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

Hey you guys, quick question.. I have a problem with my "m" key sometimes not registering whilst typing. Any of you have the same/similar problem and had a solution to fix it? Thanks!

EDIT: nvm, i fixed it. the plastic latching inside was popped off and got it in. whew. fun fun

 

That's what mSATA is for. You could probably get a 64GB one for $100.

How far did you have to disassemble it, did you just need to remove the keyboard or do you have to pop the keys off? I've been having loads of those problems.

 

I butchered this post earlier . Read below. *facepalm*

 

Do you guys think a 64 GB mSATA is good enough for the windows 7 Home Premium OS and other things like a couple games. Are there ant downsides to using an mSATA instead of an SSD?

Also what are the most essential things you guys would say should be put on the mSATA other than the OS?

 

64GB is more than adequate considering a few things.

Set your page file to a varied size from like 256MB to 2GB otherwise it will reserve same amount of space on the SSD as your RAM size and will be unusable to you. It will only reserve the minimum amount you specify (in this case 256MB) unless it really needs it. These days you probably don't even need pagefile, but I won't go there because any time recommendation comes up to turn it off it turns into a squabble between geeks.

Turn off hibernation unless you use it instead of sleep. Hibernation will reserve the same amount of space as you have RAM.

So if you have 8GB RAM by default it will reserve 16GB of the space: 8GB pagefile, 8GB hiberation. Do what I mentioned above and you will regain most of that 16GB space.

Reduce your System restore size to minimum (1%). 600MB is more than adequate for a half dozen or more system restore states, and 99.9% of the time you will want to use one of the last 3.

Lastly, after installing all the Windows updates, clear out the windows updates cache file. If you do this, you will not be able to uninstall an update, but if your machine is stable and working, how often do you really do that?

I've installed 60GB SSD's in numerous machines that run Win 7, Office, and all my little apps, configured as I noted above and still have about 35-38GB free. Installing games on an SSD won't help much really, just load levels faster. Some games with persistent worlds that constantly access the HDD might benefit a little.

 

I just received mines half an hour ago. I wanted to ask if any of your laptops have a wee hole just above the touchpad? If so what is it for?

Spoiler

Also, is there a specific order for installing the gpu drivers (7970 and hd 4000) ? I've read too many posts and I'm lost.

 

Yeah, there's a hole, no clue what it's for though. Might suspect that it could be the mic or some ventilation for the HDD. I'm probably 99% wrong though.

Did you order with an optical drive? If so, just pop in the drivers disc and autorun it. Install the drivers in the listed order. HD 4000 and AMD drivers install together.

 

Yes, it's the mic.

Sent from my Optimus 2X using Tapatalk 2

 

Thanks, I downloaded everything after copying the contents of the cd to a usb drive because I didn't order an optical drive, hard drive bay instead.

Here is my 3dmark11 score, p5830
AMD Radeon HD 7970M video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-3610QM Processor,CLEVO P15xEMx score: P5830 3DMarks

Also, I cannot confirm by listening to the fan if fn + 1 is working or not, is there a program I can use to check the actual speed?

 

You would hear the fan with Fn+1. Make sure you press Fn+1, the 1 above the Q not on number pad, and not Fn+F1. Sorry those are common mistakes I see people do.

 

Finally pulled the trigger, important stuff is in my sig.

How long did phase 1 generally last for you guys? I ordered it Sunday night and haven't even gotten an e-mail with the price and all that (chose secured cash payment). I thought I would be able to cope with the wait, but it appears I've overestimated myself

 

Can anyone recommend a good hard drive to go into the disk bay caddy? Main drive is going to be a crucial M4 128GB. Just need storage and program overflow, 500GB should do the trick.

 

Caviar Black drives are very good

 

It's definitely not working then. I just used furmark and listened to the fan at maximum speed. Fn + 1 (the 1 above the q) doesn't work for me

 

It will usually be more cost effective to buy it with the standard HDD, buy the SSD on your own, and take out the HDD and put it in the caddy, and put the SSD in.

