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

Check your VBIOS version in either Nvidia Inspector or the Nvidia Control Panel (Click on 'System Information' at bottom right, and scroll down to Video BIOS version). If it's 82.07.27.00.0A, use the QHD version. If it's 82.07.0C.00.A0, use the FHD version.

I think there are a few more things I wish to add to the list of things to be fixed on the W230SS:

• Use more sensitive parts that recognise when the Nvidia GPU should/should not be bumped up to AC Power mode
  
• After a GPU crash/driver crash, recover immediately and allow the GPU to continue running at nominal speed vs a reduced speed of 405 MHz. There should not be a need to restart. I had a Samsung Sandy Bridge notebook with a GT 525M (laughable in the face of the 860M), and I OC'ed that as well, albeit running a completely stock BIOS. It crashed occasionally, but it immediately was able to run at normal speed, and only the OC settings from MSI Afterburner needed to be reapplied.
  
• Screen calibration. The stock Chi Mei 1080p screen is honestly terrible and extremely yellow and even worse on OS X, where ironically, the screen calibration utility isn't as easy to use as on Windows. I use OS X for image editing/processing, vector graphics creation on Illustrator and iOS app development, where all three require some extent of accurate colour reproduction and sheesh, it's really bad. Please fix this, Clevo, or find another screen vendor.
  
• Instead of having two small and separate hinges at the edges of the lid/screen, have one large hinge in the middle, à la Retina MacBook Pro/Razer Blade (that's one thing that Razer has got right - the build quality rivals Apple's, not counting the crappy heating. This would also technically solve the problem of the lid flexing excessively, and add some robustness to the machine.

 

Is the Full HD screen really that bad? I've heard mostly praise about it. I'm thinking about buying and w230ss and since I work with photo/video editing, a good screen is very important. The Chi mei screen isn't a good choice then?

 

I own the Sager version of the w230ss with the FHD screen. My personal opinion is that the FHD screen is very good, but at 13.3" (which is the case no matter what screen you get), you really should invest in an external screen that is larger. In which case which screen you get is less important.

 

The screen per sé is very good. However, the default colour calibration isn't. If your reseller offers to do colour calibration, even if you have to pay for it, choose the option as the stock calibration is too yellow.

 

I see. I think I saw some people sharing some screen calibration profiles around here. Wouldn't it be easier and less expensive to use one of those, instead of having my re-seller do it and charge me for it?

 

a 7000K one is pretty good

 

My brother recently bought a Schenker P304 (Clevo W230SS) and we have a issue with the sound: We cannot get it to work with VIA drivers and the Creative software!

We are using Windows 7 Professional. After installation Windows uses the default sound driver and it works flawlessly. We installed chipset drivers, intel graphic drivers, Nvidia drivers etc. and then came to the VIA drivers. We used both drivers that are available at the Clevo download page. Both of them don't work: The installation seems to work but the little speaker symbol in the task bar gets a little white x in a red circle that won't go away even after restarting the system. When you click on the speaker symbol Windows states that "At least one audio service is not executed" (translated from German, might be slightly different in Windows) and tries to solve the problem. Windows will even state that it fixed the problem but as soon as you click on the speaker again you will have the same message as before.
You will also get error messages like "no audio device installed" or "VIA HD AUDIO CPL doesn't work anymore". As soon as the VIA drivers are uninstalled everything works again.

I tried the newer drivers from the clevo page (SBC2) and even installing the drivers manually through the device manager. Same result!

Finally I found a driver on the download page of a German Clevo reseller named "One". The Notebook is called "One 13 Gamestar 2013". The driver works flawlessly. However, it won't work with ANY creative cinema software (not One's version, not Clevo's old version not Clevo's new version). I also find it slightly odd that only the oldest driver works, because I took a look at the VIA driver's versions:

10.19.00.30.130518 Source: One WORKS
11.3.00.31.131226 Source: Clevo AUDIO DOESN'T WORK
11.5.00.30.140530 Source: Clevo SBC2 DOESN'T WORK

Do you have any idea?

 

Hey is anyone experiencing this with their sager?

I've been trying to connect the laptop to the internet using my iphone or my samsung note 3's personal hotspot.. and it doesn't work! I don't get it. It connects at our home router. but when it comes to the personal hotspot, it always says limited access though the phone detects that the laptop is connected. I'm not sure if I'm having problems with my wifi card. Does anybody know how to fix it? or has experienced this sort of thing?

 

Have you shared it with any other devices? Is tethering allowed on your mobile network?

 

Yes. I've tried with other devices and yes, it is allowed on our mobile network here. I tried with my iPad and it connects to the internet, I tried to connect the iPhone hotspot with the Samsung Note 3 hotspot and vice versa., and it also works Also tried connecting another laptop and it's fine I don't know if it is a driver issue but I already have the latest driver of the intel wifi AC7260 which is 17.0.0.34.

