ASUS K40AB/K50AB user guide:

1) Specification
2) The so called heat-regarding issue
3) Driver/software download
4) Overclocking HD4570
5) Tweak/optimization
6) SRS Premium Sound tweaks for music
7) Benchmark/game experience and tweaks
8) My reviews on K40AB
9) Windows 7 Experience Index score
10) Prolong the battery life: tweaks
11) Upgrade that doesnt void the warranty

Link to V1 if you interested

1) ASUS k40AB specification:

k50AB is similar in spec but it have bigger 15.6" LCD and full sized keyboard with numpad

*UPDATE*
The new k40/K50AB now comes with Turion RM75 2.2GHz instead of Athlon QL64/65 2.1GHz, which supposed to be slightly faster and more power efficient

2) Regarding heat on this laptop

There are no such thing as heat issue, high heat (60-80C) is normal on laptop because its restricted size and the amount of transistor and speed it have, because the suface area of the laptop and limited space, its hard to put full fledged heatsink on it, so laptop components are designed to handle higher temperature than desktop while at the same time consume as little power as possible

Normal temperature for this laptop is around 55-65C for CPU or 65-70C for GPU (HD4570). Both are idle temperature on my K40AB with the backpanel removed and cooled by cheap notebook cooler

Even with state of the art notebook cooler cant help it, it wont feed to the HSF inside as there are no intake directly to it

3) Driver/software download:

Download latest driver for K40AB/K50AB from ASUS here

BIOS link for k40AB

BIOS link for k50AB. Latest for k50 currently is 218, download here

VIA 7.30 audio driver download here

Mobility 10.12 Vista/7 x64 or Mobility 10.12 Vista/7 x86

Download Mobility HD 4570 driver:
This laptop support advanced PowerXpress, which disables discrete GPU and run the onboard when not gaming
Additionally if you are more advanced user you can opt not to install CCC (Catalyst Control Center) and install ATi Tray Tools. Its much lighter and provides with more setting to play with.

The latest mobility modder already support HD4XXX series so you can download normal Catalyst and mod it. Because of this I removed link from ASUS site and DNA driver

If you want to overclock HD4570, use AMD GPU clock tool v0.9.26.0

Download AMD Overdrive here
Overdrive is mainly used for changing memory timings, since it can't allow to overclock on k40AB

Download k10stats from here
k10 stats is used for downclock or downvolt your CPU to get the most from its batteries and reducing temperature when you just browsing

Some k10stat setting:
For idle I suggest reduce the voltage to 0.9V, I get under 50C when browsing with it
For load 1.05V is good, I'll try to test at lower voltage, but your result may vary (I can go notch lower, 1.0375V)

How to use k10stats

Download AMD Fusion from here
Fusion is used to reduce system process when gaming, reducing CPU overhead and freeing up memory so you get the most from your system when gaming

AMD Fusion Mobility is a much better than normal Fusion, as it can also optimises battery life. Download it here

Use the latest GPU-Z v0.3.6 to monitor temperature on this card. Download it here.

4) Overclocking HD4570
Overclocking HD4570 is a possibility now after the introduction of new AMD GPU Clock tool. Download AMD GPU clock tool v0.9.26.0 for overclock

The recomended clockspeed of HD4570 is around 700MHz - 730MHz for the core while the memory is 580MHz - 600MHz, this is purely theoretical, some can achieve higher core clock (like kucingfight can reach 740MHz core while I only managed 725MHz max but I can reach 615MHz memory)

It is highly recomended that you provide sufficient airflow when overclocking. And for best speed, even overclocking the memory is sufficient enough for quite a boost in performance as this is equipped with slower DDR2 memory

5) Tweaks/optimisation:

Tweaking Media Player Classic (K-Lite codec) for video watching here

LCD scaling problem can be minimized by following this guide and DNA driver. If you using normal driver follow this step
You can change the BIOS setting to just use the HD 4570 instead of switching between the onboard one, change from 'Power Xpress' mode to 'dGPU'. Its advisable to use HD4570

If you have difficulty installing XP, read this guide


k40AB can get pretty toasty when running games, here is the hot spots on it:
Red color is the main heatsink to cool all three major heat source( the CPU, chipset and the discrete GPU) the orange one is the CPU and chipset is located (GPU is under the red area), the slightly lighter orange on the far left is where the power connector is, this can get warm when you use the power adapter and lastly the yellow area is the harddisk, rather warm

6)SRS Premium Sound tweaks for music:
You can found SRS Premium Sound in Setup under Optional components (when you run the autorun driver installer, click Advance to open all optional driver/software), it’s a recommended install over default sound driver for better and louder sound from the onboard speaker

Set the 'Content' to music, 'Output' to Notebook Speaker, predefined audio to SRS Premium, click Options > Advanced control and adjust to these:

