Eee PC 1215n Performance

With a little research, I could unlock some hidden items in version 1215N-ASUS-0604 ROM BIOS. I use the "AMIBCP v3.37", downloaded from " http://www.rebelshavenforum.com/" where you can find some other useful things to modify the AMI BIOS.

In the picture you can see items hidden in green.
-> Adjust FSB Speed - Allows: Power Saving, High Performance, Super Performance.
-> CPU Voltage - Allows: Low, Normal.
Another curious item is "Main Graphics Card" that allows "01, 00" values.



You you can change those settings and then save the changes. After you burn the ROM in the BIOS using the "Asus Update" software. It would be interesting if someone could edit the ROM to assign other values to voltage, fsb and cpu multiplier items.

 

Those changes show any value or sign in the bios?

 

Here I attach the modified ROM file, so you can see hidden items on official ASUS ROM Release. The hidden items can be modified as any other, with the values specified above.

Download

I'm trying to figure out how to edit the bios, to change the fsb value but is a little bit complicated. If I have news the public here.

 

Here russian thread about fsb modification in bios
Overclock using Super Hybrid Engine SHE
You can use google translate to translate

 

Wow i have to admit that's pretty cool. If someone can figure out how to specify voltage and fsb options then it would make the 1215n a great little overclocker.
I too am intrigued by the "Main Graphics Card" option. I wonder if this could serve to bypass optimus altogether although regardless we would still be crippled by the pciex1 bottleneck but this would certainly open up more driver possibilities if optimus could be disabled, although the way the ion is linked to the system suggests that this is impossible - still it is interesting.

I'd would love to try em myself but i dont have my 1215n with me atm unfortunately.

 

??? Just press Ctrl+F1 when you are in the BIOS and those options will appear... No need to burn anything

 

"...if I had known before..."

 

That's true but i think its the fact that you can edit the bios settings themselves that is the exciting factor... providing the possibility of custom bios and potential performance leaps in the future. Also theres no "Main GPU option" with ctrl F1.

 

Did anyone have a chance to try out the newly released Adobe Flash 10.2?

 

I tryed on Chrome browser but said it would be google who would issue the update.

Buuuut.... I tryed Hitman Blood Money on the laptop. ran horribly on the latest drivers from nvidia.

 

hi guys, has anyone of you upgraded your hdd? I just bought a new drive and I plan to change my stocked seagate that came to my 1215n. I was wondering if you need to deactivate win7 and activate it again with the new drive. how did you manage to replaced and installed yours?

 

You dont need to deactivate anything... all you do is install it on the new drive.

Heres a link on how to perform the swap safely:
http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?id=88793

 

Hey,

Today I've found couple of usefull things, about overclocking and sleep mode in 1215N.

At first, I uninstalled SuperHybridEngine, which often causes problems (when cpu overcloked, change power mode and you have beautiful crash ).

Then, I've found than ocing cpu to 2000Mhz doesn't cause any problems with sleep mode (maybe I can go higher, I'll try later). I used setfsb with -w1 -p111 parameters. So far, I haven't encountered any problems with sleep mode, booting etc. 2000-2100MHz seems to be reasonable clock for this cpu, althouh I was able to play games and run benches even on 2400Mhz, but sometimes it causes problems with WiFi.

Overclocking CPU is unpredictable - sometimes I can set 2400Mhz and it works great for whole day, but sometimes if I only set 2200Mhz I have immediate crash. Have anybody encountered things like that? I have 1215N with 2GB Hynix, I've tried also with one stick, but no difference.

 

Overclock is not an exact science. The problem that you described, seems to be a heat problem, or maybe something about unwanted memory overclock? Check yor memory, maybe they end up overclocked when you overclock your cpu...

 

The 1215n is quite a temperamental system and i very sensitive to bus speed changes. 2ghz seems to be the safe zone for overclocking this system and maintaining normal function as witnessed by yourself and others.
I dont believe it is a memory or heat issue for the simple reason that the memory is already underclocked and the system just plain doesn't get that hot.
It could be a voltage issue - pushing the boundary of stable cpu performance and it could be a pcie clock issue but it'll be hard to test either since we can't raise/lower the cpu voltage or change the pcie clock.

