ONLINE PETITION for BIOS updates on Clevo HM model series.

Through the mist, through the woods,
through the darkness and the shadows.
It's a nightmare but it one exciting ride.
Say a prayer, then we're there,
at the drawbridge of a castle,
and there's something truly terrible inside.

It's a beast, he's got fangs razor sharp ones.
Massive paws, killer claws for the feed.
Hear him roar, see him foam,
but we're not coming home,
'till he's dead, good and dead. Kill the beast.

 

Maybe that's the promising ideal solution to problems, where you're from. But from what I know, a peaceful online petition doesn't hurt and often works better to raise awareness!

 

Go look at an Alienware M18x Teardown @ YouTube and you'll see how different it is from a Clevo, if you want to upgrade the system.

I've seen people on the MSI forums modding the heatsink to fit a 7970M.

 

I just hope 18 months down the line I can sell the 7970m I'm getting in June and throw a 8970m in the p150em I'm getting. I would like this because then It will be powerful enough to likely Max out new unreal engine 4 games that should start releasing around that time . I've seen the preliminary screen shots and even this early on the engine looks like a definite game changer . And they are saying it will probably require at least a gtx 670and the 8970m in 18 months might be about that powerful considering the 7970m is as powerful as the gtx 570 . This is my main concern. I'm sure an OC 7970m could runit at medium but def. Not ultra and high res. By then the norm might be 1440p .....

 

As much as I want everything to work out for the Clevo HM users.

It's quite the thing that Sager has commented here.. nothing will change, something tells me that it just won't. There's a whole lot of stuff besides a simple BIOS update as it's stated.

Better off praying that the 680M from nVIDIA will work, as continuing this thread will result in nothing more than a waste of space and words. Reading all of this has given me some kind of deeper perspective into the world of laptop manufacturers..


... but to satisfy all you first have to satisfy some; mission impossible.

 

my god I had no idea it was that cumbersome... Honestly it seems like it was intentionally designed to be complicated. I mean surely it is easier to build a laptop that doesn't have plastic and screws covering literally every piece of hardware inside it?

Reminds me of taking apart my old XPS M170. I had to absolutely tear down the whole system just to get the 7800gtx go out so I could bake it and fix it. There had to be a simpler design that what they used and it seems are still using!

 

Dell used this way of building things since early in the business. I rememeber what ive gone thru with the XPS m1730.
Each time i had to upgrade or repaste something it was a nightmare because i was forced to disassembly the whole laptop only to get to the gpus, with time ive learned how to do it that practically it would took 5 mins to disassemble and reassemble the whole shell.
But there are alot of things to remove and too much screws around.

 

that only goes for the m18x but not the m17x, that one is actually comparable to a clevo when it comes to component accessibility

Sent from my GT-I9001 using Tapatalk 2

 

If I read Sager's statement correctly, I think there are very good chances that future Nvidia cards will work well with the HM series. So all is not lost.

 

Lets hope so hehe

 

I sure hope so. I want to upgrade my 485m eventually ;x

 

+1 Very Reasonable.

 

Big thanks to Kingpinzero for getting the ball rolling and all the NBR community.

BIG REP to everyone on board! I trust Clevo won't let us down. Have faith people.

 

I guess people missed this post in April 2011. It would explain the need for 2 separate SKU's.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/568309-official-sager-news-thread-updated-03-august-11-a.html#post7345589

 

From my limited understanding it seems that my AMD based P170HM may only take AMD GPUs?
So if the HD 7970m wont work, a GTX 680m might also not work in my notebook.

 

^Yes.

Mr. Mysterious

 

right but that only mentions the p170hm, what about the p150hm? for the p170hm it made sense cuz it was offered with a 3d screen and that one can only be fired by an nvidia gpu. there never was a 3d option for the p150hm! so why make separate skus there as well?

Sent from my GT-I9001 using Tapatalk 2

 

The "one for AMD/one for Nvidia" mobo issue only applies to The P170HM:

1. The launch SKU with 460M and 485M options
2. The initial 6970M SKU

They're freely admitting that Clevo screwed something up, with the motherboard of #1, which made it incompatible with AMD cards. Since they mentioned the display, I strongly suspect that it has to do with the inclusion of a part which relates to 3D, which they did not foresee having problems with AMD's designs. So #2 was more of a "hotfix", to deal with the issue while getting the 6900M launch out of the door.

