***Gigabyte P34W v3 "Phantasus" owner's lounge***

I'm new to this forum. So hello at first.
I got my P34w v3 today and it's wobbling just a little bit on a even desk. I read somewhere that taking off the bottom cover and take it on again can fix this issue. Has anyone from this forum done that already?

There are black stickers on two of the screws. They don't go over the notch, they're just on the head of two of the screws. Will it void my warranty if I put those screws and the little black sticker out? It's necessary to open the back cover. Or does a warranty sticker have to say "If removed, warranty void" or something like this?

 

Thanks for the quick reply. So I took the cover off and put it back on. It got a lot better, but now the two rubbers on the front are about 0,5mm in the air when the laptop is folded out. when it's closed they are touching the desk. I think I can live with that.

//edit: it gets worse the more you put the display back (open it). if you close the laptop, at a certain point the front touches ground again....
also I noticed, that the display scratches on the chassis, when you opening it, but only on the right side. so the display is closer to the rest of the laptop on the right side compared to the left side
I think I will send the device back. I paid 1300€ for it and for that amount of money, you can expect a perfect laptop I guess.... that's not the case here

 

So I purchased a couple of these sticks of RAM: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...IH5CCW5UDTGJP&psc=1&ref_=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl

I saw an amazing coupon, so I ordered 1, and my GF ordered the other. "Sadly" the order from my GF got cancelled for complicated reasons.
I just put the stick in the machine, and it runs dual channel just fine.

Wanted to share in case somebody was thinking of upgrading their memory, but didn't want to get 2 new sticks.

 

Hi, happy owner here since march, until now.

Had the bezel problem on my unit too, but nothing little superglue couldnt fix.

Trying my luck here since the problem might more of nvidia one, but their forums arent helpful.

So the problem started when geforce experience installed the driver(latest at that time), and after reboot device manager says "Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems. (Code 43)"
After that geforce experience just always tries to install latest drivers in an endless loop(install reboot, install, reboot, ect.).
Have tried with display driver uninstaller, with drivers dating back to january, but always the same problem.
Only time it seems to work is when i do a clean install after DDU, device manager doesnt have the yellow exclamation mark on top, but after reboot it finds its way there.

Did some reading on nvidia forums and there was few similar cases and their result was that the gpu had fried. Mine isnt overclocked or anything, but apparently drivers can fry gpus?

So, Gigabyte support or nvidia support?

 

I had the same problem on my desktop, after going back from windows 10 to 8.1.

It was fixed again when I upgraded to windows 10 again.

 

Anybody had the pleasure of trying the P34w v5?

I'm a happy owner of a v3 with 0 issues, but I'm really interested in the difference in heat generation.

 

So, in the meantime, a guy did THIS on the P34Wv4 !

http://portables4gamers.com/forum/uploads/monthly_12_2015/post-9281-0-91212700-1449241365.jpeg

Minus 13°C on the CPU while gaming ! Do you think that might remove the waranty ?

 

If you can maybe translate what they did exactly, We'll be able to tell you if it voids warranty.

Thanks,
GIGABYTE NB

 

Oops, my bad! I put the link to the topic instead of to the picture. I changed it now: basically he did two holes in the back of the laptop to have better cooling.

 

So I've run into my first issue(s).

I wanted to re-apply the thermal paste, but couldn't even get past opening the bottom lid.

One of the screws in the corner won't come out. It just spins in its socket.

Not only that, 2 of the other screw sockets are broken.
As in, the plastic that holds the female side to the laptop, is broken.

I unscrewed the keyboard, and one corner just popped open. I'm not sure if it's worth complaining though. I might just glue it together and be happy that this, and sloppy paste are the only issues.

 

The D cover or bottom panel would be void of warranty. However everything else should still be covered from looking at the picture. We can't be 100% certain because we don't see inside.

 

So I managed to get the screw loose.

Apparently somebody (most probably a returned unit) appears to have superglued the screws in place, so when I tried unscrewing them, 3 of the plastic bits broke off.