 

Same problem with the bus speed on the 1000H and n10j. You can only go so high before you cause weird problems that aren't logically connected to the CPU, unless you understand how everything interacts.

 

I've never had any problems with turning on from sleep or hibernate since I removed Super Hybrid Engine. Maybe it helps

 

Ok, finally cpu is set to 2050Mhz (228Mhz) and it's max. 230MHz causes problems with sleep mode. I also lowered voltage in bios, still works good, but gives some more time on battery.

oogamar -> Memory isn't underclocked. Hynix sticks are 1066Mhz CL7, when normally you have 800 CL6. Raise fsb to 266MHz and you have 1066MHz CL6 and it may be too much for these standard sticks.

 

Actually the hynix sticks i had before i swapped to kingston were 1333mhz and as such never reached their 'advertised' speed because the bus speed simply wouldn't go that high.
Maybe underclocked was a poor choice of words but my point still stands i doubt memory is an issue. Just for reference i tried the 4gb 1333mhz ram from my m17x which overclocks really well and it made no difference.

 

Any progress regarding editing the BIOS to increase speed? Would it then be possible to set the modes via SHE rather than setfsb? Would things like hybernate would be no more problem then?

 

At this point it says: "ERROR! -> Could not load the NHC driver!". Did you tried this utility under Windows 7 Professional (x64)?

 

According to the developers website this version of the program is only compatible with 32bit windows unfortunately.
I'll add that to the notes on the first page so people dont make that mistake again.

 

Recently followed the CPU OC guide, and it works, i am at 2.2GHz, i have made macros and hotkeys etc... but i too am having problems with restarting/standby etc. Have i missed a fix to this, or is it thusfar unfixed?

Did notice slight fps improvement in CoD BO MP with OC. Went from bearable to just about playable. (low 20's fps minimum, 50 fps occasionally)

Does anyone else have the problem where the tooltip and popup box for the nvidia control panel tray icon both appear in the top left of the screen, and lag to hell? it's pretty annoying. (reinstall didn't help)

Thanks for all the help so far, will post some more benchmarking soon!
-Uzalu

p.s. wow now runs at 25 fps with good settings in stormwind, 60 fps everywhere else. Tell me if you want help with that.

p.p.s I would like to do some GPU overclocking, but have no idea how. There's a guide (ty again oogamar) but it doesn't say what to change. So far whatever i do, it just undoes it.

 

Have added this note to the first post:
"NOTE: Most people have noted that when overclocking beyond 2ghz that the system doesn't resume from standby and some other minor wireless network problems may arise. This is because the 1215n is very sensitive to clock changes for some reason and seems to require a certain balance to function "normally".
Therefore i recommend only overclocking beyond 2ghz when you need it and don't put it as your 24/7 overclock - unless you dont put it into standby or use a wired lan."


For GPU overclocking all you do is use nvidia system tools to gradually increase the clocks on the core,shader and memory. When you do it have GPUz open on the monitoring tab so you can see the clocks you're at in real time because when you go too high it doesn't crash like other systems it just downclocks to 50%. Only by watching GPUz will you be able to see for sure when this is happening.

 

Thanks for the reply Oogamar. Since that post i have fiddled around a bit, and have made a whole load of macros for switching between clock speeds, using .bat files and hotkey master.

The GPU is now overclocked, i found a guide online that gave me the numbers, and checked GPU-Z and there was no performance drop. Everything runs just that little bit faster now.

Thanks again for the help.
-Uzalu

 

will over clocking the gpu lead to it frying or something? I have it at 600/850/1500 I get paranoid as well once im done playing and put it back to default settings, does that even make a difference?

 

Overclocking will not "fry" your card but it may decrease the life of it by a small percentage. However pc components are designed to last for tens of years - far beyond the time where they will still be useful so decreasing that lifetime isn't a massive loss really.
In the case of this laptop, i seriously doubt that in ten years time we'll all still be using it on a regular basis - if at all.

The main factor is heat... monitor your temperatures with gpuz - if it stays below 90C then your fine.

 

guys which one do u think is better?? 1215n or 1215t?.. which do u think will handle some games better?? thanks!

 

having had a quick look at the specs, i would say that the 1215n is twice as powerful. While the 4250 graphics card in the 1215t will need less development to function well, it has a far lower potential than the ion 2.

