**OFFICIAL W860CU/NP8690 Owners Lounge**

I did initially when trying to hook mine up to a 37 inch LCD TV. One of the ATI driver updates fixed it, but it doesn't work well, so I output my audio through the headphone jack.
Are you getting this just normally, like not trying to hook up to anything?

Off topic, sorry, does anyone get bad stuttering playing Arkham Asylum? It is the same whether I am playing at 720p, 1600x1900, or even 1080p. All details are set at max, physX off AA&AF off, Vsync on. (With Vsync off it is worse).
Thoughts?

 

oh, mine one just stopped emitting sound form anything. Its something to do with the microsoft high definition audio controller thingy in device manager, anyone had this problem before?

 

perhaps yours is set at HDMI.
Instead of the normal speakers/audio jack.
You can turnoff the HDMI sound so it will go to jack by default.

 

My 285m is broken. I have the old motherboard (without usb 3). Hence it would be a good moment for me to upgrade to a better the card. I read in this forum somewhat contradicting messages concerning the upgrade ability. For example, some say that it is not recommended to upgrade to the 470m with the old motherboard. Other posted its no problem.
I'd like to upgrade to the 470m, since from my research it seems to be the best fit (especially since at resellers the card is even cheaper than the much older 285m).
So, can i upgrade? If so, what would I have to do? (heat-sink replacement, bio update etc.?)
If not, what are other good other options?

(I am not that hardware versatile, but willing to learn or probably end up giving it to someone for the upgrade job. Just trying to find out what to buy.)

 

Hi to all!
The battery of a friend's W860CU died yesterday..
Could you tell me where I can find a cheap replacement??

Thanks

 

Hey people. Just got my hands on a W860CU so my first time in this thread

I have been thinking about various upgrades for the future and need a little input specifically on cpu and blu ray.

Firstly how does the machine run with a 920XM. I would like at some point to upgrade to one the 940XM doesn t seem worth the extra money. Can the cooling cope and is there any OCing headroom to make it worth it over the 840QM?

Secondly I need a blu ray drive that can read and write blu rays. What SATA drive do people recommend?

Cheers

 

About the 920xm, I have mine overclocked from 2.0 to 2.6ghz (on all 4 cores) on 1 and 2 core turbo its at 3.4ghz and the 3core turbo is on 3ghz.

With longtime 3d rendering I get temps upto the low 90's.

But.. I have done cooling mods to maintain workable temps.
More info here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...0cu-np8690-owners-lounge-514.html#post7797061

 

Interesting mods there. I like your double heatpipe idea. I have plenty of all copper heatpipe/heatsinks left from the C90 so I think I shall have some fun here

Looks like I might be getting a 940XM by trading in my X3380 and 720QM lol

I might be late to the party (2 years!) but things are gonna get pushed now...

@Chaos what ram are you using? Only have 1066 ddr3 memory at the moment.

 

Clevo and Sager has said it may or may not work for you. That is the 470M. It may indeed work, but it may be unstable at times. You may have better sucess with the 460M.
_

 

I was not the first one with the copper mods, a few pages back there was a more extreme version

Im using GEIL 1333mhz cl9-9-9, well to save you some money you could also go for a 920xm I think 940xm is a waste of money for the speed gain (with overclocking you might get 133 or 266 mhz but thats it.)

I bought my clevo also with a 720qm, sold that for 100 euro and got a 920xm for 289 euro. (was totally worth it!)

Is it acually normal that the battery has 26% wear after 10 months of usage?

 

Both my CPU and GPU fans are on their last legs. I had to manually spin them to give them some momentum to start. Any idea where I can get 2 replacement fans?

 

Here you go:

Clevo Laptop Parts :: W86xCU/W87xCU :: VGA/CPU Fan for W86xCU/W87xCU - R&J Technology, Clevo Barebone Notebook kits, Laptop and desktop system builder

Good luck with the replacement!

 

Thanks. Price seems a little steep but I have to bite the bullet.

 

Thanks.
So the 460m does not have the same compatibility problems?

 

The latest bios (1.0.18) has support for the 460m

"Sager tech says this bios does enable the 460m/470m to be recognised, but supposedly the .16s bios did as well, so I'm not sure what's different between the .16s and .18s versions."
From: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/416916-clevo-bios-thread-107.html

http://www2.sagernotebook.com/Sagernotebook/misc/869bv18s.zip

Does any one know if an AMD 6970, Imac card will work in a clevo? or does it has some special mac stuff?

