by samsara at 1:54 PM on November 28, 2011
Another angle you could try is running CCleaner registry clean about 3-4 times until no registry errors are noted. Then create a restore point and remove the video driver entirely using DeviceRemover. Change the view in DeviceRemover to remove all HIDDEN/DETACHED devices (you get to hidden/detached devices under the view menu, select all, and remove...just make sure you're viewing HIDDEN/DETACHED and not active devices)
posted by samsara at 1:54 PM on November 28, 2011
...and after a reboot, try reinstalling the latest 64-bit video driver for your laptop model.
posted by samsara at 1:56 PM on November 28, 2011
posted by samsara at 1:56 PM on November 28, 2011
Response by poster: I was using CPUID for a while and then switched to SpeedFan instead. SF doesn't show me overheating, but I use CCleaner regularly and use your driver idea.
posted by Heretical at 3:28 PM on November 28, 2011
posted by Heretical at 3:28 PM on November 28, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by flabdablet at 3:35 AM on November 28, 2011