Mobility 9700 games keep crashing

My2Cents · Sep 16, 2005, 04:48 PM

Hello,

well i don't know what to do anymore that's why i'm hoping to find any clues here. Here's my story ...

I bought a BenQ Joybook 5100G some days ago (specs will follow at the end of the post). It has a Radeon Mobility 9700 graphics card and i'm running Windows XP Home SP2 (nothing special installed so far). The problem i've got is EVERY damn game (UT2004, FIFA2005) i've tried so far kept crashing after some seconds of working. Not only the game crashes, the whole PC is locked with a black screen and i'm not able to do anything besides rebooting.
My driver odysee goes like:
1.) Installing manufacture drivers -> games crash
2.) Installing Omega drivers -> games crash
3.) Uninstalling both and installing DNA drivers -> games crash
4.) Installing whole OS + 1. + 2. + 3. -> everytime games crash
...
8.) Installing Linux + ATI drivers -> games crash (dunno if this helps answering my question)

I don't want a fekkin' gamers-notebook. But as i'm going to university in some weeks i want at least these two games to work correctly to kill some time.
So please guys help a poor man repairing his toy.

Thanks in advance. I'm thankful for any idea you can give me.

Specs of the Notebook:
- Pentium M (735) 1,7 GHZ
- 512 MB RAM
- Radeon Mobility 9700 64 MB
- Motherboard Name: BENQ ODEM
- Motherboard Chipsatz: Intel Odem i855PM-333

For more information just keep asking here or mail me: Ripper@extrem-gamers.com

br00ksintexas · Sep 16, 2005, 06:37 PM

How old is the notebook? Also, what kind of surface is it on when you're trying to play games? Is the keyboard hot when it locks up? What's the ventilation like? Have you cleaned out the screens and heatsinks on the backside?

My2Cents · Sep 16, 2005, 07:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by br00ksintexas

How old is the notebook? Also, what kind of surface is it on when you're trying to play games? Is the keyboard hot when it locks up? What's the ventilation like? Have you cleaned out the screens and heatsinks on the backside?

It's brand-new. Playing on a normal table and as i can see nothing gets too hot.

But i tried something different than usual moments ago. I disconnected the USB mouse (controlled with touchpad) and i for myself think i could get a little further. At least i could start a game in FIFA2005 and UT2004 but then the same failure occured again...black screen and manual reboot.

(dunno if this really makes sense or can help getting a clue

)

br00ksintexas · Sep 17, 2005, 06:49 AM

It doesn't seem as if it should really make a difference. Myself, I use a usb trackball and keyboard, as well as a coolpad with additional usb ports. The only time I've had consistent problems concerning all gameplay was due to blockages of my cooling ports. With these plugged, my keyboard would heat up, then my screen would start showing artifacts, followed by extremely low to no frames per second in gameplay, then total lock-up. After cleaning, all was happy and in harmony.
I'm wondering, if you bought it locally, if you might consider taking it back to the sales location, and having them test it. I've seen on this board , on quite a few occassions, laptops (new) having just simply bad gpu's in them. If it is, then it should be under full warranty. IF it's not, then they should be able to figure out the cause of it. Being that it's happened since you bought it, and it only happens in games, I don't think it could be too many different possibilities.
Good Luck !
Kev

My2Cents · Sep 17, 2005, 07:16 AM

Thanks for your consideration anyway.

I'm trying something right now, that was suggested in some other forum. They said it could also possibly be a soundcard problem. Updating my soundcard drivers this moment also updated all other drivers which could cause any problem while gaming, as AGP drivers, etc.

Will post if it helped in any way. If not i'll contact BenQ and hope they'll have a clue or telling me to send it to them. Cause i didn't buy it locally but in an online-shop.

But thanks anyway

My2Cents · Sep 17, 2005, 07:48 AM

OK, now i'm almost sure it is a hardware related problem. I finally installed the catalyst control center and even there in the little preview demo my notebook keeps crashing.

So I'll contact BenQ on monday and will have them get me a new one or repair the current one.

Will keep informing you about the status.

swimtech · Sep 17, 2005, 11:32 AM

Could be a memory allocation problem - chipset driver update and/or bios fix might help this. Can you increase ram allocation for video from the bios setup?

Looking forward to seeing what BenQ says...

Scribe · Sep 18, 2005, 01:54 PM

Im not so sure, i have a 9700pro mobility. I have only been using apps via windows xp 64, however when i tried playing games i realised my gfx card overheated within 10mins, causing my mobo to trigger a shutdown. I then formated and had the same problem in xp 32-bit. However when i restored my laptops stock drivers i have been able to play games with no rebooting. At the moment i can only presume the drivers have been messed up around version 5.4.

There is still a small posability it is my CPU drivers, however i've had no overheating running high cpu none gaming apps.

My2Cents · Sep 27, 2005, 05:18 AM

Just for your notice, the gpu overheated and is therefore defect. BenQ took the notebook and will immediately send a new one.

swimtech · Sep 27, 2005, 07:44 AM

Thanks for the update, and you get a new laptop - nice!