***The Official MSI GT72 Dominator Pro (GTX-980M) Owner?s Lounge***

Hos would I go about the EC ram thing? And RW?

 

You take a screenshot of it in RW Everything, as I just said.

 

https://imgur.com/a/QbZyP

Is this the correct info?

There seems to be a battery boost-function through nvidia?
According to this: https://www.pcper.com/reviews/Mobil...otebook-Review-Baddest-Gets-Better/Conclusion

 

Ok I can't help you with this laptop. The battery charge circuit and battery level counter are not in the correct positions. Sorry thank you for the screenshot though. I'm guessing your battery level is below 30% here, because the value in register C6 is only 40 instead of the usual C1/C0...then again that's only assuming the bottom area is similar to the newer laptops (E2 02 and 02 10 are in the same places (E2 02 is unknown, but in every MSI laptop, 02 is some sort of system video card/power identification ID, and 10 is usually always after that).

 

I actually removed the battery from the laptop, if that helps?

 

Ok.
Try the following and don't blame me if magic smoke comes out ok?
@Papusan where are you man?

Change EC RAM register 31 to "09"
IF THE BATTERY CHARGE LIGHT COMES ON,

Change EC ram register 42 to "64"

Then change EC register E3 to any value, the change it back to its previous value.

This SHOULD cause the value in register C6 to change to a higher value. if it does it means the laptop is no longer power throttling and you should be able to draw maximum power from the AC adapter.

 

So did it work?
@Espressocup

 

Of course MSI prefer use this useless tech. They even brag about it

As well make it complete... Put in a Hell lot bloat on top!!

Where I have been? OUT In the Norwegian forest as usual.

 

That forest is probably warmer than parts of East coast USA right now...

 

I have it the whole winter (4-6 months depends on how lucky you are). Every year, bruh I mean the cold and snow

 

Sorry, bed was calling for me yesterday.
I don't know if I have the courage based on my current knowledge of the problem to change the things you described since it might result in a poof. Im seriously considering building a new stationary and retire this laptop...

6 months minimum of snow here in Sweden, they had something like -27 some week ago @ Treriksröset. ****'s cold.

 

I was totally joking.
Just try it.
@Espressocup

 

I've tried googling and I looked through 10 pages of this forum and I'm finding conflicting information so I'm wondering if there's any sort of consensus or gathering of the different options.

My question is, How can I put in a second hdd to my gt72-6qd? It has a bay for it but apparently not a connector, but it looks like there are ways to connect it via the ssd slots, but there seem to be many methods of doing it, but I can't find updated information on what's the best, simplest, and easiest way to go about it. It seems like the type of thing that you would have to be following already to know and isn't actually stickied anywhere and would have to read 400 pages of forums to find out in 2017. Can anyone help me out here?

 

If its an HDD, the easier way is to use an ODD tray, remove your ODD and insert the tray into the ODD slot.

 

Then I guess I should specify that I want to keep my odd. I know that there are ways of using the empty ssd slots for this, but i don't which is best

 

There is an adapter that plugs into the m.2 SATA and gives you a normal SATA connector, and there are power splitters for the laptop SATA+power connector.

You connect all that up and end up with a rats nest and a lot of wires under there.

Watch this:



I considered designing a m.2 to FPC adapter for my GT72, that would allow me to use an identical connector as the original hdd that goes from sata to small thin flex cable, but I have lots of free space on my 1TB drive still, and I'm running 512GB of SSD, so lots of space for now.

 

In that video he says not to do it the way he did and to use a different part and the way he does do it he shows detailed until it gets complicated and then doesn't show the complicated part. Not a very helpful video. And the alternative part he links to seems to require cutting as well ( https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=251389.0). Are there any other alternatives?

 

It requires notching a bit of the plastic connector, there is nothing complicated in plugging all that up, just unplug the SATA cable from your current HDD, plug the adapter into the SATA cable from the mobo, connect the original HDD using the now separated SATA and power cables, use the other cable to power the second HDD, use the m.2 adapter to get the second SATA data cable, and its done, just a lot of wires, I would grab an USB enclosure for the ODD and use an ODD HDD caddy, much cleaner and no wire salad.

