Windows 7 Another Kernel-Power (63) problem

[vitorbm]

Hi all! My first post here.

So, to be short, I'm getting the Critical Kernel-Power event. I've googled this for so long now! I've found many solutions but none of them worked for me. And only a few cases were exactly like mine, which I will explain further.

I've got a brand new XPS 15 from Dell about 1 month ago. But for some reason I'm having this issue when playing some games. First, I was getting it on Warcraft 3 (because I play DOTA and it was the first game I installed). Then I had the same crash on GTA IV a few times, and once on Civilization V. Right now I'm testing on some old steam games (TFC and CS).

On War3, it may happen on the menu screen (like 5 seconds after I opened it), or it may also take like 10-15 mins to crash. On GTA, it was really random. I get no BSOD, no minidump etc. My notebook just shuts down out of nowhere. And when I turn it on again, I get the safety start options etc.

Before I go further with my specs, I'd like to know where do I get and what information is needed here, as I'm not really used to make topics like this.

Thanks in advance!

Update: played TFC for about 15 min and no crash!

 

[Saltgrass]

I would have to guess it is related to either video or sound. If you have the latest drivers for your system, you might try changing the video or sound options for a specific game and concentrate on just that until you can tell what might be at the root of the problem.

I play Crysis and it will occassionally freeze and give me a "Do you want to change your resolution options" type message when it reverts to Windows. It does not freeze my computer, however.

 

[vitorbm]

I would have to guess it is related to either video or sound. If you have the latest drivers for your system, you might try changing the video or sound options for a specific game and concentrate on just that until you can tell what might be at the root of the problem.

I play Crysis and it will occassionally freeze and give me a "Do you want to change your resolution options" type message when it reverts to Windows. It does not freeze my computer, however.

Well, what I first thought was something related to video/audio.. So I double checked my drivers and they are fine. Then I thought it was something about having 2 audio devices working together (like some people pointed out when I was looking for a solution), so I disabled one, then the other one, then both.. nothing.

I also tried changing the res and such. Specially on war3, where it'd crash very fast. When I put a very low res with everything on low, it feels like it takes longer to crash on the long run, but it still crashes very fast sometimes.

And what pisses me off is that it just shuts down out of nowhere, on any circunstances Btw, it also crashed when I was reviewing that windows note/grade or whatever. Same thing, just shutted down.

 

[Saltgrass]

I am going out on a limb and suggest a memory corruption situation. Whether from the actual memory, or a page file or some driver. Have you run the memtest for a while to check? Maybe even a chkdsk.

If the unit is new, contact Dell. They are usually very good about helping with problems. You may need some type of warranty work or something replaced.

 

[vitorbm]

Thanks for the quick reply!

Yeah, I've ran the memcheck for about.. 25 minutes or so, and no errors. I'd rather run out of alternatives before contacting Dell to get the warrancy, tbh. Mainly because I'll be very busy on the next 2 or 3 weeks, so I might wait for a month or so before doing that.

I will run the chkdsk and stuff like that, but if you guys have any other idea, please share! I'd like to try everything before contacting Dell!

 

[vitorbm]

Ok, great. I've just performed the GTA IV Benchmark test and when it ends, it says that it was ran with my Intel Graphics, not my Geforce 540M. What the hell?

 

[vitorbm]

Well, I give up.

Thanks for the quick replies guys!

 

[Saltgrass]

You don't have to give up. The fact the disabled video was used must mean something. Since I do not know your motherboard, is there a way to disable the onboard video in the bios?

If inserting a video card is supposed to shut it off, is your card in the correct slot? Is it completely seated?

Or does the utility you ran ask which video to run it on?

 

[vitorbm]

So, I can't really disable the onboard video. If I do it on the device manager, I get a black screen and have to reset the notebook. I'm gonna see if I can do something on the BIOS, but imo it's not gonna work. Gonna give it a shot though.

Even though the GTA benchmark test says it was ran with Intel card, when I updated my drivers to the first one (downloading it direct from Dell's website), the Geforce card was completely disabled. In game, it was saying that my video card wasn't good enough etc, so THAT was actually the Intel card. It's a little weird how it says that the test was ran with the onboard video card, though.

Well, it's probably on the right slot, and I don't want to open the notebook or else I might lose the warrancy. And it IS finding the Geforce card, it's just that it's not working properly, I guess.

Googling my problem, I see that it's preety common having that issue with this video card (geforce 540m). Many people are asking for a new driver release that will fix that exact kind of problem.

I'm kinda out of alternatives right now Tried all the drivers, then the driver recommended by Dell, then I tried to set many different options on win7 video options, Nvidia options, in game options.. updated my bios, double checked my sound drivers, etc etc. Basically I tried every single solution I've found in google, and it looks like my case is a litlte more complicated.

 

[vitorbm]

Ok, so I've played a bit of TFC and I'm getting some random lag when there's more than 3 or 4 things happening on the screen.. seriously, TFC is from 1999.

 

[vitorbm]

Guys, looks like I've found a solution.

http://www.sevenforums.com/crashes-debugging/104790-possible-causes-kernel-power-critical-errors.html

I've tried disabling the log event on windows services before, but as I found out today, you need to set it to disabled and then RESET the pc, or else it won't stop running.

Done that, and now GTA IV run very very smoothly. Still gonna test other games and such, but looks like it's solved.

Thanks for the help