Clevo P150HM Upgrade Guide (Please, keep thread clean)

Hello, I had someone ask me in PM to explain how I put my 2-nd HDD, so thats the reason I'm making this guide. This is for new Clevo P150HM users, who also want to know the process of upgrading RAM and their HDDs.
Don't forget to read the manual of your notebook that comes supplied with it.

Here are some important notes, read please:
*DISCLAIMER* The pictures provided are NOT mine! I may upload my own when I find time to take photos of my own machine. I apologise if that offends some owner of the pics here, I got them from Google.

1) Provide a clean, calm and brightly lit workspace to work on your laptop. Always place it on soft surfaces to avoid scratches. Place it firmly on something soft and stable, away from table edges.
2) Acquire a quality screwdriver of proper size! Don't use chinese junk-tools, they can damage the screws of the laptop and you may not be able to remove them if the head of the screw gets damaged.
3) Don't use latex gloves, they cause static electricity that damages the components. (10x to Patrck_744 for reminding me). Don't touch your hair while working to avoid charging your hands with static.
4) Wash your hands thorougly to lessen the fingerprints that may occur while handling the components. Avoid touching the gold-plated slits on the RAM and other places. Dont touch the laptop speakers and the subwoofer!!!
5) Always remove the battery, unplug the machine and wait a little bit if you just used it. Let the laptop cool down a bit.
6) While you have your laptop open, check for dust in the cooling fans. You may use a vacuum cleaner to clean them, but careful - be sure to set it on low sucktion levels and block the fans so they cant move and spin! If you dont block them, the fans will start spinning from the air current of the vacuum cleaner and they will generate electicity that can damage your hardware!!


[1.] Swapping Optical Bay for a 2-nd Hard Disk bay


First things first - you need to buy the official ODD Caddy for P150HM, ask your reseller about prices and availability. Here is what it looks like:


So, now you have your ODD Bay! Well, it should be supplied with 4 screws, proceed to put your desired 2.5" Hard Disk in the bay, screw it with at least 2 screws so it won't move and proceed to removing your Optical Disk Drive from your machine.

#IMPORTANT! Check if you have a warranty sticker on your primary HDD bay! If you do, then be careful not to damage the sticker! Using proper technique in removing it can help keep it unspoiled so you may retain your warranty. However, do this at your own risk!!!

I did not have a warranty sticker on my HDD bay. Continue to unscrew these 2 screws on the picture and open the plastic cover:


After opening, you should see your primary HDD. You need to unscrew 1 screw at the right side (provided on the picture below) and slide your Optical Disk Drive to the right using a proper tool. Dont rush, be careful. Slide it only 5mm, that should be enough to remove it by hand on the right side.


Now that you removed your Optical Disk Drive, carefully put in your HDD Caddy, aiming it to the SATA connector at the end of the bay. You may need to push it somewhat harder until the bay locates its screw mount right where the hole for the screw is. When done, screw it together just as your Optical was before. Place back your HDD plate and screw it with the 2 screws as it was.

Thats it, now do what you want with it (format it, install OS on it, whatever.) Check in the BIOS if the drive is being recognized as it should.

##IMPORTANT! As Hutsady@XoticPC told me a week ago, the SATA port on the ODD is a SATA-2. So if you bought an SSD that supports SATA-3, then put in in the place of your primary HDD for maximum performance, then move your primary HDD to the ODD bay. If you have windows on your primary HDD, dont worry - it boots up perfectly if you move it on the ODD bay




[2.] Upgrading RAM, using the 2 slots under the keyboard


Okay, so you already put 2 SO-DIMM's in your primary back-plate slots and you still want more RAM? Wondering where the 2 other slots are located? Thats right - under the keyboard. They are a little bit more tricky to get to, but all there is to it is a screwdriver and 15 minutes of your time. By the way, there is also a video from XOTIC-PC on how to do this in YouTube.

*NOTE! You will have to open the BIG backplate for the CPU and GPU and that can void your warranty! I managed to remove my warranty sticker just a little so I could access the screw beneath it and then stick it back on un-damaged. It is very possible, but be careful! Do it at your own risk!!!

So, remove the battery first, unplug everything and unscrew the backplate. Be gentle, take your time, dont rush. When you are done removing it, then you should find something like this:


Prepare something soft like neoprene on a flat surface and place your laptop on its left side (sideways) with the lid open on 90 degrees (as its more stable that way). Now it should look like a book placed open on your workspace. Take a look at this picture:


Hold the machine with one hand on top (where the CD drive is) and take a flashlight to see inside the small hole that is depicted on the picture. Take a good look and when you are confident, slide a flat screwdriver in the hole, pushing the speaker grill near the keyboard until it pops open. BE CAREFUL!!!

