Video Card Problem..

I have a HP Pavilion dv6000 equipped with a NVIDIA GeForce Go 6150 chipset graphics card, and I'm not sure if this is the proper term for it but my brother says it is so we'll go with it, but the video card apparently "takes a ****".

Assuming this is not the right term I'll explain what happens: The video card picks a rectangle of pixels and tiles it across the entire screen, simultaneously the laptop locks up and you are forced to reboot using the power button.

I got my entire MoBo replaced already because of a bad video card (under warranty), before the problem happened but not as often as it does now. Does anybody know the cause of this?

I was suspicious of the temperature but it occurred at ~60C last time and my video card has gone up to as much as ~90C I asked HP for the maximum temperature for my specific video card and it's ~100C. I also have a Thermaltake laptop cooler running under it. Help please?

Is it still under warranty??? Probably not.

Have you tried updating the drivers?? Hp may have a newer release.....or you could try an older driver (sometimes the older ones are more stable)

Are you using video intense applications??

Is it random?

Any info in the event log???

MLF

That particular chipset is pretty unstable. I've had 2 or 3 of them burn out on me. One funny thing they always did was draw polygons in 3d games where one of the points would be a few hundred points away from where it was suppose to be. This was always my first sign that it was going out.

That dv6000 custom built or store bought?

I happen to be somewhat of an expert on those dv6000 machines.

You use AMD or Intel processor? (Most likely AMD, as you have an Nvidia chipset.)

Also, have you been having wireless connectivity issues? Bios updated? This an XP or Vista machine?

(I do phone support for HP.)

Hi Raion,

You need to consider that your laptop is a combination of components, not all of which can tolerate the same temperatures, but all of which contribute to the internal environment.

I have generally found that with desktops at least, strange things can start to happen once you get above 50C. I appreciate that laptops can take more, but I would also look at overall system temperature and not just the GPU. What for example is the CPU temperature when this happens?

Please make sure that all fans are working, and that the air vents are clear of lint, dust bunnies etc.

One thing that does occur to me is that your video chipset is sharing system memory, so a problem with that could produce the results you are describing.

I would suggest that you try MemTest86 and see if your RAM is basically OK.

http://www.memtest86.com/

Also as MLF mentioned; what are you doing when this happens?............like does it happen with a particular game or application?

Again, does it happen at random, or after a fairly consistent period of time?

What is your ambient (room) temperature?............... remember that with passive and air cooling your success will be relative to this.

:)

Sorry for the late response, I've been a bit busy. I'll try to answer all the questions one by one.

Is it still under warranty??? Probably not.
Yes, it is still under warranty.

Have you tried updating the drivers?? Hp may have a newer release.....or you could try an older driver (sometimes the older ones are more stable)
Yes, there aren't any new updates available.

Are you using video intense applications??
For the most part, no. I play F.E.A.R from time to time but I don't particularly have time for it. Now I just run a lot of Eclipse but it's all 2D programs I make. If that crashes my GPU then I'm throwing this out :p

Is it random?
Yup

Any info in the event log???
Silch.

That dv6000 custom built or store bought?
Store bought.

You use AMD or Intel processor? (Most likely AMD, as you have an Nvidia chipset.)
Right on the money.

Also, have you been having wireless connectivity issues? Bios updated? This an XP or Vista machine?
No wireless connectivity issues yet (since I hear this is a common issue for this laptop). BIOS was updated when it was sent in for repair. And it's Vista Home Premium.

What for example is the CPU temperature when this happens?
It's really hard to catch the CPU temperature when it happens because it is in fact random. I caught the GPU temperature last time because I happened to be doing absolutely nothing on my laptop (pretty much staring at it blankly) and looked at the temperature about 2 seconds before it happened.

I'm going to run the memtest immediately after class.
It doesn't have a particular pattern of when it happens, I could be idling and it happens (I've come back from class to find it like that).
I'd estimate that the room temperature here is ~22C or ~71F.

Thanks for the concise replies Raion,

From what you are saying, I would say that you do not have a temperature problem. The fact that this is a random event suggests that.

Please let me know if Memtest86 finds anything :)

I don't know if I'd rule out heat. We had issue after issue with Catia
(Dassault's CAD app) on "certified" Lenovo T60p's running a 256mb ATI
Mobility Fire GL vid card. Also had problems with an in-house CAD app
we wrote. At least, that's how the issue started out. I was supporting
4 engineers on these things and they were going onsite (USA, Israel,
Japan, and many points in between), only to crash in the middle of
presentations and what-have-you. It was a nightmare for us in support.

