P370sm3 my new notebook and the problems so far

Hello all,

I thought it time I posted a new thread to update my experience so far with my purchase and RTM of my P370SM3.

1. I purchased the notebook from Affordable laptops located in Western Australia and received confirmation of the purchase on the 14-1-2014.
2.I received it shortly there after about a week later.
3. After installing win7 and steam and some games I started playing Fallout NV and tried it in SLI mode with 3D turned off and it was smooth and stable I must have played it for 2-3 hours and noticed no problems accept for some stuck or dead pixels on the lower right area of the panel and using the gently push the pixels method I fixed some of the pixels but not all so I promptly emailed Affordable Laptops who referred me to ITC (IT Channel).
4. ITC were fast in sorting out the return and after a week and a half I received the notebook back. The panel had no problems so I started updating windows and software. I did not have time to play any games untill the next day.
5. When I started The Witcher2 up in SLI mode with stereoscopic 3D turned off I was shocked to see flickering and scan lines all over the place. I thought it may be temperatures so I installed MSI Afterburner to monitor temps, the temps were all ok but the graphical corruption was still there. After a few minutes I shut down Fallout NV and disabled SLI in the Nvidia control panel.
6. After the reboot I started Fallout NV again and observed no problems. I then thought I would do a google search on flickering/scanlines P370SM3 and found the Tech Inferno forums had a thread on just this problem :

[FIX] Clevo P370SM3 & SAGER NP9380-S 120Hz/3D SLI Flickering/Scanlines

7. After reading all the posts I thought this is cool I will become a member and acquire the modded bios image and I am now a member but have not got the bios yet. In one of the forum posts (can't remember which one) I think BudMarley said both bios firmware must be the same so I thought I would check mine and low and behold They are different :




8. Now I am wondering whether it was replaced or flashed or ....... What am I supposed to think a random neutrino changed the bios firmware LoL.
Are they supposed to be the same or not? I have a suspicious feeling one of the cards has been flashed or swapped out.

Any way I am currently waiting for a replay from ITC as to what they can suggest and believe me I will avoid RTM if I can as it would be at least a week and a half before I get it back and who knows if it will be repaired when I do.

Have a good day anyway I wont let it get me down as it is all under warranty anyway.

AHAHAHA I just want to game man

 

Nope nothing suspicious, my 780Ms have the exact vBIOSes as your 780Ms, and I've never sent mine in for replacement. In that TechInferno thread they note that these 2 vBIOS appear to give the exact same performance behavior. The only solution to that flickering problem is to use the svl7's modded vBIOS.

 

Hi rhutor,

I just don't get it yet I mean you say yours has the exact same bioses as mine or are you now running svI7's bioses or still the same exact ones I'm currently running with the SLI @ 120Hz issue.
If you are running svI7's bioses are they (bios firmware) identical to one another?

 

I mean that your 780M having different vBIOSes is normal, and does not mean your reseller tempered with your card.

I have the non-3D version and still on stock vBIOS. If you use the modded vBIOS then yes both 780Ms will have the same vBIOS.

 

Vbios versions will change over the life of a machine.

 

Hi Meaker,

I do not understand as bios (basic input out put) should always be released as a factory default. If a bios including Vbios firmware is not compatible with the hardware it is released with in a product then it does not meet the firmware standard. Firmware by definition means:
Firmware - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary
firmware - definition of firmware by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia.
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/firmware

I just want my p370sm3 to behave as it should.

 

Sager/clevo will update the firmware of cards as time goes by to iron out issues. Maybe it did introduce an issue but you need to talk to your system vendor.

 

I wouldn't get hung up on the definition, as even the three you provided are different from each other and are not complete. Bottom line is the bios for the machine and the vbios for the graphics card will change over time. This could be to fix bugs, or to simply be changes to match manufacturer changes that don't affect the end user. Different vbios versions are meaningless without knowing what the vbios changes were. And there is nothing that says they need to be the same version.

Contact your reseller about fixing your issue. An unofficial fix that might work is the svl7 vbios for the graphics card. But I would start with your reseller.