NP7110/Sager NP7130/Clevo B7130M owner's lounge

hi everyone,

I'm attempting to start a new thread for NP7110 owners. Have never done this so I'm not sure this will work, but if it does, I'd like to invite new NP7110 owners to post their impressions of this laptop. I am considering purchasing one and would like to know what opinions are from actual users of the unit. Thanks much.

 

did you guys got your video camera working ?
for some reason whenever I try to run skype video it says video camera not detected, I also installed newest driver from sager website.


Edit. Got the camera working but the quality of it is a joke not even worth the power drain on the battery to put it on

 

i would only use the camera to skype, which I believe only do even with my current 2MP webcam at 640 resolution, otherwise the video gets choppy. Is the webcam on the 7110 so bad that you can't even skype? thanks
Any other troubles with your 7110? Dropping keystrokes? how is battery life? which processor do you have? Does video switching actually work? thanks

 

Hi guys, just purchased this. Will let you know how it goes once I get it.

1x Sager NP7110 (Built on Clevo B7110M)
- Xotic Gear: No Xotic PC Gear
- Warranty: Sager 3 Year Parts & Labor Warranty, Lifetime Sager Toll Free Support
- Software Bundle (Not Installed): No Software Bundle
- Microsoft Office Software: - Microsoft Office 2010 Home & Business Edition - Word/Outlook/Excel/PowerPoint/OneNote
- Operating System: ~Windows 7 Ultimate 64-Bit Installed (64&32-Bit CD Included) w/ Drivers & Utilities CD's
- Notebook Cooler: No Notebook Cooler
- Mouse / Keyboard Accessories: No External Keyboard or Mouse
- Fingerprint Reader: No Fingerprint Reader
- Port Replicator / Dock / Adapters: No Dock/Hub/Adapter
- Spare AC Adapter: None Standard*
- Car Adapter: No Car Adapter
- Battery: NO Spare Battery
- Case: Basic Black Business Case
- Sound Card: Sound Blaster Compatible 3D Audio - Included
- TV Tuner: No TV Tuner
- Camera: Built in 1.3Megapixel Camera
- Wireless Network Accessories: No Network Accessory
- Wireless Network: Intel® Ultimate-N 6300 - 802.11A/B/G/N Wireless LAN Module
- Bluetooth: Internal Bluetooth + EDR
- Memory Card Reader: Internal 3-in-1 Card Reader (SD/MMC/MS)
- Floppy Drive: No Floppy Drive
- Back Up Software: No Back Up Software
- External Hard Drive (Back Up): No Back Up Hard Drive
- Primary Hard Drive: ~ 160GB Intel X25-M Solid State Drive (SSD2 Serial-ATA II)
- Optical Drive: ~ 4X Blue-Ray Read/8X DVDRW Super Multi Combo Drive
- Exterior Finish: Standard Finish
- Ram: ~ 8,192MB DDR3 1066MHz Dual Channel Memory (2 SODIMMS) - Special!
- External Monitor Video Adapter: No Video Adapter
- Graphics Video Card: nVidia GT 330M 1024MB PCI-Express GDDR3 DX10 with Optimus™ Technology
- Thermal Compound: - IC Diamond Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU
- Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-620M, 2.66-3.33GHz, (4MB L3 cache)
- Dead Pixel Policy: Standard Dead Pixel Policy
- Display: 17.3" FHD 16:9 "Glare Type" Super Clear Ultra Bright LED Glossy Screen (1920x1080)-

 

So glad someone is finally posting here! Your configuration is very similar to what I'm thinking of getting, same CPU and 8 gigs of RAM. I'm very curious to hear what your first impressions will be. Please post once you receive your unit. When are you expecting it? thanks

 

It's coming tomorrow. I'll be unpacking at night once the kids are alseep. I've never used Windows 7 before, so I'm in for lots of new things all at once. I really expect light-fast speed on this, little heat and little noise, thanks to the SSD and the optimus card. I'll let you know!

