Gigabyte P34G

I am very interested in buying this laptop but the fan issue is the only thing holding me back.. can anyone confirm that this BIOS update has offered a noticeable improvement?

 

Awesome!!!! I will test myself soon too

P.S. There is a Windows 7 version 005 and all the links except for Asia are broken when I just tried to get 305 (404 Not Found).

 

Hey all!

Finally managed to fix my BSOD issues. Turns out it was the stock RAM that was giving me problems (edit: thank you to those fantastic people who pointed this out to me and helped!). My machine WAS running fine with the additional 4GB I got (my 8GB is just sitting here rotting away) but now I've encountered a whole different beast entirely.

I updated everything using Smart Update and it took a long 3 hours. It's now 4AM and I finally decided to update the BIOS. Halfway through this update, however, my machine hung. No CTRL+ALT+DELETE, no nothing. I did a hard power down, after which I turned it on again. The status LEDs and fans came on, but the screen is blank. Pitch black, no Gigabyte logo, nada. Proceeded to cold/hard power down and back on a couple more times again, still the same issue. Anyone have any ideas? I'm at my wits end, and am sitting with a very expensive brick right now.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4

 

Does anyone who doesn't have Bluetooth have a problem with wifi?

 

Your laptop is going to need to go back to Gigabyte now, hang during BIOS flash is a death sentence.

 

Guys, is there a way to prevent the battery from charging above certain level? Since there is no stock battery-saver-kinda utility maybe there is some third-party software?

 

Aw man. I live abroad and it took a month for this laptop to reach me. I ordered it on the 3rd of December.

Does anyone know if I have to send it back to GentechPC or to Gigabyte? Because I had upgrades (thermal repasting, wifi card and RAM) but I live in Asia hahaha so how does this work!

Sorry to keep dropping questions on you guys like this, it's just been a terrible time with this machine. You've all been nothing but patient and very helpful.

Thank you all

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4

 

Someone able to confirm the better fan behavior?

 

Having been using laptop extensively with the new BIOS. Fan basically cycles between off and a small hum/purr now doing pretty much everything, which is really, really awesome. It does look like the hum/purr stage activates at 60C based on what I was reading. I think there are about three other fan stages after that, but those don't start until you run more intensive programs. I think I hit the third stage when I was running 3DMark and the loudest stage when rendering or running a game like Crysis 3.

 

Thank you so much for the reply. Sounds like they did a good job. I had this notebook but gave it back because of a dead pixel. Fans were also annoying...but well, now it sounds perfect.

 

Hi guys,

the new BIOS works like a charm! In Solent mode the fan rarely turns on for me now with light browsing/office tasks. I was goint to send mine back, because I simply could not stand the noise. Now i even can use this for work for presentations, this is just awesome!

Big thanks to Gigabyte for listening to our feedback!

 

I don't know what to do! I have for some reason fallen in love with this laptop, but I am not much of a gamer. I just like the idea of "top notch" specs.

Buying a laptop/computer is not something that I will be doing often so I subscribe to the "go big or go home" philosophy, which I think explains why I'm looking at a gaming laptop when I'm not much of a gamer. I just like that the option is there if I want it.

Loud fans and short battery were the two reasons I've been holding back, but now that it seems the fan issues have been significantly resolved it's just the small battery which I think I can deal with.

So to those of you using this laptop on a daily basis.. am I crazy for wanting this laptop when I don't play many games? Or would this laptop make a lot of sense as an everyday, high-tech, portable computing solution? Thanks!

 

In my opinion it would work, although there might be some cheaper laptops without a dedicated graphics card and the same CPU.
You can expect up to 4 hours of battery use when only doing office, and the noise issue is finally resolved by the latest BIOS version.
The good thing about this laptop is simply its small size and weight, but you can have a ton of computing power should you ever need it.

With the noise issue gone, i can now fully recommend this laptop.

 

Great news about the new fan fix! I'm still having an issue where my wifi does not connect on start up -- I have to toggle airplane mode on and off in order for my computer to connect to the internet. I've read in here that others have had the same problem. Any fix?

