The Official 1722/GX720 Lounge

where is this massive stockpile of 4670s? i can't seem to find them.......

 

Hi everyone!

I have just found this forum, which is great because I've got a problem with my MSi GX720, and I hope somebody will be able to give some advice.

So here goes the problem: My notebook is something like 1.5 months old, and it seems that my built-in DVD Drive is defective. It keeps disappearing from not just the windows but from the BIOS as well. I updated BIOS, firmware, tried with Win XP, tried with Vista using AHCI and without AHCI, deleted all filters from the registry etc. It seems that the drive itself is broken. Or at least, hopefully it's not a problem with the mainboard or something...
Well, you could just say "oh well, no big deal, it is a new notebook, just take it to the MSi service and have it repaired..."
The thing is I live in a country (Eastern Europe AKA the end of the world...) where things like taking your recently purchased notebook to the official service center is not an option. Here if you do that, you will have to wait at least 1.5 months (if you are lucky) to get your NOT repaired notebook back, with scratches and other broken parts.
So what I am planning to do is buy a new DVD drive from ebay, and swap the broken one.
So the question is, does anyone know how to do this? I mean, I cannot see any screws on the bottom of the notebook, near the optical drive, how am I suppose to take it out?

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance,

Peter

 

You can easily do this. There is in fact one screw that holds the optical drive.

 

Has anybody figured out how to overclock core 2 quad on the standared msi turbo? I need the msi bios for its SLIC table, as 1.0s is generic and does not include a vendor specific SLIC. I am also going to upgrade my ram to:
3GB 667 unknown -> 4096MB DDR2 PC6400 Crucial
5400RPM Toshiba 320GB ->7200RPM Hitachi 320GB
Intel 4965 -> Broadcom 300m
oh, and what is the difference between q9100 ES and q9200 ES? Does q9200 have an unlocked multiplier?

will i expect to see big speed boost in OS load time and application load time? Running Windows 7 64Bit

 

From my experience with 1080p TV's if you set your graphic card resolution
to 1920x1080 it typically scales right to fit the screen correctly with no
need to do any other scaling adjustment from the graphic card software
but if setting it to the 720p resolution (1280x720) it pretty much always
needs additional scale tweaking from the graphic card software to fit properly.
I went round in circles with this issue when I bought my new 42" Dynex from
Best Buy. I spent a whole day at Best Buy trying
to sort this out, trying different TV's & Laptop combination's. I tried several
1080p 42" & 47" TV's & a Gateway Laptop with an Intel on board Graphics
card & a Toshiba with a dedicated Ati card & all had to be tweeked via the
graphic card scaling app. when set to 1280x720 resolution, same thing with
my GX720 & 9600m GT card. I have no idea why this is but it seems to be
an inherent HDTV issue.

 

If you use anything newer then 1.0S, you will only be able to OC the fsb by 10mhz with the turbo button, which will result in a pitiful OC, like 100mhz.

 

Thanks Darth Bane, so it can be done, maybe even without removing the whole bottom part of the notebook. The only problem now is that I cannot seem to find any screws there.. Could you tell me where is it exactly? Maybe it's somewhere under the "front" case of the optical drive, that black plastic thing, because no matter where I look, I just cannot see where it is.

 

BIOS 1.0Y now available here: http://www.msi.com/index.php?func=downloadfile&dno=7278&type=bios

Firmware remains unchanged.

Main page updated.

 

ah you beat me to it i just flashed. now there is an option to boot from restore partition?

 

noticed differences?

 

just a more "refined" brightness control (more settings). quad core turbo still doesnt work for some reason.

 

interesting, for the gent with the dvd drive problem it sounds like your drive is more than likely dead, i had a drive in my previous gateway laptop that would go on the fritz every once in a while and sometimes not even show up.

Your best bet is to just get a new drive, theyre cheap enough to get, and as for the servicing its really easy to swap the drive, more than likely if you look on the bottom of your laptop and draw a line from the center of your cd drive in with your finger its the screw right after the label on be bottom of the laptop, try that one, keep in mind the drive wont "fall" out.... or at least it shouldnt, if that doesnt work, just pop the bottom plate off the laptop and look in that same spot for any other screws that come out, one screw wont hurt the laptop if its removed for a second, so just try a few, and after the screw is out, pull a little on the drive, it should pop out with a little bit of pressure...

as for replacements that fit snugly look near the beginning of the thread for information about the correct models to look for, unless electrosoft has been kind enough to provide them on the first page of the thread for the ID1 users.
true you can just search for the model you have currently, thatll work too, also the bezel is removable, so keep it so you can put it on your replacement drive, more than likely its held on by plastic clips, though sometimes there are screws.

