***Gigabyte P34W v3 "Phantasus" owner's lounge***

Yea, I was thinking about maybe buying it and replacing the keyboard itself with a US version. Is the keyboard removable? I would also need a US keyboard. Does anyone have a v2/3/4 US keyboard lying around that I could buy? I'd ofcourse pay any shipping too. (Not sure if the v2/v3 will fit on it though but it seems the chassis hasn't changed)

 

Its a pain to remove the keyboard, its partly stuck with adhesive and party with small plastic clips. Easy to damage. I also couldnt find any spareparts online for this laptop.

 

This might help with your keyboard -

http://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale...12632&SearchText=p34w+v3+keyboard+replacement

 

and if your not confident with replacing the keyboard, you can just switch the settings in windows and buy a sticker set for the keys... but the video does not look too complicated.

 

there is a new smart manager 5.1.3 which seems to work. the new custom setting is just one slider from 40% to 100% and it sticks...

 

So your custom fan setting is ACTUALLY working?

I'm sure I have the new Smart Manager and it still wasn't working. That said, it might be because I'm using the beta bios (which I still have no idea what it's supposed to do, despite asking Gigabyte).

 

Oh, thank you very much! I had not found the Aliexpress one for some reason but they have the US International one! (They do have a Belgian one but not Dutch )
As for replacing the keyboard itself that won't be much of a problem. I will order the v4 from Germany and will check for any faults as often mentioned in this thread.
After that I will post a nice benchmark on a clean Windows 10 and one which has been repasted, CPU/GPU undervolt.

Edit:

Ok bummer, I realised they are all with a silver frame. I messaged the salesman asking if he has any keyboard with a black frame. Waiting for a response from Gigabyte too.

 

I have been searching for the same. Gigabyte will deny anything out of the box. And the guys behind the AliExpress store do not sell anything other than the silver one.
They also said they sell without frame, so that means the keys can be taken out of the frame.

tonfilm, could you please post a pic of your German keyboard? Maybe the US keys will fit in the frame.

Otherwise we could try something like this: http://www.123inkt.nl/Edding-5200-p...antraciet-200-ml-4-5200926-i33072-t62620.html (not too expensive).

tonfilm, what do the good people of Simac-gmbh charge for a P34W v4?

 

I indeed asked it and the UK version seems like it will fit the frame: http://kfdown.a.aliimg.com/kf/HTB1noFeJpXXXXXpXXXXq6xXFXXXo.jpg
I'm going to risk it.
As for the price, alternate.de has it for 1500 (without SSD and Windows)

 

simac price was 1430 for the GA-P34Wv4-D1, but i don't know how taxes, customs or such things work with netherlands...

here is the german keyboard layout:

 

BSOD all D!

Just received this lappy couple days ago and nothing but BSOD and other FAILS.

Immediately greeted with offer to upgrade to Win 10 so I said, sure. Well, Win Update couldn't make it happen, failed over and over. Then I downloaded the MS Update Tool and tried that route to upgrade but again, FAIL FAIL FAIL. Contacted Gigabyte Tech, share error codes. He googled that I should attempt clean install.

I knew before I started this would cause activation...whoah! just now the webpage crashed and had to recover... starting to think I've got gpu issue or similar hardware...OK, let me get back on track....so I knew this would be another can of worms with activation but for the sake of taking advice of the tech, I went ahead and successfully performed clean install. Well, that is a relative term--successfully--because the computer crashed 2-3 times during the process but somehow it worked.

So now with Win 10 I went and updated all drivers that the install didn't. Continued to get BSOD with hard to determine pattern. Numerous attempts to finalize activation failed (cmd line, scripts). I decided to go back to Win 8.1 factory install using the Gigabyte USB image and thought I'd have better luck. Nope. Just got my first BSOD of the re-install.

Set up an exchange with Amazon but I'm more than a little concerned I'll continue to have issues. Not really seeing others complaining of this in the thread, however. What to do...

 

Read a couple pages back. There's a case where the GPU kept failing, even though he got it serviced from gigabyte. They seriously have horrible QC with the P series.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

 

Hey guys, My P34w v3 is arriving soon, and i was wondering if it was stable enough to update it to windows 10 despite a lot of complaints.

