"midengineer" (midengineer)
06/24/2014 at 21:41 • Filed to: None
0
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"midengineer" (midengineer)
06/24/2014 at 21:41 • Filed to: None | 0
| 13 |
Car to appease those who pass by.
I should start at the beginning: I bought my Lenovo Y410p just over a year ago when I decided I wanted a computer that could let me play games with my friends while still being able to take it to class on the few occasions I would need it. I honestly can't say I'd recommend it seeing as how it has spent a good deal of time being a pain in the ass.
At first things worked pretty well, however things started to go downhill when I started to play Far Cry 3 last August. My computer should have been able to run it without too much fuss but it would start to crash while I was playing the game on occasion. Over time the issues became more prominent in other games and throughout the whole computer with occasional BSOD. Eventually, after taking the computer into a local repair place (waste of $, all they did was re-install windows for $60...) I finally ran some tests on my HDD with HD tune pro and the results pointed to a faulty hard drive as the culprit for my problems.
With that knowledge in hand, I called up Lenovo support and the rep had me completely restore my computer and monitor it to see if issues continued (which they did); she scheduled a time the following Monday to follow up on the problem. At this point my warranty was coming close to an end at 6/21, this past Saturday; at the time the representative told me not to worry about how close the warranty was to ending as they would generally extend it by a month if an issue was brought up before it ended. I was able to send in my computer and the HDD was replaced with the only cost coming out of my pocket being shipping to the support center.
My computer was returned last Wednesday and I discovered that not all my issues had been solved, games were still crashing as frequently as before even with all drivers updated and running settings less intense than those recommended. At this point I figured that the GPU was also failing which was a possibility I had considered before running tests on my HDD. Today I called up Lenovo support again and explained my situation to a representative giving him the case number I received from the first couple of calls. The new rep gave me a new case number and used remote access to try and update the driver for my graphics card. At that time he told me to run the game and to call back if the issue happened again with ones of my games.
Spoiler alert , it happened five minutes later; I called up Lenovo support once again and chatted with a different rep, this one listened to my woes and told me that if my graphics card was to blame nothing would be displayed on the screen when the computer tried to use the Nvidia 750GTm (this computer has integrated intel 4600 graphics and the 750GTm). He informed me that I had 2 options: lower the settings on my games as he thought I was running them at too high a level or buy a new graphics card from Lenovo. After trying to reason with him that it should be possible for the graphics card to function but still be faulty he continually told me that wasn't possible. At this point I asked him if I could speak to a different rep (I thought this could be wise as the previous two actually tried to investigate and provide a solution), his answer to my request was amazement as to why I needed to talk with someone else. At this point I decided enough was enough and hung up on him before I wasted anymore time. I'm coming to terms with the fact that I could've/should've pursued this issue sooner but it's too late for that... I like my laptop for the most part and am confident that it'd run fine if I could replace the GPU. So anyone know where to find a Nvidia 750GTm? Haha
Prize if you managed to make it through that jumble of words.
Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
> midengineer
06/24/2014 at 21:53 |
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I found you: http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-219…
As for your GPU being faulty, there are a number of options, none of which is particularly present. The first could be one or two cold-solder joints in the chip, which should be soldered to the motherboard (pretty sure the Y410p doesn't have a removable graphics card), that are causing issues. Or the chip could be faulty.
To fix the first problem, you could tear down the entire laptop to individual boards and toss the motherboard into a toaster oven. Or you could try heating up just the GPU with a pencil torch if you have one available that goes to the ridiculous temperatures necessary.
These are the techniques that would be used if you were to take it to a mom-n-pop independent little computer store saying "laptop has graphics issue plz halp", and I'm out of ideas otherwise.
Thunder
> midengineer
06/24/2014 at 21:53 |
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Made it through!
I feel your pain. My PC is nothing to be happy with... but I have friends who seem to think I can fix anything. I hate trying, because like your experience, it just turns into replacing parts that MIGHT be causing it.
Most recently, a Dell all-in-one. Random bluescreens. I cleaned out the heatsinks etc, thinking maybe it was overheating, but no joy. I don't want to go down the "try replacing the hard drive... how about the RAM... GPU? CPU? Whole honkin' thing?" progression with a friend's money... so I let them take it back. Last I knew, someone else had them replace the HDD. It might fix it, but somehow I doubt it.
