K53TA.. The best deal ever... could be!

In response to Victoryo:

I think any 2.5 7200rpm would work. I think I remember getting an email that Newegg was having a clearance sale on a few hdds. I am assuming that you don't want to go SSD because you need more space... have you looked into a hybrid drive?



I ordered one of these at the aforementioned insane price. I can't wait to get it in. Question:
1. Is the battery charger the same style connector as a standard dell/hp? I have a universal Targus charger with adjustable tips and on the tip website they are undecided on which one works with this laptop. I would love to be able to just use the same one I am using now (works with my dells xps, inspiron and Hp Dm1z).

Thanks

 

Alrighty, new K53TA refurb arrived yesterday - I've since swapped out HD into an optical caddy and slapped in an SSD, did a clean install of Win7 Ult x64, and applied appropriate driver and system updates, etc.

Now I'm fiddling with the new FIXED dGPU modded BIOS as described by atoneapone HERE and I've got a quick question.

If I run a WEI assessment with High Performance (Fixed dGPU) mode, I score a 6.7 for both Graphics and Gaming Graphics. If I run the assessment again after enabling Dynamic mode, my scores drop to 3.5 and 5.3, respectively.

I figured it was no big deal, just leave it in Fixed mode and utilize the 6550 at all times for best performance, but after reading through the thread some more, link626 states HERE:

"and just to reiterate, the ONLY time you ever need to use fixed mode is if you're using openGL. all other times, leave it in dynamic mode, since directX games will still use the dgpu if you tag it High performance. There should be no extra benefit in using fixed mode for dx games."

So do I chalk this up to WEI just not utilizing the 6550 correctly when in Dynamic mode? And if I'm in Dynamic mode, should I have X-fire disabled (as reportedly it causes stuttering and such)? Appreciate any guidance in this, having a hard time wrapping my head around this odd graphics configuration on this system (so much potential, so poorly implemented!)

Many thanks!

 

can't go wrong with wd scorpio black.

of course, every brand has like 1-5% failure, so don't be mad if you get a lemon.

yeah, usually should leave xfire off, if you are bothered by stutters.
But you should still try xfire to see if you can tolerate the stutters.
very FEW games benefit from xfire, resulting in lower framerates than 6650m alone.
the only game i can think of that gets slightly higher frames is just cause 2, and maybe dirt3.

wei is a dumb test.
but you might need to manually tag high performance to the wei app for a higher score. C:\Windows\system32\winsat.exe
With my cpu OC to 2ghz and gpus at stock clocks, my graphics score is 5.3 and 6.2 in dynamic mode, crossfire off.


if you want to test graphics, get 3dmark06 or 11, and run it in dynamic mode with dualgraphics xfire turned off, after tagging it high performance.
then compare the scores to fixed mode. should be similar.
That will tell you if the 6650 is being implemented correctly.
running amd system monitor on the side will also tell you if the 6650 is working.

you can leave it on fixed mode 100% of the time if you're always plugged in, but your idle temps will run a tad higher because the dgpu is adding 50c of extra heat to the heatsink, and the fan will run or speed up more frequently

 

Lol - almost verbatim what I muttered to myself when I was puzzling over the discrepancies in numbers. I'll give a decent benchmark a shot tomorrow for better results. Thanks for the feedback, link626!

 

Any one experiencing auto random wake up from sleep mode
Here is the event log extract

The system has resumed from sleep.

Sleep Time: ‎2012‎-‎03‎-‎26T03:55:17.931073700Z
Wake Time: ‎2012‎-‎03‎-‎26T03:55:23.400051500Z

Wake Source: Device -High Definition Audio Controller

did some googling and nothing helpful
Win7 wakes from high def audio bus right after being put to sleep - Windows 7 Forums
PC keeps waking up from sleep - www.windows-noob.com
i am on default windows audio driver no realtek
its barebone installation without any asus software or driver(atk or kb filter)
another weired issue is erratic touchpad button, the left button works now and than

 

^ windows bug?

as long as it doesn't do it all the time, i'd ignore it.

