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

It's a pretty straight forward process to do. 6 months should not be enough time to warrant a repaste but it depends on the environment it's being used in. The high temps are caused by something though, and if your system is clean that means it's either not getting enough air circulation (using it on soft surfaces blocking the exhaust) or the paste is bad for the most part.

Take a look here for a guide.

 

Will do. Thanks Derek.

 

Anyone found a way to control the fans?

Also, is there a way to flash some other bios? I have Eurocom bios which has almost no options at ALL.

 

My NP9150 (only like 2 months old at this point...?) has started acting up lately and a quick memtest says that one of the RAM modules is bad. But when I open it up, I can only find two of the four slots, and removing those two doesn't fix it (so it must be one of the other two that's bad?). Is it possible to get at the other two without tearing everything apart, or am I going to have to send back my entire computer because of this?

(I have 32GB of RAM, 4x8GB I think)

 

i have to run another app (re: game) that uses the 7970 to silence the fans. so i use the launcher for borderlands2, then just exit

 

There are no unlocked bioses as they are encrypted, people have unlocked xtu access by flashing the p170em bios. Same issue means you cant wasily access fan tables I believe.

 

Have the keyboard ghosting issues been fixed?

 

The other 2 slots are under your keyboard. I'm sure someone on here could tell you how to remove the keyboard and replace a stick, but from what I have heard its not too hard. (I would, but my 9150 is still in the mail.)

 

I've had a few days to configure and test out my new Np9150, and I thought I'd share how I resolved horizontal tearing issues (when there is a cut in the image where top and bottom don't align, or you notice a line -usually brigther than the rest of the screen- work its way up the screen when an image is moving).

The first area I noticed tearing in was games, and knowing how vertical sync works that was a quick fix. In some games (Diablo 3) you can switch on vsync in the game options, while in others (like the original Witcher) where its noticeable in the opening video going into Nvidia Control Panel (or Catalyst Control Center for ATI users) and enabling Vertical sync and Triple Buffering for the specific program is the best option.

Unfortunately the tearing didn't end with games. I also noticed it playing back videos, scrolling web pages, and scrolling large images. Those applications couldn't be set to High-Performance and the dedicated gpu like the games, and are bound to the integrated Intel gpu. Going to Graphic Properties -> 3d -> custom settings -> and setting Vertical sync to on didn't resolve the problem(s) (I think partly because those applications aren't 3d to begin with). I was able to resolve the tearing issues with video playback in Media Player Classic Home Cinema by adding the External filter for Microsoft DTV-DVD Video Decoder, setting it to Prefer, and moving it to the top of the External Filters list.
.
Setting the screen to 60 hertz (screen resolution -> advanced -> list all modes or the monitors tab) along with setting Virtual Memory to a static 1.5x ram (didn't think I needed that much virtual memory with 16gb of RAM ) in Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\System - > Advanced System settings -> settings (under performance) -> Advanced tab -> change (in virtual memory) -> Cusom size button (1.5x ram). (If you have an ssd and hard drive only set this on the drive with the hard drive, and have the ssd set to no paging file).

Restart the system, and you shouldn't experience any tearing.

(After you have restarted with the refresh rate settings and new virtual memory setting you can go back and and turn off vsync in the games again (to get FPS back) if you desire). (Oddly the virtual memory setting may have fixed an audio glitch in the opening of a game, sped up the system, and led to a higher physics score in 3dmark11).

Edit/Update: The one tearing I wasn't able to resolve is tearing that happens to video on any screen that is set to Secondary display while in cloning display mode for multi-screen display. Microsoft and other companies are aware of the issue, but they don't have a solution. They recommend running in Extended display mode instead of clone mode.

 

Hi All,

I am going to get my new P150EM soon and I wondered what you guys recommend/tips in terms of drivers (e.g. for the fingerprint scanner, testing dead pixels)?

I have opted for the 680m.

Thanks.

 

I was wondering if to get this barebones the p150em but i am wondering about the fan issues, have they still not been solved i mean the GPU fan staying on and none of the fans turning off when at idle?

 

As far as software for the fingerprint scanner goes it comes on a drivers and utility cd that you should receive with your system. I have discs with drivers and utilities for both Windows 7 and Windows 8. If for some reason you don't receive a driver and utility cd with your system, and need a driver then let us know on the forum. We can either provide you with a link to a location you can get it/them online, or find a way to send it to you.

