Razer Blade Owner's Lounge

It's mostly stuff for tech guys and or business things, the two main reasons I wanted it are to be able to have access to Remote Desktop, and to be able to get WIndows Media Center which is apparently required to stream material from your PC to your X-Box. I haven't gotten it to work yet, but most of the people on the xbox forums said WMC is required and after playing with it you can get it to work via your Xbox...That's something I do A LOT, I suppose since the blade is so portable it doesn't matter and I can just bring it into the living room every time and plug up my HDMI cable from my xbox to it, but meh.

Every other benefit isn't worth it unless you're super techy, or if it's a business computer.

Edit: updated my post, I derped on the month, it's not may, it's Feb 1st they're increasing the price

 

I got a backpack from Cilogear. They make bags for cllimbing, so they are extremely durable and made with waterproof material.

30L Commuter II

I got mine two years ago, without the name, and more subdued colors (black, with some brownish straps.) Good for an office, or a more casual setting (you may call them and ask to change the colors - I did that with mine.) My Blade fits perfectly. I used to carry an HP Envy 17" which is much thicker than the Blade (otherwise, same length and depth.)
They are bombproof, although they don't have much padding. Is a small shop, and you have to be on top of them to make sure they are processing your order. A bit on the expensive side because of the type of fabrics they use.

 

Meh, I think I won't be needing the Pro version then. Survived just fine with my Windows 7 Home Premium on my AW m11x.

To stimulate some more discussion, I'm wondering if anyone has tried playing emulators on the the new Blade. Specifically Dolphin and PCSX2. I'm hoping to play Xenoblade and Last Story in HD once I get mine

 

Just read the entire thread, felt like I was with you guys the entire way starting with johns R1 lol.

I've been eying the blade and I think its time to pull the trigger on one soon. newegg still has an R1 for 1500, and they won't charge tax like amazon will. Also the shipping is free. What do you guys think?

 

Kinda of need help. Was playing a game of league today. Then my laptop frozed. Restarted the laptop and it won't boot up. I just get a black screen with. A disk read error occurred. Press Crtl alt del to restart. I do that but it just goes back to the se screen. Blade is about 3 weeks old any help would be great.

 

Hi all,
I got a New Blade and have a small issue , and couple of questions.

1) When I try running Windows Experience, I get an error message, saying that is not possible when I am using the battery. This is odd, since I have it connected to an outlet, and the battery icon indicates that the laptop is wired. However, the icon for the battery blinks a few times, and changes to 'battery mode', even when is not. I don't care about the windows experience, but just wonder if this is a symptom of something else. I have checked this with different power management settings, and keep getting the same error.

2) Has anyone managed to use some of the Synapse apps (gmail, browser) without connecting to the cloud? For security concerns (I willl use this laptop for work), I can't be connected to any cloud service (I need to keep online connectivity to a minimum..)

3) I plan to upgrade a few components. There is a great guide on how to change the mSata drive, and this seems to be stable. I wonder about replacing the HDD with an SSD. What has proved to be stable? I would like to add a Samsung 840 Pro, but I read that people have still problems with the software (I read the reviews in NewEgg.) Anyone has tried this? I think I read one using the 830.

Many thanks,
C.

 

Only thing I could suggest here is to run a recovery disk, I've never encounted an issue like that with any of my laptops

1) Never heard of Windows Experience, but that is an odd issue, haven't had it myself and it hasn't been reported by others in this thread, try contacting Blade Support for info...They're M-F though so make sure you try to get in today so you don't have to wait til Monday Otherwise I suppose you could just email them!

2) Synapse IIRC only uses the cloud to store profiles, so the GMail, Browser, and other apps alike do not connect to a cloud like service, they're connected using your laptops internet connection. The cloud service I believe can be disbaled, I remember correclty Razers CEO made a FB post about how you can go into offline mode for Synapse now (or it might have been a future release), the way to do it is theres a green icon at the top right where your profile name is, click the drop down, and there should be an offline option there (or again, in a future release..)

3) Yes, someone has already done that with a Samsung 840 Pro, worked out just fine. Software has already been fixed too.

 

Hemotherapy I would like your input, I think I have mostly seen you and john as I read through the thread so your input will be very valuable to me. $1500 R1 from newegg is what I am thinking about getting. what do you think?

