Symptoms :
Laptop suddenly reboots in the middle of playing Watch Dogs.External display goes "No Signal" , my earphones give me a horrible crackling noise and the laptop display (BIOS uses the integrated Intel HD) goes "Windows Did Not Shut Down Successfully".
Happens in 20-30 minutes into the game but not during heated moments (always when there is no big action happening); other times runs for hours no problem.
What I've tried and ruled out :
Disabled any "Turn Off Display After" settings that pre-existed.
Used overnight defragging old HDDs ; does not self-reboot then - no problems with the power button and cables. At this time, it was likely running from integrated Intel HD as I have kept it as auto.
MemTest64 found no errors** with memory when stressing both memory and CPU to ~100% for 30 minutes. Seems like no RAM or CPU issues. CPU peak at 94-95 C (ambient 25 C).
MSI Kumbostor's (GL) MSI-01 ran for 35 minutes at 66-67 C for 100% (ambient 25 C) . So, No GPU or PSU or adapter-related issues.
The battery icon says " Plugged in, not charging " but it looses no charge, this is not the problem.
I briefly posted an answer that the cause was earphones. But after thorough testing I can see that it crashes regardless.
What cannot be ruled out :
- In my BIOS , there's no way to reduce PCI speeds to Gen1
- Bugs in the game or NVIDIA driver ?
- Some deeper hardware incompatibilities with this laptop and the EXP GDC ?
Similar issues found here and here .
Note : My laptop is using a desktop GPU and PSU with an external GPU adapter. The GPU is not a discreet , built-in one.
Setup :
- Laptop: Panasonic Toughbook CF-53 (specifically, CF-53SAPZYC7) with cleanly-installed Windows 7 Pro SP1 64-bit (latest updates and drivers AFAIK)
- CPU: i5-3340M
- RAM: 8GB DDR3 , dual channel
- eGPU adapter : EXP GDC Beast v8 Mini PCI-E
- GPU: GTX 750 ZT-70704-10M ; Driver 460.79 (latest)
- PSU: Zebronics 450 W PSU (ZEB-N450W)
- No overclocking whatsoever
EDITS :
Testing if noise and interruptions from other devices was the case, by securely wrapping all cables from the exp gdc in aluminium foil. Seems to be promising. At least all glitches and stutters are gone.
As of now, this issue remains unresolved.