The Official MSI GE40-2OC Owner's Lounge

Clevo is good but that 13.3 inch for gaming is a big turn down for me. Would adding the additional heat sink/repasting offered by xoticpc good? would that void MSI warranty?

 

I found that heat pipe on CPU is stuck to a piece of sheet iron and the sheet iron is directly pasted on CPU,which slows down the heat exchange between CPU and the heat pipe magnificently.

 

I don't really think it's true here. This model has 1 HDD bay, 1 ODD bay and NO mSATA slots on motherboard, so no matter how you slice it your options are:
1) 2x mSATA (via adapter) 2.5 SSD in the other bay for a total of 3 drives.
2) 2x 2 mSATA drives (adapter in each bay) totaling 4 drives,
3) 2x 2.5 SSD drives.
I don't see a benefit of running SSD's in RAID mode unless you want to mirror your data. And in regard to ODD bay, pretty sure it is SATA II type (I might be wrong on that one however).

 

Hi,

Would anyone know how XOTICPC do their pasting job? Are they good with their extra copper sinks?

 

I overlooked this before, but MSI's website seems to indicate that a GE40 can be optioned up with a 1080p screen. If that's the case, does anyone know of any seller that carries it in the US? I've been searching but nothing is coming up.

 

Thanks for the info. HIDevolution's order page caused me all sorts of confusion and wishful thinking because it allowed me to order the 5 drive config I mentioned above. I emailed them and they basically repeated what you mentioned. So there is no 2x mSATA on the mainboard, nor can the HDD bay fit more than 1 regular SATA, unlike what the order page suggested. If a customer does order an incompatible config, the company would contact the customer to sort things out.

He also mentioned that it is possible to RAID a regular SATA drive in the HDD bay with another one in the ODD bay, and that the ODD bay supports SATA III with the haswell chipset. That should save me a bit of coin by using regular SATA vs mSATA.

One good thing about their bare bones version, for some people, is that it doesn't have the dragon eyes on the lid.

I have also seen the 1080p option touted in a number of official MSI product sites, but have never come across this option for sale. I asked HIDevolution about it, and they said it's not available and that they don't plan to carry it "any time soon". Note that this is for the bare bones version of the GE40.

 

I have 3 brighter spots on my display. All around 1-2mm diameter.
They all show the correct colors and are visible on brighter areas.

Is there anyway to fix this? I'd be willing to disassemble the whole thing if necessary.
Going through warranty would be a pain in the , as I am in China and don't speak Chinese.

 

edit: doublepost

 

Most LCD displays in laptops are self-contained packages that are not meant to be repaired, only replaced. On the positive it’s usually easy to replace one and they can typically be bought for under $100 US. If the problem is stuck pixels, you can try massaging them gently . That sometimes gets them to start switching.

 

Well then I guess I'll wait a bit until I see the display show up anywhere to buy. Can't find it yet.
Maybe that could be the chance to change it to a FHD display.

Hmmm. Anyone knows if another display, maybe an IPS panel could be compatible?

 

Hey all,

I just ordered my GE40, quite looking forward to it. Unfortunately I ordered the 008 version, and I was originally planning to just manually install a smaller ssd for my OS at a later date. I've been investigating and I can't quite figure out if its that's possible

I guess the basic question is if, in layman's terms, the GE 2oc-008 can fit an ssd or if I need to buy an adapter or something as well.

Thanks

 

I have the 008 ver. and I removed the HDD and replaced it with an SSD. The bay that houses the DVD has a SATAIII connecter and you can buy an ODD bay caddie on ebay that will accept an SSD/HDD and allow you to remove the DVD and have an SSD/HDD in the ODD bay. The hight of the ODD bay is 9.5mm

 

Hi all this is my first post ,and its a question . Albeit I think a simple one . I want to remove the dvd drive and replace it with a caddy so I can add an additional ssd drive . How do you remove the drive ? Is it simply a case of pulling hard? Any help gratefully received . I really want to rebuild the laptop to win 7 but a little worried . Any tips or guidance would be really great .

 

It should have 1 screw, at least most models do have a single screw holding it inside and after removing the screw you just have to pull.

