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

On a different note, I'm extremely pleased with my new P950HR (purchased through a local Clevo reseller) and it hasn't been giving me any issues so far, except some weird multicolored flickering on the laptop screen sometimes when I hook it up to an external display through HDMI.

Otherwise I have it running with a -125mv Core/Cache/iGPU ThrottleStop undervolt (and a Grizzly Kryo repaste on GPU/CPU) and its been running pretty great so far, at least with the games I've been throwing at it (Wildlands, X-Com 2, Wolf 2, DOOM @ FHD). Temps haven't been too bad, and the fans weren't obscenely loud either.

Haven't had the chance to install Witcher 3 or more "serious" benchmarking tools yet though, maybe later.

Running light stuff, fans hasn't been too bad either so far (it isn't entirely Ultrabook quiet, but it's okay), but the 3-4ish hour battery life I'm currently getting even for WiFi net surfing with lights and stuff turned off feels pretty daft for a 15-incher, even one this thin (and powerful).

TBH, at least 5 hours would have been more palatable, but the fact that a cheap(-ish) 2TB SSHD fits inside (vs having to go the pocket bleeding 2TB M2 SSD route the Aero 15x requires for such storage caps) does help to lessen the pain by a tiny bit.

Not having ANY TB3 ports is still a bit sad though. I mean, I don't think I'll be needing them anytime soon but still, they MIGHT be useful later.

 

That extra bay space is the you pay with the smaller battery in the form factor.

 

I guess. That was part of the reason I opted for the P950 over an Aero 15X anyway (that and the "repeating keystrokes/ghosting" thing the 15X folks have been reporting lately) so was just being a tad wistful about the battery life lol.

I do hope that Seagate comes up with a 7mm 4TB laptop SSHD soon though. You can never have too much storage... but a 4TB pure SSD is still a tad on the extravagant side of things price-wise, at least for poor pauper me.

 

The fans really kick up when I hook my laptop to another display via HDMI. Is this normal?

 

IINM, the HDMI (heck, even the DPs) seems hard-wired to the 1060/1070 (rather than to the iGPU), hence turning external displays into instant battery killers/fan triggers due to them needing the dGPU turned on to even function.

Or at least that's what I've been led to believe, and I'm not sure if this is normal Optimus behaviour or if it's specific to the P950, because I haven't seen this happen on my older laptops (granted my previous Optimus lappy was a Haswell i7 + NV760 so things might have changed since then lol).

On the plus side, this configuration does allow us to Gsync on external displays (supposedly)... which is sort of a decent compensation IMHO.

 

Yes, this is done so features like G-sync can be supported on external displays.

 

I've got to wonder though, does the Type-C ports on the P950 support "Alternate Mode" (aka DP mode) as well and does it still pipe to external displays through the dGPU in this case?

I do have a whole bunch of Type-C dongles I got for my Lenovo Miix 510 (which requires them for external display output) if the Type-Cs actually pipes out through the iGPU (if they even support Alternate Mode in the first place).

Would be useful if I want to connect to projectors or something while retaining decent battery life... if it's even possible lol.

 

What's the difference between the P950HP6 and the P955HP6? The components are the same but only the case is different?

I saw it pop up on at laptoppartsforless

 

I guess that's what a 1060 equipped Origin Evo15-S (if there ever was one) would be called internally at Clevo (sans the Origin logo). Difference is mainly on the display lid.

In short:
P950xxx - Lighted wing thingy, blue default keyboard lights (Sager)
P955xxx - Plain lid no lights, no idea about the default KB lights (Origin minus the logo)
P957xxx - Red lighted tribal logo thingy with red vent trim, red default KB lights (Eurocom)

Substitute xxx with HP6 for the 1060 version, HR for the 1070MQ version and there's another variation for the Quadro version (I forgot the exact code lol).

BTW, any chance that anyone sells or can source the P957xxx back lid ONLY? And maybe the red back vent thingy as well (which seems like it's screwed on). I do like the P957 look though my local Clevo guys only offer the P950xxx. It would be cool if someone sells those parts and I can switch them out myself (or you know, ask my local guys to do it lol).

I mean, sure, even if the parts are available and I can switch them out my default keyboard lighting will still blue (vs the P957 red) but, meh, you can't have them all eh.

 

BTW, to answer my own question (in regards to the Type-C earlier), it seems that no, the Type-C doesn't seem to be able to do DP Alternate Mode.