As for the overclocking issue with these laptops, i found something interesting about other msi laptops and their setups, apparently the 628, if i remember, got a little bit more than warm during tests through tomshardware, and actually got the processor hot enough to 97c where the laptop actually shut off, which the core "death" point is 100c, i would imagine since the quaddies pull a bit more juice is a failsafe put into the bios to avoid a lot of crispy quadcores, and more than a few angry "Poor" laptop owners. I have a feeling that the bios used in the line of laptops msi uses is pretty much standard, with no specialization, since theyre all pm45's with ich9m controllers.

btw for the prospecting quadore owner, the q9200 is prolly just a little faster than the 9100, and beware the ES (engineering sample) some of these cores dont work in this laptop, or many others, make sure it has a C0 stepping, and you have a return policy... As well be advised you may have to get another processor also incase the bios version you shipped with is an older version, mine had 1.0H, which i think was fairly common for the ID2, i "think" that ones fine with quadcores, but the other members will confirm that, just dont freak if your laptop doesnt turn on with the quadcore in it.

and btw, anyone looking to upgrade, grab G.Skill that ram is amazing in these laptops, and its cheap too! im running at DDR1000 with valueram, that right there is good stuff. watch out for ocz, and the like, this laptop doesn't like it for some reason, or maybe its vice versa.

for the last thing, i was playing with hdmi audio today, and i noticed that getting an output was more than the hastle it was worth, i could get windows sounds to my tv, but nothing else until i used VLC and forced a bitrate to my tv, and even then it was only that program that could get audio out. Definitely not cool... and strangely enough, despite all the hype, why isnt there a program to control the audio, anyone notice that..... no settings or anything, i was pretty suprised. quality was fine going to a bargain tv... unfortunately i dont have a hdmi surround system to see how it stacks up, but it honestly doesnt seem worth the bother.

 

ding ding ding.......ive been running through this problem for a week and a half now. just purchased a 42" 1080 lcd tv and have been going insane trying to get the audio working properly using hdmi. i was so looking forward to a one plug audio/video solution. my work around solution so far to this problem, i play an mp3 file with media player classic and set it to repeat. i then turn the players volume to 0 for the mp3 so i dont have to listen to it. for some reason when i do this everything magically begins working fine. without the file playing in the background, muted at that, any sound my laptop tries to make results in my tv basically wigging out to a black screen and then back to normal. like it resets the hdmi input on the tv.

i began to think i bought a quarky tv. i then tried hooking up hdmi via an acer laptop. guess what, the acer works absolutely perfect via hdmi. i didnt have to adjust or change any audio device settings on the acer lappy.

 

HDMI Audio & Video both work flawlessly from my GX720-032US. It has
worked out of the box without a hitch from day one, not a single effort to get
audio working proper. I run it to my 42" Dynex 1080p LCD TV all the time.
My GX720 though is a stock retail pre loaded laptop with stock 9600m GT (not bare bones),
so maybe that has something to do with it. What video card are you guys
with the HDMI audio problems running? I am running Vista 64 & it works
perfect. It also worked perfect on Vista 32.

 

I just replaced a faulty drive in my 1722-ID2 with a Sony Optiarc AD-7590 from Zipzoomfly. $51.89 shipped, and the old ID2 bezel fit perfectly and it works fine.

You can also get one from newegg for $48. I went with zipzoomfly since I'm located in NJ and sales tax and S&H drove the price up to ~$58 with them.

 

Thank you very much Mr. Automatikjack and Mr. electrosoft! I appreciate your help!

