*** Official Sager NP8150/Clevo P150HM Owners Lounge ***

Hi guys!

I just bought a new laptop from Schenker Notebooks - it arrived yesterday, I installed Windows 7 64bit, then went on to install all the drivers from the CD that came with it. And then it turned out there's a problem:

I can't connect to the Internet. I'm able to connect to my WiFi network and can ping the router and other computers around, but that's it. The WiFi icon in the tray (bottom right corner of the screen) tended to show "No internet access", though it now indicates that everything is OK - but I still can't access the web. When I try to ping google, it says "Request timed out".

I googled the problem and it looks like it might be because of the wireless card I have inside my laptop - the Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6230. So I searched for solutions for this card only. I did change its power management to "maximum performance" but it didn't help. Installing all Windows updates (over cable connection with the router) also didn't help.

Today, I attached my Netgear wifi dongle to one of the USB ports, but the result of this is the same, so no internet. Does it mean it's not a problem with the wireless card, then?
I'm running out of ideas. Any advice on what I should do?


These are the computer's specs:

M4S XMG P501 PRO Gaming Notebook 39,6cm (15.6")
. 39,6cm (15.6") Full-HD (1920*1080) Glare
. AMD Radeon HD 6990M 2048 MB GDDR5
. Intel Core i7-2760QM - 2,40 - 3,50GHz 6MB
. 16GB (4x4096) SO-DIMM DDR3 RAM 1333MHz (nur mit Quadcore-CPU)
. 500GB SATA-II 7200U/Min Seagate Momentus 7200.4 (ST9500420AS)
. DVD SATA Multinorm Brenner
. Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6230 (inkl. Bluetooth)

 

Depending on where you bought it those Seagate hard drives should still be under the Seagate 3 year warranty. Just go to the Seagate website to find out, and if they are covered, you can arrange an RMA for them right there.

 

If neither the internal card nor the USB dongle are getting internet access, then there's a good chance it's your router/network that's the problem. Are other wireless devices able to connect and reach your network? Is there any MAC filtering or anything else enabled on the network? It sounds like if you can get an address that allows you to ping the local network, that you may have a NAT issue on the router with it passing your traffic to the internet. Try power cycling the router if possible. Even better would be to wire directly into the network and seeing if the wired access fixes the problem.

 

hey guys, i know this problem has been described before, but none of the previously stated solutions could help me out so far. so anyways, i decided to make a clean install of my P150HM with all programs and drivers updated to the newest version and i cant seem to get the THX TruStudio Pro working. several things that ive tried so far:

- installed different versions of THX (1.03.01 and 1.04.03)
- installed different Realtek Audio HD 2.67 driver versions (6.0.1.6564/6559/6537/6526 and even older versions)
- tried installing the audio driver first, followed by the THX, and vice versa

NOTHING seems to work! i dont get it, since i never had problems with THX before. it always keeps showing me this annoying message, that theres supposedly no supported audio device available.

i hope u guys have some additional ideas, would be very much appreciated!

cheers

 

I just got my laptop last week and I was having a similar problem. THX studio would not recognize my hardware but eventually this is how I got it to work.

(using the drivers that came with the laptop)
- Install Realtek Audio Driver
- Install THX studio
- Activate THX studio using the shortcut on your desktop (should have been added with the installation)
- Restart the laptop!!!!! (If you don't restart, it will not recognize your hardware until then)
- Once restarted, THX studio recognized my audio setup and everything worked fine.

The key points were to activate the software and to restart after you've activated it. Before that THX would say that I did not have the correct hardware.

 

oh man, i FINALLY got it to work the hint with the activation pointed me into the right direction. apparently i was using incompatible versions of THX TruStudio Pro which had identical version numbers (1.03.01). so i went back to the original Clevo version and voila: the activation shortcut materialized outta nowhere (which wasnt there before at all). thanks! now i can go to bed elated

cheers

 

I just bought a clevo p150hm, and here's my first impressions:

- Screen is an LG LP156WF1, which seems pretty good to me. The default DPI setting was set to 125% - which works for me - and I changed some (high) gamma and brightness values. I may tweak it a little bit more in the future, but for now I'm quite satisfied.

- The touchpad is a slight disappointment, the buttons don't feel too stable, but I like the fact that it's not placed too much on the left side. The keyboard seems ok, although the arrow keys should have been more distinct in terms of distance from the other keys or size, so that you can do more intuitive scrolling in pages. (I mean now I have to look to the keyboard not to hit by mistake the '0' key instead of right arrow, but I think I'll get the hang of it sooner or later)
I also sometimes get random jumps on the mouse cursor, but right now is the least of my concerns.


