*HP ENVY 17 & 17 3D (2XXX series) Owners Lounge*

Can the drivers be updated using AMD's official catalyst installer? Or will Leshcat be the only way? And what are the new features in F1D? Anything interesting?

 

I am not certain about the features of F1D but that is the last BIOS available so downgrading to F1C doesn't make much sense.

From what I can tell the drivers i tested: Modern Intel, 14.6 RC1 on Windows 8.1.1 didn't need any modification. Besides a registry fix that allows for the dynamic menu to show up (available from leshcatlabs.net) . It is likely that this just simply hasn't been fixed by AMD yet.

Hard to say at this point how the 5xxx devices will react to this. I still haven't seen many reports at all since RC1 just came out. I am sure Fixed Mode will exist in some legacy capacity but I will need to test this too.

Tests tests tests ...

 

"...
14.6 RC1 on Windows 8.1.1 didn't need any modification
..."
If you install the Oficial catalyst driver without install the moded or default windows 8.1 driver will not install.

"...
Besides a registry fix that allows for the dynamic menu to show up (available from leshcatlabs.net) . It is likely that this just simply hasn't been fixed by AMD yet.
..."
"...
With 14.6 we will ALL be moving to Dynamic Switching. (Modded or Not - I would still appreciate a copy of F1D if anyone has any contacts anywhere )

AMD will be using a "trick / entry into BIOS settings that a stored in memory" (at least what we at Leshcatlabs suspect) to make our cards use dynamic.
..."

This will be the worst choice to Leshcatlabs and AMD card users.
The dynamic mode is a crap and almost non functional for newer cards and our cards.
The dynamic mode cant export full opengl and other libraries and barely work with opencl
Do a test. Put in dynamic mode ( in our envy or newer devices), then put firefox to use the AMD card. Now try to use google maps.
BANG... BLACK SCREEN.
Do your adobe flash palyer and browser use the AMD card. Enter the youtube and try to watch full hd or 4k videos... 60% of times the flash player will crash ( in our device less than the newer ones).

From the AMD muxless dynamic ( 4, 5 and 6 version)
No overlay playback from the dGPU under A + A and A + I platform
configurations.
• All display outputs are driven by integrated graphics, regardless of whether
integrated graphics or discrete graphics perform rendering.
• Windows 7 Starter is not supported on A + A and A + I platform configurations.
• On A + I platforms, PX5.0 is configured to play protected video content on the
fGPU/iGPU. The following player applications render the content on the fGPU/
iGPU regardless of application profile settings:
a. wmplayer.exe
b. ehshell.exe
c. moviemaker.exe
d. PowerDVD*.exe
e. WinDVD.exe
© 2011 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
Proprietary and Confidential - Do not duplicate.
Muxless Switchable Graphics Technology PX5.0 Functional Specification
137-41940-104
Introduction
• BD (Blu-ray disc) playback will fail on a high-performance GPU if Aero is OFF
on A + A and A + I platform configurations.
• DVD playback with 2D to 3D video conversion does not work on high-
performance GPUs in A + A and A + I configurations.
• For A + A platform configurations, PowerPlayTM setting changes for high-
performance GPUs and for the IGP need to be done separately through the
Windows Power Plan UI.
This will be disastrous. Everyone using new notebooks with newer cards want to have the muxless fixed mode and they will change to give suport just to dynamic mode?

Hufff... I'm under linux...

SAD, AUTOCAD, SOLIDWORKS and this kind of software just DOESN’T WORK under dynamic mode ( nor in modern nor in our devices).

If you have how, VonCrisp. dont let Leshcatlabs do it. Will be like a R. I. P. for this moded drivers.

 

Please explain! I have done several tests:

Windows 8.1.1 (OEM HP driver + upgrade to 14.6 beta 1 = breaks Intel = upgrade Intel to Modern = fixed switching)
Windows 8.1.1 (clean Install 14.6 RC1 + Intel Modern = no switchable menu = insert switchable menu fix = dynamic switching)

I don't know about opengl .. how can I test this? What would be the easiest way?

I have tried running Watch Dogs whilst running 4k video in chrome (even with unlocked profiles AMD forces it to use Intel) + Google Earth application + google maps ...but no crashes.

Not true.

