Kaaji1359 Posted August 1, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 1, 2008 Heh, your right, it's HDD Acoustic... I'm assuming it's better to be on "performance" than "bypass" though... So what exactly should I say when I give them a call? That my laptop, for past 2 months, has been downclocking when I play high intensity games and I think it's a hardware issue?? I've never been too good with explaining myself which leads to not getting the best results lol... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wook Posted August 1, 2008 Report Share Posted August 1, 2008 yeah... dont mention the framerates, or any issues with performance. tell them its a temp. issue. say it get to 93 Oc then the game you are playing will suddenly downclock, or the video will stagger. freeze within 3 days you'll have a techie over at your place replacing some components. then you'll have a definitive answer as per temp. my guess is that it will fix it. Try XP also. (after new components) its been 3 weeks since i had mine 'fixed' and its running so much better now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Israel Lopez Posted August 1, 2008 Report Share Posted August 1, 2008 Its not only a matter of temperature, it is an internal problem with the thermal paste. I just bought and received an nvidia 8600m for my laptop, and the performance was very bad, but the temperature wasnt that hot. I realized the old card had thermal paste on every single chip, so I did that with the 8600m and voila, excellent performance! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaaji1359 Posted August 1, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 1, 2008 AV Logistics: So someone from the Dell forums said that the Dell BIOS has ultimate rule over the nVidia driver temps. So... I'm guessing we have to find a program that will overwrite the greyed out option in the system BIOS... Or you were working on something, maybe you've found out something? Wook: They wouldn't have to replace the harddrive would they? Have too much stuff on my laptop already lol... Israel Loopez: What exactly is thermal paste?? Would I recommend putting this paste on my laptop video card?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AV Logistics Posted August 1, 2008 Report Share Posted August 1, 2008 Thanks for letting me know that. Did anybody over on that forum come up with an easier way to get rid of this pesky problem? :) And I did get the phoenix bios editor program, but I'm having a hard time locating a .rom or .wph of any dell bioses. They all come in single executibles, probablly to prevent what I'm trying to do. But I did take a look at mine, and u can change everything from pci routes, to timings, to temps, to fsb, and just about any other thing u can think of. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Israel Lopez Posted August 1, 2008 Report Share Posted August 1, 2008 Thermal Paste looks a little like glue, it is white or gray. Arctic cooling which is blue, also gets the job done. Basically it is something that gets applied on chips that touches the heatsink in order to cool the components. Thermal paste is applied on the core of all processors, the core of all video cards, and the memory chips of video cards as well. If it isn't applied on all necessary components, the card or processor gets hot, and performance drops a lot. Look at this article, it shows how to do it on a processor: http://www.hardwarezone.com/articles/print...d=2&id=1192 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quicksaver Posted August 2, 2008 Report Share Posted August 2, 2008 Hi all. I'm exactly in the same situation, I have a 9500M GS with the latest 177.79 driver on my Acer 6920G that underclocks after some time playing. Obviously i've tried turning off powermizer but that's not it. After looking at the card's bios with nibitor, i see that i only have the critical core temperature (at 110ºC), all others are greyed out just like anonymous1986, so im guessing i can follow the suggestions of either uping the throttling clocks to the 3d clocks or checking the main system's bios to see if there is some option to adjust that. I was leaning towards the latter, adjusting the temperature limits and such i mean, it just makes more sense since it seems to do that at low temperatures, without gaming it stays at around 50ºC, with gaming (only monitored with UT3) at around 62-63, sometimes 65, this is usually when i have to quit because it underclocks and i need to restart. If it really does require such low temperatures to function i feel like i was ripped off, i say it's a low temperature because i see everyone speaking of 70s and 80s with stability, while at 90º you're probably already pushing it. I was planning on trying some slight oc since it seems to be capable of a little more considering the temps... but that's just me ranting and not called for here ;P The laptop uses a phoenix based bios, i've tried looking at it using the app AV Logistics mentioned but i couldnt find the obvious "temperature at which the card underclocks" setting and dont know what i should be looking for. Dyou have any suggestions? Or rather, if i uped my bios image would you mind taking a quick look at it if you would? ;P On the other hand, I do believe i could easily up the throttling clocks through flashing the card but i have a question (and please note im not too big of an expert in this matter). Nibitor doesnt recognize it's bios (exported from gpu-z), i have to select the 8-series generation from the dropdown it gives me, considering it has no 9 series option, or it won't read it right, would this affect bios flashing? Such as invalid saved bios files or something since it doenst natively recognize it or at least doesnt seem to? Like i said im not too big of an expert so i'd rather ask first ;P I would like to try these solutions, im sure that if they do the trick for me they would most likely work for all of you on similar situations as well. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wook Posted August 2, 2008 Report Share Posted August 2, 2008 no... all they do is come to your place, open it up and repace the motherboard, heatsink/fan. I told dell all i was pretty sure the thermal pad was not having enough contect. The techie said yeah, i just do what im told so you get a new mother board and new thermal pads. When he left, I then opened up the back and took off the pads and replaced it with AS5 paste. 5 Oc cooler than the pads dell uses Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaaji1359 Posted August 3, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 3, 2008 no... all they do is come to your place, open it up and repace the motherboard, heatsink/fan. I told dell all i was pretty sure the thermal pad was not having enough contect. The techie said yeah, i just do what im told so you get a new mother board and new thermal pads. When he left, I then opened up the back and took off the pads and replaced it with AS5 paste. 5 Oc cooler than the pads dell uses Sorry I havn't been too active, been away for the weekend. So Wook... since my laptop is only 2 months old, maybe I don't need to replace my heatsink/fan, but maybe just call Dell XPS Tech Support and say "Can I get more thermal paste"?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wook Posted August 3, 2008 Report Share Posted August 3, 2008 yeah i said the same thing. but they replaced the whole thing. its just what they do to XPS units. part of their 'excellent service for XPS systems" you could always try... maybe they will just replace the pad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexdino Posted August 4, 2008 Report Share Posted August 4, 2008 reverting back to old drive will do the trick? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaaji1359 Posted August 4, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 4, 2008 reverting back to old drive will do the trick? Well first off, I would get such reduced performance out of my GPU that it would drive me crazy. Secondly, it wouldn't fix the problem, it would just make the downclocking happen a little bit later than using the 177.xx driver. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexdino Posted August 5, 2008 Report Share Posted August 5, 2008 Well first off, I would get such reduced performance out of my GPU that it would drive me crazy. Secondly, it wouldn't fix the problem, it would just make the downclocking happen a little bit later than using the 177.xx driver. But with the latest drive i get downclock just within 1 minutes of the game like PES2008 and GOW...... GOW will clock down to lower 3d clock setting while PES downclock twice to 2d clock setting :) 174.16 so far the most stable one for me although the GPU are not that fast Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaaji1359 Posted August 6, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 6, 2008 OK so I ended up finally getting Dell to come out and replace the fan and heat sink module... they said it wasn't an upgrade, but I'm hoping that it'll be a little bit better and work. I'm wondering if I should ask him about thermal paste and see if he knows anything about that...?? Wook, didn't you say the thermal paste Dell uses is crap? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quietly Posted August 6, 2008 Report Share Posted August 6, 2008 Thanks a lot for this post ... Unreal 3 enchanted ... :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wook Posted August 7, 2008 Report Share Posted August 7, 2008 yeah it is... actually dell dont use paste, they use a thermal pad. Did you watch him pull the back off, and replace the heatsink etc? cause you should now know how to do it yourself, and put AS5 paste on instead. I think without a doubt its better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaaji1359 Posted August 8, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 8, 2008 (edited) So... I kinda feel like an idiot. I got them to replace the fan and heat sink module, but the downclocking still happens. I don't know how I didn't realize this earlier... Apparently the downclocking ONLY happens when I'm in full-screen mode in AOC. I played for 3 hours in windowed mode without my laptop downclocking and temps never got above 79C for the GPU and 68C for the CPU (and that was without my cooling pad). This is still a problem as trying to get into the game in a windowed mode is very annoying. Would this be the game, or still my laptop?? Anymore ideas AV Logistics or Wook?? Edit: I wonder if there's