 

That's a pretty great deal. I would have kept my r1 and been happy had razer not offered the big dscount for early adopters. it will still play every game very, very well. may just have to turn off ambient occlusion and dx11 features really in most cases. for a few games even have to dial down resolution. but still i played nearly all my games at high settings and full res with the gen 1. i see newegg has an open box one as well, for $1400, may call and ask them for pics and description, as well as warranty coverage on that one.

 

The toughest thing I think I will play on it is probably BF3 and even with the 555 I can do 1080 on med/high with just no AA and stuff right?
So R1 = med and high on most games, but for an extra 1000 (R2) you can run BF3 on ultra? I just can't really justify that extra 1000 dollars to myself lol.

I saw that one too, 100 bucks less. I just hope its not scratched up. I've always been weary about refurbished items. I'm definitely gonna call and check it out though. The warranty thing is what I am most concerned about. I have never purchased a laptop before, I built my desktop but that's about it. I have a PS Vita but that was only like 350 dollars. So once I find out from you guys the best way to insure I don't end up with a 1500 dollar brick I think I am ready.

 

Yeah this is the first time has happen to me. Only bad thing is that I don't have any if the disc with me. Or an external cd drive. I'll pick one up later

 

$1500 for an R1 is a really good price IMO - Especially since it's STILL a "2012" model, and that's almost half off from the original launch price. Is this refurbished or brand new?

As for the R1 itself, I've still got a G73 with a 460m in that can "play" any game I play. With the R1 having the 555m GPU, it's better than what I've got on that IIRC. I don't play the Crysis title, or the other titles that are more commonly used to benchmark a computer, so an R1 wouldn't bother me. A lot of people harp on it only having a dual core i7, but it's still clocked at 2.8 Base, which is still really good! Considering the games I most play do 99% of the load on the first core only, having a quad core doesn't even matter. So for me, an R1 is a great buy, but it's not for everyone.

If you're not going to care about not maxing out settings, or playing at a lower resolution on all the crazy intense games, go for it, especially if there isn't any tax. The only diff between R1 and R2 is just the CPU and GPU, everything else that makes the blade awesome is still there. Thin, Switchblade, etc...Only thing is the R1 had some issues at release but I believe all those have been fixed now, and of course the 555m doesn't have Optimus, so gaming on the battery won't provide the same experience though!

I say $1500 for the R1 is a great price, and if it'll meet your gaming needs, then go for it, just understand it's not future proofed at all (neither is the R2 really lol) so if you're cool with that, go for it!

 

The 1500 is brand new, Newegg.com - razer blade

Is BF3 considered crazy intense? I should be able to run BF3 on high (not ultra) at 1080p right? Yeah I think it will meet my needs. considering the main game I play is league of legends which could run on some ultra book. But the idea of being able to play something along the lines of BF3 while in my office at work or up in another state when I visit family intrigues me. I have never owned a laptop before, so for my first one I think the R1 is going to be incredible.

I know the cpu and gpu are not changeable but maybe in a year or so I can put in a 500 gb ssd or something and a little ram to prolong its life until I get a R3 or R4 or something lol.

 

I talked to Razer, but they were not able to figure out why the laptop turned to battery power, even while still plugged in. They suggested running a recovery disk.
After doing an upgrade to Win 8 this was fixed.
They also pointed out the option to go offline using Synapse. I missed that. Is under one's signature, when you open Synapse (from the lower right corner, in Windows 7.)

I did an upgrade to Win 8 Pro ($14 using the link from Razer.) Please, remember to uninstall Dataplex if you decide to upgrade (I am still not convinced about Win 8.) They don't indicate this in the Razer guide. If you leave it on, you won't be able to boot up from an external device (although there is a fix in the bios, suggested by the guys at Razer - change where it says 'OS Legacy' to UEFI) .
After installing Win 8, my UBS drive (Crucial Voyager GT), stopped being recognized, which means that I can't install firmware and drives (which I dutifully saved there.)
If anyone has suggestions about how to make the USB drives, they are welcome. I tried to upgrade drivers, and do a fix using Win 8 to no avail.

