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

Looks like we found the culprit... It says Asus Driver... How do I get it to not install the asus drivers and in fact the standard USB ones?

 

We mean flawless meaning "no more hangs on shutdown" during the session you made the switch to fixed mode if using the AMD 12.3 drivers (but K10stat needs to be set to turbo off).

Everything about Fixed dgpu was discovered 2 weeks ago & posted here: (in case you missed the news) (it requires flashing a modded BIOS 212)
http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/601808-k53ta-best-deal-ever-could-271.html#post8386767
Not "only" igpu (since you will be stuck in this power save mode if you try it)
Not really flawless--it forces games like openGL games (eg. Rage & Minecraft) to use the dgpu. Whereas before it only used igpu. I noticed there is still a little asymetric crossfire, but atleast now we know every game can predominantly use the dgpu (6650M).

 

When you go to update driver and go to browse my computer, and then select let me pick from a list of drivers on my computer. What options does it give you?

I don't know where that driver came from, do you have the ASUS USB Charger Plus software? If so try unintalling that and see what happens

 

that's the same problem I had a few times.

so the usb port isn't bad.

the way I worked around it was to plug in a usb hub, and then plug in the usb device in different ports to see if it would fix itself.
or, plug in the device in the left side ports, and see if it will self install, then plug it back into the right side.

i also fixed it once by clicking 'update driver' button, and directly pointing it to the driver, like what Snad said.
...the final thing you can do is to uninstall asus usb charger if you had that installed, then go into safe mode and rename all aicharger.sys files so that windows can't load them. c:\Windows\System32\drivers

i haven't thoroughly tested 12.3 yet, so i don't know about high idle dgpu. I'll run hwinfo64 on the side some day and see.

I think I will be sticking with 12.3 and modded bios for now since turbo doesn't work under full cpu load anyway.
I like how i can switch between modes and not get the reboot hang. Also, I can still use turbo as long as i remember to turn it off before reboot. I can do that quickly with a batch file.

If i discover some serious game bug, then I'll go back to 12.1 and wait it out. There's a hassle with either 12.3 or 12.1, but I think 12.3 has less hassle.

it's not necessary to switch to only the igp. you can do that in dynamic mode by tagging power saving.

 

<S> So I just realized that I cannot find Asus Sonic Focus anywhere for download, would one of you kind members care to upload it for me?</S>

Edit: Don't I feel silly... it's in the audio drivers, I just never bothered to install them.

Also anyone actually get bluetooth to work with the stock adapter? I have the Atheros bluetooth drivers installed from the ASUS site, but I don't see any interface for it and my phone can't detect it either.

 

^there is no bluetooth.
you would need to replace the wifi card with a wifi+bt combo card.




update to fixed mode switching and problems-

installed 12.4 catalyst beta and all seems to be working now. well, almost.
no reboot freezing when switching graphics between fixed mode high performance and dynamic mode.
no reboot freezing with OC + Turbo.

on the surface, it's functioning the way it was meant to.

However, on fixed mode, the dgpu performance is awful.
On cinebench 11.5, opengl is only 6.25 fps !!!
the igp gets 12fps, and the dgpu previously got 33 fps.

Also, while the dgpu is running slow as hell, it makes the rest of the computer lag to hell too.

gpu-z reports the dgpu locked at 100mhz core, 150mhz memory.

Dynamic mode works though.

whereas the 12.3 cats supposedly don't let the dgpu idle back down to 100mhz, the 12.4 betas don't let the dgpu clock up to 600mhz.

fix one bug, create 2 more.

12.4 is not ready for prime time. damn amd. I hope everything works in 12.4 whql

 

Thanks that's what I thought. That's how I've been running it

 

So there's different bugs in all AMD drivers.
damn amd. I really liked 11.12 best and would have stayed with them if it wasn't for the BSODs with new Bios and some newer games running poor. So now 12.1 is ok but some games like BatmanAC benchmarked 3 FPS "slower" (57max 43avg; Under 11.12 it was 61max 46avg).

Some AMD gamers have been frustrated with the latest drivers in general and going as far as getting rid of their system to get an Nvidia PC. I sure hope AMD gets their act straightened up. I suspect ever since they brought out their new 7000 line cards, they haven't been getting anything right with each driver update.