 

Definitely not games as they see very little benefit from the SSD. Put all your programs on it. I would personally choose to use one as a caching drive if I had an mSATA.

And of course, there's always the problem of some random laptops not having the Fn+1 functionality.

 

Randomness like this shouldn't occur in such high ends laptops!

 

So is there a problem with ghosting on the standard keyboards?

I would not recommend using that as a wee hole. That could damage the laptop.

 

Yeah, especially with E + other keys. Its just a limited design rather than a glitch, I think. If it can be fixed via software, they need to address it right away! Fortunately, those who use this for desktop replacement will probably use an external keyboard when not traveling

 

clevo is working on a new BIOS for the em models to add full fan functionality according to some members in this forum.

 

Good to know. I might have to buy an external keyboard. It seems a bit odd that a gaming laptop has a keyboard with ghosting problems.

 

I have a question. I'm new here.

I've ordered a 7970M P150 laptop, but they won't start building it til their 7970M chassis order arrives next Tuesday. So the wait has got me thinking... should I upgrade to the 680M card?

More specifically, is the whole driver hassle, in addition to the performance jump, worth the cost? Annoyingly the funds are available so it's up to me to decide whether to upgrade. lol. I do other things besides gaming; where will the performance jump be noticeable?

Other specs are...
3820QM, M4 128GB, 120GB mSATA, 750GB Hybrid, 16GB 1600Mhz, Killer wi-fi, 95% NTSC display... You know the acronyms.

Also, can I RAID 0 the primary SSD and the mSATA drives?

 

You are probably just missing a driver or hotkey app. Did you ever get your windows activated?

 

Do you really need that kind of CPU? I'm not sure if the 680M is worth the money, but it runs marginally faster, cooler, and Optimus is more mature. So if you think that's worth $300, go right ahead and buy it.

I'm not sure if you can RAID those two drives, but I don't think you can since the mSATA runs slower.

 

Also I want to play BF3 multiplayer, hehe. Badly.
It needs to be future-proof. My laptops last 4 years. Not necessarily on ultra settings in 4 years time.
I do video-editing and photo-editing- that needs to be smooth. And I really want to minimise rendering time, which currently takes of the order of 6 hours / hour of footage.
Oh and start-up time.

 

Does anyone know where I can get the driver for the backlit keyboard?
After sitting all night it was the color it should have been, but after some time playing BC2 I noticed that the blue started to wash through again on the left side of the keyboard. When I change the brightness of the backlit or turn it off completely the blue stays, mixing with whatever color I have it set to. Could this be the software or the hardware?

 

As stated by awakeN it runs marginally faster, cooler, and Optimus is more mature. And the CPU, I'd get the 3720QM over the 3820QM because it's 100MHz difference and 6MB cache vs 8MB cache which makes nary a difference unless you run some specialized number crunching software that can make use of it, even then the difference is marginal.

 

That's what I said! And don't forget about heat problems (check my sig)

 

7970m on a clevo EM series is very unstable on BF3 multiplayer, many owners including me can confirm it. I suggest getting a 680m or just go with alienware 7970m. Adding SSD will make the laptop boot up faster.

 

Many users? You seem to be the only one on here. My laptop runs it just fine

Avg is about 50 fps.

 

I actually just today changed my order from the 7970M to the 680M. The 680M is a little expensive for me, but I made some other changes to my order to the point where I'm only spending around $120 ish more than I had previously. I wanted a current gen card, and right now, the 680M just seems to be performing a lot better, specifically on 9150/9170s. There just seem to be too many issues with the 7970M, and I don't want a card that runs so hot and uses more energy than last gen. Plus, according to guy I spoke with at Xotic, there's a chance that my 680M order may be processed/ship faster. I sure hope that's the case!

 

Thanks HTWingNut and 3Stars&ASun, I'm going to call them to swap the 7970M & 3820QM for 680M & 3720QM, which is exactly £10 more. Very neat. Plus maybe it'll arrive sooner You've helped alleviate a little bit of stress.