SRS Definition: 33% (mids brightness)
SRS TruBass: 60%
SRS TruBass Speaker Size: Medium
SRS 3D Center: 50% (vocal)
SRS 3D Space: 100% (instruments, soundstage)
SRS Focus: 50% (sound focus)

This purely depends on music you play, you are free to tweak it to your heart content. Use this as a baseline

7)Benchmarks/games experience and tweaks:

3DMark06 default score: 3047 3DMarks (Catalyst 9.7 )
Command and Conquer Kane's Wrath: playable at 1366x768 everything on High detail
Call of Duty 2: Playable at 1366x768 2xAA with High detail (no shadows)
By krovaxq:
*If the games you play feels sluggish, reducing shadows will give HUGE boost in performance*

Recommended resolution to play games is 1024x600, 1280x720 or 1280x768, 1366x768 is too high and this GPU is too slow for it. Overclocking can give a boost in framerate

Read here for NFS: Shift problem and remedy

If any of your old games dont support widescreen, go towidescreengamingforum.com to check whether it support thru hacking/inf edit or sort

Crysis/ Warhead is hard to run on ANY system, I found it performs well at Mainstream/ Medium detail at 1280x720 or 1280x768

Here is one of my custom config that playable at 1280x768 (set it everything to Low/Minimum before putting this (make a new text documents, paste it and rename autoexec.cfg)

Battery life: 2 hours 10 minutes in normal situation, if you undervolt to 0.9V using k10stats and force it to run 1.05GHz, it will squeeze 25 minutes more battery, plus the reduction of temperature around 8-10C *tested by hanz08*

8)My reviews on K40AB:

9) Windows 7 Experience Index (I'm using RC 7100):
CPU: 4.7
RAM: 5.0 (1x2GB RAM) or 5.2 (3GB)
Graphics: 4.2 (4.5 when overclock 710/610)
Game Graphics : 4.5 (5.4 when overclock 710/610)
HDD: 5.3

10) battery ife tweak

This is my own way to maintain and use battery:

1) If you use it at home and not move regularly, remove the battery after full charging even though its not charging, the battery DO get hot even if its not charging (this is from my own test)
2) If you want your battery to have a longer lifespan, use it at least half its capacity at least one a months. Lithium ion battery dont need full drain
3) If you plan to not use the battery at all (for some unknown reason, maybe a backup battery) charge the battery till around 40-50%, remove it and keep it at the cool place

Some link to read, here and here

11) Upgrade that doesnt void the warranty

I assume that if there are no sticker that say warranty is voided, it means it can be changed. Removing the backpanel is obviously dont void the warranty. The list that can be upgraded without voiding warranty:
1) Harddrive
2) RAM

Upgrade that void the warranty is:
1) Processor (removing the HSF will rip the warranty sticker)

This post has been edited by Najmods: Dec 23 2010, 08:59 AM

HD 4570 overclocked scores on some Futuremark/MadOnion synthetic benchmark:

Clockspeed is 729MHz for core and 616.5MHz on memory, Catalyst 9.10 minimum detail on control panel

3DMark01SE: 12860 3DMarks
3DMark03 version 3.6.0: 10086 3DMarks
3DMark05 version1.2.0: 6917 3DMarks

3DMark06: 3492 3DMarks
SM2.0: 1279
HDR/SM3.0: 1483
CPU score: 1492

3DMark Vantage:
Performance 1366x768: GPU 1061 CPU 1441
Entry: E3090 GPU: 5041 CPU: 1422

Crysis Warhead cutscenes video on Youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05xIpOgasz0

Battery test:

Set at high performance setting but tweaked to save power when running battery, PCIe link to maximum power saving, video set to maximum power saving, brightness is six notches from minimum, using onboard speaker at 4 notches from maximum, with CPU fan is locked at full speed via USB power. CPU set at 1GHz 0.9V, using HD3200 GPU in PowerXpress mode. Windows 7 theme leave as it is with Aero running. Wireless is ON with maximum performance. No external mouse or notebook cooler

Video is played on K-Lite CODEC Media Player Classic with two shader enabled, sharpen complex and 16 - 235 -> 0 - 255 [SD][HD]. Video tested is Watchmen encoded at 672x272 23.98fps, mp3 112kBps and 2:42:04 length run at fullscreen
Started at 5:02pm, shutdown at 6:37PM with 5% left on the battery

Overriding fan speed via USB power

Disconnect fan connector from the fan header on the mobo, use a long thin cable with very thin conductor that can fit inside the fan connctor like picture below
http://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?act=Atta...post&id=1301481

You only need to connect the red to +5V and black to ground on USB ports. The USB port pinout can be found here. Look at picture below how it connected to USB ports. You can connect the ground to any ground on the mobo, like the charger ground will work too
http://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?act=Atta...post&id=1301482