....So far I still haven't experienced a game showing real benefits of running off the fixed dgpu with new Bios Mod. If anyone tried a game showing improvements let us all know so we can try it out. Under fixed mode, BatmanAC benchmarked a lot slower (37 max, 32avg) but still felt smooth & playable....so unsure if the game's own benchmark tool is reliable. Rage is a mixed bag, since it runs ok sometimes on both igpu and dgpu but after awhile begins hitching and freezing every 10 seconds with dgpu and igpu. Rage has been known to being a big mess regardless of running off dgpu or igpu or using patches (or config tweaks) so this game isn't good for testing fixed dgpu mode. But I still believe the fixed dgpu mode will be useful for something, since cinebench 11.5 indicated real benefits.

 

I didn't realize there was no bluetooth as the laptop came with the drivers installed and had an interface to search for bluetooth devices, though I never actually tested it, I just presumed there was bluetooth since the drivers for it were installed.

Hmm, I'm running the modded 212 BIOS + 12.3 cayalyst drivers, seems like the dGPU idles on max clocks on both dynamic and fixed settings in CCC and the iGPU's memory clock is also maxed. Has anyone tested how significant the battery drain is with the dGPU clocks always on max?

 

I'm thinking about buying an Asus K53TA and I have some quick question about it. More exactly i'm talking about this one:

ASUS K53TA BBR6 Quad Core 2.3GHz 4GB 500GB Radeon A6650 Windows 7 | eBay

Well Mr.Mischief send me here because for sure someone here knows exactly the answers. I would really appreciate if someone could help because right now I don't have the time to read this whole thread...for sure somewhere here are the answers...so i just copy my questions:

-Does this Asus have 2x2gb or 1x4gb ram stick?
I'm asking because of a maybe near future upgrade to 6-8 gb ram.
-Also what about the AC Adapter, 65w or 90w?
I heard that some people did get the weaker one and for high-end games and maybe some overclocking there is not much room. Buying a spare one would be for me just throwing out money cause i really wouldn't have use for it. The same goes to the 2x2gb ddr3 ram sticks cause my other Laptop has 2x1gb ddr2 ram and from what i know it isn't compatible.
-For sure the problem with the OpenGL Games is fixed? I mean that the on-board GPU can be disabled so the 6650M can run older OpenGL Games without problems.

And there would be a more general question about refurbished Laptops in general.
-Is the 3 month refurbished warranty globally valid?

Thanks again in advance!

 

1x4

most likely 90w

OpenGL seems fine now, you can disable the integrated gpu

3month globally... No clue. I would assume so considering you send back to asus. I think the warranty is only 30 days though...

 

exactly. for well optimized opengl apps, there should be tangible benefits with dgpu.
otherwise for everything else, dynamic mode works well enough for me.
Some people claim BF3 runs better on fixed mode, but I haven't seen proof with fraps or whatever other frame rate app.

driver optimizations seem to have improved the igp opengl performance greatly to the point that you may not even have to use dgpu.

if you got the bbr6 laptop, it does not come with bt. If you got any other version, like x53ta or a53ta, you might have bt. I imagine any bt app downloaded off google should allow you to connect your devices.

12.3 cats are bugged out whether you use stock or modded bios.
they peg the dgpu at max clock even in dynamic mode.
igp functions normally though; auto clocks down to 275.

GPU-Z shows you real time clocks.
igp is supposed to clock down to 275/667
dgpu is supposed to clock down to 100/150 when idle, as it does with 12.1.

12.1 cats act normally in terms of clock speed.


it will definitely drain more battery. But I wouldn't use 12.3 unless I switch and reboot frequently.


I suggest everyone to send the catalyst developers bug reports-
http://www.amdsurveys.com/se.ashx?s=5A1E27D27E29B0E3

.

 

Well, we are un-supported fyi .

I cant even get my dv6 to install with 12.3, as the model probably not in the inf.

 

we are purely amd.
they should support us.

switchable graphics should only refer to intel+amd setup

 

I just notice it say

, so probably it does, but then 12.3 doesn't have mobility 6400 - 6700 ~~

 

that's weird.

i was able to install 12.3 with no problems. Detected our 6650m fine.

 

This is awesome. Thank you guys for a great find!

 

Ahhh!!! This laptop has so many problems!

