BSOD occurs at random times, only when gaming, please help!

[Scooterpizza]

Hey everybody, I have been getting a lot of BSOD lately, started a few months ago out of nowhere, and now it occurs randomly when I play games. I'm on a Sager NP9170 laptop with a GeForce GTX 675M gpu. I've opened up my laptop and cleaned out a little dust, and it has not helped. I did notice that my power supply brick gets pretty hot as well...if that is worth noting. I've included the file from dm log collector. From what I've been able to find online, it appears that it could be my video card causing these BSOD. I've tried installing older drivers to see if it remedies the issue, but the problem persists with the drivers I've tried so far. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks for your time.

 

[HarriePateman]

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*                        Bugcheck Analysis                                    *
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Use !analyze -v to get detailed debugging information.

BugCheck 116, {fffffa800d65f010, fffff8800fe3e2bc, ffffffffc000009a, 4}

*** WARNING: Unable to verify timestamp for [COLOR="Red"]nvlddmkm.sys[/COLOR]
*** ERROR: Module load completed but symbols could not be loaded for nvlddmkm.sys
Probably caused by : [COLOR="red"]nvlddmkm.sys ( nvlddmkm+99b2bc )[/COLOR]

Followup: MachineOwner
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7: kd> !analyze -v
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*                        Bugcheck Analysis                                    *
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[COLOR="red"]VIDEO_TDR_FAILURE (116)[/COLOR]
Attempt to reset the display driver and recover from timeout failed.
Arguments:
Arg1: fffffa800d65f010, Optional pointer to internal TDR recovery context (TDR_RECOVERY_CONTEXT).
Arg2: fffff8800fe3e2bc, The pointer into responsible device driver module (e.g. owner tag).
Arg3: ffffffffc000009a, Optional error code (NTSTATUS) of the last failed operation.
Arg4: 0000000000000004, Optional internal context dependent data.

Debugging Details:
------------------


FAULTING_IP: 
nvlddmkm+99b2bc
fffff880`0fe3e2bc 803de6fceeff00  cmp     byte ptr [nvlddmkm+0x88afa9 (fffff880`0fd2dfa9)],0

DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID:  [COLOR="red"]GRAPHICS_DRIVER_TDR_FAULT[/COLOR]

NOTE: If overclocking, please reset the system to default values while troubleshooting it.

Quote:
If playing with video driver versions hasn't helped, make sure the box is not overheating. Try removing a side panel and aiming a big mains fan straight at the motherboard and GPU. Run it like that for a few hours or days - long enough to ascertain whether cooler temperatures make a difference. If so, it might be as simple as dust buildup and subsequently inadequate cooling." - H2SO4

 

[Scooterpizza]

*******************************************************************************
*                                                                             *
*                        Bugcheck Analysis                                    *
*                                                                             *
*******************************************************************************

Use !analyze -v to get detailed debugging information.

BugCheck 116, {fffffa800d65f010, fffff8800fe3e2bc, ffffffffc000009a, 4}

*** WARNING: Unable to verify timestamp for [COLOR=Red]nvlddmkm.sys[/COLOR]
*** ERROR: Module load completed but symbols could not be loaded for nvlddmkm.sys
Probably caused by : [COLOR=red]nvlddmkm.sys ( nvlddmkm+99b2bc )[/COLOR]

Followup: MachineOwner
---------

7: kd> !analyze -v
*******************************************************************************
*                                                                             *
*                        Bugcheck Analysis                                    *
*                                                                             *
*******************************************************************************

[COLOR=red]VIDEO_TDR_FAILURE (116)[/COLOR]
Attempt to reset the display driver and recover from timeout failed.
Arguments:
Arg1: fffffa800d65f010, Optional pointer to internal TDR recovery context (TDR_RECOVERY_CONTEXT).
Arg2: fffff8800fe3e2bc, The pointer into responsible device driver module (e.g. owner tag).
Arg3: ffffffffc000009a, Optional error code (NTSTATUS) of the last failed operation.
Arg4: 0000000000000004, Optional internal context dependent data.

Debugging Details:
------------------


FAULTING_IP: 
nvlddmkm+99b2bc
fffff880`0fe3e2bc 803de6fceeff00  cmp     byte ptr [nvlddmkm+0x88afa9 (fffff880`0fd2dfa9)],0

DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID:  [COLOR=red]GRAPHICS_DRIVER_TDR_FAULT[/COLOR]

NOTE: If overclocking, please reset the system to default values while troubleshooting it.


