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

It could be time for a cleaning if you have not done so on the computer. Especially if you haven't in the year you've had it. Open up the bottom and clean out the vents and fans with a can of compressed air. Dust will build up on there over time hindering airflow resulting in higher temps which make the fans spin faster to try to cool the computer.

 

Cheers for the reply. I did that 1 week ago. I also cleaned off the old thermal paste and re-applied (neither did I use excessive amounts or too little) and it made barely any temperature change.

 

Have the temps been like that since you've gotten it or has it increased over time. Since this model is a small chassis with powerful hardware they are prone to higher temps.

 

They've been like that as long as I can remember. I understand that shoving such a powerful CPU inside a laptop isn't the best idea if you want it to operate quietly, but wondering if there are any possible heatsink upgrades or fan upgrades I could buy/install to make it run a little quieter?

Cheers for the replys,

Dave

 

No additional mods like that which come to mind. Your previous post did mention you reapplied thermal compound. Did you use a nicer brand like IC Diamond. That can help shave a couple degrees off. Or once we're out of the summer months you could see temps go down too.

 

Can't remember what brand I used to be honest, not a cheap brand though. Unfortunately I don't think the weather will change the temp too drastically as the temperatures I report are from sitting inside an air conditioned office (and we sit right next to the server racks, so we're quite chilly in here).

No worries, I was thinking of selling the laptop as I have a desktop for gaming and generally only use the laptop for applications that would only require minimal CPU/GPU.

Cheers,

Dave

 

What power plan are you set to? Is your CPU clocking down at idle?

 

I upgraded to Windows 10 and just reset my computer (wiped it) and now its sitting at a black screen with no OS....

 

Now it says inaccessible boot device and keeps restarting. How do I fix this? I'm wiping the computer because I just sold it...

 

Now I have a different problem: my SSD is somehow locked and I can't even set it as a bootable device in BIOS

 

What do you mean "locked?" Is the drive listed but not selectable? Not listed? Any prompts/notifications?

 

When I tried to repair windows it said the drive is locked.

Now when I try to reinstall windows 8 with my CD key it says invalid. This really sucks.

 

Windows 10 enables UEFI's Secure Boot by default. You have to reset bios (by removing cmos battery etc.), that would set it to legacy.

Spoiler: We have the best intentions ... no, really ... honest!

Feel safe, already ?

 

Double and triple check you typed it in correctly (sorry if that sounds stupid, but people often misread the key).

Did you ever encrypt the drive?

 

Don't worry problem solved. Its a common problem with resetting windows 10. Had to install w10 boot media and reinstall that way

 

Thank heavens for that. Running Windows 10 and with Secure Boot™©® enabled?

 

I have been using intel extreme tuning utility and undervolting the core by -80mv and fixing freq at 2.5Ghz max has dropped temps a fair bit.

This is covered by this Youtube video that l found after seeing some advice in this thread.

 

Anyone having issues with their W230SS on W10 and their headphone jack?

I'm getting no audio at all despite the VIA Audio Deck recognizing that something has been plugged in.

 

Hi people,
Yesterday i started noticing weird screen flickering and today it god even worse so i recorded it and first think tomorrow morning i will call for a service, but i was wondering if someone had same problem before and how you fixed it.

I found that screen starts flickering only when i adjust screen or when i press on screen from back but only on lower part of the back.
Here is the video i recorder of the problem.

 

Loose or defective cable; unclip bezel, lift out lcd and reseat cable. If you have 1080p panel then it's pretty easy to diy (screws), for qhd and wqhd you might prefer rma service (sticky tape). Same if it's really cable damage and not just a poor connection.

 

Turns out the VIA issue with the headphones is a W10 driver issue.

Reformatted with a clean 8.1 installation and it works like a charm.

 

I'm running W10 perfectly fine. Installed the Win8.1 VIA driver over the top.

One thing I did notice, is it defaulted to 24bit/48000hz which caused some weirdness with programs. Dropped it to the usual 16bit/44100hz and it was fine.

 

@t456 thanks for info, apparently cable was lose so i open the took out the display and reattached it again and it seems all is fine.

 

Glad it was an easy fix. Did it come loose over time by itself?

 

Mine was loose as well -- removed the front bezel, unscrewed the LCD, and reseated the cable. I was also able to fix an annoying light bleed issue I have dealt with since I bought the laptop with some good old electrical tape

I did discover that my LCD housing screws that connect the hinge to the LCD back housing completely stripped out on the right side, leaving the brass inserts and metal screws floating around. I wonder if I can get a replacement LCD housing anywhere, as I really like this laptop despite the minor shortcomings.

 

Turns out it's a Hotkey issue.

The problem came back today. Did some quick Googling, and it's because I didn't install the Hotkey application (which throttles the CPU on battery).

Reinstalled it and the problem is gone, but can't seem to figure out the throttling.

 

What is the max frequency on battery?

 

The Hotkey Utility throttling the CPU on battery power is not a bug; it's a power-saving and battery life-saving measure by Clevo, so that not too much power is drawn and the battery is ruined. If you're going to be using CPU-intensive applications, plug in your laptop, don't uninstall Hotkey Utility.

 

On the W230SS, it's 1.5 GHz.

 

Exactly, if it were 800mhz I would be concerned.

