*HP dv6z AMD Llano (6XXX series) Owners Lounge*

R3, I've been looking at this issue pretty hard. Our problem is that we need more headroom in heavy loads, as you point out, if the igpu is maxxed out, there's precious little left for the cpu..please note that in that situation, amd has coded that the igpu gets the preference...this means the cpu gets choked down so as to maximize resources directed to the igpu. The only way to improve this is to raise the total amount of resources, which means more bandwidth overall. It's clear that the mem controller on the chip is ROBUST. The same controller in the desktop lano has no problem running at 145 percent of stock!!! That is a HUGE reservoir of untapped resources. The big effect of the faster 1600 memory, will be to facilitate making the additional bandwidth opened up by raising the base/reference clock, available to both the igpu and cpu.

seer

 

jeez...I don't know what we have different in our setups, but my monitors tell me that I routinely am getting 95 percent plus out of the dgpu, while getting anything from 40 to 80 percent out of the igpu in pretty much anything using dx10 or 11.

seer

 

Ok, here's what I'm talking about. YOu can see the gpu and igpu usage, temps etc. on the right. oh, and make that "up to 100 percent" . Seems that the more I tweak this box, the better its getting.




seer

 

Well, we'll see what my new machine does. I hate to use my machine as an end-all be-all. New machine should hopefully run properly. Sounds like you got a properly running machine seeratlas. Is it too much to ask that HP builds more the right way?

 

Putti ng all your experiences together, I think its safe to say you got a less than perfect example of the dv6. crossing fingers your next one is the real deal.

Seer

 

I know you play bad company 2, do you use MSI's in-game performance monitor? What does it show during gaming? Mine would go from 0% at a while and jump to 50 to 80% for a split second then back to 0% for a while. I'll have to toy with Kombustor a bit when I get my machine back. I wish I had done that just to check it out before I sent it back.

 

not so much playing bc2, got access to it to do some testing, and no, I mostly use the monitors built into msi's afterburner. Those are the ones you see across the top right of that screen cap. They are highly configurable, and can be placed anywhere on the screen and made to stay on top.
I also get some 'spiking' when a program/game starts up, but after a bit, say ten to 20 secs or so, the crossfire/dual graphics sorts itself out and settles down. If you look closely at the temp bar for gpu2 in the screenie above, you'll see the effects of the spiking on the igpu temp, and then see how it smooths out once it settles down. The ratio between dgpu and igpu also depends on what else is running on the box. If you have a few other programs running, it will make a difference based on how they have been assigned in the AMD Vision engine.

Seer

 

Right, I guess that's what I was asking, the MSI Afterburner in-game monitoring. I hope when you're gaming you're not running much more than the game. Most of the background apps primarily consume RAM more than anything else though.

 

just got my exchange...setting it up right now. hopefully it will be perfect this time

 

You bought yours from Best Buy?

 

I have some more questions here. So at stock settings what is better for gaming. dual graphics or discrete card? Is the dual graphics not working right for alot of games in dx9,10, and 11? Can you disable the 6620g and use discrete for gaming? How do you just keep the turbo at 2.4ghz 24/7? Could you just use a good cooling pad and be fine for that?

 

I think we need a guide. Any of you have time to maybe put all the steps into a post?

 

I already started but without my machine in front of me, as its out for RMA exchange, it's hard to confirm and get screenshots.

 

yep running a 3d mark test and no sleep problem!

after this test i plan on updating the drivers

as you said earlier I should install 11.8 and go into SWsetup to get the rest of the drivers right?

i'm praying there will be no problems with this one

 

Uninstall the full Catalyst package from add/remove programs (full uninstall option)
Install 11.8 (maybe it asks for reboot, do so if it asks)
Uninstall the 11.8 video drivers through device manager (right click each GPU individually and select uninstall)
Go into SWSetup/drivers/video folder and install that package, choose custom install so you can ensure the video drivers and other ones like USB 3.0, AHCI, etc are installed.
Reboot and you should be good to go!

