Problem with 8600m stuttering/slowdown found

according to my driver cd vista 32bit is 101.08
vista 64 bit is 101.19
xp is 101.19

i can't believe we're all moving backwards. guess its like php web development. certain older/mature versions could certainly be more stable than new ones.

 

lol, were all in the same boat thats why when one of us states this and that works, we all follow.

 

You can access all of the Zepto 6224/6324 driver CD files here in case you lost yours.

ftp://ftp.mucro.asia/6224W_6324W/Driver_CD/

Please note the connection might be slow

 

Thanks for that ZeptoSG

Andy, check your clocks mate, I don't think powermizer works with 101.08.

Just installed them and my clocks are always on full

 

I dont get why all these old crap drivers keep coming up ?!

They work just as bad as the rest, no difference at all... 15 seconds of gaming and the whole F****** screen was jumping around.

back to 174.82 with support for the games that people actually do play now...instead of year old drivers from a company who cant even code a damn bios....

 

I just stick to the latest whql ones mentioned by nvidia on their site, go to lv2go look em up and use em

 

I dont "think" anything. I've been using sleepfix for all times. And these old drivers still makes WoW more playable!

 

Hehe... well I only play WoW. And the old drivers has much better "long-play" performance than the newer ones. The 174.xx has VERY nice performance for me!! 60fps all out, except in Orgrimmar and Shattra. But after 30-60 minutes of gameplay my computer litterally starts BURNING. I can really feel the heat true the keyboard AND the fps starts dropping to around 10 fps. And then it continues to drop and rise from 10 to 60 fps up and down every ~60 sec.

And my Zepto problem is not driver related, it's heat related. Cause I've actually tried to fast-cool the laptop when the fps drops started. I played wireless so I just took the laptop and went out on my backyard. It was around zero degrees outside. My Znote got cool in 1-2 minutes and the fps drop became a distant memory.

To bad you have to play in a ~5 degrees cold room to be able to keep an stable fps.


And to the 101.xx drivers actually just perform so "bad" so the temperature in the laptop don't go up.

 

Seem to work for me. Doesn't drop so quick but it does drop.

 

I think the drivers may just be masking an underlying problem with this comps hardware or hardware configuration-look at the problems with the DPC latency for example.
I cannot run 174.82 as they give me the same problem you get with the older ones, yet my pc works perfectly with the older drivers. It MUST be a hardware issue, maybe bios, maybe something else. I may have a degree in electronic engineering but I did not design this laptop, write this bios, or any of the drivers so I cannot change what does or doesn't work on this laptop. I agree whole heartedly that we should not be using older drivers but as they do work for me I am forced to stick with them. I hope this is an issue that Zepto are taking seriously, and that there will one day be a real fix.

 

I can just see the marketing video on these laptop. "World fastest 14.1" laptop", "Requires cryogenically cooled laptop stand" in small print.

 

They will keep saying that... but take a look around.. nothing will happen, they even screwed the 6625 up even more with the lastest bios! knowing about the issues, how is that possible?!?

Im just suffering like alot of other people, who eventually will have enough money to buy a new working laptop, and mark my words "from another brand".

Until then, it seems the best we can do is, advice the rest of the laptop community to stay as far away from Zeptos "great , cheap hardware" which really just means "a bomb waiting to go off, and then doom on you, since we dont got the knowlegde to fix our own problems".

As you might notice, im fed up with this... im really really sick of it. unfortunately due to the price of laptops, I am stuck with this piece of junk for quite some time still.

 

Yeah... :/

Thomas, I went to 174.82 now. INSANE performance. Incredible to speak!! 60 fps in all areas at all time.

BUT! I've been stadning outside on my backyard now for 15 minutes.

And now while writing I'm sitting inside by my desk again. WoW has a "stable" 5-10 fps and the Znote 6324w is hot like an oven!

And yes. I'm using "sleepfix". It just takes 10-15 minutes longer for the stutter to come. The heat just rises to the next limit, inevitable.

HEAT ISSUE!

 

aye, it all comes down to heat... or how the system handles the heat it gets.

Zeptos cooling system have always sucked. No matter what thier silly videos try to tell people.

 

As said before many times we are taking this seriously and are working on a fix for it.

