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Huge success undervolting the Air!

I'm having great success undervolting as well. I've tried this a few times, but re-installed World of Warcraft (for a while I could only really get it to play under Bootcamp/Win XP).

After underclocking to 1.4GHz, undervolting to 0.9875 V, World of Warcraft is playing great, actually even better than under Bootcamp/Win XP now.

I have the graphical settings turned somewhat higher, and I'm getting 14 fps in PvP, and 18-20 in general. Previously I could only get about 5 or 6 fps without the crashes, and about 10-12 at lowest graphics under Bootcamp/Win XP.
 
BryanHarig said:
It is unfortunate that we cant make the settings be persistent and must run coolbook after every boot. Is there any progress on a script that would auto run coolbook on boot?
Click to expand...

Just click & hold, or right click, on Cookbook in the Dock. Like any Mac program, choose 'Open at login'. It will run every time you start up.

BUT, the program always shows, we want it hidden. (Command + H hides apps, but you don't want to have to type that every time)

So, off we go to System Preferences, Accounts.
Click Login Items tab, and you'll see your startup apps, including Cookbook. Put a tick in the 'hide' box next to Coolbook.

Done, and done!
 
darwiniandude said:
Just click & hold, or right click, on Cookbook in the Dock. Like any Mac program, choose 'Open at login'. It will run every time you start up.

BUT, the program always shows, we want it hidden. (Command + H hides apps, but you don't want to have to type that every time)

So, off we go to System Preferences, Accounts.
Click Login Items tab, and you'll see your startup apps, including Cookbook. Put a tick in the 'hide' box next to Coolbook.

Done, and done!
Click to expand...

correct me if i'm wrong, but when i activated coolbook and save my settings, it's there after reboot, without me running coolbookcontroller. if you check activity monitor, you will see a process called coolbookswitcher. i thought that's the one that actually does the work???

btw, i used 0.9125 for 1600 and 0.9 for the rest, and my Air runs cooler and quieter. another success i guess :) i will wait a bit to decide if i want to open up my Air to check for excessive thermal paste or not.
 
It says right in the instructions that running the actual Cookbook program is not necessary except for monitoring purposes.

Once you click on Save Settings the settings are automatically applied when the MBA boots up. No need to have the program running.
 
trentiles said:
It says right in the instructions that running the actual Cookbook program is not necessary except for monitoring purposes.

Once you click on Save Settings the settings are automatically applied when the MBA boots up. No need to have the program running.
Click to expand...

Then we have found the root of my problem, my disinclination to read directions! :) Thanks all!
 
BryanHarig said:
^^ Surely your experience would be relevant if you had a macbook Air, however nowhere in that wall of text did I see one mentioned. If you want to get a day long 'workout' toting a 6kg laptop around that is your business. Other people might chose to buy an Air and do their weight lifting at the gym.
Click to expand...


Dear all,
As we know Undervolting applies,If not limited to; mac books,X86 laptops and desktops,UMPCs and PDAs.
My intention behind the post was to help people gain from my experience and draw an educated guess on results.

Factually, my Core QUAD undervolted,much better than Macbook Air;even in the latter is specifically targeted at mobility and effriceincy.
Remember that I am running it a lower voltage with EXACT same SPEEDS, there is no performance drop at all!

Still if you feel that i "Infiltrated' your thred with irrevelant data,I feel sorry.
 
benlangdon said:
i still do not get why you would decrees the power to your cpu.

wouldn't you want to over clock it?
w/e maybe you want it slower.

i got nothing to add,
Click to expand...

to-popcorn.jpg



2 + 2 = 5
 
To revive a post from the dead... I was doing a simple LCC cleaning and my CPU ran above 100 deg C.

Here's the pic to prove it.

Picture1-43.png


Granted it was my fault for having the fans locked at 4000 rpm, but look, no core shut downs even at an excess of 100 deg C. System didn't shut down or slowed. CPU is undervolted.
 
Just wanted to report my results with CoolBook.

Before:
Video playback was no problem unless an external monitor was attached. Then even the simplest movie resulted in very low framerats (~10fps), because after 10-15 minutes one of the cores shut down and kernel_task CPU usage went up to ~60%, which left no CPU power for the video playback.

Now with CoolBook installed:
No core shutdowns, even 720p movies play flawlessly fullscreen on an external 24 inch monitor.

