*** Official Sager NP8170/Clevo P170HM Owners Lounge ***

Save a Dying Video Card with a Quick Bake in the Oven

 

Ok, before I try and bake it, this is a last resource thing, right? Because the guy from repair wants to charge me 50$ for the service.

Should I try his reballing method first for that price?
If the oven works, the card won't be able to run games anymore at risk of blowing up?

 

If you are pretty sure its the soldering that is the cuase of the problem a reball may be a better way to go. However if that is not what the cause it then it wont help anymore then the reflow from baking it. If spending $50 on it doesn't bother you have him do it with the chance of it not helping at all go for it. If hes pretty experienced then it could be the better choice.

 

I can upgrade up to 7970m, right? but I'm gonna lose the hdmi, that's deal breaker.

Can I switch to Nvidia 680m or higher then? I can't find an accurate list of compatibles cards

 

HM line currently tops out at GTX680M...

 

Well, ebay sells a new-like one for almost $500, pulled from Alienware M18x R2

Dell Alienware M18x R2 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680M 2GB SLI Video Card MXM 3B | eBay

I guess it will come without heatsinks or upgrade kit, but the ones from my 6970m can fit since its the same size, right?

 

Make sure you get the 4GB model. The seller also has to flash vBIOS 80.04.29.00.01 before he ships the card to you! Otherwise it won't work in an HM system.

I am not sure about heatsinks, I know the 485M, 580M, 680M, 780M are all more or less interchangeable.

 

Craaaaap! Help needed:

My NP8170 is giving me the black screen treatment.

Intel® Core™ i7-2670QM
ATI Radeon 6990M
16GB 1333MHz
OCZ Vertex 3 128GB - primary OS
Seagate 500GB 7200RPM HDD - secondary storage

Everything has been running fine, since I bought it 2 years ago its crashed once. Was playing dayz last night no worries, and the temps were fine, HW monitor showing max as 88degrees C. GPU running std clocks. Ive had no freezes or anomalies while playing any games.
I shutdown last night, then restarted today - black screen. Its booting up fine as you can hear it running through the boot process. Even when I wait then use the fingerprint scanner to log in, i get the chime and the windows loading sound. So it seems that its running fine but with no display??? I can shut down with key shortcuts, so again its running.
I've tried the no battery, power button for 60sec, ac plug > start technique, which worked the first time. So im thinking OK the batt is stuffed. I shutdown then come back later to start and black screen again. Repeat technique NO DICE :-(
Plugging in an external monitor doesn't work either - is the 6990 stuffed?

 

Hey guys my laptop started acting up a week ago. I found out the video driver was causing it. I have the AMD Radeon 6900M. When I install the driver using the disc it errors, so I tried downloading it from AMD using their driver detector. Now it's telling me the driver I downloaded from the detector is not compatiable with the windows 7 64 bit I'm using. The one it gave me is for windows 7 64 bit though. Please help!

 

Try getting it direct from someone like guru3d, if installing the drivers causes issues then it could be the card.

 

Right, so the 6990 was screwed, weird that there was no symptoms and the temps have never been as high as some Ive seen on his forum. Got it reflowed *professionally* meh 6month warranty and I made them put it through 3dmark and furmark stress tests.
However can anyone comment on this capture from hwinfo64? Specifically the gpu fan speed???

 

Yes notebook ECs are custom and don't expose fan speeds typically. You would know in the temps and the noise of the GPU fan was not spinning.

 

Add me to the list of dead 6990m cards. Malibal won't cover it because its 13 months old and now i'm stuck trying to find a MXM 3.0 B card with an NVIDIA gpu.

Anyone know where I can get one with any of the specified GPU's? Malibal wants $750 for a 680m kit.
If that's the price i'm looking at to get this year old laptop going again. It will get sold as is to cut my losses.

 

675M cards having been going pretty cheap on ebay, just make sure you get a clevo one.

 

What would be the cheapest option to get it back up and running again? Don't care if its not able to play games on high settings.
The $400-$500 i'm seeing on ebay is more than I want to spend.
At this point I just need it working so I can sell the laptop and cut my losses.

 

I believe the lowest priced card you'll find that will work is the GTX 560M, do make sure its a Clevo/Sager video card as other brands tend not to be compatible.

 

I want to upgrade my vid card. I tried looking for a list of cards that are compatible with my np8170 but I got overwhelmed. If anyone can please send me a list of cards that I can consider I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank you guys I really appreciate it!

 

The Nvidia cards that worked were the GTX 560M / 570M / 580M for AMD the 6990M and 7970M (will vary depending on your monitor model)

 

So I cant do the gtx 600m series?

 

No they wont work due to bios issues. Tbe 7970m witb enduro disabled HM bios are the fastest cards.

 

With the 7970m i lose my hdmi output?

 

So I pulled the 6990m to have it reflowed and noticed this on the motherboard. Could the bottom side of the video card got so hot that it could have done this?

This is in a Malibal Satori (Clevo P170hm)
Anyone else have this happen on theirs?

