The Official MSI GE40-2OC Owner's Lounge

1. We can ask MSI to provide the latest generic BIOS and EC for you, but as far as the rest go you can check with Svet at MSI forum.
Below are hardware limitation.
2. Airplane mode is Win8.x function using software driver to turn on or off.
If you run legacy mode (Win7/other OSes), then it's kept on at all times and cannot be turned off.
3. Unlocked BIOS to only allow more options in the BIOS, but nothing like limiting battery charging capacity. This requires MSI to make such application to control EC to put a stop at specified level because they are the manufacturer. Some users on the forum can probably achieve this but no one has yet released such tool.

 

Thanks for the reply.

1) I've already asked on the msi forums, but am still awaiting a reply.

2) No, airplane mode doesnt seem to be an exclusive win8.x function since I have been using it on Win7 on Legacy mode. What I think lacks for Ubuntu is the proper drivers(SCM for windows) that allow the OS to communicate with the BIOS to turn off the Wireless devices.

3) Yes, thats what I meant. Surely a hack ispossible to limit battery charging.(However difficult in practice, still acheivable in theory.) An unlocked BIOS would be the place then to start, no? I would really like to help in this regard, but I lack severely in skillset. I know basic assembly coding and am very keen on learning more, but I've almost no clue where to actually start.

 

Airplane mode is software switch, as it uses a ENE software driver in Device Manager when UEFI mode is activated. Under Legacy mode it is removed therefore it no longer shows up as a device in device manager. BIOS changes wifi function to full on therefore it cannot be turned off at all. This is actually a compliance with Microsoft design guideline.
BIOS has no control over the way battery behaves except the EC firmware. Currently, some elite users on the forum have the skillset to control it but they may not have the time and efforts to invest into such project. They would reply to you if they are inclined to comment.

 

Hi Everyone,

I hope you are all doing well. So i've had this laptop for over a year now and finally decided to run it in RAID 0. I purchased 2 x Samsung 840 Evo msata SSD's, but am running into a problem. When ever i install the drive in the daughter board they are both detected by my BIOS but I dont get any type of Intel RST Prompts and Crtl+i doesn't do anything. I have already set my SATA mode to RAID and my Boot Mode to Legacy. Do you guys have any ideas what might be the problem? Im not sure that Intel RST is working properly.

Thanks!

 

Hi everyone,

I decided to take the optical drive out and install the harddisk into the ODD slot. I bought a 7mm HDD caddy and it's working fine. However, when I restart the computer, it power cycles the hard disk, which I think isn't good for its health. It also makes an annoying sound when it happens. Is there a way to make it stop doing that? If your GE40 came with a HDD in the ODD slot, does it happen on your machine?

 

If the option exists it would be in an unlocked bios, try asking svet over at the msi forums.

 

Hello guys! I'm getting my MSI GE40 2OL tomorrow. I know it isn;t much difference besides the GPU but I'm worried about the temperatures. For the temperatures, It's really hard finding thermal paste here in the Philippines and do I really need to replace the thermal paste right away after I get it? If not, how long would it last because I would be playing really graphics-intensive games like Shadow of Mordor, Crysis 3 and all those. Since maybe it's 2OL and it runs on GT 750m, I'm expecting some things to be lower like the higher end versions. Thanks!

 

It will be working fine. Replacing a thermalpaste is not mandatory and gives a little lower temps and fan noise.
But if you replace choose the good one like Diamond Carat - Amazon.com: Innovation Cooling Diamond "7 Carat" Thermal Compound - 1.5 Grams: Computers & Accessories
I've droped temp about 10 degrees C thanks to this thermalpaste.

 

How about the life of the laptop? Or the temperatures? I've heard some people really had bad temps just by playing Watch Dogs

 

You will not damage you laptop this way, CPU and GPU will shutdown the power or do the throttling if their temp reach the warning level (about 100 degrees C) .
Of course your laptop will get warm or hot in some places when playing 3D games but it will not harm it. Just use your laptop normally when trying to get a good thermal paste

 

Do you suggest I replace the thermal paste right away after I get my laptop?

