** MSI GE62 Apache (and Pro) Owner's Lounge**

A little add to Kevin's post, as i registered my NTB today. There is written, that you have to register no later then 3 months after purchase. There is also some kind of survey which extends your warranty by 3 months. There is also possibility to buy extended +1 year warranty, which has to be registered, within 30 days after receiving the warranty registration card. To make it clear. You won't get this 3 months warranty + 12 extended. Only one or the other. I strongly advice you contacting XoticPC and ask them about the extended warranty as i got it for free, just because i asked. You have to do this before you get your lappy.

 

It seems like I am experiencing a problem. My battery stops charging between 93% and 100%. Not sure what causes this. I have tried the calibration app, which did nothing except locking me from using my NTB for a few hours. It is random, sometimes 100%, sometimes 94% or 98%, any number within the range 93-100.
Anyone know what causes this? I suspect, that it could be caused by Hybrid Power somehow as it happens often when i play games and then stop and NTB charges to those random values. According to an app the battery really isn't fully charged.

 

The firmware will manage charging points to help extend the battery life, not taking it to peak all the time from high percentages helps reduce wear.

Repeated 95% to 100% charges count as cycles of the battery. If they did not manage this properly hybrid power would drastically shorten battery health.

 

Thank for clarification. Is it possible to bypass it? I know it is helpful and i don't care about it when i am at home, but i need sometimes the ntb to last as long as possible without charging and 7% is a big loss in battery life.

Yes, fast battery wear is what concerns me too. I have undervolted CPU, it helped a lot to drain the battery at slower rate. Yet, it slowly discharge, even when connected to power cord. Thankfully, i don't think that charging 5% counts as a cycle, that was problem with older battery generations. The new ones handle this better and one cycle should be 20 times 5% charge

 

I don't understand why you guys are stressing so much over the battery. Just use it however you want for a year then if you need to, you can just buy a replacement for $25-50. Not worth the headache.

That sounds like a pretty good deal.

 

Battery tech has improved but cycling the top 5% over and over will still hurt more than a single discharge, as part of the warranty this cannot be altered.

 

How the stability of the bottom plastic casing of the laptop in the case one wants to remove the internal battery permanently?

 

i actually just contacted them through chat and they said they do not offer this. Who did you contact to get this offer. I really need it for college.

 

Contact MSI tech support directly to purchase extended warranty.
Other than that, make sure to register your notebook to receive ADC within 30 days.

 

In my old lappy it lasted 3 years almost good as new. i don't want to buy a new every year. It costs money and a lot of time. Loosing notebook for a month is painful for me as i need it daily and I need it to last as long as possible. That's why i stress about it.

Yeah, i was very surprised, that they gave it to me free of charge even with 8gb USB stick as a gift.

I did contacted my reseller LAN-SHOP.cz, but it is local Czech online store. Try contacting other resellers or buy it from amazon. I think it should be possible. Technically it is a redeem code, which you type in on they website. Until then, it is not anyhow connected with you ntb, so you can buy it anywhere.

 

How does replacing the battery mean losing the notebook for a month? Are you going to send it to MSI just to change the battery? That's very... naive? You can pick up a battery for $25 on amazon for pretty much any laptop (Make sure it has good reviews, also if you cant use amazon then you can just use ebay and order from a official reseller). Also you can just open up the laptop yourself and replace the battery. It's just one screw (The battery, is one screw. The laptop itself is something like 17 screws but unless you have hand injuries, it should be e-z). And no, breaking the warranty sticker doesn't actually void your warranty unless you do something dumb like stab the motherboard or break capacitors. If you'd rather stress over your battery every time you use your laptop than spend $25 after 1-2 years then I don't know what to say to you.

 

MSI allows sending battery only for warranty exchange so you don't have to send the whole computer.

 

I didn't know that! Sounds pretty great. Unfortunately batteries are only covered for a year even though the laptop itself is covered for 2 years. Another thing that baffles me is why the AC adapter is only covered for 6 months? Generally companies will put a longer warranty period on products that do not fail, does this mean that it's common for AC adapters to stop working/go bad?

 

Actually, most of notebook manufacturers have similar warranty terms. AC adapters rarely fail within 6 months but that doesn't mean that it won't happen at all.
Luckily, it's not something very expensive unlike the system components so if it does break down 6 months later the cost will not be high.

