Clevo P150HM/Sager NP8150 BIOS issue with SSD drives

Hey Clevo folks!

I recently flashed my P150HM laptop from EC 1.00.02 / BIOS 1.01.04 to EC 1.00.04 / BIOS 1.01.06. Flashing went down without a hitch, used a usb stick with DOS and the .bat files kindly provided in this thread: Clevo Bios Thread

The first restart of my system was no problem, but the next time i cold started it would strangely try to boot from the network controller! so, i switched into the BIOS and realized that my primary hard drive (Corsair F90 SSD with a secondary Seagate 500GB HDD in the ODD bay) on SATA port 0 wasnt recognized! So, what i checked was the following:

Saving any changes and restarting directly from the BIOS, it would then recognize my SSD and boot normally.

Switching off the laptop and cold starting it again through the power button would again result in the SSD not being recognized.

Took out both hard drives, switched on the laptop and let it try to boot. switched it off again, re-installed the hard drives and checked again. Same issue as before.

Finally, i downgraded the BIOS to version 1.01.04 and luckily, everything seems to be fine again. The laptop now boots correctly every time i switch it on. I left the current EC version 1.00.04 since it didnt seem to be the root of the problem.

Thus, in the end, not really a critical problem but annoying as hell since id have to switch into the BIOS every time i wanna boot in order to be able to load up windows (using the newest BIOS 1.01.06)!

Now, what i would like to know is, if any of you other guys with SSD drives in their P150HM laptops had a similar issue with the new BIOS version? If so, would it be restricted to Corsair Force drives / Sandforce drives or would it be affecting all SSDs?

If this isn´t a one-time thing then id defintely like to contact Clevo to inform them about their faulty update, otherwise this issue would continue to come up in future BIOS revisions!

Thanks in advance for ur input guys!

Cheers

 

I just set up my shiny new P170HM and have pretty much the same issue. Installed Corsair Force 120, on a cold boot, no ssd in bios. Reboot and it sees it.

So I turn on the laptop (or try to resume from hibernation) and it tried to boot off the secondary drive ;(

-David

 

You both have the same problem as me, with me having the Corsair F60.

Refer to this thread I made about it:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sol...torage/566476-spoke-too-soon-corsair-f60.html

 

So it sounds like the issue is at least restricted to Sandforce based drives, but it may just be a coincidence with your BIOS update that it first occurred.

I was not aware of this at all for Sandforce drives and I'm glad I didn't yet bite on a new Vertex 3 for my desktop.

 

thanks for the heads-up! ive already noticed that u changed ur F60 config in ur sig, now i know why ^^

"Mathis512: I was not aware of this at all for Sandforce drives and I'm glad I didn't yet bite on a new Vertex 3 for my desktop."

well afaik its only been affecting SF1200 drives with 32nm flash and firmware version 2.0 or older so far. It seems like this recurring problem is based on the SATA connector not taking enough time in order for the primary hard drive to be detected, thus the port determines that theres no drive present even before the SF SSD had a chance to give off a life signal Judging from my toying around with the different BIOS revisions on m P150HM, I presume that the older BIOS 1.01.04 probably sets a longer time frame for the SATA ports to detect hard drives. Ill stick to this setup for the time being and see if i can pull the drigger on one of the newer SF2200 based SSD drives like the Vertex 3 or the Crucial m4

 

It's not Sandforce drives, it's just Corsair drives that have a problem with the Clevos (according to my reseller). I'm getting a Crucial C300 as a replacement which had been tested by the resellers.

I reflashed mine to 1.01.04, and still does not detect the drive. My netbook doesn't even detect it either. So I ruled out that the drive is inoperable...unfortunately.

 

damn that sucks....at least ull get a very nice replacement indeed, with the C300

 

Actually I RMA'ed my drive, so i'll be getting a new F60. I ordered the C300 as a primary drive, and putting the RMA F60 to my netbook heh. My data would be gone though

 

I just want to add that while the C300 and C400 works with the P150HM...there is known issue with the intel storage driver.
Hopefully there is a solution:
Solution: C300 Disk Freeze-ups in Windows 7 solved... - Crucial Community
I got to change this in the register in order to avoid a 1 minute freeze each time after reboot in windows 7. The freeze never happened again when playing, working and so on.
Now I have no problem and I have the "old chipset". Hope it helps.