Carefully remove the speaker grill, watch out for the power button. You should then see this:


There are 4 screws holding the keyboard where the Speaker Grill was located, near the laptop speakers. Remove them carefully. Then take out the keyboard and you should see this:


*IMPORTANT! Watch the way the slots are situated as you put your RAM DIMM's in. Slide the RAM under 45 degrees in, then push it down until the metal holders grab on it with a *click*. Double check if you did it correctly! The ram should be 100% securely placed, or you may damage the whole machine!

**IMPORTANT! DO NOT touch the laptop speakers! You may accidentaly push-in the cone and you dont want that. As a result, warranty may be void, sound may become fuzzy and you may have a headache trying to pop them back up. (I've had enough experience with soft-dome speakers in the past with people who push them in out of curiosity).


Re-assemble everything again. Put the battery back in. Turn on, go to the BIOS, check if it recognizes the RAM. Done!



###ABOUT THE GUIDE### You should have a manual for your Clevo P150HM supplied in the package when you purchased it. READ IT. This guide does not substitude the official manual, it just adds a bit more detail to the process of upgrading. I posted it so people may ask questions directly in the thread, get answers quickly from the community and take precautions before opening the machine up in order to avoid damage, void warranty and unwanted scratches on it. Please read carefully before opening your laptop! And feel free to ask questions before starting with the upgrade process!

 

I hope you don't mind of me giving a guide to open speaker cover.

I have discover the easy way to open the speaker cover without opening the back cover and push it through the small hole.

Use the toothpick and push the tip in the area (white circle), then push the cover upwards till it snaps.

 

There is this nice .pdf file where everything is described perfectly.. Helped me a lot to upgrade RAM & HDD

 

Are you referring to the Service Manual? NBR user Theriko has done a good job keeping them available for reference

P15xHM_ESM.zip

 

Yes I think that the one.. I just have the one for my P170HM and it's great

 

I may be nuts but since I've purchased my Lotus P150HM, I've upgraded the hard drive to an Intel 510 250gb SSD, added 16gb Kingston HyperX DDR3-1866 sdram, replaced the Intel basic wifi card with a Bigfoot Killer Networks-N 1103 wifi card and replaced the cpu with an Intel core-i7 2860 cpu. Just love upgrading the machine, it's great to work on.

Only peave I have is that I wanted to re-paste the gpu but one of the screws is stripped so I've held off trying to remove it and do anything further.

 

Sounds like a great machine you have there! Yes these are easy to upgrade and work on.

This issue of screws getting stripped can happen. Contact your reseller for some new screws for it. We do so for free for an example. You may need to carefully " grab" the bad screws out.


http://www.aldn.com/Files/SizeChart.pdf

_

 

@B0b1man

thank you for this I shall book mark it for when I finally replace the damaged RAM in my unwarranted Kobalt ( ) Clevo.........

 

No problem, Im glad some of you can make use of this thread.

I think its a good idea to make a link thread, that links to the following ones:
-linking to the clevo driver thread
-linking to the bios thread
-linking to "why buy clevo" thread
-linking to various know-how threads
-linking to images of the clevo models inside and out
-a list of known issues + the solutions to them
-a list of frequently asked questions (F.A.Q)

Such a thread would require work from mods and contributors, a good visual formatting would be nice and it may be sticky-worthy. Refering people to this thread would be beneficial. What do you guys think?

 

Awesome, simple yet good overall!

For some reason the pictures have gone missing... they were here a while ago, I would advice another supplier of picture IMG's someone like Dropbox or Droplr

Keep up the good work mate

 

Indeed big thank you! Re-uploading the pictures would be fantastic!

Also, if you got anything on how to change your wifi card that would be awesome (as I am switching back from Killer to Intel)

 

Wow, my old thread from last year

Upgrading the WiFi is easy. Just remove the keyboard carefully and you will find the WiFi under it.
Here is a nice video, showing how to remove it: Monster Clevo P150 HM removable keyboard - YouTube

Take your time, dont touch the connectors with sweaty hands, avoid using rubber gloves and make sure you have a good screwdriver to avoid damaging the screws.

 

ahh so thats where the cmos is

 

BIG Thanks!!! Getting on it asap

 

Hi guys,
I own a p150hmx from Kobalt UK (not in bussiness anymore), i was wondering if i can upgrade this laptop vidocard to the latest nvidia 6 series ( i was thinking of the gtx 675mx), will this cards fit my machine and also will be worth it? Currently have the the gtx485M but it runs very hot when gaming (85º - 90º with laptop cooler and artic silver 5 repaste).
Thanks

 

You can upgrade it, search around for threads about P150HM with gtx680m.