Razer Blade (2014) Owner's Lounge

Now what?!!! My 14" 2014 keyboard and trackpad are completely unresponsive. No illumination or anything. What could be causing this?

 

Can someone look in device manager and tell me the hardware Id of the screen please?

 

SHP1401, model LQ140Z1JW01

 

Is there an SMC or power reset on these blades like on MBPs? Holding down a set of keys while booting? I'm really at my last straw with this blade.

Looking to bring my keyboard and trackpad back to life.

Thanks!

 

Does your built-in keyboard work on a cold boot at the F1/F2 prompt (to get into BIOS config)?

- If yes, boot to a linux or other livecd and check if it works there.

- If not, plug in a USB keyboard and cold boot. Then check if F1/F2 works at the prompt.

In order to troubleshoot anything, start by isolating and verifying possible cases of error.

 

The keyboard and trackpad are both dead at boot. The only way to get into bios is with an external USB keyboard.

 

Meant to type "causes" instead of "cases" there. Anyway, if you boot into Windows (using external USB peripherals) do any errors show up in device manager?

 

Device manager does not show any errors. Although, it does not show a keyboard or mouse either. (Unless ones plugged in) Only shows HID device. Thats the virtual keyboard right?

 

So any other people having similar problems? Especially the yellow tint problem? I wonder if it is possibly the monitor going bad or the power connector or something hardware related? The fact that it is fixed after closing and reopening the laptop makes me think otherwise, but I can't be sure. Some research suggests a possible change in the calibration used? Any thoughts? I see Asus laptops have had similar problems, but they had a program that appeared responsible. Any other thoughts? Thanks.

 

Civilization V performance test video with Razer Blade 2014.

 

How were you able to get it to run it 1080p? I've tried all the tricks in the other threads but can't get it to run higher than 1440x900.

 

Not sure if someone has brought this up, I used to have problems with Google chrome being blurry, it seems to have fixed itself at the 3200x1800 resolution. Now my problem is with iTunes being blurry, I've tried DPI scaling options in program compatibility to no avail. I know that iTunes runs at "retina display" quality on macs, so why not on PC's?

 

Chrome stable channel was fixed when chrome 37 was released. ITunes, Apple will need to fix that, as it's an iTunes issue. How much they care about fixing it, who knows.

Pretty much any blurry app you use the creator needs to implement the new Windows dpi aware APIs and use higher quality assets. Just like it was for Mac a couple years ago it'll take time, probably longer, for windows app creators.

 

In OS X, the Retina Display works by simple resolution doubling, and of course, Apple cares about their own ecosystem more than Windows. MS' high DPI implementation on the desktop is still very quirky.

 

Yea that's kinda what I figured. On another note, I saw earlier on the form someone had skinned their laptop in clear to help with fingerprints, anyone know where a high-quality one of those may be purchased? Any case recommendations for the Blade? Any cleaning tips for the Blade, I tried cleaning with ISO Alcohol which helps, but no matter what I do the fingerprints seem to still be revealed in bright lit areas.

 

Anyone having black screen issues? This all started out when I was playing League of Legends about two weeks ago. On the loading screen, it was just black. I rarely play LoL but I think this was due to their patches.

The real problem is that whenever I restart the laptop, only a black screen shows up. No Razer logo or anything. Just black screen. This also happens when I shutdown the computer and turn it back on, it will show a black screen. I have to hold the power button multiple times to make it show the Razer logo and eventually login to the computer. It took 3 minutes of holding the button and releasing it to see the Razer logo. I have all the latest drivers. I did do some research into the black screen but for most of them, it actually boots up for them and they can click F8 F12 keys to enter into menu but for mine, its just a black blank screen and I can't click any button

I'm also having a problem with sleeping too. When I close the lid while the laptop is on, it does put the computer to sleep but when I reopen the lid and I pressed any key to turn it back on, it doesn't immediately turn back on. I have to fiddle with the power button to make the screen comes back on. This issue never happened before even when I was having restarting/turning on issue. And now...the Razer logo loads and then a black screen.

