Vortex III BSOD Issue

[jowell24]

Just got my Vortex III delivered this morning and was extremely chuffed.

However I've been encountering issues with the laptop all day. When I first turned on the laptop I was met with an error screen mentioning something about "oops, something went wrong" but I thought nothing of it since it never persisted after that.
The main problem i'm having here is that whenever I try to download something from a website (AMD Drivers for instance), at a certain point of downloading I will get a BSOD with the error message "DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE" and my laptop will restart automatically. This seems to only occur whenever something starts to download (using chrome) and didn't occur on other applications like downloading a game on steam.

On a side note I have also been trying to troubleshoot the enduro issue concerning Intel HD 4000 Graphics and my HD7970M with no success.

Would be grateful if someone could help me preferably with the first problem but if you have any advice on the latter than post it too

 

[jowell24]

https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=AE78E10A97F119DA!254&authkey=!ADpi_oJweLj290o

Here is a link to my skydrive containing the dump files form my last BSOD

Beforehand I managed to install the 12.11 Beta11 AMD Driver after clean uninstalling the 9.01 Enduro Driver. Along with uninstalling one or two uneccessary things my laptop now doesn't BSOD when downloading a file.
However it will periodically BSOD, usually after 12-20 minutes after being turned on. I think the count today is at 24 or something lol.

Would appreciate the help if someone could decipher the dump files.

 

[jowell24]

Fixed the issue by reinstalling windows 8 and carefully installing display drivers. No issues now and contacted PC Specialist by phone.

I was surprised by the fact they were very helpful unlike other software companies. The person (Jack) I spoke to knew of the issues and supplied me with the most stable drivers versions for my Vortex, something I didn't expect at all.
Saved me a lot of time and I my ratings for PC Specialist are even higher now

 

[LiddleP]

Glad to hear it's been resolved, have had significant & increasing doubts over the last few days in my choice of 7970m X-fired, this raises my hopes even though my setup is slightly different

I presume your Vortex is the one in your sig.

Any possibility of providing a bit more specifics if you can spare the time and it is not too much trouble ?
i.e Most stable versions for your Vortex, steps taken and any other info that you feel might be helpful, could help many others and avoid putting pressure on PCS staff during the seasonal rush.

By the way, are you perchance a gamer and if so have you had the time to try any games yet ?
I am particularly interested in knowing about any issues with games like Skyrim and Far Cry 3 ?
Probably is not the place to post on this though, should be a more appropriate section, pity I cannot say where just yet - off to scour the forums, enjoy your system.

 

[jowell24]

PC Specialist advised me to use the AMD Catalyst 12.9 Beta Driver and to use a very slightly older version of Intel HD Graphics that they told me was the newest driver available
When I did the installs (before I considered reinstalling Windows 8) making sure to reboot after each and taking care to delete all the AMD/ATI leftover files I still had the BSOD problem so I called them up again and suggested an OS reinstallation to which they gave me a link for the necessary windows drivers for my P170EM Vortex III and the driver for my specific wlan card. Very helpful people. When doing your installs you should always remove the previous AMD driver completely following this guide. Definitely install the important drivers one at a time (e.g. install the Intel driver first, reboot and then install AMD)

Should note that the latest Intel HD Graphics were installed in my computer between the first start-up after reinstalling and installing Chrome (the first app installed). Thought that was quite odd

Only got the laptop on wednesday and have had exams so not much time to install games. The only game I've installed is Chivalry which runs like a charm so I'm afraid I can't help you out in terms of the latest games experience but I know that the latest 12.11 Beta drivers make Far Cry 3 more optimised for Clevo Radeon Laptops. One important thing to mention is that I have to manually find the .exe application for any game and set the switchable graphics to high performance to utilise the HD7970M rather than the lesser Intel HD4000. I have many games to install like batman, skyrim, gta and arma so I'm hoping they all run smoothly

 

[jowell24]

Also don't feel afraid to call up PC Specialist. Their phonelines aren't tied up much and you can check waiting times online. They've been extremely helpful and seem to know how to actually solve specific issues

I'm sure they can be of better help than myself but either they or myself can give you some reassurance in your rig

 

[LiddleP]

Sounds good, thanks for taking the time out to provide feedback

Appears PCS have reason to believe the 12.11 Beta 11 Catalyst have issues but they both are beta so maybe the next release will resolve whatever issues have been found there, hopefully the next WHQL is just around the corner.

And hopefully your system remains stable, mine has just (within the last 10 minutes) come through the door
... seems like gravity on Earth has increased somewhat ! ... that box is heavy!!

If you are perchance going to give 12.11 beta 11 a try it could be worthwhile knowing that you could probably get away without a reinstall by utilising a combo of Driver Sweeper and Ccleaner (in Safe mode, just to make things tidier) after you perform the uninstall of the catalyst, might also want to uninstall the intel drivers at the same time - but that is just my opinion and a time saving measure, so ...

Anyhow, off to unbox and check out this heavy weight - enjoy your system - and thanks once again, best of luck with all your exams.

 

[jowell24]

I probably will update to 12.11 at some point but for now 12.9 is running strong and so is the laptop. No BSOD, or any hardware issues but I'm still a bit cautious with installing new software (buggy windows 8 antivirus for example)

What are your laptop specs? Got proper happy being able to get my laptop three days from placing the order (ordered it just before the Christmas deadline).

I've got driver sweeper but I read on a forum that sometimes it may delete some relatively important files, so I just follow the manual method to be safe. Doesn't take too long anyways. Also is it necessary to uninstall the Intel drivers when upgrading the amd drivers and then reinstalling?
Thanks for the wishes, have my final exam in a few hours, 8 exams over the past 6 weekdays is exhausting haha

 

[LiddleP]

Hope your exams went well.

I ordered the Elite, same processor as yours, 7970m crossfired, 16Gb of Ram, everything else standard.

Unfortunately I cannot say anything much about it as I have been unable to test it, without first hand knowledge I cannot really offer much genuine assistance.

I agree, leave things as they are if all is working well for you, if it ain't broke don't try to fix it

But if you do intend to go ahead might be well worth seeking advice from PCS prior, they are at the forefront and better placed to know what works and what doesn't for the various units they sell.

Only mentioned the cleaners as some people were using them to clean up the old AMD drivers.
I have used ccleaner in the past though not of late, and back then I was able to select the particular applications/drivers to uninstall and it never faulted on me. For general cleaning, one was able to configure it to provide a list which one could read through and deselect items that it was not to touch - but that does require intimate knowledge of all the various components.