The M15x throttle? The final solution!

Are you able to use a Universal Power Adapter which voltage selection capability?

 

Arrghh help! Whatever I do with the 210w adapter plugged in, clocks are always 450Mhz which is the throttle state. Tried HD video, tried gaming but it always stays at 450Mhz.
I've tried booting with 150w and switching in windows, even running the render test at 850Mhz then switching during it. Always goes to throttle clocks.

Did you remove the battery King? I'm still at 0.975v but I don't think that is the problem. I will try 1v later.

Also how did you know it wasn't charging the battery? I have no indication that it won't other than attempting to drain the battery a bit and seeing.

 

Iam also having problems. Seems fickle! Never had a problem at 0.975V though.

Did you manage to game at all and have a driver crash?

 

I played FC3 fine but it was running at 450Mhz the whole time. No driver crash. Not been able to get stock 3D clocks at all with 210W adapter so far.
Extremely busy with work at the moment so can't test but I've got another 12 days to return the PSU if it doesn't work

Ok I had some time to play around. I was able to get the 210w adapter to 850Mhz 3d clocks. Not entirely sure what I was doing but I noticed by unplugging 150w adapter then plugging in 210w adapter it would change my profile on throttlestop. Changing profile back to a non-OC one then allowed full 3D clocks. Did a run of 3d mark 11 and instantly beat my best combined score.

Interesting! Going to try FC 3 now.

EDIT: Far Cry 3 as smooth as silk! Really amazing. Maximum draw from the wall was 186W, exceeding the 176w maxmium of the 150w PSU.
This was only at x23 multiplier and 850/1350 gpu clocks. More power to come I feel!

Ultra-thin heatsinks on the way!

EDIT2: As quick and as awesome as this was, I now can't get 3d clocks back again. Tried many combinations of changing throttlestop profile and apply OCs in CCC but none seem to be working.

 

Tonight I am going to tackle this and try to work out why this happens. There is always a reason and
a solution. Not come this far to give up yet.

So far it seems to me at 1.05V and below 3D clocks work instantly however 3 nights back after playing Crysis 2 (it totally maxxes out the card unlike FC3) I eventually had a driver crash while gaming. Since then I also cannot attain 3D clocks at 950/1450.

I surmise that if I flash back to 0.975V and stock clocks and then back to 950/1450 again it should work again. I will also re-install drivers at that speed to re-inforce stability. If it works then it is time I upgrade my mod with a more powerful fan underneath!

You mentioned there was a usb to 3 pin connector for sale that could be used. What fans would be good to run off it? I think we should keep to a fairly thin form factor I currently have 1.5cm thick ones. 2.5cm is pretty massive.

 

Interesting. Not sure I know enough to understand the reasoning behind how flashing to stock and back again would solve the issue, with refreshed driver install. I'm struggling to get 3d clocks again after that first time. I wondered if it had something to do with how the 210w psu was plugged into the jack. Perhaps the thinner central ID pin is still making some contact somewhere but occasionally it doesn't. Perhaps an Upsi-style mod is in order.

Also as far as better fans are concerned, other than that thermaltake usb powered fan you already found you will struggle to find a 12v fan that works well on 5v usb power. My solution was to buy a 12v adapter off eBay and ghetto-mod a couple of PC case fans. Only problem is they spin too fast and make too much noise. I need to make a fan controller that can handle 12v and probably around 1A but don't have time now.

I think I may have been correct. I tried messing around with the plug and jack and found that this works everytime. Bit dodgey I know but Upsi's approach could be the best. I think a central pin mod may be on the cards.


EDIT: Just had another go on Far Cry 3, ok I understand why people love this game. I turned on lots of AA settings and it looked fantastic. I was also getting around 45 fps with a max temperature of 77 degrees at 850/1350 and x23 multiplier. After playing and allowing clocks to go back down to 300Mhz I then put plug all the way in and I can still get 850Mhz when running render test. Mysterious!

I'm thinking the best option would be 2 static pressure 120mm fans running at the full 12v. You'd need a 12v adapter and fan controller but that would offer excellent cooling.

 

Ok I fiddled some. Did the above and found even at stock clocks it would stay locked on 2D 450mhz.

Then I tried toggling the stealth mode on and off while plugged in with the 150W. After toggling it on and off I switched over to 210W and found I was also able to toggle it on and off. After this 3D clocks were attainable again.

