Official MSI GX640 Owner's Thread

Hi,

If i install windows 8 will it work on this laptop?
Where can I find drivers?

Thank you,
Anuj

 

I have an MSI gx640 and it has been great. currently i am running the gts 250m nvidia card and it kinda sucks and i am hoping to upgrade to a better card. i would like to run starcraft 2 on max with 60fps if possible. i am currently looking at the AMD Mobility Radeon™ HD 6970M BlackcombXT, but i am unsure that it will work in this laptop. it looks like it would fit but would it get to hot? any help is appreciated. thanks

 

6970M WILL overheat in a GX640.
I have one (undervolted from stock 1.1V to 0.96V) in a GX740, with heavily modified cooling system and fan at 100% 24/7, and in BF3 it goes up to 90C.
I doubt that one will be able to mod GX640's cooling system enough to cool a 6970M.

 

Anything will work in this laptop.

I would recommend a GTX 470m, 570m or 670m.

http://www.waresphere.com/store/com...rce-gtx-670m-gddr5-mxm-3b-n13e-gs1-lp-a1.html

 

Brandonw88, If you look a few pages back there us a guy who has a 6990m in his GX640 and he's getting 85c max on bf3

 

Yes, without bottom cover and with a massive amount of copper and aluminum cooler mod. + giant notebook cooler. (Nearly the same way, how I run my GTX with the 3.7GHz quad)

 

thanks for the responses, i did some research and decided to go with the 5870m and so far it seems to run great, just needs a few more cooling mods.

Star craft 2 seems to have some frame rate issues with this card, anyone know how i could improve this?

 

Anyone having the this issues?

I'm running my MSI GX640 on default settings for GPU and CPU

but recently, it blacks out after 10-60 mins of usage.

Been playing Diablo 3 and BF3 on 1080p settings with no problems for the past 1 yr but last week, it starts blacking out for nothing.

Anyone experiencing this issue?

 

cleaned your fan/vents?

 

yes, vents and fans were cleaned with compressed air, still can't find the issue...

 

Update drivers?

 

Update drivers, latest vbio drivers, tried latest AMD drivers and rollback old drivers, no different, still having the freeze, lock ups while playing games or even running benchmark test using kombustor

 

Your graphics card might be dying, if you still have some warranty it might be a good time to contact MSI support.

 

Do you get thermal control with any of those? I'd rather avoid repeating the 3700m/gx620 situation.

 

I had this problem recently when I updated my GPU drivers. I was a bit worried, thinking that the card was going bad. It turned out that for some reason after the update, AMD overdrive was enabled (which I never did) and it was setting the clocks at 100/800 at idle/medium load, causing my laptop to freeze. You might want to check that just to cover your bases.

 

I did that too, saw your post and checked Catalyst for any clocks issue, reset them all, turn off overdrive, but still it freezes and blacks out...

May I ask whats the GPU temp of you guy's MSI GX640?

 

~53 C when idling @300/400MHz
~63 C when idling @625/1000Mhz

 

Hello everyone, first time poster here.

I have owned my GX640 for about two years now, and as of recently it has progressively gotten slower, the fan louder, and it heats up incredibly fast...not to mention it also gets extremely hot.

I have used it for gaming mostly, and one thing I have noticed in the past few months is that, games that I could play on very high settings with no FPS problems are now becoming unplayable, FPS has dropped significantly, and my computer has also slowed down.

Anyone else experienced such problems? IF so how did you guys solve it?

 

Clean your fans/heatsinks. Its probably throttling because of the heat.

 

Hi all. English not my native language - cannot find my problem in previous posts

Several years i had GX 640. Few days ago i try to modify VBIOS (was already downVoltage to 1.05) but by mistake it was written with mistakes by WinFlash from Win XP 32 I knew what happand and prepared boot Flash with Atiflash and Vbios. But when I restarted system it halted. I switched off power. After Switch on again - Laptop did not load system (just few flash from HDD led). I remove battery on motherboard / short circled - no ractions. Removed HDD - but any way boot not going nor from flash no from CD.

Seems BIOS dead? How it possible? May I write by Winflash bios?

BTW when i removed RAM - laptop not start at all (only 1 flash of main button).

Any recommendation?

Thanks in advance

 

Is it just me or does this laptop's boot take several minutes to load? Do I need to flash/upgrade my BIOS and/or are there some tweaks to make it faster? Any help would be greatly appreciated. And yes, all my drivers are updated, at least according to MSI Live Update 5.