 

I did take the back of my GE62 to upgrade the Ram and the 2 spare SSD's , i may have been doing it wrong but it was a b*tch to remove the back cover.

Saying that if my battery did die i dont suppose i would have much of a option, oh as for the warrenty sticker, I used a hairdryer on mine for 90 seconds then removed it with a spudger, put it back on once the cover was back, cant see it was ever tamperd with....

 

Sorry for late reply, but how do I prevent this from happening again?

 

Well, then probably not here, coz removing back cover means loosing warranty and do not try saying it is worldwide the same coz it is not.

Naive? Naive is thinking, that MSI won't screw with you, when they find out, you messed with inner parts. Once, reseller here even refused repairing my brand new phone, bcs its package was missing a plastic bag for my charger. I returned home for it and bring it there, they took the phone and told me, that i can take the package back home, that they need just the phone!!! So live your american consumer dream until it breaks down. Until someone really confirms, that it is possible to change it at home, i won't be risking my 3 yrs warranty. Official MSI service in Europe (at least central/north) is situated in Poland, so Pickup&Delivery would take my ntb to different country, that's why it would take so long.

 

MSI is a big company. There's a difference between local retailers and big global businesses. You should contact MSI and ask them if you can open the seal. Screenshot their reply (which will be a yes). You can confirm it with a single email really. Try it!

MSI doesn't want you to mess with the CPU/GPU/Motherboard from what I understand. Replacing the battery on your own is no issue just like how upgrading RAM/storage is no issue. Not sure about re-seating the heat pipes though.

The United States has a population of over 300 million, nearing 350 million if you include Canada. Given the large population in just one country, it's much easier for companies to sell and offer services to people in one country. In a place like Europe, a company must comply with each countries regulations so it's difficult to open branches in every country but I completely understand where you're coming from now.

Good luck

And a question for people using the GE62: Does the surface of the laptop get warm to a point where it's uncomfortable to touch? Curious because notebookcheck's review has the surface temperature at 50C which I think is quite high. Thoughts?

 

About the temps... i have written about them earlier a few posts. It is not uncomfortable unless u touch the net between buttons there it burns to fingers. In idle the surface is cold.

About the phone... yes it was local store, but official Samsung subsection too, so i would expect a better treatment, but it is true, that Samsung does not care.

Well, Kevin from GenTech should be right about it, but you never know. This country is like a dreamland.. every nightmare appears sooner or later opened a question at MSI support, so lets wait for the answer, but it seems like MSI has really unified its merchandise and care, so you two, should be right or, at least, i hope you do, it would save me a lot of money and time

EDIT:
I got answer from MSI. I won't printscreen it as somehow windows printscreen does not work or i don't know how to use it and i won't install any bloatware to my computer.
The answer: "The warranty terms differ from areas, I suggest you check with our service center first."

 

Hello everyone,

New owner of an Apache Pro-055, so very happy. but i have 2 questions right now, hopefully someone can help.

1) The sound sounds right balanced, like its coming more from the right speaker. Is this due to the sub being placed on the right side? It sounds super unbalanced, so much so that i thought the left speaker was broken.

2) Can someone please help me with the Eco Mode vs Shift Mode.I assume they are both for power saving and gaming, but do i need to use both? When i want to save battery do i need to select Office Mode in Eco Mode, then go into Shift Settings and select Green? This seems a very stupid way to manage power settings. Like wise when i want to game, should i always use Gaming Mode in Eco, then go into Shift and Select Sport? Im gonna hate my life if i have to do this everytime i want to change it.

Apart from that all good so far!

Thanks in advance.

 

1) my speakers are balanced very well. Subwoofer won't change the sound balance. Put your ear on each speaker and listen to them. If they work both it could be just software problem.
2) Yeah this is a bit crazy, but you don't need any of them. Set Dragon Center to "Comfort" and use windows powerplan to change power handling - "Balanced" for when you have charger plugged in and "Power save" for battery usage. If you modify the "power save" profile's advanced section you can get the same or even better power saving then using those Ecco modes. You might want to use Green mode only in case when you want you computer cool and silent, when power cord is connected.