Now it seems k10stat has decided to stop locking P-states, the lock P-state simply caps P-state, so if I set it to lock at P1, it will still be at P6, if I run prime95, it will only reach P1. But before locking P-state would lock it to that state permanently, regardless of what was happening, so setting it to lock at P1 would mean it will be at P1 all the time. What is going on?

I tried deleting the K10stat folder and replacing it with a backup I had, still not working. Anyone have a fix for this?

 

@MSGaldenzi:
Thanks for the answers. So for sure, if don't have the extra 100$ for the dv7 (A8,6750M,6b ram) I will get this little beast too.

@link626:
Yes I saw on notebookcheck that the igpu is good but in OpenGL Games like Counter Strike 1.6 (which i'm playing very often) I need the dgpu for having 100fps constantly without any problems.

 

Hey guys, how can I tell whether I have the 65w or 90w battery? My battery seems pretty small but I have nothing to compare it to.

 

Had the same problem (btw when I looked in CCC the CPU was dragged all the way to the lowest setting and I had to drag it back to the top which is probably why you're stuck at p6)

When I tried using the overclocking through ccc it would lock the cpu at that speed no matter what and I couldn't use K10stat (CCC 12.2) I had to uninstall and I went to 12.1 and when I switched to 12.3 I noticed it would do the same thing so I didn't use the overclocking through CCC but then..
when I was using Power4Gear High Performance with catalyst 12.3 it was capping me at the P1 state and such but when I switched to the standard High Performance that all windows users have it was allowing me to use P0 state with no issues.

So... DO NOT enable AMD Overdrive or use Power4Gear

It's AMD that has problems btw

 

Watts = Amps x Volts

 

Read the output info on the AC adapter, for example, mine says 19V & 3.42A which means I have a 65W charger. Stock battery should be 6-cell, and I'm not so sure there is a 9 or 12-cell battery for this laptop, if there is I cannot find it.

I think you misunderstood me, my overclocks are fine and p-state changes as it should when unlocked. When I lock a P-state, it does not immediately set it to that state, it just makes that the limit, similar to setting CPU max % in the windows power option. It really doesn't affect the performance of my laptop, it's just strange and I was wondering if anyone knew why this was happening.

I am beginning to regret my switch to the red team more and more, but then again, intel does not provide the same overclocking availability in their newer laptops.

 

Thanks for the explanation zyromkiru! I was wondering why I was getting lower performance on later 12.2 and 12.3 drivers. These new AMD drivers appeared buggy to us since they removed some functionality from our other software: K10stat & Power4Gear & Afterburner; in actuality the AMD ccc is interfering with the other software. And idle gpu clocks are stuck at high speeds increasing temps and power draw. So I'm sticking with 12.1 for now. I know Power4Gear is unnecessary bloatware by Asus, but I've been so accustomed to using it alongside K10stat. Maybe in the future if I need the latest graphic drivers, then I'll get rid of Power4G.

 

My bad xD in that case I have no idea but I've seen a lot of strange things happen lately.

No problem! Ya hopefully we get some better drivers soon but I just know once they get good ones it won't support our system -.-'

btw what's even more odd is that Power4Gear is fine except for the high performance option for me... which is what i would use

 

Thanks guys, I figured it out with this information. I have a 90w battery charger. 19V & 4.7A

 

are people using MSI Afterburner using 700/1000 like I've seen before in this thread? Because that seems to CTD my games after a while, even though there's no overheating. Putting it below 650/950 seems to be the only thing that keeps it moderately stable.

 

I am using the MSI Afterburner 2.1.0

I'm stable running 3dmark06 with:

-room temp 22C
-6650m @700/1000 58C
-A6-3400m @ 2.35GHz 1.1V 70C
-ULPS enabled (to increase battery life)
-modded v212 BIOS
-Catalyst 12.3
-dynamic GPU
- 3dmark06 Score: 9130

 

everyone's card is a little bit different, you need to test your own limit

 

Found some weird bugs testing my laptop unless there are settings in CCC I'm not aware of causing these:

1) Whenever I unplug or plug in the AC adapter, K10Stat refused to go above stock voltage and default to the highest available P-state in that profile on or below the stock voltage of 1.05V, this could be fixed by restarting or switching to another profile

2) With respect to the bug above, if you plug/unplug while running prime95, the frequency of the current p-state remains, but the voltage drops to stock (assuming the p-state is above stock to start with) eventually leading to a BSOD in my case since I had it running at 2.35GHz @ 1.0875V, upon unplugging the adapter, it dropped to 2.35GHz @ 1.05V.

