Unleaded's - MSI MS-1029 Review - Page 28

Good question...

Somewhere there is a power drain, or the battery isn't up to the claimed specs.

My cpu is at 65c as I type this. I am only running itunes and utorrent. Just too high of temps for such low demanding apps. anyone else have this problem or know a solution.

As far as bettery life goes, i'm somewhat disapointed. I plug my lappy into the tv to watch a movie and am sometimes i'm not able to finish it because my battery dies. MSI deffinately doesn't have the best engeneers, prolly why the notebook is at such a good price.

Way to high. Running a fresh started XP Pro, my CPU temp is idle 46° ( fan running at maybe 1% ). Room temp: 24.7°C

Running Sandra Burn In for 30min: 71/72°C ( fan at 50% a 60% ) based on the sound ).

So, reapply some AC on the CPU core. In my case, i stripped away the playdo heat transfer shit, and added AC5. Note: i also tightened the core a bit more then default, because i noticed the CPU & gpu heatsinks looked like there was not enough pressure on them ( most defiantly not so on the GPU, where the playdo thermo pad wasn't even connecting to the GPU ).

Something i was wondering regarding battery life, if the battery's are really 8 cell's like advertised. I've been looking high & low for a extended battery for the MSI 1029, but MSI is almost like it does not exist with most battery sellers. Hundreds of brands, but no MSI support

I've reapplied thermal paste and got rid of the stuff msi added several times but I haven't tried to get it on tighter. I will go and give that a try sometime this week. Thanks for the help.

Also, has anyone had problems with the display when running off battery with the notebook gpu drivers from the ati website. I had problems until I disabled powerplay. Never had the problem until the catylist 5.12.

Iv found that ever since 5.12 the problem goes away as long as you also install the southbridge drivers (ati.com downloads, motherboards, southbridge)

I played around with AC5 but was never able to get proper application. Had to order a new heatsink b/c I just couldn't get AC5 to work. Running at ~60 under low load. Bah.

Strange...

Here's some results from my cooling setup:

Room temp: 25.4°
System CPU starts at 38°C ( fan stopped after the startup ).
- Started Winamp & running mp3's
Temp slowly rising up to 42/43°C
- Started Norton Commander ( for windows ) & FireFox to spike the CPU ( CPU going up to 100% for a second ).
Temp going up to 46/47°C
- Started Windows Task manager
Temp going up to 48°C
*Fan started up at a few % for about 1 or 2 seconds*
Temp down to 46°C
Some more moving around
Temp up to 47°C
*Fan started up at a few % for about 1 or 2 seconds*
-Typing in this text on my PC, while Laptop still running MP3's ( after about 10min & 2 short fan bursts ).
*Fan started up for about 30sec at a few %*
Temp down to 46/45°C
Opened 3 sites in FireFox at the same time ( fan started at a few % again ).
Temp spiking between 49° & 56°C for a few seconds
Temp now holding between 49°C & 54°C ( There is some macromedia flash running in the browsers screen, taking around 40/50% of the CPU power )
etc

The cooling is holding perfectly. No large fan speedups, a few % at best.

This Targa has the default MSI-1029 cooling, so normally you need to be able to have the same mod ability when it comes down to AC5 & the heatsinks. Note: i put the CPU screws all the way down ( when they arrived here, the CPU screw with those springs in them, had only been placed 50% *arf* ).

You did remove all the junk from the CPU? That playdo thermocrap? If not, use your nail to remove it from the CPU if it was already burned on ( your CPU core needs to look black ). Same with the heatsink. Place the AC5 on it, then the heatsink, screw on until the screws are almost in the heatsink ( so that the springs in the screws have the right pressure, and it need to stay cool ).

Note: I'm running the 2.5 bios, in case the fan has different timings in the bios.

From what i can guess:

47/48° = 10% a 15% fan speed
58/60° = 40% a 60% fan speed
75°C+ = 100% fan speed ( doesnt happen any more sinds i changed the cooling ).

The first thing I did when I assembled my 1029 was to scrape off the default thermal pads, clean the heatpipe and apply AS5. I run at 45C idle, 55-60C when under heavy load (CoD2, 3DMark05, etc.).

I had problems with the 5.12 drivers as well... the stupid Catalyst Control Center wouldn't load. I always thought it was a bloated unnecessary program anyway. I rolled back to the 5.11 Catalysts with the good old ATI Control Panel and it's been working fine.

