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

Thanks for the reply. I should definitely try something similar.

 

Nice mod! but didnt you allign the circles on each side on purpose?

 

Thanks and no, it's more of a not wanting to crack the case thing. I did mark the centres exactly but those small vents can easily tear or fracture the plastic, as it's not just a solid slab of plastic where you are drilling. When I span the drill up as the drill goes through first before the hole saw hits, it cracks and splits up some of the vent section and can easily pull the drill (unless I guess you have a pillar drill, but then if the drill doesn't move a bit it might have fractured the case anyway). So I just went with it, I didn't want to risk re-drilling either on some of the damaged slots and then it cracking / stressing the case.

TBH, I had my suspicions that the hole saw may also split the case, but span it up fast before it got against the plastic and then cut through slowly, thankfully that worked and didn't fracture the plastic.

Overall I'm happy with it, I think it has an OE look and the bottom is rarely if ever seen. I Guess there is probably 1mm difference in vertical position between the two but the fan blades are all exposed, unless you stand there and stare at it you'd never know. I still think it looks neat whilst dropping 10 degrees or more and was well worth it, it looks cool and makes the laptop cool, I'll take that any day over cooking it to death.


Cheers,

 

No probs, it worked for me, my P34 now has a long healthy life ahead of it without being melted.

 

Excellent work!!!
thanks for sharing!

 

awesome !!! I was thinking about it from long time, but I was a bit scared to cut a laptop worth 1000 pounds but using it with this temps is a lot worse. I already bought all tools last month Thanks for sharing!!!! I doing it tomorrow

 

How did it turn out?

 

Been a while since I browsed this.. I purchased the v5 and just got it..seems to have addressed all the aforementioned issues you guys are having excluding heat... Although it's nowhere near as bad....for some reason I get a decent amount of FPS less in league compared to my P640 which is the same exact setup..

 

Ok, somewhat stupid question ahead, you've been warned: not only I don't feel confident enough to do that myself, but I don't have any of the required materials for it (since I'm not a DIY kind of person, and I don't own a house: simply rent an apartment and call my landlord every time something needs to be fixed).

On top of your head, to what kind of store/business should I get something similar done (yes, I'm not kidding: I have NO idea where I should start asking)? Unless I find someone in my circle of friends who might have a hole saw and some mesh to try all of this.

 

A hole saw can be had for 5 or 6 bucks. It's like a bit that goes into a drill. Very simple to use.

 

My done today I'm so happy now . I also put an extra tall rubber feet so the gap between surface and fans is a bit bigger and allow some more air go thru Thanks Again can someone tell my how to add pictures here?

 

it will be nice to find some different speakers as well, those are rubbish .... here is an idea http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...-way-better-audio-for-games-and-music.656611/ I already looking for some speakers from different laptops on ebay I going to order one from sony vaio

 

Mine just started doing this. Running off battery in Windows, it hits 40% charge and shuts down hard. Can't even get into the BIOS without plugging in. I had assumed my battery was toast, but it seems a bit of a coincidence that both yours and mine do it at the same %.

I updated a bunch of Gigabyte software recently. Guess I'll try rolling those back.

Edit: Um, does anyone know where I can download past versions of the drivers? All I'm seeing on their main website is the latest version and beta versions.

 

My laptop started doing the EXACT same! Except it's currently doing it at 20%.

As soon as I hit 20% on the battery, it just cuts off all power. I thought it was the battery that was ****ty quality, but it's not more than a few weeks since I used it on a vacation and got the 10% warning, followed by the 7% warning that I really had to plug it in.
Have you guy solved this yet?

I do still suspect it to be a ****ty battery, because in February it lasted 3-4 hours, and now I can't even get 2 hours out of it.

Also, I'm having an issue with one of my screws, the one in the corner closest to the power inlet. It's just stuck in there. I can twist, but it's not coming out at all, so I can't take my bottom cover off. Anybody have any suggestions to fix it?

 

CHeck with HWinfo your battery health.

 

Just checked, says it's at 16,3% wear. That seems pretty reasonable. But I can't get more than 1½ hour out of it anymore.

As I wrote, I used to be able to watch a movie and do some work, and now it'll cut off all power half way through. No warnings, no nothing.

 

16% is already quite a lot to be honest. On average use a battery would lose 20% with 2 years of average use.

 

Oh wow. I had always heard around 20% per year, not every 2 years. I've had the laptop for almost a year now.
I live in a tropical country, so I expected it to degrade a bit faster.