BIOS Version: E1656IMIS.106
BIOS Date: 2/12/2010
SMBIOS Version: 2.6

 

use "sleep" mode
You may configure system Not to Detect new hardware (AFAIK).

 

I got my GX640 from RK Computers about 2 years ago, and just recently the screen panel has broken off of the right hinge.

The LCD screen is fine, but I'm afraid I might need to replace the screen's back panel and the bezel in front. Where should I go to get this replaced? Is this something I'll have to repair myself with spare parts?

 

Look here: =Y&s[short_desc]=Y&s[full_desc]=Y&s[sku]=Y&s[match]=all&s[cid]=0&s[search]=gx640]RK Computers-MSI-Asus-Sager-Clevo-Compal - Custom Gaming Notebooks - Custom Gaming Laptops

http://www.rkcomputer.net/rkcnotebooks/index.php?l=search_list&s[title]=Y&s[short_desc]=Y&s[full_desc]=Y&s[sku]=Y&s[match]=all&s[cid]=0&s[search]=gx640

 

The link just sends me to an advanced search page on RK Computers. Should I search for stuff there?

 

Try this: RK Computers-MSI-Asus-Sager-Clevo-Compal - Custom Gaming Notebooks - Custom Gaming Laptops

 

So I bought a 560m for my machine but all I get is a black screen and no post... Doesn anyone have a possible solution?

 

Tell me do you have oryginal msi gtx 560m vga card ? Could you make photo of vga?

 

I recently bought a Samsung 830 SSD, but it is not recognized by the BIOS when using AHCI. When IDE, all is working fine.
When I connect this SSD to the ESATA port, it's recognized, also in AHCI modus.
Does anyone expierenced this problem before? Could it be that the 830 is incompatible with the GX640 BIOS?

Also, when I connect a HDD to the ESATA port, and the SSD to the internal SATA port, the SSD is also not recognized, not even in IDE modus.

I already flashed the latest BIOS.

 

Anyone have a link to the webcam driver? I have been unsuccessful in finding it.

Sent from my SGH-I777 using Tapatalk 2

 

Anyone still rocking this this laptop?

Having an issue where my Intel 5100 Wireless isn't picking up my network. After fooling with it sometimes it's not showing up under device manager, and sometimes it's showing up as can not start (code 10). Is it safe to say the card might be dying and need to be replaced? Anyone else have issues?


Seems I might need to reapply the thermal paste, as the system is running hot 80-90C. Is there a step by step guide?

Appreciate any help.

 

Still rocking this laptop.

I've got a QUadro k5000m 4gb ddr5 in it - equivalent to the GTX 680m.

Yes I believe there is a guide out there... lets see...Here it is:
MSI Notebook GT640 --- Disassembling - YouTube
I like how they have an entirely different Nvidia g94 graphics card and heatsink for the disassembly, lol

About your wifi card, that is a strange issue indeed. While you're repasting it just check out the connections... could be loose or something. Otherwise I'd say yeah its dying, though I've never heard of a wifi card dying before.

 

Nice, thanks for the info Niff! I just bought a 6300 to replace it, and grabbed two 20mmX20mmX0.66mm shims off ebay.

Got two in case, but wondering if one should go on the CPU, or is that not possible?

I love the laptop, but I've noticed heat generated from the exhaust has hardened and weakened the plastic vent guards on that side of the case. They're very brittle.

Other than that and the networkcard suddenly not working, haven't had an issue.

 

You could put one on the CPU. I wouldn't really recommend putting one on the GPU without buying new thermal pads, because the extra thickness will raise the heatsink and prevent proper contact with the thermal pads on the vRAM.

 

Ahhh, could have sworn I read (yr back) that with the stock GFX card the heatsink rests a little high and tends to increase temps, and that a .66mm thick will bring it flush with the GPU.


Ugh, off to search through this monster thread.

 

Hi all!

I´ve had enormous heat-problems with my Gx640 since i bought it, but recently i removed the thermalpads and my gpu nowadays lie around 70 under alot of pressure! So if anyone still has theese heatissues i´d recommend that you remove your thermal pads.

Recently i bought Guildwars 2 and it really showed that this rig is 2 years old now, not in pve and such where i pretty much max the settings. But in pvp it gets barely playable. Hence im thinking about an upgrade of the cpu, or should i get more ram and another gpu perhaps? Im a bit anxious that ill get new heatissues though, or isnt that something to worry about? What Cpu should i get, thats my biggest concern for the moment.

Yours cincerly

Vysotskij

 

Not advisable, since you might fry your GPU memory. See above.

Niff, do you have a recommendation for better thermal pads that will work with the a .66mm copper shim mod?

