Gigabyte U2442 Line

I have compared the viewing angles side by side to my Dell Inspiron Sandy Bridge and the Dell is pretty awful as well. The 15" dell looks massive next to it.

It's quieter than my Dell Inspiron Q15R (Sandybridge i5, Geforce 525M).

It's just once you've heard it without any noise whatsoever you don't want to go back. I only did this test in a completely silent room with no music in the background.

The reason being I might leave it switched on at night. But - it looks like it will be possible without fans by adjusting max cpu. I don't know what RPM the fans run at. Hopefully speedfan once patched will fix this.

Has anyone tried the VGA output? I have a BenQ 24" LED and the picture looks a bit soft. Is there anything I can do to change it? I will have to bring in my old Dell and compare.

It has DVI but the U2442N is VGA and HDMI.

 

HDMI is compatible with DVI.

 

a question to u2442 owner:
my syster got a an asus ux32vd so i use it as a reference point.
I'm really concerned about U2442 fan noise, the asus ux32vd have an always on fan, but soooo slow that you can't really hear it, confusing it with the mechanical hard-disk noise. Sometime (in very rare occasion) the fan speed up for some seconds, then becomes pretty quiet again. Even when playing the ux32vd is pretty silent, you can hear the fan but it's definitely not an hard noise.
With the U2442:
- while normal web browsing is the fan udible? its noise is about like the one of a normal hard-disk or worst?
- while playing 3d games is the noise strong? Now i have a 2 years old vaio F series and its fan spins like hell, it can wake up people with no problem (i can't play with people sleeping near to me, too annoying)

sorry for the incredibly horrible english XD

 

Yes fan is annoying me too - I have the U2442V so thought low voltage it should be ok. Even when I have nothing running and have the screen closed the fan is still going.

I am using a Lenovo x301 too and it is completely quiet so I really notice the fan.

@AlexanderPD
yes you will hear the fan when web browsing and it is louder than a hdd.
I think a bios update should be able to help though.

Has anyone tried Windows 8 on it? I might give it a go and see if it makes any difference

Also anyone know whats extreme about the extreme version except the price?
Gigabyte Ultrabook U2442N Extrem, Core I5-3210M 2,5 GHz-CPU, Nvidia-G640M 2GB, 8 GB RA: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

 

Ditto on the fan noise. It isn't horrible, but is more than I was expecting. A BIOS update may be able to help with when the fans spin up and how quick they spin, although I can't help but wonder if a little lube might help these fans quiet down just that extra little bit. Also, zero issues with my trackpad so far, no freezing or unresponsiveness... and still impressed with the lack of false touches when typing.

 

Where can I configure "Maximum processor state"?

 

In Win7, Control Panel->System->Power->Change plan settings->Change advanced power settings. There's a lot of options, under "Processor Power management" you'll see maximum options (as well as "System Cooling Policy" which lets you force fans off with "Passive" - until the system starts overheating).

It should be about the same on Vista. XP has no direct way to change that, you have to use RMClock. Can't help you on Win8, that's my weekend project....

 

Happier with the VGA output now I set my monitor from eco to sRGB

I also ordered a HDMI->DVI adapter off ebay just in case.

I've e-mailed Gigabyte about if they will add undervolt and fan control to the BIOS

 

Awesome! Definitely let us know what they respond with. I think this fan issue and energy consumption is the only thing holding me back from pulling the trigger on a purchase...

 

I just noticed that for some reason there is 4 partitions - one is the normal boot, the other windows. But there is also a 8gb hibernation parition and a 10gb recovery partition.

If you look at C, the hiberfil.sys and pagefile are both being utilized on C, not on the other partitions.

Anybody using Linux on this? Thinking of switching from Windows (I would try MacOS as well If I get a USB install working)

On Linux my concern is obviously optimus to work, VGA/HDMI as well as fan control

Any idea what turning happens when you turn on or off "Smart cooling" in the Gigabyte panel?

Anyway to improve the sound quality from the speakers?