But the degredation is one thing, the fact that it just shuts off when there is ~20% charge remaining is a much larger issue. This causes data loss, and I can risk losing progress on the work I'm doing.

 

1 year if you make around 300 cycles. Anyway it is not that common anymore to have it degrade that fast. a 3 year old samsung ativ book of my has only 4% after 4 years, Alienware 1.8 after 6 months and an old macbook pro that i had for 3 years had around 6%.

 

Mine shows 3% wear. And now (in addition to dying at 40%) it will only charge up to 94%. Once it hits 94%, it stays there and keeps saying charging.

I was talking to my sister and her laptop (an HP less than a year old, running Win 10) recently began doing the exact same thing - dying at 40%. She said her battery life has also dropped all the way from about 7.5 hours to 1.5 hours at the same time. I had her open a command prompt and type:

powercfg /batteryreport

And compared the report her laptop generated with mine. Both our batteries were fine until April 4 (showing 6-10 hours battery runtime on hers, 2-4 hours on mine - she tends to run until the battery is almost empty, I usually plug it in soon after it dips below 50%). After April 4, every runtime on hers is 1.5 hours or less, same as mine. So now I'm wondering if it's a problem somehow introduced with Windows update.

I filed a support ticket with Gigabyte, requesting instructions on how to recalibrate the battery. They sent me this URL (not sure if it'll work for others). Gonna try it tomorrow.

http://esupport.gigabyte.com/FileUpload/Answer/2016/4/248029/Calibrating_battery.pdf

 

I did it to,

and ordered a pair of tweeters from eBay to cover the holes:


the laptop doesn't throttle anymore on unigine heaven benchmark. and the temps dropped by 10-8 deg C

 

So this is a long shot but does anyone know where to get individual replacement keys for the keyboard? Little sister decided it would be \ great idea to remove two keys. It's just the actual hinges I need

 

Hi what do you think of the p640 compared to the p34w? Build wise and performance? If you could only buy one of them. And why?i Want to buy one.
Also what did they improve you think in p34w v5 over v3?

Thanks

 

P640 absolutely trumps the p34 in every way possible... I just really admired the p34's design... I bought the v3 and then recently the v5.. I ended up returning both due to issues...however all the issues on the front page were addressed even the bottom plate wobble, which is fixed by reseating it...however I think one of the hinges was grinding against the frame.. I wanted to like the p34 so much but I was just too spoiled by my p640's build quality and heat dissipation .. The only thing the p34 has is the form factor and non nerdy look.. I just had a bad feeling about the longevity of the product.. I'm currently selling my p640 and I'd wait it out if I were you... I ran the laptops side by side and my p640 for some reason had a higher gpu utilization in some games which resulted in higher fps.. My only gripe is the design has a weird Msi nerdy slant on the inside... It's like these manufacturers don't care about heat, rather just pushing the product...like when some guy tried repasting the blade, all these razer bigot trolls tried defending razer's design flaw on the heat sink contact and "special" paste..if you want my opinion just wait a month or two..

 

The wobbling returns after reseating the bottom plate after some time. It is because the frame bends without any big pressure. The hinge grinding against the frame is something I came across with one off those models as well.

 

I know I should wait it out. But I'm ruing my chance I passed on the p640re. I gave the p34w a second go but although I used it better than the 1st time. I Let it go.

 

Oh yeah in that case you should've went with the p640 100%.. The screen and fluidity in gaming is so much more apparent on my p640.. I felt like each time I picked my p34 up I had to hold it like a new born or the thing would bend...

 

You right about that. Each time I got it out I was like golem saying "my precious!"

 

Followup:

It seems to be fixed. Right now the laptop has been running for 3h 15m, and battery shows 38%, which projects out to 5h 24m total battery life (I left the computer idle for about 2 hours).

First thing I tried after my last post was system restore to remove all updates after April 4. Unfortunately, system restore said all my previous restore points were corrupted. I had to remove the updates manually one by one (took close to an hour). Halfway through, I decided to just uninstall Office rather than uninstall all its updates one by one.

Rebooted and it did not fix the problem. Max charge was still 94%, computer instantly shut off at 40% after about 2-2.5 hours of use.

I tried the battery recalibration instructions Gigabyte sent me. That also did nothing.

I pretty much resigned myself to having to buy a new battery, but I did not update Windows just in case. I left it on AC power for the next week. Today I noticed the battery read 100%. So I did another battery rundown test and the problem has gone away. The laptop is once again lasting 4-5 hours on a charge.