 

I realy hope you do, i will in july have had my 6625 in 1 year and i still have not had an fully working laptop... not very good advertising for your products.... Though if you fix it it can change but the last try with 015.... no good.

 

Have all of you tried undervolting the cpu?

 

Hm... for the last few days I played Portal and Half Life 2 with full resolution (1680x1050) and all recommended features activated with constantly 30-40fps which was quite good. I really played for HOURS without a problem.

But now I also have this stuttering issue! Just out of the blue. So for me, my problem doesn't really seem related to heat, because when I started that game again today, it stuttered like hell with about 4fps. I tried to go to standby, didn't fix it. Maybe I'll have to reboot the whole thing.
At least my CPU doesn't get very hot, but it is a penryn, I think they're built not to develop much heat. But i don't know how hot the graphic card gets...

 

I had that, what fixed it for me was to blow compressed air into the exhaust so it clears the dust

 

Ah thank you

Actually, a simple reboot helped just as good this time. Maybe if you work in the same session too long (always hibernated inbetween) things go corrupt on the graphics card...

As my zepto is just a week old, I don't think it's dust in this case, but I'll look after that too, when it will become a problem later.

I think that's a problem with all notebooks, that it's not so easy to really clean the fans.

 

Hey GUYS, -- first of all; sry for my bad english- i'm from Germany


I have the Problem solved! DEFINITVELY!! I can use every GeForce Driver i want to. I repeat EVERY DRIVER WITH NO STUTTER!!
Now you may asking "How did he do that?!"


Yes, i have find out, that the stuttering that begins by playing on random time is temperature depended!
The GPU begins to throttle (slow down) the calculating performance, when the GPU- Die reaches a manufacturer (in this Case NVidia) specific Temperature!


Now you think: "Humm? And why i dont have "throtteling! when i use the (well working) 163.xx and so on drivers?!"

Thats why, because new drivers like 174.xx and so on, are using the GPU more efficiently as the older ones - so the GPU gets more hot; produces more heat, and breaches the "Im cool enough to not throttle the GPU- Die" mode.


And the solution now?


Its a Hardware based solution. The ASUS manufacture was very lazy, i think. The Heat of the GPU cannot be transported really good from the GPU- Die over the Heatpipe to the Fan.

I have completely disassembled my precious G1s (I have thinked many time, before doing that). After a "millions" of screws, i cant reach the Mainboard, to get ist out of the G1s case. I dismounted the cooler from the GPU an i saw that the Die has a very... very bad contact to the copper from the cooler. There was a ugly fat Heat- Pad on it and a very Useless Alu-Metal Plate (pic-0057.jpg) (properly for extra isolation?!?! ) See on photos. I have cleaned the cooler and the GPU Die. Then i applied a SilverCrest CoolingPaste! Then i Screwed all together.

After booting, ive startet Everest and installed my favorite Driver 174.74 an ran 3dmark06. Before that Dissasemble- Action my GPU Throttels at Deep Freeze and the Core becomes 109C NOW.. it dont throttels AND the GPU isnt getting higher than 85C

And now the 3DMarks: 4739!!! I Cant believe IT!!


I haveent overclocked my G1s and no other modification. I Use the Stock- Performance

Here my Sys Specs:

Ram: 2gig
CPU: T7500, 2.2Ghz
GPU: 8600M GT
HD: 160GIG


If Asus ever will release a BIOS for the G1s to solve that Prob. then it only contains a new Graphic-Bios with a higher Throttle-

barrier. --> so the GPU can cook out a fresh meal...



It is a damn manufacturing failure.. thats all! Shame on you ASUS!!

 

I think someone already posted results similar to that, gained by the same approach.
But it's always nice to see someone fixing it, so thanks for your post

 

@ Very nice! I don't wanna brek any warranty by opening my laptop up.

Question: What is Silvercrest cooling paste like? Very expensive and good cooling paste?

 

With SilverCrest i mean the Silver Cooling Paste. Its from ArcticCooling ( http://www.dansdata.com/images/coolercomp/acgoop440.jpg). Not the other CoolingPastes with silicon. These are not so efficient.

 

Thanks for the fast answer! So this one is the same or?