 

latest driver Version is 17.0.1 from 8/20/2014 - would try these:
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/SearchResult.aspx?lang=eng&ProdId=3714

 

That helped @AndiiiHD! Thank you so much! I kept looking at the sager driver page which shows the 17.0.0.34 as the latest driver. I thought it wouldn't work if I got it from Intel itself. Well with your help, It finally had internet access through hotspot.

 

Does anyone have any experience with hackintoshing W230ST? I am planning to do that when I am free over the holidays. I just bought a BCM94352HMB hoping it will make it easier and I am currently using prema bios. Thanks a lot in advance!

 

Ooo, You are a Singaporean too. I am using Aftershock XG13-v1 now aka W230ST. Any tips on how to get mac os working? haha

 

As a starting point, you need a Mac to prepare the USB installer drive. If you don't, then you need to find a friend/someone else who has a Mac/a working hackintosh.

After that, the gist of it is that you need to install a bootloader of your choice (there are several: Chameleon, Chimera and Clover are the most popular and stable), configure various kernel extension and plist files, then you're more or less done. If you've got the QHD screen, you need a special version of PremaMod or else OS X will mess up (PM him, but you need 5 posts).

As a list, here are the things you need to configure, in order of importance:

• Power management
  
• Graphics (also known as QE/CI, i.e. Quartz Extreme/Core Image)
  
• Sleep (when you do it from the menu and when you close the lid)
  
• Networking (Ethernet, WiFi)
  
• Audio from speakers
  
• Miscellaneous stuff like HDMI/VGA out, audio out/microphone, screen brightness adjustment, Fn key shortcuts
  

 

Oh ok, thanks! I did some research on my own and got a wifi compatible card, BCM94352HMB. I am using a FHD screen on W230ST with prema bios loaded so it should be fine. I also found out that I need a patched DSDT but I am still trying to figure out about that step.

 

HI guys, new here, but this is a great resource. I'm about to pull the trigger from UK seller PC Specialist, have a few quick questions if anyone could help.

1. I looked at the rumoured spec for the upgrade, the W230SD, here. Seems the only difference really will be a new graphics chip, there don't even seem to be any cosmetic changes. Is it worth waiting for?

2. I'm not a big gamer, but this seems to be the best balance of power and portability out there (compared to the puny ultrabook CPUs), I'll probably use the integrated graphics most all of the time, am I missing some other laptop that would fit my needs better? Are there many people out there that aren't big gamers who recommend this machine? I run pretty CPU heavy stuff so that's why I want a good CPU.

Finally, the screen, a lot of people on here have the FHD version, PC Specialist is giving a free upgrade to the 3200x1800 panel at the moment, which is better to get? Surely the higher resolution is always better right?

 

1. You are likely to be waiting some time.

2. The CPU is a perfectly valid reason for this model, the Sager NP2740 also comes with a quad core (soldered though).

3. Either is fine, the 3k panel does need to use scaling as the 13.3" screen is a little small for 3k native and no scaling.

 

The DSDT patching is actually quite far in; most of the primary issues I mentioned like CPU power management and stuff need to be solved with a proper SMBIOS.plist, as well as a patched SSDT. Head over to tonymacx86.com and search for 'W230SS' without the inverted commas, you should get several threads that are related.

 

ok, thanks for the info! Do you happen to know any good guides on hackintosh, preferably from a beginner level, since I am almost clueless about hackintoshing.

 

tonymacx86 has everything; look under the 'Guides' section at the top bar; take a look at the 10.9 Mavericks UniBeast guide.

 

I wonder if there will be any blackfriday/cybermonday deals ?

 

Not sure what happened but when just running off my battery, it only runs at 1497 mhz on all four cores right now. I have it set to the High Performance power plan and the both the Minimum/Maximum have been set to 100 in Power Processor Management under advanced options in Plan settings (for both Battery and Plugged in)...

As soon as I plug in the adapter, everything shoot back up to around 3000 mhz...(when I run some flash-based game, it should definitely speed up)...

Running stock bios (I didn't see anything there to disable Turbo or Speed step)...

any ideas?

 

It's Clevo Control Centre limiting the speed on battery power. 1.5 GHz is the max you can go under full load using only battery power. You can make it go full speed by changing the mode in CCC to 'Performance'. (Use Fn+Esc to access).

I'm curious, though. If you use your laptop unplugged, wouldn't you want to save power and make the battery last longer? So why disable this built-in power-saving option?

 

Thanks!!!

I am typically not away from an outlet for more than an hour or so at a time so and would rather have the full speed...If I know I need to save battery, I can adjust this setting...

 

When I am on battery and check the Performance option in the Control Center, it still maxes out at 1497mhz...If I select Quiet, it drops down to 798mhz.

