Laptop upgrade advice try #2

[goodpsusearch]

Re: Laptop upgrade advice try #2

You bought a laptop that has GPU failure issues that are well known in this forum and there have been many pages of discussions about that.

What's the purpose of opening 2 threads if you ignore everyone and do whatever comes to your mind?

[ratdude747]

Re: Laptop upgrade advice try #2

You bought a laptop that has GPU failure issues that are well known in this forum and there have been many pages of discussions about that.

What's the purpose of opening 2 threads if you ignore everyone and do whatever comes to your mind?

I was not aware of the issue.

I was looking for ideas to consider. university surplus was an idea posted in the thread anyway (PCBONEZ suggested it on page 4). are you saying that I am supposed to do what i am told 100% of the time? am i not allowed opionions to CONSIDER?

well documented? I never saw a thread about it. not saying there wasn't one, just saying i never read such a thread.

it seems that no matter what i buy, its always the wrong choice. nobody has the same opinion on what is the best laptop out there. I am pretty happy with this unit, and until something bizzare happens or i luck into something better, I will keep the unit.

I saw a good deal (I checked the online prices before i bought it). i took it. what are you sayign i should have done? said "sorry, I only buy beat up overpriced laptops".

so what if I have to get a new mainboard down the road? latitudes are easy to work on... getting ready to open it up and change the thermal compound (and clean the heatsink).

if you are going to say anything personal about me, shut up. At this point, if a mod killed this thread, I would take it as a nice birthday gift.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Laptop upgrade advice try #2

"I saw a good deal and checked prices." - Great plan if your selling it right away.

"I saw a good deal and checked what the chipset is." - The better plan if you intend to keep it.

so what if I have to get a new mainboard down the road?

The defective chip means there will always be a high demand for that model and mobo prices will always be higher than other options.
Also there's a good chance the replacement won't last long either.
- Good thinkin'.

[brethin]

Re: Laptop upgrade advice try #2

I thought you wanted something in the $50-75 dollar range from the way you talked. I do not think you got a good deal but that is just my opinion since you asked.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Laptop upgrade advice try #2

I thought you wanted something in the $50-75 dollar range from the way you talked.

Agreed.

[mockingbird]

Re: Laptop upgrade advice try #2

RATDUDE -

It says in Proverbs 26:4 Do not answer a fool in his folly, and right after in 26:5 Answer a fool in his folly. The Jewish sages go into explaining this seeming contradiction at length, though I won't get into it right now. Now I'm not calling you a fool outright...

Having said that... I disagree with PCBONEZ that the motherboards are difficult to find. Like I stated, this laptop comes with an Intel GM965 version (That is - Intel X3100 video vs. the defective nVidia 8400).

In fact, there are a ton of them available on eBay and they do indeed look exactly the same as the nVidia versions, so you should have no trouble replacing them:
http://cgi.ebay.com/400221488837

Notice the big Intel chip next to the CPU socket as opposed to the smaller nVidia GPUs on the other versions.

I would keep one of those on hand.

[yyonline]

Re: Laptop upgrade advice try #2

The D630 intel and Nvidia boards are swappable. They use a different heatsink, however.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Laptop upgrade advice try #2

Yeah, and it looks like they're running about $80 so when you're done you'll have a $330 laptop!!
.
Is that a deal or what!
.

[ratdude747]

Re: Laptop upgrade advice try #2

--this is NOT an Invitation to restart the piss-o-thon above--

Updates!

battery had 29% wear... gets about 2 hours per charge. not bad.

the sweet thing is that everything seems to play well with linux. enable/disabling wireless (wifi and bluetooth) works (unlike the d400). the graphics and cpu keep up very nicely. heck, it even has a better cpu than my main rig (pdc 1.8ghz vs c2d 2.4ghz)

I am really liking this laptop... i may get a cooler pad for it to try to extend the life of the nvidia chip. and if it goes, hell, Ill replace the mainboard. It is a lot like my d400 as it is really easy to service... a tad bit harder, but not by a lot.

[momaka]

Re: Laptop upgrade advice try #2

--this is NOT an Invitation to restart the piss-o-thon above--

Aww man, I was really hoping for a big bash fest here!
.
.
lol, just kidding with your RD .

battery had 29% wear... gets about 2 hours per charge. not bad.

Yeah, 2 hours is okay.

I am really liking this laptop... i may get a cooler pad for it to try to extend the life of the nvidia chip. and if it goes, hell, Ill replace the mainboard.

A cooling pad my help a little, but I think you should first get a temperature read-out on the GPU (both Idle and under load). Then if needed, use SpeedFan or some other program to bump up the GPU fan speed.
The best option is to install a copper shim/heat spreader on the GPU, but that's a little more elaborate.

By the way, which screen resolution do you have? 1440x900 or 1280x800?

