*** Official Clevo P150EM / Sager NP9150 Owner's Lounge ***

Alright, the review!

TL;DR: awesome laptop. If you want a great mix of portability and performance at a good cost, you won't find any better.

I ordered from xoticpc.com on March 8th, received at ~6:00pm March 19th. I was "assigned" Courtney as my account manger/liasion/what-have-you. I found her to be a bit less responsive than I would have liked. Roland was great, and usually responded within a day. Derek, however, went above and beyond by giving me a free rush processing at their plant (my laptop arrived at xoticpc last Friday and was shipped that same day), and responded to my emails within a few hours. To Derek's boss: give this man a raise.

IMPORTANT SPECS

- Operating System: ~Windows 8 - 64-Bit (64-Bit CD Included) + MS Office Trial 2012
- Keyboard (Internal - Laptop): Standard Sager/Clevo Non Chiclet Backlit Keyboard
- Fingerprint Reader: Integrated Fingerprint Reader
- Battery: Smart Li-ion Battery (8-Cell)
- Camera: Built in 2.0 Megapixel Camera
- Sound Card: Sound Blaster Compatible 3D Audio - Included
- Wireless Network: Sager - Built-in 802.11 Wireless B/G/N - Stock Wireless Card + Bluetooth™ v3.0 (SKU - S8R110)
- Bluetooth: Bluetooth Included *With select wireless cards only* (See “Wireless Network” Section Below)
- Thermal Compound: - IC Diamond Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU
- Graphics Video Card: nVidia GeForce GTX 675MX 4,096MB PCI-Express GDDR5 DX11 with Optimus™ Technology [User Upgradeable] (SKU – S5R521)
- Memory Card Reader: Internal 9-in-1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD/Mini SD/SDHC/SDXC/MS/MS Pro/MS Duo)
- Optical Drive Bay: Remove DVDRW Drive and Install Optical Bay Hard Drive Caddy Only (SKU - S7R951)
- Primary Hard Drive: 750GB 7200RPM [Serial-ATA II 300 - 16MB Cache] - Default (SKU - S5T306)
- Branding: Remove All Branding
- Exterior Finish - Skins & Wraps: Standard Laptop Finish
- Ram: 16GB - DDR3 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory (2 SODIMMS) (SKU - S4S822AP)
- Copper Cooling Upgrade: COPPER COOLING UPGRADE - Extra Cooling Copper Heatsinks Applied to the Heatsink/Heatpipes (XPC Service - requires shipment to XOTIC PC: will add to build time)
- Display: 15.6” FHD 16:9 LED Backlit Wide screen (1920x1080) Super Clear Matte Type Sager Screen (SKU - S1R316)

Price: $1638.01 (of planned $1500 budget)

BUILD QUALITY

I would say the build quality on this thing is quite good, especially considering the price tag. The screen hinges are solid, and there is no wobble when opening the screen. It feels like it will last.

I haven't noticed any flex anywhere else, either. Which is awesome.

It's made of a rubber-plastic hybrid, which gives it a nice appearance but also attracts dust/hairs. Not a big deal for somebody like me who obsessively cleans their laptop at least weekly anyways.

There is a lip that goes around the edge near the touchpad/edge of the laptop which can be slightly annoying to your wrists. I'm guessing I won't notice after a few days use.

It's super easy to get to the "innards" of this thing. Two screws to get to the primary storage bay. Four screws to remove the cover that hides the CPU/GPU/RAM (side note - I either wasn't aware or much more likely had forgotten that this cover does not "pop" off but "slides off," which is AWESOME). This thing is a dream to work on - I dreaded taking apart my ASUS because you'd have to unscrew about 12 screws and then POP the main cover off and hope you didn't send any screws flying while trying to pop it off. (currently missing two screws on that bad-boy!)

