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Archive 2012 · Blue Screen of Death

  
 
Whaler
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Blue Screen of Death


On 1/27/12 I purchased a new Asus N75SF-DH71 laptop ($1300.) from B & H for the sole purpose of photo editing. The laptop has all the bells and whistles; i7 CPU, 8 GB RAM, twin 500 GB hard drives, etc. I loaded Lightroom and a few photos and discoverd that when connected to and ONLY when connected to an external monitor the new laptop crashes/Blue Screen of Death when using "Adjustment Brush" in Lightroom. The laptop has been sent back and forth to Asus twice to no avail. Asus finally sent me a new laptop of the same model even though I requested to a choice of different replacement model laptop. The new laptop arrived I downloaded the Adobe software and as with the original laptop, the POS crashed when tethered to an external monitor. I immediately emailed the person I have been dealing with at Asus and she has not replied to any of several emails that I have sent over the past week. In an attempt to prove to Asus that the N75SF-DH71 has driver/hardware/software issues I went to Best Buy and purchased the cheapest Asus laptop they had on the shelf. I brought the $349 wonder home, downloaded the Adobe software, and connected an external monitor, also an Asus. As with my 4 year old Dell laptop and the Dell laptop before that the $349 laptop performed flawlessly. I scanned the Best Buy receipt as well as the serial number on the Asus box, and photographed the laptops together in an effort to validate my experiment. I put it all together in an email and sent it on to the person at Asus with an offer to drive to Fremont, CA and do a little 2 minute demo. I have yet to hear back from Asus. I think that as a consumer I have gone way above and beyond to demonstrate that Asus has a problem with this particular laptop model. You would think that Asus would be interested correcting the problem, apparently not. As it stands right now I am out $1300.

Edited on Mar 18, 2012 at 03:50 PM · View previous versions



Mar 18, 2012 at 10:34 AM
Monito
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Blue Screen of Death


The video card or onboard graphics in the laptop you chose to purchase might not be compatible with Lightroom / Photoshop. It might squeak by driving the laptop but not the external monitor.

Have you looked at the Adobe site to check that the graphics is compatible?

Have you considered paragraphing?



Mar 18, 2012 at 12:14 PM
BobCollette
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Blue Screen of Death


I agree with Monito that it's likely a graphics problem. I don't use Lightroom, however Photoshop CS5 has an option in the Performance Preferences to "Enable OpenGL Drawing". The idea is that if you have an OpenGL compatible graphics card, Photoshop can offload some of the processing to the GPU. I suspect that Lightroom may be doing a similar thing. Look at Lightroom's preferences and see if there is an option to enable OpenGL (or something similar). If it does, and it's checked, try unchecking it. Also, make sure that your graphics driver is up to date.


Mar 18, 2012 at 12:22 PM
Whaler
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Blue Screen of Death


Thank you for the reply. Why then does it not occur with a 4 yr old Dell and the inexpensive Asus I purchased for testing? The graphics card is a NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M which is a workhorse. With regards to "opengl drawing", the only reference I could find was for PSCS.


Mar 18, 2012 at 02:08 PM
BobCollette
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Blue Screen of Death


Sometimes the newer graphics cards have problems with drivers (older cards have had more time to get driver problems resolved). As I mentioned, I don't have Lightroom, so I don't know what preferences you have (only what CS5 offers). If there is any preference that relates to the graphics card, try an alternate setting and see if it helps.


Mar 18, 2012 at 02:16 PM
Monito
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Blue Screen of Death


Which Lightroom? Why do people leave critical information like version number out of posts like these?

If it is version 3, given the dates you state, try version 4. You can download and run it until the end of March for free.



Mar 18, 2012 at 02:19 PM
James_N
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Blue Screen of Death


My suspicion is that its a driver issue and its a trivial matter to go to Nvidia's website; type in the Nvidia 500 series and download and install the latest WHQL drivers which were released on March 13, 2012: http://www.nvidia.com/object/win7-winvista-64bit-296.10-whql-driver.html

I also looked at the list of video cards tested by Adobe as of February 2012 and the GeForce 500 family is not on the list: Adobe Tested Video Cards - Photoshop. The list relates primarily to Photoshop but in all likelihood its also applicable to the entire suite of Adobe products.



Mar 18, 2012 at 02:24 PM
Keith B.
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Blue Screen of Death


Looks like your over-and-above diligence and good faith have caused the customer service drone at Asus to blow a gasket. Perhaps the CS rep you're dealing with is out of his/her technical--or human relations-- depth. Try to go higher up at Asus, and maybe contact B&H and inform them of the 'problem' with the Asus equipment and Asus customer service.
The critical issue here is to get Asus, or Asus plus B&H, to somehow make it so you haven't just flushed $1300 down the drain.
Whether that means a fix(different graphics card?) can be applied to your unit, or they replace it with a different model, or some return deal with store credit could be worked out--- Good luck with this.



Mar 18, 2012 at 02:57 PM
Monito
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Blue Screen of Death


It seems to me that Asus has gone the extra mile and given you a whole new machine for a problem that is not their fault or part of their warranty or guarantee. When you buy a computer you are not guaranteed that it will work perfectly with every device on the planet in every way in every application program. That kind of service is extraordinary.


