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G60J Power Issues and BOSDs

Skoop
Level 7
Hello ROG forums,

I wouldn't exactly say I'm new to ASUS but I am new to the ROG forum.

Now I have a G60J that I got awhile back I'd say its been about 3 years more or less and it has been my trusty portable desktop essentially. except for one problem, I have been plagued by BOSDs since day one. I was able to fix my problems by updating the BIOS to 208 and that fixed a majority of problems from the get go but other things came up and a system reformat fixed everything up.

Now the BOSDs are back and this time its that dreaded nvlddmkm.sys error and I have tired everything I can to fix it but nothing has worked.

Until I remembered a thread I read awhile ago about said issues, the guy wrote that on battery he was solid but on AC mode it would crash

So I tried it and its as if the gods shined on me and everything worked. I thought it was a fluke so I plugged it back in while gaming and sure enough I got that nvlddmkm.sys BOSD. Im thinking its just my PSU so I tried this Toshiba PSU that a friend of mine uses on his G51j and it actually worked for a bit then crashed again.

So it seems on AC mode my GPU and other such devices don't get the power they need or something among those lines and on battery mode it gets everything it needs and runs smoothy giving me no problems until the battery runs dry.

Surely there has to be something to this but I can't figure it out, ASUS just wants me to send it back but I can't really do that seeing as this is my only machine at the moment.
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11 REPLIES 11

Pitcher1
Level 9
are you sure it is HW problem, do you try install new NVIDIA driver? if it is hw problem, i think you should send back.

I have tried just about every driver I can remember that was stable for me.

When Nvidia released those 3xx drivers is when I started to see these problems and I have been rolling back and forth since (from 306 down to what was installed when I bought it).

Currently 314.22 runs stable although if I want to play a game like Hawken with out it freezing up I would have to constantly plug and unplug the PSU and I was able to get an hour before I started seeing artifacts then it crashed on AC mode

I really can't afford to send it back this is my only rig at the moment and it only happens when I game on AC mode, and yet I can game and do what ever I throw at it on battery.

I don't know if this is a software issue or a hardware issue that's what I'm trying to figure out because I don't want to get it back with the same problem not fixed seeing as I already took it in to the shop where I bought it and all they did was reformat it.

grungeboy2
Level 10
sounds like some kind of overheating and/or throttling problem.

man, i'm not even sure how to tell you to go about solving it. if it was mine i'd probably run HW Monitor and see if the temps spike at some high number. if they did i'd look into repasting the GPU. i would also take the time to unseat and reseat EVERYTHING.

how often do you clean it? i'd also look at a clean uninstall and reinstall of the video drivers. not just a update.
__________________________________________________________________
dstrakele wrote:
I just blow the flames out and keep playin'....

Skoop
Level 7
Its been a few weeks and I thank you grungeboy, you have helped shed some light on this issue.

So I recently have been crashing while browsing the net and I was getting fed up so I repasted everything and polished the surface of the heat sinks while I was at it and I usually clean and dust everything every three weeks. I have been using HW monitor as well and I started to notice something when it came to the voltages of the gpu.

Normally the GPU gets a voltage of .950 when its in AC mode and .850 on battery.
Temps are fine now usually at between 50-60C when idle and 70-80 when gaming Highest it gets is 90 but it drops back to the 80's but it still has me worried.

Anyway it seems to me as if the whole system is stable and works if the GPU is at or stays at .850V. I was browsing the net when the display driver crashed on me and I looked at HW monitor and saw noting wrong with my temps except the GPU voltage went from .950V to .850V.

I'm not sure if this is actually what is causing these problems but right now it just crashed again and the voltage went from .950 to .850 again.

So if I can just find a way to keep the voltage at .850V and keep testing that way with out resorting to battery use. And I have done about 74 clean installs of graphics drivers in the past 5 months so I'm just going to ignore what anyone says about updating and installing drivers.

Skoop
Level 7
Alright so I have done further testing and I can safely assume that it is some kind of voltage issue.

I have been keeping a close eye on it during gaming and regular web browsing and every time the voltage jumps from .95v to .85v or vice versa the display goes black or freezes up and will recover and give me that kernel mode error or just crash and give me that dreaded nvlddmkm.sys blue screen.

I have heard about flashing the vBIOS with a modified version but I hear that on these machines the vBIOS and BIOS are one in the same so flashing it by its self seems to be impossible.

Can some one point me in the right direction because I'm starting to lose hope for this machine.

i use a little guy called Powermizer Switch on my video card, so it can throttle down when full power isn't needed.



if you're having a voltage issue like that, maybe look at reseating the video card. could help.
__________________________________________________________________
dstrakele wrote:
I just blow the flames out and keep playin'....

PlaneName
Level 10
Hmm... make sure when running with AC, change the settings on power settings in control panel to High performance. It should be normal the voltages because at .850v it's on idle and at fulload it jumps to .950v. Then you are saying on battery it is at .850v (max) and on AC mode its at .950v and crashes which is strange a bit.

Try using MSI afterburner and set the voltage manually by changing the settings to "unlock voltage control".

http://event.msi.com/vga/afterburner/download.htm

To fix this I'm sure you have to change the power settings to high performance on control panel.

Hope this helps.
Case: Antec 300 Mini Tower Motherboard: GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 (rev1.3) CPU: i5 2500k @ 4.5ghz Cooler: Hyper 212 EVO GPU: GIGABYTE GTX 560ti (950mhz) RAM: G.Skill 8 GB DDR3 @ 1600mhz PSU: Corsair CX 750 Driver: 320.00
Been building PC's for 8 Years! 😉

PlaneName
Level 10
Oh I haven't read your problem about nvlddmkm.sys issue and yes it is very annoying. The simple cause to this is unstable NVIDIA drivers or unstable GPU settings. Try to down-clock by using MSI afterburner as I have mentioned above. Have you overclocked the GPU?
Case: Antec 300 Mini Tower Motherboard: GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 (rev1.3) CPU: i5 2500k @ 4.5ghz Cooler: Hyper 212 EVO GPU: GIGABYTE GTX 560ti (950mhz) RAM: G.Skill 8 GB DDR3 @ 1600mhz PSU: Corsair CX 750 Driver: 320.00
Been building PC's for 8 Years! 😉

Skoop
Level 7
Thanks for the reply guys, I have been monitoring the voltages closely and now I'm starting to believe its not the GPU but something else that isn't delivering power when its in AC mode and I have tired overclocking the GPU back when I got it 3 years ago but I did low clocks and quickly set if back when it got too hot and just gave up on overclocking.

So I'm looking at HW monitor right now and I see in the powers tab the numbers keeps fluctuating between 15.34W and 55.04W and when I unplug it its constantly at 45.00W, it does fluctuate but it stays more consistent.

I have also tried using older drivers and the ones shipped with the machine but it still gives me bosd's or the screen goes black and the whole machine becomes unresponsive or the driver just crashes randomly sitting idle and some times I get mad artifacts all over the screen.

I know it can't be a temp issue because Im looking at everything now and its at 50-65C unless everything is fired.

its becoming too much trouble for me and Im considering just building a new machine but if I can save this one then I wont have to.