No matter which Type-C HDMI dongle I tried, it refused to output video entirely so I'm thinking that the Type-C can't be used for external displays, unfortunately enough.

Or maybe I'm doing it wrong.

 

I like to see if it is possible to to upgrade my HD screen to a UHD screen. Is it just swapping the 30 pins cable for a 40 pins one? So if that is the case does anyone know if it is possible (and where) to get a 40 pins eDP cable for the Clevo P950(HR)?

 

By the way, my P950HR has actually been sent back to my local Clevo guys.

The screen had periods of weird unexplainable flickering and blacking out, with it periodically returning to normal state when I open/close the lid. Hooking it up to HDMI out worked fine during these periods, which was a tad ehhh.

Even funnier was that there were actually times that the screen was ABSOLUTELY perfect.

So yeah, can't wrap my head over what's happening really. Thinking The eDP connection is loose or buggered up for some unknown reason - but that doesn't explain the periods of it working fine. Or maybe some deep-set issue with the driver or something, if it wasn't the eDP.

And my P950HR was barely 8 days old too. I'm a very sad smurf at the moment.

 

Thanks for this - good to know.

A couple of comments about my Eurocom Q5 (P957HR).

1. Don't go by the weight published on the Eurocom website. They say 1.9 kg. It is actually 2.265 kg - 2.2 kg if you toss out the HDD.
2. This is not a laptop. It NEEDS to sit on a table so that air can get into the vents at the bottom. Place it on your bed and it will overheat, even while doing practically nothing. Watching a movie in bed? Make sure you put a tray or something similar underneath.
3. Has a 'solid' feel to it. Can't feel any flex while picking it up by one of the corners on the bottom.
4. Keyboard looks ugly. Works fine though. The WASD keys have an additional white border which makes the keyboard look even uglier.

Someone was asking about Witcher 3. Haven't played it yet, but the CPU crossed 90 C while installing it (with the fans set to maximum). This in a cold room, ambient about 20 C. Expect throttling in summer.

 

We have a customer with the exact same issues as you describe, but he has a P640HK1. So I guess this is software related? What does your supplier say?

 

It could be a bad port perhaps.

 

Anyone else can confirm the issues with the heath?

 

I'm trying to undervolt the CPU using ThrottleStop. Reading up on how to do it. Will post here when I actually start tweaking.

 

Well, they just got back to me and guess what... they can't replicate the issue at all lol, so they're calling me in for further testing. It's a tad funny that they can't conveniently sweep the whole thing under the rug as I do have video of the issue happening... and yet it's not happening while it's with them AT ALL.

But they did reseat the eDP (or so they said) as a preventive measure... and I did update the iGPU drivers (through Windows Update of all places lol) before sending it in so hopefully one of those two (or the combination of both) somehow fixed the whole thing.

If it didn't though, I probably got the world's first "haunted" P950HR.

Don't worry, it's not all that complicated once you read up completely and start. It's also massively helpful, at least for temps.

My own P950HR (when the screen was not trying to tempt me into disco dancing) ran Wildlands (probably the "heaviest" game I have considering I can't make it go above 60FPS at "mostly-ultra") without the CPU ever breaching 70°C. And this is with a -125mv undervolt on the CPU/iGPU (and the dGPU untouched).

(And yes, it did cross my mind that the disco dancing screen was actually caused by the undervolts, but it actually still happened even after turning those off so nope, wasn't the UV)

 

I tend to watch series in my bed so it would be important not to have any heath issues on minor load

 

Me too. To be fair, I've forced the video to play using the nVIDIA GPU (MPC with MadVR) in order to get better picture quality. However, the issue with videos is with bed coverings obstructing air flow. No issues at all if you have a plastic tray under the laptop.

Btw. if you haven't installed the Creative SoundBlaster software, I'm loving it. Only used the presets for games, movies and music, and they're all great.

 

You guys need this thing:



The Coolermaster U2 (well actually the U2 Plus but the fans are busted so it's technically "just" the U2 now). Metal, sturdy and should protect your P950 from any piece of furniture that might threaten it.

Also it slots neatly on the outside of the Asus Helios 300 laptop bag I'm carrying my P950 in (mind all the dirt/dust lol, the U2 is nearly 3 years old now lol). Looks like a laptop bag body armour jacket lol.



And I'm liking the SB software myself. For what amounts as gimmicky "audio enhancement" software, it actually works quite well for gaming and movies with the built in speakers.