And now my biggest gripe. The fan noise.
It gets so aggressive and loud - if for example I open the web browser - that I feel it might explode in just a few seconds. Then it's going back to a more quiet noise (which again is rather loud for my taste), that I've concluded it's its standard noise and I have to get used to it.

Could someone look into my temperatures and tell me if they're normal? (I know almost nothing about temps - and yes, I know I should have done some research first, but I'd rather get a direct answer.)

 

thats definitely not normal. it says your highest temps are 136c.
thats why you hear the fan so much its fluctuating from 48-136.
i dont hear the fan when i browse myself, fyi.
contact your reseller. you probably have a unit with a bad or non existent thermal paste.


edit:
and oh i would suggest not using your laptop first, you could end up permanently damaging your gpu, which of course will be replaced under warranty but will take time to fix.

 

that 136c on your screenshot scared me lol, you laptop should have shutdown already even before it reaches 110c

agree with trvelbug, you should have that checked out. definitely far from normal

 

I'm using the Targus Lap Chill Mat AWE55US ( Amazon), and have absolutely no complaints.

 

Hi everyone. This is my first post, and I feel like a real moron! Title says it all. I just realized that all but two of my CPU cores were "parked", and have been since I bought my computer. I always had a lingering feeling that I was getting sub-par performance with games. Today, after I finally fixed the issue, I fired up the Witcher 2 and now I get almost a smooth 60 fps on max settings...

Anyway, nice to be part of the forum here!

 

how the heck did THAT happen? ^^

 

There were a lot of people who like the cooler master SF-19. Newegg.com - Cooler Master SF-19 Strike Force Notebook Cooler Model SGA-6000-KKYF1 It looks like overkill, but it works really well. And those lights...

 

Apparantly Microsoft, in its eternal wisdom, has decided to build a function into Windows 7 home edition that automatically limits the use of the cpu to a set number of cores, regardless of how many cores the cpu itself has. I don't know exactly how this works, but from what I have read, it occurs most commonly in laptops. I think the rationale is that someone who runs the home edition of windows 7 would not need so many cores, so it locks them out to stop your machine from using too much energy. Too me, this is dumb: If I pay for the darn cores, I should be able to use them without having to use regedit and type in some obscure code to activate them.

Honestly though, I should have caught it sooner, but I have been out of the PC gaming scene for around 7 years, a period of time in which I used only macs. It really is amazing that I was able to game at all, the 580m pulled it's share of the weight, for sure.

 

How were you able to check whether the cores are parked or not?
I use windows 7 64 bit home premium and resource monitor when video encoding and all cores are engaged. It could just be that the game your playing doesn't make full use of all cores. In fact, I don't even think there is a game optimized to use all 8 cores of a qm.

Sent from my samsung galaxy s2 using tapatalk

 

I used that cooler before but eventual sold it. The fans are strong for sure, but it coupled with the strong internal fans of the laptop seem to produce turbulence more than anything else,an issue that has been discussed in the old 8690 thread quite extensively. I've noted a 0-2 *c difference while using the cooler and a 8-10 *c improvement just by propping up the back of the laptop.


Sent from my samsung galaxy s2 using tapatalk

 

I doubt all 8 cores are utilized when I game, but the performance has gone up significantly since I unparked all of them. I was functioning on 2. I am not exactly sure why certian machines have this limitation in windows, but some do, some do not, from my limited research.

It wasn't a situation where certian cores were "parked" when not in use. They were permenantly disabled.

 

While you are on the subject, you say that you got an 8-10 degree improvement from elevating the back? That is quite good. How high did you elevate it? I tried a 2.5 inch book but it was too awkward to use.

 

I've got a Coolermaster Notepal U3 under mine, it seems to do SFA for temps over a ten buck yumcha cooler with busted fans (i.e. already slightly elevated), a few deg C at best under load but I haven't extensively stuffed around with the fan placement and anyway it seems severely limited by the low RPM of the fans (I'm assuming intentionally limited to 500mA USB)

It does however nicely elevate the thing when I use it on my lap on the couch and unlike flat coolers I've had in the past (e.g. aforementioned yumcha ten buck job) it doesn't irritate my legs after an hour or two. I also have subjectively noticed while idle temps still hover around 40C, the GPU fan seems to kick in less often.

