*** Official Clevo W230SS/Sager NP7338 Owner's Lounge ***

though my W230SS should also be here shortly, but that would still be great. TIA!

still on the lookout for a compact adapter for this beast and a "low-cost" spare for the battery.

 

By the way, I've found that the OSD notifications of Clevo Control Center are quite annoying, but I could not turn it off with the config file.

So I made a patch for it. I am not sure if anybody has done it already but I'm sharing it with you all.

Clevo Control Center no OSD mod | manatails' blog

 

Regarding cooling that is already what i would expect from mx4. The only thing better is probably Phobya extreme/gelid extreme.(both use the same OEM). This should drop temps by another 2-3 degrees.
As for undervolting, know that Intel scales voltage according to CPU clock speed so there is a huge difference with every 100mhz step. This means that dropping your clock speed will give you the best reduction in temperatures. I reduced my clock speed to that of an i7 4702mq and a -65mv undervolt. My CPU doesn't break 70 degrees with virtually zero fan speed. It sits at 60 degrees full load at 100% fan speed.

 

@Marksman30k and @dj_pirtu: thanks for the response about temperatures. Glad to hear that these are within the expected range, so I'll leave the paste alone.

I'd like to try undervolting / underclocking but I'm hesitant to switch to Prema bios, because as I mentioned I want to make sure that I can return the notebook to its original state from cyberpowerpc. If there's a way to completely back up / restore the current bios, I'll do that and switch to Prema immediately.

 

Any way to make the volume bar show as it looks in the native Windows theme? Like in other laptops? It's a built in Windows feature

 

[...] stupid laptop company.
I asked why my laptop is taking so long, and they responded with 'we didn't get your confirmation on the order', while they actually responded on it -_-.
Oh well, I won't be home next week anyway so the waiting won't be as bad

 

For Windows 8 and above?
ok, I'll check

 

Thinking about ordering one of these... Who is the best vendor/reseller/OEM/whitelabel/whatever to buy through in your esteemed opinions?

Looking at speccing the i7-4710, 16GB of RAM (is the HyperX worth it for OC?), a 250GB SSD and 1TB HDD, no OS if I can help it (I'd prefer Win7 - do drivers come with it and/or are they readily available for download?), and then potentially getting the upgraded heat sink and thermal compound.

Good idea or not? Anything you guys would recommend that I'm missing? Thanks!

 

I can say from experience that XoticPC is fantastic to deal with. Their customer service is very helpful, especially Hutsady. If you have any concerns or questions about XoticPC, just contact their customer service, they'll do custom configurations for you, just let them know what you want and they'll price it out.

Also maybe consider upgrading the wireless card to the Intel 7260, its inexpensive but makes a difference if you plan on using wireless.

 

Windows 8 is more power efficient. You will not be able to use some of Haswell's more advanced power saving features (which are enabled via Prema's BIOS mod) with Windows 7.

 

On Windows 8 I got the native Windows OSD without any tweaking.

Are you using Windows 7? Windows 7 does not have native volume bar by itself, only the slider on the taskbar

 

I got the newest CCC version for Windows 8.1 and applied the same patch. Link below
The previous one was based on version 2.20.23 which my mfc told me is for Windows 7
I wonder if there will be a difference but here you go.

Clevo Control Center no OSD mod (Windows 8) | manatails' blog

 

I'm using Sager ControlCenter, not so annoying OSD as Clevo.

 

Just a recap of my experience so far...

Ordered mine from Prostar on the evening of Wed Aug 13 with the next business day shipping (the $41 special offer that included a micro fiber cleaning glove)...Got a call the next day to verify my Paypal address and then UPS picked it up at midnight Friday Aug 15...It was delivered on Wednesday evening (Aug 19). Very happy with ordering from Prostar and would definitely buy from them again...

I ordered one with 4710mq, the free upgrade to the 1TB Sata III drive (storage drive) and the upgraded thermal paste/heatsink option (another special offer package deal). I ordered a 256GB Crucial msata drive from Amazon and yanked the two 8GB Geil PC12800 sticks from my Asus laptop...Installed Windows 8.0 Pro (thank you Microcenter for the $39 deal on this) using an external DVD drive. I installed all of drivers from the CD (except the wireless ones - got the Killer drivers from the Clevo site)...Wouldn't let me install the Intel Rapid Start driver(said I didn't meet the system requirements for it) and I still have an Unknown device in Device Manager. Did the upgrade to Windows 8.1. I did the registry tweak for the HIPM+DIPM Hard Disk setting...Before the tweak, my SSD temp was 70 degrees....the tweak lowered it to 38 degrees at boot but warms up to 45ish degrees on idle. I also noticed the yellow tint so I did the Color calibration and am pretty happy with it now but might do another windows re-install and mess with missing driver again this weekend.