It still won't go past 1.5mhz on battery...is something else messed up?

 

Draining the battery too quickly causes damage to it so the cpu is limited to prevent that. If you want a rapid discharge you need a battery the size of the one in the p570wm which is huge for the capacity to handle the heat.

 

Hi,

These threads get very long and make it hard to find answers. Just in case someone else experienced this issue, my dGPU disappeared on both Windows 8.1 and Ubuntu 14.04 yesterday. I can't figure out why, but there are other people with the same problem at http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...s-lounges/758885-my-gpu-missing-w230ss-2.html . Please, if someone have any hints, answer there.

Cheers!

 

i also came to post about the same problem. windows 8.1 no longer displays the nvidia 860m gpu anymore in device manager. when i try to install the drivers for it, it says that it cannot find the hardware for the drivers. The bios still detects the gpu. also, i already reformatted my computer, loaded default bios settings and still have the problem

 

Are you using stock bios or prema mod? Where do you see that the BIOS recognizes the dGPU? I use prema mod and I'm not sure if it recognizes or not, but I guess no.

 

Yes check the bios. It's potentially an issue with the chip if it's missing everywhere. Due to the optimus setup it would just carry on running off the igp.

 

Well, I just ordered one of these for myself. I went with the i7-4810mq. Most of my work revolves around photo and video editing.

I would like to ask you guys what can I expect from my cpu in terms of throttling when rendering video. I know that when all 4 cores are used, the turbo speed drops (I guess the 3.8ghz are only possible in a single thread). What numbers should I be able to get? Will my cooling base help in preventing thermal throttling and keeping the 4 cores at maximum speed?

 

im using stock bios. i contacted sager and xoticpc and they told me it was a hardware problem. they told me to do an rma for this and told me it isnt a bios problem

 

With stock settings likely in the 3.1ghz range.

 

I see. What would it be in a perfect situation? Maybe 3.5/3.6 I guess?

 

Hi there,

I'm still hesitating between this laptop and the P650SE. A GTX 860M (Maxwell) might be enougth for my mobile gaming need, and I don't really mind if the screen is 13" or 15". My main concern is about the noise. How "noisy" is the W230SS in idle, in load ?

 

The W230SS fan may even switch off at idle temps, if the CPU is cool enough (i.e. 45°C and below). Maximum fan speed isn't particularly loud but it is rather high-pitched (to be expected on a small, centrifugal laptop fan). I'm not sure about the P650SE's loudness per sé, but I will recommend it over the W230SS for several reasons:

1) you get a GPU (GTX 970M) that's more than twice as powerful as the GTX 860M, for a very slightly higher price

2) The build quality of the P650SE is an order of magnitude better because it is made out of machined aluminium and not plastic

3) The speakers are far better and they also face upwards on the P650SE and not underneath the laptop as on the W230SS)

4) For its size (15"), the P650SE is actually slightly lighter than the W230SS as a barebones laptop (i.e. no additional components, just the motherboard)

5) You have more storage expansion options on the P650SE: Up to two 2.5" drives, a couple of M.2 slots and a couple of mSATA slots

6) You get a bigger screen, and you can jack it up to 3K or 4K if you wish to

7) Cooling on the P650SE is likely to be inherently better because the laptop is bigger, the cooling systems for the CPU and GPU are separate, and the P650SE also has 3 heat pipes and 2 fans for the GPU, as opposed to just 1 each on the W230SS. The P650 has 3 fans, the W230SS has only 1.

Hope this helps in making a decision.

 

Yes, thank you SRSR333. The fact that the P650SE has separate fans for the CPU / GPU makes me a lot more enclined to go for this model. I don't mind the noise during gaming sessions, but I sometimes work on noise-sensitive applications (audio editing), so, having a better cooling system and being a lot more future-proof (GTX 970M, M.2 slots), I'll buy a P650SE

 

Have been playing far cry 4 for the last few days. All settings maxed except anti-alias and resolution at 1600x900. Not smooth but very playable. CPU @stock with undervoltage and GTX860M @+150/+100 and little undervoltage for that too. After two hours intensive gaming temps are ~85'c for CPU and GPU.

 

I have an odd bug. trying to boot into windows as laptop on battery results in the system hanging on login screen (or just after in desktop). keyboard works in grub (dual booting), and both KB & touchpad initially work on login screen, however it just freezes up, either midway through putting password in or just as or after logging in. with machine completely unresponsive.

however, if you plug in a usb mouse or power lead, or both then you can login.

details, w230ss, 4710mq, 16gb RAM, 120 GB plextor SSD, 1tb seagate SSHD, win 8.1 (with start is back)/ubuntu 14.04(with biolinux), prema bios

have tried disabling xHCI and eHCI in bios with no luck

 

That kinda sounds like a motherboard issue to me? Definitely very strange.