 

Since acquiring a W860CU in late 2009, I have frequented this thread a number of times, it has been immensely helpful... so much so in-fact that I haven't actually need to post!
Ultimately my machine has been fantastic... but I have now come to considering an upgrade to the GPU, from my 260M to one of the following 460M, 560M or 570M. which have been discussed on this thread.

The 460M is the most likely, as I'm still not totally sure as to the compatibility of the other two.

The problem i'm having is the complete lack of resellers in the UK!
I noticed today that Kobalt Systems:
Kobalt Systems - Performance Notebook & Desktop Computers
... the only viable laptop parts vendor I have found, seems to have gone into administration.
I realize that the majority of folks here are US/CA based, but hoped there might be a few brits who could point me in the right direction?

regards
E

 

You could also get parts from Netherlands or germany.

Dutch site: BTO Notebooks, stel zelf uw Laptop samen. De beste keus voor Gaming, Multimedia en Office doeleinden!
Germany has a few brands too. perhaps they could help, i dont know of any uk resellers so..

I get BSOD's every now and then.. and i think one of my hdd's is dieing or atleasy not working correctly, here is a picture any one got more experience with this?



(Oops, the picture is kinda large)

 

There is also Pc Specialist in the UK: PCSPECIALIST - Laptop Computers, Laptops, Custom Laptops, Gaming Laptops, Buy Laptop

I would advice you to upgrade to the ATI 6970 though.

You can get it on ebay or from MXM Upgrade Home Page (with warranty).

 

I'm not really comfortable switching allegiance to ATI but thanks for the advice.
I knew about PCSpecialist, though they don't do individual parts... I might email them and find out if they would be happy dealing one off.

Thanks, but that link doesn't seem to do parts either.
Appreciate the effort though.

E

 

Electricleash,
i too am in the same situation as you, ive owned my 860CU since Jan 2010 (UK also). Additionally ive been looking for some time now at upgrading my GPU, currently i have a HD5870 and looking at getting the HD6970, maybe 560M or 570M.

Have you contacted PC specialist? Did they offer to sell you a GPU at a decent price?

Have many people upgraded the 860CU? Its a nice machine.

860CU (From Prostar USA)
920XM
6G RAM
HD5870
150G SSD

 

I think mxm upgrade is a good place to start if you have the money also the warranty is a good benefit. 6970 here although I myself didn't put it in

I think the machine is pretty well future proofed, the cpu options are more than powerful enough (up to 940xm) which means no bottlenecking for any single graphics card for several generations. Also there is a good chance it will be possible to upgrade to the HD7000M series card which will be more power efficient than the previous gen cards due to 28nm! Not to mention when ram gets cheap you could put up to 16GB of ram in too.

Screen options also the same as for the P150M laptop (a much newer model) meaning upgrade options exist for that too if you are stuck at a lower resolution like me.

 

I am more tempted to get the 6970 as, ive seen a few ppl on this forum, like yourself that have the W860CU with the 6970. I wonder when the 7000 series will be out, might be worth holding on a bit longer, even if it isn't compatible it should push down the price of the 6000 series.

Do i still need to mod the heatsink to install the 6970? Looks kinda a botch job, guess there not other many options tho.

 

hi all
sorry if this question has been asked.
a problem is after i start notebook as normal, the blue light (on switch) come the gpu fan run but cpu fan not move ;then about 5-6 sec after i press start .. all light off and fan stop..i mean it shut down...
i don't really know where the problem is... try to switch the gpu and cpu fan... both of them working (i mean both fan is still usable)
try reinput 2 of ram --> still not working..

anyone has a suggestion about this? (sorry for some of my bad english) thank you

my info... i7-620m and gtx285m

 

What do you mean with "then about 5-6 sec after i press start .. all light off and fan stop..i mean it shut down..."