I'm surprised about the lack of review about the NP7110 on the net, though. It seems such a perfect combination between weight, screen size, speed, price and so on. I've actually been on the market for this for the past 18 months, literally, but everytime, something was not working out for me in the specs, so I waited and waited until the perfect match came around. I though I had found it about a year ago, with the XPS1640. I even had placed an order for it. But thanks to fate, DELL was so slow in building my custom unit with SSD that I cancelled it. I was back on the market looking for the perfect date. I kept lurking around new laptops, and the choice was few and far between with the specs I was looking for. I'm not a gamer but do lots of heavy duty graphic design, so 8GB DDR3 was a must, with full HD screen and SSD was also a must. SSDs....I am sucker for those little fast, light, low heat and SILENT things. The only thing the NP7110 does not have is a backlit keyboard, which is something I wanted to easily work at night when the kids are sleeping next to me. But I had to give that up, and I'll buy myself a small led lamp powered by USB.

One thing: Don't expect any real review from me. I'll tell you how the machine feels and so on, but I'm not able to do some real benchmarking.

To all other NP7110 owners, please come out of the closet and show yourself here so we can get some discussion going.

 

Awesome. Things I'm particularly curious about are battery life (did you get the larger battery?), how well graphics switching works and does it result in any problems, and how is the webcam, which I would only be using for skype. Thanks.

 

I've had mine for about a week now with the specs:
1x Sager NP7110 (Built on Clevo B7110M)
- Dead Pixel Policy: Standard Dead Pixel Policy
- Display: 17.3" FHD 16:9 "Glare Type" Super Clear Ultra Bright LED Glossy Screen (1920x1080)-
- Current Promotion: Student Promotions! Ask us about our Cash Discounts or FREE Promotional Items & Accessory Bundles for Students - Up to 50% OFF! - Student Verification Required for Promotion
- Processor: Intel® Core™ i5-540M, 2.53-3.06GHz, (3MB L3 cache)
- Thermal Compound: Stock Thermal Compound-
- Graphics Video Card: nVidia GT 330M 1024MB PCI-Express GDDR3 DX10 with Optimus™ Technology
- External Monitor Video Adapter: No Video Adapter
- Ram: ~ 8,192MB DDR3 1066MHz Dual Channel Memory (2 SODIMMS) - Special!
- Exterior Finish: Standard Finish
- Optical Drive: ~Combo 8x8x6x4x Dual Layer DVD +/-R/RW 5x DVD-RAM 24x CD-R/RW Drive w/Softwares
- Primary Hard Drive: ~ 500GB 7200RPM (Serial-ATA II 300 - 16MB Cache)
- External Hard Drive (Back Up): No Back Up Hard Drive
- Back Up Software: No Back Up Software
- Floppy Drive: No Floppy Drive
- Memory Card Reader: Internal 3-in-1 Card Reader (SD/MMC/MS)
- Bluetooth: Internal Bluetooth + EDR
- Wireless Network: Built-in 802.11 Wireless B/G/N - Stock Wireless Card
- Wireless Network Accessories: No Network Accessory
- Camera: Built in 1.3Megapixel Camera
- TV Tuner: No TV Tuner
- Sound Card: Sound Blaster Compatible 3D Audio - Included
- Case: No Carrying Case
- Battery: NO Spare Battery
- Car Adapter: No Car Adapter
- Spare AC Adapter: None Standard*
- Port Replicator / Dock / Adapters: No Dock/Hub/Adapter
- Fingerprint Reader: No Fingerprint Reader
- Mouse / Keyboard Accessories: No External Keyboard or Mouse
- Notebook Cooler: No Notebook Cooler
- Operating System: No Operating System Standard - Drivers & Utility Software Only
- Microsoft Office Software: No Office Software
- Software Bundle (Not Installed): No Software Bundle
- Warranty: 3 Year Labor 1 Year Parts, Lifetime XOTIC PC 24/7 Toll Free Telephone Tech Support
- Xotic Gear: No Xotic PC Gear

So it is not as high quality of a version as the other poster so far, but I have had no complaints yet, other than the battery life (I got the smaller one and it lasts for maybe an hour if I am lucky). Also, when I first tried to use optimus the graphics switching wasn't working but after spending about a half an hour searching online I found a new driver and now i can use the discrete graphics at will. Happy so far with it after installing win7 professional and a couple other standards.