 

I want to tell that it's good to repaste this laptop (for better comfort of using it), but it's not a requirement - it will work fine without repasting

 

It's been almost a week since I got my laptop. (GE40 - 2OL) and I have a problem. The temps go to up to 95*C when gaming. IS this normal for the laptop? I mean, it's really crazy to go this high just 5 degrees below the T junction.

 

I have problem in updating bios, E1492IMS30Q.
only until page 6 (step 12) from this pdf :
http://www.msi.com/files/pdf/Flash_BIOS_by_UEFI_BIOS_Setup_Utility_en.pdf

After it restarted, the screen black, then it shut down itself after next few minutes.
But luckily it can be turned on n run normally after that. Tried many times without success.
Current bios is E1492IMS.30C, 13-May-13. Tried with multiple usb key too.

Any idea?


I'm having problem with gaming, < 10 fps, n very lag. CPU n GPU hot >90degrees.
The last time I played game was last year, and it was no lagging. So Im trying to update BIOS etc, while VBIOS and EC have been successfully updated.


edit:
after applied thermal paste cooler master E2, cpu temp dropped 5-10c, and gpu temp dropped 15-20c.

 

95C? That's insane. My overclocked laptop doesn't even go that high. What's your gaming setup? And ambient room temperature?

 

I want to replace my ODD with an SDD, how do I do that? I heard that I need a Caddy of some sort, any places where I can buy it within the internet? or if you are from Philippines, can you suggest a place?

Also, after upgrading to windows 8.1 and downloaded the bios, firmware and ****. My computer has become really slow when playing games.

 

Hey man, can you share your experience on updating from Windows 8 to 8.1?

 

I haven't really noticed much difference between the two with my day-to-day usage. What would you like to know?

 

Sadly, when you run a game/an application that is both very CPU and GPU demanding, and keep minimum and maximum CPU Usage at 100% in windows power settings (turbo boost enabled - for this notebook it's 3.2 ghz for one core, 3.1 for 2 cores, and 2.9 for 3-4 cores), this notebook with the default thermal paste and no cooling mods will get to about 88°C(new bios) -96°C(old bios) from what i've read from other owners and experienced myself. So yes, it is normal for this notebook.
this notebook will disable the turbo boost (=throttling) and go down to the standard 2.2ghz at about 89°C for the CPU. this is why many of you experience a sudden frame drop in games when it gets hot. you can use throttlestop to always force the turbo boost, but on your own risk since constant very high temps (>95°C) can damage the notebook.
however make sure to get the newest bios, because it updated the fan profile for the fan to spin faster at lower temperatures. or just make a fan profile for yourself. with this, i get max temps of about 89°C in very demanding games. i am still on the default thermal paste, however.
---

so now to get to even lower temps i want to apply new thermal paste as well. i've never done this before, does anyone have a guide how to do this on this notebook? is the paste for both the cpu and the gpu? or the mainboard? to those who have already applied it, by how much degrees did your cpu, mainboard and gpu readings drop?

 

also, did anyone put a second 8GB ram in their msi ge40, for dual channel? did you notice any performance gain in gaming?

 

I'm just playing some Dying Light and CPU-intensive games and those are the regular temps.

By the way, for my notebook model, GE40-2OL, how do I update the bios for the fans?

 

Hi there,

So in the end did you find a solution? It seems I have the same issue... Did you get another caddy? May I ask which one?

Thanks in advance,

 

I upgraded the RAM to the following kit:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...8&cm_re=corsair_sodimm-_-20-233-598-_-Product

I can report games are running mint, such as CS: GO, BF4 and Assassin's Creed Black Flag.

I also recommend upgrading the Wifi chip to this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...l_wireless_ac_7260-_-9SIA2C52K11012-_-Product

The stock card is an absolute dog.

Regarding storage, I've recently ordered a hdd caddy to replace my optical drive and was wondering what mechanical drives people recommend purely for storage and minimal power consumption?