I did do a full reset but that requires restarting and the computer just get stuck at black screen. I did get a chance to reset it though.

I'm thinking that all this have something to do with the graphics card...

Update. I rolled back the Intel 4600 driver and works fine :X

 

Hello,

Very interested in this latop.

Have the issues with windows/excel scaling been resolved?

While i love the idea of this laptop i dont want to set it at 1080P in windows and have everything look jacked up as it will be used as 80% for work!

 

Since my Blade from Microsoft Store pre-installed a wallpaper without the Razer logo, can anyone upload the pre-installed honeycomb wallpaper with the Razer logo?
I think there are many guys have the same problem with me.
Cannot find it anywhere.

 

http://i.imgur.com/rvpl5nD.png

 

The image u upload is the one I have (the one without the Razer logo in the middle), u also got the Blade from Microsoft Store?
Thanks anyway!

 

I had my Razer blade for about a week now, I have an issue with the screen, it keeps flickering. Its not a GPU issue because I connected the laptop to an external monitor via HDMI, and the external monitor does not flicker. Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Jkim1287

 

I am a freshman, and my old macbook pro is starting to act up (it's like 4 years) so I figured it's time to get a new laptop. I'm looking for one that's portable, yet packs quite the punch even for the most demanding games. Naturally I have been drawn to the new Razer Blade 14 and MSI Ghost GS60, as both are very portable, yet have great specs. My only worries are the prices (especially that of the Razer), battery life (I have read that the Razer's amazing 3,200 x 1,800 resolution hogs up the battery), and heat. I'm unsure if it'd be worth the money, if I should wait till the new Intel chips come out, and if maybe it'd be better to get a cheap ultrabook and then desktop (though the problem with that would be that it would take up a lot of space in my small dorm room, and I would not be able to play games when travelling. It is worth noting that I live abroad (I am an international student) so going home means 3 - 9 week trips to the other side of the world, hence why I find the downside of not being able to play on my desktop while travelling quite a large problem. Resolution is not a big determining factor, which is why I find the razer's superior graphics over the top. However the touchscreen seems pretty cool, and might come in handy when modelling.

Could any of you shed some light on what might be my best options? Like I said, I'm looking for a portable computer, similar sized (though not exact) to a macbook, that can handle games and modelling programs, and can be brought with both to class and on long trips.

Thanks!

 

The razor's battery life definitely isn't too poor, depending on usage it can get between 4-4.5 to 5-6 hours with IE/chrome and some other light tasks open. I however strongly recommend waiting at least 1 month before buying a computer, especially a laptop. Yes, Intel's broadwell is coming out, but even more importantly, Nvidia's Maxwell line of GPUs (900s) are coming out, and are rumored to make thin & light gaming so much better than it is right now. Since you listed several thin gaming laptops, waiting for Maxwell i think would definitely be worth your time, it's supposed to really improve mobile gpu performance. The 980m for example is said to be as good as a GTX780, and might even be able to fit into a <20mm laptop (though a 970m is more probable) The GS60 has very notable heat problems , with some sources saying that it (I don't own one) can reach up to 85C on the bottom of the laptop, not the GPU/CPU. That's obviously scorchingly hot, and can burn you. Screen size is also a big factor; the 14 inch is a lot more suitable to bringing into classes/lecture halls than a 15.6 inch laptop, and razer's build quality is much close to an rMBP.

 

Understand what your asking for is what EVERYONE is searching for. A super portable laptop that can play the most demanding games. This is not a simple request, but In my experience the Razer blade is the closest to fulfilling it. But you will pay the price.

 

Has anybody's touchscreen just stopped working? Mine has, and nothing weird is showing up in device manager, it is just no longer accepting touch inputs. Anybody have this issue? I did re-install windows 8 via the USB recovery stick Razer sent me but nothing went weird in the installation.

