**OFFICIAL W860CU/NP8690 Owners Lounge**

You have to do it in DOS mode. Check the Clevo BIOS thread first post for more info. You need to put the files on a bootable USB stick or CD. Boot from the drive in DOS mode and run update.bat. I wouldn't recommend you to update the BIOS if you are not used to this method.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=416916

 

Seems like a lot of work to do for a bios update. Dont most bios updates just execute from windows and then ask you to reboot? Is this a sager thing? Is there anything important in the update?

Where can I get the latest nvidia drivers? The one from nvidia's website dont work and i cant seem to access laptopvideo2go, dont know if it the website is down.

What driver do you guys use for the touchpad? I use the one that's recommended on the start page of this thread. man the touchpad does suck.

How come the idle temps on the np8690 have a wide range of values. some are reporting high 30s while some are much higher. Mine is around 48-50 for GPU and low 50s for cpu just surfing the web. I ran furmark 3x in a row and got 77 as my highest temp for the gpu and it went back down to normal temps after 10 sec. I dont know if I need to reapply thermal paste to get lower temps.

 

these issues could be possibly fixed by driver updates.
you could return it if you feel that youre not getting your moneys worth.
just remember that you wont ever get a more powerful 15-inch laptop than this.

 

Return it. Sounds like those are important to you. If I ran into 3 things that I used frequently that caused a problem, I'd return it as well. Why settle? Check out the Asus G series, they have some good options (though might run a bit hot).

 

Bios update with Sager cannot be done in Windows sorry. At this time there is no program that will allow this.

 

i used to update my hp dv9000 and my desktops this way. so afaik bios updates are done at system level-aka DOS prompt.

 

Clevo/Sager's high-end offerings are advanced notebooks, usually for enthusiasts who want/need the power. They serve a niche market, so you're not going to get coddled and spoon-fed like you would with many other manufacturers. I feel like we should advertise that somewhere in the buying guide so people know what they're getting into it..

Anyway..

You burn it to a cd, put the cd in and reboot. It's not a lot of work. We don't know what's in the update. Unless you have a specific problem, you shouldn't use it.

If the latest drivers are having problems, use the ones on your CD. Is there a problem with those drivers that you're seeing?

I recommend a mouse. The touchpad is horrendous.

They have a wide range of values because they're a wide range of factors affecting them. Ambient temperature, thermal paste application, cpu/GPU load when looking at temps, etc..

You do not need to re-apply your paste. Your temperatures are fine.

 

It's a lot of work if you dont have spare cds lying around. I gotta go to a store and get a stack of them since I dont think you can buy a single blank one. That's $10 just to update the bios. Or maybe I can bum one off a friend. I dont have spare cds since I never really burn anything, movies or what not. I think in Dells you can update the bios in windows if I remember correctly.

But your right this notebook is for power users. I'm just starting to get used to it.

Here's what the new bios updates: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5665014.

Isn't it prudent to update to the latest drivers? I have 186.47 drivers for the 280m

 

Just make a bootable USB stick, use it as a normal USB stick and whenever you need a bios update, just use it for that.

It's very simple actually, the first time is the hardest ).

 

I just installed the 1.1.05 bios update , but nothing change.
Now i have Bios :1.00.05 and KBC/EC :1.00.01 .
How can i downgrade to get the 1.01.04S LS3 Advanced Chipset Control,?
Thks for your help.

 

God that just gives me a warm tingly feeling. I can't wait to get this thing in my hot little hands. I really do get a small twinge of pride when I tell people I'm getting a Sager and they've never heard of it. It's like getting a Buggati Veyron when people around you think a Mazda RX8 is the Bee's Knees.

 

Yes except my Bugatti has a stereo system, a wonky steering wheel, and um...whatever the automotive equivalent of a DVD burner that won't do dual layer burning is...

I appreciate that the performance is good, but I wasn't really expecting any of the components to be worse than my $1500 Dell...

 

Yeah, that's no fun. I do hope I get a fully functional system. I'd hate to lose that warm fuzzy...

 

well you could return your unit and get another high end notebook - and possibly deal with more problematic issues.
look around nbr and youll see what i mean

 

Maybe a Bugatti that only does two wheel burnouts, when it should be able to do all four...

 

I'm waiting to see what Sager can do for me. Not going to do anything rash right now.

 

Brandon already replied I guess, but I wanted to say that my temps are about the same as yours. We're okay with those temps, but I'm actually going to reapply the paste. Unnecessary, but I want to see if it decreases temps at all. I have a feeling there's a bit to much applied.

I could answer this by looking at the diagrams, but I'm no good with diagrams. What component is to the right of the touchpad, about mid-way between the touchpad and the edge of the system? Seems to be about the only warm to the touch part on the system for me (other than the fan vents!). It's not a problem or anything. I'm just curious. Kinda hope I'm not overworking my HDD or something. It's not HOT tho. Just warm.

 

Hey guys, can't seem to find an answer to this so I thought I'd see if anybody else is having the same problem.