VLC works fine on dGPU (playing mkv)
PowerDVD playing a Bluray (3D I haven't managed to get working yet) seems to be using Intel but I am not certain. I forced it to use AMD but I don't think it worked.
Media Player Classic seems to be using dGPU. (playing mkv)

Btw .. all of these are running at the same time. Not a sign of slowdown or crash whilst monitoring with MSI Afterburner.

We can unlock profiles but I am concerned about 3D not functioning properly.

Again this relates only to 3D it seems.

I do not have AutoCAD etc. but this could be a misconception. Is this first hand experience?

Obviously we will try making fixed mode work .. we are already conducting tests and I have some pretty good ideas on how to activate this. But this driver change is substantial. 14.4 might be the last true Fixed Mode Driver.

 

Hey guys, it's been a long time since I've posted here, but my issue is this:

I can't play any of the 2014 games that are out with my ENVY 17-2290NR 3D running Win7 64-bit. Watch_Dogs, Wolfenstein: The New Order and the like encounter some kind of problem when I try to run them and according to my researches the only way to solve them is to update the graphics driver. (at the time this was posted: 8.820.5.1000)

That'd be a logical solution to the problem but in fact it only makes it worse, because my laptop doesn't support any version that is newer than the one I mentioned above. Have you guys figured out a way to install the new Catalyst drivers?

(I see you're talking about drivers in the previous posts but I can't find the answer to my question so I'm sorry if you have to repeat it)

Thank you very much!

 

Emilios.. if you would have searched the last 5 pages you would have found a solution.

Please go to this thread:

Read it carefully!

leshcatlabs.net forums • View topic - HP ENVY 17 & 17 3D (2XXX series) 6850m Owners Lounge


PS. All you really need is the UnifL 14.4 1.1 Intel Legacy Driver.

You can than install 14.4 official from AMD if you like. 6850m didn't need any fixes on the AMD side.

 

"...
Please explain! I have done several tests:

Windows 8.1.1 (OEM HP driver + upgrade to 14.6 beta 1 = breaks Intel = upgrade Intel to Modern = fixed switching)
Windows 8.1.1 (clean Install 14.6 RC1 + Intel Modern = no switchable menu = insert switchable menu fix = dynamic switching)
..."

If you install the windows 8.1 driver from upgrade and later the catalyst from AMD the program never upgrade the driver by itself. But just the installer and around program.

"...
I don't know about opengl .. how can I test this? What would be the easiest way?
..."
without ogengl/opencl we don’t have hardware acceleration for 3d/2d.
First need to be sure that the opengl/cl hardware acceleration is enabled in your browser. And Firefox, chrome, Explorer have each one specific behaviour with this.
Firefox always will be more stable in this. Explorer, well, explorer always will be unstable. Chrome have troubles..
There is tests pages for this, by example. Chrome Experiments - WebGL Experiments

"...
I have tried running Watch Dogs whilst running 4k video in chrome (even with unlocked profiles AMD forces it to use Intel) + Google Earth application + google maps ...but no crashes.
..."
The chrome was using HARDWARE ENABLED VIDEO ACCELERATION AND DECODIFICATION?
Chrome doesn’t use flash any more, but "peper". peper was using hardware accelerated?

"...
Not true.
VLC works fine on dGPU (playing mkv)
..."
VLC was set to use HARDWARE acceleration to output and decoding? Our card doesn’t have support for more than 1080p by hardware decoding. It's not about or not. If try to decode a 4k video using hardware acceleration will crash. Exactly what happens with Firefox or flash player and watching a 4k you tube video for example.. The flash crash.


"...
PowerDVD playing a Bluray (3D I haven't managed to get working yet) seems to be using Intel but I am not certain. I forced it to use AMD but I don't think it worked.
Media Player Classic seems to be using dGPU. (playing mkv)
..."
One thing is load the program with amd the amd profile. Another is use the hardware decoding.
Powerdvd most of time have direct access and maybe is the less problematic from all.


"...
We can unlock profiles but I am concerned about 3D not functioning properly
..."
Exactly. OPENGL/CL doesnt work well. Nor in our cards or the newer.
On the nvidia side, everyone scream to get out kind of muxless fixed mode ( most of them just have offloading/dynamic) because this. Is problematic.

"...
Again this relates only to 3D it seems
..."

No, this is related to OPENGL/CL and HArdware direct access to decode and overlay to process the video.
One thing is load the program with amd profile another is this program use the amd hardware.


