Computer Shutting Down at random

Cherry_Cola

Hi all,

I recently got a new Lenovo B520 All in one PC for Christmas and have been using fine until today.

When playing games, the colours seem to go all distorted and this results in it shutting down and rebooting without any prior warning. It should be noted I'm using Windows 7 64 bit.

Now, from reading up on the issue, it seems this may be something to do with the graphics card which is a Nvidia Geoforce 555M 1GB.

I've never had this problem over the past number of weeks so am not sure why it's suddenly started to occur. It first happened today during a game of Minecraft and has just happened on Left for Dead 2.

Could the issue be due to overheating? I've played these games a lot over the past few weeks with no issues until today.

Also, might it be necessary to update the driver for the card? Again though, I'm not sure why this would need to be done after several weeks of no problems. Plus it seems updating the driver on this particular model is a little bit tricky.

Anyone any ideas on what it might be?

Firblog

Can you do a system restore back a few days, dis-connect from the internet (or disable updates) and see if it crashes then; if not then I'd say it was a windows update that did the damage.. Or you can start in safe mode with networking and go onto the Nvidia site and download the official driver for your card.

Cherry_Cola

Thanks, I'm going to try that now and see if it makes a difference.

gpjordanf1

Power supply / over heating, most likely!

Cherry_Cola

Firblog wrote: »

Can you do a system restore back a few days, dis-connect from the internet (or disable updates) and see if it crashes then; if not then I'd say it was a windows update that did the damage.. Or you can start in safe mode with networking and go onto the Nvidia site and download the official driver for your card.

I've just tried that and restored to about a week ago. All was going well until suddenly, it went crazy again.

It may well be a power supply issue but I really hope not. Like I said, this has never happened before today so I don't know why it would suddenly be overheating, especially when it doesn't even seem to be under much strain.

I'm going to run Malware bytes software now just in case and will check temperatures and see how they look.

Cherry_Cola

Ok, so I've run a full scan using Malwarebytes and it's come up clean. So no issues there.

I used Coretemp to check the temp of the CPU when idle and got the following results:



When playing LFD2, core temps averaged around 40-50 degrees. It crashed out quite quickly this time however.

I then used Nvidia inspector to check the gpu temp and usage while playing the game.



The temperature was between 46-50 degrees throughout, however there was a good bit of fluctuation on the GPU load values. Anywhere from 2% to 95%. I'm not entirely sure if such behaviour is normal though.

Interestingly, this time it crashed out but did not shut down. I'm not entirely sure why.

It's incredibly frustrating though, I did get a lot of Windows updates over the past 10 or so days so it's possible this may be the issue, it's just a shame I didn't have an earlier restore point set up.

uncle_sam_ie

Temp's are ok, This looks like a GPU or power supply fault. It's new and under warranty so, just them deal with it.

Cherry_Cola

It's happened again, only this time it did not reboot. I'm fairly certain now that it's the graphics card as under the Windows Action Center it states "Address a problem with a Nvidia Graphics driver".

When I try to check for solutions, I just get a could not connect error but I figured they wouldn't be much help anyway. I'm going to chance updating the driver though I've heard this involves editing an inf file to get it to work. If it's too much hassle to do then I will just send it back.

yoyo

Cherry_Cola wrote: »

It's happened again, only this time it did not reboot. I'm fairly certain now that it's the graphics card as under the Windows Action Center it states "Address a problem with a Nvidia Graphics driver".

When I try to check for solutions, I just get a could not connect error but I figured they wouldn't be much help anyway. I'm going to chance updating the driver though I've heard this involves editing an inf file to get it to work. If it's too much hassle to do then I will just send it back.

Try getting a new driver for it from www.nvidia.com

Nick

Cherry_Cola

yoyo wrote: »

Try getting a new driver for it from www.nvidia.com

Nick

I have tried that, however it seems that Lenovo have altered the drivers somehow to get them to work on their systems. The official Nvidia graphics driver does not work as it does not recognise the card due to these alterations.

