Laptop crashes with external display, No BSoD

blokeyh · 22 Jan 2013

My work laptop, an HP 8560p, crashes after a period of time with an external monitor connected to it. Crashing can occur anywhere from a few minutes after rebooting to a couple hours after rebooting. There is no BSoD when the laptop crashes; the laptop just shuts off and automatically restarts. I have not been able to replicate this issue without an external monitor plugged in. The issue happens with the external monitor plugged in via direct to the laptop or through the dock; VGA or DVI.

So far I've tried:

A clean sweep of the video drivers and testing both the windows display drivers and the ATI drivers.
Sending the laptop to HP, where they completely replaced the motherboard.
Currently running memtest86+ (currently 2 passes through without any issues).

Does anyone have any ideas how to accurately diagnose this problem?

System Specs:

Win 7 Pro 64
Radeon HD 6470M
4 GB DDR3-1333/PC3-10600
i5-2520M
500 GB hdd

ICIT2LOL · 22 Jan 2013

Hello and welcome blokeyh am no expert but the intermittent nature of this sounds it could possibly be a heat problem.

When you get the memtests done and you need at least 7-8 passes - overnight is good run Speccy and see what the temps for the CPU and board come up with.

http://www.piriform.com/speccy/download

Erick Aguilar · 23 Jan 2013

I would use HW Monitor instead for a more accurate read.
My Speccy is saying my processor is sitting at 63C idle, and my motherboard says it's 37C.

ICIT2LOL · 23 Jan 2013

Well Erick the temp tsters are all a bit on muchness really and I was interested in blokeyh's mobo temp as perhas the external monitor is trying to drive a little bit too hard.

I was going to ask blokey to try another external momtior if possible to rule out a problem with the monitor causing the problem.

Actually now you have brought it up your own CPU sitting on 63C at idle would have me looking a at mine.