"...
I do not have AutoCAD etc. but this could be a misconception. Is this first hand experience?
..."

It's not. It's acase everyone from amd and nvidia side know well playing with dynamic/ofload cards. Something everyone same the newer expensive cards.
It's the only WHY I use windows, autocad, Catia and solidworks.
IMPOSSIBLE to use with dynamic mode.


"...
Obviously we will try making fixed mode work .. we are already conducting tests and I have some pretty good ideas on how to activate this. But this driver change is substantial. 14.4 might be the last true Fixed Mode Driver.
...."

If you enter in amd or nvidia forums they all want to have a way of load the card in muxless fixed mode. This is the holly grail for the newer cards that have just dynamic mode enabled. We have this and the only problem is the screen light.
Same when using the muxless fixed mode we still have some problems, the driver when try to use some opencl/gl function crash all time and reload ( some opengl/cl functions are not present in our generation and the blacklist binary to take care of this was not updated when using the newer lebchat driver). Under linux is easy to do it, windows no.).

"...
14.4 might be the last true Fixed Mode Driver.
..."
Then will be better use the windows/amd oem driver that will be 100000000% more stable and functional ...

 

The last driver through Windows Update is 14.4 whql .... so there is that.

I have managed to fix AutoCAD for a user on AMD Radeon 8750m, 2 GB ProBook dynamic switching. I will verify and pass the fix on to a second tester to get proper verification.

Once I get past this stage of verification I will move onto other applications:

Firefox, Chrome, VLC, PowerDVD for 3D, etc.

Once I have more positive news about opengl/cl I will post again.

 

Using OPEN/CL and GL in autocad? dynamic mode?
then, after end all autodesk products, we have Dessout products and adobe products..
adobe products doesn’t work with dynamic to.
Worst. some products like camera raw and others when using the hardware accelerated on crash the machine. From adobe posts. no one was capable of do it work yet. nor adobe.
Waww...

 

Well maybe they do not realize what profiles are for dynamic cards.

Can you link me to any post where a user has tried to mod the ati profiles file? I am curious.

By the way. 14.6 RC and RC2 have acad.exe set to dedicated GPU as default. Doesn't look like AMD included any OpenGL optimizations but you can test this for yourself and maybe it doesn't need them with the new profiles file.

Obtain the blb file from newest release and replace in sys32 and syswow.

 

Still a problem.
The problem around hybrid/fixed mode is not just a profile somehere.

When we or anyone use their card in FIXED mode ( no mater if muxless or muxed), this programs like some specific games can use the IDGUP direct.
Our card and some small numbers of models that can used FIXED mode being muxless just trigger the GPU off, maintain the hardware monitor output path to the IDGPU and our integrated card just work like a full IDGPU HADWARE ( same if the IDGPU cant acess the controls from this output path, then because in muxless fixed or linux our catalyst dont have the monitor control pannels under catalyst).
Why this is good? Because some programs like the catia, autodesk, adobe nd others have inside they code direct calls to idgpu and can use this ( in some cases).

What happens with muxless hybrid card?
Well its like a master lave monster working.
The GPU always is working and the IDGPU no. when we need some and restrict 3d or very specific hardware decoder ( not all your hardware support will work here) the driver from the IGP create like a special call to IDGPU and using some internal mambo jampo adress "transport" this 3d request in memory to the 3d card ( like a virtual pipe), the 3d card process and transport back to the GPU card that then renderer this.
Basically we lost all 2d hardware accelerated/decoder related to IGPU card, THIS IS 100% lost and there is nothing no one can do, not AMD or NVDIA and all 3d side need a lot of EXTRA load to process SOME of 3d functions). Program that need direct access to the IDGPU nucleus loose 100% from their direct access to ( like catia ones, or adobe ones).
What the profiles inside catalyst in hibrid card do is basically create a blacklist/white list of functions from the opengl/cl and hardware specific decorder can be or not called by this programs or is supported by the catalyst. It's not a list of what will be using or not the IDGPU HARDWARE.

Soo. What we lost with hybrid only, we lost the direct access to the IDGPU card. we lost the IDGPU 2d hardware render. We lost the direct access into 3d hardware IDGPU card.

 

First of all to another matter: the recovery DVDs I gave you are not uuid dependent. Just change the main device ID plus # country designation.

