*** Official Clevo X170SM-G/Sager NP9670M Owner's Lounge ***

Does anybody know the nvram reset keys combo removing cmos is not working to reset i keep getting a blue keyboard after boot.

 

Does your unlocked BIOS have an option to change the keyboard to white? Is the machine functioning correctly other than the blue keyboard? It boots normally?

I don't think there is a key combo to clear NVRAM. FN+D doesn't work like prior generations. If you pull the CMOS battery, system battery and AC power and NVRAM still does not clear then take out all of the RAM and put a different stick in (just one) that doesn't match the RAM that you took out. That should induce projectile vomiting from the BIOS in conjunction with the CMOS battery being disconnected.

 

Hopefully you did not do a one-button menu unlock. That kind of trash mod never ends well. Insyde crap BIOS is way too easy to brick by simply changing one wrong thing. Example

Did you take a chip dump with an SPI programmer before? If so you can flash the stock chip dump. Gotta love Clevo for (AGAIN!) mounting the BIOS chip on the inaccessible side on the motherboard. Stupid people making design decisions is why laptops suck the way they all do.

 

Dual socketed BIOS chips would be nice

 

I did a unlock thru windows made by dsanke. It unlocked the bios completely but I did not change anything in the bios. Everything was working fine for a few days and yesterday I turned on my laptop and it didn't boot. Hasn't booted since. I've tried everything you mentioned except spi programing as I don't have one and never used one.

 

All is well. I had to loosen the screw mod I did on processor (3x 2.5mmx10mm with washer)a bit and walla it did nvram reset and worked.

 

Has anybody tried increasing the core voltage setting on the 2080s to get more from it? Mine is at a steady 1050w wont pass 2010mhz (105 oc without touching curve) without artifacting but its only at 55c....I know I can push it further with more power. Cpu is not overclocked or undervolted 1and neither is the memory on the gpu. 10850k Cpu is locked at 4800mhz all core most cores don't pass 65c while in full load some have hit 77c. I'm getting a vmax throttle which I don't know what the hell that is and its being power throttled and edp throttled as per xtu. Any ideas?

 

Dang, even the old generic 2666 RAM that came stock in my MECH-15 can run 3200 with sloppy loose CL22, LOL. Whoodathunkit. I cannot even identify the IC on those sticks using Thaiphoon Burner, so it's generic generic. I just updated the SPD with Thaiphoon Burner to match the JEDEC (default profile) from the G.SKILL sticks in the other two slots. (It won't boot 3200 CL15 like the G.SKILL does, but still pretty impressive considered what they are... and that we can't even identify what they are.)

 

The GPU voltage is capped around 1.050V (depending on the temperature and power) and there is no way to correct that short of doing some soldering. Pascal and Turing voltage max is panty-waist baby girl wuss fodder and I'm sure the same is probably true for Ampere.

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As far as the CPU behavior, you will have to wait for the @Prema BIOS to fix that. It's just your typical Clevo digi-cancer same as always. Not sure why the K CPU can't go above 48x on all cores. That doesn't make sense. Maybe the BIOS isn't fully supporting 10850K? Hard to know. It works perfect with 10900K, 10900KF and 10700K (as I have tested all three of those CPUs).

Here's a quicky with a crappy DCH driver version instead of a good one.

 

Does anybody have the jedec model number for the 3200mhz memory

Did you solder yours because in your pic I see 100+ to your core voltage.

 

No, GPU is totally stock with no hardware or firmware mods. You have to manipulate the curve tool in a way that disrupts the cancer algorithm. Notice the extreme spike I added to the voltage curve, and that I have locked the voltage at the maximum functional value.

 

Thank you. I appreciate your knowledge and advise. It feels great to know that we have persons as yourself that I can rely on to lead the way.

 

Amen to that. The P870 motherboard had that potential but they never executed on it. They had the extra SOP8 pads already in place. This is standard on all desktop enthusiast motherboards and I think it should be standard on any laptop motherboard that is marketed as an enthusiast product. It would serve the interest of the end-user and the OEM. It's kind of inexcusable that it doesn't have it. Sadly, I am not aware of any enthusiast laptop that has ever been made with a dual BIOS setup.

Thank you for your kind words.

 

I was wondering, do your msi afterburner profiles apply at boot? Mine don't, regardless of "start with windows" and apply profiles and other stuff I tried

 

I'm surprised gods like @Johnksss or @slv7 haven't modded the 2080s yet like the old times with the 780m. Unless I missed the thread. Though there hasn't been alot time yet that the 2080s has been out. I know he's been doing desktop stuff.

 

No they do not and I do not recommend doing that. It has caused me problems in the past. Better to launch and apply manually only when needed. My GPUs run with defaults except when benching.

The Falcon security makes vBIOS mods problematic and they are exacerbated by hardware measures the Green Goblin has implemented. When they become difficult to execute for a master like @Prema you know it's messed up real bad. And, having to use a hardware programmer makes it further cumbersome and out of reach for most users.