 

I've been having the same problem since installing the new intel driver. I reinstalled the older driver which I found on Intel's website but am still having the same problem. Yellow tint happens about 40% of the time when the laptop comes out of sleep mode and sometimes the screen doesn't even turn on at all. I have to but the laptop to sleep and wake it up a few times before the screen comes back to normal. Hope intel is aware of this. Has anyone else been having this issue?

 

Regarding yellow tint, blacked out, and flickering screens that some people are reporting; my suspicion is that this is a hardware issue with the display cable or connector. It is especially telling when someone reports: "fixed after closing and reopening". Think about how compact everything must be, and the display cable must be routed through the hinge.

I don't know what format the display signal is, but probably LVDS. That has about ten lines (wires) to carry the color, sync, timing, and enable signals. For example, a yellow tint would be caused if a line carrying some of the blue signal bits was damaged. Interrupting the other signals might cause flickering or no image (black screen).

Bottom line is I don't expect to be able to fix these issues with a new driver. Gotta go the RMA route.

 

I don't think it's the a hardware issue. The reason I say that is because the black screen/yellow tint issue only started happening after the intel graphics update. No physical movement of the screen hinge is required to make the issue disappear either. I have a second monitor that I use to extend my display area. When I set the screen to "show desktop only on 2" which is my other display and then change the display settings back to "extend these displays" the issue is sometimes resolved. I usually have to do this a few times before it works. The first few times I run through this the screen either gets the yellow tint or just shows up as black.

 

And does the issue happen to the external monitor too? If not it is at least weird since the external display is also driven by the Intel driver. Cheers
Btw I am running all the latest Intel and Nvidia driver with no issue at all.
Btw 2 have you checked for a calibration profile, it gets loaded and unloaded sometimes for software or hardware changes(ie plugging and unplugging the external monitor) and that changes the colors of the panel.

 

My issue progressed to not only yellow tints, but red and blue ones as well. I changed my computer screen sleep time to 60 seconds which made the issue appear more often. However, this made it so I could leave the screen at the same position and simply moving the mouse to bring the screen back, the issue would be present if it had been normal or it would be normal after having an issue. I tried reverting the intel driver with no luck and setting a default color calibration, but not luck. So I sent it back for replacement as it was part of the refurb deal anyways. Hopefully my next one is a keeper...

 

I thought I might post up something here that might save someone some troubleshooting time, if you're into trying new stuff, and decided to install the Windows 10 Technical Preview on your Razer Blade.

I installed Win10TP as soon as it was available, and it has run nearly flawlessly since then - except for one thing (it's a big thing): I couldn't get any of my games which run on the NVidia GPU (as set in the NVidia Control Panel's "Manage 3d Settings" options) to run. They pretty much all gave some form of "Failed to initialize renderer" as soon as the game tried to switch into the game's graphics mode.

I wasn't too worried about this really, since my games (Skyrim and Fallout New Vegas) will both run fine on the Intel 4600 hardware at acceptable playing levels, as long as you set the resolution and display quality down just a bit, and I figured this was something that would get fixed or a work around would be found in fairly short order, since lots of software tech people also play games and use high-end laptops, and I saw this issue getting quite a bit of attention around the net.

Anyway, this evening I noticed that the GeForce forums were reporting that downgrading the Intel driver from the default used by Windows 10 to a slightly older one was allowing many folks to get their games back up and running on their NVidia GPUs. There seemed to be some doubt about whether this trick would work on the 800-series mobile chipsets (the Razer Blade 2014 uses the NVidia 870M), but I decided to try it anyway, and, sure enough, the games came up and played just like they did on Windows 8.1.

The version of the Intel driver to look for on Intel's website is 15.33.22.64.3621. The file I downloaded was named Win64_153322.exe.

This trick worked great for me, although, as I said before, some people (not necessarily running the 870M hardware) are not having success with this method, so your mileage may vary.

