*** Official Clevo P177SM-P170SM / Sager NP8290-8270 Owner's Lounge ***

I've been emailing Larry@lpc-digital and I was asking what I should do if I was doing bank transfer. He said to checkout first with the cash payment option so I did, and I told him right after I checked out. I guess he missed it or something. I'll probably email again today.

 

Larry is very good about responding, although it can take a bit. Did you check your spam box? Try calling and emailing. It is the weekend now, so that will delay things. I believe the Sager factory is closed, plus most banks don't do transfers on the weekend. No worries though, I started mine on a Saturday.

 

So sorry. I thought all of the information was sent.

Please email me again if we missed something. 7 Days a week we email and even talk on the phone!

--

 

Now that's customer service!

 

Good advice, check the spam folder. My first reply from Larry was in the inbox. The second was sent to spam. Seems strange, but it happens.

 

No worries guys, Larry sent me the info and it's all sorted out. Really good customer service!

 

That is good to hear. I knew there was a reason I went with LPC Digital.

 

"Vegas the city that never sleeps"!

 

So finally I decided to get a new Directx 11 compatible laptop and it's Clevo P170SM. It works fine, pretty much the same as my older Clevo W870CU, except I can play Crysis 3 .
But how can I ... convince... it to have screen brightness at the level I want, not some random or minimum level it chooses after reboot ?
I have Nvidia 780 and Windows 8.1.
Help, please ?

 

Have you tried setting your preferred brightness level in the Clevo Control Centre??

Also, turning off any powersaving options might help.

 

Check Clevo contro center, and check your power management options. Also they tend to dim on battery to save power.

 

I did check power management options, it's where I set the brightness . Clevo Control Center? Hmm.. I seem to not remember installing it ... Will try. Thank you.

Though I think I had similar issue with my old Clevo and solved it somehow...

Another thing. HWMonitor does not see Nvidia card and does not display it's temperatures. How can I monitor GTX 780M temp ?

 

Clevos come with the Control Centre on the drivers disk.

Try using MSi Afterburner to monitor temps, I had the same issue with the HD 8970M and Speedfan. Was reporting wrong temps.

 

I paid on Saturday with LPC Digital and today it's showing Customized Build Process. Lots of progress! Is that close to shipping?

 

Here is my updated order process

Shipped...

Ordered a NP8275-S on
Nov. 30, 2013, Saturday (Did wire transfer, emailed proof to LPC Digital, although wire xfer will not process until Monday)
Dec 2nd, 2013 Monday. Order shows it was sent to factory for build. (First business day, 3rd day)
Dec. 7th, 2013 Saturday (6:30AM) Shows shipped to LPC Digital, to avoid CA tax I guess. (Five business days, 8th day, the 6:30AM might mean it shipped the day before, so that would be five business days, 7th day.)
Dec. 10th, 2013 Tuesday (8:30AM) Got UPS notice it is shipping from LPC Digital to me. ETA, Dec. 11th. (7 Business days, 11 Total days)

Note that I did not pay for rush service or delivery.

 

This morning was the first morning that I woke up without order updates from LPC Digital, lol I feel spoiled.

 

Here is my updated order process

Out for Delivery

Ordered a NP8275-S on
Nov. 30, 2013, Saturday (Did wire transfer, emailed proof to LPC Digital, although wire xfer will not process until Monday)
Dec 2nd, 2013 Monday. Order shows it was sent to factory for build. (First business day, 3rd day)
Dec. 7th, 2013 Saturday (6:30AM) Shows shipped to LPC Digital, to avoid CA tax I guess. (Five business days, 8th day, the 6:30AM might mean it shipped the day before, so that would be five business days, 7th day.)
Dec. 10th, 2013 Tuesday (8:30AM) Got UPS notice it is shipping from LPC Digital to me. ETA, Dec. 11th. (7 Business days, 11 Total days)
Dec. 11th, 2013 Wed. Out for delivery... (8 Business days, 12 Total days) Thought I would post now, since I should be busy later

Note that I did not pay for rush service or delivery.

 

Congrats! By the way, how long did it take for your Customized Build Process? Mine's been stuck on it for two days now with rush service.

Edit: It just said that it's in final testing before shipping.

 

I don't remember a notice of customized build process, if I had seen it, I would have noted it. Yours might be a more complicated build...

Been benchmarking it, so I know where it started in performance before AV, or other programs. So far I am very happy. And the screen is great, the fans aren't bad either.

 

Congratulations on your new laptop! Enjoy! :thumbsup:

 

Congrats on your new machine, hope you enjoy it!

I'm really loving my P370SM, it just plays anything I throw at it with ease on high settings.


Sent from my baked potato

 

I just got the Shipped to LPC Digital progress update. Hopefully it'll be here soon!

I wish it would be here by Friday but don't think that's possible.

 

It's certainly a kick up the pants for your gaming performance with the 5870M -> 780M.

 

Haha yep. I like to buy laptops every few years that has the best GPU of that time. 5870M was the best about 3 and a half years ago and now 780M. Judging by some benchmarks it looks like 3 years = 3x the benchmark scores.