 

I had a similar problem and managed to resolve it.
Some SATA caddies have the "SATA Diagnostic pin" that usually shouldn't be connected to anything. In my case I had to disassemble the caddy and disconnect the pin manually by cutting the connection between pins 2 and 3. This thread may help. After doing that and reassembling the caddy, CPU spikes stopped. Unfortunately the laptop still power cycles the SATA port during restart, which is bad for the health of your SSD/HDD.

 

Thanks a lot for your feedback, I will get a new caddy with the option to set off the diag:
http://www.amazon.fr/Deuxième-Adapt...TF8&qid=1425792809&sr=8-47&keywords=caddy+hdd

 

didn't see a thread for it but anyone else using the ge40 2pc481us?

 

Hey guys, can I check how long does updating bios take??
I'm currently at the part where they say my laptop will reboot, but it's not rebooting. It seem to have just shut down.
Do I turn it on??


UPDATE
-did not manage to update my bios, i was unable to boot my laptop but was able to do so after removing the usb stick.

Should i still update my bios? My current version is 30f, the newest is 30Q

 

This is pretty much the general thread for any GE40 owners. You can post your comments and questions about any model here.

 

I am using the 2PC model. I'm pretty happy with it, just one issue: if you replace the ODD with a HDD caddy, it cuts power to the HDD every restart, which makes an annoying noise and is bad for your HDD's health. Maybe the original MSI caddy doesn't do it, but I couldn't find where to get one.

 

Hey guys, is it possible for me to add a 500 gb msata ssd into my msi ge40 next to the 128gb msata to make it a 628gb ssd?
Mine is the one with 750gb hdd and 128 gb ssd.

 

If you have sufficient slots, you can add the HDDs, but as separate drives. I am not sure your machine supports raid, and if it does, it is not recommended to use such disparity in drive sizes. Best to use them independently.

 

Did they already discontinued the GE40? and will there be a refresh version with GTX9xx anytime soon?

 

I have been using my GE40 for a year and a half now. I have only really had three issues:
1. Once a dialog box showed me that my hard disk is going to fail or something to that effect. Freaked me out, but I did nothing. Never recurred though. Should I be worried?
2. That weird vibration/sound that seems to be coming from the hard disk everytime the laptop starts.
3. Temperatures. Go to 90-95 easily when gaming. 60-80 in normal browsing.

Now, I have cleaned the insides a couple of times, including the fan and the exhausts. I have replaced the thermal paste. But I wanted to know specifically about a couple of things mentioned in the forum, if anyone can help me.
1. How do I update my BIOS? Have absolutely no idea whatsoever. Can anyone guide me to a link or something?
2. How do I stop that spin cycle thing? Any way?
Also, how do I reduce the temperatures further? Can/Should I change the fan?

 

1. What message? I am guess it might had been spamware, but can you check the Event Log viewer?
2. It is possible, but it can be the fan itself too.
3. Clean up the heatsink vent and fan housing to rid of dust, if possible, please repaste the thermal compound underneath the heatsink. Verify the issue again and see how it behaves afterwards.

 

I am pretty sure it wasn't a spamware. It said ""Windows detected a hard disk problem. Back up your files immediately to prevent information loss, and then contact computer manufacturer to determine if you need to repair or replace the disk.""

How do I find out if my fan is acting up? I downloaded a couple of utilities to help me diagnose (including SpeedFan), and they give me temperatures but not fan speeds. Or maybe I am not looking at the right places. Any pointers?

I just cleaned everything up thoroughly and replaced the thermal compound completely, but to no avail. A couple of days the temperatures went down, and then back to square one.

P.S.: I just updated the BIOS downloaded from MSI website. Let us see if this helps.

 

If it's that message then you may have bad sectors on the drive, you can run scandisk with surface scan to verify.
Try using MSI's utility to monitor fan speed since it's not a regular motherboard that most of fan speed utilities can monitor..

 

Thanks. Will run scandisk.

Which MSI utility should I use? Both afterburner and command center didn't give me the fan speeds.

