**OFFICIAL W860CU/NP8690 Owners Lounge**

Eh, yeah, that's Sager telling you to use the RIGHT adapter, and saying "use the 120 watt adapter we included with the laptop!" is easier than explaining all the requirements.
Bottem line is you won't "overload" the laptop because it is only going to draw the power it needs. Since I put a 940XM in mine, I wanted some extra head-room, and when you get close to the maximum rated output of the adapter the consistency of the current can drop.

Carpet is just going to insulate heat so no good, I usually just keep mine on a hard-cover book. You could put it on a pad, but I doubt you will realize any benefits.

 

@kingkong8 Any chance of seeing some more pictures? I'm also wondering if you have something to say about temps, and if you have tried overclocking the card (vantage scores etc).

Thanks!

 

Well, I've taken the plunge and ordered a 6970m. I decided against waiting on the 6990m, because I think the 6970m is already pushing the envelope as far as power draw (especially with the 940xm turbo-ing up to 3.73GHz).

I will post pictures/write-up when I get it. I’ve also been doing some extensive cooling mods, so the temps may not be representative, but I’ll document it all for giggles anyhow.

 

I'll be looking forward to that! Also, pics of your cooling mod would be cool as well

 

good luck mike post some pics of how it looks if you can(vid card, bios, etc)

 

Cant wait to see the mods and other stuff im getting jealous about that amd 6970..

Oh and for people that have a 920/940xm and use ubuntu and want to overclock or dont want to use throttlestop, its possible!
With the modified bios, you have to change a few things..

What you need to do is:
Set the TDP from 1B8 to 290 (thats 82w so that power wont be a bottleneck)
Set the TDC from 1B8 to 218 (thats 67A)
And now you can change the core/clock ratio's without problems just like in Throttlestop.

Ive been messing a while ago to figure out what 1B8 means.. and well here it is.

But beaware! overclocking or these mods might screw up your system or give BSOD's if you go too high.
I'm not responsible for any damage that may occur. (for me its stable though.. with 2.4ghz on all 4 cores and my temps are fine.)
And the bios that allows it is the one posted here link

 

Wow, nicely done. I had installed those the other day without poking around in the them much.

I will have to get it a try while I wait on the new video clard.

 

hey guys i have a problem with the battery. when im unplugged with 100% available, about 3 minutes later my battery immediately falls to like 5% remaining and issues a warning of low battery! another instance was when i was unplugged and immediately in two minutes the entire system shut down like when you press the power button, only that I didnt press it! any solutions or did it happen to you?

 

The battery is dead and not holding a charge. That is pretty typical of how li-ions fail. The system will shutdown automatically at the "critical" level for the battery (which by default is at 5% since you never want to competely drain a li-ion.)

 

Perhaps you can send it back if you still have warranty.. because a battery shoudnt just die like this I think

And you can also work on it without a battery, im doing that right now because I have vacation and wont be moving my machine around so..

 

Trust me, li-ions will eventually fail. If you are still under warranty give it a shot, but they have a limited number of power-cycles. If you use it a lot, it will eventually lose its ability to hold a charge (hence the "wear" statistic and the drop in mWh capacity ).

But yeah, it works fine without the battery.

 

yeah mine already lost 10Wh in 8 months or something, its mostly plugged into the wall so maybe thats why it went down so fast? Anyhow this laptop isnt really suited for battery usage because its a desktop replacement and is the battery when in new condition still really quick discharged..

 

bought it in 2009 oct so I dont think i got warranty. i use it on the high performance profile maybe thats why it drains so quickly. approximately how much time do you get on the balanced and power saver profiles?

 

I can get about an hour, with the cpu locked at 1.4 Ghz + 5870 undervolted and clocked at 200MHz engine 225MHz memory. But my battery only has 3% wear because I rarely use it. Mainly for emergencies or when I need to carry the laptop to a printer.

 

@ll
sorry guys for long come back. Just too busy from work..

Heres some photos WEI, 3dmark11 and vantage scores:

 

Well.. I enable power saver in throttlestop and have my gpu at 300mhz at 0.5v and then I can get an hour. (when I just had the laptop it was 1 hour and 15 mins)

Now those are some nice scores!

Mine only gets 2300 in 3d mark 2011
And my vantage is only 10500

What kind of temps do you get when doing the benchmarks?

 

sorry double post..

 

Nice Kingkong8, I'm still messing around with mine and writing up everything. But I did just pull a 13,411 in vantage with the 6970M overclocked to 750Mhz core and 1000Mhz memory at 1 volt. 940XM isn't OC'd. With all my cooling mods and the undervolting it only went to 72*C.

The stock clocks (680core 900mem) are ROCK stable at 0.91volts. Which is a huge drop from the default 1.1v.

