HD3470 problems

Hi.

I just bought an asus x59sl laptop with the following specs:

Core2Duo T5450(1.6 ghz)

2 GB ram

ATI HD3470 with 256 mb dedicated

160 GB HDD

This laptop is for my mother and i chose it because of its killer price for the specs.

The problems is:

1. the system detects the GPU as a HD3450. The drivers are 9.4s(desktop hd3400 series) modded with the latest mobility modder.

According to GPU-Z, this card has a 64bit bus and.

I ran 3dmark06(default) and got about 1650 pts. Is this normal for this system?

2. Also, powerplay does't seem to be working either. Even on battery, both the CCC and GPU-z report the card's core clock as 500 mhz.

So, the card is incorrectly detected(listed as a 3450) and powerplay is not working.

What can I do other than installing the ASUS drivers from the CD(which I assume are crappy and ancient)?

PS: a little off topic, but the HDD heats up to 40-50C while installing some programs. The laptop is on a hard desk. Is this dangerous?

Thanks in advance

 

Ok first of all the 3450 and 3470 are both 64 Bit, 1650 is a tad low for this card. But that could be your CPU holding the score back a tad, or the drivers. The 9.4 ATI drivers need mobility modder AND a Modded INF so make sure you did that right, maybe you made the modded INF the wrong GPU.

*The GPU stepping could be a issue with the drivers, possibly. You should try the stock drivers and see if it changes anything.

As for the hard drive 40-50c sounds very hot, especially for a hard drive. What are you monitoring the temps with?. Try using HWMonitor.

 

Err, i didn't know that. I just modded the drivers and installed them. Can you please point me to a tutorial?

I got these temps from HD tune, NHC and everest.

 

I haven't done the modded inf on the ATI for my self yet, as I am content with 9.1, but eventually I will. So I can't say from person experience on that half, however here is a link that shows you how.

Source:
http://forums.amd.com/game/messagev...d=987169&parentid=0&FTVAR_FORUMVIEWTMP=Branch

If you don't feel like doing that, just uninstall drivers and do 9.1.

As for your temps, hmm, lets solve one problem at a time. Also does the laptop feel hot over the hard drive or is it fairly cool?

 

OK, thank, i'l probably use 9.1.

The palmrest above the HDD is pretty cool, but the underside is indeed hot. Also these temps slightly vary(for instance, when i just browse the web the temp goes down to 46 C).

So, I assume that the reading is correct

 

Hmm, go get SpeedFan, when you go into it, go into S.M.A.R.T. check your hard drive, whats its performance, fitness, and check its max/min temp. Your hard drive might be fine.

I'm just not used to that, ive never seen my hard drive exceed 40C really.

 

Your hard disk is a ST9160821AS with firmware 3.ALC.
The average temperature for this hard disk is 42C (MIN=31C MAX=55C) and yours is 50C

The overall fitness for this drive is 87%.
The overall performance for this drive is 87%.

And I also got this:

Seek Error Rate 60 1256184 Watch
Warning: Seek Error Rate is below the average limits (61-84)



Something seems to be wrong with this drive.....

 

bump.....

I went to the shop and the seller gave me a puzzeld look.... I'll take the laptop to the shop tomorrow. Any suggestions before I do so?

 

Ok, its fitness is down as well as its performance. Usually if your performance is 100% and fitness is lower were the lower fitness is caused by Retry Speed, thats just a indication of a slower RPM hard drive in some cases.

However, your performance and fitness is both at 87% and Seek Error Rates aren't nice. Pretty much what the Seek Error Rate is, is how much errors occur on the reading head of the hard drive the magnetic reading thing. Thermal widening is something that can cause this, pretty much if your hard drive runs hot the parts heat up alot and over time can kinda change/warp and this is thermal widening which will possibly/eventually cause Seek Errors.

If you take it to the shop, I don't know how long ago you bought this laptop or what, but you can probably get asus to replace the hard drive or cover it through warranty. You could also just stick with it until it completely dies. But if your wanting the shop to do something, really the only thing you can do is swap in a new hard drive. It should run much cooler,

Yesterday I checked my laptops hard drive idle and it was only 24C. But your PC is a smaller form probably so it should run warmer. But 50C is too hot in my opinion. Good Luck, and I guess you can get the shop to try and swap in another hard drive and see how hot that one is.

*Best temperature for a hard drive is around 30-40C. They dont like it too cold either.

 

I installed catalyst 9.1 and it didn't solve anything. My 3dmarko6 score is now 1516, the card is still recognized as a 3450 and powerplay is still not working either.

About the HDD: I've used the laptop for about a half hour and the temp is now 43C. I ran speedfan again and the dive attributes all appear as normal now. Both the fitness and performance are now 90%. Really strange.

However:

NOTE : your hard disk has 13 reallocated sectors. Hard disks do have spare sectors (usually from 256 up to 1024) used to replace bad ones. This remapping operation is transparent to the end user. Anyway, this can lead to degradated performances (because remapped sectors are in different places of the disk than the original ones and the head needs additional moving). If reallocated sectors grow over time, you might encounter some serious troubles. A backup of the most important data is suggested anyway.

I bought it just 3 days ago, so it's brand new.

 

Perhaps just go to the store were you bought it, take it back. Get them to exchange it with another one.

Between the GPU weirdness and that hard drive, its better to be safe than sorry. They shouldn't give you any hassles either, its only been 3 days.

 

Using modded drivers will display HD3450 instead of HD3470 regardless of what you do because you're using desktop drivers and there isn't a desktop version of HD3470. I don't see what the problem is because your card is still a HD3570 and just because it displays HD3450 doesn't mean your card will perform any less.

The HD3470 is not a gaming card so don't expect a high score in 3DMark. Plus, the score doesn't really mean much. You should be more concerned with actual gaming performance.

Lastly, just because the speed is still displayed as 500 Mhz doesn't mean Powerplay doesn't work. You can easily test it by playing a game or doing a graphic-intensive task. For example, when I played UT04 with Power Saver on, fps dropped by about 20 points and HD video playback was slightly choppy. That's how I knew the card was underclocked.

 

im running on a macbook pro w/ default fan settings and my HDD temp is only 24 at idle as well so i think it is definately safe to say that 40-50 is hot for a harddrive

 

I went to the store and they told me they won't take change the drive just ecause of a few SMART warnings, and that 50C might be normal for this drive.
Oh well....I have a 2 years warranty. At this rate, i doubt the drive would last that long.

As for the GPU: i'll probably go back to 9.4s. Despite what someone on this thread said, they seem to be working fine even whitout a modded inf.

Is the 1650 pts 3dmark 06 normal for this card with this CPU(c2d 1.6 ghz)?

How do you think it will fare in games like UT3 compared to my older laptop(in sig)?

I installed GTA4 on my older laptop and with all low settings it ran at 15 fps.
This system is identical except for the GPU, so should i even bother installing gta4 on it?

And one more thing: Does the fact that this laptop has a SiS chipset influence performance?

Thanks again for your replies.

 

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Ok, dumb people at the store. Anyways,

1650 sounds about right for a 1.6ghz CPU. If you want you can try to install GTAIV, but thats a very low CPU speed for GTAIV.

And a X1700 is faster than a 3470. Id say by about 35~45%.

 

Perhaps a "normal" one. But is this still true for one with a 64bit bus and 128 mb VRAM? Mine gets 1400-1500 in 3dm06.

 

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