 

Another thing to check out is nVIDIA's Whisper Mode for games. You have to download and install GeForce Experience, and then enable Whisper Mode in the settings, which will reduce the frame rate etc. in your games to keep fan noise within limits. You are supposed to be able to tweak this to get the playability set as per your preference.

 

I actually don't like GFE all that much lol. Feels like Razer Synapse to me, and sometimes it's wonky just the same.

I'd rather just tweak configs manually. Besides, I don't really mind fan noise while gaming lol. As long as it's reasonably quiet when I need it to be (low-med loads, movies, work and surfing) I'm plenty happy already.

But yeah, YMMV. Those are my priorities and everyone else might have other plans.

On another note, my P950HR is back (they weren't kidding about rushing it when I requested them to), and yeah after testing the thing for HOURS at the service center itself (nice of the guys to allow me to camp there for a bit lol), seems that the "Disco Display" has gone back to normal... for now. I put it though everything I could think of that might trigger the "flashy flashy screen" and nothing happened.

So, it seems that either updating the iGPU drivers or re-seating the eDP connector did the trick, at least for now... though I'm hopeful that it never happens again.

I'm thinking it might also have to do with the slightly broken extension plug (one of those multisocket ones) I'm using to power the notebook, so I got a brand new one just in case lol.

 

While tweaking manually will get a better specific result an adaptive method will work over a broader range of games without fiddling.

 

Well I can't argue against that, though I still don't trust GFE all that much TBH.

Also, call me old-fashioned, but I like to be able to count in one-and-a-half hands (well, one hand is probably asking too much) what's in my tray lol.

 

All I ask is that the hardware - or lack thereof - doesn't get in the way of my enjoyment of the game (or application). I'd rather be playing (or working) than tweaking. If GFE gives me a decent first step tweak, I'm okay with it. If I find a problem with the settings in a particular game, sure, I'll tweak further.

Btw. regarding the tray icons, you can customise which ones show and which get hidden. Most of those in my tray stay hidden until I need them.

 

I know an empty tray feels clean but if it is useful... You can shut down GFE when not in use I suppose.

 

Well, it's the hidden ones I'm talking about lol. I generally like to keep the hidden ones in a well managed matrix of around 9 icons.

The ones outside have already been pre-determined for ALL the machines I have: CPU temp (HWInfo64 in my M510, TS on the P950), the GPU-use indicator (if applicable), Sound, WiFi, Battery and MiniBin.

Yeah I can be a tad AR lol.

I'm actually quite aware that un-used RAM is wasted RAM lol, but coming from those ancient times where 1GB of RAM was PLENTY (well, I actually had a 8MB machine at one point, but it ran DOS and didn't have trays lol), let's just say it's a bad habit I picked up along the way lol.

But TBH, I have grown to make exceptions nowadays lol. The Sound Blaster app, the Clevo stuff, ThrottleStop and a few other things do stay in the tray because they have proven their usefulness.

Maybe one day I'll let GFE stay there too.

 

Is there some place I can download updated BIOS and EC firmware for my Eurocom Q5? I'm currently running 1.05.06 for both.

Also, a heads up - GFE told me there's a new driver from nVIDIA - 388.71. What with the holidays and all, I hadn't even looked. So that's a plus for GFE.

 

Damn that looks at least more up-to-date then mine lol. I'm on 1.05.03 (BIOS) and 1.05.02 (EC), but granted I'm on the P950hr Q5 = P957HR), and they might not run the same BIOS/EC.

But mine should be the same machine as the Sager NP8952, I wonder if Meaker@Sager would care to share the latest (if there is any updates beyond mine... and if it's even possible to share).

 

Yeah. This is my first Clevo/ Eurocom/ Sager type. Most other manufacturers have downloadable and user installable BIOS updates. This forum even made modded BIOS and graphics drivers for my VAIO VPCZ1 - that's one the biggest reasons it stayed alive as long as it did.

You go back further in this thread and there are people talking about version 09.

 

AFAIK, the 09 ECs are for the HP6 (1060) types, which all run a different BIOS/EC fork. Not sure what's the latest for us HR folks really, but last I saw it was up to 04 so yours (06) is probably the latest.

EDIT: Dang it. My screen's doing the Disco... again. Now I'm completely stumped... and even if I go back to my assemblers there's a huge probability that it's not gonna happen there again... which means that I CAN'T EVEN GET THIS REPAIRED UNLESS IT STARTS HAPPENING OUTSIDE MY ROOM.