The 1215t also seems to have only one core with no hyper-threading, and at 1.7ghz rather than 1.8ghz.

also according to the first review i found, the 1215n has about 2-3x as much battery life.

it seems to me (could be wrong) that the 1215t is a budget version, and if you can, go for the 1215n and just wait a little while for the drivers to get better.

 

Given the choice now i'd have a hard time picking tbh. The 1215n has a load of issues whilst the 1215t has none... other than reduced battery life. Sure the gpu is less powerful but it isn't hindered by a pcie bottleneck so it'll be a consistant performer. The cpu on the other hand is quite a bit better in the 1215t... its only single core but it thrashes te dual core atom to hell. I think i'd lean toward the 1215t because it's not that far behind performance wise and if you're willing to have a couple of hours less max battery then it's the wiser choice i think.

 

the asus 1215b

 

Oh god yeah... totally forgot about the b. Yes this is the best option, new dual core processor, new gpu, it's better than the 1215n performance wise.

Just a little update - Nvidia are now aware of the driver problems with this machine and say they're going to look into it.

 

Good to know there looking into it... hopefully they do something about it though.

 

i guess then the performance may equal to what the 6310 is currently doing or atLEAST consistently higher. and may be better on some games cos of its dedicated card.
If this wasnt the case i may of had a 1215n/vx6 already. just as i was going to get the out of stock vx6 in december/january the zacate was in reach ( i noticed it then only because i was looking to see if there was any sandy bridge chip netbooks coming with ion which disappointly hasnt.)

i do not want to game high in the netbook. play casual games at medium settings but dont want it to be that high of power to match the m11x (tho i would like it) but it takes the concept of it been a netbook away and that i CANT run most games (like the m11x can)

 

Yes i mean theoretically it should be better than the 6310 however as shown in the DIY vidock thread the pcie 2.0x1 link cuts performance of a gpu by 20% on average but the optimus technology employs some kind of compression which is designed to limit the impact of this performance drop to less than that. But theres also the atom processor holding the gpu back which is a big factor.
I think the best we can hope for is something which is slightly (5-10%) better than the 1201n performance wise (if nvidia can make this thing perform consistantly without errors, crashes and artifacts) whilst having better battery life thanks to optimus.
That was my expectation when originally buying the machine and i'll be happy if they can make it live up to that.

 

For the same price as a 1215, you could get a ul30vt. Yeah, last gen, but still way better and basically teh same chassis.

 

That's not the same price though is it? Most places i've seen that machine costs £100-£200 more and if you're going to pay that you may aswell get a refurb m11x from alienware for £599. Also the battery life would be allot worse. I see what your saying though but the 1215n is more a netbook than an ultraportable, i.e portability over performance.

 

Actually, I've noticed a small price difference, maybe $100 or so (but I'm canadian). Considering the *huge* boost in performance, extra year of warranty and only slight difference in battery life, it seems to me, to be worth the extra $.

I mean, you could spend $500 and get a netbook that'll be unable to run windows 8 properly (the atom processor really does suck...), or $580 and a laptop that, even though it's technically 2 generations old, is still much, much stronger in both GPU and CPU power. The UL30vt comes with a bigger battery, IIRC, and a better hard drive ... and, well, it's all the upgrades that people would end up doing on their own.

Though, that is the canadian prices, comparing the 1215 N to the Ul30VT. The 1215T is another $50 cheaper ... and I've got no idea what they're gouging you brits for ...

 

I guess it's not surprising that the prices are so blown out of proportion here... i remember when i was looking at the m17x(back when it first launched) it would cost around £2800-£3000 for a config that would cost around $3300 in the US and considering the exchange rates are around £1.6 to a USD thats around a $1500 difference. Crazy prices over here so for me at least at £400 the 1215n made sense at the time.

 

Im having some real problems with the 1215N and latest ION drivers, Flash plug-in, Steam and Flash Active X.

First, if you're in the situation of installing Flash for "other browsers" in order to get Steam client to play flash videos, don't do it.

With that said, I don't know why the first time it worked ok but now after a reinstall of Win 7 with and without SP1, it caused the nvd3dum.dll app crash error when viewing Youtube.

