Got my NP8660, and it's awesome, and I'm pretty certain I'm sending it back

Well thank you but I am only dealing with from a perspective of evaporation or not. I know how to dry things? Like buildings and houses. That is it.

 

You've got to love mass hysteria!

 

Yes, it makes people send back laptops and not even think of getting replacements. Thus, effectively setting them up for a potential, ' argh, I regret sending back my M860tu because X problem was fixed in no time' months later

 

I hope this problem will be solve, although they can't solve hardware problem through some bios fix, at least not for the hard drive.

 

I believe that the Hitachi drives are running cooler than the other makes, Mine has never got over 53c and thats with no cooler or anything.

If it was me and I had a hot running drive I would check the make and if it is not the Hitachi then I would demand a swap for the Hitachi.

I could be wrong but its worth checking out.

 

when everyone gets a couple of minutes spare could you go here and fill out the Mini Forum Survey regarding heat/temps.
thank you.

 

But unfortunatly the return date is within 30 days, so all they get is 2 weeks after purchase to fix a problem that they should of tested for already. and than if they dont, your just stuck with something your not happy with.

 

No fan in my brick, idles around 51 or so and maxed at 59 while doing the Windows Updates.

 

So in conclusion: you will always be not happy with a laptop, for at least one of the following reason:

- CPU too hot
- GPU too hot
- HDD too hot
- Bad build quality
- Bad customer service
- Too pricey
- Low performance
- 17''

Is there a laptop that all of its components runs cool while having great performance, that have good build quality and good CS while being cheap within a 15'' size?

 

Youdontneedtoknow may be on to something, although exactly what, I'm not sure.

@JagerQ: What are the printed specs on the bottom of your powerbrick?

 

^--^ exactly. 30 days.

Chaz's comments on the HDD temp were comforting; I trust that he knows what he's talking about. If he thinks that below 60 deg. C is acceptable for a HDD if that is the upper limit of operating temperature specified by the manufacturer, then I feel a little better. But mine has gone above 60 deg. C for extended periods of time, I won't always be able to use mine with a notebook cooler and not always in cooler (70 deg. F and lower) environments, so even idle temperatures would worry me.

Unrelated to the HDD issue though, the graininess of the screen has really started to bother me. Some people have reported no grain, but since they're all the same LPL0000 display in all likelihood, I think that some people might just be much more sensitive to that sort of thing and that I'm one of those people. Whenever I type on something that has a white background, it's bothersome to me. Perhaps a brighter screen would have reduced this problem, but most WSXGA+ screens just aren't very bright compared with WXGA+ and lower (and for the LG-Philips, the WUXGA is actually rated at a higher -- but likely not noticably so -- brightness). Since this is a gaming machine < 5% of the time and a productivity (Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, reading PDFs) machine > 95% of the time, this might be more bothersome to me than to other people. I could return it and see if I could get another display that's better, but that's a gamble involving shipping costs and time lost in productivity since there is no guarantee that the unit I'd receive would not have grainy screen.

Like I said before -- I *really* want to like this laptop. It's great in every way except for a couple of nitpicky things. I don't want this whole thread to come off as a negative impression of the machine, but it seems like it's going down that road. Please don't take it that way.

What am I thinking about doing instead? Going with an XPS m1530 (though it isn't even Montevina yet :-\ or a T500, leaning toward the Dell because of its bright LED-backlit screen. I would just end up getting a basic desktop that can run SC2 and the like when I ended up needing it sometime next year.

I hope you all enjoy your NP8660's as much I wanted to.

 

If you get the XPS m1530, you'll just complain that Dell CS is bad and the laptop is really hot and not powerful enough...If you think twice about it and that you don't need a powerful laptop, well that's different.

 

Internal temps didn't bother me as much as the External temps, I don't care what the HDD can handle, I care what my wrist can handle.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=286151&page=61

His specs are in post #608 on that page...not sure how to link to a specific post.

 

@ livesoft -- I do need a powerful laptop but the M860TU is really only more powerful graphically speaking. In day-to-day tasks that I will predominantly be using the computer for, I don't believe that I would notice much of a difference between this machine and a Dell/Lenovo.

I agree that Dell CS is supposed to be sh*t, but I have heard that the XPS service is (supposedly) superior. This isn't the appropriate place to discuss whether or not that's the case, and that's something I would need to look into on my own.

Also, if anyone is interested (because a lot of people seem to be recently) -- my powerbrick has a fan.

 

I can't believe I'm going to say this, but truth compels me. Since I have bashed Dell CS before, I have to say that it has been significantly improved for the last 3 months, so much so it stands out.

I fix computers for a living so I often have to deal with company tech support for people when a product needs a part replaced or there is an issue that is hardware related--about the only thing I really need from them.

I don't mind following thier scripts even when I know it is pointless, and recognize they need to do these things before escalating to tier two.

Lately, the second tier people who I need to speak with are much improved and actually helpful.

So, there you go...Dell has worked to improve things.

Don't get me started on HP.....

 

That's good to hear. If I have to return my laptop (I hope not), after losing around $150-200 to ship it back and fighting with the government to get my tax money back, I will get a Dell (or maybe because this one also have problems...*cough* nvidia *cough*)

 

ummmm... maybe someone is willing to take the HDD out of the 8660 and put it in your old laptop and try to figure out if it's the HDD causing the heat, another component in the 8660 chasis, or bad circulation, or whatever? I don't know if that's a good idea, but who knows!

