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

Yeah, I'm going to try to call Ken as soon as I'll have some time: I've been busy with work so far.
I'm mainly worried to break the battery if I force it out. Can it explode or catch fire even if the laptop is turned off?

I've also been wondering if it might be possible to use the laptop without the battery. I mainly use it as a desktop replacement (I travel back and forth the US and Europe, so I'd rather have a laptop than two desktops), so I've been wondering about that.

 

Depends the bios and hardware if you can run it without the battery. As long if you dont bend the battery too much or puncture it you shoul dbe fine. It can discharge maybe if something is really wrong inside. Thats why I would hurry.

 

I just spoke with Ken from GentechPC: he was surprised I wasn't able to remove the battery, but as I said, it looks like it's glued to the laptop. He's still waiting for a battery replacement from Gigabyte, but I should be able to RMA him the laptop so he can change the battery: it will be way faster than sending it to Gigabyte.

Now I just need to figure out how to remove the hard drives.

EDIT : got the battery removed by the maintenance crew from my university, woohoo!

 

Hi, it is easy to remove hard drives, i did it straight when bought my laptop I bought my laptop without msata drive and with magnetic disk witch I replace with 480gb ssd and I put extra 256gb m sata . Magnetic disk is in the left bottom corner just 2 screws (if not 3 ) and to remove m sata drive you have to lift it slightly and unplug like a ram it is just above hard drive in funny twisted position hopefully you will sort it out soon this battery look dangerous....

 

Thanks for the clarification. I actually had the battery removed at my local university's help desk, they also showed me how to remove the hard drives, so all is good now I just need to order a new battery.

 

Has anybody else experienced problems with the battery powering the machine?

Lately I can't do anything demanding on the battery without the machine just shutting off. Even when the battery is at 80%, if I use photoshop, the machine just turns off.

This is a 1 year, 2 months old P34W v3.

Another issue: when plugged in, the battery just says "charging 94%" forever. It never reaches 100%.

 

Other than the battery swelling because it had been exposed to heat, I didn't notice any problems with it. The thing is I mainly use the laptop plugged in, as a "traveling desktop replacement", but the few times I had to use it on battery it ran fine.
Worst case, you can always order a new battery from Gigabyte: I received mine this week and it was very easy to replace. Only downside, it costs $115 :/

 

That's pretty much what mine did before the battery started swelling appreciably.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...us-owners-lounge.772517/page-82#post-10200472
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...us-owners-lounge.772517/page-86#post-10246504
http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...us-owners-lounge.772517/page-87#post-10304333

I was fortunate in that my first problem report to Gigabyte was before the expiration of the 1 year battery warranty. Since I could document the problem existed before the 1 year mark, they fixed it as if it were still under warranty. However, there are now at least 4 people on these forums reporting the same failure mode, so this may be a battery design defect. If you press them, they may replace the battery for you even though it is technically out of warranty. BTW, mine was swollen to the point where it ripped one of the screws out of the bottom of the case. When I opened it to remove my SSD, HDD, and RAM, there was no way to close it again. So I dropped it off at their offices in pieces (Gigabyte is a couple miles from where I work).

http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/archive/pouch_cell_small_but_not_trouble_free

I'm still... struggling with the new battery. It would originally only last 2.5-3 hours on a charge, vs 4.5 hours when I first got the laptop. Charging would progress fine until about 91%, at which point it would slow down. Windows 10 would report 99% and 1 minute left to charge for almost a half hour before hitting 100%. Running two calibrations in a row seemed to fix it and I got 4.5-5 hours again. But over time it seems to slowly revert back to the previous wrong calibration, and soon I'm down to 3 hours again. Until I calibrate it again (charge to 100%, unplug, discharge til it powers off).

One of the causes of lithium battery swelling is supposedly overcharging when the battery is fully charged, so I've been reluctant to charge it to 100%, even to calibrate it. This is probably contributing to the calibration drifting, but I figure it's the lesser of two evils. Since Gigabyte didn't put in a function to cease charging before it hits 100%, I've been using this app to sound an alarm when the charge hits 90%, at which point I unplug it.

http://www.robotonfire.com/bl/

Lithium-ion batteries last a lot more cycles with shallow discharges (like 75% to 25%, or 90% to 25%) than with deep discharges (100% to 5%).

http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries

So hopefully I'm harming my battery less than I was by leaving it on the charger all the time at 100%. In light of more people reporting the same battery problem, I think I'll drop the alarm to 80%.

 

Anyone else having problems with the Nvidia driver repeatedly crashing when trying to play 3D games under Windows 10? I think I finally tracked it down.