Try asking MSI or resellers around for info on the matter My GT60 bottom panel as a disk icon which symbols the one screw that keeps it there. I don't know if GE40 does the same.

 

Do you think I will have to remove the complete back plate to expose the screw ?

 

If it was properly designed, nope. But I don't have a GE40 around to test it. Someone else can help perhaps?

 

Hello,
I'm interested to buy this notebook but I heavily use linux when not gaming and I'd like to know if there is an option in the bios to disable the GTX 760M and use only the integrated GPU? It's possible with my vaio S13 and it's really nifty since linux doesn't handle well optimus and you can save a great deal of battery without using the dGPU.

Could someone check in the bios if this option is available please?

 

No, there is no such option in BIOS.

 

I agree , no option in the bios . Thanks for the info re the dvd drive , apparently it can be removed but there are two screws one near the gpu the other near the cpu that have to be removed .

One final question (I hope) has anyone bought a replacement caddy to fit into the optical drive slot ? Is the size 9.5 or 12.5 mm . A link to the product bought would be fantastic . Cheers all

Wayne

 

It has to be 9.5mm

 

You need to remove the whole backplate to remove the DVD drive.
6 screws on the back and then 2 (IIRC) for the DVD drive. I also did that. Have a Samsung 840 SSD and the original HDD in the ODD bay.
Running Windows 7 on it.

 

Did you purchase an after market caddy ? Would you be so kind as to let me know which one you did buy please? Was it difficult to downgrade to win 7 .. bios or firmware changes ?

 

Yes. I bought this one here: 冲冠 微星MSI GE40 9.5MM 超薄光驱专用 光驱位硬盘托架 佳翼H123
Probably difficult for you to get if you're not in China and also it's quite ugly.

I didn't upgrade the bios or the firmware. Not sure for what it's necessary. I think I changed the boot stuff in the bios from or to legacy. I am not very clever with all that stuff....

The only problem I faced was some difficulties getting the video card properly installed, it took some installing, removing, re-installing of the 2 video drivers and the chipset driver to fully work, but in the end that's not a big deal.

Aaaand.. I still have one unknown device in the device manager. I have no clue what the hell it is, since I installed all drivers from the MSI website.

 

Thats great you have been very helpful Many thanks . Ill take a screen shot of mine before and after . Ill send it to you that may show you what device driver is missing ?

 

hello everyone, can anyone vouch for xotic pcs thermal paste and shingles job? I know several people on this thread have had it done to their machine, but none of those people have reported on their temps. heat is the only thing holding me back from purchasing this machine.

 

There is a new BIOS on MSI site. Description: new MSI logo

 

Hi,
I just bought the MSI GE40 with the 128GB SSD configuration. I notice however that the default OS install only leaves 40/110GB free. Given that Win8 only takes up 20GB why is there a lot of extra space being taken up?

 

It's called Bloatware...

 

And using Advanced Uninstaller PRO | A Swiss Army Knife for PC Users you can get rid of it.

 

Do anyone know which bloatwares I should be removing? I really dont want to remove important programs!


Thanks! :thumbsup:

 

Hey guys, I'm about to buy this machine and wondering if I could get some owners' opinions on the processor. I'm buying through amazon and they have both a 2.2 and 2.9 GHz CPU for the same price. Actually the 2.9 one comes with some free swag and is from a more reputable seller so I'm leaning towards that but... can anyone explain to me how the difference in processor would affect battery life? I'm using this for academia life too so I don't want the additional power to kill its portability.
Any help greatly appreciated, I'm so ready to buy this-- it'll be my first laptop that's not a 5-year-old hand-me-down.

 

Hi, was looking at buying this laptop and running 128gb msata x2 + 1tb 5400rpm 2.5'' I was just wondering if i brought another sata to 2x msata converter would it be theoretically possible to run 4 msata in raid0 for crazy speed?

 

2.2 proc (4702MQ) is 10-15+% slower than 2.8 (4900MQ) and uses 10 Watt less.

