*** Official Clevo P950HP6/Sager NP8950 Owner's Lounge ***

So, just curious how loud is the noise on this laptop?

 

With an sound analysis app on my Honor 8, this is what I'm getting (with the phone mic jammed as close as it can get to the right/CPU side fan) while the laptop is running on my Coolermaster U2 "passive" cooler/stand (fans died, so just using the metal stand bit now, hence no sound from those).



20dba while idling (downloading Steam game in the background), 45-ish dba when I forced the fans to max (with everything else in the room turned off, mind you).

So yeah, that's about the entire envelope as far as fan noise is concerned.

However it's just a phone app so it might not be all that accurate, though it should be enough to give you a rough idea of how the fans sound like.

 

Quick question, can an improperly working AC adapter cause (or at least be the catalyst behind) the whole Disco Time thing? Is it even possible or is it just me being paranoid?

I'm asking because besides my stock Chicony A15-180P1A, I also do have a Asus ADP-180MB that I got as a spare and I'm not entirely sure if it's not in any way connected to the drama I've been through in the past few weeks. For one thing I did use the ADP-180MB a few times prior to "Disco Time".

If it is possible that the AC is at fault (or is connected to the whole shebang), then it's probably safer if I were to just chuck the ADP-180MB into the bin and get myself some spare Chiconys instead... though the A15 can be quite pricey on the Bay (like mostly 50% pricier then the ADP-180MB), though the slightly bigger and cheaper Chic A12-180 with roughly similar specs also seems to work fine when I tested one on my P950HR while at the local Clevo place.

If it's NOT possible (and the whole idea is bonkers to begin with), then I can probably return to using the ADP-180MB and save myself some cash (from having to get YET another spare AC adapter).

So yeah, can a malfunctioning AC adapter short enough stuff to cause Disco Time? Or is it just statistically impossible and it was just a matter of coincidence?

Inquiring minds need to know...

 

It would likely kill other parts as the input is filtered before reaching the back light driver. However with power supplies you can get weird errors some times.

 

It's those "weird errors" that I was afraid of TBH.

I'm not intimately versed in the inner workings of a laptop's electrical supply chain, but I'd think that if something shorts out at the AC connector for some unknown reason, it's pretty plausible that stuff around it (conveniently all located around that top right of the keyboard area that was so pivotal to the whole Disco Incident) could be effected to some degree, the display parts included.

Though that's more of a rough assumption than anything concrete at this point.

Sigh. At the rate things are going I'm thinking that simply getting another Chicony A15 (or A12) off the 'Bay is gonna be a lot less painful rather then spending time trying to figure out whether or not this particular ADP-180MB that I have is "safe" for use lol.

Especially now that I have FINALLY gotten what seems to be a decently working, non-epileptic P950HR lol.

BTW, is the Delta ADP-180MB K REALLY the same thing as the Asus but in a different shell? Found a few on the Bay for cheap and have seen that, connector-wise, they should fit the P950 series fine.

Now wondering if I should go for the Deltas instead of more Chics.

 

Anyway, just gonna share that I've (finally) completed my somewhat in-depth (though not of Notebookcheck's level) review of my particular P950HR unit: https://goo.gl/yutywn

Just in case it might be useful to anybody, especially for those looking for a review on an FHD IPS screened P950HR as a review on those are pretty lacking on the Internet.

 

BTW, while we're really no closer to unreveling the whole "Disco Time" mystery from the day it began, I think I've gotten some new hints today due to the discovery of something new (though I'm not entirely sure if they're related in any way).

Apparently, pushing or pulling the lid to open/close it on ONE side (rather then the center), flexes the lid, which in turn blacks out the screen (for as long as the lid is flexing), in a manner that vaguely resembles Disco Time (flickering to black with traces of red and green)... even on my new P950HR.

Spoiler

See below for a rough illustration.


To be clear, it's EITHER pushing UP on the left frame OR pushing down on the right frame that I'm trying to illustrate here, both of which causes the screen blackout.