 

Hey guys Windows 10 works well?

Any issue?

 

Since it's new, it's still buggy, and there are more app crashes than other previous OSes.

 

I just bought a second hand GE40 MS 1492, and install directly Win10.

It work like a charm ! No bugs at all, every drivers have been found easily.

I try to understand which Bios is the better, and if a mod Bios exist, can you tell me more about that ?
I still running the : E1492IMS.10Q version of the bios.

I notice one major problem on this laptop : Heat ! I lower the CPU voltage with XTU, but still remain hot during high task with GPU + CPU.
The heat have a second most important problem, it will throttle the CPU and have lower performance. So I've try to stop the CPU Throttle during game session, but it always crash during bench, even at 2.2 GHZ without Throttle.

I think to built a new bios for the VGA card with lower Voltage (afterburner or even nvidia Inspector doesn't allow to acces to the GPU Voltage.)
I Also think about some solutions to improve the cooling on the mainboard ... Mini Heat pipe, or even mod the plastic plate ...

Is anyone made some mod like these ?

 

Hi Goug. I also have MSI GE40-2PC with GTX850M, the MS1492 model. I have an i5 though, so the overheating issue doesn't bother me too much.

I've done some research on that, but unfortunately the process halted because I couldn't find a key combination to recover a failed BIOS flash on this laptop, and I don't want to risk it. Theoretically it's possible to mod this BIOS. It's an UEFI capsule that can be unpacked and modified with PhoenixTool and UEFITool. VBIOS is packed into the capsule, so you could potentially replace it with a modded one and repack the capsule. It's too dangerous without a proper BIOS recovery method though...
Alternatively you could ask the "Svet" guy on MSI Forums, he mods MSI BIOSes on individual basis, but it's implied that you need to make a donation.

 

Hi HairyCube,

I finally contact Svet on the MSI forum, and he send me back a mod Bios from my original one (10Q)
It work like a charm, lot of options in the bios now, but hard to understand for some of them ! (it's my first intel architecture since a long time)
On my own, I made a modification on the original Vbios with kepler tweaker (I have the 760m model on Kepler, your 850m must be on Maxell I think) I decrease the voltage by 0.25mv, not too much, 0.50mv create me an instability when boost was activated.

I also overclock just a little bit (+20 mhz on Gddr5, and 50 Mhz on the gpu) and it's pretty stable, but not a lot of différence on the Cpu Throttle : / just a little improvement

I think to buy some tiny copper plate to improve the heat exchange, and perhaps dremel the back plate to put an aluminium grid.

 

Are you running an under volt on the CPU now?

 

Yes, I'm running an undervolt on the CPU, but through Intel XTU (-85mv on Core Voltage Offset / -40mv on Cpu Cache / -90mv on Intel GPU) Works fine in every configurations, even on battery, I try more, it was working fine but not on battery : /

I'm still in a benchmark phase.

 

Yes it changes the voltage curve on the whole scale of frequency so you do have to watch the slower clock speed voltages too.

 

The most efficient cooling is active airflow using cooling pads versus individual heat sink.

 

The most efficient cooling is active airflow using cooling pads versus individual heat sink.

Cooling pad are not a real solution for a laptop, I don't want to transport anything more than a thin a light laptop.

Even with a cooling pad, I think the grid are too thin on the back plate.

The most efficient will be to be able to change the original fan with a quite bigger one ( there a little bit of room for a bigger one in fact) but there is no database or dealer with some information about laptop fan dimensions or spec ...

 

I see, yeah, if you do have to move often then I suppose heat sinks are acceptable than cooling pad. But changing the original fan with a bigger one requires redesign by the manufacturer unless customization options are available which can be costly.

 

Hi, newbie here, I just want to know if it's okay to remove the heatsink without repasting thermal compound? I just want to clean it anyway..

Can someone tell me what it is? it looks like a foam of paste

 

Has anyone got Hackintosh working on this laptop? I couldn't get the Mavericks installer to boot at all.