I was already over budget so decided on the 675MX instead of the 680m. So far I'm not regretting the decision, and I know that I can always upgrade the GPU and CPU with minimal fuss on this laptop, because it seems to have been designed with the consumer in mind (instead of GIMMEGIMMEGIMMEGIMMEMOREMONEY companies like Mac, Dell, etc.).

DISPLAY

Screen quality is solid. I got the standard matte screen, and am happy I did. I will say I wasn't as "blown away" as some people seem to be about their screens. I would say it's as least as good as, probably better, than my old 15" glossy display that came on my ASUS (and I thought that was pretty damn good if in proper lighting). I didn't have any dead pixels, no cracks or scratches - all seems well so far.

AUDIO

Audio quality is pretty low on the "things that are important to me" scale - as long as it isn't crackling, it's fine for me. It's a bit "less clear" than my old Asus, but after I enabled surround sound on the laptop it sounded pretty good - I was hearing ambient noises in games I never knew were there! (I recall there was an ambient noise setting in the options menu, but never heard anything on my asus speakers). I haven't plugged anything into the headphone jack and probably never will - I use a USB headset when I need to - so won't comment on the underpowered headphone jack gripes.

KEYBOARD

Keyboard quality is good. I'm coming from a (single-color) backlit chiclet laptop keyboard (again, ASUS) and can honestly say I feel it's a considerable improvement. A few things to note about this keyboard:
-There is no "context menu" button. I rarely used it anyways, so I don't miss it.
-The windows key IS on the lower left, not the lower right like the screenshots on xoticpc.com show. Not a big deal.
-The lower-left Ctrl/Win/Alt spacing is strange. I'm a heavy alt user (I use linux at work and home, as well as Windows at home when gaming), and ended up hitting Space+F4 a lot. Just something to get used to as far as I'm concerned, but others may find it more annoying.
-Minor gripe: the spacebar on my laptop is slightly stuck in the extreme lower-right of the bar, and sometimes (about 5%-10% of the time) misses. If it's pressed hard enough (that is, not very hard but a very tiny bit harder than a usual keypress) it works fine. The key feels like there's something under it in that corner and can't be depressed all the way like the other side of the spacebar. When I have more time I will pop the key off and see if I can reseat it.
-The lighting is really cool. I went with green-cyan-blue. My wife, as usual, asked me if I was harboring homo feelings when I showed her the color possibilties
-The Home/End keys are on the same key as PageUp/PageDown, which means you have to hold Fn to use Home/End. I find this to be odd, especially considering there is only one Fn key, and it's on the RIGHT of the spacebar (whereas most laptops have it on the left). Honestly this is a really minor gripe, since I use vimperator for chrome, and luakit in linux, so I generally have no need of those keys except in rare situations.

PERFORMANCE

This thing flies. I expected it to be a considerable improvement over my 4-year old laptop, but it blew away even those expectations.

With the SSD it takes approximately 20 seconds to fully boot and log into windows (using finger-print swipe). Old laptop was at about 30-35 seconds (with the same SSD). I expect this to lower once I have all my startup programs finalized (e.g. some removed).

The only game I've tried on it so far is DOTA 2, which admittedly isn't a super graphically intensive game, but I didn't get a single video lag spike (which was pretty common on my old laptop). I'm currently download Metro 2033, Planetside 2, Skyrim, and some others to give it a proper test. I'm not the type of player who NEEDS to play on ultra settings. Usually I have to squint to notice the difference, so I'll always choose performance/FPS over pretties. In all honesty, I'm coming from a 260m, which played everything I threw at it at an acceptable level, so I don't see how I'd EVER be unhappy with this GPU.

OVERALL (mostly random notes)

One minor gripe - I ordered my system with Windows 8 64-bit. It came with a CD (which was awesome! a lot of vendors don't bother anymore), but I can't, for the life of me, find the sticker with the product key. This turned out not to be a problem - not only was I able to get the product key by using a third-party program, but the serial itself seems to be embedded on the CD. I was never asked to enter the serial key when I re-installed Windows 8 via the provided CD on my SSD. I did write down the product key, just in case, as it will more than likey work with any OEM Windows 8 CD.