 

Nvidia Developing Linux Driver for Optimus

they are workin' on it

 

Also posted in the review for the U2442...thought my dilemma might be more appropriate here.

I received my U2442V-CF1 from excaliberpc today and everything seems fine except wireless connectivity. Every time I try to connect to my home Optimum Online wireless (sitting 15 feet from the router in plain sight), I get a message "Connection Excellent - No or Limited Connectivity." I have three other computers: a home desktop PC running Win XP-SP3 and 2 laptops, a Dell Latitude and Lenovo ThinkPad on Win 7 Home Premium...all of them connect to my home network normally and blazingly fast (as expected). Not the U2442v-CF1 (Win 7 Home Premium)...if it connects to the Web at all, its like a 56K dialup. When I try Windows 'troubleshooting,' it tells me 'limited Internet connectivity' or 'Attach an Ethernet Cable' (?!?!?!)

The few times it did connect to the Web, it loaded web pages VERRRY slowly and missing graphics. I turned off my other machines and restarted the modem and router 3x. Each of the other machines rebooted properly and connects right away, but the U2442V keeps telling me "Connection Excellent - No or Limited Connectivity." Down in the lower right hand corner near the time, there's the indicator for the wireless and sometimes it displays an 'excellent' with 5 bars or it shows 5 bars with a yellow exclamation point superimposed over them.

I was going to take it to the local MicroSoft store to have a Crucial 256Gb SSD installed, but is there a possibility I got a lemon? I have a bad back and wanted a good lightweight reliable ultrabook for work. Before I give up and return this ( and I REALLY wanted to love this machine), I thought I'd turn to the gurus here.

Full disclosure: since I was planning to take it to the MS Store and have Windows 7 Professional installed and Office 2010 as well, I did not install the included Gigbyte Utilities CD. Are there drivers on this CD that must be installed first in order for the wireless to work properly or should the U2442V being able to start up and configure to run right out of the box.

Call me disillusioned. Especially after I read the excaliberpc return restrictions...no refunds EVER, only store credit. Last time I will EVER do business with them..they were most helpful when trying to get my credit card # straight.

 

Hrm. My opinion of this laptop is starting to slip. Having used my 2442n for a few days, here's a few tidbits that have regret sinking in:

- The lack of dedicated pgup/pgdn/home/end keys really blows. You dont realize how much you use them till they're not there.
- The fans definitely seem to run more than they should. Also, i've noticed they have an oscillating tone to them (wahwahwahwah) which makes the low hum much more noticeable than it should. Maybe the dual fans are running at slightly different speeds?
- I have now experienced 4 bluescreens. Each was a "DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE". I've tried both the balanced and full performance power profiles without luck.

I'm going to reach out to Gigabyte on the bluescreens although I dunno what I really expect them to do. Also thinking about wiping the default install of Win7 Home and slapping Win7 Pro on here. Maybe a fresh image would help?

 

This is very disappointing news. I was looking to order from Dynamism on Monday, but with all these problems surfacing it seems that may be a bad idea.... Keep us posted infocalypse.

 

Downloaded a clean install of Win7 and updated ALL latest drivers from GIGABYTE website (on another machine to a flash drive). Installed and re-booted as directed.

All other PCs working perfectly...this machine, after running diagnostics, is saying "Your broadband modem is experiencing connectivity issues" (when I know it's not, otherwise none of my other machines would maintain their uber-fast Web connections).

Back it goes......and now have to select from EXcaliberPC.com's MEH selection, because they don't refund. Even if it's a bad device, they make YOU pay for return shipping. #9 on their RMA FAQ: Customers must pay for return shipping on all returns, including DOA product.

 

about the wireless NIC. Is it soldered in? Or possible to replace? Can anyone take a screenshot of the internals or link me one plz?

 

Check your power plan settings. Change it from power savings to maximum performance.

 

Tried this twice...no luck. Back it goes. Appreciate the advice. Either its a lemon or not ready for prime time.