And again, THIS IS NOT A REPEAT OF DISCO TIME, where the screen, continuously repeats a series of blackouts (and thus, "flickers") on its own, without any external forces. This is something else, though from the blackouts that it does cause, it does look eerily related somehow.

And I'm actually not entirely sure if the flexing is effecting the flex cable or the inverter or the lid switch (or whatever else is in the orange corner) either, though it is a fact that the flexing, and consequent stress being funneled to that part IS causing the screen to black out.

So, now I'm wondering. Am I still the ONLY guy who this is happening to, or can some other P95x user concur that opening/closing the lid in the way stated above causes the screen to black out/go on the fritz for as long as pressure is applied on the points illustrated?

And thus, is it possible to make this issue (if it IS an issue) go away? Or is it just a weakness inherent to the P950 design (with its unfortunately flexible lid)? Or do I need to go back to my local Clevo guys (again) and tell them to do something (and if possible, what exactly needs to be done)? Or can I just open it up myself and do something?

Note that I am aware that opening/closing your laptop lid by the sides isn't exactly the best way of going about things, though the laptops I do have (and have had) around me seem to be not THAT susceptible to such flex issues, so this is catching me a tad off guard.

And that picture above? No I didn't open up my P950 lol, it's just a pic I managed to bump into somewhere on the net (with my notes added onto it).

EDIT: I finally figured out what was off wrong this time. It's most probably the eDP connector on the LCD panel itself, because touching the display frame right over the panel connector area (somewhere center between the left bottom edge of the display bezel and where folks normally put their internal logos) seems to trigger a blackout as well, and this is readily reproduced.

And if the internal photos of panels I've seen matches up to this one, that's pretty much where the eDP connector is.

Sigh. Some folks have all the luck, and some just don't. Hopefully my local guys are up for another RMA.

At this point I'm not sure if I should edit my review to reflect this... rather continuous string LCD related failures. I don't think anyone else has them (folks, do speak up if you do have LCD related issues), and I'd like to think that my folks are just saddled with a bad batch of P950s with bad LCDs in them.

 

Does the M.2 slot on the P950HR support non nvme drives? Eg one that is SATA, like the crucial MX300?

 

Yes it's SATA or NVME.

 

Thanks. I just ordered one and it only came with the 120Hz TN panel option. Would this be directly swappable for a 60Hz IPS (LG)?

 

The display connector is different IIRC but a 4k panel would fit I believe.

 

I'm getting a buzzing/squealing noise when I plug my headphones or earbuds into the headphone jack. However, I don't have this issue when I plug them into other devices. Is something wrong with my laptop? Plugging in my desktop powered speakers or my head set with mic and 3.5mm don't result in that noise though. Is something wrong with my headphone jack?

 

That happened to me once, but it went away. It usually happened when I was charging the laptop.

 

Laptops are an incredibly noisy environment for EMF, you will get some cross talk. Usually when you play audio a filter circuit should kick in to reduce background noise.

 

Hey guys, using the Clevo provided Synaptics touchpad drivers I don't get any touchpad settings as I would normally expect, so I cannot change the scrolling or gestures/sensitivity. Any idea what I should do/install?

 

Have you looked in the windows touchpad options?

 

-delete-

 

Just start typing touchpad into the search box if you are not sure where they are. With a precision enabled touchpad you should see gesture control there.

 

Thanks, turned out I had uninstalled the driver while looking at the touchpad settings in Windows, so I saw nothing. Now all the gesture stuff is there after installing the driver again. However I miss being able to scroll with a single finger on the edge of the pad... is this a thing of the past now? Can older drivers allow it?

 

Glad you got them back, as for single finger scrolling I don't think that's included. You could try experimenting with older drivers.