Usually stealth mode doesn't react when using the 210W adaptor. I will try this trick again when I get stuck again. Wiggling the power connector around did nothing for me.

Oh ya nearly forgot but here are some final pictures of the latest adaptations of my cooling mod. The grilles are fully removable as they also use the magic tape used super glue on them though!




So it would seem to me thus far that the computer gets confused as to which power state it is in. This means it gives the GPU the wrong power state even when it is plugged in. Toggling stealth mode allows the power states to be refreshed. Unfortunately until today it wouldn't work with the 210W that is until my discovery. Let's test this out... as I say everything has reason and solution just need to analyze.

 

Hi guys,

I never had any issues to get 3d clocks! Fatboy maybe you are right and you get some occasionally contact with the center pin. Center pin mod is really easy to do guys. I think this will solve your problems.

 

Awesome mesh King. Couldn't you take the rear exhaust grills off completely and stick more heatsinks on the bottom of the heatsink grills to increase grill surface area?

Upsi how did you cut through the thick black cable safely without damaging internal wires? Just a sharp knife and some patience? Problem is that the centre pin doesn't allow charging anyway on 210w adapter so I was thinking of just pulling it out. Don't need a switch.

I'm content that the 210w adapter definitely works, just a bit fickle but the increase in performance in some games is substantial. Going to flash to 1v and try Metro LL on high settings just for fun. Pretty sure its quite cpu-intensive.

 

I pulled out the center pin and it doesn't make a difference. Only difference is that the alienhead power on light doesn't light up anymore when you plug in while laptop is off.

I just gamed for 1 hour 25 minutes in FC3 at stock clocks and temps only hit 69C! This with fans not even manually controlled to full speed!! This means in winter I could feasibly play this game and barely hit 60C lol

 

Good to know. Any further knowledge on acquiring 3d clocks consistently?

 

No further knowledge. The experience at stock clocks was wonderful though. Sure I can push the hardware but at 80C+ the card isn't 100% stable! I think for now 1V is enough for absolute stability. 1.05V in the winter The 7970M doesn't like to be over 80C.

Kept under 70C the card performs very well I can't be bothered to OC until I need it. Besides this October might the 9970M!! I think upgrading to this will be better than pushing the old 7970M to instability. A fast but hot card is slower than a stock speed but cool card. Going from 0.975V to 1.05V adds about 13-15C more heat in the M15x and that with fans screaming and all my modifications (ambient 25C though)!

I have the feeling that our dual heatpipe heatsink cannot efficiently cope with the 7970M when it is run over 1V. 1.05V and above is better suited to modern notebooks with a 3 heatpipe heatsink as standard (not to mention a much bigger radiator design)

 

I used a Stanley knife to carefully remove the cable coating at a length of about 50mm. Then I cut the dataline and soldered in the switch. It took about 10min. No big deal!
But if you don't need a switch and like King say with center pin removed it makes no difference you won't need to do it.

 

King I've got some ideas to improve cooling performance of the existing radiators. When my ultra-thin heatinks arrive I will stick some to the bottom of the gpu radiator (with the whole gpu side exhaust cover removed?) and then have some external 5v fans (not the fans from my cooling pad) blowing onto the extra surface area.

I notice a 2-3 degree drop in temperatures, particularly at idle, when blowing air onto the exposed radiator as it is.

You're right though, I've been thinking the 2 heatpipe system is a big limitation of this laptop. If you didn't care about aesthetics I wonder if we could ghetto-mod a 3 heatpipe heatsink/radiator from a M17x or something. Cutting off the side of the case maybe?

I'm not expecting 9970M to be power/heat efficient. I've read many temperature problems with the GTX 780M. Since 9970M isn't on new 20nm lithography I'm expecting high TDP and probably high temperatures. Perhaps a 9950M or 9870M will be released?

 

Better fans on the bottom would help enormously. The cooling pad ones are nice and slim but only provide about 12cfm each I think! One thermaltake fan of same dimensions except extra thickness moves 48cfm!

The current fans are 1cm thick stripped down the thermaltake 2.5cm! There would be room but not much at all. We need to find slim fans.

How do you know 9970M isn't 20nm? Not much is known yet right? I thought AMD were going to 20nm hence the delay?