Every CPU speed, from 600MHz to 1600MHz runs stable at 0.9V. This results in a longer battery life, how much I cannot say, but I guess it's about 1 hour longer.
 
ozthegweat said:
Every CPU speed, from 600MHz to 1600MHz runs stable at 0.9V. This results in a longer battery life, how much I cannot say, but I guess it's about 1 hour longer.
Click to expand...

Thanks Ozthegweat! i am about to try coolbook on my MBA. I feel very encouraged by your results, but I have a question. Does the stability characterisitcs while undervolting vary from MBA to MBA? I am eager to try undervolting to 0.9V for all cycle speeds, but I'm worried I might crash the system, or worse, cause some software corruption that renders my MBA useless without OS re-install.

Do you think I can safely try undervolting to 0.9V for all frequencies?
 
Apple uses higher voltages by default because it varies from chip to chip how low you can go with the voltage. So with using higher voltages, they are on the safe side.

This means that it might be your chip isn't stable at such low voltages. You just have to try. The chance of software corruption is small, but I really would do a backup (with Time Machine, preferably) before.
 
ayeying said:
To revive a post from the dead... I was doing a simple LCC cleaning and my CPU ran above 100 deg C.

Granted it was my fault for having the fans locked at 4000 rpm, but look, no core shut downs even at an excess of 100 deg C. System didn't shut down or slowed. CPU is undervolted.
Click to expand...

Why would you want to sacrifice long term stability of the processor and other components for short term noise reduction? In the long run heat decreases the life span of electronics, and thought it isn't whisper quiet, the Air's fan isn't like a 777 taking off or anything.
 
Sadly, I can't get the developer of coolbook to send me the license

After reading about all the success stories on here, I downloaded coolbook and tested it out to make sure it would run. I went back to his site, and paid him the 10 dollars through pay-pal.

He has yet to send me my license, and has not replied to any email. Perhaps he's on holiday? I find it ridiculous that he's a coder and couldn't automate the process though.

Has anyone had any luck getting through to this guy? I've got the confirmation from Pay Pal, and I checked my bank statement, so I know the guy was paid.
 
poisonapple said:
After reading about all the success stories on here, I downloaded coolbook and tested it out to make sure it would run. I went back to his site, and paid him the 10 dollars through pay-pal.

He has yet to send me my license, and has not replied to any email. Perhaps he's on holiday? I find it ridiculous that he's a coder and couldn't automate the process though.

Has anyone had any luck getting through to this guy? I've got the confirmation from Pay Pal, and I checked my bank statement, so I know the guy was paid.
Click to expand...

When I purchased my copy I got the email in about a minute with the license key .
I suggest, if you haven't already, checking your spam or junk email folders, maybe it ended up there.

Check you typed the correct email when you paid. Browser history? auto-formed?

BTW Your license key = the email address you supplied. Try that also it may be valid
Your name is the name you entered on the form too: (first) (last)
 
hkq37 said:
When I purchased my copy I got the email in about a minute with the license key .
I suggest, if you haven't already, checking your spam or junk email folders, maybe it ended up there.

Check you typed the correct email when you paid. Browser history? auto-formed?

BTW Your license key = the email address you supplied. Try that also it may be valid
Your name is the name you entered on the form too: (first) (last)
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip, but that's not the case. I checked my Pay Pal account, the only email in there is my dot mac email, so there no confusion there. And, I don't have the junk mail feature enabled, so that's not it either. He's also been completely unresponsive to email. Sigh...... I just opened a pay pal dispute with it. I get plenty of emails from pay pal for ebay, other purchases etc....

Hopefully, he'll do the right thing. I really want to use the software.
 
Surprised and sorry you had a problem getting your order processed. Hopefully, the developer resolves the issue.

I paid up my $10 some 12 hours ago, and the registration was quick and easy. I mustered courage and undervolted to 0.9V across the frequency range for both the battery and the adapter.

I ran CPUTest to peg the CPU at 100% for about 10 min at 1600 MHz and 0.9V. The temperature settled at around 93C, but there was no core shut-off and the test was successful.

My CPU core was running at an average of 75-80C on considerable load before using coolbook, now it runs at around 50-60C. It is still warm at the bottom and on the top-left corner of the keyboard, but I am happy the core shut-off problem is not seen any longer.

It's been over 3 months since the release of the MBA. it's a pity Apple has not clearly acknowledged the problem.
 
saisrujan said:
Surprised and sorry you had a problem getting your order processed. Hopefully, the developer resolves the issue.

I paid up my $10 some 12 hours ago, and the registration was quick and easy. I mustered courage and undervolted to 0.9V across the frequency range for both the battery and the adapter.