 

HI all. So I have received and opened my machine, and I am typing this on my brand new NP7110. Absolutely stunning. I will review later. Only one BIG issue so far, it's the noise.

This machine has the fan on all the time and the humming noise is backed up by a high pitch noise that's kiling me. And I'm talking even when the NVidia is not on.

Just sent a support note to Xoticpc, but it's labor day week end, so let's see how fast they reply. The machine is otherwise fantastic. The keyboard is amazingly confortable to type on, the screen is exremely bright and large, with pretty good color calibration. The sound is OK, so so but fine enough for movies. I listen to Jazz music (the one that comes with Windows Media Player), but the humming fan noise made did compromise the sound quite a bit. So apart of the noise, it's perfect. The fan nise started about 1 to 2 minutes I started the PC, so it must be CPU heat related. Maybe there is a way to underclock it.

I'll wait for instructions from Xoticpc support guys to see if they can help reduce the noise. Otherwise, I'll seriously consider returning the unit, as I didn't buy a 2500 USD machine to get a headache from it's noise...

 

any annoying noise with yours like The Spirit's? how is the webcam? good enough for skype?

 

Any idea what's responsible for the high pitched noise?
How is battery life? Which battery do you have?
How is the webcam?
If you return this, what will you get instead? Envy 17? Studio 17?

 

I've had mine for a week with no noise issues, but I don't have as crazy of specs as yours so the heat might not be much of an issue until I start doing stuff that uses the discrete graphics card. I agree the sound is a little weak though, but I think it is partially because the speakers are on the underside of the machine so it gets hard to hear if there is an air conditioner running in the room. It only bothers me if watching movies, but in the future I will be watching movies ported to my TV through either my desktop or this so no sound issues then

 

I will get on skype later today, I am at my girlfriend's house right now and the internet connection probably can't support skype, but will be back at my place tonight where the connection will definitely not be the bottleneck

 

camera is pure garbage, it's astounding that they put in such a horrible product in such a good machine. If any of you have a cell phone in a camera, then shoot something with your cell phone and then imagine that the camera in the notebook is even worse than that

 

how is battery life for you (and with which batter)? any weird noise from the unit? Does optimus work properly? Do you have any issues other than the camera?

 

Hi there. Still did not ave time to post a proper review. Will do eventually. I have no issue withe the camera. Seems fine enough for what one can need on a laptop (skype etc). A question regarding your unit: DO you get a lot of fan noise? If you don't, I might consider replacing my i7 by an i5 so that fan does not trigger so much. On all other accounts but the fan noise, all is absolutelygreat. Optimus works perfectly. THe NVidia cards produces tons of heat and noise, but that is fine with me: I'm expecting that when I work with heavy graphics application and can live with it. BUt for 80% of the rest of the time, including when watching a movie, I need a silent unit. Last night I watched a movie on Netflix, and I was hard to hear beacause of the fan noise. No acceptable in such an expensive unit.

 

I remain very curious about battery life on each of your units. How long does it last, and with which battery/CPU combination? thanks

 

So, a very short review as promised. Don't get too excited I am not an expert, just a regular user, who does heavy graphic design from time to time.

Unboxing experience was great, the guys at xoticpc did a great job. It's simple and nice, and all the cables are in the caryying case ( a nice slim one). Non nonsense stickers and so on, the unit looks fantastic, and the power brick is relatively small. The cable is really long and made of soft rubber, which means less knowts and so on. Great cable and power brick, and fairly light. All the discs were in the caryying case, so really, a simple and lean unboxing experience.

The unit is very solid, but very light. It's lighter that my Lenovo T400 for instance. I have no problem carrying it with a single hand which was not the case for my good ol' Gateway 17" M675 monster. It's no netbook though.

There is not lock for the screen, because the hinges are quite tight, so you do need to hold the keyboard part down so as so open the screen up. The screen is really bright. I was expecting some reflexion, but although is it a relective screen, I did not get any issue with that, even with a windo behind me, when the unti was on. Excellent viewing angles. We could watch a movie with four people sitting side by side on a sofa, with the unit about 3 feet away on a chair. Even from the side, there were no viewing issues. Top and bottom viewing angles were also excellent. The default settings are not set for full brightness through, and once I realized that, I could see how bright (too bright) that screen really can be.

