*** Official Clevo P177SM-P170SM / Sager NP8290-8270 Owner's Lounge ***

Hi Guys,

I am about to get this notebook with a i7 4710MQ (2.6GHz) cpu and GTX 970M (6GB) video card.
Is there a point to spend more money and upgrade CPU or GPU? The prices are quite high...

Thanks your advise!

 

If you are using the computer for gaming, you probably won't need to upgrade the CPU (at least for a while). The GPU would generally be a bottleneck on performance before the CPU would be.

Right now, with only a 980m that would be a step up in performance, I'm not sure if it would be worth it to upgrade. In the future though, if the performance isn't quite what you want, then you could check and see what graphics cards are available. If it makes sense to upgrade the graphics card to you and your wallet, compared to buying a new system, then go for it.

Should be good to go for a while with that combination of CPU / GPU though, but I suppose it would depend on what you are using it for.

 

Well i am not planning to upgrade the whole system, because just did that from an older Clevo. (P170HM with GTX680M)
Mainly i use the machine for photo/video/sound editing and gaming as well, so basically for everything.
I could manage to get descent frame rates with my old machine, but a few games were little bit slow in higher settings. (Like Doom or Rise of Tomb Raider..)
The GTX980M is very expensive (cost almost like my whole system upgrade) so might change the CPU only.
What is the best budget/performance option from 4710MQ ?

 

A 4800/4810MQ is a decent step up in performance. Once you start looking at the 49xx processors, those can be quite a bit more expensive though.

 

The 970M is as very strong card. I have them in old Alienware M15x's and they work really well with the 1st gen i7-920XM CPUs. The i7-4710MQ beats the first gen extreme processor so I think you will be pretty happy with it.

 

Mxm gpus do hold a big premium for the top card usually. The step down is far more reasonable.

 

I have the same specs in my laptop (which I use for gaming), the 970M is still a strong card and it will be fine for a while.

I also flashed Prema BIOS and vBIOS MOD on my Clevo, this card can stand overclock really well, I never get more than 70-75 degree while gaming.

Sent from my HTC 10 using Tapatalk

 

:It can be fun to play with overclocking, just be careful if you decide to go down that route

 

Hi Guys,

I got my "new" Clevo P177SM notebook and have to say i am impressed (after my old one, P170HM with GTX680M and 2860QM 2.5GHz)
I could play Doom with my old machine at medium settings, occasionally with slower frame rates, but with the new notebook i play at "high" and get frames between 30-60 fps. Just restarted the game and never had any slow downs, even during the toughest monster attacks. This GTX970M rocks!
I might upgrade the CPU (4710MQ), but quite happy with the performance so far. Rise of the Tomb Raider is also plays smooth at "high" and looks beautiful!

Really cool machine. I liked my old Clevo, but now felt in love with this new one!

 

The 4710 can still be tweaked. It was popular to add the 200Mhz overclock it allowed and then undervolt it.

 

Just an another question:

Did you have problems with the Sound Blaster sound card (Sound Blaster X-Fi MB3) on this Clevo P177SM?
I have an external sound card, so it's not a bit issue... There is sound and everything seems fine, but the Sound Blaster's control panel doesn't really work. It starts, but i am not able to use any sliders or buttons.
Also don't really get what's the actual sound card in this machine. Is it a Realtek one or Sound Blaster X-fi? I have both showing in my windows settings for some kind of reason...

Thanks guys!

 

While a different sound card is the default the sound blaster settings can't be used.

 

I have a problem with a used P170SM i just bought. upon booting the laptop will enter a boot loop which can take up to 2 minutes, after loading up it will work perfectly fine including going to sleep mode. no bsod accurs and it works fine under heavy load of gaming etc... If I reboot same thing, boot loop until successful boot.
Already tried a different power supply and battery.
Any help would be appreciated

 

Can you post a video to describe the exact behaviour?

 

I have uploaded a small video:
https://vid.me/B4Wz

Something I noticed is the pc works on battery after a successful boot with charger, but if I do a complete reboot only on battery it will only cycle once and stop...

update, on battery, if I keep the power button pressed it will still boot cycle and eventually work

 

What memory is in it? Have you tried seeing if a single stick behaves normally?