 

Sounds like a HW problem. Have the same spec exactly and have not seen this issue so far on mine. Since others have no problem with the perma BIOS I would probably request an RMA if I was you.

 

It's very likely an ASPM problem (because the exact same thing has happened to me). Check all your ASPM switches, especially for the dGPU (change it to L0s) and the PCIe ASPM switch (it's on the same page as the processor CPPC control). Switch that to Disabled and it should work.

 

did that and was able to boot in without powerlead or mouse plugged in, though system felt a little laggy at the time.

any idea what this'll do to battery life? (baring in mind the PremaMod site states to enable all ASPM switches link

 

Nothing much. The dGPU ASPM is still switched on (you can check Wikipedia for an explanation of the different states i.e. L0, L0s, L1 and L0sL1). The PCIe ASPM doesn't affect anything much (as far as I can discern). I can get up to 6.5 hours of battery life with brightness at 10% and a light load - Word document editing and the occasional Web browsing.

 

Hello from Germany.

I am very lucky to get a "Schenker XMG P304" / W230SS to Xmas this year. As this is a gift from my parents, i cannot configure the laptop to my needs. So I may need to upgrade....

As far as I know it has the following specifications:

Schenker XMG P304-1UM:

CPU: 4710mq
RAM: 8gb RAM (1 Crucial module)
HDD: 500 GB SATA II
SSD: 120 GB Samsung EVO MSATA III
LCD: FHD
WLAN: Intel AC 3160
OS: win 8.1

I looking forward to get my hands on this nice thing and try to play my favorite games (World of Tanks / War Thunder) with it!

Beside the very nice hardware it has already, I may want to upgrade some things. I visited the XMG / mysn.de website and find some nice updates for this laptop. So I have several questions to YOU laptop / W230Sx experts: :thumbsup:

1. I need mobile internet with this thing. So I need the Huawei EM820W (UMTS/GPS) module for the 2nd mSATA slot. These modules are easy to get. But are they easy to install? Beside the module I may need the antenna? Has anyone experience with this module? Worth the upgrade? Same question just for information regarding a wlan card upgrade: The dual band WiFi (Intel AC 7260) card has 2 antenna instead of only 1 antenna on Intel AC 3160 . Where to get additional antenna and where to install inside the laptop?

2. Is there any bigger battery available for the W230Sx series models? My laptop will come with a 8 cell 5.600 mA Li-On battery. Anything larger available?

3. The Laptop is only equipped with a single DDR3L 8 Gb module. I don´t think I need 16 Gbs of RAM, but "imho" with only 1 module installed I cannot use Dual Channel for better CPU and iGPU performance. Is this correct? Any speed advantages from upgrading to 2 matching RAM modules?

4. In the far future (when guarantee has run out) I may upgrade the CPU or OC the existing one with prema modded bios. My biggest concern about this is heat and the cooling system of the W230Sx series. I read about a guy " westsider", who add heatsinks to the heatpipes of his W370ST laptop. ( link to the thread with pictures). He said this makes the CPU 10 degrees cooler under full throttle. Has anybody done some kind of these heatsink mods on W230Sx series? I even read that somebody put an official unsupported I7-4930mx CPU in this laptop. Unbelievable....

5. Even if I really doubt about upgrading this, can the laptops FHD panel be replaced by a WQHD or QHD Panel? Someone successfully done this?

I am locking forward to get some answers to my five questions.

Greets from Germany

TCC

 

had to re-enable the ASPM switches as it interfered with optimus, and when trying to run games it wasnt switching from intel iGPU (hence borderlands throwing warning about features unsupported)

and it seems to have broken geforce experience (it sees the 860m, but refuses to accept that I have a 4,5,6,7,8 series card installed for it to work (I checked after it threw the first message, and checked again after resetting the switches))

 

Don't disable the dGPU ASPM; set it to L0s.

 

Guys, I got my w230ss with the i7-4810mq. I bought it from a retailer who has one of those partnerships with Prema, and therefore it came with the modded bios.

Anyway, I'm not looking for extreme fine tuning, but I want to have what I paid for. I quickly noticed my cpu was only reaching 3.2 ghz when all cores were under load, instead of the specified 3.6. This behavior is similar to what I've read from other people. But I dug into Intel XTU and found out that by raising the Processor current limit from the default 59 to 80, my cpu goes to 3.6 when all 4 cores are active. And I like that.

But I wonder whether I'm doing this right. Is there another way to get full turbo speed, or this is it? My temps got to around 80c running cinebench, which looks OK to me. I'm just afraid I'm not solving the problem in the correct way...

Can I get your insights on this?

 

The if it's getting a consistent 3.6ghz now you are good.