Cheers guys,

 

I updated to Windows 10 x64 the day it came out. I did an in-place upgrade and have had zero issues whatsoever. I plan on doing a clean install eventually, but right now I have no real reason to do so considering how smoothly everything is running.

 

So, I have a new issue. And I'm not sure when it arose.

I don't use the webcam much, but every now and then, I need it. Tonight was one of those days.

I opened Skype, and it tells me I have no webcam installed. I thought it was some update or something, so I did a reboot. Still nothing.
When I look in the device manager, I can't even find a hint of a webcam. There is neither a functioning, nor a non-functioning webcam in the list.

I tried looking for drivers, but I can't find them anywhere. Gigabytes website has nothing, and Google yielded no better results.

It wasn't like this out of the box, because I have used the webcam before. The last time I used it was before upgrading to Windows 10, so that might be the culprit, though it seems odd that it doesn't even show up in the Device Manager.

Has anybody experienced similar problems? Or can help me finding out where I can find a driver for it?

 

just wanted to inform you that there is a store that has it in stock and adds a win10 installation on top for the same price as the other stores sell it without windows:

https://www.notebook.de/gigabyte-p34wv4-d1-intel-core-i7-5700hq-270ghz-windows-10-p-75615

 

in the smart manager it is probably disabled. open this up and enable it.

 

Another issue to watch out for. My fingers are pretty greasy so I wipe the keys down with some alcohol wipes (eyeglass cleaner) every couple weeks. The black bezel in between the keys has started losing the black pigment from the wiping, turning them white. The problem is more pronounced near the wasd keys, which get used the most so get wiped the most. It's purely cosmetic, but doesn't look good. It's just the bezel. The keys themselves are fine - still black.

Maybe something other than alcohol wipes would be best for cleaning the keys. Speaking of which, has anyone found a keyboard protector for the P34G/W? Those are a lot easier to clean. I've been looking but the only site offering one seems to be in Singapore.

 

Hahaha.... Damn that's embarrassing.

Been working in the field for 15 years. The weird thing is, I'm 100% sure I didn't disable it. Must have been done in an update or something.

But thank you so very much. Had already put in my head that I need to RMA it.

 

Alcahol is in general not ideal for cleaning electronics. If you use it on for example soft touch materials, it rubs off within seconds.

 

that would of really sucked to rma it for that. glad you got it working.

 

Alright guys so I've had the laptop for about 3 days now, upgraded to windows 10 but now sometimes there's no audio and I have to restart and it comes back, I have upgraded the drivers but the problem still persists, anyone else with this issue?

 

I had that as well. It's a driver issue.

 

So is there a solution for it?

 

Well I just received my P34 v4 today and I noticed there is a slight bulge around the left/center of keyboard. It seems like there may be something under that part of the keyboard causing it to bulge up. Has anyone else seen it? It is enough to see with my eyes if I look carefully, and if you take a playing card and run it over the keys, you can see that it floats about 2mm above the keys were the bulge is at.

 

I just uninstalled the drivers until it worked again.

 

every keyboard has a bulge around the middle on these laptops unfortunately.

 

Does anyone know what is causing it? I have not tried to open it yet to see what could be causing it, as I was considering to send it in for an RMA.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Gigabyte has just (2015-09-03) announced that the P34W will receive a Skylake processor, HDMI 2.0, DHCP 2.2, 2 USB C type connectors, M.2 PCIe storage, DDR4 RAM, and USB 3.1.
I haven't yet bought my v4 yet ( ) so I'll wait a month and go with an old laptop.

 

Intel's POR for mobile skylake processors is Q1 2016. So you may be waiting a little longer than a month (FYI)