 

I have a question I have been hunting an answer for, for awhile. What all is needed to change my p170sma to an amd GPU from Nvidia?

I'm pretty sure they use the same heatsink. I would just need an amd specific bracket and screws to the reused heatsink?

This machine has killed 2 Nvidia cards with no new ones in sight I'd like to try an m290x that is about $150 cheaper then buying another, could be faulty again in 3 months, no warranty, 970m.

 

The card would need it's own clevo scew threaded x-bracket and a heatsink. I think the AMD cards should work in the chassis, @Prema might be able to confirm.

 

If it's killed multiple cards it may not be the cards themselves, and may have the same problem with an AMD card. That said, if you can get the right mounting hardware it should at least fit. Might need a new vbios though.

 

I actually got it from you guys. My 880m died just outside of the warranty and my 970m is limping along with a very strange issue. It just seems tdp capped to 25% or so and is no longer detected in new installs of windows. I can imagine it approaching the price of a new card just to send it in and get it looked at and sent back to me.

 

Depending on where it is shipped from, just shipping cost to look at it

 

hey,
Just managed to open the laptop after having a stripped screw.
Tried switching slots, leaving one stick, and nothing, still the same result.
The PC runs beautiful ones booted, played the new bf1 beta for hours and not a single hickup...
what could it be? it drives me crazy :/

p.s
Thanks for the help

 

Just a recap of my problem. I dont know if I should keep using this laptop or just sell for parts.

 

Any new / used GPU upgrades for this beast anymore? I've got the 8970m 4gb gpu, and wanted to know if there's anything better today.

 

The 980m is the best chip for it.

 

I wish someone would release at least one more MXM upgrade, for all those that invested. I know the new 10 series wouldn't fit, but they could give us a 990m...or something along those lines at least.


On another note; Anyone have any recommendations for overclocking the 970M 6GB? I've got the Prema BIOS and VBIOS, and I've done a 200 MHZ Core and 450 MHZ overclock so far. Temps just under 70c. On Youtube some guy got a 450 MHZ core increase, but doesn't mention if he's under/over volted it.

Curious what others might have gotten

 

Bit of a different angle to the usual questions here, but I've installed CloudReady Chrome OS on my P170SM (for reasons). However my GPU fan and backlit keyboard are always on when I'm in Chrome OS. Is there a way to turn them off, maybe in the bios? I have Prema Bios atm. I've looked around there but maybe I've missed something.

 

So does it happen when you load the OS?

 

It's always on during boot too, if that's what you mean.

 

That sounds like a different issue than the OS then and maybe there is a hardware issue.

 

Hey guys.

Went for a country trip with laptop in bag and it switched on itself inside my bag for about 2 hours. It was super hot when I took it out.

Anyway, been playing games on it for quite a few hours for a few days but last night it just randomly switched off.

I suspected it was overheating so I installed a monitor app and temps on the CPU were hitting 96c and GPU about 87c.

I never remember them being that high before. Any tips?

I have the 4710MQ with the GTX 970M

 

On further inspection, it appears as though the fan may be damaged? As it's blowing out alot more air on the right side of the laptop.

The left side of the laptop sits the CPU right?

Pretty simple fix in that case? Just open it up and put a new fan in there?

 

If it's the fan yes the swap out is easy. Hook it up to a monitor and run it upside down with the back off to best monitor how it behaves.

 

Ok awesome.

What thermal paste would you recommend if I need a repaste? (I'm guessing it definitely needs to be repasted)

 

For this machine IC diamond.

 

NP8290, 3.5 yrs old, Overheated 780M... burnt it...dead

I can pull the GPU out and system starts with iGPU, but it beeps (and caps,num,scroll LCK flash) for about 30 seconds then shuts down.

PREMA BIOS

Anyway to boot this with ONLY iGPU and have it *stay* running without beeping?
While I have replacement GPU shipped.

What I've done with 780M removed:
Changed BIOS settings >>
Advanced | switchable Graphics | dGPU Power | Off
Chipset | Graphics config | dGPU | Disabled

Any other ideas?

 

No, the EC needs the signal from the GPU.

 

Not what I wanted to hear, but thank you!

