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

I tried a single 1600 chip in each slot...i waited maybe a minute or two at most, because I noticed the screen did not light up at all and the blu-ray and hard drive didnt make any spin up noises like they usually do. I did not send HP a message yet, but i did send one to g.skill stating the problem, still waiting for a response. I also checked their forums, but no mention of the llano platform yet on there. Google is worthless, im assuming because of how new the platform still is. I will try to pop them both in and wait 10 as you suggest.

 

I just got off the phone with HP tech support (was on for 25 minutes while they asked everyone they could think of), and they confirmed that DV6 Llano notebooks will only run memory @ 1333. However, they were sure to tell me (about 20 times) that it's possible to expand the memory to 8gb (a duh) and so therefore, it should be "alright"

Well, the MX chips now have even less importance, in the HP notebooks at least.

 

Well I'm totally bummed...what about a bios mod? I remembered Musho kept wanting us to try one of his modded bioses. Would a memory mod through the bios be possible though?

 

The bios is where the acceptable memory parameters are kept so the answer is yes. Since we know the chip itself is designed to run 1600 speed memory, that must b where hp choked it down, if in fact they did. Again, tho, looking at the rather odd jedec entries on that ram...I'm not entirely convinced. Why on earth would someone WANT to do that? As we've all seen, there really is no heat problem with this laptop, and it seems that both the apu and dgpu are artificially being held back performance wise. It doesn't seem to make a lot of sense unless one of two things were considered.
1. They didn't realize how flexible and powerful the components would be, or
2. They want to throttle overall performance to meet a certain marketing niche....

and I guess I should include the ever present 3rd possibility...they were mucking around not knowing what the hell they were doing and its all an accident, which tho common in everyday life these days, not to mention govt. heheh, doesn't seem entirely likely for an electrical or computer engineer in this incredibly competitive market soooo, take your pick of the other two.

I'm going to send out a few inquiries and see if i can find out what's going on.

I'm going to *guess* that what has happened is that there is a roster of acceptable chip id's that's being scanned by the bios and does not include the relatively new gskill 1600 memory modules. After wall, according to the op, they work fine IF they are placed into the unit along with one of the originals, tho at the lower clocks. Anyway, lets see what we can find out.

seer

 

For you guys that have been inside the machine, anyone know who is the oem on this motherboard? I'm guessing quanta, but have no idea if that's for sure.

Seer

 

Don't think this is right. I have the exact same 1600mhz G.skill RAM as the other user and it runs at the correct speeds.

Though that may be HWMonitor not showing the right info... I really didn't notice a performance boost with it.

I'll try again when I get a chance.

 

R3? your 1600 ram starts up fine without any of the other modules in the unit? Just want to make sure I'm understanding you. Hwmonitor is very inaccurate on a number of issues on this machine. Something like HwInfo32 (also free download) seems to be more 'aware' of the lano, and offers FAR more system info.

Seer

 

I hope the memory issue gets sorted out soon, I was about to buy the Kingston PnP 1600 memory but I'll wait until I hear some good news here

 

What notebook do you have??

HP said that none of the AMD A-series notebooks will work with DDR3 1600 memory. When did HWMonitor start showing the speed of the memory / CPU?

If you could post a screenshot, that might renew my faith in HP, but lessen it even more (if that's possible) in their CS people.

 

Yeah I'm 99% sure that it loaded up as 800mhz (DDR = 1600mhz) per DIMM (I was 100% sure before but I'm second guessing myself, heh). I'm not home right now (didn't swap in the RAM yet, this is my exchanged laptop) but I'll check again when I get home.

edit: @Nakano: I'll try to get one tomorrow, still have a 4 hour drive ahead though.

 

Alright! Safe drive!

 

Alright, I still cant figure out k10stat. I've set it to take control of the clocks, but setting a core to a certain p-state by clicking on it does nothing (yes I hit apply). According to HWmonitor, it still runs at the lowest pstate (800mhz), because I'm not doing anything. Changing voltages doesn't seem to do anything either.

Also, am I supposed to change the frequency of a P-state by changing the FID? Can't find any other option to change frequencies.

edit: Ok voltage changes seem to work but I still cannot lock a p-state.

 

What I did was start Intel burn then lock the state in the system tray with K10Stat. That prevented it from running past the locked state although it would still idle down to 800 when Intel burn was done. Also, Intel burn would say it was stable about 2 steps down in voltage from what would run 3dmark11.
And yeah, change the FID and DID to adjust the clock, although I don't know what difference it makes in the combination you use to get to a certain MHz.

 

Ah, got it.

 

Yeah the only thing im not understanding about k10 is the difference between FID and DID. I obviously know they change the frequency. But, is there a performance difference between FID 20 : DID 1 and FID 8 : DID 0 to achieve a 2.4ghz frequency?

