*** Official Clevo P157SM-P150SM / Sager NP8250 Owner's Lounge ***

@Savage.exe

You can also program the BIOS chip with a Raspberry Pi, if you happen to have access to one...

 

Im not sure if the GPU died at all, it wasn't showing signs of dying. I removed the graphics card to see what it would do already, the screen doesn't turn on and it makes the fan speed 100%

Edit: The GPU also didn't show any physical signs of damage, this doesn't mean much though really.

 

@Savage.exe

Have you tried removing RAM and trying one module at a time?

 

It also did say after I booted it back up after I restarted it that the EEP or something rom failed. I don't remember the name of it.

 

Yeah, I did.

 

@Savage.exe

If it did say EEPROM then it is indeed the BIOS... The fact that it crapped out like that makes me believe it's the chip itself... You may need to purchase a BIOS chip of the same make/model and program it with your BIOS for your machine to boot again if the chip is "fried"... Again, super cheap, like $2-$5

 

And solder it to the motherboard...of course...

 

Alright and I guess there's no chance it will be pre programmed? Either way, I could probably get it fixed under $50.

 

@Savage.exe

You can get it pre-programmed, (I do not recommend it), but you need to MAKE SURE it gets programmed with your MAC address, Make/Model, Serial number, etc... Otherwise you will have nothing but headaches until the information is corrected. At that point MANUALLY editing the BIOS is the only way I know of to fix that stuff being wrong.

 

@Savage.exe

I would try the simple things first.

Get ahold of whichever company "manufactured" your laptop (Clevo themselves, Sager, Schenker XMG, the list goes on...all the exact same laptop).
Ask them for the needed BIOS recovery files and the EXACT process for initiating a FN+F2 BIOS recovery (or whatever method they use).
Usually it is something like: copy files to USB, insert USB into port, with power off press and hold down FN+F2, press power while still holding FN+F2...continue to hold until the LED/light changes to flashing showing that it is uploading the BIOS....

Try the recovery process first.

If that doesn't work, then get a $5 programmer and flash the BIOS yourself manually.

If that still doesn't work then the chip must be "fried", so order one of the same make/model read off the current chip, flash it, and install it if you have the ability. If not take the laptop and chip to a laptop repair store and pay them $20 to solder it in for you.

Best of luck!

 

Update: I have tried to do the recovery process but that didn't work. I have been looking at pictures of the motherboard to try to locate the bios chip, I can't find it. Perhaps I need to take it apart and look at all areas where a bios chip can be.

 

I think I am going to just buy a new motherboard, I think I found the bios chip but I can't get any information for it off of google. I believe this is it cause it has the same logo as the bios chip that's on the GTX 970M. I found off of a block diagram that the bios chip is somewhere next to the south bridge chip. One of these chips might be it, I'm not really sure.

I think the best option is just to buy a new motherboard, but I can't find one for "P157SMA" I can only find "P157SM" motherboards. I believe both are about the same. Not 100% sure.

 

The a was a revision to officially support the extra msata port.

 

Now that you say that, I notice that the P157sm doesn't have the support for the 2nd msata slot. This won't be a big deal to me as long as the motherboard fits and all.

I also notice that the P177SM motherboard looks like it might fit in the 15 inch one. I heard idk from where but there's more features unlocked? Maybe even a higher power limit. You would have to dremel out a bigger hole for the AC jack to be bigger.

This is the first time me having a clevo PC and having any PC die on me like this, I'm sure this is rare, perhaps I shouldn't scrap the laptop yet. I shouldn't let it tarnish my image of Clevo laptops.

 

There was a different BIOS in the EM series, they P170EM had a better heatsink on the VRM so allowed more tweaking. The motherboards are the same PCB at least but they have slight differences. I can't confirm if it's just plug and play.

 

The P157sm motherboard isn't plug and play with the P157sm-a. I discovered the audio board and part of the LCD assembly have different plugs. As for the P170EM ill see.

 

Well that sucks

 

I found out the other cable going to part of the LCD assembly is actually a webcam cable. So you can use the P157sm non-a motherboard it looks like. You will have to change the webcam and audio jacks. All together it's still cheaper than buying an actual P157sma motherboard. It (Should) work, if it does, I'll report back.
Edit: I might not actually get the webcam for the P157sm.

Also, the motherboards from the 17 inch models would probably work too, replace the same parts and all. The 17 inch model boards have to have a bigger hole for the AC Adapter.

The reason why I am not gonna replace it with a 17 inch board is because I can't afford to get a new AC adapter at this time. Also, the 17 inch boards are about $200 USD about.