EDIT: sorry Q1 is the embedded roadmap, so consumer may be earlier.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I have heard from another owner on the v3 that they did not have a bulge. Would this be something I could RMA for?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Hi everyone I think I have a problem with my P34W V3 : I upgraded to Windows 10 a month ago and at first I had a lot of driver issues but not anymore. But now I have some problems with all the Gigabyte software. I can't use Smart Update anymore. I tried several versions from the Gigabyte website but I keeps crashing. Another thing that worries me is the Smart Manager. At first I tried the Window 10 version from the Gigabyte website since I coulnd't use Smart Update but the Fan tweak didn't work properly (Gaming profile was not effectively cooling the laptop while gaming). I reverted back to previous versions from Windows 8 but I still find that my fans don't spin at the adequate speed. Some months ago I tried to count the diffferents fan speeds (7 I think) and usually when gaming on Auto High, the fans would reach the 5th speed keeping my temps under 85° for the CPU and 75-80° on the most demanding games (Far Cry 4, DAI, GTA V...). But now after upgrading to Windows 10 and using different versions of Samrt Manager my CPU temps are above 95°!! And the GPU temps are over 85°. I noticed the fans are much quieter than before so I believe they don't spins at the same speeds as before. I would like to try the new Smart Manager but i don't see it on the Gigabyte website and I can't use Smart Update.

Sorry if that was long x) In short : since I upgaded to Win 10 and reinstalled my drivers, my fans don't work like before and the laptop is not cooled enough what can I do ?

 

Cannot find any data about a possible laptop release date for Skylake. Do you have an idea when it may be released?

 

Maybe he misunderstood you? I have had 3 P34w V3s in my hands and on every review photo I saw that the center of the keyboard was higher than the sides. It is attached very strangely with some clips on the edges and some double sided tape in the middle which pushes the keyboard slightly up.

 

Hello there,

Is Anyone here who use the Razer blade power charger on his P34 in europe or no and share is experience?

 

Ok guys, I thought I would share my experience with Gigabyte's "eSupport" regarding the beta bios found via Smart Update:

Here goes..

Hi, I have recently updated Smart Manager which now has a custom fan option but it does not work, I have also installed the beta BIOS (RB04T06) in the hope that would make the custom fan utility work but it does not. There are no release notes for the BIOS either.

Can you tell me when the custom fan setting is going to work and, what the Beta BIOS is supposed to do?

Thank you.

Leigh

Dear Leigh

Thank you for your kindly mail and inquiry. About the issue you mentioned, we suggest you to used Smart Update to update the utility Smart Update. Then, you may use the latest Smart Update to check if there is any updated version of Smart Manager. Please make sure you used the latest Smart Manager and test later.

If problem still remains, please provide us a screen shot of Smart Manager and let us know the version of Smart Manager. We will forward to the relevant department and see how to assist further.

Regards,
GIGABYTE

So I replied...

Hi

As requested I have attached a screenshot.

Smart Update is version 2.6.6 and Smart Manager is version 5.1.3. These are the latest versions available according to Smart Update.

None of the fan settings have any effect especially the "Manual" setting. Setting this to 40% or 100% makes no difference.

The fan behaviour does seem to be different than the FB04 bios, when this bios is installed the fan options are different and the fan will stop when under 45 degrees c. When the RB04T06 bios is installed the fan runs constantly.

I am more than happy to test beta software but where are the release notes/changelog and where am I supposed to provide feedback??

Regards

Leigh

Dear Leigh

We've tried to accommodate feedback regarding fan noise.

With the latest update to Smart Manager, setting your fans to Max will enable your fans to run and max speed, however the fan speed will make "smart" adjustments and compensate based on temperature.

For example if you're running a heavy load and temperature is high, the fans will run faster. If it is idle the fans will slower, to reduce fan noise when it is not needed.

If you notice any kind of negative effects due to this change, please be sure to tell us. However it was tested in house and worked wonderfully.

At last, please make sure you have used the latest Smart Manager and latest Beta BIOS version. It is not recommended to use the previous BIOS version.

Regards,
GIGABYTE

I replied again....

Hi

"With the latest update to Smart Manager, setting your fans to Max will enable your fans to run and max speed, however the fan speed will make "smart" adjustments and compensate based on temperature."

*Does this mean that if I set the fan to 60% (for example) and run a heavy load the fan will never exceed 60%?

Also, does this mean that setting the fan at anything lower than 100% reduces CPU/GPU utilisation eg: setting the fan to 60% only allows 60% of CPU/GPU usage?

If this is the case can you tell me how the CPU/GPU scales according to fan settings and load.

Regards

Leigh

Dear Leigh

For your information, the fan setting in Smart Manager only effects the fan speed limit, it does not effect CPU / GPU performance.