 

My computer randomly wakes from sleep after a few minutes as well, for the same reason. It happens all the time, so I just turn my computer off and ignore it.

 

AMD Catalyst 12.3 (8.951.0 March 8) AMD Official WHQL

 

actually, i use sleep every now and then, and mine does not autowake.

i have windows 7 clean installed, and I did not install all of the asus crapware, like that power4gear.
First thing i did after buying this was to download the win7 iso and wipe everything.

the only asus thing i have running is the keyboard shortcuts software.

 

have you guys check the external mouse power setting if you using one? for sleep problem

 

yea wake feature of mouse and keyborad is off, btw you can check who and when wakes your computer by checking event log
go to event viewer
Windows log>system
filter current log (on right pane)>event source (drop down menu)
and select power troubleshooter

ok someof us don't have this bug
@link i don't even use kb shortcut or p4g or anything and mine was preloaded DOS
so no legacy
what is your audio driver and version
do u use that software came with asus to audio enhancement

this bug is replicable not that random and can avoided by pushing sleep button twice
i mean after a automatic wakeup, try sleep again it will stay asleep
another workaround is logoff and sleep it works too

 

i'm not using asus audio bloatware.

but i have realtek audio driver and amd hdmi driver for audio.

 

hi

 

Guys i have a silly question.Which are the right drivers for the graphic card?These ASUSTeK Computer Inc. -Support- Drivers and Download K53TA (Version V8.903.0.0000)
or the 12.11?

One more question,i dont know how to enable crossfire.I can switch between the decent g.card and the apu but i dont see anywhere the option to use both graphics cards at the same time....

 

AMD Catalyst 12.1 (8.930.0 December 5) AMD Official WHQL - Guru3D.com Forums

if you have the a4 cpu, you can't crossfire.

otherwise, on a6, there is "dual graphics" option under 2 of the submenus in catalyst control center

 

Hello mates, 1st off awsome thread. Great info and alot of really good input from great sources.

I have a quick question, what is better the crossfire or single dgpu for games like WoW and call of duty 4. Why?

Wifi Problem when updating to sp1(Windows 7 64 bit)
Also when i updated to win 7 64 bit my wifi drivers failed. I had to reinstall from list because my laptop would not identify my hardware. After i did this the wifi came right up. Just incase someone else is having problems.

 

Best Drivers I've tested yet...I was very slow to installing the 12.1 drivers after being on 11.12 so long and jumping to 12.2. But these are the best ones I've used so far. All games seem just a bit smoother. And games overclock fine with msi afterburner.

I switched to 12.1 because I was experiencing a BSOD on 11.12 drivers when running games on fixed Manual Selectable graphics. So I also got a hold of Rage to test out OpenGL performance & it runs ok off the integrated gpu. It also runs a little better on "selecting graphics manually." And best of all, no more BSODs. Framerate wasn't bad at all -- felt high and smooth almost like 50-60 FPS o I don't have an exact benchmark). But it still had some texture problems as you are moving around; still very playable. Maybe I can try the patch for Rage later on to see if it will fix it. After beating & testing the game some more, I'm sure I'll get tired of it & uninstall it soon .
Newer drivers have been out (12.2,12.3,12.4beta), but there is pixelation problems in Skyrim and maybe problems in other games, so just stick with 12.1. All my games seem to run better than before on 12.1.

 

can any one suggest a cooling pad
will notepal x lite be good enough

 

Guys do you know what the process ''FBAgent.exe'' is doing????It eats 3gigs of RAM without any reason.Its a part of the ASUS fast boot program.I cant kill the process,please someone tell me how to get rid of it!!!

 

boot to safe mode and rename it.

msconfig and delete startup item.

disable fast boot service, if listed. Uninstall fastboot if it's in control panel programs.

i run on clean windows 7 image. no fbi agent here.

