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Huge success undervolting the Air!

Gotta say, amazing. Just set Coolbook today and and am highly impressed.

I could barely do anything before my MBA got really hot. If I played a movie in iMovie after 2 minutes it would be around 85º

After Coolbook was installed, I opened Word, iPhoto, iTunes AND played a video in iMovie and it never got above 65º

My settings at for adapter are 1200, 1400 Mhz at 0.9000 and at 1600 Mhz is 0.9250

Works great.
 
I payed the registration fee via paypal but didn't received a mail with the registration code yet. I bought it 6 days ago...

How long did you wait for the code?
 
Early days but...

I have a brand new MBA 2.13, and have been playing with coolbook.

I've been able to set all the frequencies at the lowest voltage apart from 2.13GHz, which had to be 2 about lowest, to maintain stability. This may be luck. So far no issues.

I decided to "calibrate" the battery, so after a full charge left the MBA to run overnight. As it was ticking over at 789MHz, wi-fi and bluetooth off, and the darkened room allowed the screen to dim a little, this helped, but to my surprise it was still on when I woke up. That's over 7 hours! :cool:

After "calibration" and a full charge the battery time remaining showed 6.5 hours estimated, which dove to 5.5-6 when wi-fi was switched on and a little light surfing was done.

This may mean that with the Ethernet adaptor attached (less power than wi-fi?) it could last all day with light use if it has a snooze at lunch time...

Even if not, it is an incredible result. As I said early days... we'll see how it does in reality. Quite pleased I got the 128SSD now.:D
 
It seems the latest macbook air firmware update overrides coolbook to me... Now it seems to sometimes choose the voltages I set and which I have been running on for a little over a year now, but sometimes it sets it to whatever Apple decided them to be. Anyone else with the same problems?
 
fl0w said:
It seems the latest macbook air firmware update overrides coolbook to me... Now it seems to sometimes choose the voltages I set and which I have been running on for a little over a year now, but sometimes it sets it to whatever Apple decided them to be. Anyone else with the same problems?
Click to expand...

I'm confused. New firmware update? Where?

Just disable (not uninstall) coolbook, restart, re-enable it.
 
ayeying said:
I'm confused. New firmware update? Where?

Just disable (not uninstall) coolbook, restart, re-enable it.
Click to expand...

Yeah I was dancing this shamanic trances around my MBP'07 with Coolbook too. Though I did something stupid (I learned a lot :p) and deleted some kexts :eek::rolleyes:

Now it still crashes few times a month, so short of reinstalling OS, I'm waiting for SL.
Just saying:D
 
Okay, I've read this whole thread and I still have a question, so please forgive me.

I've bought Coolbook and I'm trying to calibrate it. As far as I understand I try to ramp up the frequency on the lowest voltage, and ramp down the voltage on the highest frequency, to work out my two "base pairs", and I test these by turning off the max CPU temp and running CPUTest "until the temperature reaches a stable value".

Here's the thing. I'm running CPUTest at max freq and min voltage and getting no errors, but the CPU temp quickly climbs into the 90s, which makes me nervous, and I stop it. Thus I haven't tested it for anything like the recommended ten mins.

What should I do? Be brave, let it go to 100°*and shutdown? But if it does that, how have I tested the stability of the voltage anyway?

thanks ...
 
EspressoLove said:
Yeah I was dancing this shamanic trances around my MBP'07 with Coolbook too. Though I did something stupid (I learned a lot :p) and deleted some kexts :eek::rolleyes:

Now it still crashes few times a month, so short of reinstalling OS, I'm waiting for SL.
Just saying:D
Click to expand...

If you're getting kernel panics because of coolbook, then your voltage is too low...
 
Can only choose 2 freuquencies

I've got a question: I purchased Coolbook and regsitered it, but I can only choose two frequencies, either 1862MHz or 1596 MHz. I've seen a lot of screenshots where people had configured frequencies in 100MHz steps, so I am wondering what I am doing wrong :confused:
 
Blindside said:
I've got a question: I purchased Coolbook and regsitered it, but I can only choose two frequencies, either 1862MHz or 1596 MHz. I've seen a lot of screenshots where people had configured frequencies in 100MHz steps, so I am wondering what I am doing wrong :confused:
Click to expand...

I had a similar problem. Close Coolbook and terminal this: defaults write se.coolbook.CoolBookController2 LoopCnt 10
 
Lounge Deluxe said:
I had a similar problem. Close Coolbook and terminal this: defaults write se.coolbook.CoolBookController2 LoopCnt 10
Click to expand...

I've done that, did not help. I still have only the two frequencies. I also re-installed coolbook severaltimes but it does not help.
 
New user of coolbook

I just bought coolbook 2.1.5 and installed the SnowLeopard version( the link in the dmg downloaded it) reading this thread, and I find the GUI totally unintuitive and the manual is inadequate at best.

I have MBA 1.6GHZ Rev A, SnowLeopard and installed the one with under my home dir, as it had some issues when I put it under Applications.

When I started it for the first time, it says installation failed, asked for my admin passwd and I set the voltages as per OP, but I do not see the Throttling or Coolbook active check marked in the status window as posted by some one in first few posts. I can enable the throttling, not the coolbook one.

When I close the app and restart, I get the same error as installation failed and none of my voltage selections are there.

Am I doing something wrong or I am missing something here?

Pls help. Thanks.
VS007

======
Added later:
I had to install the SL version from this link: http://www.coolbook.se/CoolBook_SnowLeopard.zip
The defaul download also had SL link which I installed, but some it pointed me to the older one.
 
