Help troubleshooting my PowerSpec 1510

[Chowda289]

I figured I'd create a new thread to get help troubleshooting my GPU and to keep my other thread free for that topic.

 

I have a PowerSpec 1510 gaming laptop - aka Clevo P650HS-G.

Long story short, my NVIDIA card (mobile GTX 1070) is not working. 😔 It stopped working after a build update around May/June 2019. (Some sort of big Windows Update/build update, I believe when they decided to change the Intel Drivers to DCH.) I wasn't able to roll back to a previous version right after the update for some dumb reason. Also, I wasn't able to seriously troubleshoot until late July 2019/August 2019. Since then, I've tried to fix it when I have the spare time. I'm not sure if it's fried, Windows is messing it up, or if it's somehow off the heat sink/coolant paste gone. I haven't checked on the GPU physically, since I need reference photos. (I did open it up and everything looked happy.)

Another issue I've noticed in the last few months: my RGB keyboard lights don't seem to be right. The color doesn't coordinate with the color I choose in the program, and they are also sometimes very dim. Red is Red. White is Orange. Blue looks burnt out/very dim. Cyan looks like Cyan. Purple is Red. Yellow is Orange. Green is Green. Orange looks Dark Orange/Almost Red.

 

A major concern I have is that there's something wrong with the motherboard. ☹️

 

What I've done so far:

1. I've reinstalled the Intel and NVIDIA drivers with the most recent drivers. NVIDIA always ends up not working, even after trying DDU in safe mode. It screwed up so much that I couldn't even use NVIDIA GeForce Experience anymore or the Control Panel. I gave up for a while.

 

2. Per the suggestion in my other thread, I tried again - this time, using DDU in safe mode and installing the original NVIDIA driver (out-of-the-box driver) from PowerSpec. My card is recognized again, and I'm able to use GeForce. However, I still get dots/lines on my screen.

I tried to take a screenshot, but my laptop saves it as looking normal.

When I try to open NVIDIA Control Panel, I get:

 

 

 

Through my research, I've found that the SvThANSP.sys driver can cause a lot of problems. I'm not sure what it's exactly for. There is a known issue with Clevo Control Center and the XTU driver. The recommended solution was to install CCC without the driver or use the CLEVO Drivers Update Utility by OBSIDIAN-PC to load CCC cleanly. However, I'm not sure how to do either.

Any suggestions or ideas on what's going on would be appreciated.? Please help. 😭

[duskw4lker]

 

3 hours ago, Chowda289 said:

My card is recognized again, and I'm able to use GeForce. However, I still get dots/lines on my screen.

I tried to take a screenshot, but my laptop saves it as looking normal.

 

Now that's interesting. I'm going to take a guess, but, it seems to me that something is dying between the monitor and the GPU. I've never had a monitor or GPU dying on me, but what you state there, that the screenshot doesn't capture the visual artifacts, makes me think that 'internally' the image is generated without problems.

 

have you tinkered with this laptop? perhaps disassembly, repasting, cleaning?

does your laptop have an intel GPU active (Intel HD Graphics for example) if yes, have you checked that the adapter for the Nvidia GPU is enabled in Device manager?

does these visual artifacts appear with an external monitor/TV? 

 

I'd recommend taking a picture of the monitor with those artifacts, also check if in Device manager if 'this device is working properly', both the GPU and the monitor, or if there's any exclamation mark or question mark on the list, maybe an unknown device, or a missing driver?

 

[Chowda289]

Here's what it looks like with the static/artifacts:

 

Both of my GPUs don't have caution signs next to them. Originally, it was my NVIDIA card that had a caution sign next to it. My Intel card says it's working properly, my monitor says it's working properly, but the NVIDIA card says a code 43 error.

[Chowda289]

Another note:
I opened NVIDIA GeForce Experience. (I hadn't done it yet. I was worried it'd try to install the newest driver.) Once I logged in, it said I have no driver installed. 🤔

I decided to update my Intel to the newest driver. No problems there, but after...I noticed my NVIDIA card had a yellow caution sign next to it again, under Device Manager.

I tried installing the newest driver for my NVIDIA card. When I rebooted, it had issues and went into "attempting to repair."

I couldn't get it to boot, so I booted into Safe Mode and rolled back the NVIDIA driver to the factory driver.

Both GPUS are back to showing no caution signs under Device Manager, but same issues with the NVIDIA card as before the boot error.

[duskw4lker]

well I'm out of 'safe' ideas, because after doing a brief search, your problem raises the word VBIOS which in general is a no-no word for laptops.

 

some links to users with similar problems:

 

https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/flashing-original-vbios-causes-my-laptop-to-show-error-43.267223/

 

https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/clevo-laptop-gpu-appears-to-be-fried-replace-the-gtx1070-with-a-rtx2060.3744110/

 

https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/hardware-or-driver-gpu-error-code-43.3514587/

 

Also I wouldn't use Geforce Experience for managing my drivers, those automated and 'smart' software tend to make more of a mess than help the user, get your drivers and manage them manually. You don't need something else working the system behind the scenes while you are trying to troubleshoot.

 

Sadly error 43 is like the Check Engine light of VGAs so there might more factors involved eg: flashing gone wrong, faulty vram, thermals, insufficient power delivery, blah blah blah.

[Chowda289]

I guess my next step is to finish backing up my files. Then, I'll open it up and check it physically. Maybe, a cord is lose? (Hopeful. 😅) And I may just re-paste the card while I'm at it. If neither of that seems to be the problem, I'll try doing a factory reset.

 

Any ideas on why my RGB keyboard lights are having issues as well? Could the motherboard be affecting it?
Have you heard of any other users having faulty graphics for the PowerSpec laptops?
I'm really bummed since I was only able to use the card for about a year and a half. 😞

[KING19]

The static/artifacts is a sign that your GPU is dying, I would ask did you do any overclocking on it but its too far gone

 

Other signs of a dying GPU is Windows failing to detect your GTX 1070 and failed installations when installing any NVIDIA driver.

 

Unfortunately there nothing you can do about it. The laptop will work without the NVIDIA GPU because of the Intel IGP being used as your display(Optimus)