So here's a short clip of it doing the Disco, just in case someone's wondering how it actually looks like (mind the noisy stuff on the TV behind the laptop, that's playing from my NUC Stick).



And yeah, this time I wasn't even gaming or anything, and it wasn't even connected to an external display. I had just set the whole thing up (with the new extension plug and everything) and was just downloading stuff with QBittorrent/FDM and installing PC MARK 10... when WHAM, it's DISCO TIME.

And yeah, the angle that the screen is at seems to set it off/stop it. No idea why either.

Right now I'm thinking one of THREE things, each one more outlandish then the one before lol:

1) The WiFi antenna is somehow messing with the display, hence it only happening during "heavy" downloading.

2) I'm in an AC room kept at 18-20°C. Maybe the cold is messing with the screen (and no we're not even talking sub-zero here folks, so yeah I know how ridiculous this sounds).

3) I really DO have a haunted P950HR.

Seriously, I'm completely stumped now.

 

Annnd, as a last resort shot in the dark, I just picked my P950 up from the Coolermaster U2 I had it on...

... and the whole Disco thing just stopped. Completely.

Then I put it back down, and it stopped doing it for a bit before starting again.

And then, further sleuthing uncovered this:



Apparently, pressing down on the frame near the ESC (as in the video, with my thumb) or the F1, F2, F3, F4 buttons WILL stop the funkiness when it starts.

The only thing I know is there is the CPU Fan, but there must be something down there display-related that's being juggled loose every time I put the P950 down in a certain way, and pressing down on the areas stated somehow put things back together again.

This "certain way" hypothesis is further supported by the fact that by adjusting the P950's position on the U2 pad will sometimes give me a properly working screen, and sometimes Disco.

So now, I've got to figure out how to reliably trigger DISCO TIME so that I can FINALLY get this repaired, whatever it is that's going wrong.

Because really, besides this ONE little (yet extremely exasperating) problem, I do love the P950HR and think that there's really nothing out there like it. So yeah, completely dumping this little DISCO babe for something else isn't quite an option.

 

I haven't been following your previous posts on this, but have you replaced the cable yet? The one that runs between the motherboard and the screen - it runs through one of the hinges and can get pinched and damaged if not dressed properly. (Btw. do not forget to shut down the laptop, unplug the adaptor AND remove the battery before you do this - or you'll blow a tiny fuse on the motherboard.)

Better yet, since it is under warranty, just take it back and get them to replace the cable.

 

I can't get it replaced lol, as when I bring it to the local Clevo guys here for warranty claims, the laptop refuses to show any of this Disco crap AT ALL.

Heck, I spent 4 hours trying to make it Disco earlier today right at the service center (as the folks there couldn't get it to Disco either) and zip, nada, it showed a completely perfect display no matter what I did.

So the tech there re-sat the eDP connection and called it a day. And I couldn't make them do anything else either... especially after 4 perfect hours of nothing.

Now I'm trying to figure out how it MAKE it Disco on cue so that these folks can start fixing the thing (or at least start finding out WHY it's happening) and stop thinking that I'm just a raving lunatic trying to get his laptop fixed for something that isn't really happening.

And seriously, it's 10 days old! If I wasn't where I'm at right now (clue: Asian country with crappy customer rights enforcement) I would probably just ask for a replacement unit or something.

Wait. Tiny fuse? What are the signs that THE FUSE is dying? Is it anything like what's in my vids? Or does it just go blank?

 

My money is on the cable. It is a tiny little thing - about 1/8" diameter, and contains about 16 wires. Just get them to replace it blindly - if they say it seems to be okay, tell them fine, they can put the one they take out into some other unit. It will take them several minutes to swap it with a new one - involves quite a bit of disassembly and reassembly, so I can understand their reluctance.

You can try slowly moving the lid back and forth to try to reproduce the fault, or pressing down where you did, near the hinge. I'm betting one of the tiny wires in the cable is broken and the ends are just touching, but sometimes they don't.

A fuse doesn't behave like this - not a soldered fuse, anyway. It is either dead or alive.

 

Now that makes a whole lot of sense, considering the display flex does seem to go down that hinge and through the CPU fan area, and how it looks like pressure against that area is what seems to trigger (as I put it down on the U2 pad) and fix (as I press down from above) the Display Disco.