For you to get it work with the backpanel closed, you got to plug the wire inside the case, thankfully the inside of the USB port is open and you can safely put it there and still be able to use the USB port while it supplying power to the CPU+GPU fan

Picture below shows the +5V supply of the USB


And I ground the CPU+GPU fan onto the DC in pictured below, now you can put the backpanel and still running full speed


Optional mod: Resistor mod

You can put a resistor between the power connector and the USB connector to reduce its voltage, a 10 ohm resistor is good, somewhere between 5-10 ohm is good, I use 6.67 ohm (10 and 20 ohm paralled) to get reasonable speed and voltage and speed


BIOS flashing for dumb people:


The BIOS itself can flash it, download the latest BIOS, put it to any thumbdrive or put it to somewhere simple like C:\ or D:\, restart PC go to BIOS by pressing F2 and go to Advanced -> Start Easy Flash and browse for your BIOS files

This post has been edited by Najmods: Dec 5 2009, 09:26 PM

I changed the MSI Afterburner with latest GPU-Z for temperature monitoring, it finally detect it correctly, thanks to Xehanort for testing and posting the result here.

Its there, look closely, after the autorun installer runs, click on advance, you'll see the option there

Hey guys, lets discuss about GPU temperature of the HD4570. Mine is around 60-62C idle with load is 90-92C when running oZone3D.Net Furmark, this is with backpanel open with cheapo 3-fan notebook cooler

I think HD 4570 got and edge from HD 4330, despite the memory speed losses because of huge GPU clock speed difference, and I don't think even with faster Turion would be better

You can use FurMark to check for load temperature, you don't need a long time to get the highest temperature since it was meant to stress test your GPU to the max, I just tested for a bout 2 minutes and it registered steady 90-92C.

I don't know about the driver, I just satisfied with Cat 9.9 because it bring back 1280x720 resolution and I just leave it there

I use GPU-Z, much lighter program

1280x720 is to play more demanding games like Crysis for better performance But most games runs comfortably at 1366x768, CnC 3 plays well, CoD2 too at high detail (but no shadows), H.A.W.X too, its really surprising how efficient this card can be, I got the feeling to buy HD 5770 for my desktop, but I'll wait what the green company will deliver next

7200rpm disks is pretty promising, I think about changing that too but this laptop is not used for anything demanding, more memory would be a betetr investment if you asked me

Ramp it up until your system hang/crash/artifacts, then lower it by 5-10MHz from that clock

I see significant performance increase to be honest, especially on more demandng titles, like I wrote on the first post, the memory speed boost is enough to give positive improvement since the default clock is way off spec for HD4570

The heat is too much, I can ramp up to 730MHz core but it'll hang/blank screen after a while, so I just stay safe at 700MHz core and 610MHz memory. The fan is way too slow

The PCIe X8 is normal, I guess you missed it on V1. Don't worry, even if it got X32 or X64 lanes the performance is the same

Please guys, keep the thread as clean as possible. Those question about size and weight is lame, some needs ultraportable, others needs desktop replacement

Both have the same hardware, so what did you think?

Too bad, I thinking of upgrading to 9.10. Thanks for trying 9.9 is great anyway

I been tweaking SRS Premium Sound, I found a better config for music listening, check out first post for the config and tell me how does it sound now If you guys any good config by all means please share

No it supposed to make it louder, its just you who don't know how to tweak it or your ear don't hear the difference. Give it another try, there are lots of setting there

Yes it indeed have a limiter, but I found out its the bass setting, if you set it way too high (high bass and put small or tiny speaker) you can ruin other frequency, I still playing with it to get the right sound

I haven't found any way to save it to custom profile yet. But I'll try to find something, if there is any

This post has been edited by Najmods: Oct 24 2009, 10:00 PM

It has been discussed on V1, you missed it. I even have 'tried' 4GHz, even the BIOS detect 4GHz but the truth is it only run 2.1GHz

Restart the last level, from the beginning of the stage

I fed up with the low fan speed and started to measure the fan voltage, it turns out the maximum voltage is 5V, exactly the same as what USB is supplied, easy task for me

I tap the fan power connector and connect it to USB via a thin single core wire (no soldering and cutting required) and it runs unbelivably cool even when playing Crysis! I trying it now, it wont even reach 60C even with GPU clocked to 725/615MHz when I alt-tab to Windows. Its noisy of course, but now this laptop is ready for heavy gaming

Yes, I am in Klang Valley, but I'm at University in weekdays (and not online most of the time). And indeed I using Windows 7 on it, it can use the Vista driver no problem at all, you just enable compatibility to Vista and it works like a charm. Performance is great, no issue at all

Simple, just remove the fan connector, connect the red (power) to +5V on USB and black (ground) to ground USB. Check USB pinout here

I hope so, I live at Kota Damansara. Maybe on weekends, but not this weekend