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

would be great if a mod could merge with a thread made by htwingnut or somebody who can/will actively update the first post so all this info is in one spot =-)

Though hard to 'see' hp has it set up to throttle (down clock) itself near constantly at 70c and above.

How to see if you are being throttled-
A- set your normal o/c, run a cpu benchmark a few times to get the average/variance
B- set ALL p-states to your o/c (2.4ghz for me, dont forget voltage) re-run benchmarks (watch your temps)
*boost disabled
result B is always higher for me, as my cpu throttles itself when heat rises above 70c at all.

Anybody else (who will run as above) care to post results?

 

Here are my highest benchmarks with my Dv6Z, fully overclocked:
3dmark 06: 11,200
3dMark 11 : 2228

However, a few days ago I was having a LAN with some buddies, and I had a full system freeze during TF2 TWICE. No BSOD, just a full up freeze.... I haven't had any other problems over the past few months

 

Exactly. Dv6z is a better GPU except on DX9, and the Dv6/7t has a faster CPU. I don't need a 2nd gen Intel CPU for what I do, so an A8 will be great.

 

"Good news everyone!"®
The cat 11.11c seems a good bargain. And you can oc without the biosmod again!

Pros for me:
-15% more performance for Skyrim
-10% more perf. for Anno2070
-9% higher physics score for 3DMark11
-5% higher SM3.0 score in 3DMark06
-oc'able
-stable at same speeds like cat 11.6

Cons:
-highest bench-stable oc is about 5mhz core/mem lower
-more artifacts/less ecc at highest bench-stable oc
-personally can't prime with gpu-z anymore

I'd rather say the Dv6z is better in xfire optimized situations (which benchmarks are usually not part of^^). For example the dx10 Vantage score of my DV6z is P7101 6561(GPU) in xfire, while my older Dv6t with i3/6770m got P7432 7556(GPU) with it's single card.
It's allways a matter of how far you can oc...

(And on the opposite (dx9): The oc'able A6 did 14048 3DMark06's for me. The non-oc'able i3 just 11466.) =)

 

So, I don't know if any of you have had this problem but my dv6z seems to be overheating pretty frequently when I play skyrim and that makes it lag a little bit. I haven't done anything except overclock the cpu and I am using a Targus Chillmat laptop cooler. My k10stat settings are Boost @2.6ghz 1.2750v and p- at 2.4ghz 1.100v. Any suggestions?

 

Wow, what kind of OC did you have to get 14,000 3d06??

Thanks for the info on 11.11C btw. Hopefully I can keep my 800/1000 since I can technically hit 820/1020

EDIT: Just did A run with the new drivers, 2.6GHZ, 800/1000 gpu overclock, and hit 11,154 . The FPS deff seemed to be up though... I'm going to try locking at 2.86GHZ and running again.

 

Yeah, I can only get like 8000 something in 3DMark06.

 

Just ran 3d06 with ALL pstates locked to 3.0ghz, @ 1.275V, so no downclocking could occur.

Scored 11,631 . I highly doubt there is any way to get over 12,000...... unless you aren't running the default settings on 3d06, or you are running some kinda liquid-nitrogen cooled thing at 4Ghz

Score Breakdown :

SM 2.0 = 4365
HDR/SM3.0 = 5300
CPU = 3840

 

Because 3DMark06 is absolutely CPU limitated these days, you basically just have to raise your cpu speed
2866Mhz ganged, 780mhz core and 980mhz vmem, with minimum mipmap did the trick for me. And watching that you're not running into some throttling or to much ecc.
But to be honest, that was with the old cat 11.6... But I'm to lazy right now, to edit all my clocks and do a new run with the 11.11c just for the numbers ^^

 

Is there a service manual so I can just get in and out? Are there two sep dies or a single die? I've done plenty of paste jobs before so I don't mind redoing this, just need to figure out where to start. Some older dells I've done require the keyboard and screen to be disconnected. Is that where I'm headed here on a dv6?

nevermind I found it, and yes it looks like similar steps haha bummer. I love the back panel and easy access.

