Real extent of 6224 problems?

Hello.

I've been reading this board intently over the last couple of days, and I'm seriously considering buying a Zepto 6224.

But in my pre-buy research, I've found several reports of problems with heat related crashes and mysterious non-heat related random shutting down, which still don't seem to be have been properly addressed, though the latest BIOS update seems to have helped with the overheating. ( See this and this for example.)

But it's difficult for me to determine if the heating issues are truly gone, and if there's been found a fix to the mysterious non-heat related shutting down.

And it's even more difficult to determine just how widespread these problems really are in comparison to the number of units shipped. So I could really use your help.

I will use the laptop primarily for music recording and editing plus gaming, and it's absolutely imperative for me to have a perfectly stable computer, even under high load.

In that light, would you say that it is perfectly safe to buy a 6224, or is it more of a gamble than buying a 6625, or a laptop from other competitive manufacturers? (I've considered buying an Inspiron 1520 for example.)

Are the problems with the 6224 more widespread than the occasional problems with laptops from other manufacturers? Or are the many reports simply magnifying the unavoidable and occasional bad eggs out of proportion?

Looking forward to reading your thoughts and advice.

 

well, as youv probably noticed, theres only a few 6224 owners with problems here, and the heat issue should be solved. But these things are advanced electronic devices, and advanced electronic devices doesnt allways work like you want to, combinations of diffrent things can cause problems, its not every 6224 owner that has problems.

The 6625 hasnt have any heat problems, just fan, and BIOS issues. My zepto doesnt allways like to stay hibernated, and sometimes I get a flashing stanby-light when it in fact is hibernated (omg) and Iv had some BSODs too, self caused I hope.

However, wich brand youll ever choose, isnt 100% shure that it works, theres allway possibilities of malfunctions and fabrication faults.

Hope the post didnt get too wierd

 

The 6224W packs a fairly powerful CPU and a powerful notebook GPU into a reasonably thin 14.1" chassis. When those two components are under full load they will create substantial heat so the fan has to speed up to keep things acceptably cool.

I had some non-heat related shutdowns with my 6024W but I am now 99% sure that these were caused by glitches in RMClock, which otherwise is an excellent package because it lets you drop the maximum CPU temperature by about 10C.

There were some issues with previous Zepto BIOSes. At one stage they tried to address fan noise by raising the temperatures. A new BIOS version is on the way and is taking a long time to appear because of extensive testing.

One factor in Zepto's favour is that you know that their support people are not far away - several are forum members. I would also note that forums tend to be populated by people who are either enthusiasts or have problems. It is difficult to find out what the silent majority think. I keep my other foot in the Samsung forum and that has been amazingly quiet recently which suggests either that no one is buying Samsung notebooks or they buy them and have no problems.

Oh, and before I finish, how are you planning to do your music stuff? I think I recall some music people not being enthusiastic about the Texas Instruments firewire controller.

John

 

The only problem I've encountered is a weird wifi bug... If I boot the PC without WIFI enabled it shows a BSOD upon start up and simply reboots though when booting with it works flawlessly. I fear it doesnt work very well with the Santa Rosa platform or I just got outdated chipset drivers..

 

Which wireless card? Intel or Zepto? Also, have you searched for the latest driver from the manufacturer's site?

John

 

Zeptos own and yes, im currently using the latest from Zepto...

 

Thank you so much for your answers! It seems things are not looking nearly as bleak as i thought. I figured forum users might not be representative of the whole user base. Some heat and fan noise is not a problem for me as long as it's not overly disruptive in normal use or is making the laptop unstable.

Though I'm suddenly concerned about firewire as I was planning on using that in combination with Pro Tools for music recording. I'll try and dig out something about that Texas Instruments controller. I'd hate to be forced to use USB.

Do you remember if the music people were having a specific problem or if the firewire controller was just problematic in general when used for music recording?

Edit: It's apparently a compatability problem between many brands of firewire controllers and Intels 945GM chipset, which have been fixed in the latest INF update from Intel.

The Texas Instruments controller, which is in the Zepto, actually seems to be the firewire controller of choice for music recording. Sounds sweet!