Hello thanks for replying, I am not overclocking, and unfortunately I am not tech-savy enough to know what you mean by resetting the system to default values (while trouble shooting). Is this referring to bios settings? What default values are you referring to that I should reset? Appreciate the help!

 

[HarriePateman]

Reset the system Values, as in undo the over clocking. Have you ever overclocked on your GPU?

And what Temperatures does it reach?

Also have you updated the drivers?

 

[Scooterpizza]

Ah, I have not done any overclocking. According to GPU-Z when I'm not in a game the temp is 49° C, in game I am reaching ~upper 60s lower 70s. I have updated my video drivers, and attempted to use older drivers. Regarding drivers, I used to update my video card drivers as soon as new ones were available, but I am now trying the older ones (currently 320.18).

 

[HarriePateman]

Okay thats really hot!

Make sure your heatsink is connecting with the CPU properly.

And there is adequate cooling.

 

[Scooterpizza]

Well, I went ahead and opened up the laptop and replaced the thermal grease on the gpu and cpu. It appears the people at xoticpc may have gone a bit overboard with the quantity of paste they used. I took some pictures if curious: imgur: the simple image sharer . So far my temps are just about the same if not a few degrees lower when its idle, however the max temps are definitely peaking ~10 degrees lower when gaming. No BSOD or freezes yet, though i'll be testing ti more today and provide an update if anything changes. Thanks.

 

[HarriePateman]

Wow thats alot!

No worries glad i could help !

 

[Scooterpizza]

Bad news! Had another BSOD. It was going so well too! I'm running out of ideas on what I can do to figure out what is going on, or how I can resolve this issue.

 

[HarriePateman]

Can you upload the latest DMP File please.

 

[Scooterpizza]

Sure! Here's the most recent one.

 

[Scooterpizza]

Anyone care to try to help me with this issue? I am still getting BSOD everyday, but only when in games. It is always nvlddmkm.sys that is the culprit. I've tried resetting the bios settings, rebooting to safemode to uninstall and install clean drivers (tried many different versions of drivers), tried the nvlddmkm.sys replacement fix (Fix: Nvlddmkm.sys Blue Screen BSOD Error in Windows 7), opened and cleaned my laptop of dust, reapplied thermal paste, reseated the gpu card, I do use a cooling pad, temperatures are average for my set up from what I've researched (typically hotter than desktops). My last resort was to attempt to downclock the gpu with msi afterburner but I could not get the settings to change (they reset after I clicked apply). If anyone has any possible solution, I would greatly appreciate ANY suggestions! Thanks

(Here is a screenshot of the BSOD http://i.imgur.com/nG92ry9.jpg)

 

[Dusselchen]

Hey, since i have the exact same problem, have you managed to find a working solution?

 

[HarriePateman]

Hello again, there doesn't seem to be a Dump file in your new attachment.

 

[Scooterpizza]

Hey Dusselchen, unfortunately I have not found any good solutions to the issue. The closest I came to a minor fix was to download and install MSI afterburner, and underclocked the gpu a bit... this allowed me to play most games for a longer duration before a BSOD. I'm still hoping for a solution

 

[Poolskin]

Hi all,

On my laptop i had been suffering the same BSOD every day for several weeks now and it was getting worse. The screen blacked out, had colored lines and so on in games. Most of the time I couldn't even start a game, because i got this nvlddkmk.sys BSOD immediatly after my laptop switched to my Nvidia GT555m. After reading millions of threads about this error, and following several fixes the problem didn't go away. I decided to open my laptop and removed the heatpipe that was covering my cpu and Nvidiachip. I noticed the cooling paste was pretty dried up, on both chips. I removed it and applied some Arctic Silver Mx4 cooling paste. After that I didn't get any more issues whatsoever. The temperature of the videochip stayed 10°C lower too. I'm playing games for several days now and everything works fine !

 

[Poolskin]

Update:

After a couple of days without any BSOD's the problem started again. I started a game that was suffering from colored pixels, at random times a BSOD (nvlddmkm.sys) and while running I opened the fan-compartment. When I touched the Nvidia chip, thus pushing it softly towards the motherboard the erratic screen went smooth and like the way the game should be. Conclusion is the Nvidia chip's soldering's aren't that "tight" anymore, and the heatpipe above it doesn't push hard enough on the chip to make good contact. Now I applied a little drop of glue on the side of the chip, on an open and safe place besides the chip. Since then everything works perfect again. I have no more weird pixels/BSOD's.

I keep you all updated about this

Greetz !