 

Why does the 11.8 video driver need to be uninstalled and replaced with stock?

For overclocking?

 

Yes. Plus it *seemed* to smooth things out a bit too. Can't hurt to try to run it and overclock it with 11.8 only first though.

 

Bank, at the moment its an app by app deal. No single setup is being used by everyone, but as a general matter, it *appears* that the best vid driver is the 8.861 one is the one AFTER the original that came with your puter which shows at 8.832 in Device Manager. However, it also appears to some, that the most recent amd release, which is 11-8 and shows up as 8.881 if i remember right, has a better set of packaged programs with the driver. So what I did was download and install 11.8, then go into device manager and tell it to install 11.6. With that setup, and my k10stat configuration, I seem to have been getting the highest benchmarks. I also have not experienced any of the 'microstuttering' that others have reported. I also installed the 7cap addition to the driver which apparently is a set of amd generated configuration files for xfire with certain apps.

Lastly, people have gone their own ways on locking down an overclock or doing it my way and leaving it free to jump all over so as to keep the heat down. To each his own on that one. Oh, I don't go pure dedicated on anything, I leave xfire up all the time.

Seer

 

Anyone want to trade thier DV6z for the M15x in my sig? Hah, riiight.

 

My Envy 15 is about the same, cept 5830, more ram, and the "Beats" edition.
It's going on the block along with my m11x. The Envy practically burns my palm and I like this one much better. Just spent 30 minutes playing the crysis demo dx10 and all high settings, was liquid, flawless play and that game is usually a laptop crusher.. PLUS it was running my monitors so I could watch heat/fan speed, and igpu/dgpu utilization. Well, here's how they went, temps were 68 on the apu, 69 on the dgpu. fanspeed clocking 76 percent, and utilization at 98dgpu, 68 igpu, sustained...so crysis in dx10 was using roughly half the resources of the apu than than the igpu, just about a third. res was native 1366x768. Couldn't have asked for any better on a laptop.
That's about it for testing for me now, until our next "z" performance breakthrough. I suspect those settings in the cap7 had something to do with it. Wasn't that pretty or as smooth first time I played it. My envy with the i720 can't play it that well.
seer

 

TBH, the 5830 sucks. Ha, 128-bit DDR3 CANNOT feed 800 shaders. I think it gets like 9500 on 3DMark06, right? The 6750M beats it... And, thats great! My 5870M can max it, but I get much higher temps.

 

Yes 5830 worse, but overclocked, i get around 5850 scores, high 10's in 06, but my z here does 11200 without drama, and it cost me about 1000 less LOL. 5870 is a strong gpu, no doubt about it, the m15x has one other advantage I*think* you can shovel a 6970 in there....just takes a little luv on the heatsink and i believe one corner of the card...now THAT is a gamer's laptop, tho you'd need to open up the cooling.

seer

 

Yey I got mine today. I will have to see what overlocks I can get. I may do a clean install first though.

 

Yeah, the Dell 6970M is pretty much plug and play. But, I get like 50 min battery, which tortures me. :/ Basically why I'm considering selling this for a DV6z.

 

I think it was a 50 dollar option or something, but I got both the 6 and the 9 cell battery... You do NOT want to hear how long the 9 cell lasts just messing around LOL. hint..i forgot where i put the six and have found no reason to look for it And the 'bump" which is no where near as big as I would've thought from the pictures, may very well be part of the reason my temps stay down.

Seer

 

So here is my undervolting results at stock speeds
p6- 800 - .925 to .6875
p5-1000 - .95 to .7373
p4-1200 - .9875 to .775
p3-1300 - 1.0125 to .8
p2-1400 - 1.05 to .8125
p1-1500 - 1.075 to .8375
p0-1600 - 1.1 to .8625
b0-2300 - 1.325 to 1.0375

my idle temp is 40c and load 72c

 

Yeah, its a $60 dollar option. Seriously, how much battery life does it get? Like, 8 hours?