 

My 920xm gets with only artic silver on it (stripe method) 80c at 2.5ghz that isnt bad either I think..
Ive just tested and 5 minutes prime 95 it gets 69c on 2.1 ghz

This is with the bios overclock method it seems to get better temps then with throttlestop altho peformance may slightly be worse because it also turns off the turbo when at 80c so it goes from 2.5ghz to 2.4.

What mods did you do?

 

Yeah, I was referring to the 6970 only hitting 72c, while o. c. 'd at 750mhz core 1000 mhz mem. I 'm not overclocking the 940xm because it eats so much power as it is.

 

Mike, could you take some pics of the card/heatsink/mod?

 

Hello,
I've searched but can't find a good answer to this...
My NP8690 crashes when I play Wolfenstein 2009...it says:
Driver IRQL Not Less or Equal
The event ID is 41, bug fix code is 209 or D1. The internet points to this being a memory problem, but it passes all memory tests just fine.
Has anyone encountered this? I have the current ATI drivers.
This is the only game it crashes on, and I've run all of the patches for this game.
Thanks!

 

Perhaps its your temp folder causing trouble..
Delete every thing thats inside (what is in use cant be deleted but thats not a problem)
Its located at "C:\users\username\AppData\Local\Temp"

Deleting the temp folder fixed Starcraft 2 crashes for me.

I have every month or so a BSOD and I think its because of my momentus XT causing trouble somehow..

 

72c on your gpu.. man thats even lower then my 5870 with arctic silver on it.. lol

Show us your mods

 

Thanks Chaosstorm, I will give this a try.

 

Hey guys, sorry I didn't do this sooner, I went out-of-town for a week...
[Edit: pictured here is the 5870 compared to my (non-Clevo) 6970 and the mods to make it work).
Now, here's my cooling overkill: (I used MX-4 on the cpu/gpu dies and it sits on a Zalman cooler pad).

The GPU and CPU heatsinks were lapped to a mirror polish where the dies and memory chips contact the plates:



I added Enzotech's BCC9 ramsinks (9mm high) and RHS-03 ramsinks (5mm high) where possible on the stock heatsinks. I used a dremel rotary tool to fit them to the contours and lapped the mating surfaces to a mirror polish. On the GPU heatsink, I shaved down the sinks on the raised portions to keep them level with the full height pieces on the plate. They are attached with ArcticSilver Thermal Epoxy.





Originally, I was going to use thermal tape but it only conducts heat at 1.0watts/mK, whereas the arcticsilver adhesive conducts heat at 7.5watts/mK and has a significant hold.

Now the heatsinks help, but their effectiveness is multiplied if I can force some air over them, so, time to add some fans... Here's an overview: (they actually blow a bit to the left, hence the CPU fan's rightward orientation.)



And mounted on the bottom cover (without the screens/finger guards):



These fans are centrifugal blowers because they blow perpendicular to the intake and are superior to axial fans when working against pressures (by a lot). Which is also why the stock cooling system uses them. The top one has a "scoop" to avoid recirculating exhaust air. Some silicone caulk seperates the intake from the interior of the laptop for the raised portion of the bottom cover.

I selected 5volt fans that would run within USB power specifications. Theoretically, a USB port could power them, but I'd rather not add that extra power draw to a motherboard already stressed with the 940xm and 6970m. So, to run and control them, I integrated an externally powered cyberpower USB hub into a larger enclosure with switches for the fans and a dc port. It has 2 settings: high = full power, and a low is achieved with a resister array. I upgraded the hub's 13 watt adapter to a 5v 20 watt version. The USB hub is powered on a seperate circuit from the fans so one can be on while the other is off or both on.

Here's the input port next to the GPU fan (there weren't many alternative sites):



The fans don't negatively affect the cooling behavior of the laptop while they are not in use. I originally installed a similar set when I first got the laptop. The wireless and ram do not seem to run any hotter and have lasted well over a year. (And are cheaper than GPUs and CPUs anyhow).

Even at full speed the 4 fans are not injecting as much air into the laptop as the system fans are expelling, so the whole thing maintains a negative pressure relative to the exterior. This helps ensure the other components are still getting some airflow and, at the same time, the main fans are more efficient by not having to work against quite as stong of a pressure difference (and thus, move more air over the main heatsink and expelled from the laptop).

All this results in:



That's 10 minutes and 31 seconds of furmark 720p burn-in. It hit 75*C once and leveled off at 73-74*C indefinitely. That's better than my 5870 could even manage. Good times.

For most gaming situations I use the low setting and the added noise is fairly limited. The only downside to the project is I have more fun doing the mods than using the laptop, ah ha.

 

Wow now those are some nice mods

How do those heatsinks stick? did you weld them or what?

 

Thanks. I used ArcticSilver thermal Adhesive. Basically a glue that tranfers heat at 7.5watt/mK.