I didn't receive the "free laptop bag" that a lot of others seem to have, but am assuming it was discontinued. I have a Swiss Gear backpack anyways, so it didn't matter in the least.

I purchased the system with an ODD caddy, and placed the 750GB (7200RPM Seagate Momentus for anybody who's curious) in it. I was worried it would vibrate (caddy is made of cheap-feeling plastic), but so far I haven't even noticed it. The ODD was not pre-installed, which I actually preferred. This was one less step I had to deal with.

Battery life is better than one would expect with a laptop of this size/power. I left it running on battery for about 1-1.5 hours and it was still at about 80% when I finally plugged it in. More than I'll ever need.

This laptop does come with UEFI. For those curious, Secure Boot is disabled by default. (thank god) I have yet to attempt to install Linux, but did leave an empty parition on the SSD for it.

Windows 8 is weird. I like Metro, but at the same time I wish it wasn't "separate." I could honestly do away with the desktop and just use Metro. I don't use a desktop in linux and prefer it that way.

The size of this laptop is quite good. I expected it to be considerably fatter/heavier, but it was actually lighter and slightly smaller than my old one, so I was pleasantly surprised.

I've been building PC's for years, and this thing is basically a dream. Clevo/Sager get a huge thumbs up. I had never heard of them before, but they (and xoticpc!) have earned my return business.

I wish I had gotten pictures but I let my 2y/o son help me take the SSD out of my old laptop. He LOVED it, and threw a tantrum when I took the screwdriver away. He wanted to take the entire laptop apart. I think Clevo/Sager+xotic have a future customer in him.

 

Thanks for the kind words! I'll let Roland and Courtney know you appreciate it since they don't frequent the forums. Glad you're loving it!

 

I actually really like that HDD caddy doesn't come installed (on mine it didn't).

I love putting stuff together and assembly. Even though it's really simple, I just enjoyed it.

 

I'm with you there, and as I mentioned in my review this thing is a complete dream to work on. The only way it is any better is on a desktop chassis, where I rather enjoy making LIBERAL use of cable ties and spend hours "wiring it perfectly."

By way of example, on my old laptop it took me 10 minutes to get the keyboard off (unscrew all bottom cover screws, find all "hidden" keyboard screws, try pull up keyboard, go back and find other hidden screw, etc.). This thing takes me about 30 seconds - pop off speaker cover, unscrew four screws, bam, done.

 

Well, I'm kinda at my wit's end here. I've been trying to get the driver of 7970m installed properly yet it still failed to run. It seems like it got conflicted with .net framework 4.0; everytime I boot up the windows I got this error "Attempted to read or write protected memory. This is often an indication that other memory is corrupt" from .net framework. I tried to uninstall/reinstall several times 7970m's driver and .net framework, even did a clean install of windows yet the problem still persists. I'm running windows 7 Home Premium 64bit btw.
1) Do I need to install the driver of intel hd 4000 in order for the 7970m to work?
2) Do I need to install the official release of Catalyst before jumping in any beta release?

Please help me!
Much appreciated.

 

1) The mobile version of AMD CCC has the intel 4k driver included. Which driver are you attempting to install? There have been several reports of 13.1 not installing correctly
2) No, you can go download the 13.2 beta AMD CCC and install it without having anything else installed previously.

 

Hi all, I've just bought the Aftershock X15 (based on the P150EM) and have been reading up on issues regarding the 7970M and the integrated GPU and issues to do with Enduro. What I would appreciate is if someone would quickly summarize what I have to do after getting the new laptop which is probably around 2 weeks away. I also read that the latest Catalyst 13.3 beta 2 has fixed many of the issues so can I just install that driver over the default ones?