Is that when you enter windows? perhaps its a driver error. Cant say much more because your info is kinda vague

 

i press power button -> notebook start (gpu fan run but cpu fan not move) -> the screen show nothing(not even bios boot screen).. all blank then it auto shutdown. timing from i press power button to auto-shutdown is approx 5-6 sec

 

I don't think so. I opened her up yesterday to upgrade the ram and have a look around and the heatsinks are very clean and new. I think one just needs a 5870M heatsink and then to mod it very slightly to make space for certain different component placement on the underside of the heatsink. There is a guide on here somewhere

 

What brand video card do you have? If its a geforce your's might be broken.

 

Hi guys, I've been lurking around this thread for a while now looking for answers on how to upgrade my NP8690.

My NP8690 is the one without usb 3.0, 720qm, gtx 280m, 4gb of ram. Currently games are kinda ramming up their base requirements and I kinda felt compelled to at least upgrade at least my graphic card. Problem is that the safest option appears to be 460m(need to flash the bios?) though the 6000 series looks possible, with extensive modding to the heatsink.... which I am not very capable of doing..... so which path or are there any path I should take?

 

The 6970 is your best option welsper and worth a little modding. Firstly you need a spare a GTX280/285 heatsink for the m860cu then the modding isn't too difficult see this thread : http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...870cu-sager-np8690-np8760-15.html#post7797177

here another user modded a 5870 heatsink to fit properly. Either way with no additional cooling mods the card runs at around 50C idle at 240/720mhz and 0.8V and at 680/900 with 1.1V loads at 85C in furmark! The only thing I did was to put a book underneath to make the cooling more effective, a cooler would probably lower the temps another 5-10C

 

2 months late but I have to say this is a very nice mod! Your GPU runs a good 10C lower than mine!

I had the same idea to cover the GPU + CPU heatsinks with ramsinks and attach with thermal adhensive but your fan mod takes things to a new level!

I am thinking I will just attach ram heatsinks and cheat by removing the stock fans grills to increase airflow.

edit: forgot to quote the post lol plus rep mike

 

A tutorial on that will help lol

 

Hmm unfortunately I can't help there. All I have seen is the pictures in the above thread and I got my clevo with the 6970 already installed so Iam not clued up on the specifics.

 

Hi guys, a quick question:

I want to get a 6970m and I can get one pulled from a m18x or a ES pulled from a m17x. Both are alienware cards. Do you think they will work, and which one should I get?

EDIT: I ordered the card pulled from a m18x. I guees I will just wait and see how it will work out

 

Hey all, I've searched the forums but haven't been able to find a sufficient answer for my question and was wondering if someone can help me out. I may have made the mistake of purchasing a gtx 470m for my W860CU but when buying it I totally forgot about the heatsink. Does anyone know if the 280m heatsink already in my laptop will be enough to handle or fit the 470m card?

 

To be sure the 470M heatsink is different. For example the die area is larger on the 470M and the heatsink for it has a larger area for it.

To put is simple it is not advisable to use the 280M heatsink. Sorry.

 

Well maybe its your gpu that has died, your i7 620m does have an igp so you could try to remove your gtx 285 and boot that way (if it still doesnt work than im out of idea's)

Altho im not quite sure if igp's work in this notebook.

 

you mean that i should try to remove gpu and restart with intrigrated graphic in cpu ( is that what u mean igp?)

p.s. i just curious, i am not an expert in computer hardware/architecture.. in my opinion , between cpu and gpu the possiblilty of failure of gpu should be higher than cpu. but in my case, why the cpu fan has no power input. (gpu and cpu fan still usable)

 

Yes integrated graphics = igp

If you have no clue what youre doing when opening up the laptop you shoudnt try to and let some one with knowledge look at the problem.

Well, if the fan aint spinning it doesnt nessecarily mean that its not working at all, maybe its cool enough so it doesnt spin up yet. (even with my 920xm it stops spinning because it gets under 39 decrees or some sort.)

 

Could someone supply me with the most up to date vBios for the w860CU? I keep searching and searching and I need it because my laptop is way out of date. All i've flashed is the EC and Bios recently

 

The clevo w860cu, doesnt just have "A" vBios, what gpu do you have? A 285 GTX or 5870m radeon or a 460 GTX/470GTX. and if you dont have problems with it dont mess with it.. (update video card drivers, not the bios because that doesnt help your games in any way )

 

I have clevo w860cu core i7 820QM with Nvidia GTX285M and just to make sure if it will be fit and problem free if I upgraded this laptop with ATI RAdeon HD6970M? and what should I change/replace? the heatsink? or something else? and do I have to update the BIOS?
Thanx

 

fireedo, have a lil read up here http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...dell-oem-m18x-my-w860cu-pics.html#post8090552

 

thx a lot for your reply

Now I'm curious about HD6990M can W860CU handle this card? is there anyone here have try this card on W860CU?