As for testing dead pixels. You can find a link to a webpage you can use to test it in another thread where I linked programs for testing Np9150 systems:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/698753-testing-new-sager-system.html
(I for one didn't have any dead/stuck pixels that I could see using that test. Don't know if I was lucky, or if LG is just good at producing quality displays. I think probably both account for no pixel problems).:thumbsup:

I can't speak for people with the ATI 7970m users, but I haven't had any issues with the fans staying on. For reference I'm running the most recent Nvidia (306.97) and Intel (9.17.10.2875) GPU drivers (non-beta).

 

The latest enduro drivers also help get the 7970M shut off quicker helping idle power and noise.

 

I think I might hold out a bit for the 680MX.

 

All signs are pointing towards the 680mx being exclusive to the iMac, or at least all-in-ones.

The 285 will probably come out at some point, which will just be the 280 with upgraded clocks, but if you are going to hold out a bit you should probably just wait for the 780 and maxwell in 6-7 months.

 

I remember the GTX285M and GTX280M, those were not good days I assume you meant 680 and 685?

I don't think a "685" will be released either, there is no easy thermal headroom to play with.

 

Yea, meant 685, went back in time like 4 GPU generations lol

 

Release in December according to posts here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...-get-680mx-series-cards-mx-line-matter-3.html

 

Hey Guys,
I am going to post this again since I didn't get any hits the first time.
But has anyone found a way to enable 3d in optimus 680m 9150's?
If not, is there a possibility that this could happen in the future? Trying to debate whether or not to sell the 3d monitor etc or just keep it for the future.

 

Yea I have been following that topic quite extensively and have quite a few posts in it.

I have been told by Alienware that there is no trace of the 680mx multiple times. It has not been confirmed either way, but given the specs of the card it is unlikely that it will come to notebooks officially. We are only a few months away from the 700 series, and the power requirements of the 680mx are most likely quite high.

 

What type of things are you planning to view in 3d? Movies, games, or something else? What type of 3d conversion do you want it to do at a software level? When it comes to movies (blu-ray discs) some of the software programs (like PowerDVD) have setting to control it from within the program, so it doesn't need driver level configuration. I have a 9150 with a 680m and a 3d tv, but I haven't bothered trying to install any 3d level software since my LG passive 3D TV has 2d->3d conversion at the tv level itself.

 

Dell reps have often made information up or got confused, they don't particularly have any advance information of things until items are stocked.

I don't think clevo would pass the current 180W brick for 680MX operation either.

 

Yeah I doubt it too. Really no more room for bigger bricks... no need for such power anyways. SLi is enough (if you ask me) at least it fulfills ultra on all games.

 

It's not really a physical possibility on 15.6" machines though, so a really beefy single card makes sense. They could always introduce a special edition with the P170EM brick and power plug (it's the same motherboard after all).

 

Hey guys and gals first post here, specific question about bags. I just bought this laptop and want to give it some loving care when not in use/travelling/driving etc. I'm looking into this bag:
Laptop Bags > STM Bags

The specifications listed are 38 x 27 x 4 cm. I know the length and height would be a perfect fit but the thickness worries me a little. I've seen youtube reviews and it seems the laptop compartment is quite flexible. I live in Australia so it's really easy for me to go with STM. My question is has anyone here had experience with this bag or STM related bags for this lappy?

Cheers!
Chris

 

I would get the Surge 2 from The North Face

I got it. And it fits my P150EM in the laptop sleeve that is the back section of the backpack. It has support straps too so my school books + 7 lb laptop and 1lb adapter don't kill my back. And the bag is very durable and comfy.

 

hi,
Im not sure if this is the right thread but I currently have this setup

P150EM
SATA port 1 = SSD with linux
SATA port 2 = HDD with windows 7
SATA port 3 = external sata (esata not used)
SATA port 4 = msata 64GB (available)
SATA mode = AHCI

Is there any way I could utilize my msata 64GB as an intel SRT cache without affecting my SSD Linux. As you can see this setup is a dual boot, with separate OS on different drives. I would be willing to reformat the HDD windows but as much as possible the linux SSD is intact.

Appreciate for any ideas.

 

Just received my sage 9150, I'm pretty happy.

I have finished updating the drivers with the dvd that was provided but I am still wondering whether or not I have the latest drivers for the 7970.

Does AMDs catalyst program automatically update the drivers?

I also have windows 8 installed just in case.

