New Razer Blade Pro Owner's Lounge (17")

Oh no sir! for $2,500 I expect it to run prime95 + furmark for days without issue, to say nothing of extended gaming sessions. This is a notebook built by Razer, a company whos slogan is "For Gamers BY Gamers". At initial launch, it was billed as "The World's First TRUE Gaming Laptop". If it can't handle it, it's false advertising. At any rate, Tjunction max on the 4700HQ is 100c. The highest temp I ever experienced was 84c on one core. GPU never went over 80c. I don't know the specific thermal spec for the 765m, but I'm guessing it holds constand with the rest of nvidia mobile gpu solutions around 100-105c. This is in a 25.5c [78f ish] room.

That aside, before I sent the thing back I did a full restore on it, reinstalled windows updates, reinstalled the beta drivers, synapse, and Mechwarrior Online. Had no issues for over an hour between playing with max settings and youtube going down on the 'UI.

Out of sheer curiosity, I then logged into Razer Comms. 2 minutes into my next match, freeze with "IRQL not less or equal". Every match after that. . . video_tdr_failure.

It was so uncannily timed I actually called razer back just to make sure I wasn't experiencing some rare but known issue. . but the response I got back was "we've never documented anything like that, send it back". Seems to be their answer for everything, but maybe they've seen this issue before and just aren't bothering to explain that part to me.

Ultimately it's a pretty straitforward issue. The GFX driver is crashing, windows attempts to recover, fails, and bombs out with video TDR. It's either some faulty ram, a faulty GPU, or somehow not enough power to the GPU. For all I know, the unit is fine and it's the power brick that's not up to snuff. Ultimately I wanted to document this somewhere JUST IN CASE someone else happened to have a similar issue. . I couldn't find much of anything online regarding it.

. . . I don't suppose I could borrow someone else's until I get mine back?

Please?????

oh well, I had to try ; )

 

Does Razer Media Player crash for anyone else why trying to add songs to it? :x

 

What is your basis for this? The laptop is marketed as a gaming computer, not a general use or media box with some gaming capabilities.

 

FWIW, based on your errors, it sounds like a HW defect. I'd run the built in Win 8 memory diags first..RAM corruption can cause all the symptoms described. If not that's, it's motherboard.

I have to say, my blade pro has been near flawless, and running Win 8.1 RTM. Most issues were related to ty nvidia drivers, 326.80 seems to be best, but careful how you install (need to manually pick clean install option and uncheck 3d support, or you'll be seriously unstable. Also, it is upgradeable if you're careful..mine is at 16GB now, and I replaced the ty "killer" wifi for an intel 7260AC (which actually supports EAP-TLS on my corp network). Razer really needs to enable bios password, which will automatically enable FDE on the Samsung msata. Yes, this is a "gamer" laptop, but most gamers who can afford it have real jobs, and will use it for more than just gaming!

 

Razer agreed with you. UPS delivered the unit to Newegg RMA department at 4:12 CST today, and they're back in stock, and I sent a full two page documentation of issues, so I'm hopeful it'll get expedited. As to installing the beta drivers, I've never seen them that finicky before. I guess that's why the guy @ razer insisted on walking me through the install precisely! Just out of curiosity, I though the ram was soldered on? Also, while you were in there, did you notice a second empty mSata port by chance? Not that 256 isn't plenty, but . .

Last question: What drivers did you use for the intel AC card? There are rumors that there are no functional drivers w/ Win 8, which seems asinine to me since all win 7 64x drivers SHOULD be compatible, but it never hurts to ask ^^

 

I can second this as I am using the same setup

 

The MSI doesnt have the full aluminum body like the Razer and Mac's it is a flimsy skin. It gets much hotter and has significantly reduced battery life. Personal opinion, I haven't liked steel series products ever, they have some good ideas but I and friends have had too many failures of SS devices. The keyboard puts off a lot of light where it doesn't belong as well in my opinion. RB has very little light coming out around the keys mostly just the letters and numbers where it belongs, as opposed to the MSI which seems to have more blinding light coming out between the keys than from the letters. Those ports... I hate power ports placed on the right side of the notebook most of my left handed friends agree (though not all), and while I like options I think they could have dropped a couple ports there. All in all I think it was a noteworthy attempt for a first time company but since MSI is not a first time company I think it was a dismal failure. Just my 2cents

 

So I've read as well, over the weeks. Sadly, and I don't mean to be bashing them here, the only thing MSI has going for them is the legitimate claim of this laptop being thinner than the RBP, in my opinion.