Windows 10 keeps trying to install Intel graphics driver 10.19.15.4301 with its updates. This seems to be the culprit. The Intel GPU drives the screen. The Nvidia GPU acts as a co-processor, and sends each fully-drawn screen to the Intel GPU for display. So in these dual-GPU Optimus laptops, it's actually the Intel driver which controls GPU switching.

Opening up Gigabyte's Smart Update, and reverting the Intel GPU driver back to 20.19.15.4300 fixes the problem for me, and the Nvidia driver stops crashing. At least until next time Windows 10 notices my Intel GPU driver is not up to date, and "helpfully" updates it for me. I'd had Win10 set to never update that driver again, but Microsoft in their infinite wisdom decided to send all future updates out as one monolithic patch - you have to update everything, you can't pick and choose anymore. I'm seriously considering reverting back to Win 8.1.

 

I think the charging 94% is correct. There was discussion on one of the threads on how it has something to do with cycling and back loop to not cause battery damage or something.

Do you mean that it still tries to charge at 100% (windows says its still charging) or that once it reaches 100%, it tries to charge, checks and doesn't (windows says the battery is 100% but not charging).

With all these reports of battery swelling I'm worried mine will do the same in a year.

 

Are the Intel gpus different for different generations of i7 cores? I have a skylake and my Intel GPU driver is 20.19.15.4331 and I have no issues with crashing playing skyrim or fallout. If the gpus are the same, maybe you can get your hands on the 20.19.15.4331 driver as I'm assuming it will stop windows from updating since it would be a higher version.

 

Does someone know the different thicknesses of the stock thermal pads on the heat spreader?

I changed all of them to a 1mm thick pad of Thermal Grizzly Minus Pad 8 but I forgot to check for the different thicknesses. I assumed that 1mm would be enough but there are some parts that aren't really in contact. As a temporary solution, I bought 1.5mm pads to replace the ones that was too thin to make contact.

It works fine with no thermal issues but I just want to do it the proper way and to have some peace of mind.

Thanks.

 

No, that's when the battery self-discharges after reaching 100%.

Say you start with the battery at 50%. You plug in the charger. It reaches 100%. At that point it stops charging. The battery starts to self-discharge (loses charge even if the laptop is off). In the old days laptops would immediately top it back to 100%, which was killing batteries within a year or two. Nowadays laptops will wait until the charge has dropped to about 95% or 90% before they top it off again.

In my case, it was going 50% -> 94% and just sitting at 94% forever (well, several days) while saying it was charging.

It correctly stops charging when it says 100%. The problem is I think the battery is somehow being damaged so what it thinks is 100% is actually more, say 110%.

I think that's why it was stopping at 94% - that's probably the correct charge level for 100%. But because the laptop thought it wa only 94%, it kept trying to charge the battery. Given enough time it managed to overcharge the battery to 110% (what it thinks is 100%). Which probably isn't good for the battery's health.

Hmm, yeah, they are different. Mine's a Haswell. The problem wasn't crashing during games. It was some incompatibility between the 4301 Intel driver which caused the nVidia driver to instantly crash the moment I tried to start a game or any program which (tried to) use the nVidia card.

I got rid of the problem for a while by telling Win 10 not to update the Intel GPU driver. But then Microsoft decided to make all Win 10 updates a single patch containing all the updates, and every time it updated the problem resurfaced. The newer 4331 driver seems to have fixed it though.

 

Hi Guys,

Any of you use a slim charge/power adapter with your P34G? if so which one?

I was using the Cooler Master SNA 95 (which was fantastic) but it just died on me after 3 years of use and its not sold anymore.
Only comparable one I have come across is the Innergie mCube Slim 95. Anyone tested it? and anything else to recommend?


Thanks

 

I use a Razer blade PSU

Sent from my DROID Turbo using Tapatalk

 

Does it come with multiple tips?

Also, the new one is 165W and the older one seems to be 150W. isnt that too strong?
I was under the impression that lower wattage isnt harmfull it just charges slower but more wattage is harmful. could be wrong.

Thanks

 

The tip on the razer charger is the same as MSI and Gigabyte. But the lower wattage can be a problem It will run constantl yon edge while under load, which also cause the battery to drain while under load and thus cause more wear and tear.

 

He's saying the newer Razer Blade PSU is 165W

Sent from my DROID Turbo using Tapatalk

 

Has anybody succesfully upgraded the wifi card in the P34w v3 ?

