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

It's eliminating the network card to make sure your internet is working fine. It really isnt clear if your problems are your wireless or your internet connection. You need to be sure that the dropouts are not being caused by the internet connection before you can test the wireless card. Unless you can test the wireless card against something local on your network. You need to test only one thing at a time....

 

So I ended up shelling out 150 dollars for a new LCD panel from my reseller even though I've only had the laptop for a month now. It's not even new as it was used for testing. I couldn't make use of my warranty, because I'm leaving for Europe next week. The old screen had 2 large and very visible scratches on it as well as a serious ghosting issue (it's complete BS that Sager would send out a screen like that, don't they atleast run the simplest of tests on it before shipping it out?!).

Anyway, just installed the new screen that I shelled out the little cash I had left on. It's a matte, as opposed to the glossy I had before. Other than the fact that the screen has a dead pixel, which I can live with, I think I might be experiencing another issue! The screen looks as if there was grease on top of it. So can those of you with matte screens help me? Is this normal for matte screens? Did I not plug the connector in properly? I made a quick check and it seemed to be plugged well, wouldn't move. Or... did my reseller send me another faulty screen? Because if that's the case, I'm going to smash this computer up in rage. I realise matte screens give a grainy look, but damn...

I guess I'll buy in Europe next time, nothing like a 2 year warranty and warranty shipping that doesn't cost as much as a new computer...

 

I bought this Tuesday night from Mythlogic.

Mobile Chassis: MYTHLOGIC Pollux 1612 Chassis (Clevo P150EM) with backlit keyboard
Mobile Display: 15.6" Full HD (1920x1080) Matte 95% NTSC Color Gamut LED Backlit LCD (Pollux)
Monitor Calibration: Free MYTH Professional Monitor Color Calibration
CPU: Intel Core i7-3720QM 2.6GHz, 6M L3 Cache, 22nm, DDR3-1600MHz, Quad-Core Mobile Processor
Thermal Compound: Free IC Diamond Thermal Compound
System Memory: 16GB (2 x 8GB) , PC3-12800, 1600MHz SODIMM
Video Adapter: AMD 7970M 2048MB GDDR5 DX11 Compliant Video Card
Optical: Notebook Black 8X DVD+RW/CDRW Combo Drive
mSATA Solid State Drive: Crucial m4 128GB mSATA Solid State Drive
Hard Drive: 750GB 7200 16MB Cache SATA Notebook Hard Drive
Keyboard: Standard Backlit Keyboard - NON Chiclet
Network Card: Onboard Gigabit (10/100/1000 Mbits/sec) LAN subsystem
Wireless Card: KILLER WirelessN 1202 - Designed for the best wireless gaming, HD video and audio experience
Bluetooth: Integrated Bluetooth 4.0 Only With Intel 2230/6235 AND Killer 1202 Wireless
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium FREE Upgrade to Windows 8 Pro when available
Anti-Virus Software: Microsoft Security Essentials
Laptop Case | MYTHLOGIC Recommends SLAPPA Gear: SLAPPA 17" HardBody PRO "Carbon Elektra" Laptop Case
MYTHLOGIC Assurance: MYTH Lifetime Assurance with Lifetime Labor + 2 Years Parts Warranty, 2 Yrs 2-Way Shipping Cont US
Phoenix Upgrade Plan: Lifetime Phoenix Upgrade Plan

 

Ive got a rebadged Clevo P150EM (Novatech N1514) Ive had two specific issues with it.

(1) The ATI 7970m would keep disappearing from the device list and not function properly. Re-installing from scratch and messing around with Drivers seems to have calmed this down to hardly any further issues.

(2) Laptop Speak fails to produce sound intermittently. This i cant seem to fix and im after some help. I can plug my headphones in to the headphone jack and i can heard the sound fine. Sometimes after 2 or 3 reboots the built in speakers will start working for no other reason, or re-installing the sound cards can often fix this in one reboot but its very hit and miss. When the speakers aren't producing sound i can still see via the sound card menus that the sound is showing the volume bar as working. Anyone got any ideas as its driving me mad.

Thanks

 

i plan on having two hard drives, the stock 7200rpm HDD in the primary bay and then a SSD in the optical bay. My thinking is that the optical bay is isolated so the heat would be greater in this area so i'd rather have the SSD which produces less heat in there.

My question is would i be able to make the optical bay drive (SSD) the primary?

 

You can, but the optical bay slot is only SATA ii. To maximize your ssd put it in main bay to get SATA iii. But if your ssd is a SATA ii drive then go for it and put the drive in optical bay.
The main bay doesn't get too heated just so you know.