Oh and anyway, if anyone's interested, here's the configuration of my order:
CPU: Intel Ivy Bridge Core i7-3630QM
GPU: AMD 7970M 2GB DDR5
Thermal Compound: IC Diamond Thermal Compound CPU+GPU (Free lifetime thermal compound re-pasting)
RAM: 8GB DDR3 1600MHz (2x4)
HDD: OCZ Vertex 4 256GB SATA III from another computer (comes basic with a WD Scorpio Black 750GB 7200RPM)
ODD: 4X Blu-ray Read/DVD/CD from another computer (comes basic with a 8x DVD drive)
Display: 15.6" Full HD Matte LED with Professional Colour Calibration
Wi-Fi: Intel 6235 Wireless LAN + Bluetooth Combo
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Total price: ~2600SGD (2080USD) excluding the self-supplied SSD and Blu-ray ODD

 

got my laptop back from prostar. upgraded from the 7970m tro the 680m. i've only tried out one game so far, and thats HAWKEN but ... the gpu usage is waaay up. and the frames are much better too. the drivers are the 302 verson as im sure they used a basic driver disc with some not to current drivers but whatever. i hope upgrading to the most recent 314 drivers doesnt hinder any performance but i doubt so.. I called and asd if i should do a clean install of windows and they assured me that no such action would be needed. so awesome. im now rocking a 680m and i couldnt be happier.

 

Disregard .net framework error as I found out it got conficted with Hotkey driver provided in the driver disc.
Also, I think Intel HD 4000 driver has to be installed for HD 7970m to work properly.
However, is there anyway to make HD 7970m as my primary adapter because right now Intel HD 4000 takes over every application.

When I uninstall Intel HD 4000 driver and run ATI Catalyst Control center afterwards, it shows this:


As you can see, the lap does recognize HD 7970m:


However, when I right click AMD Catalyst tray icon, it shows this:


Even Dragon Age II recognizes Intel HD 4000 as the primary adapter:


Is the display supposed to be ATI Radeon HD 7970M: (Even thought there is a upside down arrowhead, there is no another option)


So is this completely normal?

 

Yep, think so mate. 7970m goes through the igpu, unless you have a mux cable which us clevo owners don't.

Check power options in ccc that evening its on maximize performance.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

 

Just picked this up used for 1700 shipped

Processor
Intel® Core™ i7-3820QM Mobile Processor (4x 2.7GHz/8MB L3 Cache)
Memory
8GB [8GB x 1] 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM [Laptop Memory] - G.SKILL
Video Card
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M 4GB GDDR5 Video w/ NVIDIA Optimus [P150EM]
Primary Hard Drive
750 GB 7200rpm Serial-ATA Super Slim Laptop Hard Drive
Optical Drive
8x Dual Format DVD±R/±RW + 16x CD-R/RW Combo Drive [P150EM]
Flash Media Reader / Writer
Built-in 9-in-1 Media Card Reader/Writer [Laptop]
Sound Card
3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard
Network Card
Built-in 10/100/1000 Mbps LAN [Laptop]
Internal Wireless Network Adapter
Intel Ultimate-N 6300 802.11 a/b/g/n 450Mbps Dual-Band Wi-Fi
Operating System
Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate + Office Starter 2010 (Includes basic versions of Word and Excel) 64-bit
USB Ports

What do you guys reccomend upgrading? Should I upgrade ram? Should I upgrade my harddrive to ssd? Should I add msata?
Do i install os on msata?
Thanks,
Seagullman

 

Looks like a pretty solid build. What's your usage going to be? The only things really left to upgrade are going to be getting an MSata/SSD in there and getting some more RAM if you need it. 8gb is enough for gaming currently, so you could always wait to upgrade until games are requiring it if that's what you're using it for.

 

if i get the msata what do I use it for?

and also should i replace my primary hard drive with ssd?

 

I wonder.. If/when the 780 (possibly wait till 880 land) comes out and I end up wanting one, I wonder if I'd be able to send it to the company I bought it from (prostar) to have them slap that baby in.