The sound is quite cheap for such a high end laptop. I'm sure if i put some speakers it'll be much better, which I might do. The problem is not the sound quality which is quite good but how (not) loud it is. It's quiet enough to be overpowered by the fan swoosh noise when it's on - but that noise is another story altogether - I'll come back to that.

My unit is blazing fast. I load up Windows Ultimate 64bit (up to username screen), from a complete shut down (by pressing the powerbutton), in about 10 seconds. That's because I have the i7 266 and the Intel 160GB SSD. I've never experienced anything that fast in any PC or notebook I have been dealing with. Ever. The power button needs to be held down for about two seconds, a featyure I like, because it prevents the unit starting by mistake in a crampred bag.

The keyboard is really comfy. I was a bit worried as I am not use to island-style keyboard, but this one proved very nice for typing. It easily compete with a thinkpad keyboard. The keys ae well spaced, and they have a soft touch to them, and tiny bevel which mae then realy inviting to type on. Both the returm and the space key have a bit of a cheap clicking sound to them, (not as soft bounce as the other keys). Not sure if that is on purpose or not. I'm not so happy about the location of the page up, down, righ buttons, which are kind of integrated into the number pad. So I've got to look for them carfully to find them. It need to get used to it. The delete key is also a bit cramped to the right. But these are details, the rest is really good regarding the keyboard. Although one missing shortcut on the keyboard, is sound up and sound down. Not even there as function keys. There is an actual button on top right of keyboard for yes/no sound. But so far I had to go to the speaker button on taskbar to bring the sound up and down, which is really anoying while watching a full screen movie. Maybe you guys know of a trick.

There's nothing much to say about the ports, you know what they look like from the pics on the Sager website. I really appreciate the fact that there is a VGA port, though. That mean I can use this with old projectors through the good old VGA cable as well as doing some nice HDTV through the HDMI port.

I connect through wifi, and either it's because of the Ultimate network card or Windows 7 vs Vista, or system speed, or something else, but I actually get higher download/upload speed reading on this machine than on my Lenovo T400, from the same location in my house.

The touchpad is really comfy, with a soft matte touch. Each right and left click buttons are easy enough to press while not too sensitive so as to avoid pressing them by mistake. I have not yet explored all thefeatures of the touchpad, but I find that the scrool up/down and right left are not enough limited to the very side of the touchpad. Meaning I sometime think I am going to move the pointing device, but because my finger is too close to the edge, it srolls down or right instead. I have to find out if I can reduce the area that detects the scroll function. Otherwise, the touchpad is really roomy and does not irritate the skin or anything, not leave any fingerprint, even with greasy fingers. Same for the entire unit, by the way: this is a machine that remains clean at all time. I cannot detect a single fingerprint, aside from the top of the screen which i have to grab to open the unit.

The one big issue I have with this unit is heat and the swoosh fan noise. I am not sure if this is typical for the NP71110 with my specs or if I have a specially hot unit. Do not mistake me: I am not saying the unit itself feels hot. It does not feel hot at all. Which is actually surprising. The keyboard and palm rest area stay cool at all time. But on the left side of the unit, where the left vent is, the air that comes out of that is so freaking blazing hot when the nVidia GPU is on, that I cannot even rest my left hand on the desk next to the unit. It's too hot. That brings me to the Optimus. Great feature. But it seems, on my unit, that once Optimus is on and the NVidia has been put to use, even for a little while, the the CPU fan starts running heavy. Even if Optimus passes back to Integrated GPU, the fan remains on. If Optimus keeps me on the NVidia because of video or graphics workload, then I get a double whammy with both the CPU fan and the GPU fan. That's when the hot metal-melting air comes out of the left. I don't have much qualm with that, as when I do heavy graphics workload, I am expecting a strong cooling fan and all. But I don't understand why the Optimus, if it passes you back to integrated GPU, (or if you force it to by pressing the Optimus button so that you get the green light - which means integrated GPU only), still keeps the fans running forever.