Need some brainstorming !
As I mentioned earlier, when I tried the upgrade to Win 8, the software would not even load, there was problems with the existing drive. The guys at Razer suggested I changed the BIOS , from OS Legacy to UEFI.
Earlier, the laptop would use the battery sometimes, even when it was plugged to a stable source. This was fixed when I did the upgrade, but other things got worse.
This time, I was able to load Win 8 and install it, but the mSata file was never recognized (when I installed Dataplex, it kind of reads it, but it never shows up as boot option, even if you take Dataplex out.)
Furthermore, the UBS stick stopped working and so did the keyboard after installed some of Razer's drives (when I tried the Razer firmware, the keyboard died,) I managed to do a new clean installation once (the UBS worked once more, and after that I was never able to use it again.) Still, the keyboard does not work, and there is no way to install the firmware. I tried to update drivers (uninstalled, installed again, did internet search, etc.) but nothing works.
When I got the box from Amazon, the box was falling apart (the Razer box was fine), with all the seams shredded apart, so now I wonder if this is a hardware issue.
Does UEFI affect which drives are being recognized? I have tried all the options from Win 8 that they have to fix devices, but nothing works. mSata is not recognized after after I uninstall Dataplex (I wanted to use it as a boot drive, so I could replace it with a larger mSata drive), the keyboard does not work, UBS 3 sticks are not being recognized (hence, I am unable to do a clean install again), and there are audio and display settings showing errors, that can't be fix with driver's updates.
Is this a candidate for an exchange? This is my second Razer, The first one would not even boot, and was exchanged at Razer's suggestion.
Thanks,
C.

 

I don't think the R2 can do BF3 @ 1080p with Ultra, maybe with AA and all that other junk off it could.

 

BF3 is considered intense yes. (IMO anyway), I'd say you could play at med with textures on high, or something, at 1080p I really wouldn't know for sure since I don't play it. LoL wouldn't be challenging for it at all. I wouldn't bother with RAM unless you're going to do a lot of audio or video work on your computer. The 500Gb SSD is a good idea though, because you can always swap that over into an R3 or R4, can't necessarily do that with RAM anyway, plus you'll never use the 8 Gigs in the machine unless you're doing all kinds of audio/visual/graphic design work on your laptop...Buying RAM is like buying a hard drive, you don't buy more than you need, and it's only ever upgraded for speed. 8 Gigs on a gaming PC is plenty. 6 Gigs is usually the sweet spot.

Using a laptop is fun, the reason I started using them is because I like the ability to unplug everything and fit it in a bag to go with me anywhere. The reason I chose the blade is because it's ultraportable, and can play anything (some games require you to tone it down ofc, but like I said, I don't play those anyway!) and it can play games while off the charger without underclocking the CPU/GPU, granted you don't get long, but there have been times a cat has unplugged me and I didn't know until I got the 10% battery warning, with any other laptop my gaming experience would have been until plugged it back in, plus at work, I can usually only play on the laptop a little, so usually I don't even have to plug it in, which means I can just pack it and my mouse and I'm gtg! Love that.

The downside to laptops, especially Razer, is they're more expensive than desktops, and this laptop is more expensive than laptops. Double whammy. Mobile CPU/GPU models aren't as powerful as desktop versions, so at first you think WOW that's awesome, desktop in a laptop, but it's not! One you get past the price hump, and the specs, the last thing is you can't upgrade them (except for the M17X's from AW IIRC), so with the first two things I started, that means you can't future proof, because any "future proofing" you do in a laptop doesn't wield nearly the same effect as in a desktop, so its kind of a waste, you spend as much money (if not more) "future proofIng" a laptop without the same yield of power you get from a desktop. Which means you're upgrading more often than you would as a desktop, so you're buying a new computer more often, you're paying more because it's a laptop, and if you stick with Razer you're buying a more expensive laptop. Ouch!

