GRT815M - MS Windows service pack 3 (SP3)

Installs and works without problems after web update from fully patched SP2. Feels like the computer runs faster, although I have not performed any test for comparison. There is only one annoying thing - some rare short lockups. I am not sure if this can be attributed to the upgrade since shortly after upgrading to SP3, I have switched my antivirus program from AVG Free 8.0 to Avast 4.8 Home Edition. The turning point for the change was that AVG was very slow on opening a folder full of executables - the program scans every single file before you get the icons to appear. Some time it took up to 3-4 seconds to open a folder containing a small collection of about 25 small and useful programs.

Note: Hardware and software not originally supplied with the computer:

• memory upgraded to 1GB.
• hard disk replaced with 160GB - Samsung SpinPoint M5 160GB 5400RPM 8MB 2.5" (HM160HC).
• nvidia driver version 6.14.10.6693 - not provided as an update on the support web page.
• some original software uninstaled: SonicStage, ClickToDVD, Norton Antivirus
  

GRT815M - Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron)

In general the distribution works out of the box. Just a few hints to make your life easier and your computer running smoother.

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1. To disable the annoying BIOS bug at the boot screen, add noapic in /boot/grub/menu.lst (leave the # sign intact)

# defoptions=quiet splash noapic

you can add vga=791 to the same line to get nicer text console and then run update-grub to apply the changes.

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2. To get your the NVidia drivers running properly (almost) edit the following files:

/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist: add these two lines

blacklist agpgart
blacklist sis_agp

/etc/modprobe.d/nvidia-kernel-nkc: add these two lines (the second is just in case)

options nvidia_new  NVreg_EnableAGPFW=1 NVreg_EnableAGPSBA=1
options nvidia      NVreg_EnableAGPFW=1 NVreg_EnableAGPSBA=1

Restart the computer to give up on sis_agp module, then you will get the following result:
cat /proc/driver/nvidia/agp/status

Status:          Enabled
Driver:          NVIDIA
AGP Rate:        8x
Fast Writes:     Enabled
SBA:             Enabled

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3. If you want to be able to throttle your CPU, replace powerd with cpufreqd (cpufrequtils) then add p4_clockmod option module in /etc/default/cpufreqd:

CPUFREQ_CPU_MODULE="p4_clockmod"

Comment the line "#MODULE=speedstep-ich;" and add new "MODULE=p4-clockmod;" in /etc/init.d/loadcpufreq

    # Right. Check if it's a P4 without est.
    # Could be speedstep-ich, or could be p4-clockmod.
    #MODULE=speedstep-ich;
    MODULE=p4-clockmod;
    # Disabled for now - the latency tends to be bad
    # enough to make it fairly pointless.

To be able to alter the frequencies I have made this change in /etc/cpufreqd.conf

[Profile]
name=Performance High
minfreq=20%
maxfreq=100%
policy=performance
#exec_post=echo 8 > /proc/acpi/sony/brightness
[/Profile]

Restart the daemon.
sudo /etc/init.d/cpufreqd restart

You can add the "CPU scaling monitor" applet to the Gnome panel but to be able to use it as user run the following command:

sudo chmod +s /usr/bin/cpufreq-selector

Alternatively, use the following commands to alter the parameters: cpufreq-info, cpufreq-selector, cpufreq-set. I was not able to find convenient GUI tool that will do it from the tray but hey - it works.

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4. If you find your hard disk clicking - here are some setting to alter to solve the problem.

/etc/hdparm.conf: set ROOTFS = /dev/sda and add these lines at the end of the file.

/dev/sda {
apm = 254
}

/etc/apm/event.d/20hdparm: uncomment the line #APMD_DRIVES=

APMD_DRIVES=

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Here is a table of VESA video modes (VGA codes):

         640x480   800x600   1024x768   1280x1024   1600x1200   Ask user at boot.
8 bits   vga=769   vga=771   vga=773    vga=775     vga=796     vga=ask
16 bits  vga=785   vga=788   vga=791    vga=794     vga=798     vga=ask
32 bits  vga=786   vga=789   vga=792    vga=795     vga=799     vga=ask

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If you know how to make the computer SUSPEND - please let me know.

GRT-815M hard disk replacement

Well, finally I have replaced the original hard disk on my laptop with a larger, faster and quieter one - Samsung SpinPoint M5 160GB 5400RPM 8MB 2.5" (HM160HC). I will just add few pictures that illustrate the simple procedure.