I'm using the Windows update version of Nvidia drivers 257.41. I also tried the latest 266.58. All failed. I've reinstalled Win 7 several times and it continues to fail. I'm not sure if this is a Nvidia issue or Adobe Flash but if seems to occur only after I installed Flash for other browsers along with the one for IE 8.

Anyone have any ideas how this gets manifested and fix?

 

hocky98, try to disable the use of ION for the specific browser you want to watch youtube with (in nvidia controllpanel). Had the same problem, this worked for me and 1080p youtube vids still work smoothly without the ION.

 

yea its a shame cos it supposed to be based off the 305m which does seem to have stronger results on notebook check. its messed up that the 1201n perfroms better on mw2 which held me off.
im happy to go with the x120e. what saddens me is that i no for a fact a year later ill be selling it for the witchia chpis with 4 cores (i think that this one will have the 4 cores) and probably something equal or better than the 6370m. i hope they make a nice 11.6 upgrade chassis cos i really do like the x120e

 

The problem is that the current nvidia drivers are poor. The quick fix is to set your browser to use the integrated chip only.
The only way to get a real permanant fix is for nvidia to fix it.
If you could repost your issue in the thread linked below (which nvidia are looking at) then it would help them to fix it in a future driver release.
Asus 1215n ION driver issues - NVIDIA Forums

 

bluenarugi,

Thanks, this works and at least gives a temporary fix. With the nvidia, the videos are just a tad more fluid.

oogamar,

I tried to see which video driver set didn't have this issue and thought 257.41 was it but still had the same issue. Was there another version you had better performance with?

 

Since the new flash 10.2 came out theres no driver i've tried that makes the ion work normally. That's why im trying to get people to post their complaints in the nvidia thread so they fix it. I tried all the drivers i'd downloaded previously and none worked. Its very frustrating that the main thing this netbook did well (handling hd video) it no longer does well at all.

UPDATE: Nvidia have been able to reproduce the crashing that we have seen in the majority of drivers with the 1215n and are in the process of tracking down the cause. Also on the flashplayer front, it is an issue with optimus in general and not limited to the 1215n but they are working with adobe to fix it.

UPDATE 2: Nvidia has a potential fix for the crashing we see in some games and they're now looking into the various reported performance issues. Looks like were finally getting somewhere

 

hello all,

oogamar mentions in the original post that:


NOTE: Most people have noted that when overclocking beyond 2ghz that the system doesn't resume from standby and some other minor wireless network problems may arise. This is because the 1215n is very sensitive to clock changes for some reason and seems to require a certain balance to function "normally".
Therefore i recommend only overclocking beyond 2ghz when you need it and don't put it as your 24/7 overclock - unless you dont put it into standby or use a wired lan.

I found it a bit annoying to constantly have to open setfsb and change my clock speed, so I decided to stream line the process a little. I wrote a set of batch files for each game, which would run setfsb and change the clock speed, then run the game. The batch then pauses (I really tried to find a better way of waiting until the game was closed to finish running the rest of the batch, but after a couple hours I settled for this.). Once you are finished playing your game, just click the window for the batch and press any button, this will end the pause and continue the batch file. The last step of the batch is to set the CPU clock speed to the default setting.

Finally, I put these batches in the same folder as the game's executable, and then made a shortcut to my batch that I placed on the desktop, with a nice game icon.

Below is an example of a batch file that runs fallout new vegas:

Start /WAIT C:\setfsb\setfsb.exe -w1 -s123
cd "C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\fallout new vegas\"
Start /WAIT .\FalloutNVLauncher.exe
Pause
Start /WAIT C:\setfsb\setfsb.exe -w1 -s100

If anyone can come up with a better way to wait for the game to close before resetting the CPU clockspeed, I would be very interested in hearing how.

Hopefully this will be helpful to some who would like the overclocking to be a little more transparent.

BOB

 

Im sure allot of people will find this useful, thanks for figuring it out. I'll add this to the first page under the overclocking bit so its easier to find

 

Didn't people say it is possible to reach higher values if you overclock step-by-step? Including those steps into a batch file could also help to increase the CPU speed in little steps to the maxmium and backward afterwards...

 

ALERT ALERT ALERT!!!! NEW BETA DRIVERS ARE UP ON NVIDIA!!!!!

 

I wouldn't hold your breath... they still havent fixed the issues yet so there probably wont be anything new with the new ones.