 

That would be interesting to try but there's nobody who wants to do it and I didn't receive my laptop yet.

 

Are laptop HDDs inter changable with desktops?

 

I believe you'd need to get a hard drive adapter which allows you to plug it in to your desktop harddrive connector cables.

 

So whats the offcial "omg my computer HDD is going to die" temp.

For instance. if my laptop idles at lets say 50c. and when gaming it gets to let say 60c will my laptop last? or can i exspect my HDD to die and if so would it be covered by warrenty?

Returning would really suck since i just waited the entire summer + school wont allow it (i got work to do).

 

Should I just be incredibly grateful that my NP8660's HDD is idling at 41?

 

ummm, considering the current trend of 60+ C. temps, yes, you should be extremely happy! Would you be able to post some HWMonitor screenshots/your system specs?

 

Great, now not only do I have to deal with pigeons dropping "bombs" from the air, now I'm going to have to deal with pigs, too.



_HP - I agree, let's don't go there.

 

My system specs are: P9500, 4 gigs RAM, Vista_ Home Premium, 320GB 5400RPM (HWMonitor reports it as a Seagate drive), 9800M GT (duh). I have undervolted my CPU using RMClock, so that might have something to do with it, though it seems doubtful. This is about an hour of general use (light browsing, some youtube, etc.)

 

can I exchange my system with yours?

 

Anomaly, how much were you able to undervolt it?

 

Did you try undervolting your notebook? Lower cpu temps should help temps all around. Can't hurt.

 

SATA laptop drives have the same connection as sata desktop disk drives-with older pata drives you would need an adapter.

Just recognize that heat experienced in a desktop will be much less because it is not so tightly enclosed.

Also note that while the connection is the same as a desktop, the same requirements/restrictions exist--ie, you cannotput a laptop SATA2 drive in a desktop that only supports only SATA1

 

Actually, it's not just your hard drive that's running low, everything else is (CPU at 28!?!). What are you using the laptop on? Is it cold in the room? Elevated, cooled? Nice. That means that it's very likely to be not related to HDDs or ventilation for the hard drives, but northbridge heatsink issues, like Shyster said.

edit: And undervolting would make a massive difference.

 

That P9500 rocks dude!


You’ve done a great job undervolting that CPU, nice to see how low it can go.

 

omgbbq, you are soooo lucky. You've got the lowest temp for now. When did your order/receive it?

And now, how can we explain his 45 temp vs some 70???

 

Undervolting.

Gonna do some test myself if my heat is paranormal as well. If that is the case, give me one day gentlemen.

 

I don't see the connection between the CPU voltage and the hard drive. Maybe there's some krazy things that I don't know about but oh well, just go ahead, try undervolting and if there's some good results, that will be some really good news.

 

Excess heat from cpu builds up somewhere else in the system, and the fan + heatsink can't dissipate areas where air flow doesn't reach, so the hard drive region gets hotter, is the idea. It's possible, and the super low cpu temp from undervolting above would explain both the very low hard drive temp AND the abnormally low gpu temp.

 

I suggested "undervolting" in the 860 owner's lounge to see if it may help with the heat problems a few days ago, got just one reply...........no. Couldn't try it myself cause I haven't gotten my 8660 yet. Anyways, hope this helps cause its gonna save me a lot of grief if my HDD exceeds recommended temps.

 

his temps were low before undervolting

 

From his thread, looks as if it had been already undervolted (is this a new word?).

 

touche! my friend

 

Sorry if my poor canadian brain is retarded but uhhhhmm... so his CPU was factory undervolted or his hard drive was already OK before he undervolted

 

From what I can understand he used RMClock to undervolt. Wished we knew how much though.

He did not mention what his temps were B4 undervolting

 

Rmclock is not recomended from what i read with the P chip series because the program is not set to ID the Montevina Platform perfectly so the voltages that it shows will not be accurate.

 

Ah, well unfortunately I'm kind of a newb at undervolting so I just followed flipfire's guide . However, it did lower my temps. As for the actual settings, being in college and the first week of classes having started, I'm actually still in the process of undervolting =P For now though, I have the following settings:

As you can see, I've pulled the CPU down to 1.1375V for the x9 multiplier, down from it' reported factory default of 1.3250V. I haven't had the time to do the intermediate ones manually, so I just checked the auto-adjust, though I do plan to slowly adjust the intermediates manually as well. I also have not yet performed the 3 hour stress test, only the 45 minute ones recommended, though I hope to complete the 3 hour one sometime this weekend. As for pre-undervolt temps, they're in the thread I started, I'll dig it up for you guys in a bit.

As for where it's running, a non-AC'd dorm room in NC, USA with an ambient temp of probably ~60 degrees. I guesstimate that, but I could be completely wrong, I'll get a more accurate for you guys soon. It's not on a cooler yet, as I'm still waiting on mine to arrive.

 

Ya that does not seem right i would not use it. 1.325 seems to be pretty high for default clocks. it should be like 1.15 or something around there. Its not reading your voltages right. I would not use it until they come out with an updated version.