 

For those that may have missed my previous comment.

The Llano mx-series cpu does support DDR3 1600

 

Does anyone know how to have the discrete 6750 working all the time (when plugged in), I know you can go into performance and select an application to run in high performance mode. Is there a way to have it running all the time with crossfire off? I have crossfire running now, but I think only the 6620g is running unless to you specify in catalyst which apps you want the high performance.

also, anyone have any luck with cat 11.8, i tried installing it earlier, when I check software info in cat centre it appears that i still have 11.7, and when i click check updates it says im up to date?

 

Yeah well.... AMD might, but HP doesn't seem to...

 

Just hit 92c during intelburntest with [email protected]... Dunno how Abbadon is getting under 80c.

My dv6 idles fine (42c) so I don't think it's the paste..

edit: Able to UV to 1.05v for 2.4ghz, but still hit 87c during the burn test, gonna try 1.025 now.

edit2: 1.025v is stable through 5 runs of intelburn for me, still maxes at 85.6c though. Can I hit 1.00v?

edit 3: Nope, 1.0125 was unstable. Oh well.

 

Isn't the dv6 he was testing with ALSO an HP?

Seer

 

You will have to change your power profile to sit at 100% both minimum and maximum. By default I believe it's 5% minimum, 100% maxiumum, so it will fluctuate depending on load.

 

I'm sorry if this has been covered but after reading about 40 pages I couldn't find out

Have any better graphics drivers emerged yet that give you more control over the APU/GPU, overclocking, etc, etc?

 

You can't o/c the integrated GPU (although BIOS hack seems to be a possibility by a member here, nobody's tried it). You can overclock the CPU rather easily with K10stat. By priming or setting an app to run at "high performance" before starting MSI Afterburner you can overclock the dedicated GPU (6750m) or disable ULPS to do the same.

 

I have the a6-3410mx and I idle at about 33c. and running proc and gpu at load I get around 70=72c.

Clock - under v - default v - v difference - max temp @ load
800 - .6875 - .925 - .2375 - 40
1000 - .7375 - .95 - .2125 - 44
1200 - .775 - .9875 - .2125 - 46
1300 - .8 - 1.0125 - .2125 - 47
1400 - .825 - 1.05 - .225 - 51
1500 - .8375 - 1.075 - .2375 - 53
1600 - .8625 - 1.1 - .2375 - 55
2300 - 1.0375 - 1.325 - .2875 - 68

Clock - v - max temp @ load
1900 - .9375 - 61
2200 - 1.0125 - 65
2400 - 1.0625 - 69
2600 - 1.125 - 77*
2800 - 1.1875 - 77*
3000 - 1.25 - 78*
*CPU throttles down to reduce temp I have coolsense on performance mode

I am debating on putting as5 on it since I am not sure if it will even have an effect on it

 

I'm returning my laptop after much thought. I've gotten several blue screens since I got this relating to ati/amd in the error code. I'm assuming that my gpu is bad because it might be running fine one minute then for a couple days it is a stuttering low fps mess. The max temp on the dgpu I recorded was 82C while playing battlefield. I noticed that when I run Kombustor, a high frequency noise comes out of the area where the dgpu is. If I stop it, the sound goes away. I'm hoping this is just an issue with mine and everyone else's works fine. I tried every driver available in every order and I still get the same results. I tried gta VI, with the benchmark on high I got 22fps with monster stuttering. I dropped everything to low in the settings and then I get 19fps, it doesn't even begin to make sense. Now my question is this, is it worth exchanging or should I just return it? I mean if everyone has these issues I would just forget about it and return it, but my issue seems rather isolated. I've also read about bad experiences with exchanges on here .

 

Hey i just made the OC of the a8-3500 P0 2.0Ghz at 1V and P1 at 1.75Ghz 0.954V it runs very nice i played Crysis 2 at 80C max.I will try to lower the voltage even more when i have more time .

 

Does dv6-6135dx have a HDMI out only, or is it able to take an input signal too? Wonder if I'm able to use it as a monitor to play PS3 on it.

 

I have a 4 gig and 2gig stick in my computer not running a dual channel of course. Would it be worth it to upgrade to a dual channel kit with more memory.

 

Yes you would definitely see an improvement going from 6gb to 8gb. I'd say just get another 1333mhz stick of ram, I was considering getting higher clocked...but according to http://vr-zone.com/articles/quick-look-kingston-hyperx-plug-n-play-ddr3-1866-sodimm/12623.html it seems it doesn't make too much of a difference. If you find a good deal the 1600 might be worth it, o/w http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-DDR3-Laptop-Memory-CMSO8GX3M2A1333C9/dp/B002YUF8ZG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1313682564&sr=8-1 only costs $25 would work. Ideally, you want two of the exact same ram to ensure the dual channel works properly, but this will most likely work.. but I have seen deals for 8gb of 1333 for like $40.