It's hard to judge the impact on ACPI temp-based fan control, you don't know the threshholds at which fans spin faster/slower so a few deg C difference may be an underestimate as the internal fans are spinning slower. I could overclock my G51J's GPU by nearly 20% and it added a couple of C only, due to the boneheaded setup that saw the fastest fan speed only kick in when the GPU was already far too close to boiling point

 

thats too high lol. .5 to an inch is good enough.

 

I think you're referring to 8 "threads", lol, not cores. I would be amazed if an Octo-core CPU is available for laptops right now.

 

there u go

CeBIT: Schenker presents the 8-core notebook XMG U701

 

And now I'm really surprised, lol.

 

8 cores, real and virtual. You've heard of virtual cores? LOL



Sent from my samsung galaxy s2 using tapatalk

 

I thought ASUS was supposed to have really good cooling...

 

Well, you should be able to put a xeon in a P270WM... Which is what I assume is in that schenker...

 

I like believing that I have 8 cores, real or imagained

 

Ooops, the i7 2630QM is a quad core processor. I was thrown off because the resource monitor shows 8 usage graphs. I was still functioning on 2 cores, however, but only 2 of 4, not 2 of 8. Like I said, it has been a while since I owned a PC

 

Look here how you specified "8 cores of a QM CPU":

Q there will make one think promptly that it is quad-core.

 

At what temperature should one start to get concerned with the cooling of the laptop (both for Idle and Gaming)?

My 8150 shut down (a complete shut down, as if it had no battery and lost its power supply) twice over the past 10 days, I was wondering if it is because of overheating? With my previous 5793 (m570ru), I'd feel when the laptop is overheating, but I never felt like such with this laptop. I installed HW monitor so I could take a look at its temps, its 50-65 idle, about 70-85 during gaming, maxing at 95. Is that within the normal ranges?

What other reasons would the laptop shut down abruptly like that?

 

It's QM hyperthreaded, so there are 8 cores.

 

Those are higher idle temps than most have, but it depends on your ambient temperatures. Most report idel temps in the mid 40C range. Your gaming temps are within normal ranges though.

It could shutdown without notice due to power interruption or lose RAM.

That's not actually true. It has 4 physical cores, but it's hyperthreaded so that it has 4 extra threads for a total of 8 threads at one time.

 

From the word hyperTHREADED, it's QM=4 cores, 8 THREADS.

 

That doesn't sound like GPU-temp-related shutdown. When temps get really high, GPUs just like CPUs "thermal throttle" their clocks right down. You should notice significant performance degradation (i.e. your game turns to a slideshow) before it shuts down.

Download MSI Afterburner, run the 'server' component with an On-Screen Display to show GPU clocks, temps and utilisation *during* a game. Try and figure out if your restarts happen when temps are highest.

If I had to pick most likely suddenly shutting down sounds like a power circuitry issue... not what you want to hear tho.

PS: Hyperthreaded quad cores are NOT 8-core (but are 8-threads). Look at performance numbers, best case scenarios show the "extra" 4 cores add 15% because most of the "core" is shared between two logical threads. I'm not sure why Intel persist with it, I'd rather just turn it off but noone seems to have the option on notebook BIOSes to do so... they don't need the performance boost as AMD is so far behind, surely they'd rather the expense on transistors be profit ??... unless that many people really ARE sucked in by the "8 core" type rubbish...

 

Hi all

Ive ordered a P150HM Hooray finally a laptop with some grunt
15.6 FHD (1920 x 1080) LED, Radeon HD 6990M GRaphics 2GB, i7-2760QM Processor,Seagate maximus 750GB Hybrid (8GB SSD), 16GB DDR3 1600MHZ RAM,Blu Ray Reader + Supermulti DVD+-R/RW Double layer

 

After five posts you can "Edit Signature" in the User CP.

 

You sure you don't want to wait a few weeks for the EM? it has a backlit keyboard... I assume you meant Seagate momentus XT... Out of curiosity, how much research did you do before selecting this config?

Hey Architect, why do you have 2 different resellers in your sig?

 

One where I bought system from (XoticPC), the other is where I bought the 580m and few other upgrades. Both have great service in their own ways.

 

Well went to place the order now they say the stock is out and i have to wait for the p150em - i guess it was meant to be.
they say 3rd week of april they will be released but with nvidia gtx 675.
"Thank you for your enquiry.

Unfortunately Metabox have run out of stock of the P150HM, it is now an end of life product and they are waiting on their new range to be released with
the next generation Ivy Bridge chipsets and next generation video cards. The replacement model for the P150HM is called the P150EM. They are expecting
it to be released with the NVIDIA 675MGTX video card around the 3rd week of April and should have a very similar price to the current P150HM 6990."