I glued them back, left it to dry for a long time, then put the screws back in. But now my trackpad isn't working.

 

Do you have the track pad disabled? Try hitting Fn + F10

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

 

No, it's enabled.

It's not even showing up in the device manager list.

I just tried taking off the keyboard, seeing if the connector was loose. But the keyboard is glued on really tightly. As in I bent both sides of the keyboard 5cm up in the air, and now the top left plastic bit is sticking slightly upwards.

 

Ok, thank you for the answer!

Question for everybody else: since I still get very high temps even after a repaste with liquid ultra, and after spending hours on skype with a friend who happens to also have a P34Wv3 and also repairs computers for a living, I am now almost 100% positive that underclocking with XTU simply doesn't work on my laptop.
We're on the same machine, with the same thermal paste, same XTU settings, same games, and we get like 10 to 20 degrees of difference with some games.
Obviously, the overheating could be caused by other things: maybe a faulty heatsink, maybe some programs, etc, but the fact is, after many testing, there are simply no difference in game temperatures whether I undervolt or not (and if there are, it's like...Maybe 2 or 3 degrees). Now here is the "funny" part: if I undervolt too much, the laptop shuts down in game...So if it's not stable, the undervolt should be working, right?...So why doesn't it have any impact on the temperatures ?!
At least the liquid ultra prevents me from throttling at 95°C when playing the Witcher 3 with all the cores set to x15 to x20, but still, I get very high temps.

So, is there some hidden Bios option that locks the voltage no matter what?
In case the problem comes from XTU, are there any programs out there to undervolt that are easy to use? (I had a look at this forum: http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...us-owners-lounge.772517/page-79#post-10153316 Unfortunately, without the pictures, this is beyond my knowledge: I'd rather not try it and break something).

I know, I still need to do the Bios update: will try that after Christmas break when I'll be back in the US (knowing how unfortunate I've been in my life with computers in general, chances are something will go wrong and I'll have to send it back to GentechPC: I've always had bad karma). But still, even with my current Bios, I should be able to undervolt. But as it is right now, the undervolt trick simply doesn't have any effects.

 

Your conclusion is certainly wrong, you yourself even said so after Undervolting doesn't make that big of a difference. 2-3C or so. You've got a faulty heatsink/connection.

 

Whaaaat? Then what's up with my friend who can loose more when undervolting on a P34Wv3.

About the heatsink, if I could buy a new heatsink from Gigabyte I would do it in a hearbeat...But they don't sell replacement heatsinks: I would need to send them the laptop for that

 

Your laptop is peaking out and throttling without even reaching max performance. Thus, undervolting isn't going to do much to the temps; only increase performance for longer before the throttling hits.

Yes, you need to send it in. Consider that you're getting like 60% of the speed you should plus the components won't last long at those temps anyway.

 

"Sigh", oh well, I'll have to do that when I'll be coming back to the US then. Bummer, I'll see how things go with my reseller.

 

Mine does this occasionally. I just hold it in the air and gently twist down on the corner which is sticking up to bend it down a bit. I think it happens when I'm carrying it in my bag and a lot of pressure gets put on one corner, which bends the frame.

This is just a bendy laptop. I haven't taken it apart completely yet, but my guess is the metal surrounding the keyboard is just a flat block. You're supposed to add a slight ridge along the outside edge to provide some additional thickness. In structural engineering speak, this increases the moment of inertia. Yes, inertia is primarily used when calculating how something rotates, but it also turns out to correspond with a structure's resistance to bending under torsion.

Taking the bottom cover off and putting it back on might fix it if the problem is due to the cover not being screwed on correctly. But the cover is plastic, so it'll just bend to whatever shape the metal around the keyboard is in.

 

It is not a metal block. its just a plastic frame with a thin layer of aluminium wrapped around it. The problem is that both the top and bottom piece of the laptop base have no real structural intergrity and the laptop twists too much while transporting it in a laptop pouch for example. It will stay in that position because the screws will hold it in place until you warp it back. Gigabyte could solve this problem to use a stronger metal frame between between the 2 halves and the motherboard to give it some rigidity.

