MSI MS-1651 Montevina BTO Notebook Barebone

has anyone else run into mic volume problems?

 

You have a link to that? The tutorial I tried running failed.

 

http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=5754065&postcount=62


anyone get sound though?

 

where is pitch shift? also, I don't have a dolby tab...

 

Sorry man, I don't think anyone knows about the sound. I'm only going to install Ubuntu once the driver issues are worked out...

 

You have to access the sound properties from the Control Panel (Classic View)

Highlight the speakers, go to properties and the Dolby tab should show up. For some reason it doesnt show up if you just doble click on the sound icon in the task bar.

If you still don't see the tab you might need to install the proper driver

 

gonwk~gonwk!!
I gotz no MS-1651 gonwk!!!!

By the way, the MIC can be "boosted", can't it?

 

To those with mic issues, I haven't tried it yet, so I don't know. I won't expect somethign superb from what I hear on this board.

for some reason, after brining my laptop to school, turbo and eco failed. Because it sounds like a SCM problem, I reinstalled. Didn't work . Any solution?

 

So... Up until now....

Pros:
- Great screen
- Sturdy
- Minimalist design
- Great heat-management

Cons:
- Lousy speaker
- Flex keyboard
- SCM problem (what is this?)
- Weird microphone placing

 

Also I think under pros you should add "awkward keyboard layout".
I think you could add "numerous cool features" to pros . But yeah, that sums it up.

I was going to write a review, but NBR is currently in the process of doing one so I won't bother unless people really want one.

 

More Pro's would be:

- Quiet
- Pretty light considering its a gaming laptop
- Turbo (one-key overclocking to 20%)

More Cons:
- Fingerprint magnet

I can't stress enough how good the screen and the overall looks are.

The SCM (System Control Manager) is the software that controls the touch sensors over the keyboard (Eco, Turbo). It's giving me no issues yet. If it continues to give problems to users it will very likely be fixed and re-released by MSI soon.

 

The OP should put that in the first page...
Is it that glossy?
I thought it's matte?

 

Oh is NBR doing a review? How do we know that??

 

The WSXGA+ screen is matte. As opposed to the typical ones, this one is very bright and not grainy at all. I had a glossy WSXGA one before and I don't miss it at all.

 

I can confirm the NBR is doing a review of the WSXGA+ PowerPro P 15:3 (MSI-1651)

 

Anyone having issues with the turbo memory modules? I have installed the latest intel drivers and I get the following message:

"it appears that the Intel Turbo Memory device is not functioning properly or is not present'

Could this be a hardware issue?

Device manager show no problems...

 

My palmrest flexes around the middle if I press hard enough... Happens to anyone else? The sides are sturdy

 

Yeah, Chaz told me a few days ago.

 

Pros:
- Great screen
- Good viewing angles
- Sturdy
- Quiet
- Cool temperatures
- ECO + Turbo functions
- Light & Thin
- Minimalist design
- Great heat-management

Cons:
- Screen isn't as matte as some of my other matte screens. Seems to have a little glare, although nothign when compared to glossys
- Lousy speaker
- Flex keyboard
- Middle palmrest flex
- Squished keys on the side (small shift)
- Fingerprint magnet
- SCM problem, ECO and Turbo suddenly stops working for no reason
- Weird microphone placing/microphone ineffectiveness

 

It's worth noting that some of those are subjective (sleek look), and the SCM problem only happens to some people. It works fine for me. I didn't expect a good mic or speaker system anyways, the main drawback as far as I'm concerned, is bad keyboard layout on the right side.

 

Edited out the sleek look. I'm keeping the SCM thing there until it's solved for everyone. Moving my laptop to school to find it suddenly stopped working is unacceptable. I'm not the only one having this problem either.

 

Is anyone else having issues with their turbo memory modules?

 

I have been able to work out my eSATA issue (was more a matter of my not configuring it properly).

There are too many pros to list for this at the moment.

I feel like the keyboard is good, maybe a bit small, but I can deal with that. I never used the right shift anyways. My keyboard only flexes if I press down on it hard, so that is not a worry to me, and I am not understanding the palm rest flex, mine has none as far as I'm concerned.

The surface is black, why the fingerprint complaint, it's brush aluminum.

I have Turbo or Eco issue (though Turbo I have not stress tested, so I have no been able to tell the difference).