I'll let it discharge a bit more, then put it back on the charger and start reinstalling the updates a few at a time to see if one is actually the culprit, or if this is just general Windows flakiness. Then reinstall Office and update it (I have another copy in a virtual machine I can use meanwhile) to see if that might be the culprit.

So the problem has disappeared, but no answers so far as to what caused it.

 

Is anybody here having any luck running their P34 with a 120/144 hz monitor ? How does it perform ?

I've got one but am struggling to drive it above 1024x768 at anything over 60Hz. I'm assuming its because the Wv3 only has HDMI 1.4 ... shame.

It is also a pain in the balls that the 970m isn't more adjustable - setting desktop screen resolution / refresh only uses the 4600, which is probably why I cant go higher res.

 

HDMI only supports up to 60 Hz. It does support 120 Hz when transmitting 3D video, but AFAIK there's no way to hack that to work for regular video.

If you want to do 120/144 Hz, you need displayport (or dual-link DVI, but I've never seen that on a laptop). This was one of the reasons I had a really hard time deciding between the P34W (only HDMI) and P35W (which has displayport).

All Nvidia Optimus laptops use the integrated Intel video card to drive the screen. The nvidia GPU acts as a co-processor, and the image it generates is sent to the Intel card for display (you may have noticed there is no tearing - essentially, vsync is always on with this arrangement as only completed frames are sent from the nvidia to Intel card).

A few laptops allow you to turn off this arrangement in the BIOS, leaving the nvidia card to drive the screen directly (at the cost of battery life). And even fewer laptops have probably the best arrangement - Intel card drives the screen, but nvidia card drives the HDMI port if you have an external monitor connected. But from the tests I've done, the Intel card is always in control of the P34W's video output, both internally and externally.

A side effect of this arrangement is that certain old or poorly-coded games will only run on the Intel video card. These games were programmed to look for a video card, but assume you only ever have one video card so stop searching after finding one. So on Optimus laptops they find the Intel card and use it, instead of searching further, noticing the nvidia coprocessor GPU, and using that.

 

Its not a big deal as such. My Ancient desktop will do 120/144, as it has DVI. I can get the HDMI to do 120Hz at 1024x768 which does fine for the games I play, and you can force a game to use the 970 which is fine (can be done in windows) But yes the 4600 handles all windows gfx.

I picked the P34 for its light weight and portability, last year. The monitor is a recent purchase as my existing screen was dying. I effectively paid half price (gift) so I'm not too heartbroken. I believe HDMI 2.0 supports 120/144Hz (the v3 laptop is 1.4)

P35 is a nice Laptop but I couldn't cope with the increase in size and weight.

Cant really fault it, even at 60Hz...

 

On an unrelated topic, what did the FB06 / F007 bios update add? Anything interesting ?

 

Fan arc is are drastically different.

Sent from my DROID Turbo using Tapatalk

 

Hello, I am completely new to the forum but have been lurking ever since I got my p34w v3 last year.

The CPU hit levels of 95C when I'm gaming and I'd like to turn the fan speed way up like I used to be able to, before I upgraded that darn smart manager thing. Does anyone know how to roll back the Smart Manager to the version were you could toggle maximum fan speed? Any other suggestions? I am unable to remove the bottom due to two screws just turning in their sockets without letting go. Repasting is therefore not an option. I might just return the damn thing since I got the bezel problem as well. Solved that with super glue so far however it's not really the optimal solution...

 

Remove the stripped screws and replace them with some at the hardware store (Ace, Radioshack etc). $5 tops. Sometimes you really have to jab the screwdriver in there, or try new screwdrivers.

95c load when gaming is unacceptable. Not only is the CPU dangerously approaching its thermal juncture, it's also heating up all the other components on the motherboard. Apply some AS5 or (my favorite) Noctua NT-H1 paste and watch your temps drop drastically. Most of the problem, past your current paste being of substandard quality, is that it's just caked in there from stock with reckless abandon. Seriously, it looks like the thermal monster just threw up all over the heatsink and die.

I too had the problem with screws... Perhaps you could give me a screenshot?

Your laptop's remaining lifespan will probably be less than a few months if you don't replace the thermal paste.

 

Hi,

have someone the install .exe for Bios version FB04? i want to downgrade from FB05/FD05 to FB04.

I think with this Bios Version were my fans quieter as now .

Thanks in advance

 

It turns out the above two problems were related! The battery problem in my second post above kept coming back. About 3 weeks ago, I gave up trying to fix it, and was working with Gigabyte to purchase a replacement battery.