 

Hmm, I am having a strange issue with this laptop... just got a P950HR from Hidevolution and they have been great with the service, but it seems that the laptop is having memory issues with my Kingston HyperX Impact 16gb (2x8) 2133MHz RAM. I keep getting BSOD's that say MEMORY_MANAGEMENT and another one that says invalid heap allocation even when trying to install Windows 10. I went to Fry's today to grab a cheap 16GB 2400MHz RAM but that's not even getting past the black screen on boot. I will be returning that module tomorrow but I just placed an order for a G.Skill 32GB (2x16) 2400MHz set that I am really hoping will work.

I did read through the service manual and it says that the laptop supports 2400MHz DDR4. Does this mean it won't support 2133MHz? Also, I have made sure to disconnect the battery and and reset the CMOS before and after every hardware change I make.

 

2133mhz and 2400mhz are both part of the Intel spec and supported on all desktop ddr4 systems.

 

I had the same issue with mine. I ordered my P950HR with a single 4GB 2133 MHz RAM chip as I already had 2x8GB 2400 (Kingston HyperX Impact) ones. When I installed them, I kept getting blue screens, same as the ones you're getting. But for some reason not in safe mode, so I figured it was driver related. Many hours later I concluded one of the 2400 chips was faulty because it worked fine with the 4GB 2133 chip + the good 2400 chip, but not with the bad one. So I ordered another one (same brand). While waiting for it to arrive, I put the bad 2400 chip back into my old laptop... and it worked fine, which got me thinking that maybe the RAM isn't bad and that the P950HR motherboard might not be very friendly with Kingston chips?

To make things even more confusing, my new Kingston 2400 chip came in today and I've been running it the whole day with 2x8GB 2400 Kingston HyperX Impact chips without a single BSOD. And the old laptop is running fine with the "faulty" chip, which now I think probably isn't faulty at all.

This post might not really help you but I just thought I'd share. It just seems like the motherboard is sensitive to RAM chips??

Out of interest, what are the numbers for you on the Memory tab of CPU-Z? Like the timings and stuff for the RAM? If you can manage to get one before it BSODs...

 

Wow that's good to hear that it might not actually be my laptop that is broken...I'm going to try to test a new RAM module from Fry's tomorrow to see if it works. Hopefully it's just the motherboard that doesn't like the Kingston memory.

I can't open up CPU-z because I can't even install Windows without all sorts of BSOD's that point to bad memory, even with one stick.

One interesting thing now is that in BIOS I can only see one of my 8GB sticks....it doesn't even detect the other one in the second slot so if I have both sticks installed it will only detect 8GB. I really hope it's just my finicky RAM...

 

Good luck. I don't think it's specifically Kingston related cuz I'm using two Kingstons right now. At one point while switching RAMs with the old Kingstons (including the "faulty" one) it simply refused to even post.

Have you tried swapping the chip slots?

It's definitely just something finicky, but to avoid buying heaps of RAM chips to figure it out, may be worth just buying 2x8 Corsair chips instead and get it over with, as that's the only brand my reseller supplied with this laptop and I have a friend who has the same model and isn't having any RAM issues (using Corsair).

 

Try running with a single stick, swap out the memory module and the slot you are using. This will help narrow down if a slot or stick is faulty.

 

Yes, I've tested every stick independently and neither of them run without memory BSOD's. Maybe my Kingston 2133 sticks have too low timings? Not sure.

HIDevolution sells the laptop with G.Skill 2666 RAM, so I am hoping that the 2400 variant works as well. If not, I will try the Corsair sticks.

 

You might have just got unlucky but yes the replacements should be fine at 2400mhz.

 

Anyone get static noise through the headphone jack? Seems to be amplified when there is disk (or maybe CPU) activity.

 

Hello to all!

I'm wondering if i can replace the default screen ,,AUO B156HTN05.2,, with a newer one, like
AUO B156HAN04.5?

 

Yes that's normal.

 

That's annoying... never heard it on the P650 series. Anything that can be done to reduce it?

 

Does it reduce when playing audio?