Anyway, I'm enjoying getting to play with Windows 10, and being able to play my games at the Razer Blade's best speeds, so I thought I'd mention how I did it here, in case anyone else is trying or thinking of trying the same thing.

Just to be clear, I used the "Manage 3d Settings" options in the NVidia Control Panel software to change Skyrim and FNV to run on the Intel hardware after I discovered they would not run correctly after installing Windows 10. After I downgraded the Intel driver, I went back and reset these games to use the default GPU, which is the NVidia GPU. I monitored performance and frame rates both manually and using Bandicam's frame rate monitor (similar to FRAPS), and the games are most definitely now running on the NVidia GPU, both according to NVidia's hardware monitor and my 3rd party frame rate monitor.

 

Beware - the above trick does NOT work with any modern games! (DX11)

 

Yes - this appears to be the case. I wasn't aware of this limitation when I posted above -sorry if anyone was misled.

I've been testing this afternoon using the Unigine Heaven Benchmark, which has modes for the following APIs: DX9, DX11 and OpenGL.

I can run all three API modes on the Intel 4600 GPU, and the DX9 and OpenGL API modes on the NVidia 870M GPU. Attempting to force the DX11 API on the NVidia GPU results in a failure message indicating a renderer could not be created, which is consistent with what others seem to be reporting, even with the "downgrade the Intel driver" trick to get Optimus working.

So, DX9 and OpenGL on the Razer Blade 2014 model under Windows 10 Technical Preview for now. NVidia has also apparently posted that they have no specific plans to provide driver support or updates specific to the Technical Preview (absolutely no surprise there, and I would rather they concentrate on other stuff anyway).

Another observation - being forced to run Skyrim on the Intel GPU for a few days has resulted in my actually switching the game to permanently run that way, even though the technique I posted above allows it to run fine on the NVidia GPU. I find that by setting the game to 1280x720 with no antialiasing and dialing the distances down just a fraction from their max settings allows perfectly fine gameplay of Skyrim on the Intel 4600 GPU, with the fans remaining virtually silent and the machine's case and keyboard staying comfortably cool to the touch. I prefer the approximately 15 to 25 fps performance drop in trade for these benefits - my frame rate monitor shows frame rates varying from the high 30's in a few places to about 60fps occasionally, with a general average of 43-48 fps.

 

I imagine there are many laptops that would perform better than the Blade for this purpose, though...

 

Yeah, that point was not lost on me, but live and learn...

 

Does anyone get a pressure mark on screen when pushing on the razer logo on the lid?

Seems like me and a few others have this. Everywhere else I push I don't get issues

 

I get pressure marks even when pushing on the aluminum in the vicinity of the logo.

 

Sorry to not read all the pages through, but after all.. are we counting with any other slot to put in some other hdd/sdd?
I know wearing ain't that much of a problem with nowaday sdd but man, I still hope I can add another one for work reasons..
I've yet to receive it as I bought it abroad (512gb version) since I'm in Argentina.
Is the ram also upgradable?

 

Hey there, guys!

In case someone is in the same situation as I was with the new Intel Drivers (17.1) that has the WiFi being gone after coming out of sleep; I downloaded versión 17.12 from... somewhere in Intel's forums. Even then, I had to go to the AC7260 in the Device Manager, then go to the Power Management tab, and check the "Allow this device to turn off to save power" (or some such) option in order for the WiFi to now work properly.

Hope this helps someone out!

 

Quick question about refresh rate.

When my nvidia card is used the refresh rate is 40hz

When on Intel it is 60hz

Does someone know how to force it at 60hz all the time? Whatever the card used?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

There is only one M.2 Sata slot, and the Ram is soldered to the MB so it is not upgrade-able.

 

The industry needs to stop dragging its feet and ship 1TB m.2 drives. 512GB isn't cutting it. I only have 29GB free. Think I may have to ditch a couple heavyweight titles.

 

Use an external hard disk drive?