I also added some carbon fiber vinyl wrap to the palm rest areas..This definitely was the laptop I was looking for, size and performance wise...

 

So the culprit for my Unknown Device is the Insyde Airplane Mode HID Mini-Driver...


When I try to update the driver from the folder Program Files (x86)\AirplaneModeInstaller, I get this message:

Windows found driver software for your device but encountered an error while attempting to install it.

Insyde Airplane Mode HID Mini-Driver

The software was tested for compliance with Windows Logo requirements on a different version of Windows and may not be compatible with this version.

If you know the manufacturer of your device, you can visit its website and check the support section for driver software.



Anyone getting this error with Windows 8 Pro?

 

i got my W230SS i7 4710MQ QHD for Eurocom, Canada yesterday. whilst I am yet to install as my SSD is still in courier, by the looks and feel, it seems to be a beast.

first thing I noticed is that my machine has a Eurocom re-branded BIOS and not a original Clevo BIOS. Also, the BIOS has very very few options.

I just want to check if the Prema BIOS can be installed over the Eurocom BIOS?

Do I need to take any special precautions whilst flashing? I just read on the net that flashing Prema on non-Sager BIOSes can be tricky and can even brick the laptop!!!

Where/ how can I get an image of the installed BIOS?

Any Eurocom owner who is running Prema BIOS?

Any help would be highly appreciated......

 

Just an update from my last post.

I purchased my w230ss from CyberPowerPC where it arrived last Friday 8/15/2014 without any issues. I replaced the standard HDD that it came with and installed my old Crucial M4 512GB that I used from my previous laptop (Acer TimelineX 4820TG). Re-installed Win 8.1 and also installed Linux Mint 17 KDE via UEFI on a separate mSATA SSD that I took out of my desktop which is a Mushkin Atlas 256GB. I originally installed the mSATA on the bottom mSATA slot below the 2.5" drive bay but noticed the temps were really high there at 60 deg C average while idling so I moved it to the other slot next to the wifi card and noticed that the temps dropped dramatically by about 20 degrees average! I also updated to the newest PREMA BIOS mod (thank you Prema!) which provides tons of options and apparently better compatibility with Linux which I can attest to as everything seems to work fine so far. I also replaced the thermal paste with Arctic Silver 5 as I had an old tube laying around that I haven't used in a while.

I still haven't done any under-clocking or under-volting to the CPU nor overclocking to the GPU which I fully intend to do at some point in the future but right now I'm still in the testing phase for stability purposes. So far I'm averaging about 80 deg C on load to the CPU after a 30 minute CPU bench with AIDA64 and mid 40's at idle. I also get mid 70 deg C average GPU temps on load while playing Crysis 3 and BF4. This is all at stock clocks.

Now the weird thing is that I tried to initially bench with Metro 2033 and Metro LL and both do not launch where they both crash to desktop where they always start then get minimize to the task bar. This never happens on my desktop BTW. I tried disabling the VIA audio drivers, Sound Blaster software and Intel AC Wifi through the task manager just in case but it didn't work. I also uninstalled the Nvidia drivers and did a "clean" re-install but to no avail. I'm pretty new to "optimus" graphics switching as this will be my first computer with that feature but I did try switching the "global settings" within Nvidia Control Panel to default to the Nvidia GPU but this also did not work. If anyone could provide any help, I would greatly appreciate it as I do like the benchmark utilities for both Metro games as they give you a nice graph to analyze at the end of each benchmark run. Below is my configuration:

Clevo W230SS (via CyberPowerPC)
PREMA BIOS Mod
13.3" FHD/Matte 1920x1080 Display
Intel Core i7 4810MQ
16 GB GSkill RAM
512GB Crucial M4 (Win 8.1 64bit)
256GB Mushkin Atlas mSATA (Linux Mint 17 KDE 64bit)
Intel 7260AC Wifi

 

I have not received this error. Have you tried to remove and do a clean re-install of the driver?

