So like the title says, I have a Dell laptop with an NVidia GT 540M, and it's got a bit of a crashing problem. Within a few minutes of playing the vast majority of games, the system has what seems to be an unrecoverable TDR error--the screen freezes, audio is slowed to a constant buzzing noise, and the only way out is a hard reset. I ran memtests, furmark, wiped and reinstalled drivers, and every other test I could think of, and nothing changed.
Then I played with my AC adapter unplugged, and not a single crash. I've tested this a dozen times or so, and the card does not fail at all while running solely on battery, but crashes almost instantly the adapter is plugged back in. Even when the battery is disconnected and running only on the adapter, it still crashes within minutes.
My question is, what could be causing this? I've seen suggestions that it's the motherboard, the adapter itself, and about a hundred other things, and I'm at a loss.
Then I played with my AC adapter unplugged, and not a single crash. I've tested this a dozen times or so, and the card does not fail at all while running solely on battery, but crashes almost instantly the adapter is plugged back in. Even when the battery is disconnected and running only on the adapter, it still crashes within minutes.
My question is, what could be causing this? I've seen suggestions that it's the motherboard, the adapter itself, and about a hundred other things, and I'm at a loss.