 

I have not had any problems with wireless.
I also overcloced the GPU, ran 3dMark 11 with no problems with the u2442v.
You definitely hear the fans during heavy games, but as long as the fans are replaceable I don't really care (someone here replaced a fan).

 

I don't have a problem with wireless. Have you tried downloading the latest intel driver from the intel site? (the ones on Gigabyte, ASUS etc are usually out of date)

 

Yes, no dice. I got a lemon and now have to wait for a backordered U2442V from ExcaliberPC, as their return policies are VERY restrictive. The U2442V is backordered indefinitely.

 

Availability update: Amazon US is now listing the U2442N and U2442V. Of course, neither is in stock.

N @ $1178: Amazon.com: Gigabyte U2442N-CF1 14-Inch Laptop: Computers & Accessories
V @ $1304: Amazon.com: Gigabyte U2442V-CF1 14-Inch Laptop: Computers & Accessories

Strangely, there are no longer any third-party (Marketplace) sellers -- just Amazon... I'll post if any reviews pop up.

-Matt

 

I ordered Monday, received Thursday and played an hour of Diablo 3. Latest Ndivida drivers, I had to do the d3prefs hack to get consistent frame rates. But no crashes or anything. My system seems to be running stable for several hours using Chrome and youtube

 

Got reply from Gigabyte. Basically they told me to use the included system restore function, which basically nukes everything and recovers the OS from the built-in recovery partition. (No CD needed)

Tried that - but still seeing problems like before. Sadly, even a total wipe from the recovery partition results in a laptop that can't shutdown cleanly and still generates power/registry errors in the logs.

I've decided to take it a step further and I've reinstalled from scratch with Win7 Pro instead of the Win7 Home from the recovery partition. Doing so has removed the errors and allowed the machine to reboot cleanly. I suspect the problem may reappear once I begin to reinstall all the Gigabyte drivers. We'll see.

The more I use this laptop, the more it seems clear to me the fans need serious tweaking. They're spinning too fast most of the time, even when I'm for just sitting here typing in a window with nothing running and a 100% clean install of the OS. Anyway, I will chime in again if I can nail down which piece of software or which driver may be responsible for the instability I've seen.

Really, really, really, want to like this laptop.

Ok, all drivers have been reinstalled straight off the Gigabyte website, as well as the SmartManager application. No reappearance of the errors or bluescreens yet... fingers crossed.

(assuming this sticks, lesson: Clean OS install always trumps factory OS install, no exceptions!)

Hey 2442 owners, I'd like to get a feel for your idle temps. With a browser window open for this forum, My 2442N will sit here and idle @ roughly 55c, with bounces as low as 52C and as high as 58C. With the browser window closed, it'll idle at around 50-51C.

Seems awfully high for idle temps considering there's virtually zero load and my ambient temp is somewhere around 75F/24C. And yeah, my fans are running pretty much constantly. And yeah, the laptop is sitting on a table, not my actual lap.

Before I rip this thing open and consider applying some quality thermal paste (and hopefully not destroying the laptop in the process) what sort of idle temps are you guys seeing? Here's a link to a screengrab from HWmon:

http://www.infocalypse.org/pics/hwmon.jpg

(btw, how the heck do you embed images in this forum, rather than links or attachments?)

 

I have the U2442V with Windows 8 - I'm seeing idle temp of around 50-51C when browsing a little. It does bounce down to 46-47 sometimes too.

Maybe you want to check your power settings. My fan runs quite a bit too - the first couple of days it was going crazy but not so much now.

I opened it on my x301 which I dont think even has a fan as its so quiet and with lots of things running it is averaging around 47C

 

Mine boots with no fans and after a while they start. Currently doing 47c after about 10 minutes up time. They tend to come on and go off.

I have been playing about with it all day and was doing about 54c (a lot of it was installing mountain lion so no idling of the CPU).

I would be interested in taking it apart at some point and sticking in a 2.5" HDD so might look after replacing the thermal pads at some point. Would like to see some pictures first tho!!

