**OFFICIAL W860CU/NP8690 Owners Lounge**

what a crap laptop, got a new psu and it's still black screening, total waste of money. I give up...

 

Personally, I think it's from too high temps on components on the backside of the card. I am running my 6970M without black screening after I added thermal pads to the backside.

Still, with the 120W I can even overclock to 825/900 with no issues whatsoever.

 

please dont !!!

Try my solution, underclock your memory clock, try 850 Mhz if still blank screen try lower it a bit, mine stable at 830 Mhz, now my core/memory is 730/830, no more blank screen, sacrificing memory clock but at least it still give me a great gaming performance. Also dont forget to undervolt it too, hope that can solve blank screen problem.

 

where abouts on the cards underside did you add them?

what thickness?

 

Check out the last picture in this guide: Clevo W870CU

I used some surplus pads that are the same thickness as the ones that came with the system. I would advice you to check if the thermal pads are properly aligned to the memory on the top of the card as well. I had to move the pads a bit from their original position on the heatsink.

 

do you remember how thick they are? and did you just place a bit on each of those 4 chips or a long strip? is that the only area you need to cover?

 

AS I said, they are the same ones that are on the heatsink originally. I don't know how thick those are.

I just placed some pads on each of those 4 chips. I think I just parted up the pads that were left over after I did the mod.

I think that is the only area that needs to be covered.

 

would something like this be suitable?
Phobya Thermal Pad XT 7W/mk 1mm (120x20mm) | eBay

did you do just one layer or stack them? (if that makes any difference?) or that not a good idea?

sorry for all the quesitons.

 

I only did one layer. I'm not sure if the pads make contact with the vga-box, but I suppose so. I'm not sure what thickness the thermal pads are though, it might have been 1.5 mm. Perhaps someone else can chime in (or you can probably fin the info on this board somewhere. Phobya seems to be a good brand at least

 

i'm going to try some i found in my room, they are 1mm thick, if they don't work, i'll try something else.

 

ok, doing some 3dmark run-throughs atm.

from aid64 after 2 runs of 3dmark 11.

gpu 78*c
mem 98*c
shader 88*c

sofar, no black screen.

when I booted up the idle temps were 38/39/38

current idle temps are 45/44/45

 

try 3DMark vantage, if you pass than it's ok

 

downloading it now.

 

I have a plan to upgrade my HDD to a SSD, is w860cu already support sata III SSD?
I interested with " TEAM Sand Force 120Gb Sata III S1 500MB/s TG120GS25AS3M" is it good? I'm very new to this SSD things here
any thought?

OR just pick Seagate Momentus XT 750Gb 7200rpm? it has big storage as a main storage...hard to decide

 

tried vanatage but it black screened on me. going to send back the new psu and get some more thermal paste & pads.

i've just undervolted to 0.91, going to see how that goes.

 

When you get black screen on vantage? Is it when graphics test 2 new calico? Graphics test 2 on 3dmark vantage is the most heaviest 3d test, if u can pass that i can 90% sure you have a stable hardware setup.

Anyway can anyone help my question about SSD?

 

W860CU only supports Sata2 but I'm running a crucial m4 120gb in here, for sata3 too, and it works just fine.

It clearly makes a difference from the 320gb 7200rpm that came with the laptop as you can see on the pic. SataII doesn't do more than that.

If I was you I would go for a crucial m4 too, they have a good price and they work fine in w860cu

 

SATA III and SATA II are backwards compatible so you can use a III drive and it will work but only at SATA II speeds. By looking at your speed you can see they are maxing out at II speeds.

273.2 MB/s = 2.1856 Gb/s SATA II supports up to 3Gb/s While your not doing any harm putting a SATA III drive in there you are paying more for the faster speeds you wont be able to take advantage of.

If you do upgrade the computer down the road with SATA III you can put it in there and get the full speed the drive can do.

But its still way faster then the 320GB 7200RPM stock drive.

 

good news, I may of fixed the black screening! I removed all the thermal pads from the heatsink, I then placed the large ones back on the ram and stuck all the rest where I thought they might handle the heat better on the card. I then repasted and popped the heatsink back in placed.

Done two runs vantage and no black screens!

 

Maybe I didn't explained well but basically that's what I was saying..
I know w860cu only supports sataII and the drive is sataIII

Maybe me using "sata2" and "sata3" was a bit confusing xD

 

Good to hear!

I hope you kept the thermal pads that go between the heatsink and the memory though. Without pads on the memory chances are it will fry. Remember, there is no way to tell the temperature of the memory on the card. The value Hwinfo presents as "memory IO" is actually located on the core.

 

Yep, I still have memory pads, they were all stuck on the heatsink originally, so i stuck them all on the card and then put the heatsink on top to see how best they fit. I guess the silly eurocom people didn't do it right. because I moved all the other bits of padding and placed them where I thought they'd fit better and it seems to have done the trick.

Just played serious sam 3 for 16 minutes and apart from the fan noise no artifacts, bsods or black screens.

idle temps still seem good, low 40's while on the cooler stand with fans off.
low 50's on my desktop.

 

Only time will tell. I have mine set to 65 W tdc and 67W tdp and it broke yet again. I thought under 70 would be fine. Starting to think safest bet would be to use the 840qm and be done with it lol

 

will it a waste if buy a SATA 3 ssd? since w860cu only support sata 2 and for the price sata 2 vs sata 3 is more cheaper sata 2....what do u think guys?
and is it 120/128gb is enough for laptop this days?