 

Different power adaptor for the motherboard as well.

 

Hey I am sorry to say that I ended up just fixing up my old HP Elitebook 8760w. I didnt get a P157sm motherboard to test in my P157sm-a.

 

That's an interesting array of hardware you are running.

 

Haha, yeah. I had the HP Elitebook, I'm broke so I decided to fix it up and put the 970M from the clevo into it. Only bad part about the hp elitebook is just that the LCD panel is going bad.

 

LCD panels are usually not THAT expensive to replace or that difficult.

 

Hi. Has anyone attempted to install Linux on the P150SM-A? I heard it doesn't work well with Nvidia GPUs with Optimus, is this true?

My interested was piqued after watching Linus Tech Tips. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

That was certainly the case at the time, you might be better asking on a linux distro forum.

 

I see, many thanks!

 

No problem, I think they have improved since, it was a LONG time ago.

 

Hello! I have a Clevo p157sm-a (Sager np8258) whose motherboard finally died in a puff of white smoke (that I think originated from around the power jack, based on smell).

I found what looks to be the more "generic" motherboard for this p150-170 series (P/N: 6-77-P157SM00-D03A#10) for sale on ebay with a 30 day return policy, which i have about 25 days left of. So I am now the proud (and very lost) owner of what was the 157sm-a model running on the non-a board, which @Savage.exe was considering doing a month ago, with the nvidia gtx 970m graphics card and all.

As was already noted, 3 cables don't have the same type of connection. (The mic/camera coming from the screen, the msata2 down by the touchpad, and the right side-board with the ports for audio plugs and one usb). The msata2 and the mic/camera aren't really problems to me, since I don't need them anyways. And it looks like the right side board with the audio ports I can just buy the equivalent with the right cable for this motherboard for like $20 bucks (which in theory should plug n play just fine) if I decide to stick with this setup.

Everything else hardware-wise plugged in the exact same and were working "fine".

For software/drivers I'm getting pretty stuck though, and hence am now here looking for help. For background, I backed up my important files from my hard drive (a 500gb Crucial SSD) onto a separate hard drive, then deleted everything on the main windows partition, and did a clean install of windows 10 home from a usb installation media created yesterday (6/29/2020) with the microsoft tool. From the sager website, I picked up drivers for the touchpad, the graphics card, and the control center utility for the keyboard backlight/macros.

Issues:
-The touchpad only works for about 15 seconds after booting up the laptop and loading into windows, then it stops working (but stays lit up).
-The keyboard and touchpad only have the default blue backlight, despite the fn commands working and being able to bring up the flexikey program window for the backlight colors and selecting different colors in there.
-The gtx 970m graphics card. I can use the drivers gotten from the sager website (which is for version 353.62), and the graphics card is recognized in the device manager, nvidia's geforce experience, the nvidia control panel for setting graphics for specific programs, and the window's graphics card setting for specific programs. However when I try to download and install any of the newer drivers for the 970m from the nvidia website (the most recent version 451.48 for example) I get the errors of "This NVIDIA graphics driver is not compatible with this version of Windows." and "This graphics driver could not find compatible graphics hardware". Also, there's inconsistency in what my games are doing when I try to play them. Some recognize the 970m and run normally using it (starcraft 2), some games don't recognize it at all and only run on the intel integrated graphics, even when set in the nvidia control panel to use the 970m (path of exile), and some simply crash when I try to run them (diablo 3).

That last issue is obviously the most pressing, though the keyboard customizable backlight and touchpad I wouldn't mind being able to get working as well. I'm wondering if these problems are just a matter of finding the right drivers setup, or if there's no way to get those working due to my frankensteining in the "wrong" motherboard. So if anyone has any input on this setup or thoughts on what I can try, thanks in advance!

 

Popping back in with an update. I got the gpu drivers to work, so I'll be keeping this weird setup, and give another update when I make any more progress (just in case someone else months or years from now gets stuck on this hybrid setup).

For the gpu drivers, we have a bit of a journey to go through. I downloaded the 2nd most recent (as of this post, 451.48) driver installer from the nvidia website. When running this, It extracted to a separate folder (default path C:\NVIDIA\DisplayDriver\451.48), then immediately upon extracting automatically started to run the setup. Initially this setup hit the above mentioned errors, and then when hitting the only button available (the cancel button) it deleted the extracted files. This took three steps to fully fix.

1) To start, I ran the installer again, and after it extracted I copied the entire folder onto my desktop so it wouldn't get deleted when I hit cancel at the error (which I did when it came up again). Then in that copied folder, I followed the directions in https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforc...find-compatible-graphics-hardware-installer-/ . (I picked the "nvami" file to edit, and added the device path whateverthingy for my graphics card as described). Then with that change, I copied that folder back to its original location in C\NVIDIA\DisplayDriver.

