MSI GX740 with 5870 1gb ddr5

NOOOOOOOOO Don't do it inside the OS, you're lucky you didn't brick the GPU.
Go here
http://forum.notebookreview.com/6587366-post1299.html

 

yeah one of the worst things you can do to your laptop is updating vbios via Windows. The proper way is to make a bootable USB drive and then update the vbios via DOS.

 

I haven't used that before, so I just make sure everything is done outside the OS drive correct? I have two drives, so just put it in my DATA (D) drive?

 

Uhh you use a usb flash drive. Then follow the instructions in the post and when you start up put the key into one of the USB ports (can't be the eSATA combo port)

 

Alright awesome, thanks for the help. I'm no computer wiz or guru, so its appreciated.

 

I have a tiny problem. I decided to get rid off all useless crap on my laptop. At the same time I uninstalled web cam drivers and other software, because I thought that those would be easy to get back later if needed. So, I lately needed web cam and checked out msi webpage for drivers. There was only one kind a depressing sentence about the camera: "This device uses the native driver bundled in operating system." Do you have any ideas to get this web cam working without messing with Windows backup?

 

Does your device manager list it as unknown device or something?

 

Does anyone have an i7-920XM CPU? Could You post Your load temps? I'm thinking about getting one...

 

Has anyone tried to use the LCD overdrive in the CCC?
I heard it makes the screen response quicker but may have side effects...

 

The latest BIOS for GX740 is dated 2010-09-10. The description says: Support new BIOS rom.
Has anyone tried it?

Link here:
MSI GX740 BIOS download page

 

Marecki I have been searching all over ebay for that Targus power supply. Who was your seller and what connector do you use connected to the gx740?

 

TARGUS AC POWER NOTEBOOK ADAPTER APA05US PA-1181-08 - eBay (item 360273242231 end time Oct-14-10 20:36:26 PDT)
Direct link, cheap as dirt($25), maybe You can find it even cheaper. Just type in "APA05 Targus" in ebay search.

The connector comes with the PSU. It's 5,5x2,5 with a black tip.

 

Now that I know what pop-ins are.

I see what you were talking about from this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpoifNn0rCs
Look at the wall. (29secs in the video)

To be an Optimist Prime! It's not THAT bad!!
Also gives better fps

 

Thanks for that link. Just bought one. I'll probably use it as my primary and keep the cheaper-looking stock PSU in my travel bag.

 

Hi I've tried it and have found out that it down clocks my system, I.E before
the update in GTAIV with every thing very high I used to get 27fps odd and now every thing high I just get 19fps
Does any one have a copy of the old BIOS I can have as its not on MSI's web site any more or if you know how to back up a
BIOS as I can get it from my sisters laptop.

 

Thanks for the link!!!!!

Just order one.

 

Always at Your service guys.

@Portugeeza1:

PM me with Your e-mail address, I will send You the previous BIOS.

 

lol.

I really wish I had a camera right now
Just bought a 500GB HDD for $35 to go with my eSATA enclosure I got for $20.
Got my keyboard moved from the laptop's USB to my Zalman's USB and then plugged in my old USB external into the keyboard's old slot.
So right now I got 5 peripherals plugged in, including 2 external HDD, a 320gb usb and 500gb eSATA. Add my headset connection into it and you get a mess of wires.

 

lol the setup just crashed the laptop.

I turned off the HDD enclosure to adjust its position a little bit. Turned it back on, everything went okay then the entire system locked up. I could move the cursor but it went really slow/choppy. Tried to open up HWMonitor that I had open but doesn't click.

So I had to hold down the power button. Turned on the enclosure again and it wasn't recognized. Tried to open intel rapid storage in the tray icon but it just crashes.

Turned the enclosure on/off again and it seems to be working now...

 

Told you not to buy the Vantec enclosure.

Anyway, I bought that Targus PSU from eBay on Saturday, and it was in my mailbox today, which is fast even for USPS Priority from Texas to Illinois. Got it hooked up right now, and it's working great. It's much bigger than I was expecting, so I will definitely keep it as the primary and use the stock MSI PSU for travel.

 

Does the new PSU get very hot under high load?

 

Nah I'm very satisfied with it. Plug and Play eSATA that's not very big and very quiet. About the lockup, it was a random thing, did the same thing again on purpose and nothing went wrong.

Now I can download games from Steam without worrying about HDD space.

Directory Junction works with it as well, which is a huge bonus since I can run Steam right on the disk but still have the Steam installed on my main disk.

 

I played Crysis for a while, and the PSU was barely warm to the touch.

 

Nice, that's the reason I wanted to change my PSU, while playing Starcraft 2 on ultra it gets very very very hot.

I hope mine gets here soon.