 

Got got my k53ta arrived, pretty nice design laptop, do all you guys have a small power brick? check the dv6 thread photo. The dv6 one is huge..I was like really?

Keyboard
Layout is better than dv6z, full size arrow key seem odd place with should get used to soon. function key are grouped instead of equal space like dv6..
Can't comment on how good is type as I am not a typist ~~

 

^ have fun

 

I have a lot of questions mates. I want to do the modified bios but I don't know if it is really helpful or not. Can someone tell me if just using the Dpgu is better than the crossfire for games like WoW and call of duty 4? Also is the dgpu a real 6650m? With 1gb of memory or is that 1gb total?

Also is the best setup is only running Dgpu and no igpu and no crossfire? what are the problem with this? other then the computer being a little more hotter

 

for some reason it is not restarting properly after clean install ~~

easy flash show warning for 207 and the k53 come with 209. I guess the intel 6200 is acting up-.-?zzz

or my 1.8" SSD with adapter.zzz?

Edit: seem like it hate foreign wifi card, or maybe my card dirty xD

winflash not installing saying it is not a ASUS notebook WAT?
~~

 

i think this asus has a whitelist.
so no intel.
atheros cards are ok.

anything foreign will make it hang.

for winflash to work, you need to install atk package.

 

Just notice you all on 212
I am trying to get 207 cause some 1 did bios oc so if I stable there i can just use the bios and hand it to my bro. The wifi card worked on my clean install, doesnt work on stock OS. Just that it cant restart and hang with the power on.

And the computer arrive early so I don't have my ODD caddy for 2nd HDD, need swaping stock and SSD xD.

may aswell try my 6300. zzz

 

what? where is the bios oc for 207 ?
i have to see that.
cpu OC? or graphics oc ?

bios startup check probably doesn't like intel wifi ?

 

Oh , some 1 just did a bios mod with gpu clock higher so you don't need to software OC everytime , in the dv6z thread ( the same guy that did dv6z gpu oc bios). No 1 tested it though as there seem to be no recovery flash.

For intel 6200, It shut down fine, boot up fine, connect fine, but struck when restarting. absolutely no clue, maybe I try 212 c if it helps. I also have another 1 coming in 2-3 days, probably test tat as well. Worse I tell my bro just dont restart meh.( not like he ever turn it off if at all)

intel 6300, plug it in, driver dun install properly, didnt brother as I using it on my dv6.

Edit: btw what 12.2 stable? or stay with 12.1?

 

Got my second 4Gb samsung ram upgrade.
So i installed it. And checked and the computer says 8GB installed =D

But on CPU-Z it doesn't say that it's in dual channel :O

What could be wrong?

 

I prefer 12.1 over 12.2. Games had slower FPS for me on the later.

I'd rather have full control to oc gpu and cpu anytime I need it so I can make sure it runs cool when idle. I prefer temps to be between 36-50C all the time, so I keep Vision CCC in Dynamic Mode instead of fixed all the time. Fixed results in 47-50C idle temps. I found games play about the same on Fixed & Dynamic. When in Fixed mode, you only see improvements in difficult OpenGL games.

 

It is for my bro, and he lazy to do anything for improvement. All he do is click, open game and play.

I stick with 12.1 for both chipset and display. Do I miss anything w/o the chipset driver from ASUS?

Edit: any of the bloatware is not bloat? Already got the winflash and driver thing

 

ahh, some people need everything automated like a p&s camera.
Serious gamers of this notebook need to be willing to tinker and tweak a little.

I think all the essential drivers are included with AMD graphic drivers. Some people may have noted Hdmi Usb 3.0 issues, but I've never had problems.

 

ya asus53ta a6 3400m 32nm quad freedom for us can overclock =underclock =undervold lock p stat never let u down
all videos are on 64bit win7 on 32bit win7 u have more flexibility believe me!!!


http://youtu.be/d8i9wi2dPH8
http://youtu.be/Z0Yx9vQ6vkk


http://youtu.be/cJT8HgCSSQg
http://youtu.be/wHp2PqRbFVI

 

12.1 is fine.

all of the asus branded software is bloat, except atk.

realtek audio drivers are a little bloated, but I need them for stereo mix.

cpuz doesn't always show everything.
get sisoft sandra lite and compare single and dual memory test.
if you see extra bandwidth, you know you're in dual channel.

