Razer Blade (2014) Owner's Lounge

Hey guys, I'm about to buy one of these beasts 2nd hand, and was wondering if the warranty is void of the laptop is opened up.
I plan on opening it up, to clean out the heatsinks/ replace the thermal paste if needed, but since the previous owner bought an extended warranty, it would be nice to have...

 

If you replace the TIM I can guarantee your warranty will be void..

Replacing the SSD or something you can probably put the original back in and get away with it.

 

Yeah, in pictures of the underside of the laptop, I can't seem to find any stickers over screws, so unless there is any visual change, the warranty should still be there.
Normally I would not open up the laptop for something as simple as cleaning out the heatsink, but as it is near the screen hinge, it would be hard to get at it any other way.

Also looking back at the whole fiasco around the dude who replaced the TIM and got worse temperatures, I'll just stick to whats already on there...

Also did you by any chance have the series 7 gamer? because I could have sworn I saw you on the forum for that laptop couple of years back...

 

I still follow that forum, and I still have mine. Selling it (can't be worth much at this point). I thought about seeing if someone was interested in trying to mod the system BIOS as the vbios is embedded in it. Would think about switching out the mxm card for something better in that case, also may brick it.. But I digress, off topic for a Razer forum.

 

Either way, I was just wondering what type of m.2 ssd the razer uses? as it would be awesome if it was a pci-e based one for all that speed...
Pictures of the internals show that is does not look very large, so im assuming it is m.2 sata

 

The 2014 has a samsung, I created a thread about it. http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...-review-swapping-instructions-cloning.771316/

I believe the 2015 has a LiteON if I'm not mistaken. It's also possible they are sourcing it from multiple manufacturers. Sadly, to answer your other question, it's a SATA 2280 M.2. I was really hoping they would have moved to PCIe with the 2015, maybe 2016...

 

Hey guys, I just got the beast yesterday, an am loving it so far. One thing is that the intel drivers are not doing something I assumed they would do automatically, and that is scaling/ stretching the image to fit the screen when playing games lower than native resolution.

My intention from the start was to run games at 1600 by 900 as it is an even multiple of the native res, and thus would not lead to any interpolations, however when i change the in game res to 900p I'm left with a ting game screen surrounded by blackness...

I know that I can set the desktop resolution to be 900p as well, but it is not an elegant solution, and due to windows scaling, many of my programs like steam get too big to fit onscreen when I do so.

Edit: After downloading the newest intel drivers, there were more option in the intel control panel regarding how the game would scale non native resolutions.

 

1. It's still going to interpolate, I expected that as well, but that's just the way the algorithm works.

2. I am actually using it at 1600x900 (I know you don't want to do this) due to one or two apps not handling the DPI Aware API's properly. I don't really notice gaming, I notice in Windows but I'm used to it. My other notebook is a MacBook Pro Retina 13 and I use that many more hours than I use the Blade (work) and I still don't notice..

3. The scaling issue sucks, but it does happen for some games. I actually though it was eradicated when Assassins Creed IV stopped having the problem after I updated the Intel video drivers, but I just noticed Witcher 3 putting a 1600x900 square in the middle of the display at 3200x1800 when I use Fullscreen with it. Doesn't happen in Borderless Windowed mode so I've continued to play that way. Shrug.. Still seems fine to me.

There's a couple apps that will let you run pretty much any game in borderless windowed fullscreen, the best of the lot SEEMS to be this one, but by all means try a few...

http://westechsolutions.net/sites/WindowedBorderlessGaming/

 

Yeah, It's quite entertaining watching apps like origin start with no scaling as a tiny box with text inside...

either way, I'll just suck it up and endure the programs with wonky scaling, because the few times when you notice the display working at its best, it really does look very nice.

 

Yeah, I've seen it. Still can't believe Origin isn't using the API's properly. At least Steam was scaling, as blurry as it was it was readable.

 

Might I ask what scaling setting you guys use? Because I cant seem to get it to a point where its properly readable, and allows me to have a decent amount of realestate...