 

SInce this model only has one HDD bay most users will opt to go with a mid sized SSD in the MSata bay and keep the mechanical HDD in the primary bay. If you are able to, it's going to be better performance to put a true SSD in the primary bay and get rid of the mechanical drive altogether but you also lose a substantial amount of storage since you won't have that 750gb drive in there. If that doesn't bother you, definitely a good route to go.

 

Yeah, you should have no problem doing so when they do come out assuming that there is no unexpected hardware revision that pushes them from using the MXM-B slot they currently use.

 

I doubt the mxm will change. Our current revision isnt that old

 

I agree it's pretty doubtful but after being in the industry we've learned never to assume the hardware guys won't do something screwy and surprise everyone. I'd say it's 99.9% probable that they'll be upgradeable

 

Prema Mod BIOS now available for this model.

ENJOY! :hi2:

 

Does anyone know if Sager ended up getting the matte screens in today? I have a friend who wants to order one now, but if the matte is still out of stock, he is just going to order a glare finish.

Sam

 

They sure did! Our web guy is out of the office today but the Sager site lists them as in stock. Good to go

 

So I am in the market for a new machine and wondering if I should just pull the trigger or wait it out a bit longer for the new GPU's/Chipset. Is there a release date for the P150SM yet?

 

I personally would jump for it now. From what we've been seeing float around there isn't going to be huge performance gains on the next gen from the get go, you'll likely be waiting until next fall or into winter before you see noticeable benefits to waiting. If you can hang on for a couple months, you may see some bigger discounts coming about to get ready for the next gen, but if you're not wanting to wait too long I'd just get this gen.

 

Should I use the msata as an od drive?
how do i go about converting that?

 

That is what i was thinking as well. I can maybe hold out 3 months max. So i figured it was time now. Couple questions for you then.

1. Is the 675mx pretty strong overall? Not sure the 680m is really worth the premium.

2. The new mSata 180gb Intel 525 - Is it fast enough for OS and some games/programs? 750GB as primary for storage purposes.

3. Any noticable difference between 1600 vs 1866 memory? Is anything higher than 12Gb really needed for gaming?

Thanks!

 

1. Is the 675mx pretty strong overall? Not sure the 680m is really worth the premium.

The 675mx is a solid performing card. The 680 is a lot stronger but for the price the MX is hard to beat. You'll see a valid point being made that the 7970 isn't much more but it really falls into how much you want to spend.

2. The new mSata 180gb Intel 525 - Is it fast enough for OS and some games/programs? 750GB as primary for storage purposes.

A mechanical drive is fast enough for OS and games, so an MSata SSD will have zero problem doing so. 180gb is the comfortable amount we like to see but more is always better if it can be worked out.

3. Any noticable difference between 1600 vs 1866 memory? Is anything higher than 12Gb really needed for gaming?

Thanks!

1600 is plenty good, you won't need any more than 8gb of RAM for current games but 12gb gives you some to grow into.

 

Great tips! Thanks.

So based on all that information, is the 9150 the way to go? I just want to make sure i pick the right machine.

 

Depending on the budget, the value of the 9150 SE is almost impossible to beat (it is impossible). Has the 680m in there and a whole slew of other upgrades that makes the price mouthwatering. If that's slightly above your budget the regular configurations of the 9150 are great as well. If you're wanting to get the full performance of the SSD the 9170 has the two HDD bays that lets you keep the Mechanical HDD as well as a standard SSD. If you're fine with the Msata speeds, and they're great, the 9150 is a 15" beast.

 

Wow that 9150 SE is sweet! Might be a little overkill. Any additional specials going on or coupon codes? I might just pull the trigger today thanks to your help!

 

Thanks Derek!!! I appreciate the quick response!