 

You will be paying for speed you wont be able to use but always keep in mind that you can move the SSD over to a new computer down the road.\

120/128GB is typically enough room for Windows and your programs. If you install alot of games that will fill it up quick, for example WoW takes ~25GB, other games like BF3 can take 10-15GB space

 

for now I dont think I will make a new purchase for a new laptop or a PC, so I think sata 2 is enough

I just need to install windows 7 64bit (for sure), MS Office professional, Adobe acrobat professional, Adobe photoshop, BF3, Heroes 6, Football Manager 2012 and some small apps, so 120/128 will be safe bet?

99,9% I will get this --> New Sealed Intel 320 160GB 2.5" Gen 3 SSD Solid State Hard Drive with TRIM | eBay , What do you think guys? it's has about 40Gb more than typical 120/128gb sacrificing performance but good reliability, at least that's is conclusion from what I've read from the internet

 

Intel makes great SSD's and they're highly recommended. I'd buy from a trusted retailer rather than eBay, but that's personal preference. For the apps you run (assuming you don't have a lot of other data), 160GB is probably more than enough. You can always look at the drive on your computer now to see how much you use on average to double check though.

 

I will share some photos of my pad arrangement in a few minutes, if that interests anyone?

 

That is a very nice way of giving back to the community

 

Indeed

Here we are;

heatsink:



card:



the three small bits at the top of the card are two bits stacked. the rectangle bit is just single layer. I'm using the stock pads.

I did the mxm upgrade pads on the back thing too.

I'm now running 3dmark again to see if it's still good.

 

new idle temps for me;

40*c
36.5*c
38*c

from gpu-z & aida64.

 

Hi RanCorX2,

what was the gpu/memory clock speed at that time and which voltage?

 

stock clocks & voltages. nothing changed.

680/900 @ 1.1v

 

What about load? Idle sounds about right. In fact pretty good indeed! What are you ambient temperatures?

 

Nice.

I ordered Phobya Thermal Pads XT 7W/mk 1,5mm for the 6970m, because the mem stock pads from my old card (5870) are exhausted. I hope they are thick enough.

PS: Uses someone the phobya thermal pads for 6970m cooling?

 

Since SSD are here to stay maybe you should consider a sata3 one.

About the space the 120Gb does fine to me till now, atm have about 30Gb space left with win7,office,bf3,many valve games,photoshop,HoN, etc.

The thing that makes enought space for me is the box I bought for my old 320gb disk, have it connected with e-sata and it works fine as a second disk for big downloads

something like this: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-5-USB-SATA-ESATA-HARD-DRIVE-HDD-CADDY-ENCLOSURE-/320376236878?pt=UK_Collectables_HardDriveEnclosures_RL&hash=item4a97e96b4e#ht_4397wt_1139

 

Finally I have purchased a SSD Samsung 470 256Gb, Hope there is no trouble whatsoever...wish me luck guys

---> eBay - New & used electronics, cars, apparel, collectibles, sporting goods & more at low prices

 

ah you beat me to it firedo! I want to get one of those!!

 

well if just w860cu has sata3 support, than 830 will be sure my target

anyway how your laptop? still being repair?

 

The cpu works and is on its way back. This probably means therefore the w860cu will be ditched. I will test one final time then purchase a secondhand M15x complete barebone (nothing in it other than motherboard and heatsinks) to replace it

I can't wait much longer I really need a machine again for work...

As for the 830. It is a waste for the w860cu. The 470 is unbeaten under sata II and can even give the sata III ssds a run for their money even in sata III mode epecially in load times etc.

 

load was 78-88*c

room temp is around 20*c, if by ambient temp you mean room temp.

 

Sounds fine. So long as those temps are uner 90C you should be perfectly safe.

 

seems to be fine sofar, played some crysis 2 on high settings and it ran without a hitch.

 

Does any one know if 2x8gb ram dimms will work? or is the max really 2x4?

I'll be upgrading to a 6970m when I see a cheap one still have to find a new power supply of 180w, and those aint cheap either...

 

It will work. But I haven't the money the try it.

 

Thanks, good to hear that , i ask that because on the intel spec's it says max support is 8gb with 2 memory channels so that means 2x8gb?

"Memory Specifications
Max Memory Size (dependent on memory type) 8 GB
Memory Types DDR3-1066/1333
# of Memory Channels 2"

 

Hi guys,

I just bought a used i7 920xm (OEM) from ebay (not yet delivered). How high can I set the multiplicators, so that I do not kill my vreg? I heard sth about 70 W tpd? I also bought some liquid metal cooloing pads, so heat should not be the problem.

Thanks
Arne

 

On the heat side of things the w860cu can more than adequately cool the chip no problem.

The problem as you say is with the vregs. I fried mine instantly the first time by settings 75/75. The second time I ran 67tdp and 65 tdc and it still fried. Just took a month to do so.

I would say to be safe 60/60 max. For the multis start with 19x for 4 cores that is a little over 2.5ghz. 67/65 was enough to make 2.8ghz fully stable on 4 cores forever.

Of course all chips are different and you might be able to squeeze 20x before it starts to throttle back automatically.

 

Hey guys,

I have a first gen w860cu w/o usb3 with a GTX260M, I was trying to upgrade it and I found a good priced GTX460M, the thing is, it doesn't come with a heatsink, will the one from 260 fit?

Thanks

 

I found a thread about this question:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...t-upgrades/552002-460m-heatpipe-question.html

I guees, try and see is the correct answer