 

I don't think anyone has tried it yet, but I think it would work. However, the performance increase isn't that great and the 6970M is KNOWN to work with the w860cu so I personally took no chances. The price is also higher.

 

Actually please try it. I am curious to know how the machine will handle it heat and fan wise. I am 100% sure it will work.

The cost is a deterrent for most however the performance increase is apparently noticeable. A 6970M would have to be OCed to around 800mhz on the core to beat it at stock clocks! That is due to having 35mhz bump in core, 160 extra shaders and a few extra texture processing units I think 56 vs 48.

 

Dear Forum Members,

I would like to get assistance from you.
I've searched the forum but couldn't find any answer to my questions.

In short: I have a dead ATI 5870 and want to replace it/ get info what can I do? Alternatives, other brand's cards, upgrades, etc.

In detail:
I'm living in Europe, but I bought my NP8690 august 2010 in the USA. Due to the date unfortunately my warranty is out of date. Recently my videocard started to heat up, and when I realized it was working on 148C it was already too late. (know it from the logs.)

I brought my machine to a local service, they said the graphics card way beyond repair, so I contacted the reseller where I purchased the machine from, the Sager company and the german Clevo hq.

The Sager company sent me to my ... Told me that they can't help, they didn't even answer to my questions and told me to contact the local clevo office.
The local clevo hq only told me they have 5870's.
The American reseller told me that they can order cards : Ati 5870, Nvidia 285M, Nvidia GS460M and 470M, but told me that the latter two only can be put into the machines which came with USB 3.0

Is this true, that the GS 460 or 470 will not work, if I don't have an USB3.0 (I assume the motherboard is newer on those models and it does not have anythig to do with the USB port.)?
If so, how can I find out, if my unit has an USB 3.0 port or not?(by inspecting the hardware or by looking at it) Because I cant turn it on.

Another question: I can order a Dell m15x or m17x 's videocard cheaper than the quotes I received from the resellers, but Is there anybody who knows it will work in this unit (bios incompatibilities etc - I'm not an expert in this field)?
Do you have any experience with other brand's cards inserted into this unit?

Thank you in advance.

 

Hey check out this link:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/622213-np8690-upgrade-470m-possible-bf3-worthy.html

TL;DR: You can upgrade to all of those cards, but it might be better for you to upgrade to the 6970m as it is more powerful. If you decide to go that route, here is how you can do it:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...alled-6970m-dell-oem-m18x-my-w860cu-pics.html
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...-clevo-w860cu-w870cu-sager-np8690-np8760.html

You can order the card from MXM Upgrade Home Page which is located in Belgium, or pick one up on eBay or the marketplace on this forum if you're lucky. if you can get a 6970m cheap from Dell it will work (as mine did).

Also: USB 3.0 ports are blue on the inside. Example (not the w860cu):

 

Yup as oan states the 6970 is the better card than either 460M or 470M. (the 470M performs about on par with the older 480M which the 6970 outperforms by as much as 33% stock clock for clock)

Also it is guaranteed to work in the older w860cu/np8690 models such as my own. The community here has pretty much proven that all flavours (or perhaps I should say pcb colours lol) of the 6970 work fine in our machines so it is the safest upgrade too.

If you want to push the boat out and try a 6990M then you will have the most powerful 860cu to date! It will cost you but then think of the bragging rights and additional gaming prowess!

 

thanx a lot for your reply....really want to try it

and what about PSU? 180watt is it enough?
can I use this 180watt PSU ? (I mean it has the Tip type as mine)

 

Not sure. I use the Liteon Targus 180W power supply. It also has various tips. Tip 1 fits perfectly. I think 180W is sufficient however an OCed 920xm and OCed 6970M/6990M mights even strain that!

I have a feeling that I am pushing the ceiling of 180W and might be looking for a replacement soon. If you have a non extreme chip 840qm or slower then 180W should be perfect.