This adapter skips half the wiring:
http://eshop.sintech.cn/sata-ssd-to-m2-ngff-adapter-card-with-power-for-msi-gt72s-p-1132.html

It provides data and power from the m.2 adapter, if there is any need to cut anything, its to trim the big SATA connectors, dont even need to cut, grab a file and file them down a bit.

 

Hey guys,

The two USB ports on the right hand side on my gt72 are completely dead (no devices charge when plugged in, doesnt recognise usb devices, etc). i was wondering if anyone's had this issue, or whether i've somehow buggered them up.

 

They are on a separated board and connect to the mobo with a flex cable.

Check the ports visually and check that no pins inside are bent or touching anything.

 

Thanks alot senso, it appears that when i sent in my gt72 to get the gpu replaced by msi they disconnected the flexcable and didnt secure it back into place when they reconnected it. All usb ports working again

 

Been off this forum for a while what was your GT72 upgraded to and what was cost? I had a GT72 2Qe w 980m 4gb, but did the upgrade program to GT73VR 7RE w 1070. I could have made do with the Gt72 I had over the last 12 mths I have had the GT73

 

Hey cisco kidd,

I didn't get my gt72 upgraded, it was just that my 980m 8GB burnt itself out and so I had to get it replaced, ended up buying a replacement one from woodzstock here on NBR. MSI basically wanted me to pay like 1500 for a replacement gpu + installation.

Edit: Just wanted to say my 980m 8gb is still going strong, not been a single game so far that it can't handle, and thank god throttlestop exists cos my cpu would throttle randomly down to 0.8GHz and take 2-3 minutes to get back to 2.5GHz

 

What are your temps?

I have been playing BF1 for hours and my GT72 2QE stays at 3.4Ghz all the time, at 65-67ºC, same for my 980m, running at around 1200-1210Mhz, no throttle what so ever.

And yes, so far, still play everything at high/ultra settings, just drop the AA a notch down and its a trooper.

 

When I play games they'll max out at ~73c, i think, keep in mind this is with my CPU running at 3.0GHz stable via throttlestop.

Edit4: Should probably add that nowadays the only game I really put any time into is overwatch, which I leave at lowest of low settings and a constant 100fps.

Edit: CPU at idle sits around 45-47c, during video watching/web browsing it will sit around 48-55c, and according to XTU (just used for tracking purposes) the cpu will trigger TDP without any rise in temps.

Edit2: While XTU was showing cpu hitting TDP, throttlestop doesn't show this and yet there are times where the cpu will once again slow down to 0.8-1.2GHz, but throttlestop manages to get the cpu back up to 3.0GHz almost immediately making the issue barely noticeable anymore.

However my CPU will throttle for no reason even when there's nothing open on my laptop. It would drop down to 0.8-1.2GHz and then max out at 2.5GHz, and once my cpu throttles down to that speed, even once, turbo boost is disabled and it won't go any higher than 2.5GHz. Hence the use of throttlestop.

My presumption is that I need to open it up and check the thermal paste and re apply.

Any help or advice that you guys can offer would be great! As it stands throttlestop has negated the throttling issue to where if i'm gaming my fps will drop and then return to normal within less than a second so it's no longer impacting me so much.

Edit3: This is while idle, with just spotify and chrome open (7 tabs, one is a paused video)

 

Are running the latest BIOS and EC?

What settings on Dragon Gaming Center(if you have it installed)?

Given the 2.9Ghz clock on such low demand tasks that smells like what happened to me, Dragon Gaming, SCM and windows power management all fighting for power settings, my laptop won't idle at lower than 1.7Ghz, format, reset NVRAM, win10 pro clean install, only installed XTU, no more using 20 programs to set/config and it will downclock to 800Mhz doing light tasks like it should.

