HP DV6z A8-3530MX processor upgrade

Thought I would share with you people my experience with upgrading my DV6z from a A4-3300M processor to an A8-3530MX.
Taking the notebook part is fairly easy operation (following the service manual), the only problem I faced was the HDMI connector catches on the chassis while trying to pull the motherboard out.
My motherboard has the lowest end A60M chipset, but still retains a 6750M with GDDR5 (confirmed, see photo). There is no USB3 what so ever, this is not supported on the A60M, and there is no add-on chip to add the function.
The GDDR5 is Hynix H5GQ1H24AFR T2C and the data sheet from the video memory (if yours is the same) can be found here:
http://www.hynix.com/datasheet/eng/...searchType=2&menuNo=1&m=3&s=3&RK=26&RAM_NAME=
The only thing I can say about this upgrade, is that I am disappointed with the finished result. The processor appears to be locked at a bus speed of 66MHz instead of the standard 100MHz, pulling down not only my processor speed but also the RAM speed. I have come to the conclusion that I have been sold either a faulty processor that should of been scrapped at the factory (maybe somehow slipped out), or the HP motherboard with A60M cannot take the A8-3530MX correctly due to BIOS coding. Although both are unlikely, those are the only ideas I have for an answer.
I have tried to back date and then re-update the BIOS, but this has not worked. I cannot change the P-States with K10STAT, it show up in CPUZ as running all the way up to 4.6GHz, but that's not the real reading.
Super PI times for 1M can never be any better than 41s, no matter what I do. Other benches from various test software perform poorly.
The processor to stuck at a maximum of 1700MHz, something is really wrong, check out hwinfo screendump.
This post should be a word of warning to some of those that want to do the upgrade. There is also another person within this thread, with the same/simular issue on a different branded notebook using the A8-3530MX.


The A8 fitted in to the motherboard, heatsink standing by, you can see the old A4 on the table:

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The A60M chipset with GDDR5 of the 6750M near by:

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Stuck at 66MHz bus and maximum of CPU clock speed of 1700MHz, and memory speed at a very low 886MHz:

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Man that sucks, I wonder if that's due to some weird limitation HP put on this A60M chipset, cuz I believe normally both A60M and A70M support A8 series APU. My 6135dx does have USB3.0 so I assume it has an A70M, I was actually planning on swapping in an A3530MX sometime down the road.

 

I have very similar problem with Dell Vostro 3555. Upgraded from A6-3400M to A8-3530MX. CPU does not run faster than 1730MHz. However memory runs at 1600MHz. Do not know either what is the problem, might the APU defective (bought from Ebay) or lack of bios support. My chipset A70M.

 

Actually as I see in HWinfo, my FSB drops to 66MHz under load as well. So exactly the same problem what you have. Let me know if you can find out what cause this disappointing problem.

 

Yeah thats what I was thinking, I don't understand it. The CPU is not performing and it is slow in its current state. HP may have locked out the A8-3530MX, but I did see that other models that HP have (non DV6) do run A6 and A8 processors with a A60M.

Your DV6 is likely a A70M, if not then it will be A60M with a USB3 controller chip add-on.

 

It's a long shot, but have you tried updating the BIOS?

 

Ahh, so you have an A70M and a different notebook platform, that makes things more interesting.
I too brought the A8-3530MX from ebay, SMS seller.
AMD Quad-Core Laptop CPU 1.9GHz FS1 uPGA A8-3530MX | eBay

If you brought yours from the same seller as above, and the product is stated as used, then maybe we are getting sold defective processors?

 

If you read my first post you will see I have done this already.
Actually I had done that several times, using a combination of all three BIOS.

 

Yes, I purchased exactly from this seller. But how could we go for sure the CPU is defective? Dell does not sell this laptop with bigger APU than A8-3500M, so it can be bios issue as well.

 

Sorry, must have missed it when I skimmed your post. Strange that the FSB is crippled on your notebook.

 

We would need to install the processor in to a laptop that is is currently running the same A8-3530MX processor.

Strange thing is, that people here are already running a A8-3530MX processor in the HP DV6-61XX models. BIOS certainly supports it. I think that people that are running the A8-3530MX processor in the HP's will likely have the A70M chipset, where as I added my processor to the lower A60M chipset. Even saying that, there is very little different between the two chipsets, and should support the A8-3530MX processor no matter which way you look at it.