 

External hard drives are really inconvienent though. The whole point of a laptop is for everything you need to be in one complete package. I have to agree, Razer's choice of maxing hard drive options at a measly 512GB was not a good one. Competitors with M.2 drives have much better options, such as dual SSDs, or just mSATA drives instead.

 

Hello everyone. I recently experienced what appears to be a somewhat common problem with the Razer Blade 2014. After several months of use, I began to experience grey screens (screen on but not displaying anything) and discoloration (everything had a blue tint) when my Razer came out of sleep.

Originally I tried rolling back to an older Nvidia driver. This didn't seem to help. I contacted Razer costumer support and they believe it might be a BIOS issue. They told me to reset my BIOS settings via the following steps.

This resolved the problem. I've successfully put the laptop to sleep, and woke it back up 30 to 40 times today without any problems. The troubles are either completely gone or have become so infrequent that they aren't a major inconvenient to me. If you had a similar issue, I highly suggest attempting this.

As to what causes the problem? Don't know. Considering the BIOS managed to fix it, I suspect some piece of software got messed up such as a driver. The only driver I rolled back on was the Nividia 870m driver so I honestly can't say for sure which one is the issue.

I will update this post and make another post in this thread if I encounter the problem again.

 

hello,
I've been having trouble with my newly bought 256gb razer. Whenever i launch a game the screen goes black the sound works but no response from the screen. I'll be glad to give any information if needed.

Edit:
So far i have updated all the drivers, i have tried launching games on a secondary screen i end up with: failed to initialize renderer. Unknown error created the renderer. Sometimes when i start up the pc it ends up on a black/grey screen that is lit up but no image the keyboard has light though.

 

Please contact our support on this, include this link: http://forum.notebookreview.com/razer/747532-razer-blade-2014-owner-s-lounge-180.html#post9809009

Also, ensure you are running the drivers from our site, as these have been fully tested and certified for our systems.

 

Does anyone have any information to share concerning a 2014 Blade repair?

I bought one in late August,2014 and each one I've received (three brand new models so far) has had an awful problem with the screen - the first one had black, dead pixels in small lines or clusters (really tiny on the QHD monitor but still very much noticeable) the second one had what I can only conclude was a hole in the LCD panel itself (not the hard outer screen that you can actually touch) since it was a circular spot that was always brighter than the spots around it and if you looked down at it from standing over the laptop, you could see the "beam" from the backlight coming through. Finally, my third one got here and it was (seemingly) fine for a couple weeks and then out of nowhere a red spot appeared on the screen - it looked like it was a single pixel or small group but it was hard to see - all I could do was put up different colors and in 8/10 of them the spot was red but when it was a really dark BG the spot would be a darker grey so I assumed the green subpixels in those spots died since it was not a black spot but mostly red and then not red sometimes - I thought it was maybe "stuck" but I could never get it to unstick, so I called Razer once again and since it wasn't within a week or whatever of getting it new, they told me they'd repair it instead of replacing it so I sent it in and I'm guessing they'll be replacing the screen.

So what I'd like to ask is if anyone else has had to have their 2014 14" Blade upper assembly replaced and if so, how'd it go?
1. How long did it take to get it back?
2. Did you have any problems afterward?
3. Did anything go wrong with the lower parts of your machine or any of the non-display components in the upper part? I think I was told the wifi beacon is there too or something like that?

Thanks for your response if anyone has one.

 

I'm going to have to send mine in due to the fan on the right hand side (looking at the keyboard). After the laptop runs for a bit my guess is the fan ramps up slightly or heat is expanding something just enough, it sounds like the fan blade is hitting something while it turns. The noise is extremely irritating. I just haven't called it in yet.

I LOVE THIS LAPTOP aside from that, so hopefully they just touch that and leave everything else alone.

 

Let me know what they do to yours, if they tell you. I have the same issue and took the thing apart, it is not touching anything at all, it is the motor/axis that makes the noise, I tried re lubricating it and although helped didn't stop the noise. I went ahead and bought two replacement fans on aliexpress just in case it dies. Cheers