No reply to any of my e-mails to gigabyte after nearly a week..

 

I was able to pick up my Gigabyte u2442v at my local Fedex today, and my first impression of this machine is that it's much slimmer and lighter than I have anticipated. I was debating between Asus ux32vd's mobility with this machine's power but little did I know this machine has much mobility to it too. If I have known about this machine slim design, I won't have hesitated in picking it over the Asus.

As I get to mess around with it a little bit, I've notice several things:
My keyboard doesn't flex like in some reviews say. It's quite strong actually. I even apply some force between the keys and it BARELY moves.
The screen is good, there's nothing standing out about it, theres nothing wrong with it either. Overall, it's an average screen. Or maybe I'm just bad at telling the differences between screens. Maybe the screen quality is noticeable to high extremists, and, to be fair, I'm just an average user.
The fans do indeed run, but the noises is just barely noticeable. Frankly one of the main reason why I notice it is because you guys keep talking about it. But nevertheless, like others have said, a BIOS update should fix it.
I have leave the machine on idle to download Guild Wars 2 for four hours and it does get a little warm in the process. I'm also considering apply some quality thermal paste when I open it up to install an HDD.
So far, I don't have any problems with it yet and I'm loving it, and I would say it's a nice buy.

Those are just my initial impressions of this Gigabyte. Well ima let GW2 finish downloading and see how well this machine can handle the game.

 

Well that some good new for a change! Let us know how it goes, and I'm especially interested to see how it runs GW2!

 

The gigabyte can definitely run GW2 in low setting. I'm thinking of oc the gt 640m to see if it can handle the game in mid setting.

Screen wise, I think that the 14' 1600x900 res is great for light gaming. I even provide you guys with a ss.

Battery wise, my battery indicate around 1 hr and 30 mins of game play with guild wars 2 and a firefox window as I'm typing this.

I was on for like 30 mins until they have to close the server for maint. Within 30 mins, the machine does get a little warm, it's a bit hot at the bottom, but it's not overheating or anything.

Unfortunately I don't play a lot of games so I can't give a more detail review of the machine on gaming. While the Gigabyte u2442v is a great machine, I won't use it as a desktop replacement if you're a gamer.

I was looking for a portable notebook for school, to do some works when I'm in class and don't have access to my desktop, that can also handle some light gaming between classes. And I think that the Gigabyte is exactly what I was looking for. I'm quite happy with my purchase so far. I'd try to keep you guys updated with my machine, but like I said I'm only using it for in class works and light gaming, not as a desktop replacement, so I probably won't run into anything major anyways.

 

If anyone does take off the back of the laptop - could you have a look for the fan controller chip so we can identify it - should be ITE something.

 

I took the back off the other day to install a 256gb SSD (no pic). Just a reminder...THERE ARE RUBBER plugs hiding screws.

Been playing SWTOR oc'd to 700/1000/? and the GPU averages about 80c. No problems after a few hours and hopefully 80c is ok. I love how this thing boots up in 20s and you can be surfing the web in 30s.

 

If a buy a 2.5" 500gb HDD (like a WD Scorpio Blue) - just for data - will it power down when not in use? Concerned about noise/vibration. The alternative is a 256gb SSD - is 2.5" OK?

Is artic silver 5 a good choice for the CPU/GPU? I have some lying about (it's been in a tube for a couple of years - it should be OK?)

 

Well . This laptop has continued to BSOD and crash and burn no matter what I do. Regardless of the Xpress Recovery or fresh Win7 installs, the damn the crashes all over the place, often with different types of failures. I finally decided to run a low-level test of the RAM and... the damn chips are failing all over the place. Check this out:

No wonder I've been in stability hell. Faulty RAM = faulty everything. UGH. What a total waste of time.

I've contacted Gigabyte support yet again. Hopefully they have a decent RMA process for RAM, although I'm not gonna get my hopes up. As much as it sickens me, I'll probably just go buy replacement RAM if they can't turn replacement parts around quick enough. Meh!