 

Yeah at least, the 780M is an excellent clocker too.

 

Friday tomorrow?

Think you're kidding yourself a bit lol


Sent from my baked potato

 

Yeah. That's why I said I wish it would be here by Friday but don't think that's possible.

Wishful thinking followed by realistic expectations, don't see how I'm kidding myself when I'm not saying anything unrealistic.

 

Haha yeah the wait is always the hardest, once you made your decision on the spec of course.

 

Haha well my decision on the specs were made in like 2 days

Also it's scheduled for delivery on 17th.

Really fast service (about 4 business days from order process to shipping).

 

That is fast. I found the "VGA" driver Windows 8.1 on the disk seems to have a problem. I installed Windows, installed the intel chipset drivers, reboot, then I tried the VGA drivers aka Intel video drivers. They gave an error, and would not finish even when I tried several times. Now after a reboot, it will crash and reboot after 30-45 seconds. I just wiped Windows and reinstalled, and just downloaded the latest Intel video driver. That worked, and the rest of the drivers and optional drivers on the drivers disk for Win 8.1 worked. But the 7260AC disk gave an error that it could not install over an older driver, and to uninstall the older driver first. Now sure what to do about that one. Also got the Windows no secure boot message, even though I have secure boot enabled in mode standard. So I don't know what is up there. I may just run the patch to turn off the message. Oh, if you wonder why I went through the trouble, I installed my own SSD.

 

Hmm mine's coming in without any OS. I plan to install my own Win7 and then get all the drivers from the Sager/Clevo website. Anyone had experiences with that?

 

Pretty straightforward process if you've done it before. The Sager disk will have them in the order to install I believe. So if you follow that order of install, but download from the site, you should be good to go.

 

Hmm, I don't have the DVD tray configured (replaced it with HDD caddy) but I do have a MacBook handy if I need to read the DVD. I wasn't aware that there's an order to these things, I usually install the drivers from manufacture website and then check if I missed anything in Device Manager.

To play it safe I guess I'll replicate the steps in the DVD with the drivers I download from the site.

 

The quickest way to install windows is via a USB stick these days.

 

There is a definate order to some drivers. Some drivers overlay other drivers. Like the Intel Video drivers and the Nvidia/AMD drivers. Other drivers it doesn't matter. The disc does have them in order, so follow the order. To see the order it needs to run a small program/interface. So the Mac may not work. But any PC should be able to run the program so you can see the order.

Oh, btw, mine came with Win 7 and Win 8.1 drivers. Also, I decided to give Windows 8.1 a good try. It took some learning, and a bit of research, but now that I know how to do things, I have no problems with it, and I am happy I choose it. I don't want to start a flame war, but with some simple tricks, it isn't bad at all.

 

Hmm, on the Sager site there's a User Manual .exe file under drivers for the 8275, is that what's on the disk?

 

That's a sel extracting .exe. Gets you a PDF manual for the system. Not the same as the install order for the drivers.

 

Would anyone mind sharing with me the install order or the program?

 

+1

Didn't you get the driver disc with your system?


Sent from my baked potato

 

I won't have a Windows machine with DVD on hand. (my system has DVD replaced with HDD caddy)

 

So there is no install guide?

It is a long list if you include optional drivers as well. So this is just a overview of the core drivers.
Start with the Intel chipset, then Intel video, then Nvidia/AMD, then lan, then cardreader, then touchpad, then airplane, then hotkey, then mei, then audio.

The rest are optional.

 

Awesome thanks.

What are some of the optional drivers?

 

WiFi, Bluetooth, fingerprint etc...


Sent from my baked potato

 

Hm, some reason I left my computer in sleep mode, and later I found it was on. It wasn't connected to a wired network, and the display was closed so no way to hit power or mouse buttons. Not sure what happened.

My only complaints so far, are the touchpad is not smooth for gliding, the fn button location makes it hard to do functions with one hand, I wish it was easier to change sound and brightness levels. Otherwise it is good. Even the fan isn't too bad, not quiet, but not bad.

Now if I can get brightness to stop changing everytime I boot. I tried power saver settings, and plan settings, and advanced, no good. The display is just too bright on high.

 

OK, I got temperatures from GTX780M. Now, is 94C too much ? I got this high when playing Crysis 3...

 

Too bright??

You must be joking, how can a display be too bright lmao

That's a bit too high, ideally it shouldn't really be going above 85-90C, you might have to wait for the thermal paste to set in and optimise.

My 8970M has went up to max of 87C so far after 2 weeks of owning the machine, and that's after a couple of hours of Metro Last Light on very high.


Sent from my baked potato

 

Anyone willing to sell his laptop?

 

For £2000 yeah

 

Of course displays can be too bright. Too bright can make your eyes feel uncomfortable. It's like staring at a light bulb.

 

Yep, it is too bright. If it can be bright enough to use outside, then using indoors it should be too bright.

I found out what kept reseting the brightness... Clevo/Sager Hotkey program. Everytime it loads it resets the brightness. Turn it off and things are fine. The volume and shound fn keys work, and others, just the keyboard backlighting can't be controlled. ugh. Any one know a way to control the keyboard backlighting another way?