Zepto Znote 6x24W - BIOS z14005e

Just uploaded the new BIOS today.

ftp://ftp.zepto.dk/Znote6224W/BIOS/6x24_z14005e.iso

Changelog contains:

 

Thanks for this.

I'll give it a try.

John

 

Good news! No problems so far:

C3 mode seems to be there; I can see an 8x CPU state at 0.90V (some lucky people get 0.85V with the same T7300) and my SuperPi 2M time has dropped from 1m 03s (from memory) to 0m 56s which means that the dynamic acceleration (one core speeding up to 11x = 2.2GHz when the other is idle) is also now working.

The fan operation seems good so far - on low use + battery it is running maybe 20% of the time.

However, I can't get the battery drain below 15W so far and it is normally at around 17W (on 3/8 brightness) so a running time of 3 hours is still the upper limit. That's still better than 2.5 hours. This is with XP. Vista may be more effective in reducing power drain. XP lets me run MobileMeter. Battery life would be better if the capacity was actually what is says on the label (51.84WHr) and not what it thinks it has (47.31Whr). That shortfall is another 15 minutes.

The bad news for the RMclock users is that the low voltage mode doesn't work when RMclock is managing the power, but the dynamic acceleration seems to be working although it doesn't show in the monitoring. RMclock shows the 11x stepping (which was 1.275 by default - up from the previous 1.25V at 10x).

John

 

Hi I'm new here and have been following the zeptos for quite smoe time now.

I'm REALLY impressed on how GOOD the support from Zepto is. This har really nailed it for me. I'm getting a Zepto laptop!!!

John: What do you think about the 6024w?

I really can't decide between the 6024w og the 6224w. The 6024w dropped a lot in price today!! But I want the extra GPU power in the 6224w but is the $360 extra, worth it? I also really like the extra battery time on the 6024w, and of course the PRICE...

 

its worth it if you game a lot.. but if you dont.. noo need for the extra money... Im gaming sometimes so for me its was no doubt about the 6224/6324...
I bet John dont game that much


apart from the gpu, 6024 and 6224/6234 is the same laptop.. and its great.. Read some reviews about the 6224...

 

Great..

 

Excellent. The fan control seems much better!

 

Are you experiencing any "CPU-whine/noise" when using the C3 mode? Alot of people are complaining about this on the dell xps m1330.

How much better is the Fan control?

John says he gets about 15W as the lowest on the 6024w, does anybody know (can somebody check) what's the lowest on the 6224w with this bios?

MAN, I'm so impressed with Zepto support!!!

 

I'll second the confirmation. SuperPi runs faster. 2M from 1.07 to 1.01 with a 250mb firefox running on vista. Don't know how to put SuperPi in mem.

@ McKajVah, have you played any games lately that required have gpu?. What do you want the extra gpu power for? Heat? If rendering and visualisation in on the table, you know what to do. I you spend 85% of the time surfing, you know what to do . I would personaly buy the 6024 if I was buying today, and give up Lost World, that's how cheap it is in DK.

K, this might just be me, my system or a world condition, but playing a .mkv file seemed to require less system power (perhaps nvidia could boost this in the future) than it did before.'

EDIT: This was in the edit while some response were made, that's why it doesn't approach the question those responses made.

Runing a 6324w, 2.0Ghz T7300 | 2Gb ram|

 

Wingmanny or Makaveli: Could you check out the lowest battery drain you can get on the 6224w/6324w with the new bios?

You can test it with RMclock http://cpu.rightmark.org/download/rmclock_225_bin.exe

THX!

 

Now that we have got the power management working properly I'll be finishing my review. Can you wait a week or so? However, I will say now that my biggest remaining dislike is the keyboard. It is designed for people who poke the keys hard so I keep getting missed characters.

Correct. My measure of gaming performance is the ease of moving cards in Solitaire using the built-in touch pad.

I've not noticed any CPU whine (but maybe my hearing is too old).

At the moment I have no complaints about the fan control in the latest BIOS.

I did a quick test with Vista. Using the Power Saving profile I managed to get the power consumption just under 15W (display on 3/8 brightness, no wireless or Bluetooth, display on 3/8 brightness, wired connection to internet). However, doing something like a bit of copy / paste increases the power drain by a few Watts. That dip on the attached %C3 graph was caused by a capturing window and pasting it into Paint Shop Pro and saving it (so some disk activity as well).

For RMClock users: The dynamic acceleration seems to work OK with RMClock running. The 800MHz low voltage CPU mode won't work with RMClock. My current work-around is to use RMClock on mains power only and have no RMClock management when running on battery (and use the Windows power profile to lock the CPU in the slowest mode).

And, before I forget: I would like two changes to the BIOS defaults:

(i) TPM default set to disabled since we don't have the TPM reader.

(ii) The HDD moved up the boot order above the network card.

John

 

And I see that my optical drive no longer shows up as a removable device (I've check for both Vista and XP). Coincidence or maybe another improvement (there's now no risk of accidentally ejecting the device)?

My WEI has gone up from 3.4 to 3.5 (desktop graphics) which is probably the result of the CPU acceleration helping the GPU performance.