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk 2

 

yeah, that's why i want to place the hotter 7200rpm HDD in the main bay where it can get more cooling and then put the cooler SSD in the cramped optical disc HD caddy.

as for the SATA II, i may not even saturate the speeds of it. It's a Crucial M4 256GB btw.

 

If you aren't worried about speeds, then do your thing.

I have a seagate 7200 in the optical bay and heat is not an issue. Being the its going to be your data drive anyway it won't always be running. Trust me when you're gaming a 50 degree celsius hdd is probably the least contributor to overall system heat.

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk 2

 

Yeah I would switch them around, I have my Vertex 4 in the main bay and my 1TB hd in the optical bay and they are 100% fine, plus this way allows the SSD to work faster (and yes it can easily saturate sata II, and even get close to saturating sata III)

 

From what I know the ODD bay is better ventilated than the primary bay. HDD cover is tight and blocks air flow in the primary bay. The ODD bay is more slits and air can circulate freely.

 

Hello

I recently received my new Sager and a few days ago it began acting odd. I'll do my best to describe. Basically my control of the OS is sporadic at times. Everything will be functioning normally, then all of a sudden I can't minimize a window, pause media player, close Firefox or adjust the comps volume (via the touch pad or a mouse) for example. A whole host of weird little momentary unresponsiveness. 30 seconds, maybe a minute later I will have full control again. While this is happening the start menu button or pinned task bar items don't glow on a mouse over. You can still alt/tab open items. You can move the mouse and get a desktop right click menu, but can effect very little else. Keyboard continues to function normally. It's been doing this randomly every few minutes for days now and I can't seem to sort out why. There is no added CPU activity when this happens and everything that is currently running continues to run normally. I've done a full security essentials scan and found nothing. The comp is giving me no feedback that anything is wrong. The machine is brand new and has almost nothing installed on it. I haven't experienced it cause any issue while a game is running, only when I'm navigating the OS. Very frustrating for such an expensive machine. Has anyone experienced this or have any idea what I'm talking about? Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Sager NP9150 - Intel Core i7-3920XM - Nvidia GTX 680M - Win7 Ultimate - Crucial 512GB M4 HD - 32GB RAM

 

Is he HDD light pegged on when that happens? Sounds like a Disk I/O issue to me. Possibly bad ssd? Is it aligned properly?

 

Update the firmware on your SSD

Format the drive

Reinstall the OS

If it ain't fixed, the SSD is definitely bad as mentioned by extide

 

ok i'm ready to pick up a Sager NP9150, or the Clevo P150EM. Where's the best place to get it from? Right now i'm leaning towards a Sager just because they're headquartered 5 miles from my work (Los Angeles, CA) in case I ever have any problems. And I'm planning on buying from xoticpc because i don't know of any other resellers.

Anyone care to throw out some other resellers for consideration?

 

also what's the best thermal compound paste? It's been a while since I"ve built or messed with a computer but 5 years ago everyone talked about Arctic Silver.

 

I've heard of other people ordering directly from sager HQ when they are local. Give them a call, perhaps they will sell directly. I could be wrong but it is worth a try!

 

Thank you for the quick response. No sign of increased HD activity when it's acting up. Apologies for my lack lack of of knowledge, but this is my first comp with an SSD. How does one align an SSD?

 

Cheers mate. Once I get back home I'll give a reinstall a go and see what happens. The idea of having to update firmware on a brand spanking new 3k comp is baffling, but I'll try and see what happens. more to come.

Appreciate the response. Thanks again.

 

IIRC, Arctic Silver is the best atm. Some people say it might be IC Diamond 7, but i think some statistics from a few months ago say that AS paste is slightly better.

 

so for the P150EM platform, i've got the following resellers laid out, just wanting to know if i'm missing any for consideration:

xoticpc
malibal
mythlogic
rjtech

 

Please note that if you pick it up at SAGER in the LA, California area they WILL add sales tax to your order.

Only if you order your NP9150 from a dealer OUTSIDE of California will you not be paying the sales tax. Just a thought...

--

 

oh yeah, i do NOT want to pay sales tax haha. it's nice knowing sager is close by so that if i ever have any issues i'll bring it to them. i do plan ot buy outside of CA though.

 

If you do a clean install with windows, and allow the windows installer to create the partitions, then it will be aligned.

 

You can also use gparted to align the partitions. Just create a new partition table and you're good to go. The latest gparted is good to go.

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2

 

i just configured similar P150EMs from xoticpc and malibal. it seems the malibal one is cheaper by $150. I was wondering why then noticed that the Malibal one has the option for an nVidia GTX 660M (Kepler) 1GB instead of the GTX 670M (Fermi) 1.5GB for a savings for $50. Now i'm ok with this and prefer it because I won't be gaming at all. However I thought Kepler is newer, yet it's cheaper?