 

The sad part is, MSI would have a really great product if the quality were there, but it just isn't. I went Razer over the GS70 SPECIFICALLY because I've owned 2 MSI notebooks [GT70 and 683-DXR], the latter was flimsy, and the former, GPU temps spiked up into the 98c range without max fan button. I happened to be perusing the MSI forums on the gs70 the other day, and I'm already reading about complaints about heat and repasting the CPU/GPU. Apparently you've gotta tear it all the way down to the board to do it.

 

These are exactly the reasons why I went RBP over MSI. MSI is a long term company and has no excuse for this kind of product quality this late in the game. Many people bash the RB series price tag, while I agree it is steep, the build quality is definitely above any other I have experienced except the MB line in which case they are in my opinion equals. So while the price may be hard to swallow rest assured your less likely to have a brick on you hands due to failure of product and more likely to retire it of old age. Just my two cents.

 

Same. The only unfortunate thing is I got one of the rare defective ones. Fortunately the service has been excellent so far [another thing I've noticed MSI seems to be behind in]. For the price tag, it had better be

On a side note, Newegg got more in stock and sold out again in less than 24 hours. I don't know what their stock quantities are, but they obviously aren't THAT overpriced if they keep flying off shelves. (hope they set one aside for my RMA >.> )

 

Quick question to RBP owners, what temperatures should I be at to consider taking a break from gaming? I've found myself going on quite long gaming sessions in FFXIV - most of the work seems to come from the CPU.

Temperature readings show I get about 85-90C variable/max on CPU temps, while my GPU remains relatively lower at 60-70C. Should I be concerned with this CPU temp and let it cool down? I haven't really had any overheating issues (BSODs or freezes/crashes), but I wouldn't want to overstress my Blade either.

Any insight would be great!

 

Well, I just got word back from Newegg RMA. No fault found after 12 hours of stress testing, but they restored the computer before they ran the test. According to the person I spoke with, they used "PC Benchmark" [anyone have any clue if this is specific software or just a generic term for something like passmark?]

I guess this is going to be a fun ride. ><

 

IMHO the laptop will be safe as long as the vents are all free of obstructions, getting fresh air and spitting it out properly .

 

Thanks! Vents are more than free, with a cooler right below them too. I just learned about the 100c max temperature of the CPU as well, and as long as I don't reach them, I should be fine apparently.

 

Woah!

<Casts Lvl. 3 Thread Resurrection Spell />

Why has this thread been so quiet? Are we Blade Pro owners hermits?

Anyway, I resurrected this thread just to say this: Windows 8.1, eh? Eh? I say, eh? Has anyone already upgraded to it? I'm upgrading my Surface Pro and my desktop, but I remember there being some issues with the Blade Pro and the 8.1 Preview. Just wondering if someone had tried the official release.

Cheeri-o!

 

One hour ago tried upgrading to 8.1. The system sent me back to windows 8 again, saying there was a problem updating to windows 8.1. Same for the rest?

 

Just in case anyone didn't know yet, there's a guide on Razerzone.com's System Support page on how to install Windows 8.1 and what drivers to install first. They also have new drivers for download for 8.1.

 

I've tried the guide... no go. Restores me back to Win 8

 

I followed the guide and it worked!

 

Damn you, damn you all to Hell!

I've actually restored Windows 8 to factory and I'm trying again. I'll let you all know what happens.

 

Should work this time man! Just in case there are specific manuals for the RB14 and RBP17 ,did you grab the correct one?

In my case i had dual boot with arch Linux, secure boot disabled.
Re-enabled it just for the install, uninstalled the corresponding drivers and everything went smooth afterwards. Once W81 installed properly, disabled secure boot again and chose the UEFI grub boot to restore dual-boot.