2) After that, it recognized the driver and was able to start the install, but still failed halfway through for another reason. When trying to do manual update from the device manager, I got the error "the hash for the file is not present in the specified catalogue file". To fix this, I followed option #2 from https://www.technipages.com/enable-disable-device-driver-signing , which was for disabling Device Driver Signing. After that I was able to do the manual install from the device manager, and following a successful install and restart, the driver is fully functioning and my (admittedly small) sample size of games all recognize and use my GPU now.

3) However, after the gpu driver install and restart, my keyboard started acting up. It would only recognize a keystroke after I held down the key for a second or two (felt pretty much random between 0.5 and 2 seconds of holding down the key before it would register), and my google chrome was lagging horribly when i tried to type anything. My "fix" for this (which came from trying random things until something seemed to work) was to go task manager, and disable "Finger Sensing Pad - User Interactive Program" on startup and end process on the one running. So naturally that prevents my touchpad from working, but it already wasn't working anyways for whatever reason, and let's not kid ourselves by pretending that the touchpad on this model is anything special either.

So with those three changes, my graphics card is now up and running, my keyboard is back to working like normal (though still only default blue backlight, haven't tackled that yet), and I continue to have a mouse plugged in. And this means I'll likely be buying the little audio jack side-board for this np8250 version of the motherboard and tossing that in as well, so I'll share another update whenever I get around to it, to either cover the steps needed or hopefully just comment on it being a plug'n'play type modification.

 

hi, does anyone know what kind of cmos battery this laptop use? I've been trying to find the part, but google search came up none.

(for some reason, sometimes when I unplug the laptop, the bios will revert to some random 2000+ era date, disabling eufi, etc etc.

 

The battery usually has it written on it.

 

alright, thanks! time to open the laptop again! Thanks.

 

Hi!

So, out of the blue my GPU seems to have kicked the can. The laptop is an old P151SM1-A, with a GTX 860M 4GB. After a DPC_Watchdog_Violation BSOD it still worked for a few hours but now it isn't even recognized by the BIOS, although the rest of the computer runs fine. I tried to reboot the computer several times, uninstall the latest windows updates, clearing CMOS and re-seating the card. I'm wondering if repeatedly re-seating the card or cleaning the contacts with isopropyl alcohol *might* work in case the problem is corrosion, or if I should just go for a replacement. I really want to fix the issue, since right now for me buying a new computer (even 2nd hand) is completely out of the question.

In case of replacement, do you guys think going with a 860M from ebay/aliexpress is safe-ish? Most of the cards I've seen are for Alienware laptops, although there are some for Clevos from aliexpress, and I'm afraid that for some reason the laptop won't recognize them and I will be left with an expensive paperweight... The best part is that they are around 150€, which is within my budget (~200€)

In case someone wonders why not do an upgrade since I'm buying a new card, the P151SM1-A only supports (according to the manual) the 860M, and only has a 120W power adapter (other models have a 150W one).

Again, if you have any suggestions on possible fixes I can try please send them my way, I'm really going desperate over here.

EDIT: I'm not sure if it's relevant, but I have the stock BIOS (can't remember the version) , not the PREMA mod one (got scammed out of that one by the shop, they overwrote it with the Clevo one after an upgrade)

 

So I tried everything, gave up and bought a used 860M of ebay from the UK. Problem solved.

Also, does anyone know if prema will sell a copy of the BIOS for someone who purchased a laptop with it in the past? I tried the shop but they ghosted me, and I am willing to buy the BIOS just to enable turbo-boost which is disabled on my stock bios...

 

You can @Prema

 

Sure, but I figured I should ask around first, just in case I missed some memo where he asked not to be bothered that way.


@Prema, in the past I've purchased your BIOS from a shop, and they don't seem to be your partner anymore. They overwrote it when I sent the laptop for maintenance and I would like to get access to your BIOS again, and am willing to pay for it. My laptop is a P151SM1-A, currently with BIOS 4.6.5 (16/12/2014) from Clevo.

 

OK, sorry for bringing this up again, but I have a bit of a conundrum.

The new GPU works fine, it's a 860M 2GB (GK104). However, its clocks are higher than my original GPU (Core:1019MHz vs 915MHz / Memory: 1609MHz vs 1250Mhz (according to spec, can't remember this one)). While it works, it's consistently hitting the power cap (120W power brick) and throttling the CPU down to it's base voltage of ~800MHz, making games like FFXIV stutter so much it becomes very difficult to play. I think the overclock is the issue, since overclocking draws more power, and not the card itself, since it is working correctly for the most part.