I'm going to test by using 3dmarks to see how well the system holds.

thanks for your help

 

I dont think CCC will update you to beta drivers which seem to work the best AMD Catalyst

 

Hello, I've received my Sager just a couple of weeks ago, and I'm pretty happy with it. My only problems with it are that some of the backlighting is a little uneven on some of the keys, notably in and around the Fn key. The space bar also doesn't always register if I hit it on or near the edge, which is really annoying when typing, as I have to go back and correct the spacing. Thisis whatmy writing would look likeifI didn't pay special attention toit. I am planning on sending it in again so that they can replace the keyboard, although I will be without a laptop for up to 2 weeks, which is incredibly inconvenient, especially with the Christmas Hols and my Mid-terms coming up.

Everything else is amazing though, especially the screen. I'm not sure if there is a visible difference between the Color Gamut Sager screen and the Non-Gamut one, but everything does look really nice, especially video games and the like. It restarts in seconds, and generally other operations are also incredibly fast. Downloading is sometimes incredibly slow though (average 1mb/s) but I blame my slow connection. The casing, while not exactly sleek or thin, looks nice and feels nice. This laptop would not look out of place in a work environment, such as college. The Sager actually weighs lighter than what I expected, and the rubberized plastic near the keyboard does feel nice to type on, even if I would suggest angling the laptop so that the sharp edges on the bottom don't irritate the arms. The touchpad buttons have an audible clicking sound and do feel slightly loose, but it actually feels very nice to use the touchpad- before the Sager, I hated touchpads, as they got visibly dirty very quickly and were just unpleasant to use. Now, however, I don't feel the need to carry my mouse around everywhere with me.

The battery life is decent, and on Power Saver the Sager lasts anywhere from 3-5 Hours, depending on what I am doing, if I always go into hibernate, etc. The lowest screen brightness setting is still pretty bright, and I wish that I could turn it lower, but I have no idea how. It got a PCMark7 score of 5290 marks, which I think is pretty good- mind you, this is with 16 GB RAM, the 2 sticks that I ordered didn't come in yet.

Oh, and it has an e-SATA port, which I thought was both really cool and really useful. The ONKYO branded speakers are pretty weak, as several people commented, but it is alright for
gaming, especially since I doubt you would ever use it regularly and at full volume more than once or twice a week. Customer service was really a two-sided, as the online tech support guy(s) were helpful and courteous, while when the first time I called them to ask a few questions about the Graphics card (before I got it) the guy started getting really confrontational and talked like I knew nothing about computers. Which is false.

I'll be back more updates, even though this thread already has 435 pages. XD

Also, for any people looking to buy this laptop: it already comes with a carrying case in case you don't want to spend the extra $40-60 on a Targus one, something that I didn't know. It's not as thick or stylish as the Targus, but it does the job well enough. I can post some pictures if anyone wants me to.

 

The case will depend on region and vendor. As for the keyboard, did you try reseating it (cable included) and playing with the tightness of the screws?

 

Can any owners of the 9150 comment on how much dust it attracts? I've read that the laptop is a dust magnet, but I'm not sure if it is b/c of the rubberized exterior or something else. I am trying to decide between the 9150 and 9130 and am looking at all different factors. Thanks.

 

I'd just put both Windows and Linux on your main SSD and use the mSATA soley for caching your data drive.

Watch it I get 60kb/s on a good day. You have no right to complain about that.

This is probably a biased opinion, as I live in a very dusty place, but it does seem to attract a lot of dust. It's very easy to wipe off, though.

 

I believe it can depend on a lop of factors. It depends on the environment you live, and work in (how ventilated and dusty it is to begin with). If you close the lid when your not using the notebook that could effect how much dust gathers in the keyboard/palm rest area compared to the cover of the lid. I've had my 9150 notebook for a little under two weeks now, and I've seen little to no dust accumulate on it. (If I'm not using the notebook for extended periods of time I close the lid and let it enter sleep, which takes perhaps a second or less to get back to operating thanks to the combination of ssd drive and quick memory, so the insignificant amount of dust I've seen accumulate has been on the lid of the notebook.).

 

The only thing that collects dust is the screen and the glossy plastic around it. Everything else is mostly fine dust-wise, and it's not that big of a problem if you just wipe it once a week, and I do that anyway as I hate having a dirty workstation. And as other people said, it does depend on the environment and how often the screen is left open.