 

Looks like Eurocom is of the few Clevo resellers who actually offer TPM. Due to this, digital signage might make getting a BIOS image a bit difficult but I'm sure it's possible.

 

I disabled the unknown device from Device Manager, removed the Airplane HID mode Uninstaller from Remove Programs in the Control Panel, re-booted and then re-installed the driver and that did the trick....

Thanks...

Also figured out why I didn't meet the minimum requirements for Rapid Start....I needed a 16GB hibernation partition (since I have 16GB of memory)....that was a fun exercise to create it...After loading Rapid Start, my SSD temp rose to 55 degrees on idle so I uninstalled it and the temps went back down...

 

Great! Glad it worked out.

Interesting. I was thinking of trying it out too but I hadn't gotten that point yet. Having temps go that high is definitely not worth it to me as I'm already running with an SSD. Thanks for the info.

 

what is this upgraded heatsink? Really interested..

 

i badly wanted to install a WWAN card in my W230SS.

but to my horror, i found that the Eurocom model and/ or the QHD screen model do not have a WWAN antenna connector

any suggestions anyone?

 

It's not an upgraded CPU heatsink...They are little memory heat sinks that are added on top...

it looks like something like this (found this image on google of a poster here who also got this upgrade for their laptop)...but they only put 4 of them inside mine...



hopefully, the upgraded thermal paste is making a difference.....

Definitely cheaper to buy those heatsinks on Amazon and re-paste the machine yourself though....

 

This has probably been asked already at some point, but I don't have time right now to sift through a lot of posts (heading out to work right now). I just got my NP7338 recently and I will be traveling with it frequently, just wanted to know if any of you have any recommendations on a good sleeve/case for it, preferably something that is semi-rigid on the outside. I was hoping for something that I could put on it so I could throw it in my backpack when I am traveling.

 

actually, it's not quite the same heatsink that i have. My heatsink doesnt have copper that much, only tine piece that covers cpu core and aluminium the rest where screws are.

 

The full copper plate won't impact the temps in a stock machine.

 

Anyone with a Eurocomp version who has flashed the Prema BIOS?

 

I bought from Eurocom and installed Prema BIOS same day. Hadn't any issues.

 

thanx for the input pal. any special instructions for me?

will do the same in about an hour

 

my w230ss has been Prema Modded successfully!!

love this guy..... tons of options in the BIOS.

thanx to the forum members for guiding.

 

Prima is the bomb. Don't forget to donate to his site so he keeps up these awesome unlocked bios's for us. :thumbsup:

 

That might actually be Wingnut's mod of the NP6110.. saying that because of the added fan in the back cover and the space for the added heatsinks looks a bit bigger than on the NP7338.

EDIT: Yes it was, and here is the post of the fan mod.
:thumbsup:

 

Stay away from the baseclock OC. Very little performance boost at a significant risk of SATA data corruption.

 

Ok guys, I've got a couple of odd issues. I have no idea how you guys manage to get more than five hours of battery life; I get about three and a half on average, and what I do is mostly type Word docs and browse the Internet when I'm on battery power (gaming is done 100% on AC power, with the battery removed). Furthermore, my temps are about 60 degrees Celsius on average. How do you guys get such low temps of 45? I've enabled CPPC, and all the ASPM switches; I'm on Windows 8.1.

Even on OS X, I get about five hours or so. What's going on? I've got a -70mV undervolt and an underclock to 27 28 29 30.

 

I'm probably getting this laptop on Friday, there's an IT sale and my local retailer Aftershock has a decent deal, pretty excited I'll be buying my own SSD from Amazon for the cheaper price, do you guys know if there's any difference in the 2 slots of the laptop? And if not, which is the cooler part so I can slot the SSD there without worrying about uneven temps

@SRSR333, I've been looking through this thread and basically you seem to be the only one who has gotten anywhere with OS X. I know you're stuck with a screen artifacting problem but would you mind sending me the files (DSDT/SSDT, kexts etc) or telling me how to get them? I will probably need an OS X install (well, for fun, but I do a little development on it) and I would really appreciate your help! And with any luck, we can figure the screen out together.

 

Aftershock? Does that mean you're in Singapore? Great to meet a fellow Singaporean here. The COMEX sale is pretty worth it; go for it.