Regards,
GIGABYTE

And I replied yet again...

Hi

"Dear Leigh

For your information, the fan setting in Smart Manager only effects the fan speed limit, it does not effect CPU / GPU performance.

Regards,
GIGABYTE"

So you're saying that if the fan is limited to 60% and I run a CPU intensive program that requires 100% CPU/GPU utilisation the CPU/GPU will overheat (and most likely throttle) because it's not getting sufficient cooling?!

It would be really helpful if you could supply a changelog for the bios update including the behaviour of the fan with regard to CPU/GPU utilisation and thermal limits.

Leaving users in the dark about updates to their machines does not gain confidence and given the quality issues across several of the "P" series laptops it would be good of you to be clear about what you are doing.

Regards

Leigh

Dear Leigh

We appreciate your feedback and opinion. This mail will forward to the relevant department for reference. As we mentioned in the previous mail, regarding the feedback of fan noise, setting your fans to Max will enable your fans to run and max speed, however the fan speed will make "smart" adjustments and compensate based on temperature. If you have concern about overheating issue, you may set fan as Max.

Regards,
GIGABYTE

So there you have it, if you want any information, don't ask Gigabyte.

 

I want a utility to just hit a button and fans are max regardless of temp

 

They've just set their "support" to 50%.

 

Hahaha! Yeah and that's being generous...

Seriously though, they must have put more effort into completely evading my questions than just giving an answer, I don't think what I asked was particularly difficult.

Basically what they're saying is, the custom fan setting doesn't work because "smart" adjustments based on temperature is what every laptop I have ever had does. Simply put: more heat = more fan to reduce temp. Setting the fan to 60% still lets the fan go to 100% under load so I really don't see what they are trying to do.

 

The version of 4,58 version of smart manager does this.

You can choose "max" in the fan settings. Although I have no godly clue why you would want that? It's sounds like a damn turbo jet.

I typically choose the Auto-Low setting.

 

I have an issue today, where my wifi keeps dropping. I checked, and I haven't had any hardware updates.

I thought it was the router (AC-56U), but the other units that are connected don't drop.
It only lasts 5-10 seconds, but it's incredibly frustrating while doing work. And would be even worse when gaming....

Anybody else run into this?

 

I'm pretty sure this has something to do with a "roaming" feature where a periodic search for a stronger connections occurs, I'm sure I posted earlier about this. Give me a moment and I'll get you a link.

Edit: Posted this back on page 52...

Found this on the Intel forum...

7. Re: AC 7260 frequent ping spikes

Vigz Nov 15, 2014 12:44 AM ( in response to samthebam)


Hello,



After doing a bit of research, the ping spikes are caused when the wireless card scans for networks. I was actually able to reproduce the issue and can confirm this. You can do so yourself.



Go to cmd, type ping www.google.com -t



If you're on Windows 8 or 8.1, all you need to do is access the wireless network list by clicking on the wireless icon on the bottom right and it will automatically refresh. For those on Windows 7, click the wireless icon on the bottom right and click on the refresh button next to your connected network. As you are doing this, you'll notice that the ping counter on the command prompt will spike up. I thought it was an issue with the card as well and I was wondering about getting a replacement as well. It can be ridiculously annoying for gaming. It seems as though Windows likes to re scan for networks periodically causing random lag spikes. If there was a way to stop scanning while you're connected to a network, that would be great.



UPDATE: Oh boy, I was able to find a solution. It involves using the Registry Editor. Be careful not to change anything else except for the things that are listed.



1. Open Registry Editor (Windows 8/8.1, right click where Start button was, click Run, type regedit. Windows 7, click Start, click Run, type regedit)



2. Head to 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ System\ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ Class \ {4d36e972-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318} [Be sure to expand the 4d36e.... folder]


3. Inside will be a number of folders named 0000, 0001, 0002, etc. Look through all these folders until you get one that says Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 in the registry.


4. Once the device has been found, search for a value called ScanWhenAssociated.


5. If you see this value, set it to 0 on hexadecimal. If you don't see the value, click edit from the top, select new, and click DWORD (32-bit) value. Rename this value to ScanWhenAssociated (exactly as shown). Make sure this value is set to 0 on hexadecimal.