Sam

 

So I finally received my laptop yesterday and UPS came earlier than expected yay! Anyways, this laptop is sturdy and has amazing build quality. I got the most basic option available from XoticPC with the video card being the only exception, which i chose the AMD 7970m despite all the bad press surrounding the video card. Right when I received the laptop i tore this bad boy apart and put in my OCZ vertex 3 90 gb ssd and took out the DVD drive and put in a hard drive caddy that i purchased in amazon for $5. Then i put in a killer bigfoot 1103 wifi card which i found for $40 and repasted the CPU and GPU with Arctic Cooling MX-4. This machine is so fun to work on and tweak!!! Everything worked perfectly with windows 8 and installed all the stock drivers from the Sager website. Then i installed the latest AMD beta driver 13.3 beta 3 Mobility over the stock clevo AMD driver. No crashing, no BSOD, nothing, everything worked perfectly. Installed BF3 and Hon and checked out the utilization. In BF3 the only time i experienced utilization problems were on big 64 player maps, however still maintained about 45-60 FPS throughout the match and temps were around 74 degrees. Smaller matchup maps i had no utilization problems and everything was smooth and maintained 60 FPS. Next i tried the DX9 game Heros of Newerth, and this card just ate that game up. Finally the next thing I tested briefly was my temps. In idle with the Arctic Cooling MX-4, the CPU and the GPU was around 38-42 degrees. During benchmarks, I reached a max temp of around 81 degrees on my GPU while the laptop was on my lap, and not a flat surface. I swear by Arctic Cooling MX-4 and the results are always good (The 7970m hasn't been overclocked everything is in stock values). All in all im loving this laptop and i still have more games to test out and to test out the CPU's max temp with prime 95.

Question, Do i need to flash a vBios in order to overclock this card in Afterburner? Was trying to overclock the card but the cores and memories are already at the maximum in Afterburner. Thanks

 

my special edition is eating games for breakfast. I was just playing dead space 3 and medal of honor war fighter maxed out and my machine wasn't even sweating. Need dat SSD for faster boot times but otherwise it's awesome... prema mod BIOS coming is also amazing... if it weren't for my warranty that would be so installed

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk 2

 

Quick question to owners.:

The headphone jack audio issue (no bass, weak sound), will I definitely get it or is there any chance I won't. Is a USB card the only solution?

Thank you.

 

All machines are the same.

 

So I received my Sager NP9150 yesterday with the following specs:

