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

Well after what feels like FOREVER... mine finally comes in today from newegg business.

I am still debating if I want to just start fresh or uninstall and make sure none of the bloatware starts up on reboot...

 

Hey baiii, just get another adaptor and keep the 65W as a spare. I have a 65W brick as a spare for travel and keep the nicer 90W brick at home (since I usually play my games at home). The 65W has handled laptop ok, but it gets hotter so I don't game as much on it.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/AC-ADAPTER-...=Laptop_Adapters_Chargers&hash=item3a71d8aad7
or http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odk...harger.TRS0&_nkw=k53ta+power+charger&_sacat=0 --this is the 90W (19V 4.74A) that our Asus uses. (make sure you get the correct plug & amperage above.)

Amazon.com: Laptop Notebook Charger forGateway 0335C1965 - 19V 3.42AAdapter Adaptor Power Supply "Laptop Power" Branded (Power Cord Included): Electronics --this is the 65W(19V 3.42A) I have as a spare, but voltages and amps aren't the same as the proper 90W above.

 

Thanks for the advice and the link - just snagged one myself!

 

Alright well mine came in today and I must say that I am pretty disappointed with the build quality of this machine. Its not enough to warrant a return seeing as its going to be sitting on my desk 99% of the time, but overall the machine just feels really shoddy. The seams under the trackpad are split pretty good and there are 2 big dents on the speaker bar above the F4 and F11 keys. I have no idea what could have caused that.

Either way, I am sure its going to be a great computer for what it is (At that price, the hardware alone make it a good buy). As an example... my Dell Inspiron 17r that I gifted to my brother feels 100x better as far as build quality.

As for the software... there really is a TON of bloatware... you guys weren't kidding. I am updating everything as we speak and its quite the process. Even trying to stop things from starting up on a reboot is not as easy as in most machines.

Another weird fact... When I originally turned the computer on it told me that windows was not a valid copy... I was puzzled and put the CD key from the bottom and it worked... kinda weird that they messed that up from the refurb factory.

Well off to readup on overclocking... just thought I would like to give my 2c.

 

yeah. this laptop is pretty fragile and plasticky. gotta be careful.
case will not survive drop.
I have taken it apart before, and one of the fragile areas is around the hinges.

 

If it's taken care of properly without slamming it around in a book bag or treated ragged like a child, then you should be ok. Adult care and owner awareness of the flimsiness of the laptop are a necessity....Probably why we have a savings of $100-200 for what we get. For $530+ a better alternative is a refurb HP dv6z A8 + 6750M dual graphics laptop. HP Pavilion dv6-6135dx Refurbished Notebook PC - AMD Quad-Core A8-3500M 2.4GHz, 6GB DDR3, 640GB HDD, Blu-ray, 15.6 Display, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit at TigerDirect.com
It might be sturdier than this but keyboard will feel different.

 

^ For sure... I treat my laptops like they are pieces of fragile china... I really have to say that the build quality is pretty low though... You get what you pay for, but I just wanted to make my point.




Well the bloatware and "custom tweaks" made by asus really got me angry... so angry to the point that I just did a fresh install. Its re-updating windows (installed my signature edition, so its starting from the very beginning).

Does anyone have tips on what drivers to install? I downloaded all of the ones that seemed important from the asus driver page... I am not sure what catalist driver they had there, but I will make sure that its current. I am not really at the driver portion of the install yet... I am letting windows update fully first... If there are any "hidden" drivers, guidance would be greatly appreciated.

-- One thing, Is the touchpad drivers the Elan ones? I noticed 3 there and was not sure if the newest ones were the proper ones? It originally came with the elan ones...

Thanks

 

exactly why i did a clean install day 1.
much faster, less hassle. Runs 7 ultimate free without any slic hacks.

you can get graphics and chipset driver stuff straight from amd. version 12.1.
skip 12.2. Dunno if 12.3 is bug free, but doesn't hurt to try.

touchpad = elan.
atk package, and usb charger......... are the only things I have installed.
you really don't need anything else, except winflash, if you want to flash bios hacks

 

I will update to 12.1... Right now I have version 8.xx

As for drivers:
Sound - Realtek... had some asus mixer with it, so it may get an uninstall
Card Reader - Not sure if its necessary...
USB Charger - Not sure if it really does anything... I noticed the bios settings are off on charge in sleep mode
Lan - Realtek ethernet controller
Touchpad - Elan
Wifi - Atheros WIFI driver
ATK - Not sure what this is for... hopefully overlays for sound and brightness.

I tried to use the winflash that I got from the asus site and it said that they were only compatible with Asus notebooks... I was like... Ummm ya... lol. It wouldn't let me install it. Eh
- Don't I need this to flash the bios to 212?

