**OFFICIAL W860CU/NP8690 Owners Lounge**

i ran mine another 3 times and got a consistent 35secs on all four tries.
you could have some background processes affecting your run, like superfetch or an AV.
i switched of my AV and antispyware, exept for defender, and looged out of the internet while doing the 4 super pi runs

 

Ops!! Yep you were right. I thought I went through the process but forgot one. It's 35sec every time now.

 

Opened up my laptop today, and saw that the Arctic silver wasn't really done well, hence my load temps going pretty high.

A question (after re-applying AS5); what does it meant by "curing" the compound?
Do I leave it there and not switch on the laptop, letting it settle down for room temperatures or do I continue using the laptop like normal use so it settles down for both normal laptop temperatures and room temperatures?

 

The curing time refers to how long it takes for the thermal paste to break in to it's optimal state. You can use your notebook however you want whenever you want after you applied the thermal paste. AS5 recommends 200 hours of break in time, but in reality it is really only around 12 hours to a whole day of having the notebook operational.

 

Oooh I get it now. So I just keep using the laptop like I normally would then. Thanks Sovi

 

Hi.

A couple of hours ago the fans in my Sager NP8690 got really loud, almost like they were on full speed all the time. Until now, the laptop has been fairly silent, even at load. But now it's really loud, even if I'm not doing anything. I don't know how this happened. I remember installing a Windows update earlier, but I don't remember if that's when the problem occurred (and I can't see how that should be relevant). I've tried restarting the laptop several times, but the noise starts from the moment I start the computer. I read somewhere that there's a hotkey for setting the fans at full speed (Fn + 1 or something), can't rule out that I accidentally have pressed these buttons. If this is the case, how do I shut it off? Oh, and Silent mode doesn't work either, the fans are equally loud even with Silent mode on. And according to Everest, the CPU temp is 46C, HDD temp 37C.

I'm really clueless here, appreciate all the help I can get.

(this is a copy of a thread that I posted on xoticpc's forum a couple of days ago. Didn't get an answer there, so I hoped you guys could help me)

 

After using the laptop for a couple days I really only have one complaint so far that I wish they would of done different. But it is not huge. WHY did they put the dumb sleep button right by the volume control. LOL I have hit that thing all the time. Also I may be one of the few, but I actually like the touchpad. I think it works great.

 

try doing a system restore beforevthe windows update

 

haha youre probably the ONLY ONE, but good for you.
youre right about the sleep button though and if there was a wish list, id add hardware buttons and a better headphone jack to that...

 

Yea after figuring out the touch-scrolling the touchpad is fine, just don't slide your finger and make sure to tap 1cm left of the right edge of the pad.

And yep the sleep button owned me during a Crysis shootout when I tried to put the volume down and ended up putting her in a nap. Not a big deal though, turned it back on and the game was paused.

 

I had that problem at first, then I just set the sleep button to 'do nothing' in the windows power properties...

 

anyone know what the new BIOS is for?

 

Is the zeroshock 17" too big for the w860cu?

 

I'm starting to wonder if I got bad fans on top of the touchpad issue (which I've mostly fixed in Linux)... do your guys fans start off at a low almost growl and slowly get higher pitched when they spin up?

 

WELL with me nope. its more like a low level whirr.
the only growl ive heard form my laptop so far was when i stuck i dirty dvd in it. after a few minutes its started making this growling sound. i though at first it was my fan, because it really sounded like the fan hittig some loose tape.
but then i removed the dvd and it dissapeared.

 

The system restore was successful, but the fans are still as loud as before

 

And I wonder why the Silent Mode isn't working as it should. Does it work for you guys?

 

There sure are a lot of issues for a $2000 laptop. I hope mine is a good one. I can deal with the sleep button (turning it off it is a good plan), hopefully the headphone jack, the touchpad... but if my fans are borked, that's a dealbreaker.

I can't believe they didn't use higher quality for the headphone jack and touchpad and everything, though. I don't get it. Even my $250 Acer netbook has a decent headphone jack and actually outputs a little too much volume (even a few notches is often too loud), so you'd think a $2000 laptop would have no problems there.

 

The 17" version is just right. I've tested the 15" version in a store and my W860CU didn't fit by a long shot. Get the 17" one.

Note that the problem is not the size of the notebook, but the thickness. The Zeroshock sleeves are constructed for thin apple macbooks.

 

Oh is that so? You think the 15.6" version of the Zeroshock is capable for the W860CU?

Also, did you get the Zeroshock IV? or III?

 

The Zeroshock III and Zeroshock IV interior dimensions are the same. If Prophex says that it will only fit the 17 inch Zeroshock, then it will only fit the 17 inch Zeroshock.

 

Nope, the notebook is way to thick for that. (Again, the Zeroshock sleeves are built for thin Apple macbooks and not the bulky W860CU)


ONTOPIC: I'm considering to put an 80gig SSD into my machine, but I'm afraid that 80gig will be to small for someone who plays many different games. ('at the same time') For example: I currently only have 3 games installed (Dragon Age: Origins, Prototype and Mirror's Edge) and I'm already at 64gig ...

What are your opinions ?

 

Now that I think about it again, Prophex, when you said the W860CU did not fit in the 15 inch Zeroshock, do you mean you were unable to get the case to zipper closed?