 

Ok, ive heard that the temps went skyhigh with the shim-mod + i´ve been running without pads for 1,5 months now? Well i guess ill try doing the shim-mod plus new thermal pads then. Any recommendations on the size of the pads?

 

Is it really that bad to remove thermal pads, and apply thermal paste to them? Ive read about tons off ppl doin it, all with the same good result! Also i havent read about a single one with fried vram?

 

After much reading, found the above.

This is the gap I referenced hearing about, and also possibly the reason heat seems to increase with age as the large glop of thermal paste breaks down.

Personally, I'm going to buy some 1mm thick better thermal pads to replace the old ones with too, but it seems that is not needed with a .66mm copper shim.

 

OK, so just finishing up my story for those interested.

I replaced my Intel 5100 Wireless Card with a Intel 6300. There's an extra unattached antenna in the GX640, so all three are now hooked up. Seems to me the 5100 was dead, as I'm now having no issues finding signals. I almost wonder if very hot system temps caused the card to go bad?

I also did the copper shim mod and added new thermal pads to the vRAM. The copper shim was 20mmX20mmX0.66mm. The new pads were 1mm thick Fujipoly Extreme System Builder Thermal Pads. Used AS5 for thermal paste and used the grain of rice method to get a nice, bubble-less spread over the cores.

Before my temps were as follows:
CPUIDHM idle / FurMark 15min
Mobo: 58/ 99
Core: 56/ 97
ST9500: 26/28
ATI: 63/ 110

Once FurMark reached 110 after 5 min I decided to shut it down...

I opened her up and god damn MSI screwed up their thermal paste application. The stuff was glopped on about 1-2mm thick, and was all over both CPU/GPU die. Some was spilled onto the sides where it shouldn't be. I carefully cleaned it up with 90% rubbing alcohol and toothpicks, a rag and q-tips. Removed it from the heatsink too, took apart the fan to wash the actual fan and better dust the fan assembly, and replaced the old heat pads with new.

Put it back together and here's the results:

CPUIDHM idle / FurMark 15min
Mobo: 52/ 78
Core: 49/ 78
ST9500: 31/33
ATI: 53/ 94

This time it ran the full 15 min. So my CPU high went from 99 to 78, a 21C reduction, and my GPU high went from 110+ (having to quit) to 94, a 14C reduction. Not bad!

Am I correct to assume after a little bake in the number might get better too?

 

Not sure if it helps, but see my post above. I decreased my GPU temps by 14C and my CPU temps by 20C using the shim mod and new pads when running a FurMark 15 min burn-in test.

 

About my first question...What would be a suitable cpu to upgrade to that doesnt effect the overall tempratures? Is this a good one for instance Intel Core i7 720QM 1 6 GHz Quad Core BY80607002907AH Slbly | eBay ? Or can i get more "bang for the buck"? I play lots of mmo:s and i´ve heard that they are usually very cpu-intense.

/vysotskij

 

Seems might temps are creeping up again. 98 on a 15 min burn in (CPU and vRAM). 55-60 on idle.

Might have to go back in and repaste.

 

For the record, i still have very low temps with the removing of the pads, ever since october! My cpu-temps are around 62-65 in idle and perhaps 80 under alot of pressure. The biggest gain though is for the gpu where i idle 54 degrees and max 70 something. Still dont know if it is risky running it like this but it sure seems to work!

Although i would still like to know what suitable i7 i can install in this laptop?

happy holidays all!

/vysotskij

 

About the i7 ...

I changed my cpu to i7 740QM and it runs flawlesly . Idle temps about 56 C

 

Ah nice, perhaps i should go for that one also, do i have to get another heatsink or anything? Is it worth upgrading to 8 gb ram aswell, well its always worth it but do i get "bang for the buck"

/Vysotskij

 

nah, Just use decent thermal paste , and you'll be fine

btw. I've just installed an SSD drive ( OCZ vertex 4- i know its for sata 3 so i wont feel its whole speed, but it is also going to be my SSd when ill someday buy a new laptop ) and it feels amazing , dunno why i havent done it earlier ... changing the cpu didnt made much diffrence but that drive.....xD I dont think that getting more Ram will make much of a diffrence , if you want real upgrade , believe me, invest into an SSD

 

im a bit in the dark here, could you perhaps recommend a nice upgrade for this laptop? Im not sure what i can put in, what will work etc. I really just want to have a decent upgrade for not soo much money, is it possible to get way better stuff for say 350$?

 

in my opinion you should get any 2,5" SSD and it will make the biggest difference in everyday use, and you dont need that much money for that