 

I believe so, as the first thing I did when I got tired of the issue was to update the bios and EC (using the ones listed on the msi website for the gt72 2qe 4th gen intel)

EC version is 1781EMS1 Ver5.05, 16/09/2014
Bios version: E1781IMS.10D, 15/09/2014

Edit2: So it appears that despite having updated my BIOS and EC, that maybe they didnt actually take effect. Date of release for the BIOS and EC on the msi support site are listed as 2015 release. I'll back up my data and then try reinstalling the updates.

I do have DGC installed yes. Power plan is high performance, shift mode is sport.

The 2.9GHz on low demand tasks is because throttlestop is forcing the CPU to sit at 2.9GHz, because without it the cpu throttles to 0.8GHz and then takes 1-2 minutes to get back up to speed, which during normal tasks isn't that bad but during gaming is disastrous (fps drops, input lag, etc)

Edit: nvm, forgot about msi help desk.

 

Uncheck the BD PROCHOT box in ThrottleStop.

 

Hmm is there a reason BD PROCHOT would be affecting things? As far as I understood it, it only comes into effect when either the cpu or gpu starts to reach the near max temp.

 

Minutes?

Thats all those stupid programs doing crap.

Speedstep(operates in the mili-second realm), I would uninstall all the MSI crap and reset the NVRAM.

 

Its because, as far as i'm aware (i am a scrub when it comes to this stuff so my understanding could be off), it's not speedstep causing the issue. My cpu is saying it's hitting temp throttling limits (even though it will be sitting at 50c) and then underclocking to 0.8GHz, at which point it takes 1-2 minutes to get back up to 2.5GHz, and after that happens even once turbo boost doesnt exist for my system.

When I have throttlestop open and active, it takes maybe 1 second for cpu to get back up to 2.9GHz.

And thanks for the advice guys, I'll have to find a fresh windows install and just reinstall the entire system, just hope i can remember what programs i actually use and what settings i've changed over time to fit my preferences.

 

OEM’s can put in more ****y who triggers throttling. Some insights... How and why Dell cripple the performance

And not only Dell has and use own ways to cripple performance

 

Ah, so basically msi is using their own numbers for prochot rather than hardware specifications?

 

I dont have any problem on the exact same laptop model, so its either software(OS, programs), or hardware.

I would do at least a repaste and see how it behaves.

 

Yeah will do, thanks for your help senso

 

Most OEM’s has their own way to cripple performance. Remember MSI also enjoy screw the buyers with Battery Boost. @Falkentyne can tell you more

 

Sure they have, and its getting to the point of being stupid that you buy unlocked CPU's and high end GPU's that cant even hold stock clocks for more than the time it takes to complete the 3dMark benchmarks.....

But the GT72 seems to be pretty unaffected by all that, locked CPU with 45 Watts TDP and a 100Watts 980m, powered by a 230Watts charger, there is plenty of power on it to not need to drain the battery, never seen mine doing so.

 

Have to say I've never noticed any drain on my battery when the AC adaptor is plugged in

 

Someone told me that NOS (battery boost) is due to government regulations (laws) regarding power and SAR (battery usage). Trying to find out more. Apparently a MSI engineer said this. Something to do with Zener diodes or something too.

 

Looks like PR bulls*** to avoid replying technically to the question...
Moreover, which laws are we talking about since MSI sells in dozens of countries ?

 

Might not be as much BS as you think.
Because *some* laptops are shipping to some regions with NOS disabled, which causes throttling (due to how the EC is programmed; a similar non-NOS issue causes the 16L13 to be limited to 91W from the CPU). You throttle if you reach the power draw point where NOS should start draining the battery--this applies to ALL MSI laptops (Except 16L13) going back to the GT70! Including GT73VR and GT75VR.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...u-throttling-to-800mhz-and-stuttering.813644/

 

Did the statement come from MSI directly to you? And it was never made official right?

 

No, it came from an India engineering student who spoke to an MSI Engineer on the phone.