 

Yes, I am aware it is not a bug and part of Hotkey, but it would've been nice to allow my CPU to go up to 2.6GHz (max non-turbo for i5-4210M) sporadically on battery when required instead of a 1.6GHz constant (which was why I removed the hotkey to begin with). I do not do any extended intensive tasks, so I am not worried with regards to the longevity of the battery.

Unfortunately, I require the headphone port to work for my headset so it will have to stay for now. Will have to do more research later.

 

Will we see drivers for windows 10?

the hotkey is popping the caps lock on and off - and that is minimizing my game.

 

anyone here upgraded to windows 10?

Just upgraded and I can't seem to change my screen display brightness eg. its forced on 100% no matter what I do.

-Was a dirty install on top of 8.1

 

Clevo just got 10 drivers posted for their newer models that are still available. So it might be a bit longer, if they do come out with them for the 7338. Otherwise you could check the manufacturer of the individual parts to see if they have 10 drivers, or maybe get utilities like for hotkey from a similar model (7339), and see if those work.

 

Aren't the 7338 and 7339 virtually identical except for the GPU? Even the GPU is exactly the same, hardware-wise (both 960M and 860M are GM107 chips)... So the W230SS and -SD should work with the same drivers, right? Hence it's surprising that there are SD drivers out but not SS drivers...

 

Hey guys,
I just recived a response from sager, the windows 10 drivers for w230ss :

"the notebook manufacture not release the drivers yet, maybe be another one or two weeks."

 

They are similar in a lot of ways to each other, but I don't know if they are almost identical though. But the graphics is the biggest difference.

It makes sense it might be a couple weeks out, as they just got the current models updated, and probably would work the most recent models after that, I would think.

 

i5-4210M with a -100mv undervolt gets around 62 degrees on an XTU stress test and 64 degrees with P95 26.6

Laptop feet are raised with a product similar to this - http://www.bluelounge.com/us/stands/cool-feet

Ambient temperature is around 22 degrees and the fans are inaudible during both stress tests

Fans start to become slightly audible once it hits around 67 degrees and up from what I can see

EDIT: One thing I've noticed is that if there is both CPU/GPU load, even though temperatures are around 55-60 for both, the fans will ramp up loudly. Anyone have experience with changing the limit to something higher such as 65?

EDIT2: As I'm looking into undervolting the GPU, I noticed that even with Prema's VBIOS, it only lets me undervolt the 860M by a maximum of -18.8mv with Inspector, is there a way to bypass it?

 

Not without editing the vbios manually to lower it.

 

For both the fans ramping up and the voltage?

 

Fans would be the domain of the EC.

 

One quick question.

With xtu undervolting do u also need to match mV from dynamic cpu voltage offset with processor cache voltage offset?

 

No, they are independent. I would not worry about the cache too much as it's not very power hungry.

 

I've got a weird issue with my W230SS; my screen (the LTN133YL01-L01) was damaged and I managed to get a replacement screen. It's a LTN133YL01-F01, which is completely the same in specs, except for the anti-glare coating.
Now with that screen installed I get strange flashing artifacts in Windows. The weird thing is that that happens only when running on battery power. When using the power brick I get no artifacts at all. This leads me to think I might be able to solve the problem with bios adjustments. I don't know where to look though. I have changed almost all settings in the bios (latest Prema) and nothing seems to work. Could the vBios be the culprit?

 

BIOS menu on battery is ok?

Anyway, some things to check:

1. When on battery; Fn+brightness to max. (or minimum), if that fixes it; reseat cable.
2. Try running something that will force dGPU-use on battery.
3. Uninstall 860M, Intel HD and monitor driver, then re-install them (reverse order). Display id is slightly different, so the system may be confused when switching.
4. Make a secondary install of the OS (non-10; it has issues with display switching).

 

Thanks! I'm gonna try all your suggestions and will report back

 

Tried all suggestions, but none worked .
- Windows 8: Flickering as well
- Brightness: does not matter, with power cable no artifacts at all, at all brightness settings. Battery power immediately shows artifacts, at all brightness settings.
- Installed all drivers (latest version from both Intel and NVidia), same result

One thing did help though, and that's opening the NVidia control panel with the preview, then no artifacts are visible. When loading 3D Mark I get artifacts with the loading screens, but not in the actual 3D scenes.
So it seems that the problem has something to do with the Intel. I also changed power plans in Windows, changed CPU power modes in the bios, but that did not resolve the problem.

Do you have any other ideas? On the verge of tossing the thing out of the window here

 

Yes; disable ' automatic driver install' and use ' rollback driver' on the Intel HD. That should set it to 'Standard VGA Graphics Adapter'. If it works, it's a temporary 'fix' only; Intel has to sort out their drivers first. Hmm ... and before you uninstall HD, please run this export and drop the result somewhere.

Ah, and run this from a command window:

Code:

powercfg /qh > all_power_options.txt

Will reveal all Power Options, including those hidden to user. Maybe there's something for the HD.

 

Hm, so it seems it's the Intel driver... Do you know if Optimus still works without the driver? I have made the exports, there seems to be some power options differences, but I don't know which one could be the cause for the difference between AC and DC screen artifacts. Could you take a look perhaps?
I have also included the driver export for reference.
It's unfortunate that the original screen cannot be procured anywhere online.

 

Changed all the power options, but no result unfortunately.