 

I don't know if it has been mentioned before, but Gigabyte just told me LAN Optimizer doesn't play well with 8.1. Uninstall and see if that fixes anything. Uninstall hasn't fixed my issues, but Gigabyte said it needs to be removed before updating to 8.1, so now I need to try a Windows restore.

 

Unfortunately, this laptop has one of the worst touchpads I have ever used. If you work in an office typing daily, your carpal tunnel probably starts hurting after a while if you are in an uncomfortable position, and finding the comfortable spot is important. This freaking touchpad is made in hell, will make you hurt allover. It is sticky, and just doesnt work right. Scroll is way off, and settings dont help. You'll see what im talking about if you buy it.

The keyboard has no travel, its like placing a tablet and starting to type on it. Very uncomfortable and "clicly"

You have to remove the stickers and it looks alright when open, Closed however, honestly looks like a cheap $300 radioshack notebook.

Honestly, if you are not going to buy it for gaming, I wouldnt buy it. And still if its gaming you want, there are cheaper notebooks with more powerful gpus outthere that will outshine g p34g in raw performance.


Sorry guys, im being honest here

 

Review at Notebookreview.com:
"The P34G follows the latest trend with its chiclet keyboard. Thanks to the good key size (15 mm x 15 mm) and the rounded corners, the typing experience is very convenient - despite the stability issues. We also like the multiple special functions via Fn-key. Not every compact device has an integrated numeric keypad.

They don't seem to have that problem.... Its true that there is very little travel, but the keys have a decent size and feel very responsive.

Review at Notebookreview.com:
"The build quality of the P34G leaves a good, but not exceptional impression."

In my opinion the quality is decent, not exeptional, but definitely not cheap.

It might be true that there are Laptops that have more GPU-Power, but I know of none that is anywhere nere as light (1.8 kg) and small (14'') as the P34G. You can definetely buy more powerful laptops, but then you would have to sacrifice portability.
The CPU is as far as I know one of the fastest, if not the fastest, mobile CPUs you can actually buy.

In my opinion the P34G is one of the best small gaming notebook out there at the moment.

 

+1. I'm not a gamer either, but AM a high-tech guy and for the money the grunt and the weight on this are great.

 

I run the updates straight off of Intel Update and have been solid.

 

I've had no problems with the touchpad. Maybe that's because this is the second touchpad I've user, but still. Sticky? No way. Mine is really smooth.

The keyboard is not uncomfortable. Took a couple days to get used to, but that's a given. I kind of like it and it feels better than my old pavilion. You can't expect much from a chiclet(besides all the hype lenovo gets, but I haven't tried one).

You don't have to take the stickers off, but using wasd will probably rub the laminate off the specs and warranty stickers. The rest didn't bother me whatsoever.

Yes, there are cheaper laptops with better GPUs. Just look at any Clevo or the Lenovo y510. But, you're forgetting to mention that both of those are substantially larger and heavier than the P34. The cooling in both of the previous laptops are most likely worse as well(from reading comments on them). You're not just paying for the GPU. Size, weight, cooling, screen size/res, etc all matter just as much.

 

Look at my signature, look at how many ThinkPads I've owned in the past 7 years alone. I know what a good mousepad, trackpad and keyboard on a notebook are. The keyboard and trackpad both on this are not on par with a ThinkPad, but more equivalent (in my experience) to a Sony or a Dell. Being one of the first two or three individuals on this forum to have purchased this unit back on October 1st I can say I have since, subsequently acclimated to both on this unit better than I was able to on my Sony Vaio S15.

As regards all-day long work in an office and carpal tunnel syndrome I would highly recommend you get an external keyboard and mouse if you haven't already as using this as my production machine that is what I have done.

Your honesty's appreciated and your opinion is your own. Beauty's in the eye of the beholder I suppose.

I love this machine, it suits my purposes very well and with the new BIOS update highly mitigating the fan noise I'm cautiously optimistic that Gigabyte is listening to the user community and come out with a better battery in the not-too-distant future as well.