"1x Sager NP9150 / Clevo P150EM
- Free Shipping: FREE!!! – U.S. UPS GROUND SHIPPING (Use Coupon Code "FREESHIP" in Checkout) [U.S. Lower 48 ONLY / Restrictions Apply]
- Current Promotion: SAGER Winter Sale!!! - $50 OFF When you spend $1350.00* or more per system! (*excludes non-sager parts, accessories, shipping, & taxes)
- Display: 15.6” FHD 16:9 LED Backlit Wide screen (1920x1080) Super Clear Matte Type Sager Screen (SKU - S1R316)
- Dead Pixel Warranty: Standard Dead Pixel Policy
- Monitor Calibration: NO Professional Monitor Color Calibration
- Processor: Sager - 3rd Generation Intel® Ivy Bridge Core™ i7-3630QM (2.4GHz - 3.4GHz, 6MB Intel® Smart Cache, 45W Max TDP) (SKU – S2R174)
- Thermal Compound: - IC Diamond Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU
- Graphics Video Card: AMD Radeon HD 7970M (2048MB) GDDR5 DX11 [User Upgradeable] (SKU - S3R155)
- Copper Cooling Upgrade: No Copper Cooling Upgrade
- External Display Video Adapters: No Video Adapter
- External Mobile Display: No External Mobile Display
- Ram: 8GB - DDR3 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory (2 SODIMMS) (SKU - S4S423P)
- Branding: Sager Branding
- Exterior Finish - Skins & Wraps: Standard Laptop Finish
- mSATA SSD Drive ( Slot 1 ): No mSATA SSD
- Primary Hard Drive: 750GB 7200RPM [Serial-ATA II 300 - 16MB Cache] - Default (SKU - S5T306)
- Optical Drive Bay: Combo Dual Layer SuperMulti DVDRW/CDRW Drive w/ Software (When selecting a Hard Drive in the Optical Bay, No Optical Drive is Included) (SKU - S7R455)
- Optical Drive Bay Hard Drive Caddy: No Extra Optical Bay Hard Drive Caddy
- External Hard Drive (Back Up): No Back Up Hard Drive
- External USB Optical Drive: NO External USB Optical Drive
- Memory Card Reader: Internal 9-in-1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD/Mini SD/SDHC/SDXC/MS/MS Pro/MS Duo)
- Back Up Software: No Back Up Software
- Bluetooth: Bluetooth Included *With select wireless cards only* (See “Wireless Network” Section Below)
- Wireless Network: Sager - Built-in 802.11 Wireless B/G/N - Stock Wireless Card + Bluetooth™ v3.0 (SKU - S8R110)
- Wireless Network Accessories: No Network Accessory
- Camera: Built in 2.0 Megapixel Camera
- TV Tuner: No TV Tuner
- Sound Card: Sound Blaster Compatible 3D Audio - Included
- Case: No Carrying Case
- Battery: Smart Li-ion Battery (8-Cell)
- Car Adapter: No Car Adapter
- Spare AC Adapter: No Spare AC Adapter
- Port Replicator / Dock / Adapters: No Dock/Hub/Adapter
- Fingerprint Reader: Integrated Fingerprint Reader
- Headsets: No Headset
- Keyboard (External): No External Keyboard
- Keyboard (Internal - Laptop): Standard Sager/Clevo Non Chiclet Backlit Keyboard
- Mouse Accessories: No External Mouse
- Notebook Cooler: No Notebook Cooler
- XOTIC PC Redline Boost™ Extreme Performance: No Thanks, Please do not Overclock my system (Overclocking will add 3-6 business days to build time)
- OS Redline Boost: No Operating System Redline Boost
- Operating System: ~Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit (64&32-Bit CD Included (Supports up to 16GB of RAM)) + MS Office Starter 2010
- ADDITIONAL SOFTWARE: None
- Antivirus Software: No Antivirus Essentials Software Bundle
- Microsoft Office Software: - No Microsoft OFFICE Software
- Software Bundle (Not Installed): No Software Bundle
- Warranty: LIFETIME Ltd Labor* 1 Year Parts Warranty Lifetime 24/7 DOMESTIC Toll Free Telephone Support (Labor through XPC)
Includes FREE Shipping Both Ways for Parts Warranty Repairs (SKU - X9R009)
- White Glove Premium Packaging: No thanks, standard double boxed packaging is okay with my order
- Outside of U.S. Shipping Coverage: No Outside of US Shipping Coverage
- Build Time: Standard Production Time
- Xotic Gear: No Xotic PC Gear "

As i downloaded and tried to play my first game (Battlefield Bad Company 2), as soon as i started the single player campaign the screen froze and the audio made a repeating strange noise. Holding the power button for a forced shut down was my only option. As the computer started I was forced to do a system repair, and restored my laptop to an earlier time. In order to avoid future problems i went to the Device manager and scanned for driver updates for both the Intel HD 4000 as well as the 7970. Shortly after i got a BSOD ("STOP: 0x000000F4).

I decided to use the windows 7 CD to do a clean install. After merely re-installing 64-bit Windows 7 (after formating windows of course), and installing every drive (in order from top to down) from the driver CD and running windows updates, I still got many issues:

1) screen would go black when trying to refresh the WEI.
2) After having to hold down the power button for a forced restart a black screen with ChkDsk automatically ran.
3) I've gotten other types of BSOD (STOP:0x00000050 and STOP: 0xA0000001)

In addition to all of this the "R" of "sager" in the logo on the cover of my laptop is missing...