Lounge Deluxe said:
Please check that registration succeeded (you should after successful registration only see the fields "first name" and "last name" in grey.
Click to expand...

Thanks!
Some how the link to SL version in the regular download did not point to the SL version.
I got it from http://www.coolbook.se/CoolBook_SnowLeopard.zip explicitly and that worked and got over the installation hiccups mentioned above.

Now trying to set the voltages. Will post how it goes.

Thanks
=======


Staus:

Previously I could not have skype video call for one hour with atleast two shutdowns due to overheating. After Coolbook, it works much better just with one shutdown.

Here are my settings that works without panic on my MBA Rev A 1.6GHZ Hard Disk
I am yet to change on Adapter, planning to just copy battery settings.
Suggestions welcome.

Much Thanks to everyone on this thread who reported this especially OP who started this thread and others who contributed also. Cheers.
 

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Just sharing my settings/results

Hi,

Appreciate the sharing everyone's doing here.

The fan noise from my MBA drives me crazy. First it was the problem with spotlight indexing some stupidly large log file, then the software update didn't help at all, in fact, I think it made it worse.

It's been getting worse lately, so ...

I run first gen MBA 1.8/60GB SSD. I'm running Snow Leopard now.

Firefox was killing CPU, so I've taken out all add-ins, and that lowered my CPU %, but the fans were still screaming.

I found coolbook, and copied someone else's settings (yes, I'm lazy), and got one lockup (1.8 @ .9 doesn't work for me, I have that set at .9875, and the rest at .9), but for the last hour or two seems to be fine. Thanks to everyone here, I know to keep an eye on it, and solve the problem if I do get any KP's.

But, now even at 53 degrees (C), my fans still spin up to the max, which seems to me to be odd.

I had installed the SMCFanControl app, and as per another thread, set the minimum speed to 3800, and found that was still silent (in my room to my ears). Still, after just 1 hour of only using Evernote and Firefox, my fan was at the max, and CPU temp (reported by SMCFanControl) was only at 51 degrees.

So, I've set the maximum fan speed to 4000, which I don't seem to hear. I realize there's a risk here, but... since my CPU temp is so low, I figure I can manually watch that. I'd have to guess there might be a problem with my fans? Who knows.

Cool book does seem to make the machine run cooler, though I've not started using the machine, i've only read and absorbed this thread, and some tangents (like how to install the scripts to reset the max fan).

In any case, If anyone has an idea about why even at a low CPU temp my fans would be screaming, I'm all ears. If not, thank you all again.

Good luck to all.
 
@djbressler You seem to be fairly technical, so I only suggest you double check your fan & temp stats with other utils (iStat Pro works for me in dashboard).

You need to do that, as many utils such as iStat's Menus e.g. are broken on SL, so you never know if your readings are right.
Also feeling your Air's body provides some feedback too :p

My 10.6.1/07'MBP seems to ramp up fans only after 75C+
Though I was limiting fans on my 06'MB for years, they were going crazy after about same temps as yours.

Using CoolBook, 07'MBP feels even bit cooler than on 10.5, stays right now ≈50C :) (around dozen apps open, with 46 tabs in Firefox :cool:)
 
@djbressler I remember limiting MB to 3600rpm max, but only in "supervised" circumstances - say when I expected some intensive job to finish in few minutes.

I'd say limit you fan somewhere around ≈5K, and when you hear it spin, check what's going on, and when sure bring it down to 4K, then check back sometime later.
 
Been through this thread, and I state that I am thoroughly confuddled. I just don't get what I am supposed to do to configure Coolbook properly.

I run it (it's registered) and see a default frequency of 798 MHz @ 0.925 Volts for this Rev. C MacBook Air w/ the solid state drive.

So, what I am supposed to do to get the optimum pairs for this application?

Coolbook gives me the following for the Adapter settings

B/2 not selected
1596 MHz @ 1.0000 Volts
1862 MHz @ 1.0500 Volts
1995 MHz @ 1.0500 Volts
2128 MHz @ 1.0875 Volts

B/2 selected
798 MHz @ 0.9250 Volts
931 MHz @ 1.0000 Volts
1064 MHZ @ 1.0000 Volts

So what do I need to do? Do I need to find a minimum voltage for each of these frequencies or only for a few of them? If it is only for a select few then which ones should I select? Does it matter? Shouldn't I start with 2128 MHz since this is the faster speed of the computer?

When I select a frequency do I choose the lowest voltage available in the drop-down box?

I have seen and downloaded the CPU test application. Am I to use that for each setting? What types of settings would I use for this application?

Seriously - this is just confusing to me, and the user manual for Coolbook does not really help out much.
 
RogersDA said:
B/2 not selected
1596 MHz @ 1.0000 Volts
1862 MHz @ 1.0500 Volts
1995 MHz @ 1.0500 Volts
2128 MHz @ 1.0875 Volts

Seriously - this is just confusing to me, and the user manual for Coolbook does not really help out much. [/FONT][/FONT]
Click to expand...

Agreed the user manual is practically useless.

Here is what I did, I looked at other people's settings for 1.6GHZ MBA and set that voltage. I only modified the higher frequencies onles liek 1200,1400,1600Hz and lowered the voltage. I just clicked on the test button on t hat page and saved it. Did not bother to do any cpu test. Soon I started getting kernel panic and increased the voltage for 1.6GHZ and 1.4GHZ by couple of notches and the kernel panics stopped, and later I reduced it by a notch till I could watch youtube with no panics. I posted my final settings above.
Note: Mine is a 1.6GHZ MBA
 
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