You are right that it isn't just profiles that allow or disallow an application from working. All programs that need openGL have specific custom profiles that transfer the calls to catalyst. Else games such as rage and doom wouldn't work. However there is a "DRM" list that restricts usage to Intel GPU only because of DRM reasons.

Code:

[code]PowerSavGPUAffinityRestricted Applications

AMD Screen Mirror
AMD Wireless Display
AVerMedia
Adobe After Effects
[b]Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash Player Plug-in for Firefox[/b]
Adobe Premiere Pro
Apple QuickTime Player
Apple Safari
Apple iTunes
[b]ArcSoft / Total Media Theatre[/b]
Avid DS
Avid Media Composer
[b]Avid ProTools[/b]
Avid Studio
BOXEE
Camera
Choco Player
[b]Corel VideoStudio Pro[/b]
Cyberlink (NetTVViewer - Most Cyberlink products)
Daumpot Video Player
Dell TouchCam
Dell Webcam Central
DivX Player / Plus / Converter
EdgeCAM (has a OpenGL profile - OpenGLCapsZeroProfile)
File Picker UI Host
Firefox Plugin Container
Funshion Player
GOM Video Player
[b]Google Chrome[/b]
HP Video Viewer
HPDVDSmart
HPMediaSmartWebcam
HPTV
HPTouchSmartVideo
HPiTV
Lync
MMAcePrev.exe
MULTIMEDIA 8
[b]Media Player
Media Player Classic - Home Cinema[/b]
Media Sync
[b]Microsoft Internet Explorer[/b]
Microsoft Zune Video
[b]Mozilla Firefox[/b]
Nero Vision
Netflix
Opera - "DXX" OperaProfile
PCMark (certain features)
PPLive
Plex Media Center
Power2Go
[b]PowerDVD[/b] (All versions, extra files - Cyberlink in general)
PowerProducer
Real Player
Restricted Applications due to DRM:
RoxioNow Player
SPACE VISION
Samsung AllShare
Skype
Skype
SoftDMA
Sony Media Gallery
Sony Picture Motion Browser
Sony VAIO Media
Sony Vegas
Storm Video Player
Thunder Player
Toshiba Blu-ray Player
Toshiba Video Player
[b]TriDef 3D Media Player
VLC Media Player[/b]
Video Play
WMP DRM Helper
WinDVD ("UDX">WinDVD)
Windows Live Gallery
Windows Live Movie Maker
Windows Media Center
[b]Windows Media Player[/b]
YouCam
Microsoft reader

[/CODE]

As you can see there are a lot disabled programs. I didnt include specific OpenGL games as examples since the software that coverts the blb uses outdated info and doesn't translate some of them properly. (They are all directed to AMD GPU)
Solution: force catalyst to ignore restricted profile calls and divert to dedicated gpu.

If custom OpenGL cases are needed we will have to come up with a solution. I have written to AMD asking if fixed switching will return with the the final version of 14.6. Your guess is as good as mine. Please also consider that NVIDIA manages to make this work with Optimus but my knowledge is limited on nvidia.

eGPU for the 6850m comes to mind.

Success rate of restricting calls by modding catalyst is 50%. I need someone with technical skills that can write a better wrapper.

 

".... First of all to another matter: the recovery DVDs I gave you are not uuid dependent. Just change the main device ID plus # country designation. ..."
I can try this. What ID Plus and country designation?

"... You are right that it isn't just profiles that allow or disallow an application from working. All programs that need openGL have specific custom profiles that transfer the calls to catalyst. Else games such as rage and doom wouldn't work. However there is a "DRM" list that restricts usage to Intel GPU only because of DRM reasons. ..."
It's not calls at all. but the version of opengl/cl or the need of some direct function..

"...Else games such as rage and doom wouldn't work. However there is a "DRM" list that restricts usage to Intel GPU only because of DRM reasons. ..."
I dont think this programs are just DRM restricted ones. But this ones that have the eyefinity direct calls and when using 2 video cards maybe can crash because they dont know the primary card is intel but still the infinity is enabled ( can use some sort of hardware that doesn’t have how to get output). and some of this programs are easily locked in intel, example Adobe Flash and Adobe Flash Player Plug-in for Firefox.

"... Solution: force catalyst to ignore restricted profile calls and divert to dedicated gpu. ..."
We can force everything we want using muxless. the problem is. THERE IS NO CODE TO DEAL this in drivers using the hybrid.

