*** Official Clevo P960EP6/ P960ED/ P960EF/ P960EN Owner's Lounge ***

So... I can't for the life of me find out how to access the Clevo Control Center. Anyone?

 

Is it installed?

 

Yeah. Just installed the new version on the windows store which fixed it. It was extremely hard to find the actual .exe if you forgot the keyboard shortcut!

 

Windows search cant be relied on either the startup options would list it if you ever cant remember.

 

FYI, Alternative Source for drivers from CLEVO

Clevo Drivers for P9X0RC_RD_RF_RN Models

 

Did anyone's Clevo Control Center 3.0 just automatically update through the Windows Store today?

For me, it just updated to the following:
Control Center 3.0, v2.22.0.0
LEDs Keyboard Setting, 2.18.0.0
Fan Speed Setting, 2.17.0.0
Flexikey, 2.17.0.0
Fn hotkeys and OSD, 2.18.2.0

I first noticed something odd going on as I could not launch CC3.0 by double clicking the tray icon. Launching it through the Windows Store also does nothing. Individually launching the components through the Microsoft Store also does nothing, other than Fan Speed Setting which thankfully still works. Everything else is broken and doesn't run. Gonna try uninstalling everything and reinstalling through the Microsoft Store. I had previously installed it through Clevo's drivers page.

 

Hi, I have never had an Windows Store app update, although I do have various Windows services that are likely preventing that. I have CC 3.0, version 2.25 installed currently on my P960ED and have no problems opening fan speed, FlexiKey, Power Modes, and LED Keyboard (GPU overclocking never worked for me, I just use Afterburner).

If you go to Clevo's drivers site, choose model "PB5xDDS/DF1/DF2 (-G)_PB7xDDS/DF1/DF2 (-G)" and you can download version 2.25 there. Hopefully a reinstall works for you.

 

At one time I've had some issues with CCC [Clevo Control Center] booting up or opening, I solved it by;
First, google Revo Uninstaller (free version), download it and use it to completely uninstall CCC. It will launch the regular uninstaller for CCC and then follow up removing any remaining files and registry entries.

***This next step is the key to avoiding issues
After uninstalling CCC, RESTART your PC. Immediately installing after uninstalling CCC has led to issues for me. And was the difference between it working and starting on boot up correctly.

Next, Ensure you have the latest copy of CCC as many bugs were addressed. I would recommend installing CCC using the installer and not through the Microsoft Store (although it is possible to install using that method).

If still having issues, some optional/additional troubleshooting steps have worked also used in addition to the steps explained above.
*** Execute 'C:\Program Files (x86)\ControlCenter\AppInstall' the 'RunAutoInstall.exe' application file. I believe this will ensure the FanSpeed, LED Keyboard, FN OnScreenDisplay Command items are installed.

**After installing using the installer method, go to the Microsoft Store and install/launch Clevo Control Center from there. It will not install duplicate copies, so dont worry about that.
**You can also try running CCleaner to remove temporary files and program data files that may remain from previous installations of CCC that can cause issues.

This usually has addressed any issues with CCC running, not launching at start up or not launching at all.

 

Hey all,

Is it possible to get some help with a BIOS issue?

I recently replaced a spare SATA SSD (original NVME OS drive untouched) and now it refuses to boot up.

The InsydeH20 Bios boot manager is empty, making it impossible to manually select my boot drive (or any other drive) to boot.

The three drives can be properly detected in the BIOS settings, so I'm assuming it is not a hardware issue.

My productivity has plummeted because most of my work is done on my laptop, and I have no alternative spare one right now. Please help!

 

Have you already tried different combinations of the three drives, and verifying the SATA mode is correct?

If you have, then have you tried resetting the BIOS settings by using the Fn + D combination? Or if that didn't work, try opening the bottom panel and removing the CMOS battery?

 

What happens if you remove the drive you put in? Is windows boot manager the selected boot device?

 

I've not swapped, but I have removed the offending drive - to no avail.

FN+D puts me in an odd restart loop (on-off-on-off-on-off) without the screen even lighting up. Keeping the CMOS as a last resort

 

Same issue, with an empty SATA port it still is unable to boot from my NVME.

I'm not sure how to select a specific boot manager/device though, my boot manager just seems to show a blank menu (though all drives are visible in Setup Utility)
https://imgur.com/a/2pV4W3p

 

hello all. I've been lurking around for a few months now but this will by my first post!

I've got a metabox P960RF i7 9750H RTX 2070 Max-Q 80W(?) with 32GB RAM. I actually ordered a P960EF originally (i7 8750H) but got a happy surprise receiving P960RF in the mail. My best guess is that the EF was out of stock and/or discontinued by the time I ordered. This was around mid-2019.