3) dGPU clocks would default to normal when unplugged, but revert back to overclock settings when plugged back in

4) With ULPS enabled, changing dGPU clocks would cause the GPU to load at 100% all the time, I also found I was unable to open GPU-Z and unable to run 3dmark06 or Heaven's Benchmark. With ULPS disabled, I could change the dGPU clocks and run everything fine.

 

Hey anyone know of a gpu stability test (Don't tell me to try with games).

Ones that don't work:
GPU Tool - keeps going "not responding" every two seconds even before I can actually start the test
Furmark - doesn't pick up the 6650M

No wonder......

 

kombustor, work exactly like furmark but with DX9-11 options

 

After further testing the openGL game RAGE connected to an HDTV at "higher resolutions" eg.1600x900 and higher, I noticed the fixed dgpu finally pays off in giving smoother game play than igpu. igpu was more choppy at high resolutions. But on fixed dgpu mode at high resolutions, I could feel the openGL performance improvement! Definitely a magic pill compared to what we had out of the box 8 months ago.

so I'm just confirming what we all expect: that openGL apps and games are definitely improved when running manual selection of fixed dgpu mode! [All this under AMD 12.1 drivers]

 

I never noticed those bugs when running 12.3, and I had hwinfo64 opened the whole time.

my cpu would reach the highest p state and respective voltage, as configured in k10stat.
when heat levels rise, it rarely does turbo, and that is expected.

I can go to control panel power options and set it to high performance, and it will run p0 all the time.

if that is what you experience, then that is normal.


now, dgpu downclocks to 100/150mhz in battery mode, you say ?

 

Is there any program that can measure the dGPU voltage? Afterburner, Trixx and GPU-Z don't seem to work so I take it there simply is no onboard sensor.

I should have mentioned that I am running on dynamic, not fixed GPU. When running on battery the clocks go back to stock max, so 600/900, when running on AC adapter it goes to my overclock speeds (700/1000).

I have never seen idle dGPU clocks (100/150) using the modded bios and 12.3 drivers, regardless of Fixed/Dynamic, ULPS enable/disable, stock 600/900 or overclocked, it is permanently on max clock regardless of GPU load, I believe this is a known bug associated with 12.3. However I can manually underclock it to 300/900, the memory clock simply refuses to go under 900 under any circumstance.

 

The dGPU volt can seen by hwinfo and other similar program, unchangeable though.

12.2 and up is worthless ~~. 12.4beta seem to be stable/fine but meh.

If you check msi afterburner forum(in guru3D), they saying 12.3 is missing 2 dll for OC or something.

 

Anyone using 12.3 CAP1 with their K53TA? http://benchmark3d.com/catalyst-application-profiles-12-3-cap-1

I believe you are referring to the missing dll in 12.2 mentioned here: [GUIDE] Enable unofficial overclocking after Catalyst 12.2 - Guru3D.com Forums

I am running hwinfo64, I do not see a voltage reading anywhere for the GPU, if it needs to be enabled, I cannot find it anywhere in the "Configure" menu.

 

Alright folks, new K53TA owner here.

I'm having a bit of a problem with only BF3, and that's a BSOD after some time with the offending file "atikmdag.sys" and stop code 0x116. I've done a bit of research and it sounds like that's the stop code given when the drivers basically have catastrophically failed and can not be recovered.

Now, this can happen immediately after I start playing, or it can be a couple of minutes. It happens on both AC adapter mode and battery, and I have the older 90W charger if that makes any difference.

I have the CPU overclocked and undervolted, and undoing the k10stat settings makes no difference either. The problem has occured in 11.12, 12.2 and 12.3 drivers. Skyrim runs at higher settings for extended periods of time without problem. The problem is definitely with BF3 alone, and it's not getting extremely hot either - it maxed out at around 78 degrees for the CPU and the discrete GPU was at around 75.

Has anyone else had this problem with BF3 BSODing because of the AMD drivers after an indefinite amount of time? I have searched the thread to no avail which is why I am posting now. Sorry if I missed anything!