 

Ok I might have been wrong. I read an article about how 20nm lithography had been delayed till 2014 but this articles suggest otherwise.
AMD Radeon HD 9970 Volcanic Islands "Hawaii" 20nm GPU leaked

Take a look at this fan. 0.9mm thickness. If you had it positioned under the cooling pad, the fact that the fan blades are exposed wouldn't be a problem
Amazon.com: ARCTIC Breeze Mobile USB-Powered 92mm Portable Fan, Portable Cooling Solution, Quiet Fan - White: Electronics

 

I'am gonna sleep on it. I may purchase 2 Thermaltake Mobile II fans for a laugh Imagine nearly 100cfm blowing onto the exposed gpu/cpu at point blank range lol... I might not even need a cooling pad as the thing might just hover for me haha

Hmm that fan looks interesting. It would be interesting to stick them on the bottom. One could then use usb extension cables to connect them to the ports tidily. How much cfm do they move though? It says 1700rpm so I would say somewhere between 20-30cfm?

 

EDIT: This does not work 100% of the time. I'm currently unable to achieve 3d clocks again. Tried every combination of stealth mode toggle. I even got stuck at 450Mhz clocks on the 150W adapter. Tried power drain and various other things but I can't get 3d clocks back again.

 

Well this is a pretty awesome moment for M15x owners. I set out to fix the throttle issues and it took many months to find out how. Well done everybody for supporting and helping solve this issue.

Finally we can all enjoy our gaming laptops as nature intended! Albeit with overpowered graphics cards

First post updated fatboy

 

Excellent stuff and really it was a genius idea trying these older 210w adapters in the first place. I'd definitely buy you a pint if you didn't live in Japan lol!

I haven't had chance to really test this out yet but I will be sure to report back readings of maximum power draw from the wall with very high overclocks and 1.05v (I don't want to try 1.1v).
Playing FC3 on x23 and 875/1350 @0.975v I haven't exceeded 190W power draw from the wall so I'm confident I've got plenty of additional headroom for higher overclocking.
We just need to get creative with our cooling mods! Do you think the limitation is the dual heatpipe system or the radiator surface area? I think one of these aspects may be holding back the other.
I'm going to try increasing radiator surface area as I indicated previously.

Unfortuantely the psu/stealth mode toggle trick has stopped working. I've edited my post above to reflect this.
Currently can't get 3d clocks at all. May have been a bit premature.

 

It works for me. I will report back if I get problems.

 

This is quite frustrating. It was being a bit difficult last night but I eventually got it into 3d clocks. I then played Max Payne 3 for about 10 minutes, then minimised the game and after that it just got stuck at 450Mhz.
I've tried everything now to get it back but its just being completely stubborn and not shifting from 450Mhz.

King when you toggle stealth then plug in 210w adapter do you immediately press stealth mode again? Does the on screen display show the blue dial or is it faded out, both times you press it?

I wonder if Upsi's success is because he has an Nvidia card or if the centre-pin mod does not give rise to the stuck 3d clocks I'm experiencing at the moment.
I've got a week left to return my 210w adapter and possibly get a 240w one.....

Finally got full 3d clocks back. I did the stealth mode toggle then just left it plugged in to 210w adapter for about 10 minutes.
Came back to it and could get 3d clocks immediately without toggling.

 

Hm.. So if I were to get a 240w version, it'd run cooler but have the same results? Or am I gonna be the first to try?

 

No, I have that one. It will still throttle unfortunately.

 

Really? Why would only the 210w work but not the more watt upgraded 240w delta charger?

 

Because the 240w psu is current generation, same as 150w psu. Both these communicate with M15x restricting power delivery to 180W or something.
The 210w adapter is older and doesn't have this same system that restricts power delivery.

However Upsi has demonstrated that by adding a switch to the central ID-pin its possible to stop the 240w psu from throttling.

 

ARrrghh I can't get 3d clocks back on 150w adapter now! This is bad....

 

I don't have a blue dial or any software installed to show me graphics stuff on my laptop. I simply do the steps I explained in first post. Works every time. I flick it on and off for a split second is all. Same again once 210W is plugged in.

 

Maybe my M15x is just weird. I tried again this morning to get 3d clocks back but to no avail. I think I tried unplugging cable then connecting again and toggling multiple times.
I then just gave up. After about 5 minutes just on MS Word I noticed the border of several windows flashed, like it does when you toggle stealth mode. I could then get 3d clocks.

Wonder if my M15x is just slow to cotton on that there is more POWER available!

