W860cu thought and improvment on sound and battery

hi every body.

this gonna be my first post here since i just bought a clevo 860. I am still typing this post with my asus G1 from shanghai aiport though.

Here is my configuration
clevo W860cu full HD
Intel I7 840QM (you can really buy anything in china)
8G memory
radeon 9870
win 7 64 bit.

my first question would be is there any wiky somewhere about this model or the best place to dig for information is this board?

second point is how to reduce the heat and power consuption when not gaming. I allready checked few post and didn't really found any satisfactory answer.
here is my current status:
GPU temp at idle 58°C
CPU temp at idle 50°C

I can reduce the GPU temp down to 47°C by massively underclocking the gpu to 100 / 250 instead of 700/1000, this does make the gpu fan much less noisy (and areo is still working fast). now with such underclocking i should be able to lower the voltage of the gpu but unfortunatly i haven't found any tool for that.
I also noticed that when i switch to batery the clock/temp of the gpu is not lowering which makes me wonder if clevo didn't forgot to activate the power management on the GPU (bios or driver). any body has ideas / comment / solutions ?

about the CPU i have an i7 840QM which isn't officialy released and definatly could be also undervolt when running at 1.2 gHz unfortunatly RM clock and cpu genie are not compatible with it. is there any other tool around for that? i fear the bios doesn't contain the timing and voltage specific for my cpu.

to finish i noticed that under my computer the 2 grid air entry don't look exactly the same on one i can see inside and on the second one it seems there is some kind of black plastic/metal under it. is it normal? or the guy who build it forget to remove a plastic? i would gladly open my computer but as the waranty stick is on on screw hole i d prefer to make sure before doing anything. I should have been more carefull when the vendor build it in front of me but i was in a rush.

does someone has some contact in the technical departement of clevo? i live in taiwan and have to go to taipei tomorow or monday, so if necessary i can pass by their office and bother them. I got the marketing manager business card during the computex but it is easier to annoy a lower level technical person that him.

My ultimate goal is not to make the computer faster (i can buy a desktop for that), but to reduce the noise and increase the batery life because the point to have a laptop is to move around with it without carrying 10 batery pack. off course when gaming it is another story, but i don't usually game when not plugged.

my old asus G1 currently run at 44°C (compared to the 56°C at the begining) and my 3 year old batery still last for more than 2 hours.

I am waiting for your insight

 

Is the 840QM a QS or ES?

Remove that CPU fan sticker asap. It will improve cooling and reduce noise. If possible, please ask Clevo why the heck they put that sticker there? We only have some theories so far. I would not worry about that warranty sticker, talk to your reseller. He cannot strip you of warranty for openning this laptop.

In any case, whatever you do, you will not reach long battery life with the W860CU using the stock battery, it's simply to weak.

 

well here come the TIC (this is china) part.

the vendor says QS and cpuz Says ES.
the thermal sensors are there though because i can monitor temperature.

anyway i got one year waranty, and i know where to find the vendor if the computer prove to be instable.

 

Apart from down-clocking your 5870 with the amd gpu clock tool you can also try to increase the fan thresholds in the DSDT tables. These thresholds specify the relation between component temperature->fan speed. E.g. if temperature > 30degrees then fanspeed = 15% elseif temperature > 40 degrees then fanspeed = 30% etc.
I have not yet found out how to edit DSDT table entries under windows 7 but other people on this forum might be able to help you with that.
These are the only two software solutions I know of.

Other solutions to lower fan noise involve regulating the voltage to the fans directly with the use of extra hardware. This can be done in several ways.
You could solder a resistor in series with the fan, this will lower the fan speed with a fixed value depending on the resistance of the resistor and on the voltage supplied to the fan from the fan controller.
You could solder a potentiometer in series with the fan, a potentiometer is a resistor with a controllable resistance. Meaning you can change the resistance of the potentiometer with the turning of a knob. This in turn will alter the voltage over the potentiometer and thus over the fan, the result is a fan that can be controlled by turning a knob.
Digital electronics also offer some solutions, in essence what you need is a controllable voltage source. There are probably solutions to this problem that involve digital circuits but I don't have any experience with this(there are some topics on silentpcreview.com on this subject).
An other idea that has been pitched on NBR is to control the input to the fan controller itself, thus overwriting the 'default behaviour'. This would mean finding out where the fan controller is located(on the mobo), finding out how it works(what inputs does it have? what outputs? how do inputs affect the output? basically you'll want to find out the behaviour of the fan controller) and finding a way to generate the appropriate input signals to 'feed' to the fan controller.

Other solutions that I have come up with so far:
-changing the fans with quieter models, I haven't looked into this (yet) so I don't know whether it is possible.
-changing cooling paste between heatsink and fan, I should have probably mentioned this in the top of my post because it is one of the most obvious things to try out first. Some manufactures employ cheap cooling paste or employ cooling paste in an inefficient way, reapplying the cooling paste yourself could mean lower temperatures because the heat is able to transfer more smoothly(with less resistance) from the component into the heatsink.

Considering the length of this post you can see that I have spent some time thinking about possible solutions. In the future I plan on implementing one of these so that my notebook(also a w860cu) runs more quietly. Because now it's way to loud for my personal taste.
If anyone else has remarks/other ideas feel free to share them.

 

What a lovely analysis, logion.
I am considering both replacing the fan and changing the DSDT table. This far, all the blower fan models that I have found have a different pattern for mounting. The search continues....
//

 

Be sure to let us know when you find something. I've done a quick google search on aftermarket notebook fans but didn't come up with anything usefull. Maybe you'll be more luckly.