John

 

Hi all,
Wanted to get the new bios, but it opened with rar, and i just knew i wasn't going to get anywhere.
So i didn't get anywhere; there are three things on the rar list, and i can't do anything with them, tried double clicking, extracting them to somewhere...
so now i just feel i have parts of a bios spread out all over my computer which won't work.
No fault of zepto's, mind you, this is just what me and rar have going on.
If anyone can help, it would be most welcome, but don't go out of your way, i'm paying my noobness dues.
now if anyone wants me, i'm out back putting down a mangy file archiver

 

You are correct about the three files. However, the file you download is an ISO file (ending in .iso) which your burning software should recognise. A file of this type is an image of a CD and, when used to create a CD, will create a bootable CD which you then run to update the BIOS. See the attached Zepto instructions and this link.

When rebooting with the BIOS update disc, you need to press F10 a few times when the Zepto splash screen is displayed and then select the optical drive as the boot device.

John

 

Jesus O'Christ, i would've never figured that one out, thanks for helping me out yet again john! just to make sure i didn't mess up: i extracted the .iso folder to my desktop for conveniece,
the three items were visible on the desktop, then i wrote them to a cd.
the rest should not be a problem even for me, just want to make sure i don't incapacitate my zepto (which is a gem btw)

 

The stranges thing happened to my friends 6324w.. When he tried to update to this bios, it said that it didnt support his model.

 

I think you need to burn the .iso file as one file. The stuff has to go onto the disc in the right format in order to make it bootable. Burning software should recognise the .iso name and know what to do with it.

You won't kill your Zepto if you get it wrong. If that little program can't boot and load the BIOS file that it won't touch your existing BIOS.

John

 

Glue, that's not weird. It says that when you do not have the AC adapter plugged in and turned on. It's a safety precaustion we've had put into the BIOS so it won't flash when the laptop is on battery.

 

After I updated to the new bios I've been experiencing the "CPU-whine/noise" in windows. However I haven't heard it while running linux although the computer spends about 80% in c3 mode according to powertop.

I don't think there's such a big difference in the fan control so far, it's still more on than off.

 

What's the specification on your machine?

 

I've got the 6324w with 2.0 GHz cpu.

 

I think I've heard a bit of that whine too. At least I think it's that, since it's only there on practically no use. But only since updating the BIOS, though I've only heard it once or twice. I too have the T7300 2.0 GHz.

 

Either my T7300 is not whining or my ears are too old to notice it. I think some of the advanced CPU options in RMClock can help to stop the while.

On a related topic, what voltage are people seeing for their CPU when running at the 800MHz core speed? (See the attached - my T7300 is at 0.90V at this speed and 1.0V at 1.20GHz).

John

 

Could you check the lowest possible battery drain you can get on your 6324w?

Remember to turn of Aero if running Vista.

I would like to know how much the 8600gt card is using compared to the x3000 chipset. We can compare to John's results.

 

My T7300 starts whining when it goes under C2 mode, but I'm really sensative to sound and thats probably why I can hear it (my brother can't hear it for example). When my T7300 runs at 800 mhz it also does 0,9V btw.

 

I did some quick testing and the lowest I saw was around 17W but normal usage seems to be around 21-23W. I also tried the setting in RMClock to enter C4 on C3 and after that I got the CPU whining noise all the time, unbearable. But if you can stand the noise the discharge rate went to between 16W and 21W.

 

Thanks!!

Really interesting!! Was this with Wireless and bluetooth disabled?

I find it strange that the 8600gt only draws 17W and the x3000 15W. Can one trust the "Battery drain" readings.

How much real life battery time do you get?

Seems that the Zepto's have the same problem as the Dell m1330's then. Some with CPU whine, and some without.

 

I've been doing some more battery life testing. Under light use (3/8 brightness, no wireless or bluetooth, browsing NBR and working on a Word document) the power drain seems to stabilise at 16 to 17W and the battery showed zero at 2 hrs 45 mins. I could just manage 3 hours if the battery had its full capacity. it is now down to just over 45 WHr, so it has lost 10%. One further issue with my battery is that it has significant capacity at empty. See the two attached battery status screens that were captured 6 minutes apart (and the computer when or for a further 2 minutes before stopping). There seems to be a calibration problem. Does anyone else see anything similar?

Regarding the CPU whine, I believe it is associated with the C4 state. You may discover that the option for slow C4 exit kills the whine.

John

 

My capacity is 45047, down from 49108 the last time we had this conversation, John.

 

Worse than mine.

Zepto need investigate this and find a fix or we will be queuing up for replacements before very long.

John

 

huh ? what are you guys talking about ?
anything I and other zepto owners need to worry about ?
Im a little bit curious

 

Battery capacity. In RMClock go to battery info then battery device and you should get a screen like the attached.

The problem is that the capacity should be 51840 (10.8V x 4800mAh) and the reported capacity seems to be going down most times I use the battery.

John

 

John, your screenshots made me wanne post my stats, so here goes

My total battery cap is 46451 mWh.
With only a external monitor connected, I got as low as 16.5W, but with the screen at thirds lowest settings, it seems to settle at 21W.

