White square artifacts then automatic restart after 1 year use of my Octane III

[Icpmcp]

First of all the specs:

Octane III 17,3" FULL-HD IPS LED Widescreen matte (1920x1080)
CPU: Intel Core i7-quadcore 7700k (4.2GHz), 8Mb Cache
RAM: 16GB Corsair VENGEANCE 2400MHz SODIMM DDR4(1x 16GB)
GPU: Nvidia GTX 1070 8GB GDDR5, DirectX 12.1, G-SYNC
Hard Disc 1: 1TB WD Blue 2.5" SSD SATA 6GB/s (up to 545Mb/sR | 525Mb/sW)
Hard Disc 2: Serial ATA III-2TB-SLIM-HARDDRIVE, 2.5", 128MB Cache(5400rpm)
AC-Adaptor: 330 W-AC-Adaptor
Thermal Paste: Artic MX-4 Extreme
Sound Card: Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio
Bluetooth&Wireless: GIGABIT-LAN & WIRELESS INTEL AC-8265 M.2 (867 Mbps, 802.11AC) +BT 4.0, vPRO

Now to my problem:

My problem started yesterday when I updated to the newest nvidia drivers(399.24).

I started the game Eve Online with 3 instances plus some tools for the game(teamspeak etc) that are not all that resource intensive as well as firefox with 4 tabs and one tab playing a youtube video.
If you are not familiar with the game: Eve Online is a long standing mmo where you can fly arround in spaceships.
Its designed in a way so that you can have multiple instances of it running and is not all that CPU or GPU intensive like an AAA game.

After about half an hour of playing my screen got covered in what you can see in the screenshot below



The background is a weird chromatic effect that I got everytime I played the game in fullscreen mode and it does not normally appear when I play in borderless mode but appeared everytime the Pc crashed while I had the game open.

What happens when this effect appears:

- Sound continues to play as normal, the screen is frozen and the artifacts appear to flicker slightly,
- 1 to 5 minutes after the artifacts appear the pc automatically restarts if not restarted by pressing and holding the power button.

After the second crash I decided to reinstall an older version of my GPU drivers and did so by using the Display Driver Uninstaller tool from www.wagnardsoft.com and I followed the guide for a clean uninstallation (boot to save mode, let ddu do its thing, restart if you haven't set it to uninstall and restart, install drivers, restart computer).

There were 2 minidumps created from these two crashes that I analyzed with this online analyzer http://www.osronline.com/page.cfm?name=Analyze

The first one listed a DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION of firefox.exe and the second one listed a VIDEO_SCHEDULER_INTERNAL_ERROR from exefile.exe
which is a file of Eve Online.

After the reinstallation of the older drivers (399.07) the error occured two more times with the exact same programs opened
Here a screenshot of a part of the screen where the effect was the most visible(Effect over the black sidebars of a youtube video):



After the 4th time I reinstalled the drivers again but did not start the game and the tools to try them out again.

Today I started the pc and opened all the programms again and, surprisingly, nothing happened at all for a good 5 hours until I decided to do something in the game.

After about 10 minutes of actively playing the game with the 3 instances and tools open the Pc crashed once more. It crashed 2 more times as I tried to bring my Spaceships to safety.

My CPU and GPU temperatures did not go over 80°C while playing as I have external cooling set up to help the Laptops fans.
The built in fans are running perfectly fine.

Is this an indicator of a dying GPU or could this be just a driver error ? Should I try an even older driver version ?

I've ordered the Laptop in 2017 so if its not something I can fix myself I'll just send it in.

 

[Icpmcp]

TL;DR version since for whatever reason the main post seems to not show up:

After installing my newest nvidia drivers (399.24) for my 1070 yesterday I had these artifacts appear and freeze on my screen and after 1 to 5 minutes my pc restarted itself twice while trying to play Eve Online.

View attachment 12098

The background depends on what I have currently open, in this case i had alt tabbed to a youtube video so the background you see here is one of the black sidebars you have on those.
Clearest image I got of the artifacts.

I then reinstalled my old drivers using the Display Driver Uninstaller Tool only to find that the artifacts would still appear and crashed 2 more times before I didn't bother to try again.

Today I tried playing the game again and nothing happened for 5 hours of me being afk but logged into the game.
Then ten minutes after I thought "huh looks like the problem doesn't appear anymore" I was met with these artifacts with a restart following shortly after 3 more times.

My temps are ok (never above 80°C) because I have something set up to help the laptops fans(the fans do not have any problems and are not dusty)

What I want to know is:

Is the GPU or something else dying ?

Is this something I can fix myself or do I have to send it in ?
That would be a pretty big problem for me to be honest since I need it for things other than games too like for example the rendering videos for my school projects.

 

[SpyderTracks]

First thing to do is wipe all drivers clean with ddu as they may be conflicting (a normal uninstall won’t remove config files and other traces). Then reinstall latest driver and try again.

 

[ubuysa]

My problem started yesterday when I updated to the newest nvidia drivers(399.24).

That's a big clue then.

There were 2 minidumps created from these two crashes that I analyzed with this online analyzer http://www.osronline.com/page.cfm?name=Analyze

The first one listed a DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION of firefox.exe and the second one listed a VIDEO_SCHEDULER_INTERNAL_ERROR from exefile.exe
which is a file of Eve Online.

Both of those BSODs are typically driver related, the second is almost certainly the graphics driver and you already suspect that.

Is this an indicator of a dying GPU or could this be just a driver error ? Should I try an even older driver version?

I've ordered the Laptop in 2017 so if its not something I can fix myself I'll just send it in.

At the moment it's more likely to be a driver issue that a dying GPU, it would be a huge coincidence for your GPU to start dying just as you upgraded the driver.

AFAIK in laptops the iGPU is heavily involved in graphics output too. As I understand it the dGPU does the graphics processing and ships still screen images to the iGPU which displays them on-screen (apparently only the iGPU has access to the screen in a laptop). I would suggest that you use DDU again to remove the Nvidia driver, download the latest iGPU driver (even if you have the latest) and install the iGPU driver and then the dGPU driver that you know was working.

It might also be worth checking for a chipset driver update too, if there is one install that before either of the GPU drivers.

BTW. New users have their posts auto-moderated and you have to wait for one of the mods to see it and approve it.

 

[Icpmcp]

Yeah thats what I did except I used the 399.07 version when reinstalling since the problems did not appear on those before I updated to 399.24

They do now though and I'm still on 399.07

 

[SpyderTracks]

Yeah thats what I did except I used the 399.07 version when reinstalling since the problems did not appear on those before I updated to 399.24

They do now though and I'm still on 399.07

You used ddu?

 

[Icpmcp]

yes.

I went into safe mode after downloading the 399.07 driver, started ddu and let it do its thing using the deinstall and restart option, after the restart I installed the downloaded driver and after the installation I restarted again.

 

[SpyderTracks]

yes.

I went into safe mode after downloading the 399.07 driver, started ddu and let it do its thing using the deinstall and restart option, after the restart I installed the downloaded driver and after the installation I restarted again.

Hmm, that’s not good then. It sounds to me like somehow the new driver has introduced an error into the card, but I’m not the best with graphics troubleshooting, maybe best for someone else to give their opinion.

 

[Icpmcp]

That's a big clue then.


Both of those BSODs are typically driver related, the second is almost certainly the graphics driver and you already suspect that.

So it is a bsod then ? Because I do not get any form of bluescreen. The screen just freezes with these artifacts layered over whatever I have open and then restarts a few minutes later if I don't do it myself.

At the moment it's more likely to be a driver issue that a dying GPU, it would be a huge coincidence for your GPU to start dying just as you upgraded the driver.

AFAIK in laptops the iGPU is heavily involved in graphics output too. As I understand it the dGPU does the graphics processing and ships still screen images to the iGPU which displays them on-screen (apparently only the iGPU has access to the screen in a laptop). I would suggest that you use DDU again to remove the Nvidia driver, download the latest iGPU driver (even if you have the latest) and install the iGPU driver and then the dGPU driver that you know was working.

It might also be worth checking for a chipset driver update too, if there is one install that before either of the GPU drivers.

Will try all of those things. I have a tool called DriverDR that DDU linked me to for driver updates and I apparently do have chipset drivers that need updating so I guess I'll do that.

BTW. New users have their posts auto-moderated and you have to wait for one of the mods to see it and approve it.

Ah okay. Its just that I was already able to see it shortly after I posting and added some info and then I could no longer see it.
Still can't see it btw.

 

[Icpmcp]

Alright that did not work at all.

I now cannot reinstall the nvidia drivers, my realtek drivers keep throwing errors on installation and wont install either.

And to top it all off system restore doesn't work either. Guess thats it for my laptop then.

I'll just get all my stuff on an external Drive and then I'll send it in if thats even possible at this point.

 

[ubuysa]

Alright that did not work at all.

I now cannot reinstall the nvidia drivers, my realtek drivers keep throwing errors on installation and wont install either.

And to top it all off system restore doesn't work either. Guess thats it for my laptop then.

I'll just get all my stuff on an external Drive and then I'll send it in if thats even possible at this point.

I still don't think your problems are hardware, not yet anyway. In your position I would do a completely clean install of Windows, allowing Windows Update to find all the drivers, and see how it s in that pristine state. If you still get problems then it's time to call PCS.

 

[Icpmcp]

I still don't think your problems are hardware, not yet anyway. In your position I would do a completely clean install of Windows, allowing Windows Update to find all the drivers, and see how it s in that pristine state. If you still get problems then it's time to call PCS.

Yeah I'm backing up my stuff now. Will try that when its done.

 

[Oussebon]

I have a tool called DriverDR that DDU linked me to for driver updates and I apparently do have chipset drivers that need updating so I guess I'll do that.

I now cannot reinstall the nvidia drivers, my realtek drivers keep throwing errors on installation and wont install either.

I'm not sure I recall DDU linking to other software. But other than DDU itself to remove GPU drivers, driver management utilities are best avoided. As seems to have been demonstrated by the random and completely new issues you suddenly had after using it. :/

But as above, hopefully a clean install will help.

 

[Icpmcp]

I'm not sure I recall DDU linking to other software. But other than DDU itself to remove GPU drivers, driver management utilities are best avoided. As seems to have been demonstrated by the random and completely new issues you suddenly had after using it. :/

But as above, hopefully a clean install will help.

I didn't use it to update the drivers directly but rather so I can see what needs updating.

Got all necessary drivers from the Clevo driver page by choosing the model number and then the newer versions of those drivers.

 

[Icpmcp]

Alright I did a clean install of Windows and the realtek speakers + gpu drivers seem to be working again.

Haven't done anything yet that has a high gpu usage though so I don't know if my earlier problems are gone.

 

[ubuysa]

Alright I did a clean install of Windows and the realtek speakers + gpu drivers seem to be working again.

Haven't done anything yet that has a high gpu usage though so I don't know if my earlier problems are gone.

Good news.

Now you need to reinstall your third party software in a slow and systematic manner. What you don't want to do is to accidentally reinstall whatever was causing your issue, so as you install each new software package test the laptop as thoroughly as you can to see whether the issue reappears. It might be wise to start with a game that you know stresses the GPU.

I appreciate that you really want to get back to a fully working laptop as fast as possible but you need to resist that temptation and be methodical, testing at each stage.

 

[Icpmcp]

Alright so I reinstalled some of the Programs I had before and tried them out for about half an hour after installing before moving on to install the next.

First two games Frostpunk and Warframe went fine on highest settings and no errors occurred.

Then I installed and started Eve Online once again which I ran in the same way as I did when the error first occurred (3 clients playing).
And the error occurred once again:



So I don't know if its an error with the game or with the hardware/drivers but the error is definitely still there even after a clean windows and Program reinstall.

 

[ubuysa]

Alright so I reinstalled some of the Programs I had before and tried them out for about half an hour after installing before moving on to install the next.

First two games Frostpunk and Warframe went fine on highest settings and no errors occurred.

Then I installed and started Eve Online once again which I ran in the same way as I did when the error first occurred (3 clients playing).
And the error occurred once again:

View attachment 12107

So I don't know if its an error with the game or with the hardware/drivers but the error is definitely still there even after a clean windows and Program reinstall.

Is there a forum for that game? It's clearly that game that either reveals a driver flaw or a game flaw.

 

[Icpmcp]

Is there a forum for that game? It's clearly that game that either reveals a driver flaw or a game flaw.

Yes there is a forum for that game but no one besides me seems to have this kind of problem.

I was able to find this kind of artifact pattern in one screenshot on a help thread for something completely unrelated but the problem there was apparently a blown out capacitor which I hope did not happen to me here.

My best guess is that when either CPU, GPU or heat levels go past a certain point something goes wrong and it shows with eve online because I'm running 3 clients.

1 Client on its own doesn't take all that much to run really but the requirements scale with the amount of clients open and active so when I'm actively playing on all 3 at the same time something just goes wrong for whatever reason I guess.

But can it really just be a driver flaw ? I did a clean install of Windows after all and then installed the newest nvidia driver again.

 

[ubuysa]

Yes there is a forum for that game but no one besides me seems to have this kind of problem.

I was able to find this kind of artifact pattern in one screenshot on a help thread for something completely unrelated but the problem there was apparently a blown out capacitor which I hope did not happen to me here.

My best guess is that when either CPU, GPU or heat levels go past a certain point something goes wrong and it shows with eve online because I'm running 3 clients.

1 Client on its own doesn't take all that much to run really but the requirements scale with the amount of clients open and active so when I'm actively playing on all 3 at the same time something just goes wrong for whatever reason I guess.

But can it really just be a driver flaw ? I did a clean install of Windows after all and then installed the newest nvidia driver again.

You won't have the wrong driver and you're right that if nobody else is complaining of that issue it's not likely to be a driver flaw.

I think I'#d call PCS at this point. Tell them you've done a clean install, allowed Windows Update to install all drivers, and that everything works fine until you load this game. See what they suggest.