 

That's it! I KNOW WHAT'S CAUSING THE HIGH TEMPERATURES!!!
...
Well, it's just a theory, but anyway. The thing is, I'm a right now back in France for Christmas break, and I tried a few games, and...Well, I lost 10 to 20°C on some of them...With a WAY higher clockspeed on all games!

In the US: x15 on all cores, -63mv = 90°C on the Witcher 3.
Here in France: x35, x34, x27 an x27, -63mv = 80°C...Still with the Witcher 3.
On Grim Dawn, with those same settings, I lost close to 20 degrees.

While my family's house is cooler than my apartment in the US, it doesn't explain such drastic differences. Plus, I did run some benchmarks with the laptop at the office, at a friend's, etc...Different places, all with different temperatures: the P34W always got that hot.
But now, here in France, it ran cooler.
And while I was in Vietnam, in deep summer, it also ran a bit cooler.
So, unless flying on an airplane had strange effects on the thermal paste...Looks like the electricity, or the wall outlets in my part of the US, or something-else-only-in-the-US is transforming the laptop into a frying pan...

EDIT: Oh yes, I am in high elevation in the US (around 7000 feet high), very arid setting, less air pressure. Here in France, I'm around 270 feet high, more humidity as well. Dunno if it might have anything to do. :/...Or could it be the voltage difference?

 

It isn't the voltage, that's why you have an adapter. Maybe 7000 ft makes a difference, there is less air than at sea level.

At sea level, the density of air is .075 lb/ft3 . At 7000ft, it's roughly .060 lb/ft3. This means that you'll need to move 20% more air at 7000ft to achieve the same air cooling at sea level.

 

Thank you so much for your effort in tryin gto contact the support. I just bought an p43wv4 on ebay and after repasting and adjusting the CPU Usage in Powermanagement I am really happy with the device - BESIDES that creepy fan control that I could not get to work... This was way better with MSI - where you had the "can control tool"

All the best to you!

phila

 

Maybe I guess, I'm really no expert, but thanks for the explanation. I should try to use it somewhere else in the US, and see how the laptop works.

 

Hiho! I tried undervolting with the XTU - still I can not get my machine to start up with those settings... How/Did you manage to do so?

Even more curious. If I start XTU manually it says it sticks with the values I set befor - but CPUID and Core Temp tell me otherwise ;-(

Best regards

phila

 

No worries, though my attempts were futile!

Since my last activity on here my machine has had a screen hinge repaired as it snapped and is currently in repair due to a complete board failure. I love the concept of this machine and I initially thought I had "a good one" but I can see I am now on a slippery slope which is a real shame. I have owned mine for 6 months, 2 of which have been spent in repair.

Suffice to say, I have contacted my reseller as I have lost confidence in the machine. I just hope something can be done.

 

Questions to those of you who updated to Win10 for free...How do you do a clean Win10 install if you ever have to? I ask because I might update in the future, but I am totally clueless about how to do a fresh Win10 install after an update.
What I would prefer is to be able to restore the factory settings of the laptop at any time, but with Win10 instead of Win8.1.
The P34W came with the Gigabyte USB stick drive, that allows you to restore the Win8.1 factory settings: I'd rather keep it in case I'm unhappy with Win10 and, for some reasons, they no longer allow you to roll back to Win 8.1.
But what if I create another Gigabyte USB with the Gigabyte Smart USB Backup with Win10 installed? Would that allow me to restore the factory settings of the laptop with Win10?
Of do I need to do something else, like a backup with Macrium Reflect or whatever program?...

 

Once you have updated your machine is given a "Digital Entitlement" so when you clean install, the Windows servers know that your machine has a valid key and activates automatically. You can do a clean install by using the media creation tool from Microsoft. You would need to get the Gigabyte software from the product page on their website. Thats exactly what I did. Once Win10 is installed you can make a backup image using the windows tool (better than Gigabytes).