If you're on battery (and I have not tested yet the battery to it's maximum so I cannot answer yet the questions about battery life), then the GPU fans do not come up, and you've got the most silent unit in the universe. So maybe I need to find a way to underclick my CPU when not doing heavy graphics, so that the unit is slient then. And ramp up the clock when doing heavy graphics so as to benefiot from its full power, even if I have to deal with the noise.

I reached out to Xoticpc about the fan noise issue, and while it took them 3 days to respond (because of the labor day week end I presume) they told me to eventually contact Sager customer support. I am supposed to call Sager back tonight and run Hardware Monitor, to look at the temperature of the GPU and CPUs, to see if there is an issue with my unit specifically or if it is something that needs tobe changed.

In conclusion I am so happy with this unit, it would be a real bummer to return it. But if I can fix the fan swoosh noise issue, then it's beside the point of having such an expensive $2.5K unit. If I can fix the fan noise issue, and reduce either the fan noise to s amller noise, or the amount of time the fan is on, then I'll have the perfect unit.

I hope this review helps, although I understand there is no technical info in it in term of the benchmarking and so on.

 

I just ran the Hardware Monitor and here are my temps. Can someone let me know how that compares to other notebooks with different CPUs. I'd especially like to know if the NP7110 has different temperature readings with the i5 CPU. Might be a cause for downgrading.

The bizarre thing is that after I ran a test of running an HD clip on Windows Media Player in a loop and a Netflix movie, both at the same time, the Optimus thing started to get a bit crazy. The thing switched on-off from NVidia to Integrated Intel GPU every second. Every second, the green light came off and the orange light came on, and then the orange light came off and the green one came on. And so on and so forth. Maybe it's an Optimus or driver bug (when I looked in the device manager, Windows told me afer searching online that I have the most updated driver).

I would love for someone familiar with the Optimus technology to help, here. Once I managed to stop it by pressing the optimus button so as to force Integrated Intel over NVidia, it stoped.

But the CPU fan did not. Even after I left the machine iddle for 30 minutes, with not a single application opened, the CPU fan was still on.

 

i'm not too familiar with what temps are too hot or not, but I don't think those are very hot, in fact I believe they're quite cool. Also, getting an i5 should not make things any cooler, as the power consumption of the i7-620 is the same as the i5, at least on paper, as both those are dual core chips, not quad core like the i7-720 etc. Keep us posted about whether you return the unit of not. And thanks for the informative review.

 

Hi all,

So i cracked and got the NP7110. It was between that and the Lenovo y560. The price vs screen size/res was the issue at hand. But screen size/res won the day... screw it

Here is my set up, its basic cept with teh 3 yr xotic warranty since i hear bad things bout sagers tech support:

1 x Sager NP7110 (Built on Clevo B7110M) () = $958.00
Current Promotion Student Promotions! Ask us about our Cash Discounts or FREE Promotional Items & Accessory Bundles for Students - Up to 50% OFF! - Student Verification Required for Promotion
Display 17.3" FHD 16:9 "Glare Type" Super Clear Ultra Bright LED Glossy Screen (1920x1080)-
Dead Pixel Policy Standard Dead Pixel Policy
Processor Intel® Core™ i5-450M, 2.4-2.67GHz, (3MB L3)
Thermal Compound Stock Thermal Compound-
Graphics Video Card nVidia GT 330M 1024MB PCI-Express GDDR3 DX10 with Optimus™ Technology
External Monitor Video Adapter No Video Adapter
Ram ~ 4,096MB DDR3 1066MHz Dual Channel Memory (2 SODIMMS) (Requires 64-Bit to utilize Full 4GB)
Exterior Finish Standard Finish
Optical Drive ~Combo 8x8x6x4x Dual Layer DVD +/-R/RW 5x DVD-RAM 24x CD-R/RW Drive w/Softwares
Primary Hard Drive ~ 320GB 7200RPM (Serial-ATA II 300 - 16MB Cache) - Default
External Hard Drive (Back Up) No Back Up Hard Drive
Back Up Software No Back Up Software
Floppy Drive No Floppy Drive
Memory Card Reader Internal 3-in-1 Card Reader (SD/MMC/MS)
Bluetooth Internal Bluetooth + EDR
Wireless Network Built-in 802.11 Wireless B/G/N - Stock Wireless Card
Wireless Network Accessories No Network Accessory
Camera Built in 1.3Megapixel Camera
TV Tuner No TV Tuner
Sound Card Sound Blaster Compatible 3D Audio - Included
Case No Carrying Case
Battery NO Spare Battery
Car Adapter No Car Adapter
Spare AC Adapter None Standard*
Port Replicator / Dock / Adapters No Dock/Hub/Adapter
Fingerprint Reader No Fingerprint Reader
Mouse / Keyboard Accessories No External Keyboard or Mouse
Notebook Cooler No Notebook Cooler
Operating System No Operating System Standard - Drivers & Utility Software Only
Microsoft Office Software No Office Software
Software Bundle (Not Installed) No Software Bundle
Warranty 3 Year Labor 1 Year Parts, Lifetime XOTIC PC 24/7 Toll Free Telephone Tech Support
Xotic Gear No Xotic PC Gear