Made skype calls and the webcam and mic worked fine, the people on the other end could here and see me fine they said.

Overall I am satisfied, installed several demos for new games (UT3, Crysis, CoD4) and the results are positive. Crysis has a horrible engine design, it chugs when attempt to put same settings as UT3 and CoD4 and looks worse. UT3 and CoD4 able to put max everything and the games ran smooth. UT3 even took online with max settings and it worked fine (keep in mind screen resolution was 1680 x 1050).

 

MS-1651/1722 do not support Intel Robson (Turbo Memory).
Manufacturer's webpage says Not Available.

 

May we have a link to that? I've been working with a customer that has this model and Turbo Memory installed. Windows detects it and lets you install drivers for it, but when he tries to enable ReadyBoost or ReadyDrive it unchecks them after a restart. And when he tries to use the User Pinning Dashboard it says there is no Turbo Memory installed or it's not functioning (just like the screenshot Wasamandrapa posted a page back). If it's because there's a compatibility problem that might explain it, but it seems odd the resellers would let these be sold with Turbo Memory if it wasn't supported.

 

Both these models do support turbo memory. We have both here confirmed running with 4GB max turbo memory. It has also been confirmed with the manufacture both do support turbo memory. The MSI product page may not have been updated to reflect the proper specs.

 

Check again, always double-check, if they do support Robson then Robson Support would be showing Yes or Supported but not N/A, it doesn't make sense, right? I didn't see that in both sites.
http://www.msicomputer.com/NB/product_index.asp
http://taiwan.msi.com.tw/index.php?...at_no=135&cat2_no=&cat3_no=&prod_no=1529#menu

 

Checked, double, and triple. As I said we have verbally confirmed with the manufacture. I am on a 1651 now, vista ultimate with 4GB turbo memory, Pinned.

These models have been running weeks with no issues............

 

OK, let me call MSI Taiwan right now....

Update:
I said to the Tech Support lady "Ni how", blah blah blah...
They have no answer because support engineers are not available right now, so I have to wait till they call me back.

 

Let me know what you find out from them, if it differs i will contact MSI USA again in the AM.

 

Hi Joe and Rob, thanks for the feedback. I am running Vista Premium 64 and I am experiencing *exactly* what Joe described.

I got the driver from here:

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/fil...ndows+Vista*+64&lang=eng&strOSs=150&submit=Go!

I am not sure of what to do next. Could some software be interfering with the drivers? Or is my TM module defective perhaps?

 

Thank you both, Rob and MasterBW, for looking into it. I certainly don't want to keep banging my head into the wall on this unnecessarily. Note that the factory asked me to check with the customer to ensure AHCI is enabled in the BIOS. I would think that it would be by default since this is a model designed for Vista, but we'll see. While we're on the subject, can anyone confirm that the option to change that is reached by hitting DEL at start-up to enter the BIOS, going to the Advance(d) tab and choosing SATA [AHCI] because when I attempted that with the customer previously he claimed he couldn't find that option anywhere in his BIOS.

@Wasamandrapa: One thing I tried with the customer I'm working with which was unsuccessful, but might work for you, is to update your chipset, Matrix storage, and Turbo Memory drivers all to the latest ones and in that order. According to a post I read on the ASUSTek forums the problem can be caused by mismatched Intel drivers. As in the latest Turbo Memory driver not cooperating with the older chipset driver. As I said, it didn't work for the customer in this case because it refused to let him install the Matrix driver because it said he didn't meet the system requirements for it.

 

AHCI is what needs to be enabled for the turbo mem to function.

 

This is what I have listed under the advanced tab in the Bios:

Intel Speedstep Tech (Enabled)
Intel C-state tech (E)
Dynamic FSB Workaround (Disabled)
SATA LPM Function (D)
CPU Overclock
PCI Latency
Legacy USB Support
SATA #1 configuration
Active State Power Management (Enabled)

I can't seem to find the AHCI option.

Joe thanks a lot I'll give it a shot

 

Try opening the SATA #1 configuration, if it's expandable or has another level. It should be there.

 

Sam I just checked and yes, its there, below IDE and RAID

I selected AHCI and got a BSOD when trying to reboot! Twice. I had to go back to IDE to be able to log into Windows.

