*** Official Clevo W230SS/Sager NP7338 Owner's Lounge ***

What about the display? What would to know exactly?

CEG Clevo Extreme Gaming - Your Upgrade Base for Clevo & Alienware - Notebooks Retailer

 

Has anyone else removed the tape covering those holes at the bottom of the laptop? I would like to know if it´s worth it.

 

Careful when ordering; they'll ship a compatible screen, according to whatever's in stock:

Spoiler: laptopscreen.com: compatible

With the FHD this means there's now 11 compatible screens (or half that, if you specify glossy/matte) and you'll receive any one of those. Thing is, these are not all created equal and there's quite a bit of difference quality-wise. The default model in the W230SS (N133HSE-EA1) is actually the best (or 2nd best) from that lot and it's been discontinued, so ...

OT: AUO seems to be senescent; their B173HW01 V4 and V5 were #1 out of 26 panels some 5 years ago, but they're trailing the list here (45% NTSC ).

Anyway ... if you're care about a quality panel, you really want the original EA1 since everything else is quite a downgrade. Or, alternatively, opt for the newer EA3 (which has improved gamut):

Spoiler: N133HSE-EA1 and EA3 - gamut

Its colour space is even slightly larger than that of the WQHD screen, the LQ133T1JW02 (which is also the best of their lot ... Clevo is choicy ). This is achieved with higher brightness, however. Which is helpful outdoors, but comes at the expense of black value (less 'deep').

edit:
There's actually one more model that would fit; the Sharp LQ133M1JW07. Didn't include this in the list because when ordering a W230SS-compatible they'll not send this one as its connector's location is right, not left (and lacks mounting holes). It'll fit just fine, however, due to the W230SS cable arrangement; it exits the hinge right next to the connector, so that's perfect. It's brand new and there's been no reviews yet, but knowing Sharp and the other models in this series (it's an IGZO) ... chances are it'll best the Chi Mei on all fronts. So ... if there's no hurry; wait until this one's available (and reviewed).

 

You can probably get the minimum black levels back on that display by turning down the brightness again, it just gives you a greater "dynamic" range.

 

Where can I find webcam software ?

 

The webcam uses the inbuilt windows drivers and software.

 

Any one have trouble with the microphone in Ubuntu? I just get weird kind of static.

 

As Meaker mentioned its built into Windows. You may have to turn it on, take a look at which Fn key it is then press that and Fn at the same time.

 

I realize that but I want to record myself. What program is suggested?

 

In windows 8 the program is simply called "Camera".

 

you're the man, i didn't know that existed.

 

Yes well Microsoft did such a great job with the interface this time around I am not surprised Let's hope 10 keeps improving.

 

@SRSR333 I really need your help on this >< you're the only person with a W230SS (or equivalent) that has working HDMI video out. I've applied the "Rename GFX0 to IGPU" fix and the Haswell brightness patch and have gotten my brightness control working. Do you remember anything else you did?

It would help if you uploaded your DSDT/SSDT files. I'm not asking for them to use them, I've patched my own already. I just want to compare them and find out what I failed to patch.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!! Coding on a small screen for long periods is getting really uncomfortable ><

If you need my files feel free to ask.

 

Correction - HDMI output no longer works. VGA out works (occasionally), but HDMI doesn't. Nevertheless, I'm attaching the .dsl files here as a zip; please have a look (not sure how they would help though). You may consider posting at the laptop forums of tonymacx86. I have been IP banned and and am not allowed to enter, for reasons unknown.

 

Getting a little concerned here.

So I use my W230SS for school, and it gets pretty abused to be honest. About a week ago, I dropped it from about 1-2 feet up, and it landed on the bottom-left corner. It works 100% fine, but there's now some concerning flex around the corner. If I make sure that all the 3 other corners are rooted, the bottom left corner (the corner near where my left palm rests) will be raised a couple mm above the ground. If I put my left palm down, the body actually flexes (back into position?) to the point where my bottom left foot is resting securely on the table. Raise my hand, and it goes back to a bend. There's no rocking, IE, when I put down my left hand, all 4 feet on the bottom of the laptop are also properly seated. The motherboard access plate, the one held in with four screws, is also a little free on this corner, moving up and down maybe 1mm tops. This definitely happened after I dropped it. Looking for some advice, I really love the laptop and want to make it last as long as I can.