The Gigabyte Smart USB Backup just creates a bootable USB using the recovery partition which has the original Win8.1 install, so even with Win10 installed, if you run this tool it will still be a Win8.1 USB recovery.

I personally got rid of the recovery partition after upgrading to Win10.

Since the Win10 November update OEM keys can be used to install Win10 without upgrading first (I did this just a day ago with an OEM Win7 key) so it's possible you can do the same with the embedded keys.

 

Ok, I think I got it, thanks! Just to make sure, when you say to "get the Gigabyte software from the product page", you mean all the drivers, smartmanager, etc? There is no special Gigabyte program needed simply to install Win10, correct?

What about if we have a secondary hard drive? I put most of my games and programs in it, should I erase everything on it before? I've never had any problems on previous machines: worst case scenario, I had to reinstall some programs (steam always worked like a charm, even when reinstalling a factory backup), but since I would be upgrading to windows 10, maybe I should do something different.

 

If your games/apps installed on the spare hard drive have any registry files necessary to operate those games/apps will need to be reinstalled when you do a fresh format. Otherwise, simply navigate to the individual program's folders and sniff out the .exe's for the shortcuts, and then place them wherever you usually keep them. Most programs are self-contained, so all the necessary dependencies are within the the installation folder(s).

 

Sorry for the late reply, had to go to a wedding this weekend!

Yes, when I say Gigabyte software I just mean the Smart Manager and Smart Update. All of the drivers I would get from the respective manufacturers so that you get the latest versions (Intel, Nvidia etc...). No Gigabyte software is required to install Win10, it will install straight from the USB stick as it would any other computer.

As for your last question, the poster above pretty much nailed it..

Give me a shout if you need anything as I have done exactly what you are doing!

 

Ok, thank you guys! I don't have a lot of experience with proper windows installations, hence all of my questions. I will give it a try when I'll have some time in the future!

 

Sorry for the double post, but I'm back in the US and...Well, my diagnostic concerning the temperatures was wrong. Which means I have no clue what's wrong with this lappy...

Just to briefly recap: Since I the day I received the P34Wv3, I had been having extremely high temperatures, no matter what. Only way to keep it under 90°C was to underclock the CPU around x2.5 at least, if not 1.5 with some games (I also undervolted it at around -63mV, with little to no results).
Tried different thermal paste with no real results.
Switched to Liquid Pro, which allowed me to gain 4 or 5 degrees: still plus.

4 weeks ago I arrived in France. Plugged in the laptop thinking "hey, let's try this: maybe for some reason it will work in France". And it did. I was able to play games with the cores at x3.8, x 3.7, x2.7 and x2.7 without going past 80°C. I did notice better temps when I used the laptop outside of the US, but I never saw such drastic differences.
Bear in min I did NOT install any updates of any kind during the trip: one day overheating in the US => plane to France on the next day => no more overheating.
Hooray I thought, I figured what's wrong: the laptop, for some reasons, overheat when used in the US. Whether it's because of the altitude, the humidity in the air, or simply something to do with the electricity and the voltage...

I am right back to my place in the US. High altitude, dryness. I plug everything this morning, just to check how the temperatures will be, expecting them to be extremely high, 90°C or so.
...I'm having as good temperatures as I had in France. I just checked it. I have like 20 degrees less or so, depending on which game I am playing.
...
The "good news" is...Well, I can use the laptop with no problem now, no more overheating.

The bad news is...I stopped overheating for no reason whatsoever, from one day to the other.
It can very well start overheating again, for no reason whatsoever, from one day to the other.
I am at a loss here: I have 0 clue whatsoever what's going on. I have no way to fix it if it starts overheating again. I could be the smallest change of setting in Windows, something I would never think about (I have just changed the time zone on the laptop and recheck with a game, just in case: can you believe that?!).
Now, for what I know, I could update to Windows 10 and end up in the same boat again, with extremely high temps.
It could be a windows update as well (even though, all the windows updates from the past few days haven't been changing anything).

The only, ONLY thing I could think about...Traveling at 80 000 feet or so up in the air gave super-awesome-magic-freezing properties to the liquid ultra. Which I highly doubt, since some people were having better temps than me with the Artic Silver.

