Official MSI GX640 Owner's Thread

Hmm i just went to the MSI USA website and it was the latest vbios. What vbios did you see?

 

what i can see from gpu-z
bios version: 012.020.000.002.036533

 

i dont think that's the latest one, but i may be wrong. Does anyone know for sure?

 

Thats the vbios, and yes you are correct in that it is not the most recent version.
Old: 36533
New: 35701

 

Hello all,

As i promised here is my review about upgrading from a i5 430m to i7 740 qm on a msi gx640 notebook, and a little mod of the cooling.

Original Notebook specs:
i5 430m
HD 5850 M 1 GB
8 GB kingston Ram 1333
500 GB harddrive 7200 rpm

First of all the normal temps with the i5 430m
after running 3 times 3d mark 06 the temps are:

i5 430m
core 0 88 °C
core 1 90 °C

HD 5850 M
90 °C

3dmark 06 score 11431 3Dmarks

Upgraded Notebook specs:
i7 740QM 1.73 GHz turbo 2.93 GHz
HD 5850 M 1 GB
8 GB kingston Ram 1333
500 GB harddrive 7200 rpm


Oke in the picture below i have replaced the i5 430m for a i7 740qm.
It isnt hard to do so just screw 2 screws loose for the backplate and scew 9 scews loose to make the heat pipes come off.

After that i replace the heatpipes to the original place back and screw the screws tight. See picture below.

After assemble the laptop i started it up the notebook and run 3dmark 06 for 3 times again and looked it the temps. See picture.

-

As you can see the temps from the i7 are high but not to high, but the graphicscard is 103 °C, thats to high.
So i have been seaching around the web how i can cool the notebook better.
I have found this website:
P4G / [REVIEW] MSI Gaming Séries GX640 (i5 430m)
So i buyed some heat spreaders and cool tape to cool the ram better and replaced the old ones. See pictures below.

As you can see at the picture above there i have replaced the cool tape.
At the pictures below have i placed heat spreaders from zalman.

-

I didnt mod the backplate. I have tested the temps again see pictures below.

-

The temps are better than before. Before i forget see the inproved 3d mark 06 score below.


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I hope that this review will help some people.

Any questions or things i can do better at this post just reply me.
I am not English at all, So improve me.


Cheers,
Robert

 

may i know how to update my vbios?
i downloaded the latest vbios from msi website and what should i do now?
and what is the best ati driver are you guys using now?

 

help!!! half the keys of my keyboard is suddenly not working. im using on screen keyboard to type. even keys tat i hardly use dont work. i did not spill or drop anything on the keyboard and the laptop is only 2 months old

 

I went and purchsed the screen from a site called lcds4less, next day delivery, so i got it today but they sent me some samsung wsxga+ screen intead.....grrr I looekd up the screen and the one they sent would've cost £114 but the one i ordered only cost £70.

edit, i have had an email apologising for the mistake and replacement has been sent out

 

hmm..............

 

i'm using the 11.4 preview driver.

 

You know its a standard screen... They go for about 60$ USD in mint condition...

 

I didn't know that driver was for mobility cards. where did you download it from? I'm using 11.3 right now.

 

anyone know how to flash vbios to the latest version?

 

finally reached 9k! 3dmark vantage with clocked at 880/1025



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I hope I can shave off 2-5C idles temps with the VGA heatsink from zalman or ebay knock off. Did you notice any difference in temps when you install the heat sink? I am happy with my loads temps (i7-720@75c and 5850m OC@ below 90c).

 

first running of 3dmark06
880/1025



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len888, try this
http://www.msi.com/html/pdf/How_to_flash_MSI_Notebook_BIOS_under_DOS_mode.pdf

My first post here! This thread has been very useful before and after I bought my laptop. Thank you all!

 

i couldnt continue at this step
. Execute the batch file Flash.BAT and press <Enter> key at DOS prompt B:\>.The disk code name (B:\>)where the files are save
The disk code name (B:\>)where the files are saved may be different under
different conditions.

im using my usb thumb drive and the bios files are saved inside (drive F
I tried to type F: but it says invalid =/
when i type B: some numbers came out but i couldnt flash the bios =/


anyone could help me flash my vbios?

 

I believe when you boot from bootable flash disk (with DOS on it), your flash disk will be read as A:\>
Try typing DIR to retrieve directory contents, so you won't be missing anything. You can also "browse" for files using CD (change directory) command.