I see that AMD don't have any chipset drivers as such. Is there some we need to do to fix this? After writing that I have noticed poor performance using memtest v4.20 which will display some raw memory bandwidth details, that are well below what it should be.

 

A60M or A70M do not make any difference, both can run A8-3530MX. So do not worry about your chipset, that is good. Hp selling so many DV6z with 3530MX, therefore everything is given to you; good laptop, chipset and bios. I guess our processors are the problematic.
however as you mentioned, would be great to try in a good working 3530MX system.

 

Right now on HP's site you can configure the DV6z with APU ranging from A6-3400M to A8-3530MX, so that particular APU is definitely supported. Do you think you can download a BIOS for a DV6z model that's preconfigured with A8-3530MX? I looked up on HP site but couldn't find any, but maybe Best Buy or Staples have some. It's pretty risky though.

 

Yeah the A60M supports the A8-3530MX for certain, as both were launched at the same time, the A70M came in slightly a little later, but not by much I would imagine.

I have ran a factory restore. Werid thing is, the computer stopped and asked for a manual reboot at some stage during the restore, which it should never ask otherwise. After the restore, there was aero type theme as standard and the usual HP background was missing replaced with just a light blue colour. All drivers were intact and nothing was missing. Anyway doing that did not solve the issue.
Even tryed installing AMD's driver set, and then drives from a random desktop board from Gigabyte to see if that would change anything.

Fairly certain now, maximum clock is 1730MHz with a 66MHz bus. Can not control the CPU with K10STAT using the A8 processor anymore. The old A4 had zero issues and overclocked like a champ, 100MHz bus was usually a tad higher at 102MHz.

CINEBENCH 11.5 64bit result = 1.68 pts

 

I just received an email from someone it this thread asking about A8-3530mx. I can tell you I bought this from ebay seller in Naples, Fl. I have tried this apu in Asus K53ta with poor results and also replaced a A8-3510mx in a HP with the 3530mx with crappy results. I don't think this is a mobo problem. I think we either got defective apu's or restamped apu. I was wondering if anyone had actually sent the apu to amd to get it verified. This many apu's can't be failing to run properly. I also know that these motherboards will support the A8-3530mx. My apu is sitting on the shelf so if anyone knows how to get it verified I will gladly donate it in the name of SANITY. THANK YOU.

 

All right guys, now we have 3 person who bought A8-3530MX APU from the same ebay seller. I think it is pretty certain that our laptops are good, but we received faulty processors.

 

Just for a matter of interest to verify that the processor can not go past 1733MHz. I have managed to get some control over the processor using k10STAT.

Keep in mind without K10STAT the processor is going crazy without any kind of management. What happens is the processor is stuck trying to run at stock 1.9GHz or turbo to 2.6GHz, in which it cannot do either. Therefore the bus is affected as it refuses to go past 1733MHz. This is where you will see using hwinfo or even ADIA the processor and ram clock speed jumping all over the place, as the bus strangles the performance. From what I am seeing it relates the dividers changing and the limitation past 1733MHz.
If you set you processor to power saving in windows 7, without the use to K10STAT, you will force the processor to be using more than likely DID=1, and it will have the procosser, bus, and ram will have stable clocks.

Don't be mistaken, the performance is poor, every benchmark or test I have run have showen poor results, even just using the processor as intended.

Here are my findings using K10STAT just to produce a stable 1733MHz without losing bus speed, killing off the clock and memory speed:

Open K10STAT, uncheck boost, select P0 state, change FID=10, change DID=1, click on four 1733 buttons, click apply.

Do the above you will now be running at the maximum possible. This is the fastest speed possible with the bus at 100MHz and RAM running at what it should be.

You can make a custom profile with the above, but only at speeds lower than 1733MHz maximum. The key is to keep the FID at 10 or lower, and the DID must be exactly 1, otherwise you will have problems.

Even say that, the A8-3530MX processor is crippled. It cannot obtain a stock speed of 1.9GHz and there is is not turbo. The processor tries, but can no do either.