I actually got very exited in testing this my self. Just to se if I can make a difference in this problem.

 

I don't know about the manufactors of your system, but Zepto uses Arctic Silver when they assemble their machines.

 

I found they put way too much on in my notebook.

 

Ah. they do? Hmm.. then I guess this should not be a solution for me. But as there are "few" with this problem. Isn't it possible that the heatsink is badly fitted during production on our machines or something?

 

Indeed it is possible, I think it has been mentioned before in another thread.

 

yeah. by me.

 

Thats right! Its the same paste.

 

Did you manage to get a photo of your heatpipe assembly? It would be nice to compare it to mine.

 

It proberly is, however fitting it better yourself isnt as easy as it sounds, its a crap cooling sink for once, and you cant really bend it, screw it much different that it is. Applying new paste and cleaning does eventually NOT fix this issue.

its a completely new cooling system these machines really need.. a small fan inside would proberly do wonders. Right now all we have the global fan which just makes noise, and then 2 copper sinks of random design which is somehow mounted on top of the cpu core and the gpu core, joining eachother in a semi closed fit at the end of the global fan.

so basicly its the global fans job to suck out hot air from both cpu and gpu sinks....

 

Here you can see the G1s Mainboard!

You must losse the 4 screws to lift up the GPU Heatsink. Remeber: You may void Warranty, if the Yellow seal breaks!

 

Okey, sounds like I should not spend time to change the paste then.

 

Thats true!

But the GPU gets first the "cool" Air, when the Cooler sucks in.. then the CPU gets the warmer air pulled through from the GPU heatsink!

At all i totally agree.. two coolers -> where a better technique

After replacing the dry and not really contacting Warmingpad with silver paste, i dont have any problems on my G1s!

 

i improved the temperature by refitting the heatsink and by applying new paste, but i definetly agree with you concerning the poor design of the ventilation/cooling system of the zepto

 

Thomaskc, I think we all know of your problems, but that alot of other people, is those who you see on this forum. Your the 1% that has got unlucky. If your case would be in 50% of the laptops they sell the models would defenitly not be sold anymore. You make it sound like most people that buy a laptop from Zepto has wasted their money on something that doesnt work.

Its just the truth and I dont have anything against you being angry at Zepto because your laptop doesnt work. I would be as angry as you for shure.

About the cooling systems; after having a look at the 6625 version, I tought that how come, that thers a single heatpipe coming from both CPU and GPU, wich gets joined to the SAME heatsink wich is cooled by a minimalistic fan.
But Iv been listening to my fan for some time, and it sometimes revs up real hard, before throttling down again. Im using a beta BIOS (havent had a chance to burn the new one yet). If the fan would keep itself somewhere between the highest rev and the one it is while playing now, temps would prolly go down 5-10C and I wouldnt find it disturbing in anyway (its not that loud) and using headset I wouldnt mind the fan going at 100% all the time, as long as it keeps my system cool and good.
A program for reglating fan speeds would come in handy (or BIOS options for it, but rather a program in windows for dynamic switching)
2c:s

 

I can understand his rant because I happen to be one of those "1% that has got unlucky" as well and let me tell you that it has got to be waaaay more than just one percent, even more considering the fact that this does not only occur with Zeptos but also with Asus G1s and the once new MacBook Pro that has got the same hardware. So in my opinion this is something to be REALLY pissed about since two and a half companies don't seem to be able to fix something that vital.

Anyway, back on topic: So are there any tech whizzes out there who have a little hint up their sleeves what one can do in order to decrease GPU temperatures, besides undervolting the CPU und putting some arctic silver on the GPU? Does anyone know about something that let's you control the fan RPM or undervolt the GPU? (No, speedfan won't do. It won't even read the right CPU-temps )

 

It happened again: Only when playing Half Life 2 Episode 1, so just after 20 Minutes: Stuttering. Then I exited, because it was not playable anymore.
Then I took a look at hwmonitor. GPU temp at 72°. Then some seconds later: BSOD "Hardware malfunction" and "Parity error".
Now I'm back here again.
I'll try to play that game again with reduced resolution and hope it doesn't kick in so often. Would be quite a shame not to be able to play a game that under normal circumstances would be ideally fittet to your graphics card, but won't work because of ... well what ever it is.