What I've done to it so far:
- Liquid metal CPU & GPU
- Tried adjusting thermal pads around CPU chokes and VRMs - one of them is in a spot where the heatsink/heatspreader doesn't cover! This helped me with my voltage regulator thermal limit throttling
- undervolted CPU with ThrottleStop -205mV on core, -110.4mV on cache, -61.5mV on iGPU, set PL1 to 84W and PL2 to 76W. I manage further limits via Icc Max in individual profiles.
- undervolted GPU with MSI afterburner. Current settings +470 on memory, custom voltage curve starting at 1485MHz and goes up to 1710MHz at 800mV although I do see power limit throttling at this level.
- flashed razer blade pro vbios (rtx 2070 max-q 100W)
- followed a bunch of threads at techpowerup forums on throttlestop and battery optimisation
- Added tape to cover any small gaps I could see between the fans and the finstacks. I think this helped improve temps by another few degrees but I didn't do it in a systematic enough way to objectively compare.. might just be placebo heh.

What that has gotten me so far:
- Cinebench R20: I can sustain consecutive runs of all core turbo (4GHz) without any thermal issues with max fans, or even leaving it to CCC's auto fan curve. Max temps would hit 86-88C (ambient here has been slightly under 20c recently). I generally score around 31xx, highest to date is 3185
- 3DMark Timespy: My best graphics score so far is 8191 (overall=7978, cpu=6958, https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/48130505). My highest overall score so far is 7992 (cpu=7259,gpu=8138, https://www.3dmark.com/spy/12698216). Haven't figured out what causes the variance in my CPU score.
- Following JarrodTech (youtube channel) thermal testing method of running aida64 cpu only and heaven4.0 benchmark on extreme, I don't get any thermal on either CPU or GPU. Testing right now to provide some recent numbers - Temperatures stabilise to 80c on CPU and 70c on GPU while drawing 47W and 95W each (CPU and GPU competing for power leading to CPU power throttling). In a previous attempt before flashing 100W gpu vbios, i had temps stabilise at approx 85c and 70c on CPU/GPU as the CPU was not power limited and would draw ~55W for aida64 load with only cpu stress selected.
- Blender BMW benchmark: 4m 22s. Blender is the only workload out of the small set of other benchmarks I've tried so far where I'm still seeing voltage regulator thermal limits being hit. It tries to pull 84-85W to sustain all core 4Ghz turbo.

Next things I'd like to try
- I saw a post around here about a clever trick of sticking paper clip / broken toothpick between the IHS metal arm and the screw to add extra mounting pressure. I'll probably give that a try next time I open up my laptop in an attempt to reduce my core-to-core variance. I still see gaps of up to 6C between coolest and hottest core at the moment.
- I ordered some copper shims and thermal adhesive. I'm going to try extending the heatsink/heatspreader to cover the one CPU VRM that is left exposed. Right now i've just covered it using a thick thermal pad that has contact with the heatspreader, but i think it'd be better if i had the copper shim place pressure and improved contact on it.

Things I was considering but will not likely attempt now.
- GPU power mod / shunt mod. I was considering this before having success with the 100W razer blade pro vbios. Now that I can get 100W on GPU and the system is overall limited by the power supply, I won't bother with shunting.

Would like to provide general thanks to others who have shared tips/resources.

Some pics: https://imgur.com/a/8dU8PyB

 

Tiny update:

i) Tried a CMOS reset
ii) USB devices can be detected in Boot Manager but not my 3 SSDs (2x NVME + 1 SATA)

Still stuck overall
https://imgur.com/a/v5dX0TT

 

I took a look at my BIOS. What does the Boot > EFI setting look like for you? I can actually disable the Windows Boot Manager and prevent it from showing up in the Boot Manager. (I don't have a NVMe SSD installed so the offboard controller sections don't show any info for me) If nothing shows up here try leaving only a bootable drive in your machine.

https://imgur.com/a/t7MmHdK

You can also see my CPU and BIOS version which are almost the same as yours, so this is odd that would happen.

 

Thanks for the reference! I did find something unusual there. Windows Boot Manager is missing on mine. I've tried leaving only the boot drive on with everything else removed, but still no luck.

I have 'network stack' only in my Boot > EFI

https://imgur.com/a/To1oyb9

 

Darn, well there's only one thing I can think of left to do. Since you said earlier that "USB devices can be detected in Boot Manager" are you able to try to recreate the EFI partition by creating a Windows 10 (or Ubuntu) USB install drive and reinstalling Windows (or Ubuntu)?

 

I've not thought of that option yet! I'll look into it and see if I can find a spare comp to download Windows again

 

Could be your windows boot manager partition got corrupted.

 

Booted from a USB successfully!

