A8Js tweaking and tinkering

Just wanted to pop in and say hello. Just joined the forum and the ranks of Asus notebook owners with the A8Js.

Anyway, my very first thought when I received the system was, "How easy is it to upgrade and tweak?". I haven't gotten too far, but I thought I'd share what I've found. Hopefully, this thread can become a repository for useful or helpful info in regards to the A8Js.

Overclocking: I was interested by the ClockGen program. I tried some of the pre-existing clock generator options in the program. ClockGen's website claims that Intel's 955/975 boards use the ICS 9541xx PLL chip. I figured since the A8Js uses a 945 chipset, it might be worth a shot.

Well, the only one that even came CLOSE to working was the ICS 954119 option. It seemed to read all the clocks correctly except for PCI and PCIe.

So, I decided I'd just systematically go down the list and try my luck. Well, after just a few attempts, I picked an entry that caused the system to spontaneously reboot. I'm afraid I don't recall which entry, as it rebooted before the value even registered in my mind.

Interestingly, upon reboot, I noticed that the clocks on the system weren't quite right. Instead of thinking it had a quad-pumped 166 MHz FSB, it thought it had a 133 Mhz quad-pumped FSB. CPU-Z confirmed this, as did Sisoft Sandra's informational and benchmarking tools. The machine wouldn't run faster than 1.6 GHz! GAH!

A simple powerfail reset the clocks back to normal. Needless to say, that little experiment frightened the bejesus out of me. So I won't be reproducing it any time soon. BUT, it is interesting to note that the PPL chip on the A8Js CAN be reprogrammed. Now if only it can be done in a controlled way.

Disassembly: Of course I unscrewed everything on the bottom of the system. The hatch that covers the RAM, CPU and GeForce card is easy enough to get to. And it actually looks like upgrading the RAM and even the CPU would be pretty easy. Upgrading the GeForce? Uh, well...It does use a MXM module of sorts. Whether or not it's mechanically compatible with any other module? No idea.

What bothers me is that I can't quite seem to figure out how to get the hard drive out. It almost appears as if the entire lower frame of the laptop has to be removed. But, I didn't probe very hard.

All the screws on the bottom are the same EXCEPT for the back row by the video, power connector, USB ports and such. They're slightly longer and appear to have a larger diameter. If you remove the screws from the bottom, don't mix these up with the rest.

Once all the screws were removed, I tried gingerly lifting the bottom off. But, it wasn't going anywhere. And I'm not at a point where I want to force anything.

My main goal of removing the bottom was to get a look at the motherboard. Why? Well, so I could find out what PLL chip Asus used. It may be one that is already in ClockGen. If not, we can always ask to have it added.

Video: Unlocking the CoolBits option in the Forceware drivers allowed the Go 7700 to be overclocked. It's auto-determination program worked pretty well. If I tried overclocking beyond that, 3DMark 03 produced visual defects. On my system, the max core and RAM appears to be 468MHz and 447MHz respectively. This resulted in an increase in 3DMark 03 scores by approximately 8-9%. Not too shabby...and that amount should help mitigate extra anti-aliasing in various games.

After a 45-minute 3DMark stress test, the GPU reported a temperature of 70 C.

Anyway, that's what I got so far. Hope you find it useful.

 

Mind doing some 3dMark05 and 3dMark06 OC'd when you have the time ?

btw... here's the disassembly guide for the A8Jm (courtesy MilestonePC), should be the same for A8Js:
http://www.milestonepc.com/canada/doc/A8J.pdf

 

Nice work, thanks for the info.

 

Ah...So THAT'S how the hard drive is supposed to be removed. I was wondering what that little strap was for.

I don't have any copies of 3DM05 or 06. It'd probably be a while before I can get a hold of them as I don't exactly have a speedy net connection. But in the meantime, I did run a more thorough test of 3DM03.

Forceware drivers 86.02
Default GPU and RAM frequencies: 450MHz and 400MHz
Overclocked GPU and RAM frequencies: 468MHz and 447MHz
All drivers settings were still at their defaults as it came from Asus
3DMark 03 - Default 1024x768 tests

Standard
Default: 10,034
Overclocked: 10,923
Percentage increase: 8.85%

2x Anti-Aliasing
Default: 7,840
Overclocked: 8,597
Percentage increase: 9.65%

4x Anti-Aliasing
Default: 5,806
Overclocked: 6,426
Percentage increase: 10.67%

8xS Anti-Aliasing
Default: 3,230
Overclocked: 3,593
Percentage increase: 11.23%

Each test was run once after a clean reboot.

 

thx for the info, anyway, can u give the default and overclocked temperature?

 

Pseudome great work, very extensive. Looking forward for 3DMark05/06 marks and gaming experiences.

Here is the A8js 3DMark06 2665. Stock settings, Powermode, Always ON:


Enjoy!

 

Quick update on 3DMark 06:

Default 1280x800:
2670

Overclocked 1280x800:
2874

Default 1280x1024:
2393

Overclocked 1280x1024:
2569


A little snapshot of the 1280x800 overclocked result.

 

Pseudome: Is that with Image Settings & Quality set to High Performance instead of the default High Quality?

Changing that setting adds something like 70 - 80 more points in 3dMark.... both for default and OC'd

 

Like with the previous tests, that's with the driver settings at the default as they came from Asus. So, the "Image Settings" option is sitting at the "Quality" level. And the overclocking rate is the same as before as well: 468 Core, 447 RAM.

 

Okay, I did some testing with temperatures. I overclocked to 468 Core, 447 RAM.

I let the system sit idle for one hour, so I could be sure the starting idle temperature was nice and saturated. Using the Forceware driver's Temperature Settings after sitting idle for one hour, it reported a value of 49 degrees C.

I then opened up 3DMark 03 and ran some benchmarks. After a couple of runs, I checked the temperatures as reported by the Forceware driver, and repeated. Here's the results I got:

After 20 minutes: 68C
After 30 minutes: 68C
After 40 minutes: 68C
After 60 minutes: 69C

I didn't notice any artifacting, nor did any of the tests bomb out.

 

has anyone seen what x1600 with T7200 can do in 3dMark06 compared to A8js?

 

I'll have mine tomorrow so I can check myself... but is there a way to up the FSB on the A8Js? Do you get bios control like you would on an asus motherboard?

 

Good post Pseudome.

I ran games with no overclocking, and it always gets up to 70 and stays there.

 

Just got an A8Js (My first notebook). Since I've always built my own systems I figured I could do my own upgrade to 2GB RAM. Could someone point me in the direction of where the second SODIMM socket is? I'm guessing on the other side of the motherboard (under the keyboard? If so, I'm not really sure how to get the keyboard out).

Any help/guidance would be appreciated.

 

I had this exact same problem. The sockets are stacked, when you are looking at one you are looking at the other too. Just take a closer look, you'll see it

 

Haha...now I see it. The second socket being a different colour threw me off. Thanks!

 

Anyone who can provide the PLL would be very much appreciated.
I have tried a few programs now and there seems to be no way to change the front side bus at all. This is a shame as I'm guessing this machine could be clocked up at least 10% without straining the machine.