 

$60 option for 9-cell? Mine was +$14 for high capacity 6-cell and +$21 for 9-cell. I bought the 9-cell because I wanted "the bulge".

 

$60 for both the 9-cell and 6-cell.

 

So I got my 3410mx stable at
2.4ghz @ 1.0625
2.6ghz @ 1.1125
2.8ghz @ 1.175
The temps stay in the mid 70s under load except at 2.8ghz they jump to 85
I am going to leave my p0 at 2.3ghz and 1.325 and b0 at 2.6 and 1.0625. I like the keep my temps under 70.

 

Sounds dirty.

 

Has anyone installed windows 7 professional 64 bit and got the two usb 3.0(on the left looking @ screen) ports to work? I wiped my hard drive first thing and only had the hp drivers site to go to. Which means I do not have my C:\SWSetup from factory. I installed 11.7 cat on my fresh install but was left 1 missing devices.

1. PCI\VEN_1022&DEV_7812&SUBSYS_358D103C&REV_03. universal serial bus (USB) controller
should install as AMD USB 3.0 Host Controller. But says system cannot find the file specified after pointing it to C:\SWSetup\SP52989.

Does anyone have ideas on how to get it working again? HP support gave up on me saying they wont support win 7 professional since win 7 home came with what I bought.

Under volts
B0 2400 1.1000
P0 1500 0.8500
P1 1400 0.8375
P2 1200 0.8000
P3 1100 0.7750
P4 1000 0.7750
P5 900 0.7000
P6 800 0.6875

Specs
dv6z Quad Ed
• steel gray
• Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• AMD Quad-Core A8-3500M Accelerated Processor (2.4GHz/1.5GHz, 4MB L2 Cache)
• 1GB GDDR5 Radeon(TM) HD Dual Graphics [HDMI, VGA]
• 8GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
• 9 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
• 15.6" diagonal Full HD HP Anti-glare LED Display (1920 x 1080)

 

The drivers from the AMD site don't include all the device drivers you need. Download the graphics drivers (actually it's all the AMD motherboard components not just video) from HP's site and it will contain all the system drivers you need.

AMD High-Definition Graphics Driver HP Pavilion dv6z-6100 CTO Quad Edition Entertainment Notebook PC - HP Customer Care (United States - English)

 

Thanks HTWingNut,
But that points to File name:
sp52989.exe [1/1, 155.37M] which I already have and showed in my post. My usb fails to install off that uncompressed, but finds the correct driver name. But says the file is missing. The only thing I can think of is that it wont install usb 3.0 since I have 11.7 already installed or the file of their http is bad.

The reason i say that is is because I was unable to install my wifi with any package off their site for my product number. I had to google my VEN,DEV,&SUBSYS ids to get a HP package that would work.

I really dont want to start messing around with the drivers since I have JC2 @ 40+ fps @ 1920 x 1080. with default advanced settings

 

You can't extract the file manually, I tried and it's just a bunch of stuff that can't be used. You have to run the executable and it will extract it to the C:\AMD directory and run it, select a custom install, and the USB drivers can be installed that way.

 

So i looked some stuff on k10stat. What exactly are the p states and the b state. What the states for 3500m should go up to 2.4. Are you guys running the states overclocked or are you running the processor at 2.4 all the time.

 

I see now. I was able to install 99% things pointing them to C:\SWSetup\SP52989 + 11.7 cats. Only those two items where not installed until I ran the older setup in that folder and only selected the 3.0 stuff in that install.

That is some messed up stuff. Anyways love the lappy just wish i got the higher cpu for more MHz.

Thanks HTWingNut.

Btw, this hardware works 100% off a fresh 10.10 Ubuntu install + Cats.

 

Most of us are mainly using K10stat to lower our voltages which means cooler running and longer battery life.