 

3840CPU points at 3,0Ghz? That's odd compared to 3950@2,866 and 4029@2,933Ghz for me. But maybe you just got some more background tasks... dunno.
For the record, I usually have 3061@2,1Ghz, which is about 1450 points per Ghz. So with perfect scaling you could theoretically get (without all the other limiting factors like ram, HT-bus,...) around 4350 points at 3Ghz when there's abolutely no throttling.

 

Not to mention your other 2 scores in the GPU department are 600 and 1300 over mine. 7000 HDR? I swear we must have different settings somewhere along the way.

My 3d06 is 1.02 not 1.2 ..... maybe ill try updating it

If you don't mind, Would you reset ALL 3d06 settings and CCC settings to default?

 

Just did a rerun with 3DMark06 and VCC reset to defaults, but because of the higher temperature right now in my home, i had to reduce clocks to 2,6Ghz CPU and 765/965mhz GPU. Thats about 10% slower on the cpu side and a bit lower on the gpu. And that's almost the same difference the overall score has now, with 12763 points (-10%).

 

Hey guys just got a dv6-6135dx
Like it already and trying to catch up on 360 pages of info

Any cheat sheets?

Couple of quick questions
Using 11.11c im not able to see my 6750 temps they report as nothing
Whats the best recommended cat version out so far?

How can you switch between igpu and dedicated?

also both cat and device manager are reporting 6600 and 6700 series rather then 6750 like it did before?

 

Hi and grats to your good notebook choice! ;-)

For me, the 11.11c is the best cat until now. But to be honest, I haven't tried the modified 11.11 with opengl support yet. But 11.11c doen't seem to do any harm ^^.
Since the mid cat 11's, the 6750m gets detected as 6600 and 6700 series gpu, so don't bother about that.
In terms of switching, you have to realize, that there's no hardware switch like dv6t users have now. You can just assign applications/games to one or both of your graphics core by using the graphics driver. To do so, open the Vision Control Center (e.g. by right clicking your desktop and choose to configure switchable graphics), and select high performance (6750m) or energy saving (iGPU).
And your last question about the not monitoring temps is because of the usually active iGPU. To see the temps set your monitoring tool to high performance, as described above, and if that doesn't help, "prime" the tool by using any 3d application that uses the 6750m (for example msi kombustor) and then start your monitoring tool.
Before using the 11.11 cat, I was able to prime with GPU-z as well, which could just run in background all the time... But maybe you'll find a proc that better suits you.

 

kool thanks for the quick and detailed response helps a lot

 

another quick question
Recovery disks dont work anymore... saying they are not for this computer
happend after i installed the modded bios
Read its dmi related

which tools would be needed for this comp

 

IDK man that's odd, no one else has been able to get scores > 12k ..... I would like to see more ppl run 3Dmark 06 on their DV6Zs with a healthy overclock and see what kind of performance they get....

CALLING ALL DV6Z owners Overclock to the max, download : 3DMark06 v120 Basic Edition download from Guru3D.com

Run it (default settings) and report what you get

 

I'll try tonight or tomorrow. I can run at like 2.933GHz (or 2.966 can't remember) for short periods, at least long enough to get a benchmark done. Unless they improved DirectX 9 support substantially 12k seems very high. Although it should be near there if they supported it appropriately. DX9 suffers with this GPU.

 

The new 11.11c drivers gave me a solid 3DMark06 boost. I have the DV6-6135DX.

11.11c with what I consider a safe OC (2.4GHz at B0 @ 1.2v) with no GPU OC at all (I don't like messing around with modded BIOS, its risky business) = 9,412 on 3dMark06. This is up from 8,893 I got with other catalyst drivers beside 11.11c.

Here are the exact steps I took. (Note: for the guys new to OCing this setup, this should help you walk through it without getting overwhelmed, as it can be confusing).