I was trying to look around to see if I could dual boot Yosemite so I could use that for casual stuff as the stuff would be real nice and crisp, and use windows for my games/ programs, although drivers are finicky to begin with, and this laptop has more specific drivers than most laptops, and it would be a pain to get it working...
Synapse will likely get confused it expects that a blade will be running windows

Edit: After about a day and a half of extensive tinkering around with the many ways to install OS X on a non apple computer, all I can say is "for the love of god don't even go there". It is a very unstable process to begin with (considering the fact that the motherboard you choose can effect the install if you are on a desktop), and the uncommon features on the razer ranging from the qhd+ screen to optimus really messed up the installer.
With extensive editing of the system files, it could be possible to get the installer to work properly, but the main reason I wanted to dual boot was for the high dpi scaling of OS X, and to my knowledge, very few people have gotten high res displays working, let alone on laptops...

 

Hi everyone,

I'm new to this forum so bear with me.
Has anyone encountered the issue of the blade shutting down midgame? I have just gotten it 4 weeks ago from a retailer. It just powered down after about half hour of gaming. Subsequent attempt would only yield 5-10mins of gaming time. the power down means straight up black screen as if someone totally removed the power source.

Right after the shutdown, i am unable to start it up again immediately. I will either have to wait for several mins or unplug and reconnect the power source in order to start the laptop up again.

So far i have tried to play 2 games on my blade. Tera Online and Marvel Heroes 2015 and this happens for both games.

So with this happening, i went back to the store i got it from and did a 1 to 1 exchange on the spot. The same thing happened to the newly exchanged set. So what i am doing now is waiting for Razer to test a new set on their side in order to process an exchange for me.

I am totally lost as to what could be the problem. I have tried doing a recovery, updating all the windows and nvidia drivers, down scaling my screen resolution but to no avail. So now i am thinking if it could be a possible overheat? Although based on the temps i have observed from HWinfo, it is still under the acceptable range for both GPU and CPU.

Now feeling rather desperate, I am thinking of undervolting. Am i heading in the right direction? Anyone faced this problem and found a solution?

 

Is it an instant shutdown? or do the fans/ keyboard back-light stay on for a while?
Cant say that I have heard of the problem before, and it is even more peculiar that it happened on 2 machines... Although undervolting might not make the problem any better, as it will cause the cpu/ gpu to crash due to instabilities.
Im assuming you are plugged into the wall while gaming, but was the battery charging? As the symptoms of shutting down and not turning back on for a couple of mins sounds like the battery went empty, and is recharging...

 

It is an instant shutdown and yes it is plugged to the mains. realised that whenever it does it, the battery went down after i start it up again even though it was charging prior to the shutdown. From a thread that i started separately (due to the fact that i think i shldn have posted it here haha) someone mentioned that my case was a thermal shutdown though =/

Edit: did some tweaking and was able to bring the temps down to 76c for CPU and 85c for GPU. It still gave up on me after about half an hour of gaming. It only acts up when i game on it.

 

I believe i have eliminated the possibility of it being a thermal shutdown. Probably will do a clean install of the Nvidia drivers later in hope that it might be the culprit behind this


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Those temperatures are well below the limit for this laptop, so it is peculiar that it exhibits this behavior when under load...

Since my 2014 Blade was bought used off someone who bought it right after launch, it has been used fairly heavily (as shown by the large quantity of dust in the heatsinks), so I would expect it to show weird issues like the ones you are having, however it has done nothing out of the ordinary, in the past 2 weeks I have had it...

 

Exactly! On top of that my set was brand new fresh out of the box.

Updates: Did a clean install for the GPU driver via Nvidia clean install and did a 10 pass intel burn test followed by a 30mins Furmark stress test. Surprisingly it did not do any hard shutdowns for the day. However it did reboot once and my game client did crash to desktop (ctd) a couple of times.

Now a new set of problems to tackle. The graphics were choppy and froze when it ctd or did a reboot.
I will do more research on what is causing these issues. I was thinking if it was because i tweaked the voltages for the CPU? The stress test on XTU and Intel Burn Test were fine though =/

 

That's the wrong way to think about OS X. It is, after all, meant only to run on Macs and not on generic PCs - which you've got Windows for. Of course you should expect to tweak with system files. The very fact that you've got it to run on the Blade should be a matter of astonishment and awe. I spent four years tweaking with OS X on three different laptops, and I can assure you it has gotten very easy with Clover, automated DSDT and kext patching, and what with most new Windows machines coming with GPT formatted discs instead of MBR, life is quite simple.