 

You didn't really get an answer then. Contact their local service center. I really don't want you to prove me wrong for your own sake so please. Also you can screen shot by either pressing the "prt sc" button on your laptop, by using "snipping tool" which is default on some windows versions, or by downloading "greenshot", a program to make screenshotting better.

 

Yes the printscreen button did nothing... tried even combination with Shift and Ctrl but nothing saved screenshot anywhere. I don't see the battery as so problematic now. I will solve it when the right time comes so in year and a half i guess.

What concerns me more is, that i don't see any difference in performance between Comfort and Sport mode. Tried playing Far Cry 4, which i think should be pretty intensive and no difference. I have set Ultra preset found a place where frame rate reached its bottom limit of 39 FPS and where the FPS hold steadily and then changed to sport mode from comfort and even clicked the "high performance" button. which changed power plan to high performance - no difference at all. There should be difference as it should OC graphics card. Also CPU won't exceed 28w TDP when Turbo limit is 48 and 56 short max. But it is possible that it is not stressed enough.

 

Hi all, been reading and watching lots about this laptop and think I'm going to get it!

I'm in China so I'm going to be buying it here (done my research to find a reputable place to buy). It won't come with an OS which is fine as it would be a Chinese version anyway, so I'll clone the HD from my current laptop to it.

I'm wonderng if the bios will be in Chinese rather than English, if it is does anyone know if there's a setting in there to change the language?

 

Thanks man, ive set it in Comfort and forgotten about it. Im getting all the top turbo clocks with the GPU so thats all i care about.

Going on what you have said then, my left speaker is definitely broken, its much louder on the right hand side. The left speaker is definitely working, and sounds fine, but about half volume of the right one. I dont understand how it can software? Do you mean drivers? Because it was like that from the moment i first booted it up. Ive never heard that drivers can do that.

PS on a side note, im getting ~75-77c on BF4 Ultra 1080p, that seems like good temps to me, what do you think?If i turn on turbo fans i get about 73

 

You can press Windows button+print screen on keyboard and it will snap the screen and the file saved on Libraries/Pictures/Screenshots

About Shift Mode here's the explanations.

Code:

https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=250571.0

 

Well there is the Nahimic utility, not sure if it can change balance, but system definitely can: a how-to

I have read that forum already, it should increase GPU to OC frequencies but does not. Only difference is in Green mode where graphics memory frequency drops to 700mHz, but no difference between Comfort and Sport

 

Hi all, just thought I would post and say hello as a new GE62 owner. I got it just a couple of days ago to replace a 5+ year old Dell Studio 1749 laptop. The difference is amazing, it's a very nice laptop to use.

I also have a desktop gaming rig, but it's nice to have gaming when I'm not at home, and also nice to have a powerful laptop for general use.

Mine is the GE62 2QD Apache, which I believe is a UK only model, with the i7 4720HQ, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD, 1TB HDD, GTX860M 2GB. I am very pleased with it how it is, although I think in the future I will be upgrading to 16GB RAM, as I occasionally use VM's, plus it only comes with 1x8GB installed, so runs in single channel.

 

Shift mostly limit the performance by temperature and no, Sport mode doesn't OC anything it just let you use the hardware without any limitation (Full Power).

Welcome to the club, i think if you have GE62 2QD then it is GTX960M. All GE62/72 comes with GTX900 series.

 

Yes you're right, that was a typo.

Looking forward to getting GTA V and BF4 running on here.

 

By the way here's my settings of GTA V with 960M.


It mostly run above 30fps.
You can tone it down a bit to get more fps.

 

Awesome thank you. I'll start from there and see how it goes then

Wont be downloading until I get home though, currently on holiday with 1mb/s broadband

 

No problem.
Enjoy your holiday!

 

I got my laptop back and sadly all data was gone from it. but this time around everything in my laptop seems small in size and some of the application have big blurry texts. I never had this problem before I send it in to fix it. Its annoying and i want to know if there is a fix. I tried doing the "disable display scaling on high dpi setting" but it made the application really small and unable to read

 

Sorry, but have you at least looked at the forum, you have posted for me here, to look at? You can see percentage of max. performace 90% comfort, 109% Sport (which does not make sence a lot but it is written there) and yes GPU has automatic OC. Same as CPU has Turbo boost, GC has it too. So there should be difference in Comfort and Sport and even if it had not OC, there still should be a difference. How could you limit performance by Temps? Ok, if you mean that it won't exceed certain degree yep thats possible, but it is not a magical thing. It has to do something with the hardware to limit the temps and there is ABSOLUTELY NO DIFFERENCE AT ALL.