 

12.3 seems stable to me, also as far as the PC goes you never know what you're gonna get with a refurb, I once got a refurb and it was so damaged on the outside that I sent it back and won't get one again. Good thing though since it lead me to getting the A53TA (same as K53TA but with dif HDD). Everything seems fine for me and I never did a clean install although I probably should have but I don't really know how to without buying a disc.

Not at all. You may use other programs or do it manually. I forgot the names of the other ones but i'm sure someone else will say something.

 

This may sound dumb... but where do I tell my version number for the catalyst software... I downloaded 12.1 and tried to install it twice but I think its showing 8.something. Am I missing something? This is the AMD suite thing right? IE where it shows you your display settings, etc...

Also I can't mark programs for high performance. I wanted to make Google Chrome use the DGPU and I switch it to high performance, then click apply, and it goes back to unassigned.

Uninstalled all the AMD stuff.

Downloaded 12.3... After install said that there was no AMD detected that would work. I then tried with the 12.1 I donwloaded and the same thing... I got both flies from the AMD site, so I doubt they were corrupt.

I am downloading 12.1a now and am going to give that a shot...

*** UPdate *** 12.1a worked -- One thing I noticed is the DGPU no longer says 6650 but says 6600 and 6700... is this normal? Before it was identified as the 6650?

 

you need atk in order to install winflash.

i normally do bios flash with easyflash in the bios.

amd drivers will show 8.9xxxx. that's normal.
don't worry about what the amd software says, as long as it works.

 

If you uninstalled everything AMD, you'll need to go on the Asus site and download one of the earliest chipsets and install that first. The drivers from AMD's site aren't specific to this laptop, and don't automatically install the usb3 drivers and a few others that you probably accidentally deleted. Once the old stuff is installed, the catalyst packages from the AMD site will properly detect and update all of your drivers.

Don't worry about what it shows as the name of your GPU. Mine shows up as "6600M." Everything still works as intended!

 

Great to mention... After the fresh install, the USB ports were not working...

Actually now that I am back to the basic asus one... The 3.0 port works but the USB port on the RT side does not work at all... Any ideas? Maybe that's why my laptop was refurbished... possibly it is not software? When I plug something into it... its able to read the device but it says that its not recognized... Making me really think its software.

 

Have you installed the chipset drivers from here yet?

 

I thought I did... so I downloaded and installed it again anyway...



Nope...

I am running 12.3 but it was acting this way with 12.1 as well...

Also, whats the benefit of overclocking... Bragging rights? I am on stock settings and everything seems to be running exceptional for me (Games, etc)... should I even bother with OC? One thing I did notice is that my cores stayed at 1397 while I was gaming instead of going to 22xx... is this normal? When doing some things, like even while I am typing this, they are spiking up to 2256, I would figure that while doing anything intensive, they would be maxed out.

 

Go to Device Manager and check to see if there are any yellow exclamation marks showing up next to any of the devices.

If any of the devices have the exclamation mark, right click on the device and under the general tab does it have any error code listed?

 

None... There were some at some point yesterday... Said unknown device. Now there are none (could be the chipset or 12.3 that identified them).

****

When I plug it in I get a yellow triangle

Port_#0002.Hub_#0001

Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems. (Code 43)

*******

Uninstalled the unknown device --- removed usb thumb drive --- Plugged it back in ---- Automatically detected and installed drivers ---- still does not know what it is (I did not restart like requested though)

 

Have you tried another device to see if you get the same error?

 

I tried a mouse as well.

 

i had a usb error once.
i checked device manager, and somehow windows loaded the wrong driver for it- an asus usb driver for my non-asus tv tuner.
so i manually deleted the incorrect driver, plugged the usb device into another usb port, manually installed the driver, then plugged it back into the "malfunctioning" usb port and let windows autodetect it again.

check the device manager device's driver tab, and see if it is trying to load the right driver.


and yes, it's normal that your cpu does not go above 1400mhz. That's why we overclock. Turbo only works for a split second. It's slow otherwise.

 

Gotcha on the overclock... I guess I will figure out how to get 2.2 and just run that during games.

As for the uninstall... I noticed some weird drivers in my usb... some asus power plus ones... maybe those are the culprits?

 

Overclocking gives a nice boost in gaming performance. Complementing that with undervolting makes your system able to have more "umph" with lower temperatures.

Also, you can underclock and undervolt to reach nearly 6 hours of battery life. I run my system at idle at 500 mhz .625 V. Plenty fast for all basic needs.

It's fun to tweak your system to achieve the best possible performance, so that's mostly why I do it
An added bonus is rubbing it in on my friend who has an Alienware, since my k53ta plays games better than his m13x

 

There is no M13x... so I am thinking you meant m14x... I didn't know that this would run better than (or on par with) the M14x.... pretty cool.