Mar 18, 2012 at 03:06 PM
Whaler
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Blue Screen of Death


Lightroom 3 and or 4. I also forgot to mention that the crash also occurs in PSCS5 healing brush. With regards to the newer NVIDIA driver, with the first N75SF laptop I tried using a driver from NVIDIA. The monitor was non functional, period. Upon talking with Asus tech support, I was told to only use drivers from Asus. In advance thanks for your replies.


Mar 18, 2012 at 03:06 PM
Whaler
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Blue Screen of Death


"It seems to me that Asus has gone the extra mile and given you a whole new machine for a problem that is not their fault or part of their warranty or guarantee. When you buy a computer you are not guaranteed that it will work perfectly with every device on the planet in every way in every application program. That kind of service is extraordinary."


PSCS and Lightroom are used by thousands. If this were the early to mid 90s I would agree with you, laptops were notoriously unreliable. The laptop does not work with Lightroom or PSCS when tethered to an external monitor, that is simply is inexcusable. I did request and alternate model which Asus would not hear of. I tried to return the new factory sealed unit to B&H. I explained the circumstances and they would not hear of it because the serial number did not match my original purchase. Last but not least, now that Asus knows that there is a problem do think in your right mind they will divulge this info to perspective buyers? I think not . . . . . . .



Mar 18, 2012 at 03:24 PM
Monito
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Blue Screen of Death


It doesn't matter how important your monitor and your usage of your program is to you, the fact remains that the particular combination of that monitor with that program and used in that way is obscure and extremely limited in how many people run into it.

The computer is not "junk" and it is ridiculous to expect Asus or any other manufacturer to disclose in detail every single obscure combination where a computer has a hiccup. The list would be the size of a book.

It is just bad luck that you ran into it, and we sympathise with you because we know how frustrating it can be. However, the conclusions you are drawing and the way you are behaving are over the top.

Get over it and deal with it like an adult instead of a temper tantrum.

First step would be to actually examine the Lightroom Preferences as a poster advised and do not simply dismiss it as something you have not seen referenced online in your googling.

If that doesn't work, sell the machine or the monitor, replace them, and get on with life. Life is not perfect but you are only harming your health by blowing a gasket the way you are.



Edited on Mar 18, 2012 at 03:36 PM · View previous versions



Mar 18, 2012 at 03:31 PM
wsmeyer
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Blue Screen of Death


The video cards added in to high end laptops are mostly to increase performance in games and help in processing video streams when watching DVD's. I know it's not a solution but as a workaround you can see if you can disable the card and use the video capabilities built into the motherboard or i7 processor - assuming it's a mobile version.

William.



Mar 18, 2012 at 03:34 PM
Whaler
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · Blue Screen of Death


Yes, Monito I am wrong.


Mar 18, 2012 at 03:42 PM
thenextguy
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · Blue Screen of Death


I ran into this exact same problem. It was even an ASUS (N55SF-EH71). Everytime I touched the adjustment brush in Lightroom 4, Win 7 would crash and reboot. (I found this thread trying to find a solution through Google.)

I can get it to work if I only use the external monitor and shut off the laptop display. I don't know if this would work for you, but it seemed to help me.



Mar 27, 2012 at 01:10 PM
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · Blue Screen of Death


The common denominator seems to be the graphics card and or driver. I downloaded the driver from Nvidia and the problem persisted. I have also combed preferences in LR 3 & 4 to no avail. At present I am awaiting a shipping label from Asus to return the replacement laptop.


Mar 27, 2012 at 05:59 PM
aubsxc
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · Blue Screen of Death


Your laptop with the 555M GPU and 2GB memory is more than adequate to drive a single monitor. What kind of cable are you using to connect to the external monitor, HDMI or Displayport? Version? Have you tried a new cable, or going through another video output on the laptop or another input on the monitor, if that is an option? Does the computer crash using the same brush when it is NOT connected to an external monitor?

As Bob suggested, it is possible that LR is trying to offload some processing to the GPU via OpenCL or CUDA type code that is written for the specific adjustment you are trying to make. It is also possible that there is bug in the Nvidia drivers for this GPU that is exposed only under certain conditions, and if such is the case, there is very little Asus can do about it until Nvidia updates their driver package. If I had to guess I would say this is the most likely scenario.



Mar 28, 2012 at 09:09 AM
Whaler
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p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · Blue Screen of Death


aubsxc

I use HDMI which I have used for the past year with my 4 yr old Dell XPS laptop with out any problems. I agree with you, it is probably a driver issue. No crash issues when laptop is a stand alone.


Edited on Mar 29, 2012 at 08:55 PM · View previous versions



Mar 28, 2012 at 08:51 PM
gheller
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p.1 #19 · p.1 #19 · Blue Screen of Death


Did you purchase with a CC? Hopefully AmExp.

They are *very* good at freezing funds to the vendor when a claim is filed. If you have documentation like you do, they will likely credit your account and you might not even have to send back the laptop.

Don't abuse it, but when you have no other option, it works. I have only done it 2x on relatively small purchases (under $100).

Good luck

greg



Mar 29, 2012 at 01:05 AM
Whaler
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p.1 #20 · p.1 #20 · Blue Screen of Death


Gheller,

Great suggestion, I just called "Bill Me Later" and they do have buyer protection. The representative encouraged me to file a claim given the copious amount documentation and circumstances.



Mar 29, 2012 at 08:40 AM
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