 

Unfortunately, it can only output =/ The only laptop I have seen with an HDMI input is the Alienware 17" lappy

 

Looking at this.


Newegg.com - G.SKILL 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Laptop Memory Model F3-10600CL9D-8GBSQ


So does the APU like the dual channel then. Is that why there is a performance increase? I doubt 2 gigs extra of ram would make that much of a difference.

 

Actually i think you are running in dual channel now. Try running just your 4gig stick and you should see a massive loss of performance.

seer

 

Here are my current K10Stat settings on my A8-3500m. My computer idles at anywhere between 27 - 32C on the cool setting dependent upon the ambient temp. I did a repaste with Artic Cooling MX-4 and I run a Cooler Master U2 laptop cooler. I did a Intel Burn Test and my temps stayed in the low 70's with these settings. I try to keep my temps under 76C because the speeds automatically gets throttled when the cpu hits 76C.

My temp is currently at 29C as I am typing this and browsing the web.

 

Oh I thought they had to be the same capacity to run in dual channel

 

I had always thought so too, but when my analysis tools kept telling me they were running dual channel with the 4 and the 2 plugged in, I started to wonder. Someone on this thread did in fact pull one of his chips and watched his performance fall drastically.

seer

 

I think all i7s can run asynchronous dual channel mode, it's not true dual channel...somewhere inbetween single and dual. I know for a fact that Intel's support asynchronous but not exacty sure about AMD. Regardless, upgrade from 6gb to 8gb will definitely be worth it. The big question is whether you will buy just a 4gb chip to replace the 2gb or just buy a set of 8gb to insure they work with each other. But I think as long as you buy a reputable brand, just buying 4gb chip would be fine. I also have 6gb, but I'm thinking of going up to 8gb of 1600. But from what I gather it doesn't seem that 8gb of 1333 versus 1600 makes much of a difference.

 

Those are some really nice temps. With my stock 3530mx I idle at around 41-42 and haven't seen 80 since I settled on my clocks. When you took yours apart, how did the original paste job look? well done or pretty weak?

Seer

 

I repasted both the CPU and GPU. Both had thermal paste applied from the factory. The NB has a thermal pad applied, but I left it as is due to the fitment of the heatsink. I would not be able to compensate for the thickness of the pad with thermal paste.

 

The original paste job left a lot to be desired. Alot of paste gunked on the edges of the chips overflowing to the board.

 

So in general how far do I need to go to reach heat issues? Right now in k10 stat i'm at 2.0ghz and it's running cool but I'd like to go further as a few games I have could use a bit more cpu muscle.

 

So how much has your temp changed from the orginal paste vs what you have now?

 

So probably not a big difference from 6 to 8 if it is already running in dual channel. Probably not worth it

 

Hm..personally I'd saw the $25 corsair 4gb chip would be worth it, but if you don't really need it now..just wait for it to go down in price more. But the Llano especially would see benefit from 6gb to 8g and true dual channel considering the way these things are built. To be honest, I'm not exactly sure of the details. I'm sure there are plenty of other people who are much more knowledeable about the specific details.

 

It's asymmetrical dual channel. You get most of the performance benefit of matching RAM sizes, but not 100%.

 

Then I will go ahead and buy a kit then

 

well damn. guess I'll have to open it up and redo it. regarding the pads, I always just cut some copper shims till I get it close then paste both sides of those.

seer

 

Or buy these:

eBay - SEKISUI 5760 THERMAL ADHESIVE TAPE PAD 8 x1 25 pack, Similar items search

or this:

http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=thermal+pad

depending on thickness.


Seer - the more I play with this Asus, the more I like it. Actually a great performer for $450 ($480 with tax here). Hopefully I get my DV6z in time so I can set them side by side. The screen drives me nuts but for $480 I can live with that, may actually see about installing my own 1080p screen. Should be able to find something for about $100 I'm hoping. But would like a blu-ray. Although have to really evaluate that. By the time I buy a screen (~$100) and blu-ray player (~$70), that makes it about $650, only about $100 less than the HP. But if I keep it as is, that's a solid $300 cheaper. I already have an external portable USB blu-ray player, just hate carting that extra stuff around, fear of being broken, losing it, stolen, etc.

 

So I have been tinkering around with msi afterburner and with amd ccc 11.8 I can overclock but I cannot get fan control to work.

I am stable at 700 core clock and 900 mem. I get about a 10% performance increase in fps and my temps stay below 70C

 

what do you get on the kombustor kbench mark at those settings?
seer