Therefore the above should be some good common ground to work on.
I am unable to test this processor with any other notebook that is already running a good A8-3530MX to prove if the A8-3530MX I have is faultly or not?

Who is exactly at fault here? I cannot see how 3 different notebook from Asus, Dell, and HP that support the A8-3530MX processor can have the same poor results. Unless they have not got something right in all of their BIOS?

 

Good find, it works for me as well! But why cannot we go further than 1730MHz?

 

Exactly!

I am hoping that those current with A8-3530MX as standard in their notebook could post their CINEBENCH 11.5 64bit results here. Then we can verify they too don't have the same issue.
If that is you that is reading this, please also post your chipset type, notebook make and model.

With K10STAT, try setting FID=31 and DID=0, you will be seemly overclock to 4.6GHz according to CPUZ. But we know that is not the case, as the processor will be still at 1733MHz.

 

Before I already compared my CPU speed with other A8-3530MX APUs. IntelBurnTest gives me 19Gfops maximum (even on 4.6GHz), while the others get 28-29Gflops arround 2.8GHz. Our APUs are crippled .

 

It seems that this seller from FL is the only one available anywhere on the Internetz offering A8-3530MX. Since AMD/Globalfoundries never made the 35xxMX series available for people other than major OEMs, is it possible that this guy got his hands on some OEM QC rejected batch? There is just no way that this many APUs can be available as functioning unit pulled from laptops, for one it normally only happens when shops help people upgrade to better CPUs, which doesn't apply here.

 

Yep, even worse is when the APU is set to FID=31 and DID=0, even though this should in theroy be the fastest speed posssible (but impossible without an instant BSOD), it will be running slower than normal 1733MHz as the bus speed is being killed and the RAM speed suffers as well. So the crippled APU now start performing less than the slowest A6, even my dual core bottom of the line A4-3330M was about the same.

The only thing we can do is to lock it in up to 1733MHz keeping the bus at 100MHz and the RAM at 1333MHz using the FID=10 and DID=1. This way can still enough having a quad core and the 400 steam GPU feature.

Other than that, there is no other options but the above, or to simply remove the APU and go back to what I had.
Shame really, paid good money for this APU (with expensive shipping) and will crap resell value.

 

Thats what I have been thinking. The seller has sold heaps of these chips. Most people may just install these and never bother to test them.
I wonder if this batch has a different stepping? If that is the case, this there could be no microcode support for the stepping in the BIOS of our notebooks.
I live in a different country, so that kind of screws me over. Not sure what we can really do about it, we don't have any other proof other than this thread, even then it does not isolated anything without being able to test in another know work notebook that currently has the exact same APU.

Here is an HP with a A60M chipset (has no USB3, and 4x USB2 only) and A8-3530MX:
http://www.moneyaccumulator.com/356...aptop-dv6-6124ca-review-futureshopca-for-879/

Here is a simular model DV6-6100AX, this one is also spec with A8-3530MX, same design chassis:
http://www8.hp.com/au/en/ad/highdefinition/amd-notebook.html

 

I do not want, but I think I will take apart my laptop to put back the original A6 APU. Than I'll try to exchange the crippled A8 APU with the seller to a different one. When I will receive it, I need to take again apart my laptop... And what if I get again a crippled A8? Poor laptop and poor me... .

 

The problem with this is, you will likely have to pull apart your laptop to get out you the A8-3530MX out to send back. Then you could either leave it apart until you get a reaplacement, or put your A6 back in it and then have to pull it apart a third time.

But... If you keep and overclock your A6 then you still have a quad core that performs the same as any A6 or A8, just lose a bit of the GPU, although the overclock will make up for some of that.

 

ebay seller acts like he doesn't have a clue. Maybe nobody let him know but me. Hey Atom Anti thanks for the emails from you via ebay. My return period has expired on my apu so if you can still get refund on yours you might want to, You can have mine for free if you want to keep testing. I have taken 4 different A6 laptops apart 13 times with crappy results every time. I put original apu's back in and all is well.

(ebay seller of A8-3530MX)
Hello,

I apologize for the issues you are having. We have sold many of these cpu's without any issues or complaints. As long as it is within our 30 Day Return Policy we will refund you for this order. Do you still have the sales receipt, our return address is on it. We can also exchange it if you like as well.