It's a known issue with these cards and of course Lenovo's site is way behind on updating the drivers. It seems the only way to get the official driver working is to edit the inf file to include some of the lenovo information. It seems this is the only way it can be done unfortunately at present.

dyer

id recommend running driver sweeper as well to remove old drivers before installing the new ones.. you can grab it here.. http://phyxion.net/item/driver-sweeper.html

been a while since i used it but think the best method was to uninstall your current drivers then reboot in safe mode. run the app as administrator (right click run as admin), select nvidia display.. analyse/clean. install new drivers.

yoyo

Cherry_Cola wrote: »

I have tried that, however it seems that Lenovo have altered the drivers somehow to get them to work on their systems. The official Nvidia graphics driver does not work as it does not recognise the card due to these alterations.

It's a known issue with these cards and of course Lenovo's site is way behind on updating the drivers. It seems the only way to get the official driver working is to edit the inf file to include some of the lenovo information. It seems this is the only way it can be done unfortunately at present.

Try a Hacked Driver and see how it goes!

Nick

dyer

had a quick look around.. this may be of interest to you..

Cherry_Cola

dyer wrote: »

had a quick look around.. this may be of interest to you..

Yeah that's where I've seen that I'll have to modify the inf file in order to get the drivers to work. I'm not sure if I should modify them myself or just chance one of those hacked ones.

Will have a go anyway and report back if there are any issues. If worst comes to worst, I'll restore to factory settings. It's only a month old so not a whole lot on it anyway.

Cherry_Cola

So I managed to update the driver by installing the hacked one and the installation went perfectly.

Restarted, loaded up Left for Dead, 5 mins into a game and same thing happens .

The whole shutting down seems to have stopped, but the game does crash out after some strange discolouration for a few minutes.

I really hope it isn't a faulty graphics card but it's looking that way.

I did attempt to install an older game on my system prior to this issue occurring, tried several different times and couldn't get it to work due to the fact it was made for 32 bit systems. I uninstalled it but I'm wondering if this may have had any effect?

I really want to try everything before doing a factory reset/sending it off for repair!

yoyo

Cherry_Cola wrote: »

So I managed to update the driver by installing the hacked one and the installation went perfectly.

Restarted, loaded up Left for Dead, 5 mins into a game and same thing happens .

The whole shutting down seems to have stopped, but the game does crash out after some strange discolouration for a few minutes.

I really hope it isn't a faulty graphics card but it's looking that way.

I did attempt to install an older game on my system prior to this issue occurring, tried several different times and couldn't get it to work due to the fact it was made for 32 bit systems. I uninstalled it but I'm wondering if this may have had any effect?

I really want to try everything before doing a factory reset/sending it off for repair!

If your getting graphics corruption it does sound like video card being at fault, especially if you changed the driver.

Nick

uncle_sam_ie

yoyo wrote: »

If your getting graphics corruption it does sound like video card being at fault, especially if you changed the driver.

Nick

Yeah, like bad memory on the card.

Cherry_Cola

Yeah tried a different game there, crashed bad and rebooted. On reboot all the colours were distorted so it's definitely a problem with the card.

Looks like it'll have to be sent back then. Hopefully this will manage to fix it!

uncle_sam_ie

Cherry_Cola wrote: »

Yeah tried a different game there, crashed bad and rebooted. On reboot all the colours were distorted so it's definitely a problem with the card.

Looks like it'll have to be sent back then. Hopefully this will manage to fix it!

GPU's do go sometimes. I'v had to return 2 in the past
http://www.playtool.com/pages/troubleshooting/intro.html
http://www.playtool.com/pages/artifacts/artifacts.html

Cherry_Cola

Some of the pics on there are pretty much identical to what I was seeing. Thanks for all the advice and help.

Cherry_Cola

I'm just off the phone with Lenovo support who were very good. They suggested to attempt a factory restore first to be 100% sure it's the video card.

If it is the video card, then they'll send around a courier to collect it and should be 2-3 weeks tops.

yoyo

Cherry_Cola wrote: »

I'm just off the phone with Lenovo support who were very good. They suggested to attempt a factory restore first to be 100% sure it's the video card.

If it is the video card, then they'll send around a courier to collect it and should be 2-3 weeks tops.