Also, in reply to E. Blar, have you ever tried downloading 12GBs at 1MB/s? I have every right to complain- you just have a greater right to do it. XD
And that's on a good day as well- usually I get around 500-600kb/s.

Yes, I have, and it appears that I will need to replace the keyboard- Sager has already shipped out a replacement. If that doesn't work, then I guess I will need to adapt to using more force and start to really hit that space bar.

 

That or shave an MSI steel series keyboard to fit.... If you can find one.

 

I haven"t had any problems with my spacebar, and I can't recall anyone else reporting it being a problem on 9150's, so the replacement should solve your problem. On a related note I did notice (like you mentioned in a previous post) that the FN key does light up a bit duller than the other keys, but its minor (and is more noticeable the farther away, or lower you sit in relation to the keyboard).

 

Yeah, I have. Dragorn's Majoras Mask 100% speedrun (11.69GB) alone took almost 2 weeks.

 

You have my sympathies. You might as well order the disc if it takes that long.

 

There's no disc, I got it from SpeedDemosArchive. Loads of great stuff there, but I have a thing for always getting the highest quality available, and it takes quite a chunk of time to download.

It's a great run though, despite being done before bombchu hovering was discovered it was worth the wait just for the first 3 days.

 

hey, new guy here, i have a clevo p150em as well from avell which is a manufacture here in brazil, i've been following this lounge and it's been very helpful.

Im going to say about my experience so far, it's an amazing laptop as you know but before i installed the catalyst 12.11 beta 11 i was on the 12.10 stable release and when i was playing diablo3, bf3, walking dead and other after like 10minutes form which i analysed with the AMD MONITOR software whenever the useage of the GPU reached 100% the laptop shutted down and i was started to gues that the fan was not cooling enoughly but i read this topic entirely and no one seemed to had this issue besides me, so i installed the catalyst 12.11 beta 11 and since then no more shut downs, just some BSOD's time to time, but i'm doing what the other guy said about booting without the plug energy and then plug it in, and so far it's been working.

 

Have you checked your temperatures? When it is not overclocked your laptop should not power down by itself.. except if your temps are too high..(there are solutions for that in the "cooling neglected by clevo" topic)

 

yeah I did check the temp with HWinfo the minimum is 70C and tops 90C from i think it was more a drive + ccc issue than the temp itself because now even tough with long gaming periods no shut down so far.

 

Great beta driver... no games work, constant random BSODs...screw this, back to old drivers again.

 

have you tried to uninstall amd catalyst software, reboot, install the intel hd 4000 Graphics: 8.15.10.2712 driver and then the catalyst 12.11 beta 11?
That worked out pretty nice for me, no more BSOD or wierd crashes.

 

Does anyone have any info or experience on whether installing Windows 8 helps with Enduro issues at all?

 

I missed the intel part, I'll give it a shot after my exams this week. Thanks for the tip!

 

from what i've read the BSOD's are due that the incompatibility of the AMD driver and Intel driver, if both are the newest, if you use the intel stock drive and with the 12.11 beta amd's it should work till we get the stable release.

as for the high temp, my GPU temps are very good what is getting a like 85C tops are the temps of the CPU, is that normal?

 

Hey guys,

I am using my new p150em with CPU I7-3740QM and GPU GTX 675MX now since a week.
Most of the performance is impressive. But offcourse I have some improvements I would like to make.
One of them has to do with fan control.

Nvidia driver is updated to version 306.97.

Everything stays nice and cool. Temperatures are:
- CPU: 43-77 Celsius
- GPU: 43-70 Celsius
(minimum temp when idle and maximum wile playing farcry 3 on max quality settings)

When not gaming or other intensive GPU activities the GPU fan is cooling almost continuously and kicks in at already 43 Celsius.
The CPU fan is nice and quiet and only kicks in once in a while when CPU reaches around 58 Celsius.

I think the NVidia drivers have a somewhat 'nervous' cooling policy. Older drivers don't give me a noticeable difference.
In Nvidia control panel I didn't see any parameters to influence the cooling profile or policy.

I have no problems with some proper fan speeds when I am doing GPU intensive tasks, but when the machine is doing low intensive tasks I'd like to have it quiet.

Anyone suggestions?
How to take control over this fan speed policy/profile when idle?
Which software to use in order to set a new cooling profile?

 

The reports seem to suggest the enduro drivers offer the best stability on windows 8.