Please advise.

- emerchant2

 

Were you able to upgrade any of these laptops with A8-3530MX either a different seller or same part from another laptop, or even upgrade to a A8-3500M ?

 

A8-3500M worked fine in my laptop. The problem is it's not worth the money or aggevation to change the cpu for such little difference in performance.

 

I've got this answer;

Hello,
Since it is past our 30 day return policy we can only exchange this item for you.
Please advise.

So, I'm going to exchange it and hopefully I'll receive back a good working one.

 

I have a Samsung laptop with an a6-3410mx and was starting to get excited about the upgrade, It would be a very simple process as well especially because unlike other laptops in order to get access to the cpu all I would have to do is unscrew the bottom cover and voila. But since I saw the a8-3530mx on ebay from that seller from FL and then found this forum and the mixed reactions the the cpus bought from him Im thinking twice about it. Oh well

 

The seller is not responding to my emails. I have lodge a return for my purchase and shipping costs.

I think other people should also report this processor to eBay as being faulty.

We all know now there are issues surrounding the processor (not our hardware) never running at stock speeds, this is caused by a faulty bus / divider.

Dividers failing to go past 10 without any software interaction, therefore the CPU clock stays at 1733MHz, and then the bus suffers when trying to run at 1.9GHz or 2.5GHz, in which it will never get to. Hence when the bus drops, so does performance of the overall system include a reduction of RAM speed up to more than half.

 

Today I put back the A6-3400M APU and finally I can overclocking. I Run the APU at 2.4 GHZ and it makes 26Gflops in IntelCPUBurn and 3DMark2001SE gives me 19706 points. With the crippled A8-3530MX APU I never could make more than 19Gflops and 16505 points.
However in newer games and 3DMarks I loose some performance, because the missing GPU Sharders.

I've also sent back the A8 APU for exchange, curious if the new one will works well.

 

You are lucky with that, I need to take out the keyboard, hard disk, memory, palm rest, hold switch, many cables, screws, the whole motherboard and than finally I can rich the CPU cooler than the APU.

 

Just want to point out that someone else (nwkrep82) that has the same performance problem as in this thread, and likely didn't know why at the time. The CPU was brought from eBay. Post and link to post as per below:
Read the surrounding posts, for the disappoint results after the upgrade from nwkrep82

I can confirm that Kingston HyperX 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1600 HyperX Plug n Play Laptop Memory Model KHX1600C9S3P1K2/8G does read as 1600MHz.

I put in my DV6-6135dx and it read as 1333MHz. But when I swapped out the A8-3500m cpu for a 3530mx, the ram read as 1600MHz. I swapped the stock cpu and my 8GB 1333MHz ram back in because the 3530mx w/1600MHz ram didn't perform as I expected.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...xxx-series-owners-lounge-181.html#post7809415

 

I received today a refund from the seller. If any of you still struggling with the defective APU, than go ahead and ask refund!

Hello,

We have received your return. Additionally to avoid any further problems we will go ahead and issue you a refund. Typically we do not give refunds after 30 days, however this is a unusual situation. We understand you have put a lot of time into this processor therefore we rather do a refund than exchange since we cannot test these processors at our current location.

We sincerely apologize for an inconvenience this may have caused

thanks

 

In the process of sorting this out now, just waiting to be refunded. I have shipped the APU away, as I type this post it will be on a plane as of this moment on its way USA. Shipping it back is not cheap at $33 USD.

 

I guess that's the end to this adventure, it's too bad that this seller is the sole provider of 3830mx chips, on the other hand I'm really happy with my 3500m's performance now that I will no longer pursue a CPU upgrade.

 

I would of went for the A8-3500M in the first place, but the A8-3530MX was the king of the hill and hard to pass up.
What I wanted out of the A8-3530MX was the higher stock clock at 1.9GHz, that would mean that no overclocking would be fine, or good enough not to bother. Support for DDR3-1600 to make the APU stronger in the memory department.