 

Yeah it stops as soon as any audio gets played

 

Okay, so a little update on my unit and this might be helpful to potential builders who want to use their own RAM. My G.Skill 2400MHz 32GB (2x16GB) modules came in and they work with the laptop without any memory errors. However, my unit fails to detect any RAM in the second slot so I am in the middle of an RMA process with Hidevolution and waiting for a replacement unit while still using a single memory slot for now.

Essentially, my Kingston HyperX Impact 2133MHz 16GB (2x8GB) did not work with this unit even though they were working perfectly on my old unit. I was curious to see if it was the actual RAM that was faulty by testing it with another laptop with Memtest86 and they ran for 24 hours with no issue. I am not sure why some people got their 2133MHz RAM to work, but maybe it is helpful to know that the Kingston ones may or may not be compatible with this unit.

 

If a spot was not quite right it could be the cause, clocked at 2400mhz it may be failing to register at all but 2133mjz might have been nearly stable.

 

@djsubtronic

No, that is NOT normal. If you receive a unit which has a headphone jack which affected by this static problem return it back to the seller and ask for a replacement. The headphone jack is a part of the laptop that you use a lot and you should not have to live with all the hissing and squealing ruining your music. If you don't want to return it, consider using a usb c to 3.5mm headphone jack adaptor. The type c port outputs digital audio and is therefore not affected by electromagnetic interference.

 

Yes, it should work. Both screens use a 2 lane eDP connector. Follow the instructions on removing the screen bezel from the service manual (from Prema's website, see link below).

https://mega.nz/#!PEcFiKiY!VR24JkGf-9DbJoR8g-6mDz4OCcXDmjDvtHHNwVjsv-Y

 

As he stated during music the noise is cancelled by the active audio filters Low power settings keep these off when no audio is playing to save power.

 

No it's always there, I mean you hear it less because the audio is louder but it's still there.

 

I just started noticing it after updating the nVidia graphics drivers a few days ago. Never noticed it before, so perhaps it is related to that or a recent Windows update.

 

Have you tried disabling the powersaving feature in the Realtek Control panel?
Also, always make sure that in the Window audio devices the "PC Beep" is muted if you have that device, i think it comes disabled now.

 

Power saving is already disabled (I assume that off = when the checkbox is black) and PC Beep is muted. Doesn't seem to make a difference to the static.

 

The only thing that is making a difference is changing options in the Realtek Control Panel/ driver config page. The noise goes away completely for a second or two, then comes back. It is faint, but very annoying - like some impatient kid playing with the door buzzer. A continuous buzzing wouldn't be as intrusive.

 

Does this static occur while charging? Try disconnecting the charger, restarting and seeing if the problem goes away. If this doesn't work, use your phone to measure the magnetic field strength in the room you are in with the android app "Magnetic Field Detector". For reference, the room I'm in now has a magnetic field of 50 microteslas. If your reading is significantly higher (say 100 uT or above) this may be the reason why you are experiencing static. If you move to a place with less interference and the problem persists, you've likely got a faulty motherboard. If this is the case, RMA your laptop - this isn't a problem you should have to live with.

 

I have the static noise issue too that I posted about earlier in this thread. The noise was there even if it's charging or if it's running on battery. Is this a software issue or a hardware one? I've already sent the laptop back the day I received it to Prostar due to a keyboard issue that was fixed fast by them.

I noticed that when plugging in my desktop speakers that the static noise wasn't there. Using a headset that was a separate mic input also gave no static noise. However for ear buds or headphones, I did hear the static noise.

 

Getting ready to purchase a 8950/8952, but reading the reviews everyone was complaining about the fans running even when the CPU was extremely cool (sub 60C). They also said Sager/Clevo planned to fix it in a update. Does anyone know if that problem was ever fixed? I have a feeling it will bother me if it hasn't been fixed yet. Thanks

 

The fans have already been fixed if you have the latest Control Center downloaded. You can take it a step further and undervolt the cpu too. Otherwise, I barely hear the fan unless I'm using the graphics card or a second screen monitor.

 

Anyone know if it is OK to use the new Control Center from Clevo on an Eurocom Q5, or should I wait until Eurocom gets around to updating it?