Optimus XI Full system crash issue

digital_infinity

Active member
Hello all,

I recently bought a laptop with the following specs:


Chassis & DisplayOptimus Series: 17.3" Matte Full HD 144Hz 72% NTSC LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)AMD Ryzen™ 7 Eight Core Processor 4800H (2.9GHz, 4.2GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)64GB Corsair 2666MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 32GB)
Graphics CardNVIDIA® GeForce® RTX 2060 - 6.0GB GDDR6 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1
1st M.2 SSD Drive1TB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3300MB/W)
Memory Card ReaderIntegrated 3 in 1 Card Reader (Full Size SD / SDHC / SDXC)
AC Adaptor1 x 180W AC Adaptor
Power Cable1 x 1 Metre Cloverleaf UK Power Cable
BatteryOptimus Series Integrated 46WH Lithium Ion Battery
Thermal PasteARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Bluetooth & WirelessGIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 (2.4 Gbps) + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options1 x USB 3.1 PORT (Type C) + 2 x USB 3.1 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT

Currently running windows 10 2004 with the latest drivers from the support tab on the PCSpecialist site. Along with any updates that windows would give me.

For the most part it works wonderfully however, in certain games it experiences an issue upon launching the games graphics engine. i get about 2 seconds of video and audio before the video completely freezes and the audio begins to receive both garbage data and a loop of the final sound to go through it resulting in a buzzing sound. This state requires a full system reboot to escape.

Most games don't have this issue and i have checked my temps which all seem normal.

As an example in crusader kings 2 it happens immediately every time i get to the main menu.

In paradise killer it would happen rarely on loading a game but work perfectly after a reboot.

In fallout 4 the same as above though this only happens when the system is in turbo mode. The others happen regardless of mode.

Sherlock Holmes: crimes and punishments has it happen the second control is given to the player but only in turbo mode.

At first i thought it was a power issue but given games like Arma 3 run without any issue whatsoever i'm struggling to see how.

On the app i used to check my temps i watched the clock speed on my GPU increase just before the crash up to about 1900MHz but i assumed that was normal.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Update: Just experienced the symptom in fallout 4 in gaming mode although it seems to be a lot more rare. has only happened once. In turbo it happens every other time its started.
 
Last edited:

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
Did you buy it with Windows or did you install your own copy? If the latter, it was probably a mistake to use the PCS drivers, they're likely to be out of date. It's much better with Windows 10 to allow Windows Up[date to find all drivers and use the PCS drivers only if drivers are not found or for controlling and management software such as Gaming Center and the like.

If you don't have Gaming Center installed I would install it. I would also suggest you download the latest graphics driver for your build from the NVidia website then use DDU to uninstall all existing versions and install that latest version.
 

digital_infinity

Active member
I didn't specify an OS when i bought it as i originally intended to install arch Linux however noticing the early state of the combined AMD and Nvidia drivers i decided to stick with windows for a bit. It came with a windows OS installed which i used for a bit until this problem made itself known at which point i tried a fresh install. I allowed windows to update what drivers it could.

I have the gaming center installed and have just managed to get the latest Nvidia GPU driver installed from their website. The new drivers have the same issue.

I have captured a video of this happening with crusader kings 2. Which so far is the only game rendered completely unplayable all the others either only do it once and then work after a reboot or work in a different power mode.


The state it enters into is completely unrecoverable except through a forced shutdown.
 

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
You say you allowed Windows Update to 'update what drivers it could' - where there any devices it could not find drivers for?

If you've done a clean install from bootable media, allowing Windows Update to install all drivers and installed the latest Nvidia driver, and you still see that issue then it's almost certainly a hardware issue.

Have you checked your temperatures at all, especially just before it crashes? HWMonitor is a decent tool to use for that. Check the CPU and GPU temperatures.
 

digital_infinity

Active member
As far as I can tell all drivers are installed. Poor choice of words on my part.

Temps are fine. In ck2 it doesn't even get past 75 on either gpu or cpu before crashing.

I'm guessing it must be a hardware fault but its weird that it only happens sometimes with some games and is so reliable with crusader kings 2. I've run a few very demanding games with absolutely no issue.

I might try setting a linux dual boot and seeing how things work under proton or I might just wait for PCspecialist to get back to me and see if they think I should return it for repair.
 

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
I might try setting a linux dual boot and seeing how things work under proton or I might just wait for PCspecialist to get back to me and see if they think I should return it for repair.
That's not a bad idea. If you do RMA it be sure to provide detailed instructions for PCS on how to make it fail.
 

FerrariVie

Super Star
If it crashes only when gaming, so it probably is something to do with the GPU (either software or hardware). You could try the Linux option, but you also need to try running 3D games on it.