 

Patiently (well not truly!) awaiting:

NP9150
3610QM
95% Gamut Matte
AMD 7970M
8GB 1600mhz
128GB Crucial M4
Hard Drive Caddy
Intel 6300

 

This is confusing!, if the ' fn + 1 ' is a BIOS issue, shouldn't everyone be affected? There are EM users who can use 'fn + 1' right? I know that it works for the HM series.

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Sorry I'm asking so many questions

How do I see what was the temperature/usage of the GPU during game play? For the usage, msi afterburner has a hardware monitor but I can't see temperatures.

GPU-Z is not working, it gets stuck at the loading screen then it only opens after I open Furmark (strange!), however, it doesn't detect the 7970m sensors.


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Also, the CCC that comes with the stock drivers has a bug, it doesn't save recent applications. I updated the CCC only to 12.6 and I can see the recent apps!

 

online? on all maxed settings?

 

GPU-Z is happening to me too.

It only works if the 7970M is enabled which is frustrating.

I think the lack of information is because the 7970M is so new and the GPU-Z isn't updated yet??? I could be wrong.

If you want to see temps of the 7970M use MSI Kombustor. Don't have the link handy but it's great for temps and showing load.

Can everyone have a look at the petition information gathering Ryan has started here:

** Attention! Opinion Gathering, please chime in. ** - Page 2

More names the better.

My requests are as follows:

Requires Immediate Attention
1. Some sort of notification of which GPU is running in the System Tray or a small icon that sits in the top right corner or left corner (like FRAPS) while gaming that can be enabled like in the Nvidia Optimus drivers with the option to:

"Display GPU Activity Icon in Notification Area"

So many issues seem to be because people don't know that the game they are playing is only using the Intel 4000 because they haven't configured it for the 7970M in Switchable Graphics.

Requires Immediate Attention

2. Ability to manually select which video card is being used. 7970M or Intel 4000.

Not Required, but Ideally
* List of all installed apps in Switchable Graphics similar to the Add/Remove Programs area so that you can easily see at a glance all games and their setting.

*GPU fan control in CCC like in normal AMD/Ati desktop drivers

*More games in the drivers (less need to add games .exes to Switchable Graphics

-------------------------------------

Here is an email I sent to my vendor Affordablelaptops.com.au and the response I got from ITC/Metabox - the people that make the laptops in Perth.

My email:

Hi,

I’m having some issues with my new P150EM.

Hoping you can answer them to my satisfaction so I can feel comfortable about the purchase being fit for purpose.

I've received it last Friday (4 days or so in my possession) and from researching on the Notebook forums have the following issues and questions relating to the Enduro AMD drivers

1. No visual indication of which card is running - at a glance I should be able to see if it is running the Intel 4000 or the 7970M. Is there a way to get a visual graphic like in the system tray or something that sits in the top right corner or something like FRAPS counter?

2. No ability to manually enable/disable the 7970M only. Is there a way to enable/disable the 7970M only?

3. CCC doesn't list all the apps in the switchable graphics section - it should list ALL the apps/games installed and then allow me to specify from there the choice of High Performance or Power Saving

4. So far only picks up maybe 50-60% of the games I've tried. You have to manually add the others in the Switchable graphics section - refer back to point 1.

5. AMD's mobility driver (Catalyst_mobility_64-bit_util) doesn't have the 7970M in it yet?? and therefore gives me an error:

AMD Catalyst Mobility cannot be downloaded due to incompatable hardware/software on your computer. The version of your graphics adapter is not supported.

Please contact your notebook manufacturer for a graphics driver update.

6. GPU-Z hangs at the splash screen UNLESS you have "activated" the 7970M by running something like MSI-Kombustor in the background.

My biggest fear is that AMD doesn't support the 7970M with their AMD Catalyst Mobility drivers so we are only ever reliant on Clevo or cludge drivers going forward...