We haven't heard from @svl7 in years. We hope he is well, but he has moved on to other things and it's anyone's guess what he is up to.

 

Understood thanks for the quick reply

 

Pity, I got a profile to avoid power limit , suited for everyday use and gaming if any, then again I just hotkeyd it so I can run it as soon as it boots up anyway

 

In what manner are you affected by a GPU power limit in normal daily use? Most of the time my GPU is running in 2D mode with about 30°C idle temperature.

 

when gaming / benchmarking / rendering videos, not with usual internet browsing , book reading and so on

 

I didn’t even know @dsanke had an unlocked bios for this already, that was quick.

 

Insyde BIOS is literally a one-click menu unhide. The challenge is identifying the menus that need to be hidden for options that offer no functionality or can result in a hard brick that can only be fixed with an SPI flash. @Prema has bricked his X170 numerous times exploring things and uncovering landmines through the process of elimination. And, then there is the cancerous throttle code that unlocked menus do not fix that must be correct for it to deliver full performance.

 

Good lord. I'm just thankful there are enthusiasts like you and Prema out there figuring this all out ahead of time so many of us can just enjoy the machine.

Last time I was messing around with custom bios was when I was bios hacking my Titan X and I was all pins and needles praying I didn't brick my $1000 GPU. Can't imagine how many buckets I'd be sweating if I was messing around with a $3000+ laptop.

 

True, but at least for those who can't get or won't get Prema, they at least have an option. Some unlock is better than no unlock, no?

 

Yeah, absolutely. The stock BIOS is as worthless as tits on a boar. I don't want to own any laptop with a stock BIOS because the limited configuration options are unacceptable. This applies even on my TongFang turdbook. It is not an overclocking thing, but really a matter of ownership. If it is MY computer, then it should be MY decision on how to configure everything. How I choose to configure it is none of the OEM's or Intel's or AMD's or Micro$lop's business... end of discussion. If I want to disable virtualization, TPM support, Secure Boot, run Legacy BIOS or UEFI with CSM, enable SPD write access, disable DEP, enable numlock on boot, enable verbose boot mode, disable the ethernet card, disable SGX, turn off ACPI, etc., etc. then that is for me to decide. It is totally unacceptable that they presume to know what is best for me and do not give me the ability to make my own decisions. We can do all of those things on any desktop with a quality motherboard and there is no excuse that we can't do all of the same things on any laptop.

The @Prema BIOS goes way beyond being unlocked. It actually fixes defects that cause malfunction. That happens first, before any menus are exposed. In fact, the benchmarks you see for both @Prema and me are with broken firmware fixes applied and no menus exposed. The menus being exposed did nothing to cure the cancer that destroys performance.

BUT, a bricked machine due to silly people haphazardly flipping switches to see what happens is also equally worthless. I can tell you there were plenty of TongFang owners that were itching to get the unlocked BIOS on the win-raid forum so they could disable the worthless Intel HD Graphics only to find that in doing that they had a really nice doorstop. Unless they had an SPI programmer ready, along with a second computer to use for flashing and a dump of their previous BIOS as a backup, they were dead in the water with something broken by their ignorance.

Exposing all menus is dangerous in the hands of people that are careless or curious. Selectively re-hiding the menus that serve no useful purpose for anyone is important.

 

good memories , I recall some witchcraft hex editing for an old sony vaio laptop of mine, was insyde there too iirc, in which i swapped the cpu which thankfully was supported by the mobo..pity I went from an i3 to an i7 so i had to...uh invent a new vent underneath it

 

If you were going for it then a strong VRM, vapor chambers and a couple of bios chips (one socket) with an access panel would be ideal.

 

Right on... totally agree with you.

The X299 Dark motherboard would be the defacto standard that all others should aspire to. It had a triple BIOS with the chip for BIOS #1 socket-mounted for easy removal/replacement and off-board programming. The Z490 Dark has triple BIOS, but they, unfortunately, did not mount one of the chips in a socket. All respectable desktop motherboards have a BIOS flash capability that allows flashing a bare motherboard with no CPU, GPU or RAM installed. Just a bare board with power connected and the firmware sitting on a FAT32 USB stick is all that is needed. That would also be a welcomed feature on an enthusiast-grade notebook like the X170. I cannot identify a good reason that this kind of thing is not already available. The Alienware M18xR1/R2 supported a similar kind of BIOS crisis recovery mode flashing back in the day when Alienware still made respectable products.

 

I unfortunately did not get my machine from a @Prema vendor. Someone actually gifted me the laptop as a super early Christmas and late birthday gift I didn't even know that they bought for me until they told me the specs and the next day I received the barebones. Its a uber gift and I'm extremely happy to receive such a generous gift but I feel clevo machines without prema mod and sometimes nvidia profile and gpu power bios mods are worthless. Prema bios is a must for any clevo machine period. I pray to whatever higher powers are out there that he blesses me with the bios on my machine.