Ill update this with a review in a few weeks. Hopefully all goes well

 

I've had mine for 2 weeks now and generally like it a lot. My biggest complaint is a sticky pixel. Also my #2 core is always 8 or so degrees hotter than my #0 core. Is that normal (I have the i5 540)

 

what is your battery life? And with which battery? Any complaints about fan being loud, any other weird noises, is the fan on all the time? How is graphics switching?

 

I got a full movie out of the battery. So I would say just about two hours. I actually sent the unit to Sager for them to look at 1- the fan noise, as i find that the CPU fan is too loud and comes too often and 2- an issue with Optimus, which seems to switch back and forth from integrated to accelerated when certain applications are open. I will let you know when I hear from Sager, who by the way were great and very responsive on the phone and regarding shipping the unit to them for support.

 

So I returned the unit to Sager support regarding the fan and the Optimus issue. I was told that is the way the unit is supposed to behave. The fans are set to start at 40C and the unit once reached that level does not go under, so the fans are thus always on. I am returning the unit to the vendor. I'm now shopping for something else, more quiet.

 

I haven't timed the battery life, but I'm sure it's 1.5 hours or more even with moderate graphics usage.

I have no issues with fan noise, but perhaps that is because I'm using the i550 which is maybe cooler? No other weird noises to report. The fan is definitely not on all the time. I do notice it when it comes on, but generally after a quick burst it throttles down a gear and isn't that loud.

I was led to believe that the graphics switching was automatic and happens behind the scenes, but I have a button that says VGA on it. Presumably that is what does the graphic switching. I have not experimented with it enough to give you any useful info.

 

So, even though it's only been out a few months, the 7110 looks like it's already gone and been replaced by 7130...

 

Yes, however the only real difference is the 7130 has an upgraded video card, the 425M, which is a nice upgrade. These updates happen from time to time...

________________________________________________

 

In case you were not able to download the new user manual for the NP7130, see the below link...

Sager NP7130 Owners Manual

______________________________________________________________________

 

I attempted to order the 7130 yesterday from xoticpc, but today was told that it's now on backorder till early November...

 

Yes it is backorder till the end of this month or the first part of November...

_______________________

 

Well, Xoticpc just told me Tuesday that now sager says that they have confirmed production for my 7130 order. So first they canceled my order, because it's on backorder, but now they are saying that Sager told them that actually the can fill my order and it is currently in "phase 2" again...
So fingers crossed..

*so also, maybe the thread title could be changed to NP7110/7130 owner's lounge?

 

Well, i just got my 7130 a few days ago. I really want to like it, but there are some really annoying problems with the optimus. When it's plugged into VGA on the hi power setting, the screen flickers like crazy, but goes away if I put it on uma mode or if I unplug the power cord.
When streaming full screen youtube or hulu, any of the text on screen or menu bars constantly flicker-- like when you move the mouse to the bottom of the screen and the menu bar pops up, it's real hard to see because of the flickering, and subtitled hulu videos are completely unreadable. But when i put it on uma(integrated only) mode, all those problems go away, except then the video is choppy...
Oh, that and of course can't play bad company 2 b/c of punkbuster's optimus ban...

