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8600M GT keeps underclocking itself


Wihl

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Playing games on my 8600M GT works fine (WoW, AoC etc) but after a few minutes of gameplay it underclocks itself to half the speed. I have not overclocked it and the temperature is always <60 C when it underclocks itself. This is becoming increasingly annoying, I'm even thinking about selling the laptop because this is just extremely frustrating.

I have tried a few different drivers but I keep having the same problem (using 175.16 right now). I have also replaced the graphics card (it died on me) but this still keeps happening, so it's definately a driver issue. Can someone recommend a driver that does not downclock itself randomly? I have to reboot to get it back to normal right now which is annoying to say the least.

Dell Vostro 1500

C2D 1.8 Ghz T7100

3 GB RAM

8600M GT 256 MB

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Guest Marino
Well, is there any way to fix it then?

probably you'll get disappointed by this...but, after putting windows xp in my laptop, I have just become an happy user.

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Just turn Nvidia PowerMizer off. That will work around your problem.

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you could try this:

reinstall the the driver but before you do.

mod the modded inf.

in the modded inf (open with notepad) you will find this:

;Powermizer settings
HKR,, PowerMizerDefault,			 %REG_DWORD%,	3
HKR,, PowerMizerEnable,			  %REG_DWORD%,	1
HKR,, PowerMizerLevel,			   %REG_DWORD%,	3
HKR,, PowerMizerLevelAC,			 %REG_DWORD%,	1
HKR,, PowerSaverHsyncOn,			 %REG_DWORD%,	1
HKR,, EnableCoreSlowdown,			%REG_DWORD%,	1
HKR,, EnableMClkSlowdown,			%REG_DWORD%,	1
HKR,, EnableNVClkSlowdown,		   %REG_DWORD%,	1

change to this perhaps?:

;Powermizer settings
HKR,, PowerMizerDefault,			 %REG_DWORD%,	3
HKR,, PowerMizerEnable,			  %REG_DWORD%,	0
HKR,, PowerMizerLevel,			   %REG_DWORD%,	3
HKR,, PowerMizerLevelAC,			 %REG_DWORD%,   1
HKR,, PowerSaverHsyncOn,			 %REG_DWORD%,	0
HKR,, EnableCoreSlowdown,			%REG_DWORD%,	0
HKR,, EnableMClkSlowdown,			%REG_DWORD%,	0
HKR,, EnableNVClkSlowdown,		   %REG_DWORD%,	0

save the settings and install the driver.

im not sure if it will work, but use gpuz to see if the clocks remain on maximum 3d speeds even on idle.

that shows powermizer is disabled.

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Are you running Vista? If you are, I am sorry. I forgot that Vista does not have such an option.

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Guest Yety

Yes, I'm running Vista 64. :-/

But for me it looks as if it's no usual behaviour that the cevice clocks down to 297MHz(in my case) and its impossible to bring it up to its usual speed using rivatuner. Does anyone have a clue, why the device is behaving like this?

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Guest darkwulfe

Same issue occurs while playing AoC, and sometimes while playing Crysis, with my laptop using a GeForce Go 7900gtx 512mb. The temperature is not causing this issue, as far as I can tell, because I monitor it constantly, and it has never exceeded 70C. Sometimes I can play AoC for 2+ hours without the downclock, other times, only 20 minunes, and it forces me to restart the computer each time. I'm running Win XP Pro 32-bit, so I don't think this issue is limited to Vista. My PowerMizer is also disabled, so that is not causing it either, as far as I can tell. Any more input/help would be greatly appreciated.

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Guest Yety

Yes, it's exactly the same issue for me... The only difference is that I'm just playing AoC and not Crysis. :)

But atm I'm using te 167.62 driver and I was able to play for more than 1h without the downclocking. But somehow I've got the feeling, the game doesn't look that good using this driver. I think the bloom-effect isn't rendered correctly as it should.

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Guest qazzaq2004

I tried modding the modded inf, but that didn't help at all...gpu still clocks down

Anyone know good drivers where powermizer doesn't downclock the gpu after 2 mins of gaming?

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So... Had some testing hours right now...

Atm 167.62 seems to be stable for AoC an Performance is ok but as I said it doesn't look that well.

Tried do mod the inf for several 175.XX drivers. But its downclocking after an undefined amount of time. It's right, that when you use the modded inf as mentioned above, that the device doesn'nt clock down when not gaming.

I also tried to use this registry-"hack":

Setting the value of \HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Video\{**unique to you for nvidia**}\0000\PerfLevelSrc from "3322" to "2222"

I found that one in another forum. But it seems to have the same effect as if you would mod the inf.