 

That's one heck of a gift. I've been debating making a desktop for a close friend of mine for awhile now. The main reason I haven't was him being so busy he may not use it much. But, yeah I'd be beside myself if someone gifted me something like that. Last time I used a Prema Bios you could get them here on this very forum from the man himself. I had a eurocom machine that was having some issues and Prema told me to try his bios out. But that was. . .maybe a decade ago. So I guess you can't as easily get them these days. Hopefully the X170 ends up having that bios widely available, because the numbers I see with it are amazing. It's definitely given me enough faith to check one out once a Prema Partner starts selling them.

PS:
How is the 10850K in this machine?

 

I tend to feel the same way, but it applies universally to all laptops. They all have complete rubbish for firmware and they are all crippled garbage from the factory. We should not single out Clevo here.

What we can say about Clevo is they provide the only excellent foundation available. We need to keep that in perspective because none of the other options have potential for greatness, and the X170 is still the best option for laptop enthusiasts in spite of any of its unmitigated flaws.

All of the alternatives are unacceptable products that can't be fixed and have zero potential. You were given an amazing gift.

 

Eh on the triple bios, so long as you don't lock in place flashing and have a good recovery method it can work very well.

 

EVGA actually uses a 3 position hardware switch. If you brick one of them you can move the switch to another BIOS and after it boots manually move the switch back to the position of the bricked BIOS for re-flashing while running off the firmware you booted from.

 

I completely agree. They are the only desktop class laptop I would purchase. I don't really like solder gpu or processor.

 

Temps are crazy but I believe to be bios error. I did mr fox mod with screw change and it improved a bit but still giving me crap with thermal throttle vmax edp limit. I was told by Mr fox its a bios issue. I'm gonna hold off on a definite answer. I'm going to send it to silicon lottery to get it delidded. Mr fox video I saw this morning is great and I own the kit with copper cpu from rocket cool but I do not trust myself as my hands aren't great. They are not as steady as when I was in my 20s. I'm in my late 30s and have bad neuropathy in my hands and they have movement on their own sometimes so I haven't been doing things like this anymore. I don't even do online gaming anymore I stick to 1 player games lol.

 

Thank you, sir.

That is the only kind I like. I avoid online multiplayer games. Gaming to me is an escape from people, not an opportunity to interact. I get more than enough of that at work, LOL. No thank you. Me time.

 

Any time I'm subscribed so it was a treat to see you doing something like that last video I saw was the copy and paste instructions for msi after burner. Your always very through and detailed so I always look out for a chance to be educated.

 

Glad I asked. I was remembering owners of the Area 51m r1 having issues with the 9900KS. Even though I would’ve thought it would be no issue sure enough it was. Chances are I’ll get the 10900K delidded if I order one.

Sorry to hear about your hands bud. Luckily mine seem to be doing good, but I’m in my mid thirties. So there is plenty of time for my body to fall apart still.

I only play with my friends and normally only if it’s a co-op game vs ai. So Monster Hunter or single player games. I’m right there with @Mr. Fox that I don’t want to be bothered when I’m playing games.

 

Diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis runs in my fam so I'm sol but I still I wear my copper compression and still rock out in a few hrs of gaming. I used to play mmo like wow. I would put in 12 to 14hr days. No more

 

I have to check with a doctor in the future as I’m pretty sure I have Carpal Tunnel syndrome starting to rear it’s ugly head. I normally play with a controller because of it. But, even that isn’t good for it either. But I can still squeeze in a good weekend marathon every now and then. Mostly it’s because most games don’t interest me anymore. VR is more my jam these days honestly. I keep telling myself it’s better than sitting on the couch for hours.

 

Good luck man. Not being rude but I feel like I hijacked the thread with my health issues so I'm gonna stop talking about it but if you wish to continue a pm is fine.

 

Anybody know whats the latest current bios for our beloved x170sm? I have 1.07.03ns1

 

My apologies, which screw mod are you referring to ? ( Profusely thinking to get rid of the stripped cpu heatsink screw)

 

also yes, 1.07.03 x for various reseller variations is indeed the last

 

I did mr fox screw mod 2.5mmx10mm 3 screw replacement on processor

 

Yes. Like what they say the Insyde BIOS have a switch to unhide these options. Just need change one byte to get it.
I don't own a X170, so I can't tweak it more.

 

Hey. where to find unlocked Insyde BIOS for x170. whant to try with my notebook
or how change one byte to get it?

 

Use Intel FPT v14.0 dump BIOS region. Change byte offset 0xA1163 from 0x0 to whatever other, such as 0x1.
Flash the backup. Then enter BIOS, F9 load default, F10 save & exit. After reboot, you will see the hidden menus.
Like MrFox say, many options are dangerous.

 

If that byte offset changes over BIOS updates lots of people will brick their BIOS.
But, the onus is on the end user(or whoever will end up charging to unlock that laptop BIOS without even knowing what they are doing), not on you.

 

anybody know where i can download the correct intel thunderbolt driver? been looking on clevo website no go there need it from intel the microship crap is garbage