One colateral damage i had with the update was that for some reason Linux was trying to mount my root partition for a second time in /home, instead of mounting my home partition. Had to fix the /etc/fstab file. Im not sure why this happened but it might be possible that W81 added a new partition and the rest of the partitions numbers sdaX got shifted up by one unit.

Read somewhere that in W81 games can run faster, anyone can confirm this? I only have Dota 2 at the moment which is not very demanding.

 

It's installed now; maybe between installing and uninstalling drivers, and all the Visual Studio and Microsoft libraries, there was something that the W81 update didn't quite like.

Indeed, it worked flawlessly after restoring the computer and downloading updates - you need more than just the one mentioned in the guide. I'm actually installing the drivers and configuring a few things here and there. I will run 3DMark after it's all setup and will let you know if I notice any difference at all.

My only "problem" this time was that it took too long. On my Surface it took like 15 minutes after the download; my desktop took less than 10 minutes. For some reason the Blade Pro took about 40 minutes C'est la vie!

I'll report back after a few benchies.

 

Other than the two features of being able to have a start bar and booting directly to desktop, are there other compelling reasons to update to 8.1? I'm using Start8 on W8 and it takes care of the two mentioned features flawlessly.

 

I was at Build and mostly what they showed were under the hood improvements, particularly with the APIs. Actually, the new Direct3D features are very nice - let's just hope games start using them soon. There are other changes in regards of how the PC settings are presented on the Modern UI, the new Bing search features, and little things like that. It's mostly behind the scenes, tho.

Well... I installed Synapse and... it's... weird... it asked for an update as soon as I installed it, and the Razer Update Manager is taking about... 10 minutes for each %. That is, it's been there for 40 minutes and it's sitting at 4%. That's... odd.

I'll keep reporting.

 

I remember i had to disable windows defender since it was using lots of CPU all the time.

 

Well, I forgot to let you all know that it's all working perfectly with W81. I believe the Razer Update Manager actually downloads the installation, and it so happened that at that moment my bandwidth was saturated. Anyway!

So, has anyone tried the new nVidia 331.58 drivers? I just installed them and noticed a small drop in 3DMark... though that I understand that is not representative of actual gameplay.

 

I will install it tonight and see if the laptop survives

 

Agreed, and that's my intention also..

However, do you have any tear down pics that you took available?

Am curious about case vs. board layout and confirming if that rumour about space for a second drive/port is true

 

I can confirm for you that there is space for two drives in the RBP. It has the mSATA slot and an empty 2.5" bay. You will require a SATA cable as they have removed it in the new 2013 RBP. I was able to find a cable that fit the connector on the motherboard and add a 500GB HDD in the 2.5" bay. There is an entire thread on the cable and where the connector is on the motherboard. You just have to look.

 

Hi fellow RBP owners, quick concern.

Has anyone noticed WiFi problems with their unit? For the past few months since I've had my RBP, I've always been using it with a cabled connection. However, every time I visit a friend's place for some gaming sessions (so I run on WiFi), I seem to get huge lag spikes - and it's only me, the rest of them are fine.

To put into perspective, I usually play Dota 2 with a 80-90 ms latency which everyone else shares. When I spike, it goes up to 400ms in a few seconds and back down. I also notice it tends to happen when more 'activity' during the game is occurring. I've tried reinstalling the stock W8.1 wifi drivers but to no avail.

Any tips? Or is the RBP WiFi card just generally weak? It'd be a bummer if I couldn't game on WiFi at all, even if it's not preferred.

 

I think that's actually a DOTA 2 problem. I haven't had this issue on my RBP but my gf had it on her Samsung, there's an option to select Low Quality network in the DOTA Settings menu. Btw, add me if you fancy some games, I'm [£] mrmg.

 

Not a DOTA player. I play for long hours on Blizzard games and have yet to have any issues with wireless connectivity even in area's where I know the signal to be weak it has been rock solid for me.

 

Hi sirs,

I was planning to get a razerblade pro. If you dont mind would you kindly post a picture where the 2 msata's are located on the blade pro? Also if it supports the samsung evo 1tb msata?