 

I wasen't even able to put the machine inside, let alone close the zipp. If you've seen a Zeroshock sleeve before and own a W860CU or W870CU, I think you can easily see that the notebook is to thick for those sleeves. (sadly)

 

Hi guys, wondering if someone could help me. When I have the HDMI cable plugged in from laptop to tv, I noticed (using rivatuner) that my gpu clocks always stay in high performance mode and dont downclock themselves. Only when I take the cable out do they drop to:

Core clock - 400
Memory - 120

Is there anyway to stop the clocks from rising back up whilst the HDMI cable is plugged in, and only do it when I run something that requires it to clock up?

Also I just ran 3dmar06 and my gpu tems reached 85 degrees celcius...I haven't seen others temps whilst running this so is that normal? It seems to idle around 50 degrees

 

If you are running multiple displays then your gfx card will always run at max clocks. There is no way around this.

 

But what is the difference between the Zeroshock III and IV?

 

Lots of things are getting blown up bigger then they should be. I complained about the sleep button just because they could of put it in a better place. But if it wasn't for me being clumsy and actually looking where I am typing it wouldn't be a problem. Plus you can get it to do nothing if you want. I don't get the problem with the headphone jack, it's been the same if not better then any other laptop I have used. Every laptop I have seen could have improvements that could suit me better. In my opinion people are getting paranoid and are finding stuff they think is broken when there is really nothing wrong. I don't know why people don't like touchpad. It does exactly like they are supposed to. But thats just what I think. I will still say for a 15.6'' notebook it is still the best in my opinion.

 

Can anyone tell my why one of the fans (think it's the CPU-fan) is covered with a black plastic film? Wouldn't this ruin the airflow, or at least only provide hot air to the CPU? Would removing the film lower the CPU temp?

 

Thats exactly the reason why I opted for the 160gb version.. Modern day games easily take up 10-15gb a piece, which makes quick work of a 80gb drive

 

Welcome to the party, 4play. This has been discussed for quite some time, and from memory, I'll try and sum up.

We assume it's put there to direct airflow. From most tests, removing it does decrease CPU temperatures by a few degrees, however, for others it has little to no effect. Long term impact of removing the plastic has not been determined, but it is likely that it may result in higher temperatures elsewhere in the laptop, which may, or may not adversely effect other components.

Unless you are having temperature problems to being with, I would recommend leaving it in place.

 

I personally visited the Sager warehouse, had their technician review all aspects of this beast . I asked him about the cover, and his reply was that the cover allows the airflow to cool the memory & a few other components all over the mo-bo, he advised NOT to take the cover out since the system is designed to have superior cooling even with it on.

 

I agree, it was obviously put there for a reason, and with consistency for the most part. It's not like they had 10,000 random plastic circles left over and were sitting around trying to decide how to get rid of them

 

Ok then, I'm leaving it on

Anyone tried the BIOS update? Any significant improvement?

 

Sager's technician can go take a hike.

 

No one is brave enough to try the new BIOS? No I am not either.

 

Hello everyone!

I'm an owner of a clevo w860cu too =)

About the BIOS question, i still did not try to update it since i still don´t really know what it does... afraid too^^

About the silent Mode, i get the thing about it, but something is missing... ok it let´s our laptop with the fixed fan speed so if the pc is too "stressed" it controls it. And if the pc is resting, with everything set to low? There must be a way to put the fan set to lower speed as they are not so needed...

At first i thought silent mode boost the fans so the system would be much stable, and tnen going back to normal speed (auto),the fans actually go to lower and go perfect silent... if it's louder, ok no problem it reduces, if it's in normal mode, the silent make it much louder and that's the problem they must try to fix. really whose logic to think pressing the silent mode button would make it louder.


Bringing back an issue refered in previous pages... I have the space-bar key harder that others... turns out it's kind of hard to always correct sentences where spaces are missing


Solutions... about the fan is it drivers related? i think they can have some impact on them. If not, nevermind^^

 

I did, everything works 100 %.. And except for the Bios logo being switched to Sager, I cant find any difference..

Changelog would be nice tho

 

I wish there was something that could be done about the touchpad. It's awful trying to scroll in the manner you have to do it on the w860cu.

 

Have you tried the touchpad driver/utility from the first post in this thread?

It kind of helped me

 

Yea, that's the one that came on the Driver cd with the laptop. I don't understand why it's so hard to make the touchpad recognise a simple downwards motion so that it scrolls properly. Surely its not a limitation of the touchpad itself, and can be acheived via a proper driver.

 

Actually the one listed in the first post is a newer version of the Sentellic driver that came with the CD, atleast for me.

However the new version is giving me alot of problems, like not disabling touchpad when I plug in my USB mouse, and generally acting wierd.
So I had to go back to the one from the CD.

Now the wierd thing is that I used the other driver for about 2 weeks and it worked perfectly, then one day it just started acting out.

 

Hahaha, love that comment! I've read many posts from you, and value your opinion, but can you explain your comment?

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5547231&postcount=1156
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5547289&postcount=1157
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5547411&postcount=1160
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5547542&postcount=1162

 

First of all, thanks for the awesome picture [I'm using it already]! Second, you really dissected the issue, didn't you? Sucks having to repeat yourself, but at least its appreciated.

 

I don't mind. I just want the facts to stand tall against blind, unsupported explanations.

 

Well, I'm gonna give it a try tonight to see if the fan noise would be effected if I take out that cover. have you noticed any change yourself?

 

Removing won't noticeably affect fan noise.

 

do you know what can?

 

Removing the fan will.