 

I have a 1722 ID1 that I just assembled with an Intel Core2 Duo Mobile T9400 2.533/6M/1066 ES with 4GB of DDR2-667. When I power up the unit in battery mode the power button lights up and then the notebook powers itself down in 2-3 seconds. Next, I then use the power cord. Press the power button, it now stays on. However, I have no display. I check and double check my install work. The DVD works, the fan works and the wireless button lights up. Now, I’m puzzled. I have searched this forum and cannot find a solution. For instance, I have read several pages of posts in this forum and cannot find anyone posting a similar issue. Maybe, I overlooked a post or didn’t use the correct search terms. Nevertheless, I’m in dire need of assistance.

So, is there anyone on this forum that can provide a possible solution to my issue?

 

Make sure your CPU is locked in place, take it out and re seat it, also make sure the memory is seated also.. I have heard of this fixing the issue, I also heard some ES CPU's have caused this also..

 

Question to all:
Is the Samsung HM500LI (500GB / 5400rpm / 8M) compatible with the barebone/whitebox MS-1722 ID.
If this is working fine what BIOS version and what EC Firmware version are you using.
In my MS-1722 barebone/whitebox with BIOS 1.0U and EC 4.29 the drive is detected in the BIOS but it fails to boot from CD/DVD and will start looking for LAN connection.
Any assistance with testing is appreciated.

 

@ Novice user

Sounds like you got yourself a bum processor buddy, the ES (engineering sample) processors are test/Pre production processors created for just that and not intended for consumer use, sure some are stable and work properly, but some work only partially or some not at all, this laptop is hit or miss when it comes to compatibility, and i dont think that firmware updates help with that at all....

One option to try is to get another processor and update the firmware, or to try and get your t9400 to work by reseating, making sure everythings plugged in, the fan power cable also, and try one stick of ram in one slot, and then the other slot, to eliminate slot problems, then try the second stick (if you have one) also it may be the ram you have, ocz doesnt like this laptop at all, other brands may be more forgiving, and G.skill seems to work the best. Best of luck bud, i got burned on the ES i had so i just got a retail version. If you can, check the stepping, C0 models are stable and work fine, any other stepping on an ES most likely wont work.

@reparaqu

Ive used a hitachi 500gb 5200rpm drive in my laptop with no issue on the same bios/ec. When you say the cd/dvd wont boot, is that into a windows installation or is that with any cd bootable enviornment?

Give mhdd a shot, its an insanely comprehensive utility for hard drives, itll check every aspect of the drive to ensure its operational, itll do seek/read and spinup tests, as well as test each sector. its entirely self contained and itll boot from a cd.

if the cd drive also wont boot, it sounds like your bus could possibly be bad, which would be unlikely but possible.

Alternatively you can test a linux distro that boots from cd to test and see if the machine is operational, as well as check for hard drive/cd status.

and the last option is to put a windows installation onto a flash drive and see if you can install to your hard drive from that.

but in all honesty rep, its possible that the drive is just doa.


* oh an for anyone thats interested, im grabbing a couple ATT 881u USB GSM Mobile internet adaptors, which gleefully enough have mini pci-e cards inside with the sim card readers built in, from ebay, ill be throwing one in my laptop here soon to see if i can get some mobile internets. i hope to use the tv tuner slot, and run some antennas from there. Should have em in a week, ill throw up a review and some info on the cards when they arrive.

 

@automatikjack.

The ODD is working fine when different 500GB or even smaller/bigger is installed.
The HDD works fine trough USB or E-SATA (external connection)
When the HDD is installed it will not start any bootable media like suggested Windows Installation disc (original MS XP/VISTA/7)
Ubuntu distro isn't working also, for some reason all the other hardware is working fine when the configuration is identically, with the exception for other HDD brand/type and model.
For now i am going to test this configuration with new BIOS and new EC Firmware. (New BIOS & EC Firmware are not released but only for testing)
CPU, MEM, HDD, ODD is tested in other model/brand notebook and no issue detected.
HDD S.M.A.R.T test completed 100% no probs detected.
It's more likely to be incompatibility.
So far thanks for the advice/assistance, will keep you informed and place the update quickly after the solution or answer is found.

 

Thanks to Narc05 and Automatikjack for the solutions. I will follow your suggestions and let you know what happens

 

@Narc05 and @Automatikjack. Thanks for your assistance. My system is now up. It was the memory slots. I made sure the CPU was seated and took out the memory and reseated it. Still I did not get a display. Then I followed Automatikjack instructions on replacing one bank of memory at a time. Thats when I was able to get a display. Now, I was able to get to the BIOS. Thank-you, Thank you very much for your assistance.

