First Custom Laptop

Help! I recently bought a np8170, my first custom laptop. Since this is my first quality device, I'd like to know what I should do when I first get my laptop. I'm not familiar at all with any of the firmware or hardware for the laptop or the ssd that I will be installing.

Specs:
560m
2630qm
8gb ram
500gb 7200rpm
crucial m4 120gb (not installed)
Windows 7

What should I do when I first receive my laptop?
In what order should I do them?
How would I go about installing my ssd?

Thanks in advance!

 

Installing the SSD means you'll need to flip the machine over, and open up the hard drive bays. Pull out the HDD, put in the SSD, and move the HDD over to the secondary bay. Boot off the Windows 7 disk and follow the prompts to install it.

Once it's installed, insert the driver disk and install all the drivers except for the video driver (it's better to get that from the Nvidia site and use the modded .inf from this thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/564375-atmosks-nvidia-clevo-support-modded-infs.html )

Then go to start > right click my computer, manage > disk management > erase/create a partition on the 500GB drive that was empty.

That's really all there is to it, the included disks should make it pretty simple. Install some games and go to town otherwise

 

Is that all I do? What about formatting the ssd? or downloading the firmware for it?
Do I download any other drivers that doesn't come on the driver disk I'll receive?

Sorry for the noob questions.

 

Also, do I do anything to my bios?

 

Formatting - nope, Windows takes care of that when you install it. Just make sure you pick the SSD to install to (it's pretty obvious, the install is nearly foolproof).

Firmware- nope, not unless you have issues with the SSD and need to.

Drivers - nope, you don't *have* to, other than the Nvidia drivers (which make a big difference). Other drivers may have updates, but they won't make a big performance/stability difference.

Nope. Just hit the F7 key at boot to boot to the windows 7 disk (it should default to that disk anyway though if no operating system is installed). You can check around in the bios, but there isn't a whole lot to change anyway other than boot order.

Like I said, it's really straightforward. I'd just play around with it and get familiar though

 

Thanks for your help!

 

It just works like reg HDD
Install drive run windows and done do windows update for drivers

 

What kind of screwdriver do I use to open up my laptop? I'm afraid I don't have any tools at the moment and wouldn't want to bike to ace hardware to get the wrong thing.

 

you need one like this

 

Just a standard sized Phillips head screwdriver. (I think it's either a number 1 or 2, but I don't have one nearby to check the number )

 

When I press Fn + 1 to turn the fan on full power, every 6 seconds or so it makes a noise like its going to stop for a split second and then continues. Is there anything to be concerned about?

 

When I went into disk management, i couldnt find an option to erase the 500gb hdd. The hdd already has Windows 7 on it. My laptop seems to boot from the hdd and when i try to change the boot order in the bios, and then try to restart, it says:

"BOOTMGR is missing"

How do i fix this?

 

No, this is normal and expected. Don't worry about it

You also installed Windows to the SSD, correct? Do you get an option to boot multiple copies of Windows on boot? If you do, right click my computer, properties > advanced system settings > startup settings > change the default OS dropdown and uncheck the first box (or set to 0).

You should be able to right click > format > create new partition in disk manager on your old 500GB. Just make sure that you do have your SSD installed correctly. (If when you reboot, it still gives you that "failed to start" message after erasing the 500GB drive, boot into your Windows CD and run the system startup repair utility and it will be fixed)

Alternatively, follow this if you have problems getting the right version booting:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/20864-mbr-restore-windows-7-master-boot-record.html

 

I've booted Windows 7 from the ssd! Thanks! However, how would I check that I've installed all the drivers correctly? Also, my screen resolution is on 800x600 currently and when i try to change the resolution in the control panel, it only goes up to 1280x800 and 1280x1024, is that normal?

 

When I try to insert the drivers disk, it wont open?

 

Never mind! I installed everything all the drivers and it fixed everything. However, when I try to update the video driver from the nvidia site, it says that it cannot find hardware to update. How do I fix this?

 

You'll need a modded INF to get the most current Nvidia drivers to work. See this thread for instructions:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/564375-atmosks-nvidia-clevo-support-modded-infs.html

That should fix your resolution problem as well.

If you don't want to bother with that, just install the display drivers from your driver CD instead (they'll still work fine,they just won't be the newest ones)

 

I'll look into that thanks!
Should I download anything to benchmark my gpu and cpu to see if they are up to grade? And how would I test the speed of my crucial m4?
EDIT: How can I monitor how much load my gpu is under?
EDIT: Windows started freezing up after I downloaded and installed some drivers. did I install a driver incorrectly?

 

You can test your machine with HWinfo/3DMark/Furmark/Prime 95 to test out pretty much everything. HDTach or HDTune are good apps for testing your drive speed.

Are you bluescreening? Try running whocrashed (google for it if you need it) to submit a crash dump.

If you're just freezing up solid, try out this as it might be related to your SSD:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/555274-random-freezes-8130-8150-a-53.html

 

I was freezing up solid but it seems the problem fixed itself after I did a system recovery and removed the Intel Rapid Storage Manager Driver. Do I need that driver for anything?
EDIT: When I'm gaming and I unplug the AC, my temps in CPUID hardware monitor look as if the game isn't running (~40C) at all and my game fps suffers. Whats happening?