Should I return my NP5160?

So I've had this laptop for almost a week now. Overall, it's a fantastic machine; however, there are a couple of things that are driving me crazy.

Firstly, there seems to be a problem with the hotkey driver that causes the touchpad to stop working for 2-3 seconds every time the computer is turned on or waken from sleep. I've tried different driver versions and clean installs with no success.

There also seems to be some kind of incompatibility between IE9 and Firefox4 with the laptop's graphics card. Certain webpages crash and when trying to watch a video in full screen, the video goes black and the browser crashes. Another problem is that the scrolling is noticeably unsmooth on both these browsers. Fortunately, Chrome 10 works perfectly.

I've been trying to figure out if these problems are related to drivers or to my laptop itself. I've tried using the drivers provided and the latest drivers for any specific problem with no avail. What are your thoughts? Are my standards too high?

PS: For some reason 3dMark11 doesn't recognize DirectX11 support on my computer. It gives me an error saying I'm using 10_1 (Which is from the HD 3000 graphics). I'm also trying to figure out why I can't display the battery time remaining.

Thanks in advance.

 

For the slow browsers and 3d-mark, did you set up the optimus profiles for them? Odds are they're running on integrated. You'll need to set up the profile to get them to run on the discrete 540m by default.

For the battery, go download batterybar. I run it on all my laptops as it's 100% better than the default win7 one.

 

Personally, if it's NOT hardware related, then I wouldn't return; unless the software issue is related to that specific type of computer.
[touchpad issue could be hardware, but probably software]

 

Try going back to Firefox 3, firefox 4 may have some problems with being supported by optimus, and make sure to update whatever drivers control optimus. But that's very strange, even the Intel HD3000 IGP should be able to handle full screen video. Try updating all the graphics drivers, if the problem doesn't go away, then its going to take a closer look.

 

Which touchpad drivers are you using?

 

Good call on the profiles, I haven't had a laptop with optimus before so I should probably keep this in mind. The browsers' smoothness is definitely better now although the problem with flash is still there. I'm gonna try firefox 3 and see what happens.

As for the batterybar, I'll give it a shot; although I've never had to download extra software for this in the past.

I've tried the ones provided and the latest on the synaptics website. I'm gonna try to replicate the problem without the touchpad drivers and see what happens.

 

Try downgrading your Flash to version 10.1. There are known incompatibilities between Flash 10.2 and systems with Optimus. NVIDIA is supposedly working with Adobe on the issue, and there should be a fix from either (or both) companies sometime in the near future.

 

Although I feel like the browsers should be smooth enough with integrated. I wanna be able to surf the web while conserving battery life. Is it possible there is something wrong with the integrated graphics or is this common?

 

The problem happens with or without the touchpad drivers, including the latest ones.

 

For the 3DMark11 problem.

Are you using newest driver from NVIDIA? instead of driver from Sager?

I had the exactly same problem with Sager Drivers. Once I updated to NVIDIA driver the problem's gone.

Also make sure you download the latest 3DMark11.

It is NOT profile related. 3DMark is able to use dedicated without profiles.



For the browser problem...I have used IE8, IE9 (with hardware accel), Chrome, Firefox 3, Firefox 4. And NEVER had a single browser crash. I am able to assign a specific browser to use iGPU or dGPU through profiles.

P.S. Mine is NP5135. Just the same as yours but previous gen.

 

I ended up installing the latest beta release drivers with a modded inf and haven't had any problems, although I didn't try running flash on Firefox 4. I noticed that browsing was a lot smoother on Firefox 3 and went for flash 10.1. Getting the latest drivers also fixed the 3DMark11 problem.

So that leaves the hotkey driver issue. On a side note, I noticed that the wireless stops working at the same time. Could it be that the hotkey driver is somehow interrupting a bunch of services?

 

It honestly could be; however I'll say when I start windows/wake from sleep my touchpad and USB mouse do NOT work for about 3-5 seconds, so I find it normal. It shouldn't harass you. As for scrolling, I say test scrolling with a USB mouse to see if it's smoother than using the touchpad's scroll. If it is, then it's either your touchpad itself that needs replacing or the drivers. If it were the drivers, and you used four different versions, I'm inclined to think conflicting program (Windows itself probably) or hardware. Either way, I suggest explaining the issue to the reseller and see if they can take a look at it under warranty for you. Who knows? They might even give you something free if it's really a hardware issue and they didn't realize and made you suffer for it.

As for Firefox 4 and IE 9, I'll tell you this. If it's a beta, don't expect the world from it. If it JUST released, expect a few issues. If FF 3.6 works for you a lot better, and Chrome (already functions as a good browser in itself) works fine, then it's probably just software on those ends, though I think you got that figured out already.

And as for the wireless, sometimes random stuff happens in installation. I'd say software conflicts *could* cause such issues, but I'd tell you to try and re-create the issue. If you can, also explain that. Don't be afraid to use that warranty dude, its purpose is to make sure you're given a WORKING machine. If they installed windows and the drivers for you, it's their fault, whatever it is. I haven't seen many threads like this here, and thus I'm pretty sure your problems are specific to you.

 

Anyone know why the nVidia control panel wouldn't let me set up a profile for a specific program? I'm trying to watch blu ray movies on powerdvd (both 9 and 10) but it won't run on discrete graphics for some reason. Furthermore, the option to set a profile is greyed out for just this program.

 

I wouldn't try powerdvd....none of the "bloatware" (cyberlink, for example) I really trust. Try another program...

p.s. I hope you don't return your machine. Certainly talk to your reseller before you make your decision.

Mr. Mysterious

 

Can you suggest another? I've been using it for over a while to play blu rays on my computer and it seems to work fine.. I'm also trying to figure out when a model with the 555m will come out and if I should wait for it.

 

Clevo have already listed two new 15" chassis with the GT 555M on their company website:

CLEVO - W150HRM

CLEVO - W150HRQ​

Mind you, the only difference between them seems to be cosmetic (IMR vs MOFA-II).

 

I love these OPs that can be answered with one word answers.

No.


If you really think you need a GT 555m though, it doesn't hurt to wait a couple months. For all you know they could throw in a backlit keyboard in there too.

 

no no no no

to fix the flash video fullscreen problem, just right click inside the video frame and click settings, then disable hardware acceleration and it should be able to play fullscreen fine from then on