 

So they have the 12.3 drivers out and I am testing them but I noticed something Extremely strange... I overclocked my CPU using k10stat like always but to my surprise instead of it being 2ghz (which is my P0) it is sitting at 1.7ghz P1.

Any reasons as to why it is doing this?

actually in fact the same thing was going on with 12.2 because it was sitting at 1.3 at stock which was the P1 yet again... so why is this occurring?


Wow very interesting... so apparently Power4Gear was the issue. After installing the 12.2 or 12.3 it screws with it because regular High performance works just peachy

 

I saw on other forums that bios mods were able to remove this effect, could it be possible to edit this bios much like has been done for fixed dGPU?

 

it is not whitelisted, I find it should be driver issue, testing which 1 works.

 

I actually had to uninstall the modded bios. I am not sure if it was bios 112 or the modded 112 but I have had blue screens up the wall on battlefield and other things... Switched back to 207 and everything is good so far

It's kinda sad too because using ONLY the 6650M saved me a few degrees of heat.

 

does only using the 6650m improve your fps and performance in games? does the 6650m also have the 1gb of memmory or does it only have the 500mb?

 

Well basically I'm still using the 6650M in my games but you will notice that the 6520G is slightly running in the background.

If you use Dynamic Mode or Fixed either way the 6650M will have the same performance when used. That's how it is for me anyways.

As far as the 1gb vs 500mb I'm not sure which one it uses since I don't ever check that.

 

Hi all, I've ordered one for me. What would guru advice to do first or what is the algorithm for perfect system on k53ta. Perhaps its time to make a sort of FAQ. Thank you all

 

hmm,seem like I have problem pushing over 2.2ghz, it just throttle itself down 1 p-state

Edit: it jump to battery mode when I drive prime 95 +kombustor/furmark (even I plug the power in)~~

 

that's weird. you're maxing out both the cpu and graphics card, and power brick doesn't supply enough power ?

the brick is 90w, but it does have all sorts of overvolt and heat protection. it isn't using a/c at all ?

 

I think this laptop comes with 2 possible bricks - a 65W one which is smaller and a 90w one which most of us received if we purchased it from BB last summer/fall. see Baii pictures- he has a smaller brick with his. http://forum.notebookreview.com/8412656-post5942.html.

I actually have a spare power supply which is the same smaller size, and it gets very hot when gaming and overclocking but ok when doing light work. Where as our larger Asus power brick only gets warm and seems to handle anything we do. I wonder if there's something wrong with Baiis power supply.

 

It doesnt do that on 2.2 , so I guess it do that to protect the brick? But double burn is extreme enough , gaming probably should be fine

I was using in place large FFT in prime95 aswell, so that is more extreme case.

Edit: checked online, the model is 65W. Meh

 

what's the model number of your power brick ?

google it, and see if it's 90watt.

also, what bios are you using?

 

I just did., is a 65 Wer
using 207.

It is not deal breaking. My bro should be fine with it.

 

damn. I didn't know asus sent out 65w bricks with this.

that sucks.

90w brick is $30, so it's not too expensive at least

 

Interesting, the K53TA's replacement is going to be released this summer for 630 Euro's, but in USD price, I assume it'll around the same in USD.

This will be the new best bang for buck laptop hopefully since the K53TA seems to be clearing out allover the place.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834230216&Tpk=k53ta is still out of stock too.

 

fixed mode
3dmark 11 p1294 @2.4ghz 690/997
vantage p5310
xfire p1790
p6383

amd did crazy tweaking job for xfire 3dmark11 ~~

doing a crossfire for giggles, just testing stable enough to hand over to bro ~~