Computers suck. LOL as I sit here typing behind a bank of 10 monitors on two PC's, with a third ready to light up if needed, and two more inop beside me.
AthomSfere
> midengineer
06/24/2014 at 21:54 |
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Two things.
Hard drive diagnotics - Just run the one from your drives manufacturer. Toshiba, Seagate, Western Digital... It is really hard to argue with that even from the OEM's.
NVidia drivers IMO are buggy nasty business. If it isn't a heating problem it probably is a driver conflict between the NVidia card and the integrated Intel drivers playing their little switch off game.
If you are able, I would do a fresh install of Windows, but not with Lenova's image, just a plain Jane OEM disk from Newegg if possible and install ONLY the NVidea drivers. You may lose some cool gadgetry but it will probably be loads more stable. I had to do this with my work laptop...
Luke's Dad Sold His 2000TL To Get a Sienna
> midengineer
06/24/2014 at 21:55 |
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I remember in May that Lenovo was dumping out stock of their graphics cards that could be plugged into their Y-Series laptop's disc bay (that'd be the case if your laptop was Dual SLI GT750.) With the new Y computers coming out with 860s, they might either dump their GT750 stock again, or you can find one on EBay (but rarely for cheap since most people sell their entire Y laptop instead of parting it out) and then you can plug that into your disc bay.
The May deal for them was the GT755 for the Y500/510p but I'm sure the 400s would use the same ones.
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midengineer
> Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
06/24/2014 at 22:10 |
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Haha, yes you did. Private Investigator career in your future? And yeah, I wouldn't mind having to do some manual labor if computers didn't seem so damn easy to break. Is a fully functioning computer really too much to ask for?
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Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
> midengineer
06/24/2014 at 22:11 |
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As someone who's owned dozens of computers: Yes.
Yes it is.
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midengineer
> Thunder
06/24/2014 at 22:14 |
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Oof, my grandparents seem to believe that I can fix anything computer related. Usually it is something along the lines of 'how do I access my email again?'. Anyways, yes computers do suck. We went to the moon 45 damn years ago. How are reliable computers not a thing now?
will_kern
> midengineer
06/24/2014 at 22:15 |
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I had a similar problem, with my Samsung q430 (a little bit older I know). It started crashing when I put any strain on the graphics (gaming, hd video) and only got worse from there. By the time I decided to get it fixed, I had to run a backup with the computer in the freezer to keep the graphics processing from overheating to the point of crashing the computer. I took mine to a 3rd party repair place, and they told me at first it was a corrupted hard drive, but after replacing that it turned out to not be the solution.
As I then learned, the GPU in most laptops is actually hard-mounted on the motherboard, and so you can't replace only the GPU. Long and short of it I had to replace the motherboard. $330.
If your options are anywhere close to what mine were, it will be to shell out the big bucks to replace the motherboard, or to shell out the big bucks to replace your computer.
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will_kern
> will_kern
06/24/2014 at 22:19 |
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Also this:
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midengineer
> AthomSfere
06/24/2014 at 22:19 |
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Hmm, I might have to give that a shot; the place I took my computer to be 'repaired' at left the windows 8 x64 install disk in my tray. I had previously downloaded and ran speedfan to look at my temps and the highest I've seen the GPU was 65C but I don't know how high that is compared to the usual. As for the HD, Lenovo did replace it for me after I sent it in although now I'm wondering whether or not they actually tested the old to verify my claims. The new one is a Toshiba whereas the old one was a Seagate.
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midengineer
> Luke's Dad Sold His 2000TL To Get a Sienna
06/24/2014 at 22:21 |
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I might look into the SLI option as I've read up on it a little. I guess it takes a little work to get the graphics card into the y410ps slot but several people have done it. I wonder if it would be possible for me to use only the disc bay card…
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midengineer
> will_kern
06/24/2014 at 23:25 |
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I wonder of cooling is the issue, maybe I should trying player games in the freezer.
I'll take 911 RS for $5000
> midengineer
07/02/2014 at 18:44 |
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If you feel comfortable taking it apart, do so, and make sure to clean out the fans and heat pipes. Make sure when you're gaming that airflow isn't being restricted (you'll likely have to have the back of the laptop raised so air can circulate underneath).
Then, just to be doubly sure, monitor temperatures. I can't think of any utilities for this off the top of my head as it's been a while since I've had to do this, but I know there are several free options out there.