If that is a power issue to the GPU, you could try undervolting it with MSI afterburner just to try to see if that guess makes sense. You could also monitor the temps and voltage in real-time with Afterburner, so it might help you to find a pattern for the crashes.

When I want to run my system quiet (with low fan noise), I undervolt my 115W GPU to a limit where it won't go above 80W. I do lose performance, but the thermals and fan noise are a lot better. So you could go even lower than that, just to rule out power issues.
 

digital_infinity

Active member
Just managed to get CK2 to launch successfully in windowed mode.

Watching MSI afterburner the GPU shoots massively above the configured boost clock speed initially. boost is supposed to be about 1350MHz according to afterburner and about 1650MHz according to GPU-Z. It reaches almost 2000MHz.

is it possible my GPU is overvolting? can't get MSI afterburner to give me voltage controls to undervolt. This crash also happened running CK2 with the onboard graphics but its possible it still spun up the Nvidia GPU anyway.
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
Watching MSI afterburner the GPU shoots massively above the configured boost clock speed initially. boost is supposed to be about 1350MHz according to afterburner and about 1650MHz according to GPU-Z. It reaches almost 2000MHz.
That's really odd, even with over volting, I wouldn't expect THAT much of an increase in clocks, there's something odd happening there.

Is it definitely being read as a 2060? Just have a look in GPU-z
 

digital_infinity

Active member
Installed the GPU driver from Nvidia but tried the windows one and the one provided by PCSpecialist as well the latter two before a full reinstall with latest NVidia driver.

Both programs report the dedicated GPU as a 2060 and GPU-Z identifies the integrated as an AMD 448SP.
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
Installed the GPU driver from Nvidia but tried the windows one and the one provided by PCSpecialist as well the latter two before a full reinstall with latest NVidia driver.

Both programs report the dedicated GPU as a 2060 and GPU-Z identifies the integrated as an AMD 448SP.
Hmmm, I would be straight on the phone to PCS, there’s something very not right with that, unless Afterburner is giving spurious readings.
 

digital_infinity

Active member
Tried CK2 again and encountered the crash in windowed mode. GPU voltage went to 1V just before and clock speed jumped again. I'm just finding it weird that so many much more demanding games are running fine. If it was the GPU id imagine the likes of arma 3 would trigger it as well. Think its going to have to go to PCspecialist.
 

digital_infinity

Active member
Got CK2 to boot again. This time Voltage stayed below 1V. Think my GPU is definitely overvolting. any way i can get Afterburner to allow Voltage controls. been a few years since i last used it.

Update: 1.02 Volt appears to be the max stable. On crash it goes to 1.05V. If i can gain voltage control of the GPU and peg Vmax to 1.02 i might be able to fix this.
 
Last edited:

mrlip

Gold Level Poster
Just managed to get CK2 to launch successfully in windowed mode.

Watching MSI afterburner the GPU shoots massively above the configured boost clock speed initially. boost is supposed to be about 1350MHz according to afterburner and about 1650MHz according to GPU-Z. It reaches almost 2000MHz.

is it possible my GPU is overvolting? can't get MSI afterburner to give me voltage controls to undervolt. This crash also happened running CK2 with the onboard graphics but its possible it still spun up the Nvidia GPU anyway.

The boots clock speeds reported on Afterburner arent always reported accurately as the max boost clock speeds, I’ve seen this a few times on mobile GPUs. Have you altered any settings in Nvidia Control Panel?
 

mrlip

Gold Level Poster
It is definitely drawing more power on the 2nd vid, both wattage and voltage is higher, because the clock speed is higher. What power mode are you in? Both windows and the gaming Center profiles?
 

digital_infinity

Active member
What power mode are you in? Both windows and the gaming Center profiles?

Currently in gaming mode for Center. Turbo makes it a lot worse which makes sense but only in certain games. interestingly though mode has no affect on CK2 as even in office mode it crashes in full screen.

Windows is set to:
AMD power slider: Better performance
Switchable Dynamic Graphics: Optimize Performance
AMD Graphics: Maximize Performance

PCIExpress link state: Maximum power savings.

These are all for plugged in. I never game on battery.

Also just noticed afterburner can't read GPU voltage. GPU-Z can.
 

FerrariVie

Super Star
Please note that boost clock is different than max clock. My 2070 will sometimes go to 1950Mhz, as long as the thermals permit, even though the boost clock is about 1400. What you need to be careful about is the power, that can't go much above 115w. Add the power usage of the gpu to msi afterburner osd or check in hwinfo.

To undervolt the gpu, have a look at the msi afterburner section on the below link:

https://sff.life/how-to-undervolt-gpu/
 

mrlip

Gold Level Poster
In Nvidia Control Center, assign a profile for CK2 to use your dedicated GPU only. Try running CK2 again. If that crashes try assigning the profile to use your iGPU only just to see if it crashes so we can try to isolate the issue
 
Top