Help me Debug to save me putting in an RMA 'brr

[aarpri972]

Hey all,

So i have a Def 3 with gtx 1060 17'' laptop from PCS.

When on the battery i will get random screen blackout's/refreshes. To sum it basically ill be doing my own thing the screen will go dark like it's switched off and then turn it's self back on after a second or two. Can happen multiple times in a row or apart but it happens often.

I've spoke to PCS and their suggested fix was the latest intel gpu drivers for the on-board which I've done and it hasn't fixed it. Any suggestions other than a loose screen?

Second issue, I've recently starting getting crashes, the laptop is about a month hold.
for reference i have my OS on a ssd or atleast what should be an 240gb ssd. and non system essitianal on my wd black 750gb 7200 rpm hdd.

The first major crash was a grinding noise which i would typically associate with a hdd failing, it crashed the entire system. Which is interesting as the OS isn't stored on the hdd at all. To my own knowledge ssd don't contain mechanical parts and therefore shouldn't fail in this manner.

it's worth noting that this wasn't a temperature crash as the laptop wasn't hot at all.

the second version of this crash is a complete freeze and the laptop is unresponsive to commands par the usual hold the power button down etc.

i have 16gb of ram, I7 6700hq cpu. i cannot for the life of me figure out the cause of the freezes nor the scratching/mechanical disc failing noise.

 

[ubuysa]

The screen issues and the freezes sound very much like driver issues to me. Those are classic bad driver symptoms. I'm not sure what the grinding noise was but if the HDD is still working it probably wasn't that. You can test the HDD be opening a command prompt and entering the command "chkdsk /r" (without the quotes). You'll have to reboot to get chkdsk to run but it will check and repair both the filesystem and reallocate any bad sectors it find on the disk.

I would also check that ALL of your drivers are up to date and properly installed.

 

[aarpri972]

The screen issues and the freezes sound very much like driver issues to me. Those are classic bad driver symptoms. I'm not sure what the grinding noise was but if the HDD is still working it probably wasn't that. You can test the HDD be opening a command prompt and entering the command "chkdsk /r" (without the quotes). You'll have to reboot to get chkdsk to run but it will check and repair both the filesystem and reallocate any bad sectors it find on the disk.

I would also check that ALL of your drivers are up to date and properly installed.

I did have to reinstall my nvidia drivers right out of the box. basically PCS installed them all, the PC got a windows update which broke the geforce experience drivers. so i used the PCS recommended gpu driver remover, and reinstalled using nvidias software. But i'll double check the drivers via windows hardware/driver software.

as far as i can tell the hdd still works as it shoot, as im still able to boot files from it. but i will run the chkdsk as suggested to see if that will help.

other than the windows software any other suggestions for checking drivers are installed correctly ?

I've also done the old check for updates for the nvidia card. for the rest i let windows update do it's thing

 

[ubuysa]

If you're using Windows 10 then Windows Update is probably the best way to keep drivers up to date, if you're not using Windows 10 then you should probably manage drivers yourself.

There are several ways to check on drivers.

1. Since you're an Intel based laptop download the Intel Driver Update Utility from https://www-ssl.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/detect.html. This will scan your laptop and identify any Intel drivers that need updating, it will even download and install them for you. This tool you can trust.

2. NVIDIA also offer an online scanning tool to check whether your GPU driver is up to date. It's also worth doing a clean install of these drivers because it's possible bits of older drivers could get left behind. A knowledgeable contributor to these fora put together a script for doing the cleanest possible NVIDIA driver install, here it is:

Download whatever driver you want to use to your desktop. Normally this will be the latest driver but sometimes back-level drivers are more reliable on some platforms.

Next, if you are not running Windows 10 go to Windows update and set it to 'check for updates but let me decide what to install' that will keep windows from automatically installing it's video driver. If you are running Windows 10 then disconnect from the Internet, that will stop Windows Update installing its driver.


Next go to C:/Nvidia, open the folder and you should see a folder named Display driver. Inside that folder you should see a folder for every driver you have ever installed. They will be names 320.49 and such. Delete every one of those folders, but do not delete the display driver folder, just the ones inside.


Next go to control panel > uninstall programs. Uninstall all of the Nvidia display programs, but this is important, uninstall the display driver last. Uninstall the Nvidia update, Phys X, 3D drivers (few people use them), Nvidia HDMI, and the Nvidia update (it does not work anyway). Last uninstall the display driver. You will be told to reboot, do so.