 

No other option, really - send it in to your reseller for them to have a look.

 

I've already sent it in once during November. I try to take care of the laptop but it has to go in my bag with some textbooks..
I tracked down the issue to the bottom plastic piece. Not the removable one, the plastic shell underneath the grey plastic that holds the trackpad. On the corner, it's very slightly bent to curve upwards towards the user. Any way to un-bend it?

 

Not without causing more damage, you likely damaged some of the plastic supports that the screws go into. A repair would involve replacing the bottom and possibly top plastics.

 

I have spent the last 2 days trying out registry edits, newer versions of drivers, uninstalling reinstalling and constantly restarting trying to get rid of that stupid swipe in charms bar that can frankly step on a landmine.

And yet going back to a version that shouldn't work fixes everything. Thank you ever so much for fixing this issue that was driving me insane.

 

I went ahead and removed the plastic covering vent holes at the bottom of the laptop. I can say for sure that temps has improved about 4C degrees under heavy gaming conditions on both CPU and GPU. The "tweak" is definitely worth it. That plastic tape is probably there to guard from dust.

One more interesting thing to note! My W230SS actually has FOUR of the small vent holes, instead of three on the picture above. One more lies closer to the battery, nearly above the msata slot.

 

Thanks for your amazing post! There are still EA1 panels on ebay UK, but I couldn't find any EA3 or those Sharp LQ133M1JW07 ones for sale on ebay or anywhere else. I hope they will pop up soon, I would be happy to order a Sharp one if shipping price to Denmark isn't sky high. IGZO gotta be an incredible display!

Meanwhile I am about to try "rubbing" technique to reduce bleeding spots on my current built-in display. I will report in this thread later on.

 

Any idea if the NP7338 will get updated with 9 series GPUs anytime soon?

 

Considering the 960m is just a mildly overclocked 860m I would not worry too much about a refresh.

 

That's true. Are the temps pretty good with IC Diamond?

 

You can improve them a bit with a good ic diamond application yes.

 

hey,

I'm interested in buying this laptop. Is it smart to configure the W230SS with just a Sata-III SSD? Since HDD does make more noise and needs more power? Is there any difference in heat between HDD and SSD? Because this is a 13,3'' model, which alrdy has some problems with fan noise and heat, I'm looking for parts which cause the least heat and noise. Or is it risky to just go for single SSD in terms of losing data? BTW: I'm going to travel a lot with this machine. Is the right choice for me Sata-III HDD + mSata SSD then?

Also the wireless connection is important for me. Especially the signal range and strengh. Are the Antennas well placed? Can I close the W230SS and still have the same connection strengh such as it is opened?
I think I'm going for the killer-n 1202. Too many people have reported issues with the intel 7260. Also because I have no ac-Router.

Or should I rather configure the W230SS without any wireless card and buy one myself? Are cards out there, which actually do a better job in the w230ss as the killer-n 1202 does? Or is the killer-n 1202 just fine?

greetings, Joedo

 

I have my w230ss configured with msata ssd only. I avoid hard drives because I like my laptop being dead silent during light work. The bulk of the data I have I store on the external usb 3.0 hard drive and connect it when necessary, which happens not that often.

Regarding heat problems, there are no such on this laptop. My temps don't even reach 80C under heavy gaming like Grid2 or BF4/GTA 4. The cooling is really very well made considering size to performance ratio of W230ss.

Cant say much about signal reception, but I sit two concrete walls away from a not-so-expensive N-router and my signal is good enough to play online games. No significant lags. I get about 25mbps download speed though, which is nearly 3 times slower than in the room my router is. I am using 7260 AC.

 

Yeah definitely don't want a mechanical drive, especially if you travel a lot. I use a 500GB mSATA as my primary o/s, and then have a standard Intel SSD for additional data, or you can use it as a backup drive if that is a concern. There's a bit of heat showing on my Samsung EVO mSATA, but it's well within specs and really it's not a concern considering this laptop runs fairly warm anyway. I do suggest undervolting the CPU a little - it can make a significant difference to temperatures with relatively minimal impact on real-world use, unless you're rendering and doing video processing or something with heavy resource demand. The Samsung EVO or PRO mSATA also gets you their Magician software, which really picks the speed up on that mSATA.