"...
If custom OpenGL cases are needed we will have to come up with a solution. I have written to AMD asking if fixed switching will return with the the final version of 14.6. Your guess is as good as mine. Please also consider that NVIDIA manages to make this work with Optimus but my knowledge is limited on nvidia. ..."
They will not fix nothing. with Nvidia they sufer from the exact same problem with a plus they dont have the fixed mode how we have.

"...
Success rate of restricting calls by modding catalyst is 50%. I need someone with technical skills that can write a better wrapper. ..."Its not just mod catalyst. It's worst than that.. It's hardware related... Hardware limitation..
Usinf fixed metod =
A ask B. B process and answer to A.
hybrids
A ask A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, A6, A7, A8 to delivery do something in b1, b2, b3, b4, b5, b6, b7, b8. Then b1, b2, b3, b4, b5, b6, b7, b8 delivery to B. B process and then request to b1, b2, b3, b4, b5, b6, b7, b8 to delivery to A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, A6, A7, A8 that delivery to A.
If the A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, A6, A7, A8 and b1, b2, b3, b4, b5, b6, b7, b8 are not coded to deal with the request and delivery. You don’t use this, same if your card support this.

catalyst drivers work with branches ( read a little about repositories and understand better this). The official drivers still in one branch. the beta another ones. Inside the beta we have a new branch that will still for long... If catalyst change something to rip off the fixed mode ( I doubts by the hardware specification from them) will be in the branch 15 or upper. Far, far away from now.

 

looks like there is no solution for this at all...sad...

 

Does anybody have some good settings for the fan control in the modded bios? I use the laptop mostly for webbrowsing etc. but even on idle I get about 56-58 °C cpu temp and it quickly rises after using the chrome browser for a while. I changed the thermal paste a couple of times in the last year, but even this didn't help, the fan quickly kicks in and runs at a faster speed (not full speed, but loud enough to be kind of annoying while browsing) So I tried to change the fan settings in the bios (less fan speed while higher temp setting) but I found it didn't really change the behavior.

 

I'm curious as to how you were able to reach the memory clock of 1200MHz, my machine crashes when I try put the memory above 1170MHz.

Additionally, the Windows key+left+right method for enabling flash descriptor override has yet to work. Any tips would be greatly appreciated, thank you.

 

I don't know, I've always been able to go that high without any problems. :/

 

It's curious. 980 without a heat sink the memory just fry...... with heat sync you get 1050, 1100. The gpu frequency you easily can up to 850/950 and will not change the temperature.
the only explanation for 1200 is the top level is set to 1200 but somewhere the maximal frequency is caped to 900.

 

No, I've been running it at 1200MHz for almost 3 years now and nothing is fried. And yes, it is in fact running at a true 1200MHz. Look in the middle of the pic in the red box....

 

Hi everyone : a keyboard issue: I've just had a maintenance session on my hp 17 3d envy, and replaced the testing perfectly working US keyboard, with a UK spec key layout one (I'm in the UK). The keyboard is as per the part number listed in the maintenance manual from HP, (and is an HP component) and it seems to work well: except the ctrl key doesn't seem to work: (e.g. ctrl c for copy in windows), and ctrl alt delete doesn't work, alt tab doesn't task switch, yet in Word, tab does work, and alt brings up the menu at the top: any idea what I have to do to get the keyboard working... ? most of it works : I'm typing on it now, but I'm tempted to downgrade back to my US style keyboard (which worked perfectly well, I just wanted the UK key layout : £'s amongst a few other little things...) it feels like this must be a software issue...

(I have selected the UK keyboard option in Windows 7 on the task bar...)


J

 

When you guys look at the load % of the GPU in a program (GPU-Z or Open Hardware Monitor or something similar), does it also show 0% sometimes? Even though I'm obviously using the card while gaming, it still shows 0% sometimes. I'm not sure whether it's a bug in the software, or the card really isn't working. My FPS in games does seem a bit lower, but not that dramatically low. Also, any tips for my Envy after a clean install? Things to install/not to install? I just upgraded to an SSD, but it's a first for me.

 

Any Ubuntu 14.04 users here? If so, were there any helpful resources for getting the hybrid graphics to work? Any luck with the brightness function key on the keyboard?