 

Mornin all,

Just got the latest Windows 10 update (lucky me NOT).
And now half the games I was playing yesterday I cannot play.
My graphics driver keeps crashing telling me to upgrade my driver.
The problem is, I have a modified driver for this laptop because I purchased an upgraded video card.

I unfortunately have had NO luck updating the newest driver for myself. I have reinstalled the previous driver without "device driver signing" with no luck, also.
I have also restored the previous version of Windows 10, with no luck.

I was wondering if anyone has an upgraded driver for this laptop with a 980M installed.
I'm pretty adept at computers and can supply any information needed.
Up until yesterday I was running a modified NVidia v361.75

I'm running a "NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M"
From my device manager: DEV_13D7&SUBSYS_71041558

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

 

I would roll back the update if you can, did you choose to install it or did it do it itself?

 

Windows ran the update in the middle of the night. I thought I had turned auto-updates off.
I have rolled back the update but I still have the same issue.

I have reinstalled the driver multiple times.
I have uninstalled the driver in Safe Mode with Display Driver Uninstaller and reinstalled without driver signing.

Older games will work, Skyrim, GW2 and such...
Newer games throw an error/crash immediately, Elder Scrolls Online, Overwatch, Fallout 4...

ALL of these I was able to play the day before of course.

Overwatch is the only one that gives me an error code (I can post that later). And a general message to update my drivers. I suspect the windows update deleted some necessary file but I cannot find it. I went through the error logs for the windows update this morning and found "Cannot verify hash on: nvpciflt.sys" file... I searched in my system32/drivers directory for said file and it wasn't there. I found it in my NVIDIA install directory as nvpciflt.sy_ ... copy/paste/rename/reboot... to no avail. Does it need to be registered? Should I copy/paste/rename all the *.sy_ files (if there are more, I don't recall)?

I am unsure if an updated modified driver would work, but I figure it's worth a shot.
I tried downloading the latest from NVIDIA and modding it. Copied the line from my previously working driver and found the approximate location in the new *.inf file to paste... Yelled at me that there was no supported hardware when I went to install.

Any more suggestions?

 

Thank you Macrium Reflect!
Restored a backup, a little older than I would like, but it worked!
I am back up and running.
I knew there was a reason for multiple partitions and moving the UserDocs to another drive... Minimal loss.

Thank you Meaker for your suggestion... and time.
Although, it didn't work it reminded me of my random backups of my primary drive.

Lessons learned: Dont let windows auto-update (EVER!!!) and take, at least, monthly backups of the primary drive.

 

Recently bought this laptop off of a friend for $200. It has the gtx 860m 4GB gpu and I am looking for an upgrade to get just a bit more fps in my games
Any advice on places to look for these cards and which card I should upgrade to? Saw a 780m for just above 200 on ebay. Worth it to go to that card for the performance gain and fair price though going a generation back?

 

The 980M is the latest official option and 1060 the easiest non official option.

 

Hi Guys,

I have posted a thread, but ask you as well, hope someone will able to help me out.

So i would like to use G-Sync on an my external Acer monitor (ACER XB27OH) with my Clevo P170SM-A notebook. It is connected via displayport and my videocard is a GTX970M.

How can i enable G-Sync if that's possible...?
There is no option in the Nvidia control panel, but it should be. I have been told that's because the notebook uses intel HD card normally...

Can i force use the GTX970M card somehow?
Is there a BIOS update?

Cheers!

 

As explained in the other thread, sadly it's simply physically impossible on this machine.

 

Does anyone know why my headphone and microphone jack aren't working?

I've installed the realtek driver on the metabox website, + the headphone jack makes a distortion noise when you plug a speaker in initially which makes me think the jacks are powered at least.

Maybe there is something i forgot to install?

Been scratching my head for way to long on this, if anyone can help that would be muchly appreaciated

 

Do the adjacent jacks and USB port work OK? They're all on the same PCB separate from the mobo, connected by a cable. If all ports on that board are affected, it's likely the board or cable that's the problem.

 

the usb port next it doesnt work. I can still use it to charge my phone though, it just has no connection to the pc itself.
It seems like the jacks/usb have power but dont interact with the computer.
It sounds like a software problem, or ar least i think :/

 

It could be the cable is not seated fully or is partially damaged.