So yeah, here I am now. If anyone has another idea of what it could be, I am opened to any theories and interpretations.

 

I see what you mean. Flying to France is an expensive fix.

It could be the paste because I use arctic silver and have great results for a week after repasting and then right back to high temps.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

 

Yeah, maybe...Only thing being that today, the laptop "decided" to start overheating again...Sooo...I don't know. I give up, I really can't explain it...I'll probably rant again in a few months when I'll be back in France: we'll see if I get back the low temperatures or if everything stays high! XD

 

I found the source of the wobbling problem, which has gotten progressively worse on my laptop. It is not a warped frame as I originally thought.

In the middle of the bottom of the laptop, just in front of the cover panel for the memory slot, there's a plastic tab which sticks out. As the laptop gets old, I'm guessing heat from the memory warps the surface this tab sits upon. It begins to bulge out. The laptop begins resting on three feet and this tab instead of the fourth foot (which ends up hanging in the air). Eventually it bulges enough (as it has on mine) where it's resting on just two feet and this tab.

I haven't decided yet how to fix it. The obvious fix is to take a dremel tool and grind down the tab. That would certainly make the laptop rest on all four feet again. But I can't help thinking the tab was put there to maintain separation between the table and the bottom of the laptop, to allow sufficient airflow.

So when I have enough time, I think I will take the bottom panel off, use a hair dryer to heat just this part up, and try to bend it flat again.

 

Trust me it is the frame that warps. It comes warped out of the factory for many and I actually measured all sides and checked if they where straight. The frame is extremely weak and can be warped back by hand if you rest 3 of the feet on a table and you press the corner that is floating off the desk in the air. The chassis is only a thin piece of plastic and a thin piece of aluminum pressed into shape. Cant expect much for durability I guess with these thin pieces.

 

+1

I second this, mine wobbled a bit out of the box so I "bent" it back and it sat flat. Thing is, if you use the laptop as say, a laptop and take it places, you'll find it will bend all over the place. Really weak chassis and that is just one of many reasons why a lot of us don't own this machine anymore.

 

Like I said initially: faulty heatsink/connection or chip. RMA it.

 

Hello!

Sorry, might sound again as a stupid question: it's about doing a windows 10 clean install.

1) I have been checking online a bit (mainly tutorials on youtube), and I am a bit lost...Most recommend to download the ISO file and then create a bootable USB with it: what's the difference between that and selecting the USB option on the media creation tool from Microsoft?

2) I was planing on trying to install windows 10 on my W110er (clevo) first, to see how everything goes, and then on my P34W. Can I use the same bootable USB? I am hearing a lot of things about UEFI Bios and Legacy Bios (I think the P34W has an UEFI Bios...Whatever that means...), what if I install windows 10 on a machine with the wrong Bios, could I damage it?

 

I'm quite disappointed with the build quality of the P34W.

Now the right hinge has gotten so stiff that I'm risking the plastic of the screen every time i close the lid. It's flexing up about an inch if I don't hold it together. I guess I could put the plastic pieces together again with epoxy, but I'm not sure if that's the solution here...

Despite that I have severe heat issues. From just a few percent CPU usage the fans go wild and the laptop goes really hot. What's the consensus to do about that?

 

Undervolt the CPU using Intel xtu, repaste using a high quality thermal paste, disable Windows defender, update the BIOS. Also, try to keep the laptop elevated off the ground.

The thermal paste is the number 1 thing I would do.

Sent from my DROID Turbo using Tapatalk

 

I'll try the thermal paste first, then updating the BIOS. I'm running Linux (Mint) on it.

Another funny thing: If the battery goes under ~65%, Linux and BIOS shuts down hard but Windows keeps running. (If I reboot at 40% from Windows, it shuts down hard in BIOS and doesn't come up again.) I guess a BIOS upgrade could work there too?