The good news is, hardware has really caught up to software over the years, so you don't need to upgrade nearly as often as you did before The R1 is a good buy for you IMO, and as long as it didn't take you forever to get the $1500 for the R1, you should be able to save up for a used R2, new R3, (maybe used R3 new R4 depending what new games are like) before the R1 stop being enough for you

 

Just glancing over your post, sorry if you've done this

I've never seen the USB drives stop working though, that's pretty wild..as far as legacy vs uefi, you've got me there, don't really know what any of that means, hopefully someone with more PC prowess can answer that one, what I will say as my .02 cents is this:

I would say reformat, do a completely new install of Windows 8, install everything, if the dataplex software/keyboard still have issues, then I would just do another exchange. Sucks that this would be your third, but I've dealt with the keyboard not working before, and installing the firmware fixed it for me, heck I've had the backlights not work, uninstalled/reinstalled everything, still wouldn't work. They just randomly staretd working. Which seems to be how t works with this thing, once you've exhausted everything you can do and it still doesn't work, time is what seems to fix it lol - But try compeltely wiping everything off it, do a fresh install, grab an external USB keyboard of course too, just incase you need it if the keyboard doesn't work, instill everything. If after that the dataplex still doesn't see the cache drive, and or the keyboard doesn't work, just ask Razer for an RMA and try to get a new one.

Atleast now you've learned to uninstall dataplex before upgrading I'd be shocked if that causes a hardware issue. Once you uninstall and reinstall everything, any damage from the software side of things shouldn't matter. Valuable lesson learned to say the least, hopefully you get yours working though, and if not, hopefully they send you back a windows 8 edition since you've had issues upgrading to 8!

 

Thank you Hemotherapy.
Yes, I actually tried what you suggested today (doing a clean install), but it has not solved the issue.
USB 2 does work, so I had to download the software again into this kind of stick, and do everything from there. Slow process ...

Thanks for the philosophical approach Yes, I did learn a few things by doing this a few times, and searching the internet for similar issues. I was able to solve some conflicts , but not the keyboard issue (an external one works.)
When I got the laptop through Amazon, the external box was falling apart, so the laptop may have been shaken a bit ...
I am exchanging this, and getting a replacement. I am not giving up yet.
Cheers.

 

Keyboard not working is weird, I had that once but reinstalling firmware fixed me right up. Sorry you've had such bad luck Third time is suppose to be a charm at least!

 

I've definitely decided to go ahead and get an R1 I just don't know what to do in terms of insurance or warranty. Do I buy the 300 dollar extended warranty from Razers website?

 

Yeah the only way to get the extended warranty is off razers website afaik. Is the one on newegg not new? If it's new you still get your 1 year warranty...

 

Hey guys, i bought the R2 and have been gaming on it for two weeks now.
Everything was smooth, up and running until i encountered this problem.
View attachment 91042

This happens every time i right click the desktop. When i restarted the Blade, the date and time will automatically set to January 1. I have to manually set the date every time i turn it on.
Other than that, the tactile keys wont launch by itself on start up, i have to manually launch synapse and wait for a couple of secs. Because of this, i immediately reset my Blade to its factory settings and updated all of its drivers and graphic card but the problem still consists. Is it Windows 8 or am i just unlucky? :/

 

Something terrible happened today on the way home from work...
The Stealth Messenger satchel , bought about 3 weeks ago, its sling snapped with the blade inside... blade got a heavy dent from the fall...
just shot razer with an angry email regarding about that bag and gonna try to RMA it..

going to try to get them to RMA the blade too since the damage was caused by their own product...

is it possible? i mean to RMA the blade which i bought on 1st december??

 

Attachment isn't working for me. Don't bother resetting back to original settings, uninstall synapse and reinstall, that should fix any issues you have with the tactile keys. As for the date/time, go into your BIOS and set it there, then save and exit, that should fix that. If not, something is up with the BIOS not saving your settings.

 

IIRC they have a 1 year accidental damage thing with your warranty, mose gaming laptops from other companies have them I don't think Razer would be the odd man out on this one, there's little info on razers website about it but I positive I read somewhere on there that they do have accidental damage covered for the first year as well.

So with that said, you should be covered. As far as it being their own bag that caused it, I don't know. If it was anyone elses bag, that's on you, with it being theres...eh...Maybe. Although I'm positive they should still cover it just because of the 1 yr warranty, if that wasn't the case, they might offer you some kind of amnesty if you got angry enough - I'm sure they'll RMA the bag, but RMA'ing the equip within the bag, that sound iffy to me!

True story though, walking in to work today I thought to myself, man, it would suck balls if the strap to my stealth bag snapped and my laptop hit the pavement!! Grabbed a tight hold on my bag the rest of the way to my desk lol...Guess I'll give the bag a once over to make sure everything looks okay...You got me scared now!

If you don't mind me asking what all did you have in the bag? Was it pretty weighed down or just your laptop and a mouse?