It is running great on my system except for those two issues. The open source graphics work fine for non-GPU intensive operations. However, when I try to run games, only the onboard Intel 3000 chip is working. Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

Are you using fixed or direct mode?
If fixed something is wrong.
If direct mode ( or transparent), then you just discovered that this mode doesn’t work well for no one. Nor under the new cards, nor under the old cards...

 

Install the donavan moded bios. change inside your bios to muxless dynamic. Instal the catalyst,
Done...

 

The connector is defective or the new keyboard is defective to.

try to download some linux distro, bood from a pen drive and test... Just to be certain that it is not windows...

 

Max, mean the MAx is 1200. It is working at 1200 all time?
If yes, your device is not using the standard memory pool. Same if you disassembly your device, put a big heatsink in your mems and rise to more than 1050, 1100 your memory will surfer from heat troubles.. I do it already to test with a defective mobo...

 

Thanks, Fritz. I was hoping you'd respond, since it seems like you are very knowledgeable. I downloaded the modded BIOS file and made sure it is the correct version # for my system. Donovan's instructions say to run the .exe file. I don't have Windows installed, so I tried running it in Wine, but received "need administrator privileges" error. I tried running it in W7 mode, Vista mode, and XP mode. None worked. I know W98 didn't use administrator privileges, so I tried that, too. Didn't work. How do I install Donovan's modded BIOS if I can't run the .exe file? Thanks again.

 

No, not all the time, only when stressing the GPU (like the death triangle test in the pic). It varies by load just like it does when running at the stock 900MHz.

 

I'm in fixed, I think. I don't know what direct mode is, but I switch GPUs manually only.

 

Anyone here tried overclocking with 14.8?

 

You know I have... lol. Workin' good.

 

So you have a step by step by any chance?

Some of our members are curious and I really haven't looked into overclocking on dynamic.

Would be appreciated!

 

I don't know about a step by step, it really isn't any different than the usual way. You simply run MSI afterburner while a program is running in high performance mode. You could even set MSI to run in high performance so you know there won't be any issues. I got a couple blue screens trying to change clocks with no programs open in high performance.

 

Thank you! .. hmm i wonder why some people had trouble with this.

I even told them to alt tab into MSI whilst having the game open : /. Wonder if it is related to something else.

 

Hey yall, so I installed the 3 pipe heatsink, played a few games and everything was working fine. I then used MSI afterburner to overclock to 700/1200 and after hitting apply my screen turned blue-ish (not a windows blue screen) and I had to force shut off by holding the power button.

I restarted, the comp went through POST fine and windows started to load... only to be greeted by a black screen (as if there was a switchable gfx driver issue...) I pressed the power button to shut down (i had the power option set so that a press shuts down windows properly). After shut down the computer would not start.. completely dead .

The light by the power plug is not on when the charger is plugged in... its usually white or orange. Anyone have any idea what happened? Did the overclock fry my board? If something else was broken the laptop would turn on and the caps lock light would flash to indicate which component is faulty... so I hope that just the board is affected.

I might order a replacement from china..

 

In past I warn about this 3 pipes heat sink.
there 2 kind ones from the 2 pipes and 3 pipes heat sink.
2 models have "thin pipes" ( 2 or 3 models) and other 2 models have a "thick pipe" ( both 2 or 3 pipes models).
If you buy the one using the "thin pipe".. then buy another motherboard.
Just get out your new 3 pipes heat sink and your old one.
Look them if they are the same "thickness" ( the old and new one).

 

Fixed mode or your AMD GPU is working and intel disabled or the intel is working and amd disabled.
Direct mode or transparent you intel card work 100% of the time and when your program need some heavily workload the amd brings on to provide it to. then you have 2 cards working same time.
The bad is in direct mode is not change a profile or a file to activate it or not. And most of power, hardware accelerated 2d doesn’t work.

 

I hate to disagree, but my personal experience so far is contrary to everything you say.

The 3-pipe heatsink I put in had thinner pipes than the original, but I'm seeing significantly lower temps with it. With the original cooler my GPU temps would go in the high 90's when overclocking and I would sometimes even get a system thermal sutdown. WIth the 3-pipe cooler my GPU temps max around 85C and I have never once had the system shut down in the 5 months since I installed it.