Anyone else have similar issues?/any solutions?

 

^^^^^For a NP7130 what you might try is to uninstall and reinstall the Intel and nVidia VGA drivers. The latest are below...

CLEVO Driver Download

____

 

thanks very much, will try that and see if it helps.

 

Well, I tried the drivers on that page. Did not change anything other than now I can play full screen youtube videos in chorme-- previously i was having a problem where it wouldn't go full screen when u press the full screen button, it would just expand but still be in a window.
Actually, the drivers on that page after I put them in I see are a few weeks older than the drivers that came on my 7130(by the driver date)

Other than the optimus problems and the 1 stuck pixel I have, it's really an awesome computer. Light, good looking w/ no cheap shiny plastic, very solid feeling keyboard that's great to type on, nice 1080 screen, and a left palm rest that stays relatively cool while playing games (the sole reason I bought this over an envy 17)

 

^^^^I think in time when the drivers mature (newer updated ones) the optimus problems and other issues will be fixed, at least to good degree...
__

 

The service manuals for these models have now been added to my list

 

Is there anyone with a 7130 that has tried streaming 1080p videos on the igpu? I have tried all the drivers that I could get to work on my 7130, both the latest sager/clevo drivers and some modded ones, but no matter what I try, 720p+ and up streaming video is too choppy to watch. I know that the intel hd graphics should be able to handle it though, so I can't figure out what is wrong.

 

I have just placed an order with xoticpc for NP7130. ETA for them not me is December 10th.

This is quiet depressing to hear that in order to watch HD streaming video you got to turn on Nvidia card...so much for saving power.

 

I received my NP7130 on Dec 17. Busy installing the drivers. Haven't played any games yet. Trying to get the VGA button to work on the fly but no luck so far. Battery wont show the time remaining...just percentage left.

 

VGA button requires Hotkey (from the drivers CD) to be installed and turned on.

Battery time remaining is a Windows feature; try pressing WINDOWS_KEY + X. If that doesn't work you may need a 3rd party program.

 

I have the hotkey driver installed and i do believe it is latest. Proof: All other hotkey buttons such as camera on off and mute volume work. But the VGA doesn't. I read somewhere that this button might depend on the type of display driver.
Windows key X just shows the battery console. I do believe this time remaining is also dependent on some sort of on board sensor/driver representing battery. I have WIN 7 64 bit. Windows are updated with everything available.

Here is a list of problems that i have:
1. On system startup a message... "system needs to be restarted again. Make sure all driver is installed". I quoted this message as is YES it says All Driver IS....
I have no undetected unrecognized devices under device manager and yet this message.
2. Intel HD Sound card does not Support Microphone boost. This machine uses a modified combo of intel HD/Realtek. None of the drivers support a MIC Boost feature under recording devices...(gaining DB)
3. Nvidia control panel latest driver 259.70: It wont show the option that says DISPLAY...to adjust SCALING. Forget scaling....this option should be under the 3D settings, Video and Display....but no Display option and hence no Scaling option.
I believe heres the problem: Primary display for desktop is Intel. Hence GT425m wont let you adjust any options related to the Desktop Display. This results in inability to adjust scaling so games such as COD4 can be played on any resolution with stretched image SCALED.
PS: Can't install official WHQL certified Nvidia driver 260.99 latest for 400M series card....says incompatible hardware...I am sure it has something to do with modified Hybrid Intel/Nvidia Combo. Cant install Laptopvideo2go drivers either....even with modified .INF file. Same message incompatible hardware.
4.VGA Button for Discrete dGPU/iGPU Integrated GPU does not work.
5. Battery time remaining Missing....Wont show on system tray and wont show under any window Gadgets.

 

For me, the VGA button only works if hotkey is running, there is a system tray icon for it and if the icon isn't there then the VGA button won't work. If hotkey isn't running and there isn't a system tray icon, I can still use the other hotkeys, like mute and webcam.