Bootrec isn't doing anything at all but it looks like I have missing partitions in the console (Only 1 primary partition that takes up all the space in the OS drive)

It's around here I'm in really uncharted waters and getting lost. How would I best make a new EFI partition to get my Windows boot manager back?

https://imgur.com/a/uk1EQKY

 

Good to hear! You probably need to use the "bcdboot" command instead, according to guides I found when googling "restore efi partition". You can watch this video to see before doing it (also check video description):

 

This helped! But, in a roundabout way of sorts.

A lot of things just didn't add up properly, and I finally confirmed my suspicions when I went into the directory of the boot drive.
I figured out why it wasn't booting, everything is just gone. My original OS drive just wiped itself clean in an instant, leaving behind a 0kb 'Recovery' txt document.

I don't know how that happened or why, but I'm stuck with an empty drive now.

I ended up installing Windows into the SATA drive.

I have to start again and build from scratch, I guess.
I'm using Recuva now to see if anything is leftover.

*

Thanks for the help everyone!

 

Anyone know if Prema ever did a bios for the P9x0RC_RD_RF_RN series?

 

I don't think so due to VRM limits.

 

I see. Makes sense. I’ve got cpu thermal headroom when my heatsink decides to play nice (bad contact) but the VRMs hit their thermal limit before then. And for combined cpu+gpu the 180w platform power limited becomes the bottleneck.

@Meaker@Sager would u happen to know where I can source a p960rf heatsink? Part number 6-31-p9602-na2. Wanna know how much it’d be.

 

Hit up support for parts queries from us or a local reseller if we are not near.

 

question - is there a version of the p95x-97x series that use a 230w power supply?

mine uses a 180w supply but curious about whether it could use more if swapped with a 230w. i see bios options relating to platform power limit up to 180w, hopefully that's all that's needed but the few posts i could see suggest changes need to be made to the EC chip too.

 

Usually there will be total system power limits in play.

 

So, you reckon it wouldn’t be as simple as going one size up on power supply and have that work? 180w->230w.

in my case I seem to have the thermal headroom for abit more than 180w for i7 9750h + rtx 2070 max-q with the power limit meddled with.

I see throttling on the cpu when both components are in use on things like 3dmark and games. I’m not able to push the gpu further without affecting cpu clocks

 

That's likely to be a firmware thing rather than a brick thing.

 

The EC determines maximum power draw regardless of actual power supply.

 

Do u know how it can be adjusted to bump up the limit?

 

Through prema bios, but this has been answered already ;-)

 

I couldn’t find a prema bios for this series of laptop though. Does it exist?

 

Hi guys, my reseller repasted the thermal paste using kryonaut about a month ago and i would like some opinion whether these temperatures are normal for this laptop (P960ED). I even included the undervolt and tpl setting from my Thorttlestop. I played AC: Origins for 5 minutes as a benchmark with max fan activated. Also, my GPU is RTX 2070 Max-Q, not sure about the watts .

 

Yeah that looks pretty normal.

 

Thanks for the reply, i was worried that i might have to send it back for a repaste due to high temps. I suppose this is normal for this particular laptop.

Sent from my GM1905 using Tapatalk

 

It's more the Intel CPUs these days. A perfect paste job can help a bit usually but it won't make a massive difference.

 

Hey guys,

Been meaning to use my P960 (2060) desktop replacement for long term.

Do you think it is compatible with a Thunderbolt eGPU like Razer's? Really new to eGPU stuff and am a bit lost

 

There is no Thunderbolt support on the P960Ex series unfortunately.

 

Bummer! Thanks for the info thou

 

Indeed, usb 3.1 with one port able to do DP over USB as well.

 

I recently sent my laptop for an annual maintenance and now the temps are better. Both of the games i played for 10 minutes as a benchmark.

Before:


After:

 

Good clean and repaste I guess.

 

Yeah, i didn't expect this at all.

 

Shows what regular maintenance can do.

 

How to unlock P960ED bios???????????????????

 

It's generally not recommended on the slim models.

 

Hey, just want to post this in case in might help someone:

For the past few months my laptop would fail to turn off/restart when I choose shutdown, restart, or sleep. I would have to hold the power button in order for it to turn off. It didn't happen all the time but I noticed it was more likely to happen the longer I let my laptop run.

Last week I tried removing and reinserting the CMOS battery to reset it, but the issue was still there. So I decided to do two things, uninstall Intel Rapid Storage Technology and CLEVO Control Center (I used a recent version that's not found in my laptop's drivers). It seemed to have been working for the past few days, I can't control the LED keyboard lighting anymore but my laptop shuts down properly now! I'm pretty sure the issue was caused by using an old version Intel RST, I will reinstall the control center to be sure.