 

Hey Sprint, its okay for you to think that I dont hate you either, hehe. However you would be suprised how many people I know outside this forum either having, have had or knows someone who has or have had problems with zeptos laptops and their support. Even people who never have had a laptop have heard rumors about that zepto isnt a good choice, basicly they have a bad reputation... and thats not for no reason.

Anyway, about my complaining and problems... there is a hidden agenda there you know. If I stopped completely with my "whining" (which id love to! im tired of it...) then half of those who agrees with me, but wont speak up by themself wont been seen and things will just settle down, just as I dont want these issues to, Zepto needs to be pushed and to know all the time that all these problems is NOT okay. Because otherwise they will do the exact same (proberly will anyway) with the next series of laptop (just like the did from 2006 to 2007), by putting in crappy cooling systems, not having people enough at their support and apperently not knowing how to code working bioses for thier own systems.

And the whole 622X/6225 series will just slowly and very painfully, for those of us who has used alot of money, be faded out and "forgotten" because the new series will take thier attention and staff.

Eventually this will proberly happen anyway, since those of us who have had a half working laptop will be bying a new whenever we can affort it, atleast thats my guess.

 

I agree 100%.

Well spoken, dude. And I also have to say that I really appreciate your effort of constantly pushing and researching on the matter since I was afraid more than once whenever a thread regarding this topic got to a halt that it might have been the last one and people have finally gotten over it. And that, of course, would be like ulitmately recognizing that I took 1800$ six months ago and catapulted them right into a goddamn furnace.

 

@Sprint

1% is WAY too low dude. Since very many may not even bother or understand or even know their laptops condition.

And btw, I speak for me and three other IRL friends on this forum.
2 of us bought the 6324w at the same day, the two other guys have 6224w and 6625WD. And I am the link between these ppl to say. Noone of them knows each other but I am firends with all of them.

And ALL of us have the same ****ty freaking overheating -> MEGA stutter issue. Totally waste of money. I am so tired now. Had 5-10 fps while playing Arena in WoW yesterday. I can only play for 30 minutes and then I have to cool the laptop or I will get stutter. And as I said, all of us have the same stutter issue. Eventually two of my friends actually quitted playing games cause of this.

I've spent €1100 on a laptop that CAN'T be used for it's main purpose. An my friend with the 6625WD spent around €1700. Must say it feels damn great.

 

Questions:
- Can I force the fan to spin 100%, 24/7?
- Why does the stutter come with heat that isn't damaging hot? Is it really a hardware safety that underclock the GPU?
- If so, cant we force the clock speeds?
- Or even someway work around the temperature readings and set a "-5" value so it thinks it is 5 degrees lower. (If we first can make the fan run at 100%, so we don't burn our hardware)

If I send my laptop to Zepto, will they just start it up and say "Oh, seems to work fine" or will they actually even try to benchmark some heavy graphical pressure and see that the laptop works crappy?

 

1). In rivatuner and ntune there is an option but I doubt it'l work. Doesnt your model have a built in fan control in the BIOS?

2). If you send it to Zepto you will get it back in the same shape unless they do some special tests for you, I dont reckon they are going to play a game for 2 hrs on your machine unless you tell them thats were the issue is.

 

Ye, guess to. Yepp think it has an built in fan control in bios. is there any bios settings that can tweak the fan to spin at 100% maybe?

 

change the temp the fan kicks in at. that way it will run most of the time.

 

the bios fan control is without function (OT: "just to make sure that you (we=the users) don't damage the Book by fales settings")

the fan can be controled by ACPI but i don't know any tool supporting this


Confusing: only at ~110°C (GPU(and higher)) the fan works at highest stage (heared this from several people, never had it myself because my GPU doesnt get higher then 104°C ever)!
i think thats ways to high (as many people don't reach this temperature at all due to a working cooling system and/or the stuttering issue )

 

So whats with this:
z14N006 (8/1-2008)

- Improved fan control
- Improved thermal reading methods to fix abnormal fan speed
Is it just to make us feel better?

 

What program can I use to get accurate temp readings? I will monitor my gaming period tonight or tomorrow then.