Acer Aspire 3830TG-6494 crashes while gaming, using either integrated or nVidia Graphics

Acer Aspire 3830TG-6494 crashes while gaming.

Crash symptoms:

-happens anywhere from within the first 15 minutes to several hours into a game (no link to graphic quality settings). No loss in performance leading up to the crash.

-screen glitches and goes black, with a brief buzzing sound. Power remains on and fan is still running, forcing a hard reset.

-Occasionally the sceen will freeze, ~1cm horizontal green lines will appear all over and a loud buzzing sound is emitted from the speakers until a hard reset.

-Rarely I get a BSOD or the computer will shut down and restart itself. Resulting DMP files show no consistent suspected cause.

-Crash will occasionally be preceded by certain in-game sounds cutting out. But not always.

-The only link between crashes is that I'm usually thinking a solution worked right before the crash. (Frustrating!)

-System will occasionally crash while watching videos or something, but only crashes consistently while gaming.

I have tried the following:

-Running games using only the integrated graphics or nVidia GeForce GT 540M GPU.

-Underclocking either the GPU(500MHz and 700MHz, from 672MHz and 900MHz), the CPU (seting max 70% power plan), and both simultaneously.

-Temperatures do not exceed 70C under heavy use, and crash does not seem to be linked to any temperature increases.

-Run both Windows 7 memory diagnostic and memtest86 (no problems found)

-Run intel CPU diagnostics and intel XTU benchmark which did not cause a crash.

-Upgrading all drivers to latest versions, as well as rolling them back to the versions recommended on acer download website. (Completely uninstalling graphics drivers before re-installing different versions) And making sure windows update was not automatically installing driver updates.

-upgrading BIOS to v1.12, it was stable for a weekend then went back to crashing.

-The system seems to be more stable in power saver or balance mode, but not by much. I also suspected the Ac power adapter because it didn't seem to crash on battery for a brief time. But I was wrong and it did end up crashing whether plugged in or not.

oh and cleaning it out w/ compressed air, obviously

I don't game often, and usually play older games on lower quality settings. I'm not overclocking or streaming at the same time.

Please help

Accepted answers

mrnoden

Seems like RAM modules that came with the notebook were somewhat incompatible with each other in dual channel mode. Shipped with one 2GB and one 4GB stick, same frequencies but different timings.

Neither windows memory diagnostic nor MemtestX86 found a problem with either stick.

Computer was completely stable when running with only the 4gb stick, even under heavy use. Have since replaced it with a 2x4GB kit with no issues.

Wish I had looked into the problem while the laptop was still under warranty, instead of just assuming it was overheating.

All comments

philetus

Try this thread. You have to scroll way down before you start finding the good stuff.

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/8569860465

mrnoden

Thank you for the reply.

I had previously found that thread, which is where I got the Idea to underclock. I just found this thread:

https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/545947/geforce-500-400-series/gt-540m-nvidia-driver-stopped-responding/2/

and an article:

http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/nvidia-freezes.html

They discuss problems with the NVIDIA 3D vision driver. I'm going to look into it over the weekend but I'd appreciate any advice on how to locate and uninstall the drivers.

And if anyone has had a similar issue.

I keep going back and forth between suspecting the graphics software and the laptop hardware.

philetus

You need to have a 3D capable display to even need the 3D vision Driver.

mrnoden

Potential progress:

At some point, while downloading software from the acer site, I had installed the Powersmart manager application intended for 32-bit Windows (It's easy to forget to change the OS option in the download center).

Games still crash since fixing that problem (installing the 64-bit application), but they've been quite a bit friendlier. Less glitching screen and loud buzzing, more quietly restarting itself (may have overheated, I forgot to start the GPU-Z logging so I don't know).

I was able to play Team Fortress 2 with some stability after disabling nvidia's threaded optimization setting and the in game Multicore rendering options.

This doesn't mean I'm going to fry one CPU core does it? I think I've set the games to use the nvidia GPU anyways.

A while ago, after flashing my BIOS and updating my chipset drivers, I was able to play Portal 2 without any crashes and with graphics set to med-high. This game is newer than the others I have been trying, so maybe multi-core rendering is only an issue with older games, and the Auto setting isn't good enough to disable it when needed.

I've also noticed that the on-board intel graphics are only compatible with DirectX 10.1, while my graphics card can use DirectX 11. I'd imagine this could cause problems if the game was trying to use both.

I'm thinking that there is a whole lot wrong with my system configuration, with many causes for crashing. But it seems less and less like a hardware issue, which is great news.

I'm going to play around with multicore rendering or threaded optimization. Oblivion had been the most consistent game to cause a crash, and it's an older game so threaded optimization could be the culprit.

I may also try reducing the number of active CPU's. I hope I haven't fried a core or something. The Intel Processor Diagnostic utility doesn't find any problems so I'm not too concerned.

Current setup:

-BIOS v1.12

-Latest NVIDIA driver (347.25) w/out any add-ons (Experience, 3D vision, HD audio etc.) except for PhysX

-All other driver versions are those found on Acer site (Intel Graphics, chipset etc.)

-Powersmart Manager 6.01.3000

-Underclocking NVIDIA GPU to 522MHz and 700MHz from 672MHz and 900MHz (no significant performance decrease seen)

hivonzooo

Delete the nvidia and Intel driver from device manager, then install the newest ones from their sites. While installing nVidia, do a Clean install. Post your results.

philetus

You also need to install the Intel driver first.

mrnoden

Seems like RAM modules that came with the notebook were somewhat incompatible with each other in dual channel mode. Shipped with one 2GB and one 4GB stick, same frequencies but different timings.