Driver power state failure

[Sidistic]

Hi everyone.
I received my laptop last month but because I work away I haven't been able to use it properly. However now that I have been able to use it. I keep getting BSOD with the error message driver power state failure. I've googled it, reinstalled my graphic card, fresh driver. Scanned my computer and updated everything but nothing seems to help. I've had this error message from the beginning. It seems to happen when I open Nvidia experience, it sometimes works or sometimes crashes. I've managed to game without any issues. But yeah that random BSOD is worrying me. SO any advise? any idea of a software that could scan my computer to make sure everything is up to date? I've used file hippo but it doesn't look for drivers.

Here's my specs:
Chassis & Display
Optimus Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD IPS LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i5 Quad Core Processor 6300HQ (2.3GHz, 3.2GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)
8GB Kingston SODIMM DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 960M - 2.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 12
1st Hard Disk
120GB KINGSTON V300 SSD, SATA 6 Gb (450MB/R, 450MB/W)
2nd Hard Disk
750GB WD BLACK 2.5" WD7500BPKX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
2nd/3rd HDD HARD DRIVE OPTICAL BAY CADDY (9.5mm)
Memory Card Reader
Integrated 6 in 1 Card Reader (SD /Mini SD/ SDHC / SDXC / MMC / RSMMC)
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Def. Audio + SoundBlaster™ Cinema 2
Wireless/Wired Networking
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® N-7265 M.2 (300Mbps, 802.11BGN) + BLUETOOTH
USB Options
4 x USB 3.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
Battery
Optimus Series 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (62.16WH)
Power Cable
1 x UK Power Lead & 120W AC Adaptor
Keyboard Language
OPTIMUS SERIES BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence

 

[ubuysa]

There are known issues with Windows 10 and NVIDIA graphics cards, especially on Optimus laptops. PCS should be well aware of them so I'd give PCS a call and see what they have to say.

 

[Sidistic]

OK after doing even more research I think I found the problem: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...y/ece97a03-f8d8-4380-96f9-4a2ed5723fde?auth=1

Nvidia optimus is the issue.

 

[Sidistic]

Ok so this is not good at all. Contacted pc specialist and they told me to install drivers 354.00. This works great. But those drivers are very out dated. I can't start star wars battlefront as it requires drivers 358.50 as a minimum. So this laptop was bought as a gaming laptop but in order to use it as a gaming laptop I have to accept the fact that I will get random BSOD or if I do use the old drivers some of the games I play won't work ...

 

[ubuysa]

Ok so this is not good at all. Contacted pc specialist and they told me to install drivers 354.00. This works great. But those drivers are very out dated. I can't start star wars battlefront as it requires drivers 358.50 as a minimum. So this laptop was bought as a gaming laptop but in order to use it as a gaming laptop I have to accept the fact that I will get random BSOD or if I do use the old drivers some of the games I play won't work ...

Sadly this is either a Microsoft and/or an NVIDIA problem and it's been around for some time now. My gut feel is that they're playing ping-pong over whose issue it is. It will get sorted eventually, though I appreciate that's not good for you now. Such is life sometimes....

 

[Sidistic]

Thanks for the reply, even with the 354.00 driver I still had the issue. As long as I don't open nvidia experience it seems to work ok. I've reinstalled the latest drivers and will have to live with the BSOD. Is there a way to desactivate the whole optimus thing? As in always use the Nvidia?

 

[BlessedSquirrel]

Thanks for the reply, even with the 354.00 driver I still had the issue. As long as I don't open nvidia experience it seems to work ok. I've reinstalled the latest drivers and will have to live with the BSOD. Is there a way to desactivate the whole optimus thing? As in always use the Nvidia?

Just wondering, are you using the Intel update utility for Intel drivers?

 

[Sidistic]

I did however both updates failed everytime.


Ok I'm 100% sure it's Nvidia experience the problem. I didn't touch it for hours, played loads of games, browsed internet, everything was smooth. Decided to check NE be cause I installed a new game and Poof BSOD (Driver power state failure). It happens even when NE isn't used. I played for a bit, browsed, tried to start Ark survival evolved then crash. I'm 10/10 confused as of why Nvidia & Microsoft aren't doing anything about this. Did this work with previous version of windows or is it a windows 10 only type of problem?

 

[BlessedSquirrel]

A reply is in moderation, but will make a post explaining why I asked as will be out until late today...

I have never used the intel update utility before until the other day when I decided to download it and check my intel drivers.

It reported that my integrated graphics driver was out of date so I downloaded the update through it and installed. When installing it warned me that my current driver was newer, but I thought I'd install anyway. Straight after I got a BSOD for the first time with DRIVER_POWERSTATE_FAILURE on the touchpad driver.

So I manually uninstalled the iGPU driver and allowed windows to reinstall, low and behold, windows installed the same, newer driver and the system was back to being stable.

Basically, don't trust the Intel Driver update utility, it appears to recommend false drivers. Allow windows to govern your intel drivers (except chipset which you should manually install).

 

[ubuysa]

....

Basically, don't trust the Intel Driver update utility, it appears to recommend false drivers. Allow windows to govern your intel drivers (except chipset which you should manually install).