While I can underclock the GPU Core to 915MHz using Afterburner, I cannot change the memory clock. Adding insult to injury, I'm running a stock BIOS (and don't have access to the Prema BIOS) so no overclocking control on that end. Right now I see 4 possible choices:

1. Look around for a vbios file that has the stock GPU clocks
2. Wait to see if Prema can sell me a copy of his BIOS
3. Buy a new 150W or 180W power brick

Honestly, I see no easy way out of this. While 2 is the less problematic choice, I already paged him and won't bother him further with the request because he's under no obligation. 1 seems doable, but I've never changed a vbios and am afraid I'd nuke the GPU by doing something wrong (it cost me 300€, so I don't really want that). 3 is "plug and play", but I have no idea if the 151SM1-A can support a 150/180W charger (official spec is only 120W) and I might risk taking down the entire motherboard.

What do you guys think would be the "best" solution? Or, ideally, do you have any idea how I can lower the memory clock?


EDIT: I just found out the vbios I have installed in my GPU: https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/198478/198478. This thing was cranked up to 110W! I downloaded Kepler Bios Tweaker and copied every setting from a stock bios from techpowerup apart from the voltages (different sliders, don't want to muck around with them and risk something going wrong). Do you guys think it is a bad idea to flash the vbios I just modified? How hard is it to restore a GPU with a bad vbios?

 

Being entirely honest, you need a new brick. 120w is pushing it even for underclocked loads. Go with a 230w or 330w.

 

An uprated brick also runs cooler, if 120w is barely enough even a 180w would do a lot better.

 

Yes, I think it would be a good idea (why the hell did clevo put a 120W brick with this laptop is a mystery to me...). My only fear is that the VRMs aren't designed to handle such power and might lead to a catastrophic failure

 

The stock brick will be designed for stock performance. Lower power bricks are smaller, lighter and cheaper.

 

Alright so..., in a bit of a pickle here.
Recently, I got a Clevo p150sm, and I've got a few issues, please do say if you know ANYTHING.
1) The Hotkey Software isn't working, more like..when I start it, the touchpad stops working(It does let me turn off the backlight/change the colors etc), I downloaded it from clevo's website directly under drivers, is there any way for me to turn off the backlight a different way? (Or maybe an older/different hotkey file?)
2) Absolutely miserable fan curve.., is there any way for me to improve it/modify it?
3) General question; I read somewhere that the "hotkey software" changes the actual fan profiles(?) is this true?
4) The latest Clevo Control Center 3.0 doesn't work for it? Where can I download a control center that would work? (Can't find anything called "control center" under drivers on clevos website)
Running windows 10 pro.
Thanks.
UPDATE: IM A DUMBASS, I installed the wrong driver..., and apparently it was a simple driver conflict. Clevo Control Center is now fully working (or otherwise the hotkey software)
Update2: After...installing the clevo control center.., it seems my crazy fan issues just disappeared into thin air.
For info, I'm running a premamodbios

 

Well nice work

 

Hey..so here once again, I wanted to ask if anybody has a working fingerprint sensor on their Clevo Laptop?
I kinda can't get mine working, (default error 10). Update: after a lot of fiddling around, I got it working,((windows troubleshooter somehow brought salvation here...?))
Last Problem now: Webcam, I don't see any webcam drivers avaliable for the clevo p150sm soo uh
on a sidenote, with most of the little nuisances done, I'll be eventually upgrading my P150sm with an M4000M hopefully (basically a 970m)

 

Usually webcams use the windows default drivers.

 

Big update!
Succeded in upgrading my Clevo P150SM with an Nvidia Quadro M4000M & No more webcam problems after a windows update!
using a Prema Mod Bios, will post screenies and what I did(which isn't much) in a second

 

Clevo P150SM, upgraded with a Nvidia Quadro M4000M,
All works fine, weird thing though for anyone looking to attempt the same, the BIOS says the VGA card is unknown, and without Clevo Hotkey installed prepare for terrible fan curves.
Also if you're attempting this make sure you get a M4000M with a dell vbios, the hp one is apparently quite funky.
Other posts on notebookreview that helped me:
INF MODDING:
Successful MXM GPU Upgraded Laptops | Page 104 | NotebookReview
Message by MrBorsky
And this awfully useful youtube video:
Nvidia .inf driver mod tutorial - read below. - YouTube

Good luck and thank you everyone!

 

The BIOS is a simple lookup table to show a value, ANY kind of different card from stock will say that.