Official MSI GX640 Owner's Thread

In terms of gaming, you'll notice little to no difference at the current time. More and more games are starts to support extra cores but at the moment theres no immediate demand for quad cores to play games. Video encoding, you'll definitely see a big difference.

 

Am I seriously to believe that no one has ever taken their 5850 card completely out of this laptop?
Is it simply not possible? this is so absurd.

 

lol, the when you talk about pulling out cards, the only person that I can think of that might be crazy enough to do it is kosti.

I sure haven't, haven't even repasted yet

 

From what I recall, the 5870 in the GX740 was a standard MXM..

 

Might got stuck on the thermal pads underneath the card. Why you want it off anyway ?

 

why would anyone manufacture a laptop that doesnt recover from sleep by default, that just doesnt make any sense

thanks by the way

 

Sometimes you gotta sacrifice your system for the greater good of the community. But joking aside, the card does indeed not come out right away even after removing the screws. Just make sure to remove the ground wire, then the connector to its left which I think is the webcam connector (see pic). Move these cable out of the way, and use a plastic scribe or some other piece of plastic and GENTLY pry up the card. It should eventually get loosened and lift from its base. Again, take your time and be gentle. You don't want to force it.

 

Argh this is killing me..

Does anyone play Battlefield Bad Company 2 on GX640? I've bought it 2 weeks back and this is kinda weird. Laptop doesn't really run it even with low graphics. Fps is so ing low. I haven't flashed my BIOS because of a lack of courage. Could it be the one to blame? Can You Run It? -site says that GX640 not just pass system requirements but also reaches the recommended set up. What comes to my skills with computers.. I'm as good as elephant climbing to tree.

In a wait of your replys

 

It's not the laptop's fault. The game enable some questionable stuff. Go in the video settings and disable vsync and hbao. It is suppose to improve the lighting but personally I have seen no difference. With that disabled you can max out all the other options.

 

Thanks for the reply! I tried that and the fps improved a bit, but there is no way I could max other options. FPS is about 5 when I do that. How are your videocard settings in Windows?

 

I have bc2 and i can max it out with 4x AA and HBAO, but i have vsync off. I'm using latest vbios and latest drivers from ATI. But i also have my card overclocked to 800/1100 and an intel 840qm cpu, but even without those modifications to the laptop you should be able to have all settings on high and have HBAO enabled with no AA and be able to run it fine.

 

Thank you, I'll give it another go.
That isn't the webcam cable, because I have a webcam and and my laptop came with nothing plugged in there.

To the others, what makes you think that its crazy? It could just as easily be called routine maintenance. but to answer the question I'm testing out some type A gts 250m gddr5 cards.

 

Cool let us know how that goes. those cards shouldn't perform better than the 5850 though, are you just seeing if the cards work? lol

 

Are you sure? Cause I'm pretty sure it is the webcam cable. Also according to the disassembly guide it is as well (section 10-1).

http://forum-en.msi.com/moderator/assembly-guides/MS-1651%20%20Disassemble%20SOP.pdf

 

I was thinking of the one by your pry up arrow & the vram.

I got it out lol thanks

 

so it's just standard MXM? In theory upgradeable then?

 

I believe it is a standard MXM. Yet, since there is no one that we know of, who has upgraded the card (I guess there is nothing worth upgrading to on the market right now anyway), we can't be 100% sure. Considering that previous MSI laptops were equipped with standard MXM connectors, I see no reasons for this to change.

 

yea, nothing out there that would make me considering upgrading just yet. Maybe the 7xxx series. Assuming it's the same slot though.

 

According to some sources (i.e.: AMD Radeon HD 7000 Mobility Series Graphics Cards Debut with 192-bit Bus - Free device drivers Download), the AMD 7xxx mobile series graphics chips will be MXM 3.0 compatible, so there is a light in the tunnel .

 

Yes it is definitely a standard MXM 3.0b slot. I tried a 240m GT (Alienware) in it without any problems, although that's not exactly an upgrade . I wanted to try the MSI's 5850 in my M15X but had issues with the heatsink not making good contact so I put it back in the MSI. Long story short: even if it is the same interface, there are no guarantees the heatsinks will be compatible among different models and brands of MXM cards. Looks like MSI's 5850 is slightly different than the one Dell is using in the M15X.

 

Quadro FX 1800m work well on this laptop
Anybody know what geforce driver I can use with the 1800m?

 

has anyone tried a gtx480m? Probly won't work but i am curious because there is a website that sells gtx480m mxm 3.0b video cards.

 

Why would you want a 480m. If anything go for a 470m

 

Does a 470m run faster than a 480m? lol because the numbering system wouldn't make sense then ha.

 

According to the benchmarks posted at notebookcheck, the 480 is faster but not by too much. I think the 480 will be much more money than the 470 though so that's something to consider. The other thing to consider is the heat these cards will put out in the small and somewhat poorly cooled chassis of the GX640.