 

Is it easy removable?
I would like to do this mod also (only the heatsink stuff.. the extra fans is too much work, but looks awsome)
Wouldnt it be possible to replace the stock fans with some higher quality one's that blow more air and are silent?

 

No, the stock fans are actually quite high quality. The turbine noise of the fans is not the fan motor so much as the churning of air, which is a necessity. A fan that fits the power specs of the stock fans (5v .5amp) is going to make a similar amount of noise at best, and at worst be louder.

If you managed to find a more powerful fan that fit, you would then have a problem with the laptop managing it, where the laptop thinks 100% speed is at 5v .5amps, but the bigger fan is only spinning at, say, 75%, so you never realize a benefit.

This is why I simply added fans to inject cool air onto the hottest components and let the system fans churn along at their discretion.. (By the way, I did modify the vbios of my 6970 so that it runs the GPU fan at 100% at 75*C.)

The other thing with mods, you should remember, is nothing will produce incredible results when relying on the stock fans, because the fans only speed up when certian thresholds are met. (Though you can change the GPU's fan profile for better results).
So, the added heatsinks work well in "silent mode" (which forces the fans at a moderate speed w/o regard to temps) and they work well when the system is stressed and fan speeds are at 100%. But for the middle ranges of temps, they don't do as much, because the controller will still wait for certian temps before speeding up the fans.

As far as attaching heatsinks, ArcticSilver ADHESIVE creates an incredible bond, such that Arctic calls it "permanent". But if you freeze the heatsink, it will break up the crystalline structure and you could probably remove them with some force. Probably be a pain to remove the residue.

Another method, is to mix some ArcticSilver5 into the adhesive before application for a weaker bond, but, this will be hit or miss.

Others on the forum, have had good results with double-sided "thermal tapes". The consensus seems to be SEKISUI #5760 is the best. But it is much less efficient at heat conduction (1.0w/mK versus the adhesive's 7.5w/mK).

You have to be careful, because if a heatsink pops off, it can either jam a fan or, much worse, cause a short.

 

1: Damn, would have liked less noise, ah well cant have every thing
2: I have changed my vBios also with 100% fan speed at 75 or similar (but i think the bios overrides it wich i have set to 73 c) Also a lil bit undervolt.
3: All I want to have is better temps at full load on the cpu as I do 3d rendering and with an overclock at 2.6ghz the cpu gets up to 90c with artic silver applied using rice grain and some pressure. So with some copper added it should get a few degrees lower and I might even turn the overclock a bit down to 2.4 /2.5.
4: I have read that at the website so I'll be carefull as the stuff is also conductive so..
5: I dont think I want to risk having a piece of copper flying inside the laptop

Thanks for all your info

 

No problem, ArcticSilver5 is kinda outdated, the newer non-conductive/non-capacitive pastes are a good bit better (ICD-7, MX-4, Shin Etsu). I am especially fond of MX-4.

The CPU heatsink is much easier to work with because it is flat (no contours have to be shaved into the heatsinks) and it sits low enough that the higher quality copper, but taller Enzotech BCC9's fit.

Use the ArcticSilver thermal epoxy and those heatsinks will stay, barring you freezing it and yanking on them with some serious tools.

Edit: Also, if you drilled some extra airholes directly above the cpu heat sink, it would pull in cold air over anything you add and increase their effectiveness a good bit as well.

 

Nice mod Mike! +rep!

Which fans are those? Could you give some more info (perhaps pics) on the internal wiring of the fans and the external usb hub which powers the fans?

I might be interrested in doing something similar

Chaos: I used thermal adhesive tape to attach ram heatisnks to my gpu and cpu heatsinks: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/566947-my-w860cu-np8690-cooling-modification.html

I managed to shave of about 3 degrees on the cpu this way. I have since removed the mods, but I will be applying them again (with more care of course), especially if I end up buying the 6970 or the 6990m (!)

 

Thankyou. The black fan is a Delta 40mm x 40mm x 10mm blower, the two smaller fans are Sunon 35mm x 35mm x 5mm, and the cpu fan is a 45x45x8mm Adda blower.

I taped up the openings and dremeled down the delta and adda fans to fit. They are squares externally, but have a circular interior which allows some cutting without harming their function.

It is REALLY hard to find fans this small, but Jameco, Digikey, and various computer sites have them. I got each type of fan from a different seller and several that I bought were unusable for one reason or another.

The Delta is the most powerful and the best location as far as putting in a taller fan. (But you will end up losing that ninth screw hole on the back cover, I cut a piece of it off and screwed it back in as a support for the delta fan, you can see it in the heatsink pic.)

I will grab some new pictures, but since I have to take it apart to get those part numbers and pictures it will take a few days before I post'em. I'm about to zero out my SSD and reinstall windows for my yearly performance refreash, so have to wait on that.