System = DV6-6135DX (AMD Processor)

- Remove any all all crap software from your system. The DV6-6135DX has a bunch of crap games/HP stuff that you don't need. Go through it all and clean out all you can (the less crap running on your system, the better performance you get). Restart the system afterwards.

-Update BIOS to F.21, which is currently the latest release. ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-pavilion-notebooks/595505-current-hp-pavilion-bios-releases.html for a cheat sheet of where to download. Make sure you use the AMD Drivers, not Intel if you have the DV6-6135DX). The file you download from HP will flash the bios for you, just run it and restart as needed. It's simple.

-Update AMD Catalyst drivers to 11.11c (Windows Vista/7 download location - AMD Catalyst 11.11c Perf Driver download from Guru3D.com). Restart the system once the new graphics drivers are installed.

-Download and install K10Stat (I used "K10STAT154.zip")
here: K10stat

-With K10Stat running, flip to the "P-State" tab, enter the following values in. (Note: this is a very stable OC steup I use. I am quite happy with the graphics capability at this point, so I felt no need to press the system any harder than need be).

State/FID/DID/Voltage
B0/8/0/1.2000
P0/31/2/1.1750
P1/30/2/1.1625
P2/28/2/1.1000
P3/26/2/1.0625
P4/20/2/1.0375
P5/14/2/1.0000
P6/14/3/0.9375
Set “up(ms)” to 0 and “down(ms)” to 0. Do not change any of the “up%” or “down%” values.

Click "Apply" and test your system for stability. Download CoreTemp ( Core Temp) and make sure your processors stay within reasonable degrees most of the time while gaming (<80 degrees Celcius is great).

P.S. Link for 3DMark06: Futuremark - world's most popular benchmarks and PC performance tests - Benchmarks - 3DMark06 - Download

If all looks good and your system is nice and happy, you will notice a huge improvement to your graphics (compared to fresh out of the box). My 3DMark06 went from 7,335 to 9,412 with this setup.

 

I bought a refurbished one of these on Newegg yesterday for about $500, as I am sure is the case with many people (I figured I could deal with the low screen resolution for that cost). My current laptop has just been pissing me off and I've pretty much given up on playing games on, and Ivy Bridge is still a good ways off and doesn't really feel like it's getting any closer. The biggest game I'm looking forward to being able to run is Skyrim (Woo! PC version=Mods and not being tied to my brother's XBox to play). According to Notebookcheck, the processor is about on the same level as my current CPU, which I've never had any problems with ridiculous amounts of multitasking on (I have been known to run Photoshop CS3, Flash CS5.5, SAI, two browsers with upwards of a dozen tabs each, and a game all at the same time because). And now I can hold off until prices come down a bit and get my Ivy Bridge refreshed Clevo around the time of Black Friday sales next year (probably selling this one at that time). Plus, from what I've seen it takes Overclocking quite well, so I can use this as a sort of...practice overclocking machine without worrying about screwing up a 1.5k+ machine.

Now I just have to wait for it to get here. So...yeah. Never thought I'd get an HP, but then...I've had a Gateway for the past 3 years. xP

 

Hi guys, i have a problem with my catalyst. i installed 11.11c but i cannot find the configure switching graphic, nor can i find crossfire in my control center. Did i do something wrong?

 

Happened to me so i got rid of it and installed 11.6 and it's good now

 

I got 9057 running at 2600, with CF on and stock GPU clocks, 11.11c drivers.

AMD Radeon HD 6750M video card benchmark result - AMD A8-3510MX,Hewlett-Packard 358D score: 9057 3DMarks

I also noticed that K10stat is really finicky. I have to have an up/down delay that isn't zero in order to check "Enable Clock Control" so the cores can run unganged. I understand what the up/down delays do, but I'm not sure how they affect performance.

I'm pretty happy with K10stat starting automatically with task scheduler, but I'm currently looking for a way to run a task when the computer is unplugged or plugged back in. I'd think it would be ideal to have it automatically change from a high overclock profile when plugged in to a low voltage/low clock profile when it's on battery.