Regards, B

 

I used Smart update to update my wireless driver to 16.6.0.8. Is this what you are using?

 

16.5.3.6, but note also I'm on a dual-band AC 7260 that I upgraded to.

 

I guess that could make the difference -- It does appear as if my wifi is set to "OFF" on start up for some reason. If that is indeed a setting, and I can figure out how to change it, then I think I'll be set. Thanks!

 

I did a fresh install of Windows and the wireless was working fine until I installed the latest SmartManager... Now it's kind of patchy, won't connect when I boot up unless I turn the wireless off and then back on again, and then sporadically drops the signal.

So maybe the issue is with SmartManager not LAN Optimizer

 

I had the same issue initially, I posted a few pages back that toggling it on and off in the Smart Manager instead of Windows made it stick - before when I did it in Windows only, SM would turn it off every boot - but when I did it in SM the problem went away.

I am using Windows 8.1 and Wireless Driver 16.5.3.6 now (I think I got it from Intel) - no issues to speak of - for Bluetooth I'm on 3.1.1311.040 and works great. Initially I had issues with both Wifi and bluetooth, happily it's been perfect now. I never did anything with the LAN Optimizer, either installing or uninstalling, just upgraded the stock OS to 8.1

Hope that helps,
Peter

P.S. I'm working on figuring out the trigger points for the fan to go from idle to first level - is it around 61*C for you guys? If you know let me know and I will make a Notebook Fan Control Config based on it, to reduce noise after load faster, thanks.

 

I don't have Bluetooth on my machine and I feel like that's compounding my problems.

Edit: Just to update I'm convinced now that SmartManager is the root of all wifi-related evils; install it and I have trouble connecting, and even if connected, the browser goes nowhere. Uninstall and everything works a treat.

 

So smartmanager has even more bugs... I would have deleted it a while back if it wasn't for the GPU boost feature. I guess I could manually OC it, but ehh... I've never OC'ed before.

 

Did you upgrade to the dual-band AC 7260 card? It appears as if the 16.5.3.6 driver is specific to this dual band card. I just have the stock card and am wondering if I should have shelled out the extra cash for the upgrade -- Oh, and toggling the SM wifi off and on seems to work for me, thanks!

 

Hey guys, just an update, I had to send mine to the service centre to the end because I bricked it updating the BIOS. So...yeah. This laptop has been nothing but hell for me so far.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

 

Has anyone overclocked anything on this laptop yet?

 

Just by updating the bios? I'm about to receive this laptop tomorrow, and am curious what I need to do to get it all up to date without bricking it myself (pretty big computer noob), any advice?

 

It's sheer luck really. I did nothing wrong, but whilst updating it just froze. Just like that. Hard reset during BIOS flashing doesn't play well with the motherboard apparently ha.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

 

Freeze during a bios flash would indicate a failed write/verify so your flash memory was bad either way...

 

Tried to overclock Gpu.

Managed to attain 849 MHz with nvidia inspector.

But it's awkward. It's not working all time....

 

Hi mcdermott2: To answer your question, I'm using the stock Intel 7260 card which came to me as single band (though seller advertised as dual, I am talking to them about it). Glad to hear it helped .

About overclocking, I have undervolted my CPU to help reduce power consumption, heat and noise even more (without reducing performance) but have not overclocked outside of what is built in.

Sorry to hear you had to send it in darth, hopefully you can get it back soon and be sure to ask that they can install the latest BIOS for you before you get it - it helps a lot and no sense risking another issue.

Peter

 

+1000000

This laptop rocks all around and I've had dozens of them.

 

Ahhh I just noticed that the latest Smart Mgr update (3.6.1) doesn't kick you out of games when you change the volume (Fn key) anymore. With the Bios update on FAN speed, I am now very happy. Thanks GB for listening to us!

 

I don't see why they are calling it IPS when it really is just: 1920x1080 AUO B140HAN01.1
Panel Technologies - TN Film, MVA, PVA, IPS, PLS

 

That was very early news and it's been clearly stated it's not since then.