As for OS X, it depends on whether you have access to a real Mac with an internet connection, or not, which complicates matters if it's the latter (we should discuss this through PM). If it's the former, also PM me; we'll get stuff sorted out.

As for sending you files, one of the Golden Rules of Hackintoshing is to never use someone else's DSDT/SSDT files. To put it in context, it's like using someone else's unsterilised drug needle. Not a good idea. It's better to extract and patch your own.

 

Yep, in Singapore. I can't seem to PM you though, it's telling me I do not have permission to access the page. Must be because I'm a new member.

I have a Hackintosh already, so I can use that. (I have a Mavericks USB installer, if that's why you're asking about the Mac). And the DSDT/SSDT is because my machine is probably going to be identical to yours (CPU/GPU-wise), so I thought it'd be fine. At worst it'd be a reference, I guess.

Anyway I'll stop clogging up the thread, I'll go figure out how to PM (maybe it's a site rule or something I missed).

Can't contain my excitement over the laptop purchase haha.

 

I'm hoping so, as I've heard great reviews on them though had little luck getting in contact due to work since I'm on the west coast they're usually closed when I get off, so I emailed them on Thursday then Friday again in case I hit the wrong area. Took work off Friday to call in only to find out they were closed for some event, though the phone message/site said they'd still respond over the weekend. Not Complaining , I just have really bad luck. It Happens.

Was hoping to find one of their reps online on the forum here, but no luck. I might just do what everyone else is doing and order it with 1 drive and buy the rest myself to save on $$$. Going to grab a 1tb mSata Evo and leave the other slots empty and later get another 1tb Evo for the reg 2.5.

I've confirmed with reps from CyberPower and IBP that they don't carry actual parts, just when you put in an order they clear it after 1-2 days then they order the parts from Clevo, then assemble it so its a minimum 2 week turn around before shipment. I may be deploying soon, and with the debate of which laptop to get its been taking up a lot of time. I took my M11X to Fry's electronics yesterday and started comparing it to all the model sizes. Theres an Asus 13.3" w/ a Radeon (6890 I think?) that had a GORGEOUS display since it was gloss, though I'd rather have nvidia in mine as I've no clue how well the R would stand up, but decided that it was the perfect size, since if I went the 14" route I might as well get the 15.6 which I'd end up just grabbing an 8258-S or 8268-S (keep forgetting which holds more)

Anywhoo long story short I decided on the Clevo over the Gigabyte p34gv2. My concern is time frame.

Back to the question, if anyone can answer, does XoticPC normally carry parts in stock? If so what's the fastest turn around time you've seen w/ maximixed rush service/overnight?

I'm highly interested in the Custom A surface skin and laser etching on the bottom. Really curious to know if a weeks time is enough to Suffice, say I order tonight, then tomorrow order goes through and they begin work, would they be able to ship Thursday overnight to get Friday? or somewhere around that bracket?

I almost purchased off Ebay since some resellers have there as well however they're almost all the QHD models and for the life of me I can't understand why a MFC would do that to such a small screen lol... in fact ..does anyone HAVE the w230SS w/ the QHD screen? If so how does it fair w/ games and how much FPS do you lose as opposed to 1080 or downscalling?

Anywhoo if someone could elaborate I'd appreciate it, I'm sure XoticPC had a lot going on this weekend, also not to leave anyone out, I notice Meaker from prostar here, if you could answer as well, I've ordered from ProStar before (9750 back in 2006) and know they have outstanding service as well.

Also for the custom skin wraps is that something you can order separately and apply yourself or is a special method that can only be done @ build?

Also has anyone swapped out the 13.3" display for a Glossy version, and if so which model works well or is compatible, or can I stick any inside (depending on how it fits in) as I REALLY love gloss, and can't stand matte, I'm just extremely worried about the look, after seeing so many laptops w/ it, I feel it just destroys the color/quality. I saw an Alienware mx17 w/ the matte screen and it reminded me of one of the first ever TFT displays, granted there ARE better quality models out there (other brands)

Just a big concern.

Appreciate any feedback!

 

I have WQHD matte display and it's great, Sharp's panel. GPU power is enough for 2560x1440 resolution.

Only problem is that prema's bios mod doesnt work currently right with wqhd. No bios screen on warm boot, only cold boot and not always even then.

