Random laptop crashes

[knight_wolf]

Hi, i was an active member of the forum long time back when it was pchelpforum.com , i remember the wonderful community here and made me search for this and come back once again. My first language is not English and I will try to be as concise as possible.

My problem is a peculiar one, I have a Acer Predator Helios 300, my laptop crashes randomly, mainly during gaming. Initially I thought that since it has a 144 hz display and i connect it via hdmi cable to an external display running 60 hz might be behind the problem, however, the problem persists even when I am not connecting it to an external display (though less frequent I think)

I think my knowledge about PC is above average and I tried everything I could before coming here, updating/reinstalling display drivers, scanning for viruses etc. I finally gave up and came to you guys for help. If I remember correctly I have to run some stuff on my laptop and post those dumps here, I will be happy to comply.

Please help me get through this lockdown
Knight Wolf

[knight_wolf]

For my last crash i checked the Reliability Monitor and it said : The bugcheck was: 0x00000119 (0x0000000000000e00, 0xffffdd8cebd0e000, 0xffffdd8cebdaabf0, 0xffffdd8cebdaaef0)

Windows 10.0 Build 18363
Predator 315-51
i5 8300 @ 2.3GHz
16GB RAM
NVIDIA GTX 1060

[jmarket]

Hello @knight_wolf and welcome to the resurrected PCHF

That bugcheck means VIDEO_TDR_TIMEOUT_DETECTED. All this means is that the GPU stopped responding.

Is anything overclocked at all? Also, are you running the latest version of W10, which is 1909?

[knight_wolf]

I am pretty sure nothing is overclocked (i don’t know how to) , however, if it’s a factory setting then how do i verify it? I referred to my windows update history and the latest one is 1909, is there anything else i can share or do?

[phillpower2]

Lets see if I am able to help;

1. Copy any dmp files from C:\Windows\Minidump onto the desktop.
2. Select all of them, right-click on one, and click on Send To> New Compressed (zipped) Folder.
3. Upload the zip folder using the Attach button, bottom left of the dialogue input box

Download then run Speccy (free) and post the resultant url for us, details here, this will provide us with information about your computer hardware + any software that you have installed that may explain the present issue/s.

To publish a Speccy profile to the Web:

In Speccy, click File, and then click Publish Snapshot.

In the Publish Snapshot dialog box, click Yes to enable Speccy to proceed.

Speccy publishes the profile and displays a second Publish Snapshot. You can open the URL in your default browser, copy it to the clipboard, or close the dialog box.

[knight_wolf]

Thanks for the response, i have followed the steps. Attached are the required files.

[phillpower2]

For us to be able to help it is important that you provide any requested information exactly as is laid out by the person that is attempting to help you.

Rar are not used on these forums and it is not for helpers to have to open stuff to get a url

[knight_wolf]

Sorry, I was not sure if it would be safe to post the url : http://speccy.piriform.com/results/1...lF5wfn7pQFvsP4

[phillpower2]

GPU drivers or a problem with the device itself are flagged as possible causes of the issue.

Took a look a Speccy and noticed the following straight away;

Power Profile
Active power scheme: [COLOR=rgb(184, 49, 47)]Balanced As your notebook has a discrete GPU you need to change this to High Performance or the device will not be able to function correctly, it may or it may not be the answer to the crash but it will most certainly help with your gaming in the long run.

Please note that the setting should only be used for gaming type notebooks that have a discrete GPU that needs the extra power and the setting should not be used otherwise.[/COLOR]

[knight_wolf]

Hmm, this is weird, I am pretty sure i had changed it to Performance when I bought the laptop, when i click on the battery icon it even shows that it favors performance, however if i go to power plan then it shows balanced and there is no option to change it, I had to create a new customized power plan with base as performance to change the power mode. Please refer to the attache screenshots I think it will explain better.

For my GPU problem what do you think I should do to ensure that it’s a software problem and not faulty hardware.

[phillpower2]

Can you post a new Speccy url so that we can see what is shown there.

[knight_wolf]

http://speccy.piriform.com/results/puuyjMGIQb1OsqvmIXtoVHE

[phillpower2]

Sorry but we have no idea as to what performance that will give so need to try something else.

1. Press Windows key + X from the keyboard.
2. Choose Command prompt from the context menu.
3. In the command prompt, type powercfg –restoredefaultschemes then press Enter.
4. Exit command prompt.

Restart the notebook and see if you are now able to select High Performance as your power plan.

[knight_wolf]

This fixed the power options , now I could see high performance option.

http://speccy.piriform.com/results/DFrLUimtZxufGRXMYf0SG0D

[phillpower2]

Good, see how things go for now then.