 

Interesting. So is it an AHVA panel or just not using IPS technology at all?

 

So you just leave it overclocked all the time? I need to read up on overclocking

It should be an AHVA, which essentially has IPS qualities.

 

So I just got the p34g, and overall it is extremely impressive: light, fast, beautiful.

One major problem that may be a dealbreaker for me if I can't fix it: When I try to play my lectures (using Silverlight) at 2x normal speed, it starts sounding like the lecturer was a 30 year chainsmoker (raspy, a little metallic, no real vocal tone), instead of like a chipmunk. This is a big problem as lectures are one of the main uses of my laptop. I tried turning off the dolby and it didn't fix the problem. Any ideas/suggestions?

 

This may be a noob suggestion but have you tried using different software? VLC for example.

 

Not a noob suggestion at all! I just gave it a try and it worked! Hurrah! Thanks!

 

Great! I am very interested in this laptop myself but the fan issue was holding me back. For something like playing your lecture videos do you hear the fans much?

 

Your mileage may vary, but since the new BIOS update I only ever hear the fans when gaming or browsing with many content-rich tabs open. I don't hear them during HD video playback, but I haven't watched anything for an extended period of time yet.

They used to fire up constantly. It's been a night and day difference.

 

Also worth looking at mpchc as much more efficient than vlc

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk

 

I just got this laptop last friday, and I have to say I am impressed. I bought it for the purpose of doing some cpu intensive MATLAB analysis, photo editing, some gaming, and just writing papers while sitting in a good chair with the laptop on my lap. So basically an all-rounder, and it should be able to serve as a desktop replacement. It serves all these tasks well, and I am much happier working with this guy as compared to my Alienware m14x (first gen).

I installed a dual boot windows 8 pro/ ubuntu 13.10, ubuntu installed without any problems, just had to do some slight tweaking, but mostly worked out of the box. After installing nvidia 304 and bumblebee it boots with dedicated graphics card turned on. I dont think that ubuntu detects the gtx760m, so there is something odd going on, but for my purposes that doesnt really matter (I might look a but further into this).

- Laptop is quite, (new BIOS), I rarely hear the fan (both windows and ubuntu), only when gaming/ running heavy cpu tasks (which makes sense because the cpu is a beast). Compared to my m14x, the p34g is much more quite, but to be honest, that is a noisy beast.
- built quality is good, it feels much more solid compared to my m14x.
- I like the keyboard, it has a nice touch and I don't miss any key strokes. I dont think it think it lacks feedback of any sorts, it is just fine. I think it is on par, maybe a little less nice then the m14x.
- I had to get used to the trackpad though, it doesnt seem as precise as I would like and the two finger scrolling didnt work as well. However, after a bit of working with it I think I am getting used to it and it actually seems fine now.
- the screen is awesome, I love that its matte and the high res just looks awesome! A high res screen was a prerequisite for me, I need a lot of room on the screen for programming, and editing.
- the battery time isn't all that bad, you can get to 4 hours on both ubuntu and windows (doing office tasks), which, imho is fine for a laptop that can be used as a desktop replacement.

- the only real con are the speakers, they just do not sound well, but yeah, you dont buy this laptop for that purpose.

Overall I am very happy with this laptop!

 

Honestly, my last laptop was a 16 inch Dell that was 8 lbs and extremely loud, so maybe it's because of my frame of reference, but I have yet to even update the BiOS and I think the fans are pretty quiet overall anyway. It's not like a vortex, and nothing I think my classmates would get irritated hearing if I brought it to lecture with me. It does kick on and off for no reason frequently though, but again I really think the noise is quite bearable, and barely notice it. This is with just a couple hours use so far though, I may not have encountered the fan levels others have mentioned yet.

The screen is fantastic when anything is on it, but I was really nervous when I turned it on because of all the backlight bleed! That's just the price of IPS though, as my IPS monitor is similar, and the native screen looks phenomenal when watching netflix. Fans kick on and off but nowhere near loud enough to interfere with the sound of the movie out of the native laptop speakers.