 

And you have to notice that there will be more negative posts in fora by users than positive users..
If you haven't got anything to complain you won't post!

 

No heating problems after a quick fiddle with RMClock.

No other problems apart from the keyboard is not very nice to use.

 

Hehehe, I agree with CLB-NL....
I've perhaps been a voice of discent around the forums as of
late posting some negatives about fan and keyboard issues in
regards to the 6625wd... but don't let that throw you! The
line up is still a pretty solid computer. I'd highly recommend
trying one out for yourself though if you get a chance!
So long as the Zepto team can clear out a few issues, it's
a solid buy... ie... you could do a lot worse.

 

No mention of 3415w yet which is actually the compal IFL90! Wonderful cooling system resulting in CPU always idle at 50c and when playing games it's doing around 62c. Also had no problems with drivers of hardware (except a minor bug with the harddrive).

 

no problems so far here
except the crashes i described in another post, but that was due to corrupt software

 

I have had no problems with my 6224, it is a sweet computer, maybe there are better laptops with the 8600M GT graphics card but oh wait a sec they are all 15.4" , you could do alot worse, I havent experienced any heat problems to date.

The fans can sometimes be a bit noisy but looking at all that hardware packed into such a tiny good looking package how can you complain, especially with active forum members pushing for new BIOS versions to sort it out , props to Ratsey and other Zepto forum contributors aswell as the ever friendly Zepto Staff.

 

I'm using RMclock for undervolting the CPU, would this be a problem when it comes too cooling? I've recently noticed that my 6224 reaches about 97 degrees celsius when doing some demanding (but not that very demanding) stuff, for example watching HD-movies or exporting JPEGs from Lightroom.

This can't be normal, can it? RMclock shows a warning from time to time that it has detected CPU overheat. Doesn't feel that good, but without RMclock the fan is going crazy all the time (instead of when needed).

I've got the latest BIOS updates for my 6224, and all the latest drivers.

 

That's hot! Which CPU and what voltage is it running at. If you are undervolting down to 1.1V or lower (which is usually possible) then I would expect the CPU temperature to be no higher than around 75C. And, if I understand correctly, you are getting the high CPU temperatures without having the CPU fully loaded (which would create more heat to be disposed of). Is the fan running very fast and loud but not blowing much hot air?

The two possibilities I can think of are:

(i) The cooling system is getting clogged up and the fan isn't able to blow enough air through it (so noisy fan but limited airflow of very hot air)

(ii) The heat sink is not seated very well (so fan blowing fairly cool air since the heat isn't getting into the heat sink).

Problem (i) is easily fixed by removing the keyboard and sucking out the muck, but Zepto make noises about this invalidating the warranty. So the best you are allowed to officially do is suck / blow / poke around the exhaust vent.

John

 

This rather looks like a hardware-related cooling problem than BIOS or software.
The CPU is simply getting too hot, even undervolted. Up to 97 degrees is really very, very hot for a CPU (GPUs can get a bit hotter without getting damaged).
And the fan going "crazy" seems like it tries to get the CPU down to a reasonable temperature but can't really get there.
One of the first thing would be to check for dust or anything in the fan and if that doesn't help, it gets a bit complicated, because that could mean you'd have to open the notebook and make sure that the heat really gets to the heat sink (replace cooling paste, etc.)

 

As one of the 'silent majority' I have had my 6224 for 7 months now. It was the top spec available at this time for CPU and memory. I have had zero problems, 100% content, and would recommend it to anyone. I did the RM clock thing, only because it seemed right to do, however I have not used it for the past 5 months, and no heat related issues.

 

I have been using 6224W since January 2008. So far I didn't have any hardware related problems. To me it seems 6224W is one of the least problematic models Zepto currently offers. It packs a fairly powerful CPU and GPU in a relatively lightweight case. The keyboard is not the best you can find but again it wouldn't be worse than many laptops out there. I am yet to try using RMClock for undervolting but I never had any heat related issues without it. It just gets a bit warm underneath the laptop when playing games, but not hotter than my friends' laptops.