Nova shutting down under load

[mrlip]

Hi All

Purchased a Nova last July which has been running absolutely great until this week when it has started to shut down when under any sort of load. For example playing RDR2 or running a Heaven benchmark, it will shut down after a minute or two at most. It does not appear to be a temperature issue, both CPU and GPU are no higher than 80 when the shutdown occurs.

Once the shutdown happens, it wont turn back on for around 10 seconds and then when it does, it doesn't recognise that the power brick is connected and indicates its on battery. In order for the power brick to work again, I have to unplug the AC lead (wall to brick lead) and plug it back into the brick, then the laptop picks up power again. HWInfo64 is also reporting some Power Reporting Deviation in the red.

When benchmarking, and occasionally in RDR2, just prior to the shutdown the FPS dip massively to around 5-10 FPS and I've noticed on HWInfo64 that when this occurs, CPU Package Power dives as low as 3W.

Potential faulty power brick?

I've tried to run benchmarking without the power brick connected to rule it out but whilst I can get the CPU to run at max power using the AMD Ryzen high performance plan, I cant get the GPU to run at max power even when setting "Prefer Maximum Performance" on Nvidia control panel, it won clock past 1200mhz so isn't really an accurate test.

Specs below -

Chassis & Display
Nova Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD 144Hz 72% NTSC LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 3700X Eight Core CPU (3.6GHz-4.4GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair 2666MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX 2070 - 8.0GB GDDR6 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (2000 MB/R, 1100 MB/W)
Memory Card Reader
Integrated Micro-SD Memory Card Reader
AC Adaptor
1 x 230W AC Adaptor
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Battery
Nova Series Detachable 4 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
2 Channel High Def. Audio + SoundBlaster™ Cinema
Wireless Network Card
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 (2.4 Gbps) + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
1 x USB 3.2 PORT (Type C) + 2 x USB 3.2 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Keyboard Language
15" NOVA SERIES UK KEYBOARD
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Keyboard & Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 1MP HD WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 13 to 15 working days
Promotional Item
Get Assassin’s Creed® Valhalla with select AMD Ryzen CPUs
Welcome Book
PCSpecialist Welcome Book - United Kingdom & Republic of Ireland

 

[SpyderTracks]

On HWMonitor it has a battery wear level, what's that reading just out of interest?

 

[mrlip]

Hi Spydertracks

5% wear level on the battery

 

[SpyderTracks]

Hi Spydertracks

5% wear level on the battery

When it shuts down, I take it it's a sudden cut out of power? No beeps or anything or BSOD?

 

[mrlip]

Yep complete shutdown and loss of power. Only warning it’s coming is the few seconds of slowdown beforehand. Sometimes Heaven benchmark will last 45 seconds, other times it will go after 10-15 seconds!

 

[SpyderTracks]

Yep complete shutdown and loss of power. Only warning it’s coming is the few seconds of slowdown beforehand. Sometimes Heaven benchmark will last 45 seconds, other times it will go after 10-15 seconds!

It is odd, certainly.

Have you applied any undervolt to the CPU at all?

I would try uninstalling HWInfo fully, and any other monitoring software as they've been known to conflict and give false readings on Ryzen.

Just use Ryzen Master to monitor temps and power draws, I believe you can log it to a file, maybe worth doing that just to fully rule out temps firstly.

 

[mrlip]

Yes I have ran with an under volt previously up to now when gaming however I’ve tried it at stock settings and same issue.

yeah I think RM can log to a file although it doesn’t log GPU temps as far as I know. Will run a benchmark again later and log RM readings to a file to try capture everything

 

[SpyderTracks]

Yes I have ran with an under volt previously up to now when gaming however I’ve tried it at stock settings and same issue.

yeah I think RM can log to a file although it doesn’t log GPU temps as far as I know. Will run a benchmark again later and log RM readings to a file to try capture everything

That may tell us more, although I think the data you've got already is certainly telling.

After this we can target the GPU separately just to see what that's doing.

 

[mrlip]

I'm struggling to find how to enable logging in Ryzen Master, can't seem to find the option. So I ran another Heaven benchmark at stock CPU settings with HWInfo64 enabled and it shutdown after 20 seconds or so. Attached is the CSV log (renamed extenstion to .txt for upload).