 

thank you for all your remarks.

from the test i am runing here, underclocking the radeon bring a decent 10 to 15 % batery duration increase (i can run more than one hour with one charge doing office work).

wish i could have an automatic way to underclock it.

also i am considering this to solve the small batery problem.

http://www.ereplacements.com/er/unv120er-universal-laptop-battery-p-20346.html

in theory this should more than triple the batery power (the original battery is 40Wh).

 

really interested in a way to increase battery life! let me know if you find anything else out silenius!

 

did any one heard of an high capacity batery for the w860cu?

 

If you are in China, you should've bought this: ÓÑ´ïµç 50000mAh ±Ê¼Ç±¾Òƶ¯µçÔ´ ³¬´óÈÝÁ¿,¸ßÈÝÁ¿µç³Ø Áª±£ ·¢Æ±-ÌÔ±¦Íø
for your battery life.

 

well I go in china again in 14 days and i think i need to check it. i wonder if the batery can deliver the 80W the computer need .

did you try it?

 

found a 200Wh battery
Solar Laptop Charger With High Capacity 54000mAh - S54000 (China Manufacturer) - Other Computer Accessories - Computer Components Products -

 

does anyone know the lowest stable frequency pair for the gpu and gpu memory clocks?

erig i am going to shenzen on the first of july until the 11. i gonna visit the manufacturer of that product and see if it work with the clevo. the solar panel is pretty much useless but the batery is amazing on the paper.

 

Checked up on Taobao, there's that version of that battery without the solar panel, it's still 2 times the price of the 50k mAH one though...

Do check to see if it works, i'm planning on getting one as well.

 

well both manufacturer are in shenzen. if they are not far appart i can check both.

 

If you seek to make your PC more battery effiecient, cooler, and quieter DONT underclock, UNDERVOLT! You already mentioned this yourself, but I think it deserves more attention.:

When integrated curcuits are made, they are made on large wafers. The qualities of each chip variy, but in order to pass a profitable number of them through quality control, a manufacturer overvolts each unit a good deal. Your card may be able to run on 75% of its stock voltage. Voltage is directly related to heat, and totally unrelated to performance.

I've undervolted both my CPU (15 C cooler) and GPU (9 C cooler). Its the way to go...plenty of guides in this forum...

GPU undervolting tools: GPU tool (a freeware program that directly controls clocks), RBEdit (an radeon BIOS editor to undervolt (and fanmod, see sig thread) via vBIOS modification)

CPU undervolting tools: Rightmark CPU Utility.

More on fanmod via VBIOS:

The vBIOS in some mobile GPUs linked to the fan. With the radeon BIOS editor mentioned above, you can alter the trigger temps for certain fan levels (ie: at 70C, fan speed = x%). Edit the vBIOS, and reflash. The only problem is that in some notebooks the fan(s) are related only to the CPU temp and not the GPU temp.

 

The core i3/5/7's cannot be undervolted due to them having the voltage management on-chip, and the 5870 mob radeons might be able to be undervolted, but theres no way to tell what voltage they're actually running at and the temp doesn't seem to change (according to one member here anyway). The nvidia cards certainly can be undervolted with nibitor though.

 

nice trip.
let me know
wondering how long the lappy can stay on with it 8-10h?

found others
one 400Wh the SPPS-440
http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/233273786/Universal_External_Battery_Pack_For_All.html
I'm wondering if it's really 400Wh because the SPPS-400 is 200Wh

and here
http://www.batterygeek.net/

 

are any of these battery replacements/universal batteries available in amazon?

 

Hmmm... that 400Wh battery I think I saw before in a notebook repair shop, where they used it to power my notebook, yes, it works, but it will shutdown when furmark etc intensive tasks like the notebook's internal battery. I think it applies to all those external batteries, the power supplied will be enough to power the notebook for normal tasks, but not for gaming on battery.

 

well the first one is 3 kg that is a bit too much for me

the second website is really expensive.

i think i gonna stick to the 2 in the preceding post, i would be surprised any of these product can be found on amazon.

with a 200 Wh + internal the laptop should last 5-6 hours

indeed no tools allow to undervolt the i7 yet.

about the readon 5870 bios editing. well the software just don't work with it yet.

 

why not?
it's good for muscles and for saving on gym membership

 

i have my surfboard for that

anyway 5-6 hours batery is more than i have now with my g1

 

sorry not to have update this earlier. i have been damned busy in china.

i contact this 2 company

ÓÑ´ïµç 50000mAh ±Ê¼Ç±¾Òƶ¯µçÔ´ ³¬´óÈÝÁ¿ ¸ßÈÝÁ¿µç³Ø Áª±£ ·¢Æ±-ÌÔ±¦Íø

Solar Laptop Charger With High Capacity 54000mAh - S54000 (Hong Kong Manufacturer) - Other Computer Accessories - Computer Components

The first one was unable to tell me the power or the A of the baterry in 19 volts and the pretty much only answer i got was we never had any problem and no you cannot come and visit us. i can't say it really motivate me to buy there product.

about the second one they definatly know their stuff better in fact they can even remove the solar panel (save 30 bucks), they have one with less voltage outputs (save 10 bucks), i didn't ask about removing the useless moskito repellent. they usually don't sell to end user but they aggreed to sale one to me. but i was to short on time and couldn't get it before i leave china, so it will have to wait my next trip. I probably ask them to rip of even more parts. i think the power supply is useless (i can reuse the clevo one) to save maybe 10 more bucks. they guaranty the 4 A which make at least 76W. if you put your computer in energy saving mode (both cpu and gpu) the clevo use around 50 W so as long as you have the main battery to boot and change the energy setting in windows 7 it should be fine (as it is an external batery it will be considered as normal power source so the system will not switch to low power mode automaticaly). i gonna keep investigating this product and tell you more later.

 

nice post !
lots of info

 

Yea, anything like a battery shaped like a notebook cooler and is available on newegg?