I have an MSI GT60 laptop that contains both the integrated Intel HD 4000 graphics as well as an Nvidia GTX 670M. It has worked just fine up until about a month ago when load screens on WoW would appear fragmented but would resolve and finish loading. Now it runs for a few minutes, the screen flashes as if I've tabbed out, the fan begins to run at full speed, and I have about 15 seconds before the whole thing locks up. The same thing happens for non-Blizzard games (only Portal tested in addition. The video drivers are up today (aside from one posted today) as well as all other drivers accessible via Control Panel. Any thoughts?

Windows 10 (Started as Windows 7)
i7 3610QM
12GB DDR3 RAM
blah blah

3/20/2017 7:12:18 PM

First guess is driver problem, I've never had good luck with the Optimus switching or whatever they call it these days. My work laptop has it and crashes every time I switch monitor configuration . Update BIOS, update drivers, use nVidia Control Center to force using the 670M whenever <insert game/program> is running. In my case I force it to always prefer the integrated when plugged in for simplicity. Conveniently this causes one of my monitors to go out if the power flickers

Second guess is heat. Easy to test, harder to fix. Overlay your GPU temp via the nVidia control panel or use a benchmark tool like Unigine (https://unigine.com/products/benchmarks/heaven/). If you see it spike above ~75C and then instantly crash that could be your problem. (I'm unfamiliar with your card, especially in a laptop. Some desktop AMD cards from a few years ago churned happily close to 90C... either way you should hear the fan going nuts). If this is your problem, someone probably needs to crack the case. Hopefully it's as simple as a clogged filter or some warn out thermal paste, but on a laptop that old you can usually pick up the entire heat pipe assembly online for peanuts. If you're opening the case, I usually replace the lot.


For giggles you could also check the windows event logger. Sometimes you get lucky and it will tell you the issue.

3/20/2017 8:57:19 PM

Thank you very much. I will look into those tomorrow when I get a chance.

3/20/2017 9:19:02 PM

Heat is my guess. Crack the case and get cleaning.

3/21/2017 11:44:28 AM

I loaded the MSI Afterburner program, and the highest the GPU temp ever got to was 38*. I opened the case, and it was clean as a whistle (I took a picture in case it seemed appropriate to post). After digging through the Event Viewer, I found that the video card driver kept crashing and recovering. Some suggested using an earlier driver, so I uninstalled the current driver using DDU and installed a driver from Nvidia's website dating back to October (when I am sure it was working just fine). I then proceeded to load WoW and got a BSOD with an error with "nvlddmkm.sys." One fix has me modifying the file name and some other stuff, but every time I attempt to rename it, Windows says that I need permission........ I am about [---] close to just reinstalling Windows 7 (clean everything) if only they weren't ending support in 2020.

[Edited on March 22, 2017 at 9:10 PM. Reason : temp]

3/22/2017 9:09:36 PM