 

just to clarify, i have a QDRS Core 2 Quad Q9100 ES, C0 stepping. works fine in my computer 100% never had an issue. QDRS is among the older ES and seem to work fine with the GX720

 

@ Reparaqu

yeah it sounds like some sort of incompatability issue, im not too sure what it could be, the drive could be unusually power hungry, or could be a bios issue, or a firmware issue on the drive, if im not mistaken some manufacturers offer firmware updates for the actual hard drives themselves. that might be the answer to getting the drive to work in your machine.

the strange thing is the problem resembles a device conflict similar to when you had two devices on the same channel, like back in the IDE days, but now theres one device per channel with a max of four per controller, so i dont think that problems even remotely possible. thats, really, really, weird...

and since there no raid, that couldn't be a problem either, if possible rep, do you have any self contained programs you can run from a usb drive, like a usb linux distro? id say remove your ODD, and install the drive, and check and see if the linux distro can talk with the drive. if thats the case, maybe its some sort of strange conflict between devices....

 

hey if any one could help me it would be great i got my gx720 it pieces but the problem is the palm rest .i want to take off the mouse pad but it stuck with some sticky tape /glue how would i remove it ? heres the pic


http://i414.photobucket.com/albums/pp230/Jimmy21/IMGP0217.jpg

 

im selling a brand new palm rest if any ones interested heres the link

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260485199059&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT

 

could any one please help me with the touch pad removal?

 

somewhere in this thread is a pdf guide of how to remove everything (including the touchpad)

 

I just got my GX720 back after selling it. I shipped it and then the buyer tried to say he did not recieve it and wanted a refund. I had an investigation done and he did have the laptop. So now that this is over with It is still forsale. I have the price at $940.00 free shipping. I will never sell anything on ebay again. The buyer did not have a shipping address on file so he gave me one to ship to and then that happened. never again.

 

omg, that's my worse nightmare when selling stuff on ebay. I just make sure I do insurance and a tracking/confirmation number.

 

Yes I had a tracking number and even the website said it was delivered. The buyer tried to scam me. Never again.

 

Did paypal give you a hard time? Or did you just give them the tracking number and everything was fine?

 

Its funny you mentioned that, He actually won with paypal, The Postal service got involved and managed to get back my laptop. Now the Postal Service is involved with Paypal trying to get this mess fixed. What a nightmare. Did you see on the MSI website http://www.msi.com/index.php?func=proddesc&maincat_no=135&cat2_no=271&prod_no=1902 I dont understand why there saying the GTS 250m is a highend card. This is for the GT740.

 

Are you flipping kidding me? So the guy just said "I didn't get laptop, me want money back" and Paypal agreed with him? Even after you gave them the tracking number that confirmed it was shipped? How did you get the Post Office involved? How exactly did they get your laptop back? i am very curious.

 

I guess the Postal Instector got involved and they contacted the address I shipped it to, turns out it was the address of the buyers friend who turned the laptop over to the Inspector and was returned to me. In the mean time the buyer filed a dispute in paypal, I supplied the tracking number but being the buyer didnt live in the state I shipped it to they figured he was in the right and decided in his favor. What a joke paypal is. I am waiting to see what the Postal Service decides to do. I know charges can be brought against the buyer and his friend but I am not sure what they are going to do yet.

 

hmm something about this story doesn't add up. Either way your laptop isn't worth 950$ lol
http://www.alienware.com/products/recertified-systems.aspx

 

I agree. I have been scammed before but not like this. Why would paypal favor the buyer? That is what dont add up.

 

If this is true then that would be mail fraud... Thats a felony.. Paypal is funny that way.. Your not supposed to ship any items to people who dont have a verified address with paypal.. Good luck with this...

 

omg, if i knew of that link before, i would have bought one of those m17 instead of the gt628, lol.

 

Not worth $950? It sure is to certian people. It has the same preformance as the GT628 if not better. So you go ahead and keep thinking that.

 

hehehe your absolutely right, unfortunately you've already had a run in with the kind of people willing to pay that price. Should be glad I didn't post the link in your fs thread lol.