 

At this stage , I would say roll back to 12.1 or 12.1a if having any problem. link had test all newer one and the gain(if any) doesn't justify the bugs they come with.

Newer CAP seem to be fine.

 

Are you using the flashed Bios 212 mod? When I used the Bios 212 mod with 11.12 drivers, I had some serious BSOD with all games and BF3 was the game I tested the most. It would go into a weird colorful vertical line mess at the menu screen and make it hard to start the game. On 12.1 drivers everything runs fine.

 

I am using the modded 212 BIOS, and I went through the (I was on 206 i believe beforehand) 206 -> 212 -> link's modded BIOS. Also, I can't say I've had any weird colors - what happens is it will freeze the current frame, loop sound and then throw the BSOD.

The problem persisted with the drivers on ASUS's website, 11.12, 12.1 and 12.3. I don't think I've tried 12.1a so I'll go down that road next.

 

BF3 is not exactly the most stable game to test on, even on my 6970 I sometimes get random crashes to desktop. Make sure you don't have any 3rd party monitoring programs running, including FRAPS, GPU-Z, HWinfo, AMD monitor, MSI Afterburner, Trixx, K10Stat, close all of them and see if you still have the problem with BF3.

 

thanks for clarifying.
12.3 is indeed broken when it comes to clock speed.
on older drivers, you'd see dgpu clock down to 100/150 during idle.

12.4 is the worst. 12.3 is the only one that is manageable with workarounds- turn off turbo before rebooting, and switching to dynamic power saving to avoid high dgpu clock at idle.

12.4 beta is broken in fixed mode. Locks dgpu at 100/150mhz even during games.
Also makes computer very laggy when running games; multitasking becomes horribly unresponsive, and I can't understand why- there's plenty of cpu and ram, and the dgpu is only running at 1/6 power, yet it acts laggy like cpu and ram are maxed out.

have you tried dynamic mode for a good stretch ? does it bsod ?

 

I haven't tried dynamic mode yet, but I have better results

i am on 12.1a right now and after as much play as I could get out of 50% battery, the worst I had was a display driver crash that recovered. I downloaded trixx and turned ULPS off and I haven't had any problems since.

I'm running 11.12 on my HD 6850 on my desktop and BF3 has yet to crash on that, but it looks like for now it's stable enough to play a game or two. I'll try dynamic mode next time if I have any problems.

 

So I have this problem where if I overclock the gpu at all (anything other than 600/900), my game glitches (for example, skyrim turns magenta, slows down / is unplayable). I'm pretty sure I did the setup correctly, as I was able to overclock my gpu before. These changes started after I installed a new version of ccc. I tried reinstalling with driver sweeper but the problem still persists. Anyone have any idea on what this is / how to fix it?

Thanks!

 

How exactly did you lower dgpu clock at idle? I am set to dynamic mode in CCC, but I do not see this power saving mode you speak of other than the "Recent Applications" under the "Switchable Graphics" tab, which change nothing as far as I can tell.

 

Right. I used to get lockups with Bad Company 2 and BF3, but MSI Afterburner was the culprit.

 

you don't lower it.
it does so automatically by design.

you can see it working in older drivers by monitoring with gpu-z.
if you set a lightweight app like firefox to High performance, then go to a website with flash, like youtube, you will see the dgpu clock up when watching videos, then clock back down to 100/150 when you're just viewing text.

 

Anyone else running into lag issues with firefox browser? Flash runs perfectly fine, it's the page loading, scrolling, expanding or moving the window that is laggy. This is not true for Google Chrome or even Internet Explorer... Firefox slower than IE, something is not right here.

Ah I see, you were speaking of drivers before 12.3, I am talking about 12.3 specifically, which does not downclock during idle.

 

Edit: I had a similar issue... When I would overclock it would give me BSOD on bf3 and make me lag as though i was in crossfire mode on skyrim unless I overclocked by about 25 which only gives 1 fps increase.. :/ no odd colors or anything though

Now I don't have that issue at all and for what reason I have no freaking idea but here is some info below:

Currently I'm at 660/960 (extremely stable for me)
CCC Driver 12.3
Dynamic Mode
Bios v. 207
CPU Overclocked P0 - 2.0 at 1.0v

I can overclock my gpu more but i got a blue screen at 690 even before i saw any issues on a stability test (BSOD may have been caused by changes of speeds too quickly but im not for sure)