EDIT: This is so strange! I'm now completely stuck at 450Mhz even on 150w adapter. Only a restart will fix it.
I wonder if toggling stealth mode too often is bad lol.

 

Hmm it is odd! I simply boot up on 150W. Once booted before loading up GPUz on blank desktop I flick stealth on and off again. Then I immediately hot plug to the 210W and flick stealth on and off again. Load GPUz hit render and it instantly and correctly proceeds to load at full 3D clocks. Just did it this instant. I never flick it multiple times.

I am kinda cutting back on my computer time as it was slowly eating into my family time of which I have not much lol. I won't be around much on the week days except Wednesday and the weekend.

 

Yeh it can be a tough balancing act but in the end its never any competition. Girlfriend gets priority. She keeps asking if my laptop is going to explode lol.
I'm not sure what exactly is stopping me getting 3d clocks but its an interesting problem. I've managed to get to 2 different throttle states, one at 450Mhz and one at 400Mhz.
I haven't really had time to test but I'm going to try flashing to 1v and maybe 875/1400 to see if that makes a difference.

When you were running stock clocks what voltage did you use? I might try 0.975v @ 850/1250 as that should run nice a cool with a tiny weany memory boost.

 

I am running 850/1200mhz at 0.975V. I also feel memory needs a little extra. FC3 doesn't need it but Crysis 2 does. at 950/1450 the game ran the card 100% load at stock clocks it didn't. This means the memory is bottlenecking the card and not allowing the core to be fully used.

I may soon flash to 850/1400 to rectify this. Beyond this I see no point in pushing. Running the card really cool while I game brings as good performance with more stability than at 950/1450 with cooling pushed very hard. In winter I may up voltage but for now I am content at 0.975V. By then though I hope to see some new hardware hitting the market.

 

I take that back. Played Cry 2 for couple of hours at stock clocks and card was at 100% load with the vram maxing out at 1994mb! I think that is the highest I have ever seen vram usage!
Temps hit 68C only with fans not running full speed. Ambient temp is down a couple of degrees C though

It is nice to see the 7970M blast through Cry 2 on max at stock clocks. I haven't installed any mods but it runs nicely enough!

 

I managed to get 3d clocks on 210w adapter by booting with 150w, toggling, switching over to 210w, toggling several times then leaving it for 10 minutes lol.
Hugely inconsistent technique but when I come back to my laptop and use render test I jump in the air with joy when I see that x2.0 PCIe indicator! Sometimes shouting "Ya Da!" How's your Japanese King?

I just played FC3 on 850/1290 @0.975v and x23 multiplier but my temperatures were exceeding 80 degrees. I'm tempted to buy some new thermal pads. Would you recommend the thicker 1.5mm pads?
Were the ones you got 5w/mk or 7? I've also heard that Phobya Nanogrease Extreme is substantially better than ICD 24. I'm going to try cutting a section out of my bottom case later today but I need some velcro to copy your mod.

 

I use 7w/mk I think the pads are doing their job. My ambient temperature is still about 24C but on cooling mod without controlling fans manually (not full speed) temps are running 12C lower than you!

Also I have settled for 24/25/26/27 in throttlestop. Looks pretty right Reason for this is my 920xm cannot run prime 95 without 1 or 2 threads spitting up an error at 25x. In a game 100% is never happening at that speed but I rather have complete stability. Interestingly though last year I was able to HD video encode at 25x though. Temps 95C for 14 hours at a time lol. Obviously Prime 95 is a higher load.

I never heard of the Nanogrease Extreme. Is it really substantially better?? Would be worth getting if it is!

 

Interestingly I no longer need to switch PSU:s. Yesterday I booted on 210W and was able to flick stealth on and off no problem. Then I played some Crysis 2 all without a hitch.

 

I booted up today on 210w psu after reading your post. I didn't even toggle stealth mode. I didn't try it straight away but after a bit of browsing and some non-HD video watching I could get 3d clocks.
No need to toggle at all?

Using the 210w psu I've been able to play FC3 on high settings really smoothly. I love this game so much! Maybe it was the fact that the same didn't run smooth without OCing cpu or the problems with temperatures that I never got into it but right now I can play it for 2 hours straight without any problems and its great!