Even if the processer was good, then overclocking the A8-3530MX may have yeilded better results than lower binned chips.
One thing I did notice, even though the APU would not obtain stock speeds let alone any kind of overclocking, was the ability to run the APU at low voltages if controlled with K10STAT to a maximum speed of only 1.73GHz.

I am surprised with the A4-3300M being the slowest of the entire range, actually performs very well, seemly as I don't have anything else to compare it with other than the upgrade that was not to be.

I guess this is the end, well almost. The APU has landed in the USA and is waiting to be released and shipped to the original owner. The thread will be a good resource for those that come next.

 

So where to buy a good A8-3530MX or 3510MX APU? When is the new 3550MX coming?

 

I want to get this APU from the same seller to replace an A4-3300M from a Gateway NV55s03u =L Sounds like a poor idea now! How about this one guys?

AMD A8-Series A8-3500M AM3500DDX43GX Socket FS1 | eBay

I'm just looking for better graphics performance in Metro 2033, it only runs on Low settings with 30 fps but sometimes less like 15-20. I'd rather have it medium settings =/

Also Witcher 2 doesn't run, only lowest possible settings. I thought the 6620 might fair better.

 

You should probably go ahead but you should research benchies on the 6620G before buying. It will be a good upgrade for you though and I would certainly do the same thing if I were you.

 

juggar, I just bought one on ebay but not from the same seller you guys used in this thread. I could only find the 3500 not the 3530mx but I can live with it :L However without a teardown guide for the NV55S03u or NVS55 series I'm hestitant to try until I 1. want a new laptop or 2. find a guide is posted sometime in the future

I'd hate to find out I need to OPEN and dismantle the entire damn thing it would SUCK. You think the APU is underneath or I'll need to remove the keyboard :? grrr Anyways I'll let you guys know what I do.

 

hi guys,, i am from turkiye(middle east / europe) and i have kt53ta my stock apu was a4 3300m with 35W TDP ..but i upgrade it a8 3530mx from amazon seller from naples FL i think same seller with ebay.. my APU doesnt go further 1.7ghz .. anyone knows what is the problem.. TDP / motherboard / Bios / APU which one was the cause..

 

You've got an crippled APU, that is way not go further than 1733MHz.

 

hmmm - I just ordered the same cpu from the same seller ... Ill post my results ?? I have an hp pavillion dv7 6166nr AMD A4-3300 - with K10stat its easily running at 2400 with no issues what so ever... wanted 4 core and gpu upgrade so Ill post my results

 

current cinebench 10 scores
cpu - 7366 / fpu - 797 / mem - 7327
----------------
K10stat - scores
cpu -8821 / fpu - 1042 / mem - 7728
AMD A4-3300

 

So A4 faster than A8?

 

HP-Pavillion dv7 6166nr -A4-3300(attempting upgrade to A8-3530) 8Gig Ram-1600MHz 120GB Intel SSD 500GB HDD F.21 9/13/2011 Bios
Sorry for the misunderstanding ... the scores above are from the A4 .. stock and slightly overclocked using K10stat
The A8-3530 is shipped and on its way ... Ill post results and pics when I make the upgrade and try to overclock ...
The cpu being shipped seems to be from the same ebayer as posted in this post ... hopefully I get lucky and get better results... I sent seller a few quotes from this forum stating the possible issue ... He assures me that a return will not be an issue if Im not happy with full credits and or replacement cpu...
H10stat settings... found on web - works great on my current A4-3300
Configuration:
STATE, FID, DID, Voltage
B0, 26, 1, 1.35
P0, 30, 2, 1.087
P1, 24, 2, 1.05
P2, 18, 2, 1.025
P3, 16, 2, 0.987
P4, 14, 2, 0.975
P5, 12, 2, 0.962
P6, 10, 2, 0.93
---------------------------
APU runs at 2750-2800 - stable - ran toast ( cpu stress ) over night with no issues... hoping the 3530 has same results

 

Don't hold your breath, as this CPU upgrade has not worked in not only HP notebooks but other differenet brand notebooks. I wouldn't look forward to any BIOS updates, as this will not fix nothing, the microcode for A8-3530MX is already in the BIOS.

Used CPU's like this just don't come out of thin air, taking into account the seller had what appears to be over 30+ used highest end A8's, this is right on or near launch date of the brand new CPU's.