At first, we surmised the issue was Catia and even had a Lenovo service
rep come onsite and replace the MB under the standard 3-year-warranty.
To no avail apparently. Pretty soon, these things were locking up on all
kinds of apps, even Outlook. Lenovo blamed Dassault, Dassault blamed
Lenovo, no one wanted to own it. Eventually, we replaced all the T60p's,
which were outstanding machines in my book, with Dells. I didn't stick
around long enough to see how the composite engineers faired with the
Dells, but I always wondered about any thermal issues. Anything that
generates a lot of heat in a 3/4" thick case is going to give you grief sooner
or later. :(

Well, after running the MemTest I get no errors. So I figure I'd post the stats it gave, maybe it'll be of more use to somebody else than it was to me:

Cached - 959M
Rsvd Mem - 321M
MemMap - e820-Std
Cache - On
ECC - Off
Test - Std
Pass - 2
Errors - 0
ECC Errs - [Empty Field]

Hmm, nothing wrong there. As you have an HP it should come with diagnostic software? an OEM version of PC Doctor for Windows or the like. You might try running that?

At this point it sounds like a dodgy video chipset or even the MoBo.

What I would suggest is that you attach an external monitor and see if that still has the problem? I have seen some strange things with laptop screens going bad, or at least connectivity components.

Having said that................ it is still under warranty, so there isn't much more you can do without invalidating that................. send it back. ;)

HP comes with this inadequate diagnostic software which says your laptop is in poor health because you haven't looked at the manual or something trivial like that.

Well, I already had the entire MoBo replaced for a brand new one and the problem didn't go away at all. And wouldn't connecting an external monitor still produce the same result if it's a video chipset issue since it's going to be processed by the video chipset.

Also, I don't have an extra external monitor in my dorm. I'd have to wait until May when I go back home to test it.

Hi Raion,

Quote:

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And wouldn't connecting an external monitor still produce the same result if it's a video chipset issue since it's going to be processed by the video chipset.

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Yes, that is exactly what I was hoping to establish. As I mentioned, I have seen some weird things due to problems with the connectivity to the LCD screen. If that were the case as opposed to the video chipset, the external monitor would work properly?

Quote:

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Also, I don't have an extra external monitor in my dorm. I'd have to wait until May when I go back home to test it.

---

Do you have a friendly labtech or a fellow student?

At the end of the day, it is defective and under warranty, so finding out exactly which bit is the culprit isn't really your problem. Personally I would send it back ASAP.

Makes me wonder what is the root cause though................ I have a sneaking suspicion that it may have a flaky power supply? after all when you replace the MoBo and attached chipsets that should fix it? And you have run a RAM test?

That doesn't leave many options as far as I can tell.

Good luck mate!

I'm willing to bet on the power supply. The lack of any log messages is the major clue there.

Well, I called the oh-so-helpful technical support agents at HP and they told me the same thing they always tell me to do (I still don't understand what it does even)
"Disconnect everything, remove the battery and AC cord. Hold the power button down for 30 seconds and restart"

Then the lady said "Use your computer and I'll call back in 15 minutes to check if the problem happened again, if not we'll run some more tests." I ran F.E.A.R. to try to give it the most ideal conditions to mess up and as I figured, it didn't (it's too random) and they never called back. I'm confused as to where to take it from here.

Just a question out of left field...what type of sound card does your lappy have? Integrated, obviously, but what is the make/model? I've had similar problems (the "solitaire effect" like you described), and have fooled with drivers, cooling, and other such paths of discovery only to find out that the soundcard that I was using was mucking up the whole system. Could be worth checking into, IMO.

In my case it was a Creative soundcard that was chewing up system memory, thus causing the game (KOTOR) to reset/crash. Farking Creative...they used to be the gold standard in sound. Now, not so much. Lazy bastards.

Good Luck,

O

O~ has an interesting point there, I have come across sound and video not playing nice together, it used to be fairly common, as did similar issues with data/voice modems.

I guess I would check that I had the latest drivers and firmware from HP. You will need to check out your model carefully as the information you gave brings up 48 different ones :D

I would also look at what you have running in the background and have as little as possible going on.

Next time it happens just check the exhaust vent and see if air is blowing out normally. I did come across a machine that did strange things intermittently and it turned out that the PSU fan would not start properly sometimes, and would slow down after a while.

Have you tried running it in safe mode for a while to see if it happens then?

I have a Conexant sound card according to the device manager. Can't really tell much. Wasn't looking into sound too much when purchasing the laptop.

I also took a picture of this happening since, you know, a picture is word 1,000 words :p

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...040608_004.jpg

It was taken with my Treo so naturally the quality is horrible.

Well you might try it with this video test:

http://freestone-group.com/video-car...ility-test.htm

I would also run dxdiag.exe to see if there are any DirectX issues.

This is the ATi tool (works with nVidia as well). Use it to check for artifacts:

http://www.softpedia.com/progDownloa...load-8466.html