6. Restart the computer. This is important. The changes won't take effect unless you do.


I rebooted and tried using cmd to ping google.com. I refreshed the networks and PRESTO! There were no more lag spikes!!! Try it out yourself. I'll give this a couple more days of testing. Big thanks to Lenovo for the guide: [SOLUTION] latency spikes and network unstability ... - Lenovo Community

 

Thanks for the tip. I purchased the notebook with the link you gave me. I was surprised to see it had only approximately 450 GB HDD space. When I investigated further I found that there was half of the HDD that was unallocated. Kind of a waste. Doesn't matter however, because I bought an mSATA SSD so I will do a clean install, but if you're not comfortable doing a clean install this could be an issue. At least you get a product key with it.

About the keyboard, has anyone taken it out yet? Or has eejn already received his keyboard from aliexpress? I am wondering if the frame can be taken out easily. If so I will use some model-kit spray paint to get the right color on the silver frame.

 

Are you connecting at 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz? The 2.4 GHz band on the AC-56U and AC-66U has always been flaky. For some reason the 2.4 GHz guest network works fine, but the regular network suffers slowdowns, dropouts, and weirdness where you still show as connected but no data gets through. It affected some devices more than others. A friend's laptop worked fine with it for a day, but suffered a slowdown the next morning.
https://www.google.com/search?q=ac-...i57.8192j0j1&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=0&ie=UTF-8

I never did find a solution to it, so I just turned off the 2.4 GHz radio (all my devices could connect at 5 GHz, and the 5 GHz band worked fine). Eventually I replaced it with a Netgear R7000 and moved the RT-56U to a job at work where the 2.4 GHz band was unneeded.

If this is your problem, you may be able to fix it by switching to a 3rd party firmware like DD-WRT. I've also read that switching its channel width to 20 MHz can help (I'd already switch to the Netgear by the time I read that).

 

Yes, I know, I replying to a very old message...Sorry! But yes, indeed, I finally had time to do that and, silly silly silly me: it was the thermal paste!
I was surprised to see it was still PERFECT on the GPU, but I would say 1/3 of the CPU at least no longer had any paste on it and was directly exposed to the heatsink. I put some other paste (no longer arctic silver, alas) and it did the job: I haven't reached 90°C after playing for some minutes, nor when I did a stress test.
All's well that ends well!

 

I have not ordered a keyboard from AliExpress as the Model v5 should be out within 2 months. The Core i7-6xxx, HDMI 2.0, HDCP 2.2, USB 3.1 and type C, PCIe SSD keep me waiting.

 

Sorry if this was discussed earlier.
I have the following problem with my new P34W
I have Windows 10 installed with all the latest drivers and updates.
I noticed that from time to time, for example after quitting a game, my GPU load is stuck at 90-95%. And it is stuck at this value until I unplug the power cord. Then it drops to 0 and I can plug in the power cord again.
I tried Sysinternal tools to figure out which process is using the GPU, but got no results.
What could be the problem?
Thank you

 

I'm finding the 128gb SSD too small (it's actually more like 100gb then windows takes up 20+GB so not much room left for games) how do I upgrade to a bigger SSD?
can I clone the SSD over to the hard drive then put in a bigger SSD and transfer the OS from the hard drive to the new SSD??

 

Hi, You can do just that. Upgrading the SSD is pretty easy, you'll need to take the entire bottom panel off to expose the innards (picture of the inside on page 3). you'll find your current SSD plugged into a slot at an odd angle, unscrew the one screw and replace with the new one.

Make sure you format the new SSD to "GPT partition table" (I can fully recommend a Samsung 850 EVO if you're stuck for which SSD to get!)

Also, when taking the bottom panel off, the 2 screws at the front corners have black stickers on them. I remember reading that one chap didn't realise this and broke the bottom panel!

Cloning will be fine but if you have upgraded to Windows 10 then I would recommend a clean install.

 

yeah I'm on windows 10.

I just want the SSD for windows and steam so I've installed all other programs like photoshop and firefox on the HDD.

if I do a clean install of windows 10 on the new SSD will I have to install all the programs on the HDD again?

also how will I do a new install windows 8.1 or 10 on a new SSD.. without any install CD?

thanks