B0 is the Turbo boost speed
You can set the minimum P-state by clicking the radio button to the left of it, and it will boost all the way up to the B0 state. Don't fuss with locking the speed.

 

So really just trying to undervolt. What about 6750m. You guys getting pretty good increases from overclocking?

 

Undervolt and locking minimum speed.

 

zi noticed that the apu turbos 4 coresalot when the apu graphics is idle. When the apu graphics is partial load it only turbos 1-2 cores a little and under full graphics load it does not turbo at all.

 

Grrr, my replacement order finally showed up in my HP.com order history. Besides showing a ship date of August 31, it shows an A8-3500M and not the A8-3530MX. I'd be fine if it was the 3510MX and if they deducted $25. But same price and 3500M

More time on the phone with them tomorrow. This whole fiasco is making me want to just cancel the order altogether and get a DV6t, but there's no good coupons at the moment.

 

It's not the best deal they've ever had, but there is a $375 off coupon if you wanna go for that. It's NBDQ13114. You can config. for 6770 and 1080P for <$1000.

 

As I have read, the dv6t gets rather hot while gaming!? Up to 85-90°C...

 

Has anyone checked which chipset they show running in their dv6z? Mine is saying its an A75, but that is the same chipset as the desktop unit. Could it be that the desktop and laptop circuitry is identical, just limited as to wattage? I notice that there are 65 watt Lynx units, that's only 20 more than my 35 watts..

Ok, Wing, what did they do? run out of 3530's AND 3510's already? Something fishy, when I ordered mine, they had taken the 3530's off the list at HP, yet the order not only went straight thru, I had it in hand within days of ordering and FARRRR in advance of its 'ship date'. I'd be squealin.

seer

 

Wow, it seems the bozo that processed my return really botched things up. Good thing I called so they could get things straightened out. Still on the phone, been on for 30 minutes now. Sigh. The exchange process is really odd though. They can't just exchange it outright, they have to process it as a return, and then place a new order and find discounts that will amount to the same discount. I've never heard of this. Usually when you exchange an item it's just an even exchange, the customer shouldn't have to be involved while they figure it out real-time.

 

Yeah it is kind of a convoluted process. Did you do yours on a phone? For my exchange I just called up customer service and had them tell me what was configured... I even got $25 off for the 3510mx.

 

Yeah I called, was on the phone for an hour, they even had to call me back. They said they can only match the original price, and even though the 3530mx isn't available, they can't reduce the price by $25 for the cheaper CPU. After they called me back the static was so bad, I had him call me back twice but it still didn't improve. I know it wasn't my phone because I called my mom just to check the phone.

Why is it so hard? I know it's only $25 (in reality $18.50 with 30% discount) and the 3510mx can clock just as well as the 3530mx, but it's the principal of the matter.

Now I'm just going to request return of the laptop once I get it just to see if I can get another $50-$100 out of them for all the aggravation.

 

For those interested in pushing the LLano to the limits, using the new msi llano board's built in overclocking ability, it was possible to push the 3dmark Vantage p score from 8308 to P 13351, entirely stable without heat or timing issues, using a 6770 vid card in dual graphics with the apu. By changing the fsb on the apu alone it was possible to gain an immediate 110 percent on the apu alone's base score of p3425. While this was a desktop platform, the system circuitry (nb/sb) appears to be identical to that employed on my 3530mx dv6z. Moral of the story, when we crack the fsb, and with good memory, the dv6z is going to destroy pretty much anything within 4 or 500.00 of the price.

seer

 

Sigh. HP can't get anything right. They processed the credit for my laptop, but I didn't see any indication of the replacement laptop, plus wasn't happy about the cost. So I called back and she says that it was processed as a return and not possible to manage an exchange at this point. I'm like She's gotta talk to a supervisor and get back with me.

All I wanted to do was exchange my faulty laptop for a new one. How hard is that?

I may end up ordering a DV6t after all if this isn't resolved quickly and properly. Heck I may not order anything HP after this fubar situation.