M17x R4 - Does The 330W AC Adapter Work?

I have heard many conflicting post about the 330W PSU being a plug and play, needing to be modded, only drawing 240W if it does work, being plug and play and not working. Im confused because I currently own a 330W PSU and its only partially working. By this I mean that the computer in the bios detectes it being unknown sometimes, and with several restarts it will detect it as a 330W. If I decide to unplug it mid game or on accident, It will not detect it anymore prompting me to restart my computer several times. I decided to buy a 240W to see if the same behavior occurs. If anyone can clarify and pitch their 20 cents, it would be very helpful



Here its perfectly being detected as a 330W. But sometimes that will just become UNKOWN. I don't know if I have a defective PSU as it was listed as being brand new.

EDIT: MY 330W CHARGER WAS DEFECTIVE! I GOT ANOTHER NEW 330W CHARGER WHICH SOLVED THE UNKOWN ISSUE AND ITS PERFECTLY COMPATIBLE WITH NO ISSUES!!

 

Brand new doesnt mean functioning.

The M17x r4 is capable of pulling 200w on the MXM slot and not having issue with XM chip overclocking. This was done by joining 2 240w AC Adapters, it was shown in one of the previous R4 upgrade threads.

I spoke in the other thread stating that the 330w is useless for the 17 R1, or at least I was replying to an individual who was using the 17 R1 so I apologize if the message wasnt clear. The 17 R1 has no need for the 330w since the MXM slot isnt capable of pulling more than 115w due to EC limits that cant be altered at this time and considering the age of the laptop, will likely never be alterable. Also since the CPU cooling really isnt capable of cooling above 90+w let alone sustaining it for long periods of time then its logical that 240w is all that is needed.

 

So, I If i were to have a 3940XM Overclocked, along with the 1070, 240W is all that's needed? And if the MXM slot is capable of providing 200W, then the 1080 shouldn't be a problem then for the M17x R4 at least from my understanding?

 

Are you sure on that, what was the maximum power draw that you saw with 1070N before throttling or hitting limits ? 980M never throttled in my machine even when it was reaching to the point of getting rekt by the Blackscreen problems of the 980M PCB, 137-140W power draw on it while playing Mass Effect Andromeda garbage and the clocks were always stable (Overclocked, 1.062v). No throttling at all. Also I remember a very old post that 17x R4 has better GPU power than Ranger R1 but has a CPU hard limit, and both have a power limit unlike M18x R2 but not sure now, that was a very old post. 114W is the hard figure from what I remember when Papusan OCed his 4930MX in R1.

 

My 1070 hits a power limit of max 115W and then goes down between 90-115W under full load and keeps throttling itself on my M17x R4. Not sure how your 980 was pulling 137-140W

 

330W PSU does not need any modification on R4, it’s a plug and play accessory.

 

Then it seems like I'm possibly looking at a faulty charger then

 

Fully unlocked 980M with a full custom vBIOS will draw 200W+ in P770ZM (Desktop Haswell i7 4790K + MXM 3.0b) and P870DM chassis. And with a public custom unlocked vBIOS 980M boost clocks with Overclock and Overvolt it draws over 130W-150W with higher tessellation requirements.

The Black HP 1070 MXM GPU has a hardlimit of the 110W by it's design from what I remember while 1070N MSI is capable of 200W+ and if you unlock TDP of that HP 1070 MXM I think it might draw over 120-150W but not sure how stable the GPU will be in terms of the Hardware chipset AND MXM slot integrity, and you will be needing a custom vBIOS as well, Maxwell vBIOS hack is easier than Pascal and Turing, Nvidia blocked a lot with these new GPUs and god knows what blocks Ampere will have on Desktop.

 

Anything above 115w resulted in power throttling, I tested by reflashing the MSI 1070 one watt at a time up to 120w and it exhibited the same behavior.

Its why I gave up on the R1 and moved on to a P750ZM.

 

Even with a custom vbios, you were not able to overcome the hard limit of 115W?

 

As I've said in the other thread 330w works officially and the R4 can actually use it to its potential.

You are having some issue with your DC port, charger, or MB in regards to power delivery.

The M18xR2 and M17xR4 do not have the same limitations as the newer 17 R1/18.

 

I know. I'm just asking around more because I want to confirm. Nothing against you at all. My problem most likely lies in the charger then like I said previously, the stock AC adapter works just fine without any problems

 

I'd suggest ordering a new 330w or used, where you can return and try.

I just realized you are running 3630QM with a standard MXM 3.0b 1070. Isn't a 240w adapter enough power for that config?

 

Yea it is, but I'm planning on upgrading very soon to the 3920XM and OCing. So won't a 240W be enough?

 

Just get a 3820QM or 3840QM, or even a 3740QM.

 

M17xR4 will run into same issue my m14xR2 has...XM CPUs will have a hard TDP limit. No matter what you do CPU will downclock back to standard clocks after 28 seconds.

Best bet is to get a 3840QM (4Ghz OC) or 3820QM (3.9Ghz OC) and run that. 240w should be enough for 1070 + those CPUs.

I think someone else here years ago had same issue.

 

Well, I just recieved my 240W and I'm going to be returning it as It seems that I'm being bottlenecked my it. My 1070 watts seem to be down plus my cpu watts seem to also be down from usual. My best bet is to return both the current 240W and my defective 330W in turn for a new 330W.

 

On the topic of 330W on a Ranger, wouldn't it beneficial to use one in terms of brick temperature? I use a 240W right now, with a 4900mq and a 980M, and the brick gets pretty dang toasty...

 

If its been running fine since 2013, doubt its going to pose an issue now.

You are only pulling 165w I bet anyways

 

You would only really upgrade it if you are overclocking the CPU/GPU. OEM power bricks should be always good on the temp side unless its defective.

 

Actually it originally shipped with a 4710mq CPU and an 860m with the 180W adapter. I bought the 240W when I upgraded to the 780M to prevent throttling, so I'm unsure how long this adapter will last. lol

You do have me curious though, I'll have to check the wattage with a killawatt meter.

 

Been using the same 240w AC adapter since m4600 with modded GPU pulling 145w, then later 240w on my Alienware 17 with the 4930mx and 780m pulling about 165w now I use it with my AW 13 R3, which pulls about 125w iirc.

I used 330w with the 17 R1 but it didnt allow for me to use more than 115w on the 1070.

 

So it looks like I'm pulling around 200W total under load.

I know that the 240W gets hot when the system is under load, the 330W doesn't seem to get as hot, or at least not as quickly.

Is there a benefit to using a 330W over a 240W, in terms of heat and power adapter logivity? I know it was discussed earlier, but regardless, heat is what kills most electronics, and does anyone really know if the power adapter components are rated for such high temperatures?

 

At the wall or after efficiency?

The wall doesnt really mean anything, its like saying crank horsepower versus to the wheel.