Laptop crashes while playing games?

Question

Hi there,

Lately, I have this problem with my laptop. When I play games, my laptop crashes. This happens random.. Sometimes, the game crashes when I'm playing for 10 seconds, the other time it crashes after playing 5-10 minutes. I already have this problem for a while, and I've tried to fix this problem by searching on forums etc. None of the things I did helped.

I tried:

Delete my Graphic card drivers, and reinstall the newest.
Installing an old driver.
Playing without my battery in it.
Adjust game options

None of those worked so.
When I crash, the only thing I can do is to manually turn off the computer. Sometimes, the game just stop, and I get a pop up, saying:

"video driver stopped working and has recovered. Video driver Intel Graphic Accelerator Drivers for Windows 7(R) stopped and has been recovered"

I feared that my GPU was broken, but I've runned several test (with Dell DIagnostics), and all of them passed.
So I don't really get what the problem of my laptop could be. I hope that I maybe can get some help by posting my own thread. Thanks in advance!

Regards, Ruben

Specs laptop:

Dell XPS 15 (L502X)
Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2450M CPU @ 2.50GHz

6.1 GB RAM Memory

GPU: NVIDIA GTX 260/AMD Radeon HD 4890

OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate Edition Service Pack 1 (build 7601), 64-bit

DELL-Manshu S · Answer

Hi Bennos,

Remove both the video driver for Intel as well as Nvidia.

Restart system and install Intel Driver from Dell support website.

Restart System and install Nvidia driver from Dell support website.

Restart system and check the functionality.

If system still crashes, create a profile for the application on Nvidia Control Panel to run the application on High Performance GPU.

Right click on desktop and select Nvidia control panel.

Select Manage 3d Settings > Program Settings. Select the application from the drop down menu. If the application is not listed browse the exe file of the application from the installed location.

Select High Performance Nvidia Processor under preferred graphics processor.

Thanks & Regards
Manshu S
#iworkfordell

To know more about Dell Product Support, Drivers & Downloads, Order & Dispatch status -> choose your region US Customers; India Customers. For Dell support videos click here.

Bennos · Answer

Hi Manshu,

I did the things you said me to do, but it didn't really helped.

I can play games now with crashing occasionally if I run them in windowed mode. My pc doesn't freeze then, and after waiting a few seconds I can continue with my game. After a while, my laptop still crashes and I will have to turn the power off.

Any other suggestions how I could fix it?

Regards, Ruben

DELL-Manshu S · Answer

Hi Ruben,

Please perform extended test on the hard drive using Dell PC diagnostics:

http://dell.to/KbKcpA

Select hard drive stress test.

Please keep me posted with the results.

Thanks & Regards
Manshu S
#iworkfordell

To know more about Dell Product Support, Drivers & Downloads, Order & Dispatch status -> choose your region US Customers; India Customers. For Dell support videos click here.

Bennos · Answer

Hi Manshu I just ran the HDD Stress test, but it said everything is ok. Regards, Ruben

Riggins · Answer

I am having the same problem. When I play games using the nVidia card they lock up. If I disable the nVIdia driver they work fine, albeit slower and not nearly as nice to look at.

Here are the things I have tried thus far:

Installed all of the different nvidia drivers from the one that comes with the laptop up through the current non-beta 332.21

Installed the newest realtek audio driver 6.0.1.7083

Wiped my whole laptop back to the factory image, reinstalled only the one dreiver update dell reommends (wifi with 'n' support), installed the newest nvidia driver, installed the realtek driver.

Still not working. =(

My laptop is the L502X with the GeForce 525M with 6G of ram.

Help!

DELL-Manshu S · Answer

Hi,

Please update BIOS using the link mentioned below:

http://dell.to/1cLRWWZ

NOTE: Ensure that the battery is more than 30% charged and the adapter is connected during the BIOS update process.

Also, let us know if it is happening with a particular game.

Thanks & Regards
Manshu S
#iworkfordell

To know more about Dell Product Support, Drivers & Downloads, Order & Dispatch status -> choose your region US Customers; India Customers. For Dell support videos click here.

KGPBang · Answer

Hello. Could you please check if the games that this error occurrs with are run with directx11? When the games crash do you get green rectangles for a split second before the game crashes?

Bennos · Answer

Hi,

My BIOS is the same date as the latest given version.

Is there a chance it would work, if I install the same version again?

My laptop crashes with so good as every game. I haven't tried it with all games, but these definitely make my laptop crash:

Skyrim
League of Legends
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Conviction
Assassins Creed 3
Arma II and III
Kerbal Space Program
Portal 2

Even if I run them on low settings. All games are legal and not pirated.

Thanks in advance.

Regards, Ruben

Riggins · Answer

My laptop already is use A12 for BIOS so is up-to-date. I predominately play StarCraft 2 and it is indeed directx11 compliant.

Something I found on line that seems to be working so far, is I ran Afterburner to turn down the core clock and the gpu clock by 100Mhz each. From what I can tell in all sorts of forums, this particular laptop, XPS l502, is simply not designed well. It is underpowered and so both overheats and the graphcis card craps out. By lowering the clock (opposite of overclocking) both the cpu and gpu draw less power. I also needed to set the power options to make the max processor state to to 99% instead of 100% to avoid turbo kicking in.

So far so good... this really is sad to be a design flaw though. My "work-around" boils down to slowing the computer down. The high performance computer I paid extra for. =(

viral.prmr · Answer

Hi

Even I am facing the same problem with my L502X. I had paid for a gaming laptop and now this is the issue which is far more troublesome. I have re-installed windows 7, installed intel and nvidia drivers, updated the BIOS, still the problem is persisting.

Is it because of overheating?

Regards,

Viral Parmar

Riggins · Answer

Using afterburner has worked rather well for me. I ran some other utilities while debugging this and found that while the machine does get pretty hot, it did not seem to get "to hot" as far as laptop numbers usually go. Still, just adjusting the power options to 99% so that turbo would not kick in saved me several degrees on the temperature front. I didn't notice any ill effects in game play.

The machine still crashed though. That is why I went the afterburner route. Clocking DOWN the cpu and graphics card is the only thing that has made the machine work for me. Note: you need to start some game up (or something) that uses the graphics card in order to set the clock. Otherwise the otimus tech in there will only expose the intel card. You need the nVidia card "on" in order for afterburner to detect its clock and then to set it. I just fire up starcraft then alt-tab out. EZ.

I don't like this solution though. I have to play the game on low graphics settings, reduced physics, reduced everything basically. It's still fun, but i bought this to be a gaming laptop (as advertised) and instead i have to turn it down so much I might as well have bought something much cheaper.

As an aside, you can also completely turn off the nvidia card. Deactivate its driver in the driver manager of control panel. When I do this the machine never crashes during game play. Performance is VERY affected so only do this with games that are not twitch based. For example, in starcraft i could build my base ok, and even do some early army stuff, but as the number of units went up the game would drop frames, a lot of frames, and start to lag. No way could I play 2v2 or 3v3.

Good luck. I don't think Dell is even paying attention to this. Old machine? Not our problem. Thing is, it is a complete design flaw and so it SHOULD be their problem. =(

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Laptop crashes while playing games?

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