Harder than a typical Windows clean install, but much easier than what it was like in the days of PowerPC and early Intel. With Sandy Bridge and built-in iGPUs, there's no need to modify graphics drivers. Kernel patching, dirty hacks are all down the drain as more PCs use UEFI BIOS and you can literally boot OS X natively. You've even got scripted installers for final driver and file installation nowadays. There's nothing much to complain about, I feel.

Don't give up because it seems hard - after you get it set up 100%, it works better and faster than a Mac. If you need help, look around the Net in sites such as InsanelyMac or tonymacx86. Or ask around here, there are several hackintoshers willing to help out.

 

Yeah, I suppose so. I did manage to get mavericks to boot, however the gpu was not detected properly, and thus the max res was around 720p. I also noticed that you run an intel wireless card on your hackintosh, and was wondering weather it worked in osx, as no apple PCs run intel wireless chips, and thus I was unable to get wireless working without an adapter as well...

Unfortunately I was also using chimera, which only allowed me to boot into osx and did not recognize my pre existing windows install. Either way, when I tried using a clover usb to get yosemite working it ran into very odd problems even with patched kernels for haswell where it would exhibit an early reboot...

Either way, I will refrain for trying to get it working, until I have a separate hard drive exclusively for osx as I've had to reinstall windows twice now due to a number of issues, and I would rather not go through that again...

 

Yep - it gets even easier if you use a separate drive. Consider getting a USB drive - the Blade may or may not have an extra slot for an SSD. This is one reason I chose the Clevo over the Blade - 3 internal drives, wahoo!

 

Hey guys, I'm noticing a fairly annoying problem recently to do with chrome. Something about the html5 used to play youtube videos, is messing up, and when I play 1080p60 videos it looks worse than 30 fps due to some nasty stutter.

Everyone and their mum says to turn off gpu acceleration in settings, but all this does is make the browser feel slower, and does not fix the problem. Forcing chrome to use the flash player instead of html does not help either, as flash can't do 60 fps, and html5 is fine with 30 fps content...

Starting chrome up with the gpu does not help either, so it is not any power saving features on the igpu slowing down the video.

PS: on a side note 720p60 works fine in and out of fullscreen, however under stats for nerds, it says there are no dropped frames for both 720p60, and 1080p60 even though there is a large amount of dropped frames in 1080p60

 

Hi all - One of the rubber feet on the bottom of my laptop has begun to fall off on one side.

Do you have any suggestions for what type of adhesive I should use to reattach it? Thanks for your help!

 

Anyone know of an effective cooling pad for the Blade?

I travel frequently, would like a portable, effective pad if anyone knows of one.

Thanks.

 

Any cooling pad that lets you change the placement of the fans/ has a fan large enough to provide airflow to both vents should be fine. If the bottom is perforated, it would aid further with airflow.

TBH I dont notice much of a difference with my device on the cooling pad, as it just blows at the center of the blade, however the perforated cooling pad helps quite a bit, rather than putting it directly on the table, or worse on a padded surface.

 

Same happened for me, just use some type of superglue and stick it back on, no problems since.

 

Has anyone heard an odd, buzzing static noise from inside their Blade?

 

Hello guys,

I am thinking of buying this laptop but I want to know what is battery life like in 2014 version ? Like for a basic use : Word / VLC + 50% luminosity + no keyboard backlight ?
And how is the battery going after like 1 year or more (or less...) of use ? Does the battery life last less than before ?

Also, I don't think this is the right place for that but I'll try anyway! Is someone selling his RB 2014 (shipping to France... as Razer don't want to sell in EU...)

 

Try to see Auros laptop

Sent from my Lenovo A5000 using Tapatalk

 

Do you mean Aorus laptop ?
I already checked those devices but I really don't like the gaming style like..

 

Sorry for typo, there is no doubt Razer looks nice or piece of good craft. But you will be limited with option not two hard disk slot, 5 th gen cpu and 970 gpu

Sent from my Lenovo A5000 using Tapatalk

 

Limited for what ? Really i don't need the latest nvidia graphic card and the latest Intel proc..

I just want to know how is battery life and if someone is selling it

 

It is most likely coilwhine. I didn't think laptops had components that take enough power to make coilwhine, but when I run load tests like unigen heaven, or 3dmark the noise sounds very similar to the coilwhine on my 780ti, but a fair bit quieter.

It is in no way harming the system, but just a byproduct of the power componentry (If i'm not mistaken)

 

I had to buy mine used as well, as they didn't sell it in Norway.