I also went for the Killer wireless, and have very strong throughput using it even at distance, although you will only ever be as strong as the available network of course. I'd say go for the Killer internal card over an external because who wants to be carrying around a bunch of extra hardware crap - it defeats the purpose of having a laptop, lol. and the difference is unlikely to be that significant for real-world use, and if you really need huge data transfer, bring a RJ45 cable with you and hardwire into a network. I'd go for the Killer over the Intel wireless though..

 

Yes, Clevo update named W230SD was pre-announced some time ago. Likely to come out March 2015. When Sager will update I have no idea. I would wait, buying yesterday technology in notebooks is, to put it politely, not a smart move. The 9 series considerably improved, it is so much more than "mild overclocking" (Google it for more).

Clevo W230SS update named W230SD, pre-release info (obviously this may change):
Forum Notebookcheck.pl > Clevo W230SD

 

This is our information

CEG Clevo Extreme Gaming
Your Upgrade Base for Clevo & Alienware - Notebooks Retailer - Made in Germany - We ship international

 

Will this fit into my W230SS, W230ST heatsink: Clevo Laptop Parts :: W230ST/W230SS :: CPU/GPU Heatsink for W230ST - R&J Technology, Clevo Barebone Notebook kits, Laptop and desktop system builder

I think my heatsink has some problems because i've done all the tricks and this machine is just too hot on my opinion.

And liquid ultra does not work. After some time it dries and when you move laptop the contact cracks open between cpu and heatsink and then temps are over 90'c. I'll stick with arctic mx-4...

 

Yes, as you may have noticed; RJTech even lists the parts of the W230SS and ST together. The only difference between the models is the motherboard (and two extra lcd cable+panel options).

In the interest of research; once replaced with the new sink, care to saw off one of either ends of the pipes? Kind of curious as to how much water these things contain ... Btw, that's also about the only thing that could be defective with your heatsink anyway, so ... open up, add water and weld/solder shut? If that's a bit too much; want to ship me the old heatsink? Shipping costs are on me.

 

Heat pipe - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

It's not water and could be quite toxic depending on the type used

 

Edit: Found the answers to those.

 

Well, I'm not keeping hurry buying that heatsink, shipping costs to finland are so nice.

 

Does anyone know if there will be any other improvements in the W230SD, or will it be the same as the W230SS (other than the 960M)?

 

Yes, the 9 series is mostly new GM204/206. But the 960M specifically still uses an overclocked GM107, which is the same chip that the 860M uses, at least, according to my sources.

 

It might be dependent on on the reseller, but I am fairly sure all the screens available are IPS.

Turbo boost can be disabled with Premamod's custom bios, but not with the stock bios.

 

These 860M chips goes nice, i've overclocked +200/+120 and default voltage. Stays quite cool still, ~80'c on heavy gaming.

 

They are decent chips for their power/cost that's for sure, I think they are a good partner to a machine of this size, the GM204 would be less so.

 

Is a rattling fan a common issue with these?

 

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Hi All, my 860m has suddenly disappeared :-O
It's not present on my device list nor detected on bios. Looks like disabled or something similar. Anything I could do about that or I have to assume it's died for whatever reason?

Many thanks in advance

 

Same thing happened to me. Try to reflash the BIOS (assuming you're using Prema Mod). If that doesn't work, send it in to your reseller and get your motherboard replaced.

 

Thanks for your answer, yes I'm using prema mod and I've already tried to re-flash it 3 times with the same result. Just wondering how is possible this happens with a 6 months old laptop :-/

 

Well, I wondered the same thing when it happened to me somewhere last October - and I had just bought it in July. Worst thing is, I had a project presentation coming up - it had messed up at precisely the wrong time. I suppose Clevo's QC isn't as good for this laptop as it is for, say, the P650 series.

The worst thing is, the motherboard that my reseller replaced was also a dud, and I ended up paying S$330 for a second motherboard replacement.

I feel you.

 

¬¬ guys... I don't want to be a party stopper but do not overclock with this laptop, much less increase voltage and then overclock, not so much for the processor but rather for the GPU, all that heat has to go somewhere and because the GPU doesn't heat as much as the CPU it acts like a heat sink, eventually breaking solder joints, ala xbox 360. Undervolt so frequencies stay up in boost for the processor and you are good to go. (GPU keep it as cool as possible)

 

Why is that? gtx860m actually consumes 20watt more than i7 4710mq and 30w more than 4702mq.

 

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