There is an "HP Support Assistant Service" event in event viewer when you plug or unplug the computer. It should be possible to create a task when that event triggers, that will run a simple script that will check for AC power and then launch K10stat with the appropriate profile. I'll work on it and share my findings if anyone else is interested.

Here are the clocks I've tested and their lowest stable voltages running prime 95 in-place FFT's simultaneously with IntelBurnTest on maximum for approximately 30 minutes per frequency:

frequency voltage
2800 1.2250
2700 1.1875
2600 1.1625
2400 1.1000
2200 1.0625
2000 0.9875
1800 0.9250
1600 0.8750
1400 0.8250
1200 0.7875
1000 0.7375
800 0.7000
600 0.6875
500 0.6750

I would add that the 2800 frequency causes temperatures to exceed 90 degrees, and throttles. However, it is possible to test stability past the throttling threshold by locking three of the cores to a lower P-state, and the fourth core at the highest P-state. This gives you some extra thermal headroom for a single higher clock. This is how I test for what to use for the B0 state. It also gives me some indication that I could get higher clocks with better cooling.

There is some possibility to get better performance in single-threaded CPU-limited games and applications by putting the core the game is running on to a higher overclock, and locking the other cores to a lower P-state. I wonder if it's possible to completely disable two of the cores somehow. There are lots of cases where two higher-clocked cores would be better than four lower-clocked cores. Either way, I'm trying to think of an efficient algorithm for adjusting P-states on-the-fly. If you detected a very demanding process running on one core, with low loads on the other cores, it would make sense to raise the frequency on the highest P-state, and lock the others cores to a lower P-state.

 

Does anyone know if i turn off crossfire which card is left to use cause in my case i think its 6620 and i would like to just leave 6750M

 

Did you install over existing drivers or do an uninstall and reinstall?

 

Single-threaded programs are a pain. If you don't set their affinity to a single CPU, the damn things appear to dance merrily across all my cores. So I don't want to bother with locking higher speeds on a single core.

As to the scheduling matter, my suggestion would be that "Powershell Fixes Everything". But in all honesty I just don't know enough about it, so that's a poor suggestion from my end.

Is there some possibility that the 35W binned parts are set to throttle at a somewhat lower temperature? Because the actual overclock potential has been great, leaving me to imagine the 3500's were binned for efficiency or summat.

....sounds like I should be rolling ahead with this 11.11c update, better performance AND software OC? Excellent.

erdknicks: What? Disabling Crossfire should only prevent the system from trying to draw additional frames with the 6620 while "main" 6750 does most of the work. With Crossfire off, the 6750 should be the only card working on a High Performance-set application. When running just the desktop and an office program, the 6750 is still OFF to save power and heat. When playing a heavy game (set to High Performance), the 6750 will be working and the 6620 should throttle back to almost nothing. Disabling the CrossFire DOES NOT disable the 6750.

 

hello dv6z owners! i am a new proud owner of a refurbished dv6-6135DX
i am confused as to which settings in the torture test in prime95 to use, are there any recommendations for our rig? any suggestions are kindly appreciated.

 

Hey, 9,4k @2,4Ghz without oc'ing the gpu is a really good start.
And because of the dislike of the modbios, you could try afterburner instead. 11.11c seems to support low-level driver oc'ing again (at least for me), so if you could raise your 6750m clocks by 200mhz core/mem, there's probably another 3k points in it for you.
And you may also want to check, if you can further lower you vcore. From what I've seen until now, my A6 isn't the best in terms of undervolting, but at least, it's running 2,4Ghz @ 1.1125v.

 

Any word of a BIOS update?

Anyone know if there is a beta version past F.21 ?

 

Hi:

Recent dv6-6135 owner here. I've had the laptop for a few days now, but I've been doing some extensive research before purchasing it, as well as owning it now. I've followed most of the pages here and I have to say.. I'm a bit overwhelmed, but you all seem like a friendly, helpful bunch here, so hopefully my questions aren't too annoying.