 

Maybe you could upgrade to 16gb 1600mhz at the same time?

 

Heh, you read my mind. That said, while the extra GB's would be nice, I don't believe the faster RAM would do me any good unless there's a way to mess around with the FSB or ratios/speeds in the BIOS - which there doesn't appear to be.

If anything, I'd just want RAM with faster timings, right?

 

ITE8518

We NEED some program to control those fans.


Btw, is it NORMAL that I can play Crysis 2 with these settings?
version: 1.9
DX 11 and HiRes patches applied and features enabled
every quality level on ULTRA
resolution: 1600x900

I have not tested how many FPS I get but there was no lag and I tested the first level outdoor with the enemies at that huge park.

 

Well, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised... here's the reply I just received from Gigabyte:

We are not able to just RMA the memory. Your unit will need to be serviced.

Since your purchase was recently made, you should have the option to contact your dealer for a replacement/exchange unit, or you may send your unit to our Service Center for a complete analysis under warranty.

For the latter, .please log on our online RMA service rma_index, go to end-user, and click on add new request. Complete the RMA request form.

So basically, my options are:

1) Ship the laptop off to Gigabyte's RMA center. (average turnaround time is stated as 2-3 business weeks)

2) Ship the laptop back to ExcaliberPC and wait for them to eventually have stock. Weeks? Months?

3) Spend $40-80 on some RAM @ Newegg and have a working laptop in a couple days.

Guess what I'm gonna do? Buyer beware, any small hardware issue and you're potentially gonna be without a laptop for several weeks or more!

Time to go RAM shopping...

 

I get boots around 13 seconds the moment I hit the power button. Sometimes less.

 

Where there are none under the 4 rubber stand offs?? Never mind found the annoying things. Stupid idea

 

I doubt seriously that the service depot will take weeks to turn your unit around. My guess is that for a problem with the RAM, it will be in UPS or FEDEX ground the next day. That is classic repaid depot speak. Acer does the same thing and I have never had a repair take more than a week, door to door.

 

I've not had a reply from speedfan developer. But I did checkout lm sensors (which is the package for linux).

They have added detection in the source code, but a driver has been requested by 2 persons but not written yet

name => "ITE IT8518E Super IO",
driver => "to-be-written",
devid => 0x8518,

It would also be nice if Gigabyte had a tool for this, I will e-mail them about it, if they ever bother to reply.

 

Is it possible to make up for the 640m ddr3 by overclocking to reach near 650m gddr5 performance?

 

I have applied AS5 to the CPU and GPU. I will post some picture later.

Is it me or is there no way to screw the 2.5" HDD to anything??

 

The Samsung 830 that I fitted is not detected in the BIOS

 

I have tried the Samsung 830 in another PC and it is detected fine.

Out of curousity I tried a 3.5" SATA drive and it does not power up (but I don't know if supplies enough current). Wondering if somehow it is disabled by Gigabyte - what BIOS is everyone on that has fitted a HDD? I have a U2442N on FA0 BIOS

I can't replace the cable as it is not a standard part.

I am really annoyed to have gone to this much work just for it to not work

 

Review from Techradar: Gigabyte U2442 Ultrabook review | Laptops and netbooks Reviews | TechRadar

 

I think my SATA port is dead... time to go back to Amazon I quite liked this little beast as well.

I tried another 2.5" I had.. still not recognized in BIOS. I have till 12th October to return it so not going to rush.. will give Gigabyte a week to reply.

Unless someone has any ideas. I could try RMA but then I would definitely be out of an option of a refund then and I could be without a laptop for who knows how long.

 

sigh... next shipment from dynamism early October I get my check to buy it on the 1st but ill still be waiting who knows how long.. damn it!

 

did u guys see this post from rog website

How About A 14 Inch G Series Gaming Laptop? - Republic of Gamers

 

Why did you show me this omg.. If its weight is low and the specs are right.. I might pick this up!

I have until D gets the 2442n back in stock in october