Does anyone know if the 7970M in the Clevo P150EM will be supported by AMD Catalyst Mobility drivers going forward?

Or if AMD are working on improving the Enduro software?

I need to know ASAP so I can make a decision about getting this machine boxed up and returned to pay the extra to have a GTX680 put it in it as I have read that Optimus support from Nvidia is much better.

Kind regards

Lee


The response:

Hi Lee,

We have received a support query from Affordable Laptops in regards to a few queries you
had concerning the AMD 7970 graphics card. I have answered your questions as per your
email in numerical order below:

1) Yes, unlike NVIDIA, unfortunately the AMD 7970 drivers do not come bundled with a built in piece of
software to display in the task bar if the dedicated GPU is being utilised at any given point in time. As
a general rule of thumb the best way to know if the integrated GPU or dedicated GPU is being used
is by the framerates, and there are many different programs out there that can give a quick taskbar
style live feed on framerates.

2) With NVIDIA and AMD there is presently no option in BIOS to enable/disable the integrated or
dedicated GPU. As a general rule of thumb the integrated GPU is only programmed to take over when
the system is running on battery to conserve power.

3) I have just checked CCC's switchable graphics section and been able to browse to any program
that I desire to be switched on High Performance or Power Saving. Can you kindly confirm if you are
able to browse your programs?

4) Sorry if I've mis-interpreted your point here, but do you mean that not all your games are running
on the 7970 and that some of them are actually running off the integrated graphics card by default
right after installation? Can you kindly confirm what games they are?

5) AMD's download checker is not functional unfortunately. The best way to download drivers
is directly off their website.

AMD Catalyst â„¢ 12.7 Beta Driver

We have heard reports of the 12.7 Beta drivers not working too well with switchable graphics.
We still recommend using the standard Clevo drivers included with the laptop at this point in time
for full stability.

6) Yes, for some unusual reason system monitoring programs are unable to monitor the AMD 7970
until the graphics card is actually in use. This is quirk with the current AMD 7970 which will more than
likely never be resolved.

7) Yes, the AMD 7970 in the Clevo P150EM will be as well supported by AMD as any other mobile 7970
product out there in the market. But AMD have historically always been a bit slower than NVIDIA with driver
support unfortunatley.


Kindest regards,
Daniel Bao

Hope this helps.

 

I've had my P150EM now for a couple weeks and no issues. It's a little too warm in the back to use in my lap while playing games so I have to use a pad without fans just to sheild my body from the heat. Casual browsing and it runs a lot cooler than POS HP from yesteryear.

That said, it runs BF3 with fairly high settings (the ones that matter anyway, textures on high, FXAA, etc) and what i've been impressed with is how stable games are. It's anecdotal but the 7970m seems more stable than my desktop's 580. I've plunked a good 40 hours into Fallout new vegas and zero crashes during that whole time.

As long as it doesn't break down in a month i'm sold on this brand.

 

It is a mic and the sound card uses it in conjunction with a headset/mic for background noise reduction

 

It is a mic and the sound card uses it in conjunction with a headset/mic for background noise reduction

 

Mines run BF3 perfectly out of the box... doesn't mean I didn't have to fix my GPU heatstink though, lol. The latest Clevo drivers really are the best ATM.

 

check your FPS online on max settings. my 7970m played singleplayer fine but very unstable on multiplayer. and it wasn't because of the servers or internet connection because I had a GTX 560m that played it fine at 45 FPS stable on low settings.

AMD 7970m BF3 Multiplayer test - YouTube

Clevo P150EM Sager NP9150 AMD 7970m BF3 Multiplayer 3 - YouTube

Clevo P150EM / Sager NP9150 AMD 7970m BF3 Multiplayer 2 - YouTube

 

I have found that after installing Nero the keyboard suddenly lost the black and dark blue colors on the left 3rd. If I click on black, it turns red and if I select dark blue, it turns pink. The red and pink work as expected. So the left most two choices are a repeat of the 3rd and 4th from the left. Also, since "black" is off, when I turn off backlighting altogether, the left 3rd is red.