Thanks in advance

 

There is only one mSATA port in the RBP as well as one 2.5" bay! So you should be able to put in the new 2TB SSD (2.5") from ADATA as soon as its available as well as the 1TB EVO from Samsung in the mSATA slot. A total of 3TB of SSD storage in the RBP

 

So I got a RBP just recently, and despite some issues with Synapse not displaying anything on the Switchblade buttons after restarting, I loved it.

Until I attempted to use the HDMI port to display to my TV. I could not get ANYTHING to output. I tried the Fn+F4 and switched to Duplicate, and then went into the Screen Resolution menu from right-clicking the desktop. It doesn't seem that the laptop recognizes that it has an HDMI port, as it lists any secondary monitor as being VGA. Razer suggested I install out of date drivers for both Intel and Nvidia, so I did. This did not help. I've since installed the newest drivers available from Intel and Nvidia for the hardware, but still nothing out of the HDMI port. Before I request a return, anyone have any tips or dealt with this?

 

What cases/sleeves have you guys been buying for your RBP? trying to look for a good one but having trouble

 

hi everyone. i've owned my r2 for a bit over a year and a half if i remember and i love most things about it , however i have had two serious problem from the start, when i play almost any game. the machine will randomly shut off. this had been almost every game i've tried. kept my graphics card up to date etc. minimized background applications.running everything on absolute minimums . and still they can't seem to run. sometimes i get a couple of hours before it does it , sometimes a few minutes. computer doesn't seem to physically get hotter, though can't say about the insides. i always thought it was overheating. but even old games that really shouldn't be causing it still crash. even mass effect I won't run steady. no slowdown or anything. just suddenly dies. does anyone else have similar experience as it really is driving me nuts. even happens when i run unity developer and various art programs. i really need a viable solution for this as i imported my mmachine from the us when it was first released. and i've sent it back once for another issue already. it costs a fortune and takes a v. longtime. so i'm hoping someone might have some solution other than just sending it back again . (think i'm out warrantee anyway.) love the machine. but if i can't get it to work right. i'm going to have to scrap it . which is a shame.
the second matter is less of a problem. i seem to have alot of problems with steam games in particular. and can't get them to run full screen at all (if i don't crash before hand) . any clues would be greatly appreciated as i've been up and down the internet for almost a year now trying to find some sort of definitive answer other than overheating (which is possible but wierd considering sometime the machine is running cold) and that my internals are somehow bust (getting a new machine is really not a helpful answer as this is not old and i've been having a real bad streak with machines.) thanks. ... oh .. if anyone knows a way i can override the fans. that might be an option.i don't care what i need to do , i just need to get the bloody thing to run stably and stop wasting both my work and my leisure time

 

So just an update: This issue was confirmed by Razer to be a hardware issue. I sent an e-mail describing how I've installed many different version of the drivers, and included screenshots. They asked me to send it back for a repair, and since I had only had it for a day I told them a repair was unacceptable. Razer's support is top notch, and within minutes I got a response back apologizing profusely, and they sent an overnight label to return my original RBP.

They e-mailed me back 10 minutes before close-of-business on Friday(The day they received the unit) letting me know they would send a new one out on Monday, but they have confirmed the hardware issues I was having. I asked Razer Support if they could throw in one of those fancy T-shirts to make up for the trouble, and they offered to upgrade the replacement unit to WIndows 8.1 for free. This was a little disappointing response, as the original unit had 8.1 on it, and I sent them back a picture proving such and relaying my disappointment.

I wish they had managed to get a new unit out to me on Friday, so I would be receiving it on Monday instead of having to wait until Wednesday... but at this point I really just care that I get a working RBP.

 

For those folks that have had the Blade 17 V1 or V2, How does the AUO screen compare to the LG screen in the RBP?

 

I wish I had known how wrong I would be in this statement. Razer does not have any stock of the RBP, and so they have not been able to send anything back yet. I've prodded and complained, but they offered a refund, claiming there is nothing they can do about stock issues. So now I'm waiting.

