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

Thx! I emailed your service dept.

 

Cool, if you dont hear back right away they may be waiting for a reply from Sager. If it goes too long let me know and I'll go lay some smack down on them.

 

Thx for your help. I ordered one from Sager.

 

Cool, basically the same thing we would have done for you

 

Hello. It appears that my 120 Hz 3D screen on my NP8170 is damaged, so I am looking for a replacement. I know the model number but my question is: Am I looking for a screen with a 40 pin or 50 pin connector? I appreciate any guidance. Thank you.

 

50 pin, you can find the exact model by looking on the back of your current panel.

 

Not entirely on topic, but just a bit of advice for anyone else reading this post. It never hurts to take care of your 170HM every now and again.
I've been having issues with the GFX card (got a replacement) and more recently temps on the CPU and GFX Card.
Though i had cleaned out the dust around 6 months ago i thought it might be worth repasting and giving it another clean, ordered some good paste from an online retailer.

Low and behold after repasting and giving it a clean the temps dropped by a good 25c. These laptops are nearing 2-3 years old so always remember to give it a clean and a repaste every now and then.

 

Certain kinds of paste can dry out so replacing it can help a lot.

 

Hi folks,

I'm looking to upgrade my RAM but not sure which sticks are compatible, anyone care to enlighten me?

Thanks

EDIT:

I also forgot... but what's the maximum allowed RAM for this? 16 or 32 GB?

 

32GB 1600mhz 1.35 or 1.5v ram.

 

I know I'm replying to a post from Jan, 2014 but I wanted to give my input in case anyone else is having trouble and are googling and stumble upon this.
My System :
P170HM3
GTX 485M
8GB DDR3
Core-i7 2720qm

So, I have the same problem and have had the problem for quite awhile (for 6-12 months now). Unfortunately for me my warranty had ended...
My problem : While using the laptop every now and then the GPU kernel will crash if the GPU is being used, even from light usage (watching media).
Usually it will recover and things might be alright but usually the telling sign that it needs a reboot for me is the fact that I will get strange artifacts, and not typically the artifacts that I am used to.
I get weird purple and green dots in places or just colors being messed like a bleeding purple or something on textures. The dots are like if I were to use MSPaint and use the spray can feature with purple and just lightly spray a spot so that there is just a small blotch of dots. Anyhow that is what it is like for the artifacts. I usually have to reboot at this point and things will be fine.
Some information : When this occurs my temperature is typically fine. My GPU temps range from 35c-90c but usually not 90c. In windows 7 when I would occasionally get BSOD's, Windows 8.1 I do not. Occasionally the laptop is just straight up locked up and I have to shut it down. This is where the worse problems occur and is similar to the problems that Philibspeed (the guy I am replying to) is having.

If I shut my laptop down there's a chance that I cannot boot back up "properly" and I end up with just a black screen and it doesn't appear to post. After many power cycles (sometimes hours worth of power cycles) it will finally work and everything seems to be perfectly fine almost like new. Initially I thought it was not posting and I talked to XoticPC support about this and they were quite helpful in giving me information that I can do to diagnose the problem and what could possibly be wrong. Anyhow because the laptop was booting and I could see lights and what appeared to be the laptop loading as usual just with no screen I thought that I would just try something. I did the typical navigation to boot into windows 8.1 (I have Linux Mint, and Windows 8.1 installed so I have to hit down arrow a few times and then hit enter.) but I was blind because I have a black screen. I waited a bit, hit enter, typed in my password, hit enter again and figured if the laptop was booting but just without a screen then I would be in windows. I test a couple things and what do you know.... I was in Windows, I could hear it. So why is this significant?
Things I have done to try to find the problem :

• Checked the RAM (I tried each stick and without any sticks of ram).

• Checked Disk Drive

• Checked HDD and SSD

• Reset CMOS

• Checked CMOS Battery

• To be thorough made sure connections to wireless card were correct.

• Checked the Laptop Screen.

• Tried an external display.

• Re-seated CPU

• Re-seated GPU

• Checked the battery (booted without battery in)

• Took battery out, held power for 10-30 seconds.