The bulge I'd attributed to heat warping the plastic in the first post above was actually gas building up in the battery. As the battery bulged, it pushed the bottom of the laptop out. 2 weeks ago, the battery began bulging much more quickly. In a matter of 2 days it went from the annoying bulge on the bottom I'd been living with for the last 6 months, to splitting the seam between the top and bottom halves, deforming the keyboard and trackpad, pulling one screw completely through the bottom half, and preventing me from closing the lid all the way.

As it happened, I made that first post just 4 days before my 1 year battery warranty was up, and I used it as proof to Gigabyte that the problem began before the battery warranty expired. Got my RMA number, and since they're located a couple miles from where I work I just dropped off the laptop at their offices.

6 days later UPS dropped it off at my door. New battery, flat bottom, flat keyboard and trackpad. Everything works great now. They didn't replace the bottom panel, so the pulled screw is not holding onto anything. But the bottom is staying on just fine without it, and I still have 6 months of warranty left to get that fixed.

 

Hello,

I'm new here but have been a P34G v2 (in XMG guise) owner for several years and have just ordered a real Gigabyte P34G v5. I have played around with the BIOS in my v2 and might have an unadulterated FB04 install pack on an old drive. I also have the latest FB06. I don't know how to get it to you though.

 

Brill, good job!

Once the mesh is on it should look almost OE imo.

It was the best mod I did to mine for sure, not sure why they starved the fans in the original design so much.

 

How did it turn out?

Did you get a good drop in temps? Best mod IMO for the notebook.

 

Speakers would be a well worth while mod if possible. I am not sure about the internal amplifier though.

The JBL speakers from a lenovo y510 are awesome sounding for laptop speakers, but its also down to the amp. The speakers in the P34 are so bad though, not even worth using. I can't even listen to someone talking on a youtube video without having to plug in my headphones.

I actually compared the sound from my laptop to my old one plus one mobile phone, the very small mobile phone speakers produce more volume, and all round more sound both low down and high up, it's crazy,..

 

Well, very quick update about my temperature "problems".

After a repaste with liquid ultra I was still getting very high temps, 85°C and more (plus throttling), with a -63mV undervolt and and an underclock at around 2.5x (sometimes even at 2.0x, or lower). Those temperatures were recorded in my current place in the US, at an elevation of approximately 7000 feet high.

When I went to France for Christmas, at sea level, I was getting reasonable temperatures: same undervolt, but with the cores at 3.8x, 3.7x and 2.7x for the two last cores. Maximum around 78 degrees, from what I remember.

Back to the US: after one or two days, I was back to throttling and high temperatures all over again. I was recommended to send my machine back, because it could be a problem with the fans, the heatsink, or something.

I preferred to wait until I'll be back to France for the summer, just to see if the temperatures would lower again aaaaand...I've been in France now since beginning of June, and I didn't have overheating problems. It's literally working like a charm: undervolt at -63mV, 3.8x, 3.7x, 2.7x and 2.7x, the maximum I've had was 82°C, during one of those extreme hot summer, and after a long gaming session.

I think it's safe to assume now that the lower air density in altitude makes the laptop hotter, since it doesn't have enough air to cool down. I'm hesitating about making some holes on the vents of the back panel, to help with the air-flow, but since I'm not very good with do-it-yourself kind of work, I'll pass for the time being. I'll probably give it a try when I'll be about to buy a new gaming laptop though!
In any case, I'm pretty sure I've nailed once and for all my temperature problem. I just wish I wasn't living in an high-altitude place in the US...Obviously, if now one of you tells me "well, I'm at 10.000 feet high, and I'm getting temps around 70°C!", I'll have to reconsider my theory...

Now I wonder if this affects other laptops/PCs/systems as well, but I guess the answer is "yes".

 

It is well worth doing it It is hard to measure the different because processor can still hit max temps of 96c while on maximum performance but then I can't see much throttling now and is a lot more quite. I use my laptop without turbo boost and I have it set to x28 and -40mV and it stays below 90c around 88c max and gpu around 80c max with a little overclock 90mhz on the core and 100mhz on memory(my room temperature is around 28C) . The biggest different is how quite fans are now even on gaming tweak and those settings they never jump to the highest step and still keep it cool below 90 so this is what I was hoping to get . I can hear the sound from speakers now So this mod let laptop breath more and it looks like it could be even cooler but the fans don't want to go for higher speeds now, and I'm very pleased with it because on full speed it was just like my girlfriend hair dryer also for a speaker solution if I need a bit more sound on the go I bought this:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00OJ43...m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_r=MX1P9TYW69VB0SG6HPJ6 but a while ago I paid 10£....
and Im really surprised how loud this little speaker. I was hoping to mod speakers but there is just so little space you can't fit there anything else unfortunately..