a way to modify something in one of the files to make it appear that a game is running in full screen but actually is in a window... I know when I played Final Fantasy XI that's what I did... Edited August 8, 2008 by Kaaji1359 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kittie Rose Posted August 8, 2008 Report Share Posted August 8, 2008 Mine's still doing this too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Bilal Posted August 8, 2008 Report Share Posted August 8, 2008 My 8600gt on my dell vostro 1500 also does the underclock even with the registry powermizer tweaking. And my max temps get to 73 deg Celsius. So im thinking that my temp threshold is 70 deg C before it underclocks. I had the A05 bios and then i downgraded to A00 to see if that works. Heres my GPUZ. How do i create a vga backup with this(.rom)? And if i change the low 3d clocks i cant change the memory to 800mhz right? Will that affect gaming. Anyways ill check if my bios downgrade will do the trick. I remember not having this problem either after uprading my bios or maybe it was upgrading from 169 drivers to 170 + drivers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Bilal Posted August 8, 2008 Report Share Posted August 8, 2008 OOps i forgot my GPUZ here it is http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/9d2bb/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexdino Posted August 9, 2008 Report Share Posted August 9, 2008 So... I kinda feel like an idiot. I got them to replace the fan and heat sink module, but the downclocking still happens. I don't know how I didn't realize this earlier... Apparently the downclocking ONLY happens when I'm in full-screen mode in AOC. I played for 3 hours in windowed mode without my laptop downclocking and temps never got above 79C for the GPU and 68C for the CPU (and that was without my cooling pad). This is still a problem as trying to get into the game in a windowed mode is very annoying. Would this be the game, or still my laptop?? Anymore ideas AV Logistics or Wook?? Edit: I wonder if there's a way to modify something in one of the files to make it appear that a game is running in full screen but actually is in a window... I know when I played Final Fantasy XI that's what I did... So there is more than driver problem that the hardware of the GPU??? :P The heat problem make the driver downclock the GPU. :) Use powermixer (on) will make the GPU downclock later....?????? :) My 8600gt on my dell vostro 1500 also does the underclock even with the registry powermizer tweaking.And my max temps get to 73 deg Celsius. So im thinking that my temp threshold is 70 deg C before it underclocks. I had the A05 bios and then i downgraded to A00 to see if that works. Heres my GPUZ. How do i create a vga backup with this(.rom)? And if i change the low 3d clocks i cant change the memory to 800mhz right? Will that affect gaming. Anyways ill check if my bios downgrade will do the trick. I remember not having this problem either after uprading my bios or maybe it was upgrading from 169 drivers to 170 + drivers. You have the same spec as me...You can try 174.16 driver. it is much stable but only downside is the GPU are slower than the latest one Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Bilal Posted August 9, 2008 Report Share Posted August 9, 2008 So there is more than driver problem that the hardware of the GPU??? :P The heat problem make the driver downclock the GPU. :) Use powermixer (on) will make the GPU downclock later....?????? :) You have the same spec as me...You can try 174.16 driver. it is much stable but only downside is the GPU are slower than the latest one Ok downgrading the bios seems to be working. I have had no downclocks but the temps seem cooler so i dont know maybe the threshold is still 70 deg c. Ill try overclocking it to purposefully get it to go over 70 degrees. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexdino Posted August 9, 2008 Report Share Posted August 9, 2008 Ok downgrading the bios seems to be working. I have had no downclocks but the temps seem cooler so i dont know maybe the threshold is still 70 deg c. Ill try overclocking it to purposefully get it to go over 70 degrees. Oh which bios version you downgrade to??? i will give it a try. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Bilal Posted August 9, 2008 Report Share Posted August 9, 2008 Ok the bios downgrade doesnt work. I had downgraded to the oldest system bios available. The only thing that works for me is to use older drivers that dont let my comp hit 70 Oc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexdino Posted August 9, 2008 Report Share Posted August 9, 2008 Ok the bios downgrade doesnt work. I had downgraded to the oldest system bios available. The only thing that works for me is to use older drivers that dont let my comp hit 70 Oc which bios you downgrade to?? A05 have these Fixes/Enhancements ------------------ 1. Updated Intel uCode. 2. Added support for New optical drives. 3. Support new CPUs. 4. Added enhancement for thermal control. 5. Added enhancement for MediaDirect control. so you need at least A03 to fix dell thermal control. i think :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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