How do you know when the cpu enters C3 state? My cpu core clock stays at 1596 (at a FID of 8 and VID of 0.936) when it's running power savings.

@John, how did you enable the settings under "Advanced CPU settings > Platform"?

 

@WingManny: Thanks for the battery and power info. What is your voltage at 1.2GHz?

To see the C3 power state:

Start > Run > "perfmon" . Then click on Performance Monitor in the list on the left side of the window, then right click on the graph area and select Add Counters. Expand the list of processor options, click on % C3 time and then press the Add button. Then go to the scroll box at the bottom of the window and change the colour.

I didn't consciously do anything to get to the platform options in RMClock. I am running the latest version 2.30. You may have to go to the RMClock forum to get it.

John

 

@Rene:

A strange thing happened to my 6024W when I stated it this morning. The fan was running on full speed (again!).

Once Windows had booted and RMClock was running I was able to see the CPU temperature was around 30C (so the fan activity was not caused by a false temperature report). Then the fan stopped (probably 2 to 3 minutes from turning the computer on) and the temperature started to rise to the normal range).

So it seems there is still some bug in the fan control system, but it corrected itself after a few minutes.

John

 

John:

What are the C5 and C6 modes?

Also, what is the difference between C4 and C3 mode? I thought this new bios enabled C3 mode??...

 

Don't ask such difficult questions.:rolleyes2: I'm still trying to discover these things for myself.

If you want some interesting reading then have a browse of Intel's C2D data sheet, particularly section 2. C4 uses a bit less power than C3. I presume thatC5 is even deeper sleep but I can't see it mentioned.

Perfmon only goes as far as showing the C3 state but I'm fairly sure this includes anything lbeyond C3. The issue with the previous 6x24W BIOS is that the CPU didn't get to the C3 state so no chance of anything even lower power.

John

 

What I can read from the C2D data sheet, the C4 mode is enabled when both cores are at C3 mode and therfore turning the whole processor into a low power state, including L2 cache and +++

C5 mode is some way of making the processor staying in low power mode for a longer time by redirecting all FSB traffic to memory instead of L2 cache...

John: Does the Zepto go into C4 and C5 mode?

 

I believe that the 6x24W should support the C4 state (not sure about the C5 and I don't know how to check). Also the infamous CPU "whine" is associated with the transition to/from the C4 state and some people say they have heard it.

John

 

Happen to me too once...

But im more then happy with the new bios.. im now at the university and been using the laptop for 4h without turning it off and cant remember when the fan was on last time... seems like its off 80% of the time... Im running vista with the power-saver mode (guess its because of that and the bios)...
anyway.. its great now...

 

Hi Guys,

I'm also trying to upgrade my bios, but i'm running into the same problem all the time:

I boot up from cd, see a message saying:

Starting Caldera-dos or something, some usb ports and then poof:

Exception 6 (invalid opcode)

Press C+A+D

What's the problem???:?
Thanks in advance!

 

I don't recognise the problem.

What notebook / hardware spec do you have? The BIOS update at the start of this thread is for the 6023W, 6224W and 6324W so I presume you have one of these.

Did you try using F9 to reset the BIOS to default settings?

john

 

Hi John,

Yeah i've got a Znote 6324W with the 14004 bios on it right now.

Let me describe the progress:

I downloaded 14005e and made a boot-cd
I reset the bios
Boot from cd
It says: Starting caldera-dr-dos
Then some abracadabra with "usb hosts found" etc

And then:

"The system memory manager (EMM386.EXE) has detected an error caused by a fault in one of the device drivers or programs loaded in the system."

Exception 6 (invalid opcode)
Unstable state, press C+A+D to reboot

 

There's amazingly little program loading to do the BIOS update so I am surprised that it managed to trip up.

Let's hope that the Zepto support people pass this way soon. I hope they will have an explanation.

John

 

When I started this morning my fan was fast again and didn't want to go off (it did actually go off briefly and then come again). So there is clearly still a bug.

I had to shut down and reset the BIOS. I also disabled the DTS calibration.

John

 

I have the same problem now. My fan is constantly on max even though that my temperature reads 37 degrees.

 

That makes two of us.

The BIOS reset fixed it for me.

Where's Rene today?

John

 

Hi guys, it's me again. Still having the same problems, so i made some pictures to clear things up for you.
You can see on the pics what happens when i try to boot from cd with the newest BIOS on it.

Anyone with a solution?
Thanks!

 

Thanks for the screen shots. It looks as if the simple DOS program doesn't like soe aspect of your hardware configuration.

What RAM configuration do you have? Did you reset the BIOS to the default settings before running the BIOS update? Do you have Turbo Memory installed and working?

I would suggest the next step is to test the RAM. Try this program which has its own bootable CD. The first test will be to see if if that boots OK.

John

 

John, thanks for helping me out here.

I've got 2 gb of ram, and no turbo memory.

My laptop is working perfectly fine, no hardware malfunction at all, i just want to upgrade the BIOS for my fans to be a little bit more quiet.

Weird


Edit: I just tried the memtest, and am getting EXACTLY the same screens. What's up?!?