 

Hi Guys, i have been reading this topic for a while and decided to buy 210w psu for my m15x. I have installed 7970m recently. For some reason i cant get the performance from 210w psu like 150w one. I do stealth mode toggle on and off after changing from 150w to 210w but nothing works. I did everything step by step as in the first post. Do you reckon i should pull the middle pin from 210w so that it might work full performance or i should do something else with the laptop? Thanks in advance

 

Do you have gpu-z? Get it. Then after switching to 210w adapter and toggling stealth mode the gpu-z screen says this:

Bus Interface: PCI-E 3.0 x16 @ x16 1.1

There is a question mark next to that, click it and click run test. This should engage 3d clocks. Keep an eye on that display. It should change to this:

Bus Interface: PCI-E 3.0 x16 @ x16 2.0

clock speeds should also be 850Mhz not 450Mhz. 450Mhz is the reduced power state or throttle state clocks.

I can't repeat King's method every time but I just do combinations or rebooting, toggling and unplugging 210w and eventually I can get that sweet x16 2.0 display. I haven't found a consistent method yet but I've been able to do it for the last few days in a row, just not consistent technique found.

 

Thanks for the quick reply fatboyslimerr, I did what you told me. It remains as PCI-E 3.0 x16 @ x16 1.1 and 450 mhz when i switch over to 150 psu it goes up to x16 2.0 and 850mhz. Actually i dont want to pull the middle pin of 210w because if cant make it work i will return it to the seller. I will keep trying different combinations and keep an eye on this topic as well. Thanks again for help.

 

Try booting on the 210W PSU. Then once booted toggle stealth on and off. It works then for me. Also no need for 150W PSU then.

I have also noticed that this stability I have is with full battery. Perhaps you guys can load your batteries fully and see if you can repeat my results.

 

After four restarts it worked and i played some tomb raider very nice and smooth then just wanted to try another restart to see if it works but stuck 450mhz again. Then i booted on one last time and worked. Not a stable method but works with some effort. Maybe i should pull the middle pin of the psu to make it more stable or this is a bad idea?

 

Is your battery full?

 

Yes it is and it is also a new battery. Its working now and not too bad, i think i can use it this way until a better solution found. Thank you guys.

 

I don't have the 7970 yet, but I found out that even with my GTX 460M and with the battery plugged in (9 cell I have) it remains at 2d clocks. But If I take out the battery and leave the PSU on it stays at 3d clocks. Maybe you guys should try booting up on the 210W PSU without the battery pack plugged in and see if it remains at 3d clocks.

 

Not having the battery in made no difference for me. Occasionally (like now) it seems like its literally impossible to get 3d clocks.
Still no consistent method, I'd be interested to hear if anyone else trying this (other than King) is having much success.

 

Damn this is why I'm getting the GTX 680m as it has no throttling issues at all and runs cooler and quite good. You should sell your 7970m and get a gtx 680m! We're both in UK and It's about £50-70 more expensive which I think would be worth it as it will run very good for our system.

 

I am confused as to why I am the only one having success here! I have full stability and functionality at 25/25/26/27 on cpu and 950/1450 at 1.05V on GPU (minus battery charging on 210W) All I do is boot on 210W. Flick stealth on and off again and then put fans to max and game (only at 1.05V to keep temps around 70C instead of 75C with auto fans).

Perhaps Trickster is right. Get yourself a 680M. Although with new cards around the corner perhaps best to wait a little.

 

Ok maybe I was hopeful. After 1.5 hours of play temps hit max of 77C. 1.05V runs hot in this machine no doubt about it. Still full stability though. Game runs so smooth!

I really hope the new 20nm architecture is as much of leap in terms of heat reduction as the 7970M was over the 6990M!

 

No money to spend right now as I'm potentially moving to Islington in London and I'll be strapped for cash at least for awhile.
I'm actually happy with the performance of my elderly beast and I've managed a couple of times get 3d clocks from cold booting using 210w.
It seems after a certain amount of trying, my M15x won't switch to x2.0 PCI-E bus no matter what I do and the best thing to do is to reboot and start again.

Knowing this I should be able to get 3d clocks more often, just from rebooting more.

Is it really in there interest to make cards run cooler? 100W cards currently work well in laptops that have 3-heatpipe heatsinks and maybe better airflow design.
Who would deliberately design a laptop configured with a 75W card to handle 100Ws and above? Doesn't make commercial sense to over-engineer a laptop so much....like they did with M15x

20nm should definitely be more power efficient but could heat spike when overclocking like what is seen in haswell chips.
Definitely wouldn't go backwards to a GTX 680M now though.