 

From what i read, on Comfort mode the temps limit is 89C and GPU + CPU rarely reach that since MSI had good cooling system, that's why you didn't feel any different. But when the temps reached 89C you will see some fps drops cause the performace being limited by temps so it won't go higher than 89C.

But the CPU will throttle itself when reached 88C.

 

Anyone knows the difference between MSI GE62-2QF-232US and MSI GE62 Apache Pro 219 ?
Here's a link on newegg comparator
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Produc...ercm=34-152-893CVF:$$$$$$$;34-152-818:$$$$$$$
I can't find any significant difference in the specs that would explain the 200 CA$ price difference.

 

In my case CPU alone never reached 86 so it probably throttles at 85. With GPU it can exceed 90, but yeah you might me right about that.

 

You guys can do some real underclocking (as well as the undervolt) using Intel XTU. Run the CPU at 3Ghz or hell run it at 2.5-2.8ghz (basically turn off intel TURBO mode) especially when gaming because you'll save a lot of degrees and for gaming the quad core will never limit the 960M. I would personally uninstall that MSI application with the sport mode comfort mode options. Do it all yourselves. Underclock the CPU and overclock the GPU (because the cpu is the real heat monger).

 

I personally always turned off turbo when playing games, but i don't use intel XTU. I need to repaste the CPU to get it running Turbo without reaching temp limit.

 

You don't need to turn off turbo as it can help still, setting the voltage down a bit at stock should be plenty.

 

It doesn't reduce the heat significantly since i live in tropical country.

 

It should still cope ok with stock speeds, may be worth investigating your paste job, heatsink fit and heatpipe health.

 

I personally always turn off turbo on my laptops unless I really need it. Having the laptop cooler to touch and fans run smoother is worth the underclock. Repastes have never really helped me really, maybe a few degrees C. I really only notice the benefit of repastes after a few years. But the BIGGEST improvement in any laptop is cleaning the dust from where the fan connects to the headsink. Man, I'm used to finding blocks of dust in there.

Turning the voltage down (According to another user here) has saved him <10C which is alright. But I would personally enjoy another 10C-20C.

 

I haven't done any paste job since it will void the warranty at least in my country, even adding ram void the warranty. The sticker cannot be tampered at all.

Have a cooler surface is nice but i don't mind having fans running faster to make the laptop cooler. Sadly opening the back will void my warranty so i can't do anything other than disable turbo or underclock.

 

Sucks about the warranty. Personally I would call MSI on the phone in the US and ask them to make a special exception for you. You can mention you personally purchased an MSI notebook for the warranty and would really appreciate if they will let you open the back cover.

OR/and

you can take the sticker off with a hair dryer (somebody mentioned it here, not sure who it was but kudos to you) and just stick it back on when you're done. Hehe

 

I've been thinking about doing the second option but there's just too much risk, if i ever need to bring the laptop to MSI service center and they realised that the sticker has been tampered, i'm done.
Maybe i have to wait 2 years to just open the back cover.

 

Eh just call them

 

I am thinking about buying the following model:

http://www.amazon.com/MSI-GE62-APAC...=MSI+GE+Series+GE62+Apache-002#productDetails


Not sure what exact model number it is, but it has the following:

Intel Core i7-4720HQ
Windows 8.1
NVIDIA GeForce GTX965M 2GB GDDR5
15.6" Full HD eDP Wide View Angle 1920x1080 (16:9)
8GB DDR3L 1600MHz
1TB HDD (7200RPM)
SteelSeries Programmable Full Color Backlit Keyboard
Killer E2200 Game Networking
DVD Super Multi

Now, among the things I'll add is an extra 8GB RAM stick, and am unsure what to do. The first idea was to buy a Kingston HyperX Impact Black CL9 stick, but I'd rather not mix and match different CAS latencies if possible. Does anyone know what exact memory comes with the model I'd be buying, so I can buy an identical extra one?

 

I will try to contact MSI Online support and let them try to persuade MSI in my country to let me open the back cover.