 

Is there any chance someone can upload their recovery partition for me? I thought I created the disk correctly via windows and ticked the 'Copy this systems recovery partition' when creating the restore drive but after wiping the partitions then trying to use the drive I created it failed. I've since bought a retail copy of Windows 8.1 and tried to update all drivers but some seem to be missing.

My third USB port while powered is not recognised in Windows and my HDMI port doesn't seem to work although it does sometimes detect what's connected.

Any advise or a copy of the recovery partition would be awesome.

Thanks

 

Oh, god, I did the exact same thing with the recovery partition. Good news is that Razer will send you a free os recovery usb stick if you email them about it; worked for me. I haven't actually used mine yet since my razer blade 14 started emitting smoke and subsequently stopped working, but now that I've gotten it repaired I'm gonna give the stick a shot.

I've had so many ridiculous problems with this laptop. The manufacurer-provided drivers seem to just screw everything up; switching to the Nvidia betas got rid of some of my USB-port-not-recognizing-device issues, but other stuff got messed up so I had to switch back to the ones provided by Synapse. Now I'm experimenting with the HDMI port for the first time and it only seems to transmit video, no audio. According to this thread the only solution is to switch back to the Nvidia beta drivers. God dammit. Really beginning to regret choosing razer.

Edit: I'm feeling a little silly rereading this because I'm realizing I've never owned a high-end laptop before, let alone one specifically designed for gaming. Are these kinds of manufacturing problems common with laptops that have newer tech, or am I right in finding all these issues borderline unacceptable?

 

None of the issues you are having sound normal. I use HDMI and the audio works fine for me, you have to switch the audio to the HDMI port but I assume you know that since every PC I've used requires that. I have no issues with any of my USB ports.

Every issue I've ran across turned out to be other attached hardware or my own ignorance. I've had cable issues with too low of bandwidth HDMI for 4K initially and USB 3.0 cables that were intermittent but those were all solved by getting better cables.

***I should add that I do not have a Razer Pro 17", so I apologize that my post is a little off base, but I since some of my post is still valid (HDMI audio part) I will leave it alone,

 

With HDMI, video shows up fine but the HDMI audio port shows up as "Not plugged in." I've heard that there's a workaround in which you set the HDMI port as default, yet for some reason the Set Default button in Playback Devices is greyed out for me. No idea why.

I've definitely had a number of problems that were just me not knowing what I was doing, but I've also had an irritatingly large number of occasions where Razer has given up and asked me to send it in. First the power supply was squealing loudly whenever I put my computer to sleep. Then only some usb ports worked with my external hard drive and phone charger. Then I discovered that a huge 16gb chunk of my 256gb ssd was taken up by a recovery partition that was impossible to move out of the way and use as storage unless I reinstalled the whole os. This meant having to wait for an (admittedly free) recovery usb to come in the mail from razer. All these problems were happening in the middle of the school year, so I really didn't want to ship it in for repairs. Then it started smoking and the screen fried, so I had no choice.

I got my replacement in the mail a few days ago and unfortunately all the other problems besides the deadness were still there, but that's admittedly my fault because I never brought up the older issues in the email thread where I mentioned the smoking and dying. I should have asked for a replacement unit rather than a repaired one.

I'm definitely new to this and I expected a number of issues I'd have to deal with, but lately it's just been one after another for what I thought was advertised as a laptop that'd work right out of the box. Even the first few games I played refused to run on the graphics card unless I stopped using the manufacturer-provided graphics drivers and used nvidia's beta ones, and even then I had to do this whole project-to-another-screen workaround.

Edit: Welp, yeah I just realized this thread is for Pro owners. I have the non-pro 2013 model

 

Hey i did the same thing to razer sent me the recovery stick's it worked on my razer 14 but i cant get the one for my razer blade pro to run at all any help please thats the computer that i use in school it gose to a BLANK BLUE screen then turns off ot wont evean work with windows 8.1 installd from my windows dvd

 

Does anyone have the latest Razer Blade Pro 17"? I just recently purchased it and found out that the main Power button light constantly flashes or "breathes" as their Support calls it. Supposedly this is normal, but it's very distracting and annoying. Has anyone been able to disable the this "feature"?