**OFFICIAL W860CU/NP8690 Owners Lounge**

Hmmmm... Tried upgrading to the ATI stock 10.8 mobility drivers and although it reports success, it doesn't seem to install properly. And this is after running driver sweeper in safe mode.

Can we not use the stock drivers from the ATI site?

 

It's installing the 10.8 version of CCC, but not the display drivers (appears to be using the 10.3 set). Try going to folder c:\ATI\Support\10-8_mobility_ vista_win7_64_dd_ccc\Config and open InstallManager.cfg in Notepad. Change the line "WorkaroundInstall=false" to WorkaroundInstall=true" and save. Return to the subfolder "10-8_mobility_ vista_win7_64_dd_ccc" and run Setup. When Install Manager opens, just select Install, Express, etc and let it install the rest of the 10.8 package. Doing this should avoid the need for uninstalling the display driver through Device Manager. See if this works for you; if not, will need to just clean out everything ATI related and then install from a clean base.

 

According to XXODD from the Netherlands, it seems the 460M will soon become an option for the W860CU:
Welkom in de wereld van XXODD. XXODD XNi860cu 15,6”

Unfortunately I can't see the ATI M5870 as an option anymore which might mean that the W860 might get slightly upgraded.

 

There is a new bios available
1.16s

Software Upgrade

anyone already tried it?

 

Hi everyone,
I was all set to get the NP5125 when I saw the 860 upgrade. I was spec'ing out the 5125 pretty high, so it is about the same price as the new 860 base. But, from what I see, I get more punch. Plus, I just read the NBR review blasting the build quality of the 5125. No problems with the W860CU build that I have read. My only concern is the abysmal battery life. What are the pros/cons of this model vs the 5125. Has anyone heard about a better battery like the one that just came out for the 5125? What are some average battery lives that you have seen? over an hour? Under? I will be using this mainly for office cr*p, some gaming, and programming. Any help is appreciated.
Cheers.

 

If it annoys you why don't you just put the fans on the low setting using the touch key above the keyboard.

 

If you got your laptop right after the card came out you may have the original video bios that does not work with the stock video drivers from AMD. If so just flash the newer video bios on your card and the stock drivers will install just fine.

 

The battery in my W870CU (essentially the same as a W860) lasts 1 hour at best, with desktop activity only. Don't even try gaming unplugged. I have never seen a 5125, so can't compare model quality, but the build quality of the W870 is excellent, one of the very best notebooks I have owned.

 

That fan noise is nowhere near low

 

@The Revelator:
Thanks for the info. After seeing the review of the build quality on YouTube by Xotic PC, I think it is similar to the W860, just a bit thinner, though some of the issues mentioned in the NBR review were specifically refuted in the video. Perhaps a lemon was delivered for review. That being said, the 5125 really suits my needs for a business laptop better than the W860. Think I will get that, and then once Sandy Bridge comes out, (and I save more money!) I will worry about the fun laptop for myself. One where I don't need to worry about straying too far from an outlet. And hopefully Clevo will worry less about a third HDD bay and increase battery size. That coupled with a lower power consumption (albeit not a huge difference) will hopefully allow for a better battery life. Thanks again for the info.

 

when the gtx 470m comes out??

 

rjtech told me that it will be somewhere around end of october.

 

Did they tell you more, perhaps a price?
Does anyone know how the PCB layout looks like?

 

No price yet, they said. Not even with the 460M.

 

After upgrading from a Sager 8662 i must say Clevo/Sager lost their build quality, maybe it's because i have 5870M but the vent gives out a high-pitched whistle/humming sound that is rather annoying when gaming, the keyboard is terrible, after using this laptop for a month the WASD keys now have a squeaking now when pressed down. I wasn't going to buy an Alienware M15x because i don't like the flashy lights but after this laptop i will probably switch to an Alienware or an ASUS, I was hoping to use this laptop for lan parties and using it at a friends place but i think i might just dust off my 8662 and use that a alot less noise and that laptop only has 1 fan (QX9300 and a GTX280M). I was going to RMA it but RJtech said the sound is normal, so i'm SOL.

 

High pitched noise? I don't get that off my fan, but I get the occasional humming. But doing work, gaming or listening to music, you don't tend to notice it. Maybe it might be defective, because some W860CU owners have a similar problem; a higher than average noise. But then again, maybe because I have a GTX280m as well and not the ATI5870m.

As for the keyboard...ummm well that's the first time I heard of a squeeking keyboard. I'd suggest you replace your current one with a new W860CU

 

i want to update my card to 5870m.do u recommend to wait for gtx 470m?i dont know what to do..

 

personally, i recommend that you wait and see if the 470m will indeed be available for the 8690 and what the price and performance will be.

 

That's what i meant a humming noise, it comes on when the CPU fan turns on. And as for the GPU i heard the 5870M runs hotter but when the fan is at 70% i can hear a high-pithced whistle. The problem is i can't even RMA is, i talked to RJtech and they said it was normal.