 

Ok I just ordered the artic silver thermal adhesive, the BCC9 RAM heatsinks and Artic MX-4. lets hope it will work and wont destroy my heatsink somehow . I'll post my results when I applied it

And a week later:
First I gathered all stuff I need


Then I put every thing in place and cut them to the right size and then applied the adhesive.


After that I tested with prime95 for 13 minutes and temp went up to 92c on 2.6ghz after that I noticed that my laptop cooling pad fans werent working so the temps will be a lil bit lower now. I also aplied MX4 to the gpu core and memory. Load temps on gpu memory went down from 88c to 82c (5 min furmark)
Before I had artic silver 5 on the core and memory.


Now I have added some extra steel heatpipes to both the cpu and gpu. (no groundbreaking changes, perhaps because of the hot weather..)


I also have a really weird problem.
In the bios I have changed TDP and TDC, I have also changed to turbo ratio's.
So when I boot up everything works just fine. But when the system goes in sleep mode and I turn it back on,
The TDP, TDC and clock speeds are stock.. even cpu-z shows 55w while it normally doesnt show any wattage...
So I have to reboot to get my overclock settings back, does any one here have a clue?

In the picture below it even says thermal monitor1 and 2 disabled.. same for TDP and TDC.

 

Hi Everyone,

I've had my NP 8690 now for a year and a half and everything has gone well...well, that is, until yesterday. My LCD, which never gave me any problems (not even a dead pixel), refused to turn on with my machine. I tested things on an external monitor. No problem there.

I am assuming my LCD is dead (the screen is 100% blank - not even a faint image). Anyone have to replace them before? I called Xotic PC and they won't sell me a replacement.

 

Well.. Perhaps one of the cable's is loose?
If thats not the case, you can buy screens from ebay or maybe even in the market on this forum. But im not 100% sure wich screen you have.. mine has an AUO B156HW01 V5 (if I were you I would buy a better one this v5 seems to be the worst screen)

 

What newer GPUs and CPUs does the W860CU support? I have seen people post benchmarks of newer ATI cards and Intel CPUs. I have been trying to find BIOS and how output of the power supply for months now... lol

 

The latest cpu the clevo w860cu supports is the 940xm 2.1ghz quad core.
If you are smart you buy the 920xm wich is probably alot cheaper and runs on 2 ghz.

The latest GPU is the amd mobility 6970m (maybe even the 6990m but that should run really hot), you probably have to mod the heatsink for these cards to work properly.
You will also need a 180w power supply.

 

Maybe a strange question, but I read some time ago how the w860cu and 870cu are so similar, if it was possible to fit a 860 mobo into an 870 chassis?
Or are there slight differences that would make such an operation impossible?

 

Sorry this is off topic, does anyone connect their NP8690 (MHD5870) to an LCD TV?
If you do, do you use the HDMI or the DVI output?
I had been using a DVI to HDMI cable with the audio coming from a cable in microphone jack. All was good but then I tried HDMI to HDMI because I wanted the HDMI audio, it all worked but the picture was noticeably worse. And it didn't work as well, sometimes the sound would fall slightly off sync, or it would randomly lose connection. So it's back to the DVI port for me.
Anyone else notice such weirdness?

 

Anyone have any news/locations where I can find an updated "working" driver for a GTX460m. I've been to Sagers site, but they still don't (after an entire year) seem to have an updated driver for this thing..

 

Look for the clevo drivers thread in my faq.

Mr. Mysterious

 

Saved the day - ty sir.

 

Np. You should thank atmosk actually .

Mr. Mysterious

 

Nope, my hdmi works great, altho i have my sound coming from an good old sony stereo tower .
My quality is also just fine with an lg e5500 1080p (doesnt support dvi so cant tell if it would have been different..).

 

@Tbolts23, That means bad HDMI cable.

 

Sounds like you are probably right, but the cable works fine when it connects my HP laptop to the TV (GeForce 9200m). It is one of those expensive gold tipped cables that I was foolish enough to give Best Buy a lot of money for so that is disappointing. But thanks for the reply.


Chaosstorm - My Vizio doesn't have a DVI port either, so I use a DVI to HDMI cable to get it done. The sound from my head phone jack is a lot less powerful than the HDMI audio, so that is what I was trying to improve. Maybe I just need a stereo like you have. Cheers!

 

Ok.. so today I flashed amd firegl 7820 bios on my mobility 5870 and now it still says mobility 5870 but the mobility drivers changed to firegl drivers without doing anything, the only problem I have now is that it only gives display at the dvi port, laptop nor hdmi wont work.. perhaps this bios is for a laptop with dvi and vga, because I got vga options but dont have a vga out..

Note: powerplay works out of the box.
On balanced power settings it crashes (dunno why).

Look at the catalyst pro, and some of the options.

 

does anyone have problems with the sound saying No AUdio Output Device detected?