Driver Fix for NP8660 hot HD in Vista?

*Okay, this might not be the fix to the problem* Sorry!

I'm just restating this coz the main thread was getting really long and the next post had pretty pictures to distract people with...

I think the problem is with the Vista driver for the chipset/controller.

http://downloadmirror.intel.com/16750/eng/IATA85ENU.exe

The drivers on the Sager and Clevo site are 8.2...
These drivers are 8.5.0.1032 and fix this important bug in Vista:
"""SATA hard drive never gets spin down request while system is idle"""

This could explain why the HD gets really hot, regardless of usage pattern, atleast in Vista.

Now I still think there is an issue with the heat flow and the HD definately doesn't get much cooling, but this should get the HD to relax when it isn't in use.

Let us know if it helps you. I'm back to idle-ing at 55C after an hour or so of usage, which is within the operating temperatures of my Seagate Momentus 7200.3 HD.

 

good find Jager! i'm hoping to hear some positive results

 

*crossing fingers*

 

Excellent find. Hopefully this brings out great results.

 

Can you link us to the original site that you found that link on? I found an intel site that says that exact issue was resolved in PV 8.0.0.1039, but maybe I'm confusing different drivers:

http://downloadmirror.intel.com/16012/ENG/release notes.htm

 

I will tell you how it goes after I restart. Ok I do see a drop in temperature. Having my cooler on, the temperature before installing was 57C now it is down to 52C. I will keep using for a half hour and tell you what the temperature is with cooler.

51C and droping I have having internet radio on and about 7 browsers opened.


Ok good news even after I removed the notebook cooler the hard drive stayed at 51C. I will check this again tomorrow morning after I have the hard drive fully cooled.

ok now while watcing a movie the tempeature went up to 57, though I am not using notebook cooler this time.

 

this is looking very promising

Did anyone else try, and get positive results?

 

so problem solved Hard drive heat on np8660 ?

 

nice results.... maybe I should pull my other thread on the panel mod.

 

Bad news, I'm pretty sure I installed this thing properly and I'm still running squarely at 55C.

I am using it in my lap though, but this was how it was before I rebooted following the installation.

Edit: intel matrix storage manager is v 8.5

 

Running at 55C is good.... my two Seagate are running around that temp.

~65C+ is when you want to really worry.

 

will test it again tomorrow now it is at 57C. the HDD temp doesn't concern me as much as the palm resting area heating up, I wish sager can do some insulation so that the heat doesn't radiate up...

 

^The hard drive heat should concern you more than your palm rest, imo.

Has anyone with XP installed/available to test experienced the same hard drive heat levels? That's a pretty incredible find if it's a vista driver problem, but hard to believe that there would be this kind of bug in vista (still!).


V I don't think he cooled down his notebook to test yet.

 

So it doesn't fix the hot palmrest problem?

 

I have a theory.

If you are talking about the left palm rest.... there is actually nothing under there except for the optical drive.

So I would recommend to remove any CD/DVD's to make sure they are not spinning up to create any extra heat. In fact, you can remove the optical drive to see if that even helps.

If you are talking about the right palm rest.... then there might be a number of things causing the rising heat:
- Northbridge chipset
- CPU
- Memory
- Turbo Memory
- Wifi card
- TV Tuner

The HDD is situated closer to the middle of the system so it can let some heat transfer to the palm rests, but maybe not as much as an optical drive with a disc in it or the CPU or chipset.

 

It's not the left palm rest, that spot isn't warm. It's more just to the right of the touchpad.

Personally, the palm rest heat hardly bothers me.

That really isn't a reason not to buy the laptop.

Although I have yet to sit on the laptop for many hours and do something like write an essay yet, where my palm may rst on the spot for a long time.

 

Exactly. I also almost never rest my palm (or lower arm really) on the palm rest, and when i do it's my lower arm on the outside edge of the notebook, so I'm having a hard time picturing how the people who complain about palm rest head are using their notebooks. For gaming, it's always left hand over various direction keys (w-a-s-d) + mouse, so why is the right palm rest an issue.

You can buy insulated pads for your wrist/palm rest area (or use a small towel), if this is the only issue for people like youdontneedtoknow and steveinspokane - who aren't concerned with HD heat or longevity, just sweaty palms.

 

Too late. Steveinspokeane sent his unit back to be restocked.

 

It's not just Vista because I have XP Pro and my hard drive temperature is also high. Is there a driver fix for that?

 

D'OH, so this fix doesn't seem to work...we're all back to the drawing board.

