MSI Notebook GX640, black screen with games

Question

I own for two years MSI Notebook G series GX640 (Intel Core i5-460M, Ati Mobility RadeonHD 5850, 4GB RAM, 500 GB HDD). Recently I had to send it to the manufacturer because of a audiocard malfunction. It was the last call to do it on the warranty. It ended around a week ago (2 years warranty). The service guy filled an information for me (standard procedure). It stated: repair the audioboard and new ventilation installed. It seems they run some tests and updated the BIOS. After that I had some time (around 2 weeks) of cool work on the machine. Until recently... Here is a description of the problem.
During more demanding programs (games mostly) the PC runes smoothly for some minutes (10, 15, 20 or so) and without warning goes black screen. Sometimes you can still hear the sound from the game other times no. Also if I unplug the power cable and plug it back it sometimes goes to a very uneasy state with stripes on the monitor.
I tried to fix this by updating the CCC from ATI, also updated the video card drivers, today flashed the BIOS using the MSIHQ USB Bootable Tool and BIOS Helper. I used the 1656_031 archive from MSI. Searched the forum and the web for info and help... but no luck. So I post here with hope for help.
I suspect this is not an issue of hardware. If I turn off the PC and start it again works fine, I was also able to upload 2GB of video files to YouTube with no problems at all. As long as I run OS (Windows 7 64bit) or programs like text editors, browsers, video editors, audio editors, internet radio etc. It runes fine. But when I start games it just a no go. To give an example: Mass Effect 3, StarCraft II, Saint's Raw The Third, Borderlands.
My BIOS information; don't know if it will help:
BIOS version: E1656IMS.10E
BIOS build:     08/30/2010 15:58:14
EC version:    1656 EMS1 ver.4.08
EC build:        06/03/2010

Answer 1

Quote from: Fuzz Ball on 19-February-13, 10:53:50
I could assume (since you've started doing stuff to the bios) that you've done this already, but to make sure, have you checked the usage/temperature of your graphics card?
Actually I didn't do that... till now. For last 4 hours I have been running some games and programs to determine the usage and temperature on the graphics card. Here are the results:
Temperature in house was 24ᵒC.
While normal Windows 7 running temp. is around 50ᵒ to 54ᵒC
Watching video in 720p from hard drive temp. -> 55ᵒ to 56ᵒC
Games:
Book of Unwritten Tales (one game that is not going black screen on me), point and click adventure game -> 57ᵒC to 63ᵒC
Starcraft II -> 73ᵒC and black screen (5 to 7 minutes of play)
Mass Effect 3 -> 67ᵒC to 72ᵒC goes black screen
Borderlands -> 72ᵒC to 75ᵒC goes black screen
The Catalyst Control Center (CCC) from Ati I use is 13.1 the GPU is 625 MHz and the Memory of the GPU is 1000MHz. Fan goes around 30%.
Looks normal to me, no 90ᵒC.
Right after I end writing this post and publish it I will try to open the Notebook to at least try find any suspicious things inside. I will probably clean it, but there will be no real hardware intervention. I'm not that good with IT or electronics to try it by myself. So if any just cleaning from dust and a look inside.
P.S. There is one more test I might try tomorrow, run a game on a TV through HDMI to see if the problem will occur if it will that means it's not the display.
UPDATE:
Seems playing games in window mode might eliminate the problem. All above test's were done if full screen.