 

That's really the problem of RJTech, they don't listen to their customers easily. You have to push them hard to get what you want. No "customer's always right" attitude.

 

Santech has 460M as well.

SANTECH SANTECH N56 - SANTECH Notebook

 

I have an issue with the finger scanner. Some times when I try to unlock my laptop with my fingerprint, I keep getting the "use a longer stroke when scanning" error message, but when I try to enter my password, the error message will constantly pop up. Any recommendations?

 

any idea on how i can monitor cpu fan speed ?

gpu fan shows up on gpuz, hwinfo but no cpu fan anywhere

 

@Weegian: re "use a longer stroke" error -- Viagra.

 

Ah this is because the scanner only picks up errors after you type in your password, so you have to wait till all the errors stop versus the amount of times you scan your finger incorrectly...if that makes sense

 

just making sure. this will work with the 8690 right?

Amazon.com: Corsair 8 GB DDR3 Laptop Memory Kit CMSO8GX3M2A1333C9: Electronics

any comments on crucial ram?

 

Mine has i7 Q740 which is not an available choice in the poll.

Mine has ATI HD 5870 gpu.

 

This laptop is great. Love it! Especially the 1080p display, and the very effective dual cooling fans.

Only negative is I want to shoot the engineer who designed the numeric keypad.

I habitually use PgUp PgDn a lot, but on this keyboard those share the 9 and 3 keys.
Using them requires 2 hands, left hand to press the Fn key in lower left corner, then right hand to pres the Num Lk key in top right corner.

Also difficult getting used to having the decimal point key in the top right area.

Also, the Caps Lock key I rarely use is a large key, while the Delete key I constantly use is a small key. That ought to be reversed, with Delete a big key.

If you buy one you'll like it!

Remember, this laptop is made to move from one plug-in location to another. You can't use it very long on batteries alone, maybe 45 min or so. That's the trade-off for so much uummmmmpppphhh!

My new Sager (Clevo) is definitely is of much higher quality build than the Dell Latitude I previously had.

Also, PowerNotebooks.com was an excellent place to buy this. They gave great communication. I would be happy to buy from them again.
-Scott

 

Have you tried using the Blue PgUP and PgDn keys instead of the ones on the numeric pad, those do not require the fn+numlk

 

So who were the lucky people that got a 5870 and a USB3 before Sager switched the GPU to 460M?

 

just use an external keyboard when you can.

 

This guy got the 5870 about 3 weeks ago... maybe a little longer. I'm glad I got the 5870 before it became the 460M. If they were offering the GTX 480M for the same price... well that'd be a different story. At least those hot Fermis will run cooler in this machine.

 

Guys, currently im using an i5 processor.. Can i swap it with a i7 in the future?

 

Yes

10char

 

I did Just got mine a little over a week ago. Have they stopped shipping the laptops with a USB3 port?

 

I'm not sure on that since I have a different Sager laptop. But USB3 is an awesome addition since my friend has 8690[5870 and USB3] and I transferred 480GB of data from his HDD to mine in a couple of minutes.

 

Currently, my battery is removed because of the bloating problem, I'll RMA it soon. I'm on 1.00.16 BIOS and I just noticed now that HWMonitor and HD Tune Pro doesn't display the temperature of my Hitachi 7k500 HDD. I remember seeing the HDD temperature before. Is this connected with beta drivers of my Intel Chipset and RST that I'm using?

 

Anyone else update themselves to the .16 BIOS and have any feedback?

 

i dont know but phil does not recommend using the beta irst drivers

 

Well, I tried going back to .14 and .15 and I had the same result (no HDD temperature). So I'm guessing that it's related to the drivers OR to running without the battery (I don't have the battery now so I can't test WITH BATTERY).

Can anyone try to remove their battery of the W860CU, restart the laptop and then run HWMonitor to see if the HDD temp is displayed?

 

im running my 8690 without the battery and my xt's temp shows on hw monitor

 

Hmm. I'm wondering what causes it to be not displayed. I'll try reverting to non-beta drivers later to check if that's the culprit.

 

you may want to post it here

http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...20325-new-intel-rst-10-0-0-1043-beta-out.html

 

If you roll back the driver you will know.

 

Yup I will do that tomorrow. I can't do it now since it's already 1:17AM in our place and my eyes are close to falling already.

 

Hopefully it resolves the issue for you.

 

Can anybody, on .16 BIOS, please confirm that he WEI score of Win7 x64 always "needs to be refreshed" every after restart/reboot? I've noticed that this happened from the .15 BIOS. Reverting to .14 BIOS solves this problem though.

 

I do not have this problem on the .16 BIOS

 

never happened to me with .15 BIOS... it needs updating only once, after the flash...

 

Weird.

So what could be causing my problem? I don't understand why switching to .14 BIOS solves this problem but of course I want to stay on .16.