It explains EXACTLY why my laptop just 'shuts off' in prime95 FMA3 small FFT at a certain voltage + temp threshold and why it shuts off **INSTANTLY** right away (like 0.001 ms) if the starting voltage is too high (the EC thinks that it will exceed 100C with that type of current so doesn't even allow it).

 

Did he call MSI headquarter directly? Because that's where the real MSI engineers work at, under a reasonable assumption, right?

 

Long story. But he talked to someone at MSI India who didn't know what (the caller) was talking about then he referred him by phone to another engineer, who didn't have access to the unlocked EC but knew some specifics about NOS and EC trip and throttling.

tl;dr: I'm trying to attain the Unlocked EC. But I guess you already know this. and I'm not doing a good job at it

 

No worries, you did an excellent job helping many users here. We do what we can do, right?

 

Just an update, disabling speedstep solved all my issues. Speedstep, normally should only underclock when idle or under low load, but for some reason my laptop was underclocking whenever cpu load would drop even if you're currently playing a game like overwatch. I'll update again if i notice throttling anymore, but so far disabling speedstep has solved my issue

 

That's awesome, seems like some users had the same issue as you did and the solution is the same.

 

Interesting to hear, as all the research I did never turned up anything in regards to speedstep other than the stock "that should only be working when it's idle so that isn't the issue" reply.


Update 3: Yup everything's fine now after re disabling speedstep, back to 3.0GHz OC. I wouldn't have minded as much if turbo was working but its not so 2.5GHz can really cause system lag if i'm trying to play a game, listen to a stream etc. i'll leave the stuff I previously wrote below just for prosperity.

TL;DR - I disabled speedstep, OC stopped working, issue was throttlestop having a day off not disabling speedstep causing issues. No stutters with -0.81mV offset so far.

Spoiler: previous updates

And now ever since disabling speedstep, my laptop will freeze and audio will stutter, requiring a hard shutdown and reboot while i'm playing overwatch.

On top of which, since disabling speedstep throttlestop OC will no longer work. Where before it would sit at 3GHz just fine with a -0.80mV offset. Now it will just sit at 2.5GHz.

I'm essentially a novice when it comes to the nitty gritty of oc and all the different systems oems etc have put in place. So if any of you guys can answer the following questions that'd be great
Is the lack of OC via throttlestop due to disabling speedstep?
Is the lack of turbo boost hinting at a bigger issue with my system? (as far as i'm aware i've never gotten speeds higher than 2.5GHz without forcing an OC via either throttlestop or XTU)
Is the fact that I now cannot push my cpu to 3.0GHz making my voltage offset unstable?

I'm running an i7-4710HQ, gtx 980m 8GB, windows 10.

Update: Tried re-enabling speedstep to see if for some bizarre reason it was denying the OC, but cpu currently locked at 2.5GHz with it on or off, Not quite sure what's happened because up to last night everything was fine with the OC :/

Update 2: So it appears throttlestop was hung up somewhere, despite restarts of pc/throttlestop cpu was locking istelf at 2.5GHz, swapping quickly between the 4 available profiles and then stopping at the one set for the OC somehow rejigged things and cpu is now OC'd again. I'll update again once i've redisabled speedstep and see if the OC comes back with the same trick. Sometimes I wonder if it's even worth trying to make this thing last and not just replace it, but being so close to the 2xxx series makes me want to power through

 

Okay new update, disabling speedstep definitely reduced the number of hiccups where my fps drops to 30 from over 200, quicker to recover now as well than before, but hasn't seemed to completely solve the issue

okay i feel silly, it looks like most of the fps drops in the past were due to speedstep throttling the cpu for no reason, but i forgot that nvidia geforce experience recently updated and of course it re-enabled battery boost, and because of the way msi handles power (even if it doesnt do anything, it clearly is telling the system it's using battery power) it was limiting fps to 30 because that makes sense....

update: disabling speedstep, and disabling battery boost in geforce experience = fps drops to 90 instead of 30, meaning annoying but doesnt impact gameplay.

Update2: Just in case this information helps anyone in the future, stuttering down to 90 happens whenever gpu load goes over 50%, not sure why but consistently happening.