Yeh i meant the momentus xt
I did a bit of research but i am no guru.
Is that configuration not very good?
I am hoping i can still get the radeon 6990 on the new model as the specs seem good for the price or is the 675m gtx a good card.
Any help to get me on the right track to getting a good confiiguration would be helpful cheers

 

The 675m seems nothing more than a rebranded 580m. It will most probably cost much more than a 6990.
Too bad I thought that system you specced out was quite good.

Sent from my samsung galaxy s2 using tapatalk

 

No, it's good. There are just some places where you could save a bit of money if you just use it for casual gaming, etc... Most people don't need 16GB of ram, and unless you do super-heavy memory intensive work 1600Mhz doesn't make much of a difference over 1333. If you go back to 8GB@1333Mhz, you could use the savings to upgrade your screen to the 95% gamut matte, which a lot of people like. Of course, the stock screen is already very nice, so you could just hang on to it. The said 675m is actually the 580m, just way cheaper and with a new name. It preforms very similar to the 6990m. Also, unless you do virtulization, the 2760QM won't make very much of a difference over the 2670QM, and probably isn't worth the $160 most resellers want for it. In case it helps you wait, here's a video of the backlit keyboard that will be in the new model:
XMG U701 - Sneak Preview on illuminated keyboard - YouTube
EDIT: trvelbug, the 675m costs around $300. As in, $300 to buy it alone, not as an upgrade from the 670m. That costs around $200.

 

70-85 isn't that bad. Mine was getting up to 95 and I was starting to get these strange, psychodelic white stars dancing all over the screen, which is when I knew something was wrong. I take off the bottom of my computer and the heat-sinks are clogged with cat-hair. Our house is pretty clean but we have two cats and I guess the months of exposure to the random floating cat hair just built up over time. Cleaned them out and now it runs from 40 - 79 depending on what it is doing. Chances are you clean your heat sinks, but maybe it would help it it really was a heat issue.

 

If you don't mind my asking, how is the 675m just a rebranded 580m? I don't know much about what actually sets modern notebook GPUs apart from one another, and it would be good to know.

 

According to the 6xx gpu thread in the gaming section, the 675m is the same card as the 580m. The only difference being the name and a bios reflash that will allow it to perform like an overclocked 580m.
The good news according to the post above is that it is cheaper. If that is true, then it's the first time that an Nvidia gpu will be cheaper than a card it is replacing.
However, if you want the new Kepler high end cards, the thread suggests waiting for the 680m, which could be out by June

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If you want my source for the price, just about every reseller has them for the P270WM, SLI available, and the price to go from one 675m to 2 is about $300, when you factor out the extra power supply. $300 is actually a pessimistic guess, though, as that's the most expensive I've seen it ($255-$297).

 

As also posted by notebookcheck.net NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675M - Notebookcheck.net Tech

Just as the 670M is supposed to be a rebranded 570M http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-670M.72197.0.html

 

Yeh the 16gb of 1600mhz ram was a free upgrade they were offering and im not a big fan of matte screens
About the processor i wanted to go for the extreme processorbut an extra 900 was too much so an extra 99 for 2760 was ok, so by virtualisation do u mean using software like VMware if so yes i will be doing that.
Yeh the backlit keyboard does look very nice indeed i look forward to having one of those.
So what is more powerful the 6990 or 675m, i prefer radeon graphics cards do you know if they will be using the 6990 in this new model or will amd be releasing a new gpu for the ivy bridge?

 

OK, it seems you do know about what you are getting. The 675m and 6990m are almost exactly equal; 675m has about 5% performance gain due to better drivers, but 6990m overclocks slightly better. Just so you know, the ivy equivalent of 2760qm is named 3720qm. AMD will have new mobile GPUs (7970m) that are expected to preform very well (maybe 30% over 6990m), but these will probably be available a little after ivy so you will need to wait a liitle bit more if you want one. No word on their prices yet. We're currently discussing them in this thread, if you want to read it. One last thing, there is also a 95% gamut glossy if that's more to your liking

 

Anyone with a p150 experiment with removing the rubber coating from the touch pad? I've seen some people putting screen protectors on it, but has anyone tried actually removing the coating?

 

I'm pretty sure someone must have... But I doubt it would look too good.
EDIT: wow, I just noticed that my 100th post was #4700 in this thread. Cool.