 

Have you gone through the latest chipset drivers etc?

 

The only unknown driver I had after installing the major driver packs was the Airplane Mode one (fixed by installing that driver).

One general tip to figure out what the unknown devices are: right-click the device in Device Manager, go to Properties, go to Details tab, select Hardware IDs from the dropdown, and then look at what's listed. There will usually be a 4-digit hexadecimal Vendor ID and a 4-digit hex Device ID, indicated as VEN and DEV, respectively. Then you can look up those codes online in a database like this one or this one to get a clue what the device actually is and get the right driver installed.

 

Hey Benibi,
I was wondering where you bought your i7-4702mq and what it cost you if you could help me out that'd be great :3

 

Here is a shot of the upgrade on mine...

I also moved my msata drive to the middle slot (by the memory) and it is definitely running much cooler....when it was on the outside slot (Port 0 IIRC), it would boot at 35 degrees and then warm up and idle around 45 degrees....now it stays around 37 degrees on idle...

Guess the air being vented out the side was causing the increased temps???

 

Same here, we have two options:

1. Remove the AG-layer
2. Swap LCD

1.) Is not for the impatient and has a significant risk of doing permanent damage (guide here), the removal of the metallic bezel is especially finicky. Basically, the difference between a gloss and matte within the same series is what type of outer film is applied. So removal of an anti-glare film will turn a matte into a 'glossy'; the 'citation marks' because an original glossy has a translucent film which accomplishes scratch resistance (the 2H or 3H finish). Hence the screen will be more susceptible to damage, unless you apply a new clear film. Nice thing about this option is the cost; nil. And, if you fail, there's the lcd swap to fall back on.

2.) There are at least six screens that are compatible with the WQHD, 2 LGs and 4 Sharps. Found reviews on three of these (all Sharp models):

• LQ133T1JW02 in the Acer Aspire S7-392, incorrectly listed as "glossy" (same one as in the W230SS)
• LQ133T1JW14 in the Asus Zenbook Infinity UX301LA (glossy)
• LQ133T1JW19 in the Fujitsu LifeBook S904 (glossy)

Sadly there's the availability and cost, these are hard to find for less than $400 (except for clearly fraudulent offers for $85 ...).

The FHD has nine options (the Chimei Innolux N133HSE-EA1 is used in the W230SS).

You cannot exchange FHD (1920x1080) for WQHD (2560x1440) without changing the cable as well; the first is 30-pin, the latter is 40-pin eDP. Now, to keep things simple, the usual solution when offering different resolution screens is to use the same motherboard connector for both types, only with unconnected/unwired threads in the cable for the lower resolution version. That way there's only need to manufacture one type motherboard instead of two (cutting costs).

It still may be possible to exchange WQHD (2560x1440) for QHD (3200x1800) (and vice-versa), but this is concomitant to the J_LCD1 connector. It is not in use with the FHD or the QHD (thanks to Stooj for looking), but if it is used for the WQHD screens then you need both a different cable as well as the correct revision motherboard. The QHD Schenker reviewed by NBC differs from Stooj's QHD W230SS:

 

+Rep

Greatly appreciate this, as for removing the AG coating I've done this on tons of monitors for friends, and others, though never for a laptop. I MAY consider that route depending though replacing the screen may be the most notable option in this case.

As for 1440p I think I'll just stick to 1080p since given the size, I think any higher would be to small for my eyes. Greatly appreciate the information and detail and I'll check out the panels. Any you recommend over the other? Or have you performed any swap outs or AG removal on yours?

 

I was in your position, and went for the 1080p. Even the 1080p can be tiny/small- I don't see much point in any high res!

On a separate note, my brand new W230SS does not keep time (clock loses time). Overnight, it lost 14 hours (and it's not Windows - bios shows the wrong time too).

What keeps the clock set- the motherboard battery or the main big battery?

 

Clevo has always seemed to use a different located connector for systems capable of fitting different types of screens.

 

After moving my msata drive to the middle msata slot by the memory, my ssd temps have dropped...38 degrees on idle now...I reinstalled rapid start and temps vary between 38 and 40 on idle...don't really notice any difference in boot time (pretty much expected that)....

If it matters, I am using OpenHardware Monitor to measure my temps....

 

Anyone played with Coollaboratory liquid pro/ultra? I would like to try but bit scared of getting it wrong places...