Where did you buy the machine? The shop should be able to handle the return/repair quicker, do a factory reset but I'm 99% sure you have hardware failure, going by your previous posts

Nick

Cherry_Cola

yoyo wrote: »

Where did you buy the machine? The shop should be able to handle the return/repair quicker, do a factory reset but I'm 99% sure you have hardware failure, going by your previous posts

Nick

It's a little awkward as I bought it through a distributor and he's a tough guy to get a hold of so I figure I'll be better off getting it sorted myself.

I'm sure it's a hardware failure too but I suppose it's best to be absolutely sure. They suggested a BIOS update too so going to try both and see if there's any change.

yoyo

Cherry_Cola wrote: »

It's a little awkward as I bought it through a distributor and he's a tough guy to get a hold of so I figure I'll be better off getting it sorted myself.

I'm sure it's a hardware failure too but I suppose it's best to be absolutely sure. They suggested a BIOS update too so going to try both and see if there's any change.

No worries, in that case your probably better off. I wouldn't bother with a bios update tbh, unless theres one which makes fans run faster I can't see it being much help, return under warranty and see what happens!

Nick

uncle_sam_ie

Cherry_Cola wrote: »

It's a little awkward as I bought it through a distributor and he's a tough guy to get a hold of so I figure I'll be better off getting it sorted myself.

I'm sure it's a hardware failure too but I suppose it's best to be absolutely sure. They suggested a BIOS update too so going to try both and see if there's any change.

They suggested a BIOS update.:eek: I'd be very careful going there m8 if you F it up you can brick your board.

Cherry_Cola

uncle_sam_ie wrote: »

They suggested a BIOS update.:eek: I'd be very careful going there m8 if you F it up you can brick your board.

Yeah I left that off in the end, was a little outside of my comfort zone.

So I reset to factory settings, installed steam, 2 mins into a game same issue occurs so it is 100% the video card that's gone. Will contact them again tomorrow to get it sorted.

Cherry_Cola

So I contacted them again today to arrange a return and I must say they have excellent customer service. The unit even came with a 3 year warranty which is great!

Courier will come to collect on Friday and it should take a week at most they said, hopefully anyway!

Cherry_Cola

Cherry_Cola wrote: »

So I contacted them again today to arrange a return and I must say they have excellent customer service. The unit even came with a 3 year warranty which is great!

Courier will come to collect on Friday and it should take a week at most they said, hopefully anyway!

Oh how wrong I was :mad:

So they messed up the collection at the time and ended up collecting it almost an entire week later. Fine I thought, at least it'll be sorted quickly. Nope.

Tracking shows the computer being received at the repair centre in Manchester on the 6th of February. I leave a week go by, then call up support and ask for a status update. I was told it was still in repair and to call back in another week. No problem.

So I call back again, same response. It was getting annoying at this stage. Next thing I know, I receive a letter from Medion Electronics on behalf of Lenovo asking me to send in my computer for repair and it included a shipping label for it to go to Germany.

This is where alarm bells started ringing as I had sent in my computer and now they were asking for it. I called support again and was told that the letter was sent in error and that it would be sorted out in another week.

So I've contacted them this week again, same story. Then I contacted the repair centre in Manchester to find out more. They said they had it but don't anymore. They said it was in another repair centre in Manchester and they had passed on my contact details and they should be in touch by tomorrow, I somehow doubt they will be though.

I asked her for the details of this other repair centre to contact them and she point blank refused for whatever reason.

I'll see how tomorrow goes but it looks like I may have to threaten legal action to get this sorted asap

fionny

Ouch.. hope you get sorted... nothing worse then being messed about like that, I had a similar experience with Overclockers.co.uk before... very very annoying.

Cherry_Cola

This got even worse today. They now claim the screen was smashed on arrival and that's not covered by warranty and I'll have to pay!! So I'm going to have to go the legal route.

Full info here:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=77630906#post77630906

fionny

Balls thats a fecken nightmare!

uncle_sam_ie

I bet they damaged it trying to get at the video card. If the Lenovo is anything like the iMac, it would be a bitch to access the inside without them accidentally damaging the screen.

Cherry_Cola

Well it is possible the initial repair company could have damaged it before sending to the Lenovo repair centre in Germany. Thanks for that, I'm going to look into it more.