 

I'm also at above 7000 feet in the US (mountains of New Mexico) and I don't seem to have as many issues as you. I get around 42C with normal usage (internet, pdf, spotify) and around 80C gaming with max fans. I'm not sure if I'm throttling (sorry I'm a noob and don't know how to check). I haven't done any repasting or undervolting yet. I have the v5 and I've only had it for 2 months if it makes any difference.

 

Quick question: what are the newest BIOS and Smart Manager versions that work on the P34W v3? The Downloads sections on the Gigabyte website don't seem to be updated for older models like the v3.

On the Gigabyte website I found the 5.5.7 Smart Manager which works fine (except Smart Dashboard which instantly crashes the manager) under the P34W v5.

I also installed FB05 BIOS update (my laptop came with FB04), but the v4 and v5 seem to have never BIOS versions. Do those work for the v3 too, and if so, are they recommended?

 

They guess (and hope) they have replaced the cooling somewhat since V3, so it might be that.


However, I've just ran into a HUGE issue: I've traveled back to the US from France yesterday, and this morning I've realized my laptop is wobbling a lot. Turns out the lithium battery has swollen up considerably over the course of the trip.
I literally don't get it: the battery has been fine since day one, it was fine while I was in France, this is not the first time I travel by plane with the laptop so I don't get how it would have happened, I haven't used it at all during the whole trip, the laptop case has been secured under the seat in front of me during the whole trip. It literally went from fine to death because of a mere flight.
Unbelievable, this is the last time I'm getting a Gigabyte laptop: I could deal with the other issues, but this not! I'm back using my trusty clevo W110er, and the next laptop I get will be a clevo as well.

I took some pictures, but I will post them later as I have some things to do today.

I highly doubt the battery is going to "unswell" by itself, even though I'll wait a day or two see what happens, so I'm gonna have to resend the unit while it's still under warranty. I've read using laptops with swollen batteries is dangerous, but I'll have to do a back-up of all of my files anyway (and then delete anything personal before sending it back).

This really really sucks!

EDIT: I wonder if there is any way I can actually remove the battery and use the laptop without it...In any case, I'll have to dispose of the battery somewhere: I hope there is a place for that in my town, don't want it around me nor simply throwing it in the garbage.

EDIT 2: I've just contacted GentechPC, who will then contact Gigabyte to see if they have some spare batteries. Maybe they can send those simply by mail? "crossing fingers".

 

Dont try to remove the battery, it is quite hazardous now to do so. It is stuck with adhesive by the way. The best thing you could do is remove the harddisk and SSD for backup purposes.

 

Oh geez, well you thank you for clarifying some doubts I've had: I tried to remove the battery, and couldn't do anything since it seemed to be glued to the laptop. Now I wonder why they would do that: I contacted Gigabyte who told me they can send me a new battery by mail, meaning replacing the battery should be a piece of cake...
Also, this webpage shows that to remove the battery you only need to unscrew 4 screws...Those are missing on my machine.

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Gigabyte+P34G+Battery+Replacement/41863

What would you (and others) recommend me do? Replace the battery through my re-seller (GentechPC), or directly through Gigabyte?
EDIT: I've just noticed Gigabyte requests to send the laptop without any components! No ram, no CPU, nothing...How am I supposed to remove the CPU?...

Here is what they say:
ONLY SEND THE LAPTOP AND AC ADAPTER

Please remove all mounting brackets/hardware/accessories (including cables, CPU, memory, manual) before returning the product(s). G.B.T. INC. is not responsible for any customer owned hardware/accessories included with the product(s).

IF MATERIAL OTHER THAN THE PRODUCT IS RECEIVED, THE NON-RELATED MATERIAL WILL NOT BE RETURNED.



As for the drives, I've never had to remove those: is it very hard? Are there tricky connectors and cables? ...I'm also not sure of where the SSD exactly (is the rectangular thing on the left of the laptop? I've always thought that was the wireless card... ).


Any recommendations on where to store the disks in the meantime?

EDIT : Gigabyte keeps telling me by email that I should be able to remove the battery easily...seems they're not aware of how they manufacturing their own products...

 

It might be the case by now it is easy to remove. I just remembered an older disassembly where some adhesive was between the battery and the housing. You might be able to wiggle it out. But really becareful.

Or ask Gentech PC to assist you, as far as I know they are quite forthcoming to their customers with their support.