Display driver crashes

[jojovtx]

So I guess a GPU temp of 90.0 C is what's causing my display driver to crash? That's what CPU-Z was reading at the time of this last crash. Now what can I do about that? It's in a laptop so my options are pretty limited.

[Blackdog_kt]

I'd suggest taking it to an authorized dealer of the brand you bought it from, have them open it up and clean the fans and coolers with an air blower.

A friend of mine had his i5 recently getting to 80C while idle. He opened the case and cleaned (his own words) "maybe a kilo of dirt from inside the fans, cooler grooves and generally the entire case". After that it was running at 35C while idle.

As dirt accumulates you don't only get lower heat dissipation from the coolers (it fills the grooves and decreases their effective heat radiating surface), it might also be acting as an insulator that's trapping heat in there and i definitely know from past personal experience that it also plays havoc with the fans, stressing their motors, resulting in lower RPM and in some cases even damaging the fans to the point that they need replacing.

That is especially so if dirt is accumulated in an "off-balance" way on one side of a fan. This can tilt their axis slightly and cause constant straining at high RPM. It's a vicious circle too, the higher the temperatures the more the fan will try to compensate and the more it runs at high RPM with unbalanced weight, the more chance of the axis rubbing on other components, wearing out over time and failing.

I generally clean my case once a month or every second month. I used to use a hair drier set on cold but it wasn't powerful enough, so i got a small and compact air blower for about 30-40 Euros (most electric appliances/tools companies make these and there's all sorts of prices and wattage/power). Not shabby at all, considering it's 350W or so. This is much better and you can even get to the fans in the power supply.

Laptops are tricky though and i don't know what kind of warranty (or loss of it) issues you'll have if you open it up yourself, so it's better to take it to them directly.

[jojovtx]

Originally Posted by Blackdog_kt

Laptops are tricky though and i don't know what kind of warranty (or loss of it) issues you'll have if you open it up yourself, so it's better to take it to them directly.

Bought it online from Cyberpower so returning it for maintenance isn't an option. I also believe that the warranty on it is gone as I've had it nearly three years now.

Looks like I'm gonna go play doctor. Watch out I'm going in! Hey, if I screw something up maybe I can talk wifey into letting me get a new desktop pc.

[jojovtx]

Originally Posted by cheesehawk

One other thing you can do, if cleaning doesn't solve the problems, would be to turn your settings down. The harder your GPU is working, the more heat it generates. Give it less work, and you should be able to cut the heat down a few degrees.

Well low and behold. Turned all my high settings down to medium and made a complete sortie that had only yesterday been crashing about half way in. Checked gpu-z and my temp was at 88 when I exited the game. Interesting that apparently 2 degree celsius can mean a driver crash or a full sortie.

I am certain I need to clean out my laptop too. It went on a 14 month deployment to afghanistan with me in less than ideal conditions.