I've had my np7130 for almost a month and a half and so far it's perfect, the clear bright screen, speed... The only upgrade was to a bigger drive. It seems very sturdy, but I don't move it much.

I couldn't get the webcam to work with skype, to get it to work I'm using manycam with skype, but the camera does work with google video chat. The camera seems adequate to me, but I'm not expecting much.

Optimus seems to work well. I'm getting around 6500 in 3dmark06 and p815 in 3dmark11 with the dGPU.

I had them install windows and the drivers for me. I found that the speakers were really quiet and I couldn't get them to get any louder. They didn't install the sound deck, so I didn't have a mixer. I used the driver/utilities disk and installed the audio and the sound deck was installed and I was able to get the speakers to get louder. The default microphone level was only around 25%, I have it at 95% now and everyone has been able to hear me.

It seems that the cpu fan goes on if the cpu gets above 40 then it goes off when it goes below 30 and stays off until it gets up to 40. It's generally very quiet, it only takes a couple of minutes to get below 30.

I get the choppy progress bar in youtube in full screen with the dGPU using chrome as well, but if I change to the iGPU it's good.

 

Ok i checked. My hotkey icon is not running in the system tray. Can you tell me which version of hotkey are you running. It says i have 3.30007 installed. Yet online under 7130 drivers it says 3.30005. If you have 3.30007 installed do you know the link to it? When i double click on hotkey in control panel to repair it, shows the path....where the assemblers of 7130 installed it from the default path.....so odd it says c\drivers\np5125\3.30007. When i go online under NP5125 it has an older version of hotkey.

Do you have a battery time remaining?
So you are saying that this sound card does support Mixer....like realtek Mixing devices with advance options? I will check the CD for the mixer option.

 

Ok i was able to fix the VGA button. Thank you Rubberduck. Now can you please give me some info on this Mixer installation.
Thanks again...reps to you.
Edit: I was able to download latest driver from Clevo website and not Sager's. It has detected the Audio device as a VIA chipset. And i have the Via Sound Deck with mic boost and all the options. Thanks again man.

Will you please look at my point 3 for scaling? Any ideas on that?

 

Sounds good, I just rechecked what I did to get the Sound Deck, I used the Drivers/Utilities disk and reinstalled the audio driver.

Did that fix your microphone issue?

I don't really play games on the laptop, I got it just in case I was traveling and wanted to game, so I don't know about your scaling problem. The only thing I saw that you probably saw also is, right click on desktop, choose graphics options, panel fit, scale full screen, but that's probably only for the iGPU.

As for my battery, when I first got the laptop almost two months ago, it's been plugged in 99.9% of the time, and putting it to sleep when it's not in use. I've depleted the battery once to see how long it lasts. Using CPUID, it says my wear level is only 2%.

I just installed BatteryBar and it gives me the time remaining, the site says it becomes more accurate over time, have you had any problems with it?

Good to hear that you got some of your issues resolved.

 

yes, the microphone issue is fixed. Now i do have MIC Boost option where it is supposed to be. I will search for battery bar. But the default system/windows battery icon itself should show time remaining as well.

 

I just ordered one of these from xoticpc, however I'm a linux only user and I'm trying to figure out how the optimus is going to work. Can anyone please let me know what, if any, options are on the BIOS related to the video card?

 

Here's the bad news when it comes to linux.

Currently (and maybe forever) NVIDIA is not supporting optimus on linux. So the best you can do is to go into the BIOS and disable the discreet card so that it uses the iGPU only. If you leave them both enabled, then the system will only be able to properly use the iGPU even though the dGPU (NVIDIA) will be detected, any time you try to switch over to it, it will either not work, or hose up your linux install, and you will still have the dGPU powered up sucking down battery not doing much of anything. As the way these are setup is everything flows through the iGPU's framebuffer, so in windows the drivers basically render a frame on the dGPU and then copy it to the iGPU for display. The driver does this using some interesting memory tricks that are only exposed in Windows 7, so until NVIDIA comes out with some Optimus supporting linux drivers (don't hold your breath there), then the NVIDIA graphics is basically windows only.