I've been C&Ping my notes (and putting grading on hold, ha ha..) to see if I can make sense of things. ssjdra's post was VERY helpful (thank you!). I understand that I should take the following steps. So far, I've merely done the minimum recovery to remove the bloatware, then went back to research mode, but..

1.Do a minimal recovery
(This step is done - I didn't make recovery discs, though.. can I still do it fine from what I have now?)

2.Download and install ALL of the newest driver packages from HP
(I think it might have done this automatically, but should I go to the site, download, and install there? Is there anything in particular I should check for?)

3.Go into Device Manager and DELETE the video drivers and reboot
(Of course, I should use something like driver cleaner/sweep first, after the initial reboot, right?)

4.Install Catalyst and reboot
(Here's where some of my confusion arises -- Which Catalyst set should I go through? 11c?)

5.Install CAP files
(Stupid question but.. CAP files?)

I've no plans to OC the GPU, so I'm going to stick with KStat and ssjdra's settings (after testing; I know I need IntelBurn.. is there anything else?). I'll also likely layer in all of my other files that need to be transferred before I OC. I'm very nervous about doing it, and that one blog that I read was somewhat confusing, but many people seem to express confidence in it.

I mostly want to just unlock this machine's potential. I'd be happy with getting the processor to 2.0-2.2 gigs.

I'm sorry for all the questions (and unfortunately, I'll probably have more), but I am thankful for the help.

 

bios f21 will work on hp dv6-6b10er?

 

what if you get those "rounding error" in prime95? is that something to be concerned about?

 

Any error in Prime95 is a sign of instability.

 

lame
i was hoping a rounding error is something you can overlook

since with intel burn test i can get 2400mhz @ 1.1v
while with prime95 wont be error free till 1.1625v

 

not trying to bump my post but does anyone know how to fix the restore disks reporting they were not made for this computer

Tried reverting back to previous bios f.20 that came on the computer
with no luck

Keep reading its dmi related?

 

You can try running at lower voltage as it might not be an issue, but it just could cause instabilities.

I just installed 11.11c over existing drivers and switchable graphics remain. Do NOT uninstall existing drivers. Just install 11.11c and it should be just fine.

I see part of the discrepancy. You are running at 1280x768 (unless we all ran at 1280x768 - or ran on 1366x768 screen). Default 3DMark06 scores are compared at 1280x1024. You would have to hook up to an external monitor with at least 1280x1024 resolution to get an appropriate result. Although your GPU vRAM runs at a phenomenal overclock.

I just ran a few tests and can see hwo you could get 12000+ easily now at 1280x768 primarily becaus your vRAM overclock is excellent. Here's my results:

GPU 780 / 880 MHz
3DMark06 @ 1280x1024
---------------------------
3DMark06 CPU @ 2.4GHz: 9847
3DMark06 CPU @ 2.9GHz: 10741
3DMark06 CPU @ 2.9GHz / 1280x768: 11457

 

I think you've cracked it, HT! Good spotting.

bladez360: What geography is your device? It may be a restore issue caused your device product code not being properly recognized. Sometimes recovery discs can finicky and stupid. Can you use F11 and D2D Recovery? (Restore Windows from the HDD recovery file)

Ayn: CAP is Catalyst Application Profile data. The CAP files make small changes to graphics behavior, especially Crossfire. It can remove stuttering and artifacts, improve performance in games. A tiny download with big effects.

I was thinking to do a final "vet" on my high settings. Plan is to use Kombustor or something similar, while running...something like 7-zip. Probably the 8-threaded benchmark mode, it keeps the CPUs pegged to 99-100. What do Prime95 and Intelburn do differently? I'd imagine the memory I/O demands of either would be roughly nil. Is it suggested to run them simultaneously to put more load on both integer and float units at the same time?

 

when running the kombuster sometimes i get these heat spikes on the 6750
spikes to 127C lol
thats surely a bug right? because it cant possible do a 127C spike and cool back to 68C the next second...right right?
or am i doing something wrong..help!

 

Have you OC'd the GPU at all? Sounds like an issue with stability of the self-reporting function. I have not had any spikes that I can tell.