 

blade, mouse , power adapter , about 500g weight of documents and a half-full 600ml water bottle....
i don't think its the weight that caused the sling to snapped...
see photo, more like the sling wasn't even properly secured to the bag....

maybe its just me with a defective bag.... but...i would advice against using that bag for carrying blade anymore....

Actual damage to the blade

 

Does this attachment works? i tried to set the date/time in the BIOS but it seems like i cant edit it. It keeps on reverting back to the same date. I've googled the problem and every results i received is that i have to change the CMOS battery on the motherboard. Err, will this action void the warranty agreement?

 

I don't know if this is just a problem that I'm having, but. After having the Blade for about a month Dust is starting to collect under the keys o the SBUI. Is there anyway this can be fixed?

 

Yeah, that was the next thing I was going to say...if the BIOS isn't keeping the settings, something is up with the battery. I hoenstly don't know a whole lot about laptop internals, but I'm assuming since it has a battery there is no CMOS battery? I could be wrong on this but all the photos of the internals I've seen of the blade I haven't noticed one, but then again I haven't been looking for it either, so meh. Just think it would be odd for a laptop to have a watch battery when it's got a giant lithium battery in it already

Anyway, if there is a CMOS battery, you can't change it. Just cracking open the blade voids your warranty.

As far as the error, yes I can see it now, did you get your blade with windows 8 on it, or did you upgrade to it?

 

Canned air There's little slits in the front, just blow some air in them and it'll clear up. Sometimes w/e is in there just rattles around and moves but keep at it and it'll eventually fly out

 

Ah i see, i've just emailed razer support regarding my problems. Hopefully they can reply me as soon as possible :/
Yep, i received the blade with Windows 8 on it. Im wondering if this is a windows 8 problem or a hardware problem?

 

If you emailed them today you should get a reply today, they're pretty good about same day turn around. Don't forget you can also call too, they do have a support line specifically for blade owners

Probably a software issue, right clicking the desktop and getting a C++ error shouldn't be caused by hardware...That's strange though, I've had windows 8 for awhile. I've seen that error maybe once or twice, I'm use to explorer crashing, and since I did the taboo thing of upgrading instead of a fresh install I I figured I'll live with it happening once in a blue moon and it'll just be fixed when I replaced my SSD cache with a bigger SSD....but EVERYTIME you right click? That's odd. If you want, maybe try doing the windows 8 refresh, the one that restores Windows to a "fresh" install state but keeps your files. See if that fixes it...

 

Awesome, thanks for the quick reply. That helps a lot, now to find time to get some canned air...

 

I did the Windows 8 refresh but sadly the date/time is still not working for me. Right now i'm just eagerly waiting for razer support to reply my e-mail. Should i downgrade to Windows 7 or just wait for a fix?
As for now, the Blade can still game properly but the date/time always adjust the year by itself causing the game to crash. This date/time thing is really driving me crazy
The good news is that the Switchblade UI works now after re-installing Synapse a couple of times. Thanks for the awesome tips and replies, kind sir

 

Something strange is happening. Synapse and Razer OSD have been crashing recently, I have also noticed that the back lighting, has stopped working on some profiles, even the default one. Also the Customizable keys (which I have changed) have also stopped working on ALL profiles. If someone could help I would be grateful.

 

Hey folks,

I've been browsing the interweb for a few weeks now looking at laptops, and there is something about the Razer that keeps dragging me back to it. Its probably the size, weight and style. However the one caveat is the price. I am more than happy to shell out for an R2, but only if I can envisage using it for a good 2, maybe 3 years. Now I know its struggled a bit on ultra settings on a couple games (witcher 2, crysis 2, farcry3 and bf3) but I dont really think the distinction between ultra and high is too noticeable, right?

What I would like to ask you lucky few owners, is how "future-proof" do you think your R2 is. That is to say, how long do you think it will be before you NEED to replace the rig. I know most of us would switch as soon as the R3/R4 comes out, but if thats not an option, can you see the R2 maintaining good frame rates at high to med settings for 24-36 months?

Cheers

TJ

 

When you look further up you will find that i have similar problems. Razer emailed me that they are currently working on a patch.