I did all of these things to no avail. Still was unsure what the problem was. I was told that a dead GPU would cause the laptop to not post. The fact that I booted into windows was quite significant, no screen and not even a working external display was interesting as well. Since I was booted and the system was operating as normal I decided to find out how to examine Windows itself. Google Chrome Remote Desktop was the answer.
I started this up and was controlling my laptop via my phone, I was able to see my desktop and what was going on. The issue is that there was no detected GPU. These older laptops do not have the graphics switching capabilities unfortunately so we are unable to just use the CPU's built in GPU so there is absolutely no display. What is going on here? So the GPU appears to be dead but the laptop is posting, things are working as normal but I just have a black screen. I don't have any screen shots atm to show this because I would rather not shut my laptop down right now so I don't have to go through this ordeal to get it going lol but through device manager and such you can see that no GPU is detected and is the cause of having a black screen. What I have to do is exactly what this guy said, I have to power down my laptop and power it back up, if I don't have a screen I power it down again and try again. Sometimes it works within a couple tries and then sometimes it can take several hours. After it is working what I did was go in to BIOS and set the power on beep to be enabled so that when this problem does happen again I can actually hear the post beep noise. This helps to diagnose issues relating to this. When the laptop is up and going and I have a working screen everything works just as normal, I can play games just like I could when the laptop was brand new. Temperatures are normal, actually lower since I repasted, basically everything is just fine. So now I keep my laptop running and don't shut it down and continue to do this until I finally buy a new GPU.

My point in posting this and being this detailed is so that anyone else having these issues are able to see what all I have done what exactly happened and how I remedied it. The USB ports causing a laptop to not post does not make all that much sense to me and I would actually look to make sure that your GPU is not actually dying or something. Of course I could be wrong and maybe something silly like a jacked up USB port is causing my GPU to not start up right but I don't believe that would be the case.
Also if anyone thinks they may know why this is happening or would like to make a suggestion then please do. I believe that the problem is a dying GPU.

 

Such a sad day - I think my 485m died

I ran 2 memory tests last night (clean), a CPU test (clean), reinstalled GPU drivers, and I even tried to run a GPU test for 5 minutes; everything was fine than when I went on youtube, the monitor blackened out and the computer rebooted. I said screw it and started gaming again, about 10-15 minutes in; computer monitor blackened out and I had to manually reboot the computer. Think it's the GPU?

If so, I've been looking at 580m to replace it; is the best I can get for this machine? Where can I find the bios to flash?

 

Sorry for the resurrection of this comment but is this true? The the best in slot for my machine the 680m?

 

The 680M and 7970M with HM bios yes, still very good options.

 

HM vBiOS?

Good deal. Now I just have to find one

 

Yes there is a specific video bios required for the cards to work in the HM machine, I suggest you do some research since more modern cards may not work, the 680M with the original vbios should be slot in though.

 

This is all I've been able to find on it. Unless things have changed, this is really all I have to go off of.

 

Always good to follow Prema's advice Make the request from a reseller and you should be good to go on the 680M.

 

Do I need to make any system bios updates?

Also, I sent you a PM - you can ignore it if you want; I'll just ask away here - based on my analysis "I ran 2 memory tests last night (clean), a CPU test (clean), reinstalled GPU drivers, and I even tried to run a GPU test for 5 minutes; everything was fine than when I went on youtube, the monitor blackened out and the computer rebooted. I said screw it and started gaming again, about 10-15 minutes in; computer monitor blackened out and I had to manually reboot the computer. Think it's the GPU?"

Do you concur that its the GPU? I would hate to spend all that money on a GPU replacement/upgrade if it was something else I missed. I even tried baking the card yesterday with no luck.

 

I replied to your PM, as I said, try underclocking the GPU, if it helps then it helps narrow it down but it looks likely.

 

Thanks. I'll try that when I get home - it wouldn't be the motherboard or PSU would it? I imagine the MB would BSOD and i can test the PSU by simply not using it and go off of battery....

 

Exactly, try youtube on battery, some light gaming (the GPU will be of course down clocked for this). Usually a PSU will make the system shut off entirely and need manual restarting, but strange things can happen.

 

One last question for now - where can I find P170HM BIOS ver 10 and EC 09?

Thanks btw - you've been real helpful.

This them? -

EC/KBC V 1.00.09
&
BIOS V 1.01.10

 

Usually not available online, shoot your reseller an email requesting the latest versions and they should be able to get them to you.

 

I did but I'm impatient - once I leave work, I'll be without a real functioning computer until I fix my GPU and with it being friday....I'd hate to go into the weekend without ordering the card because of a few questions and/or minor requests.