 

Was it configured for IDE? That'd be the problem, if it was. Your system was configured for IDE when the OS was installed. When you enable AHCI now it bluescreens, which is the normal behavior for this situation. But AHCI does have to be on for Intel Turbo Memory to work. There is a way to install the AHCI driver without having to reinstall the whole OS. Give me a minute to turn up the guide for that and I'll edit it into this post for you.

EDIT: Since you're using Vista this is actually quite easy, it just requires changing one registry key. See the Microsoft article here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922976
After you do the registry edit you should restart and then Enable AHCI in the BIOS before Windows tries to boot up. Save and Exit from the BIOS and then Vista should start normally.

Please let us know if enabling AHCI fixes the Turbo Memory problem. I really appreciate you working with me on this because I think it may well solve my customer's problem as well.

 

Thanks a lot!

*EDIT:

Joe, I followed the instructions, changed the Msahci value in the registry to zero, went to the BIOS, changed the SATA config to AHCI, and still got the BSOD. I am not sure if my OS was installed under IDE really (I am kind of a newby). I would assume that, since they built my laptop with the TM module included, it would be already configured to recognize it. But then you never know.

If it's of any help, the original value of the Msahci was 4

No problem, I would also like to fix this if possible

 

I agree that it makes little sense that the factory would install Turbo Memory, then install Vista, and forget to enable AHCI. Still, it seems likely that it was installed under IDE, because the computer starts up normally in IDE mode and bluescreens in AHCI mode. Vista supports AHCI natively, so if it detects it during the OS install it enables its drivers for it, otherwise it leaves them off. So now the question is why isn't the registry key working. Everywhere I turn for methods for enabling AHCI on Vista after its installed point back to that Knowledge Base article from Microsoft.

First, check that registry key again to make sure its value was kept and didn't get changed back. Try uninstalling the Turbo Memory driver, then restart and enable AHCI, and see if Vista will start. Probably not it, but all I can think of really. If push comes to shove, you may have to enable AHCI and reinstall Vista from scratch.

Also, when it bluescreens do you get the error message mentioned in the article, "STOP 0x0000007B INACCESSABLE_BOOT_DEVICE" or something different?

 

Joe I triple checked, uninstalled the drivers, changed to AHCI but still get the BSOD. The blue screen is displayed for like half a second, so its impossible for me to read it...

It's late so I should leave. If I cant find any other alternative I guess I'll have to reinstall from scratch, probably tomorrow. What a pain...

Thanks for the help though, I'll keep you posted on anything useful I find.

 

UPDATE:
MSI Taiwan reported GX620/720/MS-1651/MS-1722 do not support Turbo Memory.

 

Has anyone else noticed the hard drive makes a clicking sound in very random intervals? It is not a constant clicking, just a single "click" that doesn't seem to be triggered by anything I'm doing.

It's like, every once in a while, it decides to make a loud "click" sound to make sure I'm still awake or something

I feared it meant that the drive might be defective. But I haven't had a single problem with it so far. No defective sectors. No lost data.

Is my case isolated?

EDIT: Guess I should mention what Hard Drive I got: it is a WD Scorpio Blue 320GB (WD3200BEVT)

EDIT2: I checked on WD website and found this soultion. However, the MSI-1651 doesn't have a floppy drive. I tried the solution by placing the files in a USB drive, but it didn't work. Do I need to borrow an external floppy drive from someone or is there another way to make this solution work?

 

Run Western Digital diagnostic tool or something.

 

It appears you may have the wrong bios in this notebook. You should not be seeing the option "CPU overclock" In the MS-1651 model notebook.

 

Didn't someone a couple of pages back get the Turbo feature to work by pressing the side of their Eco button, closest to where the Turbo button would have been? I think they also mentioned having the CPU overclock in their BIOS. Does anyone else with the 1651 have that option?

 

well its been determined that it has the turbo feature built in even though they said it wouldn't, if that has anything to do with it

turbo works for me

 

That was me. Yes, if I press on the right of the Eco button, I get the turbo option enabled, as you can see in the screenshot below:



Could the "wrong" bios be the cause of the malfunction of the Turbo Memory in my system?

 

The current bios file I show being used provides a option for a CPU OC in bios. (as others have mentioned)

 

MSI Taiwan reported that Turbo Memory "may" be supported depending by Resellers. So some reseller may have a BIOS that does support Turbo memory while some may not.

 

The Turbo option is great. It overclocks the system up to 20% and the difference in performance is very noticeable