Just got a NP8690 and I'm trying to sync my iPhone to it. Every time I try to do so, it fails for an unknown reason (looks like the iPhone is getting disconnected/reconnected) and Windows is going crazy "finding" the new device multiple times. I've uninstalled everything related to iTunes and reinstalled (i.e. Mob. Drivers, Bonjour, Apple Soft UD...everything) and nothing. Also flashed to the latest BIOS from the Sager site, also no change.

It looks like this may be an issue with power to the USB somewhere in the BIOS settings (or at least I know it was for some Gigabyte boards), but it was fixed in a BIOS flash.

So, anybody experiencing this? Am I needing to wait for new BIOS, or does somebody have a solution? Or am I alone with a defective product?

Thanks

 

My iPhone connected fine to my computer, but, stupid iTunes wouldn't let me add anything to it because it had been sync'd with my old PC. I've been using CopyTrans instead and its a great alternative.

 

That's kind of odd, I get the exact same problem with my Wife's Centro on her computer, but it works just fine if I plug her centro into my computer. Her USB ports all do it, but they all work fine with everything but the Centro. What OS you running? Hers is running a pretty new install of Windows 7.

 

I'm having a weird issue. If I go to the Nvidia control panel and go to the scaling, it won't let me select anything but "Use my display's built-in scaling". This is fine, as it mostly does exactly want I want, i.e. blows things up without disturbing the aspect ratio. However, I've got one game (Knights of Honor on Steam) that insists upon running in a little 1024x768 window in the middle of my screen.

I know you guys probably can't help me with Knights of Honor, but why won't it let me select anything except "Use my display's built-in scaling"? Won't even let me select "Do not scale."

Weird.

Only had trouble with this one game, tho. Everything else seems to psychically know exactly what I want it to do.

 

Which driver?

 

Just the ones that came on the driver disc. I'm having trouble with other games now, too. It scales some perfectly, with no stretching, and others it doesn't scale at all, just leave in a little window in the middle of the screen.

I thought before it allowed me to select Nvidia scaling, but now after I hit apply and keep, it just reverts back to using the monitor's built-in scaling.

Control panel version 2.5.401.03, driver version 186.47.

Maybe it was always like this and I didn't notice before. Would like to figure out a way to make it scale everything and not just some programs, though.

 

try 186.81
thats the driver that comes with the xoticpc sagers

 

Here are my temps with the plastic removed and about 26.5C ambient temp:










Are these normal temps? Why the big fluctuation? Is it normal with the i7 920XM?

 

I'm having trouble seeing the temperature run you did before the removal of the plastic? or is that in another post?

 

Without the removal of the plastic, I just tested with Orthos for about 5 mins and it reached about 85C. I asked SS and he advised me to remove the plastic and now I got these temps from a full hour OCCT test.

I'm very worried with the fluctuation in temps, why is that happening?

 

Well, without the same tests pre-removal it's a bit hard to tell if it helped. The temps do look high, but I don't have a 920XM to compare to. Hopefully SS can tell you if that's normal for XM or not.

 

Ah. But how about with the fluctuation? Isn't that abnormal?

 

I'm sorry, I just realized I was reading this incorrectly. I assumed that red was the temperature, which it is not. If your temps are maxing out at 82C, that's normal.

 

what cpu build are you using again?
you got this thru ebay right?

 

I recently placed an 80gig SSD (model n°: INTEL SSDSA2M080G2GC (These are the 'fast' ones, right ? )) in my notebook (see specs in sig) and it takes W7 Ultimate about 45sec. to start up. Is this normal ? I keep reading of people with whom it only takes 15sec ...

 

That seems pretty slow? Mine def starts quicker than that and I just have a 7200rpm HDD.

 

Those are hot. You're only running the test on CPU OCCT on a small data set, which doesn't stress your CPU that hard, even after an hour. Run CPU Linpack and crank everything to max. Then will you get an accurate stress reading for your CPU. Either that or run IntelBurnTest at maximum memory usage or Prime95 set for 3.2GB of usage or higher.

The rollercoaster CPU usage in your test is the result of using a small amount of memory for the CPU to work with. The more memory you use, the hotter your CPU will get as it will have more to crunch and for much longer intervals. Like I said above, cease using OCCT CPU test and use CPU Linpack, IBT, or P95.

 

^ Thats a nice oven you got there, those temps are pretty high. Wonder what sort of chaos is going on under the hood.

 

I bet you guys were already aware, but I'll post it anyway. I found this Clevo page with a ton of drivers.

http://www.clevo.com.tw/en/e-services/download.asp

What I was actually looking for were updated video drivers, though, as it was suggested that might solve my scaling (or lack there of!) issues on certain games, and this page still has the video driver I'm using.

Where do you guys get the updated drivers? xoticpc is using newer video drivers than this, according to trvelbug.

Thanks, trvelbug and everyone.

Edit: Oh yeah, and I was wondering if anyone had tried the new audio or touchpad drivers and if that alleviated any issues there (scrolling problems on the touchpad and lack of bass on the speaks/audio out). Or the fingerprint reader, for that matter, which I'm about ready to turn off. I swear it only works half the time.