I beleive it is an intel 7260 HMW PCIE - in fact I know it is as I've looked. I even bought an 8260, but its an 8260 NGW which is completely the wrong type (late night ebay meh)

So what I really want is 82xx or later HMW PCIE card....

Just airing my thoughts....

 

Don't think there is one. Alternatively a killer 1202 is good for gaming at least. Never lagged on Fifa where as the intel one was a pain.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

The guy on this thread got the Innergie. http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/alternative-power-brick-p34g-v2.796350/

 

hello guys !

I am about to buy the gigabyte p34W v5.

money and battery are my concerns, so can anyone tell me about the battery of the p34w v5 FHD during normal use (reading, browsing s lil bit and writing) ?

thanks

 

Further musings, currently using the laptop docked (externally) with my 24" Monitor. Lid is closed. I currently have it set to "Sleep" rather than power off to avoid having to open the laptop every time I want to power on with the button.

Is this the best way or has somebody fudged a way of accessing the power button with the lid closed ?

 

So the P34 is getting Kaby Lake and a 1050ti: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Gigabyte-unveils-updated-P34-and-P35-notebooks.190173.0.html

 

Ooo interesting, looking at the benchmarks (google-fu) it would suggest that it is not far off the 970m, I wonder if they will have done something about the heat/throttling these laptops seem to suffer from....

 

I'm surprised they didn't discontinue the P34 with the release of the aero14. I'm assuming that the aero would also get the Kaby Lake and 1050ti when it comes out since it is even thinner and would probably have the same heat issues. So the two laptops would have the same specs with slightly different exteriors?

 

'

Well there is a current model of Aero 14 out with a 6700k Skylake + GTX 1060 and thermally it's being reported in the owners thread that it's performing surprisingly well, though the fans get very, very loud.

 

I've seen that too and I'm curious if the Aero has better fans/heat sinks/physical design or if is the 1060 just less hot. It would be a weird flip flop if the Aero which originally had the 965 has a higher GPU than the P34 in the new versions. I was under the impression the 1050ti was more equivalent to the 970 wheras the 1060 is closer to the 980.

And I guess my confusion on having both the Aero and the P34, is that why would anyone want the P34? From what I understand the Aero has a better design and a longer battery. Unless the 1050ti makes the new P34 cheaper by a large margin, which would be surprising since the Aero is currently at the $1500-ish price point.

 

The 1050ti is roughly equivalent to a 970m or a desktop 960/280x/7970HD, and the 1060 is equivalent to a desktop 980, or thereabouts, yes.

I do agree that there is some overlap in the customer base as the P34 w/ a 1050ti while a downgrade graphically doesn't really offer anything to offset that, so, like you say, why would anybody buy it?

 

The aero 14 originally came with a 970m. Dunno why they ended it but added a 965m after.
I don't see the p34w as "upgraded". Just refreshed. The 970m and 1050 ti Is like they had and an 860m 1st then decided to do a next model with a 960m. No real benefit. That's how close the 1050 ti is but in its favour


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Following up - Yes it is possible. I am writing this using the 8260ngw all it cost me was a £1.50 adapter. I only now need a set of antenna, the 7260 has larger connectors so the stock ones wont fit unless there is an adapter.....

cheers

 

It should have a bit less heat to deal with. The 970m has a TDP of about 80 Watts, while the 1050 ti is around 75 Watts. One of the reasons I held out for a 970m version instead of getting a 870m laptop was it was Maxwell instead of Kepler. So there would be performance improvement due to the newer architecture. But more importantly, there would be less heat produced due to shrinking the process from 28nm to 16nm.

Unfortunately, the second part never happened. TSMC and other fabs had difficulty getting 16nm processes working (problems with creating 3D FinFETs). As a result, Maxwell ended up being produced on 28nm, which invalidated some of Nvidia's design criteria. That's why Maxwell only came out on the low-end 8x0 series laptop GPUs and no desktop release. Higher end 8x0 laptop GPUs were basically revamped Kepler designs. Nvidia had to go back to the drawing board and redesign Maxwell for 28nm, which is what produced the 900 series.

The Pascal 10x0 series is produced on 16nm. That's why they're able to use what's basically a desktop GPU in a laptop. I really would've liked to have waited for it, but my previous laptop was literally falling apart. So I ended up getting one of the early 970m laptops, extra heat and all.

The other problem is the terrible vent design on the P34 platform. If you check back in this thread, someone who's cut out the vents entirely and replaced it with black speaker cloth reported a 10C drop in temperature. I think Gigabyte has pushed the P34 design far past what was healthy in terms of heat dissipation. They really should've redesigned the chassis and vents before putting in something hotter than the 45 Watt TDP 860m the P34 debuted with.