But they then solved it with a third internal design:

3. The later models (I don't know at what date this started shipping) rectified this problem, and the motherboard can freely accept the interchange of Nvidia and AMD GPUs.

This is my understanding of the situation, from the beginning, and should help to elaborate on what is being spoken of here, when talking about having to test several different internal designs for compatibility. The manpower needed to test multiple machines, from each of these designs, PLUS the P150HM is not insignificant and should not be scoffed at as if it's something they could've done in a single day, while also tested and shipping the huge influx of EM orders.

Did you not read correctly? There were no "separate SKUs" with the P150HM.

REPEAT: This only applied to the P170HM/NP8170.

 

This thread is a very good start to let Clevo know what their customers want and what they will not accept in the future. Signed the petition as one of the first. Not just because of the PxxxHM series, but for future products of them as well.
People CAN change things, if they work together. Well, not in every case of course, but for me this thread means the following for Clevo/ Sager and other Clevo distributors:

The typical customer for clevo notebooks is a gamer - I know there are other products, but that´s not what they make the most money - and many of them do understand how to change RAM and even GPU and CPU alone.
Clevo has a reputation in selling High End notebooks that are good user upgradable - regardless if advertised or not.
Now the customers come to know more and more about that this is not always the case, and not only that: Their competitors are doing a better job in building a laptop that is userupgradable.
They let Clevo know that they are not willing to accept this in the future. That they will go to Alienware and MSI and the others...

So now Clevo can decide if they listen to their customers, mostly not because they think that it´s the right thing to do it, but otherwise they will lose many of them, or if they go ahead and ignore that problem, hoping that the majority will buy the laptops regardless of the problems and it will not affect the market too much...

Will be interesting to see the result - not only if the P170HM will run 7970m - I don´t believe it will be fully working - but if they will make better Mobos that are more compatible with other GPU´s in the future.
That may take a while, maybe even till the next gen (they can only start doing a better mobo job NOW), but if customers WILL do what they say, namely NOT buy a Clevo until we see if the next gen will support better gpu upgrades, then we´ll have a chance.
It´s as "easy" as that: Does Clevo take this serious or not...

 

If Clevo actually looks at this thread I would like to say this - I've been gamer for over 20 years, most of those years I was a console gamer until I got older and I could afford more expensive hardware and thus I am a mobile gamer. The MAIN REASON I WENT WITH CLEVO is because I could upgrade my GPU over time, this alone makes PC/Mobile gaming much more competitive with console gaming. If Clevo removes this I feel like they will be taking a huge step backwards in the gaming market.

 

Does anybody know if gtx660m is working with HM models??

 

Any response from Clevo on this and the petition yet?

 

I doubt there will be one from Clevo.

Sager has commented, if that isn't enough... if the nVIDIA 680M GPU works in the HM machines I guess there isn't anything to ask for is there?

 

That depends on whether the GTX 680M will be better or not than the HD 7970M, if not people will still complain about not being able to get the best GPU into their notebooks.

 

I think that's what bothers me so much about these threads - it's that people keep saying they can't upgrade the GPU in their Clevo laptops, and that's just demonstrably false and misleading. They just can't upgrade it to the OMG BEST GPU EVER (right now at this very moment). I mean, they can even upgrade it to the *second* best mobile GPU on the market at this exact moment, the 675m (right?) but that's apparently totally meaningless. If you can't upgrade your Clevo to this ONE SINGLE GPU then apparently it means you can't upgrade the graphics on it at all

 

how many time ppl want to explain to u 675m is a rebrand of previous gen gpu...its an old gpu...

 

Yep, althought he's right in a way.
You can upgrade to 675m in HM nvidia based models, but not if you have an Amd card.
But there's no point into upgrading to it of you have a 580m or a 485m, because it's the same card as a 580m, just different vbios.
The main request here is a way to upgrade to newer Gpus, by new we mean newer technology not a rebrand.
However if the story behind the different Sku's is true, HM users will be able to upgrade to the future 680m in Nvidia based HM models.

 

wait a sec....if my hm is 6990m, can i upgrade to 7970m?

 

It's an assumption based on the whole story of two internal Sku's for each brand - so yes maybe you could upgrade to it if you have an Amd based machine.
However this needs to be tested and taken care off, so far we know that Sager, Eurocom and Mythologic shown some good will to make all the relative tests once the second batch of cards ships.
It's a matter of waiting.
At the light of these recent news however it's important to point out that Clevo needs to rethink their whole engineering and marketing strategy.
They really need to have an universal system instead messing with 2 Sku's at once which is time and money consuming.
Since all of this has come to light thanks to this very Online Petition we only hope that EM users and future generations are not affected by this problem.

