Is my laptops Nvidia card borked?

Fed up talking videogames? Why?
User avatar
KjGarly
Member
Joined in 2008
AKA: TheArbiter
Location: Liverpool

PostIs my laptops Nvidia card borked?
by KjGarly » Tue Nov 22, 2016 8:56 am

So I installed Dishonored on my laptop from Steam, a game I've played for 4 hours in the past, load up the game and within a minute of being in the main menu the screen goes a bit weird before it freezes up and everything is locked so couldn't even control alt delete out of it. About 30 seconds later it comes up with a blue screen informing me there's been an error and collecting info with DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION as the stop code.

Now every time the laptop would boot up within around 20 seconds of being on the home screen it would do the same so eventually managed to shift+restart and performed a reset/wipe of the windows drive. Reinstalled all updates and the driver for my Nvidia card which in device manager is saying it's working fine, but upon installing a game from Steam again it does the same thing and even when I set my power level to max power in Nvidia control panel it locks up again.

Now when I'd first had the problem I did install a new Nvidia driver and that had been the first time playing a game with the new driver but I have since then tried the driver I was using fine before that and it still locks up with the WATCHDOG error. :(

Image
Image
User avatar
Holpil
Member
Joined in 2008

PostRe: Is my laptops Nvidia card borked?
by Holpil » Tue Nov 22, 2016 9:03 am

Just checking online, the error has been known to be caused by issues with Nvidia audio drivers, try disabling/uninstalling them and see how it goes:

you should disable the nvidia hi definition audio device in device manager. Often windows plug and play reinstalls the driver a few seconds after you remove the device.

If that doesn't work you could try running CPUID HWMonitor along with Prime95 (for CPU) and Furmark (GPU) to check your temps after a few minutes, both are freeware. If temps are high or you get BSOD's it's most likely a hardware problem. Also it's worth updating your BIOS if you haven't recently and there's one available.

User avatar
KjGarly
Member
Joined in 2008
AKA: TheArbiter
Location: Liverpool

PostRe: Is my laptops Nvidia card borked?
by KjGarly » Tue Nov 22, 2016 9:19 am

Is installing Bios easy, installing drivers is about as much as I've ever done on my laptop. I'll try the Nvidia audio removal too. Temps on my cpu usually sit around 50/55 at the moment while my GPU is not in use.

Image
Image
User avatar
Holpil
Member
Joined in 2008

PostRe: Is my laptops Nvidia card borked?
by Holpil » Tue Nov 22, 2016 9:22 am

Yeah, definitely try the audio drivers first, that might be a quick fix for you.

Updating your BIOS isn't too bad, you can usually get an update tool from your motherboard manufacturer, download the latest BIOS file and update from within Windows. You can also stick it on a USB drive and update from within the BIOS.

User avatar
Errkal
Member
Joined in 2011
Location: Hastings
Contact:

PostRe: Is my laptops Nvidia card borked?
by Errkal » Tue Nov 22, 2016 9:34 am

BIOS on laptops it usually a piece of piss, they have a windows installer that pretty much does it all for you, you just click go and reboot when it tells you.

User avatar
KjGarly
Member
Joined in 2008
AKA: TheArbiter
Location: Liverpool

PostRe: Is my laptops Nvidia card borked?
by KjGarly » Wed Nov 23, 2016 1:19 am

Errkal wrote:BIOS on laptops it usually a piece of piss, they have a windows installer that pretty much does it all for you, you just click go and reboot when it tells you.


Well I haven't had a chance to try anything yet, not till tomorrow after work but a quick look on MSI's support page for my laptop shows Bios only for W8 64bit, would that be ok to install even though I'm on W10?

Image
Image
User avatar
KjGarly
Member
Joined in 2008
AKA: TheArbiter
Location: Liverpool

PostRe: Is my laptops Nvidia card borked?
by KjGarly » Wed Nov 23, 2016 8:34 am

I did uninstall the Realtek HD audio drivers this morning and ran an sfc/scannow check which came back problem free. On half day today so can try the other attempts at sorting it later but just need to know if it's ok to install that Bios for W8 on my W10 laptop.

Image
Image
User avatar
Errkal
Member
Joined in 2011
Location: Hastings
Contact:

PostRe: Is my laptops Nvidia card borked?
by Errkal » Wed Nov 23, 2016 8:55 am

The BIOS itself will be fine on W10, the W8 compatibility thing will be the application that does the BIOS flashing rather than the BIOS itself.

It should be OK as there wasn't much change between 8 and 10 but yeah possible chance of boom there.

User avatar
KjGarly
Member
Joined in 2008
AKA: TheArbiter
Location: Liverpool

PostRe: Is my laptops Nvidia card borked?
by KjGarly » Wed Nov 23, 2016 9:12 am

Possible chance of boom with installing the Bios or you think the cards actually gone boom?

:cry:

Image
Image
User avatar
Death's Head
Member
Joined in 2009

PostRe: Is my laptops Nvidia card borked?
by Death's Head » Wed Nov 23, 2016 10:06 am

Have you tried plugging in an external screen? I had a problem with an older laptop that kept blue screening. I found that it worked plugged into an external screen, but the display was a bit screwy so clearly the graphics chips were ill.

Yes?
User avatar
KjGarly
Member
Joined in 2008
AKA: TheArbiter
Location: Liverpool

PostRe: Is my laptops Nvidia card borked?
by KjGarly » Wed Nov 23, 2016 10:15 am

Not tried that but just remember it had blue screened with Nvidia drivers not installed/disabled.

Image
Image
User avatar
Death's Head
Member
Joined in 2009

PostRe: Is my laptops Nvidia card borked?
by Death's Head » Wed Nov 23, 2016 10:50 am

I reckon that the graphics chipset has died. I've seen similar symptoms on an old desktop when the graphics card died.

Yes?
User avatar
KjGarly
Member
Joined in 2008
AKA: TheArbiter
Location: Liverpool

PostRe: Is my laptops Nvidia card borked?
by KjGarly » Tue Dec 13, 2016 7:14 pm

Ok slight update. I'd uninstalled the Nvidia drivers and set Windows to not download any updates that aren't from Windows themselves thus stopping it downloading an old Nvidia driver. Just used it for downloading and browsing the net. Started the same crap again and even though I could sort the problem by doing a Windows restart (and keeping my files etc) I now can't even do that. Last thing I'd done was a Windows update (no Nvidia in the update, Windows only) and during the restart to finish installing it blue screened and now can't even perform a restart.

Maybe it wasn't the Nvidia card? Or am I just being hopefull? Going to get hold of a W7 install and try going back to that from scratch as a last try.

Image
Image

Return to “Stuff”