 

i still couldnt flash from A:\
i got this message when i type DIR

driver (dir)
freedos (dir)
Command con 66,945
FDconfig SYS 1.768
Kernel SYS 45,341
3 files 114.054 bytes
2dir(s) 1,259,520 bytes free =/

 

Great to hear this works. I'm looking into one, I think I'm getting it, but I wanted an i7 in it. Anyone tried a 460M or 6970? I HIGHLY doubt the 6970 wpuld work, since its so hot, but maybe an 460M, if its recognized by the BIOS?

 

finally finally i could reached 890/1025 clock with 1.10 voltage
with this awesome 3dmarkvantage score


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I need a VGA cable!! does anyone in jersey have one? It would be the quickest way to know if the 470m works

 

What do you mean?

 

I have a 470m here, but its a strange card and doesn't work on internal LCD.
Until I test it over VGA, I can't really know if its working or not.
If the gx640 BIOS supports it at all, it means that the 470m in gx640 is possible somehow!

 

Just drilled holes on back case over the fan and gpu, my idle gpu temps went from 54-56 idle to 46-48!!

Have copper shim, ram sinks, and arctic silver in the mail!

Just trying to eliminate the ridiculous fan cycle between stage 1 and 2 while doing practically nothing.

 

Got it. I hope that works. Would be cool.

 

Has anyone tried to use i7 940 in this system yet?
where can i buy this cpu?

 

Wow... you probably payed to much... You should have just made a stop at my place in paterson, I'd have given you mine for 700$ cash

Your critique is very vague. In comparison to what?

If you are looking for bells, whistles, LEDs and other features get an asus or alienware.

Oh... Really, you don't like it do you...?

Thank you SO MUCH for letting us know.....!!

CCFLs and LEDs are a type of lighting. Period.

LEDs are undeniably vastly more efficient & brighter. Notebooks with LED backlit screens get better battery life. No question.

MSI does not loooooooove WSXGA+. Seriously, the gx640 is discontinued.
Its not about the resolution, its about the chassis which is 16:10 and uses CCFL backlit screens.

Unfortunately we wont see any of these anymore. No more new notebooks with 16:10 or wsxga.

The gx640 is basically a new motherboard in an old chassis. ONLY its bare specifications can be compared to modern notebooks...

 

Hi, I'm finally thinking of getting a SSD for my gx640 and was wondering which ones you guys have and how you like them? I'm not interested in the hybrids, just strait up SSD.

thanks!

 

The one thing I would say is just to stay away from sandforce SSDs. They're great SSDs but teh GX640s seems to have trouble properly recognizing them. It's not a guaranteeed issue, but enough to be owrth avoiding.

And yes I love my SSD, and my hybrid hehe

 

I'm somewhat disappointed by the gx640-260us..

8 gigs of ram
5850
i5 450m 2.40ghz

Black Ops really doesn't run very well, many open maps in the game have huge fps drops which make it very hard to play at times.

Crysis seemed to run fine on the lowest settings but still had fps drops.

WoW in 25 man raids is terrible and extremely laggy.

I don't know if I am not doing something right or something is wrong. I haven't updated my bios (I don't think that will give an fps increase) and I am currently running catalyst 11.2 and my laptop is set to high performance...

Also, how are you guys overclocking so much, I am currently at 625/1000 and if I push those values up the top of my screen begins to flicker.

I really thought this laptop could handle a lot of games with perfect dps but I guess not :|

 

what are your temps with full load and gaming?
and have you done something to make the notebook cooler?

 

I dont know what you are doing.
But i play black ops at full settings all max only ANTI_ALIASING off.
I play the game with 90 fps at the most time but when a grenate explode it will drop to 65 a 70 fps but you do not notice it at all.
I play multiplayer and singleplayer as well.

The notebook does its work very good.

And i didnt clock my graphics card.
I use the latest graphics driver from the amd website.

cheers,
Robert

 

I think something might be wrong with your laptop or settings..
I ran both crysis at max settings

 

Do you guys turn ECO on when you game? Also is Power play shut off?