 

Check out this thread:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/556299-clevo-bios-older-models.html

 

I did, thanks. The big warning message of bricking my machine has deterred me. lol

I was running off the battery for a while but because of the down clocking, I wasn't sure about the test. However, I did find this thread about disabling PowerMizer; which means I may be able to eliminate the possibility of it being the power brick. Disable, run on battery, cross my fingers it crashes before the battery dies. Thoughts?

http://forum.notebookreview.com/gaming-software-graphics-cards/261929-disable-powermizer-tested.html

Edit: Meh - I can't find the registry entries in Windows 8.1

I really hope its the GPU and not the DC-in Jack or the PSU....PSU would be fine because that's easily replaceable but if its the DC-in Jack, - new MB

Edit 2: Just tested the brick. everything looked solid there. Now its the DC-in Jack or the GPU. I hope its the GPU...

 

The DC jack would be cheaper to get repaired at a local electronics shop than the GPU.

 

Is there a way I can test it? It looks a little component soldered on the motherboard, idk how to test that.

 

A multimeter and gentle moving of the plug to see if contact is lost (obviously with the brick not plugged into the wall) just measure resistance.

 

Looking to breathe a little life into my aging tech, figured I would throw the best video card in I can. I currently have a GTX460M, GTX580M is the highest I can go right? Will I have to flash the bios? Any tips on where to shop besides ebay?

 

The 580m is the top of what's supported however with modified inf files you can get a 680m. Everytime there's a driver update, you need a modified inf to install. I'm in the middle of upgrading as we speak, I'll let you know how it goes when I get my card in today or tomorrow.

 

Yes you would be looking at around 4-5x faster than your current GPU with the 680M.

 

Sounds great, no need to flash the bios just update some inf files? I found some for a little more than I was hoping to spend:
Online Get Cheap Clevo Gtx 680m -Aliexpress.com
Has anyone dealt with Ali before?
Can't wait to hear how your upgrade goes!

 

Think of it as a riskier ebay.

 

Research it. Off the top of my head

1. Update your BIOs through your reseller, make sure they're the latest
2. There's a specific vBIOS that must be flashed on the card prior to them shipping it; I forgot what version it is - its somewhere in this thread
3. Use custom inf
4. Make sure the GPU is for clevo

Like Meaker said, its a risk going through ebay; if you have the option, contact your reseller.

 

I wouldn't buy anything yet - I got mine in but I think I made one fatal mistake (lol) - my machine a 3D 120hz and idk if this card will work...

 

The 3d machine has extra bios issues, talk to prema to get the complete low down as he knows the model's bios the best.

 

Yeah he's on travel atm lol

smh

 

It is the time of year for such things I suppose. I'm technically on holiday too lol.

 

Hi all, so I have a quick question. My sons 560m has died I have found an MSI 670m for £120 (very cheap for the UK) what I need to know is A: will it work or does it need a nodded bios? And B: will the original heatsink fit?

Regards and thanks in advance

 

A: No it needs to be a sager/clevo card.

Maybe contact your reseller regarding sourcing a card?

 

Unfortunately the reseller went bankrupt and these machines are really hard to come by spares in the UK, I tried the only other known reseller and they stock nothing other than the new 700 series which isn't going to work. Strangely the MSI 670m is advertised as clevo compatible but I am slightly weary as they also say it's Dell compatible too which can't be right and their English is unfortunately very poor

Back to the drawing board I suppose

 

Ah wait, sager/clevo cards work in alienware machines, so it may be compatible, sellers just like to list alienware support.

 

I may take a punt and fingers crossed, do you know if the existing heatsink will be compatible from a 560m to the 670m?

I can tell very little difference in images between the two but I'd rather be safe than sorry

 

I think it's just a case of re-organising the pads to match the VRM chips and inductors, any chance of a photo of the current heatsink and I could tell you for sure (thermal pads off if possible).

 

Yeah sure I can post that later on tomorrow when I get back from work

Many thanks for all your help it really is appreciated

 

Not a problem, I know if can be frustrating, at least the new card is a nice speed bump.

 

Really sorry for the late reply my son decided to dislocate his ankle on Monday so been manic

Here are a couple of shots of the existing heatsink that hopefully can be used

 

I'll let you off

Yes the heatsink is fine, I would stick with the 570M if you can simply to avoid bios issues. (same chip)