Also can Malibal remove any branding? I want my laptop plain.


While Malibal is $150 cheaper, I'm concerned about warranty issues. If I get the Sager NP9150 from XoticPC, I can drive over to Sager for warranty work 10 miles away however with Malibal I'd have to send it in? I'm a little confused with the companies as well. I'm understanding it like this, xotic pc sells sager, who sells clevo. malibal sells clevo. is that right?

 

If you aren't interested in gaming then this may not be the laptop for you. Check out the W150 and W350, which have 650m and 660m respectively. There is also the W250 with the 630m as well, which is also significantly cheaper. All of these machines can be had with 1080p, and the 150 and 350 can hold two hard drives plus an optical drive.

 

i thought about going with those as well but i have a few cons with those laptops
-numpad "0" is too small
-cooling does not appear to be very good (shared heatsink with CPU and GPU)
-no backlit keyboard

are those three items worth spending $250 more? probably not but i don't want to compromise on this laptop again.

 

Has anyone had a problem using the WebCam with Windows Live Messenger? Mine flickers during video chat with Messenger but works fine with Skype. Did a lot of research over the past 3 weeks but haven't been able to resolve it. The webcam could be defective, your input would be greatly appreciated.

 

Can someone actually answer my question? I was asking whether the matte 60% gamut screen is really that extremely grainy. Looks like a whole lot of dirt on top of my screen and I can't see any grain on my 6 year old desktop matte monitor. I just re-plugged it to make sure that the wire wasn't lose. It looks like texture on top of the screen, when I move a white window around for example, the texture stays still. It also seems to make white kind of reddish/dirty looking. I payed 1850$ for this and another 150$ for a second screen, why is it that every cheap low budget computer I've ever owned or seen seems to have better screens than this and without stupid problems like ghosting.

 

Kepler is newer but is cheaper because the 660M isnt as powerful as the 670M. The 670M is still about 10-15% faster.

When you buy from a Sager reseller you can take it to Sager directly for repair. Before doing so have your reseller set up an RMA for you. You cant do that with Malibal as they do not get their computers from Sager.

 

Quick question, if you're not going to game why get a Clevo/Sager at all? These things are butt heavy and get 2 hrs of battery life. Why not get an Envy 15, Vaio S15 or the retina display macbook pro? Just curious as Sager/Clevos are great because they're the best gaming machines...

 

good question, i answered part of it a few posts above. the main thing for me is the cooling. i run some CPU intensive file conversions and my current laptop (listed in sig) gets to 70C CPU while performing that for an hour or two. my HD heats up to 50C as well, it's dropped 10C down to 40C now that I took the cover off the bottom (gonna expect lots of dust getting into the actual laptop now, but i'll probably have a new one by then)

as for battery life, i always plug it in. i only use it at home, at work (plugged in) and when i travel (again plugged in at the hotel). i was thinking heavily on the NP9170 but my current backpack that i love does not accommodate that size.

i did consider the Sony VAIO S15 but after seeing it in person, it seemed too fragile. I'm not a fan of HP's ENVY design, Dell's Inspiron line or the Mac OS.

 

If you're doing those cpu intensive tasks on this clevo, you will get higher temps than 70c.. probably around 75-80c. HDD temp will be lower though..

 

There is absolutely NOTHING wrong with those temperatures. These laptops will run the CPU just as hot, and that is NOT a problem, it is WELL within spec. I don't get why so many people are so concerned over the temperature of their laptop. Unless it get to ~95c+ you don't need to worry at all!

EDIT: And even if it goes past 95c into the TJmax (typically 105c) it will throttle itself so that no damage will be done!

 

is dead pixels a common issue with clevo laptops?

I am planning to place an order for 150em soon.

 

Hello proud p150em owners,

I am planning to buy one soon. I am not very knowledgeable in the SSD thing. please help!

XOTIC is offering 3 options for storage:

1. mSATA SSD slot1 (OS drive/smart response tech - cache/storage)
2. HDD or SSD2 with SATA3
3. Optical drive - can be replaced with HDD or SSD

So, here is my question:

can i select a SSD in option 1 and use it as OS drive and game installations? OR selecting a SSD for option 2 gives better performance?
please note that XOTIC is offering free 500 GB hybrid and 750 GB regular HDDs in option 2
this way i can keep my optical drive. If i go for a SSD in option 2, i may have to lose my optical driveand replace it with HDD.

Please help. I am confused as hell!!!

 

SSD all the way. But get it elsewhere. You can find good deals on them on newegg and other places. Note, the "free" HDD upgrades are only worth $20, so in the grand scheme it doesn't really save you as much as you think.