I ran CPUTest to peg the CPU at 100% for about 10 min at 1600 MHz and 0.9V. The temperature settled at around 93C, but there was no core shut-off and the test was successful.

My CPU core was running at an average of 75-80C on considerable load before using coolbook, now it runs at around 50-60C. It is still warm at the bottom and on the top-left corner of the keyboard, but I am happy the core shut-off problem is not seen any longer.

It's been over 3 months since the release of the MBA. it's a pity Apple has not clearly acknowledged the problem.
Click to expand...
That's the thing, all these success stories have me wanting to use this software pretty bad. I don't really have any problems, so I guess I can't complain, but if I can squeeze that much more performance out of my MBA, I'll be pretty happy. My CPU is running around 45-40C so I've got nothing to be upset by, but when there's video running, it does get warm and the fan kicks in pretty high.
 
wordy said:
Why would you want to sacrifice long term stability of the processor and other components for short term noise reduction? In the long run heat decreases the life span of electronics, and thought it isn't whisper quiet, the Air's fan isn't like a 777 taking off or anything.
Click to expand...

didn't matter. even with max fans, temps were hovering above 100 deg C.
 
I'm surprised a >50% increase in fan speed would have such little effect.

Wanted to give a thumbs up to the Coolbook developer. I registered and got an email within 5 minutes. I sent the lone (?) dev several questions and he always responded within a handful of hours. Better customer support experience than if he had "just coded something up." :D
 
Well I gave in and purchased the program. Probably the best $10 I have ever spent!

I have my voltage set at 0.9V on every speed. With the adapter plugged in, I deleted all speed entries except for 1600Mhz since I want my mba running at full power when it can. On battery, I added 600Mhz and 700Mhz to the list since I want to conserve as much battery as possible.

To test how well the program worked, I ran a youtube video that previously caused my fan speed to jump to 6200RPM fairly quickly. After installing coolbook and playing the same video, the fan speed takes much longer to increase. Most of the time, it stays around 2500RPM now. Even when it does increase, it increases up to about 4000-4500RPM VERY SLOWLY.

Because the fan speed rarely hits 6200RPM now, I also installed smcFanControl and have now limited the max fan speed to 4800RPM. This way, even at max fan speed, my mba is still much quieter than before. I have both programs automatically starting on login. I can see myself enjoying my mba a lot more now.
 
yes it sure is. the mba seems to be relatively stable at 0.9V at 1600MHz, so all is well.

just an update: i've removed 1600MHz and 1400MHz from coolbook under battery use. i noticed that performance difference was pretty minimal for what i do (browse, word, etc.), so i removed those two speeds to save some battery life. i think by making all these adjustments, i got an extra hour of battery life out of my mba! according to my battery indicator, i am at 80% charge with 3:38 remaining.
 
I'm having the exact same problem

poisonapple said:
After reading about all the success stories on here, I downloaded coolbook and tested it out to make sure it would run. I went back to his site, and paid him the 10 dollars through pay-pal.

He has yet to send me my license, and has not replied to any email. Perhaps he's on holiday? I find it ridiculous that he's a coder and couldn't automate the process though.

Has anyone had any luck getting through to this guy? I've got the confirmation from Pay Pal, and I checked my bank statement, so I know the guy was paid.
Click to expand...

I have the exact same problem. I read all the great things about the software, paid the license, but it hasn't been forthcoming. I've sent the developer several polite inquiries, but so far there is no response.

Has anyone else actually gotten a license in the last few days?
 
fuzzielitlpanda said:
Well I gave in and purchased the program. Probably the best $10 I have ever spent!

I have my voltage set at 1.9V on every speed. With the adapter plugged in, I deleted all speed entries except for 1600Mhz since I want my mba running at full power when it can. On battery, I added 600Mhz and 700Mhz to the list since I want to conserve as much battery as possible.

To test how well the program worked, I ran a youtube video that previously caused my fan speed to jump to 6200RPM fairly quickly. After installing coolbook and playing the same video, the fan speed takes much longer to increase. Most of the time, it stays around 2500RPM now. Even when it does increase, it increases up to about 4000-4500RPM VERY SLOWLY.

Because the fan speed rarely hits 6200RPM now, I also installed smcFanControl and have now limited the max fan speed to 4800RPM. This way, even at max fan speed, my mba is still much quieter than before. I have both programs automatically starting on login. I can see myself enjoying my mba a lot more now.
Click to expand...

When/how quickly did you receive the registration? I paid two days ago and still haven't gotten it.
 
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