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Guest Helpful_Harry

Dell Vostro 1500 (laptop)

T7500 2.2 GHz

2GB ram

Geforce 8600m GT

i know the 169.21 is for desktop but it still works for laptops and i have not had any problems

i went to nvidia site and downloaded driver 169.21 (make sure to dl the right ver 32 or 64) Extracted the files the clicked to do the setup and it failed (which is ok) then went to device manager and display adapters and found my Geforce 8600m GT and right clicked and picked Update Drivers ... Pick No, not this time - Next ... Install from a list or specific location (advanced) - Next.... Don't search, I will choose the driver to install - Next... click Have Disk ... Browse to where you extracted the 169.21 drivers... pick the nv4_disp.inf and click open...then click OK ...i then searched for the first NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT (it will not have an "m" after 8600, thats ok) it will then pop up a message saying it isn't recommended to install this driver blah blah blah Click YES and let it finish, your screen will look large but do a reboot and you should be good to go.

for Age of Conan i was getting about 17 fps now i get about 30 - 40 fps avg i play on low settings and disable a few option and it still looks good (well enough for me) i did notice that every once in a great great while it will pause for a second or 2 but very very rarley. fixed my problem and i am very happy.

Hope this helps

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Thanks Helpful Harry,

but this solution doesn't work for me .... :)

At the moment this bug just doesn't appear when I'm using a 167.XX driver. Tried several versions during the last days an this was the only stable tree, I could find. Also the new 177.26 has this bug. I also noticed when playing Age of Conan (wich causes the phenomena) that the bug will just occur in some regions not in all. So atm I believe, it could be a special issue of this game.

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I'm running an Inspiron 1520, T7500, 2GB, 8600m @ 610/470 running 174.74.

I've experienced the same issues as explained in the other posts, which I find quite inexplicable. Every aspect of the problem seems identical to an overheating issue. I do not believe the issue is game-specific, as I have experienced the dreaded 'your display driver has stopped responding' message in COD4, Crysis, HL2, FEAR, whatever. Even more confusingly, it seems that if nvlddmkm crashes, then you restart and go straight back into gaming, it will crash again in a matter of minutes. Again, seems like an overheating issue but I have monitored temps with both rivatuner and i8kfangui and they never go above 70c on the gpu. Further, I've had the crash happen when just started and temps ~45c. The only thing which seems to remedy the situation is reducing the overclock; I find that lowering it to 580/455 is usually enough to play COD4 MP for a while without trouble, though occasionally will still get a crash.

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I have never seen any message about a non working display driver. :)

The game just stutters for about 2-3s and then the GPU is clocked down.

And I do not use any overclocking. I operate the GPU at its default clock of 500MHz.

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I have never seen any message about a non working display driver. :)

The game just stutters for about 2-3s and then the GPU is clocked down.

And I do not use any overclocking. I operate the GPU at its default clock of 500MHz.

I believe the problems are related. If you google "nvlddmkm" you'll find a bunch of posts on various boards about users of nvidia gfx cards who are experiencing this problem. The associated downclocking seems confined only to users of mobile nvidia cards.

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This is the same fix I recommended earlier, except it only disables PowerMizer when the system is plugged up.

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Guest Thomas

I have an Acer 5920G, it has a GeForce 8600M GT 256MB graphic card.

I have tried very many drivers.

I am currently playing Rainbow Six Vegas 2, and my graphic card is underclocking itself after 20-60min... :)

There is actually nothing special happening, all the sudden fps drops, and textures are reloading.

Once I close the game, frequencies are restored.

But why does it underclock in the first time, temp is not even hot.

I have tried disable powermizer, I think it has been disable, since my power management no longer gives my the option of graphic power usage (Balanced/Performance).

Earlier drivers sometimes "crashed" but was able to restore, the screen went black for several seconds, but the screen does not go black.

Any ideas?

Thomas

:)

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I have a Vostro 1500 and i'm experiencing this problem too.

I've tried EVERYTHING with the new drivers: changing the card ID so the drivers install as it if were a 8600 GTS, the powermizer fix they recommended, trying to set all 3 frequencies (2d, low 3d, 3d) to the same value... Thus far, nothing has worked, games keep underclocking themselves after the screen freezes for like 5-10 seconds.

I'm going to download some 171.xx drivers see it they solve the issue.

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Yes, playing around with Powermizer options is defninetely not the solution to our problem. Using the driver Versions I talked about in former posts seems unfortunately to be the only solution for our problem.

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171.16 don't solve the issue. Going to try with the 167.62 you recommended.

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