Sent from my GT-I9100T using Tapatalk 2

 

I had issues with mine losing my profile yesterday, and business as usual, uninstall and reinstall until it works =/

Interesting. Hopefully it'll make the whole platform much more stable...

 

Kinda funny how it just stings you and you can't get it out of your head huh? There's just something sexy about being able to play your games on something so thin and light weight.

Yes it struggles with Ultra settings on a few of the top end games. Witcher 2...Yikes. It super sturggles on that, more than any other game lol, some people said they even had to go with a smaller resolution just to play it even with turning down the settings. I've only seen gameplay of witcher 2, but from what I've seen I'd say thats more in the way the game was coded and or our drivers than just the Blade under powered IMO. The rest you just dial down a bit and you're good to go.

If thats your definition of future proof, as in, how long the laptop will last bare minimum until it can't play a game at med-high settings, then yes, I can see this thing making it 24-36 months. Most people consider future proofing as how long it will last at playing at ultra settings...Which on some games, it could still make it 24-36 months because some great games just aren't graphic intense at all. Like HoN, LoL, WoW, etc...

The Blade isn't future proofed in the traditional sense, but someone that doesn't care for that, then yeah, it's future proofed. And yes you're right, the difference between high and ultra settings are fairly small increases. SC2, Diablo 3, WoW, High to Ultra I can't really see a huge difference. In WoW the only difference any high to ultra setting makes (in my framerate) is Shadows, and the only difference is it gives awesome shadows around you, not the entire scene. And I've only ever noticed that difference in 1 spot in the game too lol

 

How future proof is anything these days? I mean look how Apple revamped the Ipad 3 to 4 with the lightning port in less than a year... With an Ipad 5 likely 1st or 2nd quarter... But I think concerning PC gaming the Blade R2 (and even R1 to a point) is safe for another two years. Not saying we can expect to play GTA V or Crysis 3 at 1080p maxed out settings. But I expect to be able to find a good middle ground, really sort of appreciate the NVDIA Experience program which helps me find optimal graphics tweaks. If you are interested in the R2 I might suggest either buy on in the next 3 months or so if you already have the money available or else wait until maybe Q4 for a possible Blade R3.

As for me, I'm sweating the Razer Edge vs. the Microsoft Surface Pro. .8" plastic tablet but plays great games vs. .5" metal tablet that looks amazing. Any advice?

 

by the way, crysis 3 pc beta is out, download from origin. Will try it out on my Blade tonight or tomorrow (big download). Some guy on youtube says he ran the alpha of crysis 3 with a 660m notebook at medium settings and 720p resolution and got 30-40fps playing it.

 

I'd go with the edge. Full fledged pc in a tablet at the same price = sold. Plus its razer!

Sent from my MB886 using Tapatalk 2

 

Skyrim preset is out for Synapse now....

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

 

If you could indulge a non-(hopefully soon to be) Razer owner. is this for the Switchboard UI too? If so, what does it bring to the table?

TJ

 

Yes it will be on the keyboard switchblade too.

 

I just tried to play Crysis 3 on my Desktop and when I hit play I was told that I need a graphics card capable of DX11, the program then closed. This is my definition of future proof, when it comes down to wether you can even launch the game or not lol. Also im sad face because I really wanted to try it.

For those curious, my Desktop parts consist of these items.

--Antec Nine Hundred/ASUS P6T Deluxe/SAPPHIRE 100270SR Radeon HD 4850 X2/ OCZ ModXStream Pro 700W Modular/CORSAIR XMS3 6GB/Western Digital Caviar 1TB/i7 920

Now its got me rethinking the R1. I couldn't justify the extra 1000 dollars for the R2 if its a matter of playing on medium or high vs ultra. but when the 1000 dollars starts to determine wether I can launch a game or not, that will be a problem.

ps I know the R1 can play crysis 3 im just talking about future games.

 

I bit the hook: I finally bought the new Blade yesterday. Not too sure about Windows 8 though. But I cannot wait to test the machine. My only desire to be able to play smoothly at 720p resolution.

 

Congrats, be sure to come back and let me know how it goes. Where did you buy it from and did you get an extended warranty or insurance?

I may have to bite the hook soon too.

 

Crysis 3 1080p at medium ssettings runs at 35fps on the Blade R2. Kicking textures to highest dipped framerates to 25-30 fps.

 

not bad, wow im seriously rethinking the R1 now...