And I thought it was "just" the eDP connector... I COMPLETELY forgot the flex cable that it connects to.

That might also explain how it sometimes happens on its own, and why long bouts of GAMING doesn't trigger it.

Apparently, heat in the CPU area specifically seems to ALSO be a viable trigger alongside pressure (its actually happening right now as I'm running PCMark 10). I'm guessing that as that particular area gets hot, the copper in the flex expands and the "touching but not touching" bits start being sloooowly pulled apart (triggering Disco Time)... and as everything cools down (or if I physically push down on that area), they start making contact again.

Gaming per se heats the dGPU part more then the CPU, so this is probably why an entire day and a half of gaming did nothing... while PCMark (and before that, torrenting) was enough to start Disco Time.

Man, if you were anywhere near me I'd buy you lunch for sure. Thanks a whole bunch for your invaluable input. You might have just solved the whole mysterious shebang in one fell swoop.

Gonna download Prime95 later just in case pressing down randomly near the hinge is not enough to start Disco Time tomorrow when I go back there lol.

 

I find undervolting with the official Intel XTU program easier to understand.


-0.125V is apparently the most stable undervoltage.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/sager-np8950-clevo-p950hp6-review-by-htwingnut.805339/

 

While my own system runs fine at -0.125V UV, it's actually a tad iffy to assume that EVERY P950 is stable at -0.125V.

It's a good base number to start your UV by, but processors ARE NOT made the same, so anybody else's MIGHT or MIGHT NOT be able to take -0.125V.

That said, nothing really bad will happen anyway if your silicon can't take the UV... It'll just crash/bluescreen lol and you can always lower the figure. But, I'm just being a tad cautious, is all.

 

I've been wondering the same, for the same reasons. It's strangely hard to find much information, or even high-res pictures of the differences between the cases (well, beside this lovely forum)

Assuming that they're using the exact same body for the P955HQ1 (the Quadro version), you can have a closer look at it here:


If that's the case, it's not just the lid. The bottom has far less air vents on the P955



than the P950


Although the P955 bottoms still covers the GPU & CPU fans area. I'm honestly not sure if the additional vented area outside the fans does bring much benefit (thoughts, anyone?).

I also get the feeling from the video that the screen hinge is different.
My impression is that when the P955 screen opens, it is entirely above the keyboard surface, leaving a gap:



a gap I never noticed on the P950


Except under a certain angle


My guess is that, when it opens, the bottom of the P950 screen goes slightly behind & below the surface of the keyboard.

As a small detail, the power button of the P955 is on the right (instead of the centre) and the Kensington lock is on the left side (instead of right).

Initially I loved the more simple design of the P955 more, but the more I look at this white metal bar under the screen, the more I find it disturbing in an overall dark/black design

 

A peak at Clevo's site gives strong evidence that this might just be the case, as the P955HP6/HR pages both show pictures of this exact machine.

Makes one wonder if the bottom vents are enough for the 1070MQ though.

 

XMG/Schenker have the "regular" version (with a GTX 1060 or 1070 Max-Q) as the Key 15, and it features the same bottom vent design, judging by the pictures.
Maybe we can poke @XMG for his opinion on the matter?
(that is: does the apparently smaller ventilation surface on the bottom of the P955 have a huge influence on heat dissipation VS the P950 design?)

 

BTW, folks, my dear little P950HR has been back for around 12 hours now (with a new LCD flex AND apparently a brand new screen as well) and I can now confidently say that the Disco Time is gone for good!

Again many thanks to @anytimer and everybody else who has helped along the way.

Though while putting the new LCD though it's paces, I might have fallen a bit into the deep dark world of LCD lightbleed/IPS glow watching lol.

That said, while it IS there (especially when I slap a black screen on it and go all long-exposure crazy with my mirrorless), in practical use it really isn't all that bad TBH, especially compared to some of the worse examples I've seen posted over here (some of which has bleeding visible DURING NORMAL USE).

So yeah, I'm just gonna force myself to stop thinking about it now (somehow) so that we can focus on other more... important things lol.

But really, makes you wonder why nobody has come up with a bleed-less IPS-alternative yet (and no, OLED isn't it either, as I can attest from YEARS of owning AMOLED Samsung phones... those have even scarier long term issues than IPS, really).

 

Annnnnnd looks like I spoke too soon folks.