Fully agree with that. This has been my experience too. I understand that Windows Update has access to more recent drivers (Beta?) than you get via Intel's update tool. It pains me to say this because it goes against years of experience, but in Windows 10 let Windows update install all drivers (except possibly the chipset driver).

To the OP, have you tried uninstalling NVIDIA Geforce Experience and seeing whether that helps?

 

[Sidistic]

You can't dissociate Nvidia experience and the drivers anymore. They all come as one bundle. I honestly believe it's the optimus system that is the cause of all this, sometimes when the Nvidia card goes idle and needs to restart, it doesn't hence why I get the driver power state failure. If someone knows what they are doing they could read my error log to see which driver failed?

 

[ubuysa]

You can't dissociate Nvidia experience and the drivers anymore. They all come as one bundle. I honestly believe it's the optimus system that is the cause of all this, sometimes when the Nvidia card goes idle and needs to restart, it doesn't hence why I get the driver power state failure. If someone knows what they are doing they could read my error log to see which driver failed?

Interesting. I just uninstalled Geforce Experience (via IOBit Uninstaller) and it did also delete the driver (Optimus IV). However, going into Device Manager and selecting the NVDIA GPU shows the driver is still installed (it reports as 10.18.13.5891, dated 05/11/2015 in there). Clicking update driver and searching Windows Update finds no newer driver. So it would appear that you can delete Geforce experience and leave the GPU driver intact. Worth a try anyway....

 

[Sidistic]

Interesting. I just uninstalled Geforce Experience (via IOBit Uninstaller) and it did also delete the driver (Optimus IV). However, going into Device Manager and selecting the NVDIA GPU shows the driver is still installed (it reports as 10.18.13.5891, dated 05/11/2015 in there). Clicking update driver and searching Windows Update finds no newer driver. So it would appear that you can delete Geforce experience and leave the GPU driver intact. Worth a try anyway....

Ok will try that. THe thing is the error is so random you never really know if it's fixed. Been in touch with PCS techniciens but not much luck so far.

Here's my crash reports if anyone is interrested. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ol9ivxs7j2mzm81/AADKY8RpnDl4GaBbBQB34lVma?dl=0

I use bluescreen viewer to read the dump file. Just have no clue what I'm looking for.

122315-6031-01.dmp 23/12/2015 16:55:32 DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE 0x0000009f 00000000`00000003 ffffe001`95996060 ffffd001`5a31fce0 ffffe001`959dd010 ntoskrnl.exe ntoskrnl.exe+142760 x64 ntoskrnl.exe+142760 C:\Users\curti\Desktop\New folder\122315-6031-01.dmp 4 15 10586 1,097,100 23/12/2015 16:56:08

 

[Sidistic]

Seriously frustrated, opened netflix and it crash. This computer is unreliable, it's frustrating and I'm borderline regretting buying it.

How can i disable optimus and only use the Nvidia graphic?

 

[ubuysa]

Seriously frustrated, opened netflix and it crash. This computer is unreliable, it's frustrating and I'm borderline regretting buying it.

How can i disable optimus and only use the Nvidia graphic?

It might pay you to downgrade the OS to Windows 8.1, not an ideal solution I grant you but I'm pretty certain your problems are Windows 10 related.

 

[Sidistic]

I do not have any other copy of windows, in that case I'd rather go back to window 7.

I found some updates for my intel graphic card so fingers crossed.

Also PCS said to RMA the computer since neither the 354.00 drivers or the 361.43 drivers work properlly. I do believe that it's just a conflict between Nvidia and Windows and therefore there's no point in RMA plus it's just not ideal since I always work away from home.

I noticed the temparute reading for the GPU is really weird. Why does it fluctuate between 0 and the actual temperature?

 

[ubuysa]

Personally I would listen to PCS, they know a lot more about this stuff than you or I, so if they think it's a problem they can fix I'd let them. My opinion, like yours, is that this is a Windows 10 issue but PCS are the real experts.

I have no idea what's causing the GPU temp to fluctuate, but my educated guess would be the hardware sensor. All these temperature reporting tools do is read the hardware sensors.

Let us know how you get on with this, especially if PCS do fix it.

 

[Sidistic]

The last suggestion was to try older drivers. So far I've tried drivers 353.62 to 358.80 (6 drivers in total + 361.43) and 358.80 seems to work fine, all games work and haven't had a crash yet. sensors are still giving weird readings though.

I'll keep testing this driver as see if it crashes. Thanks for the help ubuysa.

 

[ubuysa]

It may be that your hardware monitor only samples the temperature sensor? That would explain the square wave you see. It seems the clock readings show the same effect. What's important, certainly with temperature, is the moving average reading and you seem to have nothing to worry about on that score.

 

[Sidistic]

Yeah when gaming, the temperature stops fluctuating between 0 and the actual temperature, and I get a steady reading. The GPU fans seems to only start blowing when I go above 70°C. I think BSOD crash have stopped with drivers 358.50 haven't had 1 in over 3h30 and I've done the usual gaming, browse a little to allow the GPU to idle then game some more.

I did the a clean install using DDU then custom driver install (no 3D vision and no Nvidia experience). All seems fine

THanks again and merry Xmas. I'll come back if i get anymore BSOD.