Update: after re-installing windows again (and installing the most recent chipset driver (9.3.0.1020)) I decided to use the AMD Mobility Radeon™ Driver Verification Tool to make sure i downloaded and installed the appropriate graphics card drivers. After trying to run it, I got the following message: "AMD Catalyst Mobility cannot be downloaded due to incompatible hardware/software on your computer. The version of your graphics adapter is not supported."

Sorry for the long post but I'd appreciate it if someone could help... I've NEVER had this type of issue in a new Sager laptop.

Thanks in advance,

Rafael

 

Have you tried the latest beta3 enduro drivers?

 

nope...

should i do it? if so how do i do that? thanks a lot for the reply and ure time/patience

update: did another clean reinstall of windows 7 and installed only mandatory drivers in the driver CD in order of top to bottom. restarted computer and got a black screen with a flashing dash in the top left corner. forced shut down and back to the repair screen.....ran repair, laptop restart again and went back to the flashing dash on the top left corner of the black screen.

 

Install the Intel Video Drivers first
Reboot
Install Catalyst 13.3 beta 3 Mobility edition
Reboot

good to go

 

80% or so of the time my laptop will be plugged in to a wall. Is it okay to leave the battery in at all times or is it a good idea to take the battery out to save its health or have we come a long way in mobile batteries

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/712788-amd-13-3-beta-3-enduro-supported.html

13.3 beta 3 drivers, remember to download the mobility version

 

thanks, ill try that and let u know how it goes

So i tried this:

after doing a clean reinstall of windows 7:
installed only the intel drivers from the driver cd (chipset and intel hd 4000)
reboot
installed wlan to get internet access and:
downloaded and installed the amd 13.3 beta 3 mobility drivers
reboot
....i got to the login screen and as soon as i tried to enter my password the screen went black and there was a flashing dash on the top left corner
forced to force shut down and had to do a repair, leading to a restore point that rebooted post-intel drivers installation and pre-amd drivers download/instalation....



any other thoughts? thanks for the help so far and thanks in advance

 

Could be a faulty graphics card.

 

aw, thats unfortunate to hear... and very strange since this is a brand new laptop which i got a day ago.

thanks though

 

I have an odd but very good question.

Lets take the 680m as an example but change the clocks to even numbers to make it easier on me hahaha.

Okay lets say the stock clocks of the 680m is 700core and 1800memory. You overclock it to 900core and 2400memory... The current game youre playing underutilizes so youre only at 50%. Heres the question.

Will you see any performance increase from the overclock? Sure you overclocked it but its still running at 50% utilization just like stock clocks. I dont know how to explain it any better than that. basically even though youre at the same usage would a performance gain be seen due to the faster clocks?
...

 

hmmm another option that you could try is install the intel, reboot, install stock amd driver from clevo, reboot then install the 13.3 over the stock amd clevo driver and restart.

 

I When you say "stock amd driver from clevo" do you mean the one that comes in the driver CD? im pretty sure if i try to do that though ill get the same problem, since i got a black screen after installing all the drivers from the cd driver i received and then rebooting.

 

50% of 900mhz core is more than 50% of 700mhz.

So for the overclock to have 0 effect the utilisation would have to drop too.

 

when i rebooted after installing the amd driver from the CD, a black screen with a flashing dash on the top left appears right after the windows logo disappears...

thanks so far, any other thoughts?

 

hmmm i dont know what else could be the problem.... I have the 7970m just like you also and I wasn't having problem like that. Sorry I couldn't be much help.

 

I'm getting my P150EM very soon and I don't really understand all the modified BIOS and vBIOS discussions? What does the PREMA modded BIOS do that will benefit the P150EM? Can I overclock the RAM to 2133MHz? And what about the GTX 680M vBIOS? I hear there's two versions, one from saltius (I can't find any links) and another from svl7. What's the difference and which should I download?