There is only one screw (marked with a red circle on the first picture) that secures the hard disk bay. Unscrew it and carefully pull out the module from the computer. The rest is self-explanatory.









Of course, now the computer boots and runs faster, although, I haven't done any performance tests for comparison. The old disk was very quiet but one could still hear the heads positioning during I/O, despite the noisy fans, while the new one is completely silent in this respect.

Cloning the Windows XP OS to the new disk might be slightly out of the topic of this post but I will suggest anyway this article: Beginners Guides: Cloning WindowsXP. After the cloning (I have the original OEM Windows XP Home version that comes with the model) everything went smooth and I was not even asked to reactivate the Windows.

2008.02.14: Just to add some numbers for statistics purposes.
Although the clicking noise from the parking heads of the new hard drive is not noticeable at all, I have decided to turn off the HDD APM with hdparm -B 254 /dev/hda. As result the disk gets a little bit hotter in comparison to the case with the default APM settings:

• default settings: 35° - 38° C.
  
• APM turned off: 38° - 41° C.

Further reading:
clicking hard disk II
clicking hard disk

clicking hard disk: II

Here I am on the same subject again. Instead of writing an introduction about the problem I would rather point you to that article (Problem with hard drive clicking) where the problem is discussed in detail.

The reason to be on the same subject again is simple as: I got another clicking disk at home... This time it was on an HP dv5000 notebook equipped with Toshiba HDD. It was fine for about an year and a half, until recently. I have not done any changes at all to that computer, only software updates. Now, Toshiba does not provide any tool that can alter the APM setting of the hard disk so I tried the Linux hdparm tool. For those that are not familiar with Linux there are Windows precompiled binaries here. I will suggest using these binaries since there are some annoyances, probably related to the Windows power manager, that will require to tune the parameters from Windows.

Here is the story in brief.

I have altered the default value for the APM from 128 to 192 as it was suggested in the article mentioned above with a command like this (hdparm -B 192 /dev/hda). It worked. I was almost declaring the battle as over, when I noticed that the APM mode that 192 sets is producing some busing noise... I didn't like it so I went to 140 for the APM parameter. That worked fine and I got rid from the frequent clicking sound. I still get the heads parked from time to time but at much more reasonable rate.

Now about the problem with the Windows APM (I am not sure that this is the real cause). When the computer is restarted, the HDD APM setting is set back to the default 128 that brings me back to... where I was before. To solve that glitch I have created a small batch file that sets the parameter to the one that I want, every time when an user login to the computer. Additionally, hdparm needs to be run with administrator rights, so I have used CPAU tool with encryption and CRC checks to avoid typing the administrator password every time and this also makes it safe for use by the other users on this computer.

Appendix (commands used in this article with some explanations):

• hdparm -I /dev/hda # Request identification info directly from the drive. In the output one can find the current APM setting. /dev/hda is a Linux standard to address devices. hda points to the first ATA HDD, hdb to the second etc. The snapshot shows an example output from the program on another computer and especially the line that shows the current APM settings.
• hdparm -B 140 /dev/hda # Set Advanced Power Management feature, if the drive supports it. A low value means aggressive power management and a high value means better performance. A value of 255 will disable apm on the drive. Please, read the references in this post to avoid vendor specific problems.
  
• cpau -u Administrator -ex "hdparm.exe -B 140 /dev/hda" -enc -file "hdparm.job" -crc "hdparm.exe" # This command creates a file with name "hdparm.job" that contains the encrypted information to run hdparm with administrator rights and CRC sum of the executable binary to prevent cheap tricks.
• cpau -dec -file "hdparm.job" -lwp # This is the content of a batch file that starts the process. Then one can put a shortcut in "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\" that will start automatically that bat file when somebody logs in.
  

CPU throttling

Well, again it is not specific for the model but if you are looking for whatever reason to slowdown your computer - here is one option: winThrottle.

Personally, I was looking for alternative solution to reduce the noise from the fans on the laptop, in other words to make the CPU cooler. From my experience with version 005, the result was that throttling did not allow the computer to heat significantly. So, in long run terms (leaving the computer for long time on idle) with the tool or without the tool - it didn't matter. Similar were the results under Ubuntu Linux with the tools provided by the distribution.

Anyway, the tool is still useful if you want to slow down your PC to play some old or flash games.