Go ahead and take the 750gb now. Buy a caddy from amazon or eBay for $10-15, and get a good SSD on sale while you're waiting for your laptop to ship. You'll be happy. You can also purchase an optical drive enclosure for the disk drive for like $15-20. So you still get to have disk drive if your really needed it.

And if you don't want to lose optical drive at all, you most certainly can install your os to the mSata drive. Keep in mind it is only sata ii, and most good sata iii SSD will saturate that. Real world difference probably isn't much. It is a convenient technology though. That way you can have SSD, HDD, and odd.

But hands down an SSD upgrade is the biggest umph you can do for yourself on a computer these days.

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2

 

Hi umkc,

Dead pixels are a defect created during manufacturing. They aren't common, but here's a quick low down: On a 1920 x 1080 screen you have 2,073,600 pixels. In each of these pixels there are 3 sub pixels: Red Green and Blue. That makes 6,220,800 sub pixels. All of those pixels are jammed into a 15.6" screen. The odds of you seeing 1 stuck pixel (Stuck on Red, Green, or Blue) are pretty slim. You would have to actively search for it. The odds of you seeing a dead pixel in amongst the 2 million is more likely, but how annoying will it actually be?

Your Primary 2.5" Drive bay is SATA III
Your mSATA and Optical Drive are SATA II

Because the mSATA interface is running at SATA II speeds, putting a SATA III drive in there will be bottle-neck it.

You're best option for performance and storage is to use your 2.5" HDD bay for your Boot Drive, and use your optical drive for storage.

Don't worry about the confusion. The sheer number of HDDs, SSDs, Hybrid Drives, and caching drives make these options rather confusing for even the best of us.

It also depends on what your needs are as well. There is no perfect answer for everyone.

 

What software to use for keyboard light?

 

Hotkey drivers included in the CD/can be downloaded off of the Clevo site.

 

As awakeN mentioned its the hotkey drivers, also you start the software with Fn / (above the 8 on the keypad)

 

The mSata drive can be used as a normal drive, OR as a caching drive. In my setup I actually went with a 256GB mSata (which is my drive D, stores source code and VM's), the Vertex 4 SSD in the main bay (C: drive), and then the 1TB 5400 rpm in the Optical bay for mass storage (Drive E .

I have my optical drive in an external USB enclosure, in-case I happen to need it. So far the only time I have used it was to install windows, and even that can be done with a USB stick if desired.

 

How about using an msata as a storage drive for music and video?

I have a ssd force 3 180gb as my main OS drive and want to keep my optical as a bluray player and need more storage for some media on board. I keep most of my media on an extra hard drive in my htpc and even that has a 60gb ssd as an OS drive.

 

Yes it can, but that is an extreme waste of potential if its just for music and media.

As extide mentioned, it is great for storing source code and vms. This decreases access times while compiling and increases performance while running vms. This is also considered "storage", but I think you mean music, games, etc. However, games will load faster from SSD.

But if you really want to keep the bluray and have money to spare, then nothing is to stop you.

Is it a waste of perfectly good performance? In my opinion yes.

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2

 

You can do this, but mSata's are expensive for their size. You'd be better off buying a larger main SSD, honestly. You can get a 512GB Crucial M4 for under $400 these days. The best deal on an mSata is also the Crucial M4. I bought mine direct from Crucial, but they are now listed on Newegg so that may be easier.

 

Hi.

Anyone else get this when trying to run 3DMark 11?

Workload Single init returned error message: DXGI call IDXGISwapChain::SetFullscreenState failed:

The requested functionality is not supported by the device or the driver.

DXGI_ERROR_NOT_CURRENTLY_AVAILABLE

 

Shut down programs like Steam, GameBooster, xfire and so on.. they give compatibility issues

But basically: Error message while running 3DMARK 11
- change the settings in 3DMark

and yes even though I liked to futuremark, it doesn't matter, they tend to have the same problems as they are built on the same engine (as far as I recall)

 

Hey there,
Does the S/PDIF port (i assume its that one, zig zagy lines with an arrow through it) always shine the red light? Or am i missing a way to turn it off?
I only ever use headphones and havnt used any of the other audio ports yet.

 

Well, nobody on here helped me, but I found out myself that the screen isn't supposed to look like someone mixed oil with dust and rubbed it all over it. Right half of the screen is also a bit dim, which probably means the backlight is failing and then there is the smallest problem of a dead pixel.
Great, I have 2 completely ed up LCDs, can't return this one to my reseller because I'm already back in Europe, that's why I couldn't use my warranty for the replacement of the first one as well.
Might sound like I just keep on ranting....well, I do, because I'm pissed off. Next time I know, don't trust a reseller, buy from a store that sells legit panels with warranty on them...

 

Sounds like you are missing some video drivers.

Futuremark is the company that makes 3dmark