I'm positively sure its soldered to the motherboard. Most budget laptop are

Really? What kind of laptop you talking about?

Oh you mean the card? Even low end card like HD3450 have the MXM equivalent.

Don't get too excited. By the looks of it I don't think there is a room to fit MXM slot on A42 body

Hope for the best, but be sure to open your laptop first before buying anything.

Why don't you try it and tell us about it. Don't be scared with BIOS update

Undervolting on what? Core i series? Its not supported yet. Only thing you can do is force it to not raise multiplier from the lowest one via Windows Power Options in battery mode

For me the Power4Gear is just another bloatware, you could configure Windows power options to do exactly the same thing. I already hate the ATK necessity to enable laptop hotkey. Way too much system process bloating the laptop unnecessarily

My setting:
Power saver:
Everything set to maximum power saving, except the WiFi at maximum performance when plugged in. CPU min and max state is 0% so it will stay on lowest multiplier no matter what I do. Runs unbelievably quiet and very cool to touch or use on lap. Great battery runtime as well, up to 3 hours 30 minutes when browsing with minimum brightness.

Balanced:
When plugged in I set the CPU max state to 100% and min state to 0%, on battery is the same as Power Saver plan and moderate power saving on everything else

High performance:
Like the name suggested, everything maxed out, CPU min and max state is 100%, no power saving option enabled at all

Thanks lee. You could set everything in advanced power setting. Just open the menu one by one and test it yourself

What kind of cooler pad did you guys use with your A42J? I still haven't used any cooler yet.

I agree somehow, yes it is very cool as compared to my old laptop. Never hang, never have any issue with it. Temperature never exceed 70C even when playing GTA IV. And of course I raised it slightly so it get cold air. Just wondering what you guy use

Can you post up your GPU-Z screenshot? I wanted to compare to mine

You have opened your laptop?

Thank you, it looks like its only A42Je GPU have slightly underclocked memory speed but luckily it overclocked like a dream Temperature is roughly the same as mine, except HDD is hotter about 3-5C

This Seagate drive isn't really fast, but freaking hot. When I fit my other backup 2.5" 250GB 5400rpm inside the temperature is pretty much the same

I dunno, thought I might not upgrade anything. Better to collect money and upgrade my desktop. Starcraft 2 is damn addicting, my head hurts playing 8 hours straight

I'm ding some experiment with my laptop. First change the BIOS to A42Jr BIOS, it works! But thats to be expected since both basically use the same mainboard, its written A42Jr on the PCB.

Secondly try to get the Intel HD IGP to work, I get it detected in Windows but I get code 43 error, maybe there isn't any MUX to switch between both cards

I used Crosshair II and its the best investment I ever done on motherboard. It did give problems on first few months of usage but with constant BIOS updates and email report t get fixed and now its the perfect board.

This is laptop not motherboard, astria try to go off topic.... again. You have 18k post dude stop it.

Back on topic I used my old laptop cooler with three small fans blowing and its noticeably cooler but by not that much, about 2-3C cooler

My hotkey works well, have you try reinstalling ATK Package? You could try dante method or if you wanted to disable it permanently there is a setting in BIOS to disable it

Does other USB device like thumbdrive works on the laptop?

Done some testing between A42Je and A42Jr BIOS. I noticed the A42Je BIOS actually saves more power than A42Jr BIOS despite both have identical board and identical feature. Weird. I get about 15-25 minutes more with A42Je BIOS.

I decided to totally dismantle the A42J to see who make the horrid LCD screen and to my surprise is Samsung! My old k40AB uses AUO panel and looks miles better, color were more vivid, so does the contrast. The black in Samsung panel is more grey than black.