 

Yes but some people dont like alienware. The $699.00 is the bare minium spec. I had a run in but that was not my fault either. That guy will end up being put in jail to. I am not here to argue. I feel as though it is worth the price I am asking. If it does not sell I will lower it. I am trying to save up for a decent desktop.
As for you posting that link in my thread? it would be deleted. Your also selling your laptop but do you see me commenting on your price, NO.

 

Actually his price of $550.00 is a great price.. I seen a 1651 barebone on ebay the other day for the same price... So yes darn good deal for his.. The red and black 1651 is also hard to find...

 

For $899, you get crossfire, 2 3870.

 

Yeah thats one heck of a deal.. I configured it with crossfire, 1440 x 900, illuminated keyboard and it was $949.00.. That is dirt cheap and I'm sure there clearing out stock so this will not last long...

 

those m17s are awesome, im soo tempted to get one, but that shipping is murder 110 for my location, ouch... dont think theres any better deal out there, thought about a whitebook but cant seem to find any ocz's anywhere.

oh btw as for the wifi problem so far, ive got the cards, theyre currently locked to att, waiting on the other to arrive thats unlocked, it turns out that the sim reader was attached to the opposite side of the usb adaptor board, though the wireless card is indeed in there, im grabbing some small usb sim readers from ebay for $1, and will see if the readers will be enough to get the sim information to get me on the net, if all works well ill give the report,

As an alternative method if you guys are interested, i found another 3g card, 7.2mbps the highest end 3g available with the sim reader attached to the actual card, took me a few days but i found a supplier in taiwan and may be able to start firing those out as soon as i get a quote back from the manufacturer.

 

Actually it adds up for the fact he fell for the classic PayPal scam where they have you ship to another address other than the verified/linked address to file. They then claim they didn't get it, and all PayPal cares about is that the tracking info matches and shows it delivered to the address on file.

PayPal clearly says to be eligible for SELLER protection you must ship to a confirmed/verified address linked to the buyers account. Anything else, and you are stuck like chuck.

Luckily, Cobra was able to scare the recipient when the P.I. looked into it (One reason I love USPS is they take mail fraud insanely seriously with the law on their side) as this really is a localized version of the classic Nigeria scam.

Glad you got it back Cobra.

And if portability is a factor, the 1722 is much lighter, with a much lighter ac adapter and MUCH MUCH MUCH quieter and no stuttering issues with a quad core.

There are plenty of pros for selecting a gx720/1722 over a M17.

The only "Pro" for selecting a M17 is if you want to go SLI or are bent on going with a 9800M GTX or similar class card with a large consumption requirement.
Even then, you can try to track down a 4850 which is on par with a 280M even.

Everything else is equal or in the 1722's favor IMHO.

 

You make some good points electrosoft, but I just don't think a little more portability is worth another 100-200$. I think a lot of people would deal with a little more wait and get a better cooling system with more upgrade ability with a warranty to back it. His warranty is null and void now.

 

I've owned them both (Whitebook and 1722's), and the difference between the bulk of both systems is like night and day. The M17 uses that monstrous PSU with the same form factor as the NP9262/NP9280 PSUs and it is beefy.

Under load, the M17 sounds like a howitzer. It is easily the loudest laptop I ever used while gaming. The 1722 is about as quiet as it gets. Only system I know that was more quiet was the W90Vp where I literally put my ear next to the vents to make sure it was working (it was and toasted my ear for a split second .

There is still the Quad Core issue too.

I do agree 100% with your other points Ror. Those re-certified systems come with a 1yr warranty and juiced rather nicely. I know the 9600M GT @ 23w gets up to ~69-71 under serious GPU stress testing in the 1722, and the 4850 under veryheavy load actually throttles back on the 725.

If you can live with the noise and bulk (both laptop and huge PSU), and potential Quad Core issues, the M17 is a good buy as it does have a better overall cooling system for the GPU(s).

A good sweet spot is the $699 config @ 1440x900, since a single 3870 can handle that nicely. Still, it adds $85 for S&H (Wha?! O.O) and $54.88 tax so that's = $838.87 shipped for a 3870 equipped M17 w/ 1 year warranty. That's still a good price. Tack on $207 (well for me anyhow) for a Xfire box.

I noticed they no longer have titanium accounts either. I guess it is all folded into Dell's credit program now.