When you log back on, windows will install a display adaptor, that is OK. Open your driver that you have downloaded from Nvidia, agree to terms, do not select express install, select custom install. Make sure the 'clean install' check box is selected and uncheck everything except the display driver and PhysX, then install. You will have to reboot after that.

That will be the cleanest install you can get. You can then set windows update back to whatever you like or reconnect to the Internet.

3. Check your account on the main PCS website. Under the Tech Support section are downloadable drivers for your build, these may not be the latest drivers however. If there is a BIOS update listed there be sure to call PCS and ask their advice before flashing your BIOS.

4. For other drivers check the laptop manufacturers website. For Clevo laptops this is at http://clevo.com/clevo_down.asp?lang=en. You will need the Clevo model number to use that site, it should be on a label on the bottom.

 

[aarpri972]

If you're using Windows 10 then Windows Update is probably the best way to keep drivers up to date, if you're not using Windows 10 then you should probably manage drivers yourself.

There are several ways to check on drivers.

1. Since you're an Intel based laptop download the Intel Driver Update Utility from https://www-ssl.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/detect.html. This will scan your laptop and identify any Intel drivers that need updating, it will even download and install them for you. This tool you can trust.

2. NVIDIA also offer an online scanning tool to check whether your GPU driver is up to date. It's also worth doing a clean install of these drivers because it's possible bits of older drivers could get left behind. A knowledgeable contributor to these fora put together a script for doing the cleanest possible NVIDIA driver install, here it is:



3. Check your account on the main PCS website. Under the Tech Support section are downloadable drivers for your build, these may not be the latest drivers however. If there is a BIOS update listed there be sure to call PCS and ask their advice before flashing your BIOS.

4. For other drivers check the laptop manufacturers website. For Clevo laptops this is at http://clevo.com/clevo_down.asp?lang=en. You will need the Clevo model number to use that site, it should be on a label on the bottom.

Thank you, ill try this over the coming days and ill update if it worked. Only reason i want to avoid an RMA is well i don't wanna send it off for repair and have to revert back to my stone age Alienware (very old R1, 13/15'' model from 5+ years ago and is a barebones model which was won in a competition)

 

[ubuysa]

Thank you, ill try this over the coming days and ill update if it worked. Only reason i want to avoid an RMA is well i don't wanna send it off for repair and have to revert back to my stone age Alienware (very old R1, 13/15'' model from 5+ years ago and is a barebones model which was won in a competition)

Good move.

If updating drivers doesn't help, and before you RMA it, try a completely clean install of Windows and Windows updates, then install any drivers Windows didn't. Keep running Windows update until no more updates are found. Don't install anything else and don't make any config changes. At that point you'll have the most stable software platform you can get, so if you get these issues then it's probably a hardware problem. If you don't get these issues then it's probable that your problem is software related, so you need to proceed SLOWLY in a step by step manner gradually reinstalling your third party programs and making your config changes one at a time and testing carefully after each one.

 

[aarpri972]

Update:

Fixed the screen refreshing as far as i can tell.

Basically i had MSHYBRID turned on, for those of you who don't know this is a nifty bit of software that allows your pc to switch between your integrated and dedicated gpu depending on loads. To simply put it small loads the computer will opt for the integrated gpu and for high loads the dedicated gpu. My laptop seemed to get confused...often lol. As the flashing seems to be associated with screen refreshes and gpu switching. I've since turned off mshybrid and it seems to have stopped.

 

[ubuysa]

Update:

Fixed the screen refreshing as far as i can tell.

Basically i had MSHYBRID turned on, for those of you who don't know this is a nifty bit of software that allows your pc to switch between your integrated and dedicated gpu depending on loads. To simply put it small loads the computer will opt for the integrated gpu and for high loads the dedicated gpu. My laptop seemed to get confused...often lol. As the flashing seems to be associated with screen refreshes and gpu switching. I've since turned off mshybrid and it seems to have stopped.

Ah, that might well be the problem then. Third party software isn't always fully compliant. Good catch!

 

[aarpri972]

Ah, that might well be the problem then. Third party software isn't always fully compliant. Good catch!

Not sure you could class it as 3rd party as it's clevo laptop software. aka mshybrid is built into clevos laptop control center.

but with it off, it seems to be fine in that regard now. i should have kept it off from the start tbh as i've got a gtx 1060 but oh well ^^.