Edit edit: Sager has a driver page, too, I see. http://www.sagernotebook.com/information.php?information_id=6

Edit edit edit (eek): Looks like the drivers on Sager's site are all from the end of October. I'm not sure where to get the updated video driver you speak of, trvelbug!

 

http://www.nvidia.com/object/notebook_winvista_win7_x64_186.81_whql.html

 

Haha, darn it. Thank you, SS. I somehow had the impression we needed special Sager/Clevo versions. I'm glad that's not the case!

I'll see if these help my issue, but even if they don't, it's always good to have the latest drivers.

I noticed that if I switch my desktop resolution to 1024x768, it displayed that in a little window too, but then I was able to go to the Nvidia panel and select the other options. However, particular games (tho not necessarily all) that run in 1024x768 still run in the little window instead of scaling up.

 

like what games?
and why would you run in 1024? almost all games can run in fhd with the 8690

 

Exactly--why would I? Especially if it's just a little window in the middle of my screen. I'm baffled by this.

Anyway, I didn't think it was doing this before. Tropico 2: Pirate Cove is one example. It runs in low-res by today's standards, I think maybe even 800x600. Often 2D games won't have any other options other than the resolution they were designed to run in.

I thought I played it when I first got my laptop, and it scaled up and filled the whole screen. Now, it runs in a tiny window in the middle. It's as if the monitor's scaling has been disabled.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic does something similar. When I boot it up, it plays the intro movies in a little window at the center. Once I get to the menu screen and it loads my settings (1280x1024 I think), it plays in a bigger window, but it still doesn't scale.

Whether it's always done this or has just started doing this more recently, I'm not sure, but it's troubling either way, and I can't figure out how to change it or where to do for assistance. I don't think it's the fault of the games.

 

I ordered the same and put it in my old laptop until my new one arrives. I don't have a great graphics card in it. It boots up in 16 seconds with the basic theme. With aero enabled, it boots up in about 50 seconds.

 

are you sure you have nvidia scaling on? you may have it set to fixed-aspect ratio- that will give you the window thingy.
also try the .81 drivers. theyre supposed to be the most stable of the bunch for the 280m

i scale down myself especially when i cant read the words etc. and it has always worked for me.

cheers

 

Well, it seems to me that it was "stuck" or something! I switched to "use NVIDIA scaling", and then it began just stretching everything to full-screen. This is better than putting it in a box, at least, I thought. But then I switched to "use NVIDIA scaling with fixed-aspect ratio," and now it's doing what I want. It scales the lower resolutions up, but it doesn't stretch them.

This is exactly what I had it set on before, but it was doing the box thing. Not sure why it's working now and wasn't before, but I'm sure glad it's working! It was your suggestion to try "Use NVIDIA scaling" that seems to have fixed it. Thanks!

I agree, sometimes the text does get a little small at native res, but wow, Galactic Civilizations II looks glorious in 1900x1080.

Thanks for bearing with me. I'm really glad it works now.

So far so good with the new drivers, by the way.

 

I can confirm that they don't make the bass any better. Will try the touchpad next.

EDIT: No change there either!

 

Darn. Thanks for letting us know.

 

I do have Aero enabled. Anything else that could be the problem ? Could my SSD be broken or something ?

 

I have the 920XM final ES/QS Q3B8 from eBay, yes. Those are pretty popular as of the moment.

Alright, I will do those tests.

So you're saying that my CPU will still get hotter when I use CPU Linpack?

Could these temps be due to the CPU being an ES only and not an OEM?

 

engineering sample - cheaper but also could run a little hotter me thinks
i wonder if these chips were stressed during engineering tests. isnt that what they do??

 

Yes. OCCT CPU Linpack along with IBT and P95 are the only stress apps that will thrash your CPU that hard. My personal favorite still remains with Prime95 because I've been using it for so long to stress test CPU's and error test memory. You can also use OCCT because it's an all-in-one package for convenience. Or you can use IntelBurnTest as it is just a user friendly, simplified version of Intel's Linpack. http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/intel-math-kernel-library-linpack-download/. Intel knows how to get their own CPU's hot. Both OCCT and IBT use the same Intel library for stress testing the CPU, so either one is good. P95 uses a different but similar algorithm, but is near identical to Intel's if you ask me.

Not too many people have the ES mobile i7's and have compared them to the OEM's yet, so I don't know if the Q3B8 is better or worse in manufacturing quality compared to the SLBLW. Then again, you could have just received a lower quality CPU because of quality control, which happens with all CPU's, both ES and OEM.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5144004&postcount=29
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5145977&postcount=32

 

This is not always the case. Cheaper doesn't always mean lower quality (higher temps). If you search the Internet, ES can even be better than OEMs at some point. SS can explain why that happens.

Right. I'm one of the pioneers in using the 920XM ES I think, I guess I still have to wait for people to compare with my results. Although, I still have warranty from Shirley (eBay), so I don't know if I should get a replacement for this or what?