I just downloaded the 11.11c drivers, but AMD software packaging is different from what remember with my old x850 drivers. Sure, I've downloaded 11.11c and the 11.11CAP2...but does the 11.11c rollup include full CCC or do I still need to grab the 11.11 CCC installer? Further, I don't expect to need Hydravision (multi-monitor single screen, right?) but I am tempted by the extra codec/transcoder package.

So do I need to download the 11.11 CCC separately, and are the AMD codecs worth a damn.

 

yes i am in the process of OCing it. at 650core clock right now. but the temperature spikes are a bit worrisome. im not entirely sure if im using the right function im kombuster though, you select direct3d 11 and do the GPU Burn-In right?

 

Yep. I had to fiddle with drivers a bit because Kombustor just rendered a black window in DX11 mode out-of-the-box.

Seer also mentioned there are strong points and weak points in the OC path, sometimes you will become stable again by going a few MHz higher. I think you can probably ignore the spikes and just keep an eye on the most common high temp. If you burn the CPU and GPU at the same time, pay attention to when temps begin reaching 80C. That's where throttling may begin for some people, but more importantly your temps may quickly shoot up to 90C if you continue to increase the speed.

I'm rolling 11.11c now, looks like CCC is included. Also grabbed 11.11 Hydra and Codec blocks, but won't install them without doing a little more reading first. I think I'll tune my performance numbers for roughly 80C because some games seem to add at least 3-5C beyond benchmark totals. Probably because they use more functions of the CPU simultaneously...from what I'm seeing before the update, I should get 2.2/2.6 and a lite OC to 6770M speeds with roughly equal battery life as gaming at stock clocks and voltages. Not bad at all. If I'm lucky it should do 2.4/2.8 or better for purely CPU oriented tasks, probably even the 2.6/3.0 for emulation. Don't think I'll push the dGPU nearly as far as some of the guys here, I don't want to permanently damage the RAM chips (they don't have a heatpipe and they don't report their temperature, so long-term damage may be possible).

 

yep, and dont forget to put the it on "high Performance" in the ccc.
I usually get like ~75°C @770/950 and you should look at the gpu usage in afterburner to be sure if your gpu runs around ~100%.

 

oh ok my gpu isnt doing 100% at all...im going to dl the ccc and install it and see if that changes it.

 

Dammit, my keyboard went bad. Right side only sends garbled signals. Just ordered a replacement from HP Parts... $50!!! :EEK:

I guess I shouldn't be surprised because I let my kids play with it, and cleaned it a few too many times with soap and water because it got too "gunky". Should have just used straight alcohol. Live and learn I guess.

 

which driver do you use?
hmm i think i had the same problem at the beginning, with the hp default driver on my machine.
Now i get a gpu usage of 97% with the new 11.11c driver ("clean install").

 

im currently using the drivers from the hp website
Version8.861.1.2000

update: i must have fubar something because after installing 11.11 drivers from amd my kombuster is rendering a black window lol.

update2: i uninstalled the 11.11 and it reverted back to the previous installed drivers (8.861.1.2000) and now running kombuster its running 99% gpu load lol. W T F

 

did you deinstalled the old one? or just installed the 11.11 over the hp one.

try to deinstall all the old drivers, and install the 11.11c. Then you should install the missing drivers/applications from the newest hp driver.

 

no i installed 11.11 over the hp one.

actually ill hold off on that for now since for whatever reason after i uninstalled 11.11 the gpu is loading 99% in the kombuster burn-in.

 

ok nevermind it was only working that one time now it refuses to run at ~100% when doing the kombuster burn-in. is it absolutely necessary to have it running at 100% though? for the life of me i cannot figure out how to get it to stay at 100% load. 11.11c drivers does not work for me, it will end up rendering a black window in kombuster even after i do a driver sweep "clean install"

edit i found out why it isnt running 100% load its because i am dual burning with prime95 and kombuster.
if i just run kombuster the gpu will load near 100%...