Overclocking seems like its the way to go and I don't want to speed through it so I am going to hold off until the weekend when I can really read through the threads.

 

yeah. i remember my usb glitch had asus power something shown in the drivers tab.
obviously it was the wrong driver, and caused the usb device to not work.

fixed it with previous mentioned method.

 

Overclocking is definitely the way to go, with undervolting for normal usage I am able to get like 8 hours of battery life out of this, which is great for when I'm at the library in between classes and the like. Check out the thread here for some profiles, and HTWingNut's guide http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...-dv6z-llano-overclock-optimization-guide.html

 

Hmm I just looked again and there were no weird drivers... I uninstalled all the USB ports (annoying bc it disconnected all of my usb stuff attached) and let windows do its thing on a hardware refresh and still nodda...

Thanks Dr_Snad --- I did see that post in the K53TA deal thread and that was how I was going to begin the OC process

 

do your audio ports work?

the audio ports and usb port are on a daughterboard connected by one cable to the mobo.

when you plug in your usb device, and see the yellow exclamation icon in device manager, go to its properties and check the drivers tab, and post a screenshot here.

I just upgraded to 12.3 catalyst, and I observed interesting behavior.

with 12.3, switching between and dynamic and fixed mode does not cause reboot and shutdown to hang on a black screen, unlike 12.1 drivers.

reboot is successful every time, but only if I don't run k10stat to OC.

stock cpu clock + graphics switching = pretty much flawless.

so somehow Windows doesn't like the k10stat drivers, or maybe it conflicts with one of the amd catalyst modules, i dunno.
But when I OC and switch graphics, then try to reboot, it does not shutdown properly; sometimes you get a scrambled shutdown screen with horizontal lines, sometimes you get black screen freeze. and on next power-on, you get Windows dos error message that it did not shut down properly.

actually, you don't even need to use graphics switching with 12.3, and it will cause failed reboot every time you use k10stat during that windows session.

I am going to see if unhooking the k10stat driver helps, if possible.


update: restart/shutdown works with 12.3 catalyst if you set stock cpu clocks in k10stat before shutdown.
So i guess you can use task scheduler to load stock clocks on shutdown as a workaround.

 

Try using fusiontweaker!

 

Interesting. Now different shutdown behavior is occuring in different AMD drivers. So now graphic switching isn't causing hangs but K10stat is.

So do you think the cause is K10stat instead of the new BIOS 212 Mod? It might also be a conflict with the new changes implemented in later AMD catalyst drivers ever since 12.2. (eg. CPU power and AMD overdrive, AMD's control of overclocking cpu and gpu). In 12.2, I noticed strange things happening to my cpu speeds like it would run a maximum speed of 1.3 ghz when I chose High performance on power4gear program. So power4gear may also be conflicting with AMD ccc. I've never used fusiontweaker but it may be worth a try to see if the shutdown behavior is any different.

Did you notice game performance any better or worse in 12.3? I didn't like 12.2 since it lowered FPS by 5-10FPS. o but my performance hit may be due to the conflicts of software mentioned above). For now I'm sticking with 12.1 since Skyrim artifacting wasn't fixed when AA is set on. Some of my games actually ran 2-3 FPS better in 11.12 so game performance on past games seem to be getting worse with each AMD driver update.

 

Hello everyone, I am in a bit of a pickle here.

I've installed the modded 212 BIOS and everything was working perfectly until I decided to uninstall my video drivers, after which I restarted my laptop, but it keeps BSOD'ing once it hit the windows screen, I tried flashing the BIOS in safe mode but it would not allow me to, I tried reformating the hdd and re-installing Windows 7, it won't even install now. Have I bricked my laptop?

 

Audio works just fine. I plugged some headphones in to test and they worked flawlessly.

Seems like you messed something up when you did the bios flash... I flashed to 212 and uninstalled all AMD drivers and then reinstalled them and everything runs.

 

I do not think I flashed inncorrectly, I followed all the steps and everything ran fine when I bench tested on 3dmark06, 3dmark11, vantage, heaven's benchmark, Furmark, Prime95 as well as playing some source games.

After uninstalling all video drivers and restarting, I keep getting BSOD as soon as I hit the windows desktop. I am unable to install drivers in safe mode and cannot get winflash to operate without them.

I am currently installing the OS onto the HDD using another computer and hopefully it works.

 

Well if you can't get it running when you install the new HDD then you know its got to be something onboard, like the bios. Definitely a weird problem to be having...

 

Alright A fresh install of Win7 on my desktop seems to have fixed the BSODing, but oddly enough I can't install winflash anymore, it keeps saying it is only available for notebooks. Regardless I'm just glad it works now. But not being able to flash to newer BIOS is concerning.

