U81a questions, battery & CPU

I have three questions for those out there that may already know........

1.) There is an included 5600 Mah battery but is there an extended 9 cell out there that will fit. My reason for this is I get 6-7 hours usage now but this would then get me between 9-11 hours plus. Not that I need it now but I am looking to get a second battery to backup and/or eventually replace the main one. Why not get one that is extended........

2.) With CPU-z no matter what power profile I am in I can't seem to get the cpu to lock at 2.1 GHz. it is always at 1.2 Ghz and scales up. While this is great for heat etc., I would just like that control......

3.) Has anyone out there found the PLL and been successful with say SetFSB? I have finnally got Power4Gear Extreme to load and runnn rather tan the original Hybrid version but there is no Turbo mode available. Again 2.1 is plenty fast I would just like that extra control......

Thanks for your knowledge and replies in advance...........

 

I have an answer for number two. The CPU throttling down is caused by Intel Speedstep. AFAIK, there should be an option in BIOS to turn it on or off.

 

1. While I don't know if there is an extended battery, I will say: Don't get a battery only to keep it on the shelf as a backup, as batteries age also on the shelf. Get it when you need it.

2. That is normal. Why would you want to lock your CPU always to full-speed? It would be consuming more power and producing more heat unnecessarily. The CPU goes up to the highest speed when necessary, i.e., when it is on full load or close to it.

That being said you could always use RMClock and enforce highest clock. But be careful, you need to do some tweaking in the registry to get it to support half-multipliers.

 

On #2, it would be just for gaming when pluged in. My P-7805u with a P9600 in locks to full multiplier fine. I rarely use it there but since this is an IGP and shared memory usage I would like to, again when gaming, have the CPU over worked so it's time needed in sharing the memory with the IGP is minimized. Probably a minimal difference locking the CPU but I am one of the older ilk where a whole bunch of little improvements can equal a larger one overall.

 

I doubt you will see any measurable difference as the CPU can react to high loads and speedstep very quickly. But why not do it if you really want to?

Actually on 2nd thought you should use Power 4 Gear instead of RmClock, as then you shouldn't have any issues with half-multiplier support.

 

I've tried Power 4 Gear hybrid and Extreem and neither get me there. they both still allow 1.2 GHz even when telling it to use 100% on minimum state. don't want to use RMClock and shouldn't have to either. I wasn't looking to undervolt so RMClock really isn't needed nor really wanted.

I also tried the non-P4G profiles and still the system under clocks. As you say it may make no real difference, but I stall want the control and the decision on what my system should do and not do..........

Edit; I should note SiSandra shows the FSB can do 533, 133 over the standard 400, this would explain the capability of a 33% overclock. I switched the 6-6-6-24 1T memory out for 5-5-5 18 1T but am wondering if I should go back to the more relaxed timings as they would more likely be needed for FSB overclock.......

 

RMClock is not only useful for undervolting, but can just as well be used for only frequency control on the default voltages.

If P4G doesn't lock the CPU at highest speed on High/Extreme Performance then RMClock or similar may be your only option.

 

You can post questions about the U81a in a thread I created in the Owner's Lounge area:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=417093

1. I called several after-market battery companies and they all told me the same thing: it takes at least 6 months before replacement batteries become available. Other than getting one from Asus, I guess we'll just have to wait. But as another poster pointed out, they lose cycling life even when just sitting on the shelf -- so wait until your present battery begins to lose the ability to hold a good charge.

TIP: I use my U81a on AC almost all the time. The battery is at 40% charge and sitting in my refrigerator wrapped in several layers of plastic to prevent condensation. It's a frost-free refrigerator anyway, but I wanted to be sure no moisture got on the contacts. In that cool environment with just less than a half-charge, it can last for years. I'll still take it out and give it a full re-charge every couple of months or so. You never want to let it sit at 0% charge for long, that can ruin it.

3. No, I've looked everywhere and can't find the PLL for this CPU/Chipset. FSB will only lock it up no matter what PLL I use (of those included).

I'm curious how you got P4G Extreme profile loaded. Is it a hidden option in the version included with the U81a or did you load a different, external version of P4G? As someone else mentioned, the speedstepping is instantaneous to 2.1GHz, so there's really no need to stress your machine by keeping it at max frequency all the time. But, since I'm a bit of a control freak too, I can understand why you want the option.

 

I dl'd P4Gx and installed it, you first have to uninstall P4Gh though. If you don't then you get the "You have to have an ASUS motherboard" message.......

Edit; since it did nothing extra for me I DL'd the win7 P4Gh and installed it. This in the hope at least I'd have access to a true 100%, still same dilema...........

I noiticed that too, no intermediate steps 1.2 right to 2.1, maybe a bios/acpi lockout that only RMClock would over right, Grrrrrrr..........

 

This is my 3rd Asus notebook. I had a eeePC 1000HE which was easy to OC with setFSB, but I quickly tired of the weak Atom processor. The eeePC forums had tons of useful info on the Asus netbooks but it seems this is the only place for info on this model... and there's not that much to find. It's a limited production model made for BB, so we may be pretty much on our own figuring out hacks and mods.

I noticed that there is only the 205 BIOS for the U81A but the U80A (also a BB model) has a 206 BIOS listed, dated 7/22/2009. There are also Win7 drivers listed for that model but not the U81A. I'm guessing they will eventually offer Win7 drivers for the U81A. But I wonder if the newer BIOS would do anything for our model. Asus's web page doesn't say what the BIOS update addresses.... it may be something that wouldn't apply to the U81A and might brick the computer.

 

I know the 208 won't brick it as I already have done it............

 

208? What model is that one for?

I noticed you put the Seagate 500GB drive in your U81a. I bought the Western Digital 500GB. I based my decision on the info here:
http://techreport.com/articles.x/17010

Even thought the Seagate has a faster spindle speed and double the cache, it didn't come out on top out of the 5 drives they tested. And all the other drives were 5400rpm.

 

Yeah, I bought into the hype. Trust in that when WD comes up with a 500GB 7200 laptop drive I am there...........

208 was regular U80a, this is what their auto sensor applet recognized mine as. downloaded the bios and winwinflash. Got the system matched ok from winflash......

 

From the Asus eStore:
http://estore.asus.com/shop/category.asp?catid=700

Wow. $130 for a battery. I think I'll wait for the after-market 3rd party batteries to show up. I've never bought a 3rd party battery before because I've heard they can be of poor quality. But I might take the chance in a year or so (assuming I still have this laptop).