[ratdude747]

Re: Laptop upgrade advice try #2

it is a 1440x900

if i could fin the right heat spreader shim, I'd do it. i think they used the foam because it squishes more and ensures good contact on all 3 chips.

i mainly use fedora (half the reason i bought it-linux support), so no speedfan equivalent. in fact, lm-sensors only sees the cpu temp, no fan readouts. the nvidia linux utilty shows temps, under the current load (and on my dock), which is a youtube video (not fullscreen), it is running at 66C. i have not seen it go over that even after a long full screen youtube session. I haven't had the balls to try torcs (racing simulator) on it yet.

by the way, dell says my unit was a 6/8/08 ship date.

[yyonline]

Re: Laptop upgrade advice try #2

I've tried the copper shim idea. There was no noticeable difference in temperatures on my D620.

The D630 heatsink has a very dense thermal pad for the GPU. It's not one of the blue foam ones.

[ratdude747]

Re: Laptop upgrade advice try #2

^ makes sense since the bug also hit the d620 iirc (among other bugs)

[ratdude747]

Re: Laptop upgrade advice try #2

good news: there is an nvidia speed utility (command line) called nvclock (overclocking and fan speed)

bad news: the speed part doesn't work with my chip.

I am split between trying to use the utility to underclock it and just leaving it stock. i don't know.

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Laptop upgrade advice try #2

I am split between trying to use the utility to underclock it and just leaving it stock. i don't know.

Underclock it if you can. So you bought something with a 8400M in it eventually? Well, congrats... but if you run linux then you REALLY should have gotten something else, coz it will fail, and better get the most of it why you still can. At the very least install UT2004 and start fraggin'. And please... don't get me started on those thermopads. Just because they're squishy like c*nt it doesn't mean they're any good.

The irony is that on my dv9000 the 8400M is still alive and well, but pretty much everything else has failed. I'm looking at a new DVD drive, a new HDD, a new motherboard (that includes the 8400M tho), and i have to take apart the screen and give it a cleaning inside.

[ratdude747]

Re: Laptop upgrade advice try #2

but if you run linux then you REALLY should have gotten something else

why do you say that? I have actually had remarkably good compatibility and performance compared to a lot of things... sure, the graphics took the non-foss driver but hell, it works. well, i might add.

i tried to underclock but that too is also not supported on my chip. damn.

as for the bit about thermal pads- its more about the other 2 chips on the cooler. the reason they used 2pads and left one without is that you lower the cooler until it is flush, firmly, and evenly on the non-padded chip. the pads help the other 2 do the same. otherwise, you would have to get the chip heights and the cooler surfaces perfectly in sync... otherwise, all 3 chips might only receive contact on one edge of the chip surface, resulting in terrible thermal transfer and the potential to chip the die. the pads on the 2 lowest heat producing chips ensure that all 3 chips get proper mating of the heatsink.

by using a shim, you would have to tailor each one to each chip and heatsink combo. even if you got that right, thermal expansion would cause issues as the shim would expand and be the wrong size..

in short, if you use a rigid heatsink on more than one chip of differing types, you will have to have at least one pad to ensure proper heat transfer.

oh, one last thing, FYI, everything fails someday. for me, the pluses of the laptop outweigh the minuses... It otherwise seems to be a very well built laptop.

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Laptop upgrade advice try #2

in short, if you use a rigid heatsink on more than one chip of differing types, you will have to have at least one pad to ensure proper heat transfer.

No. It's called "being a cheap ass manufacturer". And please explain how those pads are so magical that thermal expansion does not affect them.

[ratdude747]

Re: Laptop upgrade advice try #2

simple. first, they expand to a lesser degree than metals do. second, the "squish" in the pad cancels out the expansion in the space between the chip and heatsink.

the only other ways wouyld have been:

1. long bare heatpipes between separate heatsinks- the flex in the heat pipe is what makes this work

2. completely separate heatsinks.

#1 would be impractical due to space and distances between chips in order to obtain enough flex to do the job without the pie cracking or buckling (hence why it works for desktop mainboards since the CPU is on its own heatsink altogether and the chips can be given more space)

#2 would also be impractical due to the space and cooling requirements of most laptops in order for all of said chips to get active cooling (if you sacrifice other features, it can be done like on the HP nc6000). also, this setup is often less efficient due to airflow and surface area issues.

[yyonline]

Re: Laptop upgrade advice try #2

I don't know about the Linux drivers, but the Nvidia Windows drivers automatically vary the clock speed of the GPU as needed. I know Nvidia writes Linux drivers, but I've never tested them extensively.

As for the thermal pads, they do expand when heated. However, as they expand, their thermal conductivity increases due to the increased pressure against them.

[ratdude747]

Re: Laptop upgrade advice try #2

As for the thermal pads, they do expand when heated. However, as they expand, their thermal conductivity increases due to the increased pressure against them.

what i meant was expansion leading to the heatsink lifting off of the non-shimmed cpu due to expansion. the fact that the cpu sits higher than the other 2 chips is what screws it all up.