 

You still can... There is a driver you need to install from the Asus site... I had the same issue, I think the driver is the atk package. DL and install that one first, then try winflash. Look back a few pages and find my post of the drivers I installed when I did my fresh install... I mention this.

 

Note that an overclock to just 1.8 or 2.0 makes a world of difference. At 1.4GHz CPU is the limiting factor in most games. At 2.0 to 2.2 you'll mostly be GPU limited.

 

Ya, 1.4 is pretty low on the clock scale. Going to 2.2 is almost a 100% improvement.

 

I installed the ATKACPI driver and winflash works fine now.

After setting it to only use the 6650 in CCC, I can't seem to change screen brightness with the keyboard controls, but it still works in control panel, anyone else having this problem?

I'm also getting rather low 3dmark11 score of P1131 with stock settings + 8GB ram, Catalyst 12.3 + v212 modded BIOS (turbo boost enabled)

 

that was my first thought- conflict with amd's own oc module.
i was thinking maybe we can mix and match dll's or find a way to disable amd's oc util.


i have uninstalled all my games because i needed hdd space. so i haven't tested any

brightness bug is normal on fixed mode.

p1131 is normal score. your graphics are fine.

 

Then how come the OP's scores are so much higher?

 

OP probably have crossfire on.

 

AMD Catalyst 12.3 WHQL – BenchmarK3D
In above article they mentioned 3rd party apps may lose functionality because of the atipdlxx.dll changed, but not sure if that can help with any of the problems you are having.

 

It's interesting because going from 2.0 - 2.2 is a slight increase and going past 2.2 wont give really anything and the heat increases tenfold. Even going 2 vs 2.2 saves me about 6 degrees. So going further is murder.

BTW does anyone have any (SAFE) recommendations for Overclocking the GPU.

I see some people saying they have speeds such as:
Core: 720
Memory: > 1000
_______________
Core: 650
Memory: 1000
_______________
Core: 670
Memory: 990

oh i'd like to know if you gotta change the voltage or not as well (although i'd like to avoid that)

 

every gpu is made different so you need to test the limit of each GPU

typically I see 700 core and some mem as core clock seem to matter more than mem clock.

 

no difference. it uses the same winring0 hooks as k10stat.
causes same reboot fail if oc'd.

i don't know what to tell you. that's a tricky one. If you can't find a software solution from google, I would pop out the keyboard and see if the cable is seated properly, though I don't see how that would affect it since it detects something is plugged in, but can't load the drivers.

I think the cable should be accessible from under the keyboard, iirc.

i already had that same atipdlxx.dll in the windows folder the whole time.

 

Thanks for the advice... I am pretty clueless myself. I really really really doubt its the cable though. If it were the cable, then I would think that it would be getting no power, etc... Kinda sucks to be me but eh... its one USB port and I have a plethora of hubs...

 

update to fixed mode + 12.3 cats + k10stat OC reboot fail situation.....

turns out 12.3 cats don't play nice on reboot/shutdown with turbo boost when OC'd.

Workaround = Turn off turbo when OC, and reboot doesn't freeze when switching between dynamic and fixed mode with 12.3 cats.

I had 2.6ghz turbo previously, and I turned off turbo and changed p0 to 2.6ghz just to see if it would freeze.
rebooted fine.

so now we have almost a flawless fixed mode switching, with no reboot problems, but a turbo bug.

the only 2 situations where reboot is successful after switching graphics is at stock cpu speeds with default turbo, and at OC cpu speeds with turbo off.

I don't have the time to find out which dll or sys is causing this glitch, so I'll just leave turbo disabled.


I flashed back to stock bios 212, and k10stat OC + Turbo still causes reboot failure with 12.3 cats installed.

so this affects everyone on 12.3 cats. turn off turbo if you wanna reboot.

do one more thing.



click the driver details button and tell us what it says.

 

Link626, Big thanks for testing the 12.3 drivers! I added a note to the sd wiki and owners lounge here.
I could only find one other post about someone seeing the same thing. Hopefully a future driver will fix this issue. But it's good that you found a workaround if AMD never fixes it!

update: Many people have also found 12.3 to be buggy in high idle 2nd gpu clock speeds. Have you noticed this bug with your dgpu clock speeds on 12.3 drivers? http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=360731

Now that you know the problems of 12.3, will you be staying with them + modded Bios, or will you be going back to 12.1? Since I've gotten so used to K10stat boost, I plan to stay with 12.1+BiosMod until I hear any major improvements in games on future drivers (eg. 12.4 thru 12.12) If the same bug exists later this year then I'll use newer drivers & remember to use K10stat without boost.

PS. If everything is ok in 12.3 then I'll get them since you said it has flawless switching with K10stat turbo off.

 

When you guys say flawless switching in fixed mode, does it mean you successfully switch between ONLY the 6650 and ONLY the iGPU?