 

I'm assuming you have the latest Crucial firmware?

 

I didn't find any for C400, so I suppose this is the latest one.

 

Thanks for the heads up! Getting my C300 next week

 

I just got my laptop yesterday and this also doesn't work with OCZ Agility 2. It would sometime see the SSD in the bios. I notice my Bios firmware is 1.0.1.07LSI. Must be a new one they are shipping with. I'm going to try to downgrade to 1.0.1.04 and see if that works normally.

 

oh uve gotta be kidding me... i slowly get the feeling that the P150HM is a bit y when it comes to SSD drives! at least theres a fix for that already... curious to know how the new SF 2200 drives are gonna perform on it.

keep us posted!

 

Okay i just downgraded to 1.0.1.04 from 1.0.1.07 boots from my SSD fine now. Hopefully this gets fix in the newer bios. I'm going to email my reseller and clevo about this issue.

 

1.01.04 seems the way to go, found it working fine for me as well (as compared to 1.01.06)

 

Downgrading the bios did help but still once in a while I still can not boot properly. So its still not stable yet. But its more stable then 1.0.1.06. I also notice a green pixel that is stuck on my LCD!
Trying to run software to get it unstuck. I notice my top case has some stains in the plastic.

I was so excited about this laptop I order it in Feb 7. I sold my g73jh to buy this. Thinking it would Arrive before Mar 14. Since I start my software devolpment class then. Instead I am stuck with laptop does not fuction well. Boots when it wants too. Stuck pixel. Blemish on the top case. I even called Xoticpc.com for tech support but they said I was not in their system. So He told me to call back on monday. Whats worst is i'm so behind my software class. I think I have to end up re-taking and paying extra.

Im going to switch going back to standard hard drive for school.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Jaybee83 let me know how stable it runs and good luck.

 

sucks to be you my friend! i can totally understand ur anger, id react just the same way.

i downgraded several days back and it didnt have any issues since. 1.01.04 was also the stock BIOS it came with and the problems only started when i flashed to the new 1.01.06 revision. the new EC works fine tho, so i left it on.

cheers

 

Same issue with Vertex 2. After every power on I have to do a reset for SSD to be recognized. Happens will factory and updated bios.

 

Thisisalamp,

That link for the C300 Disk Freeze is also interesting. Thanks for posting.

FWIW, I've had a C300 (flashed to 0006 upon arrival). Installed the Intel RST drivers in December. I've now seen a couple of posts regarding the lockup (but perhaps it is not hitting me as the Clevo x7200 runs chipset x58)

In any case, within my registry, the only "enabled" item is LPMDSTATE. All the other parameters on all ports are zeroed out.

Perhaps the different chipsets have different default values? In any case, the C300 has been a wonderful drive on the x7200.

 

Hi,

I have the same issue with my vertex 2. However my bios was already updated because the laptop have the gtx560m. So, to be able to boot in AHCI mode I have to restart the laptop each time.

Also, the SSD works very well in IDE mode.

I have already reported this issue to Sager support. Nevertheless they did not give me a new bios.

 

I had the same issue with 3!!! ocz agility3 models. They have all panic locked after some restarts. So, p150hm is totally incompatible with sandforce controllers, on the other hand, my kingston ssd works perfectly.

 

Count me as "affected" on this issue too with a 60GB OCZ Vertex 2 on the primary controller. I need to Ctrl-Alt-Del during boot to get BIOS to detect my SSD plus the write speeds are 65MB/sec (I was getting 180MB/sec writes on my old Asus G72). I updated the OCZ Vertex2 firmware from 1.25 to 1.33 and issue still occurs.

Sager NP8150 BIOS version: 1.01.011bLS1; KBC/EC: 1.00.11SA2
OCZ Vertex 2 firmware: 1.25 and 1.33

 

My Kobalt G150 (P150HM) has always done this. About 1 in 3 cold boots fail to detect the OCZ Vertex 2E SSD.

I haven't played with BIOS updates, mind.