So yeah, NOW I'm REALLY stumped to what's actually wrong with this thing. Can't be the flex as it's brand new.

I'm gonna ask for a full on replacement unit now, considering they "fixed" it and the same stuff is still happening, but not sure if they would honour my request (my part of the world isn't exactly known for good CS).

As you can probably tell, I'm quite a bit miffed considering the laptop isn't even two weeks old yet (and 4 days out of those it spent "being repaired"). Even more so that when it's NOT Disco Dancing, it just blows away everything I throw at it gamewise.

Guess I just picked the short straw, unfortunately.

EDIT: Seems that my local Clevo folks are literally a cut above the local norms, as they are actually CONSIDERING to give me a full replacement unit... under the condition that they get to fully inspect the Disco Time unit to determine if it ACTUALLY requires a replacement.

While that's not really the no-questions-asked sort of replacement that some of you folks might be more familiar with, I'll take what I can get... especially here in my sorry part of the world.

 

Meh! They're probably just saying they replaced the cable. It is quite a pain to thread it through the hinge - it isn't something you would want to do for fun.

 

Maybe lol. They did also SAY they changed the whole display along with it... though idjit enough as I am, I didn't actually record the old display serial ID (or whatever unique LCD ID that shows up within Windows) to be able to actually confirm that they did... not that I was aware that it was gonna happen to begin with lol.

But let's give them the benefit of the doubt here. Maybe they did change the flex (and the screen). What else could have gone wrong to cause this particular issue?

 

Could be the LED backlight driver circuitry on the motherboard having issues.

 

Yes. From the intermittent nature of this fault, I would suspect a dry solder/ loose contact. Too bad many resellers nowadays are just screwdriver tigers. Many of them don't even have a soldering station, leave alone an oscilloscope.

Any change in the actions that trigger this fault? Slowly moving the lid to different angles? Pressing down on the keyboard area with your finger? Integrated/ Discrete GPU? Have you ever observed this fault right at startup, or is it related to heat in any way? Does it affect the BIOS screen too?

 

Like I mentioned before, it's primarily triggered by pressure, specifically from the left side back rubber foot upwards, or pressing down on the area above the F2-F6 keys on the keyboard.

Further pressure to the area once the issue has started has been observed to either mitigate the issue to an inconsistent degree or at least stop it for as long as pressure is applied onto a "sweet spot" of some kind (which surprisingly isn't constant in terms of location, but is generally the area around/above the ESC and F1-F6 keys).

Furthermore, BEFORE the "fix" (flex/screen replacement), it seems that heat around the CPU fan area could also be a separate trigger (or at least a catalyst)... though AFTER the supposed fix, the issue actually STOPS happening once that area is sufficienly warm.

Finally, a few times I've also seen the issue manifest the very instant I plug the AC cord in.

So yeah, in terms of triggers I could only pinpoint 3 with any certainty at this moment: Pressure, heat and AC connection.

As for the nature of issue itself, once it is triggered and left in a "active" state, it would effect the LCD in its entirety, including during the UEFI stage. Once, the LCD even stopped responding ENTIRELY and could not even be found by the the Device Manager at all (and this was diagnosed while the system was hooked up to an external display) - indicating a complete disconnection of the LCD (or maybe the iGPU along with it, but I did not make sure back when it happened).

Finally, besides this issue with the LCD, the system itself would continue to work fine while the LCD itself was suffering from the "issue", as can be evidenced by the fact that I could play games fine with zero performance degradation (or even any graphical artifacts) when hooked up to an external display.

So yeah, it does sound like an LCD connection issue, either in regards to soldering, cables or connectors... or maybe even electrical interference from an adjacent circuit.

 

Latest update, just sent back Disco Time (yeah, I'm just gonna call it that now), and - wonders upon wonders - my local Clevo folks have just cleared me for a BRAND NEW full replacement barebones unit. The new unit's gonna spend a few days in the shop first for re-customization (aka, transplanting the storage and RAM from Disco Time) and some stress testing to make sure that the won't be a Disco encore.

Kudos to them, and yay for me.

That said, hopefully I'm FINALLY done with all this Disco business so I can start to fully enjoy the laptop I actually paid for in November lol (long story short, I bought it back end of Nov, had to wait a bit for stock... final delivery date clashed with my month long trip to Japan, got Disco Time end of December, Disco Time develops epilepsy early Jan).

So yeah, it's been a LONG time coming.