 

Well, yes i turn the eco on and power play is on, but it really doesn't do anything but make sure the brightness is all the way up and that the cpu is clocked to its max stock settings (even though it automatically already does this when you start a game). But you should not be getting that bad of performance with this laptop, because i am able to play crysis 2 with max settings and still retain around 30 fps average throughout the game (it does drop below that occasionally). I would suggest using this driver Gamefront (it is the newest 11.4 preview driver for mobility cards and it has the best performance of any driver, but i think the official one is getting released very soon )

Also you should update to the newest vbios.
This is how i did it. I did the process to verify that it worked.
1)Download this tool: HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool - v2.1.8 Download - EXTREME Overclocking
2)Then download the Windows 98 bootable files here: Windows 98 System Files Download - EXTREME Overclocking
3)Install the HP USB Disk Storage format Tool.
4)Unzip the win98boot file that you downloaded in step 2.
5)Then load up the HP tool and select your device and check "Quick Format" and "Create a DOS startup disk". Then under that option click on "using DOS system files located at:"
6)Then click on the button to the right of that box and browse to the unzipped win98boot folder. Click on that folder and hit ok.
7)Now you hit start and it will format your now bootable usb flash drive.
8)Next download the vbios files from here: MSI Global ? Download Center
9)Unzip the 1656_031 file.
10)Open up the uzipped 1656_031 folder and open up the 031 folder inside of it.
11)Copy everything from the 031 folder to the root of your usb drive.
12)Then rename the flash-031.bat that you just copied to the root of the usb drive to vbios.bat (if you don't have the "show file extensions" option checked in windows' folder options then the "flash-031.bat" will just appear as "flash-031" without the ".bat" extension, and if that is the case just rename it to "vbios" without the ".bat" at the end.)

Now it's time to actually flash the vbios.

13)Reboot the computer with the usb drive plugged into the computer. You should be automatically booted into a windows 98 command prompt.
14)The only thing you have to do now is type "vbios" without the quotes and hit enter. It should automatically flash it and it should say to reboot the computer.
15)Now shut off the computer by hitting the power button on your laptop, and unplug the usb drive.
16)Now you should have your new vbios flashed!

 

How do I check my CPU's settings and if they are maxed? I appreciate the write up as well.

 

I meant max clock frequency. Like mine is 1.2 ghz, but then when it gets under load it automatically boosts itself to 1.86Ghz or 3.2Ghz (if it is not using all 4 cores). I use CPU-z to check the clocks.

 

I just opened up CPU-Z and it is at 2.4mhz while I'm on my desktop .

I just opened up Portal 2 and alt tabbed and its still at 2.4mhz - 2.6mhz.

I can also only see Processor #1 because the drop down menu isn't selectable.

 

That's how it should be, and then when you start a game it should boost up to 2.66Ghz.
You can only see processor #1 because you only have one processor in your laptop.

 

I was thinking of cores when I wrote that, my bad.

 

I have holes drilled into the bottom panel, although I'm in need for serious repasting. My CPU gets to around 83-88 while the GPU can go up to 103, though thats just the Mem I/O (the rest of the sensors don't go over 80)

 

oke thanks i have the same temps at my laptop without drilled holes. so its not weird that my themps are high.

 

Can someone help me i am using CPUID hardware monitor.
I have a i7 740qm in my laptop that uses 45 w says intel.com.
but when i game Hardware Monitor says that processor power is max
54.21 w can someone explane how it can be that the CPU uses more W than it says on the intel website. and can i set the max W to 45 W.

Cheers,
Robert


Solved!!
I have contacted intel in a chat and the other watts will be used for the comonents in the notebook. ^^

 

I have latest vbios, 2 weeks ago after i installed 11.4 preview drivers for laptop, several keys on my laptop cant work anymore. I get bsod the nxt day everytime before i boot into windows. Cant reformat either cuz the f3 key doesnt work. Since its under warranty i sent it for repair and its been 6 working days but still they say they have not repaired it and couldnt find wats the problem. Sad... Its only 2 months + since i bought it after 11 months of hell with loads of problems on alienware m17x r1 + dell wouldnt care.

 

So in replacing the hard drive, can i get Sata III, or does this laptop only take Sata II?

Also, does anyone know if this will work out of the box, or do i have to get any adapters? Optical Bay Hard Drive Caddy (OBHD-SATA12-SATA-BU) Univ, 12.7mm [OBHD-SATA12-SATA-BU] - $44.75 : NewmodeUS, Hard Drive Caddys for Notebooks

thanks a lot

*edit: do either of these void the warranty?

 

You can get a SATA III drive and it'll work just fine, you'll just be limited to the constraints of SATA II (300 Mb/s)

 

Man that sucks that you have been having problems with your laptop, because it is actually a really good laptop for the price. I would demand a new one lol.

 

I'm thinking of pasting my machine, could anyone suggest a paste? metallic or ceramic? and any problems encountered while pasting your own?


EDIT: I know there are several comments throughout this thread, but the search function seems to be malfunctioning.