 

yeah, its sad to see 3 years alienware can support it, even m15x can support

 

Even MSI laptops can switch back and forth to nvidia and amd.
My friend 16F2 had 460m, 580m, 6990m and 7970m. Granted you need to mod the 5870's heatsink which involves a dremel, but aint that hard.
But it just works.
Different engineering, different architecture, thats all. It would be nice to get Clevo to do the same. Their user upgradable laptops could make more sense this way.

 

It's too early to say that Hm can be upgrade with 680m!
And it was already said, 675m is a 580m, it's a good gpu, but 7970m offers a 50% performance boost.

 

Even other old Clevo models can support it, but that means nothing because the HM models are a special case apparently, because of this "different internal models" issue.

Now one question that wasn't asked or answered yet is: Does the same apply to the EM models? Is there any limitation to only NVIDIA or only AMD cards in these models?

I hope not... Because that would increase significantly the chances of this happening again next year with the EM models.

 

It took an online petition, 20k views and 120 signatures after a year to tell us what went wrong with HM models.
If they care enough they will explain if the EM could face the same problem.

 

So, there is "something wrong" with the HM models which prevent them -among so many different models from different constructors- getting the newest cards? ....OMG και 3 LOL, να πούμε!

 

Just so you are aware that even when I worked for a system builder it was common knowledge that the new generation would not be offically supported in the HM series.

Also if you look back through Clevos history you will find that once a chassis is EOL they very rarely do BIOS updates.

As for Clevo's "customer service" its non existent even to system builders forget the general public

 

Yeah we figured it out Kobalt. Still this created a big movement thats not a thing to understimate.
Whatever lets see what they will come up to.

 

I'm going to quote this, just in case anyone missed it.

 

umm yeah i DID read correctly, especially the recent Sager statement here. there was no mention whatsoever of the P170HM models only, the talk was about the HM series IN GENERAL. the subdivision of the P170HM due to the 3D screen was of my own conclusion and wasnt specifically mentioned here anywhere.

this being said, the recent sager statement is thus totally and utterly useless, since the "different mobo/display/bios" issue can ONLY be applied to the 3D P170HM models, which were CLEAR from the very beginning that theyre only able to run on Nvdia cards exclusively.

conclusively, were back to square one, meaning that the REGULAR P170HM and P150HM models are obviously just artificially hindered to run the 7970M by not supplying respective BIOS updates. correct me if im wrong, but this is what i gathered from the statements so far

cheers

 

Upgrading from a GTX485M to a 675M is like buying the same new car in a different colour. I would be surprised if the performance boost even translated to 5%, now compare that to the cooler running 50%+ boost you would get from the 7970M.

 

Sounds like Clevo is pretty pissed at Eurocom.. Telling its other customers (builders/resellers) not to supply Clevo parts to Eurocom by threat of stopping business with said supplying customer.

 

You have information by what reason?

 

yeah i was wondering as well, whats the source?

 

Clevo did made the mistake with the REGULAR P170HM motherboard, which forced them to do a limited run 'AMD only' mobo, while they redesigned one (which could take both cards) without the issue, which they did and later started using with ALL orders.

One place you are correct, is that Sager seems to be mainly speaking of the 17" model, instead of generally about both of the HMs.

The strangest thing about this whole hoopla is that the Clevo 7970M could actually work perfectly, and it's just that no one has tried it. That would be hilarious beyond words.

 

aside from eurocom, of course ^^ but sure, if additional testing shows that it DOES work we can all be happy campers and close this thread but until then, no reason to stay active here

 

A reseller gave me quotes from an email Clevo sent out.. They asked me not to say their name. It seems it isn't taking much to tick Clevo off so they don't want their name tied with the info at this time

 

what 's the problem with eurocom?

 

Is this why Eurocom got all of the non-reliable 7970m's?

-_-

I ordered from them May 1 pre order for the 3610 Ivy Bridge processor and 7970m AMD GPU and still don't have it. They said it could be a few weeks more -_-

 

This premature and meaningless petition has led to conflict between reputable companies

 

Let me correct that for you :

"This meaningful petition has led to conflict between companies due to the fact that the supplier isn't allowing an upgrade that they led people to believe they would allow."