 

Ok, now that I have my W110er with windows 10 and a repaste, working perfectly (and could be used as an emergency laptop in case the P34W stops working ^^"), I'm ready to finally flash the Bios on the P34W.
Only question though : what does the FB05/F006 offers in terms of temperatures over the FB04/F002 (my current bios)? I couldn't really find any information about this, appart from "the fan functions".
I remember I updated to smart manager 5.2.4 some months ago, which gave me very limited fan control: the laptop was controlling the fans speed itself, and wasn't doing a very good job at it.
I rolled back to version 4.4.7 which I find way superior, since I can set the fans to max settings anytime I want (aka, as soon as I start playing : I have lower temperatures thanks to that). I would hate it if the new Bios breaks that.
Any info about that FB05 bios?

 

No thermal issues here, after moding, 4.5 hours of Division on Ultra my CPU and GPU averages 80 degrees.

Stock is terrible though, peaks of 97 and it tries to melt itself!

 

Seem to have lost my old account so have re-registered.

Anyway, the cooling on the P34w is atrocious, the only way to ensure it cools is to keep it free of dust, do a repaste, undervolt, underclock and mod the vents.

I've tried many combinations on mine and some were successful, some weren't.

As these are now a year old, the first thing is to take the cover off and blow out with a compressor or compressed air any dirt and dust, then manually remove any embedded crud on the fans or other areas with Q-tips.

Once that's done, take the ridiculously fragile cooler off, clean up and re-apply a half decent thermal paste. I've noticed no difference between Gelid Extreme or IC essential. -2-4deg

The next thing is to use XTU to undervolt the core offset to -50mv - you don't need any more, any further and irrespective of stress test or benching you will get lockups in extended combined CPU and GPU stress in long gaming sessions. - 2-4 deg

Underclock it, run the multi on x4 cores at 28. It has zero performance hit on even quite CPU hungry games like The Division, but will knock 5 or more degrees off.

Cut out the ****ty vents at the bottom of the fans - 10-15 deg.

Use a laptop cooler - the fans won't lower your temperatures because of the cooling design, but keeping it on a vented flat surface will.

Even with the undervolt, underclock, repaste and clean out, in the Division my CPU was still hitting 92, infact, it pretty much stayed low 90's (stock settings it would constantly thermal throttle). It wouldn't hit thermal throttle, but after an hour or so of cooking all the components around the CPU and board at 92 degrees I would get an orange screen of death. Same with Rise of the Tomb Raider.

With the ****ty vents cut out I now average 80 degrees on CPU, with absolute peaks of 86 (then the fan ramps up and down it goes back to 79-80 then the fan slows). The laptop is much quieter, doesn't work as hard to cool and I can actually FEEL the hot air being pumped out the back.

I played 4 hrs 15 mins of The Division last night on ultra, no lock ups, no resets or crashes, and CPU and GPU sitting around a health 80 deg. I also knocked the multi back up to 3.4 on four cores and ran 3d mark. Before I was hitting thermal throttle, now, mid 80's at absolute most on CPU. Before it would try to melt itself and peak as high as 97.

I thought their cooling solution was terrible and too small. But it seems the cooling solution is good, just the design of the case ventilation is terrible. How they QA'd them and let them come out of the door like that I don't know, essentially in stock form they are a ticking time bomb, with some mods though they can see acceptable temp levels.

 

I think I might go and cut down those vents as well, but I'm not a very good DIY person ^^ May I ask how you did it?

 

Sure I went out to the garage and used a hole saw.

I think it was 35mm, secured the bottom part of the case to a block of wood with clamps, then gently buzzed the drill up to speed and carefully and slowly went into the cover until I was through to wood. Sanded the small lip off that was left by rubbing paper round the inside of the hole and picking off and plastic edges with an old plastic bank card, then filed down the little tabs on the inside of the cover so I could cut and fit some mesh (from an old JBL car speaker grill). I used small strips of double sided sticky tape to stick the mesh. When I stuck the mesh I rolled up the excess sticky tape over the spiky edges of the mesh to make it safer and stick better.

Looks kinda OE I think and on my machine made the biggest difference of all the things I tried.

 

Some pics: