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    1810t Abnormal idle power consumption after x264 video

    Discussion in 'Acer' started by m0biusace, Nov 19, 2009.

  1. m0biusace

    m0biusace Notebook Enthusiast

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    Hello All,

    Just got my new 1810t delivered today. Mine is the one with the SU4100.

    Notice that at idle it goes to 5.5-6w. Great. After anything intensive I do it always drops down to that level. However, when i watch DXVA x264 accelerated video in MPC or WMP, i notice that after quitting my idle power consumption jumps an average of two watts. The only way to get back to normal idle power consumption is by putting the laptop into sleep mode, then waking it back up again.

    Watching the same x264 video in VLC which does not support DXVA doesnt result in the increase in idle power consumption.

    Watching DXVA accelerated youtube HD content with flash 10.1 doesnt increase power consumption either.

    Running the latest (15.16.2.64.1986) video drivers, but the same problem was present on the stock drivers that came with the laptop. Version of those drivers was unknown. Wattage was measured using both batterymon, and batterybar.

    Anyone else running into the same problem?
     
  2. der_mali

    der_mali Weihnachtsmann

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    Sounds interesting, in fact it could be totally awesome if my guess is right :D
    Please describe your setup in detail(which video, which Player, etc.)
    The driver might activate the "HD-Turbo" mode and bump the GPU to 533MHz(320MHz is default) and just forgets to set the speed back to normal after playing the video. If this is true, we could have a way to improve gaming performance significantly *hopes*.
     
  3. m0biusace

    m0biusace Notebook Enthusiast

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    the video is top gear season 14 episode one (top_gear.14x01.720p_hdtv_x264-fov). Its a pretty big file, so it would be tough to send it to people for reproduction of what I did. Does anyone have a link to a smaller test x264 vid?

    the players were windows media player 11 (version 11 i think, whatever came with the laptop), and the latest version of media player classic. I had the newest version of the klite codec pack standard, and the newest version of the x64 codec add-on pack.

    Is there any way to view the clock speed of the GPU?
     
  4. der_mali

    der_mali Weihnachtsmann

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    It's not possible to check the real clock speed, afaik.
    Which OS are you using Vista/Win7, x86/x64?
     
  5. m0biusace

    m0biusace Notebook Enthusiast

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    win7 x64 home premium. came with the laptop.

    i dont want the high idle power consumption, so i just did a system restore to revert to before i installed the codecs.
     
  6. der_mali

    der_mali Weihnachtsmann

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  7. m0biusace

    m0biusace Notebook Enthusiast

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    Post system restore. I did not install any of the klite codec packs. I installed the latest version of media player classic home cinema, and the latest version of the haali media splitter. The high idle power consumption still occurs after viewing the top gear episode in MPC-HC (i cannot watch in WMP, says the file type is unrecgonizable). I also downloaded that same bourne trailer you did...


    ...and the idle problem doesnt happen for me on that trailer. strange. im going to test a third x264 vid now and see if that works. The extension of the top gear ep was .mkv, while the extension of the borune trailer is .mp4 (even though i know that shouldnt make a difference since the mkv is just a container).
     
  8. m0biusace

    m0biusace Notebook Enthusiast

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    i just disabled x264 and VC1 rendering using DXVA in MPC-HC. watched the top gear ep again. doesnt cause the high idle power consumption. re-enabled DXVA for x264 and VC1, high power consumption occurs.

    watched another x264 video. DXVA does not cause high idle.

    video was http://rapidshare.com/files/307202206/gucci_mane_ft_plies-wasted-x264-2009.rar

    i know, piece of crap video, but it was the first one i found using google. hahaha.


    So it seems that only that top gear ep causes what i mentioned.
     
  9. der_mali

    der_mali Weihnachtsmann

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    Yeah, I tested with the Bourne trailer and no higher power consumption, nor an increased 3D Mark score. I'll download that gear ep, should be complete in a few days :rolleyes:
    That HD-Turbo stuff(if it is causing it) is made for Blue Ray decoding. Maybe it has something todo with the encoding settings of that gear ep.

    Edit:
    What about this file?
    http://www.ex.ua/get/205576
    It's around 150MB

    Edit:
    I can't get that planet earth clip to run with DXVA...

    Edit:
    It works now with the registry trick, but doesn't show that strange power consumption behaviour.
     
  10. der_mali

    der_mali Weihnachtsmann

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    I've got an idea, maybe the mkv file is infested by a virus. After launching and stopping the file you could open taskmanager and check if there is a new process sucking CPU cycles.
     
  11. m0biusace

    m0biusace Notebook Enthusiast

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    % cpu remains drops down to normal idle levels after closing the top gear ep. pretty sure it isnt a virus.

    and i cannot download the planet earth video, it says something about only having a 32mb limit a day.
     
  12. der_mali

    der_mali Weihnachtsmann

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  13. m0biusace

    m0biusace Notebook Enthusiast

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    also, my 1810tz came with 800mhz memory stock.
    ebe21ue8afsa-8g-f elpida 2GB
    ebe10ue8afsa-8g-f elpida 1GB