I'm not selling mine, but the battery seems to have held up pretty good. The previous owner got it right after it was released, so its about 1.5 years old now, and I'm still able to get 3-4 hours of web browsing/ watching youtube videos, at a bit lower than 50% brightness (I have to use microsoft edge, because chrome tanks the battery life)

I'm sending mine in to have the keyboard replaced (previous owner somehow managed to only break the right arrow key), and I'll see if they can change the battery as well, to see if there is an improvement with a fresh battery.

 

I'm looking at one with 8gb of ram. Is the ram soldered or is there a free slot for upgrade?

 

It is soldered.

 

Is it worth buying the razer blade 2014 today for $1900 CAD (refurb)?
What are some of the problems people had with this laptop?

 

Absolutely not worth that price. You can get something much better in every way for less right now. The heat and battery alone from that laptop aren't worth it.

 

My 2014 finally has the dreaded power circuit/battery issue where it will only run for minutes before it outright turns off. I think someone else had this issue as well. I'm going to try disconnecting the battery in the next week or two when i get time and see if that fixes it.

Sad face

Sent from a 128th Legion Stormtrooper 6P

 

I think the Razer batteries just don't last longer than 2 years, although I've heard it can also be an issue with the charger. Windows will either say "battery not detected" or "battery connected and not charging". Reinstalling the battery drivers via Device Manager supposedly fixes the problem for some people, but had no effect on mine.

 

It turns out it's just the battery. Was my bad I think I didn't realize the power adapter came unplugged, but the laptop is definitely powering off suddenly with a substantial amount of capacity remaining (17-20%). Still seems to be fine while plugged in so I'll deal with it some other time. I'm plugged in 99% of the time.

Sent from a 128th Legion Stormtrooper 6P

 

Hi guys, I'm in the market for a blade and am strongly considering buying one of the 2014 models used, for about 1100. I know the 870m is somewhat long in the tooth at this point, but my thinking is that since I already have a x79 tower with a 980 sitting in the office, I don't really need to have bleeding edge gpu muscle in my laptop. Also, the understated, non garish casing will help me not feel like a tool at work when I bring it in.

Do you feel like 1100 is a solid price for a 2014 blade these days? Sure its old, but I can't justify a 17-1800 hundred dollar laptop that can't replicate the performance of my tower. All I'm looking for out of this laptop is strong enough performance to play AAA titles in 2015 at 1080p? I don't mind turning some eye candy off to get FPS above 55-60. Should I be looking to replace the battery immediately at this stage of its life cycle, and what other issues are long time owners dealing with at this point? At this point is anything on this laptop still covered for razer?

Thanks for any help you can offer.

 

I'm playing Fallout 4 on mine at 1600x900 with quite a few bells on, runs great. There's a couple isolated areas that chug a little but it's pretty rare. I think inside the corvega factory near where the boss usually hangs out is one of them.

As far as longevity, I've had it for going on 2 years at this point. The battery is starting to wear. I never use it though it's nearly always plugged in. Everything else is great. I thought I was having a power problem but it just turned out to be the battery is starting to go as I didn't realize I was on battery power when the problem happened. It turns off with around 14-17% battery left. And the wear level data is at around 13%.

Sent from a 128th Legion Stormtrooper 6P

 

Hi guys need help!!!. I have accidentally erased the bios on my blade 2014 Can Some one please give me a dump of the bios file. I am stuck with paper weight till then. Please please help me out

 

After reading http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...t-vs-cool-laboratory-liquid-ultra-pro.791489/ i'm curious will it give same temps on blade 2014?

 

I would definitely not reapply your TIM with that as the 2014 blade requires an HDT (heat pipe direct touch) thermal compound.

Sent from a 128th Legion Stormtrooper 6P

 

Likely due to the fact that the batteries get quite warm when gaming for some reason. Maybe the power adapter cant provide enough juice and the battery needs to help out as well, because it is no where near any of the heat generation components in the laptop, yet gets quite warm to the touch after a long gaming session on mine.

 

That should be the stock bios. Use AFUWINGUI.exe to flash the bios. There should be tutorials on how it use it online.

 

My Razer has the plug in 0% charging problem. Is that something I can fix or I have to change the battery?

 

Uninstall battery drivers from device manager, turn it off, plug it in and let it be like that for up to 4 hours.

That's what Razer support suggest to do to recalibrate batteries and what I heard helped some to get their battery alive again.