 

Not to desolder like that. That was either knocked or a manufacturing defect.

 

My 2 year old np8170 sager will not Post. I only used it for Photoshop graphic design work. Never for games. It powers on, but no video on the screen. The power cycles twice then stays on with no video until I do a hard shutdown. It boots properly after trying for many hours and I do not understand what is causing it not to boot up normally. I have*

Checked the Ram

Changed cmos battery

Removed CMOS battery

Unplugged battery and Ac cable

Reseated GPU / CPU with IC

Removed hard drive and blue ray and keyboard

Nothing works.

Only thing I can think of now is maybe the USB ports are causing it not to post. The USB ports seems to be soldered in wrong as I assume because when I plug any device such as phone etc, it constantly disconnects and reconnects. The USB cable is fine as I tested else where.

After reading this common issue with Sager notebooks I honestly regret buying this laptop period.

 

Have you tried using the other usb ports.

 

Yes all of them work once proper connection is made. I just have to wiggle the cables while plugged in. But the laptop refuses to post. I'd rule out gpu because when it actually boots, everything runs fine.

 

If its been on and you shut it down will it always turn on again if you do it straight away?

If it does I would suggest that it's a thermal and physical issue. If that's the case then totally stripping down the machine and performing a complete rebuild may help.

 

Yes it turns on straight away. It's to my knowledge that the companies Clevo and Sager clearly are aware of what they are doing to consumers. A simple Google search provides numerous incidents of the same issue with each story sounding way too similar to one another. I will be sure to leave a negative review about the stated companies above. 2k+ in cost isn't to be taken lightly within the economic recession that we're in today. Just take a glimpse at these 2 links out of the many that exist.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/716350-np8150-p150hm-black-screen-power-up.html

Sager NP8170 XoticPC.com Problems Continue - YouTube

 

Ive tried these configurations:

- RAM and graphics card inserted - no beeps
- no RAM , graphics card inserted - no beeps
- RAM inserted, no graphics card - long beep repeated constantly every few seconds
- no RAM, no graphics card - long beep repeated constantly every few seconds

shouldn't there be some beeps when RAM is not inserted?

 

I don't think there should be beeps with no ram, if it were me and I had the time it would be complete rebuild time to rule out thermal creep.

 

Yayyy for me... Add to this list another owner of a NP8170 with a dead 6990m. NOTE, this laptop was always used on a U3 cooler, cleaned on a regular basis, and treated with TLC. I e-mailed XoticPC to see what my options are. On a positive note, I just ordered a P177SM with a GTX 780m in it to replace the dead beast...

 

It's thermal cycling that does it rather than the absolute temperature.

 

Here is the sad thing... I purchased the laptop to game on. But the only game I ended up playing on it was Civ5 which is hardly GPU intensive. I was a battlefield fanatic but BF3 killed it for me and I just stopped playing FPS's... Oh well, it is what it is.

 

I believe I just replied to your email. Our service team should be able to get you straightened out.

 

You did... Thanks for the quick reply. I checked my warranty and it looks like its only labor and not parts. But I will submit an RMA asap to see what can be done. Thanks for the follow up and I look forward to getting my NP8295 that I ordered yesterday. =)

 

That's a nice machine but an odd choice for someone who does not game much.

 

I look at it this way... I may decide to game again so I might as well spend the extra 300 just in case. And who knows, ea might get it right when BF5 is released. LOL!

 

I would not hold my breath for EA's sake :/

 

So how much better cooling does the P170HM have, vs the P150HM?
I've got a P150HM, and although I'm disappointed that the ports are exactly the same, I'm considering a P170HM for the size, and better cooling.
My AMD 6990m, after some good thermal paste and cleaning of fans and heatsinks, runs at 82-85c while gaming.

 

They have identical cooling except the P170HM will use copper on the CPU heatsink.

They use identical motherboards which is why they are similar.

 

Does anybody have experience with DELL GTX580M in a NP8170. Will a NP8170 work with a DELL GTX 580M card or not.

 

No it needs to be a clevo card.

 

Thank you for the help.

 

They are a bit picky unfortunately.

 

Anyone know where I can get a P170HM LVDS Cable from???

 

Your reseller may be able to order one for you.

 

Has anyone been able to get THX TruStudio Pro to work with Windows 8.1?

Edit 1: It turns out almost every Windows 7 driver works with 8.1, including THX.

 

Yep pretty much, before vista everyone was used to using older drivers for things.

 

I need to buy a new laptop battery for my Sager NP8170 Laptop. Can someone refer me to a reputable U.S. Seller ?


Sager NP 8170

Info on original current battery

Battery LI- ion battery pack
model-- p150hmbat8
14.8v 5200mah
76.96wh
6-87-710s-4j72

Thx
Steve

 

Looks like you originally got it from us per your signature. You can open up a service ticket under our "contact" section on our website asking for pricing and availability and we can check with Sager for you.
Or shoot me a PM with either your order number or email you used when you placed the order and I can try to get a price for you.