 

Following up to my post above about the wifi card.



Finally got the right antennae to get the 8260ngw working to full potential. May look out for smaller adapter card but otherwise it is fine.

 

does some one care to explain what C/C++ programming and Linux has to do with wifi if it does at all

 

Nothing as far as I know, unless you are thinking of a specific context. Using Linux does not boost your WiFi signal if that's what you mean. C/C++ is a programming language. So unless you are writing an application or driver that USES wi-fi directly then the two are unrelated.

 

So after sending my laptop for a replacement battery, and having Gigabyte break it, I've settled my case and received $420, plus keeping my laptop.
The laptop screen is bent, and it's coming apart in one corner. 6 of the screw bolts (the bits you screw the screws into) are broken off, so it's now gaping open on 2 corner, but it works.

I'm still stuck with a non-functioning battery, as it'll literally die as soon as there is any even remotely demanding task happening, and dies no matter what at 60%-70% battery charge. Does anybody know how changing batteries works, and where you can buy a replacement battery?

I found this site: http://www.storebattery.sg/laptop-batteries-gigabyte-batteries-c-1_4419.html ,but both of the P34 batteries they have are sold out.

I'm gonna get a new battery, and make the vent openings larger. My battery started failing after 10-12 months, and I believe it's due to the heat.

Edit: if anybody has suggestions for how to fix the other issues, that'd be greatly appreciated.

Here's a link to an album showing the damages caused internally: http://imgur.com/a/orBao

 

I think you can buy a battery from Gigabyte for around $100. My battery was under warranty, but because I didn't want to send my whole laptop back, they offered to charge my card $100 and send me a battery and then when I returned my defective battery, they would reverse the charge. The bill was in the form of a purchase of a battery, so I assume you can just purchase it from them.

 

That's amazing, thanks so much!
What number did you call? I'm currently living in Malaysia, and they don't have any customer support here. Just wondering if there was a purchase division, or RMA number or something.

 

Oh, I am in the USA so I was serviced by Gigabyte USA. This is the info at the bottom of my RMA emails with them.

GIGABYTE Customer Service
17358 Railroad St
City of Industry CA 91748
Tel: (626) 854-9338 op. 4
Fax: (626) 854-9326
[email protected]

 

So, I see there is a new firmware FB07/F009, having just installed, it is running fine. Anybody know what this is for/has changed ?

Previously on FB05/F007 (I think)

 

@asm1 could you please kindly compare the height of an adapter with m.2 card installed to a regular mini pcie card? considering this as well, but not sure I have enough clearance.

 

If you look at my picture again, the height of the PCIE card comes to the first set of holes, you can see a corresponding hole on the right, underneath, where a washer/screw fastens and goes into the chassis. Unfortunately you cant do that with the adapter, as it is so long....

 

i got this laptop to max out at 75C on both cpu and gpu. i left heaven on for 8 hours. settings were at ultra 900p and 2x aliasing. i set my cpu to 2.5ghz no turbo boost, through power options, processor power management, and set the maxiimum processor state to 96%. lowered the voltage by -50mv through xtu n. i changed the nvidia 3d settings power management mode to adaptive.it seems to have the best fan control. the gpu is overclocked 135mhz on the core and 195mhz on the memory. bottom case is all cut out and meshed it. ive also found the old smart manager version 4.4.7 and i can max out my fans now. i was able to hit constant low 60s on heaven now im curious how much this gpu will overclock. realistically its only good for benching as its just way too loud. heres the link http://www.driver4motherboard.com/2015/12/gigabyte-p34w-v3-windows-81-and-7-bit.html and im also using a cooler master x-slim targeting the heatsinks also forgot i repasted with arctic silver. i found out the main reason the cpu gets so hot. its because the fans are controlled by the gpu temps. overclock your gpu and find a balance.im at 2.8ghz, -50mv ,135mhz gpu, 324mhz memory. 76-77(cpu) 71(gpu) and if you game at 900p, less heat better performance

 

I have a p34wv4 that I need heat sink screw/spring combo for. 6 if you have them. Let me know what you want me to pay you for them.

Thanks

Sent from my LG-H830 using Tapatalk

 

So, after having the motherboard dying on my clevo W110er, I'm worried the same could happen on my P34Wv3. I've noticed that sometimes, when I turn it on, the laptop gets stuck in the Gigabyte logo, without launching windows. Pressing the power button and relaunching the laptop solves the issue, but...Should I get worried?

 

Has anybody successfully reflashed the 970M's vbios to allow undervolting on this laptop?