 

yea, a 480m would destroy the cooling system. And you'd need a much larger PSU.

 

Ive done a lot of cooling mods but its still probably not good enough for that card lol, but i do have a 180 watt psu from targus.

 

Hey guys. Been enjoying my GX640-260US. But I've noticed that every so often, a game I'm playing will lock up for like 2-3 secs and then go back to normal. Temps are normal and I have a notebook cooler under it. It's about 3 days old. Any ideas as to what might be going on?

Because I bought it with an upgraded hard drive, so I don't have any of the MSI software on it.

 

What game does it lock up on? Perhaps it's the game itself causing the problem.

 

I was playing the SWG Emulator and World of Warcraft.

 

Have you updated your drivers and vbios and do you have gaming mode on? it could be your cpu that is causing it because i think mmo's use a lot of cpu power.

 

jonathan300, If I remember correctly, You were having some issues with Your GX640 shutting down at full load, after the CPU upgrade and GPU OCing. Did the Targus PSU help solve the issues?

 

Successfully swap the screen (see sig). My advice is to grab the front bezel, pull away from the screen, move the bezel to the center. Add some strength but be careful not to break the bezel.

The screen is a whole lot more brighter, slightly higher resolution, and matte. Screen quality look great but I though the original screen look great for a CCFL but the brightness was not working out for me.

 

hmm, will this work in the gx 640?

311 ID - i7-740QM CPU HP Envy 17 & 14 Beats Upgrade - eBay (item 370427454759 end time Feb-28-11 17:54:02 PST)

 

I have gaming mode on, but I've not updated the vbios or drivers. I should have thought about that. I'll do that tonight. Is there a utility that will update the vbios? I don't want to kill my gpu.

 

MSI Forum HQ USB flashing tool

this you can use to flash bios, vbios and ec.
extremely easy

 

ha oh yea. i havn't tried that again. i probly will sometime soon and i will tell you what happens.

 

Just tried it and yes it didn't shut down this time but furmark was stuttering. so the problem was the psu

 

on the ebay page you linked it said you had to buy a laptop from them in order to purchase the cpu or else your order will be canceled

 

Hey everyone, I've got a problem.

A while back I spilled milk on my keyboard. Its been in the shop for a month and they can't find the part, and MSI apparently doesn't want anyone but them messing with the computer, so they've returned it to me.

I don't know what to do now. Do I send it in? If so, how? Or can I buy a new one and install it myself?

I'm using my Mac's keyboard right now so the only annoyance is switching between the computers, but I'd really love to get my laptop back up to top shape.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

 

If you're willing to replace it yourself, you can email RK computers, they should have the part.

 

Has anyone bought from their MSI from XoticPC and then sent it back to have the CPU upgraded? I don't know that I'll need to just yet as the game I want to play hasn't released system requirements. Just want to make sure I'll be able to play it on at least average settings. Waiting on Star Wars: The Old Republic. Anyone else looking forward to this?

 

You won't have any problems with processor for all of the lifecycle of this notebook. GPU will most likely get "old" to handle newest games before the processor, so rest assured and spend your money elswhere

 

ok I need some elaboration on this.

What should I choose as "Diskimage" ?

 

Following this: HOWTO: Create a bootable USB key (For flashing BIOS, firmware, etc) - GameBeat Forums might be easier. And when you are done extract every file at the root of the flash drive. If there is a 031 folder just move the contents to the root of the flash drive. Reboot with the flashdrive plugged in and type flash-031.bat. There is no flash.bat file in the archive so the command you were previously given wouldn't have worked anyway.

 

Ok, thanks for the comment.

 

Hey guys first post and I have a couple of questions.

I got my gx640-260us about 2 1/2 months ago and I have been loving it. I am actually looking to overclock my GPU and my CPU. I currently have a cooling mat and it has really improved the laptops quality when playing games.

couple of questions though:

1.) What are the benefits of flashing to the latest vbios?
2.) What are stable OC values for the CPU and GPU and what programs do you guys recommend to use it with.
3.) Is it even worth OCing the laptop?


Thanks D

 

1. lower temps if it's undervolted and also fixes hibernation issue I believe. As well as fixing idle temps.
2. Use SetFSB to OC the CPU, along with Throttlestop. Also use HPET so that your games don't speed up with a CPU OC. I suggest going at 750/1050 for GPU clock using the Overdrive function in Catalyst control center.
3. Yes.

 

Thanks for the quick reply! Is it worth checking "enable manual fan control" and put it to 100% as well?

Also, what do you recommend OCing the CPU too?

 

both the files that guide is based on arent available anymore

edit: okay I found the files elsewhere but the HP USB boot utility doesnt work with Windows 7, any alternatives?