EDIT: I've also noticed that after shutdown, when I restart, Ryzen Master shows the PPT as 28W rather than the normal 88W. I have to reboot again for it to show 88W

 

[SpyderTracks]

I'm struggling to find how to enable logging in Ryzen Master, can't seem to find the option. So I ran another Heaven benchmark at stock CPU settings with HWInfo64 enabled and it shutdown after 20 seconds or so. Attached is the CSV log (renamed extenstion to .txt for upload).

EDIT: I've also noticed that after shutdown, when I restart, Ryzen Master shows the PPT as 28W rather than the normal 88W. I have to reboot again for it to show 88W

Have you got the csv?

 

[mrlip]

Oops attached now! Just to add as well, when using the laptop for browsing\downloading there is no issue, i was on it for 2 hours earlier without a problem. Its only when its under any sort of load.

 

[mrlip]

After some further testing earlier, I ran a cinebench R23 multicore test absolutely fine. Obviously that type of test uses primarily the CPU only.

So that would seem to point to either an issue with the GPU or an issue with the power brick when both CPU and GPU are drawing high power.

are there any benchmark tests that stress GPU only? I will try that to see if I can isolate it further

 

[djsubtronic]

After some further testing earlier, I ran a cinebench R23 multicore test absolutely fine. Obviously that type of test uses primarily the CPU only.

So that would seem to point to either an issue with the GPU or an issue with the power brick when both CPU and GPU are drawing high power.

are there any benchmark tests that stress GPU only? I will try that to see if I can isolate it further

For GPU stress test use Furmark.

 

[mrlip]

Ok starting to get somewhere now I think

As soon as I start a Furmark GPU Benchmark - QHD Preset test, the laptop loses AC power connection and switches to battery. In order for it to recognise AC power again, I have to unplug the wall plug to power brick lead and plug it back in.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Ok starting to get somewhere now I think

As soon as I start a Furmark GPU Benchmark - QHD Preset test, the laptop loses AC power connection and switches to battery. In order for it to recognise AC power again, I have to unplug the wall plug to power brick lead and plug it back in.

Hmmm.... that's pretty conclusive then.

What are the temps on the GPU?

 

[jamiephillips909]

From and including: Wednesday, 1 July 2020
To and including: Sunday, 9 May 2021

RESULT: 313 DAYS​

It is 313 days from the start date to the end date, end date included.

Or 10 months, 9 days including the end date.

your still in warrenty so thats a good thing that silver package really is a good buy

i am not sure on the open case policy of a laptop but may be worth checking if there is any bulging capacitors

tho that should be after the gpu has been troubleshooted as its more likely that

 

[mrlip]

During the Furmark test, GPU temps never go above 50c - because its losing AC Power, it won't push the clock past 1200mhz so temps never rise. I get a whopping 11FPS during the Furmark QHD test because its running on battery If I run a heaven benchmark, as mentioned that will lead to a shutdown and highest GPU temp is 64 before it dies.

I have just spotted that on the heaven benchmark, it is also losing AC power which is when the stutters start. It doesn't lose AC power straight away like Furmark,but after 20-30 seconds or so, it drops AC power, stutters for a few seconds then shuts down.

Think I should contact PCS, link them to this thread and request a new power brick is sent out?

And yes Jamie, the silver warranty really is worth the extra few quid it seems! That was a recommendation by SpyderTracks at the time

 

[jamiephillips909]

could also be a issue with the adapter itself ?

 

[SpyderTracks]

During the Furmark test, GPU temps never go above 50c - because its losing AC Power, it won't push the clock past 1200mhz so temps never rise. I get a whopping 11FPS during the Furmark QHD test because its running on battery If I run a heaven benchmark, as mentioned that will lead to a shutdown and highest GPU temp is 64 before it dies.

I have just spotted that on the heaven benchmark, it is also losing AC power which is when the stutters start. It doesn't lose AC power straight away like Furmark,but after 20-30 seconds or so, it drops AC power, stutters for a few seconds then shuts down.

Think I should contact PCS, link them to this thread and request a new power brick is sent out?

And yes Jamie, the silver warranty really is worth the extra few quid it seems! That was a recommendation by SpyderTracks at the time

Yeah, I think that's one for PCS, something very odd going on there!

 

[mrlip]

Yeah that is what I am thinking, hopefully its just a bad AC brick rather than the GPU. I will raise a support message to PCS. Think first solution would be to try a new power brick unless they suggest otherwise. I nearly bought a spare when I got the laptop but decided against it - wish I had now!

I will message them now and keep this thread updated with progress in case others have a similar issue in the future.