 

Hi, i have just bought a gx740 and its great ^^
The lastest vBIOS from msi is the one dated 2010-07-02 ? and if so, this is the one you guys recommend to uptade?
Thanks

Edited: i forgot one more thing, wich bios version are you using guys?
Thanks again

 

I bought this lovely laptop and I was playing aaaall the week end

but then I saw the ati driver panel and I realized the drivers were "old" I then proceeded to upgrade the drivers through the ati website with the latest mobility drivers and... weird enough, the gpu is not recognized... it states that is simply a generic ati mobility 58XX without mentioning the actual model while, when running the drivers earlier from the clean installation, it stated clearly the model.

it's that normal? or it is somehow a problem? I haven't got a powerful computer with a nice graphic adapter since loooong time so probably I won't notice the difference but I would like to understand why the drivers that I have says 8.7320 and they're dated back to may, even if I downloaded the drivers directly from the ati website >.>

am I doing something wrong? am I missing something? usually we're supposed to stick with the manufactorer driver which I did downloading the whole thing from msi website.
but is there a way to have updated drivers or I'm bound to wait till a msi new release?
for the moment I'm reverting back to the old drivers

 

Newer drivers will say 5800 series because MSI didn't certify them. Nothing is wrong you can still use those drivers.

I always download the drivers from MSI's website and at the moment it's on cat 10.5 released in June.

Just get the drivers from MSI's website and they will say 5870. Newest drivers straight from AMD will say 5800 series.

 

thank you very much. that's what I kinda supposed >.> but I wasn't sure

 

Are you sure its the black tip? When comparing them side by side, it appears that the yellow tip connector matches better.

 

It's the small, black tip.

 

You are right, my mistake. I actually use the yellow tip connector. Thanks for correcting my mistake. +rep

 

Is the fan's profile supposed to be so aggressive? Even when my temperature is below 50ºC it is blazing off, although only in the lowest.

Is there any way to tweak the fan profile so that it would not be running all the time?

 

AFAIK No.

The CPU also goes to that heatsink. If your CPU's temp is getting high it will start the fans.

 

Well both CPU and GPU is idling on ~50ºC and the fan is running on the lowest speed, but I would like that the fan would start somewhere like near 60's. But can't have always everything you'd like.

 

do you have the i7 or i5?

 

Gah I can't seem to find a better alternative to the 10.5 drivers from MSI's website.

Performance wise I don't see any increases, in fact a few games have worse performance.

Main thing are the temps, with the MSI website drivers I get 78-79 on full load. With 10.7 or 10.8 I seem to get 81-83.

 

Hi, Bearclaw have you made any mod to your lap aside vBIOS flashing with the latest one to get 78-79º on full load?

 

Nope, only vBIOS flash.
I do have a Zalman NC2000 cooler though, but it barely makes a difference at all. I forgot to turn it on one time and I didn't notice any temp differences, lol.

 

Oki, ty ^^
What about the newest bios in the msi web page? does anyone apart from Portugueeza1 have tested it ? or just running the stock bios :? I would like to know if there is a bios version we should be using.

 

I was playing House with VLC on an old flash drive and the laptop BSOD'ed hehe.

Wasn't like any BSOD I've ever seen, didn't say anything about what failed. It seemed like the screen was zoomed in, or it just doesn't give the error.

Dunno, played the same file when I transferred it onto my local HDD, no problems.

 

Well, it doesn't exist in device manager list. So should I try downloading random web cam drivers and hope if one of them would recognise the web cam?

 

Can you try turning on the webcam button on and then looking for it in the device manager?

once you find it I think you can search for the hardware ID that the device manager gives and see if you find any software for it.

 

Hi.
Something weird happened ... i dont know why but i cant turn on my wifi with the button i dont know what happened ... any clues? i cant use wifi right now.
It happened before i flashed the last EC firmware, does anyone have a previous version of the EC firmware so i can try to flash and see if it works again?

 

Well, the problem "evolved" now the wifi is working (i flashed the ec and bios again and i made the ec reset in both cases), i have to hit several times the wifi button in order to make it works but it works. The problem now is that the lan isnt working... it was warking before but suddently after one of the reboots it stoped working, windows recognizes the lan device but when i plug a cable the status displays "network cable disconected".
Any ideas?

 

Are the lights on for the lan?

 

Well, i've just come back home and now all seems to be working as intended. The truth is that i dont know why now it is all ok because i have done nothing i havent done before. The lap was in my bag without the batt so i have done an EC reset because of that (already done LOT of times before), that's the only thing i think has solved it but as i said before i had already done that with no success... Thats really really weird..

 

Good to hear it's working.

On an unrelated note can you post your temps, just wanna compare with mine.

Thanks.

 

idling at 46-48º full load (just tested wow at ultra settings) 66-75º
btw im having between 35-60 fps in wow with ultra settings do you thing thats a good frame rate for this lap in that game?

 

Are you sure it's 99% or 100% GPU usage in WoW?

If so then those temps are phenomenal.

Do you have Just Cause 2, Dirt 2, or any demanding games?

 

I didnt check the gpu-z in the critical times (big fights) ill log to file next time