So I uninstalled Nero and used Revo to completely uninstall it, and it "fixed" it for a couple days. The past couple of days I have been getting the occasional BSOD without any obvious reason (VERY LITTLE gaming on this machine). After one of the BSODs, the weird color issue on the left third returned. I know when it is "good" as a reboot starts out as all 3 sections dark blue. I know it is jacked up when on reboot, the left 3rd is pink.

At first, I suspected it was hardware, but my experiences have shown this is a driver (likely) issue (perhaps a dll was overwritten?)

On the Clevo drivers disk, there is no section that states the drivers for the keyboard. I would like to re-install the keyboard sw/driver, but am hesitant to install drivers without knowing which one I am installing.

Anyone know which section has that driver? Is there a website I can grab just that driver? This is v1.5 of the software...

 

UPDATE: I "repaired" the installation of "hotkey" and rebooted. Though my default settings for the keyboard were cleared, the red on left when should be off persists. In fact, this does that even at post. So I guess it is not a driver. I will check the connections to the mobo.

UPDATE/Solution: I checked that the keyboard was completely seated (it was) and then took the battery out, unplugged it and held down power button to reset and it rebooted fine.

 

Yeah I was on a 64 player Metro Rush server on all Ultra to make sure it'd work. I never use MSAA though, no point on a high res screen. I fought and sat around at one of the chokepoints that makes it look like there's an earthquake from all the explosive spam, lol. Depending on what was going on, the meter read 30-60FPS, a majority of the time ~45 average in the action zones. No matter what the FPS was though it was very fluid and smooth, even if it did fluctuate. No choppiness at all. Also for a final test I played 45 minutes on battery at 20-30FPS hehe, which was actually quite playable, but choppy since 20fps is going to be no matter what.

Really, that video seems sort of normal... I mean, zooming out is going to require more rendering power than a scope-in on just one person, especially on all Ultra.

 

What is this about:

HDMI to S-VGA Video TV Converter Adapter Cable Lead 1M 1.2M 1.5M 1.8M 2M 2.5M 3M | eBay

Is the seller correct? Why would it not work if use the HDMI-out port?

Edit: Never mind, he's referring to connecting to an HDMI monitor with the VGA port connected to laptop

 

I just went to take off my keyboard to get a look at the RAM, and I found that one of the screws was stripped and the surrounding area was rather scratched up, like so:



I managed to get the screw out, but now I need a replacement. Is there a way to buy those screws, or should I just contact XoticPC? I'm worried they'll think I did this and void my warranty or something. The computer works fine, but now that I look, my Pause/Break and Scr Lk keys are a bit scratched. I'd be happy to keep it as is, since that screw is covered, but I don't want my warranty voided down the road if I send it in for something else and they think I did this.

Also, is there a way to remove the keys on the stock NP9150 keyboard? I think something is stuck under one of mine.

 

Looks like whoever put it together screwed up

I'd probably leave it alone considering the threads are probably mutilated inside the socket. Try and see if you can put a screw in and if it resists just be gentle and leave it be.

 

If that seems stable for you then apparently you've never owned an Nvidia card. my gtx 560m 3 GB was more stable at 45 FPS no matter what at low settings 1080p. Try setting it to low settings at 1080p and see that it is still unstable 20-60 FPS and actually gives you a lower average.

Even alienware owners with 7970m with enduro disabled says they get a stable 45 FPS all maxed out on BF3 online, when clevo 7970m gets 20-60 FPS and switches EVERY SECOND which is not playable.

 

You're a clever, clever man.

And I tried with one of the other screws, and it went in without a hitch, as far as I could tell. It was just the head of the screw that was in there that was mutilated.

 

Try contacting Xotic and see if they will send you a replacement keyboard. Say it is scratched and that you think there is stuff stuck under the keys.