 

http://downloadmirror.intel.com/16750/eng/releasenotes.htm

Yeah, it may have been fixed in an earlier release and was still on the list. My bad. It did seem to help my temps but I guess this might not be the reason. I guess it's time to look for a grate...

 

JagerQ you are on the right track, I like idea of a simple bios update to fix the problem.

 

I like it too, but that doesn't really help make it right. Has anyone tried covering up the grates between the fan and the bottom grate?

 

I didn't do that I covered up the air intake for a while and the temperautre of the HDD stayed the same and the CPU temperature raised a little.

 

I've been putzing around on this guy most of the day now; nothing too heavy. Did some drive tests using SeaTool from Seagate. It's idle-ing at 53 while I've been surfing the web. The highest it has hit is 61. I'm going to say that's good enough for me. As my hands are generally freezing anyway, this guy feels nice. Maybe once I put the turbo memory and wireless card in the other hand will get some heat too...

 

^^^
that's a sweet piece of info! I take it you ordered your laptop without the wifi card, right? Were the antenna cables still installed?

 

Are you puttingin the turbo memory yourself?

 

@AlyH: Antennas are still there, I have 4 wires hanging out. 3 for the Wifi and one for the bluetooth.

@oxandrolone: Yes, I've got the 4GB Robson card coming and am going to put it in myself today or tomorrow.

Then all I need is a x64 Vista DVD and a Zalman cooler...

 

The wifi card I have only has 2 places to connect antenna: "Main", and "Aux". Any idea what the 3rd antenna is for, and if I will need it? As well, is there a different card/slot for Bluetooth, or is that run through the same wireless card? (sorry for the off topic question, I just didn't think I needed a new thread)

 

The new chipset has support for the Wireless N cards with extra antennas. Two seperate slots for Wifi and BT, right next to each other though.

 

I installed it and im running at 65c idle right now.

 

Has anyone installed this using vista 64 ultimate?

 

im running seagate 7200 rpm 320 gig hd and im idle 50-55 and by idle i mean, writing code in C++ and downloading files....

 

That's awesome. Thanks for sharing this info.

 

Just been browsing around on the net and have hovered between 45 and 48 degrees. Not using a cooler. There is only an ever so slight warmth on the right palm rest area. It's only even noticeable by comparison to how cool the other side is.

Edit- By the way, mine is a Hitachi 320 7200.

 

that seems pretty hot to me... mine never goes above 51°C (even when gaming), and on my Zalman NC2000, it never goes above 42°C. i wonder if the design of the m860tu (you know, all tapered towards the front) restricts airflow to the HDD?

 

I hadn't posted it in this topic, but my idle temps are now in the 49-51°C range, where they were 57-60°C before this driver.

 

Is this for 32-bit, 64-bit Vista, or both?

Petrov.

 

Both I guess. It really works wonders. My HDD is so much cooler now.
Right now its idling at 45ºC. No cooler... just an amazing cooling solution implemented by Clevo.

Why did it take me so long to find Clevo!?!?!

 

ill ask the expert. so what other drivers do i need to install milcs???

its always been my attitude of if "it aint broke dont try and fix it"
this is my 3th computer now and ive never updated one driver. only thing i used to update was windows and sometimes they even made things worse.

 

loaded the driver. my HD was idleing at 48-49 for the past 3-4 hours its now on 51 since installing the driver. fan is speeding up for a few seconds and then slowing down again. still at 51

 

Killer Notebooks is running a 44 watt CPU (which supposedly won't work???) with a heat sink mod and getting lower temperatures.

http://www.guruofgaming.com/modules...topic&t=2223&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

 

this is what im getting now after 45 minutes of team fortress 2

critical error of 57c
thats not critical,above 65c is critical

 

You might want to wait the next day and see if there's some improvements since the HDD was in load.

After installing, I noticed my temperature dropped from 57 to 53.

 

thanks livesoft.
its on 58c now

 

Mine is around 50-52ºC. Did you install the driver on the first page?

EDIT: After running around 6 HDD tune tests, my HDD is at 57ºC and I got the same warning as you did MrDJ.
Still, I wouldn't worry...

 

Ok installed the fix on mine was at 58 now at 56 and norm temps for my HDD are 5-55 so as i'm still installing stuff not too bad i think, will see how it goes!

 

will just have to wait and see. oohh look, im at 53 now

all ive done in the last hour is load pinnacle and brousing and im now in the red 60c
how do i unload this fix to see if it changes anything.

 

-blink-

Odd. I've had my HDD go to 57 on a number of occasions, and have never received that warning. 58's the highest I've seen on my HDD, IIRC.

Will try that patch out once I get to school today. Waaaaay too lazy to start my notebook up now