OMEN Laptop keeps crashing when playing demanding games

[QuentinB]

Hello!

I purchased an OMEN laptop last week and I keep experiencing crashes when playing high-end games (namely the last Tomb Raider, GTAV, Total War Warhammer and Divinity II, haven't experienced crashes on other games). 

The crashes occur seemingly at random during the game session, between 30min and 1h30 after launch. Screen goes completely black (I think there's no backlight at all), sound shuts down instantly and the computer is completely unresponsive, save for the notification sound if I plug or unplug somethin, which I guess means windows is still running in the background.

The keyboard is still lit and the fans running. If I click the power button it appears to go into sleep mode but stay in the same state when I boot it back up. The only solution is to press the power button long enough to shut it down completely and boot it again.

All drivers are up to date through the HP assistant, i reinstalled the nvidia driver already, so I'm pretty much at loss here, any help would be greatly appriciated!

Thanks in advance

[Jeet_singh]

@QuentinB,

Thanks for engaging in HP support Forums! This is a wonderful location to converse with the community, get assistance and find tips! I understand you are having issues with the laptop keeps crashing while playing games. Don't worry we'll work together to help you find a solution.

To provide you with an accurate solution, I'll need a few more details:

Have you recently made any changes on the PC before the issue started?

Have you tried to update the Bios?

In the meantime, let's try these steps here: 

Perform a Hard reset on the notebook: 

Many startup errors and other problems can be resolved by decreasing the amount of power stored in hardware components. Decreasing stored power is sometimes referred to as a "Hard Reset". Use the following steps to perform a hard reset on a computer:

1. If Windows is open, click Start and then Shutdown.

   If Windows is not open and the computer has power, press and hold the power button on the computer until the computer shuts off.

2. With the power off, disconnect the power cord from the back of the computer.

3. With the power off and the power cord disconnected, press the power button on the computer for 5 seconds. The power light indicator on or near the power button might turn on briefly but then go out.

4. Reconnect the power cord and turn on the power.

Press the power button long enough to shut it down completely and boot it again. - It's not the recommended way of turning off the PC, request you to follow these steps which are listed in the support document  - Step 1: Unlock the unresponsive computer

Alternatively, I would suggest you try to update the Bios and Chipset drivers on your PC from our HP support website, using this link.

If the issue persists, please try these steps as well: 

Right-click your desktop background and select NVIDIA Control Panel. You can also find this tool by performing a Start menu (or Start screen) search for NVIDIA Control Panel or by right-clicking the NVIDIA icon in your system tray and selecting Open NVIDIA Control Panel. 

  

To quickly set a system-wide preference, you could use the Adjust image settings with the preview option. For example, if you have old hardware that struggles to play the games you want to play, you may want to select “Use my preference emphasizing” and move the slider all the way to “Performance.” This trades graphics quality for an increased frame rate. 

  

By default, the “Use the advanced 3D image settings” option is selected. You can select Manage 3D settings and change advanced settings for all programs on your computer or just for specific games. NVIDIA keeps a database of the optimal settings for various games, but you’re free to tweak individual settings here. Just mouse-over an option for an explanation of what it does. 

  

If you have a laptop with NVIDIA Optimus technology — that is, both NVIDIA and Intel graphics — this is the same place you can choose which applications will use the NVIDIA hardware and which will use the Intel hardware. 

If nothing helps, then I would suggest here is to Run an extensive system test as well as a test on the graphics card from F2(Please capture the failure ID for further assistance).

Please let me know if this resolves the issue, or if you require further assistance!

Eagerly waiting for your response!

I hope you have a good day ahead,

And Feel free to ask your queries as this forum has some of the best people in the world available and ready to help.

Regards,

[QuentinB]

Hi and thanks for your reply @Jeet_singh,

I tried to do a hardware check but the HP tool doesn't launch when I boot (pressing F2 at startup does nothing, the computer boots normally). I launched a windows memory check last night though, but this morning the progress was still stuck at 21% on the first pass (I chose an extensive check with 2 passes). I launched it again this morning before going to work and I'll see the results in 6h or so.

Two days ago I performed a clean install of the NVidia driver for the geforce 1070 and it seemed to do the trick for a while, haven't had a crash in multiples gaming sessions on Divinity II, Total War Warhammer and GTAV. But yesterday it crashed again (~2h after launching GTAV I think). I rebooted the PC and it happened again, 45min into the session... It looks like I'm back where I was.

To answer your questions, I didn't make any significant change to the laptop, as I said I bought it 2 weeks ago. The Bios was updated through the HP assistant tool.

Does it look like a hardware issue? I need to send it back soon if I want to exchange it for a new one easily. Aside from these crashes everything is running smoothly, the temps are in acceptable range (72°c top when I run the GPU at full capacity with a stress test), and the crashes don't seem to be correlated to anything (I checked the event logs, they show the errors related to the hard reboot when crashes occur, but nothing before that...).

Thanks again for your patience and support, hope to hear from you soon!

[Jeet_singh]

@QuentinB,

Thank you for replying,

As I understand you have followed the steps suggested and still having the issue. Don't worry as I have a few other steps which should help you resolve this issue.

Answering to your question - Does it look like a hardware issue? Most likely it looks to be a possible hardware failure where the graphics card is not performing to its optimal performance. 

So, I would suggest here is to Install the latest UEFI Diagnostics from this link: HP PC Hardware Diagnostics

Once done, run a test on the video card which is listed under Component test from F2(Please capture the failure ID for further assistance).

Depending on the test results, I would suggest you contact our HP phone support for available service related options. 

HP Technical Support can be reached by clicking on the following link: http://h22207.www2.hp.com/us-en/?openCLC=true

(1) Once the support page opens please select the country in which you're located. Next, enter your HP model number on the right.

(2) Next, choose the 'Contact Support' tab at the top and scroll down to the bottom of the 'HP Support- Contact' page to fill out the form provided with your contact information.

(3) Once completed click the 'Show Options' icon on the bottom right.

(4) Lastly, scroll down to the bottom of the page and select 'Get the phone number.' A case number and phone number will now populate for you.

If you have any troubles, let me know and I will do my best to help!

Hope this helps, for any further queries reply to the post and feel free to join us again

Feel free to post your query for any other assistance as well,

It's been a pleasure interacting with you and I hope you have a good day ahead.

If you wish to show appreciation for my efforts, mark my post as Accepted Solution.

And click on the Purple Thumbs up icon at the bottom of my comment.

Regards,