Well, if you install Microsoft's .NET framework (Windows Update) the control center will work fine but for me 5.12 was non-functional on battery power. I'm pretty sure I've got the latest southbridge driver, but perhaps not. At any rate I'm back on the MSI drivers that were delivered with the hardware.

ok so what is the highest battery life anyone has got from this lappie?

2.5 is what I have heard to date.

I managed to get 3 hours with wifi on after a heavy calibration and breaking session.

I don' know if it's related, but I'm not using the stock processor driver, I'm using 1.2.2.2 from AMD's website:

http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/..._13349,00.html

DVD Movie playback: +- 2h ( a bit more )

For the rest it differs what you do. About 2.5h is a normal result.

The fact that the Ferrari is getting better power usage with more power hungry components, seems to indicate that the battery pack in the 1029 isn't so efficient as the Ferrari.

You would think so. But it still doesn't work. Meh, I'm going to stick with the 5.11s for now.

MSI 1029 Noted Problems

Hi!
I'm brand new here and will be reading this ENTIRE thread over the next few days.

We have recently purchased two of the MSI 1029's and are for the most part
VERY happy with them with a few exceptions.

They were both purchased from Alvio.com

The main problem that I am worried about and it seems that the world
is not aware of yet is that the mic audio input is useless! for any kind of professional use,

Not sure if I am the first to notce this but there is a design problem where
if you try to record or stream audio from the mic input you get a large
amount of Fan/Whine noise in the recorded audio...

This has rendered my notebook usless for one of the jobs I do!
Recording at live events and streaming audio from live events.

Not many people use the mic input so this is probably why you have not heard of this problem yet.

I use the heck out of mine and use an IP softphone.

We have the same problem on two 1029's that were purchased months apart.
I have not gotten a responce back from alvio yet and msi hs not responded either.
And I have not take the time to hound them on the problem yet...
I will be recommending that Alvio purchase an extigy (usb sound device) for
us so I can get my work done.
Not sure if they will but Hey this is defective product... something will have
to get done about it.

My only other issue is that this is the only keyboard in the world that I have
ever had any issues with on a notebook....

Frequently and I mean very frequently I need to re-type charactors because
the sensitivity of the keyboard is poor ifyou hit the keys on their side edges...

the keys do not take unless you hit them hard or right on directly from top-down.....


try this:

gently press the keys on the very edge (side) of the keys...

You will see that they don't always take......

you have to hit the key right in the center or it dont work.

I'm a little sloppy and dont always press them dead center from the top...


I thought it was just me however two other people who have used the laptop
have had the same issue! :-)

Also same problem on the other notebook that was purchased two months later than the one I use.

Both have hte mic input audio problem.

That's it for now I will post more as I learn more but you should at least
test your record (mic) input audio on your 1029 and you will hear the problem...

Actually plug in a mic and try to record a voice message (.wav file).

You will hear a terible whining noise and it gets louder when the fan
motor speed increases....

Steve

About battery life: I managed to pull something like 3:15 or 3:20 (wifi off, 800MHz@0.925V). As for comparison with the ML in the ferrari - I think the difference applies to full speed only (MT probably runs at a lower voltage), don't both use 1.0V at 800 MHz?

So does everyone recommend removing the stock thermal pad and replacing it with arctic silver 5? I've noticed my fan is coming on more and more and at times my temperatures are extremely high. I'm wondering if I should replace it for better temps. I was just wondering how much arctic silver 5 everyone has been using in their applications. Also does applying arctic silver void your warranty? Thanks, Rob

I really dont see what everyones problems with the keyboard on this laptop are :S, If i gently press the button it registers, if i press it at the edge it registers, and the keyboard has a nice feel to it and its solid and doesnt push down like other laptops. the only complaint is I have to push my right mouse button a little hard... but I use the finger tap method anyways.

I've adjusted to the keyboard however the touchpad, if you're used to a high quality one, lacks precision, IMHO. The scrolling I find the most frustrating but I've just modified my behavior to use the two-finger scroll mode rather than edge scrolling like I did on my old Winbook.

Yeh, ive set the two finger tap to be like a middle click, so I can tap with 2 fingers then scroll around the page with one finger. Works brilliantly.