BTW, back on the topic of your disbelief of my GPU memory speed. I did a memory bandwidth test of stock 900MHz and overclocked 1200MHz; at 900MHz the memory bandwidth is 57.6GB/s and overclocked at 1200MHz it's 76.8GB/s. Still don't believe me? That's OK, I don't need you to.

gtharea, it's possible the heatsink was not seated properly and the temp of the GPU rose too fast and too high. If it was just a matter of it not cooling adequately in normal operation, the system would have shut down.

 

Yeah that's what's strange to me. I've had thermal shutdowns before but I don't think that there was any overheating . I feel like the problems arose after I overclocked, cause I was gaming on stock frequencies for a few hours. Maybe I had a bad gpu or chipset or maybe my system couldn't handle the higher frequencies? Oh well, ordered a new motherboard from aliexpress, I hope I don't break this one...

fritz, I remember reading your post, and I compared the heatsinks and to be honest I can't see a difference in the pipe thickness, so hopefully I got a good one

 

Was that your first time ever overclocking it?

It's hard to say exactly what happened. It's all too common for the lead-free solder joints to crack even under normal conditions.

 

Yeah that was the first time. When i was screwing in the heatsink I think I may have pushed a little too hard and warped the board a bit...idk. Reminds me of xbox 360 rrod days.. good times

 

So I installed a replacement motherboard, update the bios to f1c modded and installed unfil 14.4 2.2 muxed fixed and everything was working fine until I started playing halo2 on the amd card. The gfx were very stuttery and laggy and eventually the entire computer shut down and it wont start again . There is no light on the power port so I think this board is also fried.

I didnt do any overclocking, but I used the 3 pipe heatsink... guess i should have listened to fritz... but how could a heatsink brick my motherboard?? I was also thinking that maybe the power supply is crap, cause it the comp was working fine with good temps while in desktop. Anyone familiar with motherboard repair?

 

That really sucks man. I don't see how the heatsink could cause the problem unless the liquid leaked out of the pipes somehow. I have the exact same heatsink and I've already mentioned how good it works for me. I'm not going to go back through this thread to find out, but I don't believe fritz ever tried one of these heatsinks, he's just making assumptions.

I've managed to bring a few TX1000/TX2500 boards back to life with my hot air station, but only at like a 50% success rate. That assumes only bad solder connections though and not a fried GPU.

 

Wow I am sorry to hear that dude!

Maybe it is not your mobo that is fried?

Have you considered that it might be the power connector inside that has given out? Maybe some bad connections during install?

 

I tested a few points on the board and the board connector with a multimeter and there are still some voltages, so I don't think the connector is at fault.

I think I may have found the cause of the problem though... Looking at the GPU, I see that one of its corners is chipped/cracked. This applies to both broken boards. Looking at the 3 pipe heatsink, theres a small gray raised area on the copper, I noticed it during install but ignored it, because the heatsink has a much larger surface area than the GPU die and I hoped that it was not going to contact the GPU.

Unfortunately, the raised area on the heatsink and the chip/crack on the die pretty much coincide.

This may explain why the computer worked on intel gfx but failed on amd gfx under load... Maybe heat caused a slight expansion and stressed the part of the die to the point of cracking?

Time to order a new board... and throw away this garbage heatsink

 

It's always good to test contact area when changing components or doing a repaste. What I do is work a small amount of paste on both the heatsink and cpu/gpu with a very clean finger. I then attach the heatsink as normal and then take it right back off and look for any areas that didn't make contact. If all is good I put the heatsink back on and proceed with reassembly.

 

..........

 

What a shame! : (

I guess there is no way to sand off that raised corner.

Sounds nearly sexual ; )

 

I've had my HPENVY17 2280NR for nearly three years now and it is still my main PC without any faults using Win7.

* I expect I will need something new in future, what is a good replacement PC newest model for the ENVY17 second series? I need big screen, switchable graphics, something slim and good looking to carry to meetings as well. The latest ENVY's look to be marketed down to Pavilions level, so not sure if HP will be my next machine?

 

Yup, just made 3 years last month. I don't plan on getting rid of it any time soon though. I only play a few games and they all run fairly well. Just upgraded to 16GB Corsair Vengeance 1600MHz RAM and as soon as I have the money I'm going to replace my 2630QM with a 2860QM.

For some strange reason the current ENVY 17t models with dedicated graphics (GeForce GTX 850M) are only available with dual core processors. If you want a quad core you're stuck with Intel graphics only. I assume it's because they still don't know sh*t about proper thermal management.