 

Plus, the 4900MQ generates a fair bit more heat. I am happy I have the 4702MQ as I get plenty of power and INSANE battery life (8 hours and more) when doing non-gaming and moderate screen brightness.

 

Anyone stumbled upon a replacement screen for the MSI GE40 yet? FHD or normal?

 

Hi guys,
I got the MSI GE40-2OC 009 for college. Up until a few nights ago when I was working on my programming homework, it was working fine. However, the next day, when I turned it on, I got this message:

""
Your PC needs to be repaired.

The Boot Configuration Data file is missing some required information.

File:\BCD
Error code: 0xc0000034

You'll need to use the recovery tools on your installation media. If you don't have any installation media (like a disc or USB device), contact your system administrator or PC manufacturer.
"""

I don't have any installation media.
What should I do to fix this problem or should I just call MSI as soon as possible?

Thanks!

 

I take it you did not create the recovery disks when you got your machine?

 

Hey guys, quick question for ya:

I reformatted my GE40 with windows 8, to get a clean install. I noticed that after doing so, my battery life seems to have gone from 8.5 hours down to about 5.5 hours! I cant figure out what changed, as I have installed all the drivers and everything for the system... any ideas? was there some strange built-in MSI software that was magically improving my battery life?

 

hey kind people!

i'm looking at two models, one with DVD drive and one without. Both have 500gb drive inside.

The question is if there is a hdd caddy present in the one without DVD drive? I plan to put an extra Samsung 840 SSD into the machine (and replace the 500 for one 750gb 7200 which i have laying around)

thanx!

 

i don't know if there is still someone looking at this thread or i maybe didn't phrase this smart enough.

If i order a GE40 without dvd drive where is the HDD located? In a ODD bay or in the hdd/msata space? If it is in hdd/msata then what is in the ODD bay? a hdd caddy? or nothing, just a closed lid? Anyone ordered ge40 without ODD and can have a look?

I know that i need to buy a hdd caddy if i order a GE40 with dvd drive and replace it on my own.

best regards!

 

The HDD is located in the ODD Bay. If you were to open it up and remove the bay, inside is a little SATA controller, and your 750gb SATA drive.

 

Just saw the GE40 in person for the first time. Am impressed that they could put such powerful components in a relatively small case.

The only thing making me hesitate about getting the GE40 or any other Haswell computer at this time, is the infamous USB 3.0 bug in first generation chipsets. Was wondering if any owners had any issues with this. They say it's isolated only to flashdrives (for those aren't aware, the computer won't be able to 'see' certain brands of flash drives after waking from sleep state). If it really is isolated only to flashdrives, I wouldn't be concerned. However, I'm worried the problem might extend to other peripherals, especially USB docking hubs. I keep reading in reviews that a lot of people are having problems with various brands of docking hubs, and I'm starting to wonder if this bug is the culprit.

Intel has certainly not been forthcoming about this bug so I'm not entirely confident that what they have reluctantly said so far is the true extent of the problem.

 

The full HD screen is now available!

I saw news of this earlier in the week from a distributor in Singapore. Contacted HIDevolution in the US, and Ted as usual replied quickly saying that they are working on getting it in and to check back later in the week. Sure enough, it's available now online as a $100 upgrade. Good news for you fence sitters wanting FHD.

 

Some of the models come with it as standard now.

 

Hi there! Isn't this laptop using a DDR3L (1.35v) memory not a DDR3 (1.5v)?
Can anyone please confirm? I'm planning to add another stick of ram. I read in the msi website that this laptop uses a DDR3L. They also specified in the FAQ page not to use the 1.5v Ddr3. Here's the to the faq: http://www.msi.com/service/faq/665.html

 

It's 1.35V

 

Yeah you want at least 1600mhz CL11 1.35V ram.

 

Is the FHD screen available anywhere for separate purchase? I bought my GE40 in June.

Also, have they improved viewing angles, contrast etc?

 

@ Davka and Meaker thanks for replying! I was looking looking for a DDR3L yesterday in a computer parts mall in my country and they said The DDR3L will be available by early November or December.. Guess I have to wait.

 

I second this. I'm stuck between the GE40 and the Gigabyte P34g due to the FHD model.